TESTING! AHHH! TEST-IIIIING!

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"Oh no! What am I going to do?! I forgot to bring my notes! What do I do if I can't remember a spell?!" Twilight spouted frantically in the train, her hooves clapping on the wooden floorboard.

"You should calm down sugar cube. Ya always get upset fer the smallest things I tell ya hwhat."

"What was that?" Rarity looked at Applejack in a baffled manner.

"Just...tryin' somethin' new."

"Ah." Rarity nodded in approval, then returned to finding a hat to wear.

Twilight began to burst with rage at Applejack and literally stuck her own face to the cowpony's.

"What do you mean? It's super important! Celestia might make me go down a year and study everything I already know! I'll never get to read new books."

"You already read new books." Rainbow Dash spoke in a bored manner as she read her new book titled "Daring Do and the Wanton curse".

"That's not the point! I'll never get to read any of the advanced books." Twilight mumbled as she paced back and forth on her spot.

"Twi. Yer gonna use up the floorboards if ya continue walkin' back and forth like that. It's even making me nauseous."

"Yeah! Here. Have a cupcake."

"MPFF!"

Pinkie Pie had just swung down from the ceiling and stuffed a cupcake in the lavender mare's mouth. She was too nervous to savor the sweet, fruity flavor, and wiped the crumbs off her mouth before pacing back and forth again.

"What am I going to do?!"

"Well...you could...relax? I know a great way to do that..." Fluttershy trailed off.

"How? Why not show our poor little Twilight, Fluttershy?" Rarity proposed.

"I'm not sure if I should..." Fluttershy began to squirm nervously.

"Go ahead deary. Here. Let me help you there."

Rarity hopped off one of the several blue leather seats lining the sides of the car while the windows themselves shone light upon the entire area. The train was starting to slow down, so its stop was coming closer and closer, unnerving Twilight even more. Fluttershy was being pushed against her will closer to the purple mare, who just stood in her spot, back turned to the whole conundrum. As the two mares neared their friend, the train blew its whistle and a booming voice was heard:

"We are arriving at Canterlot! Everypony please return to your seats as we slow to a halt at the station."

"Oh. Too bad. You heard him, Rarity. Sorry." Fluttershy bolted towards a seat and clung on, making the fashionista huff in aggravation.

"Well...Here we go." Twilight's voice indicated extreme stress and unnerving. This wasn't helped by Pinkie Pie who was trying to cheer her up with a 'happy' song of hers.

The station wasn't very noticeable in appearance, especially with the lack of the building usually there, waiting with strength for each passing train. Instead, ponies frequently sold tickets at bit further in booths, and those who worked on the train would take the destined tickets and let the passengers aboard. Normally, there was supposed to be a caravan waiting for the group, but it was not yet there.

"Hmph. They make a lady wait? How uncouth." Rarity snapped.

"Bah! I can't wait her any longer! I already stayed stuck in that train for so long that my wings are stiff. I'm gonna fly all the way to the castle while you wait for your carriage."

Before anypony could oppose her decision, a rainbow-colored blur was already zipping through the sky. Twilight continued to pace back and forth while Fluttershy stayed in her corner. Applejack was waiting as well while Pinkie Pie seemed to have disappeared, and Rarity's face had swollen three times that day. Finally, after a long wait, the carriage came from the sky. It had a round shape, and the wood itself was purple colored. Several shapes of colored gold curving around certain areas and bending on others served as the decoration to the wood. The wheels were golden and seemed to have been recently cleaned. One of the two guards pulling the carriage spoke up:

"I apologize for the tardiness. We were in the process of cleaning this carriage when it was called for use. We preferred to finish the job instead of letting the passengers sit in filth."

"Well that is very polite of you. See girls? They are refined gentlecolts." Rarity swung her mane and put a hoof to her chest with audacity.

"Weren't you the one who was complainin' 'bout their impoliteness?"

"I...uh...let's go to the castle, shall we?"

Applejack rolled her eyes as the crew got inside their transport. Surprisingly, the inside itself was also golden, but the seats were a smushy purple color. Perhaps they came from Saddle-Arabia? The trip was actually quite calm and comfortable despite Twilight's ravings about actions after failure. Never focusing on success. Arriving at the castle, the mares saw a familiar blue pegasus trying to outsmart the royal guard pegasi. The four got out of their colorful transport into Canterlot Castle's yard, letting their hooves rest upon the clean, perfectly aligned trail of ground, itself lined by grass trimmed so perfectly one could be sure that somepony used a magnifying glass, a ruler, and small tweezers to adjust the length and height of this lawn to impossible perfectitude.

"Wow. It sure changed a lot 'round here." Applejack awwed as she looked at the scenery.

"Yeah. Princess Celestia wanted to change the look of the castle as he thought it was time for a new style." Twilight shared with her friends, her calmness starting to seep in.

"I approve of this, although it does lack a bit of finesse." Rarity nitpicked as always.

"I hope she didn't take down any trees. I don't have anymore room in my house for animals. I'd have to make some tree houses."

"Where's Pinkie Pie?" Twilight wondered.

The four mares looked around for her, but she was still out of sight. Eventually, Rainbow Dash came back down, huffing, but with pride in her face and joy in every pore.

"Ha! Did you see that? I beat the royal guards. Ha! I barely broke a sweat."

"Are you kidding? You look like you were in a lake!" Pinkie Pie shouted out from nowhere.

The five mares yiped and hopped away. She literally just appeared out of nowhere. However, Pinkie's friends were used to this by now, so the pink party pony's sudden teleportation appearance wasn't enough to phase them anymore.

"Where were you? We were about to ask Rainbow Dash to look for you?" Rarity sterned as she scolded Pinkie Pie who simply smiled at her with a big white smile.

"Places."

"How did ya even get here?"

"By doing things."

"Oh, Pinkie Pie. You're always so mysterious." Twilight gave a laugh.

The pink pony smiled in response. The great wooden doors made of...hoof-carved mahogany swung open to reveal the entrance to the palace of white rock. A stallion with a blue coat and a coiffed white mane wearing a tuxedo and a smug grin invited the mares inside. He did not react to the three he considered to be "lowly commoners". He knew much about the mane six, as per his need to study the records of the castle archives. The entrance was still the same since the Galopping Gala with some minor changes. The flat staircase was still there, but it had a red carpet nailed onto the stairs, giving it a nice colored look compared to the rest of the bright, white room. The large windows at the top of the walls were immense and gave an insurmountable amount of sunlight into the entire entrance. Pastel colored drapes with golden linings hung besides these windows to add to the color and to show that Celestia was indeed the princess in charge of the castle.

Unfortunately for Rarity, the group did not climb these stairs. They went through a small wooden door on the right into some halls of the castle. They were smaller, but seemed exactly the same compared to the entrance. A red carpet, large windows, with some paintings and pottery added to decorate a bit more. The paintings ranged from simple scenery to portraits of ponies and other creatures long gone. The names of each were underneath the paintings themselves and etched upon the bronze frames. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash played a game to see who could find the funniest name. The closest was "Sir Rumpledpigskin". Finally, the group stopped in front of a door just like the rest in the halls. Small, brown, and blocking the view.

"In here if you will, madams." the stallion opened the door and led the mares inside with a gesture of his hoof.

"That is very kind of you. How gentlecoltly." Rarity cooed.

The stallion did not react, and still looked as tired as any gentlecolt."I was taught proper manners as to serve anypony who properly deserves it." he insisted on the 'deserves' part of his sentence, giving an undertone that Rarity hated.

"Princess Celestia! Here I am!...Princess?" Twilight was baffled.

The room simply seemed like a storage area. It wasn't anything but plain wooden boards and a single window. Everypony looked around to try and figure out what this meant, but Rainbow Dash got fed up and said:

"You know what, I'm leaving. I don't like being cramped in rooms like this. I can't fly like this or work on my awesome skills." the rainbow pegasus floated towards the door, but smashed herself against the wall in a great panic, her hooves tapping against the gray cement like a demented hammer."What happened to the door?!"

"What? It was there just a sec' ago!" Applejack shoved her friend out of the way to see if this wasn't a trick.

"Twilight, what's going on?!" Rarity screamed so loud everypony's ears rang.

"I don't know! Maybe this is part of the test? Maybe..."

As Twilight and the three mares talked, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were left to their own devices.

"Umm...what if there was a hidden button somewhere?"

"Yeah! A hidden button so evil it wears a mustache! Muhuhahaha!"

"Pinkie Pie, there are no must...That's it! There's a specific pattern to the walls! Look at them. There are spots that are a bit browner than the rest." Twilight noticed.

"Aaaaand they look like mustaches..."Rarity moaned and stooped her head.

"Maybe we should push them at the same time?" Fluttershy suggested once more.

"That's a great idea. Okay everypony. You heard Fluttershy. Everypony...*sigh*...I can't believe I'm going to say this. Everypony put your hoof on a mustache and push when I give the go."Twilight had facehoofed and was dragging said hoof down her face.

"Right!" they answered in unison.

Everypony, even Pinkie's newly acquired mustache of pure DIABOLICALNESS, put a hoof to the wall. They all turned and looked at each other with seriousness and determination.

"Ready?" Twilight asked, her eyes dotting to everypony. Each replied with a nod."Okay then. One...Two...THREE!"

They all pushed the mustaches, and found themselves flung through a vortex onto another floor, but on each other. Pinkie landed happily atop and yelled for more as she chuckled adorably. Celestia was sitting at the base of her throne with her sister and were sipping tea from a rather big table of a night blue. It was the throne room, and the group had landed on a red carpet with golden linings. The entire room was enormous and still had the windows with the same colored drapes all the way at the top of the room, only, they were placed with an arch pattern behind the throne. The throne itself sat on a same patterned staircase as the one in the entrance, only, a bit higher and wider.

"Ah. Twilight. You made it!"

"P...Princess Celestia?" the lavender unicorn mumbled underneath her friends."Could you get off, girls?"

"Oh! S-sorry." each got off and rubbed their shoulders or their heads in embarrassment.

"Come have tea with us, Twilght Sparkle." Luna proposed as she poured another cup into her sister's own cup.

"I..."

"Come!" Luna insisted.

The group scampered up to the table and was immediately offered some tea for themselves. Each took a sip, and each "mmmm"d in appreciation.

"It is a batch of my own specialty. I learnt how to make this in Saddle-Arabia." Celestia boasted.

"I know how to make tea too." Luna mumbled as she looked down.

"Yes. I know, but I wanted to try something new."

This explanation didn't seem to change anything.

"Princess, why'd ya trap us in that room? It scared us. You did it without explanation!" Applejack complained as she set her cup back down.

"Yeah! I thought we were going to die in there!"

Celestia showed a face of fright."I would NEVER do something like that. It was to test your teamwork. Surprisingly, it was Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie who found the solution through sharing their ideas. You need to learn to speak up though, dear." Celestia nudged the nervous pegasus who shrunk even more under the gaze of Luna.

"But why? Was that my test?"

"Not at all. It was just to see, as I already stated, how well you listened to your friends and their suggestions. One can only fail if they only listen to their voice."

"That is true..." Twilight trailed off as she took another sip from this strange tea cup.

The teacups themselves seemed to follow the same pattern as the new design. White, with golden trails all over them for random decoration. No two cups were the same.

"The true test is to see how well you can concentrate and how much magic you can channel. The magic channeling is not exactly a test. It's more like a way to test your endurance."

"It is very important for the future spells you are about to learn, Twilight Sparkle." Luna interjected, her tone giving a darker and more scary feeling to the test than it really had.

"When am I to start?"

"In an hour. We will have tea first, and speak of your adventures with your friends. A bit of relaxation is always good."

"Don't worry Twiilight. Even if you do fail, which I really doubt, we're here to help you get better. If you fail the endurance test, I'll teach you HOW to have endurance." Rainbow Dash's cheering seemed more like a threat.

"A trip to the spa with me and Fluttershy will help untense those muscles afterwards."

"And--" Applejack was cut off by a rather medium pitched voice having suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"And a good hello to you, ponies."

It was a tall biped. Judging by its voice, it was a male. The doors were slowly closing behind it. Everypony just stared at it in both surprise and confusion, except for Pinkie Pie who was curious...and smiling like is her personality. It wore what seemed like a very long, white lab coat of perfect cleanliness. On its hands were surgeon gloves of a vanilla-ish tone, and on its head were goggles which possessed a bigger strap than usual which covered its head entirely. The goggles themselves possessed yellow lenses of two different sizes. The one on the left was bigger than that on the right, but both sides had smaller lenses above them for magnifying a view to allow precise work in...whatever it did.

As it walked forward, its brown shoes yelling with clipping and clopping, the tension in the room began to tense up. He left his arms behind his back until he approached the table within five steps. He then bowed and spread his arms to his side, his facial expression unseeable through his face goggles and the black strap covering his face like a very tight mask.

"Atleast he seems to be a gentlecolt." Rarity noted with disdain and she eyed the abomination from head to toe.

"In some circles, Rarity of Carousel Boutique."

The fashionista began to stutter. She was famous?!

"Princess Celestia of the sun, and Princess Luna, also known as 'Nightmare Moon'."

Normally, these were things that anypony knew, but Celestia and Luna glared at the biped who did not glare back and simply looked through his goggles as he stood back up. The two princess placed themselves in combat positions.

"How do you know about those things? You aren't from here." Celestia growled.

"That's kinda normal, Princess. He's probably from another country--" Twilight chuckled in her words.

"No. He's not from here."

"What do you mean?"

"Things that creatures like you wouldn't understand."

