Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

A Rock and a Sharp Place - Part 5

"And here we are." Soarin' tapped the wall of the crystal tree castle hybrid with a wing. "Ignore the missing chunks of walls, they'll grow back eventually." Moving up to the door, he looked back towards Stone Brick. "Are you coming?"

Stone had been looking upwards along the castle's wall, which did indeed show a few missing bits here and there. Once he heard himself called, he looked back to Soarin' and nodded, then walked towards the golden doors the pegasus was opening for them.

The trip from the entrance to the laboratory was uneventful, merely a few ponies waving at Soarin' and Stone as they walked by, at most exchanging a few words. Finally the two stallions reached the doors to Princess Twilight's lab, and Soarin' knocked once on them.

"Come in," Twilight's voice came from inside, just a moment later.

Stone and Soarin' exchanged a look, then the pegasus opened the doors.

The laboratory was a single octagonal room, large and tall, white tables covered in various types of equipment lining every wall except for the one where the entrance was. Light came from a single large crystal hanging from the ceiling at the centre of the room. A second set of equally busy tables was near the centre, half of a smaller octagon on the side of the room where the doors were. Beyond it was a square metal platform, just a step higher than the floor around it, large enough for four ponies to comfortably stand on it. And above the platform, at about eye level, was a slowly swirling mass of white light, occasionally giving off rainbow reflections.

A couple of other ponies were walking around the room, holding clipboards and taking notes, but Stone's eyes immediately focused on the alicorn standing just a short distance from the platform. She was intent on looking into the light, a cheerful smile on her face. Then her eyes turned and she noticed the new arrivals.

"Soarin'! And I see you brought company." She waved at Stone. "A scale, right?"

Stone Brick drew back a little, confused. His hooves twitched, itching to reach for his saddlebags and make sure his scale was still there. He was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say.

"Oh, sorry. I saw it on the monitors." Twilight nodded upwards, and Stone followed the direction of her gesture to see a couple of square panels hanging on the wall above the doors, shifting graphs displayed on them. "I've learned to recognise a scale's pattern against background noise, it's something we see fairly often in here after all." A sound from behind her drew her attention, similar to that of a small bell. "Speaking of which."

Curious, Stone took a few steps forward to get a better look at the floating mass of light. It pulsed for a moment, growing and shrinking around its centre, and then suddenly a unicorn jumped out from it. Then the light wavered again, shaking, and finally dissipated, revealing a scale not unlike Stone's own suspended in mid air, still shimmering slightly.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Welp, Stone's finally arrived at his drop-off point. So, now what?