“Fillies and Gentlecolts! Today, today, you witness magic beyond your comprehension!” A light blue mare with an even lighter blue mane and tail exclaimed, all while hiding under a purple cape and witches hat. “For I, the great and powerful Trixie, have finally perfected a shield spell that even stops the magic of the human captain!” this announcement had the crowd in gasps and awe as the unicorn waved her hooves around towards a vase.

Her horn began to glow and soon encased the vase in a light blue bubble shield before bringing a sword down on it. The blade merely bounced off with a single spark from the shield.

“I dare anypony brave enough to wield this blade and test their strength against my magical might!” Trixie announced welcomingly and a bunch of hooves went up. “you sir, please step forwards!” she selected a stallion seemingly at random and lifted him up onto the stage.

The stallion was of the pegasus persuasion indicated by his surprisingly large wings as he bit down on the hilt of the sword and lifted it above his head. Bringing it down with all his might the blade danced off the shield with a couple more sparks, but the shield held firm.

“You see! This shield can withstand even the mightiest of blows! Even the mighty human Captain cannot pierce this shield with his weapons!” Trixie announced again, earning hoof stamps and other applause from the crowd. Except for three.

“Miss Lulamoon.” Luna stood from her seated position in the crowd, Weiss on her back with arms crossed over her chest and a frown on both their faces.

“Oh dangit.” Trixie’s eyes went narrow as she began to back off stage at the Princess’s arrival.

“Forgive me if i’m wrong, but I don’t recall you ever stopping by the castle to test your shield as you’ve claimed!” Luna announced, earning gasps and scorn from the crowd anew.

“No, that is correct! I met the human in Ponyville on one of his excursions and tested it there!” Trixie announced in her best attempt to recover.

“Where was I for that?” I asked as I stood from my own seated position. “As I recall, I am the only human in Equestria, yes? I am the human Captain of the NLAF who has the weapons you claim your shield can stop, right?” I asked with a light smirk. The remains of the crowd was silent as they watched me unravel the show.

“Yes, I do believe you are, Captain.” Luna remarked as Trixie slowly backed off stage as I stepped onto it.

“Would you mind if I test your shield for myself?” I asked cordially. I’d actually replaced the bullets in the P226 with blanks for this. Luna had told me already about Trixie Lulamoon and her past. Apparently she was trying to recover her reputation as a magician and after hearing about her latest gimmick, I thought i’d help her out.

“N-no, not at all! Let all who gathers know just how powerful the Great and Powerful Trixie really is!” Trixie announced and recast her shield spell around the vase.

With a shrug I pulled the P226 from my shoulder holster and took aim.

“This’ll be loud, just so you all know.” I warned. Hooves and wings covered ears and I pulled the trigger as soon as everypony was ready. Heads went down at the noise and only came back up when i’d lowered my gun with the safety back on.

“Did he miss? There weren’t any sparkles this time, I think he missed!” a crowd pony exclaimed but I shook my head in reply.

“I never miss. I think what happened is that Miss Lulamoon added a disintegration field to the shield. The bullet literally just vanished!” I exclaimed, making Trixie look at me stunned. She and I both knew that her shield would have been shattered had I used actual rounds, but she recovered quickly and retook the stage.

“That- that’s right! In order to prevent collateral damage, I made the bullet vanish as soon as it hit the shield! All to protect you all great patrons!” she announced as I chuckled and stepped off the stage, swapping out the blanks for real bullets to holster the weapon again.

“That was something. Those other bullets really sounded like the real things!” Luna exclaimed with a grin as we went back to sauntering through the city of Canterlot.

“Yep. They’re good for when recording films or working on plays and you need the authenticity.” I agreed as we turned the corner onto the street that Eben had set up shop on so long ago.

“Let’s go say hi to Eben, tell him he’s a prince!” Weiss requested eagerly as the three of us diverted course.

The door opened, the bell rang and Eben’s head poked out from the back.

“Welcome to Eben’s Cabinetry. We’ll make anything special order and personally deliver-” Eben finally caught sight of us as he stepped around a desk. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Oh, don’t sound so disheartened. Especially when we bring some interesting news.” I smirked as Luna took to examining the furniture and Weiss shifted from Luna’s back to my own.

“I can’t think of anything important enough for you to come personally visit me.” Eben disagreed and turned to return to work.

“Captain met our mother, saved her from captivity and brought her back to meet us.” Weiss announced, making Eben stop mid-stride and turn back to face us with a look of fury.

