The Future of Magic

The future of magic

Chapter 7: Canterlot

In the command ship of the confederacy strike team Scorn

It was a dark room with one light, a table and two chairs, a lone captain sat the table, a bottle of water next to him. The door to the room opened and closed, the one who walked in was the lova-… dreaded Commander Scorn.

"Captain Mengsk… I have read your report on the ground on that world… you lost your entire squad." Scorn said as he sat down at the table, he pulled out a box and a revolver, the captain tensed up , but his worries disappeared when Scorn began taking the old pistol apart.

"Yes sir… we were swarmed… by god knows what." The captain said as Scorn opened the box and pulled out various gun cleaning tools.

"I see…did you locate any settlements or any Intel?"

"No sir… we failed to obtain any Intel, we couldn't and we lost all of that equipment." Scorn cleaned the pistols' barrel with A industrial pipe cleaner as he heard this.

"Shame… you know Mensgk… I'm a little disappointed in you and your squad… I gave you simple mission; locate a settlement, scan it for any magic, and respond to command." Scorn started putting the pistol together.

"Sir… I'm sorry… I'll try better; send me back down there… I promise… I won't do it Again." Scorn just sat there silent as he fitted the parts back into place, Scorn pulled out a box of pistol rounds and loaded the gun.

"I know."

Scorn put a round in the gun and cocked it, the captain gulped and closed his eyes, the gun was shot. The captain fell to the floor in pain as he held his hand to his stomach, he sat on the floor, blood pooling next to him. Scorn looked down at him, he put his pistol away and pulled out his communicator.

"Yes… alright then, were heading out… send a cleanup team to the debriefing room, Mengsk has gotten a bit sloppy." Scorn put another bullet in the gun and pointed at Mengsk.

"NOOO-…"

Scorn smirked and holstered the pistol; he pulled out his flask of whisky and drank on the way out. After a short trip to the command bridge, the on deck crew members were staring at him. "what am I a monster now?" Scorn said as he put his flask back in his pocket. "I ain't no monster…. If anyone would like to challenge that then go right ahead." Scorn pulled his pistol out, now fully loaded and pointed at one of the crewmen at the life-support controls. "Any challengers?"

No one stepped forward, or spoke up; they knew of Scorn's mercilessness and didn't want to see it firsthand.

"No? Then back to work all of you!" Scorn commanded as he holstered his pistol, he walked up to the helm irritated; the crew sat down at their consoles and began working, only taking glimpses at their commander. Scorn walked through the door behind the helm's men's console; he took a swig from his flask before sitting down at his desk. The office was quite nice and filled with many luxuries; the chair he sat in was made of dragon skin, all of the furniture's wooden pieces were mahogany. Scorn pressed a button on his desk which lowered many screens from the ceiling, only one of them lit up.

"Ah Commander Scorn… so good of you to join us… I was just discussing with council men, Jerald and Ackerman of you mission… any news?"

"Yes… I do, General Malcolm… we have set up a warp beacon near the fourth planet from the sun, we have constructed a on surface storage unit for the operation… but unfortunately we cannot seem to locate civilization on this planet from orbit, and the recon team I sent down was, unfortunately… wiped out, no survivors and no bodies."

"I see, do you at least know what happened to them?"

"No sir, I grieve their deaths and I take a drink to honor them." Scorn said as he took a swig of a fine whisky from the minibar under his desk.

"And we do too… now I am happy to say that our spy has done well and secured double the amount of needed deuterium… if the first fire wave doesn't wipe them out, then the next will."

"Is that activist any curious on our spy's true identity, or why he wants a large shipment of deuterium transferred to SR3-88?"

"No… and thank god for that… also Scorn… I'm assigning you to oversee the final stages of project devourer, you and your ship will head to our shipyard on mars; I'll send you the briefings shortly on where to take our new ship and how it is to be treated… impress me enough scorn and I'll see to it that you'll be drinking your fine Terran whisky on the beaches of Arcadia in your retirement." The general said to Scorn, receiving a smirk from the commander.

