Subversion

Princess Celestia was sitting on her throne, awaiting news of the arrival of the shipment of weapons and research materials from the Griffon Empire, so she could analyze them and then send them off to the Equestrian scientists to begin replicating, and mass producing the weapons for deployment on the battlefield. Celestia was deep in thought, paying no attention to her surroundings at the moment, not that much had changed in the past few years to take note of. We need these weapons modified to suit our needs quickly, intelligence suggests something big is going to happen soon... The scientists might need help with the research and development, I suppose I or Luna could assist them... But we are busy running Equestria... Maybe Twilight could assist. That could work, Twilight does represent the Element of Magic... And she doesn't have many administrative duties, aside from running special ops, although she hasn't had many problems with that, and she isn't needed for most of the stuff that goes on, because of General Spitfire's assistance. Yes, Twilight could help, she was a quick learner, and had studied magic very diligently. Celestia did not hear the doors to the throne room open, three science ponies, unicorns, approached in white lab coats, one of them was holding one of the griffon magic projectors in his magic, another was holding some papers, and the other was holding a crystal.

"Your highness." acknowledged the head scientist as all three of them bowed, Celestia looked up from her thoughts, "The griffon shipment has arrived, you asked to see some of the equipment and notes they had brought, along with one of the crystals containing schematics." he paused and all three unicorns moved their items closer to the princess with their magic.

Princess Celestia took the items one by one and examined them closely, the looked over the magic projector noting the placement of the magic crystals, then she moved her attention to the notes, she took a few minutes to read through them and understand them, "Very interesting." she said as she turned her focus to the crystal, as she took it in her magic she closed her eyes, and the crystal glowed brightly, she was accessing the information with her magic. "I see, very interesting, yes, this will be useful. Tell me, how many copies of the data crystals were brought?"

"They sent three copies of the data crystals, your highness." the scientist replied as he took the data crystal in his magic and examined it closely, "They all contain the same data and schematics, what should we do with them?"

"Take two for study and research, however, send one along with a magic projector to Princess Twilight, I will send her instructions to assist you in your research, it is likely she will want to deploy the magic projectors in special forces before we deploy them in a large scale for the army." Princess Celestia answered.

"Princess, it could be months before we are able to mass produce these weapons in sufficient quantities for the army, how are we supposed to develop them for special forces so quickly?"

Princess Celestia thought for a moment, she considered the available options, "I have faith in you to develop them quickly, and safely. You are more than capable, are you not? And even if you are not as capable as I believe, Princess Twilight Sparkle will be able to develop schematics that can be easily replicated quickly." Celestia paused, "But... It may be necessary to..." Celestia paused and considered what she was about to suggest, "It may be necessary to accelerate time within the research facility."

"But time manipulation is banned your highness-"

"I am aware, but if it is necessary, I shall revoke that in this case. It is vital we have these weapons, something is coming, I can feel it..." Celestia paused deep in thought, she looked down slightly, as if pained, "And without access to the elements of harmony, we need whatever advantages we can get. See to it these weapons are developed in mass within a month, whatever it takes."

"A month? Your highness, surely you can't be serious-"

Celestia looked up, and looked directly into his eyes, he saw something inside her eyes, concern maybe, no, fear. It was fear, coming from Princess Celestia, their monarch for thousands of years... Upon seeing that he had stepped back slightly, in concern, once he regained his composure he nodded in affirmation, "We will have the weapons completed within a month, Princess Celestia." he paused, "Perhaps we could contact private industries to assist in production?"

"That may be necessary, yes." Princess Celestia paused, "Yes, contact what private manufacturing companies that could help, and figure out which ones could most effectively assist us."

The unicorns started to leave, but their leader turned and faced Celestia, and approached her, "Princess, if I may ask, what has you so worried?"

Celestia looked at him and smiled, "Nothing you need to worry about."

The unicorn slowly turned and started walking out the door, he bowed as Princess Luna entered the room, he continued out after the rest of his research team.

