Techno Blue’s Travels

Information:
*This story is based on my OC and I’ve tried very hard to make sure he isn’t over powered. This is the 1st fanfic I’ve done in years so I don’t know how well this will go down.
*This story took me ages as I didn’t expect to need to write so much drama, though there should have probably been more. It is meant to be more Sci-fi than anything. There will be more adventure and action in the next chapters.
*Please note that I am Australian and will use the letter ‘U’ in words like ‘colour’, or ‘S’s where other use ‘Z’s.
*The word Octarine is from the Discworld series, I love this word and have used it for my story.

Thank you: I do of course need to thank the MLP: FIM, the creators, HASBRO and the Brony community for giving me inspiration to write something, even if my story sucks*.

*I'm not fishing for compliments, I'm just just paranoid by nature.
Also a thank you to Ezn for his guide on writing FanFics; I can’t promise I did everything right.
I specifically need to thank the writers of Fallout Equestria (Kkat) and Fallout Equestria: Project Horizions (Somber). As they gave me so much inspiration while reading their stories.
And finally a thank YOU to you for giving my story a chance.

Any constructive criticism and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

This story takes place a short time before the episode ‘A Canterlot Wedding’, but after ‘Hurricane Fluttershy’.

Techno Blue’s Travels

In an underground laboratory made of cold, concrete walls. There are several tables with test tubes, pentagrams and other types of scientific and magical equipment. In the centre of the room is a lone male unicorn, he is wearing a lab coat that covers his entire backside. He is busy working on an experiment. He is almost centered perfectly in the room, with his horn is plugged into some kind of device. He is staring at a magical field of energy not far from him. The swirling mass of supernatural energy glowing a light blue colour.

I am that unicorn. I tap a switch, which activates a laser which beams right into the heart of the field of magical energy. I continue to up the power, when something about it catches my eye.

“Huh?”

KABOOM!!

The magic erupts with a burst of energy. I was thrown backwards from my position, my feet leaving the ground for several metres. I slammed into the concrete wall behind me; my back first with the force rolling me upwards until my head and shoulders also whacked into the wall with a mighty thump. My lab coat not helping at all in cushioning my sudden stop, it wasn't designed for something like this.

I fell a short distance to the floor. It wasn’t as painful as being flung backwards into the wall, but it hurt just the same. My vision was partially blinded from the explosion and little lights danced in front of my eyes getting in the way of what I still could see.

CHINK, CHINK-CHA-CHINK, CHINK

‘What was that?’ I thought as I tried to understand what was going on around me. Everything about my body ached but my head felt light. The blinding white in my eyes was dissipating and being replaced with a slow fade to black.

A shadowy figure walked up to me, turning its head and peered at me with its glowing yellow eye. “I…know…you…” I gasped just before I lost consciousness.

-_-_-_-_-

Earlier this day; 9am.

I am Techno Blue, I have always been Techno Blue and nothing will change that. I’m a unicorn with a light blue coat and dark blue mane. My eyes are a calming light blue.

I don’t have my cutie mark. I stopped trying to find it after it stopped being a quest of self-discovery and became more of a life sentence. While I enjoy researching of the connections of science and magic, it never revealed itself to be my 'special' talent. But due to constant questioning and bullying as a young colt, I wear a lab coat that covers my back.

I am a member of the Colour family. With a long family history, we reached a point where we used all obvious name pairings, so we started throwing colours that didn't match our first names, for example I always thought the word 'Techno' was more silver than blue. We are a mixed family of Earth and Unicorn ponies.

I am a researcher and study what I like. I have been considered an outcast for my theories. Being an outcast suits me fine as I prefer to be alone. I have no interest in sharing my results with anypony.

I have lived in Manehatten all my life, but I never considered it my home. As long as I can be left alone I'm ok. I own a two story apartment building almost a perfect light blue box. It wasn't perfect for my research but I just renovated this housing block to suite my needs. The neighbours have learned to stay away from my place as I don’t cater for them.

I could easily afford an actual laboratory thanks to my family’s heritage in a jewel mine. But I found most designers didn't cater to my needs. So I changed the basement and two bedrooms into laboratories, each matching my needs for whatever experiment I was doing.

