The Spirit Crusaders

"Right then! So, what's the first step in recreating this Holo-World thingy?" I ask as we conclude our firm hoofshake. I put my hooves at my hips as I stand up on my hindlegs with an eager smile.

"Well," Lexi begins. "We would first have to get a good reading of your magic. You know, to find out exactly how powerful it really is"

"And how do we do that?"

"Simple! I've got a neat little invention back down in The White Room that'll do the trick!"

"Great! Then let's not waste any time! Here, grab on!" I extend my hoof out to Lexi. She gazes at my hoof for a moment with a questioning look, though shortly after, she takes hold of it. "You too, Void!" I hold my other hoof out to him and he takes it. In a mere instant, I teleport us right back down to The White Room. Lexi's eyes blink a few times from the sudden flash. She gazes about in awe after having realized how instant we arrived.

"Wow! That was so instant! I can hardly believe it!" She states gleefully.

"Told you she was talented at teleporting," Void states.

"Alrighty! So where is this little doohickey?" I turn my attention towards the area where all the inventions are placed.

"Give me just a moment! I'll bring it out! She trots over towards the area and rounds the corner of some of her inventions. She's completely out of sight for a few short moments while we begin to hear the sound of metallic scraping against the floor. Shortly after, Lexi comes around the corner, pushing a large metal machine that's twice her size. She appears to be struggling to push it over to us.

"That thing ain't little at all!" I claim with a flabbergasted look.

Lexi stops pushing the machine. "Oh, silly me! I guess you're right! Sorry for mis-" She tries to push it again. "-leading you!" Her voice strains as she pushes.

"Uhhh, do you need some help?" I ask with a brow raised.

"No no! It's fine, urgh, I.. got... It!" She pushes it closer and closer until it reaches near Void and I. "Ahhh, there! Phew!" Lexi takes a moment to pant. She brings a hoof up to wipe her forehead as it seems pushing that thing made her break a sweat. "Now then, here it is!" Lexi lightly pats the side of the machine.

"Wow . . . so this is the thing, right?" I inquire.

"Indeed it is! This here device is what we're going to use to read your magic! I call it--! Eh.. well.. I don't exactly have a name for it, buuut all you need to know is that I can use this machine to tell how potent your magic is!"

"Can this thing really do that?"

"Certainly! I don't see how it could possibly fail!"

"Great! So... how exactly does it work?" I look back at the machine to take a gander at its design. The machine seems to resemble a rectangular shape standing up on its side. On the left side of it, where Lexi is standing, appears to be a panel with a few buttons on the side of it. Upon the back of the machine, there appears to be some sort of seating pit attached to it where somepony could sit inside. "Well, you see, Flurry Heart, in order for this thing to read your magic, you first need to put your magic into the machine!" Lexi presses a button on the side panel to turn on the machine. After it powers up she presses a different button to open up the panel, revealing an oddly peculiar internal design. Some of the intricate wiring can be seen within the opening and there appears to be some sort of metallic indentation where something can be slotted inside.

"And in order to do that, we first need to put your magic inside of this little glass co-" Lexi stops mid sentence once she realizes that there is nothing inside the slot indentation. "Wh-Where's the container?" She closely inspects the inside as if she might find it in there. "It's not in here? Where did I put it?" Lexi looks back at the pile of inventions. She then hastily trots back over to the pile and begins to search.

"What are you looking for?" I tilt my head at her as I ask.

"I'm looking for this special glass container that I made specifically for holding magic! It's designed so that any sort of magic can be contained in it without the glass breaking and without risk of any magical calamities. I also made them so I can easily transfer magic into machines, kind of like the one on the giant cannon over there," Lexi takes a moment to point at the canon before continuing her search. "I'm sure I have some spares lying around here somewhere!"

"Well, why don't you just use that container?"

"Well, firstly because it's too big to fit into the magic reader. Secondly because it's already filled up with my own magic. And right now, I can't exactly take back my magic from it. That's kind of a process to do so"

"Can you describe the thing you're looking for? Maybe I can help you look"

"It's about yea long, looks like a cylinder made of glass, and it has two metal casings on both ends to allow it to clip nicely into the slot of the machine," She describes whilst gesturing her hooves to match the description as best she can.

"Alright," I take a step forward to go help her look but I immediately stop and turn my head left to gaze at the opened panel. I give a pondering look at the opening, then I step closer to examine it more thoroughly.

"Hmmmmm," I put a hoof to my chin, thinking. Then afterwards I reach my hooves into the machine and use them to measure the distance between the top of the slot to the bottom.

"What are you doing?" Void questions.

"Measuring! Aaand speeding this up!" I say as I measure the general length and width of the indentation.

"Measuring?"

I then take a step back and put my hooves together and begin to rub them softly. My hooves then begin to give off a softly bright cyan glow and little sparkles begin to shimmer around the glow. I clasp my hooves firmly together now as the glow emits a rising yet soothing hum.

"What are you-" Void watches in awe, unable to finish his sentence from the sight of the beautiful glow.

"I know I have some spares lying around here somewhe-" Lexi stops her search as the glow catches her attention, causing her to look back at the beautiful sight.

After a moment of magic gathering, I slowly begin to part my hooves away from each other. Between my parting hooves, a crystallized object begins to formulate its length between the distance of my hooves. The object begins to take a rough shape of a crystal cylinder with slightly jagged edges on the surface. The ends of the crystal are slightly pointed while inside the crystal appears to be hollow and even see through. Once I finalize the formation of the crystal I take hold of it from underneath with my right hoof.

"Woah . . . Was that... Crystal Magic?" Void asks while pointing at the crystal.

"Yessiree!" I look to him with a smile.

"Wow!" Lexi says while walking over. "What are you gonna use that for?"

"Simple! Since you can't find your little glass thingy and since I'm eager to get started right away, I figured I'd just make a crystal that will work instead!"

"Really? Your crystals can do that?"

"From the way you described your little glass containers, they seem to work similarly to how my crystals do! My crystals can be used to hold magic and can even conduct magic through them!"

"Does that mean, with that crystal-" Lexi points to it. "You're going to-"

"Eyup! You guessed it! Now bare with me for just a moment," I look down at the crystal with a smile and grasp it a bit more firmly. I then lower my head a tad, angling my horn closer to the crystal. I also close my eyes and my expression turns into a more serious look as I begin to focus. My horn begins to emit a golden light at first. Following up with the golden glow, a vibrant pink and cyan also emerge from my horn and begin to merge with the golden light, creating a trio of combined colors. The warm glow illuminates the full white room with the mixing hues of the three colors. For a brief moment, all of the colors shift to white simultaneously before shifting back to their original state. Void and Lexi can't help but to watch in awe. Their jaws dropped slightly and their eyes can't look away from the vibrant glow. The magical essence of the glow begins to leave my horn and flow into the crystal. The crystal begins to fill up with the essence of My Alicorn Magic. The glow from my horn soon stops emitting once the crystal becomes full. I open my eyes again and lift my head up with a smile. The crystal itself, now filled with light pink magic with traces of cyan and gold particles flowing around inside.

"Woooooow... that felt so... incredible!" Lexi claims.

"Indeed... I feel this strange sensation in me from being near such magic from it having been emitted," Void adds on while looking at his hooves. It seems both Void and Lexi have this strange sensation running through them from having such exposure to such raw Alicorn Magic. They both inspect their bodies as the sensation lingers.

"Yeah, Alicorn Magic is pretty potent! Believe it or not, this is just a small portion of it!" I hold up the crystal and even shake it slightly.

"D-Don't.. drop it now," Void nervously says.

"Oh relax," I say as I begin tossing the crystal up in the air and catching it in the same hoof. "I'm absolutely not going to drop-WOAH!" I purposely let it slip from my hooves and catch it with my magic before it hits the ground. Lexi and Void tense up and even try shielding themselves. I look to them with a smug grin.

"Hehehe! Gotcha!" I laugh. Lexi and Void let out an exhale of relief and untense themselves.

"If I may say, Please, don't do that again. I beg you," Void worriedly asks.

"Heh, relax. You don't gotta worry about a thing! Even if I did drop it, it wouldn't explode. The magic would just flow back into me. Unless of course I turned this crystal into some sort of bomb with my magic, which I can do," I claim with an innocent smile as I grasp the crystal with both my hooves.

"Right, eheheh," Void nervously chuckles.

"J-Jokes aside, you're planning on putting that into the machine, right? Does it even fit?" Lexi asks.

"Dunno! Only one way to find out! I do feel like I measured correctly, so-" I approach the machine and try to slot the Alicorn Magic filled crystal inside the machine. Surprisingly enough, it fits perfectly. "-Hyah! There we go! See? Fittin' like a mitten!" I then stand proudly.

"Excellent!" Lexi exclaims. "This means we're all set to read your magic!" Lexi then climbs up to the top of the machine and sits herself down in the seating chair of the machine. She pulls out her little blue screwdriver and inserts it into a slot, then turns it, activating the machine fully. The machine makes a powering up sound and Lexi begins typing away on the control panel.

"Right then... Let's begin the magic reading!" She states eagerly whilst waving a hoof into the air, then bringing it back down to press a button. As she presses it, the machine begins to make a rising humming sound and the crystal inside begins to glow brighter.

"Hoohooo! I can't wait! You know, I always wanted to figure out exactly how powerful my magic really is," I say while eagerly awaiting the results.

"And with this hefty machine, that's entirely possible!" Lexi types away on the control panel. The humming sound grows louder and even begins to raise in pitch.

"I'm a might curious myself. Are you sure it can even be read, mother?" Void asks Lexi.

"I don't see why not!" The machine makes a few beeping sounds and Lexi looks back down at the screen. The machine gets louder and the crystal glows even brighter. "Wow! The scales are already off the charts! I've never seen anything like it!" The machine continues to rise in its pitch as we speak.

"The anticipation is exciting!" I say. The machine gives a few more sounds coming from the control panel.

"Alright! In just a few more moments, we'll have a read on exactly how powerful your magic really-" Suddenly, the controls before Lexi start sparking and almost immediately after, the machine explodes. Black smoke and ash puff up from the explosion and the machine itself emits rising clouds of more black smoke. Void and I shield ourselves with our hooves from the initial explosion the moment it happens, tightly shutting our eyes as to not get any ash in them. I start coughing as I breathe in a bit of smoke and begin waving my hoof in front of me to clear it.

"Ack! What in the-Krgh!-hay just happened?" I say, coughing through my words.

"Urgh!" Void coughs and tries to wave away the smoke as well. His eyes shoot open widely as he looks over to the machine. "MOTHER!" He shouts as he rushes over to the machine near where Lexi was sitting. The smoke clears and Lexi is sitting in the seat still with her eyes closed, completely covered in black ash. Her perfectly white lab coat, now stained in a dirty black mess. Her face seems to be wincing from the blast. Lexi then opens her eyes and blinks a few times, taking a moment to process this. Her eyes look like two lights lighting up in darkness with how much ash she's covered in.

"Oh my gosh! Lexi! Are you okay?!" I step closer to the machine to check up on Lexi. "I-I'm sorry! This has to be my fault! I didn't know my magic would make the machine explode! I swear I-" Lexi makes a momentary chuckle which cuts me off.

"Uhm . . . Lexi?"

"M-Mother?"

"Ooohhhohohohohooooh!" Lexi then breaks out into giddy laughter as she begins clapping her hooves together and even gleefully kicking her hind hooves on the ground of the seating pit. Void and I look flabbergasted at Lexi's child like giddiness.

"This is WONDERFUL!" Lexi exclaims excitingly.

"It-... It is?!" I question.

"Wooo! I knew your magic would be pretty powerful, BUT I DIDN'T EXPECT IT TO BE THIS POWERFUL! It completely DESTROYED my machine!"

"Eh-Sorry about that.."

"Don't be sorry, Flurry Heart! This is GREAT news!"

"It is?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

"H-How so?" Void asks.

"Because! If her magic is enough to completely break my machine, then it should be MORE than enough to create the Holo-World Generator!"

"You really believe so, mother?"

"Most certainly!"

