Wishawhirl positioned himself on the floor before his machine, where the flat face of the crystal now tilted down impassively. He had just finished a lengthy series of data gathering exercises and now he was ready to transmit the amplified information to himself. Or something. Sparkleworks watched nervously from the sidelines with her friends. Alpha Sunny Daze would almost certainly not have allowed this test to progress; who knows what this machine could be doing? That stupid stallion had better not hurt himself.

"Go ahead and throw the switch," he said hoarsely, glancing at his little sister, who stood by the lever as he had instructed. Bubblecup shared uneasy glances with the other ponies, but no one found anything to say. She threw the switch. There was a hum, and a frcation of a second where nothing happened. Then, beams of colored light streamed from the crystal's open face, suddenly covering Wishawhirl with a shifting pattern. He froze in place, muscles tensed.

"It's working!" he cried. "What's it doing?" he asked anxiously, his eyes darting from one startled face to another. "I don't want to move while it transmits. I don't want to miss any of the amplification."

"It's making lights!" said Bubblecup excitedly, and then noticing where the light spilled off of Wishawhirl onto the white wall behind him, she added, "Orange and blue lights! It's making lights like you!"

"I think I can feel it working!" he cried exaltedly.

"What's happening?" whispered Sparkleworks in awe, as she and her friends gazed with open mouths at the light and color streaming down on the stallion. Just then, a new voice made them jump. As if an imperfect double had appeared in the room, Wishawhirl could suddenly be heard from the other side of the machine, tinny and hollow, "I think it's warmed up for long enough by now...let's get started."

In shock everyone turned to see the source of the voice. It was coming from the crystal.

"Great Momma Peachy," exclaimed Sparkleworks. "He's made two of himself!"

The ponies stared, thunderstruck, waiting for a doppelganger to appear. None did. The voice of Wishawhirl continued to issue from the crystal.

"First we do audio information," it was saying. "So I'll do some vocal sampling...."

"Wait." Mittens was frowning as the disembodied voice began to run through the series of scales. She looked back at where the real Wishwhirl was standing, studying the light playing over and around him. "That's all stuff you said earlier."

"Well, yes," admitted Wishawhirl reluctantly. "That must be the audio part of the amplification, though."

"Wishawhirl," said Mittens. "Move over for a minute."

"No!" Horror tinged Wishawhirl's voice. "And interrupt the amplification?"

"Move!" she commanded, stepping towards him menacingly.

"Never!" he choked, but he shrank back with wide eyes and flattened ears as she advanced on him. "What are you doing? Don't get in the amplification stream!"

Mittens leapt at him, taking a swift nip at his withers. Yowling, Wishawhirl jerked away.

"Mittens!" gasped Sparkleworks, as she and the others gaped at the crazy pink pony doggedly herding the quailing Wishawhirl out of the beams.

"We're just seeing a sound and light show, ladies," Mittens informed them. "Look."

As she stepped out of the light, Sparkleworks was amazed to see Wishawhirl's larger-than-life face appear transparently on the wall behind them, looming towards them with some strange distortion. It's mouth opened.

"See if I stand here," the tinny crystal voice said, "this lens picks up visual data. Let's give it an extra second for the eyes." The face on the wall slowly turned one huge wide eye towards them.

"Yikes," said Bubblecup. "Gross."

The face was switching eyes. Comprehension was slowly dawning on everyone.

"It's just a like a picture," said Dazzle. "It's like a moving light picture on the wall." Indeed, there on the wall, Wishawhirl's face was receding. His whole body was visible but smaller, now, as he displayed father away for the machine. She approached and wove a hoof experimentally in front of the light. Her shadow appeared on the wall. Sparkleworks realized she'd been holding her breath. She let out a sigh of relief. Awkward half-smiles went around the room. The real Wishawhirl looked stricken with disappointment, but on the wall, he was eagerly displaying himself on each side and holding up his hoof with the small blue heart on it.

"Don't want it to miss anything," the image was saying importantly. "Do you think it got a good look at my tail?" A swath of blue swished across the wall. The ponies giggled.

"Let's make sure it gets a really good look at my Birthbrand." Suddenly, a huge orange rump zoomed up on the wall. The ponies began to laugh in earnest as the gigantic pinwheel-covered butt bobbed up and down. "These magical symbols are going to be absolutely critical to amplify, of course."

The words of the light picture were drowned out as everyone except Wishawhirl rocked with laughter. Wishawhirl's ears were pink, his nostrils flaring. He tripped towards the machine to stop the display.

"Okay, okay!" he exclaimed, his voice cracking slightly as it rose. "Show's over!"

"I guess you're not magical?" Bubblecup questioned, struggling to stand from where she had been rolling on the floor. "It didn't work?"

"What do you mean?" grinned Sparkleworks. She couldn't help herself. "It certainly amplified his rear end!"

The ponies roared again.

"It just needs some adjustments!" protested Wishawhirl over the laughter. "I just need some peace and quiet around here, so I can get some work done! Why don't all you," he sputtered, "go get your hair done or something? And leave me alone?"

Bubblecup looked hurt, "I just got my hair done, Wishy. Didn't you see it?"

"It's Pinwheel!" hollered Wishawhirl. "Get out! All of you!"

After the door slammed shut behind them in the garden, and the divas had a chance to resettle their dignity, they began to find their way back towards the town. Bubblecup turned uncertainly towards her older companions.

"He doesn't usually get mad like that," she said. It was true. Wishawhirl usually just let these kinds of disappointment roll off his back. Maybe they had been too hard on him. Sparkleworks certainly hadn't gotten her date. There was a small contemplative silence as the ponies looked towards the horizon, where a broad orange sun was sinking towards the hills. Unfortunately, this seemed to remind all of them of the same thing. Smiles crept onto some of the serious faces and then they started to snicker.

"Let's make sure it gets a REALLY good look at my behind," mocked Mittens, wiggling hers.

"Yes, I think my rump will be CRITICAL to my research," snorted Dazzle.

When the giggling died down a little while later, Bubblecup piped up, "I'm sorry his machine didn't work. I thought it was kind of neat, though. We should tell Wysteria about it. Where did she go?"

"Actually," said Sparkleworks, with gears slowly grinding in her head, "It could be useful, maybe, if you think about it. I wonder if he could get it to do that again."

"Yeah!" said Bubblecup enthusiastically. "We could do some really cool stuff with a machine like that, if maybe, we could, um, take it someplace with us, too. We could make a light picture of somebody else, like maybe Wsyteria, because she didn't get to see it, and---

"Bubblecup," interrupted Sparkleworks, who was suddenly very tired. "I think it's time to go back to the nursery."