Princess Luna approached Princess Celestia's throne, "Sister, what hast thou decided to do in regards to the development of weaponry?"

"Luna, I have decided that we will use whatever means we can to develop enough weapons in time, including private industry." Celestia paused, "I will authorize the scientists to manipulate time to speed up the development of weaponry, also."

"I see, sister, while I am not sure that is wise, I will defer to your judgement." Luna paused, "Have you informed Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadence of what may be coming, sister?"

"No, I have not Luna. But I will contact Twilight and ask her to assist in developing weaponry. She is talented in magic, and smart. She should be able to figure something out. I am sure of it."

"Yes, I believe so sister." Luna paused, "Have you... Considered asking Discord for assistance?"

"Luna, Discord can't assist us in this. His chaotic nature would cause worse results."

"Fair point."

Twilight lay on her large bed, relaxing, Spike was cleaning up the mess she had made of the kitchen and her friends had left by now, leaving her and Spike to themselves. Princess Celestia had been keeping her informed on what was happening in the diplomatic realm with the Griffon Empire, and she excited about the advancements being made, but she was also uneasy about the weapon development. She knew Princess Celestia was slightly worried that the magical weaponry could eventually pose a threat to alicorns. Princess Celestia had also mentioned how Twilight, being a young alicorn, has nowhere near developed her potential, especially being the embodiment of the element of magic, Celestia had refered to her potential as 'limitless' and being able to 'eventually outmatch the combined power of Luna and I,' could be more seriously threatened by the new weaponry. Twilight had not really thought how far her magical talents might grow, she assumed she would die before something like that would occur, but Celestia had said that it would take a few hundred years for her to develop that kind of power. When Celestia had said that she asked her what she meant by that, "You're an alicorn, Twilight, alicorns do not die from the natural aging process, however, we are not invulnerable. We can be killed, it's just incredibly difficult." She had never thought of Celestia being able to be killed, even Nightmare Moon hadn't killed her when she struck her with her magic, although, it may have been for not entirely wanting Celestia dead.

The door opened and Spike came in holding a letter in his claw.

"What's this about, Spike?" Twilight said as she levitated the letter to herself.

"I don't know, something about politics and research, you know, princess stuff." Spike replied and then walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Well, let's see here..." Twilight said to herself as she opened the letter.

Princess Twilight Sparkle,

I require your assistance in developing weaponry for our soldiers and special forces to use, using the new magic capacitors and focusing lenses, I have a few packages being delivered to you, and they should arrive shortly after you have read this letter, the packages contain data crystals and parts for you to work with, if there is anything else you need for your work, just ask. I am asking this of you because you are not as busy as Princess Luna and I are, and you are talented and smart. You should be able to figure something out. I look forward to quick results.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia.

Twilight looked up from the letter and her eyes were wide with excitement, she would get to study and develop the new technology and help spearhead their research and development of something possibly vital to the defense of Equestria. Twilight jumped up and down with excitement, smiling and shouting 'yes' all the while, not noticing that she had gone into the hallway and Spike was staring at her.

"Twilight? Are you okay?" Spike asked

Suddenly hearing Spike's voice shocked her back into the world, and she realized what she had been doing, "Oh uh... Yes!" she said and blushed slightly at how she had reacted to the letter from Celestia.

"What has you so excited?"

"Princess Celestia wants me to help research and develop advanced magic technology, Spike! I'll be leading the way in development of magic weaponry!" Twilight paused, "Isn't this exciting Spike? It'll be just like old times!"

"Oh, um, I guess so, wait, did you say weaponry?"

"Err, well, yes. I did. Didn't I?" Twilight paused to think what to say, "Maybe it won't be -just- like old times." Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed, "Oh well, I should have a delivery soon so I can get to work. This is going to be tons of fun!"

"You sure you're okay, Twilight?"

"Of course I am Spike! I'm just so excited!" Twilight paused when she heard a knock on the main door, "I imagine that's the delivery, well Spike, I better get that and get to work!" Twilight paused, lit her horn and teleported.

