Chapter XIV: Shards
It was morning when I saw my opportunity to return to the forest to retrieve the Maralus shards, though it was unexpected since I thought that I would be given proper punishment. Instead, Pinkie had the skewed idea that banning me from chocolate for a week was a good enough punishment. I have to admit, though, I did grow to like chocolate after my first taste of it.
It was during breakfast when Pinkie had to excuse herself, for Twilight had requested her aid in some endeavour, leaving only the Cakes to watch over me. Amused yet suspicious of the grand opportunity that had presented itself to me, I made my way back to my room where I put on the bags that I received from the party. I quickly headed back downstairs and was almost out the bakery’s front door when Mrs. Cake confronted me.
“Where are you going with your saddlebags dear?” she asked me, causing me to turned towards her as I gave her a forced smile.
“I wanted to… err.. try my ‘saddlebags’ outside,” I answered, glad to have a name to attach to the bags on my back.
“Awww, it’s so nice to see you excited to try on one of your gifts. I’ll let you go on your way now, but do make sure to keep them clean. You don’t want to go to your first day in school with dirty saddlebags,” she replied as she went back to her business.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I quickly took my leave as I headed towards the town outskirts. Minutes later, I reached the outskirts. Instead of following the road to the forest, I took a more scenic route due to remembering the pegasi guards that were heading towards the forest. Along my way to the forest, I picked up a few rocks that I stowed in my saddlebags, as I needed some sort of distraction in case of emergency.
Soon, I caught sight of the forest, where I saw a pair of guards patrolling the forest outskirts. Before they had a chance to spot me, I ducked into a nearby bush, where I observed the guards. It didn’t took long for me to see their entire patrol route, at which point I began to make my way to the outskirts of the forest as I quietly dashed in and out of bushes whenever the guards’ backs were turned towards me. The guards didn’t hear my movements once, even when I finally made my way into the forest. Apparently they were expecting ponies to just wander by instead of someone like me trying to sneak inside.
Even though I was past the patrolling guards, I knew better than to let my guard down, as I continued to make my way to the stump where I had buried the shards while sticking to the bushes and any foliage that could serve as sufficient cover. My caution soon paid off when a group of four guards passed by my path. Two of the guards were looking at the forest canopy, probably looking for any holes that would have been made by falling debris while the other two kept their eyes on the ground. Not taking any chances, I simply stayed in the bush that I was currently in, flat on my belly as I tried to make myself as small as possible to avoid being spotted. Thankfully, it didn’t take long before the guards moved on, allowing me to continue on my way.
It wasn’t long before I finally reached the stump, where I saw that the ground around it was undisturbed. Reaching the precise spot where I hid the shards, I took a good look around me to check for any signs of a guard approaching before I dug them up. Safely depositing them in my saddlebags, I filled up the hole and patted down the dirt in order to cover my tracks before I began my way out of the forest, dodging two more squads of guards as well as the forest outskirt patrol.
As I was using the bushes for cover once more, my curiosity got the better of me. This was too easy. Either this world is too naive in regards to folk sneaking around or these guards are just completely incompetent. Wanting to know which case it was, I gave into temptation as I took out a rock from my saddlebag. Eyeing the patrol, I tossed a rock at a tree just behind the patrol. At the noise of the rock hitting the tree, the two guards stopped, turning around as they head towards the origin of the noise, investigating for the cause of it.
Heh, guess it was the former, I thought to myself as I went back to my way to town, stopping after leaving the patrol’s line of sight to dump the rest rocks that I stowed. Now all I had to do was make it back to my room without a single soul looking into my saddlebags, which meant that I have to avoid the ‘Crusaders’ or Pinkie Pie at all costs. Oh, joy.
Meanwhile, as Aether was making her return to Ponyville, Twilight was in her underground lab, having sent Applejack and Pinkie Pie to help the guard on their search for more of the wreckage. Twilight sent Pinkie, in part due to her Pinkie Sense, in the hope that it would help keep the guards safe from any unexpected dangers the wreckage could present. Applejack was there mostly to keep Pinkie in check.
