Twilight woke up wiping the sleep from her eyes with a hoof. She had a small headache but that was infinitely better then the feeling of the spell that had been her head. Twilight opened her eyes to find she was in the library’s basement laying on one of her floor pillows. Looking up she spotted Rainbow sitting in a chair to her left. In front of Twilight was a lab table, she couldn’t see what was on the table as she was on the floor.

Twilight's eyes went back to her friend, she looked different but not so much that she was unrecognizable. Rainbow still had her rainbow mane, cyan coat and the such.

Her wings had a change and it was probably the biggest physical difference. Along the leading edge of her wing, namely where the bone should be, was a set of dirty gold colored metal plates. The plating was clearly on top of the bone. The metal plating had joints at each spot where the wing would bend to let the pegasus to have full wing motion. The plating ended just a bit after the spot where her wings met her body. Her feathers looked normal, untouched by this modification. Her other physical difference was a light blue gem that was embedded into the mare’s right foreleg.

Rainbow heard Twilight shuffling. “Good your up.” Rainbow said as she turned to look at the alicorn. Twilight was almost too nervous to speak after what had happened just before she passed out. But there was a burning question she had to ask, so she forced it out as fast as she could. “Arewestillfriends?” Twilight sounded more like a mix of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie than herself.

Rainbow chuckled, of course that would be Twilight’s biggest worry. “Yes Twilight of course we’re still friends.” Rainbow answered but then added on “I’m just annoyed about the mess you got yourself into.” Rainbow motioned for Twilight to get up with a hoof. Twilight did so nervously “Sit in the chair provided.” Rainbow pointed to a chair across from her. “Ha, always wanted to say that.”

Twilight moved over to the chair and instinctively tried to use her magic to pull the chair out, but couldn’t. Twilight reached with a hoof for her horn to check it, she felt an inhibitor ring and her eyes widened in response.

“Rainbow why I have an anti magic ring on.” Twilight asked. She was now very worried, magic was the only way she knew how to defend herself. Sure she was an alicorn and that meant she was as strong if not a bit stronger then most earth ponies. But Twilight had no idea how to use that strength properly, not yet.

Rainbow could feel how hurt Twilight was at the prospect of not being able to use her magic. “Calm down Twi, I just needed to make sure you didn’t panic teleport or something like that.” Twilight nodded. “That makes sense, but can you take it off now.”

Rainbow thought for a moment. “You promise not to teleport away?” Twilight nodded quickly. She felt the ring lift off her horn and watch it go to Rainbow, who caught it with her wing. “How?“ Twilight was blown away, Rainbow had somehow levitated the ring off her horn. Twilight had felt Rainbow’s pegasus magic pick up the ring. It was extremely faint and weak being overridden by some enchantment.

Rainbow smirked “So I am right, you are hypersensitive to magic fields.” Rainbow laughed at the face Twilight made. “Whaaa how? Not a single other pony knows about that, not even Celestia or my parents know about it.” Twilight said slack jawed. Her Hypersensitivity to magic fields was something she only found out about recently, after she became an alicorn. So how did Rainbow know about it?

“I’ll Answer both questions later as that's not important now. What’s important is this, how much do you know, Twi?” Rainbow said as she put the ring on the table.

“Only that you work for something called the SCP Foundation and some of the other stuff on that card.” Twilight answered.

“So basically nothing, good.” Rainbow reached down into her saddle bag on the floor and pulled out her new ID and placed it on the table. The only difference between her old one and new one was her age, twenty eight instead of twenty seven.

Rainbow started “The SCP Foundation is an international covert agency tasked with containing paranormal entities and anomalies. Twilight to put it bluntly the Foundation protects the world, not just Equestria from the things it doesn’t know about nor should know about.”

“The paranormal? Like ghosts?” Twilight asked.

“Not quite as simple, to give you a mundane example: a six sided dice when rolled occasionally lands on a seven or a match, that when, lit spontaneously creates a blizzard that will keep getting bigger the longer as the match is lit. I found that last one myself.” Rainbow added.

“But to give some more examples in containment there’s a rubber ball, designated SCP-018, that when it hits a surface will bounce with roughly twice the speed it hit the surface with.” Rainbow finished.

