Friendship is Magic Redux

by paiohelohelo

Ch. 8- The People vs. Twilight Sparkle

Iron Will sat at his desk, signing papers as usual. A knock issued from his door, and he put down his pen neatly, as if he were expecting it.

“Enter,” he gruffly answered.

The door was opened by his guard and in walked Rainbow Dash. She saluted him curtly after she had approached his desk.

“At ease,” Iron Will commanded, and Dash complied.

“You wanted to speak with me, sir?”

“Lieutenant Alexandrova, yes,” Iron Will leaned forward in his chair. “As I understand it, The Sonic Rainboom’s Eye run today turned out to be quite a bit of an adventure, am I right?”

Dash smirked. “Nothing I couldn’t handle, any day of the week… sir,”

Iron Will smiled. “You’ve got a good attitude, lieutenant, I like that. I really wish we had at least ten more of your kind flying the Ponyville- Canterlot Express.”

Dash slightly grimaced; she couldn’t, with all her mental faculties, possibly imagine any sort of carbon copies of herself running around the place, not even if it was just one little one. No, she was definitely unique.

“…Thank you, sir.”

“So, I was reading over your report of the incident during the run, and I was wondering if you’d like to give me your account of it firsthand.”

“Well, sir, it’s all pretty much in there. I don’t think I could really add anything further,”

“Try me,” Iron Will leaned back in his chair. “Tell me, sailor, what do you make of this Dr. Twilight Sparkle?”

“…Which one, sir?”

Iron Will chuckled. “Why, the newer model, of course. She first came to Canterlot on your flight, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And what do you make of that one?”

Dash shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “I don’t know, sir. Just another egghead to me, I guess.”

Iron Will smiled, picking up Dash’s report from his desk and skimming over it. “From what you’ve written here, lieutenant, it would seem as if she wasn’t just another egghead on that flight.”

Dash shifted in her stance. “Well, sir, to be honest I really don’t know what to make of that run. It just happened how it happened, sir.”

Iron will raised a brow at her. “And is everything always so clear cut to you, sailor?”

Dash smirked. “Pretty much, sir.”

Iron Will laughed again. “So, tell me about what happened in The Rainboom’s cockpit. With Twilight Sparkle there,”

Dash cleared her throat, and then started to explain. “Well, we had barely made it to the perimeter of The Alicorn Eye. The Rainboom was shaken up pretty badly, we’d been hit by lightning a couple of times, and we were having trouble maintaining our altitude. Anyway, I called some of the civilians to come up to fix The Amulet, which was just goin’ haywire, and both Sparkles showed up with an IT nerd, a really weird one, in tow. I thought we were going to die, sir- no egghead was gonna save our asses, no way in hell. Then, the younger Sparkle touched the Amulet, and… well… it’s all there in the report, sir.”

Iron Will nodded. “But what happened after Twilight Sparkle directly touched The Amulet? In your own words.”

Dash scratched the back of her head. “I… I don’t know sir. I’d never seen anything like it. The Eye just… opened, bigger and clearer than it ever did before. It also fired some kind of a force field, or something, must’ve cleared the entire sky away. From there it was easy sailing, considering we were barely able to keep afloat up there. In all my runs here, sir, I’ve never seen that storm clear out the way it did. Some of the older boys even tell me that it’s been raging ever since Uncle Sam first got here after WWII. I just… I don’t know how to explain it, sir.”

Iron Will thought for a moment, staring at her. “Well then, sailor, it’s a good thing that you’re not being paid to think.”

Dash looked away from him in silence.

“And just what do you make of this Twilight Sparkle, personally, lieutenant?” Iron Will went on. “It’s not everyday somebody comes to just clear away ancient storm cells with the touch of a hand, now, is it?

Dash tried to think about her answer beforehand. “Besides that, sir? Honestly? She seemed just like any other civilian. I fly them all the time, sir… she never really struck me as being exceptionally odd, at least not for a civvie.”

Iron Will examined Rainbow Dash carefully, leaning forward again so he could be then heard with the upmost clarity.

