The Captain dragged her feet into the room, closing the ornate wooden door behind her. She knew she was finally alone and allowed her steps to grow slightly more forceful while passing the rows upon rows of archaeological, mythological and magical themed books that lined the wall to her right.

The smell of dust and ink permeated every inch of the room. Most people found it too unbearable but she didn't; she loved she smell of old books and knowledge.

The Captain sunk into her chair with a ragged sigh, her fingers clutched around the bridge of her nose. She felt as if she had gone six rounds with a tunnelworm. Eventually though, her eyes opened and she sat up, feeling as if she stayed like that any longer she would have most likely fallen asleep.

"Alright," she mumbled, pushing the shredded maps and scrolls across her desk to make some clear space.

The woman slid her hands down, under the lip on the table and pressed down on a pair of buttons expertly hidden. With a quick click and a hiss a panel popped up from the surface of her desk, leaving her an indent to pull on.

The captain's lips curled into a weary smile as she pulled open the compartment, letting a warm red glow emanate from inside to bathe the dimly lit room. "Not long now," she whispered, gazing into the compartment.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and the woman slammed the panel down, snuffing out the glow instantly. "Yes!" she growled, before reaching over to click her deskside light on. "Come in!"

The door opened and a lanky soldier urgently rushed in. "Ma'am," she said, saluting. He approached her desk and passed her a lightly filled folder with the word: 'Classified' stamped across the front in bright red. "The report just arrived from the northern passages."

The captain's eyes lingered on the stock still soldier, before taking the folder. Flipping it open a frown formed upon her brow as she began reading. Eventually though, it didn't take long before her frown morphed into a smile, her hand idly caressing over the panel.

"Finally."

***

It hadn't taken long for Twilight to calm down after Pinkie's surprise party had caught her by, well, surprise. The mare's mantra, which everypony knew by now, was 'In through the nose and out through the mouth.'

She had become quite good at it too, using it religiously to quell any nervous breakdowns that might arise from stress or duty related activities. Finally, after having taken a few seconds to compose herself, Twilight moved back into her Castle's map room.

All of her friends, as well as half of the town had turned up to see Twilight's twenty first birthday. The map room had been outfitted with Pinkie's very own custom party bomb surprise, which seemed to entail covering the majority of the room with streamers and balloons with entirely no regard for the cleaning staff! Several tables were laid out around the map to hold food and drink, with plenty of seating.

Instantly, her face was assaulted by a pink blur, causing her to jerk back! "Ohmygosh!" Pinkie began, leading to Twilight to let out a soft giggle. "Did you see your face! You were all 'Ahh!' then 'Haa', but now you're all happy!" Pinkie continued, imitating what Twilight had done to calm herself down.

The numerous villain attacks throughout the years had left a few scars on the mare that everypony looked up to. Despite this, she tried her best to keep that side of herself hidden whenever necessary.

Holding her hoof up to her friend's chest, she gently moved her back to give herself some breathing room and smiled. "Thank you, Pinkie," Twilight said, her smile growing, then glanced around at everypony, who returned it with a concerned smile. "And everypony else here. Now, let's have a great party!"

The mare would most likely be lying if she said she didn't just want a nice night in with her five best friends, but she couldn't really say no now, not since it's her own surprise party.

Twilight quickly found herself at the drinks table, pouring herself some punch when Applejack humbled up beside her. "Heya, Twi. Enjoying yourself?" she asked, nudging her slightly. "I know it's a bit much, but Pinkie just couldn't help herself."

Rolling her eyes, Twilight sipped her drink. "She tries her best to put a smile on my face nowadays. Work had been horrible. The gryphons have been more aggressive and," Twi seemed to remember herself and sighed. "Sorry. I shouldn't be talking about work at a party.

AJ poured herself a cup of punch as she listened, then sneakily looked around. "I probably shouldn't do this, but I brought some of the stronger stuff to liven this up, want some?" The mare pulled out a hip flask and sloshed it about. "It'll help you relax, just for tonight."

Twilight bit her lip and looked a little worried. "I don't know," she began staring it at for a second, then back to her friend. "I don't want to make a fool out of myself."

"You won't, I promise!" AJ replied, lowering her voice and pouring a tiny amount in Twilight's drink. "It's about time you relaxed. Even Celestia relaxes now and again."

"I guess you're right," Twi said, more to reassure herself than anything.

Suddenly she found herself stumbling through the halls, giggling to herself and letting out a hiccup. She just didn't know where the night went! "Damn Pinkie," she mumbled, dragging her hooves as she neared her bedroom and that holiest of places: her bed. Yet, from the corner of her eye she spotted a glint. A glimmer of something intriguing caught her attention. Even drunk Twilight can't help herself.

Pushing through the door to one of her laboratories, the mare caught herself against a table and found the contents of her stomach forcefully exiting her body with a chunky splat. Pulling herself up and groaning, Twilight could now see what caught her attention for what it was: A glowing, hoof sized silver orb on the far table that bent light around itself.

Stepping over her mess, she cautiously moved closer. "Strange," she mare whispered to herself. The closer she moved, the more she felt she was being pulled towards the object. Twi found her hair flowing towards she object and she took a few safety steps back, realising that maybe it was for the best, seeing the empty desk it was hovering on. There was a whole experiment there this morning.

Twi glanced about and hovered over a parchment and quill to begin writing. "Silvery surface," she said, letting out a burp. "With a strange gravitational pull of its own," she muttered, quill scribbling frantically. "I wonder if," she continued, but found the gravity increase. "Ahh!" she cried upon feeling herself pulled towards the orb; her hooves giving no purchase on the smooth crystal floor.