Twilight jumped up in her chair raising a hoof as she did so. “That’s impossible! That would mean this ball breaks the laws of physics and magic. Rainbow I’m going to need evidence if you want me to believe you.” Twilight finished, she didn’t believe a bit of what Rainbow just told her. That last once was impossible, the first two could possibly be explained by some really complex enchantments but the ball couldn’t be possible.

Rainbow smirked “Thought you would say something like that. So while you were sleeping I went and grabbed something from my house.” Rainbow pulled out a black quill in her hoof. She then reached up above the table and let go of the quill.

“Rainbow a quill falling……” Twilight started but stopped when the quill didn’t fall but stayed exactly where Rainbow released the quill. The quill wasn’t slightly bobbing like it would be if it was lifted by magic or floating by an enchantment. Besides Twilight would feel the magic field thanks to her condition. Twilight lit her horn, her lavender magic aura surrounding the floating quill. She then tried to levitate the object over to her but the black quill didn’t move. It stayed floating in the air undisturbed. Twilight tried again with more force behind her magic but it once again didn’t move.

“Twilight, You’re going to have to use your hooves or your mouth if you want to move the quill.” Rainbow explained as she reached up and poked the impossible object as if to demonstrate. Her poke caused the quill to turn slightly then immediately halted when her cyan hoof stopped making physical contact.

Twilight reached up with a hoof and grabbed the quill nervously, half expecting it… well she didn’t know what she was expecting.

Twilight moved the quill so it was in front of her muzzle. She tried turning the writing feather every direction, down, up and other random angles. For her effort she got nothing, the feather always stayed in the location she released it. She casted all sorts of spells on the feather, nothing. To say Twilight was having trouble comprehending what was happening would be an understatement. “How! This is impossible!”

While Twilight was messing with the quill Rainbow had pulled a packet from her saddle bag in an effort to help her explain the SCP Foundation to her friend. The paper packet had a checklist of things she needed to tell the princess about. She had been given this list right after Twilight's coronation as she was assigned the task of explaining Foundation to Twilight. It made special note to emphasize how little the Foundation cares about politics and little power Celestia or Luna had in the grand scale of things.

“This Quill is physically impossible!” Twilight practically shouted as quill was now upside down in front of Twilight's muzzle.

Rainbow reached across the table and grabbed the quill and put it next to her in the air. “Yes I know that Twilight.” Rainbow wanted to get the conversation back on track.

Twilight couldn’t get her mind off the quill. “Rainbow you don’t understand this quill is acting like-“

I’m going to have fun this Rainbow thought as she interrupted Twilight. “Like a point object yet doesn’t go flying away smashing into the wall because it somehow keeps the momentum of the planet we walk on. Almost like it’s a point object for some relativistic points such as the planet but not others.” Rainbow finished with a cocky grin.

Rainbow was going to love showing off just how smart she actually was to Twilight. Dash wasn’t a genius but if you worked for the SCP Foundation you were going to learn things if you didn’t want to die. Besides playing the less than smart jock got annoying quickly for Rainbow.

Twilight blinked; she hadn’t expected such a concise answer to come Rainbow of all ponies. “Yea.”

“Now I have your favorite thing: a checklist of things you as a high-ranking government official has to know.” Rainbow said.

“And Twilight for full disclosure the foundation wishes to recruit you and as a friend I hope you do join the Foundation as your gift for Magic would be a huge boon for The research department. But at same time I don’t want you to just jump in because you can get yourself killed very easily.” Twilight's eyes brighten at the words “research department” then just quickly darkened when she heard the word killed.

“Killed?” Twilight said questioningly. Twilight looked at the floating Quill.

“Yes killed, Now not a single thing I say or have said can be told to any creature who isn’t a SCP Foundation member, understand? There are... consequences if you do.” Rainbow’s voice left no room for questions and left the threat hanging in the air.

“Ok, I understand Rainbow.” Twilight said as she looked back at Rainbow.

“Good now the checklist says to start with a general overview and has a point by of things to mention or talk about.” Rainbow pointed at some on the paper that Twilight couldn’t see properly. “But I’m going to start with just how much power the Foundation wields. Twilight, the Foundation lets Princess Celestia control the sun, same thing with Luna.” Twilight didn’t take that statement too well as Rainbow expected, but before Twilight could launch into questions Rainbow continued.

