MLP: Technology is Magic

Today had been a strange one for Diamond Tiara. Her father wanted her to understand the importance of buying limited time products in advance before competitors came to buy them. Diamond could understand that.

The strange part was the methods that the Apple family used to obtain the materials for the limited product. When they found the family, they were in bunny costumes, hopping over watering cans and singing the alphabet.

The father and daughter waited patiently for the family to stop what they were doing. “Best to wait until they are done with this ritual before we talk to them,” Filthy explained. “If we disrupt things it might affect the quality of the product.”

“They’re just jumping around in bunny costumes and singing the alphabet.” Diamond remarked.

“I don’t understand it either, but as long as the zap apples are in prime condition, they can be waving around timberwolf parts for all I care. Plus they seem happy doing it so who am I to disrupt it.”

“So why am I here?”

“Because I wanted to spend time with my precious Diamond and I wanted you to see how your old stallion runs his business.”

After a few more minutes, the family finally finished their ritual and Granny had them take a break before the next step. Apple Bloom noticed the pair and walked over to them. “Hey Diamond, ya here to watch us make zap apple jam?”

“I guess,” Diamond responded. “Does your family always do such strange things for zap apples?”

“Yeah, Granny says that each step is important. She plans to explain why durin’ Family Appreciation Day.”

“I’ll let you two in on a little secret,” Filthy added. “Our two families have had strong connections with one another ever since the days of your great grandfather, Diamond. It was through this bond that Ponyville was founded.”

“Really? So our two families are practically the foundation Ponyville was founded on?” Diamond asked.

“You could say that.”

The next day, both Filthy and Granny Smith gave their speeches together about the founding of Ponyville and explained the meticulous process of making zap apple jam. The story was certainly a hit for the foals.

Ever since Filthy Rich had become a stronger influence on Diamond’s life, she had buckled down on her studying and her grades improved. Since her overbearing mother was on a tight leash, much to Spoiled’s frustration, Diamond was free to live her life as wanted and she couldn’t be happier about it.

Diamond’s grades had improved as well. It wasn’t long before she was within the top five students in class. Even with her tutors she was still behind the two geniuses in the class, Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle, but she was fine with that. Silver was the smartest filly she knew and Sweetie was practically her intellectual rival. She wasn’t about to compete against them and she didn’t want to.

At some point, Diamond also became the editor in chief of the school newspaper. The articles produced weren’t anything that shocked ponies, but things that the citizens wanted to show off to the rest of the town, such as Golden Harvest wanting to show off her carrot crops or Twilight providing a spell form for a minor spell for the unicorn fillies in the town to practice.

Little did Diamond know, she was being observed by a certain blue rabbit who had taken an interest in the futures of the group of friends. Sophia was curious as to the role that Diamond Tiara would soon play in this group of friends.

Then there was Silver Spoon. She and Diamond Tiara were close friends and made up quickly after Diamond apologized for the incident where she made fun of Sweetie’s robot body. The filly received perfect scores on her assignments and tests which put her at the top of the class. She also had a meticulous mindset where she overanalyzed things almost as much as Twilight. Sophia could see great potential in the filly’s mind.

Using a tiny projection device she always kept on her, Sophia brought up a holographic screen that displayed the images of the five fillies and one dragon whom she had been studying for weeks. The images were accompanied by their profile data.

While it seemed wrong to analyze these children for their combat potential, she did learn that ponies were legally allowed to join the military at the age of fifteen. The six ranged from twelve to fourteen at this point.

The only question would be if they would be willing to take part in the protection of this world when they came of age. That was probably the crucial point in this entire project. If any of them refused, she may have to scrap the whole project.

Sophia continued organizing her data even as she sensed Silver Spoon heading toward her with curious thoughts. Sophia didn’t mind that Silver saw her holographic data organizer. Who knows, perhaps something good may come of this imminent conversation.

“What is that thing?” Silver asked.

“Simply put, it’s a data organizer,” Sophia replied. Truthfully, there was more to it than that but even a smart filly like Silver Spoon might get overwhelmed if she went into more detail about it.

“Really? What data are you organizing?”

“Pretty much the data on you and your friends. I see a lot of potential in you six and I want to see what all of you could become together.”

“Even Spike? Not that I’m knocking him, but though he’s smart for a dragon, he seems to be a little behind in education. Not by much though.”

“You can blame the discriminatory rules of the E.E.A. for that,” Sophia explained. “They seem to favor unicorns to receive the most benefits of education. It has given Twilight and Starlight a lot of grief that they couldn’t give Spike a proper education because of that organization and their outdated rules.”

Silver sighed, “I figured as much. Even DT’s mother was pushing for better educational treatment for other pony tribes, though she was only doing that to get them to show more favor for earth ponies like her daughter. She didn’t actually care about increasing funding for pegasi education. Never worked out in the end since the association is full of unicorn supremacists.”

Sophia nodded, “That’s another matter that needs to be dealt with, education and literacy rates need to improve and that will require a revamp of the entire system. If the E.E.A. resists Celestia’s changes, I may have to step in for that. For now, I need to see if my little side project will work out.”

“Can I help? With your project, I mean,” Silver offered.

“Do you even know what I am trying to accomplish with this?” Sophia asked.

Silver adjusted her glasses, “Well, given that you have been trying to get Equestria to advance technologically while keeping the humans at bay until we can become strong enough to fight them, I’d say that your project involves the six of us either helping to further its advancement, which I doubt since Spike, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo wouldn’t be counted on to help our technological advancement, or you want to turn us into a special unit designed to combat the humans. That seems the most likely option since Apple Bloom can make explosives, Sweetie can be weaponized and Scootaloo is quite courageous in battle, seeing what happened when Spike went on a rampage. However, DT and myself are the least athletic among our group so I can’t say for certain what you would want with us.”

“Good assessment, Silver Spoon,” Sophia complimented. “Though the thing is, I don’t need all six of you to be fighters for this to work. No military unit is worth its salt without somepony gathering, organizing and delivering information and tactical data.”

“So that’s the role you’re considering for me? An adjutant role?” Silver then smirked at Sophia, “Do I get one of those projector things?”

“You do know that this technology is far beyond you, right?” Sophia deadpanned.

“Yes, though it doesn't mean I can’t try to learn how to use it. We still have a few more years before we are all old enough to join the E.U.P. military. I’m sure I can learn how to use it if you teach me.”

Sophia looked at Silver confusedly, “I didn’t think you would consider joining the military.”

“It’s not my first, second, third or even twenty-fifth choice, but it’s as Princess Celestia said, these humans are a threat to our way of life. I don’t want to grow up to a life of slavery, and I’m sure the others feel the same way.

“The only one you need to convince would be Diamond Tiara because she isn’t certain what she wants to do with her life. All she knows about her cutie mark is that it makes her good at bossing other ponies around.”

“I agree,” Sophia said. “But what she gained from her cutie mark is only part of her potential. What she needs is confidence and I can work with her on that. Each one of you six have skills that the others lack. I know that Diamond Tiara has lost some of her fire ever since her mother stopped causing her all sorts of grief, but I have ways to motivate others to action.”

“Just don’t push her too hard,” Silver pleaded. “Diamond’s been through a lot with her family issues and I don’t want to push her into this.”

“Don’t worry Silver Spoon, I can be as subtle as I can be brutal. The role I intend for her is too important to mess this up.”

Silver gave a small thankful smile before it turned back into a smirk, “Now then, what can you tell me about that device of yours?”