“How dare you mock me about such things!” he exploded, snorting flames from his nostrils which threatened to burn the shop down. “That is so far beyond possible that it’s an insult! Mom is dead!”

“No, she isn't.” Princess Luna announced calmly as she sat down in a living room chair. “Oh, this is nice.”

“Yes she is! Our last unicorns told me so! She laid us as eggs then when she returned home she was slain by the Griffons we now are at war with!” Eben yelled, still getting more and more heated.

“She was captured, not killed.” I crouched down but remained where I was to keep from enraging the little guy anymore than he was.

“Sure, the little guy doesn't like you already, let’s just make him hate you more!”

“No! Mom died and she is never coming back!” Eben protested with tears in his eyes as Weiss stepped down off my back and hugged her brother.

“What do you know of mom?” Weiss asked calmly, quietly.

“Not-” sniffle. “Not alot. I was told she had silver scales, that’s it.” Eben admitted as he wiped off his face on the back of his hand.

“Like the scales that now cover Captain?” Weiss asked, turning her brother’s attention to my skin. I knelt down and let Eben approach me and take my hands to examine the backs and my arms.

“But- but how’s that possible? Silver scales…” he murmured as he examined my body further, even lifting my shirt to look at my armoured chest. “But that can’t be possible! There has only been one count of silver scales and that was our mother! He can’t even have run into her corpse since the scales would have lost their brilliance...”

“Nor would I have been able to transfer the scales onto him. You should know that a Dragon’s scales are unique to the Dragon and requires that Dragon’s Breath to graft them onto another Drake.” Weiss explained as she sat down in my lap. “Dad met our biological mother and saved her. In return she gave him one of her scales for armour. There’s also one other thing.”

“What? You drop something like this on me and there’s more?” Eben asked incredulously.

“Our biological mother and father are the Dragon King and Queen.” Weiss announced, dropping Eben’s mouth wide open. “We, you and I, are royal Dragons.”

“Holy shit.” Eben mumbled as he stared off into space. “I’m a Dragon prince?”

“And I’m a Dragon Princess. No idea how far down the line we are to the throne though. Mom never said anything about it.” Weiss shrugged.

“So that’s all you’re here for? To tell me we’re royalty working for a human?” Eben had calmed himself down entirely now as Luna continued to explore the store, mentally shopping for new furniture.

“And stop by to see how my adoptive child is doing. Come on, I do sometimes think about you, you know?” I replied with a smile.

“[i]Rest of the time you’re thinking about Sunset Shimmer. I wonder if she’s okay? I wonder who she’s with? Maybe it’s another guy...”

“Uh huh. But mostly you just wanted to tell me i’m a royal dragonling.” Eben crossed his arms and returned to his less-than cheerful demeanor. “Well, not that we all have work to get to, but i’m actually kind of busy.” Eben announced as he turned tail and walked into the back room.

“Nice to see you too Eben.” I muttered as the three of us turned and exited the storeroom, Luna peeling herself off of a rocking chair to join us.

“So, what’s next-” Weiss began to say however a number of newsponies having appeared before us cut her off.

“Excuse me, you must be the human Captain of the NLAF, correct? We’d seen you assist a miss Trixie Lulamoon with her show fifteen minutes ago. Would you care to comment on the fact that a unicorn like her has developed a shield that can withstand one of your firearms?” one almost demanded as they all looked up at me from my waist line. Luna began to step around to answer the question but I held her short.

“On the record, no comment. Off the record?” I looked out at the crowd and hoped that this next statement would at least remain anonymous. “Off the record I used blank rounds against the shield, which is why there were no sparks nor any ricochete. Blank rounds are merely rounds that do not fire bullets but instead are made to merely give the report of the gunshot.” I explained with a smirk.

“So Trixie’s shield is not bullet proof as she claims?” another stallion demanded from near the back. I shrugged in reply.

“I have no idea. Because we were not in a controlled environment and we had the public gathered around us, I did not want to risk either shooting through the shield and injuring somepony behind the vase nor risk the shield holding and making the bullet strike a bystander. If Trixie would like to come to the Castle to actually test her magic against my science, she’s more than welcome.” I remarked and resumed the walk back towards the castle with the newsponies still surrounding us but following our direction of travel.

“What of Operation Adam? What has developed in the war against the griffons?” this had me hold up short as I forgot about making a public announcement as promised.

