The Machine Dragon

The Crystal Empire, several hours later

Spike leaned into his trenchcoat, almost if he was attempting to tug it closed even further, which was utterly impossible given the fact it was strapped as snugly around him as possible. While many of the crystal ponies gave Twilight the “oohs” and the “aahs” and the bows, he knew that if he showed his true face, he’d be picked up and cheered and jeered and likely get an entire pile of gems…

As lovely as that sounded, the little drake was currently following closely behind his larger sister. Shining Armor and Cadance didn’t have time to give her a greeting at the train station, so the duo were hoofing it to the castle, the letter said something about meeting them in the throne room.

“Twilight, can you let me in on what else the letter said?” he asked, tailing behind the alicorn by a few hoofsteps. “I mean they’ve gotta have something more descriptive than big, metallic, and spikey.”

“I’m telling you Spike, it’s all they could discern from it,” she replied, keeping her eyes focused straight ahead, as the two were close to the palace by this point. “They’re not working with the best scanning equipment out in the cold, but I think me and Cadance could combine a bit of our magic and map out whatever it is they found without issue.”

The two continued on in silence for a bit, however before entering the castle, Spike turned his head up towards his sister, picking up his pace a bit.

“Are we sure it’s not-”

“You’d better not say aliens again,” Twilight groaned.

There was another pause.

“...I’m gonna still think it,” he replied flatly.

“Oh brother,” she huffed.

From there the rest of the trek was uneventful. The guards showed the duo to the pair of guest rooms they’d be staying in, and both of them were provided extra thick jackets, ready to endure the harsh elements that laid outside the boundaries of the Crystal Empire.

It was just a bit later and they were standing before Cadance herself, who sat on her throne, magically using a quill to sign a revolving door of unicorns with paperwork and letters. Twilight gave the older alicorn a big smile, and it was returned briefly, before Cadance immediately turned her attention back towards signing paperwork.

As much as Twilight herself wanted to give the traditional “Sunshine Sunshine, Ladybugs Awake” greeting, she remained professional. Before she could get too downtrodden at this though, Shining Armor emerged from one of the many side entrances to the throne room, followed by a small group of half a dozen or so guards.

“Spike! Twily!” smiled the excited older brother of the duo, advancing towards his siblings, who approached him in kind.

“Shining!” Twilight returned, soon embracing her big brother in a firm hug.

Spike considered pulling back, but rolled his eyes, soon joining in on the sibling hug. He was Sibling Supreme after all!

After a few seconds, the hug broke, and the trio were separated once more, with Shining’s look taking on a more serious tone, though the loving softness for his family was still evident in his eyes. He cleared his throat, bringing up a hoof as he did, before continuing on in a more “formal” tone.

“Thanks for coming on such short notice, Twilight,” he nodded, before taking on a playful tone again, the formalness fading a bit. “I know it must be difficult managing the rest of Equestria. What is it, your… sixth week anniversary now?”

“Anniversaries don’t work that way, Shiny,” snickered Twilight, though after a few giggles, her tone faded into a more serious one as well. “But to get back on track, you said in the note that you have a few images of the machine buried in the ice.”

Shining snapped up, going into a much more serious mode, fully this time.

“Right,” he nodded, before turning, motioning with a forehoof. “Follow me.”

With a nod, Twilight and Spike followed their older brother. As the group walked through the winding hallways of the palace, the little drake of the group got a few snickers and winks from the guards. He returned them with finger-guns and chuckles of his own.

Ahead of them, Twilight and Shining continued to converse.

“So you said it was found by an expedition team about two weeks ago, right?” the alicorn of the two questioned.

“Right, we sent out a few teams to scout for land that we could use to either plot down some farms or create several mines. Given our population is growing, I figured we’d better be safe than sorry. Sent out a few self-heating tents. Maybe with my and Cadance’s magic, we could recreate something similar to the Crystal Heart, on a smaller scale, just a few acres,” explained the older sibling. “At the least, though we could mine some materials; there’s a lot of untapped potential beneath the ice here.”

The group turned, taking a left to go down a different hall, more towards the inner core of the castle.

“And that’s when you found it?” Twilight reasoned.

