Since the beginning of Twilight Sparkle's reign, Equestria begins to flourish. The old magic bases changed to new ways of science and technology. The magic began to fade gradually, but most of the ponies did not notice. Decades later almost everypony forgot how to do magic. Even Twilight, who wasn't seen for a long time, lost it.
“Equestria Science and technology center“, the place where "magic" happens.
*POV Cold Space*
That should work! One of my latest hypotheses. I hope it'll work, either way, I don't know what I should do next, maybe I'll just give up? No! No, Cold! You won't give up! I won’t give up!
“Who the hell are you and what the fuck are you doing!?” said unknown voice.
*Somewhere else*
“Well... what are you waiting for? I wanna see... By the way, what am I wanna see?“ asked Kiter, with excitement in his voice.
Kiter always was so impatient, I am even interested in how he waited so long without asking about it? But Kiter is a really good friend of mine, our story goes way far back when we only met at school, but it’s another story.
“Huh, if you are really interested in it-" I got my notes from under the table“-You can read all about it from here, but basically, it's the fan that collects special particles from the air and accumulates them around the horn.“
“Are you sure that it will help use magic? I mean, Isn’t it was supposed to happen last 3 times, or you just wanted to burn my mane?“ asked me Kiter with doubts in his voice.
“Yeah, yeah, I understand, but now, I have prepared everything to be safe, there is a table, under where we gonna hide, here is your safety helmet-“ . I gave him colander “-so, I don't know about you, but I am wanna try it, I spent working on it for three months! By the way, I called it Magical Particle Collector, simply MPC, do you like it?“
I always loved simplicity, but sometimes I can do something harder than it should be. I called it like that only because I liked it, not because it is its real name, but because it sounds cool.
“Well, I dunno, but let's try this thing already, I'm bored, and all that stuff like I believe in you! “ joked Kiter, while was playing with a pen in his hooves.
“Let the ball rolling!“ I said after turning the device on.
I opened an old magical book, from Canterlot library and found one of the easiest spell ever created - Telekinesis.
“Here it goes!“ I tried to cast the spell by the book.
MPC began glowing and vibrating, I felt that it began hard to breathe and the air became hot.
10 seconds later glowing was so strong, that I had to close my eyes. *Ding* I couldn't feel vibrations anymore, but my eyes still were closed.
“Hey? Cold? Are you alright?“ said Kiter, after what I heard sounds of metal hitting the wall.
“Open up your eyes already! Almost nothing happened, except your device had disappeared,“ said Kiter with what he shocked me even more.
IT WHAT?! Oh no, it was bad, very bad! I spent a month on calculation and construction, but it contained very rare materials. It took me a lot of time to get access to them, and now, everything has gone, as my carrier if I couldn't find it!
Kiter saw the worry on my face and already was searching around the office. I joined him. Luckily for us, our office was small, well good only for this situation, usually there can't fit more than 3 ponies.
“AHA!“ screamed Kiter from the other side of the office. “I knew I’ll finally find it!“
I was so happy, I thought that I would lose my job, but when I got out from under the table I saw nothing except Kiter eating a sandwich.
“So, where is it?“ I asked.
Kiter lifted his sandwich in the air. It looked old, the bread was dry, the salad was sluggish and dehydrated. Finally, I understood that Kiter found an old sandwich, while I thought that he found MPC.
“Are you kidding me? It's not the right time to eat, how you even could eat it?“
“Cold! We searched around our office 3 times already, I don't think that your device in here. At least we should get a break, I'm hungry, and I think you are too,“ said Kiter.
My belly grumbled.
“No, it isn't the right time, I don't want to lose my job and the work of my life!“ after my words, Kiter went silent.
We both sat and Kiter still was eating his sandwich. “Ok, I guess you're right, Morning is wiser than evening,“I admitted.
We began clearing our office when suddenly, unexpected happened. In the center of the office, something flashed with the green, bright light. Until green light faded, I prayed and hoped that it will be MPC, but it was a piece of paper, it was a scroll or a letter to be exact. I picked it up and inspected it. It had a print of royal coat of arms.
