What was Missing

Ponyville
Morning

Quick Break was a serious pony. She was serious about the guard, she was serious about her job, and she was just as serious about this latest posting. Some other ponies thought it a pointless task, but what others saw as pointless, she saw as ‘enduring in its importance’.

The Wellspring was a part of an abandoned project from about thirty years ago, but unlike the other sites from the failed mission, this one still held a potentially active link to whatever was on the other side. The details were classified, but her job was to maintain security of the site and monitor the Scion to see if it varied in any way.

There was a series of observations that had to be made using sensitive equipment supplied by the Academy, but other than that, her main task was site security.

Previous guards had shirked their duty in many respects. It came with a cottage outside the small hamlet of Ponyville, and due to the secret nature of the task it required the guard to not openly wear a uniform, or disclose that they were a member of the guard.

Everypony in town knew it was the case however, as she was welcomed into town with a party naming her as the ‘new guard in town.’ When she had reported this grievous miscarriage of operational security to her chain of command, they dismissed the allegations and told her to enjoy her stay.

She also suspected that the reports that were returned to command three times a week were mostly fabricated, as the output and size of the Scions singularity hadn’t changed in the entire time it had been monitored since the project was shut down.

She had set about ensuring that wasn’t the case whilst she was in charge. Quick made her way into a green painted garden shed at the back of the cottage’s garden and opened its wooden door. She lit the crystal lantern by tapping it twice with a hoof and closed the door behind her.

Before her stood a steel door that rivaled that of the guard’s most secure armories. It was a cumbersome effort for a pegasus to open, but she set about twirling dials and shifting wheels with practiced ease. Eventually the bolts retracted with a ‘Clang’ and she flapped her grey wings to aid her in opening the heavy door.

She trotted into the heavily fortified cavern, hidden from the outside by shrubs and the natural rock that backed on to the property. It only took a glance at the somewhat smaller glowing ball of magic to know that something was wrong.

A chill ran down her spine as she quickly checked the access counter on the wall by the side of the door. Nopony had been into the cavern since she had last left, leaving local interference out of the equation. She flicked her wings and hovered over to the equipment against the right side of the room.

All systems seemed to be functioning correctly, so she began to rummage through the paper scrolls that now lined the floor.

“No, no, no, no! This isn’t right, it can’t be!” she exclaimed, running the paper through her hooves.

The singularity wasn’t drained from this side, but the other side of the portal. Something she understood could only happen if a unicorn was drawing on it from the other side. She was also led to believe that this was almost entirely impossible.

She looked across at the portal and frowned. ‘Well, unlikely just became worst case scenario, because guess what…’ she thought, ‘Somepony is knocking on my door, and this little pony needs to let command know the big bad wolf is on its way.’

***

Middlemis Household
6pm

Stuart stood squinting at her monitor, framed by its light in the darkened office. She watched the video play out on how to measure bust size and then looked down at her furred breasts and the fiberglass tape wrapped around them. She seemed to be doing it right, but fiddled about with the tape again to measure it a second time.

Under bust was easy, it made sense, but measuring her bust was fraught with inconsistencies. She wasn’t a hundred percent on how exactly it was meant to go around her back, and what she was supposed to be doing when she measured them. Arms up or down? Should she be supporting them? Pressing them together to get the maximum volume, or letting them just hang and measuring the widest point?

In the end, she measured them all and took a mean average. It seemed to fall into a predictable range on the sizing chart, so she logically decided to go with that. Sitting back down at the computer, Stuart inputted the sizes for the items already picked out on the screen, and filtered through checkout. They were all being delivered to her PO Box in town, so it kept things nice and easy.

It took all of about five minutes.

She stood and walked over to the sliding glass door and stared out over the back of the house. The computers glow behind her reflected enough light to prevent a clear view, but the clear night and waxing moon lit the gorge in silvery hues and washed out gray’s. She couldn’t make out any glow from the cave below, which she decided made sense.

Whatever had happened had caused the light to extinguish, but still… but the cave was still there, and if anyone else found it, it could cause issues.

While there was no longer any risk from the magic that used to reside in the cave, she couldn’t really explain away the strange cave and the weird well that was at its core.

She stepped away from the mirror and flicked on a cheap A4 laminator that sat neglected in one corner of her desk. While it warmed up, she opened a word-processing program and made a rudimentary ‘Danger, Keep Out’ sign. She played with it a bit to make it look a little more legitimate with borders and a fine ‘Glenmour City Council’ textbox outside the margins to add to its authenticity.

