MLP: Technology is Magic

by Xarmar13

Informal Meeting

After the two fillies left the study, Celestia let out a sorrowful sigh as she worried about her other student, Sunset Shimmer, who had fled from her after she threatened to revoke her status as a student if she continued her studies into dark magic. She didn’t want to use such a heavy hoofed tactic but she couldn’t afford to allow the mare to fall into the same pitfalls that Sombra did. Even in the off chance that she could have surprised her, it wasn’t worth the risk. She only hoped that the guards would bring her back safely.

Her thoughts drifted toward her other two students, Twilight and Starlight, both had shown great promise as mages. Twilight’s magic surge caused a lot of chaos and turned a number of ponies, including her own parents, into potted plants while hatching the dragon egg which should have been impossible and made her suspect that somepony or someponies conspired against the filly; a matter that she would have to investigate later.

Starlight, based on what she had heard from her father, the victim and the victim’s mother, had shown a similar degree of potential. From what she heard, the filly had a surge of her own and brought an entire bookcase worth of tomes to life and turned her foalhood friend into a book. Funny enough, the book contained a detailed biography of the colt’s life from birth to present.

Though what really caught her interest was the effect the surge had on the filly herself. Celestia examined the filly to see if the surge had any lasting side effects. She did the same with Twilight after her episode and was thankful that there was no lasting harm or changes to her. What she found in Starlight, however, was that her intrathaumatic resistance matrix had been altered slightly. The matrix existed in all ponies that allowed their bodies to resist the effects of their own magic to their bodies which prevented them from receiving any significant harm to themselves. The matrix in Starlight was not broken or damaged, only altered. If she was right, then she might be capable of self-levitation now; a feat that was impossible for any unicorn because of the matrix. Of course, Celestia couldn’t teach this to Starlight because it was impossible for anypony but the filly.

Celestia was pulled from her thoughts when her senses picked up on a presence that seemed to be in the room with her. Her ears perked as her head turned in every direction she could as she attempted to locate the source of this presence. “Twilight? Starlight?” No response, so it wasn’t them. She began to suspect an assailant. “Whoever is there, show yourself!”

As if accepting an invitation, the source of the presence dropped onto the floor in front of Celestia, though not before lifting her cloak of shadows before hopping down. To her surprise it was a rabbit, though the color of its fur was unusual. Her attention was drawn to the fact that she was able to sense a significant amount of power coming from the creature but it didn’t feel like magic exactly. It was easy to conclude that this was no ordinary bunny.

The alicorn slowly moved toward the bunny with a scrutinizing gaze, trying to figure out what it was without scaring it off though she sensed no fear from the creature for some reason and it was making Celestia nervous. “What are you…?” she mused.

“Cute and adorable, I would hope.” Sophia replied jokingly. This was followed by an amusing reaction of Celestia backing up into a bookshelf in surprise, the impact dropping an avalanche of books on herself. The rabbit giggled at the mare’s antics before her eyes glowed blue as she grabbed the pile of books in a telekinetic hold and returned them to the shelf, doing her best to remember the order the books were in before they fell.

Celestia sat on her plot with her eyes widened in shock and her jaw hanging open which Sophia closed with a little telekinesis. With no further surprises, Celestia managed to regain her wits enough to speak with her, “You can talk? And perform magic?”

Sophia tilted her head and placed a paw under her muzzle as she considered how to respond to that. “Yes to the talking part but no to the magic. Well…more like a yes and no to the latter. What I used was psychic power which isn’t something that comes from a magical source but comes from my mind. It doesn’t have the versatility that magic has but it still has plenty of uses.”

“What can you do with it?”

“For the basic stuff I can levitate objects or myself.” Sophia demonstrated this by lifting herself into the air before lowering herself back to the floor. “And there’s telepathy; mind reading. While it’s easy to read your surface thoughts, I can see the small part of you who is lamenting eating an entire…germane chocolate cake with a rich vanilla center in one sitting a few days ago?” Sophia gave a deadpan expression, “Really?” Not that she could judge her given the many strange things she had devoured over her life.

The pink in Celestia’s coat became much more pronounced in that moment as she looked away in shame. Sophia sighed and continued, “Look, it’s still pretty tame compared to the things I have eaten.”

“Like what?”

“You don’t want to know, not unless you enjoy having your coat going from that rosy shade of pink to a deep green in record time.”

Celestia nodded in agreement to let that matter slide as she cleared her throat and rolled the conversation back. “You mentioned what you called the basics of psychic power, what are the more advanced things you can do with it?”

“I can create illusions of myself or others and with a lot of training I can increase the range of their capabilities in the physical plane.” Celestia suddenly found another bunny that looked just like Sophia standing next to her hooves and staring at her.

“May I?” the copy asked. Celestia nodded numbly with uncertainty before the rabbit nuzzled her foreleg, getting a smile from the mare. Though just as quickly as the image appeared it vanished in a puff of smoke.

Sophia continued, “There are also more destructive uses for psychic powers but I won’t demonstrate them here. I can create localized lightning storms over small areas or use the shadows to wrap myself in them to make myself invisible and other uses that I’d rather not say because I want us to have a friendly relationship. But just to help you feel better, I am one of the most powerful psychics out there and your average psychic isn’t nearly as powerful as me.”

“While I do appreciate the gesture, I would like to know about those uses that you do not wish to tell me about. It’s nothing personal, I simply do not wish for one of your secrets to lead my little ponies to harm.”

Sophia hesitated for a moment and sighed, “If you insist…” She then went on to tell the princess about the darker aspects of her psionic powers where she sometimes used them for assassination purposes and then the variant that she figured would terrify the alicorn. She informed her about the corrupting power of the void and how it was used to unleash destruction or to directly steal the life force of others.

