Twilight's garage lab was a cosy little place. Even though she had several computer workstations and various pieces of equipment that I couldn't really identify, there were also a few comfy chairs, as well as an old sofa. Plus, there were these weird foam panels with a repeating pyramidal pattern that absolutely coated all the walls. If I had to guess, it was some sort of sound insulator.

The three of us—Twilight, Starlight, and myself—were gathered in the lab, just sorta hanging around. Twilight was at one of her computer workstations, showing Starlight some computer code for some sort of scanner device she was working on. Meanwhile, I was just lying on the lab sofa, trying to ignore the abdominal pain and nausea that'd been tormenting me all day, and pretending I didn't have something awkward going downstairs to prevent a mess. Human reproductive cycles are disgusting.

As I sat and half-listened to them talk about sensors, data arrays, functions and loops, I was looking over at the big 'mystery energy conspiracy' board that Twilight had tucked in one corner of the garage. There was a map of Canterlot with four circles drawn around different parts of the city. Three of them all centred around the same point, and the largest circle had three pins with string connecting them to papers pinned to free space on the board. The other had only one pin and connected data set. I don't know anything about that area with more data, but that other one's near the industrial district, I think.

With my superb eyesight, thankfully inherited from my life as a pegasus, I was able to make out a lot of the dates on the papers, as well as specific waveforms and what looked like some sort of chart denoting strength over time. The unknown zone had three distinct energy signatures that matched a specific pattern. The first started approximately around the twenty-eighth of September, growing in strength until it plateaued just before midnight on the fifth of October. It held fast until the night of the eighth, when it dipped below whatever device's detection threshold was.

The other two in that area both spiked into existence on the eighth. Both of them seemed to be towards the top of what the chart was able to display, with variances in power spikes. That being said, one signature was clearly stronger, as it spiked past the bounds of the chart. There was even a sticky note from Twilight on the page questioning whether the sensor malfunctioned.

What really caught my attention, however, was the one around the industrial district. Its data set stated that it consisted of a single massive spike on the eighteenth of September. For anyone else, it would have just seemed like a random number that just so happened to predate the other data by about a week. That day, however, was an important day for me; it was the day that I died in Equestria and woke up in an alley here in Canterlot.

As I looked at those energy waveforms she'd detected, especially that last one, I began to get a feeling of deja vu. Now that I was looking at closely, it reminded me a lot of a part of my Royal Equestrian Navy medical file. Specifically a section pertaining to my magical health. Sure, it wasn't something you typically thought of for pegasi—and to most, the only number that mattered was their wing power—but regular magical resonance readings were supposed to be important for detecting potential magical ailments before they manifested deleterious symptoms. It actually made me a bit uncomfortable because I was pretty damn sure that the industrial district waveform was the same one that was in my record. She was detecting magic; I was sure of it.

Why would my magical signature spike like that, though? And since that turncoat was the one that likely did this to me, wouldn't it be the magic of Discord that it would have detected?

With a wince of pain, I stood up from the couch and hobbled over to the map and began looking for the place I first woke up. As I did, I tapped out a question on my tablet. "So what do you think this energy you've been tracking is?" I asked, looking at an area of the industrial district circle that overlapped a commercial area. Sure enough, I was able to find the street I woke up on, and the map even included rough building shapes. "I'm seeing you've got at least four distinct signatures, all of the same type."

Twilight and Starlight both turned to look at me as I idly picked up what looked to be a sewing pin with a little red flag from a tray at the bottom of the board. "That's the million dollar question, Eventide," she remarked, hopping off her swivel chair to walk over and join me. "It's like nothing anyone's ever seen before, and the potential energy is astronomical. If I've been interpreting the readings correctly, it could potentially revolutionise power, and eliminate fossil fuels. I need to pin down where these events occurred and get more readings. Surely energy spikes this massive had to have left lingering traces at the point of origin."