“W-What is it?“ he asked in a whisper, with the tone of fear in his voice, “W-What is w-written inside?“
“Ok, just give me a second-“ I unwrapped the letter “-agh... I... I can't understand it, maybe it is written in a different language?“
“Let me see!“ excitedly asked Kiter, while he pulled it out of my hooves. “Oh, of course, it's just bad hoofwritting, I had such myself. I think there written something like this:
‘I don't know who are you, but its message was sent to you, because you were nearby to one of two splashes of magic, If you reading this, please, arrive to royal Canterlot castle immediately! Signed ‘S’ “
“What the hell is going on!?“ I thought out loud.
“Oh, it might be even worse than losing a job. Old Canterlot palace? As I heard, that place is abandoned. And who the hell is ‘S’ ” thoughts flashed in my head.
I looked at Kiter and by expression of his face, I understood that he had a lot of questions too.
“Ok, I guess we both don't know anything, but if it sent from Canterlot, especially the castle, it is important,“ suggested I, “And we should keep our questions till we be there, but right now it too late and we should go home and tomorrow, at 9 AM we will meet at the Old Library, ok?“
He nodded his head and we both left our office.
*Wrrr-Wrrr-Wrrr* *Wrrr-Wrrr-Wrrr*
“Ah, morning already?“ I thought when I heard my alarm clock,“ I didn't get even a bit of sleep. Well, anyway I should get ready, it's almost 9.“
“I think I should take my lucky bracelet with me, I guess a bit of luck won't hurt anyone. I hope I am ready, luck, check. Notepad, check. Pen, check. Glasses, check. Oh, I think I should comb my mane and tail, we going to Canterlot after all. Maybe I should take some of my researches? Yeah, it's probably a good idea,“ I thought when I was getting ready.
I approached Old Library... And Kiter was already there.
“Hello, are you ready?“ I asked him.
He nodded his head.
“So... What do you think about it? Who is ‘S’, or even what awaits us there?” I asked him.
He looked thoughtful.
“Hmm... I tried not to think about it, I just hope that it will be better than bags under your eyes,“ joked Kiter. “Did you really spend all night thinking about it?“
Was it so bad? Unlike him, at least I know what to expect.
“Ohh, ok jokester, I'll go and buy some coffee, do you want some?“ I asked Kiter. He nodded his head.
“While you away, I'll call LD, we need some cover after all.“
Oh, of course, one of the most important that I forgot, call our boss and warn him. I'm lucky that I have such a good friend like Kiter.
“Ok, I hope you know what to tell. I'll be back in 5 minutes.“ I Said, while entering the shopping center.
I always was interested, why did they build it across the road from the library?
Ah, StarBits, coffee shop that bucks you in the face with their prices, luckily for us, it was open.
“Here you go-“ I said while I was giving a coffee cup to Kiter, “-You owe me 6 bits, you know? Anyways, how did your talk go?“
My career as a scientist was depending on how well he lied and how boss took his lie..
“Well, *SLURP* almost everything is went alright *SLURP* “ said Kiter, while drinking coffee.
I couldn't say that it was bad, but I was scared by *Almost everything*. Usually he loves to downpay stuff.
“What does it mean!?“ Annoyingly I asked him.
“Well,*SLURP* everything was perfect, but *SLURP*,“ calmly said Kiter.
Oh dammit, I hate ‘buts’ moments. Almost every time, when some says ‘but’ after ‘everything is good’ is usually means that everything is not good.
“But *SLURP*, now, officially, you have ponypox, and I'm kinda your nurse slash helper. And...“
“How could he!? Why?! Well, at least nothing bad happened. But why couldn't he say the opposite, that he was ill?’ I thought. I couldn’t understand Is he was joking or was it true.
“And now, I guess, she thinks that we are in love. *SLURP* Yeah, emotions on your face are priceless, by the way, it was revenge for D-Glider, I still *SLURP* remember!“ finished his story Kiter.
