Among ponies, and many other races, Dragons were something of a legend. Only a select few get to see a true Dragon up close. This was because, unlike the other races, Dragons took pride in their own isolationism. They saw it as a chance to prove that they didn’t need any help.
The Lair was the shining example of that, even more so once the Age of Sparkle began. Unlike the rest of the the world, which embraced technology, the Dragons became masters of the magical theory, and applications for it. While ponies created giant machines powered on magical energy, the Dragons preferred runes.
The Lair was the capital of the Dragon’s empire, and for good reason. Due to events which remained unknown Celestia, magically charged crystals had showered upon the land it was built on, making it a prime target for the use of runes. At the center of it all laid the Obelisk, a massive diamond that jutted out from the ground. The Dragons, being creatures of magic, sensed the power which radiated upon these crystals, and built a mighty city upon it. For centuries, they simply absorbed the power. Slowly it invaded their blood, and they began to live much longer than any other species.
As Celestia flew to it for the first time in many millennia, she noticed the sheer amounts of runes more than anything. Each onyx cobble that made up the roads was inscribed with a rune. Even if the alicorn had studied such things intensively in her life, which she had not, she doubted she would have been able to understand them all. Of the tens of thousands of stones, she could not see a single duplicate. Each had a minor, yet distinct, difference to them. And the Obelisk itself was covered in hundreds of different glowing runes, not one even remotely close to another.
She landed softly near the Obelisk. Despite being powerful, far more so than the Obelisk, she was frozen in awe. This… this was the stone that had given the dragons their near immortality… and this was the stone that had led to their death. She did not know how she knew, yet it seemed perfectly clear. Power which should have once radiated from it was absent. Tentatively, she touched her hoof against it, and it came to life.
The corners from it began to emit a red light, and a burst of energy shot forth from the tip of it, piercing the sky itself. Curiously, it pointed directly towards a star not too far away from the Starswirl Nebula. As she noticed the glowing red lines also extended beyond the Obelisk, and shone on the side of a road which led to an odd dome. Shrugging the information about the beam aside, she galloped towards the dome. What was all this? Excitement coursed through her veins. Perhaps this dome would be the key to… to what? She stopped suddenly. What would any of this accomplish?
Ponies, Dragons, Changelings, Griffons, everything was dead. Even if she figured out why, it wouldn’t change anything. The dome which had seemed so amazing only a moment before now filled her with dread. Once she got the answers, what would she do with them? Knowledge without practical application was useless.
And yet… a certain purple alicorn began to gnaw away at the corner of her mind. Knowledge is always useful, it admonished her. You never know when a seemingly useless piece of knowledge will lead to something great!
Resolve filled her once more, and she teleported herself to the entrance of the massive dome. No more delays, she thought to herself as she opened the door.
Darkness and ozone flooded her senses. As soon as she stepped inside of the dome, she wished she hadn’t. She cast up an orb of light, and began to look around. Blackboards riddled with calculations lined the walls, and upon closer inspection, the walls themselves were giant star charts. The strangest thing about it all was the lack of a single rune in the entire building.
It was all unlike anything she had ever seen before. Ponies, despite becoming the most technologically advanced of the races, had never built something even remotely close to this. To her right she noticed a set of stairs that led down to a basement. She walked slowly down them.
Despite there being nothing remaining in the world that could really do harm to her, nervousness filled her. What is all this technology? She asked herself, What is it all for?
Luckily, this room was lit. No blackboards lined the walls, no star charts were to be found. The only things were a computer which took up almost all the room, and a small bag of voice recorders.
Flipping on the terminal, she was immediately greeted by a screen offering two selections. The first read ‘Parallelisms of SSN-EQ and EQ’, and the second ‘Crystal Pony Crisis’. Opening up the first one, she was greeted by a string of complex equations and graphs. Not understanding a single word of it, she opened up the second one. To her joy, it was much easier to understand.
It is well known that the Crystal Ponies have a crystalline image. It is equally well known that ponies who visit the Crystal Empire also gain the form. What is significantly less known is the side effect of extraordinarily prolonged exposure to this. According to our findings, along with the medical reports of the Crystal Empire Department of Health, is the complete restructuring of the DNA.
It would seem that the DNA of those with the mutation, which shall in this report henceforth be identified as the CPDNAR, is changed to allow for their body to become part crystal. Despite extended research, the cause remains unknown.
This problem gives way to our newest project. While the bodies of normal Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi fully accept the new invention Liquid Eternity, at least as far as has been tested so far, the bodies of Crystal Ponies reject this. It is highly suspected that this is due to CPDNAR.
Much like all species, the Crystal Ponies desire immortality. Since CPDNAR has destroyed the chance of immortality through Liquid Eternity, the Crystal Ponies have contracted us, Spike’s Ministry of Academically Remarkable Dragons (Note: Guys, we really need to find a better name for this. SMARD? Really? We’re the greatest experts of Quantum, Theoretical, and Physical physicists, engineers, and all around geniuses. I’m sure that if we put our minds to it, we can come up with a final word that begins with a T. Plus, we’re not even all Dragons. I know for a fact that Spike has a few cybernetically enhanced animals working here. That phoenix of his has almost given me a heart attack before…) to aid them in the creation of an entirely new form of immortality.
And so, I have the utmost pleasure of being able to introduce project Wormhole Oriented Warping (Now THERE’S an acronym we can be proud of). The goal of this project is to create a class A generation ship capable of creating self collapsing wormholes to aid the Crystal Ponies in the task of migrating a portion of their population to a habitable planet near the Starswirl Nebula (See Parallelisms of SSN-EQ and EQ for further information on the Starswirl Nebula)
“Damn it to Tartarus!” Celestia muttered in frustration. Perhaps she should have taken more interest in the scientific fields her student had founded. Maybe then she would have been able to make sense of it.
Remember, Dragons and assorted enhanced animals, since we have all taken a vow to remain mortal, we need to find some way to carry on. The Crystal Ponies have promised that if we aid them in this, we will be guaranteed a spot in this ship should we choose. We’ll be able to spread our genes through mating with our fellow dragons in this Ministry. I’m talking to you, Talon. (Co-worker note: Claw, if you ever make a pass at me like that again, I’m going to shove my claws in your head so far you won’t even be able to understand anything as simple as differential calculus. And not the head on your shoulders) So come on, people, let’s get to work!
So, Princess Celestia mused, there may still be Crystal Ponies, Dragons, and a few other animals still left alive somewhere in the universe!