I continue my flabbergasted expression towards Lexi. "This mare was just caught in an explosion from her machine and she's happy about it? She just gets more and more strange by the moment. Honestly though, I kinda like that," I state to myself in my own thoughts.

"A-Are you sure you didn't injure yourself or something, mother? I've haven't seen you this excited in a long time"

"Oh I'm fine! That didn't even hurt at all! Though I'm going to need a shower and run a wash on my coat! But all in all, I'm perfectly fine!"

I sigh in relief. "Hoh, good"

"Right then!" Lexi swiftly hops out of the seating pit and approaches the panel where the crystal is being held. There inside, the crystal is perfectly fine as well as the Alicorn Magic within. "Seems like everything is in order still! Nothing TOO major!"

"So, what happens now?" I ask.

"Well, now I have a bit of a task to do! I'm going to rebuild this machine-" Lexi pats the machine. "-so that it will be able to read Alicorn Magic without it exploding!"

"Can you really do that with the time we have?"

"Sure! Not a problem! This machine is easy to rebuild! As for the modifications I'll have to make, I'll need to increase its internal capacity for magic conductivity. It's going to need A LOT if it's going to handle your magic! Plus, a new reinforced frame that can maybe suppress any unstable expansion of magic as it flows through the machine. Oh! And definitely some enhanced magic stabilizers to make sure it doesn't go haywire! MUCH more enhanced than what was already installed! I am working with Alicorn Magic now, after all! All can be done in the span of a few hours to, at most, a day"

"A day, huh?"

"Yes, but if it comes to that, it hopefully shouldn't be a hinderance towards our time of making the Holo-World Generator as a whole. It's actually making the invention that worries me. Plus, I'll need to get this mess here cleaned up before I can begin. And since the crystal is intact, you can leave the rest to me!"

"What should I do in the mean time?"

"Well since I now need to get some new parts for this machine, I suppose you could just go and do whatever you like! The repair process will take some time as I stated and I wouldn't want that to bore ya"

"So, I suppose I should come back tomorrow?"

"Sounds like a plan! I'll definitely have this ready by then! Plus, I'm sure you have other things to take care of"

My eyes widen a tad as I recall some stuff I indeed do need to get to at some point. "You're right," I say with a nod. "I have school work," I tilt my head downwards and put a hoof to my chin. "Though, technically it's... homework," I say in a quieter tone.

"Who am I to hold up a Princess from her duties, right? Heheh!" She gleefully states with a shrug.

"Hehe, alright well if that's all there is to it then I'll leave you to your repairs! I'll drop by the same time tomorrow and we can fully get this project underway!"

"Lookin' forward to it!"

My horn begins to emit a golden glow, readying to teleport on out of here. I look to Void and give him a send off salute.

"Catcha later!"

"Take care, Flurry," Void smiles.

"Oh, and before I go," I turn my head to Lexi. "Lex, you got a little some'mmm right-" I gesture my hoof all round my own body and give Lexi a smirk. "-here," She merely smirks back and I teleport away from sight.

I reappear out on the terrace of their penthouse, looking back at it with a smile. I then face forward and step closer to the area where we all had our little 'discussion' with Brisk. I look down at the large cracks on the ground that he made from his landing. I then look nearby where I see the pile of bits still sitting there on the ground, the one left by Astral. I look towards the edge and see that he's no where to be found.

"Hmm," I step closer to the bits and bend down to pick them up. I inspect them for a moment as I begin to hatch an idea. I firmly grasp my hoof over the bits and bring them under my right wing, using it to hold onto the bits for later. My horn glows and I poof my way back to The Crystal Empire.

After returning to the main hall of The Empire once again, I decide to go look for my mom and tell her about all the things I've experienced today so far while visiting Void's home. I, of course, go check her lounge again to see if she's there. I reach the door and knock gently.

"Come in!" Cadance's voice from inside calls out.

I open the door and peak inside. "Hope I'm not interruptin' anything important!"

"Oh! hello, sweetie!" She says happily at the sight of me.

"Yeah, good to see ya', Flurry!" Shining Armor, who's sitting beside Cadance, holding her closely, says to me with a smile. Cadance is closely nestled up to Shining Armor as they sit comfortably on a couch.

"Don't worry, you're not interrupting! We're just watching a movie is all!" Cadance says. There's a movie projector above them, displaying a film upon a screen that's in front of them both. The movie is currently paused as they focus their attention on me. "Is there something you need?" She asks.

"I just have to tell you something you're NOT goin' to believe!" I state as I approach them eagerly.

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Well, pour it on, Flurry! It can't be that hard to believe," Shining says with a smirk.

"Alright, prepare yourselves!" I take a deep inhale before beginning my story. "So, I went on over to Void's home in Manehatten! The stallion that you met yesterday, dad," I state, focusing on Shining for a moment.

"I recall," He says.

"And we were going to check out this cool room that Void's mom, Lexi Dawn, had created all on her own. Uh-She's a scientist by the way, dad. Anyways, we then got interrupted by a trespasser on her property! They went to go investigate the intruder's whereabouts and I sneakily followed behind. Then this LARGE stallion swooped up into the air and landed right in front of them! He was almost as tall as Celestia and a little bit taller than Luna. And get this; this large stallion was no ordinary stallion! He... was a robot!"

Cadance and Shining Armor now visibly appear to be having trouble keeping up with my story as their smiles slowly turned into confused looks.

"It was so cool! His body was all shiny and metallic! He had thin gap lines in his joints, he spoke in a menacing robotic tone, and he can construct wings and fly like uhhh... a jet! Yeah, that's it! And that's not all, this whole robot was actually being controlled... by a bunny rabbit!" Mom and Dad both raise an eyebrow and look even more confused. "Isn't that awesome?!" I excitedly ask as I lean in. There's a moment of brief silence before Cadance speaks up.

"You're right!" She smiles gleefully. "... I don't believe you," Her smile turns into a look of high doubt. I look to them in confusion now.

"That all sounds pretty cool, but you have to admit, it does seem pretty farfetched," Shining states with a look of doubt as well. "I mean, c'mon, a robot piloted by a bunny? Seems like something out of a comic or a sci-fi movie"

"That's what I said! I couldn't believe it all myself at first! I know I said you guys wouldn't believe me, but believe it or not, it's all true! I'm telling you!"

"A robot is simply something that hasn't really been heard of in the current days," Cadance claims.

"I'm telling the truth! What reason would I have to lie to you both?" I say in a slightly saddened tone and I start to puppy eye them. They both now look to me in slight sorrow from having upset me. Cadance sighs before speaking again.

"Okay... I take back what I said. I do believe you," Cadance says with a sincere smile. "Lets hear more of this, okay?" She politely asks.

"Thanks, mom. Anywho, so this bunny controlling the robot. This bunny's name is Dr. Brisk B. Bunsen"

"Oh, this bunny's a doctor now?" Shining says.

"Shining!" Cadance sternly says to Shining whilst delivering a sudden elbow nudge to his chest. He tenses at both her stern reaction and her sudden elbow nudge.

"Believe it or not, this bunny rabbit use to be a stallion once. But due to a spell, he got turned into a bunny and became trapped that way"

"That sounds... horrible!" Cadance exclaims.

"Yeah well don't feel sorry for this fella. He's actually a REAL jerk. You see, he's actually a scientist, just like Lexi. Annnd it's clear to me that they have history. Pretty bad history to be perfectly honest"

"Hmmm, I see. Please continue"

"Right. So, he invented this robot as sort of a 'vessel' he can control so he can still do things a stallion can where as a bunny can't"

"He must be pretty brilliant if he created such an invention"

"Admittedly he is. Jerk or not, he's pretty talented. Though, I feel Lexi is more talented than he is"

"That so?" Cadance raises a brow.

"Yeah. Dr. Bunsen mentioned something about a science competition coming up next week. And I convinced Lexi to participate in hopes of beating that fluff ball to the prize!"

"A science competition?" Shining asks.

"Yup! And I've also decided that I'm gonna help Lexi and Void in winning this contest"

"And how do you plan on doing that, Flurry?" Cadance inquires.

"If it's alright with you, I'm going to spend the next week helping Lexi with her invention. That means I'll be visiting her everyday in the morning to help her. I've already given her some of my Alicorn magic to help her get started on her creation"

"Your Alicorn Magic?" Cadance's eyes broaden at my statement.

"Yeah, is... something wrong?"

"No no, not at all. I'm just surprised. You must really want to help this mare if you're willing to give her some of your own magic"

"Believe me, it goes deeper than just lending a helping hoof. It's really important to me that I help her. She's a nice mare and deserves to win this contest. To put simply, she's had it pretty rough over the years from what I've heard because of Bunsen. And I wanna do my part to make sure things turn around for her," I give both Mom and Dad a seriously sincere look, letting them know I mean business.

"Wow, that all sounds pretty deep to me. I don't see anything wrong with what you're doing so I approve one hundred and ten percent all the way," Shining states humbly.

"I second that. You're really taking the initiative I had hoped you would. I'm sure you'll do absolutely wonderful. Considering you're pretty smart yourself, I'd say you have this all figured out, don't you?"

"You bet! I gave Lexi some of my magic since she needs it for her invention. It sounds like it's gonna take quite some time using magic and science together to make this invention work. Since you already know I'm pretty good at magic, helping her out with the magic portion should be no problem"

"Indeed. Just... be careful when it comes to your Alicorn Magic, okay?" Cadance nervously asks. "We wouldn't want that magic ending up in the wrong hooves"

"I got it, mom! You can count on me!" I give her a friendly salute.

"Wonderful! I wish you the best of luck on that. Take all the time you need from home to help your new friends"

"Thanks, mom!"

"That said, anything else interesting happen while you were over there?"

"Ah, right! So after that whole thing with Dr. Bunsen, Lexi lead me to the room she was gonna show me. And let me tell you, mom and dad, Miss Dawn is REALLY something else! She's got this entire room she built herself dedicated to testing out her inventions and even training a pony's talents! Things like magic and combat!"

"That so?" Shining asks.

"Yeah! She calls it 'The White Room'. It's a room that's entirely white and it's got a whole bunch of fancy tech for testing out magic and stuff. There's so many things about it from what I learned that I'd probably be here for hours trying to explain all I know so far"

"So is it anything like training here at home?" Cadance asks.

"You bet! It all surprised me tremendously! She even has her own lab and everything!"

"Who woulda thought that such a talented mare would be living right under our noses? And to think none of us have heard of such ponies long before," Cadance says with a hoof rubbing her chin.

"I know, right? It makes me wonder what other cool and talented ponies are out there"

"Hmhm," Cadance chuckles and gives a proud smile. It seems she's taking pride in the fact that what she had said to me yesterday was undoubtedly correct.

"I hope to meet more folks like that. Anyways! She's incredibly awesome and I've gotta help her out as best I can!"

"All the more reason to meet this mare. How's about this; once the science competition is over, we'll bring them over to The Crystal Empire for a visit!" Cadance declares.

"Perfect!" I smile widely.

"So, is that all, Flurry?" Shining asks.

"Hmmmm. Oh! Uhm hey mom? What do you know about... As.. tronomy?" I ask curiously and of course perform my little head tilt.

"Astronomy?" Cadance begins while putting a hoof to her chin. "That's... the study of space and things in space, right?" She answers and I nod to her. "Hmm other than the fact that Celestia can move The Sun and Luna can move The Moon, I don't believe I know much else beyond that. Why do you ask? Is this something you're interested in learning about?"

"Maybe"

"Noted then"

"Oh, can I also ask you a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?"

I reach under my right wing and pull out the bits I was holding onto. I then set it down on the table in front of them.

"Do you think you can make me a crystal that's worth this amount of bits?"

"Wh-... Why do you need that?" She asks showing a puzzled and concerned look.

"I just need it in order to.. help out Lexi . . . and then some"

"So you just want me to make you an expensive crystal, just like that?"

"Please?"

"You know, I'm not made of money"

"No, but you're made up of love and crystals!" I smile innocently. "And right now I just need one of those things! So please? Will you do it?"

"Hmmm... alright, I'll do it. However, you realize that you can do this too, right?" Cadance begins to sit up from her position and shift closer to the bits for inspection.

