When Darkness Falls...

by XTech309

Mad Twi-ence: Part Four

"I don't know about you, but I'd say this was a job well done." Sunset said as she analyzed the data on the computer screen in front of her, which consisted of a variety of graphs and charts detailing what they had discovered in the days following the completion of their project.

"Yeah, I'd say so." Twilight replied, coming up beside her. "As I suspected, the replicated abilities are slightly diminished compared to the original wielder. For example, Applejack's use of super speed is anywhere from ten to twenty-five percent slower than what Rainbow can do, depending on the amount of power available. It's the same with everyone else, with the notable exception of Fluttershy's animal communication. Interestingly, the others can only hear what animals are saying when they replicate hers, not have conversations with them like she can. Rarity's native ability to create diamonds saw an almost times two buff. The ones that she was already able to create have become much stronger, and she's the only one who can create a shield that covers her entire body."

"The geodes themselves have also handled the modifications much better than I expected." Sunset added. "They seem to have almost the same connection to the devices as they have to us! That could be big if Equestria starts adapting human technology."

"I noticed that, too. The first few days there were more malfunctions than I would have liked, but after a few days it seemed that our geodes have bonded a bit with the surrounding technology, and I haven't heard any complaints in almost a week!"

"Then I think our work here is done!" Sunset said, sitting up in the chair she was in and looking around the lab they had spent so many hours in to make this a reality.

"Perhaps not. You see, there's still one thing on my mind." Twilight said.

"What would that be?"

"Laser beams, or I guess as a unicorn you'd call it, concentrated bursts of magic that can be used at a distance."

"Hmm, I hadn't thought of that.” Sunset said with a finger to her chin. “But how would we do that? We can't use the same mechanism we used to make shield generation possible, it would fry everything!"

"Look at this." Twilight said, gently pushing Sunset aside and pulling up a new window on the laptop.

"What am I looking at?" Sunset said, taking in the new window Twilight had opened containing two new designs she hadn't seen before.

"A supplement to what we've already done. You see, whenever one of us is using our magic, there's always an aura that surrounds our hands. What I'm proposing is that we create a glove that works on the same mechanisms we've already made. It would have a concentration point in the middle that is strong enough to handle all the energy that would go into it. This would be linked back to the watch by a series of thin wires to transmit the signal, and seeing how our geodes attached themselves so well to us and the watches, I see no reason why it shouldn't work. It would be as simple as concentrating the desired amount of magic in the glove, and then just point and shoot!" She said.

"What about that other thing? In the upper right hand corner?" Sunset said as she pointed to the location on the screen.

"Ah, that. It's not absolutely necessary for the add-on to work, but I think it would look really cool."

"You think it would look cool?".

"Think about it: A lens suspended from a thin headband held in front of one of our eyes. It would be wirelessly connected to the watch and the additional glove. And when you hold your hand out to fire, a reticle would appear on it showing exactly what you're hitting! I took my inspiration from the kind of helmets you see fighter pilots wearing."

"Don't you think that seems a little excessive?"

"Admittedly, yes, but I couldn't help but play with the idea. I know Rainbow would love it."

Sunset looked up again from the laptop with Twilight's designs on it. "I don't see why we can't make this happen."

Author's Note:

Hello everyone. I’m terribly sorry for leaving for such a long time without notice. I just haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on this the past few months, mainly due to schoolwork.

I haven’t been doing nothing this whole time though. I did some thinking, and the problem I see with the time it’s taking to reach the main story was still something that bothered me, for reader-retention reasons.

It’s for that reason that I’ve decided to write a prequel, a small one-off story taking place right in the middle of the action that this story is building towards. To avoid spoiling anything though, I decided to take a different approach when writing this spin-off.

One of the main running themes any of you particularly invested in Pibby will have noticed is that the majority of the time, the story focuses on side or background characters, main characters, with Pibby being the one notable exception, more often than not taken by the corruption before they can really do anything. I’ve decided to lean heavily into that for my new story, as well as the horror aspect of the pibby concept. Rather than an action-packed thriller, this story will be a slower paced grimdark/horror, focusing on the survival story of a small group of background and side characters within the EQG world. The main theme I decided to go with was that, not everyone in the EQG world has magic like Sunset and her friends (obviously). And so in a Learning with Pibby scenario, these characters would have to resort to much more crude and um, conventional means in order to survive.

So far, this new work is around 10k words long, and once finished, hopefully in the next few weeks, will be released all at once so none of you have to wait. I also plan on finally getting around to revamping some of my older work before continuing with the main storyline.

Comments

[Lunar Walker]

I would love to read this but I'm worried that I have to read Darkness Fell. The link says that the story isn't available. Do I have to read Darkness Fell or can I start here and not lose any context.

[XTech309]

11885530

Oh, that’s my bad. Darkness Fell isn’t released yet, sorry. When I do release it within the next couple of weeks, Darkness Fell will be a standalone story. It obviously is going to tie in with this one, but both stories will be able to stand on their own, as in, you don’t have to read one to understand the other, but they’ll compliment each other really well.

[Lunar Walker]

11885534
Thank you. I will let you know what I think of this story when I get to it (likely later this week )
Just got to get thru a bit of 'read later' stories first.