“I see…” Celestia mused. “It sounds like void energy runs in circles similar to dark magic. You haven’t been influenced by it, have you?”

“Can’t really say, I have spent centuries strengthening my discipline to help insulate myself from its dark influence so I can use it in controlled amounts when necessary. Thankfully, my other abilities have proven sufficient in regular scenarios.”

“‘Centuries?’ You claim to be older than you look?”

“I’ve been around a few millennia,” Sophia casually stated.

“Same, perhaps we are close to the same age,” Celestia giggled. She then gave her a diplomatic smile as she decided that the time for small talk was over. “So, perhaps now you can tell me your name and why you snuck into my palace?”

“As if your guards would ever give someone who looks like a small woodland critter the time of day for a formal appointment,” Sophia shrugged. “My friends and family call me Sophia. In a much more formal setting I go by Sophia ‘Archon’ Craft. I came from a place that is uncharted by your people. As for why I came here, that strange shockwave of energy from before had far-reaching effects that impacted far away places. Your kingdom may be visited by other foreign powers someday, possibly with ill intentions. Power on the scale of what we felt would be coveted by others; others with powerful and advanced technology and weaponry the likes that have probably not been imagined by your greatest minds.”

Celestia knew about the shockwave that happened weeks ago that sent poor Twilight into a magic surge. While she knew that it would have been seen by all of Equestria, she didn’t realize that it was that powerful. No pony should have been able to unleash the level of magic that was felt then, not even herself. She suspected that somepony or something may have amplified the effect.

Then there was the threat, what force in this world would have the power to defeat her nation with advanced technology when she had never heard a thing about them. Certainly news about them would have spread around the world if that were the case. Something about the rabbit’s story didn’t add up.

Sophia didn’t need psychic powers to know that Celestia was skeptical of her. Honestly, if she were in her position she would too. “I don’t need you to believe me right now, but I do wish to provide assistance to your ponies. The fact is that your magic will be a highly coveted resource in the years to come and if you don’t want to become enslaved and used as batteries for your slavers you will need to develop your military quickly to stand a chance against such threats. Honestly, I have no idea why your civilization isn’t as advanced as it should be by now.”

“We have only developed as the need arose, is it not the same as your lands?”

“No it’s the same way for us, we have simply developed as per our needs. Domestic and external issues have pushed us to improve our technology in many areas, including the military. I would hazard a guess that you have brokered peaceful relations with those who could potentially threaten your kingdom. However, a long era of peace could lead to complacency and stagnation which would leave your kingdom unprepared for the next big threat.”

“I am aware of this, it’s just…” Celestia trailed off. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure how to improve upon military technology, that was her sister’s area of expertise. Her sister was the innovative one between them and a brilliant commander. Unfortunately all research and development into military technology slowly ground to a halt over the centuries when she was banished to the moon and her commanders and officers went into self-imposed exile. Because of this Celestia was left with a succession of incompetent military advisors. After a few generations of this she simply left the position vacant.

Before Celestia could say anything else, Sophia’s communicator was chirping in her ear, indicating that the ship’s crew was wanting to tell her something. Celestia looked like she was about to form her response but the bunny cut her off, “We’ll continue this conversation later, I need to attend to something.”

Pulling out a crystal shard, Sophia channeled a little power into it which caused it to activate and pull her body into it, much to Celestia’s shock. The shard shattered into dust when it landed on the floor.

Sophia appeared at the Canterlot relay point which was the most secure place she could find in the city. Putting the prior conversation out of her mind, she swiped her paw and a screen appeared, showing the officer who was trying to talk to her. “This is Sophia.”

“Hierarch, I am so sorry for interrupting your investigation but I wanted to inform you that new information has come up. We did a geological scan of the planet to see if there were any valuable materials that could be helpful for your mission.”

“What did you find?”

“You may not believe this ma’am but the scans found a huge abundance of mineral crystals on the continent you are on. That continent alone is richer than planet Moria, the richest mining node in the Koprulu sector. The rest of the planet doesn’t have quite as much but it’s still more than we have ever seen on one planet before.”

“Are you serious?!” Sophia nearly yelled. “Ugh, nevermind! What about Vespene? Do the scanners detect any pockets under the surface?”

“No ma’am, we can’t detect any geysers on the scanners. If there is any Vespene Gas in the planet somewhere it would be too deep for the scanners to pick up.”

Sophia facepawed, “Wonderful, we found what may be the richest mineral node in the galaxy and no gas. They have the materials to build starships but not the fuel to power them. Well, I’m sure the ponies will be able to find an alternative to universal fuel. One thing is for certain, this planet and these ponies have targets on their backs.”

Author's Note:

Wondering how Equus is so rich in minerals? I got the idea when in the game minerals were used as currency at one point. What else in the MLP universe was used as currency aside from the bit and you will see where my plans are going.

Comments

[Commander Bradley]

Interesting premise and choice of era in the starcraft timeline. Haven't read the story yet but I am going to hope it gets finished either way.

Way too many StarCraft stories, both good and meh, have never been finished (I may have also contibuted to that statisic as well)

[Xarmar13]

11887386
Yeah, it's sad that so many Starcraft stories get abandoned. It makes me glad to have one of the few completed Starcraft stories on this site. Jest has one they have been working on but that one has been put on a lower queue so I don't expect an update anytime soon, not this year at least. Wanderer D is also working on one but that one updates once in a blue moon.

[herobrins mom]

Huh...story is getting better with each chapter but it all feels like a prolog

[Black--Soul]

What fun so far
Thanks for all the chapters. This will be a fun reading experience to galloping along

[Black--Soul]

11888075
OK, that literally changes everything I know from the other story.
Neat.