Destiny's Hues

Destiny’s Hues

Green

I’m standing on a cloud, looking over a massive map of Equestria. Or it could be a diorama. The map is the same one that hangs in every government building and which is currently stuffed in my saddlebags. I don’t have my saddlebags with me at the moment. Odd. No matter, this map below me… Funny, there’s no cloud anymore. I’m not standing on anything at all. Regardless, the thing is ridged and grooved, almost as though the mountains and canyons and rivers are all actually there. The stylized painting of Princess Celestia is even there at either end. I try to see over the edge of the map, but it’s far too large to manage. I’m somehow able to lower myself to inspect Canterlot more closely. It’s interesting. I’m certain I never used magic, especially since no sound came from my horn.

I toss the thought aside at the wonder that is this miniature. I can gaze down inside it to see each and every one of it’s citizens go about their lives. The roofs of the homes are even detachable to allow me to peek inside. Curiosity gets the better of me, and I somehow float to being over the top of Canterlot Castle itself. Perhaps they were forced to make it larger than it’s true proportionate size to fit in all the details. That or I’ve somehow become smaller. Either way, the ceiling of the castle’s hall comes off effortlessly, and I lean over in hopes of catching a glimpse of a tiny Princess Celestia. She is there indeed, but unlike everypony else in the city, she seems to notice me. “Sunset!” she screams, but not in a surprised and impressed way. There’s fear in her voice, and I can’t understand why. It’s not as though I’m going to try to pick up tiny little her. I might hurt her, what with how large I am in comparison. “No! Sunset! You don’t need to do this!”

“Oh… Okay, I’ll put the roof back on, princess,” I apologize, feeling a tad perturbed. I pull my head from inside the hall, but the top of the castle is nowhere to be found. I could’ve sworn I had it balanced perfectly on one of the peaks. “Heh, sorry princess,” I pop my head back in to tell her with a sheepish grin. “I think you may need to pay all the mini-ponies out there to build you a new roof.”

“SUNSET!” the princess wails, and it hits me like a hammer blow how disturbed her screaming is. And she doesn’t stop, crying out manically until I try to go back up. Only, now I’m falling, and I’m screaming, and Canterlot is it’s normal size, and…

“Miss Shimmer!” A lurching sensation slides through my chest, and I sit up with a start and small gasp. Judging by the whistling of the wind and the early morning sun, it was just a dream. “Awake finally, Miss Shimmer?” the lead Guard asks. I nod, still trying to catch my breath. I hate waking up to that sensation of falling. It’s not to be expected really, not when I notice how quickly we’re descending.

“Are we nearly there?” I ask in return, forgoing answering the obvious question.

“Yes, Ma’am,” the second pegasus tells me through the wind. “Thought we could use an extra pair of eyes lookin’ for this place!”

“Right then,” I mutter to myself, latching my saddlebags onto my back. “Onto trying to spot the place that shouldn’t exist.” I sigh, and the chariot dips beneath the clouds. A an open-mouthed smile jumps across my face as I take a few moments to enjoy the countryside below us. These are the Chess Mountains, and according to geology books, are only just large enough to qualify as real peaks. But they’re beautiful with the young sun glistening on the snow, regardless of how the books think of them. It’s for sights like this that I enjoy going on assignments that take me out of Canterlot. All the books in the world can give me everything I need to know about a place, but I haven’t found one yet that really captures what it feels like to be there. And the Chess Mountains are no exception.

The pegasi dive deeper into the valleys, whipping around corners at speeds that keep my hooves firmly gripping the car. I’m certain I hear the metal scrape against stone at one point. They’re covering good ground though, and we’ll have combed the area described in the letter well before nightfall. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I suppose there is a reason nopony ever noticed a laboratory in the mountains before. I dart my head from side to side, searching for any change in the texture or color of the rock. I know the pegasi are doing the same, and the longer we stay within the valleys, the less eratic their flying becomes. We settle into slower, level passes of the troughs, but I still can’t see anything that stands out. The Guards call out and bring us onto the ground once or twice, but it always turns out to be nothing.