“Good morning sir.” said a griffin walking down a flight of steps into the sterile laboratory. This was Brick Beak, her black feathers around her neck neatly forming a perfect ‘V’ shape just above her golden-brown fur. She is a griffin who carries herself with pride and class, not because of her lordly lion half nature, but from position in the working world of Equestria. She had worked hard working a regular desk job like some ponies only to be shunned for being a griffin. I though saw her as an excellent communicator for the family mine.

She is one of two individuals that I actually like to have around. I don't consider myself a heartless bastard, but I don't get on with a lot of ponies. I looked up from my table, filled with test tubes, beakers and other apparatus. “Morning BB,” I responded in a low grumble. “Apple Juice please.”

Brick Beak looked at me surly. “Do I need to remind you, sir, that I am your liaison - not your maid?.” she said as she stepped over to and opened a small fridge, filled with many different types of juices and snacks.

I grabbed a bottle with my telekinesis as she went to grab the cool drink. She turned her head. Her expression was unimpressed, but she said it all with her yellow eyes and her face remaining blank. I am very good with my magic and have a diploma a university was unhappy about handing over. It might have something to do with not being a team player for them.

I popped the bottle cap with my magic and threw the cap into a draw. It was slowly becoming a collection of caps and had a decent use as scrap metal. I took a large sip of the drink. “Ah,” I said, enjoying the sweet taste of the apple juice. A moment later the expression of enjoyment fell from my face as I noticed Brick Beak staring. “What?” I asked bluntly.

She pulled out a number of documents from under her right wing. “Your papers, sir. Sign here, here, initial here and hoofprint on the last page,” she said as she pointed to a series of signature markings. “You really should read the papers sir, how do you expect your employees at the mine to respect you, if you don’t get more involved with their activities?”

I magically picked up all the required signing documents and brought up several quills and signed all at the same time and brought them down to her. “I expect my brother to take care of all that. Management doesn't respect me, they fear me. How can you say I don't pay enough attention, you are clearly in your moulting stage for the year? Shouldn't you tidy yourself up a bit.” I looked at her wings, some of her feathers were tattered and frayed. Some smaller feathers came off with slight movements and floated around the room scattering on the floor.

Brick Beak turned her head. ‘Is she embarrassed?’ I thought. She shouldn't be, my mane was scruffy and all over the place, sometimes it looked like it had grown around my ears.

“Ahem,” she coughed bringing my attention back to the dull world of mining. “Mister Rocky Orange wishes for you to know that the miners have found two Blaze diamonds. He needs your approval to auction one off and give the other to the princess for marketing purposes.”

A Blaze diamond; a dark red, very rare, powerful magic stone that can store huge masses of energy, it was unknown how much it could take and sadly they were used more for jewellery than anything else.

“Which princess would that be?” I asked. Before she replied I jumped back in “’Cause as you know there are three and only two of them really matter when it comes to our livelihoods,” I continued with a flat tone. “If my dearest brother wants to just give one away, then he can give the other to Luna. Tell him specifically we aren't going to suck up to one princess while the other is left unnoticed…again.” As I spoke the words, my mind recalled a newspaper article about the history of the two princesses. “So he can either give them away - and I’m sure they will look lovely on a plaque - or he can auction both.”

Brick Beak looked at me. dealing with the negative approach on the subject with a calm reaction. “Yes sir, your brother will be coming by later. I will be upstairs doing paperwork, please call if you need anything.” She started to walk away and turned back. “One other thing actually, I need tomorrow off.” She looked at me for a few seconds, then she picked up on that I wasn’t going to say ‘why?’, but expected an answer to it anyway. “It’s my birthday and my niece is visiting.”

She continued to look at me. I think she was expecting a happy response “I know,” I replied with my flat voice. I pretended to think it over, “Enjoy your day off.” I turned back to my table.

“You know?” she replied with a surprised look. “How? You never remembered my birthday in my two years of service.”

“Yours is very easy to remember after some time; you always moult during your birthday month,” I said as I picked up several test tubes with my magic. This was another emotional conversation that didn't give any real results. She blushed but I wasn’t interested in looking too much and she turned to go up the stairs. Just as she was out if sight I yelled “There is a gift for you in your desk!” I’m pretty sure she climbed the stairway a bit quicker after hearing that. 'One of two individuals I get on with,' I thought with a sigh.

I could finally start setting up my experiment.