In her lab, Twilight had set up two tables with a stand on each, one holding up a piece of metal alloy from the wreck, the other the mysterious crystal. Twilight had just finished conducting strength tests on the alloy, having found it to be a stronger material than steel, as well as not only being highly heat resistant but able to withstand magical blasts to some degree as well. It was a surprise when a rather strong one of Twilight’s beams pierced an undamaged portion of the alloy to scorch the wall behind it. This led Twilight to the conclusion that the alloy was strong against kinetic forces, but oddly vulnerable to magical forces, though she knew more testing was needed to confirm her theory.
Turning to the crystal, Twilight took a deep breath as she remembered its reaction to magic. It was a risk to experiment with something that didn’t behave normally to telekinesis, but she needed to know more about it, and the only way was to test other spells on it. Ready with a shield spell on hoof, Twilight began her testing by simply pouring magic into the crystal. Shortly after she started, the crystal began to react as small bolts of electricity started to shoot out of it.
“Interesting. The crystal either converts raw magic into electricity, or the magic is causing some unstable reaction,” Twilight noted as she continued to pour magic, causing the crystal to shoot off more bolts, before suddenly violently releasing lightning bolts all over the room, some shattering beakers and vials, others striking the walls and ceiling. One lone bolt was sent at Twilight. Thankfully, she managed to raise her shield spell, causing the bolt to bounce off it.
“The latter case seems more plausible based on that… reaction,” Twilight commented as she stopped pouring magic into the crystal, which soon stopped releasing bolts of electricity. “Strange, though. Where telekinesis causes it to vibrate, raw magic causes it to have an unstable reaction. However, I should include a note when I send some of the wreckage to Canterlot telling them to not use teleportation magic on the device. I don’t want to think about what that could do.” Recording her observations, Twilight moved onto her next spell, wanting to continue her studies for the sake of magic and science.
Closing my room’s door behind me, I let out a sigh of relief. It was as if fortune had decided to finally shine on me, for not once I was bothered, not even encountering the Crusaders or Pinkie. It seemed as though Pinkie was too busy with whatever Twilight wanted her to do, and the Crusaders may have been forbidden from leaving their homes based on how their respective caretakers treated them when we were caught.
Making my way to a toy box that Pinkie gave me (which was unfortunately pink and hence an eyesore to me), I dug through the toys and junk that I received from the party guests that were kind enough to give me presents until I found the toy stove the Cakes gave me. Opening the toy’s oven door, I pulled out all the shards out of my saddlebags and placed them inside the stove, closing the door before reburying it with the rest of the presents. Closing the toy chest, I smiled at my first success, knowing that I had successfully denied the ponies the chance to rebuild the Maralus core, at least for now.
Jumping onto the bed, I sat down on my plot, where I noticed some books at the edge of my vision on the nearby nightstand. These books were presents from Twilight (she was too obsessed with books), and judging by the cover, were meant for babies to learn the pony’s letters. With no means of using the shards currently, I simply shrugged and grabbed the simplest book of the bunch, figuring that with nothing better to do, I might as well try to learn the pony’s alphabet. However, as I open the book, I felt the ground shudder for a moment, causing me to look about in confusion as to what could have caused it.
“Twilight! Are you okay, Twilight‽ I heard an explosion from your lab and the tree shaking!” Spike exclaimed as he headed down the stairs to the basement. Opening the door, his eyes beheld quite a sight. All over the lab floor were scattered papers, broken glass, and chunks of metal. All of the lab equipment was either broken or had fallen to the floor, and embedded to one wall was Twilight Sparkle, her pupils wide from shock.
“Twilight!” Spike screamed as he went to her side, grabbing one of her rear legs as he pulled her out of the wall, leaving behind an alicorn shaped depression. “What happened‽ Are you alright?”
“Yes Spike, I’m fine. Nothing broken here…” Twilight answered as she got back onto her hooves. Approaching the table where the crystal was sitting, she saw that it had shattered into fragments.
“That’s good to hear, but can you tell me what happened now?”
“I was testing the shard with some spells, and when I tried a color shift transmutation spell, instead of changing colors, the shard… simply released an explosion,” Twilight said as she released a sigh at the sight. While this reaction was still scientifically productive, the crystal is now shattered, and who knows what kind of effect that would have on its properties. I need to be more careful. There are only so many shards available for testing, she thought to herself as she used her hoof to sweep the fragments into a jar for safekeeping.