“Every government document and record is first seen by the Foundation and checked or changed as needed, like for example my birth certificate, which I know you asked for by the way.” Twilight started stuttering and blushing as she tried to come up with a response. Rainbow just continued.

“As you found out I’m actually twenty eight not twenty four like all my records say I am. Everything that could possibly contradict the idea that I’m twenty four has been changed or removed from record. A whole four years of my history gone, Twilight entire civilizations have been removed from recorded history, all traces gone. Ever heard of the Daevites?” Twi shook her head as she said “No.”

“Good then the SCP Foundation did it’s job, from what little I know they were awful, Cannibalism, ritual sacrifice and so on.” As Rainbow took a breath Twi spoke. “How can you say that so easily Rainbow?”

“Because I have seen much worse. Now the Foundation is not run by any one government or any groups of governments. The Foundation operates beyond jurisdiction only answering to itself.”

“The SCP Foundation also doesn’t care about the politics of Equestria or any other country in any way. If Sombra was ruling the Crystal Empire they wouldn’t care what he did as long as he worked with the foundation and its allies when needed or ordered to.”

After Twilight recovered from Rainbow’s nonchalant answer she stated “So the SCP Foundation rules the world.”

Rainbow shook her head.“No, The Foundation does not rule the world. The Foundation serves the world.”

Twilight didn’t buy this. “Rainbow, how do they and by extension you ‘serve the world’? To me it sounds like a rich pony club or a secret world government you read about in a story.”

Rainbow signed “As I said the Foundation’s mission statement is to protect the world from the anomalous-“

Twilight was confused “These anomalies you keep referring to don’t seem all that dangerous; that quill is not gonna harm any pony.” Twilight pointed with a hoof at the impossible quill next to Rainbow.

Rainbow was losing her patience. “Quiet“ Rainbow didn’t raise her voice, yet the level of authority in it shut the Alicorn princess up. “Twilight I’m a lot nicer than who you would be normally talking to when you are introduced to the Foundation. So stop interrupting me.” Rainbow said with a small bit of venom.

“Now I’m going to address your question about how dangerous the anomalies the Foundation contains are, because I don’t think we’re going to get much further if I don’t.” Rainbow flipped to a page in the packet she was holding. “I’m starting with what I specialize in, Cognitohazards, infohazards or memetic anomalies. Let’s go over each one quickly.”

“A cognitohazard poses a danger when sensed. This can be via any of the classical senses: sight, sound, hearing, taste, touch or magic. Most often take the form of symbols but are most definitely not exclusive to symbols.”

“A memetic agent is "infectious information", knowledge that triggers anomalous behavior or effects. By nature, all memetic agents are cognitohazards; you have to sense something to learn new information.”

“An infohazard is something that is triggered if you simply know about it. It is similar to but distinct from a memetic agent because a memetic agent is pure information whereas an infohazard is generally an object.” Rainbow knew Twilight was going to need example

“For example SCP-426 is -I-there” Twilight watched in horror as blood started to bleed from the corners of Rainbow’s eyes. “I- there is a toaster that when referring to it, I- it makes you refer to it in the first person.” Rainbow grit her teeth and she looked like she was fighting something. “And if any creature is in my-its continuous presents for over two months they will start identifying as a toaster. Then they will attempt an act like a toaster.”

The bleeding from Rainbow’s eyes stopped. “Doing things like eating a piece of bread and waiting for it to ‘pop’ out or eating so much bread your stomach ruptures and you die.” Rainbow finished.

“Rainbow! You just bled from your eyes!” Twilight shouted. Rainbow had talked about a toaster and just started bleeding for the corner of her eyes.

“Yea sounds right.” Rainbow replied as if it was normal. Rainbow wiped the blood off. Rainbow hoped what she would do next would drive the point home. “Now another example, Hey Twilight the glass is empty could you fill it?”

Whatever worry was on the alicorn’s face was gone. “Sure Rainbow I don’t have any alcohol in the library but I could go buy some wait here.” Twilight apologized, why hadn’t she brought any alcohol, the glass was going to become empty at some point.

So Twilight got out of her chair looking at the door out of the basement as she did so. “Twilight where you going?” Rainbow asked, she had expected this.

Twilight answered like it was obvious as she took a few steps towards the door. “To get a drink to fill the glass.” Twilight would have to get some bits from her room first but after-

“Why?”

