Celestia's Monday

Minisode

Celestia's Monday

Miss Celestia, President of CelestiaCorp, has long been a subject of controversy and been called many things throughout the years, including a few less than flattering nicknames. She thought that 'Trollestia' was amusing (and somewhat accurate), 'Tyrantlestia'...not so much, and 'Molestia' downright insulting in her opinion. These nicknames were entirely based on wild rumours however since very few actually knew her true story, or who she truly was on the inside.

There was no doubt that she was one of the most powerful people in all of Canterlot, rivalled only by Mayor Mare, Senator Blueblood, Governor Fancy Pants, and the mysterious kingpin of the criminal underworld known only as the 'Crystal King'. And yet, despite all that power, she never flaunted or abused her influence in any noticeable way. Ironically, that was exactly what made people distrustful of her, as she seemed a bit too perfect in the eyes of many.

Even that was a misconception though.

She has made mistakes, many in fact. However, her closet was mostly skeleton free...at least in comparison to some other people with her kind of influence like her snobbish cousin Senator Blueblood for instance...who could probably fill an entire graveyard with what he had in his closet.

It was no secret that Celestia and Blueblood did not like each other very much. Celestia didn't like Blueblood mostly because of his 'I'm better than everyone else' attitude, as well as his general unpleasantness. Blueblood didn't like Celestia because she tended to try to lecture him on his behaviour every time they met, and also for publicly giving him a bad reputation.

Still, they were on civil enough terms to not resort to punches, kicks and nosebleeds when they argued...even though that was secretly what both of them wanted.

The days Celestia used brute force to solve her problems were, alas, long behind her...

This Monday morning, Celestia was watching the rising sun through the rather big windows that the far wall of her office was comprised of.

There were only two things Celestia demanded when it came to her office. One of them was a constant supply of exotic tea, the other were large open windows that let a lot of sunlight illuminate the room.

She had the appearance of a woman in her mid-thirties, yet it was often speculated that she was far older than that...if the rumours of her falsified birth-date had any merit. She was also really tall. At 1,9 metres, she towered over most full-grown men she knew. Her height could make her just a tiny bit intimidating to some people in fact. Her most recognisable feature though most have been her vibrant multicoloured hair that reached a bit below her hips in length. Unlike the rainbow hair of Rainbow Dash, Celestia's only had four colours: green, blue, pink and lavender. Another thing she was recognised by was her yellow semi-formal jacket she always wore in public that never failed to bring a certain warm and sunny image to herself in clear contrast to her more darkly-dressed younger sister.

Celestia had spent most of her morning just basking in the sun's radiance, allowing its warm rays to touch her skin and fill her body with its heat and energy. Sunbathing was actually one of Celestia's favourite hobbies, which may seem surprising considering the fact that her skin was very pale and showed no signs of tanning whatsoever. However, she had a very different reason for sunbathing than just for getting a tan...a reason that only a handful of people knew about.

Feeling like she had enough sun for today, Celestia turned around and took a seat at her desk, where a cup of her favourite tea was waiting for her. After taking a small sip of her beloved drink, a knock came from her door, prompting her to urge, "Come in."

When the door at the other end of the room opened, three people stepped inside. One of them was Doctor Silk Mane, the eccentric head researcher of CelestiaCorp's Bio-labs, who could be recognised for her expertly groomed long teal-coloured hair she put a ridiculous amount of attention to and her very expensive and very feminine glasses. The other two were Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer...who I assume you already know.

As soon as they stepped inside, Celestia greeted, "Good morning and happy Monday. Am I right to assume you have some news on your latest project?"

Dr Mane answered with a small chuckle, "Hehehe, Oh we got some news alright, hehe. When you said you would have a pair of teenagers work in my science team I expected them to be little more than those intolerable interns you keep inviting. What I didn't expect was for them to both be scientific prodigies!"

Celestia smiled proudly, "That was why I enlisted them, doctor. Sunset and Twilight, why don't you tell me what breakthroughs you've been doing as of late?"

Twilight was just about to answer when Silk answered for her. "They have helped me solve the secrets behind cross-species genetics, haha! With Shimmer's studies on the symbiote life form and Sparkle's-"

Celestia help up a hand to silence her, "I believe I was asking Twilight and Sunset about this."

Silk Mane's expression suddenly went from haughty to a dear-in-the-headlights, "Oh, well, I guess I got a little carried away there, didn't I? Hehehehe..."

"No need to apologise, Doctor. Sunset, Twilight?"