“Yeah, a big metal… spike sticking up out of the ground,” Shining Armor said, teleporting a small hoofful of pictures in between the two, and magically handing it off to Twi.

She squinted her eyes, bringing the small photo up close.

It was a strange thing. It was purely metal, with a deep gray color. Rhombus shaped with a flat, squared-off top. It was about four or fiveish inches thick and stuck up a few hooves out of the ice.

“After a bit of digging and scanning, we discovered that it was just a small piece of whatever is beneath the ice. A little spike,” Shining added, with the group turning once more, entering a nearby door that was already open.

“Little?” Twilight cocked a brow at that, looking to her brother. “That thing’s about the size of me…”

“I know, threw me for a loop as well,” Shining admitted, as the rest of the group entered the room.

It looked strange with the decadent theme of the castle, seeming rather plain and almost boring. Just wooden floors, barren crystalline walls which had a few lanterns hanging off of them, and a large rectangular table with several seats surrounding it. A big projector stood on a tripod at the back of the room as well.

Several of the aforementioned seats were occupied by several ponies, who wore a mixture of either labcoats or suits, ties and the like. The entire thing seemed formal, with an undertone of uncertainty in the faces of most of the group, who were currently talking amongst themselves.

“Professor Fossil!” Shining Armor called happily.

A gray earth mare stood up from the group, reaching up a forehoof to wipe her glasses with a handkerchief.

“Prince Armor, thank you so much for having me here!” she said, her tone attempting to be professional, but cracking as she almost squeaked in excitement. Likely both from the meeting of royalty and the fact she was making the discovery of the century!

“It’s nothing, truly!” Shining smiled back. “Please ma’am, you and your team have been excavating the site for the past few days, can you please tell Twilight all you know?”

“Of course, of course!” she nodded, turning back to the other seated ponies, nodding her head. They quieted down at that, before Fossil herself motioned for the new group to take seats on the other side of the long, rectangular table. “Please, please, take your seats, everypony!”

Spike and the guards did so towards the back, with Twilight and Shining Armor sitting up front, just across from Professor Fossil’s own seat. Nearby a unicorn mare cut the lights, turning off the numerous lanterns that hung off the walls. Fossil cleared her throat, looking over the group, before nodding to herself.

“Princess Twilight, I am not sure how else to say this but… we seem to have uncovered what I theorize to be some sort of…” her face scrunched a bit, as if she were attempting to think of the correct word, “...automaton.”

“You mean a robot?” Spike chimed in, flexing his wings as he leaned upwards out of his chair to get a decent view of the mare. He could watch as Fossil’s face fell flat.

“Well, if you desire to use the science fiction term, then yes, I suppose one could call it a… robot,” she explained, almost spitting the word. However she soon brushed it off, her face lighting up again as she quickly pressed a button on the projector with her forehoof.

With the lights dimmed, a large, gray photograph appeared suddenly on the wall from the small device. It showed an enlarged picture of the same rhombus-like metal spike Twilight had been glancing over, however in this one, Professor Fossil herself was pictured beside it, with the spike itself being a few hooves above her head, showing just how truly big it was.

Spike himself gave an “ooh,” his eyes widening a bit in surprise at the image.

“This is just an utterly tiny piece of a larger machine. While we aren’t exactly aware of the true shape of it, we were able to do some minor excavations, which give a rough estimate of the automaton’s size,” she explained.

“How big is it?” Twilight questioned.

“Give or take… we estimate the machine to be over three hundred hooves, perhaps a hundred meters, if not a bit more?” the archaeologist answered. “Those are rough estimates of course, but until we get either better equipment or superior magical capabilities, we can’t exactly tell.”

“Three hundred hooves…” Twilight blanked to herself, seeming almost vacant as Fossil continued on, her words blanking into white noise for a few moments.

While she was utterly exhilarated at the scientific prospect of this whole excavation, a part of her remained utterly shaken by the reveal. However, the rest of her shook it off. She was a princess after all- No, THE Princess… Maybe it was just Spike’s old goofy comics rubbing off on her.

She shook herself fully out of it before Fossil could realize that she wasn’t paying attention, the white noise drifting away and letting the purple pony tune back in on the older mare’s words.