With one last ditch effort, the mare flared her horn and blasted the orb in an attempt to crystallise it, neutralising any magic it might possess! The magical blast neared the surface and bent around the event horizon, circling back and striking twilight in the chest.

The last thing she felt as she fell into the orb was agony while her flesh flash-crystallised, creaking solid.

***
Alice sat on the edge of Salvation, just like she did every morning and gaze out across the vast landscape. Ruins littered the seemingly endless forest that stretched on in all directions in front of her. Behind her laid the rest of Salvation; the only city. It was a mishmash of thousands of different cultures and technologies that shouldn't have worked, but had found a tenuous balance in the fact that the outside world was littered with death and decay that most people would balk at.

Alice leaned forward onto the bottom rung of the railing and held her caramel-toned hand out. Focusing, it slowly glowed a soft gold which flickered, tiny arcs of electricity jumped across her skin. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a smooth pebble before placing it in her glowing palm. She then narrowed her eyes at the stone, willing her magic to do something, anything, but found that the pebble barely wobbled.

The girl let out a groan and clenched her hand around the stone, quickly wincing at the midday siren that screeched across her burough. Her shift had ended.

Gripping the rusted support beam next to her, she pulled herself up and brushed the rust that had clung to her overalls, before running her hand through her dark red hair to make sure she was clean. Making her way back inside the factory, the harsh sound of iron scraping upon iron assaulted her ears once again. She then wandered past the rusting conveyor belts and the metal presses and into the back room where she kept her backpack.

"Now now, where do you think you're going?" a feminine voice asked as Alice's collar was tugged on, the voice dripping with smugness.

Letting out a groan, Alice turned around to face the voice. "What do you want, Vess?" she asked, looking rather irritated towards the light blue Velonien.

Vess, the assistant to the regional manager grinned and gestured to the office that sat high above the factory floor. She was one of many Veloniens living in the borough. Not many species enjoyed their company, finding their shrill laughs to be quite unpleasant as well as their twitching back tentacles and their aversion to clothing.

"He wants to see you," the woman said, giving a chuckle, to which Alice gritted her teeth. "You're really in the shitter now." with that, she plodded off, rather content.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Alice began to make her way up the stairs and catwalk which led to her bosses office. There was really only two reasons anyone was called into the office: they were either hired, or fired.

Stopping outside of the office, Alice did one last pat down to make sure no rust was left on her and prayed to the divine that she would make it out of there okay. She reached up and knocked on the metal door, waiting to be let in. Less than ten seconds and she could hear bolts unclamping from the other side and the door opening with a quiet creak.

Gently opening the door some more, she entered the cool room. Unlike the dirty and boiling factory, the room was spotless of dirt, a soft carpet underfoot as well as a cool breeze that Alice couldn't quite pinpoint.

Moving towards the desk, a voice on the other side, behind a high-back leather chair called out. "Sit, Ms Escott."

Nervously swallowing, she did as she was asked and sat down in the equally pricey chair.

"Do you know why I hired you?" the voice asked, causing Alice to grow anxious.

"Because I'm a fast learner, sir?" she replied, realising where their conversation was going.

The chair spun around to reveal her boss. From Alice's perspective, her boss looked pretty average, with the only thing of note is the expensive clothes. "I hired you because you don't ask questions and you were strong. Both good traits in the borough." He stops for a second to scribble on a form. "But, as the borough grows, so does the potential I can hire. So, effective immediately you are dismissed from the factory. Please leave."

Alice knew it was coming, but those words crushed her. She didn't know what she would do. Standing up, she made her way out of the office, only taking one glance back at her boss before closing the door.

She felt as if he was in a trance as she gathered her belongings from the back room, trying to ignore everyone else, and made her way towards the exit. She had put in so much of her time here and to just be tossed aside. It may have been just a factory job, but it meant stability.

Passing by the intake pipe, Alice stopped as a glint caught her eye. Momentarily forgetting her problems, she moved closer and brushed the rubble and scrap metal aside to find a palm sized, silver orb untouched by the filth and dirt. Reaching in, she heaved the deceptively heavy orb up and turned it around having found it completely smooth with her reflection curved upon its surface. "Weird," she mumbled, glancing around to see if anyone, namely Vess, had spotted her.

Deciding to take her little piece out of the factory, Alice opened her backpack and stuffed the orb inside before exiting the factory.

She rushed back home, a tiny shack on the south side of town situated between a steam vent and a tannery. "Home sweet home," she muttered, giving the tiniest of chuckles.

Her place was as homely as she could make it without wasting her money. All she could really afford was one bed, a small washbasin, a rather plush rug and a work table currently covered in bits and pieces of ancient technologies which had been found outside of the city.

Sitting down at her work table, Alice opened her backpack and pulled the orb out. Placing it on the table, she found that it gently hovered just above the surface. "Woah," she whispered, reaching over to pull a screwdriver over and slide it under to make sure she wasn't imagining it.

She looked over at the other-world tech scattered about and let out a thoughtful hum. "Well, here goes nothing," the girl said, taking a deep breath and letting it out as she raised her hand and placed it flat across the orb, focusing her magic to life.

Author's Note

Greetings dear reader,

I have been on hiatus for a very long time, but I'm back to provide you with a (hopefully) rather long tale.

This is just the prologue and I have plenty more to come soon. But for now, please enjoy the teaser!