She had been wrong, this wasn't fun. This was complex, and tedious. It wasn't just fun, it was awesome. Twilight had spent most of the day studying up on the griffon research, she had found some very interesting concepts in their notes, such as using multiple magic cells in conjunction to increase magic yield, however it required more focusing lenses to channel the power without burning out. She had found out that due to the griffon's having talons, they were able to easily manipulate the weapons, making it easier for them to develop ways to fire them, however, this method would not work for ponies, due to having hooves, rather than talons. She wasn't quite sure how to overcome this, she had a few ideas, such as possibly an enchantment to link to the mind of the pony wielding the weapon, allowing them to fire it with their mind, however she realized that could prove difficult and cause problems for some ponies. Another idea was to use magic sensors to detect certain movements within a hoof and fire it based upon certain movements, that did look promising, but could still cause problems, another idea was instead of mounting the weapons on hooves would be to instead mount them on shoulders, but this would make it more difficult to engage in tighter areas. She would have to determine which would be most efficient.

Twilight sat back in her chair and put the crystal she had been holding down onto the desk, and sighed. She had the resources and capability to create prototypes, but she didn't know which one to work on first, each idea had different benefits and drawbacks, and she couldn't decide which would be best, and Celestia was counting on her. "Ok, let's think. Mind-link benefits. Fire when thinking or something of the like, just need the mental capacity to control your mind. Drawbacks, would require training and intense focus, and not everypony would be able to control it successfully, also weapons being linked to an owner would probably reduce combat effectiveness." Twilight compiled a mental list, and decided the drawbacks would make this option not viable, she could always come back to it if needed. "Hoof-mounted and movement sensing... Benefits, possible better accuracy, speed, control, adaptability, probably easier for most ponies to get used to... Drawbacks, possible misfires, increased wear and tare..." Twilight compiled another mental list, and pondered for a moment. "Well, I guess the method is clear, I guess I should start on a prototype..."

Twilight lit her horn and brought forth boxes containing different parts necessary for designing a prototype, she pulled out sheet metal which she would make a mental schematic of and download it into a memory crystal for others to access, and create a casing to house the parts. Twilight began warping the metal into a ovalish cylinder, and then measured the diameter of her hoof, and took three more pieces of metal out, fashioned one into a hinge to allow the other two pieces which she had shaped to interlock, open and close on a hoof, allowing the wearer to easily take off the weapon, while remaining secure on a hoof during combat.

Twilight then levitated three magic containing crystal cells and fit them inside the cylinder which would house the projector, but paused. "Wait... This design wouldn't be as effective... I should redesign the projector to use an interchangeable power cell..." Twilight frowned and took out another piece of metal and began shaping it into something which would house magic cells to power the weapon...

Twilight closed her eyes, sighed and sat back, she was exhausted from the mental labor, it had taken her several hours of trying and re-trying to find what would be the perfect design, and it still might not be usable by average ponies, but she had did it in under a day, she had a prototype. Twilight opened her eyes and looked out the window, the moon was high in the sky, she smiled, and yawned. She had mentally kicked herself earlier because she had forgot one step of an earlier prototype magic projector, and couldn't completely store the information to make it in a memory crystal, after that she was worried she had not recorded something correctly, and went through and re-designed it, recording each step as she did it. It had been fun, frustrating, and exhausting. She yawned again, "Well, I suppose that I can wait to send this to Celestia tomorrow... She did want this as soon as possible though... Althought, she probably doesn't expect me to have completed a prototype already." Twilight yawned again and the argument was settled. She levitated the prototype and the memory crystal containing it's schematic into a safe, along with the leftover parts, she paused and locked the safe, and then turned around and looked at the twisted parts of metal lying on the floor. "Yeah I'll have to clean this up tomorrow." she sighed, and teleported into her bedroom...

Zebra prisons empty at alarming rate, prisoners nowhere to be found. The Zebra Nation has arranged a trade agreement to obtain magic crystals...