"Alright then… send me the briefings and then leave me to my reading."

"As you wish commander." Scorn turned to his computer screen; the briefings were received and opened, the screen the general was on, turned off and lifted up with the other two back into the ceiling.

"Alright… operation Devourer… let's see what you have for me." Scorn said as he read his briefing.

The door opened, two guards walked in, a changing drone being pulled by chains, its wings pulled off and its horn sawn off. "Sir, it hasn't been answering questions, even Dr. Drax's methods didn't get a response, as a matter of fact it was still awake when the session was over." One of the guards said, it was hard to tell which from their helmets.

"I see… stand aside then." The guards nodded and walked to the wall, tightening the chains that held the changeling, it hissed under its muzzle. "Not talkative eh, little wretch? You and your kind caused some problems for us… one of which put the operation back at least a month… now answer my question now. You have fifteen seconds to comply… NOW TELL ME WHERE THE PLANETS POPULATION IS!?" Scorn said as hit the drone, knocking off its muzzle; Scorn drew his gun and pointed it at the drone. All it did was hiss at him and spit at his boots; Scorn simply frowned and cocked the pistol.

"Shame…"

Scorn pulled the Trigger and the gun fired all was heard was changeling's Death shriek.

Aquaris awoke as the train whistle blew, he yawned and stretched as he sat up. Earleir that day they had bought train tickets to canterlot , he had bought private tickets for Afina and himself, they had a private cabin for four, the car they were in fit four of these cabins, if they wanted to, they can head one car back and eat at the on car restaurant. Aquaris pulled a bottle of water out of his bag and took a swig; he turned to his left to see Afina sleeping peacefully on the bench across from his.

(Imagine the private cabins in the harry potter movies)

He smiled and grabbed Afina's bag, he opened the bag and pulled out Afina's stuffed Dragon plush and put it to her, Afina snuggled it close to her chest and smiled in her sleep, Aquaris chuckled a bit to him before getting up and leaving the cabin to go grab some lunch. As he changed cars and entered the restaurant he was greeted by the Pegasus at the bar, he got some looks of the other ponies in the car but they didn't stare long.

"What can I do for you?" the Pegasus asked as he cleaned the bar counter.

"Hmm… ill have the potato soup… to drink; I'll have some water with lemon."

"Okay… do you want anything extra in the soup? We have chives, various cheeses, sour cream, buttercups, or whatever you like."

"Um… I'll have chives, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and if possible some garlic added to the soup."

"Alright, your soup will be out shortly." The Pegasus said as he walked to the back of the cabin which leads to the next car which was a kitchen car. Aquaris nodded, he sighed and pulled his journal from his pocket and a pen. He clicked the pen and wrote on a blank page.

As he wrote, he didn't notice the door from the private cabins opened a deep yellowish orange Pegasus walked in, her left wing broken and casted. She walked up to the bar and sat a few seats down from Aquaris, she looked over at Aquaris, she saw his hands, lightly holding the pen as he wrote.

"Here you are sir… do you need anything else?" The Pegasus bartender said as he put the bowl of potato soup in front of Aquaris.

"Umm… no, I'm good thanks." The bartended walked up to the orange Pegasus, Aquaris looked over and examined her key features, he noticed her mane was like fire, a deep orange with a lighter hue outlining it, her fur was the same lighter hue. She noticed this and turned to him.

"Can I help you?" she asked as she turned to him.

"I'm just curious why you're not flying to wherever you need to go." Aquaris commented, not knowing of the cast on the side he didn't see.

"If you must know… I had an accident which caused my wing to break… the doctor said I can't fly for a few weeks." She said as she turned to show the cast. "Never mind that… what are you exactly?"

"I'm a human, one many different types."

"Ok… how many types?"

"Ten… at the least, to answer on what human I am, I'm a Magi… Human's equivalent to unicorns." He pointed his hand at a salt shaker next to her and picked it up magically; he pulled it over to him and added some salt to his soup.

"Are there ones like pegasi?"