There was a long stare between the three giant creatures. While two were beginning to shake as adrenaline coursed through their bodies, the other remained still. Immobile. Unfaltering, and emotionless. The mane six didn't know what was happening, and they wanted answers. Was this part of the test? A portion Celestia didn't speak about? Or was this unforeseen intrusion holding some darker secret? What was that creature, and who is it? Where did he come from? So many questions that only a few would receive answers from.

We were always watching

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"Who are you? What are you? Where do you come from? What do you do? Can I have those goggles?" were just a few questions that raced from Pinkie Pie's mouth as she bounced around the biped.

He still wasn't reacting."I am Doctor. No. You can't have these goggles."

"Hey. What about the other questions?"

"Enough with these questions, impetulent pony!"

Pinkie found her mane sticky upwards and her body smoking suddenly. She didn't notice what happened, but she was now in Luna's forelegs. Looking up, she saw the creature holding a black baton that seemed to be coursing with immense amounts of electricity.

"How could you?" Rarity whined.

"You want me to remove your mane...or worse yet, turn it green?!" Doctor threatened with an undertone of humor.

The white mare grabbed her mane from reflex and squeaked.

"You DARE to menace my subjects? Tell me what you want, or I'll disintegrate you." Celestia's face was starting to take on a wild appearance.

"Something important for me and my association."

"But what exactly ARE you? And WHAT do you want? HOW do you even know about us?" Celestia's voice began to take an even louder tone than before, indicating her anger and stress levels.

"Hm." the Doctor adjusted his surgeon gloves and his goggles before finally answering."We know everything about you. A few decades back, we had discovered your universe, and found that it was just a basic world. Your dragons had already been used for testing and had been proven widely unsuccessful...except for THAT one success... Then we came across you alicorns. We watched you and observed your place in society. And, more importantly, your power.
We wanted that power, but we couldn't reach you, so we tried experimenting with dna to create false alicorns, as we called them."

By now, a face of pure disgust of forming across everypony's face.

"And...wh-who did you test them on?" Fluttershy's question surprised the others, but the answer was awful at best.

"Humans. They believe us to be of their species, but we are something else. Always whining about us 'torturing our own kind'. Hmph. They are but cattle to feed and eat afterwards. They have no uses. Of course, the only two successes left the tower they were developed in and landed into another version of Equestria. Don't start rearing up yet. Nothing happened. One simply had to sacrifice herself to save her friend-gone-schizophrenic. This proved to us that they were inferior to even basic unicorns. What a fine cloth." Doctor had walked towards a small table with a plant on it, and underneath it was a silky brown cloth with decorative textiles sown into the edges.

"You're a monster!" Pinkie roared.

"Haha! You want to know what else we did?!" Doctor threw the plant to the floor and watched the remains slide along the floor. He was serious now."We modified our dimensional window to be able to send tiny probes in. We managed to extract the dna of Nightmare Moon during her revival."

Luna gasped in shock and began to tremble. Doctor noticed this, but his eyes were hidden by the lens of his goggles.

"But they aren't effective anymore because we freed the princess from her evil." Twilight proudly interjected.

"You humor me. That doorway doesn't simply open to other worlds. It also opens to their time periods. We have dna from ponies that don't even exist in this dimension. For example, Princess Celestia." The Doctor's neck cracked as he turned to face the princess."Have you ever wondered what it would have been like the other way around?"

Celestia, at first, remained confused, but her eyes pupils dilated immensely, and she took a step back.

(This isn't obligated, but it gives a nice little build-up tone addition)

"H-how...Why?" she began to stutter."GUARDS! GUARDS!"

"We didn't just create clones of them."

"WHERE ARE THE GUARDS?!"

"Sister! Calm down!"

"Come on Applejack. We'll teach him a lesson." Rainbow Dash cracked her knuckles.

"Ya got that right."

"We preferred to test and reuse the dna batches, cleaning them as the failures grew."

The sky outside began to darken and gray out as what seemed to be a storm was coming.

"We aren't here to take Canterlot. We could care less about a simple building. We are here for the test subjects."

A massive explosion rocked the castle, interrupting the attacking mares and making them tumble over each other.

"Ow. What?"

"How'd ya do that?"

"I did nothing. Our association is simply going to make a new base of operations to round up our future test subjects. Won't you stay?"

A flash of dark energy narrowly missed Doctor's head as he slightly leaned to the left. The beam blasted through the doors, tossing shards everywhere and unhinging the right door.

"Scarlet Star, come to me!" the Doctor held an arm out s he shouted this. Who was he calling?

As the sky outside rumbled with a thunderstorm, bolts crashing down as the whole work of the pegasi was destroyed, the middle of the throne room began to burn gently, a small circle on the floor beginning to form from the melted remains of the red carpet and the tiles. They twisted and curled like a demented mind as a shape began to phase into existence through a black, starry smog lifting itself up from this molten slag. The shape grew larger and larger until the body slowly solidified into what was now a new alicorn...a fearsome alicorn. Magical power leaked from her like an overflowing well, and her stance was none too pleasant to see.

Her eyes were dragon-like, just like Nightmare Moon's, but her iris were a sunny orange and burnt with the same amount of heat. Her mane flowed like fearsome flames, but what was orange and yellow on the edges became a cold and black starry night towards the interior. This was the same for her tail. Her horn was as long as Celestia's, if not longer, and twirled like a ram's own cranial extensions. This mare's wings were immense as well, showing a beautiful glamor that even Rarity seemed to gawk at despite herself. There was something added to this alicorn that seemed to start affecting everypony's minds, but they stood strong as the vanilla and night blue coat of this mutant swirled across her body, seemingly trying to grasp at each other once reaching the middle of this malevolent creature.

Celestia was about to act, but some sort of mechanical beast was seen flying across the window as some guards tried to fly away. It open fire, its hand flashing every time it did, and the pegasi dropped.

"The truth is, Celestia, we were always watching."

"To all guards in the castle. Commence evacuation! Get the civilians to the airships! We must reach every town possible for evacuation of Equestria!" the princess' voice somehow rang throughout the whole of the castle, alerting everyone who heard it.

"And to where will you flee, white pony?" Scarlet Star asked.

"Speak not, abomination." Luna menaced.

The alicorn did not like this, and channeled energy through her horn, readying an attack.

"Princess, we need the elements!" Twilight begged.

"No, Twilight. They will be of no use here. Help the guards to the airships, then help everypony evacuate. The guards know where to go."

"But--"

"NOW!"

Twilight flew up in the air then fled past the door, both Doctor and the alicorn just staring at the princesses. The sisters began to walk around the invaders in a large circle, and Luna opened the beginning of the conversation.

"You are only one. The biped cannot fight."

"Maybe, but I won't let you harm my father. I'm the most powerful alicorn in existence!" Scarlet yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Father?" the sisters had echo in their heads.

That word was picking and eating at their minds. The worst was how "analytive" Doctor was. He was observing and calculating every movement and interaction. Somehow, he seemed to remember everything. Why did this creation call him her father, and why did he not seem to care about her safety? She was just artificial! There was no way she could defeat two true alicorns. Yet...Her power was impossibly immense and somehow formed of nothing but evil and unknown rage. Her coat's colors seemed to move on their own as her magic flowed. Celestia tried to blind the mare with her solar magic while Luna intended to slam into Scarlet with a pointed shield. As they did this, however, Luna's shield was put to uselessness as the alicorn opened her mouth and somehow breathed in all the light emitted by Celestia, and redirected the power into her right forehoof, and smashed through the night princess' shield, not only burning her chest, but throwing shards of magic everywhere. Celestia caught her sister in time, only to fire yet another projectile from her horn. This time, the magical apparatus grabbed both Scarlet Star and Doctor and exploded.
The explosion not only incinerated half of the throne room, turning it into a crispy black char, but it also created a solar barrier meant to block the two.

"Sister." Luna panted as she stood up painfully, a hoof to her chest wound."We must teleport up to the top of the castle. Our own airships have been specially designed for immense space and combat capabilities. We must take them and grab as many ponies we can from the villages around and flee to...that island."

Celestia's eye twitched. They were meant to hide in a cavern created beneath the Meridian Alcove, a large sea just right of the Equestria Lands. Who and what Luna alluded to, Celestia knew quite well, and abhorred the idea so much that it created a revolting a vile taste upon her tongue. Before they could talk, the white alicorn still transported herself and Luna to the top of Canterlot castle. It was actually a flat surface hidden by a magical barrier. The tower underneath WAS there, but it only held this immense flying platform. The gray tarmac was still intact, and upon it sat two airships. Both were immense, looked like horizontal hot-air baloons, and both bared the colors and symbols of their respectful princesses, said princesses' cutie marks being tattooed as a gigantic mark on each side of the baloon itself. As all was calm up here, Celestia opened up her questioning while her sister tried to heal her wound.

"We cannot go to them. It is suicide! They will shoot us out of the sky on approach! The Anti-Copperlings hate magic, and what'll they do when we arrive with many unicorns?"

"Ergh! That government has always been a thorn in our sides! They have persisted in threatening peace with their steam-powered machinery, yet they never move from their island-prison. Always taunting us. Telling us that we cannot beat their technology. Yet...if these invaders possess advanced technology, then we have no choice but to hope for refuge when we arrive there."

"What will we propose when we arrive? A truce? Good love? Hoping that they accept our unicorns? You know as well as I how he treats every magical being there."

"I--"

The sisters' conversation was cut short by some sort of immense blue rod smashing through the floor. It stood there for awhile, until it began to open up like an umbrella, revealing its blue portions to be rods. Once these clicked into place, a menacing hum flew through the air, but the object fell before it could release its immense amount of electricity along the ground to paralyze the two alicorns. As they panted, they galloped to the hole just in time to see the object smash into a part of the castle and take some ponies and other bipeds with it down into the lower floors, the other pieces of the runway smashing haphazardly everywhere. Explosions were erupting everywhere, leaving little puffs of smoke in the sky and others on the ground. It was like a war.

Using enhanced sight, both alicorns could see that the bipeds fighting were all hidden behind strange blue armor. The visors covering their faces were yellow, just like Doctor's goggles, and every joint was covered with an added plate of armor. They held weird objects that spat fire and metal at their targets, causing blood to erupt everywhere. It was a nasty scene. Accompanying this, the special "Heavy Guard" of the Royal Guards were fighting in the crowds as well. Something strange was going on. While their armor was capable of bouncing off the projectiles, what Celestia had seen fly by the window earlier was not there.

"Where is that immense machine from earlier?"

"What machine?" Luna asked her sister with bite.

"It was--"

"THERE!" Luna pointed as if her arm had a sudden spasm.

An immense biped of metal stomped across the garden. It suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It looked exactly like the smaller ones, except for its girth and the strange electrical sounds it made. The heavily armored guards ran or flew up to it and tackled the beast either in the legs or the body. While these enchanted suits can topple a dragon, the machine held its ground and slapped the ponies into the ground or the castle. The ones slammed into the ground saw a net thrown upon their limp bodies, atleast, those who were still conscious. The bonds of their capture suddenly surged with electricity, and when the shocking was over, the presents were wrapped up and dragged into the castle.

"Sister." Luna looked at Celestia with contempt as her sister tried to assess the situation.

No matter how she flipped or spun the ideas in her mind, nothing would work besides fleeing to the island. They had no choice. She gave in.

"Fine. We shall go there then. I trust you know how to pilot an airship?"

"Using our own magic to control the vehicle's flight path as well as its speed by--"

"GOOD! That's enough. Now hurry up! We'll go to Ponyville first, then Fleswat, and so forth."

"Right."

A loud roar was heard in the throne room, and the barrier exploded outwards, damaging even more of the castle then it already was. Scarlet was panting an growling with anger. Those two nearly hurt her father! If she hadn't protected him with her body, he would have died. Doctor still didn't care and simply adjusted his goggles as he listened to the "soothing" ambience.

"Ah. It seems that we won't be able to use this place after all. Ah well. We'll get into the town a bit further down then. I wonder what mixtures can be created."Doctor hummed.

"Are you alright, Father?" Scarlet lowered her head as she looked at the biped, her eyes becoming saucers.

"Yes. No need to worry about me. You have performed admirably on the field of battle."Scarlet Star smiled at this and was about to jump with joy."However, you failed to apprehend the princesses." Scarlet's ears drooped down."Your performance counters the failure, so I will let it slide this time. However, if you can destroy the soon-to-be-coming evacuation vehicles, then I shall reward you. It all depends on how well you perform." Doctor was as emotionless as ever, yet Scarlet seemed to feel some sort of inexistent feeling being conveyed here.

"Yes!" she answered with glee.

"I will leave and count all our prisoners. Until then, I have something else to let loose on those ponies. Until the aircraft come in, have fun capturing subjects."

"Yes, sir." the alicorn said as she flew off through the open roof of the throne room. Massive explosions and blood curdling screams came shortly after.

Doctor went outside of the castle, into the front courtyard. It was still a combat zone, but this was where all the captured subjects were put. Massive containers were coming in from the shy, where a swirling purple vortex had opened. Supplies and such were transported via mecha, allowing quick resupplying. The once beautiful yard was now riddled with debris, craters, and bags full of struggling ponies. A tent had been mounted near the gates, and here, one of the soldiers was noting all the newcomers on a drawing table. Behind him sat a tall gray container. It only had one exit, and its only opening was a tiny slot with two bars. The interior was completely dark, but there was something whimpering in it.

Knowing better than to alert it, Doctor tapped the guard on the shoulder, said being immediately standing straight and hitting his left breast with his right hand. The Doctor signaled him to be "at ease", and jolted his head towards the right so that the guard could open the door. The armored biped immediately gasped and scuttled up to the number-pad on the side, input the code, and the door slid open. The whimpering had stopped, but the creature inside dared not leave, feeling safe within the shadows. This irritated Doctor, who slammed his fist against the box.