-_-_-_-_-

10am.

Ding Dong

The doorbell upstairs sounded. “Oh goody.” I sighed, there’s a good chance that's one of three ponies, two of whom I don't want to see. I heard the sound of happy trotting coming down to my lab.

"Hello brother," said a yellow female earth pony. Her mane was a darker yellow and it flowed off both sides of her neck. This is Poppy Yellow. Her cutie mark was of a square, triangle and circle which are red, blue and green respectively. She is the youngest sibling in my family, our brother in the middle and I'm the oldest. This was a bad sign. The arrival of my sister told me my day will steadily get worse as she was the only pony around for miles I liked having around, and that the other two visitors will just grind my day away.

"Hello Poppy, why did you ring the bell? You have a key to the door and it’s always unlocked with BB upstairs," I asked, knowing the answer will be childish.

"Well," she said putting on an innocent looking smirk, "it barely gets used, so I thought I'd liven up the day with a couple of musical notes." She pulled open her saddle bag and took out a bouquet of colourful flowers and placed them in a beaker on my table; the one with all my experiments. I quickly moved them to the side with my magic, still in the beaker and placed the flowers on an empty wall desk, I wasn’t mad; I had expected her to do that and she didn’t mean any ill will. I could see small pieces of pollen and petals fall off. They danced around the air as they fell to the ground.

"Achoo!” She sneezed despite no longer being near the flowers. “I can't stay long, the nursery is putting on a puppet show. So I've been called in today as an extra hoof," she said gleefully waving her hoof around like a sock puppet. Nothing gets her down, she is happiness incarnate. She continued to look through all the beakers, her face warped by the glass "I came by quickly to say we'll be back later tonight so we can all have dinner together. Toodle-oo!" with that said she skipped out of the lab up the stairs.

"We? Oh." I realised she probably means her husband and daughter. Her husband, Check List, worked in some office, he is a pencil pusher. Her daughter, Staples, so young she had only recently started noticing the world around here in that childlike wonder they get. "GOODBYE!" I yelled knowing she probably had left by now. Her visits were regular and one of the few good distractions I got round here.

As I returned to my work, I found myself occasionally glancing at the flowers. I really should remove them, they could easily contaminate my experiments but throwing them away felt like throwing Poppy away.

-_-_-_-_-

Earlier this day; 11am

My work was proceeding on schedule; I had learned to incorporate interruptions to my routine. The only problem was never knowing when they would occur. I had turned on the radio to help the flow of work. A gentle orchestra was playing a slow and peaceful tune. I believe this is one of Octavia’s pieces of music.

Brick Beak came down the stairs, with a grey coloured coat and black mane earth pony followed her, he has a large emerald for a cutie mark. “Mr Rocky Orange, sir, is here to see you” Brick Beak said standing to attention. Rocky Orange walked past Brick Beak, everything about his body language showed his dislike for my griffin assistant and she knew it. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t like griffins or that she aided me despite being employed for the mine.

“Thank you Brick Beak,” I replied. Brick Beak turned to leave knowing that Rocky will not allow her to be in the same room as me when he is present, not because of his dislike of her, but because of a secret I hold over him. It is a foolish secret that he seems to be ashamed for, I see it as the few times he can actually show joy in his life. “How are you little brother?” I said in a childish tone. He frowned at me.

“I’m good,” Rocky answered back. He has a one track mind and hates idle chat as much as I do, but I still find it fun to annoy him with it. “I’ve been told we are to give both Blaze diamonds to both princesses or auction both off; why? Celestia is our ruler and I have yet to see Luna do anything except raise the moon, which Celestia did perfectly fine before she turned up,” he snorted. “We need to do some public relations, not gallop to bankruptcy."

Multiple answers ran through my mind, I played with the ‘cause it’s the right thing to do for the unloved princess.’ That would really tick him off. Instead I said “The mine is far from going bankrupt. And we will do it my way because I’m in charge.” Rocky hates me, he always hated me.

Before I got the deed to the mine from Uncle Quarry Silver, Rocky hated me. Rocky chose to look for gems as a hobby and so Quarry Silver took him on for employment. So it came as a great shock to the Colour family that I was given the deed to the mine when Uncle died. I liked my Uncle and he taught me many facts about gems and diamonds and how they were used for magic. But I never thought being as close to him as Rocky had been. Rocky never put a fight about not getting the mine, he just accepted and kept working. I decided after that, if Rocky actually fought or asked for ownership I would give it to him but until then, it's mine and I will continue to push him until he finally pushes back.