I nodded, looking at the repeating mention of the eighth. Wasn't the eighth the night that alleged battle between a demon and an interdimensional sorceress occurred at a high school? I bit the tip of my thumb as I looked at the circle on the east side of town, and then opened the browser on the tablet, searching schools on the east side of Canterlot. The red-head I'd encountered on the ninth had definitely been the one that article blamed for everything, and she had to be a high school student. After narrowing my results, I found one result: Canterlot High, which was dead centre of the east-side circle.

Would it be a good idea to mention magic to Twilight? She seemed mostly dismissive of it every time I brought it up, but the way she reacted yesterday...

"This is probably sheer coincidence, but this data-set from the eighteenth? It just so happens to coincide with the day I first woke up here in Canterlot." I remarked, pushing the pin into the map where the alley I woke up in ought to be. "Even stranger, though, is the fact that the place I came to was right here in this zone you've marked off."

I picked up another of the little flags, and pushed it in at the location of CHS on the map. "I also recall reading an opinion article stating that a 'gas line explosion' at this location on the night of the eighth was a mere cover-up for shenanigans involving a school bully turning into a demon, an interdimensional sorceress, and the magical girls that fought the demon with her." When I turned away from the map, Twilight was looking kind of irritated that I was 'messing' with her conspiracy board, complete with her cheeks puffed out like a school-filly being frustrated by her crush. Meanwhile Starlight looked like she was on the verge of laughing. "Sure, it's all insane and magic is a bit of a stretch, but don't you find it odd that two separate inexplicable events happen to coincide with the occurrences of this energy? Who knows, maybe when you finish your handheld scanner, you might even find readings there."

That turned out to be too much for Starlight. She fell out of her chair, laughing so hard that she was in tears. Whatever irritation Twilight held towards me shifted toward Starlight as we both watched the girl roll around on the lab floor. When the laughter finally abated, she was wiping tears from her eyes as she looked up at us both. "Y-you sounded so serious about all that, Evie," she remarked with a grin. "Has Twilight been showing you her guilty pleasure anime, Madoka Magica?"

I looked at her in confusion, even as Twilight stormed over. "Don't you dare!" she snarled, although it sounded like she was on the verge of laughing now, too. "She talks about magic enough without you bringing up magical girls! We don't need her getting ideas!" After helping her friend back up, she crossed her arms and wandered over to the couch. "So, I heard you took Eventide over to the archery club this afternoon. How did that go?"

It took Starlight a minute to get her amusement under control to actively tell the story. Personally, I didn't really think it was all that interesting of a story. All I did was show up, meet the archery team, and shoot a few arrows at a target. Oh, and pretend that Sour Sweet—the sole club member not on the school team—wasn't giving me the stink eye over being there. Then it was kinda up to Starlight to explain why Sour wasn't being all that sweet, and how I'd pretty much painted a target on my back.

All I could do was shrug when Twilight glared at me, but apparently it's not like she had grounds to complain. From what I heard and saw at lunch, she had a target on her own back simply over being the academic apex and people thinking that she was full of herself. Social status was an important facet of this school, but if there was something that Twilight was, it was socially awkward with people she wasn't comfortable with. It was something I'd gotten to witness when she crossed paths with someone while ordering lunch.

Earlier

As I made my way through the chow hall with a bowl of shrimp fried rice and a couple of veggie egg rolls, I couldn't help but notice a number of eyes on me. It was a recurring trend, I found. During both my chem and bio classes, there was a lot of staring, but thankfully no exclusion; I don't think many sophomores had a lot of interaction with Sour Sweet or Sunny Flare, so it wasn't like they had much social incentive to do that.

Regardless, all the eyes on me did nothing to stave off the burgeoning sense of paranoia, nor the irritation that I was pretty sure was resultant of my fluctuating hormones. I'd foolishly made the opening shots in what was surely going to devolve in the war, and all I could do now was bide my time and wait for the riposte. It was the anticipation that bothered me most, like the time in basic when I was brought before the commandant for hospitalising a drunk stallion after he tried mounting me in a bar while I was out on liberty. The commandant made me sweat in twenty minutes of silence before making me clean the statue of the Princess with a toothbrush.