"LEAVE THIS CONTAINER AT ONCE, or do you wish to be part of more of the more 'delicate' experiments?" he threatened.

The creature yiped and scuttle outwards immediately. It crawled on the floor, then forced itself up to look at Doctor with big, sickly eyes. It was a pony; a mare, to be exact. She was extremely thin and poorly nourished. Her rosy-purple coat was actually clean, but stricken with scars where her fur dared not return to their rightful places. Her mane and tail, both colored a lovely bubbly pink, were in shambles. Her lavender eyes dared not look at the brown contraption around her neck. "A control collar" is what she was told. Her fear was at its epiphany.

"You will reach one of the convoys of these creatures and board one. You will spy on them and tell them what we want to know. Where the new location is and what they still have. Got it?" Doctor remained lean and upright.

The mare nodded in silence as the Doctor began to pace back and forth.

"Failure to board a vessel will result in further, more thorough experimentation. Failure to communicate will result in you being cross-gened with another species, leading into immense pain, possible failure which will mean immediate termination and incineration, and if the test is succesful, further experimentation. You know exactly what betrayal enthralls however. Don't you?" Doctor tilted his head slightly towards the mare who began to hyperventilate."Good. Now remove yourself from my sight. Leave the castle and only come back after your mission is a success. NOW!"

The mare yiped one more time and forced her body to gallop as far as it could. Doctor simply watched her as she struggled over the damaged entrance's remains before collapsing a moment, then forcing herself towards Canterlot again.

"Hm. These subjects intrigue me. They seem more resilient than the dna we've acquired on their species. Extraction is needed. It will be stored in refrigeration devices...ehhh...but the others have not arrived with the necessary materials, and the temporary labs have yet to even be designed. We will simply have to stock the future test subjects for later usage. I wonder how many I can cross with the various changeling dna I have acquired. Perhaps I should take the most powerful of the males and turn him into a changeling breeder, or perhaps a changeling nurse? Maybe even mess with the queen's dna a bit. So many things to experiment with." Doctor passed in front of the guard and grabbed a remote very slowly.

"You're a monster!" yelled a guard.

"You're only capturing us to experiment and turns us into monsters? HOW DARE Y-AAAAGH!"

The entirety of the nets nearby had more electricity surge through their bodies. Once the scientist let go of the button on the controller, he extended his arm back and dropped the device in the guard's hands.

"Do electrocute them if they dare to speak again, will you?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Don't go too far. They need to be in perfect condition for our future guests."

"Right."

Twilight and her friends, however, weren't so happy about the situation. Panic had risen in Canterlot, and chaos had broken out. Everypony was trying to flee to where the airships were. While Canterlot could be housed in the Airships, there wouldn't be many left for the other towns. Everypony can't be evacuated. Some would have to stay behind and flee on hoof. The mane six were compressed by the crowd as explosions at the castle continued. It seemed the battle was only going to happen there...until a few smaller breaches opened up near the white brick lanes and the top of buildings. It was only going to get worse.

On the airship

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Twilight had seen some airships already lift off to go to some unknown location, certainly the towns nearby, meaning that Applejack and Pinkie Pie didn't have to worry about their family being in any danger. However, there was the imminent danger right behind them all. Armored bipeds left the holes and began to shoot at everything in sight, even going so far as to throw explosive projectiles into houses and buildings.

"Twilight! Get us out of here!" Rarity plead.

"I can't! We have to wait for a hole to open up."

A gigantic mech slammed down from the sky, creating massive tremors which knocked everypony off their hooves. Many were crushed under this immense being's feet, but ponies began to get scooped up by it as well. For some reason, however, it was swiping several aside but taking some specific ponies. A mare was even grabbed, but she was being held down by her husband who was trying with all his might to save her. The machine's head simply turned towards the stallion, caused some sort of port to open above its arm, near the wrist, and a bang was heard. All that was left were the stallion's legs flopping down, and a massive hole surrounded by tinier holes in the floor and the wall of a building. The mare began to cry and her mind was starting to break already.

"That's our window!" Rainbow Dash shouted from above, just narrowly avoiding a stunning missile.

The group dashed between the creature's legs and continued through the streets, following the guards. Pinkie Pie, however, was laughing, unnerving everypony around her. Before any answers could be had, she slammed her hoof on the ground, and a clicking noise was heard. The mecha suddenly found itself legless as some form of plank blew out from the ground, and crushed the bipeds behind the mech.

"How did you--"Twilight stuttered.

"I just wanted to test a fun bouncing game is all." Pinkie smiled innocently.

The fleeing ponies all turned left, ignoring the fact that they were headed for a dead-end. Instead, they passed through the wall and into a hangar so massive it was likely it took around fifty years to do. Ladders and walkways were all along the walls, and around twenty or so airships were docked here, although it seemed that over fifty were quite capable of staying here. Royal Guards ponies and the local law enforcers were guiding the civilians into the airships. Some were on the ground, while others were hooked onto the walkways above. This place was nothing but rusted metal and a massive window above. It was obvious this was where the airships would leave. Everypony was panicking, understandably, but some even went so far as to employ violence to get onto the ships. They were violently apprehended themselves by the guards and thrown out of the airships.

Propellers began to spin as magic began to flow through the vehicle's innards. The airships, however, did not take off just yet. There was no time for chatter, nor was there any time for thought, which was why Twilight and her friends preferred not to comment about anything, and only managed to slip into the last airship on the ground. The other ponies would have to go into the ones above. There was around a hundred ponies in this airship, but the seats were numerous and well adjusted. The mane six sat on the seats lining the windows, if only to be able to turn around and watch what was happening outside. Some of the passengers were crying and a few were comforted, but the only real sounds were coming from the crowd outside.

"I...I hope mah family is gonna be okay." Applejack was fiddling with her hooves as she looked to the floor.

"I hope the Cakes will be okay. I don't like the idea of leaving them in Ponyville." Pinkie was also worried, but she seemed a bit more optimistic."I think that the balloons that left went to Ponyville."

"Ah I hope yer right, Pinkie Pie."

"I know what you mean. I don't know what I'll do if something happened to Spike. I know Owlowiscious will be okay though. He can fly away."

"Yeah! That's true! Why don't Fluttershy and I just fly away?!"

Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof on her chest, but she quickly deflated as she saw Fluttershy's awful state. The pegasus had seen something so horrible earlier that she was affected quite dramatically. Rarity was trying to comfort her, but the vanilla mare was now nothing but a disheveled mess of her former self. Twilight hoped to the Creator that she wouldn't have to see the bipeds experiment. If this is what they did for capturing, she shuddered to know what they did for experimenting.

Explosions outside rocked the entire hangar, providing fear that this place would crumble at any given moment. It wasn't very reassuring. What was worse was that Rainbow Dash noticed the blue unicorn meant to drive the vehicle was looking horrified as a guard told him something specific. This left her suspicious. When the guard saluted and left, the window composing the roof creaked loudly as it slid open, revealing the little bit of sunlight going through the storm clouds above. Alarms began to scream as airships high and low started to unhinge themselves and float, one after the other, away from the hangar interior. The ponies who didn't make it in time were screaming and begging for the ships to stay, but one pony in particular who had just arrived, and despite her frailty, hopped on the heads of those left behind and aimed for the airship in which Twilight and her friends were in.

Said airship's doors, near the front, middle, and back, refused to close no matter how much the pilot pulled on the handle. This gave the running mare ample time to reach the vehicle and roll into the front opening despite it lifting off already. She hasped and panted as her collar spun around her neck a few times. The pilot was about to yell in anger, but saw her condition and was immediately horrified.

"DON'T let me out! DON'T! PLEASE! I don't want to go back in the labs. I don't want to. In the darkness. So dark. So cold. So painful." the mare collapsed on the floor as she used up the last bit of energy left in her body.

"Are there any doctors aboard?!" the pilot shouted.

"ME!"five ponies answered.

Instead of fighting and bickering, they nodded to eachother and proceeded to grab the mare and make room to place her on a few seats. Twilight and Pinkie Pie wanted to see, but the pilot forbid it with his message:

"We are now exiting the hangar. STAY IN YOUR SEATS! This is going to get rough!"

Everypony clamped down onto their seats and began to pray to whatever deity they most believed in, some actually praying to Celestia for comfort. The storm outside was still raging, and there were now more machines walking around Canterlot City, rounding up ponies as they went. The whole mess of airships flew through the air, the massive behemoths requiring time to build up their momentum. Everything was actually going fine, surprisingly. The combat was stuck on the ground. It seemed that these beings had not brought any aerial capabilities. The best they could do was try and shoot the airships in the sky, but, for some reason, they didn't. The pilot and his comrades found this bizarre. They only need to pass Canterlot Castle and go north to the sea beyond. Everypony was cuddling or continuing to mumble as the ships went forward. These vehicles depended upon the guards and the law enforcers to protect them, which served for nothing as some sort of orange glow began to blind everypony until an explosion followed.

One of the airships started to plummet in flames, and everypony started to scream and panic. Another found itself frozen and destroyed by some sort mist resembling the night.

"To all pilots." the blue pony shouted into some sort of speaker near the steering wheel."Activate the shields. We MUST get these civilians to safety...even if it is to that place." he growled in the end.

"What place?" a mare asked.

"Not important. Now sit down!"

The blasts kept coming. Two ships were grabbed by some sort of enormous hands and smashed together, immediately destroying them and sending them to their doom. Some of the passengers began to panic as to the outcome, but Twilight was already doing something. Her horn began to spark.

"Twi? What're ya doin'?"

"Making...a shield..."

"Don't force yerself!"

"Twilight!" Rainbow screamed.

The shield went up, and the blast dispersed. The passengers began to shout in joy as they were finally protected. The blasts seemed to concentrate solely on this particular airship, and the blasts were tiring the lavender unicorn out.

"Will they ever stop? They can't get through!"

"Er know! Why'znt they stoppin'?"

While the blasts continued, two enormous airships came from beyond the storm clouds. Celestia and Luna had appeared.

"Fluttershy, look! The princesses. Everything will be alright now." Rarity comforted, but to no avail.

Somehow, these particular ships were armed with cannons, which, as they were aimed downward, blasted all existence below them to bits and dust. Everything was going so fast that not much was allowed to be thought of.

"To all airships, this is you princess of the night. Converge on our ships and follow us to safety. We will perform a wide range specific teleportation for all airships. We must reach safety as quickly as possible."

Luna's voice was emitted from speakers attached to the roof of the cabin, allowing proper hearing. It was a sight to behold, seeing all those flying transports going to the two in the middle that were destroying everything in sight that wasn't friendly. As the bipeds watched, the ships glowed and suddenly disappeared in a flash. There was nothing but sky, ruins, and corpses in Canterlot now...at least, anything that was pony. The bipeds began to retrieve any survivors as Scarlet Star galloped down the street and looked up, her face filled with confusion and disappointment. She kept spinning around, hoping to find at least one remaining airship, but none were there.

"Nurgh! What? They aren't here anymore?! RAAAAH! I only destroyed five!" the alicorn began to have a temper tantrum and she gave hopping and stomping down.

"Calm yourself. You still did good." a soldier spoke as he pulled two heavily armored guards.

"And who are you to tell me what to do?!"

"A...Are you crying? Seriously? Aha!"

Scarlet growled as tears streaked down her face.

"I'm one of the commanding officers, so watch yourself."

The alicorn decided to be lenient this time...if only because her father would scold her.

"I'm going to take this new guys to Doctor. Has he set up a laboratory yet?"

"Only a tiny one. He is experimenting with changeling dna."

"You mean those black creatures reminiscent of crickets when you crush them?"

"I don't know. I don't know what they look like!"

"Ah. That is correct. You never left the facility before. Hmm. Could you help us find some survivors? It would help Doctor and the other scientists in furthering our research."

"Pffff...Fine. I'll go look for some."

"Thank you."

The alicorn extended her immense wings and flew into the sky, kicking up some dust from nearby rubble as she did so.

"I hate that creature. And to think it took fifteen tries to get this one here. STOP STRUGGLING!" he roared as he activated the stunning mechanism integrated into the net.

What was once a tent was now a larger, enclosed tent full of some research and experimentation gear. There were four mangled corpses outside of the tent. They seemed to have patches turned black and bizarre appendages strutting out here and there. They were obviously dead. Next to the tent were several immense containers holding the research material, all of them panicking every time a new one was taken out of the group. Several attempts to break out were attempted, but the escapees were gunned downed rather quickly. In the tent, though, Doctor was working a bit more.

"Hmmm." he wondered as he observed the panicking pony strapped to the gray table, a bright light flashing in its face."Four attempts to recreate a changeling breeder and none have even come CLOSE to being successful! We have more experience with humans, after all. Perhaps, if I were to peel off the skin near the tail-bone and inject it into the lumbar...then mix some dna with the blood and have it jettisoned directly into the cells of the subject. If I can alter its dna quick enough, then the body won't reject the process, and allow quick reforming of the bone and cellular structure. Let us commence."

The pony was flipped on the table, and Doctor pulled out a bladed tool, most likely a scalpel, and began to cut away. The screams continued for several hours, even when the subject was cracking and bending. Out of the tent came blasting an oversized changeling with an enhanced muscular mass. It was heading for a straight line towards wherever. Before Doctor issued the order, one of the mechs holding a container dropped the cargo, nearly crushing those underneath and caught the creature in its hold. It was then thrown in said container, despite the fact that it was initially going to be used to store building materials. The container was set down near the tent, much to the joy of Doctor, who watched the beast buzz around mindlessly, trying to punch through the walls. The biped peered in and smiled.

"Wanting to go to your queen and have some fun? Too bad. We'll be testing her dna with some females and maybe a few males to see if we can't get our own group of changelings. You will have your demented fun soon. Another test subject!"