"Yeah… but we call them cloud striders, they have the ability to create energy wings from their backs." Aquaris finished his soup and pushed it aside, "where are my manners… I'm Aquaris Arintinon… at your service." Aquaris said before he used a knife to spread some butter on the bread roll that came with the soup.

"Hmm… well I'm Spitfire, captain of the wonder bolts." She said as she held out a hoof.

"Pleasures all mine." Aquaris said as he shook hands/hoofs with her. "Oh and this little drake is Afina." Spitfire turned around to the see smooth silver dragoness walk into the car, she was caring a plush dragon in her claws.

"Oh she's so cute." Spitfire said as Afina rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her spare claw, she sat at the bar counter between them.

"She's with me bartender… give her a glass of milk." Aquaris said as he paid for his lunch and Afina's milk. The bartender nodded and went to the back again. "How are you doing Afina?"

"Good… I had another one."

"They're getting worse?" Afina nodded as Aquaris lightly hugged her

"What is?"

"Afina has been getting nightmares… real bad ones… this has happened before where she gets them at random, and they get worse and worse each time, for example one night may be a dream, next might be a nightmare, then back to normal dreams for some long period of time before the next nightmare."

The Bartender came back and set the glass down; Afina picked it up and sipped gingerly at it.

"Usually if she drinks milk or something similar, then her nightmares seem to be less intense, given that they are bad already… I shudder at how worse they can get." Aquaris said as Afina set her glass down, the bartender coming back shortly afterwards.

"We'll be arriving in Canterlot in about ten minutes; I suggest you finish your conversation and head to your seats or cabins." The bartender said as he took Afina's empty milk glass.

"we will… Afina, head back to the cabin and check on our stuff real quick… Spitfire, do you mind if you show me that broken wing?"

"uhh… sure, what are you going to do?" she replied as she turned so her cast covered wing was in front of him.

"You'll see." Aquaris said as he put his hands lightly to her wing, his hands emitted an odd purplish haze, Spitfire felt the broken wing go numb and the pain go away, the glow from Aquaris's hands changed again to a bright green. From the other side of the car, you could hear bones popping and clicking back into place. After a minute of no pops, Aquaris pulled his hands back. "ok… let's get this cast off."

Aquaris lit his hands with blue flames and touched the cast, the cast burned away, not burning Spitfire or the train car's furniture. Receiving a nod from Aquaris She spread out her wings; she felt no pain as she lightly and slowly flapped them, she also noticed that her wing was given some new color and had deep red feathers at the tips; she turned to see the other wing had this as well.

"Wow… but why, you hardly know me, we only talked for at least fifteen minutes." Spitfire asked as she folded her wings back up.

"Just because I don't know you that well, doesn't mean I can't do a good deed." Spitfire nodded and looked at her wings. "I do recommend not flying for at least two more days, just to make sure the bone is strong enough." Aquaris got up and patted her shoulder before heading to the door.

"Thanks Aquaris… I don't know what to say."

"That's all you need to say, see yah around." Aquaris said as he left the car. A smirk on Spitfires face as she followed suite to her private cabin.

As Aquaris entered the cabin, Afina was pulling down her bag, it was a simple bag similar to a ponies saddle bag, but had more pouches, and even a place to have her headphone wire to come through.

Aquaris pulled his two bags down, one was duffel bag full of some clothes, toiletries, and some of his hammer space crystals, holding some larger things for Afina, the other bag was holding Aquaris's books, study supplies, and Blaze for some reason. "Stop hiding in there Blaze… silly little phoenix." Aquaris commented as Blaze fluttered onto Aquaris's shoulder.

As the train drew to a stop, Aquaris and Afina were already at the door to get off the train, the two nodded to each other and got off as they felt the train stop. Aquaris put his goggles on and let the transition lenses help him see, it was a cloudless day, it was noon and the sun was bright. He help put Afina's sunglasses on before they made their way to the castle. They got stared at by the some of the ponies, but not too many.

"Wow this place is booming…. So many things to buy and do." Afina said as she saw all the stores and stands.