“Right, I promised you all a statement after the Operation… Okay, I’ll tell you all what. Come to the castle just at the evening sun for an official statement. It’ll let me form an actual statement to make, as well I have some things to do before then.” I requested and exited the newscasts around us. Luna hurried to my side and lowered a wing, letting Weiss and I climb up onto her back before taking off to return to the courtyard of Canterlot Castle.

~~~

“So what’s this thing you’ve gotta do before you can tell what happened in Griphonia?” Weiss inquired as I stood facing the mountain side, staring at it with blueprints running through my head.

“Private Dash gave me an interesting idea when we were driving over the lake. Speaking of which,” I turned to the training Rainbow Dash nearby. “Twenty laps around the courtyard soldiers! Move it!” I shouted to the small group of about eleven creatures, one of which being Gilda and the rest all newly enlisted ponies. “No wings!” I added as Dash did her best to fly as low to the ground as she could.

“What idea was that?” Luna asked from her shaded seat nearby, a drink in magical hand.

“Since it’s still very much winter here in Equestria, it’s still cold when we’re driving incredibly fast. Now that we’ve also got an expanding military we’ll also be needing troop transport. My bike is barely enough to carry Dash and my pack so we’ll be needing something… bigger.” I grinned and turned back to sit with the dark Princess under her parasol.

“And I'll assume you’ll want my help in fabricating this new creation?” Luna lifted her sunglasses to look me over daringly.

“But of course. As soon as Weiss or I can find a new set of stones for the connection I’d like to get started.” I replied, sitting back as I lifted a cold glass of iced tea to my lips.

“Actually,” Weiss’s high voice broke the air from the opposite side of Luna as she sat forward to address me. “Now that you’ve got more Dragon in you, even if it’s just scales, I want to see if you can make the connection yourself, without me and the stone.”

“Do you think I can do that? Your mother did say I must have a pool of my own magic as yet untouched.” I replied back in wonder. Would it be possible for me to find some way of casting magic of my own?

“What makes her say that?” Luna remained reclined on her back, enjoying the winter air with her tea. I was the only one actually drinking a cold drink, but I suppose I was strange like that.

“Apparently the Dragon Eye wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t. The Dragon magic requires magic to graft itself onto. Apparently.” I explained and continued to watch the troops galloping hard around a quickly emerging track in the snow.

“That makes sense, actually. So theoretically you may not be able to cast spells, but if somepony were to create some kind of weapon that could use your magic to activate directed spells…” Weiss suggested, getting eager to test her new theory. “Oh! I wonder if Princess Twilight could help! She’s really inventive, I bet she could come up with something!”

“That’s actually not a bad idea.” I smirked as Luna procured a quill, inkpot and parchment for me to write on.

Dear Princess Twilight,

Princess Luna, Princess Weiss Schatten -long story, I'll explain next time we meet face to face- and I have come up with the hypothesis that I may have a stored pool of magic within me.

We have already theorized that I myself cannot cast magic, but if somepony with the intelligence to do so were to devise some method of weapon that would be capable of using my magic to activate a stored spell… Well I imagine this would be quite something spectacular, no?

I have an idea on how the mechanism may work, through firearm technology and enchanted crystals or gems, and I’d be quite interested in discussing this idea with you at your earliest convenience.

Formally in service,

Captain, Captain of NLAF

“And, send!” Weiss announced as she blew golden fire over the newly rolled up document. “So now what?”

“Now I continued to try and imagine what kind of storage I'd have to come up with to store the troop transport vehicle.” I sighed a heavy breath as a number of quicker NLAF soldiers finished their run and went back to exercising in the inner ring of the track. “500 push-ups when you're done, no wings!” I shouted, making many of the creatures groan in protest.

“So this vehicle you wish to create, how big of a monstrosity are we thinking?” Luna looked at me apprehensively and I could do nothing my grin back in reply. “Great, it’s going to be massive.”

“I hope you’re well rested, Princess.” I grinned and sat back again, getting comfortable.

“Fine, fine. Let’s get this over with.” Luna demanded as she rolled over onto her side to get up.

“Alright, you asked for it.” I grinned and slid off the chair myself, taking a quick drink of nearly frozen iced tea. The pegasi had allowed for a slightly warmer winter day, so the temperature was just above freezing. Made for a perfect iced tea without actually turning it into ice.

I took a seat on Luna’s back and placed my hand on the back of her neck, just as Weiss had always done and we both closed our eyes.

I began to imagine the chassis first, made of solid titanium. Luna’s horn fired up and began to whip the wind around us as a rather large circle of pure white light erupted from the ground. The chassis began to materialize and I added the large studded tires and suspension to keep it all off the ground.