"Yes, sir!" the guards near the holding containers answered along with a salute.

Several hours had passed, and the sun was starting to set. Everypony was exhausted. They just wanted to return to their homes, but that was no longer an option. They were all above the ocean, the seemingly calm waves unaware of the dangers around or in it. The sun gleamed beautifully across its surface as it set. Everypony began to stand up and comment about was growing on the horizon. It looked like copper, then it became a small tower, then it started to become an enormous city on an island.

Rainbow had gotten up to ask the pilot a question:

"Hey, what is that? It doesn't look like a safe place to be."

"It isn't. Welcome to Secantor island, where we will remain until we can fend off those bipeds. 'Magic beware the metal coloring, for it rots and decays your skin'." the pilot quoted.

Scilian Crow's decision

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The hustle and bustle of the city-towers resonated throughout the island. It was, after all, one big city, and only that. Every now and then, one would hear "Stop right there, criminal scum", but that barely registered on the sound coming from this bright and lively place. Of course, these were the higher levels, and this was exactly where the refugees from Equestria were going. On a level with platforms meant to receive warships from outside or any other form of airship, a griffin fumbled with some cards in his anti-air cannon. This bronze orb with four cannons sticking out from its armored front protected the operator and allowed for perfect precision with zoom optics integrated into the armored visor. The young male was thrown out of his seat as he heard an alert. Retrieving himself, he checked what the noise was about, and, to his surprise, an Equestria fleet was coming to Secantor.

"Oh no. I should alert the council leader."

The young griffin fumbled with his communicator, nearly letting it drop as he took it out of the board. His loose feather-style on his head was probably a cause of impeded vision which led to his clumsiness.

"S-Sir?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"I need to speak with Scilian Crow, counsel head."

"This is indeed him. What do you need? Is there actually something coming to the island that is not one of our warships?"

"An Equestrian fleet."

There was a long silence on the other end, further stressing the operator of the AA gun.

"S-sir?"

"I'll be right over. It shouldn't take more than a minute."

"Okay then." the griffin awkwardly finished as he hung up.

It was true. The sounds of steam and moving cogs was already in the vicinity as some sort of metallic box with bars on the windows came crawling with several legs on a wire which was actually one of many allowing very quick transport all over the city. It stopped with a huff of steam and laid itself down on the round platform jutting out of the side of the city. A door slammed down, and out came a gray stallion with a gray-blue mane and tail. Both were very well combed, but his mane seemed to overlap itself at the front of his head, giving some form of mildly tall wave. His eyes were cobalt in color, and his expression of constant boredom stressed others around him. This was Scilian Crow, counsel leader of the anti-copperlings. His cutie-mark was even more confusing. While it was a pitchfork overlapping a cog, many had absolutely no idea what it meant, but Scilian did. 'Work hard and live easy'. His hoofsteps unnerved the griffin even more as the stallion approached.

"Let me see." he said, taking out some binoculars from his tan colored suit, a white shirt buttoned underneath."Hmmm. You were right. Why would they come to attack us? The princesses know they can't take this island. Disgusting magical creatures. But...I wonder..."

"Shall I give the alert to shoot them down?"

"No. Tell everypony at their stations to greet the incoming refugees with open arms. Even the...unicorns." the stallion spat the last word like it was poison.

"Wh-what? Why?"

"This is just my thought, but look at the airships, they are not meant for war." Scilian passed his binoculars to the griffin as he said this, and gave a sly grin."I suggest calling in emergency crews immediately to take care of the wounded. Let's see why they have chosen to flee to their enemy instead of to an ally. I will ready the rest of the council members. In the meantime, you are in charge of efforts on this platform."

"B-b-but sir! I'm not meant for such th--"

"You will do as told. End of story."

"Y...yes sir." the griffin looked down in defeat, knowing better than to defy the head of the anti-copperlings."

One thing didn't add up, though. How did Scilian know that these were not warships from first glance? Both transport and warship designs of Equestria were never given different templates for differenciation. Some thought it was for clever rusing, but that sort of thing was uncommon with such a peaceful kingdom. Either way, very single platform readied bitterly for the coming of their enemy. It took some time; but each airship landed on a platform as various ponies and griffins signaled them through light batons. Only two were able to land per platform. It was a slow and dangerous process as there were badly wounded aboard some of these vessels.

"LET GO OF ME! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! GAAAAH! I WON4T BE INJECTED WITH ANOTHER DOSE!" the crazed mare shouted.

Ever since she fainted and awoke to see needles being pointed at her, she's been trying to escape the ship, kicking and screaming as she did. Four stallions were trying to hold her down, but it was no use. She was just too scared. She finally broke out of their grip and tried to run out of the landed airship, only to slam into a blue minotaur who was busy with moving around medical supplies on the platform. The pony had tumbled onto her rump and looked up to see this massive creature turn around and glare at her with yellow eyes. Her nerves were beginning to break as she shook enough to create small tremors.

"What is wrong with her? And what's that collar around her neck? Some kind of jewelry in Equestria?" he boomed.

"No! I did as told! Get away from me! I don't want to go back!" the mare cried, her voice starting to hiccup and her voice dripping in tears.

"What? Calm down! What are you talking about?"

This minotaur wasn't very aggressive, but his approach in conversation was. To anyone else's eyes, this was just a minotaur, but his bizarre color scheme reminded the mare of the armored bipeds that they had. Before she turned into a berserker, Pinkie Pie bounced out from behind the minotaur and grabbed the mare, pinning her down and singing "Giggle at the ghosties" quietly into her ear. The previous doctors moaned in pain as they waddled out of the ship. Their surprise to see the situation wasn't unexpected. The mare stopped talking and started to hum along with the tune.

"Pfiou. Thank you. What's wrong with her?"

"I dunno. She was scared of those weird guys like we were." Pinkie smiled.

"Who wouldn't be? Poor Fluttershy here is still shocked from what happened." Rarity suffered to say as she pulled the vanilla ball out.

"Where are the princesses?" Twilight asked, looking around in a frantic panic.

"Bah. Most certainly with Scilian Crow." the minotaur added as he dropped down a box of supplies into the growing pile.

"Who? And where are we?"

"You don't know?! It seems they have been hiding much from you, copperling."

"Copperling?"

"Well then, let us start."

Scilian Crow had arrived upon the platform where the princesses lay. While Luna was being treated for her wound, Celestia was observing everything these beings were doing, but her gaze shifted to a gray stallion slowly walking towards them both with a sinister grin.

"We are on Secantor Island, a massive city built upon a tiny island. This is where we are. North of your despised Equestria."

"D-despised? What did we ever do to you?"

"Your kind looks upon unicorns and other magical beings with joy. Magic is the essence of destruction."

"Princess Celestia. What is a beautiful mare like yourself doing here?" the stallion cooed.

"Do not toy with me. My sister and I must speak to you about placing our refugees in Secantor and our possible temporary alliance to destroy a common enemy."

"Sister? So she returned. Hm. And what is this about an alliance? The all powerful alicorn needs help from an earth pony? What enemy is so powerful it conquered Equestria in a day?"

"I...I don't know. They used technology unknown to us and have captured several of my subjects."

"Define 'several'." he narrowed his smiling gaze.

"...Seventy percent of Canterlot. There is seventeen percent with us, and another percentage from nearby villages."

"Then I can assume that the thirteen others have died, not to mention the unknown amount that died in the hooves--"

"Hands."

"...Hands of these invaders. We shall see. Come with me to the room of the Anti-Copperlings."

"I'd rather not."

"We will bring your sister too."

"But--"

"Unless you want to live elsewhere, it is in your best interests to come."

A long pause reigned supreme between the two until Luna came waddling forward. The doctors were only told to heal her, but not to aid her in walking. They simply frowned at the alicorn, but quickly shut up when Scilian looked at them with the corner of his eye. Celestia agreed and went into the transport carrier along the rails. This height allowed them to see the immensity of this city-island in much of its "glory", although these were the upper floors.

"Unicorns are called 'copperlings' because your magic here has the color of copper. All of you. The copperlings and the other low-class citizens live in the under-slums of the city, where life is rough and dangerous. The best live all the way at the top. Basically, the level that you live in indicates your status amongst society. There ARE things that can boost you immediately up the ranks. Take farmers, for example. Their crops are grown in domes. If you manage to improve the amount grown in a short time using a revolutionary product, then you will be sent into the middle areas. Invent something of great benefit to all? You are jettisoned to the highest class one could achieve in civilian relations.

Copperlings were known to have caused immense destruction upon Secantor island, which is why we must keep you tied up"

The trip to the council chambers was without hindrance, but not without mumblings of the alicorns' presence. The highest point of the city took the shape of a white dome with a gold-tile roof. Inside there was but one room, the council's chamber of judgment. The entire place was brimming with small levels holding chairs, counters, and other things to accommodate diplomats, business ponies, and other important figure-heads. It was just like a judge's court. It was also obvious by Celestia's face that she had first wanted to see if everypony was alright, but it seemed that other matters called first. Sitting high atop their wooden chairs and sitting behind their wooden counters were a few dozen ponies and three minotaurs. Scilian hopped up into his seat and spun the chair around playfully before leaning on his portion of the wooden counter. He was not taking any of this seriously.

"My dear court." he spoke aloud."We have been greeted with the arrival of refugees from Equestria. They demand shelter for the time that we aid them in pushing back whatever invaders have come to them."

The members began to talk to gossip, creating a loud brouhaha.

"Please!" Celestia roared.

The Council quieted down.

"We only seek refuge. We will not intervene in anything that your people do. We just need to find a way to defeat this new enemy."

"Not intervene? You already brought several copperlings, not to mention yourselves." an old mare pointed out.

"She's raht. Wot tells us dat ya won't trah 'n overthrow us? Wot tells us dat we aren't under some ferm of deceit?" a minotaur spat as he smashed his hand onto his own counter.

"Because, we already scouted Canterlot capital." Crow stated, his head resting on his arm.

"Wot do ya mean?!" the minotaur seemed outraged.

"You dare to raise your voice against me?" Scilian glared, and the minotaur immediately shrunk.

"N-n-n-n-no sir."

"Good. As I was saying, we had already scouted Canterlot after the noted arrival of the airships."

"What did it say?" a stallion wondered with curiosity.

"It was destroyed seconds after it arrived. Whatever has come, it is an extremely powerful organization. I can also note that, despite my best judgement, we will be forced to form a temporary alliance with the refugees until we can find a way to push these creatures back."

The entire council became outraged. They started to curse and shout, irritating a fatigued Luna.

"SILENCE!" she yelled in ye olde royal Canterlot voice."You prefer to die over petty squabbles then to fight a common enemy? You'd prefer to die over your own anger rather than protect your populace?"

The entire room became quiet, surprising both Luna and Scilian.

"You surprise me, Luna." Celestia whispered to her sister, lifting a hoof to hide her mouth.

"Thank you."

"She is right. We can resume our problems in the future. However, one problem stands before we can commence negotiations."

"And what problem is that?" Luna asked, her face full of pride at her accomplishment.

"The social rankings. On Secantor, the copperlings are sent to the bottom, and I believe that we should do the same here, or else, a revolution could start."

"What?! I will NOT have my ponies grovel in whatever filth lays at the bottom of your city."

"But, you must understand--"

"I have given my refusal, and you shall accept it!" Celestia insisted. The minotaur did not insist.

"Then we will find other methods. We cannot put on the collars around their horns, but we CAN make them all work manually. Any use of magic is forbidden. We can have your ponies assigned to the middle levels of the city. In exchange, they shall perform work based on their talents. Why the face? We also have cutie marks here, although they also seem to define social status, ironically. They CAN live normally, but their magic WILL be banned. If ANY is used, there will be measures taken. Please wait a moment." the stallion spoke to the council in whispers.

Celestia and Luna were both relieved at these turn of events. Scilian Crow was known to be a bloodthirsty ruler, but he was also known for his rationality and logic. Although it was a long shot, there was a chance he would accept their arrival.

"Okay then. We have debated and have agreed upon ONE and only ONE mistake in magic usage, if it remains small."

"And...what would the punishments entail?"

Scilian's evil grin appeared, one that many knew, especially on Senimar Island.

"You don't need to know until it happens. Oh! Before you leave to check on the survivors, there is a pony on platform forty-seven who appears to be a refugee of your group. By the message I received from a minotaur there, she seems to have undergone unimaginable amounts of stress. Luckily for her, she is an earth pony, therefore, the populace here will not treat her differently. She also seems to be in a dreadful state."

"I will check on it at once."

"This council meeting is now over."

A loud clap, and the immense wooden doors leading into the room opened up, allowing the alicorns to leave. There was much to be discussed personally on both sides, but it was not until the doors would shut.

In Canterlot, Scarlet walked around the ruins, hoping to found some survivors. She was getting frustrated to not finding anything...yet she didn't know she was being followed by what seemed like drunk stallions staring at her every morsel. The workers and guards nearby muffled their laughter as best they could, yet Star still couldn't catch on. Near the destroyed castle, Doctor was handed a handheld telescope by one of the other new scientists who had been observing the surroundings and noting the architecture. This one still showed no emotions, even through its mask. This is what scared the others, as, even through their masks and helmets, they could feel the emotions of others and act accordingly, but with the scientists...nothing.

Doctor extended the observation tool and looked afar to see the alicorn stomping and getting mad at not finding anything while a horde of stallions were blindingly following her, unaware of the rest of the world. The Doctor frowned.

"Hmm. The hormones have a great effect. However, I'm worried they have stunted her mental development. She acts like a child."

"Remember how you obtained and raised her, sir." the scientist noted as he assembled some surgery equipment.

"...I didn't think that kind of psychological impact would be so severe. She's fifteen around now I believe."

"Life sucks for you." the scientist mocked.