Starlight was still with the archery team this time around, while Jinx was doing something with those cards with another girl. At her side was a mason jar that contained a mysterious liquid. It could've been tea or moonshine for all I knew. Well, maybe not the second one. Maybe I should ask about the card thing when I ask her about teaching me sign language.

There, at the table I'd sat only a day before, sat Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet, as well as several other people in their apparent clique. Sunny scowled at me the moment she realised I was looking at her, and I had to fight the impulse to smirk or find some other means to passively antagonise her. Instead, I just nodded at her. Don't worry; I got the message yesterday.

Instead, I carefully shifted my tray so I could also balance my tablet on my arm and began typing out a message. As soon as I reached the table occupied by the girl with the twin-tails, goggles girl to her right, and the green-haired music aficionado across from them, I hit the play button. Curiously, I noted the music lover even uncovered one of her ears as I approached. "Sorry if this is a bit presumptuous, but I was wondering if you three would mind if I joined you."

Ms. Twin-tails just fixed me with a flat expression, while Ms. Goggles looked mildly interested. Ms. Headphones, on the other hand was smiling—something that caught me off guard for some reason. At the next table over, however, Sour Sweet looked like she was going to have an aneurysm, and Sunny's glare intensified.

"If you keep poking Sunny Flare like this, you're going to become persona non grata like Sparkle is," the bespectacled girl stated in as annoyed a tone as possible. "I'd rather not get involved in that if at all possible."

"Don't be like that, Sugarcoat," the blue-haired girl complained. "Sure, one of the tenth graders on the soccer team said she was a bit of a know-it-all in math class yesterday, but he also admitted that the teacher started it. It's not like she lorded it over anybody." Looking over to me, she added, "Don't mind her. She doesn't have a filter, and that gets in the way of tact."

"Dude, just let her sit," the last added, agreeing with Indigo. "Plus, you might have more in common with her than you think, Indigo. I see her out jogging every day without fail, often with Twilight's dog, Spike, and I'm talking about entire circuits of Ponyville Plaza. She's not just a nerd!"

Once again, I was thrown for a loop by her glowing review. Admittedly, I kinda wanted to get to know her, since she seemed friendly enough, and liked Spike. Eventually, the two just looked pleadingly at Sugarcoat. "Fine, she can stay."

"Awesome!" cried the green-haired girl as I took the empty seat beside her. "I'm Lemon Zest! What kind of music do you like?"

As I started typing out an answer, Indigo introduced herself as Indigo Zap, and the other girl was simply known as Sugarcoat, which she and Lemon both pointed out was ironic because she was one of the bluntest people they knew. "I'm Eventide Construct. As far as music goes, I rather enjoy classical and jazz, although I've recently started listening to the house and vaporwave genres on the radio. It's like nothing I've ever heard before."

"Rock on!"

It was kinda nice sitting down and eating with these three. Even as I mentally adjusted my chopstick technique—something I learned to do with my wings that time the Resplendent was in Xiao Ma—I listened to the group talk. It took a moment for me to figure out the proper grip, but in no time, I was eating rice left-handed, ready to 'talk' if engaged. It kind of reminded me of eating on the airship with Lug Nut and Crescent, pretending the two weren't on the verge of a hate-fuck half the time.

For example, Indigo was excited about getting to face off against her soccer rival at Canterlot High School, a girl named Rainbow Dash. The name sounded kinda familiar. Wasn't that one of the ponies in the Princess of Friendship's cadre? If that was the name I was thinking of, it was kind of curious that she and the princess' counterpart weren't attending the same school. With how this world seemed to keep two princesses close, I'd have thought it might extend to their social circles as well.

Meanwhile Lemon kept excitedly pulling up songs on her phone, slapping her headphones on my head, and asking what I thought. Some of it was too high-energy for me, but a lot of it was pretty cool. As we ate and talked, Sugarcoat seemed to warm up to my presence. It was pretty nice, right up until there was a bit of a ruckus.

At some point while I finished off the fried rice, one of the girls from Sunny's table got up as Twilight was walking away from the food service counter and toward the cafeteria exit. It was clear that the girl, saw Twilight coming and purposely bumped into her. When Twilight's tray went tumbling to the ground, spilling food, she even had the gall to yell at Twilight and tell her to watch where she was going.