"Yeah but my 'money' crystals aren't as good as yours. You're much better at making fancy, expensive crystals than I am"

"Well if you'd let me teach you-"

"Ladies," Shining interjects.

"Right," Cadance nods.

"Sorry," I say.

Cadance gathers the bits and begins counting them. "100... 200... 300..," She mutters to herself as she continues to count the amount of bits higher and higher. "Alright, should be simple enough," She leans back and closes her eyes. Her horn glows a pretty bright cyan as she puts her hooves together. Her hooves begin to emit a warm cyan glow with crystalline particles sparkling and shimmering around them. She then starts to separate her hooves slowly and sways them in a peculiar pattern. Between her hooves is a glowing ball of magic that looks like a night star. Inside is a bright white shine and surrounding the shine is a warm cyan glow. Soon, a crystal begins to manifest between Cadance's hooves. It begins to take a strange shape, one that looks like some form of emblem belonging to something of royal significance. It consists of six curved like spikes upon it, three on each side. The bottom two curved spikes point downward while the other four point upward. The bottom of the crystal itself rounds off while the top has a pointed tip and resting upon the tip of the point is a little miniature Crystal Heart. Upon the very surface of the crystal appears to be the shape of a shield with the relief of an Alicorn head emitting magic beautifully displayed in plain sight, front and center upon the shield. The Crystal Manifestation is complete and the beautiful crystal is lain with all sorts of different shades of cyan. It sparkles in the light and Cadance now holds it in her right hoof. She holds it out to me and I gaze at it in awe.

"Woah! This is... Awesome!" My eyes sparkle as I admire it.

"Thank you. This should be more than enough to suit her needs. I even went ahead and made it a little more refined so it'll be worth a little extra"

"I can't thank you enough, mom!" I gently take hold of the crystal and firmly clutch it. I then magically take the bits off the table and hold it under my right wing again.

"Anytime, sweetie," Cadance nods.

"Alrighty, I'll catch you both later!" I turn to make my way to exit the room.

"See you later, Flurry!" Shining and Cadance say in unison.

"Oh! One more thing before I go-" I turn back to face them. "-How do you feel about an indoor pool?" I smile at them. They look to me, puzzled by my statement.

"Huh?" They both say.

Shortly after putting that idea into their heads, I exit the lounge and make my way back to my room. On the way back I gaze down at the crystal, admiring it a bit more. I reach the doors to my room and I open them magically to step inside. Shutting the door behind me, I approach my dresser and set down the crystal. I take a look around my room, glancing over my bed, my wardrobe, then my eyes stop at my bookshelf. I walk over to my bookshelf and bring my hoof up to a section of books. My hoof follows the row of books from 'H' through 'P'. I spot a certain book and pick it out from the bookshelf. My left hoof holds it underneath while my right rubs along the cover. I smirk at the cover of the book.

"Hmph, this'll do," I make my way back over to the dresser and set the book beside the crystal. I open my right wing, take the bits, and set it on the book. "There, all set. And now..," I turn to face the door and begin to head towards it. "Time to get a snack! I'm hungry!" I spring open the doors magically and gleefully trot out of my room. The doors shut behind me as I make my way to the catering hall. All is quiet in my room as the crystal rests nicely upon my dresser. My room is dimly lit, but even in the dim light, the crystal makes a single sparkle at the tip of the horn where the relief of the Alicorn head is lain.

The day passes and I begin to prepare for my departure for Lexi's home once more. I fill my white colored saddlebags with the various things that I feel I'll be using during my time over at Lexi's. Things such as notebooks, inks, quills, pencils, the book I had picked out from my bookshelf, the bits that belong to Astral, and of course, The Crystal that I asked mom to make. After carefully putting everything neatly into my saddlebags, I throw them on my back and begin to head out the doors to my room. I begin to trek my way down the lovely crystal halls towards the balcony. I pass by a few guards to which they happily greet me. Some grace me with a bow, others give simple waves and vocal greetings. During my walk, a shy little pegasus filly and her parent approach me nervously and kindly ask for an autograph. I smile and happily pull out one of my quills to sign my name. The little filly pulls out a miniature action figure of me and holds it out for me to sign my name on it. I neatly and happily sign my name along the back of the action figure before giving it back to the little filly. She eagerly takes it and hugs the action figure tightly to herself.

"Thank you so much, P-Pwincess Flurry Heart!" The filly speaks in an adorable voice.

"Heheh, you're welcome, kid!"

The filly and her parent wave goodbye to me and I return the wave. They trot off happily as if what had just happened made their whole day. I give a brief chuckle at the wholesomeness of the moment. A thought then comes to mind of which I say out loud.

"... Since when did they make action figures of me?" After pondering the question for a moment, I proceed to make my way to the balcony. Upon reaching the balcony and stepping out onto it, I take a deep breath to feel the freshness of the air.

"Good morning, Equestria!" I say subtly to the land. My eyes pan across the land for a moment before stopping at Manehatten in the distance. My horn begins to emit its warm golden glow and I take a step forward. I feel something on my hoof as I take a step. I cease my horn's emission of magic and glance down to see what I stepped on. It's my stopwatch that I left here from yesterday.

"Oh, dang it! I forgot to pick up some batteries for you!" I pick up the stopwatch and stuff it into my saddlebag. "You're coming with me! That way I won't forget!" My horn glows once more before suddenly I disappear from the balcony. Once more I am back at the terrace of Lexi's penthouse. I begin to make my way to the door, stepping over the cracks in the floor made by Brisk the prior day. As I reach for the fancy door bell, I hesitate, recalling the moment where Lexi's door bell almost blasted me in the face. I consider just teleporting in but instead I muster up the courage to ring the bell and see what happens. I press the button and tense up slightly. I hear a muffled voice from the other side of the door shouting over.

"Come in!" It's Lexi's voice.

The doorbell device lights up green and the door unlocks and slightly parts open. I untense and give a exhale of relief before pushing the door open and entering.

"It's me! Don't you worry!" I project so my voice can be heard from where ever Lexi may be.

"Over here, Flurry!" Lexi calls over, standing near the elevator pillar. She also appears to be standing next to a pile of boxes and other various items. She sets another box down on top of the others. Furthermore, she's wearing a Gray Hoodie instead of her Lab Coat.

"What's all this?" I ask as I make my way over to her.

"Like I mentioned, I needed to clear up some space in The White Room for when we begin working on The Holo-World Generator. Sooo, I'm moving up all my inventions to here in the meantime!" Lexi turns away from me for a moment to open up one of her boxes and she reaches inside to search for something.

"Alrighty, so how ya holdin' up?"

"I'm doing just fine. I'm actually getting very eager to start this thing! Those words you said to me yesterday really resonated with me! So now I aim to make this invention 'The Best Invention Manehatten Has Ever Seen!'. Just like I did before. And I ain't gonna let Brisk stand in the way of that"

"Awesome! Glad to hear all that! I'm ready and willing to help out in every way I can!" I smirk.

"Once again, I thank you, Flurry Heart. This means... more than I can express"

"You can thank me once this is all over and we win this thing!" I glance back at my saddlebag. "First thing's first, however...," My expression turns serious as I reach into my bag. "I understand you've been having... money troubles"

Lexi pauses her search through the box and she turns her body half way to look at me.

"Y-... You knew?" She asks.

"Yeah.. I did. Void told me out on the terrace the day we met, right before I left. Said you were struggling to even live here...," Lexi turns her head away, seeming sorrowful and embarrassed.

"I-... had a feeling you knew. From the way you were talking yesterday, it felt like you knew more than you were letting on. For my sake. That Void...," Lexi shakes her head for a moment.

"Don't be upset at Void for telling me the truth. All he wants is for you to be happy again. To live freely about your life to invent all your brilliant creations and for ponies to recognize how special you really are. He felt that something like this shouldn't be kept a secret. He loves you. That's clear as day"

Lexi smiles a tad. "Hmhm, Yeah... I'm not upset at him at all. I'm glad he told you, actually. I don't believe I would have had the courage to tell you myself"

"I felt so bad, I-... here," I take out the pristine Crystal that mom had created and I hold it out to Lexi. It glistens in the light between us and causes Lexi to lock her eyes onto it. Her eyes broaden and her jaw slightly drops at the sight of its magnificence.

"I wanted to help you with this little issue too, so... I asked my mom to make this crystal for me to give to you so you can maybe sell it and use the bits to repair that large crack out on the terrace floor. It should be more than enough to fix it as well as keep you going for a while by letting you buy anything else you may need with what's left over. It's worth a lot, courtesy of my mom"

"Flurry Heart... you... wanna give me this?" She says while lost in awe at the Crystal.

"Yeah. I wouldn't want you to lose your home because of what Brisk did. Seeing this place and how awesome it looks, the awesome inventions it holds, and it being home to two awesome ponies? It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if all that were to just... go away, ya know?"

"You... have a kind heart, Flurry," Lexi begins to reach for it but seems hesitant. "But... I can't accept this... This is far too generous for me to-"

"Take it. It's yours," I say with a smile as I inch the Crystal closer to her hoof. "It's the least I can do. Please?"

Lexi takes a moment to gaze into my happy, sparkling eyes as I await for her to take the Crystal. Her eyes filled with wonderment as she can hardly belief the kindness she is receiving. It's like nopony has shown her such kindness like this in a long time. She's speechless. This moment of quiet continues for a bit longer before Lexi finally speaks up.

"Okay," she nods. "I'll take it," Reluctantly, she takes hold of the Crystal. "Thank you, Flurry Heart," Lexi holds the Crystal closely to her chest.

"You're very much welcome, Lexi," I brighten my smile at her as she takes hold of the Crystal. Lexi gazes upon the crystal for a moment longer before going to set it down carefully over by the kitchen countertop.

"So, did you get the magic reader doohickey all fixed up?"

"Yup! It's ready and waiting downstairs! I think it'll work this time for sure!" she says as she makes her way back over to me.

"This time?" I tilt my head.

"Yeah! Turns out, it took a lot more upgrades to get it up and running to be able to support the reading of Alicorn Magic without it going kablewy!" Lexi briefly throws her hooves into the air to mimic an explosion. "During our previous attempts yesterday after you left, the machine kept exploding every time I tried getting it to work. But luckily with each explosion came more precise understanding and more refinement to the upgrades. I hadn't felt so challenged in a while simply trying to get the magic reader to analyze your magic. It was a matter of trial and error to get it to work and now? I'm almost certain I will be able to read Alicorn Magic! Nhnhnh! Just saying that gets me all giddy!" Lexi puts her hooves to her cheeks in excitement.

"That's great! Hopefully it won't explode again, yeah?" I nervously state.

"I have a good feeling about it! Ooo! I can't wait!" Lexi's giddiness increases.

"Then let's not waste anymore time! Let's head on down! I leap over and land inside the elevator, awaiting Lexi.

"Right you are! Let's go!" Lexi follows behind and swiftly hits the button for us to head down.

"By the way, I like your hoodie!"

"Thank you!"

The door shuts and we begin our descend. We arrive down at The White Room and the door slides up. We step out onto the floor where we find Void wearing a metal mask and using a blowtorch on the magic reader. He pauses and lifts up his mask to look at us.

"Ah, greetings, Flurry!" He happily greets.

"Hello, Void!" I return the greeting.

"Mother? We're about ready to try again"

"Excellent!" Lexi claps once. "Now, Flurry Heart, follow me real quick while Void puts the finishing touches on the machine," Lexi ushers me towards the command center where we see all sorts of equipment, books, schematics, and diagrams for what I assume would be the necessary assets for The Holo-World Generator. Resting upon the console is Lexi's Lab Coat. All neatly folded and freshly clean.

"Right here is where I have everything we need to work on the invention! It's going to take some time like I said to get this thing ready for next week," I carefully examine everything in front of me while she speaks. "That may seem like plenty of time, but it's not much for what we're making. The first time I created The Holo-World Generator, it took me about a month and everything I had at my disposal at the time to make it. Magic included"

"A Whole Month?!" I exclaim.

"Yeah, I was pretty exhausted. I worked day in and day out on it. Using every bit of magic I could spare, using all of my crafting materials, spending every little bit I could. It was worth it... til', ya know... bunny boy Brisk"

"Tch, right.."