"I don't need any quips from you."

"Just here to lighten the mood. Just be happy she wasn't turned into some sexual predator."

"Yes. That would be...disturbing. I suppose I received the good side of the coin flip here."

"That's one way to put it."

Doctor continued to watch his creation bounce up and down in frustration like a little child. She was...bizarre, to say the least.

Twilight and Rarity get "lost"

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It had been a bit strange, but Twilight and Rarity, after entering their own transportation devices to reach whatever hole Celestia had dug up for them, found that they had awoken in the darkest pits of Secantor island, with lumps on their noggins, and they weren't horns. No. They had fallen into some sort of brass confinement and destroyed mattresses. They were just listening to what the collar wearing mare was saying, then nothing. Not a sound. This place seemed full of pipes going wherever they wanted to, but they didn't seem to want to do anything but belch an immense amount of steam.

"Ewww! Where are we?" Rarity whined, her hooves stuck with gunk.

"I dunno! Did they knock us out? Why?"

"What did we ever do to them?"

"That's the thing! Let me see."

Twilight looked above their pit to see that it was still as dark as ever, the light somehow not reaching so high. Wherever they were, they were certainly deep in the island.

"Rarity."

"Yes?"

"I think we were thrown really deep in the island."

"What? I don't...UGH! The horrid ruffians. Let's try and find the princesses to explain this ordeal."

"I agree...but...how are we going to get back up there?"

"Well...first...there's an opening right behind you."

"Huh? Oh yeah! I didn't see that. Thank you."

A giant mattress having seen better days was completely blocking the exit, its springs demanding that it be put out of its misery. At first, the object was too hard to budge, but magic proved its usefulness by shrinking the obstacle. Twilight and Rarity smiled as a shadowy hole presented itself to them. Worry and fear gnawed at their minds.

"I prefer to stay here and wait for the others to find us." Rarity nervously smiled as her ears drooped down.

"In this gunk?" Twilight grinned as the diva began to stress and squeak."With all this filth that will stick to your coat? I think I saw a rat swimming there."

"AHHH! Let's get o...What was that?"

"What was what?"

"Shhh. Listen."

Twilight was awfully confused at Rarity twisting her ears to hear something. She seemed to have better hearing, but it suddenly became apparent to Twilight that something was coming around a corner unseen previously. It sounded like a massive amount of steam was erupting randomly from different spots, their home being some form of rumbled bunch of rusted metal. Finally, some cans were thrown everywhere, and through the filth and trash some form of slouching biped of metal. It was as tall as a minotaur, and it seemed to be in awful shape. Several plates composing its body all had different levels of rust, and its arms were insanely long, nearly reaching the ground. Its hands, feet, and head were all immense and round compared to the rest of the body, while the body looked like a cylinder. Long bars connected every portion of the being's body. It seemed to be searching for something in the garbage as it grabbed a can and looked inside it. This creature had no face, but it did have immense red orbs in its bronze, round head that reminded Twilight of goggles and Rarity of a fashion crisis.

"What IS that awful thing?"

"Rarity, don't alert it to--"

*ka-tank*

The bipedal machine was now looking at the two mares, its body beginning to shake like crazy and expelling immense amounts of steam. It kept the can in hand, but it seemed like it was about to move.

"Nice job, Rarity." Twilight hissed at her friend quietly.

"I didn't know it could hear."

"Just try and back away slowly and reach the hole before it mo--"

*schhhhlink*

Three plates covering the "mouth" of the creation slid down in quick succession, showing that the whole lower half-of the creature's face was one, gigantic, white smile. Before the mares knew, its eyes lit up, and the sound of gears and cogs finally deciding to spin after so long deafened the two. For some reason, some sort of tune was coming from it as it activated and began to give chase. It felt of amusement and mechanical fun.

"OUT! OUT!"

"I'm trying Twilight!"

"Move it!" the unicorn flung her friend through the hole and into an empty hall of cement.

More pipes ran through the ceiling, and grates could be seen covering some important coils and heaters. As the two thought it couldn't get through the hole, they sighed in relief, until the thing smashed through the wall and sped towards them, arms outstretched. Every stomp was easily audible, and so was its predictability. The two easily "slid" out of the way as it slammed into the giant canister, creating a violent rising of fire.

"I say we get out of here before more of those things show up." Rarity proposed, her heart racing like a grayhound.

"Well, I think we can calmly search for--"

The music resumed, and the creature pushed itself out of the wall.

"RUUUUN!"

Both began to gallop like mad through the turns and twists. Some paths were blocked by a wall meant to enforce order in lines, yet it seemed like nopony had gone down there in years. A single door at the end of this dull-beige corridor was in sight, until the remains of the blown-up canister was tossed through a wall, narrowly missing Rarity's horn. Debris and pieces of cement were splashed all over Rarity, stressing her even more. Even though she was angry, she knew that there was something about this machine that prevented her from fighting it. More projectiles began to fly by, ranging from balled-up cans to bars of metal. For some reason, they were all aimed at the unicorns' horns. Luckily for them, a block of cement pounded into the metal door further ahead, revealing a massive worker's elevator waiting to go up. The mare's jumped over the debris and hopped onto the machine, allowing Twilight to pull the lever located on her side. A comforting "vrr" rolled up the walls, allowing the two panicked ponies to see their aggressor stop and look up at them. It quickly walked away, letting exhaustion get to the ponies over their successful fleeing.

"I...don't...want to...do that...again." Twilight gasped while she lied strewn across the floor of this elevator.

"I'd prefer...to go home right now and get...washed up as quickly...as possible. This sweat is NOT good for my mane."

"Stop worrying about...your looks. This is serious. We need to figure out...how to get back to the princess."

"You're right...but it's so gross! Wait, where does this lead?"

In the urgency, the two mares didn't think of that, and so, when the elevator stopped, they found themselves in some form of night club, music beating loud and colors flashing everywhere. Everypony had stopped to see the wall slide open and to have two embarrassed and puzzled mares slowly walk out of the new hole in the wall amongst what looked like the scum of city. Some mares were wearing rather...special clothes, and many were unicorns. This intrigued Twilight as why there were so many unicorn..."night-shift" workers here, and not anything else. The other stallions here seemed to be part og a higher social class and had only come here for a special.

"Eheheh. Sorry for the intrusion everypony."Twilight nervously chuckled."Just...um...keep up with whatever it is you're doing. We'll just be leaving."

Rarity remained silent. She knew what these kinds of places were. Trips to cities for inspiration taught one things they'd prefer to be ignorant of. However, as they both took a single step forward, a stallion blocked Twilight with a foreleg. His perverted appearance and the disgusting, sweaty musk emanating from his physique caused the lavender pony's muzzle to scrunch up and cry like a dog.

"Well, well. I didn't know they had cute mares here. I didn't even know the new ones would appear that way. What a show! How about we have a drink together, then have some fun?" he smiled, causing Rarity to gag.

"What? We don't--"

"And they act so innocent too!"

"Hey! We were chased by some weird monster down there and--"

The stallion slid closer; his yellow grin becoming more apparent by the second. "Yup. You'll be fighting a monster down there soon!" everypony in the place started bellowing out loud.

Twilight's horn was crackling as her anger was boiling to its limit. Rarity, on the other hoof, was free to listen to something coming from the wall. When she determined what the sound was, her pupils shrunk, her eyes flopped down, and she began to stutter.

"T-T-Twilight!" she whisper-screamed.

"What?!" Twilight's yell echoed through the room.

"Bahpfsch! Don't snip at me!"

"I...I'm sorry, Rarity. What is it?"

"Does she hear the fun coming?" the stallion wondered.

The two mares whispered to eachother, and both put their ears to the wall. They were in disbelief, and this confused the stallion.

"Wh-what are you two doing?"

"Everyone, shut up! Listen." a pegasus shouted.

Some sort of tune began to creep up through the club as the music from the DJ was turned off. Steam began to come from the pipes above, The tune was becoming louder with every passing second, and the perverted stallion decided to place his ear on the wall as well. This was a grave mistake, as a hand punched through the thick layer of cement that seemed several feet thick. The hand grabbed the stallion by the head and threw him far away into the circular bar right in the middle of the room. The stallion's body simply passed limply into the obstacles, said body being followed by every single gaze in the club. Finally, a machine walked through the wall, throwing pieces into other objects and portions of the club room. Twilight and Rarity had already sneaked towards the bright exit, yet, the silence of the ponies was overcome by the music, and, without warning, one of them screamed:

"RUUUN! IT'S A PSYCHONAUT!"

The machine just scanned the tumbling ponies trying to flee as fast as they could, its body elevating and lowering as steam left its bizarre interiors. One unicorn mare was unlucky and dumb enough to run near the thing and get caught. It grabbed her by the throat and shortened the gap between its "yes" and her horn. As the mare began to struggle and choke, the creature put its other hand on the horn, then snapped it off. This wouldn't seem like much to any observer, but for a unicorn, the pain is incomparable, especially as the magic funneled every and any way out of its prison any way it could. The mare was dropped on the floor as she began to have a seizure. The machine just watched her squirm then detected another running towards the stairs. One swift swing of its arm, and the broken horn lopped off another. Two victims in barely a minute.

The two mares had already escaped from this pace and found that they were actually in the slums of Secantor. Several layers of buildings intertwined and overlapped above. Some bridges existed, but there were still weird vehicles sliding along the strings. The roads were crowded and dirty, and the majority of those here, the two noticed, were unicorns. They seemed to be in worse shape than the rest...and they had strange collars placed around their horns. They begged the richer ponies who passed by in the slums for some "out-of-bounds" dealings, but were huffed at without any remorse. Many were starving, and it showed by the bones and skin. Some had even perished on the streets, but nopony cared. Who would care for rotten vegetables? You just toss them to rot on the ground. It was no major loss.

The only thing preventing both ponies from destroying everything in sight was the psychonaut trailing behind them. Everywhere it went, it destroyed walls and buildings, thusly shown by all the holes it had already made everywhere. Rarity pulled on her friend, gesturing to a cable cart just about to leave. To any, this was a great idea to ride the clear, blue sky one could see through the creases above. Unfortunately, the second they approached it, a cut piece of metal flew and sliced the cable in two, letting the transport plummet to its doom along with its screaming passengers.

"What a horrid monstrosity! It's doing all this just to get to us? Talk about a persistent date." Rarity mused.

"This isn't time for jokes. Come on."

A barrel came crashing down as the being began to stomp after the galloping ponies. It was definitely persistent for something so damaged. Every direction the mares went to flee, their path was destroyed by something the psychonaut would throw. It wasn't going to let them get out that easily...until the two were swung in the air by rope and placed on the edge of a "building", which was, like the rest, just extensions of metallic towers made to house several hundred ponies at once. The pony who saved them was completely covered in clothing. He or she was also completely coweled with a snot-green scarf covering his mouth. Rarity was about to barf at this dark, industrial colored fashion. She had dealt with more than she could handle.

The two couldn't say anything before "he" whistled, allowing two more ropes to drop down and toss the mares ever higher into the air, the same actions repeating with hanging nets in the air. A brief relief couldn't be had as the machine stared directly at them and began to climb the different pieces of wall in an effort to reach them before they could get out of range. Some of the cowled ponies tossed a green substance from buckets at it. This only showed a partial impairment as the psychonaut remained glued against the wall it was climbing. That infernal music just wouldn't stop coming from it as it inched ever closer. It would be preferable not to mention the extended damage caused below by falling pipes and plates of metal. The already panicking crowds being smashed to a pulp as well wasn't going to solve any problems that this machine had.

After a few dozen more hops, the two ponies were tossed right in front of a stressed Princess Celestia, the crazed pony from before, and Pinkie Pie. This platform was actually a beige-colored bridge with several portions widening into circles. Both sides of this bridge were accompanied by the rising towers of Secantor island.

"Twilight? Rarity?!" Pinkie Pie smiled happily.

The crazed mare from before didn't look all too happy. After all, Pinkie Pie was the only one who she felt a comfort with. She would need to explain herself afterwards, but, for now, she had volunteered to find Pinkie's friends, as the pink mare was the crazed one's friend as well. The danger of the pink party pony's approach of the dirty unicorns was not ignored, and both tackled her away from the edge yelling "Pinkie, No!" in unison.

"Twilight Sparkle, what is happening?" Celestia's stress was reaching critical levels.

"Yeah. We aren't playing Mustangian football, are we? I'm tired, and I want to throw a relax party instead. We can play then! Oooh! I wonder what kinds of recipes they have here. Hey, did you know that minotaurs--"

The approaching music stopped Pinkie but made her bob her head to the beat.

"What is that?!" Celestia yelled.

"The ponies here called it a psychonaut. It snaps off unicorn horns!" Twilight exclamated.

"WHAT?!" Celestia's eyes glowed red as the being smashed through the side which the two unicorns had come from and slammed onto the still intact portions of the bridge.

"That's it! That's the awful beast that made us all dirty and sweaty. It even...k-k-killed other ponies." Rarity began to hiccup as tears welled up inside of her.

"I won't let such a monstrosity get away with kidnapping my subjects."

The princess lowered her head, and as she did so, showed her teeth in a scowl while releasing a white-hot beam of magic at the machine, who, surprisingly, ducked, allowing the spell to pass unhindered through many buildings until it cooled off and dissipated. With a swift strike, the psychonaut aimed for Celestia's neck, but she was expecting such an attack and struck upwards with her forehooves, knocking the machine's head upwards. It stood like a zombie there for a few seconds until its head clicked, expelled a bit of steam from the slots and replaced its noggin' correctly atop its shoulders. It was too slow to react, as the princess had already prepared another spell that sent curved blades of magic into its body.