“My question is, Alexandrova…” he phrased his words very slowly, “do you believe Twilight Sparkle to be… dangerous? To this base… my base… in any way?”

Dash blinked. Her mouth opened, and then closed, and then opened again to speak.

“She’s… just an egghead, sir.”

Iron Will continued to stare at Dash for a long time. She looked right back at him, giving him the coolest stare that she could muster.

“That will be all, lieutenant,” Iron Will finally ordered as he shuffled more papers at his desk.

Rainbow Dash just saluted him wordlessly, and left the office. When his door was closed and the guard before it was out of sight around the corner, Dash stopped walking and looked back for a moment; disturbed, she frowned deeply in the direction of the general’s office. She then sighed, restyling her colorful hair before continuing on her way.

***********************************************************************************************

“You’ve met Luna Everstar before, haven’t you?” Spike asked Twilight as they walked towards the director’s office.

“Only once, I think… at a Halloween party at the President’s house after graduation. I really didn’t get to know her very well, actually. But, if anybody can tell me what I’m doing here, she surely can.”

The door to the director’s office was situated right in the middle of Canterlot’s Main Castle; it was another Equestrian designed wooden door, this one speckled with what looked like silver stars and a deep blue, as if the wood itself was naturally colored that way. Spike knocked on it, and they both waited for an answer.

“Come in,” a cool female voice beckoned from within.

Spike pushed it open and Twilight walked in before Spike closed it again behind her. Twilight found herself in a very normal- looking government administrator’s office, save for how little light there was; there were papers and notices everywhere, but it all seemed to be organized in a certain way (and, boy howdy, did she know about organization), as if to give off a visual reminder of the nature of the director herself. Against one wall was a beautiful oak bookshelf stuffed very neatly with what looked like law tomes (ditto, books); the opposite end of the room from the door was a large, seamless window, curving and flowing with the castle walls, giving a clear and majestic view of Canterlot at night. The city was twinkling with all the retrofitted lights that had been put into place, with the complete darkness of the remnants of Equestria within The Eye ever expanding behind it. Sitting in front of this window was the director herself; she was somewhere in age between Twilight and Celestia, with pale, smooth skin that could rival Rarity’s, but with a less voluptuous frame than the linguist’s. Her long, flowing, slightly wavy hair was pure black, almost as if it absorbed light into itself, and her eyes were an almost aquamarine color; they appeared deep and seemingly in contemplation as she watched Twilight enter. She was wearing a very dark blue business suit and a spotless white blouse with the shirt collar over her jacket’s. Her light but skillfully done makeup included a touch of blue eyeshadow, as well as a different shade of blue covering the lips that smiled gently at Twilight as she entered.

“Twilight Sparkle, we meet again,” The Director greeted.

“Director Everstar, it’s been a long time. So good to see you again.”

Luna smirked. “You may call me Luna, Twilight. I’m sure my sister would most heartily approve,”

Twilight fidgeted. “With all due respect, Director, I’m not sure that I can in, good conscience, call the both of you by your first names.”

Luna just continued smiling gently at her desk. “Please, do sit down.”

Twilight nodded and then sat down in a very comfortable chair across from Luna.

“So, I take it you met with General Armstrong shortly after you landed?”

“Yes… indeed I did,” Twilight answered, a little darkly.

Luna smiled, picking up on her sentiment. “Let me guess: the scotch metaphor, perhaps?”

Twilight blinked at her, and then smiled back. “Is that, like, some sort of thing around here?”

“Oh, you really don’t even know the half of it,” Luna replied. “Let me guess further: he went on about the right amount of master blending, and he most likely threw the word “seasoning” in there, somewhere…”

“Alright, now, this is just getting scary.”

Luna looked down at her hands, and then looked up, smiling. “Did you happen to notice that he drinks single malt scotch, exclusively?”

Twilight gave her a funny look, and then started to smile, too. “No, I didn’t quite catch that. But my mother did warn me about him,”

Luna crossed her arms, looking at her with interest. “And just what did Velvet Sparkle happen to say?”

