Lightning Bug

by Dragonman461

Prologue

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20 Years Ago

Within the depths of what Equestria considered the "Undiscovered West," lay a lone city, buried into the side of a massive cliff. Within the massive steel walls, worked thousands upon thousands of busy citizens. These were not ponies, no, they were Changelings that flew the flag of Queen Silk. The city of Morphos, and its flag of lightning. In its streets gathered the populace of the Changeling city, the insect-like equines crowding beneath the largest steel tower in the city, their Queen's Residence.

Queen Silk smiled as she looked over the gathering citizens from her position. They waited as she held up a bundle of cloth in her arms, hoisting its contents over her people.

"My subjects," she announced from her balcony, "today is a great day to celebrate! For I have ushered into our great city, and heir to my throne!"

The screeching cheers of her people was enough to shake all of the buildings within their city's walls. Once the cheering died down, Queen Silk smiled down onto them.

"I thank you all for your loyalty not only to our crown, but to our glorious city. Alongside the news of my heir, I am glad to say that starting today, we will no longer have to fear any shortage of power in the near future! Professor Forewing, if you would," she said, ushering forth a Changeling with a brown mane and tail.

He straightened his lab coat and cleared his throat before speaking to the crowd below.

"Citizens of Morphos, no longer will we have to worry about our mining crews losing their lights, nor do we have to worry if our hospitals can sustain themselves! We've discovered a more efficient means of powering our city centers and operations with these!" he said, motioning to the large black panels that hung atop the tower. "They are the Mark-III Radiation Convertors, powered by Solar Transformers! So long as the Sun above shines, our city will no longer have to worry about another 'love' shortage again!"

The crowd cheered yet again as they savored the innovation and its impact that it would have over their society.

Queen silk smiled warmly as she watched her son reached out towards the crowd, giggling and cooing as nymphs did.

She couldn't be happier if she tried.

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Present Day

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Twilight inhaled deeply as she looked over the expanse of undiscovered land that stretched out over the horizon. She took in the scent of the uncharted lands before her and smiled as she exhaled, thinking about how she and her friends were about to trek where nopony had before! She might stumble into ancient ruins that could answer questions about alicorns that not even Celestia and Luna were aware of, or maybe even find a whole new civilization!

"Hey, Twi! You ready or what?"

Twilight looked beside her to find her friends waiting with a hefty carriage filled with luggage.

"Consarnit, Rares," Applejack said, "we were supposed ta pack lightly!"

"Applejack, have you even read half of what we should expect in these forests?" Rarity argued. "Two words, darling; Spider Rain! Literally raining spiders due to high wind speeds during tropical storms! I'm packing enough repellent to keep an entire army of those... guegh! Spiders, at bay, should we encounter such a scenario."

"For pony's sake, ya even know how often that happens?"

"Often enough that the explorers that dared to roam far enough West decided to name an entire peninsula 'Spider Bay'."

"I'm sure they're not that bad, Rarity," Fluttershy countered. "Most of them don't even survive the fall, and those that do are too disoriented to try and hunt for anything. Besides, I'm sure that I can talk our way out of most situations if we end up finding any dangerous little critters."

Rarity sighed as she pulled out a hand-fan, waving it upwards to cool herself.

"Twi, come on!" Rainbow said, slouching against the carriage. "We're never going to find anything if we don't get a move on!"

"Sorry girls," Twilight said, "but I just wanted to take it all in one more time. We're going to be exploring a region of Equestria that's been uncharted for nearly 400 years! Isn't this exciting!?"

"Be more exciting when we actually get going, egghead," Rainbow snarked.

Twilight huffed with a pout.

"Alright then, let's go."

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