"But all we have is a little less than a week to work on it. I do have a plan, however!" Lexi raises a hoof between us like she's pointing up at a lightbulb above her head. "I'll tell you it in a little bit," Lexi raises her head past mine and calls over to Void. "Void, is it ready?" she asks.

"Indeed it is!" he responds.

"Perfect timing! C'mon let's go!" Lexi pats the back of her hoof onto my chest gently to usher me to follow. We make our way over to Void. He stands from his kneel and takes off his metal mask. He then levitates both the blowtorch and the metal mask away into a safe place. I inspect the machine and it's clear that there has been some heavy modifications done to it. The frame around the machine itself looks more beefy than before. Inside the machine appears to have much more tech implemented into it. There's a lot more wiring added and even, what I assume to be, a ton of cooling fans installed to make sure it doesn't over heat. There are some funky looking antennae on top of the machine that emit magic, creating sparks that arch back and forth between one another. Furthermore, the machine has been painted different shades of blue, similar to Lexi's mane. And to top it all off, a large sticker of her cutie mark has been plastered on the side.

"Alright! We're ready to try the magic reading once more!" Lexi rubs her hooves together eagerly.

"And you're sure it'll work this time?" I raise a brow at her.

"Almost sure!" Lexi adjusts the crystal containing my magic inside of the machine before shutting the panel. "I put a lot of work into the upgrades for the machine! So I feel it should work! Besides, if it doesn't work then I'll try my hoof at fixing it again!" She leans onto the machine and rests her elbow on top of it whilst smiling widely at me.

"Well, you don't want to spend too much time on fixing this thing," I tap the machine.

Lexi sighs. "You have a point... I'm just... trying to stay positive! I really hope this'll work!" Lexi starts to climb into the seating pit of the machine.

"It has to!" I turn to Void. "How many times did you try before?" I ask him.

"We've tried a total of four times"

"Four ti-?! Pfff...," I briefly shake my head. "Well... let's hope five is the winner!" I say in a cheerful tone in hopes to raise some spirits.

"Alright!" Lexi says whilst firing up the machine. The machine begins to wind up as she types away at the panel. "Let's get this thing going!"

"Oh! Before you do!" I step closer and aim my horn at her. It begins to give off a golden light and a bubble like yellow shield encapsulates Lexi. "Juuust incase it explodes again!" I smile.

"Thanks!" Lexi says in a very slightly muffled tone.

"What? I don't get a shield?" Void questions.

"You'll be fine," I say whilst performing a playful disregarding gesture at him. He pouts briefly. I glance at him for a moment and chuckle. "Okay, you'll get one too," Void chuckles as I cast a second bubble shield for him.

"Okay! We're ready to begin! At the press of this button, we'll get to see the reading of Flurry Heart's magic! Hopefully!" Lexi waves her hoof over the button on the screen. "And aWaaaaAAAY we go!"

She presses the button and immediately reals her hoof back, curling to herself and shutting her eyes as the machine starts to emit a rising hum. The new fans built into the machine speed up, growing louder and louder. The beeping from the console hastens and the machine itself begins to shake ever so slightly. I slowly begin to raise my right foreleg to shield my eyes and tense my body, preparing for an explosion. The ground itself beneath us begins to shake a tad as well. The machine's sounds have gotten quite loud and we feel like this might not work. The machine reaches its peak of its actions, giving the impression that it's going to explode once more. Suddenly, the machine dings like an oven and the noises begin to simmer down. Lexi opens one eye to look at the the screen which now displays the results.

"Oh, it worked ... IT WORKED! Hahah!" Lexi throws her hooves into the air in excitement. I let down the shields and give an exhale of relief.

"Never doubted it for a second, hehe," I nervously and jokingly state.

"Right then! Let's take a look! Come, come! Quick!" Lexi beckons us over. We stand at both her sides to take a look at the screen to see the results. "Wooow! I've never seen anything like it!" On screen there appears to be a charted bar graph with a pink bar far exceeding the graph.

"Woah, is that my magic on the graph there?" I point to the pink bar.

"Yes! Indeed it is! And it is absolutely PHENOMINAL!"

"Really?"

"Here, take a look!" Lexi brushes her hooves along the screen to move the chart around. She brings in a blue bar that now sits next the pink bar. "This bar graph right here represents the level of power and potency my magic has. And then... "Lexi shifts her hoof to basically climb the pink bar graph tower that represents my magic scaling. "... Here's yours! It goes WAY off the charts! Hitting heights I didn't even program into this machine. Your magic is simply INCREDIBLE!"

"Wooow," I gaze awestricken at the graph, finding it a tad hard to believe. "I knew my magic was strong but I didn't expect this!"

"Ooo! I knew from the start that your magic would be more than enough!" Lexi swiftly hops out from her seating pit and lands in front of the panel where the crystal container is stored inside. "Such unprecedented levels of magic will undoubtedly suffice for the making of the invention!"

I examine the chart a bit longer, getting a better understanding of it all. I go back and forth, comparing the two. It would seem that Lexi's magic would be what you'd expect an average unicorn mare to possess, except it seems Lexi is slightly more capable of wielding magic. This intrigues me as I rub under my chin. I look back to my own magic on the scale and begin to feel very proud, not just of myself, knowing my magic training has come quite the distance. But, more so the fact that this mare was able to create an invention to read it. I smirk while admiring the greatness of it all.

"I'm so thrilled that it worked!" Lexi opens the panel and messes around with the internals of the machine. "I mean! It's incredible that I created a machine that can read the power of ALICORN magic! Ahahahaaah! It's brilliant! Who woulda thought?" She takes out the crystal containing my magic. Lexi then turns to me with a smile while holding the container closely to her chest. "I don't mean to brag, but it's quite amazing, don't you think, Flurry Heart?"

"It's something to be very proud of, Lexi," I say as I shift away from the seating pit and step closer to her. "Now we can finally begin making The Holo-World Generator, right?"

"Yes, yes! Of course! Right this way!" Lexi turns and happily trots over to the command center. Void and I follow behind her. Once we arrive at the command center, she puts down the crystal container and faces us.

"Alright, so I'm sure you've been wondering how exactly The Holo-World Generator works. That's what I'm gonna explain to you, using all of this stuff-," Lexi gestures to all the items upon the command center's counter top. "-and of course, explaining it off the top of my head. Mkay?"

"Got it," I nod.

"Good," Lexi turns to make her way to the other side of the command center where she begins to magically move a heavy table. She appears to be straining herself a bit trying to move it. "Nrgh! Now, I know you.. Nrh.. already understand the-," Lexi continues to drag the table out towards the front and almost the center of the room. "-basic premise of the device! Hrgh!" She halts her magical grasp around the table for a moment to take a breath. "Hahhh... but I'm going to run it by you again to really get it firmly planted in your mind!" She tries to move the table again but instead I help her out by grabbing hold of the table with my own levitation spell and move it the rest of the way for her.

"Heh, thank you Flurry Heart! Uh, Void?" She says whilst turning her attention to Void. "Could you bring all those diagrams, schematics, and equipment over here, please?"

"On it," Void begins to collect all of the requested items and magically levitates them over to the table. He sets them down all around the table and some along the top of it. Spreading the papers and tools evenly about the tabletop.

"Now then," Lexi stands at the right side of the front of the table. "It's basically a little machine that can generate a magical world around you to make your wildest dreams come true," Lexi scours the papers and diagrams as she talks. "But how it works... is very intricate. It's a combination of a series of different magical spells and different kinds of tech and machinery, all put together into one nifty little box. Furthermore, the machine can be controlled by both a remote and/or ones thoughts and emotions. All of which is connected to The Holo-World Generator in order to fluidly control the world of your dreams!" she pulls out a blueprint of the invention and shows it to me. "Here, take a good look. It's a little hard to understand at first but I can teach you what this all means," I take a moment to inspect the blueprint, taking note of all the details of it. Some things I recognize like the usage of magic needed to be implemented into the machine, while others, like the technology portion, is unbeknownst to me. Observing more into the magic portion, there's a section that appears to explain how it call comes together.

"...'In order for the generation of a confined magical world-," I begin reading the description upon the blueprint. "-a series of magical spells must be casted and combined whilst being implemented into the conduit devices. Conduit Devices allow for the activation of magic to perform its intended purpose. Spells Needed; Illusionary magic... Manifestation spells... Shield generation... and terrain manipulation!'..., Wait," I look to Lexi. "You're talking about combining at least four different types of powerful spells into one... and putting all into tiny little gadgets?"

"Indeed I am," Lexi nods with a proud grin.

"I see," I say after giving a thorough examination of the blueprint. "So... we're basically going to be making this thing from scratch?"

Lexi grins at me and points her hoof upward again, hinting something hatching in her mind. "This is where my idea comes in!" Lexi steps away and heads back over to the command center. She rounds the corner on the opposite side, leaving only her tail to be visible as she collects something. "I hatched an idea that would make this process go by INCREDIBLY faster!" She starts to come back to us, caring a metal briefcase. She arrives at the table once more and steps between Void and I. Lexi clears some space in the middle of the table and sets down the metal briefcase, front and center. She brushes off the top of the case to clear any excess dust off the top. The briefcase has a bit of dirt along it, several scratches along the metal, and even a few dents across the top. Lexi brings her hooves to unlatch the locks upon it, to which then she opens the metal briefcase. Inside lies a black box, made up of high tech looking components. On top the black box appears to be a little glass dome with more techy components underneath said glass. From the way it looks and from what was described to me prior, there can be no doubt that this is The Holo-World Generator that Lexi had invented for that fateful day that Brisk had ruined. Judging by the state of the briefcase, it was once in perfect condition, but due to the years of neglect, the case has become damaged. Same goes for this device. It appears slightly damaged and at the moment, gives off no clear indication that it would work if it were to powered on. Which begs many questions in my mind.

"That's... The Holo-World Generator... The one you built before! Right?" I ask, turning my head up to Lexi whilst pointing at the device.

"Indeed, it is, Flurry Heart," Lexi answers while maintaining her gaze upon the damaged device. "This is how we're going to speed up the process"

"Mother, you don't mean..."

"Yes, I do," Lexi grins widely. "We're gonna work off of this!"

"Woah! I get it! We'll just fix this one up and improve it rather than starting from scratch! It's genius!"

"Thank you, Flurry Heart!" Lexi smiles proudly. "If we're going to improve upon the older model, we'll first need to make sure it will support Alicorn Magic, much like the magic reader"

"So, how you you plan on keeping it all together inside the invention?" I question.

"That is where this comes in!" Lexi's horn glows and a hidden schematic comes out from her folded up lab coat. She levitates the schematic and lays it upon the table for us to view. It shows a strange design of a device that goes inside the invention. "I call it, 'The Stable Field Emitter'. It's what keeps the Holo-World from going haywire. As the name implies; it stabilizes the field within the dome once the Holo-World Generator is activated. Keeps everything stable and to not allow the magic within the device to go crazy and... cause an incident like what happened that... ruined me," I look to Lexi as her tone becomes more serious. "This is the thing-," She taps the schematic with her right hoof three times. "-that Brisk sabotaged within my invention that caused it to wild. Costed me my career and nearly hurt a lot of other ponies... But you already know that part," She says with a soft, slightly livid tone that's almost a whisper. "But!," She says as she points up into the air. "I can rebuild it! Better! Stronger than before!"

"I see. Well having the old one here will certainly make things go by a lot quicker"

"Where did you even find it?" Void questions as he examines the old model.

"I dug it up out of my ol' storage unit. Ever since Brisk sabotaged it and costed me the contest two years back, I decided to just chuck it away and tried to forget about it. So, this thing was simply just collecting dust in storage... Until now!"

"Think it still works?" I ask.

"Dunno, but if it doesn't, we can work to make it work. Now then, on to the more in depth way of explaining how it functions," Lexi magically levitates a bunch of the blueprints into the air in front of us.