Sunset began, "Well, after extensive study on the 'symbiote' life form, I have successfully been able to mimic the creature's ability to transfer genetic traits from one organism to another. You see, the symbiote once melded with one of the mutated spiders in the bio-labs, and as a result, the symbiote has somehow gained the ability to transfer some of the spider's traits onto another organism. Now, I have been looking for a way for us to harness that ability so that, say, you could give a man with a missing limb the regeneration power of a newt. Theoretically, this could make the missing limb grow back in only a a day or two."

"But there was a problem..." Twilight continued, "The formula didn't work, and instead it just made things...let's call it...'worse'. The problem was that we hadn't fully grasped how different the symbiote's cells were compared to that of any organism that had originated on this planet."

"That was when we discovered the missing component."

"Yes, something we called the...'decay-rate-algorithm'. It's an equation that could calculate how quickly cells with the new genetic makeup would generate and affect the body. If only a few of the subject's cells were affected, then it could lead to cancers or horrible mismatched mutations. I have spent these last few months finding a way to prevent that from happening."

With an intrigued look, Celestia asked, "Well, did you find a way?"

While flashing an extremely dorky smile, Twilight exclaimed, "YES! I! DID! Just yesterday I discovered how the decay-rate-algorithm worked and how to implement it!"

"That's wonderful, Twilight!" Celestia said with a certain aura of pride in her prized student's accomplishment.

However, Twilight may have left out the part where the breakthrough actually came from studying some of Rainbow Dash's mutated DNA that she had...(ahem)...gotten her hands on in a totally-not-creepy-way when her friend wasn't looking. She figured it would be for the best for everyone involved if she didn't mention that little detail.

With a small, mostly unnoticed blush on her cheeks, Twilight muttered, "Just doing what you taught me to do."

"Well, you have certainly made me proud of your achievements...both of you." She finished that sentence with an encouraging look at Sunset as well.

The flame-haired girl gave an approving nod at that statement, but Dr Mane was a bit peeved at it and suddenly questioned, "Hey, what about me?!"

Celestia rose from her chair and gave the doctor a slightly playful smile, "Now, now, Doctor, you were already a very competent scientist when I hired you, which makes the achievements of two teenagers coming straight out of High School just bit more impressive. But that's not enough to leave you out, is it? So, what have you got?"

"Uh, what are you talking about?"

With a mischievous glint in her eyes, Celestia mused, "Oh, I just assumed you had your own contribution into this project, my mistake."

Dr Mane's mood suddenly turned to one of anger, "Now wait just a minute! What makes you think someone like ME wouldn't bring out the very best of my brilliant mind to a project such as this?!"

Celestia's smile didn't waver despite Silk's sudden outburst, "So you have contributed something? Go on, tell me."

The scientist abruptly composed herself and returned to her more jovial persona, "Yes, I have. You see, hehe, even with Shimmer's research and the 'decay-rate-algorithm' in our possession, we needed something to speed up the procedure and actually force a genetic evolution in the subject. After all, if you just leave the genetic makeup in, it could just stay there and do nothing. Kinda pointless, don't you think?"

Celestia leaned forward and put her hands on her desk to support herself, "And you have a solution to this?"

"Haha, I most certainly do. The key is the formula I designed called the 'Catalyst Factor', the name is trademarked by the way, that will force the cells within a body to mutate and adapt into a new form. If you combine a very small amount of this compound with the cross-species genetic formula, the desired traits from the foreign species would appear a lot quicker than it would without it."

"What happens then if you just insert the Catalyst Factor without any additional DNA?"

"I'm...not entirely sure, but a guess would be that the compound would force a completely random mutation...depending on the dosage."

"And how is that significant?"

"Well, let's say you want to transfer the regeneration ability of a newt onto a human, as Shimmer suggested. A small dosage of the factor would adapt only the desired regeneration to affect the subject, but...if you use too much of it, far more traits would pass over. Next thing you know, the subject could be transformed into a human-salamander hybrid or something. But we won't cross that line...I hope."

Celestia slowly sat back down in her chair, a thoughtful expression forming on her face. The notion that something like that could happen unnerved her just a bit, especially as it brought up a few very unpleasant memories.

"Those kinds of risks are not exactly making me very comfortable." she noted apprehensively.

Twilight noticed something in her mentor's expression, "Is something wrong?"

"It's just...I know all great advances in science have all had great risks, and I'm not someone to deny anyone progress based on what might happen, but...I formed this company on the basis that nothing like what happened at Starswirl Laboratories ever happens again. We need to be careful with our research, I cannot stress that enough. One mistake with something like this and...well, we could be dealing with another Discord, and I'd rather not have that on any of your resumes."

"Don't worry, we will be beyond careful." Twilight assured.

Sunset added, "Yeah, I'll make sure there are no human trials until we're sure we know what we're doing."

All eyes then fell upon Dr Mane, who noticeable hesitated before she said, "...Of course."