“Four wheels? And they’re as big as I am!” Weiss exclaimed from behind the pair of us. “Looks like the connection is working though, don’t need the stone or me as a conduit any longer.” she added with a sigh.

“You’re still my adopted daughter, Weiss.” I replied as I began adding the transmission and engine when a thought occurred to me. There were no sources of fuel for either this thing nor the bike.

“Why have you stopped? I don’t think it looks very completed.” Luna asked as I removed my hand from her neck and examined the engine as it sat.

“It’s not. A thought had just occurred to me that there are no fuel sources in Equestria. I’m wondering if it’s possible for magic to act as a fuel source.” I replied, sitting on the frame behind the engine, where the firewall would technically sit.

“It’s quite massive though, I must admit. I appreciate that you seem to be going through the build process in stages, making the magical toll on me less significant.” Luna noted as she examined the existing pieces of my soon to be truck. “Does this contraption have a name?”

“It’s a truck. I’ll give you it’s commercial name after it’s finished.” I replied as Weiss tossed a fire ruby at Luna. The Alicorn Princess caught it in her magic just as it was about to strike the side of her head and looked at the thrown object curiously.

“What is this for?” she asked as I caught the idea.

“Oh, that’s genius! Thanks Weiss!” I exclaimed as I took the stone in my hand and looked it over. Setting it on top of the engine I climbed back out of the frame and back onto Luna’s back to resume the casting.

“Care to share the genius idea?” Luna requested as her horn fired up again. Keeping her eyes open she watched at the fire ruby was integrated into the combustion chamber of the engine block, to be lit and used as a fuel source.

“Fire Ruby’s explode when subjected to heat. If we were to give it a slow burn, I’m hoping that it’ll work as the fuel source.” I explained as the rest of the drive train shimmered into existence. Leaving the fuel tank out for lack of fuel sources, I moved directly into the exhaust system and then threw in the radiator and cooling systems.

Moving back to the engine block I threw in the supercharger that would eventually give me another 23 horsepower.

Now begins the rest of the body.

Creating the firewall was the last bit before adding in the user controls: pedals, steering column and the rest of the electrical systems. Adding in the floor, the heated leather seats came in with the logo imprinted into the headrest for a total of three rows of seating.

The armoured woodland camouflage skin of the truck began to ride up, as though it was being poured into an invisible shell of the truck’s body with the VelociRaptor logo being the last to slide into place before the rest of the electrical systems and glass appeared.

Adding in the off-road upgrades to an already armoured truck, the LED light-bar across the top sort of rolled up from the roof and settled into place as a custom LED light-bar along the grille and along the sides of the roof joined it’s new friend. Just behind the light-bar sat a radar antenna, small enough to fit and not look entirely ridiculous but large enough to cover a large enough area.

At the centre of the roof sat a luggage rack with plenty of pre-existing straps to hold equipment down through all terrain.

Finally the light died off and left my favourite truck from my past and I'll admit, probably the only decent Ford I remember they’d made. By default the VelociRaptor commands a 600hp engine but with the off-road kit and the supercharger, like I said, an additional 23 horse power is added to the stock performance truck.

I regularly didn’t like Ford, I was raised to be a GMC or Chevy guy, but I always loved this particular model and it’s older brother the Raptor.

“What in Tartarus is that?” Gilda demanded as she and the rest of the troops approached to examine the vehicle. “It looks ridiculous.”

“Many humans would agree with you. I personally love this truck and I’d never gotten a chance to own or drive one back when I was on Earth. Now that I remember, Sunset has one like this, only in bright yellow.” I replied with a smirk and hopped off Luna’s back to pull open the back doors into the enclosed truck bed. “This version of the truck came with titanium armour panelling for no apparent reason, but I'm glad Hennessey made it like that now that it’s being used for military purposes.” I announced as I hopped up into and sat on the tailgate as Dash climbed in to explore the remainder of the interior before trying to climb over the seats.

“Oh holy shit.” Dash sighed in utter bliss as she sunk into the leather seats. “Oh, that’s amazing.”

“Isn’t it though?” I grinned and hopped down to pull open the remaining doors for other ponies, Luna included who hopped into the front passenger seat.

“Oh yes, this is simply marvellous!” Luna exclaimed as she too sunk into the seat under her backside. Gilda looked at the truck skeptically before climbing in with a bit of work to sit as Dash and Princess Luna were.

“Hmph, I suppose it’s okay.” she grumbled, her claws crossed over her chest defiantly.

“Let me up! Give me a hand!” Weiss requested as I lifted Weiss into the back with Dash and Gilda. “Woah, this feels like leather!”