After our last talk, we were quiet. But sitting with him on Ponyville's friendship express made me feel good. This trip wasn’t long, but it was a perfect time to think and talk with Kiter about everything. I was still angry, but he didn't do anything that bad. The main problem was that if she or someone else would visit my house and this lie will be broken, but usually nopony visits me.
“So... peace?“ apologized Kiter that shocked me.
“Peace,“ I Agreed. “So, we have some time right now, what do you think about the whole situation. Who and what awaits us in there?“
“Hmm, I really don't know. It's a very unusual situation, I mean, not every day you see magic. I think we are only one...“ suggested Kiter. “Well, we and someone else, who saw it for the last few years,“
“Yes, you're right, but we can imagine, at least we can assume who, why and how,“I offered. “By all having facts I suggested that it might be some kind of old society, that watching the world's magic and after a long time we were the first ones who did something magical and now, they want to know what, how and why?“
“So, you definitely didn't sleep tonight?“ he assumed.
“Nope! But it was a good assumption!“ I complimented him.
“Oh, Cold, get some sleep while you have time! You may need to work with your brain, but you'll be tired!“ he advised.
“Get some sleep? I am alright!” I wanted to scream at him.
“I AM ALRIGHT!“ I screamed. Or maybe I'm not alright? “What was that?!“
“Hmm?“ he asked.
“There was some kind of weird flashing flew through *YAWN* carriage,“ I said. “Or maybe I should get some sleep after all?“
“Wake up, wake up, stand and shake-up! ... WAKE UP!“ sang Kiter, “Wake up! We're here!“
“5 more minutes please,“ I asked.
“No more minutes, we should go!“ he said. We could wait 5 more minutes, why is he screaming. “We arrived half an hour ago! Train can’t wait any longer!“
“Yeah. Yeah. 5 more minutes...“ I answered. “Wait, what!? Why didn't you woke me up earlier! Let's go!“
I run out of the carriage, Kiter followed me with a dissatisfied sigh.
“Sooo... where does this castle is situated?“ I asked him. Luckily for me, Kiter had his holo-hoof on his... hoof. It was a device in form of a bracelet that can project GUI in front of the wearer, but that increases energy costs, so usually, he uses it in screen projection mode i.e projects a little screen above device itself.
He didn’t created it by himself, but he made some upgrades to it, with my help of course.
“Follow me,“ he said and run forward.
I followed him.
We were in the center of the capital. The most beautiful city in Equestria, well of those that I saw. Big buildings and skyscrapers rising in the sky, a lot of restaurants, shops and boutiques just standing next to each other, the bluest sky float above the city, a lot of ponies walking around... Too many ponies... Wayyy too many ponies...
“Great, now I'm lost,” I said quietly.
“KITEEEEERRR!!!“ I screamed, “WHERE ARE YOU!?“
“Stop right now, or I'll fine you!“ came and threatened me guard.
“Sorry sir, but I lost my friend, I don't know where he is.“ I justified myself.
But after, something tapped my mane from the above. I jumped away scared. I hit someone while I was falling and fell on my croup. While I was dusting off my mane, I saw that it was Kiter who have tapped me.
“Hey! I almost came to the right place, and you weren't there, I thought that you were following me,“ aggressively said Kiter.
He flew to me above a crowd.
“Ok follow me, I'll guide you,“ he repeated but with anger.
I followed him again. I was angry at him too, but it wasn't his fault, well wasn’t entirely his fault.
We finally walked out of the crowd. I saw an old castle that was situated aside from town. It was in very bad condition, and it was different from other buildings. The castle looked like it was abandoned, like no one cared for it for a lot of years.
“Is it the right castle?“ I asked Kiter.
“I suppose, at least Map says so,“ answered Kiter.
It was strange, maybe owners just don't care about it.
I saw two ponies in golden armor and with spears in front of the gates. I think that they were guardians. This castle had guardians, which meant it wasn’t abandoned, but it meant that we need to talk to them.
“Maybe we could get some information from them?” I said to Kiter and then approached guardians.
“Hello, are you guardians of this castle?“ I Asked them.
“Go away! Castle closed for tourists!“ said The first one.
“But yes, we are guarding Twilight Sparkle's Castle, maybe you wanna talk? We are kinda bored,“ said the second one.