"You see, The Holo-World Generator creates a powerful magical field all around itself, conjuring its own little space, compacted within a magical dome. Within that dome is a magical world that is entirely separate from the world of Equestria and is completely created by both magic and the wonders of imagination! Within said world, you have the capability to generate anything you desire. At first, with the press of a few buttons, the box would create a terrain to bring forth what you wish to be made into reality. However, as I stated before, the machine itself is capable of being connected with a pony's thoughts and feelings, and is able to take what the pony is thinking and magically conjure it into the reality within the magical dome. Everything you see, touch, and smell, would seem real because, in a way, it would be! The magic from within the box would create physical manifestations of your wildest dreams and desires. You could take a lovely vacation from the comfort of your own home! Or you can embark on an epic journey as you trek through the lands of Equestria entirely created by your imagination! Furthermore into explaining the possibilities of all this; the magical field that it creates would feel like an almost endless playground for you to wander freely! When you're standing within the magical dome, you're completely enveloped in your own little space. This world that you're in will feel EXTREMELY massive! Much like The Land Of Equestria itself! How is that possible, you ask? You see, Flurry, the device would constantly generate the world as you travel through it! So you could trot over a hundred miles within the magical field. But outside the dome, you wouldn't have moved an inch! And that's all because the magical properties around you keeps you in that general position within the field. Making it so you don't accidentally stray outside of the field. To leave The Holo-World, you simply just have to approach the device and turn it off! The device is always somewhere nearby and can always be found simply by taking a good look around!"

"Woooaaah! You mean to tell me it can really do all that? AND that you once succeeded in building it?"

"Kinda hard to believe such a creation can be done, right? Heheh! I was a very ambitious pony back then"

"Here's hoping that winning this contest will re-spark your ambitions," Void smirks at Lexi.

"Ya know, I believe it's already starting to come back. Seeing this ol' thing right before me.. and with you two here to help me out? I have good hopes right now!"

"How does it look like when standing outside of the dome?"

"Like this!" Lexi pulls out her little device she keeps in her coat and presses a button on it. One of the ceiling panels open up and a little drone floats down from the opening. She presses the button on the device again and the lights dim. The drone shoots out a bunch of lights, projecting an image for us in the center of the room. "You see, It would simply just look like a magical energy dome, except you can't see what's going on from the outside," The drone projects exactly what Lexi is describing, a magical looking energy barrier that shimmers a bright blue light. Nothing can be seen from within the dome. "And if a pony were to approach the dome and actually step inside..," She presses the button again and we see a projected image of Lexi approach the dome. The projected image of Lexi extends her hoof towards dome and begins to press her hoof inside. Her hoof phasing through the dome and shortly after that, she walks fully through the magical field and is gone from sight.

"... They are now part of the Holo-Generated World!" Lexi disables the projecting images and the drone goes back into the ceiling opening. The ceiling closes up and the lights brighten back up.

"Fantastic!" My excitement for the recreation of this invention builds up even more.

"Now that you understand The Holo-World Generator more, I believe it's time to get started," Lexi turns around and heads towards where her lab coat is lain. "I still remember how to cast some of the spells needed for this project. However, the challenge lies in getting all the spells to sorta of... 'fit' inside the machine. The machine itself has these little conduits that allow spells to be seal inside them. From there-," Lexi picks up her lab coat and faces towards Void and I. "-the magic can be controlled to generate the world!"

"Alrighty! I'll definitely help out with the spells! I'm good at casting shields and stuff so that should be an easy step"

"Excellent! Anymore questions before we get started?" She asks with a smile.

"What about... linking the machine to a pony's thoughts and emotions?" I ask.

"You just leave that to me! I've got a nifty little device just for that purpose! I mainly just need your help with the magic related stuff!"

Okay then! Let's go!"

"Indeed!" Lexi grips the chest of her hoodie. In one swift motion, she yanks off the hoodie upwards and throws it into the air. Following up, she gracefully adorns her perfectly clean lab coat. "We're gonna show that carrot munching, fur ball that he messed with the wrong scientist!" Lexi proudly proclaims.

"Awesome!" I glance up at the ceiling. "Oh, uh, Lexi? Your hoodie never came back down," I point up towards the ceiling.

"Wha-?" Lexi looks to me in confusion, then looks towards the ceiling to find that her hoodie got snagged onto one of the ceiling panels. "-Oh! Darn it! C-Could you help me get it down?" She asks me. I give a brief chuckle before flying up there to unsnag her hoodie.

Now that the explanation of the invention out of the way, it's time to officially begin. First, we started off by attempting to see if the old Holo-World Generator would work. Lexi takes it out of the briefcase and sets it down front and center of the room. We inspect the device for a brief moment, examining its design. On one side there is a set of buttons, small dials, and even a little screen, likely to control the device manually. Lexi presses the power button on it and waits a few seconds. Nothing seems to be happening as of yet. Lexi presses the button a few more times and even holds it, hoping that may help. After that she takes out her screw driver and begins unscrewing two screws on both bottom corners of the front side. Lexi then lifts open the front side like a panel which exposes the internals of the device. Void and I watch on as she messes around with the inside of the device. She fidgets with some wires inside of it which create a small spark. Soon after the spark, the screen upon the device light's up as it begins to seemingly activate. A light appears within the small glass dome atop the invention. It begins to emit laser like lights that shoot up towards the ceiling. For a moment, we all believe that it is going to work. We even gaze in awe at the pretty lights. Sadly, the lights begin to flicker and the invention begins to spark. I gently yank Lexi's hooves away from the invention as it starts to spark violently now. The lights shut off and the invention begins emitting smoke. We look on in disappointment for a moment as our hope of this being a tad easier was swiftly lost.

Some time after, we're back at the table as Lexi begins scanning over the schematics, brushing her hoof over key sections of the intricacies of the device. She explains that in order for the device to work properly we'll need to successfully repair any broken internal mechanisms as well as fit it with new parts. Lexi rolls out a cart of parts and tools that we're gonna use to fix up the invention. We look to each other and nod. Lexi goes over to the command center and carefully picks up the Crystal Container that holds my Alicorn Magic, then sets it on a nearby table. She then instructs Void to work on one specific part for starters while she sets me up with some tools and a task of my own. We approach the invention and Lexi carefully begins to dig into the internals of the invention with her screw driver. She takes out the old parts so that we may replace them later. Void hauls over a box of components and sets them down near Lexi. She turns to the box and rummages around inside to try and find what she needs. She pulls out many components for the invention and we get to work.

Lexi is sat down with me and is carefully instructing me step by step on how to craft certain parts. Currently we're working on a magic container that acts like a battery to the invention. Lexi holds up the old magic container and says that this is what holds magic inside the invention to be able to power it. Upon closer examination, there is a glass window to look inside and it appears empty. She points to some kind of small funnel that's at the side of the container and she explains that this is how we feed magic into it. I nod to her, informing her my understanding of this and we begin to disassemble the container to tweak it to be better. The entire part has quite the intricate amount of technology build inside of it. More than I expected. Lexi brings out the required components to work on the container and we get started on it. I'm a bit slow at first as I often glance back and forth between the blueprints, schematics, and at the actual component itself. Thankfully, Lexi's careful guidance makes this a ton easier. Lexi occasionally looks into the box to pull out spare parts that we can use. Together, we put together the magical storage container with fresh new parts so that it may hopefully hold Alicorn grade magic. For the finishing touch, Lexi casts a spell on the container to be able to take in magic through the funnel. She goes to get the Crystal and when she brings it back, she takes one end of the crystal and connects it to the funnel. The magical container begins to take in some of the Alicorn Magic. It begins to fill up the inside of the container, almost like liquid filling up a glass. Once filled, she sets aside the Crystal and picks up the container, now filled with the magic needed to power it all. We gaze up at it in admiration as it seems as though it may work, judging by how nicely crafted it looks.

Meanwhile, Void is working on what appears to be some kind of high tech, small spherical object. He's inspecting it to make sure that it is in good condition. He looks at one of the blueprints and it shows that sphere is called 'The Magic Emitter'. It is what holds the spells together inside the machine. After finding the right sphere, he takes them over to the invention. He reaches down and unscrews the glass dome on top, revealing an tattered looking sphere similar to the new one Void is holding. He carefully takes out the old one and fits the new on inside.

At one point later on, Lexi fully takes out a large tray-like object called a 'circuit board' from within the old Holo-World Generator. On top of the circuit board are most of the remaining internal parts connected to it. In the center appears to be some form of rectangular box with a strange antenna on top that appears to be able to rotate. The design of this strange device is like what is shown on the blueprint of The Stable Field Emitter. Lexi carefully removes it from the circuit board then brings the old Stable Field Emitter to a nearby table. She explains that the device emits waves that suppress magic to a point of stabilization. She brings out the schematics on it and we get to work all together. She has us standing by her sides while she basically operates on the device. Ever so often she would ask one of us to pass her a certain tool to which then we would provide said tool. Occasionally I levitate a rag to wipe the sweat off Lexi's forehead. I watch Lexi work in amazement as she works hard, keeping a steady pace, thanks to both Void and I. She takes the Crystal and uses the magic from within it to power the Stable Field Emitter. She holds it up proudly once it's finished.

Later on, Void carefully removes a cubic metal frame from the invention. He begins the process of making new frame for the invention by taking a bunch of scrap metal to craft a new one. Void can be seen using a blowtorch again to carefully weld parts together to make the new frame. Lexi goes to check on him to make sure he's doing things properly, which he is. I approach to see if I can help. We sit together and work on making the frame. There's a piece of metal he points to that would work well for a section of the frame but it's not quite the right angle. He describes that it needs to be bent at a ninety degree angle. I pick up the metal on both ends and I begin to try and bend it forcefully with my hooves. I grit my teeth and slightly grunt as I push both ends to bend metal, putting in quite the fair amount of effort in doing so. It starts to bend slowly and Void watches in shock. So shocked that his jaw drops. I bend it roughly to about ninety degrees and I take a moment to breathe. I present him the part and he takes it, examining it. Thankfully, it is now the perfect angle. He looks to me with a wowed expression to which I smile at him and even flex my right foreleg proudly.

After a long day of work, we find ourselves quite tired. All together, we've successful fitted the invention with a new magical storage container fueled with Alicorn Magic, a new magic emitter, a new frame, and an improved Stable Field Emitter also fueled with Alicorn Magic. I ask Lexi about the time. She tells me the time and I figure that I should get going back on home. We've got quite a bit done for the first day and things look promising thus far. Before I take my leave, I ask Lexi if she has any double-neigh batteries for my stopwatch that I pull out and present to her. She looks towards the cart of supplies and approaches it. She finds a pack of batteries and tosses them at me, telling me that I can have it. I catch the pack and there's a total of ten batteries inside. I smile gleefully and thank her greatly. I tell them that I'll be back around the same time tomorrow for us to continue. Lastly, I say my goodbyes for the day and teleport myself back to The Crystal Empire. I stand at the balcony once again and open the pack of batteries. I take two, pull out the old batteries from the stopwatch, replaces them with the new ones, and poof away the old batteries somewhere else. I turn on my stopwatch after fitting it with new batteries and I smile at the sight of it working again. I instinctively get it ready to use it to train my teleportation, but I recall my moms words. I shake my head and turn off the stop watch, telling myself mentally that I can't train right now. Not until my work with Lexi and Void is finished. Staying true to my mother's words.