“How’d you know what leather feels like? Let alone was it is?” I raised my eyebrows curiously as I rounded the vehicle to the driver's side and slid into it.

“Dad, remember my belly? It has a very similar feeling to it when my scales are just washed.” Weiss reminded me as she found the seatbelt and gave it a pull to examine the latch. “What’s this for?”

“Seat belt. Keeps you safe if we were to get into an accident and hit something. There’ll be a small latch down in the seat with a red button.” I explained and pulled my own seatbelt on as Luna magically latched hers and Gilda helped Dash with her own.

“So this works like the motorbike, right? Just it’s closed in and warmer?” Dash inquired as I started up the engine and let myself have a moment to myself.

“Yep.” I replied once I came out of my stupor. “It’ll also let us carry everything we need comfortably and over long trips.” I added as I shifted into gear and let us roll forwards and rolled down the window to yell at the remaining troops.

“Forty laps around the Castle itself or until I get back, whichever comes first!” I ordered, gaining salutes from everypony in their training outfits.

Rolling through the gate, barely, I ensured that I’d keep to the main roads which should be large enough to allow for a vehicle of this size to pass by unscathed.

“Where are we going?” Gilda asked from behind me, still seemingly uncomfortable however her slowly swinging tail had me thinking otherwise.

“Around Ponyville.” I replied as we hit the main road out of the city and with the road clear from the engine scaring travellers out of the way, accelerated to Canadian highway speeds with ease.

“I never thought something as big as this would move so quickly! Aren’t you worried about traction?” Luna, despite her worries, was having a great time as she watched the terrain fly by. I chuckled and shook my head in reply.

“Nope. The tires are studded so they’ll grip into ice with ease. We have next to no chance of spinning out or losing grip unless I want us too.” I replied and peeled off the road and simply jumped off the remainder of the hill into a snow pile.

“Great. We’re stuck. Well done.” Gilda rolled her eyes at me, looking ever so unimpressed. I grinned back in reply and merely threw the truck into first before accelerating gently. This had the intended effect of easily digging ourselves out to continue our now off-road trip through the Equestrian winter wonderland.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you over the sound of this amazing truck.” I chuckled, as did the remaining females in the passenger seats save the griffon.

“Yeah yeah, alright. I suppose it’s pretty cool.” she lightened up a bit as we passed into the shadow cast by Canterlot Mountain. “So what about now? Let’s say it’s dark as a cave outside. I saw those weird bar things on top, what do they do?”

“The light bars? Let me show you. Ladies, you thought that flashlight was bright?” I chuckled eagerly and hit the Aux switches and activated the miniature collapsed suns on the roof and grille. The entire area around us immediately lit up as though it was the middle of a summer afternoon, if not brighter with the reflective snow surfacing.

“Holy… you’re sure you’re not harnessing a miniature star or something?” Dash exclaimed as she pressed her nose to the glass, fogging it up with her breath.

“Pretty sure, yeah.” I grinned and killed all but the grille lights as we began dipping into and out of snowbanks and potholes with near reckless abandon.

“Woohoo! Faster! Faster!” Weiss exclaimed eagerly as we weaved around trees and through brush covered in snow. The brush plate worked marvellously and kept us from getting stuck even as we merely dug ourselves into and out of more snow piles and huge snow drifts.

“Hey look, Sweet Apple Acres!” Dash exclaimed as we passed by what I guessed to be the backside of the estate. “Let’s go say hi to Applejack!”

“Oh I'm sure she’ll meet us in town.” I replied and revved the engine a bit to really get the Apples’ attention before launching up and onto a snowed over gravel road into town. “I’m sure the entire town will meet us…” I added as we pulled up towards the centre of town before trying to skirt around everypony to reach the Friendship Castle.

“Why’re we here?” Gilda asked as she looked up at the obscene eyesore of a royal abode.

“Primarily, Twilight has the most space for me to safely park somewhere. Other than that I'm sure the others will be most likely to gather here before investigating our disturbances.” I explained as I backed in next to the tree thing to park and turn off the engine. “Good to see that our modified engine works perfectly.”

“Indeed, I wasn’t entirely sure how you planned to do so, but as long as we didn’t get deserted somewhere cold.” Luna agreed as she hopped out with everybody else.

“Captain?” Twilight’s voice was looking for us before she followed the strange tracks and rounded the corner to meet us. “Captain, what is that thing?” she demanded as she flew up to look over the truck.

“A truck. It’s like the motorbike but better.” I replied with a grin and a shrug. “Did you get my letter?”

“I did. I’m intrigued by your hypothesis, but I'm wondering where you got the idea that you have a stored pool of untouched magic.” Twilight replied as she stood on the hood before I shoo’d her off it and checked for damage. It may have been armoured but still, didn’t want to risk it.