Rocky glared at me, he was furious with my response, he closed his eyes and took a big breath. ‘Is, is this it? Is he’s going to go bananas’ I thought in anticipation.

“Ok, will auction both diamonds off and put three percent towards charity.” He replied.

‘Swing and a miss, damn,’ I thought. ‘Why did he never put up a fight?’

“It will take a week or so to advertise and-“

“Why are you telling me this? I am in the middle of my experiments and am getting close to a breakthrough,” I lied. My research was slow paced and I was only testing theories, I was not actually looking anything major.

I am a scientist and scientific research must be tested over and over again, so after many tests you can say ‘I have a theory’ which can fall apart on the next test. Fortunately I am also a magic pony and magical researchers can jump to conclusions however quickly they like, as if a spell goes wrong they blame it on supernatural forces.

“You’re still working on this thing and; you don’t even know what the end result should look like. You are probably gonna’ get blown up if you keep trying to merge science with magic.”

Now he was ticking me off, time to explain. “Magic can enhance a mechanical contraption, while a mechanical contraption can make a magic device work. There must be a balance.” I have repeated this to him many times and he still doesn’t get it, “I’ve changed the test a bit; I’m now aiming a laser scalpel into a spell through mid-cast. I’ve used many spells so far but I have high hopes with my locator spell. I just pop my horn into the spell castor analyser & projector which should…. which will project my spell outside of my horn so I can examine it closer and dissect it,” I was now shouting, “THUS leading my research to new directions. Who knows where this could take me?!”

“Fine, whatever. It’s not like you share your discoveries to other ponies or do anything with it.” Rocky noticed the radio playing on a shelf. It was still playing classical music, "Couldn't you put something better on? This stuff is too dull. There's no decent beat to it."

I stopped what I was doing and paid attention to the radio playing. The piece was unmistakably 'Flight of the Parasprite'. "Are you kidding? Apart from being a masterpiece, it has a fast beat-"

"-That flies all over the place. There's just no way to dance to this." Rocky said shaking his head. As he shook his head, something fell out of his mane on to the floor.

‘Are those gems?’ I thought as I saw them scatter around the floor. They must be from the mines. ‘How’d they get there?’ He never did properly comb his mane. He saw the gems as well and picked them up with his hooves, I swear he missed some but I don’t know where they all went. With a hoof full of gems he was stuck standing on three legs. He looked around for somewhere to put them but he gave up quickly and put them back in his mane. I stared with disbelief that for somepony who acts so professional would carelessly put precious rocks in his hair. 'Let him do what he wants with them, it doesn't affect me one way or another. If he's going to be careless, then so be it.'

“I’ve leave you with your crazy and boring music then, there wasn’t anything else but I’m expected to meet up with you. I’m heading to Canterlot, I’ve got a very important business deal to work out. I will be back next week.” Rocky trotted up the stairs.

‘Probably taking first class on the train again, mine going bankrupt indeed,’ I snickered to myself.

I powered up the laser scalpel. Multiple lights flickered on the device and a triangular shaped crystal at the front glowed a dull red, just about ready to start. Preparations took longer than I thought, but I still have more than half the day to go. I stepped up to the device and my stomach growled. “Hmmm?” I said. “Time for lunch maybe.” I powered down the machine and went upstairs.

-_-_-_-_-

11:45am

I came up to the ground floor landing of my house. Brick Beak was brushing her fur coat and, hadn’t noticed me yet. “Are you happy with the gift?” I asked. Brick Beak was startled and the brush nearly dropped, but she caught it and placed it gently on the desk.

“Yes, sir, thank you for the brush. Just what I needed,” she replied. “It’s not easy to find a brush for griffins in Equestria. I really appreciate it.”

“Well good. I am going out for lunch, care to join?”

“Oh, uh, sure.” Brick Beak collected herself together. I opened the door and we exited.

“Oh you-hoo!” a voice cried out to me as I locked the door. I turned around and there was female pegasus pony about my age. She has a light pink coat with a bright red mane. Her cutie mark was of a red lip stick kiss mark. “Hiya Techo, whatcha doing?” she asked in a high pitch tone and then she kissed my cheek.