Twilight grinned at her, sheepishly. “She reminded me of a time when I was little, when our family took a big African safari trip together. I brought Hungry, Hungry Hippos with me, and, being six, I was really excited to see those colorful buggers up close, maybe even hand out some oversized plastic marbles. Mother took me aside, and she told me, very worriedly, that hippos were big, dangerous creatures that would attack you, even without provocation. She told me to steer clear of them, to give them as much space as I could if I ever saw one.”

Luna nodded, seriously. “Wise instructions.”

“Well, she pretty much is Yoda, if you think about it.”

Luna smiled again. “Yes, I have come to greatly trust and depend on your mother. Without her, none of this would even be possible.”

Twilight clucked her tongue. “Yeah… so everybody keeps telling me.”

“Have they told you why you are here?”

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “God, no. Could you perhaps enlighten me, please, Dr. Everstar?”

Luna grinned and shook her head. “Twilight, you are the brightest, most creative physicist living today. Your mother certainly believes that you have much, much more raw talent than she could ever hope to possess.”

Twilight raised a brow. “She said that? Velvet Sparkle actually said that,”

“Why, yes,” Luna responded calmly, picking up on her sentiments again. “You do not believe it is so?”

Twilight thought for a while. “Well, if we have a corroborating witness, then I guess I’ll just have to accept the testimony as it is presented… for now,”

Luna chuckled gently. “Twilight Sparkle, it really is such a pity that you ended up dropping my law classes at Harvard.”

Twilight blushed, embarrassed, yet again, by another one of her former teachers. “I’m sorry, Dr. Everstar- it’s just that I already had too many credits, so the dean forced me to graduate- plus, the semester hadn’t even really started-“

Luna put her hand up to stop her. “Twilight … I understand that you were a very busy young woman. I simply wish to see if I can make use of what you had learned in all of your other classes.”

Twilight crossed her legs and settled in her chair. “What do you need, Director?”

Luna got up from her chair and gazed out of her window. “As you can plainly see, Dr. Sparkle, the US military believes that they have a strict monopoly in Canterlot. They were, after all, the first ones in Equestria, and for a long time afterwards, scientists such as yourself were relegated to catering to their every whim, or simply observing what they could. After Velvet’s groundbreaking work on The Elements of Harmony, however, things became radically different. Today, it is the civilian component of The Equestria Initiative that most attracts the government’s attention, guaranteeing the massive amounts of funding which keep this city well- oiled. However, General Armstrong, as you can also plainly tell, is not satisfied with the current status quo, as it were. He has been pushing the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop The Elements into a viable strategic weapon for the United States, a move which both my sister and I most heartily disapprove of, and have been fighting for years to resist.”

“Well, begging your pardon, Director… but doesn’t President beat scissors?” Twilight asked.

Luna smiled at her, and then turned to the window again, arms behind her back. “In ordinary matters, I would believe so, Twilight Sparkle. But Equestria is no ordinary matter. You yourself must have seen all of the scientific and humanitarian potential that this last bastion of our highly intelligent, if ultimately misguided, forbears holds for this entire world, not just for our nation. The military knows that; in the end, though, all the generals ever want to hear about is how sharp a stick we can fashion for them… the ideas for the non- violent applications that the Initiative will eventually produce simply go in through one ear and out through the other.”

“That’s all very intellectually stimulating, Dr. Everstar,” Twilight responded, carefully, “but I really don’t see the exact reason why I’m sitting here, right now.”

Luna turned back around to face Twilight, hands still behind her back.

“Why, to save The Equestria Initiative, of course.”

Twilight shook her head in confusion. “I’m sorry, I think I seriously misunderstood you, Director. It sounded like you were asking me to save all of Equestria.”

Luna said nothing and only continued to look at her.

“Wait… wait a minute, you’re serious?” Twilight was taken aback.

“As I stated before, Twilight, you are perhaps the single most prodigious scientific talent that this world possesses. Who better than you to show the US Military that Canterlot is more than just an expensive weapons factory?”

Twilight was at a loss for words. She kept nervously crossing and uncrossing her legs.

“What would I even do here?”