But it’s when we’re circling back up to try for a new vantage point that I notice something off. It’s not a glimmer of gold or the smoother look of building stone, but a sound. A slight boom in the air as if some part of something were straining against it’s brothers. I tap the bottom of the car with my hoof to be sure it’s not anything to do with my chariot, but that possibility is expelled when three more follow in rapid succession in the middle of my test. “Stop! Stop!” I hiss at the pegasi, and unlike Flitz would do, they slow to a hover while keeping in place with a few circles. They don’t question me, which I’m grateful for since I’m swiveling my ears in every direction to catch the noise again. “There, southeast!” I yell out when a groan reverberates through the air. The pegasi rocket off, whipping the car and my neck almost painfully. We crest a larger set of peaks, and it’s undeniable we’ve found it.

I put a hoof over my mouth to suppress my girlish glee at the sight of what has to be Halter Labs. It’s engineering and science at its finest and nothing short of breathtakingly spectacular. Four gargantuan balloons are suspending an ovoid shape in the air, and four equally massive chains are embedded in the mountains to keep the entire thing from floating away. It was the chains making the heavy noises I heard, as a particularly strong gust whips into the valley and they tighten to keep the lab in place. The entire structure must have been built with magic, since it seems to have been constructed from a single sheet of silver. Only when the Guards circle up and above it do I see the entrance near the object’s crest. There’s even a small strip (also of silver) for chariots to land and take off from. “This is it!” I’m unable to hold back my excitement. “This has to be it!”

“Not gonna argue there, Miss,” the lead pegasus tells me, and I can tell he’s impressed too. “I don’t see anypony out here to greet us. Should we still attempt a landing?”

“I’ll check the strip for security spells first,” I reply, my voice ironing a little in my concentration. I focus my magic on the spit of flat surface beneath us and run my sixth sense over it. I check for anything and everything, even old Knight enchantments and prankish spells. I triple check it to be sure, but there’s nothing. Or, probably more accurately, if there were any spells, they’ve been called back. “I can’t sense anything,” I tell the Guards. “Be careful though. Some spells can be built to avoid being detected.”

“Hold on then, Miss Shimmer,” he grunts to me before they pull the chariot around and start in on a perfect descending glide. My teeth grind against each other the closer we get, and when the wheels rattle with more noise than the rushing wind, I wince from biting my tongue. I roll it around in my mouth for a few seconds, trying to work the taste of blood out of my mouth, but there’s nothing for it. I lean down on my chest and reach my hoof near the surface of the strip (which I now can definitely tell is silver) and tentatively brush it. It doesn’t shock or attack me, but I jump back into the cart with a small squeak. It ripples instead, like it’s a solid kind of water. I put my whole hoof onto the surface the second time, and ripples go out from it. It even feels a little like warm water.

“Any idea what this stuff is, Ma’am?” the second pegasus asks, lifting his hoof and flicking it despite the strip’s material not clinging to it.

“It’s silver,” I say, not bothering to hide my own perplexity. “But it’s been enchanted to act like this for some reason.”

“Miss Shimmer,” the lead Guard says in a grunt. “Somepony comin’ from the entrance.” My previous distraction with the surface of the strip vanishes, and I edge my way around the pegasi to present myself a firm representative of the princess. But the pony coming toward us has such a jovial smile on his face, I can’t help but be reminded of Flitz. And being reminded of Flitz in this faraway wilderness of Equestria relaxes me a bit.

“Welcome! Welcome!” he calls out to us before reaching us properly enough to touch hooves. He’s a deep shade of dark grey, with a simple lighter grey mane. His tail I can’t see. He’s wearing a full, spotless lab coat. I really had expected our arrival to be greeted by some business pony or the hired security. “Welcome to Halter Labs!” he says once we’ve exchanged the pleasantry. He smiles even at the stone-faced Guards. I guess I can give him credit for not being intimidated by them like most ponies, but now that he’s up close, he’s just too cheery. And all it does is make me feel awkward. “You’re the delegation from Princess Celestia?” he asks, looking to each of us in turn again.

