Twilight Sparkle had two pieces of chalk working at the same time. She was writing out the formula for the most complicated piece of magic she had ever worked on, which had been the restoration of Dustin and Belay to their original forms.

As she turned around, Twilight Sparkle was pleased to see Belay was still watching her attentively, but there were more ponies present as well. Both her parents (Twilight Velvet and Night Light), Dustin y Neil, Princess Luna, and even a few students had crammed into seats of the lecture hall Twilight Sparkle had appropriated.

"The process of reversing the metamorphic field produced an expanding bubble of non-magic. This resulted in reduced pressure within the bubble, and spread it over a larger surface area." Twilight Sparkle didn't need cards, she had science. "When the velocity of the bubble's expansion resulted in less force than the pressure directed against it, the bubble began to collapse. Following VanDerhoof's laws regarding magical pressure, we can see that the bubble would have fluctuated much as a bubble of compressed air underwater. The magic cavitated."

Using her magic, Twilight Sparkle made two human shapes float above her. She added a sphere around them, had it grow larger and larger, and then suddenly collapse in. "And thus we have the reason why the experiment failed to achieve the desired, persistent effect." Gesturing to Belay and Dustin, Twilight Sparkle set a rueful expression on her face. "That isn't to say there weren't results. The process did reverse the metamorphic effects, and it was extremely interesting to see that with a return of magic to the subjects, their metamorphic result was not completely duplicated."

"Our little filly has a fillyfriend." Twilight Velvet kept her voice as quiet as possible (yet still loud enough to be heard by everypony), and snuggled up beside Night Light. That Dustin was on the other side, and was leaning slightly against his shoulder made her even happier.

"She had a coltfriend up until two days ago." Night Light was less quiet with his voice, but he cared a lot less about making noise: he was just too happy.

Trying to ignore her parents, Twilight Sparkle calmed herself by looking at Belay. Their time together had been fun, but now each of them found Kiera's change exciting and new. She tried to forget—at least for the moment—what Belay's tongue felt like, and just let warmth fill her.

"Further testing will be required. There are multiple avenues of study that can be extended from here, including moving the metamorphic field expelling crystal with the subjects, or using more power to create a bigger field. The first would mean a leisurely walk back to their ship, the latter would probably require them to run." Twilight Sparkle levitated some chalk up, pushed the filled blackboard higher and began writing new equations on the lower one. "As you can see, and would well know, the expulsion system must be oriented to the magical field. Without that, results will not be one-hundred percent.

"I would just like to remind everypony that I am still working on this, and I won't rest until—" Stopping in her wind-up speech, Twilight looked up at Dustin. "Y-Yes?" Nerves filled her, she had failed these wonderful creatures once already, and she felt it was something she had to fix.

"E-Excuse me, Princess Twilight." Dustin stood up so that he could be seen a little better, and so that Twilight Sparkle didn't have to talk to him while he was cuddling her father. "Maybe you should take a little break from this? It's been all you have worked on for weeks, and…" He trailed off, and looked to Belay for confirmation.

When Belay nodded to Dustin, he continued. "… and we are more comfortable this time. So please, take your time and don't wear yourself out on this."

Twilight Sparkle watched with confusion as Dustin sat back down, and her daddy put his foreleg around Dustin's shoulders. The strangeness wasn't her parents sharing somepony—Twilight Sparkle would hardly be the princess of friendship without her parents giving her examples of all the different ways friendship could work—but rather that Dustin and Belay seemed comfortable in their bodies.

"Why the change of heart, if you don't mind me asking?" Twilight Sparkle already suspected what Belay's reason would be, but she was interested in Dustin's: he had been spending plenty of time with Twilight's parents, and he (formerly she) seemed to have fit in quite well.

Dustin looked aside to Night Light and Twilight Velvet. "I know this is a bit odd—believe me, I am the first to admit that—but I'm more comfortable like this, and I don't want to see you throwing months of your life away."

Her eyes slipping to Belay again, Twilight Sparkle examined her fillyfriend, and knew the answer would be the same there. "I guess I could work on other projects as well…" She trailed off, remembering the things Belay had made already. "Does anypony have any questions?"

Princess Luna cleared her throat. "Kiera, what do your rules and regulations have to say on the matter?"

"Due to recent system errors, return to Fed space is unlikely. Under the rules and regulations—" Kiera cut off sharply. For the first time in her life, Kiera had a headache. It was the worst thing she had ever felt, and it seemed to be a buildup of pressure at the back of what she thought of as her head. The nerves should be deadened, Kiera shouldn't have been able to get a headache, but here she was. "There are no entries that cover this situation. With no guidance from the official rules, I must—as senior member of the crew—insist that we don't pollute the resident culture with our own, and keep science revelations to a minimum."

Kiera had had enough. "Cutting comms to maintain system integrity." She cut off not only the comm button Princess Luna had worn for her, but also the implants in Dustin and Belay's mastoid bones.

Her ship was quiet, calm. She could use her engines fine, could work every system perfectly but one. Kiera examined the last report one of her AI gave her about her personal life-support. Her nutrients kept running acidic, and she had lost two of the thousand little implants in her head.

There was another diagnostic she could run, of course, a direct scan of her own body within the shell. The interface was a simple one, she could instruct an AI to poke it and then skim the data afterward. Her mental hand hovered over the AI, ready to give it the command to see what damage had been done to her.

