SGA meets the ponies

Two years had passed since the event with the Wraith. Equestria was prepared for war more so than what they had been for over a thousand years. Support was occasionally delivered by the Atlantis expedition with Ronon and Tayla returning at intervals to help with military strategies and evacuation plans.

Two pegasi in light camouflage painted armor watched the stargate closely.  As usual the only noises were the bugs or occasional Timberwolves stuck in Earth pony traps. This changed when the stargate shrieked and the dots lit up as someone dialing in. One guard stood his ground as the others readied themselves to take to the sky and raise an alarm till two less-than-threatening beings walked through, shocked at the welcome.

“Ronon must have really laid the training on thick since we left,”  Dr. McKay said with shock as he became his usual indignant self.  “Clearly forgetting to mention we're not here to suck the life out of you?” he asked towards the ponies.

The unflinching pegasus confirmed. "So you come in peace?" and before McKay could launch into an indignant rant, he was silenced with a firm hand on his shoulder.  “Colonel John Sheppard, We came through last time and helped your people out.  Had to rescue the uh...” He hated trying to recall the names of things here.  It was bad enough that one of them was called... ”Twilight Sparkle was one of their names...”

“The Elements of Harmony." Rodney started, "We helped out with the wraith being here. Surely you people haven't forgotten about that?" he said looking around nervously.

"Oh. That's right. So you must be with the Atlantis guys." This signal pony knew what was worth making exceptions for. "We got friendly troops!”  Suddenly three more camouflaged ponies and a timberwolf on a magic leash emerged around the clearing.

"Please, follow me." The signal pony began talking while slowly flying toward Ponyville over a dirt road between the trees. "Since you took care of those 'Wraith',” Sheppard couldn't stop smiling at the use of hooves for quotation marks. “the stargate only activates when you and your team use it." The last words expressed immense relief.

"Well that's good." Sheppard replied earnestly.

"That's weird." Rodney corrected, trying not to stare at the timberwolf. "That's not like the Wraith."

"Lone faction?  Find a new source of food and start their own planet-wide pony ranch." Sheppard replied with a joke.

"Maybe."

Walking for several minutes as they learned about the nation's preparations against another Wraith incursion, Ponyville and Twilights' library were soon in view.  They lost their escort at the weather station that now doubled as a guard post, suits of barding sitting on a rack on the back of it beside a basket of spears.  Surprisingly it was one of very few changes to the town as eveyone seemed dedicated to being the bright cheerful cartoon characters they were before including Twilight as she shelved books in her library.

Colonel Sheppard spoke first. "Now it's Princess Twilight Sparkle?  Boy have we got a lot to catch up on."

Turning at the sound of Sheppard and McKay Twilight almost dropped the books she was arranging in mid-air.  "Colonel!  Rodney!  It's been too long...”  She spread her wings in joy, only to haltingly retract them as the books were piled before the shelves.  “Where's Ronon and Tayla?" Her eyes were downcast.  “I know Tayla and Princess Luna had an argument over ponies going through the stargate, and Rainbow Dash still thinks Ronon cheated by booby trapping The Running of the Leaves, though nopony told him it was just a fun race.”

"Well," Sheppard began suppressing a smile at the funny terms used in Equestria, "Ronon and Tayla are busy on a different planet and we decided we might come by and say hi, since it has been so long." Sheppard said as he relaxed in the chair Twilight summoned while instructing her assistant to make tea.

"I'm glad I finally get to see you too.  Ronon was all about training ponies to fight the wraith and was always making excuses to get out of Pinkie Pie's parties. Tayla left after..." she looked disappointed.  "What's been keeping you two from coming by for a visit?”

Johns' face was shaded by exhaustion.  "We ran into a mishap with a people called the Replicaters, had to move the city to a different planet, made a deal with a faction of Wraith, travelled to another reality..." Stopping himself, he began to realize how much they had survived.

Twilight, who'd levitated her tea back to the table was looking more and more shocked with each exploit. "Sounds...fun?"

"Yeah... well Rodney, didn't you have something you wanted to give her?" Sheppard asked while glancing meaningfully over at McKay, interrupting him digging into a plate of cookies.

"Hm? Oh,” He swallowed. “Yes. Here you are." Rodney handed Twilight a tablet from his duffle bag similar to his. "I increased the sensitivity on the screen so it should work just fine with your, um, hooves."

Twilight looked at the tablet computer in awe as the screen was bright with information and pictures. Rodney had simplified the display so Twilight could better understand how it worked.

"It has pictures of not only Atlantis but Earth,” his speech started picking up speed. ”and in the information section I put some of the Ancient's history salvaged from their database along with Earth history and culture. Along with all of that, since I can tell you're a scientist,”smiling smugly at himself he added ”I can always tell.” before returning to the enchanted Twilight. “I included our understanding of math and science in here as well. Oh and if you're bored I included some video games." Despite Rodney's pace Twilight was a fast learner and kept up.