Moving onto the second day of our efforts to build this thing, we begin the spells portion of the inventing process. Lexi has some books opened for us on a nearby table, the books displaying instructions on the spells we're going to cast. She carefully explains that during the making of the first version of The Holo-World Generator, she came to the idea that spells which have effects to the environment and generation of objects could be used together as one. During her long time of research back then, she eventually came about a brilliant step by step plan on how to combine said spells and implement it into a machine. First step, we set the Holo-World Generator in the center of the room. The Magic Emitter sphere is currently exposed. We stand in a triangle formation around the invention. Lexi, holding a book and reading through it, states that the next step is to cast the series of spells in order above the invention. I, happily volunteering to be the one to cast them so that Lexi can save her strength, ignite my horn with a bright golden glow. I carefully read through the instructions of the spell books I have levitating around me. I begin to cast the required spells into the air space above the invention. For each spell that I cast, I'm suppose to maintain casting it. More specifically, prolonging the casting process. During the prolonging phase, I'm suppose to cast the next spell on top of the previous. At first it's a little tough, but I manage to steadily succeed. Each magical spell that leaves my horn has slightly different appearances than the others. Some appearing jagged in their flowing shapes while others appear more smooth. Lexi instructs me to carefully maintain the magic in that space and slowly but carefully 'press' them together. I glance at her for a moment and wonder what she means. But then I just take what she said literally and begin to condense the magic tightly together. She tells me that I'm doing great. I smile and ask for the next step. Lexi states that the next step is to cast a shield around all the spells. An easy task for one such as myself. My horn's hue briefly changes to cyan as I begin to cast a shield around the spells that are suspended mid air. The shield's color is cyan for a brief moment as well. However, my horn turns back to golden and so does the shield. Once contained, Lexi instructs me to fuse the spells with the magic of the shield. I begin to simply mix the magic around inside and press them all against the inside of the shield. The magical strands begin to blend into the walls of the shield's insides. A bright yellow flash slowly emits and once the light dims, the shield is revealed to have changed into an marvelous cerulean blue. Within the shield is glowing white star within its center. The star is surrounded by a wavy field of magical particles of all different colors. I gaze up at the beautiful creation in amazement. Lexi smiles from ear to ear, awestricken by the sight of this. She explains that she experienced this exact same feeling before when she first had succeeded in creating this magical anomaly. With no time to waste however, she quickly snaps out of her joyful state and tells us that the next step is to put the magic into the invention. She pulls out her little device from her coat and points it at the Holo-World Generator. A button is pressed on it and the spherical device on top begins to emit a magical cone of light blue light that shoots up towards the shield. All we have to do is push it down and the machine will absorb it. I begin to pull it downwards with my magic but it's actually quite heavier than I thought. Lexi sets down the book and her horn glows to grip the shield too. It pulls down much easier but we still strain to pull it. Void steps in and magically grips the shield and begins to help pull it downward. Our combined magical glows of light blue, magenta, and gold, all push down upon the cerulean blue anomaly. The machine below begins to pull down the shield with us once in range and it begins to absorb it, funneling the magic down into the sphere. Once the magic is fully absorbed into the machine we all take a moment to pant as our horns stop glowing. We gaze at the sphere to find it emitting a softly blinking light. Lexi looks to us and smiles, which lets us know that we succeeded. I pump my right hoof in front of me in celebration. I turn to Void and reach out my hoof for a hoof bump. He glances at my hoof then at me in confusion. I gesture a hoof bumping motion a few times at him and hope he gets it. He hesitantly raises his hoof a bit and shifts it closer to mine. I nod at him, letting him know that he almost has it. He then gives me a hoof bump and smiles a tad awkwardly at me. I giggle at that and praise him for the hoof bump.

Moving on to the next part of the invention, Lexi currently has my horn hooked up to a strange device. The device is a ring around my horn and attached to the ring is a cable that runs to The Holo-World Generator. Pink lights are emitting from within the glass dome of the invention in the shape of a cone like before. Above the cone is floating pink magical fire that swirls and dances about. I watch the flames and await Lexi's instructions as the three of us are sat around the invention. She's typing away on some sort of hoof held computer, most likely programing some stuff to the invention remotely. She suddenly smiles widely and looks to Void. Void nods, then holds up a sign with the picture of an apple. I look at it, tilting my head at it in confusion for a moment but as I gaze at the picture of the apple, the image of it pops up in my mind. Shortly after that, the pink flame begins to form into the shape of an apple. We all look on at the flaming pink apple and smile. The invention successfully manifested what I was thinking. Void tosses the sign aside, revealing another behind it. It shows the picture of an autumn tree. My eyes turn to the image and it displays in my mind. The flame reforms from an apple into the same tree with a pink hue. We smile even brighter at the occurrence. Void reveals the third sign behind the second and it shows the image of a Blue Jay. I get the image of the bird in my mind and surely enough, the flames form into the shape of the same bird with a pink hue. Lexi cheers as this step of building the invention was a complete success. I happily watch and admire her excitement of the success of this step. During her moment of celebration, my stomach growls and I gaze down at it. We had been working for quite some time that I've grown hungry. Soon after, the thoughts of eating delicious food pops up into my mind and the flames above the invention start to change once more. The flames change into the image of a juicy looking hayburger and a tall vanilla milkshake cup with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Lexi halts her celebration to take notice of the two images. I give a nervous laugh and rub the back of my head. Both Lexi and Void smirk at me and even chuckle, finding my behavior quite humorous and even adorable. Sometime after that, Lexi was so kind enough to happily go out and buy us food at a local burger joint. The three of us are sitting down, upstairs on the penthouse level, eating our food at the dining counter. Lexi got me the same hayburger and milkshake that was shown in the fire image. We eventually finish our meal and clean up after ourselves. I glance over at the time and realize that I should get going. I tighten the straps on my saddlebags and head out the door of the penthouse. Lexi and Void wave to me as I hastily gallop my way over towards the edge of the terrace. I turn around towards them in one swift motion to give a 'cya later' salute to them as I jump backwards over the terrace edge. My horn swiftly flashes and I disappear before falling. I reappear in my room back at the empire just over my bed. I land back first onto my bed, bouncing back up briefly before landing on the bed fully. I magically levitate a book off of a nearby shelf over to me. I take hold of the book and open it to continue my studies. I take the rest of the day to study so that I don't fall behind on my school related work.

On the third day after successfully fitting the invention with brand new parts as well as conducting the magic portion quite excellently, we begin the first testing phase. Lexi turns on the machine from the command center and it begins to light up. The device makes a rising hum noise and we notice that some parts of the metal begin to heat up. It appears that the device is overheating as we see the metal glow from the heat. Then we hear a loud pop from the invention. Lexi shuts it off swiftly. The Holo-World Generator seems to have exploded from within from the intense overheating issue. The internal explosion created holes on the outside of the device from within. We all slouch over in disappointment as now we have to remake a lot of the parts. We all examine the device after it cools off and Lexi comes to realize that even with the new upgrades, it's still not enough to contain Alicorn Magic fully. The Stable Field Emitter has gone kaput as it wasn't structurally strong enough to suppress the magic. It needs to be made of a stronger material. Not to mention that the machine itself was stressing way too hard to perform its purpose which caused it to overheat. We go back to the drawing board and try to figure out a plan.

The Stable Field Emitter was made up of mostly iron. I think for a moment and suggest maybe making it out of steel instead. To contain such potent magic, one needs a very strong resource to do so. Lexi finds the suggestion to be wonder and so she takes a moment to wonder where to get some spare steel. An idea hatches in her mind. Moments later, we're in Lexi's lab as she's dragging out a large, broken down steel fridge. I ask why she has such a thing lying around and she claims that she found it and thought it may be useful. Turns out, she was right on that front. I put my hoof on the fridge while they put their hooves onto me and I teleport us and the fridge back down to The White Room. Void and Lexi begin the process of breaking down the fridge for parts. I ask Lexi if I could sit down for little bit. To which she humbly allows me to do so. She assures me that both her and Void can handle working with the steel.

I decide to go and sit down with my back against the wall by the entrance to this place. Some time after, I'm scribbling some notes into my notebook. While I do that, I look over towards Void and watch him as he performs his magic to assist Lexi in magically cutting down the steel. I watch him as he stands firmly and tries to focus on his magic emission. I notice he grits his teeth and he's tensed up. I squint my eyes at him and I put a hoof to my lips, pondering. I glance at his stream of magic, it flowing up to the component Lexi is magically holding in the air. I examine the way it looks, its bright magenta hue, and most importantly, I mentally examine how his magic feels as he emits it. The room, for me, goes quiet as I focus my sense upon the feel of the magic. Right as I really get a good feel for it, he stops emitting his magic and exhales deeply. I snap out of my focused state to look back at him. He seems stressed for a moment. He takes a deep breath in and even holds it as he reemits his magic. After a few seconds, he slowly exhales. I bring my hoof that's on my lips, which is also holding my quill, back down to my notebook and continue to jot down notes.

Later that night, I'm laying cooped up in my bed with the same notebook in one hoof and this time a pencil in the other. I rest my head against my pillow, against the backboard of my bed, thinking deeply whilst tapping the eraser end of my pencil on my right cheek. I even bite the end of my pencil, delving into deeper thoughts as I gaze at the notes I've taken on Void. Staring at the hoof drawn pictures I've created, I study the images and think about my course of action on how to really stabilize his use of magic. One of the drawings shows Void emitting magic but seeming to struggle doing so, as indicated by the sweat droplets drawn on him. This drawing tells me that Void is too tense when performing the emission of magic, making this a key factor on what to work on. Another section of the notes is a picture representation of how his magic looks as well as the description of how it feels when his magic is being emitted. It feels dark in nature, giving off a strange sensation of unease. Yet at the same time, gentle and a tad soothing. For example, back when we fought, it emanated a strange force of pressure. However, when performing magic casually, it feels more tame. Perhaps dependent on the scenario, his magic can differ in many ways. More thoroughly, what his emotions feel in the moment of emission. Like back at the cave, he displayed quite the formidable demeanor which seemed to have fueled his magic to be more potent. If controlled properly it could be quite powerful. Especially for a magic type unheard of in this day and age. His magic isn't like any ol' dark magic; This is something very unique but isn't quite honed as it should be. This doesn't dissuade me, however. As I already have a plan to help him. I take the pencil end out of my mouth and I write down my plan.

Time passes and it's a bit later at night as I'm laying on my stomach in bed, studying the book that I picked out. I have my hind hooves kicked up and swinging up and down playfully. The book itself is a book on magic refinement. I review the book to make sure that it is the perfect choice for how I plan for it to be used. After a bit of time, Mom walks in the room to check up on me. She suddenly turns on the lights and causes me to shield my eyes from the light as I've been sitting in the dark for quite some time. She informs me that it's very late and that I should be heading to bed soon. I glance over at a nearby clock and realize how late it is. It's almost midnight and I've been reviewing for longer than I thought. I quickly sit up, put my stuff away, and tell her that I'm sorry I stayed up so late. She tells me not to worry about it as she approaches me and gives me a kiss on the head. She wishes me goodnight and I say the same in return. She heads toward the doors and shuts off the lights before leaving. I lie down in bed and cover myself, shutting my eyes to drift away into a peaceful slumber.

The following fourth day, I teleport my way back to Lexi's place. I appear at the entrance to The White Room holding a tray of freshly baked cookies that my mom made. I make my self known with a smile and state that my mom baked cookies for us to share but right then I realize that the Holo-World Generator is on fire along side multiple sections of the room. I gaze in shock for a moment as I spot Lexi frantically trying to use a fire extinguisher and Void trying to stomp out some of the flames. I quickly set down the tray of cookies on the ground and sprint over to assist. As I sprint off to help extinguish the flames, Void's bunny, Lariat, hops down from the command center and makes his way to the tray of cookies. He leans down to sniff the cookies for a moment, then picks up one of the cookies with his paws. He turns his head to watch on at the chaos whilst casually enjoying the cookie. He even cracks a cheeky little grin as he finds our frantic behavior over this situation quite amusing. So amusing, he even gives an adorably sinister chuckle.

After putting out all the flames, each of us are sat down on chairs, hunched over with defeated looks on our faces. On top of that we each have a bit of ash and burn stains on ourselves from the flames. While we're sitting, we're all enjoying the cookies together as a way of easing us down from that chaotic moment. Thankfully the cookies were all we needed so settle us down. Thanks mom.

Lexi explained that the fire was caused by fault in the invention's wiring which caused the magic flowing through to spew out. This incident also damaged the internal magic container that powers the whole thing. Things were looking a tad rough and we were a bit short on time. We clean ourselves off and continue to work diligently once more. However, more issues soon followed. We take a look inside the machine and quite a few parts are damaged. Lexi checks the boxes of parts and realizes that we're running low the needed wires. The wires that acted as conduits for the flow of magic to go into the magic emitter. Lexi begins to fret, putting hooves to her head to try and think of a solution. She suggested maybe dismantling some of her current inventions. I take a peak inside and think. Wires can be used as conduits for the flow of magic. However, the wires had trouble containing the magic within them as it all flowed through them. So simply, we just need to figure out a better, more durable conduit for the flow of magic through the invention. I gently pick up the invention and carefully examine the inside. My horn begins to glow golden and I begin removing the tattered wires. Then, once removed, my horn glows cyan. Lexi, who's attention is turned away at the moment, is nudged by Void which gets her to look back at me. She notices the light and questions what I'm doing. Carefully, I manifest small, yet very durable tubes of Crystal that connect from the magical container within and to the magic emitter atop the ceiling of the internals. Since my Crystals work perfectly for magic conduits, I figure they'll be perfect as replacement wires. Once finished, I present it to Lexi and ask if this will do. She admires it and tells me that she believes these Crystals will work.

