The sun shone brightly over Ponyville, little summer rays of light creeping into the window of the Golden Oaks Library, the second floor’s leftmost window to be exact. The bedroom within was cluttered with junk and books of various sorts, books on biology being covered with socks or stockings, a green tie lay on the still, lifeless globe just beside the bed and even a shirt collar on the old, oak nightstand. The bed itself had a massive lump under the covers, or rather, the sleeping forms of two ponies under said covers. Both of them breathed in unison, one of them had their neck laying on the back of the other.

As they slept, the owl that one of them kept as a pet slept soundly on his post, snoozing quietly as he stayed put. Even though he was asleep, he seemed to be watching over the room, the ponies who slept below him. He was watching while being blind. Then, the alarm went off, causing the owl to slowly awaken and squawk a small bit to wake his mistress from her loving slumber.

Twilight was the first to wake up, yawning cutely before looking down at her coltfriend with a smile, said coltfriend snorting a small bit in his sleep, making Twilight giggle. “Good morning, Timey~” she greeted, nuzzling the chestnut coloured earth pony that she was on top of.

The earth pony grumbled in his sleep before his eyes opened slowly, instinctively lifting his head and nuzzling Twilight in return before speaking. “Mmm…?” he asked, looking up at Twilight with a tired smile and lidded eyes. “Is it morn-” he started before yawning rather loudly. “Is it morning already, Twilight?”

Twilight giggled in response. “No, it’s just one minute to morning,” she sarcastically corrected, a playful tone in her voice as she looked down to him. “Just the way I like it, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Oh no, too early for my tastes,” Time Turner responded, laying down on his back and pulling Twilight just under his right forehoof. “How will I be able to snuggle with the most beautiful mare in all of Equestria now?”

“You can always just wait for tonight, can’t you?”

“You, Twilight Sparkle, do not fully understand the power that snuggles have over a stallion,” Time answered in return, closing his eyes for a second. “By Celestia’s non-existent beard, I don’t know what I’d be doing if I had not met you all that time ago…”

“Managing the time at the Super Cider Squeezy 6000 vs my best friend’s family competition?” The purple alicorn guessed as she nuzzled the underside of Time’s chin. “Then mostly likely continuing your life as normal...without having me to come home to,” she added in a joking manner.

“Most likely,” Time noted with a chuckle before he looked away, like he remembered something that caused him to frown slightly. Twilight’s eyes began to fill with concern once she saw this, pulling him closer for him to look back at her.

“Time Turner?” she asked, worry on her expression. “...Something wrong?”

“Oh...it’s nothing,” Time started with a small frown. “...It’s just that I remembered Test Tube acting weird, spouting on about his new project. You remember my assistant, don’t you, dear?”

Ah yes, Twilight did indeed remember the young stallion, fondly even. His ice blue eyes that sparkled whenever he spoke, his curly, almost infected looking blonde hair that slipped down to his shoulders. She remembered his circular glasses, the dirty lab coat he wore almost all the time, Twilight could have sworn that he might sleep in it as well.

“Yes,” Twilight answered. “Did he mention what the project was?”

“No...he didn’t,” Time answered with a small frown. “He just kept repeating over and over again about how it would save us all...whatever that means, anyway.”

Twilight thought about it for a small bit, from what she could remember, Test was a small bit weird already, so him acting like this might not have been out of the question. “Well, I’m sure it’s not much to worry about, dear,” Twilight reassured with a sweet voice before deciding to change the subject. “How is your Time Altering Radiation Destroying Universal Savior coming along?” she asked in a sheepish tone.

Time blushed at that name, playfully swatting at the air in embarrassment. “That is, by far, the silliest name you have come up with for the time machine,” he pointed out. “What does any of what you just described have to do with time travel?”

Twilight giggled. “Oh, just the fact that the way you plan to go back in time is with using miniature black holes while going as fast as the speed of light to hopefully pull yourself from the ‘Linearity of this world’s timeline’ as you put it.”

“Oh hush, you know I’ll be able to pull this off,” Time joked back, sticking his tongue out at his loved one.

“Or at least you’re stupid enough to try.” Twilight giggled again, nuzzling further into his chest. “Ahh...you know that one of us has to leave soon, right?”

“Yep,” Time said with a small chuckle. “...I’ll be off completing my work while you help running the country...remember when Rarity tried to convince you I was trying to gain influence over Equestria because we were together?”