“Well, long story short, I met the Dragon Queen when she gave me dragon scale armour. She told me that if I didn’t have a stored pool of magic that my previous magical modification wouldn’t have stuck around very long.” I explained as we all followed Twilight and I into her castle for warmth. Gilda remained silent alongside Dash behind the rest of us. As I understood it, Gilda had had some bad experiences in the past here in Ponyville.

“Your Dragon’s Eye, correct? I suppose it’s possible that it only stuck around because of an innate magical quality about you. Alternatively it’s possible that the Eye is responsible for this newfound magical energy. Have you tried casting any magic?” Twilight spun on her hooves and walked backwards ahead of me as she interviewed me.

“I don’t know how magic works nor do I know any spells or time to learn either.” I replied as Luna escorted the others towards the library to relax while Twilight and I continued into her laboratory.

“Which is why you wish to create some sort of weapon that uses your magic to activate pre-determined spells.” Twilight nodded and magically pushed open the large double doors into the room with every machine I'd never even heard of occupying the room’s walls. “I admit, the theory is sound but the practice… That’ll be a bit harder.”

“Well, Weiss is able to enchant gemstones to carry sound files so why can’t they be enchanted to carry inert spells?” I shrugged and took a seat at Twilight’s desk. The Princess immediately set forth to plugging me into her machines, sticking little EKG stickers all over my body before clipping wires to them. I was getting very confused about the technology actually available in Equestria.

“Maybe it has to do with the different kind of magic stored within Dragon’s Breath. First, I want to see if you do in fact have a stored magical energy pool. If you do then we’ll see about finding a way to draw it out.” Twilight insisted as she began magically tapping away on a keyboard meant for fingers.

A bunch of beeping, whirring and clicks, a length of paper flowed from a machine with a bunch of lines on it, none of which meant anything to me what-so-ever.

“But- but how is this possible?” Twilight stared at the paper in shock, her eyes wide as she looked everything over. “That can’t be possible! There must be some mistake!”

“Here comes the fun part.”

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked, getting slightly concerned though I remained in my seat.

“This says…” Twilight looked up at me as she stammered. “Thi- this says not only do you have no magical power, but you’re also absorbing it from your surroundings at an alarming rate!”

“Which means?” I looked at the nervous Princess with utter confusion.

“Which means that you are a spell sponge! You absorb the magic within a spell, or even the magic in the air and filter out the effects to keep that while dispelling the remainder like waste!” Twilight rolled her eyes at me though my confusion remained. “Ugh, it means that you can absorb all kinds of magic, light or dark doesn’t matter, and purify it into pure magical energy! You’re like a plant recycling carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen!”

“Oh, you could’ve started with that you know. So then how have the Dragon Eye and Scale armour remained? Wouldn’t I have just purified that magic as well?” I asked, examining the tiny, faint scales on my arms.

“It seems that while you filter the magic, some aspects get left behind like a filter. The garbage of the magic sticks to you and leeches off on some of the recycled magic. I wouldn’t say it’s parasitic, it’s more…” Twilight trailed off, looking for a proper word.

“Symbiotic? As long as the effects remain positive I gain a symbiotic relationship to this ‘magical waste’?” I inquired, trying to both assist the Princess in her train of thought as well as to help explain my situation in a way I could understand.

“Yes! That’s precisely it! I wonder what would happen if we tried to filter dark or black magic through you?” Twilight’s gaze drifted off into space as she began to ponder the implications of this new discovery about myself.

“Personally, I’m not sure I want to find out.” I muttered, breaking Twilight out of her revele. “So if the dragon magic within me is acting symbiotic, does that mean we could potentially fashion a device that would act the same way under specific conditions to charge a spellstone?”

“Maybe, but I'm almost willing to bet my wings that you don’t have any sort of magical conduit about you, right?” Twilight looked me over as I remained seated while she removed the stickers from my skin.

“As in a horn or other paraphernalia?” I offered for clarification. Twilight nodded as she returned to her station to put the wires away.

“Right. Unicorns can use their magic through the horn because the horn has special channels through which the magic is able to flow through. We think of the spell we want to use and then channel it through the horn as data to be converted into its arcane forms.

Pegasi are able to use their magic for flight and weather manipulation through their hooves and wings. The bones in their wings act like the horn in that they channel the raw magic through them and into the feathers to achieve lift. The hooves do more or less the same thing.” Twilight explained when an idea struck the both of us.