“Yes,” I say flatly, deciding to be as professional and diplomatically plain as possible. My inner magician is crying out for me to just burst out with hundreds of questions, but if Princess Celestia can restrain herself in court, the least I can do is do well to represent her here. “My name is Sunset Shimmer, Faithful Student to the Princess. I am here to be her eyes and ears.”

“Excellent, excellent,” the pony (he must be an earth pony, without the usual wing bulges or horn) says, appearing to distract himself for a moment. “Ah yes!” he pops back up, “I am Dr. Wobble. Pleased to make your acquaintances! You must come inside, quickly! All of us are simply ecstatic at the chance to show off seven years hard work!”

“Shall we wait outside, Miss Shimmer?” the lead Guard asks me with an annoyed glance at Dr. Wobble.

“Outside!?” Wobble answers for me, and I decide to throw him my own irritated look. “Dear sir, the tour of the facility will take at least a day!”

“Ah… No,” I say and offer a forced smile to convey the rest of how I feel. “You promised us a look at a new defensive weapon for Equestria. That’s what we’re here to see.” I continue to stare at him as he obviously fumbles with how to handle a rejection he probably didn’t expect to happen. I hate doing it, but I know his type since I used to be one, and immovable refusal will be the only way to force him to accept our stance. Princess Celestia had to break that to me young, and I’m glad she did it then, since I can barely remember it. Still, I can’t help but cringe a little at having to refuse the chance to see experimental magic. Perhaps, if the visit goes well (the weapon in question being useful or not), Princess Celestia will let me come back to do an end of year project. It certainly looks big enough on the outside to be full of things to learn.

“It is our crown jewel,” Dr. Wobble tells me with a bit of a deflated energy. “Are you certain you would rather not save the best for last?”

I’m about to keep my position firmly in ‘no’, but all that comes out is a strangled, “Rrrg.” I shouldn’t do it, but I turn and ask my lead pegasus, “When are we expected back?”

“If they can cut down a tour to half the day, we can manage, Miss Shimmer,” he answers me with a knowing smirk. “There’s a favorable current we can ride on the way back to make the trip faster.”

“Can we compromise?” I ask Dr. Wobble, internally berating myself for giving into my wants.

“Certainly!” the doctor lights up again immediately. “Please, unhitch yourselves and follow me! And prepare to be amazed!” He almost bounds away, stopping at the entrance while the door folds upward to open. I light my horn with several basic spell layers, just to be safe, and wait for the Guards to be free of the chariot before following after the doctor.

“Keep a lookout,” I hiss to them. “I’ll pay attention to what he’s showing me, but I need you two to keep an eye on everything else around us. I want to know if there’s a Knight or something else involved.”

“Will do, Miss Shimmer,” the reply comes from behind me, and I nod my approval.

“We’ll cut directly to the main antechamber,” the doctor tells me once we’re standing at the doorway. I chance a peak inside, and it’s nothing more than a crystal-lit hallway. “But there are some really fascinating things we’ve done that I can show you along the way. Perhaps the princess will take a fancy to any one of them too.”

“Doc, this is a compromise,” I reiterate and arch an eyebrow just for emphasis. “Half the day is the maximum we can stick around, but if you can move us through the most important things faster, do so.”

“I’ll be taking you along the shortest route, yes,” he says with a wave of his hoof. “Now, come! Come!” We step inside the hall, but before we’ve reached the end or even seen any doors, the doctor stops in the center and clears his throat with a self-important cough. “Halter Labs was originally called Cloudsdale Medical Research,” he begins, and if his tone were any more rehearsed, I’d roll my eyes. As it turns out, they almost go in the top of my skull anyway as the floor drops out from beneath us. A single tile is now taking us deep inside the lab via some rapid pulley system I can’t see. Or it could be magic. Regardless, the narrow, square tube we’re in isn’t silver like the hall or outside of the object. It’s stark white. Sterile.