Twilight giggled at the memory, the image of Rarity acting like an overprotective parent towards her being quite amusing to the lavender Alicorn. “Isn’t it your turn to make breakfast?”

Time nodded, getting out of the bed slowly, with hesitance. “Unfortunately so...what would you like?”

“I don’t mind,” Twilight responded, rolling over to where Time once lay, feeling the warmth of the bed against her fur. “Anything you make is ten times better than mine.”

“I guess it’s not that good then.” Time teased as he went to get both his tie and shirt collar from the night before.

“H-Hey!” Twilight playfully shouted, blushing a small bit in embarrassment. “I’m not THAT bad of a cook.”

“Says the mare who set the toaster on fire by just turning it on…” Time retorted with a laugh before kissing her cheek. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

Twilight nodded before she waved him off, giggling as he went. She then lay on her back, a smile on her face as she looked up to the ceiling. She sighed, remembering last night of how after she and Time took part in some...intimate alone time after a few drinks. After a while, she eventually got up, too relaxed to hear the soft sound of somepony breathing outwards, as if they had held their breath.

But it was only as she began to trot over to the dresser, it happened. Before she could react, before anything
could be done in order to prevent such an event, a shadowy figure leapt up from under the bed. The sound of
the bed being tipped over like a cow caused Twilight to snap her head towards the figure, however, a hoof was
into her mouth before she could scream. The sound of the two struggling was loud enough that it surely
would have caught the attention of Time Turner, but before Twilight was able to hope for that much longer,
a ring was planted onto her horn while a needle found its way into her neck.

Even though she wanted to continue to fight, to protect herself, the needle began to take effect rather quickly. The shadowy figure became blurrier than before, then...Twilight fell to the ground, unconscious. The figure looked down at the body of the subdued Alicorn before him, almost as if they were remembering something, or going over a sort of mental checklist. Before they could finish the current thought in their head, however, the feeling of claws and beak attacking them brought them out of their trance while the owl from before tried to defend his mistress. With one swift swing of the intruder’s hoof, the owl crashed onto the bed, knocked out. The figure then picked up Twilight in its blue magical aura before vanishing with her limp body.

Soon after, the door to Twilight's bedroom was kicked open, the frantic form of Time Turner bursting in with a face of extreme worry and fright as he looked around.

"Twilight!?" he shouted before he ran forward, looking over the knocked out form of the owl who had tried to protect his mistress. Luckily, he was not harmed...much. With an angered, heartbroken sigh, Time Turner turned around after propping the injured owl on his back before be raced out of the room.

~An undetermined amount of time later~

Twilight’s eyes slowly flickered open, the crusty, almost orange gunk that had grown in her sleep tumbling down her face to the floor below. The air was filled with musk, still and lifeless as few specks of dust floated in front of her vision. As the dreariness of her rest was slowing down, her eyes widening from the feeling of being suspended in the air, her wings trying to extend only to move a mere inch before hitting the binds of the wing shackles, she quickly came to realize that she was not in her home. Not in her bed with the stallion of her dreams, breakfast ready to be eaten downstairs. She was alone.

Her breathing soon became quick, thin while her eyes darted around the room she was imprisoned in. A small table filled with test tubes in their test tube holders, beakers with various amounts of coloured liquid in them as well as many other types of medical and scientific equipment was to her left, the blurred reflection of herself in the many glass objects coming back to her vision. She tried to speak but her fear caused no words to come out, panic slowly rising inside her core.

She then tried to use her magic to escape the imprisonment, the base of her horn beginning to glow as she prayed to all that was above her that this would work. That hope soon crashed and burned when her face turned to horror. She realized that it hadn't worked once she could feel the small ring on her horn, seamlessly negating her magic.

“What?! N-no!” Twilight mentally screamed, her eyes turning into pinpricks at the fact that she would not be able to get out of this, being trapped. Starting to tear up, the small wire connecting the ring to the table rustled through her fur, tickling a small bit. “..Where am I?” she then asked, desperate as she kept thinking over that question for far longer than necessary.

It was then that she heard the voices, robotic, genderless and cold.

