The divination team was running a series of tests on the Dowsing Circuit v.Mg to discern any background residual spells that may have had something to do with Everypony Equestria Round. So far, they hadn't detected anything, and Illesio was getting discouraged.

There's no way there could be any spells affecting them, she thought, the data adds up.

"Well, there could be an encryption on a spell," said Clear Sight, who had just appeared, "so we should probably check that too."

He took the Klaspmente out of an invisible, and most likely nonexistent, box next to him, and pressed a button on its handle. It folded up elegantly into a small slab of metal which he then slotted into a gap in the Dowsing Circuit.

Illesio watched in some interest as Clear Sight sat down, put his head in his hooves, and began muttering to himself too quietly to make out.

Quick Quill hovered over, and whispered, "He does this sometimes, it kinda freaks me out to be honest."

"Why, what's he doing?" asked Illesio.

"Oh, just mentally connecting himself to the machine and manually scanning Equestria for encrypted spell remnants. That's all."

They watched in silence.

Clear Sight stopped muttering to frown. He spoke up. "Hey...Crystal?"

"Yes?" answered Crystal Mirror, who had just walked over anyway.

"Calibrate the Circuit to extraneous frequency spectrum setting 42." Clear Sight looked like he was trying to remember something, or hold on to a thought that's nearly slipping away...hmmm.

Crystal turned a dial a few clicks, and Clear Sight immediately gave a triumphant shout. "AHA! Not at all what we were looking for, but there's something there!"

He hopped up and turned to face them. "There's some extremely specific eddies, not in magic, but in spacetime, that look far too planned to be anything but. Looks like we have a third party after all!"

Illesio sighed. "Whew, I had almost given up on the moral steadiness of ponykind."

"Yeah, well, let me have a closer look," Clear Sight replied, and returned to concentration.

Pinkie chose that moment to reappear. "Hey guys! Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

"Um, yes, actually," replied Illesio.

"Good! Because if you found something, that means I gotta get back to Sugarcube Corner, a pretty big order came in this morning. See ya!"

She blinked out of eyesight almost too fast for the eye to follow.

Clear Sight picked up his head again. "She's more of a nutcase than me, and I respect that. But Celestia, if she's not nosy. She's got creepily extensive records of everyone in Ponyville, and one day decided to extend that to ALPHA as a present. That took me three weeks nonstop to erase."

He got to his feet. "Nonetheless, good news. We now know what keeps things happening the same every time, but we got nothing on Everypony. Nothing seems to click."

"That's strange," said Illesio, "I was sure something was up..."

Clear Sight shook his head. "But I've tried every imaginable frequency, and nothing shows up, nothing...It's like something has been wiped from the face of the earth, but you can't even remember what...remember..."

He looked at Illesio. "What are you thinking?"

Illesio had a look of revelation on her face. "Try using the frequency of the Memory Fragment, its magic probably doesn't even fit on the spectrum at all."

Clear Sight stared.

"Now I'm mad I didn't think of that, that is genius," he said, and turning to the Dowsing Circuit, started taking it apart, looking at his necklace, fiddling with wires, and putting everything back into place.

The minute he did so, he gasped.

"No shiz," he said. "You were right."

On the magically constructed display screen, a flat line showed what the frequency should be...but high above it, a jagged red line moved slowly across the screen.

"No shiz," he said. "Looks like the Memory Fragment isn't the only Fragment, either."

He began a frenzy of observation around the Circuit, and finally walked over to the group. "Full report. First, the subject on reiteration similarity. Things are happening the same each memory wipe because of a disturbingly organized series of holes in space and time that set things to how they were the previous day. How, or why, this happens, is a mystery to me, and to be frank, it gives my stomach the butterfly effect."

"Second. Everypony Equestria Round is being controlled after all, but this is much more scary than I thought at first. Someone else with a Fragment is literally suggestively altering their psyches, to the effect of a run on our facilities every day we keep the memory wipes up. This Fragment seems to be focused on mind control, so I've dubbed it the Control Fragment." He ran his hooves through his hair. "That means we are extremely lucky the Memory Fragment can erase memories, because without that, our facility would already be a smoldering crater a mile wide and a few years in either direction long."

Everypony nearby had already stopped in shock.

There was a long pause as the full weight of the situation fell on their shoulders.

"But then, how does this Control Fragment not affect us?" asked Crystal Mirror.

"There's a extra-wavelength shield that protects the ALPHA building." Clear Sight answered. "I installed it myself, with a specific guard that I forgot I added to only allow one specific magic artifact, the Memory Fragment, to function through it. Basic magic works well enough, but anything too weird is out of commission inside."

He looked at Illesio with an expression that she wasn't able to place. "Now, I've got to go tell Res and the Bearers."

--<>-------Meanwhile at the other end of the room,-------<>--/

"Ok, when Clear Sight gets here, we'll have a clear picture of the situation," Res said. "Hopefully a new lead will come up."

"Perfect," replied Star Swirl, "Then we will be happy to help in any way we can."

Clear Sight walked out of thin air like it was a door, slamming it while he put away the Klaspmente and spoke to Res: "Good news Res, we know what's up. Bad news, it's really bad."

He quickly explained to everypony what exactly he had found out.

"To be honest," he concluded, "The thing that bothers me the most is the space-time holes. It just seems too convenient."

Res nodded. "I agree. There's a certain level of improbability, impossibility about it, that just makes it seem strange."

"Although," he added, "The less likely something is going to happen, the more probable it is that it will... Million to one chance? Improbable certainty, really I'm not surprised. Besides, this clears up our logic crisis."

"Well, I guess," Clear Sight responded. "But I just think it sounds too complicated and over the top, it doesn't have any good explanations, and it's freaking weird how all this turns up at the same time to resolve some existing problems and present us with new ones."

"Right now?" he continued, "We've got to figure out who has the Control Fragment and neutralize them before the Memory Fragment tears the world apart."

Res shrugged. "Well, I agree, it does sound over the top..."

--<>-------Reference Defence Association-------<>--/

Author's Note

Fun fact!

The Klaspmente was named after a failed prototype that instead of directing electrical signal to and from a small chip in the brain, rather physically fused with the brain as if one were a real unicorn. Clear Sight tried this, and after it failed spectacularly and rather morbidly, barely survived. He still has a scar, hidden by his hair.

---back to reality

See? Plot holes. What did I tell you?

Cheers cheerfully played on the theremin,
Betless