Magyck

by legionbrony

Prologue

The boy sat about six feet away from his father. He was currently watching a TV show on his I-touch, and trying his best to ignore the frantic, frankly not too paternal presence near him, working on yet another crazy machine. Sometimes he was annoyed with the lack of attention his father paid him, and most of the time he was embarrassed by his geekiness, but occasionally he just felt sorry for him. His inventions, which he worked so hard on and poured his heart and soul into, never seemed to work. It was the saddest thing Brandon could imagine, though he tried not to dwell on it for too long, as it wouldn't do to get all mushy and lose his "cool" image.

His father wasn't the only thing threatening to plunge him to the bottom of the popularity charts. He had recently become addicted to a show called "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". It was a completely girly show, at least in the eyes of anyone who hadn't watched it, and as much as Brandon loved it, it scared him to death that someone who wasn't very understanding would find out, and he would be socially doomed.

And as it turned out, that was the show he was watching as his father completed the finishing touches on his newest contraption. It was a machine that was supposed to allow you to view any location in the universe, in live time. Supposedly, this could not only render all current forms of communication obsolete, but could also work on a one-way basis, letting astronomers observe distant planets and other celestial bodies as if they were there themselves.

It sounded like science fiction to him, but despite the fact that his father sounded like a complete nutter, Brandon knew he was actually extremely intelligent and the teen believed he knew exactly what he was doing, even if no one else did. His father spent his entire life living in books, on the border between fantasy and reality, which in Brandon's opinion was where people needed to be if they were to be considered a genius. Unfortunately, a side effect of this was that his inventions tended to be outlandish and sometimes absolutely outrageous, and he never really spent any time with Brandon except when they worked on one of his projects together.

Suddenly there was a bright glow from his father's workspace, and a joyful cry of "It works! My God, it really works!". Brandon looked up from his show to see the screen of the machine flickering random colors. "Son, come over here! I've finally done it! I've finally succeeded!" his father shouted gleefully. Brandon warily approached the machine. He didn't know exactly how the thing worked, but he'd heard his dad talk about the immense amount of power it took, and something about tapping into wormholes. It all sounded fairly dangerous.

The screen started glowing brighter and stopped flickering random colors. It became a pure white light that exploded from the screen, blinding father and son alike. There was a grating whine that Brandon wished desperately would stop, as it felt as though his eardrums were about to explode. He heard his father's shout of terror, and then everything went black.

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She inserted the final piece into her newest invention, and stood back to admire her work. It's perfect, she thought with a twinge of pride. And more importantly, it might even work! She excitedly stamped her hooves, then regained composure; she had yet to test it.

She flipped several switches, and the machine began to whine. So far, so good, she thought. Now all she had to do was provide it with a source of power; in other words, pour her own raw magic into it. Her horn glowed a pale purple as she provided the energy for her creation to do its job.

It was working perfectly! She couldn't help but feel excited. With access to this kind of knowledge, she would be able to find any cure, study any spell, discover any creature! Which reminded her of the task at hand: powering the machine. She returned her attention to the mechanized wonder, and saw that it was glowing just as it should. She couldn't believe it! Her invention had worked on its first test run!! She hadn't even needed to tweak it a little bit!

And naturally, this was when things started to get out of hand. For one, the glow on the machine's screen began to glow very brightly...a little too brightly. That's odd, thought the equine inventor. Perhaps I fed it too much magic? But she knew that wasn't the case, as she had designed the machine herself, and was positive that this was NOT supposed to happen.

She quickly attempted to cut off the flow of power to the machine. However, this had unexpected consequences: the screen flashed even brighter, searing the mare's eyes and forcing her to look away. There was a terrible, whining screech that assailed her ears for a few seconds, and then an enormous explosion. The last thing she remembered before passing out was another shadowy figure lying in the rubble.