“Alicornhood...Immortality...Perfection...” they repeated over and over again in a sort of sick, twisted rhythm, Twilight still trying to struggle out of her bonds while trying to make sense of the situation. But the only thing that came to her was emotion, drive to escape and nothing more. She could see the faces of her friends pop into her mind one by one, their smiling faces making her eyes water all the more as she was not there with them, not being able to enjoy her life with the ones she loved. She thought about how they would react to her being gone, she thought of the pure horror on Fluttershy’s face as she would cry. She thought of how Rarity would faint on the spot, how Applejack would organize a search party while Rainbow would try and find Twilight herself. She thought of how Pinkie Pie’s mane would deflate, her face turning ever so glum and depressed as she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.

The voices continued their hypnotic symphony of icy cold words as the sound of hooves clip-clopping on the hard metal floor below, the sound of the steel door sliding open to reveal the shadowy figure in the doorway brought sudden fear to Twilight’s face. She let out a gasp and the figure chuckled, walking forward with the door closing behind him.

“Ah, awake at last I see,” the figure managed to say as his chuckles died down. “I hope you enjoyed your rest, your majesty.”

“Wha-What’s going on?”

“Oh? And I thought you were the smart one,” The figure scoffed, looking away for a second before looking back. “To put it simply, you have been captured, by me.” He would then use his hoof and guide her eyes to his chest. “You following so far?”

“I’m not a foal!” Twilight snapped suddenly, anger swelling inside her but this caused the still unseen figure to chuckle again.

“I see that the drugs are working as intended,” The figure noted, sighing a happy sigh before looking at her, inspecting her body with his cold, icy eyes. “I imagine your emotions shall be nice and instinctive.”

“What do you mean?! Where’s Time Turner!?”

“Probably off trying to find you, that’s where.” The figure scoffed as he then stepped into her vision, revealing the tired and haggard looking Test Tube with small bags under his eyes. “Miserable fool thinks he’ll actually find you.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as more shock and confusion appeared in her eyes. “...T-test Tube?” she asked, baffled, flabbergasted, every word that could be used to describe this reveal was not enough for Twilight at the moment. "...W-why!?"

Test Tube chuckled again. “Oh, nothing special,” he began, walking straight to her, almost going face to face with the Alicorn. “Just because I need you in order to complete everything I’ve worked for the last year and a half!” he shouted, his voice cracking in anger, causing Twilight to wince in fear.

Test Tube then looked down, his breathing slowing down before he managed to calm down. “Forgive that outburst, your highness, you of all ponies should know how sleep deprivation can get to you.” He then turned around and looked at the table. “But, I don’t think we should start the experiment. For it shall be the last time we meet as the same ponies.”

Twilight looked confused at the words before Test Tube looked back into her eyes, his icy glare feeding the fear inside her. “...Bu-but,” Twilight began, looking nervous. “But when people find out I’m gone, they’ll search! My friends will stop whatever you have planned! The Princesses wi-”

“And what of the Princesses!?” Test shouted back, stamping his hoof into the ground. “What would they be able to do about what I plan to do?!”

Twilight was stumped, she didn’t know what to say. For all of her life, Celestia, Cadence and eventually Luna were there for her in either her studies, living or dreams. They were there to give guidance and support and the very idea of them not coming to her aid out of spite or lack of caring never came out as her jumbled conclusions to the question.

“I tell you what they’ll be able to do!” Test then answered, continuing on with his rant. “Nothing! Do you hear me!? Nothing!” This was followed by several long, tired breaths as Test calmed down once more, leaving his spot and going towards a large object with many different jagged points being visible under the old, dusty sheet that covered it. “I was hoping that I’d be able to explain myself under calm conditions, but it is obvious that I will not get that last pleasure.”

“What do you mean? You’re not making sense,” Twilight accused.

“You want an explanation for why you are here?” Test said, his voice cold, the sense of insanity in the air when he spoke. “This is why.” It was then he pulled the sheet off of the object with no thought of making it flashy. The item revealed caused Twilight to gasp in fright.

What stood on the small platform just a few feet away from her was a monolith of metal, standing just as tall as Celestia herself. Its hollow eyes remained dead and lifeless as it stood there, it’s hollow shell looked similar to that of an armored guard, but, instead of any design or elaborate touch, it was cold looking, practical. A long, spike that acted as a horn stood atop the body’s head, folded metallic wings staying firmly against the side of the husk’s body. Twilight looked at the thing with frightened awe before looking down at Test tube, not being able to see the smile on his face.