Figuring that it should keep most orderly people from investigating too far, Stuart fished out some laminating sheets and ran the makeshift warning sign through the machine.

She wandered into her bedroom and took out an old set of track pants that fit around her rounder posterior, and a quick snip with the scissors below the elastic meant she could slide them on over the boxer briefs she was wearing backwards to fit.

A loose T-shirt and the hoody from the other night followed, and she made her way back down to the office to pick up the sign and shut down the laminator.

After a quick reflection on the task at hand, Stuart grabbed an old blanket from the spare room and his torch, new batteries replacing the old ones that had seen better days.

With that, she flipped her top’s hood over her distinctive mane and made her way back down the block, taking extra care at the fence, as hooves do not make climbing a fence easier, nor a tail any less perilous.

Making her way down, she managed to find the cave again with little trouble. Stuart began to feel a little apprehensive standing so close its mouth. She’d just come down to cover it up in case it began to glow again, but just being near it gave her a shiver down her spine.

It was stupid. She’d go down there and prove to herself that there was no point fearing the unknown… right? With a gulp, she set down the blanket and makeshift sign and ducking down, shuffled forward into the cave entrance.

Shining her torch down the rocky slope, Stuart clambered down to the chamber below. It was much as she had left it. However, the mote of energy that had returned to the strange tree when she made the change back now hovered where the much larger ball once did. The pool at its base however, still remained wholly unremarkable.

Stuart moved closer to get a better view of the small glowing light, avoiding the water in the pond. As she got closer, she could feel a distinct pull at her horn. Curious, she looked up at her orange horn and lit her magic.

Almost right away, she could make out a tiny thread of magic connecting her horn and the small blue speck. As she watched, she could visually tell that the orb was growing as it increased in brightness. Despite it not really drawing too much, she thought it prudent not to mess with it and shut off her magic.

***

Ponyville
Evening

Things advanced quickly since Quick had made her report. Her Lieutenant had bought in more guards, and even the Academy had got involved, all moving into her house and setting it up as a base of operations in case anything came of the attempted transfer.

She now sat in the main chamber of the Vault with alongside an Academy egg-head. Most would have begrudged such a task, but when Quick was ordered to babysit while the Lieutenant stayed in comfort in her house, she was secretly thrilled.

A real opportunity to do the task she had been assigned, guarding against a real threat and making observations that mattered. She sat in front of an array of machines that measured all sorts of data coming from the Scion. It was her shift, and the academic was snoozing on a cot in the corner.

Quick was busy considering all the likely outcomes of this scenario when the machine she was seated at gave a beep as paper began to feed out.

“Contact!” she barked, causing the unicorn in the corner to give a squeak as she tumbled from the makeshift cot.

Quick Break whirled about and stood in front of the pool, her hooves splayed and her head low, with her wings at the high ready.

“Get the L.T, we have an attempted bridge!” she shouted over her shoulder as the dusty brown unicorn found her hooves.

She could hear the clatter of hooves and distant shouting as the other mare left. Just as soon as it had started, the machine shut itself off. Quick relaxed her posture, but remained at the ready despite the machine indicating the threat had passed.

A pair of hoofbeats made their way through the entrance before the Lieutenant’s voice barked “Report!”

“Machine recorded an access attempt from the far side, Sir, but it stopped shortly after. Longer duration than last contact, but Scion and pool remain unchanged and the port key doesn’t seem to have been affected.”

The Lieutenant remained silent, considering his next move.

“Alright, all this equipment bar the phase transfer reader I want out. This facility is to go into lockdown. Two at a time minimum in this room, and the door will remain locked at all times.”

“For now, once this equipment is out, we are waiting for backup. No one in or out. I have to go face to face with command on this one, and I’ve got to go find a specialist. We have a protocol for this,” he finished, “Now get to work, and remember, lock it down once you’re done.”

***

Glowing pool
7pm

Stuart stepped back away, and almost instantly the pull on her horn stopped. She stood staring at the ball of magic to see if it did anything, but ended up shrugging and turning back and returning to the surface.

Flapping out the blanket from before, it became obvious it wouldn’t remain there unsupported. Stuart fetched some saplings and branches from the edge of the slip and stacked them up over the entrance. Draping the blanket over top, she secured the edges with some stones, and used the last of the branches to help support the structure.

Securing the makeshift sign on one of the branches, Stuart was satisfied that it should help block any light. Her task done for the night, she headed back up to the house. A shower and then bed time. She had work in the morning, and it was going to be a full day.