This was it, the final hurdle of the day so my day can’t get any worse. This is Luscious. She comes to see me almost every day and she appears to show me affection but I think she’s after my family’s heritage, in fact I’m sure of it. Like me, she comes from a wealthy family, I believe they own the trains for Equestria or something. I think there was a rumour she was expected to court me so our families could merge into a more powerful group, but I never confirmed it.

I don’t know what it is about her, but I can’t bring myself to be rude around her. Instead I make a bunch of excuses so I can run off but I have to spend almost an hour with her first. I had known her for sometime but never learned her last name, she probably told me at one time but I wouldn't have been listening. Plus there’s that nickname ‘Techo’ - is it really that hard to put the ’N’ in?

This wasn’t good. If she found out we were going to lunch she would join us and I would be stuck in a conversation in which she drops clues and hints about dating and needing a strong pony around the house.

“We’re going to lunch, Luscious,” beamed Brick Beak. “Would you like to join us?” I was stunned; Brick Beak is aware of my dislike of Luscious and every other pony in Manehatten.

“Oh joy!” Luscious yelled, covering my back with her wing, dragging me away from my house. “I’d love to have lunch with youuu,” she said looking straight into my eyes. Brick Beak caught up to us and walked next to Luscious.

There is a café that I like. It’s covered by oak trees, down a narrow street with a cobblestone path. The atmosphere was perfect until we arrived on the scene. “OH. MY. GOSH!” yelled Luscious. “Do you know what this place is, Techo?” I shook my head, worried she might yell it off. “This is where we first had tea together. It’s been so unfortunate that we always seem to miss each other here.”

“Oh, imagine that,” was all could reply. I had figured her lunch schedule out ages ago and moved mine to avoid her, but then she started randomly turning up at my place. The first day I met Luscious, I was happily enjoying my paper, when she walked up to me and asks if she can sit down with me as there are no other spots. If I only looked up before I said ‘Sure, whatever,’ I would have seen the café was empty and I wouldn’t be where I am now.

We sat down at a table. Luscious proclaimed she needed to use the powder room and off she went. “Why did you tell her we were having lunch?” I hissed at Brick Beak from behind a menu. “And who calls it a ‘powder room’ anymore? It’s a blasted toilet.”

Brick Beak appeared to be enjoying this “First off; I’m on my break, I can do what I like and tell who I like anything that isn't work related.” she said as she looks through her menu. “You ponies never serve mice for meals. Second; do you not know anything about females? She was being polite and tactful.”

“She knows nothing about being tactful, you know how she acts around- Lusciouuussss. Welcome back, you were... quick.” I said as Luscious sits back down pausing slightly on the word 'quick'. Brick Beak was right, I know nothing about the opposite sex.

Luscious blushed and so did I. “I’ll go get us some tea.” Brick Beak got up and walked to the café doors, leaving us in an awkward silence. I had nothing I wanted to say so I just looked around at the cafe.

I picked up a paper from across the café with my magic. I was checking for what I call news, not the gossip some ponies think is important. “Would you look at that?” shrieks Luscious, “They are pretty sure Princess Cadance is going to get married soon.”

rolled my eyes at the gossip. Yes, it creates ripples in Equestria’s economy but it doesn’t matter to either of us personally. I tried to ignore her statement knowing she would go about it.

“I wonder who the lucky colt is.”

I replied with, “Probably Prince Blueblood. They may be continuing with a royal pasttime, where royal families married each other and become inbred. It’s what they call ‘keeping the royal bloodline pure.’”

Luscious gasped, “Really. That’s disgusting…Are they even related? But a wedding... I’ve always wanted to be a bride, Techo.”

Danger signs flashed in my head. 'Change the subject now' I thought. I eyed the articles on the paper and randomly chose one. “Did you hear that just the other day, Ponyville barely got enough wind power to refill Cloudsdale’s water supply?” I said. ‘WHAT WAS THAT?!’ I screamed internally at myself. Not only was that the worst segue ever, but it could be seen as a go at pegasi.

“Um, no. I-I must have missed that one.” replied Luscious. Clearly that was as uncomfortable for her as it was for me.