“Seven years ago, our teams bought the laboratories ourselves and began moving the facility around the world as we switched from Cloudsdale ordered work to our own projects. Since that day, Halter Labs has been laboring to give Equestria her finest defense in history,” the doctor drones on. The dropping floor tile eases into a halt, and a portion of the wall opens at our approach. Once through, I’m standing on the longest, highest catwalk I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s just wide enough for two ponies to walk side by side, but there are no rails to keep me from falling off into space. That space is filled, above and below, with large and small cubes labeled with massive, black numbers. I can only assume they’re the actual labs, since there seems to be nothing else in the bizarrely open space. There’s even a cold breeze, it’s so large.

“Impressive, no?” Doctor Wobble asks us with a proud tilt in his smile. “We have a project in each one, actually. Let’s see, ah! P57!” The numbers and letters he shouts into the chasm around us, and it feels like it should echo more than it does. Nothing clearly dangerous has happened yet, but I suppose it’s all so foreign… My gut’s telling me something is very wrong with this place the longer I’m here. Maybe it’s the air. I don’t know, but any rabid interest I may have had in the place is being gradually choked to death.

In response to the doctor’s shout, a beam of magic connects the cubic module labled with the fifty-seven to the catwalk. I half expect to be asked to touch it or some other nonsense, and I’ve already prepared my abhorrent ‘no’ when Wobble reaches into the beam with his own hoof and scoops something out from it. “You gentlecolts will appreciate these, I’m sure,” he addresses my Guards. “We took the concept of the thestral reaver shoes and have created scores of modified versions for everypony.” He holds out his hoof, and a pair of the bladed boots are there. “These in particular we enchanted and constructed specifically for cutting up clouds more precisely.” The two pegasi lean over to peer at them for a moment, but with appropriate caution don’t touch them. They only nod with a courteous amount of intrigue.

“How about these then?” the doctor asks, dropping the reavers back into the beam before shouting again, “P29!” A second beam follows the fist, this time on the opposite side of the catwalk. From it, Wobble presents us with a hoof-full of ordinary brown seeds. “These little marvels seek out the best soil within twenty miles.”

“And if there’s no good land within twenty miles?” I ask. “Can you not plant them?”

“Oh, you can plant them anyplace, to be sure,” he tells me with an enthused, encouraging nod. “They’re just supposed to help a farmpony maximize his yield.” I merely nod in response. This whole place is throwing me for a loop, and I can’t see or sense anything that might tell me why. I probe out with my magic just a touch more, and I’m not surprised at the muddled image I find. Layers and layers and layers upon even more layers of spells permeate the walls of the place. I grunt in annoyance. There’s not much I’d be able to sense in that mess without a dedicated slicing of the enchantments themselves. It’s not as though my abilities aren’t able to do such a thing (it’d be foals’ play, actually), but it would also make a scene.

I’m lost in my thoughts, I know, as I barely register Doctor Wobble returning the seeds to the beam of magic. But I feel like I’m chasing after something in my head. There’s something like a half-formed idea that I know’s important, but I just can’t seem to grasp it… My body yanks me back to the present with a startled jump, and I turn to see the lead Guard with his hoof on my shoulder. Both he and his subordinate have stern but wary frowns, and I realize it must not be just me that feels something is very wrong with this place. “We need to find what they brought us here to see, Miss Shimmer,” the lead whispers to me. “The aura in here is worse than the remains of a Dog’s camp.”

“Your assessment?” I ask in the same hushed tone while keeping an eye on the now pacing doctor.