After his words, the first guardian struck him.
“But you better go away,“ added The second.
“So, it is Twilight's castle? I never saw her. Nobody saw her for years, as I know,” I pondered.
“Well, we aren't tourists, someone called us here,“ said Kiter.
They burst into laughter.
“But we would be happy to talk, it' always interesting to talk to someone new,“ added Kiter.
They kept laughing about a minute.
“Sorry, sorry. It just that thing. Only one pony visits this place weekly, maybe you have something like the invitation? It's hard to believe that you've got it,“they apologized.
I showed them the letter. They looked very surprised.
“Ok, Ok. You've got a letter with a royal coat, now I believe you,“ said The first.
“So, why are you here?“ asked the second. “I mean, for us it's very unexpected, as we said, almost no one visits this place.“
“Well... we don't know. It's a strange story, but we are not sure,“I said. “But I hope that it will help me with the object of my study.“
“Ohh, what are you studying? Are you are scientists?“ asked the second.
“Yeah, we are scientists. I'm researching magic, he... he is researching... technologies for better flying I suppose?“ I answered with a bit of confusion about Kiter in my voice. “But really, what are you researching, I don't remember anything since D-Glider.“
“Well-“ he laughed. “-now it is secret, I don't want you to ruin any of my projects... and no, it's not that dangerous as the last time. If you waited a bit of time, and a few more experiments, I would fix it.“
“Ok, I think you should go, if someone really called you here, you should hurry up,“ Said the first one.
The second agreed unwillingly.
They opened fence gate and we went to the castle. It looked like there was a beautiful garden around the castle, but now it was dead, all animals that lived here ran away. I felt bad for the garden, its view made me sad, I always loved plants and animals, but there was nothing I can do. Kiter looked confident, he went straight to the castle.
We opened castle gates. The view inside was worse than outside, inside was a big mess: old furniture was either broken or was stand for garbage. Here was dark and kinda creepy.
Kiter turned on the flashlight on his H-Hoof. I followed him. I saw a lot of different statues that were showing different scenes. We have passed next door. There was a colorful, but muted light. It was coming from a colorful stained glass.
Someone opened next door and came in. He saw us his voice loudly burst out.
“WHO ARE YOU!? ARE YOU THE ONES WHO WAS INVITED? CAN YOU SHOW ME IT!? SHOW ME IT OR I'LL BURN YOU!“ threatened us mysterious creature.
At first, I couldn't tell who was it, but then he exhaled with the same green fire that appeared with the letter.. It was a dragon and he was the one, who sent the letter.
I got my letter from the bags and showed it to him. He took it and brought it to his face. After a few seconds of viewing, he raised his face and smiled.
“So, welcome to our home. I'm so happy to see you!“ said Dragon. “Come after me and tell me nothing, firstly Twi must see you. Now follow me. By the way, my name is Spike.“
Hmm, Spike... Dragon... I thought that name Spike for a dragon, like Hoof for a pony, but I was more interested in how he sent this letter. Maybe it was magic? I hoped so.
He led us to some kind of a throne room. There was more stained glass and it was more interesting, it illustrated 6 creatures, they had both: wings and horns. I never heard of such creatures, I thought that maybe they were gods. I saw that Kiter was looking around too.
“Who are they?“ asked Kiter.
“Well, wait and you will be able to ask one of them,“ said Spike. “And here we are. Meet princess Twilight Sparkle, the ruler of Equestria, princess of friendship, etc. etc.“
“Wait for a second, princess by her self!?“ surprisingly screeched I am. “I... I never saw her, it is so much honor, your majesty.“
“Don't need so much honor, my child,“ said an old voice. “But who are you?“
“They are the ones you sought,“ said Spike.
After his words, an old Unicorn came out.
“ARE YOU SURE!?“ she excitedly asked.
Spike nodded. Her horn lighted up. The lights above us lighted up. I saw that she wasn't a unicorn, but she was one of 6 creatures on stained glass, but older.