“So if I had a bone structure capable of conducting magic…” I suggested with a smirk.

“Then you may be able to cast spells!” Twilight agreed when another thought occurred to me.

“What about Dragon Scales? Are they conducive to magic?” I arched an eyebrow suspiciously. “When I created the truck, I was able to do with without Weiss’s help. She always said that she acted as a magical conduit for when Luna and I were casting. After Queen Schatten gave me these scales, I was able to directly interface with Luna’s magic to cast the magic for the truck outside.”

“That makes sense, dragons are highly conducive to magic. It’s why they’re capable of spells that unicorns and Alicorns are not. Oh! I get it! Now that you’ve got Dragon Armour you think that your new skin will act as the magical conduit?” Twilight grinned at this new idea of a potentially new method of magical use in me.

“Probably. It works on Luna, why can’t it work on something else?” I shrugged.

“I wanna try something. I wanna see how this whole ‘assisted casting’ thing works for you and Luna. I want you to try and cast something through me while I measure the reactions within us.” Twilight announced as she once more began sticking the both of us with stickers before hooking us back up to her machines. “Just do whatever it is you usually do with Princess Luna.”

“Alright, all you need to do is concentrate on casting. I’ll do the rest.” I replied, standing to place my hand on the back of Twilight’s neck as her horn fired up purple. Closing my eyes I began to focus on the image and workings of a SCAR-H kitted out as a DMR platform in a reactive flecktarn camouflage.

The weapon began to appear before us and as it assembled, Twilight’s machines beeped and whirred as readouts began to pour out until the weapon was done and I had something to add to my slowly expanding arsenal.

“Woah, that’s disorienting.” Twilight shuddered as she shook herself off and returned to her results. “Oh, that would be why.”

“Why what?” I asked, examining the new rifle now in my possession.

“Because you were forcing pure white magic through me. My own magic has it’s specific signature in the form of a colour. Pure magic is completely white, blank. When you were casting through me the two magics were fighting each other to convert the other into the same format. Has Luna ever complained about fatigue or a headache after you used ‘assisted casting’?” Twilight explained as she looked over the streams of white printer paper.

“Used too. When we created the bike she was down for a good couple hours before she was able to get outta bed again. Now she seems to hardly even notice it anymore.” I replied as I shouldered the cleared weapon and sat back with my feet up in the air, as though they were resting on a foot rest.

“Maybe through continued practice the magic has learned to cooperate better and convert into her signature magic?” Twilight mumbled as she looked over the paper again. “Theoretically, if by forcing pure magic into a magical conduit could convert that pure magic into a specific colour through continued use and practice; then it’s possible you could use some kind of Casting Assistance Device with inert spellstones as you call them.”

“Cool, i’ve already got a couple ideas about the designs of said CADs; if you don’t mind trying ‘assisted casting’ again?” I suggested eagerly, sitting up on the edge of the chair.

“Not at all. I want to see what kind of changes occur in the readouts after a bit of practice and continued casting.” Twilight replied with a smile. Standing and leaving the SCAR-H on the seat behind me, I placed my hand on the back of Twilight’s neck again and we both closed our eyes. “Go ahead.”

The first thing I imagined in my mind was a sort of bracer/gauntlet type thing that I could potentially use for spellstones containing spells that would have effects like shields, health bubbles or other passive/defensive spells like that. The tiny trinket dropped to the floor with a clink and I began the offensive device.

With metal pads in the hand grip, similar to those on treadmills that would read the user's biological statistics, and a firing chamber that could take a shaped spell stone before ejecting it with ease; the last part I thought to add in was a small tank-like bit that I figured could potentially store extra magical power. Not that I knew how it’d work anyways; I'd leave it up to Twilight to figure that part out.

The new weapon dropped to the floor on top of the gauntlet and I took my hand off Twilight’s neck, leaving her slightly less disoriented but still enough that she was forced to her knees to recover.

“Wow, that one was really something.” Twilight commented as the machines ceased their functions, having completed their tasks. “Wanna explain these things to me? Their intended purposes?” she asked as she struggled to lift the devices to me. “Wow, near magical burn out from the incompatibilities. No wonder Princess Luna was down for so long.”

“Sorry about that. Regarding these devices, the gauntlet would be for spellstones that would offer passive or defensive spells. The other one would be for spells either fired from the horn or for offensive spells like fireballs or whatever.” I explained, inserting my hand into the gauntlet and strapped it on. Inside the glove were similar tiny metal plates, hopefully conducive to magical energy or this whole thing wouldn’t work immediately.