“There’s been murder here, or something very close to it,” he tells me. I try to conceal my horror, but I don’t think I can hide it all away. My mouth twitches, and I see the doctor’s cheeriness in a far darker shade. Could they actually have killed somepony just because of scientific curiosity? I let my magic flow out in waves, silently searching for other ponies, and more specifically, for ponies who might be suffering. I find plenty of others, all healthy, but I find something else as well. Directly ahead of me, where the catwalk leads into the largest cube, marked 01, is a pure void. My magic contacts it and vanishes from my sense. And if there’s anything in the library that’s ever held my fascination and stuck in my memory, it’s the concept of a magical impossibility.

The idea of murder occurring here isn’t so out of place now, and I instinctively send out an arrow of magic aimed at the doctor. The thin band of magic crashes into and forces a yelp out of him before throwing him in a heap on the catwalk. The Guards don’t even need an order to speed around me and grab him by the forelegs and drag him up. I stalk up to his face, preparing to scream at him the way I used to interrogate the ponies that teased Flitz. But he’s still got a ridiculous smile on his face, glancing to each of the Guards with a nod. “I’m guessing you found our jewel over yonder, heheh?” he asks me with a shake of his head in the direction of the zero one cube.

“What’s going on here!?” I growl at him. “What’re you all hiding!?”

“We’ve made the greatest magical breakthrough of the age!” he exclaims to me. “And we wish to share its potential with the princess!”

“Screw all this other crap then,” I say. “Take me in that lab right now!” My voice bounces around the empty space, and the severity in it helps to drive away the alien feel of the air.

“Very well, very well,” he says. “Would you gentecolts please let me down now?” I flick my head at them, and they ease the doctor onto the catwalk again. He tilts back and forth a bit before righting himself properly and when he doesn’t immediately lead the way to the cube, I roll my eyes in it’s direction. He raises his hoof and opens his mouth as if to say something in response, but decides against it and leads us off to the lab’s entrance.

The door to the place opens for us just like the one from the elevator, and the nearly blinding whiteness doesn’t change from the outside to the inside. We pass through an archway hazed with a veil of violet magic, which I’m positive is a decontaminating spell of some kind, and through a second door is the actual lab. And the atmosphere inside could not be more different than that on the catwalk. Wobble is joined by other ponies in lab coats, and I notice each and every one of them is a unicorn. They’re all carrying clipboards or sitting at tables filled with chemistry setups, vials filled with liquids of every hue, or convoluted arrays of magnifying lenses. I’m not sure if it’s the presence of other ponies or small noises from the work going on around me, but the constraining feeling is lessened. Of course, the utter silence of the other ponies maintains it to some degree, but the dedication filling the room is at least something familiar I can latch onto.

“Here she is,” Doctor Wobble crows once we’ve all taken several steps into the room. “The surest defense for our ruler.” He waves his hoof to the center of the room where a single half pillar juts from the floor. It’s smooth, white, and rather unremarkable to look at, but however a void is existing, I know it’s within that cylinder. “Don’t be too alarmed,” Wobble takes a consoling tone. “It’s not active yet.” He presses his hoof into a tile on the floor, and I narrow my eyes in cautious observation. The white barriers around the cylinder slowly descend into grooves in the floor and… my breath catches in my throat, and my heart stops.

Clamps are keeping her bolted to the bottom of the tank. Her mane is splayed out from whatever circulating current is in the fluids. My hooves walk me closer to the tank of their own accord, and my mouth is hanging open. My breaths are coming in shuddering gasps. Everything in me is screaming the impossibility of what my eyes are telling me. It’s a filly, maybe a few years younger than me. Her eyes are shut like she’s sleeping and a trio of bubbles escape her nose every few minutes. “What… what is this?” I whisper in horror, not to anypony in particular. The need to vomit is getting stronger, but I can’t take my eyes off the pony in the tank.

“This… Oh this…” Wobble says triumphantly. “This is the - !” My eyes were starting to inch to his face, but they whip back to the filly and every movement and sound in the room seems to cease. Her eyes are wide open, blank, and staring inexorably at me. I can’t not return her gaze, and just before her lids close again, her lifeless gray eyes glisten with an exact match to my own sky blue eye color.