“Oh, I am so happy! I waited long enough. But say me, my children, what you saw or what you did? Why did magical splash happen near you?“ she asked Kiter.
I was more interested in what is she than that she is a princess.
“All questions to my friend, well, when she wakes up. But I have two questions, what are you and why no one saw you in the last decades?“ asked Kiter.
“Well, I am an Alicorn, creature of three kinds of ponies: unicorns, pegasus and earth ponies. Alicorns are very powerful and don’t get old. As for your second question, I can say only this: I really not needed in the new world.“
“Wait, aren't your words disagreed with you? Sorry to say this Maam, but you are old,“ said Kiter.
“Oh, he really just said THIS to PRINCESS? I interested in this too, but couldn't he say this less rude?” I thought.
“And why you think that the world does not need you?“ asked Kiter.
“Yeah, yeah, I don't know why, but that rule has stopped working a lot of time ago, and now I'm old mare alicorn, who barely can do magic and can't fly at all, trying to find the solution to the problem,“ said old mare.
Even it was hard, I understood that it was hurtful to say this, to accept her's uselessness. But still, like Kiter I couldn't believe in her uselessness. After all, she was the ruler of Equestria.
“As for your next question, I can't give you a straight answer,“ she answered.
I saw that Kiter wanted to ask her something else and probably continue asking her more and more. So I poke first
“Unlucky for you, we can't give a straight answer to you too,“ I said. “About this splash of magic, I think it was my fault, I'm researching magic, and created a little device that probably created that splash.“
While I was saying that, she looked more and more excited, and when I stopped, she asked.
“Ooooh! It so nice to meet a fellow scientist, but say this to me, my child, what did your device do?“
“Well, hypothetically it supposed to accelerate the speed of magical particles and collect them around the horn of wearer, but practically it just disappeared and gave me a temporary retina burn,“ I answered with sadness in my voice.“ I hoped that it appeared here, but now I see it didn't.
“Cheer up! I maybe have some good news for you,“ said Twilight, with what made me hopeful. “It's not what you expected, but your device, I think, somehow activated my old beacon that I created to catch any unusual signals, and it detected one! This thing never worked, but yesterday it just... just activated, activated for a few seconds! I was so happy, but I couldn't do anything at all after it shut down. So, after a bit of thinking, I added two and two, activation of beacon and detected magical splash, and got an idea that you might help me!“ Princess cheered me up
“Ok, lead us to the beacon, we'll see what we can do.“ I said, but then Twilight showed me to the center of the room.
Is that was beacon? By the word "BEACON" I imagined something else. But I looked closer to it.
“I never saw such a technology!-“ Kiter opened a maintenance panel. “-It looks amazing! Hey, Cold, while I working here, you can check that interface.“
I followed his advice. Inside I saw a command line. After a bit of testing, I managed to open a file that contained information from a strange signal, I didn't think that it was the message Twilight have meant. "Hey, CRS, I've got it, meet me in that tree, they won't expect it, they will fa..." I didn't have enough time to read it all when it shut down.
“Hey, what did you do!?“ I Shouted at Kiter
“I-It wasn't me! I didn't touch anything!“ said Kiter.
“Maybe it's power shortage?“ said approached the princess. “It happens sometimes he...“
“G-Guys!?“ Spike interrupted her.
“Not now, Spike,“ said the princess.
“Probably,“ I said. “Kiter, go check it, please.“
“Guys, please!“ screamed Spike.
“Later, Spike, we're busy!“ princess screamed back.
“Hmm, the power supply is ok, but the beacon doesn't have energy! How much energy does this thing use!?“ asked Kiter.
“It almost doesn't use ener..“ said the princess.
“GUYS JUST PLEA...“ screamed Spike.
“SPIKE, PLEASE LET US FI...“ Twilight screamed back.
“JUST LOOK THERE!!!“ screamed Spike.
He pointed behind the princess. There was a tiny shining hole, but it was growing fast! It almost consumed Twilight when I and Kiter grabbed her for her hooves. We almost pulled her out, but the hole grew bigger and consumed us too.
I felt that something touched my hoof, but it was too late. We were falling somewhere unknown.