“Isn’t it glorious…?” Test Tube whispered, just loud enough to be heard as his voice echoed throughout the room. He stepped forward, placing a hoof on the front left hoof of the body as he continued. “...This...this will free us all.”

“But free us from what?!” Twilight shouted, the lack of knowledge she had about any of this infuriating her. “How will this free us if we already live in a peaceful land?!”

Test Tube looked like he was going to have another outburst, but he managed to calm down before so, clearing his throat. “You see, your highness...this will free us from the incompetence of the royal sisters...this will free us from being attacked and nearly enslaved, massacred and nearly made extinct every time a new threat is found or attacks.”

Twilight’s nose scrunched up at this. “...But we have the power of the Elements to stop any threat like that...can’t you see that?”

“But what if one of you were to die?” Test Tube asked, looking at her with annoyance. “What if one of you were to not be able to use your element in order to save your home? You are the perfect example right now, strapped to this table.” He then looked down. “Right now, as you are unable to unite with your friends, some force could be sweeping the nation as we speak, you would not be there to use the power of the Elements in order to make things right...Celestia was a fool to entrust such power onto easily brought down mares.”

Twilight was in shock by this, and even more so in shock that in some aspect, he was right. “...Take a main piece from a house of cards...” she began, letting the shock go.

“All the cards fall...” Test finished. “...That’s where I come in,” he then said, looking back at the metallic body he created. “I shall use that in order to make sure nothing like that happens again...I’ll make sure that we shall never live in fear again.”

“But...can’t there be some way besides doing this?” Twilight asked, looking at him with both concern and questioning on her face. “...I mean, do you really want to give up on your family and friends?”

Test looked up at her, growing sorrow in his eyes before he hung his head slightly, sighing. “...I took everything into account. My family, my friends...everything,” he admitted, walking towards her. “...I looked over everything, over and over,” he repeated. “This needs to happen...the only reason that Equestria came under threat multiple times was because of Equine error, and any future threats can be chalked up to Equine error.”

“But...that’s in our nature,” Twilight said in response. “That’s something we can’t really change.”

“Perhaps…” Test said with a small, sad chuckle. “I-is it sad that I memorized an entire speech to monologue to you about why this has to be done?”

Twilight looked at him, smiling slightly at his awkwardness. “...No Test, it isn’t,” she said with a motherly tone. “I would have done the same thing…”

But, instead of having the desired effect of calming the stallion down, Twilight’s comment only seemed to pour gasoline onto the kindling flame in Test’s eyes as he looked up at her with anger. “But you know what I bet would happen?” he asked as he turned around, looking back to the metal pony he created. “You would be forgiven...I wouldn’t.”

“Th-that’s not-”

“Oh, don’t try and weasel your way out with hogwash…” he almost spat. “You know it’s true…” He said with hostility in his eyes. "And that would be a simple moment when that would occur. But, let us say that our roles were switched.”

"T-Test...Ple-"

"You shut your damned mouth!" Test interrupted with a shout, pointing his hoof at her with rage behind it. "If you had captured me in order to bring peace to this land but it failed, you were caught, you’d be forgiven with the use of your contributions and status in society! Me? I’d be lucky if I were sent to the gallows!” He continued for a small bit before he stopped, his face full of anger, sadness and determination...that last part seemed the most frightening compared to the other emotions.

Twilight shot back in fear, scared, but as she thought about it, he was right in a way. She remembered the day she had a nervous breakdown, making everypony obsessed with her Smarty Pants doll, how she had been forgiven for the damage that she had caused. She couldn’t begin to imagine a situation where he would be forgiven in a similar manner, making her look down in a small amount of shame.

Then, her eyes shined. "But...this," she said, looking up to the metal abomination in front of her. "...Turning yourself into that? Is that what you really want?” she asked, causing the stallion to look her in the eyes for several moments, calming down during that amount of time. He sighed, turning his head to his creation while he seemed to be thinking, but Twilight couldn’t tell the subject of his thoughts.

"In order to save something you hold dear," he started, his horn glowing as he flipped a switch, causing the computer hanging on the wall to Twilight’s left to erupt in blue light as it came to life. “Sometimes, you need to make sacrifices...be that your life, or emotion...or self.” he then looked to the screen, five symbols starting to appear before the two.