It was over, or was it? The machine was not cut in half. Rather, the music continued and it perpetuated its attack until a minotaur came by and shouted:

"Deactivate! Procedure twenty-nine-seven."

The machine did not obey, but its body began to slow down into a final stomp of stopping gears. Its left hand was about to grab Celestia's snout. The music didn't stop, until a massive amount of steam left every portion of its body before said machine simply fell down, harmlessly, to the ground. All the ponies were panting and exhausted.

"What...is the meaning...of this creation?"

"I have no idea." it was the minotaur from the platform previously."That there is a decommissioned robot. They were used to hunt unicorns not wearing the special bracelets on their horns. They were decommissioned and deactivated because, instead of taking the unicorns to justice, they killed them or destroyed their horns."

"It did just that down there." Rarity cried slightly.

"Oh no! Rosy galloped away."

"Rosy?" the group looked at the pink pony with confusion.

"Yeah. That's what I called my friend. She didn't say anything, so I think it's alright with her." Pinkie added before bolting away herself.

"We still need to talk about her, but as for you two, how did you get down there?" Celestia asked, worry painted on her face.

"We...we don't know. We were there, sitting in the transport, when suddenly, we found ourselves in that hole full of trash and--" Twilight was interrupted by the minotaur.

"Most likely, you were knocked out by one of my own. Was there a minotaur with you?"

"Yes."

"Hmm." the guard scratched his hear with his left hand while he held a spear reaching his height in another. "Must be one of those who refuse to conform to what they have been told. He certainly knocked you out and randomly tossed you down the gaps in the city. It's a miracle you survived at all, and that you found a still functioning psychonaut. How did you get up here so quickly?"

"It's been only three hours since you were reported missing." Celestia added.

"Some strange ponies disguised in wretched outfits helped us up." Rarity tried to flick away some muck still stuck to her hoof.

"I see..." the minotaurs eyes began to trail off, and he took a more serious expression."I'll see to these matters myself. In the meantime, find your friend and escort these ponies to their new quarters. Alert the others that these two were found. I will do the same with my comrades, although I believe they won't care anyways."

The guard grabbed the machine and tossed it onto his shoulder as he began to leave, yet Twilight interrupted him with one last question:

"What are these collars for?"

"To prevent the use of magic by unicorns or any other magic-using species or sub-species. They only allow a telekinetic control of minor machinery. It's not enough for the use of massive ones."

"What happens if they take them off?"

"I dunno. We never found anything besides red dust against the floors and walls. Well, see you later."

Twilight and Rarity both gulped as they rubbed their horns. Celestia simply glared at the minotaur while he casually walked away.

"Let's go, girls. I am truly grateful of your unexpected safe return, but I must inform you all of the dangers here. Luna is currently sleeping along with a few other over-exhausted ponies in our new quarters. No. Twilight. I don't know why anypony would do such a thing to unicorns."

"We...saw things with unicorns down there...Why--"

"I'll tell you after. Please, I am also exhausted."

"Alright, Princess. Lead the way."

"Thank you."

Changelings, humans, and revealings

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"LET ME OUT!"

The Doctor was checking his notes.

"WHERE AM I?!"

He was in an isolated chamber to view everything in the newly dug testing room.

"PLEASE! GET ME OUT!"

Monitors working stations lined along viewpoint to allow perfect observation of test subjects below. It was dark, gray, and black in this place. The doctor put down his notes and set his hand down on the console while the engineers worked their black magic. Behind his mask, one could be sure of his smiling. Down in the immense pit, however, sat a woman. She had ruffled brown hair and chestnut colored eyes, but that was not important. What was important was what was going to happen to this human.

"I know this is a new manner of introducing experiments, but, now is a better time than ever. Start the ventilation and bring in the gas. We'll do this the old fashioned way." the scientist told the workers who did as told.

A light clanking noise filled the now silent chamber, and the sound of exhaling began to come from it instead. Several panels had opened up, and a green gaseous musk began to seep from the walls as a result. The woman, who was, unfortunately, naked, couldn't utter a single word nor make any sounds. As a result of not having any clothes, she couldn't use anything to protect her face. Little by little, the gas encroached on her. Slowly crawling across the floor. Her heart began to beat at a faster rhythm.

"What's going on? What are you doing? Get me outta here! I don't want to die! It's too early." the woman yelled as she beat on the walls with her fists.

Doctor spoke quietly in the operations room:

"Don't worry. You won't die. It'll only be mentally as your neurons are reconditioned and your molecules are modified and replaced or destroyed. Your dna will be a new work of art."

This creature was twiddling with a small communications device in his hand as he watched the scene. Finally, after the longly anticipated moment, the human was engulfed in the fumes. First, came the gagging, then the coughing, then the painful screams. Next, her body began to have convulsions and spasms as every single atom of her body was twisted and mutated to begin taking on an equine shape. Her skin became as black as oil and as hard as chitin. From her back tore out two little fluttery insectoid wings. She screamed in more agony as the sounds of popping resonated from her legs. Little splatters of blood came from these new holes in her body. The popping and twisting continued until she finally looked like a changeling queen.

"Hmmmm. Her mane and tail are a bit bluer and more jagged than the original's. Her horn is also much straighter." Doctor noticed.

"Perhaps these queens have a variable appearance?" one of the engineer's proposed his thoughts.

There was a long silence as the others began to stress heavily. It was a bad thing to propose an idea when you weren't a scientist. However, the answer given by one of the most feared scientists gave everyone but the questioner a heart attack:

"Yes. YES! That's it! Thank you. Because of your observation, I believe it possible to create various strands of changelings. This could prove useful in infiltration. Nice thinking."

"Thank you, sir."

Everyone looked down at the new queen wobbling onto her four hooves. She seemed distraught and gasping for air. This made Doctor's hidden smile fade away. He knew what was to come.

"Wh-wh-what did you do to me?" the woman blabbered. "I...I'm a monster."

"Ah. The subject retained her mind." an engineer noted."Should we bombard her with more of the gas?"

"No. This has proven to be a failure. However, we'll use the typical reconditioning. Send me samples of the contained gas so I may study the composition and recreate it. In the meantime, send in the breeders. We'll use her to see if the other reformings were effective."

"Alrighty sir." the biped added as he pressed on a few buttons.

"Wh...what? What's going...NO! NO! GET AWAY FROM ME! A--" she was cut off by the windows being blocked off by sound barriers.

"Hmm. I wonder what Scarlet is doing? I wonder if she's still using the hormones unintentionally."

The living quarters of the refugees was, fortunately, big enough to accommodate them all, along with a few more. The main room was circular in shape with several blankets and cloths placed everywhere. Many had chosen their rooms and were sleeping, but Celestia, along with the mane 6 and a few other were sitting in this room. Celestia was showing a great sadness and distaste. As for Rosy, she found comfort in hiding under a pile of comforters while Pinkie chuckled at the scene. Everypony was looking at Celestia, waiting for an explanation.

"So...Princess...about the explanation..."Twilight urged.

"Right. I was thinking about our thin friend over there. I wonder what happened to her."

"Maybe I can ask her." Pinkie bounced up and smiled.

Celestia gestured for her to try, but returned to looking at all those waiting for an explanation.

"You want to know why we hid this island from you all? Well, it's because Secantor Island is an enemy of Equestria."

Everypony gasped.

"An enemy? Why did you never tell us?" Rarity asked.

"Because knowing that we had an enemy that could threaten lives would ruin the balance that my sister and I strived to create. Secantor citizens hate Equestria because it considers that magic users have the same social status as other creatures, as well as it having magic users as leaders."

"But how come they're so...advanced compared to us?" Applejack wondered. "Couldn't this help with mah apple harvestin'?"

"Yes. However, they developed all this as a means to compensate for lack of magic users. We have a similar technological level, as shown by our airships, but we prevented its spreading."

"Yet we still find technology of this level around Equestria." Twilight noted.

"I know. Those are still controlled variants. You don't see these cannons that can kill and threaten, do you?"

Everypony stayed silent.

"To be honest, this technology is actually more of a curse than anything. Magic users are subjected to torment and the incapability to use their own abilities. Others can't use it, and are cast aside by the typical citizens."

"And the one at the head is that gray pony. Everypony here would be better off with you guiding them." Rainbow Dash proposed with a smile.

"NO!" Celestia stomped, scaring the pegasus."It is not in my intentions to do anything here. The citizens must deal with things their own way. I will not intervene, as, not only is it, as I said, against my own thoughts, but the results would be catastrophic and I would be seen as a hate inciter and blood thirsty maniac.

As for Scilian Crow, I don't know why he has done this to the populace of this place, but it's clear he has a thirst for power and deep hatred for unicorns. As for WHY we are at war, they tried attacking Equestria territory a few centuries ago. We pushed them back, back they relentlessly sent in attack after attack. Soon enough, they tried to get the Griffin Kingdom to side with them, but the griffins refused and alerted us of these actions. Why they alerted us? I do not know, but they did so intentionally.

We have been watching them and keeping them away from you since those days...until now. Do not panic. They will only attack us magic users, so you should either stay in here or walk in groups when leaving."

"Princess!" Pinkie shouted.

The pink pony began to bounce around the white alicorn as Rosy walked up to her, carrying the comforters on her back. She still preferred to hide from anything and everything. Celestia simply leaned forward and gave a warming smile. The rose pony yiped and shrunk deeper in her "shell".

"What's the matter?"

"N-n-not the smile! Those sickly teeth and holed skin....KEEP HER AWAY!"

Celestia seemed insulted at first, but realized that her smile was actually reminding her of something...else.

"It's okay, Rosy. She's with us." Pinkie coaxed the mare out.

"Wh-wh-what d-do you wa-want?"

"We just want to know what happened to you. Were you pony-napped from your mother and father? What had they done to you? Anything you are willing to tell us at first. You are free to not speak right now. We just wish to stop those evildoers."

"You cannot stop them. You cannot stop 'them'."

Everypony looked at eachother bizarrely. What a name. A paranoid pony?

"What do you mean? They're a governing party?"

"NO! They want to control everything under a centralized hierarchy. They simply pass their times experimenting on people to create the perfect army to do this. It may seem like paranoia at first, but they have nothing to do with any governing party. They say they want to control, but all they do is experiment on us."

Rosy began to speak faster and faster as every scene came back to her.

"They take you from your homes and throw into capsules."

The scene of her being torn from her house and put under sedatives came back.

"They take you to their experimentation grounds."

She was reminded of an immense, black building towering over a destroyed city.

"Then they poke you, cut you, inject you. They mutate you. Toss you away if they don't like the outcome. They experiment on you! THEY CHAIN YOU UP! THEY TEAR YOU OPEN TO INJECT MORE THINGS! THEY--"

"Calm down, Rosy. It's okay. You're with us." Pinkie pat the mare on her 'back'.

"You poor pony. Why would they do that?" Fluttershy pitied.

"I'm not a pony. I'M A HUMAN!"

Although they didn't know what a human was, the entirety of the room broke into pieces as everypony just figured out the extent of these experiments.

The Doctor's day as others rest

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Night had rushed over Equestria and Secantor Island. It seemed as if Equestria was still the same from afar, if not for the smoldering rubble resting on the side of the mountain, along with the swirling vortex above it. The new labs were going along well, and this pleased Doctor quite a lot. Canterlot grounds had become full of materials and supplies while Scarlet was busy sleeping on a pile of cloths near what used to be the entrance to the castle. No one dared to wake her up, but, then again, her snoring was outrageously violent and noisy. It was, perhaps, in everyone's best intention that she stopped.

As most of the employees went to their make-shift barracks, the weaponry placed in armories, the mechanical suits parked in lots, and the new experimental subjects stocked in containers within the ruins of the castle, the only one who truly stayed awake just for working was the Doctor. He was busy studying and analyzing the changeling dna samples. He was still in that chamber where the woman was turned into a changeling queen. Judging by the various successful combinations he was capable of performing, represented by mounds of vials in containers with labels placed on them, he wondered if there wasn't something more special to their genetic coding than he thought.

Next to the control panels of this room, there were two glass containers. Their round shapes did nothing to aid in the comfort that two new test subjects were about to face a new trial in their short lives. Short lives. This defined these two children nicely. One a human girl, and the other a small filly. The girl, fortunately, was clothed. Doctor did not want to seem like an indecent character, so the majority of his test subjects were always branded with bland, blue clothing. The top of these containers possessed an insertion system. Once a liquid were to be placed within, it would be converted into a thick smog for the subject to inhale. A cruel test indeed.

A few of the monitors above Doctor showed a dark room and the changeling "queen" from before placed on her sides in a corner. She was screaming. Every now and then, a strangely shaped changeling would come, block the view of the queen, and depart with a few eggs in tow. This changeling was hunch backed, had two very thin, grass-hopper-like legs, and the ability to somehow stand despite not having any forelegs. It, instead, possessed many long mandibles that were bone-less. Thus, acting like a sort of tentacle to grab hold of many things. The biped looked up to see the piles where the eggs were being placed.

"Hmmm. She seems to scream in pain, but she doesn't seem opposed to the eggs...She must have an imbalance within her brain. As long as she doesn't try to destroy them. I'll be able to take eggs, insert some samples, and watch the results hatch in the incubator. I didn't expect the eggs to be so big, however."

Doctor took a syringe and flicked it to get the air out, then he clicked his tongue and twisted around, letting the lower portions of his coat sway in the air.

"Well then. Who wants to go first?"

The two children start pointing to the other, despite not knowing what the other was or what to do. How could they? They didn't know any better, and their situation was far too dramatic for any complex thoughts.

"Hm. It seems I'll have to choose myself."

There was a long silence as the tall figure simply stood in place. It was stressful and hear stopping for the two children, but this was broken suddenly by seeing an arm lift up and point to the pony.