Once more, Lexi hastily rebuilds the magic container, reinforces it once more, takes the large Crystal of Alicorn Magic, and refills the container. Once refilled and reinstalled inside, she tries to get power going into the device again to see if the newly fitted 'Crystal Wires' will work. The invention begins flowing magic through the crystals to the magic emitter and Lexi's eyes light up. No leakage of magic whatsoever. The glass dome atop the invention emits magic fluidly and elegantly. Lexi turns to me and thanks me greatly. She was worried that this would be quite the issue, but thanks to my quick thinking, I saved us a lot of time.

There comes a point where we're having a bit of down time after a long time of working. Lexi is typing away at the command center's console, trying to program the remote control for The Holo-World Generator. Void is sitting in a chair near the entrance of this room with Lariat on his lap. Void is feeding Lariat carrots and even petting him gently. Meanwhile I'm sat at a nearby table, happily drawing lovely pictures in one of my notebooks. Lexi finishes typing and reaches to unplug the remote control that's connected to the computer. Void and I stop what we're doing to look at Lexi as she lifts up the remote and tests to see if it works by turning on The Holo-World Generator. We all turn our attention to the invention to see if it works. However, nothing seems to happen. Lexi looks at the remote, confused. She then plugs it back in to the computer and tries to reprogram it again. Void and I simply go back to what we were doing.

Some time passes and Void has put Lariat to sleep. I'm still drawing in my notebook. Though, my smile has turned into a slightly bored expression. Lexi finishes up again and unplugs the remote. She aims it at the invention and tries to turn it on. She presses the button once, twice, and a third time, all of which do nothing. The three of us groan and Lexi starts over once more. I sit here hoping that the third time will be the charm.

Even more time passes and Void has fallen asleep. I'm still at the table, propping my head up with my left foreleg, and practically falling asleep myself. Lexi finishes programing the remote once again and quickly tries to turn it on once again. She presses it one, twice, a third and forth time. Unfortunately, nothing happens for the third time. Lexi gets frustrated and even smacks the remote a few times. She turns in my direction and reals the hoof holding the remote back. She then throws it angrily with a grunt. I watch as the remote flies past me and I magically catch it before it hits anything. I then magically float it on over to hover it near me. Lexi comes down from her frustrations and quickly realizes her mistake. I look her in the eyes with an eyebrow raised. I gaze on with an expression that says 'really?' and her ears droop down as she covers her mouth in embarrassment. She bring a hoof to her hip and the other to rub behind her head as she now smiles nervously at me. I point my right hoof at her twice then point to my own eyes after, instructing her through my gestures to watch and learn. I then put my hoof to my chest, inhale deeply, hold it briefly, and exhaling slowly while extending my right foreleg out, enacting my mother's signature breathing technique. Lexi mimics my actions and becomes relaxed. I nod at her twice with a smirk in approval, then levitate the remote back to her. She takes it and smiles.

Day turns to night as we reach a point where almost everything is complete. Lexi is trying her hardest to stay awake as she's attaching wires to the invention. She's slowly nodding off, showing that she's extremely tired. Rightfully so as we all stayed up quite a bit late this day. I hastily move to Lexi and catch her before she hits her head on the desk she's sitting at. I examine her to make sure she's okay, only to find that she has completely passed out. Void approaches, stating that because of Lexi passing out from exhaustion, now would be a good time to call it a night. He informs me that he'll carry her up to her room and put her to bed. After informing me of such, he says that I should head home and rest up. I nod and say my goodbyes before teleporting my way back home. I reappear in the bathroom somewhere in the empire, locking the door to the room magically. I'm a bit tired myself as my eyes feel heavy. I unstrap my saddlebags and set them aside. I proceed to take a nice hot shower, pointing my face right at the showerhead, letting the water blissfully run down my body. After the shower I head right to bed to rest up for the next day.

The fifth day arrives and we're furthering progress on the invention as usual. Void is currently using a soldering iron to joint solder wire together on little circuit boards. His hoof slips and she accidently burns himself, causing him to fumble the iron and the part he's working on. Sadly, he wasn't wearing his hoof shoe armor to protect him from the burn. His sharp inhale causes me to notice him in a bit of pain and rush over to check on him. I examine his hoof and thankfully it doesn't look like it will leave a mark. He spawns his staff and begins to wave the gemstone end around his hoof. Shortly after, his hoof is all better. After some time, I find myself carefully using the soldering iron for Void instead, in order to help out more. I've never really used a soldering iron before but Void instructed me how to use one prior to me helping out. Turns out, it's actually quite easy. From then on, I quickly learned how to use it and as time goes on, I start using two soldering irons at the same time. Then three, using my magic to levitate multiple irons. I have quite the accurate hoof-to-eye coordination, which makes it quite easy for me to joint parts together. I stare intensely while soldering, maintaining an unwavering focus which catches Void's attention. He smiles and is very impressed by my efforts. One by one I complete more parts and I give them over to Void who passes them over to Lexi to inspects them. They praise me on my work. Every piece I've worked on was done excellently. Both Void and Lexi are amazed on how much of a fast learner I am to which I smile and thank them in response.

I do my part to help with recreating the parts that were damaged. Void comes to my side to see if he can assist but I tell him that I believe I have it covered. He looks to me in surprise as I say that and happily lets me work. I end up doing more work in the end than I thought I would. After quite some time, glancing back and forth at the blueprints and putting pieces together, I believe I successfully built a replacement part. I go over to Lexi who's filling up the magical container once more with my Alicorn Magic to recharge the invention. I present the part to her and she inspects it thoroughly. She finds that it's crafted very well and she praises me for it. Lexi carefully installs the part into the invention then gives me a high hoof.

While working on the refinement of the invention, I help out by using a small blowtorch on square metal part while Lexi holds the it in place with gloved hooves. We both are wearing metal masks while this is going on. After some time, the blowtorch runs out of gas. We lift up our masks to gaze at it in confusion and wonder how are we going to finish this piece. I then hatch an idea. Moments later, I'm using a thin blast from my horn to magically torch the metal precisely while Lexi holds it carefully in the air using levitation. We finish up this square metal piece and afterwards we carefully install it as one of the final side panel walls for The Holo-World Generator. Time goes on and on as we work together to finalize this invention. We work tiringly from dawn 'til dusk and at the end of the day we felt that everything was about ready.

Later on at home, I'm collapsed on my bed, snoozing soundly. However, I didn't bother covering myself since when I got home, I just flopped on my bed and passed out. My mom peaks in and notices me sleeping in an awkward position. She giggles and enters the room. She brings her hooves to gently reposition me more comfortably in my bed and then tucks me in nicely. Once tucked in I wriggle around a bit in my sleep and form a smile. My mom smiles back and she leans down to give me a kiss on the head before heading out the room.

On the final day of working on the invention we stand around Lexi as she types away at the control panel of the command center. It's late at night and wait as Lexi is putting the finishing touches on the device. Specifically she's programing the remote control for the invention. Void is gently rocking Lariat in his embrace. Lariat is fast asleep, snoozing soundly and quite adorably I might add. After pretty much a week of hard work, we are finally ready to see if it officially works.

"Alright," Lexi begins. "We're about ready to activate this bad boy! Void, do me a favor and turn it on for me will ya?"

"Certainly mother," Void nods and turns to me. "Flurry Heart? Could you please hold onto Lariat for me?"

"Sure! I'll hold the little guy," I reach out my hooves to the bunny and Void carefully gives him to me. I gentle cradle him in my embrace and I gaze down at the little fella with a smile. "Heh, ya know, as menacing as he can be, he's actually very adorable," I bring a hoof to boop his nose to which he smiles and cutely wriggles in my hold.

"That he is. It's one of the reasons why I love him so," Void walks past me and heads to the center of the room where the New and Improved Holo-World Generator is placed. Its design is vastly enhanced since we started. Most noticeably, its black metallic surfaces on all sides shine brightly. The back end of it is fitted with a vent and within the vent is a cooling fan to regulate the temperature to prevent the invention from overheating. The trim edges of the invention are beautifully polished. So well polished that you could reflections on them. The front end has had most its buttons replaced with a full on touch screen. Lastly the glass dome atop the invention was replaced with a very clean, red stained glass. The whole thing looks like a work of scientific art. Void presses the power button on it and the screen lights up.

"Alright, I've turned it on," Void calls out back towards us.

"Excellent! Now in just a few moments I'll have the remote ready," Lexi continues to type away at the console.

"Hey Lexi, before we finish this thing... I've been wondering..."

"Hmm?" Lexi stops typing and turns her head to look at me.

"Why did you want to make the Holo-World Generator? Like what made you want to create something so ambitiously amazing?"

Lexi turns her head away to think for a moment, softly sliding her hooves off the touch screen and rests them on the edge of the counter. She appears to be in quite the deep thought from this question. Not long after, she begins to answer.

"Well... you see.. it was because there was a time where I always dreamt about going to such phenomenal places in Equestria and always a wanted to take lovely vacations. But I could never really leave my home much at all, let alone leave manehatten because I was always so busy at times. What with all the science-y stuff that I had going on, I had very little time to go anywhere special. What really got me dreaming about it more was because of Void. When Void was younger, I didn't really take him out to many places. Void use to always talk about going on vacations and I felt bad that I could never really take him anywhere for such. So it was because of all that, that really got me thinking of a solution. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized how amazing such a thing would be if it were to be created. A device that can allow you to create your own vacation right from your home. I thought it would be very extraordinary for not just Void and I, but for ponies all over Equestria. Ponies who were in a very similar situation such as mine where they couldn't leave their homes much. Or, alternatively, ponies who... ended up sick, bedridden," Lexi pauses for a moment. "Ponies who... maybe couldn't walk or travel. You get it...," Lexi appears more serious now. "With such a creation... I thought it would really bring life to many ponies around this great land. Just imagine... Let's say a family member who... isn't able to travel as much anymore as they use to. And their other family members are sad that they aren't able to spend as much time with them anymore. With this invention, they can spend time with each other once again and go on absolutely spectacular vacations right from home. An invention for the whole family to enjoy. I wanted to be the one who brings that creation to life. To be known in Equestria for such a wonderful work of innovative genius"

There is a moment of silence that follows once she finishes her response.

"You can still be that mare, Lexi," I set my right hoof on her left shoulder. "You can be . . . No . . .You WILL be that mare who will bring such a thing to life and all of Equestria will know of it. I mean, you're already half way there. All we need to do now is win this contest and then they'll all see the true genius that is Lexington B. Dawn. And Furthermore? Your reasoning behind why you wanted to create such a thing, why you're such an ambitious mare, is absolutely phenomenal," I say with a proud smile. "You're a brilliant mare with a very kind heart. Like Twilight!"

Lexi turns her head with a watery eyed smile of sheer and utter happiness. "Heh, you really mean that?"

"As if you even need to ask. Of course I mean it!" I shift my hoof to pat her on the back.

"Hahah, yeah you're right. Flurry Heart? You're awesome, you know that?"

We smile happily at each other for a brief moment. Void, currently kneeling in front of the invention, brings his left hoof up to wipe his left cheek. He then stands up and moves to the side while awaiting for the test of the invention to begin.

"Right then," Lexi turns back to the console and continues to type for a moment longer. "Without further ado, let's see if it's officially ready!" The computer beeps a few times and Lexi reaches for the remote control device that's connected to it by a cable. She disconnects the cable from the computer and picks up the remote control.

"The remote is all set and programed so now we can control it with ease!" Lexi steps around to head closer to the device. I follow behind her and Void stands next to his mother's right side.