“-and while we don’t know if the machine is functional or not, whatever we can gather from it will be invaluable knowledge in furthering not only Equestrian technology, but hopefully non-magical technology as well. I’m sure numerous other nations would help us in developing this as well! Rest assured; we’ll do our best to make sure everything goes as smoothly as pos-”

“You want me to help scan it, is that it?” Twilight asked, interrupting the mare.

After a moment, Fossil blinked a few times and spoke.

“Well, your Majesty… that wasn’t really our intention, but if you’re interested in the prospect… I suppose we could rig up some equipment for such an event,” pondered Professor Fossil, before giving a nod to herself, continuing. “Princess Cadance has recently taken to signing documents relating to bringing in some of the best technology across Equestria to the Crystal Empire in an attempt to ensure this is the quickest, most effective expedition and subsequent excavation possible!”

Twilight nodded, taking a few breaths. The room was partly silent, with several pairs of eyes on the princess, Spike and Shining included.

“Do you think… whatever is below the ice could be… hostile? Dangerous perhaps?” the purple alicorn questioned.

“No, your Majesty,” replied Fossil.

Twilight leaned back in her chair, sighing in relief as the professor continued.

“You see, the ice the automaton is buried in by our estimates seems to be roughly five to six hundred years old,” the archaeologist explained. “We measured the depth, took into account the rate at which ice accumulates in the Frozen North, made all the calculations… We assure you that, even with our subpar equipment, whatever this machine is, it has not been active for a very long time. Unless you personally want to attempt to reactivate it with a jolt of magical energy, it will likely remain dormant forever.”

“Do you have any particular time frame you’d like me to use my magic to assist you?” Twilight asked.

“We do have some scanning equipment for surveys and excavation work. Typically it is used by a unicorn, however with an alicorn… or perhaps even two, it would easily be able to cover enough land area to give us an exact three-dimensional construct of the machine. From there we could easily create a model, copy the data and…” Fossil let herself trail off, realizing how ahead of herself she sounded. “Perhaps by tomorrow evening princess, the next day at most.”

“Are you sure about this Twily?” Shining asked, piping up with a concerned tone. “The cold out here can be dangerous.”

“Shiny, I am one of the best magic users in Equestria. Whatever this machine is, if I can help study it, let it help us… we could easily find ourselves in a golden age!” Twilight explained, her excitement rising at the prospect.

Who built this machine? Where did it come from? What is its purpose? Is it powered by friendship? Would it be her friend!?! While she didn’t say it, a piece of her even hoped Spike was right…

…

She’d be the first pony on the planet to have an alien as a friend!!!

Maybe it’d even teach her? Maybe it’d teach her students!?! Maybe it’d become friends with all of her friends!!! Maybe it’d help her colonize other planets and spread the glory of Friendship to the entire galaxy!!!

Maybe-

“Twi, you alright?” Spike asked.

She snapped out of her daze quickly.

“Yeah, what’s wrong?” she snickered, playing it cool and partly ignoring the fact she’d geeked out over a fantastic prospect… well to be fair, what pony wouldn’t?

Shining cocked an eyebrow at that. However, Professor Fossil cleared her throat, giving a nod, likely understanding the fellow scholar’s excitement.

“Yes, well... Your Majesty, we’ll work on everything and keep you informed on anything that transpires as soon as possible. Ultimately it is up to you on if you’d like to offer your magic to us or not,” Fossil assured.

“I’ll do it,” she replied with basically zero hesitation.

Shining and Spike would’ve butted in, but at this point, they knew better. Besides, it wasn’t like they could go against their princess. Thus, the two brothers remained quiet, almost chuckling amongst themselves.

“Excellent, thank you, Princess Twilight,” Fossil graciously said, almost bowing her head out of sheer gratitude.

“I’d never pass up a chance to help Equestria and my subjects advance themselves,” the pony princess replied. “I just hope whatever we find can be used for the good of all creatures."

“Of course, your Majesty,” nodded the older mare. “We’ll all make sure of that.”

Twilight smiled at that; joy evident on her face as her mind once more went wild with possibilities. Even as a princess, she found it hard to control her excitement at the potential revolution on the horizon. So much technology, so many questions!

Hopefully she’d get her answers…