Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology
It was a clear and chilly winter night. The stars twinkled distantly above. The recent blanket of snow and the total lack of wind blanketed the stairway to the Canterlogic factory in a pristine silence and a forlorn feeling. Everyone had left for the weekend - all but one perhaps, if the window that glowed down on the steps like a lone candle was to be believed.
Inside her lab, Phyllis scribbled tiredly in her notebook next to a still smoking, sputtering circuit board, and sighed. Another failed attempt. She'd been at this for days...
Phyllis wasn't old money like Queen Haven, nor was she your standard businesspony, content to stick to a well proven business model. No: she was a serial innovator! Few could truly appreciate the long hours, risks and personal sacrifices it took to build a company like Canterlogic from the ground up: an impressive achievement to be sure. Even beyond that, unlike most bussinessponies, she'd stayed loyally involved with her R&D teams, trying to preserve that small business feel just a bit longer and delegating some of the operations responsibilities instead. Phyllis knew that the lifeblood of any market-making company was its inventiveness: and she was the queen of that! ... But now she was stuck in a rut.
Hitch had called it: the earth pony balloon escape pack had been a lot of paperwork - a lawsuit in fact. The anti-mind-reading hats were apparently unnecessary; the unicorns didn't know of any mind reading magic it seemed; and that was assuming the hats worked in the first place. And then there were the pega-periscope goggles... what was she even thinking?!
The splatapult, with only minor modifications, had found some unlikely markets on playgrounds and water parks, and the unicorn entrapment device had garnered a frankly surprising number of sales from the emo unicorn subculture in Bridlewood? Phyllis wasn't one to look a gift pony in the mouth, but Canterlogic was still nowhere near meeting its projected revenue targets. Doubly so without the fearmongering to drive sales, but that wasn't socially acceptable now - not that she'd wanted to in the first place; the board had pressured her into it.
Long story short, Phyllis was NOT looking forward to the next earnings call. She needed something to keep investors happy. Times like this made her think back to the good old days when she had launched the first series of smartphones - still her most profitable innovation ever....
So when magic returned, Phyllis had gotten very excited to see if she could integrate it into her newest line of smartphones with a special chip and app. Easier said than done apparently. So now here she was, wondering when she'd last eaten, and whether she should call it quits for the night. She hadn't even figured out how to use earth pony magic herself yet. What a waste...
Suddenly there was a ring on the intercom. "Huh, who's delivering packages this late?" Phyllis fluffed her mane with a hoof to make herself more presentable and wiped some soot from her face, then trotted to the door.
When she went to open it though, she didn't see what she expected.
"Oh! Sheriff Hitch! What brings you out here so late at night?"
"Hi Phyllis" He waved "Don't you remember what day it is?" Hitch raised an inquisitive hoof
She smiled Hitch probably would still be calling her "Mrs Cloverleaf" If she hadn't insisted a while back. As respectful and charming as ever. "No, I guess not. What's going on?
"Well, I was walking home from Grandma Figgy's place and I saw the light on here: I figured I should check and make sure someone didn't break in!" Hitch pantomimed as he recounted his afternoon.
"And now, I guess I'm gonna have to bring you in for violation of unwritten rule #473: Never forget about Winter Wishday!" Hitch said, making it clear he wasn't being literal. "Do you even know where Sprout is right now?"
Phyllis' winced in surprise, then in dismay "Oh my... How could I have forgotten?! I've been a bad parent..." Phyllis worried that her frequent obsession with her work had prevented her from giving Sprout the attention he'd needed as a colt.
Hitch put a comforting hoof to her shoulder. "No worries Phyllis, you did fine with Sprout - he's just... still figuring life out a little. Anyways he's back at your place; let's pick him up and head to the party at the lighthouse! Winter Wishday isn't quite over yet!
Phyllis let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Aw Hitch you're too kind... but you're right; I suppose all I can do now is course correct. Lead the way! And I do really appreciate you checking in on the factory by the way."
Hitch stood tall and proud. "Don't mention it - all in a day's work for a sheriff. Don't forget to lock up!"
"Oh right! Wow I really do need a break: I never forget that, usually." Phyllis turned off the lights, locked the door and the two were on their way.
Hitch, Sprout and Phyllis arrived at the lighthouse to the scene of a rather lively party. Izzy was teaching a crowd of young colts and fillies arts and crafts, Zipp had installed a laser tag room at some point and was in the middle of singlehandedly slaughtering the opposing team, Pipp was running Karaoke and Sunny was chatting up the other guests.
Phyllis nodded to Hitch "Thanks again for the impromptu invite Hitch"
"Any time Phyllis - don't mind me; I'm going to go mingle... and maybe also hand out littering fines."
Phyllis Giggled as Hitch walked past "And here I thought I was the workaholic."
Hitch rolled his eyes and smiled back at her as he walked into the crowd.
Sunny Starscout waved from near the Punchbowl "Hi Mrs Cloverleaf! Frosty Shivers!"
Phyllis walked over with a smile "Frosty shivers Sunny! Is that the new Unicorn greeting? I like it! Also please Sunny, call me Phyllis; you're all adults now, and we're all friends here."
Sunny grinned sheepishly "My bad... So how have you been Phyllis? Come to think of it, I haven't seen you in a while."
Did Phyllis even have something besides work to talk about? She'd have to think later about how she'd let things get like this.
"Oh you know, just stuck in the lab again - nothing interesting came of it, I'm afraid." Phyllis wilted as she thought of it. " I was trying to mix magic and technology, but couldn't get anywhere with it."
Sunny pranced excitedly "Nothing interesting? That's fascinating! You know, I've always wondered why we never developed technology like these phones in parallel with magic. Equestrian science was certainly advanced enough to even in Twilight Sparkle's time. Perhaps they're just not compatible?" Sunny pulled out her notebook and pen.
Phyllis raised a hoof to her chin in thought "No, I don't think so - at least nothing in my understanding of technology suggests it shouldn't be able to interface... I think our ancestors just had no need for technology: Magic can do all the same stuff without the hassle. In a way, it's a good thing we lost magic for a while: We developed technology to replace what was missing, and nowadays it can do a lot of things magic can't do - Which is why it's so enticing to make something which uses both.
Sunny Smiled "Ah, I suppose that makes sense."
Phyllis stepped to get some punch, not noticing the green glow on it at the time. To her astonishment a poinsettia plant popped up from the ground in front of her. "Oops... Did I... Did I just use magic?"
Phyllis inspected her hoof closely, then focused on her present feelings of friendship and belonging, and the green glow returned.
Sunny pointed a hoof at Phyllis "I was about to mention we have a bunch of magical artifacts here we could probably loan you to study, but it looks like you've got it now.