Brick Beak glided slowly over to us with a tray with tea, three cups and two cakes on it. She knows what I eat but she didn’t get anything for either herself or Luscious. “Ok, they only had one caramel mud cake slice left, so I thought you two could share,” said Brick Beak, grinning at me. ‘Note to self: fire Brick Beak,’ I thought knowing I value her work too much to do such a thing.

“Ooh, I love this cake, it’s my favourite,” exclaimed Luscious. She grabbed a fork, and dug a piece out. She looked at it for moment and then me. “Open wide, Techo.” She was grinning as she held the fork dangerously close to my mouth.

“Ahhhh,” I awkwardly said as she put the fork in and I bite off the cake piece. “I can do that myself, you know.” I swallowed the delicious cake.

“Yeah, but where is the fun in that? ponies can think we are ‘special someponies’ on a date!”

“Yeah, where’s the fun?” Brick Beak mockingly said. I’m starting to learn she has a different personality on her time off. In two years of service how did I miss all this from her?

Luscious took a small piece of the cake on the same fork and slowly put in her mouth, locking her eyes with mine the whole time. She moaned with delight, hopefully from the taste of cake.

It had been fifteen agonizing minutes, I’ve decided I had spent enough of my social hours with Luscious. Time to find an opening to escape and get off this topic. “How’s the family?” I asked.

Luscious replied, “Oh never better, though there…” For the next few minutes I stopped paying complete attention. I started grinning and nodding to what she said in order to create the illusion of paying attention. I was making myself listen out for key words like ‘machine’ and ‘research’ that I could use to escape this smiling hell. She continued “… I’m not sure what to do about it. Time and time again…”

‘That’s it, go, go, go,’ I thought. “TIME, gosh would you look at the time,” I said as I gazed round to a local street clock. “I’m sorry, but I must get back to the lab. I have a test running and I need to stop it before it spoils.” I am a bad liar but I didn’t care. I jumped up and ran off, hoping that the lie would suffice for my swift exit. “See you later!” I yelled as I left the scene, leaving a shocked pegasus and an unhappy, all-knowing griffin.

I returned to my house and headed down to my lab, leaving my problems at the door. I went down, excited that I can start my test, despite that I get the same result every time. At least I was free to do what I want.

I powered up the laser, the crystal shining a dull red. I plugged my horn into the analyser and started my experiment. My locator spell works by me thinking of an item, and my spell leads me to it. I wasn’t thinking of any particular item for the test. I projected my locator spell into the analyser. The projector then took my spell from me, but not the power I use to create it. The spell cannot work like this. It requires a mental connection, that I have cut partially. I am trying to see what happens when a laser cuts through and enters a magical field.

The spell floats in mid-air in the designated area, the field of magic just swivels and waits patiently for the next step. I have to tap a button with my hoof to get the laser to fire.

TAP

The laser’s crystal shines a bright red and a thin red beam comes outs and hits the blue magical field. The floating supernatural energy starts to shimmy and strain under the laser, like it doesn’t like the laser, but it doesn’t cut despite that the laser would cut through steel right now. I up the power on the laser, the beam becomes more refined and brighter, slightly painful to stare at. The magic goes mad, like an amoeba being filmed and then played, sped up a hundred times faster.

The beam cuts into the field for a brief second. During that time I see the inside of magic, my magic, a mixture of blue colours and octarine. But after that second, everything turns into a combination of red and grey.

“Huh?” I wondered.

KABOOM!! goes the magical field from the inside out straight at me and I go flying across the room. I slammed into the wall, "Gahh!" I exhaled, the air pushed out of me. I felt my body fall to the ground. I didn't have far to go down and I didn't have the energy to land safely.

My cheek feels odd as if a pleasant touch had graced it. I couldn't see anything, my vision was all over the place and a mixture of bright lights and dark shadows filled my eyes.

CHINK, CHINK-CHA-CHINK, CHINK

My head felt weird, I could of sworn I couldn't see my horn anymore. The darkness in my eyes was taking over.

A shadowy figure walked up to me, turning its head and peered at me with its glowing yellow eye. “I…know…you…” I gasped just before I lost consciousness.

End of Chapter 1.

Author's Note

I have edited this chapter into smaller segments as I have been informed I may have been a tiny bit on the insanely long side.