"Okay, before we begin. Lights!" Lexi reaches in her coat and shortly after, the lights in the room begin to dim, leaving the room softly lit.

"Excellent!" She takes her hoof out of her coat and back onto the remote for the invention. "Gotta set the mood properly for this ya know?"

"Mhmm!" I nod.

"Are you ready?" She asks us.

"Fire it up, Miss Dawn!"

Lexi presses a button on the remote and shortly after we begin to hear the Holo-World Generator power up fully. Light's appear from within the dome top and shoot out towards the ceiling. It shoots out red lasers that appear to scan the entire room from top to bottom. It even scans us as the lights move downwards, crossing our bodies with thin red lasers. After the scanning process, the light within the dome turns to a cyan hue and The Holo-World Generator makes a gentle hum.

"Okay... it's working! Ge-Give me a place-" Lexi turns to me and requests. "-Uh-A setting! Like uhh a place we can go to! Something simple for starters"

"Uhm, open field under the night sky!" I quickly say in response.

"Open field. Night Sky. Got it!" Lexi faces forward again and uses the remote control to put in said command. The dome atop The Holo-World Generator begins to release magic through the glass and the light from within projects images above. As the magic reaches the walls, the entire room begins to reshape and alter. Slowly, the walls fade away and reveal a beautifully elegant night sky and the floor beneath us begins to shift from a solid metal to a soft, grassy surface. The invention's light increases its brightness for a moment then settles back down, signifying that it completed the generation of a new world. All around us is a scene that is nothing close to where we were just standing in. We stand in the middle of a wide, seemingly endless open field, sitting under Luna's beautiful night sky. Shortly after, we begin to hear crickets sounding off in the distance as well as gusts of wind. Not only can we hear the wind, we can feel it. A gentle breeze of air flowing by us which causes our manes to flow gracefully. I stand awestricken that the sensation of all this feeling so real. It's like we've been transported to an open field rather than it being generated with the power of magic and science.

"Woaaaaah!" I say whilst gazing around the environment. "It's... Incredible!" I take a moment to breathe in the fresh air from the flowing wind. My eyes gaze downward towards my hind hooves as I shift them about the soft grass below me. I turn around and even gaze up at the moon, shining high in the sky. "Whaaat?! Even the moon! That's amazing!"

"It worked! It really worked!" Lexi exclaims.

"That it did! Once again, it worked!" Void follows up.

"It all feels so real! It's hard to believe but... it's true!" I turn to Lexi. "Never once was there a doubt in my mind that you could do it!"

"Haaah," She gazes up at the beautiful stars above in amazement, at a loss for words for the moment. "But let's test it further, just to be sure! What's another place we should create?"

"Oh! How about downtown Manehatten?" Void suggests.

"Excellent!" Lexi looks down at the remote and begins pressing buttons on it. The environment starts to change all around us. The field we stand in begins to fade away and reform into city streets. Tall skyscrapers begin to form from the magic all around and city billboards spawn upon several of the nearby buildings. Familiar stores and restaurants manifest close by us and Lamp posts sprout from the ground along the sidewalks. Soon, we stand in the center of an intersection somewhere in downtown Manehatten.

"Amazing!" I shout. "Though," I take a look around an notice that the area is void of life. "It's lacking in population. Bring out some ponies a-and put some carriages riding about! Make this place REALLY lively!"

"That I can do!" She types away and soon ponies of all different sizes, colors, and appearances manifest all around and they begin to wander about as if they were going through their daily commute. A lot of them even begin talking with one another in a realistic fashion. Taxi carriages spawn around and start riding down the road, some going slow while others speeding fast. Soon, the air is filled with the sounds of many different voices as well as the sound of carriages rolling about.

"Hahahaaa! Awesome! This is so cool! It's like we're downtown!" I even step in front of a passing pony to gaze at them in awe. "These ponies are so real! It's insane!" I reach out a hoof and poke at the pony's chest and face. The pony, having a gray body coat, brown eyes, mane, and tail, actually reacts to my physical contact and even looks at me with a confused expression.

"Uh, s-sorry!" I step out of the pony's way and he adjusts his Red Bow Tie. Then he continues about his trot through the city.

"So cool!" Suddenly a taxi carriage comes speeding at me and I shift back to avoid it. "Woah!" The sound of the carriage rushing by was so sudden that it woke up Lariat in my hold. Lariat tenses up and clings to my chest tightly, afraid for a brief moment and even shaking. He also frantically looks around, wondering how we got here.

"Hey, get outa the way!" Shouts the pony riding the carriage that passed by. Lariat stops shaking and looks towards the carriage. He then blows a raspberry angrily at the driver in response.

I give a chuckle at Lariat's retort. I gaze all around once more, finding the realistic reactions of the magically manifested ponies to be very amusing. Same goes for the realism of the city itself.

"How fascinating!" Void says.

"What other place should we create?" Lexi asks.

"Oh, I know!" Void reaches for the remote and Lexi gives it to him. "How about...-," He starts pressing buttons. "-Waterfall within the Everfree Forest?"

"Sounds great!" I say excitedly.

Like before, the area begins to reshape into a different scene all together. A nearby sidewalk turns from stone into a large flowing river that leads to the front of a building. The metal parts of the lamp posts around us start to change into tree bark. The glass containing the light bulbs shatter and the glass fragments magically reform themselves into summer leaves. The light bulbs that were within the glass split into many little lights. The many lights flow upwards and turn into fireflies that now flow freely about the sky. Many of the buildings around demanifests while one large building remains in front of the newly formed river. Shortly after, the building changes into a large cliffside. A billboard atop the building changes into flowing water that falls down to the bottom and into the river below. Lastly, the moon overhead begins to set slowly set in the west and above the east horizon rises the sun. In this newly created world, we are now in the Everfree as the morning sun illuminates the magnificently beautiful waterfall. We all take a moment to bask in its beauty. Void continues to use the remote and shortly after doing so, wildlife begin to come out of the wood work. Birds fly over head, squirrels and chipmunks start scurrying about. There's even a few deer prancing about across the river. Most importantly, a white bunny rabbit pops out from shrubbery close by. Then another and another. They all hop their way over to Void and begin to nuzzle up to his legs.

"Heheheh. Alright!" Void Kneels down and begins petting many of the bunnies.

"Welp, if it wasn't before, It's clear now to see what's your favorite animal" I say to Void.

They cutely twitch their noses and even make occasional squeaks. Void, Lexi, and I smile at this and even share a brief moment of laughter at the adorable nature in these little bunnies. However, Lariat does not like this one bit. He looks to the bunnies that Void is petting and becomes jealous. I get the idea to set Lariat down so he can maybe play with the other bunnies. As I kneel to set him down, he hops out of my hooves and over towards another bunny. The bunny looks to Lariat with a happy, friendly smile. Lariat looks at the bunny with distain and lets out a scary snarl. The bunny's ears droop down and they become frightened. They turn around and hastily hop away from Lariat. All of the other bunnies also turn tail at Lariat's frightening snarl.

"Ugh, Lariat!" Void exclaims.

I stand on my hindlegs for a moment and gaze down at Lariat while I cross my forelegs. "Looks like somebunny is jeeealouuussss!" I smile smugly down at Lariat.

Lariat snaps towards me and grows, balling his paws.

"Easy there, Lariat," Void magically levitates Lariat up so that they are at eye level. "You know how special you are to me. No fake bunnies will ever take your place," Void brings a hoof to rub his head. Lariat crosses his forelegs and pouts. "Come on, don't be like that," Void scritches behind one of his ears to which Lariat leans into it and smiles. "There's that smile"

"Alright alright. We've tested it quite well so far. But there's one thing we need to figure out," Lexi interjects

"What's that?" I ask.

"If The Holo-World Generator can change the environment based on a pony's mind," Lexi brings a hoof to tap her own head.

"Alright well how do we do that?"

"Simple," She approaches the Holo-World Generator and kneels down to it. "All we have to do is activate that feature and it should be quite easy from there," Lexi types something on the screen of the invention. "We built this function properly so I know it works"

Right then, the invention's light from within the glass dome begins to brighten for a brief moment. A stream of magic flows from the device and touches my horn. I feel a gentle tingle as this happens before the magic fades away.

"There. The function is active," She stands up and faces towards me. "It's all on you Flurry. You'll be the the one to test it first. Since it's using your magic, it should be easier for you to change the world around us"

"Okay? So... how do I do it?"

"All you gotta do is think. Think of the exact environment you wish to be at and/or create right now and the Holo-World Generator will do its thing!"

I gaze down at the invention and stare at it with the wonder of where to go or what to create in my mind.

"Anywhere in Equestria or a place that's made up. The Holo-World Generator adapts the environment to fit the pony's mood and desires"

"Alright, here goes nothin' then," I slowly close my eyes and think of just the place to replicate. Not long after, the world around begins to magically shift. The entire environment turns into an endless colorful void of magic. Slowly the world manifests what images are coming to my mind. I slowly open my eyes and before I know it, we find ourselves standing right upon the balcony of The Crystal Empire. I glance around in awe to see that the empire has indeed been finely manifested. I look to Lexi who's gaze up at the tower from where we are. She's jaw dropped at the sight and even speechless.

"Wow, you did it!" Void claims. "However, there's a whole lot of empty space down below and all around"

From where we are on the balcony it appears only the tower of the empire itself has been manifested. Everything else appears to be just a white void of nothingness.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's fixed that," I begin to think of the land of Equestria itself from the perspective of the balcony. It's a sight that I often see pretty much everyday so the image is pretty much imprinted onto my mind. Magical strands flow out from the Holo-World Generator which sits on the ground between us. The strands shoot out into the white void and begin to manifest my thoughts into this confined reality. The entire terrain of and building structures of Equestria slowly manifests before us. The magical strands generating the world sweeps across the from both sides and meeting in the middle. Soon, we are met with the full view of the Equestria from the empire's balcony.

"Oh my! This is fantastic!" Void exclaims. "Does it really look like this from the empire?" He asks.

"To a tee!" I reply, admiring the magnificent view that the invention replicated.

Lexi, still speechless, approaches the railing and looks out at the land, taking in all the beauty that lies before us. I smile and I think of more things to add to the world. I create some ambience by having the invention conjure up some passing birds, having it simulate a gentle breeze from the wind, and I even have it formulate a rainbow that stretches across the whole sky.

"Wha...," Lexi tries to formulate words but is far too amazed by all this to properly speak. From how she's reacting, it seems that the invention is working far better than anticipated.

"Ooh! I have an idea! How's about we add a little time lapse," The rainbow in the sky disappears and shortly after, the sun swiftly moves across the sky and begins to set in the west and the moon rises in its place from the east.

"Hah! That was cool! Keep it going!" Void states joyfully.

"Alright!" The moon swiftly begins to set and the sun rises in its place. However, it doesn't stop there. The process repeats over and over very swiftly. Its as though time itself is accelerating at an extremely fast rate, much like a time lapse you see in movies.

"And now... let's change the weather!" Void says while focusing his gaze in the air. He begins to think of a change to happen in the world around now. The time lapse stops and the sun is back to its position high in the sky. Soon, thunder storm clouds form and emit lightning.

"Oo-Oo! Do rain!" I exclaim.

Void thinks of rain and it rains all around us beyond the balcony railings.

"Now snow!" The rain stops almost instantaneously and it begins snowing peacefully.

"Hahaha! Amazing!" I shout. "Alright, let's put it back to normal"

"Agreed," Says Void as he has the invention restores the weather to before. The rainbow has returned and the gentle wind blows by.

"This invention is absolutely brilliant!" I joyfully claim. My eyes turn to Lexi to find that she's still gazing out to the land with her hooves to the railing. She's completely awestruck by all of this, speechless by the fact that her invention works outstandingly well. I smirk and approach Lexi to ask her a very important question.

"So, how ya feelin', Miss Lexington B. Dawn?" I stand beside Lexi as she gazes out at the generated world of Equestria.

"Think we're ready to beat Brisk?"

Lexi Dawn forms this confident smirk across her face. Her mane flows in the artificial wind as she stares outward with stance that tells us that she's ready to take on the world.

"Oh yeah... We're Ready To Win This!"

[Chapter 5 End]