"This is why you don't upset the status-quo here," Sugarcoat commented as she watched me start to get up, only for Lemon to put a hand on my shoulder and shake her head. "Jet Set and Upper Crust are convinced she looks down on them because she cloisters herself away in that lab most of the day, doing independent studies in lieu of coursework. Sunny encourages it because it strengthens her place in the social hierarchy."

I let out a little huff and eyed the two egg rolls that I had yet to eat. "She isn't like that though," I responded, scowling at the pale olive-skinned girl who was still berating my foster sister. "She's never come off as seeing herself as superior in the entire week I've been living with her family. Twilight just... doesn't get people as well as she does science."

Watching the girl, who I presumed to be Upper Crust, put the contents of her own tray in the garbage and then take a seat back at Sunny's table, I had to tamp down on the urge to hurl my egg rolls at her. It became especially hard when Twilight just sorta got up and looked at her spilled meal before just sighing and walking out of the cafeteria empty-handed. What was even the point of that?

"I gotta go. It was nice to meet you all," I said, grabbing the plate with my egg rolls and getting back up. Looking at the others, I smiled."I'll see you all around. Don't be a stranger the next time you see me jogging, okay, Lemon?" At that, I started walking out of the cafeteria, pausing by Twilight's fallen tray. There, on the floor, was an apple. I barely even put any thought into kicking the apple up and grabbing it out of the air. I just shook my head, polished it on the sleeve of my blazer before setting it on the plate.

As I made my way to the exit, I paused and looked over my shoulder. Sunny Flare met my gaze, and I sneered at her, baring my teeth slightly. The protective instinct was flaring up again, and this bitch's lackeys were really starting to look like enemy combatants. I won't let you just take what's mine, whispered something hateful from the darkest recesses of my mind. I don't care who your dad is; you hurt those I care about, even by proxy, and I will bring the moon-damned thunder down on you.

PONI agents may have had a fairly generous income, but the clandestine nature of their jobs required them to keep a low profile. As such, agents often frequented cheap roadside motels who didn't really give a damn about their clientele as long as they got paid. It drew less attention to them when they needed to investigate or observe a subject. More importantly, though, it led to less questions asked when agents weren't visiting for benign reasons. It was for that reason that Agent S and Agent T had checked into a room in the Everfree Pines Hotel just outside the Shasta-Everfree National Forest.

After unloading their luggage and having a pizza delivered, the two women were relaxing at a table in their shared room. Well, S was relaxing, whilst T decided to strip down her M1911A2 mid-meal and was cleaning its individual components. It annoyed her to no end having the former soldier with her, but there wasn't a whole lot she could do about it.

When she'd taken the report from Null to the higher-ups, she'd been cleared to come to Canterlot to investigate the girl bearing Cantata's face and fingerprints. Due to the increased amount of magical activity in the area, however, she was not being allowed to go alone, nor was she just investigating the girl. This was made doubly apparent when she'd been handed a report just before leaving indicating that an entity of discord—one that had been flying under the radar for decades—may have been on the move and headed towards the city, based on an unusual number of violent disturbances in public places with no clear source, moving north from Los Angeles.

"So," Agent T began as she started the careful process of reassembling her weapon. The ex-soldier fixed S with a curious look that seemed almost menacing due to her facial scarring. "You seem to know a lot more about this particular case than me. Why don't you catch me up to speed?"

S only glared at her companion. They'd pretty much been driving in shifts the entire way since they left Detroit, but there'd been plenty of time for her to look at the files while they were on the road; instead she'd slept in her off time. With a sigh, S set aside her slice of pizza and wiped the grease from her fingers with a napkin. Finally, she retrieved a pair of folders from an attaché case beside her and flipped the first open and set it on the table. "This is the subject of our investigation, Eventide Construct," S explained with a sigh. "Initially logged as a Jane Doe by the CCPD when brought in on false charges from a dirty cop. She's a mute with no apparent history who has ended up in the care of the family of a detective. We might not ever have taken an interest in her except for one little problem. Her finger prints."

