Princess Twilight Sparkle blearily opened her eyes. She had no idea how she'd managed to sleep on the table. Maybe scientist Twilight had slipped her something before bed last night.

She turned her head and winced. Being strapped to a table for over 36 hours now was terrible for her neck, and her circulation. Her feet felt extremely swollen. Having feet that didn't end in hooves was weird enough, so it was all very unpleasant.

Even if the experiments didn't turn violent, she was going to be aching and swollen and just generally not feeling great for days and weeks after all this. Sure, Twilight had slept, but lab tables were terrible sleeping spots and she hadn't been able to move at all in the night. And even being an alicorn really just meant not getting old. She could still experience all the fun pains of being alive.

Ugh. She wondered what was in store for her today. Hopefully something that would let her move. Despite getting several hours of sleep, it was exhausting sleeping on this table.

Just as her eyes slipped shut again, the door opened. The scientist walked in, her hair pulled back into the same messy bun as yesterday. She looked newly determined though.

"Before we get started, I'm certain you've needs that we must attend to"

Twilight remembered the bedpan from yesterday. Great, tons of discomfort and awkwardness.

After getting fed, watered, and bedpanned, the day of experiments began.

Except, they weren't experiments at all.

"I've been going about this the wrong way. I'm assuming that there's something different about you," The scientist paused, "But we're the same. We're the same person. The same smart girl who loves to read, to organize things, and the same girl who works best entirely alone."

Twilight furrowed her brow. That last one was fake as hell.

"That's not true. The greatest things I've accomplished have been with the help of my friends. I'm nothing without the-"

"That's nice," the scientist looked bored, "but just imagine how much better off you'd have been alone. I would know. I'm the one with an extradimensional clone strapped to her table. I highly doubt you would've been able to do the same were we in a flipped situation,"

Twilight's face heated up in annoyance, "I wouldn't have strapped you to a table! I would've asked nicely before taking you into a lab and gathering biometric data!"

Her doppelganger looked annoyed now at their disagreement, so she changed the subject, "Anyway, today will be a bit different. Since I'm the one meant to be in this world, and magic can manifest here, I think that it's possible that I could make magic manifest more easily. So, teach me the incantations for magic."

Twilight blinked. And blinked again. "There's not... really an incantation for most spells?"

Feel the power within, focus it through your horn, and make possible what shouldn't be possible.

"In my own experience, my horn is a focus for my willpower into making things happen. Levitation spells, for example, I just see an object and think about where I want it to go. It's almost second nature for me. Even when I was learning, it all depended on my horn."

The scientist furrowed her brow. Twilight took this as an invitation to continue.

"I mean, sure, some spells have incantations, but for everyday usage a verbal component would be inconvenient. You know how you have hands? Ponies can kinda grab things with our hooves in a similar manner, but unicorns prefer to levitate things, since we can grab multiple things with just a thought. If I had to say something every time I wanted to look through my books, well I guess it'd probably be normal, but not as efficient as just thinking it." Twilight continued, her thoughts turning into a ramble.

The scientist continued to furrow her brow. Twilight was confused, until she followed the intent gaze of her doppelganger to a pen on the table. Was she trying to will the pen to float? That was just ridiculous, but then....

Ah, nothing happened. As expected, because this was the human world.

"How long did it take you to be able to use your magic?" the scientist asked, still focused on the pen.

Twilight thought about it. It had been a combination of accidentally doing things and trying to figure out how to purposefully do things, over the course of her entire foalhood.

"Years, though I could always get something to happen if I wanted it bad enough"

The scientist's eyes narrowed. She'd never had something like that happen to her. Her life had been average and academically oriented, but never had a book so much as fluttered when she wanted it badly enough.

"Within a few days of you arriving here, you were able to make magic happen. Not only that, but your friends were able to start using magic regularly," the scientist thought out loud. "The first time, you had a crown, and then the help of your friends/i]" a derisive tone on the word, "and the second time, you had music. Singing hasn't accomplished anything, and I don't play an instrument. There has to be another secret."

Princess Twilight sighed, "I'm sorry, Twilight. I can't explain how magic works here, only in Equestria. And they need me there. Will you let me go?"

Twilight the scientist turned around and looked at the princess, strapped to the table.

"No," she said, anger burning in her eyes.

"Why not? There's nothing more we can do here. You've taken biometrics. You've taken samples. You've tried magic," Princess Twilight argued, a little cranky and quite frustrated with this situation.

The scientist laughed. She laughed like the princess fighting back was the funniest thing she'd heard in weeks. Princess Twilight was a little worried at how long the scientist was laughing, but eventually the scientist regained her composure, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Oh princess, I've already told you that we've just begun! In fact, the lack of results just means we're going to get the joy of the more intense experiments!" The scientist was gleeful at the idea of more intense experiments.

This set the princess off, "Joy? Joy?! You're the only one enjoying yourself! I am not a lab rat, and even lab rats are often treated better than this! You say there's more? Well good luck, because I will find a way out, and I will make it back to Equestria and you'll have learned nothing!"

What Twilight didn't realize was that her outburst had caused various sensors to record higher readings of a few things: energy in the room, temperature, electricity.... The scientist had not deflated at all from her scolding -- in fact, she looked excited.

"Princess, you've proven one of my hypotheses. It is related to your feelings. I just need to get you to activate in whatever way possible, and I can collect your magic and use it! Oh, thank you so much for your cooperation, you won't regret a thing! Now I know for sure that I'll get results from more intense stimulus!" The scientist was giddy at this point.

Princess Twilight realized that letting her emotions out like that had, in fact, been a regrettable mistake.

What was it that Rarity's human counterpart would say when the most awful, horrible thing had happened?

Ah, yes.

Fuck.

Author's Note

today I realized I don't need to type 3k words every single chapter if I can't think of how to expand on it

Chapter 5 is where we finally get to have a proper mlp gore fic. :)