"This is amazing. You can fit all this information in this...this, what did you call it?" Twilight asked.

"Tablet."

"Yeah, tablet...This would take months to put into books, not to mention the space it would take up in the library."

Sheppard smiled and spread his arms out, "Technology, am I right?"

Twilight, eyes dilated, simply nodded as she continued to go through the endless wonders of her new toy.

After Rodney's lesson on elementary wormhole physics Sheppard decided it was time to tell her the real reason they were there. "Twilight." Sheppard cleared his throat which tore her away from a game she found to be called Solitaire. "We know the Ancients were here ten thousand years ago, but we still need to know why."

"Hmm." Twilight sat the tablet on her desk and began to pull out a couple books. "Lets see...I still can't find anything about the ancients in any of my books and almost nothing goes further back than Princess Luna and Celestia..." Twilight was re-checking four books at once before she had an idea.  "Hold on!  I've read almost every history book in Equestria, yet one of our oldest cities has an even bigger collection."

Sheppard shared a glance with McKay before shifting forward in his chair, "Oldest city? How old are we talking?"

Twilight levitated a book over to Sheppard which she had received as a gift from Celestia and began triumphantly explaining as he tried to read. "The Crystal Empire! It's so old that nopony knows how old it really is and all physical records of when it was constructed were destroyed when an evil king named Sombra subverted the Empire and stole the Crystal Heart that powered and protected it."

Sheppard closed the book in disbelief. "An ancient empire that used crystals for power?"

McKay stuttered out “Like a ZPM?” causing Twilight to mentally note that their alphabet was pronounced differently when he said it.

Twilight continued, "Well if it's important you can look around the Crystal Palace for some answers."

"You mean no one investigated a place powered by crystals?" Sheppard asked, annoyed at missing such an obvious lead when he put the book down.

"Colonel,” Twilight looked offended. ”We've been very busy building Equestria up for another attack under the advice of someone you recommended. Only recently has Princess Celestia said she believes that we're ready.” Her expression slid into fearful dejection. “Still, I'm not convinced. These Wraith," Twilight closed her eyes and slumped her wings. "They use...technology. Technology that we have a hard time understanding short of saying it's magic."

Sheppard started walking towards the bookshelf to put away the Crystal Empire book. "Believe me, we know what you mean. Between the Wraith's organic tech, the Asgard energy manipulations and stolen technology of the Goa'uld, even we still have a hard time keeping up with two galaxies trying to kill us.” Turning back he looked earnestly at the dejected princess. “However we have friends who help us understand these things."

The newly crowned princess suddenly looked at her guests, one who was wolfing down biscuits that Spike kept supplying, murmuring about the different styles, and blinked as if she hadn't seen them before.

“So we're using some kind of 'magic' to get there, I take it?” Rodney asked as Spike noted he hadn't touched the lemon tarts he brought.

"If we hurry we should be able to make today's last train for the Empire." Smirking with Sheppard she soon packed a saddle bag for herself before leaving Spike to watch the library as Sheppard and McKay muttered behind her.

"We couldn't just take a jumper?”

“Aw come on, Rodney, we use those things all the time."

"We'd make better time if we used a jumper."

"We're exploring strange new worlds.  What if the train has clues?"

"My mother always told me that public transport was dangerous."

"That explains a lot."

"Oh, ha ha."

They reached the station and Twilight bought three tickets right away and not five minutes had passed before the three were on the express route to the Crystal Empire. Sheppard and McKay had a hard time sitting as the seats felt like they were made for children.

"Well," Sheppard started. "This is fun."

"Unlike a jumper."

"Shut up Rodney." Sheppard muttered then looked at Twilight. "So, how long until we get there?"

"It should take about an hour."

Sheppard shifted in his seat. "Wonder how an hour works here."

"Ronon said time wasn't as important as results, yet he never did say how your people move the sun.” she responded.

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Move the sun? You mean track the sun's movement."

Twilight held a confused look on her face, "Princess Celestia moves the sun and Princess Luna moves the moon."

Rodney almost began to laugh. "No, okay, look I know you said before that you all are very intelligent but the sun cannot be moved, or at least it takes a lot to move it. And when I say a lot I mean more energy than what we could come close to making,” He looked both guilty and proud as he continued. ”except for what happened on Doranda and that took out almost the entire solar system." Sheppard nodded while Rodney finished. "I mean no offense here, but your people seem like you've barely discovered electricity."

"You don't think Celestia moves the sun?" Twilight asked.

"No I don't, the planet rotates on it's axis causing an illusion of the sun and moon moving across the sky. You just can't will the sun to move."

"Well she uses magic to do it."

