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Triangular Matrix

Shining stopped in front of the door, as the guards on both sides of it stood stiff at attention.

"Here?" Twilight asked, nervousness creeping into her voice.

"Here." Shining turned and took hold of the doorknob with a hoof. "I'm going to warn you. The smell is the worst part. We've sealed it so it doesn't get past the door, but that just makes it worse on the inside." He looked at his sister. "Ready?"

Twilight swallowed, then gave a nod. "Ready."

She was not ready. The moment Shining opened the door her first instinct was to run away, and forcing herself to step forward and into the room was only barely easier than forcing herself to walk through a wall of solid rock would have been. Her body did not want to be in that room, and she could tell from their expressions that the guards near the door were barely holding themselves together.

Once she finally stepped through and Shining closed the door behind her, Twilight had to force herself not to just teleport out. She felt trapped there, and despite knowing that was not case part of her mind refused to listen to reason, forcing her to constantly keep it in check. She just stared at the floor for a while, not daring to look at the scene until she was sure she could control herself, even if every second spent breathing in there felt worse than the last. "How do you do it?" she quietly asked, trying to put her attention elsewhere.

"Had to go look around in the woods first year in the Guard, I don't remember what it was for. We found an animal stuck in a fissure. It had been there just long enough that you couldn't tell what it was. I was the one who had to wait there while my partner looked for someone, I got used to the smell." He stepped at Twilight's side and placed a hoof on her back. "And I have a cold right now."

Twilight gave a feeble smile. Then she finally looked up, and it was immediately swept off her face. "Is it-" She had to force her mouth closed to stop her sudden instinct to vomit. "A pony?" she asked.

"It was at least two, and a few extra limbs," Shining replied, flat and emotionless.

Twilight stared at the tangle of bones and flesh a moment longer, then turned her eyes away from it again. "I know," she breathed out a second later. "The analysis, yes. Just- give me a minute okay?" Her breaths were heavy, her tone rising and falling with no rhythm.

Shining silently nodded. Then, staring at the dried blood staining the floor, he said, "It's not-"

"Anyone here?" Twilight swallowed again, her voice steadying, and she finally moved closer to the corpses. "No. Of course not." She stood at Shining's side, as her horn began to glow. "Nothing here could have done something like this, and I should have known there would be consequences for what happened. I should have known this would happen sooner or later. This is a message. A warning. Someone knows we were there."

"Are they asking not to go back?"

Twilight took a slow, deep breath. "They're saying they can come to us too."

Author's Note:

Proofreading by IncongruousAndHarmonious

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