“I think it’s time for me to see how far the Royal Guard have come with their search, hopefully they found more of these crystals. With how unstable these crystals are, we need might lose a few of them before we can figure out what their purpose is. Spike, do you mind cleaning up the lab while I head out to the White Tail Woods?”
Looking around, Spike noted the disarray the lab was in due to the explosion, but knowing better than to get in the way of Twilight’s pursuit of magic, he sighed and said, “Sure, Twilight. I’ll have it cleaned up by the time you get back.”
Smiling at the dragon, Twilight replied, “Thanks, Spike. I’ll be sure to bring back a few tasty gems for you as a reward,” before she teleported away, leaving Spike to clean the lab, though now more excited due to the prospect of the reward Twilight promised him.
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Nice Chapter.
Greetings
ah yes, the ole' "Poke a strange alien device with a stick and hope for the best" method. Truly, Twilights scientific genius is unrivaled.
I'll be looking forward to the next chapter.
5883519
Yeah, but to be fair, experimentation is a key component of the scientific method.
5883519
It's an ole' method for a reason. Most times, it works.
5923344
, but typically there are far more steps involved. When you discover something completely new, you need to throw expectations out the window and treat it like it could kill you at any moment 
.
5982777
Well, yes, it works...sometimes
For example, if I was the scientist who had found this new crystal, I would encase the thing in as many layer of protections the contractor/company could afford and wear the highest safety-level (Level A) hazmat equipment when handling it. Only then I would perform the most basic spectrographic tests, test how it reacts to changing conditions (like slight variations of light/heat/pressure etc.) and then slowly build up to basic chemical analysis (dilute it in water, test its reaction to mild acidity) etc. etc. If at any point these tests cause a reaction (like the vibration in her telekinesis), I would stop the test immediately and (using existing science) try to rationalize how that reaction could occur and make a new hypothesis about its composition before proceeding.
This is what it means to experiment using the scientific method, not "let's irradiate the shit out of X and see what happens!"
especially when you have a very limited amount of a sample to use and are completely unprotected against possible deadly effects, even trained scientists who take these precautions can die in unforeseen circumstances (poor Marie Curie 
).
I agree with Reykan here, this just screams "incompetence".
I always liked the incompetent option.
So now Twilight is playing with some unstable crystal that Aether's society uses to jump between dimensions. I am sure nothing will go wrong.
6070948 You can tell they're completely incompetent because they were fooled by the oldest trick in the book: THROW A ROCK
5883519 More like "shoot lasers at it and see what happens"
Wtf is this core?
6300769 it honestly should be pretty obvious already that the core is the power-source/command-center/essential component/etc for Dimensional travel.
6011538
5883519
Agreed on this but then again this a pony who excels in magical science, in a world at about maybe 1700's (nonhistorian estimate, you get the point) in regaurd to average scientific and technological understanding. Understandable to be unrefined in scientific method and failsafety
6456566 Sort of like diLithium is to Star Trek or unobtainium is to Avatar. It's the magufin that everyone starts chasing after once they find out about it: some to try to get rich from it, some trying to learn more scientific discoveries from it, some trying to save the world from it because they know it's too bloody dangerous to leave in the hands of "experts".
5883008 Greetings
5883519
It's those experiments where you truly have no idea in value in unkown object.
Yea sure let some blow up Twi! We can totally blast a few unicorn like you into space to collect more of those! Because there is always more, isn't there Twilght Sparkle.
This can only end well... Or explosively....
Hey, shard was just broken, no more worries about a core. Problem solved
7841736
Aether literally just talked about collecting all the shards and letting them merge.
I am fairly certain they can be pieced back together with relative ease. Maybe even fuse back together.
7841736
I'd be a little more worried about the foreshadowed bit about the shards being dangerous when ground into powder, since an explosion reducing one to shards likely atomized at least some of it into the air.
She refused to adhere to the most basic of lab safety rules
reminds me of this comic:
http://goblinscomic.com/comic/11272006
[warning! some part of that comic are VERY violent!]
I'd imagine it's the first which led to the second