A young alicorn filly with a pink mane and white fur smiled, looking down at a tablet displaying her history report as she listened to the laughter of her sisters in the background, muttering "...I think... This is a good start", quickly beginning to read through it one final time.
Our nation - the Alicorn nation - stands between the primitive nations of the unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. Though they are often called savages, many forget that we are descended from them. The first city of the alicorn nation, declared independent in the year 0 AS, was originally an earth pony settlement. The ponies there gained an obsession with science and runecraft, combining the two to create technology which the other tribes could not dream of.
Genetic modification made us ageless, strong and intelligent, with fast mental development. Mechanical implants gave further boosts to some. It is popular opinion - both in government and in the general population - that the savages do not deserve the fruits of our research, that no savage should be allowed close to our city unless they prove themselves loyal, strong and capable as any alicorn. But this is a tall order - true, even us children understand some basic robotics - but we have advantages beyond what we can produce ourselves. Because of this, only a handful of non-alicorns have even been added to our DNA-scanning databases so our most basic of machines respond to their commands.
With our knowledge approaching new heights, a new crisis has come. Our thaumo-nuclear generators cannot keep up with the ever greater demand for power. Now, two options remain in our future - either we find a new source of power on Equus - a method to break into the dimension of a spirit and share its power being the most viable option - or we leave the planet to feed on a black hole before our many systems collapse. The deadline draws near, one of these options will have to be followed by the end of the week.
- Celestia, Age 7
Celestia smiled and nodded, turning off the tablet as she heard Luna giggling in the background, exclaiming "Nice hit, Faust!", Celestia turning with an amused look as she got up and approached her two little sisters with a grin, raising her own pillow to join the pillow-fight, the red-maned and white-furred Faust blinking and grinning to her, stating "Wanna join in~?"
Celestia grinned, stating "Do you even need to ask~?", laughing as she moved to swing her own pillow at her - before her ear twitched at the sound of the door creaking open, blinking and looking over before giving a smile as she saw her mother at the door. "Hello?" the elder mare stated cheerfully with a smile "You look like you're having fun~ But can you come to the door quickly? We have some magic-researchers here hoping to fix the energy crisis..." - Celestia blinking and nodding even as her sisters did the same, following her mother as the elder mare turned.
"...Why do they want to see us?" Luna questioned, her ear tilting as she raised an eyebrow, Faust smiling and stating "I think I know. Teacher went on a bit of a tangent in our last basic robotics class" she chuckled "Best way to break through to a spirit's dimension is magic, but everypony's is a little different. Apparently there's a group going around scanning everypony to see if they can find the right one to open a rift" - Luna blinked and gave a nod in understanding at that as she stated "Right..."
Soon enough, they arrived at their living room - their father standing next to three cloaked figures, their clothes covered in active runes, each one holding a small set of different magical scanners - Celestia blinked and looked over the equipment curiously, as Faust grinned and stated "Hello! here to scan our magic to make the rift?", the adults blinking before smiling, one giving Faust an impressed look and stating "Indeed. This will only take a second. Your parents were actually quite close to what we need, so we were hoping your magic will align with that of at least one spirit!"
Celestia smiled and nodded, holding still as they quickly surrounded her, moving glowing gems close in an attempt to determine her precise magical signature - one researcher gasping and stating "We have a match! The spirit of light!" - the others grinning and cheering, as Celestia blinked in shock, gasping 'Really? Me? Stars, if I am the one who is needed for this.... Maybe i'll get my cutie mark!' - a grin quickly developing on her face, as they moved to Luna next
"...And another match! The spirit of darkness!" one researcher exclaimed, Luna gasping and giving a similar grin as Celestia watched with a fond smile, the researchers moving to Faust next and scanning her - one stating "And three for three! Matched to the spirit of time's magic!" - Faust reacting in much the same way, as the researchers exchanged disbelieving glances, one stating "I never would have imagined we would have three... The energy that we could get from this... It's limitless!", the fillies' father smiling and stating "So long as it's safe. What will we do next?"
One researcher smiled, stating "We'll teleport to the lab. Once they're plugged into the machine, we'll take care of everything, should only take a few seconds to prime the machine to their magic. We can take you along to observe if you want?" - at the nods of both elder ponies, one researcher smiled and stated "Great! Gather together, now", lifting a small device with one hoof - all alicorns assembled blinking and nodding as they approached quickly, as moments later the researcher pressed the button, the group disappearing with a flash.