"Control yourself Afina, you can shop till you drop tomorrow, right now we need to get the castle, and from what I remember in the letter, we have a formal dinner party tomorrow as well" Aquaris said as he readjusted his bag on his shoulders.

"Good thing that the beach house had my spare formal attire in the closet." Afina commented as she stretched her wings quickly and tucked them away. She looked forward to see the castle, its ivory towers stood tall in the distance, it was like the one in Promethium but it had its differences, the Promethium had two more towers and its color was a more of a subtle grey. "I'm curious where we'll be housed?"

"I think the letter said, from left to right the first tower." Aquaris said as they got closer to the castle gates, he pulled out the letter to prove that he had an invitation from Celestia. Two guards halted them, before the got even ten feet from the gate, Aquaris showed the letter to them they scanned the letter thoroughly. After five minutes they nodded to each other and allowed them through.

Afina stared in awe at the beautiful garden before her; she looked left and right but stared in one certain direction Afina simply pointed instead of speaking.

Aquaris turned his head to see Armor and Cadence walking through the castle lower gardens, not knowing he was there. Aquaris ran up to them, hearing there conversation.

"As long as blue blood doesn't ruin this Dinner then it should go off without a problem." Armor said to Cadence as they walked along. "Huh… oh Aquaris, "

"Hey Armor… Princess… as you know I'm here for setting up the way to my home, since it is a two way link between worlds, you'll be able to visit my world, vice versa with yours." Aquaris said as Afina caught up to him.

"Well… will you and Afina be attending the dinner tonight; I presume Celestia will have the chef add something special to both your dishes." Cadence commented as she gestured the two to walk with her and Armor.

"Yes... well when is the dinner?

"In three hours, just enough time for you to meet with Celestia; have your room arranged, and then some R&R before you have to freshen up." Armor commented as the group entered the halls of the palace. Aquaris and Afina looked at either side of the halls, adorned with fixtures or artwork.

"Some of this stuff is at least as old as Aunt Celestia... at least two thousand years, maybe even older than that."

"Intriguing… she has good taste; some of this stuff reminds me of Terra, especially this little device here." Aquaris said as he pointed at what appeared to be a bronze sphere, it exterior lined with many hair thin lines and runes. "It's ancient Technology, if given the right type of energy, the shell will open and reveal the objects true identity, such has a simple Solar system chart, to more advanced stuff like a pocket star fabricator."

"Pocket Stars…"

"They emit light, efficiently at that… when made a pocket star can last about three years without being replaced, all you need is the working device and maybe three liters of hydrogen gas." Aquaris said as Afina walked on ahead of them.

"I see… wait, if it's old tech than ho-…"

"There were races preceding our own races, they disappeared but their incredible useful tech was remained of them, we used reverse engineering to build some of the tech Terra has today, such as mobile space platforms, used to dock and restock or construct ships… or the F.A.T.S.O.L. drive, allowing ships to move as fast a light can, FTL was a little far-fetched." Aquaris said as he continued walking along, Armor and Cadence following suite.

"FATSOL… odd name for whatever it is."

"Abbreviation for, 'Fast as the speed of light'… Light itself moves at least a little over three million miles per hour, Scientists had also to figure out how to prevent crew members on board these ships from spontaneously exploding due to the exposure to so much GeForce… they created Zero -G Armor. By using special alloys… it can nullify the effects of the GeForces the crew would be exposed to, and it looks like simple crewman's uniform." Aquaris added as they passed by a whole group of various palace staff, on their way to the dining hall to prepare it for the dinner.

After about twenty minutes, they reached the throne room; The guards at either side of the massive doorway nodded to Armor before they pulled them open, the group walked into the expansive room, Aquaris looked at either wall, seeing the stained glass windows depicting Twilight and the others, above the throne itself, was one of Celestia and Luna. As they approached the throne Aquaris lowered his gaze to See the princess of the sun sitting at it, a Scroll floated in front of her, her eyes moved left and right as she read whatever was on it.

"Aquaris, and young Afina… I am glad to see you made it safely." Celestia said as she put the scroll away and walked down the steps of the thrown, down to the group's level.