With that said, Celestia concluded, "Well then, if that is all then I suggest you start working. If you have any results till Friday you may showcase it in our annual presentation. Who knows, it might steal the show this year."

"Oh it definitively will" Sunset confidently assured.

"I don't doubt that. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do, and so do you."

Dr Silk Mane put a firm hand each on Sunset and Twilight's shoulders, which were a bit too tight for either of their comforts, and concurred,"Yes, yes, we will get on that soon enough, Miss Celestia, and the results will be spec-tac-ular, I assure you, heheheha."

She then began to practically drag both teenagers out of the room, "Come on, you two, chop, chop!"

After stepping out of the door to Celestia's office, Dr Mane let go off them and began to hastily make her way back down to the bio-labs. Her younger co-workers were not really in the same kind of rush and followed after her at a much slower pace.

While watching the retreating sight of the scientist they were working for, Sunset Shimmer looked at Twilight and asked, "Is it just me or am I getting a bad vibe out of her?"

"Doctor Mane?"

"Yeah."

Twilight shrugged, "She seems pretty fine to me, why?"

"It just feels, I don't know, like there is something off about her. I can't really place it."

"I admit, she is a bit eccentric, but I don't see why that's a problem."

"It's not just that, I mean, have you heard that name everyone keeps calling her?"

"Well, yes, but that was more a pun of her name more than anything else."

"Sure, but it also implies that she's not exactly...'all there'."

"It's just a name. I know I was called a lot of things back in High School. 'Twilight Snarkle' or 'Dorky Bangs' were the most common."

"And I guess basing facts on rumours isn't the best way to...wait a minute, 'Dorky Bangs'? Who the heck called you that?"

A little embarrassed, Twilight answered, "Oh, quite a few actually. I think it was Gilda who came up with it and then everyone else started saying it. I was hardly the most popular girl at Canterlot High."

"Shame we didn't meet before Celestia practically shanghaied us here after that science fare. I would have made sure those guys would have to think twice before saying those things to your face if I'd been around."

"You...would do that for me?"

Sunset put a comforting hand on Twilight's shoulder (at least a lot more comforting than Silk's), creating another small blush to form on Twilight's face, "Of course I would, what are friends for?"

With a smile and a nod from Twilight, the pair began to walk back to the labs downstairs while continuing their previous discussion. Sunset brought up Dr Mane's eccentricities for a while, and then their conversation began to derail into something else.

With her two most promising students and her top scientist off to work on their latest project, Celestia could return her attention to the cup of tea that had been waiting for her throughout the whole conversation.

However, just before she could bring the cup to her lips, the computer embedded into her desk started to give off the most irritable beeping noise. At the same time, a red blinking light accompanied with the word 'Luna' started to blink on the smooth glass surface of the table.

Knowing what this meant, Celestia used the hand not currently holding the cup to press a finger down on the blinking red icon. In response, a holographic image of Luna appeared before her, and her sister's expression told Celestia immediately that the situation was serious.

"Luna, what is it?" Celestia asked before taking a small sip of her tea.

Through the holographic communication they were using, Luna revealed, "We have...a problem."

"Is it a big problem or a small one?"

"I'm not sure just yet, but it is certainly a cause for alarm."

"Oh my...that sounds ominous." Celestia commented with slightly out of place sarcasm.

Luna sighed before she revealed, "Last night, someone broke into the building and stole quite a lot of our technology from the engineering labs."

Celestia's eyes widened at that, "That...can't be good."

"It's worse: right before the theft, all alarms and security monitors in the building turned off for reasons unknown, so we have no way of knowing who was responsible for this. This may also suggest that the theft was an inside job."

"Hmmm..." Celestia mulled over that piece of information for a moment. "So...what did they actually stole?"

Luna cringed a little before she answered, "Right, I was afraid you were going to ask that. The things that were confirmed to be stolen are as follows: a huge collection of advanced smart bombs, a lightning sabre, a strength-enhancing fighter suit, a couple of directed plasma blasters and...our prototype military-grade attack glider."

Unfortunately for Celestia, she was in the process of downing a large quantity of her tea when she heard that, causing her to spit out half of it while exclaiming, "WHAT!?"

"Thinking back, I would say that this would qualify as a big problem." Luna muttered more to herself than to her sister.

"To say the least. You don't steal that much weaponised hardware just for fun. Whoever stole them must be planning something terrible."

"That's what I thought."

"Then I suggest we contact Captain Shining Armour at the precinct and tell him everything we know as soon as possible. The police must know what they're getting into."

"Indeed. But I'm worried that that might not be enough to stop someone who not only was able to steal right under our noses but also has their hands on some of our most advanced weapon technology."

"We will have to hope that it is...for all our sake."