Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Razorblade

"Twilight! There you are."

"Ah. Starlight." Twilight looked to the side, unsure of what to say. "Sorry. I was busy doing a thing."

"It's no problem," Starlight replied, fairly cheerfully. "I..." She hesitated a moment, frowning a bit, then her expression settled into something more relaxed. "I'm sorry for jumping at you like that yesterday. I was pretty on edge after the step."

Twilight swallowed. "No, it's okay." She looked back at Starlight. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been hiding so much from you."

"You were just trying to do the right thing for me." Starlight stretched out a hoof to put it on Twilight's shoulder. "And you weren't all too wrong about it. If I'd known there was someone on the Behemoth I would have freaked out even more." She smiled. "I should have trusted you."

"And I should have trusted you too," Twilight replied. She smiled at Starlight as well, then after a moment pulled the mare into a hug. Letting go of her after a bit, she sighed. "I'm going to need all the help I can get if I want to fix this mess. Do you think you're ready to get back into it?"

Starlight didn't answer immediately. "I'm not sure. I'm still trying hard not to think about the whole incident, and I don't know what would happen if I was forced into a similar situation. But I can still help with something unrelated to scales and portals." She perked up. "There's got to be something more for me to work on, and I'd be happy to help out with it."

Twilight continued to smile. "I'm sure we'll find something."

Starlight nodded. "So... About the Charioteer? Are you sure we shouldn't do anything there?"

Twilight nodded. "I trust him not to make a mess. It's weird, but I don't think he's doing this out of malice. He's... Maybe I'm just letting him get to my head, but if he's anything like he says he is, he's not going to cause any trouble while he's not on the Behemoth."

Starlight nodded back. "I trust your judgment on this. What's the plan now, then?"

Twilight began to walk down the hallway. "We've begun checking for any possible new mutations after the step. We only have minimal data to work with for now, but based on what Rose was able to gather yesterday it seems like any possible new variations introduced by the step were minimal. We can't confirm that yet though, of course."

"It would make sense," said Starlight, following Twilight. "The Behemoth's presence is enough to alter the world by itself, maybe its movements aren't as influential as it simply being there."

"A possibility," Twilight agreed. "We've begun work on strengthening the existing communications network. Yesterday's events showed pretty clearly that the current one was lacking, and I apologise for not realising this sooner." She took a turn to the right. "I've given the preliminary orders for the construction of a new laboratory. I'd like you to oversee the process."

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Yeah, Starlight's trepidation is entirely understandable given the circumstances. Goodness knows there are other avenues of research to explore. We'll see how it pans out from here... and who Twilight even can hire to replace her head of transdimensional research, much less will.