"Thank you princess… I presume you've had a nice day so far?" Aquaris commented as he gave a slight bow, Afina doing the same.

"Indeed I have… thank you for asking; now if you'll follow me, I'll show you where you'll be staying, and asking what I need you to do on the way." Celestia walked passed them, using her wing to get Aquaris and Afina to follow. The two followed for roughly twelve minutes till the trio made it to a pair of oak doors, Aquaris opened the door to allow the two females through before him, after they went through he entered the room.

"Wow… what a view!" Afina said as she walked onto the balcony, offering an amazing view of the city… Aquaris chuckled lightly as he looked around the room; he noticed that the room had a decent number of bookshelves, a nice desk with a window in the concave ceiling, allowing both sunlight and moonlight through and onto the desktop.

There was a bed, it was a queen size, its sheets silken sheets and the blanket was made of deep red wool. At the base of the bed was a massive pillow, within seconds of seeing it, Afina took flight and flew to the top of the room, swan diving into the pillow.

Both Celestia and Aquaris laughed as the drake was covered in feathers from the pillow, she looked a lot like a wyvern like that.

I'll have a maid come by to fix that later… on another note Aquaris… I want to let you know this dinner is not really for my representation… it's for you to give the other guests a good opinion on humans." Celestia said as she turned to Aquaris.

"I see… what do they think this dinner is then… since I doubt you told them of an alien I attending the dinner." Aquaris commented as he brushed some of the pillow feathers off the bed and put his bag on it. He opened it up and pulled out his clothes as Celestia continued.

"no… not yet, you are our guest of honor… even if the others don't know of you being so… when you and Afina enter, there will be some silence and confusion, make your way to me and the Elements and you should be fine." Celestia commented as she helped Afina clean off the plumage.

"Thanks princess…" Afina said as the feathers were pulled off of her, she sighed as she stretched her wings and shook, more loose plumage fell off.

Aquaris finished emptying his clothing bag and began to empty his other bag, Blaze fluttered out of it again and landed on Celestia's horn, thinking it was a perch. Aquaris chuckled lightly as Blaze preened her feathers, chirping lightly as she did so.

Aquaris pulled out a small crystal and activated it, a few things came flying out that were caught in Aquaris's magic grasp. One was a small box, similar in design to the console back At Aquaris's house. One was flat screen plasma of decent size, and the last thing was a glass dome, inside contained a yellow crystal… at the base of the dome was a metal ring that had twenty five sockets of the exact shape and size.

"Oh boy… I can finish my game of Xcom." Afina said as she began setting up the console, Aquaris chuckled and turned to Celestia, with a bit of Telekinesis Blaze was perched on his shoulder.

"well princess… I don't want to keep you busy… but one question… where will Twilight's room be?" Aquaris asked as he got a curious glance and smirk from the princess.

"about two rooms down… also when this castle was built, the walls were insulated to allow more heat to stay in and to be quite soundproof… just a tid-bit of information you'd like to know if you get any ideas… either way, I shall see you both at dinner." Celestia said as she left the room.

"I thinks she's onto you Aquaris." Afina said as she turned on the console and put the disk into it.

"I think so too… I'm not worried about her though, she seemed supportive… as a matter of fact I'm more worried about her older brother's wrath." Aquaris commented as he checked this bedchambers bathroom, it seemed modern in a sense which gave Aquaris an odd question. "Still use candles and self-powered plows… but have more technically advanced plumbing and ovens….?" Aquaris thought as he closed the bathroom door behind him.

Afina was in the zone, it was the third in game month and she was ready for the 'Mutons', with an alien containment facility and the first three alien interrogations done, after this mission she knew she can start researching plasma weapons. As she started the abduction mission in Moscow, she had her claws crossed for a good map seed.

She swore mentally as she saw the map was her most hated one, it was three buildings, one was a small bakery of sorts, the building next to it was and office complex and behind the first building was a meat storage unit. She always had trouble with this, especially with 'Floaters'.