"Oh yes, right. Magic. Everybody's answer for everything instead of 42."

"Rodney." Sheppard sharply interrupted. "Anymore arguing and I'll turn this train around."

McKay sighed, "Look, that tablet I gave you? It has the whole process along with the math to back it up." Sighing Rodney muttered.  “I saw that your assistant put the book about this place that we're going to in your bag. Can we read it before we get there?”

An hour passed with everyone reading as much as they could till their arrival at the Crystal Empire. When they got off the train, after gratefully stretching, Sheppard and McKay stood in awe at the sight before them.

"Rodney."

"Yeah."

"Tell me this doesn't look familiar."

"Very."

Twilight looked confused till Rodney explained. "This is very similar to the design of Atlantis and a second city we found buried. This could be something similar to that however."

"This time the whole city's crystal." Sheppard stated.

"Though less structures. Possibly an advanced outpost. We need to see more to know."

Twilight smiled showing them a map of the palace. "Come on I'll show you around the palace and you can meet my brother and Princess Cadence."

Making their way to the palace, Rodney noted that the streets held a snowflake pattern as Twilight told him about them glowing when they held back the surrounding snow.  Sheppard noticed the weird stares they were getting till they got to the palace.  The spinning Crystal Heart was waiting as Rodney scanned it.

“It's a regulator, an overload fail-safe.  There's a lot of energy in this place, yet this just allows it to be drawn into this structure. Like a giant safety switch.”

“So that evil king trys to tap into the power of a whole empire...”

“More like the other way around.”  Twilight offered to the surprise of her travel companions.  “The Crystal Empire is powered by love and a sense of achievement.  When Sombra enslaved it he hid the crystal heart.  His magic was the strongest around till Luna and Celestia banished him, yet he took the empire with him.  It only emerged recently after being lost for one thousand years and everypony forgetting it existed.”

As John and Twilight discussed the story of the Crystal Empire and Cadence returning to the throne they moved into the Crystal Castle's hallways and flights of stairs toward it's throne room. McKay scanned everything they passed and stopped to analyze a light fixture on the wall.

"Rodney?" Sheppard began, glancing at his readings.

"I thought the light was reflected from outside.  It's not.  This is a powered light source."

"Okay, can you be more specific."

"Hold on..." Rodney began moving along the wall until he reached the door to the throne room only to fall over as that door magically opened to reveal royal guards and Princess Cadence.  As she gestured for one of the guards to help Rodney up she greeted Twilight starting with a mutual dance and song.

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!  Clap your hooves and do a little shake! Twilight! It's so good to see you again. So these are two humans from the stargate?"

"Allow me to introduce Colonel Sheppard,”

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Sheppard knelt, extending his hand before realizing it wasn't a typical greeting for a quadrupedal species.

"I'm Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, though I prefer Princess Cadence.  My husband Shining Armor is out working with the guards, I'm not sure how long he'll be today."

"I've got something!" Rodney exclaimed, pointing across the room as he'd been scanning the room while waiting for everyone else to finish.

Twilight facehoofed.  “Also, this is Doctor Rodney McKay.  He's... not used to dealing with ponies.”

Cadence knew better than to get between a researcher and their work so she simply executed a polite nod.

"He's trying to figure out how your lights and power work without conventional wiring.” The Colonel rolled his eyes.  “What did you find?" He asked Rodney, already studying a wall.

"This wall. It doesn't make sense."

"Rodney."

"Look. life signs detector shows a room on the other side. But if I scan it with my tablet I just get a wall made of Crystal."

"And this means... ?"

"Well, I'm not sure. The tablet should have more scanning power but I'm getting conflicting results." Absorbed in his readings he didn't notice his hosts looking at both him and the wall.

Cadence ventured. “This castle is over a millennia old and the people who lived below it spent their last generation being afraid of what was inside.  There could be anything here... yet that wall seems solid to me.”

"If you abuse ancient tech' you get this Sombra guy.  Wouldn't be the first despot to rule people based on some functioning ancient relics he figured out.  Now Rodney, this wall could be a secret lab like the one in Atlantis?  Hit the right series of tones and you can walk through a wall?"

"I thought of that but as you can see," Rodney gestured around. "there's no harmonic resonators."

"I'd rather not blast it seeing as this is someone's home. C4 tends to leave a remodeling bill."

"No, you don't understand. The structure of the crystal is beyond anything I've seen or read about. I wouldn't be surprised if-" Rodney about to knock on the wall had his hand pass right through it. "Whoa. Did you see that?!"

Fascinated at the mystery Twilight put her hoof on the wall yet unlike Rodneys hand, it found solid matter. "How'd you do that?" she asked.

Rodney kept a confused look, "I don't know." McKay put his hand on the wall but it passed right through again.