“Okay, so the gauntlet is kind of simple to figure out how it’d work, what about that weapon looking thing?” Twilight looked over the weapon as she remained resting where she was.

“Basically I designed this to work like a rifle. You load it with a cartridge containing the projectile, in this case the spellstone with the inactive spell encoded within it, ensuring that your magic can flow through these metal plates here to charge the weapon. Pull the trigger and the magic is pushed through the firing mechanism, activating the spell and expels the effects out of the barrel.” I replied, showing off each step with the description.

“Huh. If a unicorn got a hold of that they’d have a fairly powerful weapon since they wouldn’t have to know the spells that they’re putting through it. Do you think that if there was a blank spellstone in the firing chamber that they could use their own spells?” Twilight theorized as she looked it over.

“Maybe, but we’d have to see how many times a spellstone can be used before becoming useless; if at all.” I shrugged as I pulled out the spellstone with my PTSD recovery song encoded in it. With a small twinge of guilt I inserted the stone into the weapon’s chamber and loaded it up.

A couple of clicks had me pull the stone back out unharmed to examine it and the weapon.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked with a tilted head.

“Doesn’t fire. Kind of like it’s jammed or unloaded or something.” I replied and stuck the spellstone into the empty slot in the gauntlet. The stone almost immediately activated with tiny white lines arcing through the stone before meeting up in the centre where the spell was located. Soon the room was filled with the song of my past, calming the both of us as it played.

“That sounds wonderful! Kind of emotionally invoking too...” Twilight noted with a hint of a smile once the song had ended. “But it’s interesting that the spellstone worked in the Gauntlet but not the weapon. Maybe the devices can discern the spellstone’s use and hints at which device it would be best suited for?”

“Perhaps. Can you enchant a stone with an offensive spell? I still want to test out the gun.” I requested and fished into my pocket for a random gemstone.

“Maybe. I’ll probably need Spike or Weiss to help with the transcription though…” Twilight replied as she rolled onto her back to scratch herself on the floor. “Dangit, this is probably so much easier with hands.”

“Usually, yeah.” I replied with a chuckle as I dropped the Recovery song back into my pocket. “Want a hand?”

“Yes please!” Twilight requested, rolling back onto her stomach as I got down to scratch her back. “Oh, Celestia! That’s good!” she announced with a giggle.

“Glad I could be of assistance.” I chuckled back and returned to my seat to the tune of Twilight complaining that I wasn’t finished yet with accompanying pout.

“Right, stone enchanting. Spike!” Twilight called out suddenly.

“I’m here! What can I do?” Spike appeared in the doorway eagerly before sprinting to his alicorn’s side.

“Do you think you could enchant this stone with a simple offensive spell?” Twilight requested, lifting the small amber stone with her flickering magic.

“I have no idea, but I’ll try!” Spike announced, taking the stone in his claws and sucked in a breath.

Letting the green fire out had the stone start to shimmer, however it remained otherwise unchanged once the breath faded away.

“What’s going on?” Weiss asked as she and the remaining ponies and griffon entered after Spike. “Why’re you sending an average amber to Celestia?” she inquired as Spike held onto the stone in his claws.

“Oh, I wasn’t! I was trying to enchant it with a spell at Twilight’s request!” Spike replied sheepishly, having failed in his task. “I don’t think it worked though, sorry.” the dragonling directed his apology to Twilight who merely smiled in reply.

“No wonder, you didn’t have a spell being carried in your breath. What spell were you trying to imbue into it?” Weiss asked as she took the stone in her hand to examine it.

“Something offensive, like a fireball or something.” I replied and Weiss nodded before taking in a breath of her own. Letting out golden flicks of flame, the gem began to glow slightly as the spell was properly encoded into the crystalline structure of the stone.

“There. You just need to know what spell you’re using and then transfer it into your breath.” Weiss explained, tossing the stone to me.

Inserting the new spellstone into the weapon and reattempting to load it, I aimed at a relatively blank wall that Luna had protected with a shield spell of her own. Pulling the trigger I could feel my hands begin to tingle against the metal before a fireball actually spewed forth and struck the shield, dispelling against its protective surface.

The firing mechanism pulled back and ejected the spent stone, the amber having lost it’s lustre and appeared to be smoking a bit.

“Cool, it works as I figured it would.” I muttered with a grin as I picked up the spent spell casing to examine the effects. “Ladies and gentledragon, we have the first magical firearm in Equestria.”

Author's Note

Thanks to kitsunekit for the title suggestion, big help bud!

ypa