“Well, for starters, discover a way to better harness The Elements of Harmony. Take the working principles behind the devices and utilize them for the greater good. Free, boundless energy for all, the manipulation of the very fabric of reality itself… do you not believe, Dr. Sparkle, as Celestia and I do, that such power should never be placed inside of a bomb, but instead channeled into things much better for our own collective well- being?”

“But what about Velvet?” Twilight asked in return. “She is waaaay more than competent enough to do all of that for you, ha ha ha, for sure.”

“Velvet Sparkle doesn’t seem to think that she’s the one for the job.”

“What, Superwoman? Pony feathers!” Twilight was getting nervously flippant now as the enormity of what Luna was presenting fully dawned on her. “Once, I was trapped under a school bus, and fueled by her adrenaline alone-“

“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna interrupted curtly in a voice that sounded all too similar to Celestia’s. Twilight immediately stopped talking.

Damn… She can be kind of scary when she wants to be...

“This is serious,” Luna scolded her, though her voice dropped its stern, scary tone a bit. “I know full well that it is not your greatest desire to be put in such a position; however, if there is any chance of stopping General Armstrong and his kind from destroying the entire planet with a push of a button and, trust me, that day will come, then you must put aside your selfishness and your insecurities… we need you, Dr. Sparkle, whether you like it or not.”

Twilight looked down. “Celestia, she… she said that I had a choice…”

Luna, realizing that she was speaking a little too harshly, sighed and calmed down. “Yes, Twilight, you will always have a choice, I will make sure of that… however, I am not Celestia, and I will not let the fate of the Equestrians be repeated once more- not if I can do everything possible in my power, in this city, to help it.”

Twilight was silent for a while before looking up to Luna. “What else do you need me to do?”

“Become the new Head of The Development Division. The scientists there have been working since The Elements were reactivated to harness any and all Equestrian technology into more practical, usable forms. Unfortunately, no one can quite perform the same sort of magic that you do so well, Dr. Sparkle, and The Development Division has become a sort of a ‘black sheep’, as it were, for the entire Initiative, giving ‘Iron Will’ Armstrong the opportunity to press for more and more military control of Equestria. Your job will be to clean up and reorganize Development, to get it producing again; whatever it takes to give Celestia what she needs to fight the military and their fatal designs.”

Twilight felt a little dizzy and sick, and it wasn’t because of the crappy instant coffee she had drank earlier. Her? The head of an entire research lab? In motherfuckin' Equestria, no less. She wasn’t prepared for this. She hadn’t even really made a home for herself, never had a chance to get engaged, hadn’t even, after all these years, paid off her crappy Honda Civic. In other words, Twilight Sparkle hadn’t even had the chance to build a real life for herself, the kind of life she had always wanted. And now everybody was just asking her to potentially throw it all away, for what?

To become just like HER.

Twilight cleared her throat, brushed her bangs out of her eyes, and looked straight at Luna.

“With all due respect, Director, I appreciate this once- in- a lifetime, golden really, opportunity that you’re handing to me, but… I think… I… I think that if it’s really my decision, then I need some more time to think about it before I give you my definite reply.”

Luna stared at her calmly, and nodded.

“Of course, Twilight. For all that I’m asking from you, all that I wish to place upon your shoulders… I would expect nothing less.”

Twilight, trembling a bit, shook Luna’s hand as she got up to leave. “It was nice to see you again, Dr. Everstar.”

Luna tried to smile warmly at Twilight as she shook her hand back.

“Likewise, Twilight Sparkle. I shall wait for your answer… in the meantime, I do sincerely hope that you keep away from any more hungry, hungry hippos.”

Author's Note:

I decided to post the next 3 chapters together in order to facilitate a better flow. Enjoy! :)

Comments

[Stoneificaunt]

Good chapter.

[TheColorGreen]

I know what this reminds me of now.

It's as if you took the Avengers Initiative, put the Avengers on the backburner and brought the Tesseract to the forefront, inverted what SHIELD wanted to do with it, and then double-sonic-rainboom'd it!

It all makes sense now!