"I'm ready when you are Starlight," Twilight stated. Starlight retrieved a spell, now foreign to her, from the corner of her mind. To her displeasure, the necessary focus and level of power resurfaced effortlessly. "Are you sure, Twilight? We can always find another way." Starlight replied skeptically. "I know how you feel, if you want to stop we can." Closing the distance, Twilight placed a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm sure we'll find another way to accomplish our goal." She knew that every attempt at brokering peace had failure. While Twilight's proposal sounded crazy. It would theoretically endow the test subject with the ability to communicate, if successful. "Thanks for your concern but I'll be alright," Starlight answered. Twilight's excitement couldn't be concealed despite her attempt to do so. Once she was back in the runic circle, Starlight drew forth her magic. Initializing the spell, soft-pained groans filled the room. As Twilight's distress grew her magical presence shrank. A tear fell as Starlight recalled a very unpleasant memory. Twilight's torment finally subsided as a shard of magical essence was extracted. Despite her slightly greyed color and weaken state, Twilight insisted she was fine. Taking a deep cathartic breath, Starlight attempted to weave the fragment into the stone statue. Due to the difficulty of merging something living with something dead, beads of sweat formed across her brow. While Starlight was busy, Twilight made her way to the table in the corner. Taking the pestle in hoof, she began to prepare the needed potion. With her free hoof, Twilight added two cloves of a Plentra plant, a pinch of dried Crisscross Moss, and four leaves of an Aveynah Tree into the mortar. Once they were ground into a fine powder, she poured them into a large beaker. The next set of ingredients was a scoop of thundercloud, tablespoon of molasses, finely crushed ashes, and blood of the alchemist. Once the ingredients were added, Twilight filled the beaker half-way with filtered water from The Northern Luna Ocean. Once corked, she vigorously mixed the contents until a gooey dark-green liquid formed. An exhausted Starlight met her sight as she turned around. With mixture-in-hoof, Twilight made her way over to inquired about her well-being. It was Starlight's turn to deflect, asking instead if Twilight was ready to finish the ritual. With an exhausted breath, she nodded. Uncorking the beaker, Twilight poured most of the mixture onto the statue. Setting aside the rest, she began to smear the mixture over every inch of it. Once finished, Starlight and Twilight combined their magic before engulfing the statue. According to the tome, if brewed properly, the mixture would activate when struck with magic. While harmless to organics, would perfectly replicate, provided there was enough material, any image of the caster(s) desire. After hours of conjuring and immense concentration, both ponies collapsed from exhaustion. The coolness of the floor enticed Twilight to remain sprawled out. However, Starlight's shocked gasp caused her eyes to snap open. It wasn't long before Twilight saw what had startled her. Between them stood a realistic statue of a Timber wolf. Its perfect coloration and detail would scare any passerby without fail. Getting to her hooves, Twilight crossed the room to the open tome. After a brief skim of its pages, she stated "a soul-binding" was the last step. "Thank Celestia this is almost done," Starlight grumbled. "I couldn't agree more," Twilight called while positioning herself in front of the statue. Her consciousness exploded into darkness as Starlight connected them via a magical arch. Twilight dropped to the floor as Starlight quickly reconnected both shard and magical host together. Once done, triple checked for assurance, did she remove her magic from them. While gently prodded Twilight's wither, Starlight calling her name. Her calm demeanor soon crumbled as neither Twilight or statue seemed responsive. Frightful of what might have happened, Starlight conjured a page and quill. Half-way through her letter to Celestia, Starlight's ears caught a faint sound. It was brief but sounded like the dragging of claws against stone. As Twilight got to her hooves, the statue lifted than lowered the corresponding leg. "Twilight? Did it work?" Starlight asked. Both their eyes turned to meet hers. Twilight's vocal confirmation was soon followed by the light growl of the statue. Although relieved, her curiosity overshadowed it as a slew of questions burst forth. Answering the best she could, Twilight attempted to walk as the statue. Due to the complete alteration of her physical form, Twilight stumbled several times. However, she soon got the hang of walking. According to Twilight's hypothesis, the words spoken by her were translated into the proper lingual of the Timberwolves. Eager to gather data, Twilight maneuvered the statue out of the basement and into the Forbidden Forest.