"You'll be the first to test my new formula."

He said as he stuck the syringe in the contraption atop the container. A red liquid seeped into the object, and the foal was heard coughing like crazy, followed by the sounds of cracking bones and ripping skin. When the smoke was ejected into a containment capsule for further use, the result in the capsule was a failure. It would be best that such details be left out of the minds of anyone but Doctor and the traumatized child who began to cry silently as her lower jaw jittered and trembled.

"Hm. Another failure. A simple dna extraction aaaand..."

Doctor grabbed the container with the failed experimentation, tipped it over, then rolled it over to what seemed like a blank, dark wall with only a single button with the portrayal of flames upon it. It didn't take long for the secret to be revealed. Instead of saying something and gently pushing the container into the chute, the biped simply kicked it violently into the hole without a care, then closed the opening. He did not care.

"It seems that this experiment was another failure. No matter." Doctor turned to face the other child "You're still here. Yet, children are so hard to come by these days. You get a day of respite as I experiment with children dna and these samples. Down you go." he added as the child went gently down another opening in the floor.

"Hmmm. I think I'll go visit the new queen." the biped spoke with nothing on his face as always.

The only exit of the room slid open, allowing the only occupant to exit and let the door click shut. The entirety of this area was completely darkened in color, very dark and depressing indeed. Some stairs invited Doctor down them, which he accepted. This once quiet area was now filled with the noise of footsteps, giving it an eerie atmosphere. Another door greeted the biped. It was an elevator that only the scientists were allowed to use. A code pad was stuck next to the silvery doors, guarding them shut. It a sliver of a moment to input he code and have the elevator open itself to its future occupant. Finally, the biped was in the lowest floors, where the future changeling hives would be stored. There were thousands of doors everywhere, but they were very spaced apart, and the majority of the rooms they lead to still need to be built and fitted. For now, only five rooms were ready, and one was filled right now. The noisy sounds of buzzing echoed upon the dark metals of this enormous entrance hall, drawing any curious visitors to its glamor. The door leading to the enormous storage room was reinforced with several layers of strong metal along with an equally reinforced glass window.

Doctor peered through this view port, and saw, to his delight, that the new queen's mind was slowing being consumed by its new directives. Slowly, the human would forget all about her past and be refitted with false memories about her always being a queen raised by them. There were normal changelings walking around, while the worker drones were still grabbing a few more of the eggs and tossing them into a pile. Three of the breeding changelings were layed into a wall of what looked like black mucus. They struggled against their restraints, demanding to be let back next to their "beloved" queen.

"Hmmm. She must have done that when they let her go. She'll welcome them again, I'm quite sure of that. Now then, for that visit."

The door was activated, and from the other side, the metal rectangle belched white steam as the room was unsealed. A strange biped walked through it and threw the door shut as fast as he could.

"Wouldn't want these little bugs escaping, now. Well well. We've been busy, haven't we? Let's grab a larva just for observation."

Every changeling, including the queen, just looked at this creature with astonishment and surprise. Doctor walked towards the pile of eggs, where the worker drones took the hatched larva out of and grabbed the orange food substitutes leaking from a pipe in the ceiling and feed it to said babies. The actually looked kind of adorable. Their little bodies were all plump and chubby, despite having a typical changeling's color, and their faces looked somewhere between the cross of a pony's facial features along with the mandibles, antenna, and eyes of an ant. Doctor grabbed one and started to turn it around with no regard for its well being. The workers, not having the abilities to fight such a creature, backed off with fear on their faces, cliqueting with curiosity and anger.

"Let's see. Mandibles, antenna, multiple eyes...These aren't features noted in adult changelings. I suppose they have their roles defined later on, and these appendages either retract or fall off afterwards. Its body is plump and full of liquids. Huh. It must be food supplements."

With him spinning and twisting the little creature, said baby started to tear up. It was bad to spin a baby so violently, so this one was feeling extra pain. Its instincts kicked in, and it started to cry, letting out a wailing screech at first, but jittering afterwards.

"Now now. No need for this scre--"

Doctor was slammed into the floor by what appeared to be a blue aura. The baby was levitated back to the workers who grabbed the other larva nearby and scampered away.

"You...You...I know you...Agh!" the queen put a holed hoof to her head and groaned in pain.

"You dare to attack your master?!" Doctor yelled.

"You're not my...master...NO! NO! You're not! You did this to me! Don't touch my children...choldren...YES! Children! Childs! Babies! Grrrrrm!" she started to smile and frown at irregular intervals.

"First changeling queen seems to suffer from mental instabilities. This could prove disastrous for future spawn. Release me now or face the consequences."

"Ahaha! You...who are you again...You don't touch meh choldren! They're mine! Mine...YES! MINE! My babies. No touchies!"

Hearing this, the biped sighed, then began to push himself up, his body shaking as he did so. The queen tried to push him down, but it was no use. Soon, Doctor grabbed his tesla prod with his right hand and shocked the queen with seventy-five percent power. Her screams frightened the workers while it heavily angered the breeder changelings still attached to the walls. A thud was all that the queen's body did, followed by heavy breathing. The creature simply kicked her in the stomach, somehow sending her flying across the room and against a nearby wall.

"You will learn to obey me, do as I say, and execute everything and anything I say. Am I understood?"

The queen only passed out as a response. This seemed to anger the biped.

"Accursed prototypes. THEY NEVER FUNCTION! Just like those two damned alicorn prototypes that destroyed our beloved tower. I should have killed them instead of letting that powerful one develop a schizophrenia. Grrr." Doctor regained his posture and readjusted his labcoat "...Nevertheless, that crisis is over. We learn from our mistakes, which is why we never deny failures."

He walked back towards the door, his position being followed by tiny little insectoid eyes. Before he opened the door, however, he turned around to speak to the majority of the changelings here. He hoped they understood his language:

"You better all listen to me, or I WILL kill your mother. There is nothing to sob about. It's not like you can't get another from your eggs. Hmph. Insects. So intriguing and adaptive."

The door slid shut and hissed as it was compressed once more. The workers suddenly rushed to the queen and placed her body back into the area where she was previously, against the wall. They began to tend to her burns, hoping for her not to perish.

"It seems that this hive is mostly centered around worker drones. I wonder if that's just because it is still very tiny? Time will tell. I wonder if we can't engineer one to be a warrior-centered hive? That would be a great achievement! Where to start? Ah! That child I spared. Hmhmhm."

Doctor's chuckle scraped the walls menacingly, implying eternal doom for those caught by them.

Rosy's inner memories

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The night reigned supreme here, and Luna was concentrated on her wards surrounding the complex. She couldn't concentrate on anything else or the wards would break. More than once did a citizen come and try to enter the housing complex to make off with a unicorn. In the halls illuminated by the moonlight, a rather thin pony was sneaking through. She had just gotten out of Pinkie Pie's clutches while sleeping on the floor in a large dormitory, and decided that now was the time to do as told. Through this darkened corridor with windows on both ends, the pony sneaked into a room on the right and gently closed the door to prevent any sounds to be made. This place had no lights, so this mysterious stranger searched the walls. A click was heard as the small area was illuminated, showing that it was a simple stall for the nightly emergencies.

Rosy was the sneaker. Her heart was pounding and her coat was wet with sweat. Even if she was caught, she would still be killed, so there was no reason to not convey to the orders of her mission. She tapped her collar and lowered the volume of the output. Right in front of her muzzle appeared the mask worn by Doctor.

"About time. I've only just made a breakthrough into a second changeling hive type. The new queen seems a bit too violent, however, although the red carvings on her skin might indicate that this is the warrior variant I was looking for." he put a hand to his 'chin'.

Rosy flinched back as half of a soldier was thrown against the window behind Doctor.

"Enough about that. What do you have to report for your location? Are the three alicorns there?"

"Yes. They're b-Three?"Rosy suddenly became confused.

"*sigh*YES! There are THREE of them. The third one demonstrated some forms of protective measures that will be quite useful for shielding ourselves when trouble arises. If she isn't with you, then she is still at the tundra. Where are you, if you even remember what direction you went in?"

"We went north, to a place called Secantor Island. It's heavily fortified and dangerous."

"...Is this a joke? They only use spars and--"

"Th-They have technology here! They even made some sort of robot invulnerable to magic!"

Rosy began to tremble with fear. She had been punished several times for interrupting Doctor.

"Hm. Really? Interesting. We'll need to assess the situation, then. A place where technology is used? I have seen some demonstrations presented by my colleagues, although they seem to have a bizarre level of it. Very well. Continue monitoring them and report any important information."

"Okay."

The display disappeared, and Rosy slowly inched her way outside. Nopony had noticed her. It was barely any form of relief for her, but she trucked on to return to her previous emplacement. She hoped nopony noticed anything about her no matter what it was.

The morning sun was being raised once more by Celestia who was straining herself to do so. It wasn't often she had to do such a thing in a remote area. The only one's up, besides her, were Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and a bloodshot Rosy. Her eyes looked awful. The four ponies were equally yawning in the main room, trying to fight their fatigue caused by the comfort the tan colored carpet floor was giving them, although Rosy seemed to be shaking like crazy and her eyes constantly jolted left and right.

"Rosy. Please. Calm yourself."Celestia beckoned.

"I can't. They'll geet me and stab me and impale me and--'

"No! they won't. I already told you!" Pinkie grabbed Rosy and looked at her straight in the eyes "We're here. I'm here. Nopony is gonna hurt my friends."

The mare stared at her assailant, silent for a moment, then heaved a heavy sigh and began to shake less, her tremors more related to cold than fear. Celestia looked at Twilight with a stern glare and spoke to the group.

"What I'm about to perform is ancient magic. It is also a dangerous one. Before you ask, let me explain. I will enter Rosy's mind and view everything from her point of view. I will see and feel what she went through."

"But that sounds just like any old memory reading spell, Princess." Twilight spoke.

"Twilight, this is more complicated than that. Have you ever wanted to break your point of memory and see at other angles what had happened at another point in time in another place at that specific moment?"

The unicorn nodded.

"That's what you are going to do. We must learn about our enemy. I will go through the pain that Rosy went through, and you will scope through the entirety of the base of those horrendous demons." the princess grit her teeth.

"Won't they notice me?"

"No. It is a memory. Nothing can notice you. It is like a contained time jump."

"Okay."

"W...Will I have to sleep? Will it h-hurt?" Rosy stuttered.

"No. Do not worry. it will be like you have blinked your eyes. Are you ready?"

There was a moment of silence, but Pinkie Pie gave the mare a boost in confidence with a faint smile and a shoulder tap.

"Alright. Let's get this over with."

Celestia nodded in return while Rosy squeezed her eyes shut and prepared for whatever moment was to come. Placing her horn against the trembling pony's head, Celestia's horn glowed brightly and searched through this mare's memories.

"I have to find the beginning of this all...Almost there...What the? Perfect! TWILIGHT; press your horn against her head and use your magic. Quickly!"

"Okay!"

Twilight did just as told, and suddenly, she found herself plummeting through a dark chasm.

"What in Equestria just happened?! OOMF!"

Twilight's fall ended with a hard landing on a solid surface. Groaning in pain and rubbing her head, the unicorn readjusted herself and looked around. This place wasn't anything like Ponyville. The buildings seemed bigger than they should have, and the streets weren't made of stone. No. They were made of some strange black substance covered in white paintings. Markings of some sort. Several houses lined the area, but the one Twilight was concentrated on was the one in front of her.

It was a simple building with a single window for a small second floor, three steps to reach the entrance. A roof lined with black shingles, a window jutting forward near the entrance door, a driveway to place one's wagon...Twilight wasn't exactly sure how she knew that word. However, in front of this house was a strange black wagon with nothing pulling it. It seemed to bend downwards near the middle, but push back up towards the front. The rear was the biggest portion, allowing the stocking of many things, and the wheels looked like that were divided into two with yellow lights glowing from in-between.

Looking closer, twilight saw the same armored guards from before pulling what looked a hairless ape in a pink dress getting out to talk to the armored creatures. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but it sounded convincing enough to lure her near the wagon, then suddenly pull her towards the rear. She began to protest, but there was no point. Once the doors opened, some strange claws lashed out and dragged her in, slamming the doors shut as they did so. Before the mare could do anything, the memory became black again, and she was now in what looked like a surgery room. The same moveable lamp as in any surgeon's operating table, the same table, and the same stand to place the patient. However, this one was struggling, and the surgeons around all wore masks and goggles that covered up their faces and heads, yet they also had green-ish surgeon's outfits. On the table that held the tools sat many a strange device, and along the counters lining the walls, several containers with strange substances in them. Many that made Twilight quake.

Several strange metallic arms extended from the ceiling, several of them being pointed or having saw-like instruments. One of them was being lowered at the moment by one of the surgeons. The patient was that same women from before, and she was crying with fear. That creature was calmly lowering the arm and telling her to shush, as he wouldn't be able to concentrate on his work. Looking more closely, the end of the arm burst open into miniature saws and clamps meant to hold whatever apart. The unicorn could only watch as the refusals of the creature became louder and louder until they turned into blood-curdling screams of pain and death. Twilight ran out of the room right after the first gushes of red came forth. This was partly due to what Celestia told her, but mostly due to her sudden sickness...and her need to vomit, which she did, rightly so.

Looking up from her "rainbow vomit", Twilight saw that the corridors in the place were absolutely gigantic, yet they were exclusively made of a black metal, and the many lights above did very little to illuminate these areas. However, they did help Twilight get a view at a directional sign.

"I can't believe the princess is going through all that just to let me see more about these...things. I don't even know here I am. I can't even read this sign. It's too dark. Umm...How about left?"