Twilight stayed silent for a small bit as each symbol appeared, she didn’t need to be given a single second to recognise them. The cutie marks of her friends. The cloud and lightning bolt of Rainbow Dash, the three apples of Applejack, the three butterflies of Fluttershy, the three balloons of Pinkie Pie, the three diamonds of Rarity, they were all there.

Test looked at each one without emotion. “...Now...I think you are wondering wh-”

“WHAT THE BUCK DID YOU DO TO MY FRIENDS!?” Twilight shouted, her eyes practically going on fire as she flailed against her confinements, thrashing about so much that the leather straps cut against her skin a small bit. But, before more could be done, a large amount of electricity shot through her body, causing a scream of pain to escape her lungs as she fell limp against her binds. Quick, erratic breaths escaped her as she tried to recover, looking up slightly to see the annoyed eyes of Test.

“If you had let me finish…” he scolded, like a parent to a foal before he redirected his eyes to the screen. “I collected the very thing that made each of your friends a wielder of their element,” he explained simply, the explanation taking a few seconds to rest within the captive Alicorn’s brain. To say it in simple terms, her eyes widened slowly in realisation.

“...Wh-what did you do to them?” she repeated, her tone of voice filled with a kind of concern and worry that had never had left her mouth before. This tone seemed to be picked up by the young scientist as he sighed a bit, either in annoyance with her or himself, Twilight could not tell.

“I didn’t harm them, if that’s what you’re wondering…” Test said as he looked at the screen. “At least, not enough to have lasting effects...made Rainbow rather confused with an illusion spell that put her in a deep sleep, which allowed her to show her loyalty to you with a dream, made Fluttershy give a dying animal a last act of kindness and mercy by having her end it’s misery...other such things…”

His tone was cold, almost as much as the metal abomination that was still standing in Twilight’s vision, assaulting her with its presence anywhere she looked. She looked back to Test, her blood nearing the boiling point once more. “...You heartless monster…”

“Maybe...in your eyes,” Test retorted without thinking, he then hung his head a small bit before shaking it a little. “...but, I believe the time for talking is over,” he sighed, walking over to the computer while his horn suddenly illuminated its icy blue aura.

Twilight was secured tightly as she was engulfed in the blue magic, any movement caused pain. She began to hyperventilate as the ring attached to her horn suddenly came to life with a sickly green colour.

“You know...it’s funny…” Test said with a small, sickeningly happy smile as he put on a helmet. His magic aura mixed with the sickly green, lighting up the wire the ring was attached to, reaching the metal monster in a few seconds. “...getting your element is actually the most easy in concept...magic is easy to obtain. But...I wanted to wait for you to be last, gives it that little touch, you know?”

Twilight was too scared to answer, but before she could answer him, even if she had heard him through her fear, she screamed in complete agony, the feeling of her horn lighting up out of her control came to her instantly, the magic traveling through the wire alongside Test’s as they came to the crime against nature that was Test’s creation.

Test wasn’t faring much better, yelling out in pain as his magic flowed throughout the wire at a much faster, forceful pace. But, as it started it suddenly ended, no explosion of an overloaded mechanism, no insane laughter of success, just a simple thud.

As soon as the sound appeared, the forced extraction of Twilight’s magic stopped, it took all of the young Alicorn’s strength to lift her head to see the lifeless, limp body of the young scientist that had captured her. She couldn’t see his face as he was facing away from her, but she could tell that there was no life within him.

“...oh no…” she whispered to herself, but, as she began to worry about starving to death without any hope of getting out or anyone coming to help her...the sound of a heavy, metal hoof ravaged throughout the room, echoing several times over.

Twilight whipped her head towards the noise, two soulless, neon green eyes stared into her own. She gasped as the monolith of metal slowly walked towards her, each hoof scraping across the floor at an ear wrenching pace. As it came face to face with her, the smooth horn on its head glowed with same neon green as its eyes, small ones and zeros floated
along the green glow.

Twilight fell to the ground as her binds were broken, but she was too weak to run or fight...or to do anything at all, she heard a staticlike sound come from the being in front of her before it spoke.

“Good…” a masculine, staticy voice almost whispered, its wings unfurling and stretching out.

“Bow down to your new god…”

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed reading my story, I spent a good long while on it, despite how it's relatively short compared to others. I don't consider myself to be a good writer so I can use all the criticism I can get~ Please, if you have any criticism or see anyway I can improve in my writing, leave a comment.