Sheppard tried the same thing and just like Rodney his hand went through the wall, but instead of pulling his back out he continued to walk right on through.  "John! JOHN! Can you hear me!"

Suddenly Sheppard's head popped out of the wall, "Looks like a gene lock Rodney. You'll want to see this." he then disappeared back into the wall with Rodney following him.

On the other side was an Atlantis-replica control room, the light's and controls coming on as Sheppard and McKay walked further in. The biggest difference was the solid walls of crystal where the windows should be and the bare area for a stargate.  Rodney was taking this in, mumbling to himself, "Oh, this is interesting." Ignoring whatever witty remarks his military back-up had, he went straight for the ancient computer records.

"I'll be back Rodney, you just keep doing what you're doing." Sheppard then stepped through the wall finding Twilight and Cadence with half the royal guard behind them and the rest watching the door to the throne room.

"John would you care to explain what's going on?" Twilight asked.

"Well-" Sheppard shifted his standing position. "I'm not entirely sure, but if we give Rodney like five minutes, he'll have an explanation."

Perplexed Twilight put her hoof against the wall, yet it was still solid. Sheppard walked towards the closest window and examined how big the Empire really was, yet before he could ask, Rodney re-emerged to an eager audience.

"Rodney! What'd you find out?"

"Well the Ancients built this place. It's relatively similar to the Tok'ras technique of making crystal tunnels. More to the point, that wall is amazing." Rodney walked over to the wall and wiped his hand through it. "Instant solid to liquid state upon recognition of the ATA gene." Rodney then looked over to Cadence. "Excuse me, uh... Cadence right? Have any changes ever been made to this place at anytime?"

"As far as I know nothing's changed except the furniture for the last thousand years." she replied.

Rodney smiled smugly. "Exactly what I thought. Now here's what you didn't expect: The Ancients didn't want ponies using their technology because they wanted them advancing at their own rate like humans were on Earth."

Princess Cadence looked confused.  “So we were a giant experiment?  Like Sombra holding a whole planet captive?”

“No!” Rodney waved his hands like he was wiping away dirt from a tiny windshield. “You guys were protected.  You were the control group compared to the rest of humanity who turned out to be the caged animals you poked, prodded and injected with serum 5-9b that gave them super hearing which drove them insane...” Rodney trailed off to the horrified stares from some of the ponies in the room.  “We only did it once and we figured out how not to do it again.”

Sheppard rolled his eyes and brought them back on task. "So why aren't they more advanced then?"

Rodney threw his hands up. "Well, I don't know.” He said with exasperation. “Government mishaps, cultural disputes, natural disasters, general disinterest in technology?” Twilight looked like she was going to object when Rodney cut her off. “Without studying thousands of years of culture and history in depth I can't know all the answers."

Princess Cadence asked "They studied us here, yet had the stargate so far away?"

"They moved it. They weren't against you using the stargate but..." Rodney trailed off.

"But what?" Twilight asked.

"Well, They broke it."

"Broke it?" Everyone said in shock or fear at varying volumes.

"Well yes... kind of... no?"  Rodney met the stares that demanded more explanation.  "Okay, they, uh, removed and reworked a lot of the control crystals in the gate taking away its ability to connect with other stargates except for the one on Atlantis."

"So kind of like when my parents gave me vouchers for a book store instead of bits." Twilight asked with a bright cheery tone. “If I wanted anything more I had to go through them.”

"Huh, you too? Anyway, you don't have to guard the stargate. No one can come through but us."

"Alright, Now the walls, you said they were really incredible?”

"Oh yeah. I'd say this crystal structure is almost a hundred times stronger than the metals used for Atlantis."

"A hundred times?" Sheppard asked skeptically.

"Roughly speaking. Something keeps bothering me though."

"What's that?" Cadence asked, fascinated with the back and forth.

"I can't figure out where this castle is getting its power. Of course I haven't finished looking through all of the data base either."

Sheppard thought for a minute. "Can you get me a layout of this place?"

Rodney held out his life signs detector. "I'll trade you. I already got a map of the palace and the surrounding area from the data base."

"Good job Rodney." Sheppard said with a smile. "Keep going through the database and keep me updated over the radio. Princess Cadence, Twilight will go with me to check out some of these hidden places." His smile was infectious.

Twilight looked giddy with excitement as Cadence asked, "What should we do to help?"

Sheppard turned around quickly and gave a smile, "If Rodney finds anything important in the database he'll need to coordinate with you and radio us.  In the meantime I'll need your sister-in-law to help me out. Think you can handle all of that?”  Cadence nodded as Twilight stomped her hooves rapidly like an eager girl clapping her hands.  “Oh, and Rodney gets hungry fast so plenty of finger food.  Come on Twilight!”

As the two departed Cadence made a note to ask what a “finger” was and how to feed it.