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks “Because you asked me too?” Twilight answered questioning herself as she sat down where shestood. A shiver went down the alicorn’s back as she sat down. She had wanted to buy alcohol to fill some glass as soon as Rainbow said that phrase. Everything else became secondary.

In that moment Twilight Sparkle’s world changed, Rainbow had said some simple words that changed her thinking instantly. She was only thinking about buying some alcohol for some empty glass. Rainbow’s eyes had started bleeding when she talked about a toaster that made ponies believe that they were a toaster. Then they would act like a toaster and if that was anything like what she had just felt. Then….

Twilight started staring at the floor. “Rainbow?”

Rainbow put the packet in her wing and got off the chair instinctively putting on her saddlebag as she did so. Twilight looked like she was having a revelation She moved to sit next to her friend. “Yes?”

“How bad are the things you deal with?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow was silent for a moment then the pegasus wrapped a wing around Twilight.

After a second she answered “There are objects and monsters that could kill entire towns, cities even. Hell that's not counting the eldritch horrors I know we have contained, somehow.”

“Eldritch horrors? Like in PH Lovecraft's books?” Twilight asked as she turned her head up to look at Rainbow.

“Where do you think he got the ideas for his books?” Rainbow answered simply with an apologetic look.

“So world ending.” Twilight said as she looked back at the floor.

Rainbow laid the packet on the floor then turned to a page that was enchanted and looked like sign up form. Rainbow also took out an enchanted quill and put it on the paper then slid the whole thing to Twilight with a hoof. “Twilight that's why I want you to join the Foundation you’re a genius when it comes to magic. You may be able to come up with counter measures against dangerous anomalies that no pony else would think of.”

Twilight picked up the paper and quill in her magic and studied it. “Is this?” Twilight let the question hang in the air.

“Yes it's a one time offer from the SCP Foundation to join. I wish I could tell you more about the Foundation but you need to sign the paper first as I have already told you more than you were supposed to know.” Rainbow said she pointed to the form. “Twilight there’s no going back if you sign this paper and you don’t get time to sleep on it, the Foundation isn’t a patient group.”

“What if I don’t join?” Twilight asked as she looked over the agreement.

“Then we stop here, you won’t learn anything more.”

“So if I join the SCP Foundation I could save lives?” To Twilight that was the most important question.

“Countless, that's what keeps me going. Twi, after all the shit I’ve seen and done” Rainbow let out a sigh. “Twilight I have done terrible things working with the Foundation and you will too. It’s unavoidable when working with SCP’s.”

Twilight was silent for a solid minute then asked “Will you still be teaching me about the Foundation?”

“Yeah I believe so.” Rainbow answered.

“I’m going to do it.” Twilight started to fill out the form but was stopped by Rainbow’s wing grabbing the enchanted quill stopping it.

“Twi, Are you sure about this?”

Twilight was surprised by the worry in Rainbow’s voice, but she had already made her decision. “Yes, If there’s a way I can help prevent ponies from dying Rainbow I will do it.” Twilight answered with determination. Rainbow nodded softly. “Then Twilight I want you to promise me something, don’t get yourself killed. Please I don’t want to lose another friend.”

“Rainbow I will be careful.” Twilight promised.

Rainbow released the quill and Twilight got back to filling out the form. After a moment she finished filling the form. When she put the paper down it caught fire burning in a flash of orange. “It’s like Spike’s dragon fire.” Rainbow said before Twilight could ask.

Rainbow had two conflicting emotions battling it out one was trepidation over what may happen to her friend, would Twi be able to handle the dark? But the other emotion was some mix of excitement and determination. Rainbow was going to make sure Twilight would be able to handle the anomalous.

“Let’s continue and sense you officially signed up. I can go into detail and give you some actual answers.” Rainbow said as she stood up with a hint of joy in her voice.

Rainbow stood next to the alicorn “Twilight I would suggest you get a notebook but make sure to hide it better than the notebook that held all of your theories about me.” Twilight hid her face in her wings.

“Please tell me you didn’t read it.” Twi practically begged Rainbow.

Rainbow started laughing and stuck a pose akin to Rarity. “Hmmm lets see I’m apparently, The sexiest mystery?”

Twilight let out whine of embarrassment.

Author's Note

To quote CommanderApplejack

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