Twilight quickly scampered to the chosen direction and pushed through the door, revealing where all the guards and scientists were. They all had every segment of their bodies covered, and there were bizarre creatures in cages trying to get out. More than once were they zapped or beaten. Some even looked like misshapen dogs. The unicorn quickly realized that this was a place of transit, indicated by the receptionist counter and the many elevators of various sizes scattered around.

Trying her luck, Twilight pushed through the crowd and jumped into a very large elevator. She had to wait, but two guards in armored suits walked into the transport and pushed one of the many buttons. Up the box went, to the unknown resources of this place. The unicorn's stress was reaching its maximum between these two gigantic creatures. Yet, judging from what she had seen so far with the reception, these things were well organized and had some strange technology at their disposal. They even had a complex transport system within this place, and judging by the number of floors available for the elevator, numbering in the hundreds, Twilight wasn't going to easily find what she was looking for...or was she?

As the doors slid open, the two armored behemoths thundered out of their emplacement and walked down some stairs to the immediate right of the elevator. This place smelled...strange. It was filled to the brim with disease and sickness. Something was not right about this place. Many black corridors led to other doors, yet there was too much randomness to be had with the choosing of paths.

"Come on, Twilight. Think! Where could you go to learn more about them? Hm?"

There were sounds of whining as well as a deep laughter heard from somewhere in a corridor to the left. Using this as a sign, Twilight galloped as fast as she could to the source. Three hallways later, she had found the source. It was a large, silver-plated wall and doors at the end of a smaller path. Knowing that she risked nothing, and that her influencing objects here meant that nothing would cause changes in the "acting scene", the unicorn quickly walked to this gigantic armored portal.

"How do I get in? Oh! This is so scary. I just hope I find the solution soon so we can get out of here quickly. Let's see...wait. I don't affect anything here...which means I'm like a ghost! If I'm right, then I can walk through this door. If I'm wrong...well...I'm going to have an awful headache. I hope I don't get the headache." the unicorn took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." she spoke with more uncertainty than conviction.

Closing her eyes, the unicorn charged horn fist into the door, and, surprisingly, she passed through, only stopping after she felt some form of wind pass along her body. Tapping her body, Twilight gave a silent cheer, although that joy was lost the second she looked around. Several guards were tossing what looked like ponies into chutes against the walls. This place had millions of jars and vials with labels showing "DNA #" followed by initials. So many different colors along with schematics and charts depicting body analysis and some showing those of strange bipedal creatures. Several operating tables were strewn about the room, but what shocked Twilight the most, was that there were three more scientists of various heights, hands behind their backs, staring down at what looked like a combination between Celestia and a dragon. Twilight's mouthed gaped open and only small gasps came out.

This creature was staring at its hooves in shock and crying ever so silently, much to the disregard of the three scientists around. This Celesti-ragon's rear became dragon-esque with scales and a reptilian tail of a red color. A whole side of her face took on draco-like attributes, what with the fanged teeth and slitted pupil, as well as larges patches of fur swapped for red scales. Looking closer, Twilight could see that this creature's voice box had been torn out, proof of this being a gaping dent in her throat along with several stitch lines.

"Remove yourselves from my passage." a strangely deep, yet echoing, voice ordered.

The three scientists stepped aside, and six mechanical arms ending in quad-claws slammed into the floor. Attached to them was a shortened creature who seemed to have some sort of breathing apparatus on its whole body.

"This experiment has been deemed a failure, sir." one of the scientists reported.

"In what way?" the newcomer asked.

"She has not been showing any advantages of both sides of genealogy. No increased telekinetic capabilities, no kinesis of any kind, in-fact, and no durability or stamina of a dragon." another added.

"*sigh* Then our final attempt to make dragons viable was a failure. We were so close to it too! I was hoping to atleast find the only successful experiment and bring him back, but he's gone forever in whatever dimension we left him, along with the mutated dogs we experimented on."

"I still don't understand why we dumped them on an abandoned playground in the middle of a forest."

"Early days calls for early methods. Now then, what to do with you? So many things to test, yet we cannot anymore with you. I haven't relived the old days. Might as well do it now!"

The dragon-lestia tried to scream "no", but only air came out. With no vocal cords to resonate, the air coming out produced no sounds. She tried to flee towards Twilight, and the unicorn would be forever marked by the face of pure fear that was shown to her, followed by the dragging. The horrible dragging. The three other scientists simply looked at the scene with the same position of disinterest, yet Twilight's heart was about to give out. She cried and teared as she saw the poor creature get torn apart and ripped to shreds by the mechanical arms. When it was finally over, the room was painted in a vivid red.

"Ahhhh. It brings me back to when it was extremely difficult to experiment. We had so few successes. Oh well. Toss these pieces into incinerator. I'm closing the dragon project indefinitely."

"Yes, sir." a scientist answered.

"Now bring in the next subject. I wish to try a new dna sample sent by Doctor. He has been making breakthroughs, or so he says."

"Right."

"HOLD ON!"

Everyone in the room stopped their actions, even the guards who only stood in place, and stared at the "disabled" scientist. His goggles seemed to be frantically changing color, from everyone's viewpoint. Twilight began to worry. Her instinct was telling her to run, yet her fear ordered her to stay put. Suddenly, this monster locked onto Twilight's position and continued to follow her even when she moved slightly in any direction.

"There's a spatial anomaly...there." he pointed with one of the claws.

"What? But how? How can he know? This is a memory! Is Rosy doing this?"

Twilight hopped out of the way of an arm jolting towards her and slamming into the ground, followed by another strike, and yet another.

"I'll catch it. I'll even experiment on the shields of its brethren if I have to."

Twilight was confused by what the creature meant, but she was sure there was something it was seeing as well as her, yet she couldn't ponder more as she was send back into the real world, where Celestia screamed so loud the windows around broke, calling everypony to the main room. The princess looked horrified, as demonstrated by her demented face and shrunken pupils, as well as the erratic jolts coming from her body.

"PRINCESS!" everypony but Rosy shouted.

The mare fled from fear of what would happen, yet Pinkie didn't notice as she was too concentrated on the princess to pay attention to the actions. Luna urged everypony to move as she held her sister's head in her forelegs.

"What happened? Speak, sister."

"So...much...pain and torment...so many...innocents...they have no purpose? Why...why do they do such things...why?! They...they made us...by using others...they experimented with...our dna and...mutated others into...into us. They...they tortured us...them...an tossed the...the failures out like...like they were garbage...trash...useless and disposable...anypony captured is...is disposable to further their inexistent goals!"

"Twilight!"

"Y-YES?!"

"What happened? Tell me!"

"..."

Twilight's eyes watered as she remembered the scene. She couldn't bear to hold it in, so she had to speak. It was in everypony's best interest.

"I..."

Something to do

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Celestia had been taken to an infirmary under the supervision of several of the escaped guards urged to come with the princesses. These were elite guards ponies personally picked by Luna herself. During the ensuing chaos, Rosy had been depressed the entire time Celestia was taken away. She decided to take her comforter and turtle herself away, said comforter being the first true form of comfort she had known in a very long time. The whole room was filled with Equestrian ponies staring at the colored mass in the middle of the room.

The last princess left was Luna. Only time would tell if the Crystal Kingdom would survive the incoming battle. In the mean time, Scilian and a few of his minotaur guards had assisted with the evacuation personally. His grim smile was ever present on his face as was his humor. He wasn't here just to help Celestia, whom Luna knew he despized extremely. No. He was here for something else.

"What do you want; Scilian?" Luna growled in an upright position.

"Something important. While I cannot ensure the survival of your copperlings, it is imperative that each of you find jobs. For...heheh...For logical purposes, the copperlings would find themselves better suited working in the lower levels and coming back up after their shifts have ended."

"An' what're we s'posed ta do? Y'all have an awful scary home here." Applejack interjected.

"Hmmmm. You must be Applejack."

"Ya. How d'ya know?"

"Your family is at the higher levels in the agricultural domes."

"Wh-what? How do you know?!"

"They've been yelling for you since their arrival, although the filly was wounded during your evacuation." he said non-chalantly while observing his hoof.

"Wh-what?!"

"Don't worry. She is being treated. The doctors say that she is in good health, but she has been placed in an artificial coma during this time to optimize full body treatment."

"I--"

Applejack was blocked by two of the minotaurs and pushed back violently, the other ponies catching her in time.

"All farmers and builders would be best suited in the higher areas of Secantor, where their talents can be put to use here. You will all be well paid, except for the copperlings." each unicorn looked annoyed and some even huffed."Please understand. If you are given better treatment than the others, you would surely create jealousy which would be followed by a rebellion, and nopony wants that." he finished with a wider smile but still fatigued eyes.

"Anypony else should report to the stalls we have set up in front of this shop for you. Do know that very few copperlings have been capable of working in the high levels, but it has happened. Only mercenaries will protect you there. Heheheh."

The stallion and his guard left the room and went to whatever place his destination was at. With reluctance, the other ponies turned to Luna; fear and uncertainty painted them utterly. Gathering her courage, the princess spoke to everypony clearly and surly enough, they listened.

"Do as they tell you to do. We cannot do more here. I know you are all reluctant to listen to these ponies, but we have no choice. These who wish to work here may do so. Those who prefer staying here until a plan has been formed can do so as well. In the meantime, I shall consult with Sicilian and the council on how to retake Equestria."

With that, Luna also left, leaving the other ponies to themselves. Loud rambling commenced, followed by some ponies leaving the area to go to the kiosques outside and write their names down for the job positions. Pinkie Pie literally dragged Rosy outside despite her protesting and attempts to cling to the floor. Applejack did just the same, hoping to get to her family as fast as possible. However, the other four remained, as did many unicorns.

"What is going to happen to us?" Rarity cried."Twilight and I witnessed such a horrid scene in the lower levels of this place. Unicorns subjected to such a disgracing way of acting. I worry."

"Do not worry, Rarity. My sister has assured your protection as well as the other unicorns, and I shall remain ever vigilant to your current whereabouts. Now, as for what you will do here..."

He had done it again. Basing himself on the hormonal tests he had discreetly injected into Scarlet Star, Doctor had created a changeling queen who could create any form of infatuation upon any male and, after draining them of whatever compound was within them, turn them into "zombie changelings". He was quite proud of this achievement. These stupid changelings were named such because they obviously had no form of self-control without the guidance of what looked like a "diva queen". Curled pink mane and tail with pink wings and the same pink body-waist apparatus that still seemed only cosmetic. This one even retained its mind, albeit drastically changed. She had the most divine pink eyes any stallion could stare into and dream about for the rest of their lives, and her voice sounded like a soothing tune that healed your body and soul. The Doctor, however, was not affected by these trivial traits and walked towards her without any care; Ignoring any surrounding threats or hormones.

"Pink Perfume." he said with a sign of disgust.

This changeling room had been filled with pink everything, whether it be pink slime or flowers which came from who knows where.

"Yes?" the changeling queen answered with a tempting smile and hopping gently on the ground as if gravity were inexistent.

"I have a mission for you, and remove your tail from my face."

"HUMPF!" Pink puffed her face up. "You never appreciate anything I do."

"Because we all know your intentions. Only these stupid ponies do not."

"And what do you want me to do exactly? I'm not forced to obey you. In fact, I can tell my boys here to kill you and let us take control of this facility."

Doctor chuckled.

"Scarlet wouldn't appreciate that, and don't forget that I can cause you to decay and lose your 'beauty' with this little gadget here."

The biped took out a rounded controller with several buttons on it; One gigantic and blue in the dead center. It took a single press for the changeling to start screaming in horror as her skin bubbled and smoked, losing its smoothness and beauty. She began to decay and looked more ugly as time passed.

"STOP! STOP! I'll do what you want. PLEASE!"

Doctor let go of the button and walked towards a collapsed and gasping queen, then grabbed her by the throat and lift her up violently.

"You will be allowed to leave this sanctuary with the obligation to return when told. I want you to infiltrate that island with your zombies and to destroy everything from the inside."

"And what...what do we get in return."

"Life, and your 'beauty', or do you prefer that I take your appearance away?"

"NO! We'll do as told."

"Good. Hurry up with preparations. You can contact us via that panel near the door." Doctor pointed to a speaker next to said door.

"Okay..." she sniffed.

Twilight had become, as expected, a librarian. Yet, she was given permission to work in the middle levels; Something not common in the island. Pinkie Pie and Rosy had been sent off to organize parties. The pink pony hoped that this would help the nervous mare adapt better to her surroundings and open herself up more. Fluttershy and Applejack were ordered to take care of farm activities, with Fluttershy going to take care of the animals. Rarity was also sent to the middle regions, although she received the middle-lower areas to work on her fashion. Her complaints about the ghastly smells and appearance were left unheard. Finally, Rainbow Dash was given the right to become part of the aerial component of Secantor's army, although she only did it to watch everything occurring on the island and take care of the unicorns there.

Scilian smiled as the ideas rushed towards him. Locked away in his elevated room; A ball-like structure standing on a thin pillar, his chamber barely consisted of more than a bed, a desk, and a few books, yet he smiled as he sat on his bed and looked outside to the bright sun. Its glamor was warming him up as his smile became more devious. The stallion began to fiddle with what looked like an origami brain, which is very disturbing in itself, yet his mind wasn't done there.

"Little by little. Little by little. Soon, they'll obey me and cast their princesses into the zabveniye. The Vergessenheit. The oubliettes. Soon. And then, no more enemies."

The stallion laughed, then crushed the paper art with one crush and chuckled a little as his plans soon slid into action, unbeknownst to the future victims.

Sweat and Iron

by The Psychopath

TESTING! AHHH! TEST-IIIIING!

We were always watching

On the airship

Scilian Crow's decision

Twilight and Rarity get "lost"

Changelings, humans, and revealings

The Doctor's day as others rest

Rosy's inner memories

Something to do