"I don't want to know." Kiera spoke the words to her empty bridge. She drew back her touch from the AI, and queued up some downtime. Setting an AI to wake her in ten hours, Kiera relaxed and let darkness push away the worries of reality.

"I'll go." Dustin y Neil disengaged himself from Night Light and stood up. He glanced at Belay, and watched her do the same. "You don't—"

Belay interrupted Dustin. "Yes I do. She's my friend, too. We'll both go." She turned her head from Dustin to Twilight Sparkle. "Sorry, Twilight."

"A friend is more important than my silly lecture. Go." Twilight Sparkle felt a pang in her heart at the worry on Belay's face. She was about to offer to help, when Princess Luna stood up.

"Belay, Dustin, I have a faster way than by train." Luna stepped into the thing aisle between seats, and spread her wings a little. The offer was obvious. When Dustin and Belay rushed over to Luna's sides, she closed her wings on them, and ripped her way through space with a cheery POMF.

When the dark wing pulled back from him, Dustin saw they were beside Kiera, and more specifically at the lift controls to get up to her. He strode first, taking the steps to put him at the lift. "Kiera, unlock lift controls." They all waited a few moments, but there was no reaction from Kiera. "Scratches, what's Kiera's status?" Dustin knew the names Kiera had given her AI, and knew Scratches had the highest autonomy.

Another hesitant moment passed, but the controls of the lift unlocked.

Belay stepped up on the lift with Dustin. "Thanks, Scratches."

With a nod for Dustin and Belay, Princess Luna spread her wings and shot into the air with a mighty stroke of her feathery limbs.

"I hope she's okay. I've never seen her shut herself off like this." Belay tapped the controls, raising the lift.

As the lift reached the top, Belay and Dustin were plunged into the non-magic area imposed by the hull. Dustin took the lead, lifting a hoof to poke the controls for the air-lock. Both held any more words, and headed into Kiera.

The lighting was completely off, and both brawns had nothing to navigate the halls with but their memories and touch. "Scratches, can you turn the lights on?" Dustin's question got no reply, which meant that the AI probably didn't have enough privilege to do it.

Feeling his way to the cockpit, a soft light seemed to radiate from the back wall—Kiera's shell. Dustin and Belay walked carefully up to the titanium column. "The light from her column's controls can't be turned off. Part of the same system that—"

"That makes it so audio and video are always fed to me." Kiera's voice sounded hollow over the tiny comms built into the column's safety systems. "I was trying to sleep, what's wrong now?"

"We're worried about you, Kiera." Belay moved around Dustin, so that each took a side of Kiera's column. "You cut us off before we could ask. I like to think we have become friends over the years…"

"You are my friends, silly ponies." A chuckle burbled up through Kiera's voice. She had the most basic of connections active, with all her other interfaces "cold." She was tiny, and alone, if not for Dustin and Belay. "You both have found so much here. I don't want to intrude on it."

"You are never intruding, Kiera." The moment Dustin said it, he grinned a little. "Except when you asked me what I was agreeing about last night."

"She does that to you, too?" Belay groaned a little, laughing. "Kiera, do you think either of us would tolerate this kind of stuff from anyone but a good friend?" She let Kiera have a moment to think on it, then continued. "So tell us what the problem is. You said the chances of returning to Fed wasn't going to happen?"

Kiera pulled the warmth of her friends around herself, mentally, like a blanket. "My life support is failing, and two of my neural interfaces have gone dark." Said out loud, Kiera realized how bad it sounded. "And you both know what would happen if we were traveling along and I… failed."

"We have to be able to do something." Leaning against the cold, titanium column, Dustin struggled to think about what he knew of the inner workings of a shellperson. Kiera's body was shrunken (her pituitary gland, among others, modified to stunt her physical growth), and her head would be mostly a mass of cabling and tubes. The nutrient tubes would be entering the tiny body's chest, while a set of machines kept the organic parts of Kiera fed, oxygenated, and interconnected to the ship. "What about if we pull you out into the magic of Equestria?"

"You think it will work?" Almost barking the words, Kiera tried to restrain her emotions chemically, but with the quality of her support systems on the decline, that was impossible. Old meditation tricks, taught when she was in training to get her ship, filled Kiera's thoughts. She focused herself down to a point, and let everything flow past her. "Sorry, Dust. What did you say?"

"I said, 'It might work, which is better than the chances you have if your support fails.'" Dustin lay down, pressing the tip of his snout to the column. "I'll carry you out of that tin-coated corset, if you ask."

"We both will, Kiera." Belay, mirroring Dustin's position, curled up for the long-run as well.

Dustin smiled a little at how Belay had mirrored him. "Yeah. It's your choice, but I hope you join us."

"M-Maybe later. I don't—" Kiera took a metaphorical breath. "I don't want to die, Dust. If I try to leave… You know how closely I'm wired in; I might die before you even get me out to the magic."

In the darkened room, both Dustin and Belay could ignore the afternoon passing by. "We'll figure something out." Belay's voice covered the sound of Dustin's soft snores for a moment. "We're a team."

Author's Note

Kiera: would it matter if you were (organic again)?

All that answers your question is a soft, scared whimper.

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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