Tau groaned as he stretched on his cot. Had it really been twenty years since he started this project? He knew that his team would have some sort of small get-together to recognize the occasion. There really wasn't anything to celebrate seeing as after twenty years of arduous research and rigorous experiments, they were still no closer to understanding the true principle of magic carrying bosons.
They all knew that the M boson carried magic, just like the graviton carried gravity. Unfortunately, the facility had barely enough funding to stay structurally sound, much less have a supercollider built. The Royal Canterlot Academy of Science had barely enough funding itself, what with the griffin revolts in the east as well as the dragon population boom. It was a wonder that his facility wasn't closed down ages ago.
He stared blankly at the musty grey ceiling. The paint in his quarters had started to peel a long time ago, giving the whole place a sense of eerie desolation. He yawned as he rolled off the side of his bed. He magicked his glasses off the nightstand and onto his face, only to have it poke his eye painfully. He continued to rub his eye while he brushed his teeth. He knew at that moment that it was going to be one of those days.
Tau entered the testing area to see that he was the only one up. He sighed deeply as he got to work, calibrating the oscilloscopes and various other machines strewn about the lab. His entire morning was filled with this calibrating and fiddling, not realizing the time until he realized how hungry he was. No one else had shown up yet, indicating that they were either more incompotent then he thought, or they had some sort of party planned. He was not a huge fan of parties.
After a few more minutes of calibrating, he was finally ready to test. He decided to leave that for later, seeing as his hunger was too strong to ignore at this point. He trotted slowly out of the room. It was these times when he wasn't busy working that he decided to look back on his life. He had been a researcher for twenty three years. The first three were spent working at a facility that had been used to study a new type of particle at the time. That was a time when people looked at science with pride and dignity, rather then an endless abyss that sucked away money. Those were great times in his life. He was even in love with a mare with a pale pink coat shrouded by a deep blue mane. Her most distinguishing feature was that she had the most beautiful amber eyes. Her name was Sine Para, and she was working on the project with him, always looking lovely as she loomed over her work with a determination in her eye that was unmatched and focused.
But those days were behind him, and so was she. He never forgot about her, and resented switching over to his current occupation. It just so happened that he left around the time when ponies started to turn away from science, so a few months later he was informed that the company that had employed him had been bankrupted, and all of his former coworkers lost their jobs. Even now he could not imagine what it would be like to see any of his old friends, just to have them spit in his face for not staying with the sinking ship.
Now his train of thought came to a stop because he realized that he had been standing in the kitchen for ten minutes thinking, having finished eating an hour ago. He shook himself and walked back into the lab. He began to run some tests on inert substances to get a good control going. After that he planned on testing the new gems that came in yesterday. He hoped that since these were pure and flawless, that he might be able to store more magic in them then previously stored. Unfortunately he was distracted by a very tall pony cloaked in tattered black fabric inserting something in the mailbox outside.
The first thing that struck him as odd was that usually his good friend Derpy Hooves would deliver the mail to him. She would come during the week around five o' clock to deliver the mail and talk about science. Derpy recieved alot of prejuduce for having walleye, but she was really well learned and understood most of what he would talk about. She would even contribute some ideas to the conversation, although he felt that she understood more then she was letting on.
The second thing that was not only odd, but unnerving was that once the strange mare realized that she was being watched, she turned to look Tau in the eyes and teleport away.
After an entire day of working in solitude, he trotted out to the mailbox and pulled out several envelopes. The first was adressed to the business, so he put that to the bottom. The next was an invitation to a party in honor of his twentieth aniversary. That was when it struck him. Today was supposed to be his day off. Being cooped up all day was not a healthy habit, and he sometimes loses track of the days of the week. He cursed himself for not realizing his mistake earlier. He had spent the entire day working dilligently only to have it be his day off. He sighed and flipped to the third one which was the one he was really interested in. It was a plain manilla envelope with the name Tau Muon. His name. On the paper inside it simply read,
I have a business opportunity that you will be interested in. Meet tomorrow in Canterlot Garden for details.
Tau flipped the paper over to see the letters NLR emblazoned on the back.
That was when he knew that tomorrow would not be one of those days.