She didn't miss the way T seemed to be looking at the scar on the girl's neck. "I don't get it," the woman admitted after a minute. "If she doesn't have any history, how could her prints have set off any alarms?"

S opened the second folder and laid it out beside the first one. "They're a mirrored match to the prints of this missing person," she declared. T's shocked expression when she saw the two pictures side-by-side was almost enough to bring a smile to her face. "This is Eventide Cantata, aged twenty-five at the time of her disappearance in 2006."

"Holy shit, that's uncanny." S couldn't disagree; she recognised the person in the photo immediately the first time she saw it, and seeing them side-by-side only hammered in that this was highly unusual. But for the differing hairstyles and the younger face, you'd hardly be able to tell the difference between the two. In fact, the scar and the prints were the only reliable way to be sure that it was actually two different people and not just two pictures from different points in the same person's life.

Then, after completely reading over the profile for the missing person, T narrowed her opal eyes at S. "Hold up, this document says that you're the one who first reported her missing, and that you're her half sister," she said in a flat voice as one dark orchid hand slid a full magazine into the handgun's mag well and holstered it. "How in the hell are the bosses okay with you heading this case? Conflict of interest much."

S just fixed her own cyan eyes on T's opal ones. "Because I know this isn't my sister," she remarked, her voice rich with condescension. "That being said, depending on what exactly we're dealing with, my knowledge of Cantata could be invaluable in determining whether this is a changeling and the Fae Courts are in violation of the accords, a clone, or something else entirely."

After a minute of silence, T relaxed, giving the amber-skinned woman a kind look. "Still, it must be hard for you," she observed, packing away her weapon maintenance kit and finishing off a slice of pizza she set aside. "Do you really think it's the Fae though? I don't like those creeps any more than anyone else in the agency does, but they're usually really anal about agreements and contracts."

It was a good point. Back when PONI first brought her on, she'd read about the tenuous accord the government made with the Seelie and Unseelie Courts at the end of the Great Depression—one that involved such trickery that it impressed the Fae. The Fae operating in the United States would refrain from meddling in mortal affairs, and in turn the government wouldn't drive them back into the Fae Realm by violent force. Since then, there hadn't been a single disappearance that could definitively be attributed to the faeries. Any miscreants found in violation of the sacred accord, the Fae Courts had been more than willing to throw down at their feet, including more than a few changelings. There were always outliers, though.

"It's hard to say," she admitted, looking away from her partner with a frown. There was, of course, another possibility that she didn't want to consider. "Regardless, tomorrow I'm going to be stopping by the school they're sending the kid to and see if I can't interview her. In the meantime, I want you to go to the Undercity nightclub and talk to a woman by the name of Chrysalis about the magical goings-on. If there's anything weird going on in the city, that bloodsucker will know about it."

Officially, PONI had a very negative stance towards vampires, lycanthropes, and the likes. Officially, if they were involved in violent crimes, such creatures were to be killed on sight and covered up. Unofficially, so long as they didn't violate the law, they were tolerated, and even worked with PONI at times to keep the veil of secrecy intact, so to speak. Often times, in places with an increased magical presence, such as this city, you could even count on nightwalkers to be the metaphorical finger on the supernatural pulse of the city.

T nodded, removing her gun belt as she got up. After hanging it on her bed post, she started rooting through her bag. "What happens if the brat won't give up any information?" she asked as she stopped in front of the bathroom door with her pyjamas. "You said she's a mute, and I doubt her guardians are gonna make it easy to get a proper interrogation."

S sighed and forced her gaze up to the ceiling. "This isn't my first time in Canterlot, so there's one more person I can think of interviewing. I just hope it doesn't come to it, because I promised I'd have to shoot them if they ever did anything to put themselves on PONI's radar again."

Author's Note

Dun dun dun! Whole lot to unpack here. You're almost at the truth regarding Construct and Cantata, and you got a glimpse at the wider paranormal world. Next time, we get down to the truth in Chapter 11: Naked Truth.