Outside the room, Princess Cadence walked down the hall, she was going to talk to Afina and had even brought a few snacks along with her. When she opened the door, she was surprised at what she saw, Afina holding this odd 'M' shaped device in her claws, Afina smirked as a loud roar noise came from the speakers of the T.V. Cadence walked closer to see what was happening, it looked like a sort of battle, one side were all humans wearing bluish armor, while on the other side was a few different creatures, there were two large bulky ones wearing sickly green armor another one seemed to lay on the ground nearby.

She noticed the other creatures were different, one had no legs and hovered over the ground with jets of fire from its back, the other creature was like a human, but was unusually tall and all forms of creepy when it came to how thin it was.

"C'mon stun him… YES!" Afina said as one of the soldiers got almost point blank and electrocuted one of the bulky creatures, it fell limp to the ground like the other one, but seemed to glow a very dim blue. Cadence looked at the drake and tapped her shoulder lightly with a hoof. "oh hi Cadence… I was wondering what you were doing when we kind of just left you in the throne room… sorry about that."

"it's no issue… besides gave Armor and I a chance to finish what we were talking about… never mind that though… what is this?" Cadence asked as she sat on the pillow next to Afina, a burst of ivory feathers puffing out behind them.

"it's called XCOM, Enemy Unknown… it's a game, very old one at that, it takes place on an alternate earth in year two thousand fifteen, aliens attack earth and the player of the game is in charge of the first and only line of defense." Afina said as she had her heavy trooper fire its rocket at the cluster of three 'Thin Men'. "Next is the 'Floaters' and the 'Muton'." Afina mumbled as the words "Alien's turn" showed in red letters on the screen. Cadence watched as the aliens fired light greenish plasma bolts at the soldiers, all that color did was bring back bad memories.

Flash back

It dark… the only light was produced by the sphere of light from Cadnece's horn, she slowly and cautiously walked through the expansive caverns of this depleted mine. The place smelt like decayed wood, dirt, and something else. As she went over some rusted metal mine-cart track, she heard light clicking noises, almost insect like, with hesitation she pressed on forward. She gaged as the other smell grew stronger, it smelt horrible.

She heard more clicking noises; they were louder than before… Cadence tripped on something and turned to see it. She was gasped when she saw it was an egg, a rather large one it expanded and shrunk as if it was breathing. She walked back and found another, and another… she turned around and covered mouth with a hoof, there were hundreds… each of them pulsing, their slime like shells shined in the magical light. Cadence backed up, she didn't know where but she wanted away from those eggs, that is when she heard… that laugh.

It was maniacal… and sounded female, Cadence saw in the dimness of this chamber a figure, it was hard to tell but it seemed like it had insect like wings, it's shape was of an average Alicorn… but majorly different. She changed spells to a night vision one, she regretted it immediately. There were hundreds… maybe thousands of small black figures, each of them with their bulbous teal-ish eyes looked at the larger one.

"My children… within three days we will have Canterlot… and all of you will be able to feed… also there is a guest down here… I don't know where she is, but whoever can find her, she's theirs." She said loud enough for the horde to hear. Cadence began backing up into the tunnel she came out of… she stopped when she bumped something. "weellllll… weellll… well… what do we have here? Oh the princess of Love princess Cadence… HE HE HE… it's so wonderful for you to arrive, it'll be easier for me to obtain your form."

Cadence was pushed forward into the light of a green crystal the larger creature from before approached her, Cadences eyes went wide when she noticed the holes on its legs and horn, it's eyes were lizard like and green in color. Cadence had heard about changelings… now she was face to face with one, to be precise a queen.

"Cadence… CADENCE! Snap out of it… you're starting to scare me." Afina said as she snapped a claw In front of her face, Cadence shook her head lightly and turned to look at Afina, she looked behind her to see Aquaris was sitting on the bed, writing in his book. "you seem to just blank out, I noticed when you didn't react to the Chrysalides on the Terror site mission.

"Sorry Afina… just… thinking…" Cadence said as she got up and left, leaving a confused Afina and Aquaris.