M.A.G.I.C.

A fan fiction by Triotheyoshi.  I don’t own any of the characters, nor will I try to make any money from this creation, read, and enjoy.

(Proofread by Spartanfoks, and Magmis123)

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The black, metallic Sphereoids followed it on its way out of the glass coffin, hovering, upright over the ground.  Like scattered ducklings behind their mother.  They dipped, and bobbed over the metal grating as they, and their master hobbled for the panel Pinky was just on moments ago.

“I might have to go back to stasis” it grumbled as it awkwardly stepped forwards, catching itself falling multiple times.  (It probably ignored the fact that it was awoken from suspended animation by ponies, because it was very, very groggy.)

After looking drunkenly for only a few seconds, the biped reacted as if it’d been struck.  Snapping away from the dashboard as if it saw the eyes of the devil laying there.

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"Oh my gosh, this is deja vu!" Rarity said to her sister, watching the rest of Ponyville scurry like mad ants outside her window.

"Well, at least we get the Summer Sun celebration again... It kinda sucks that Nightmare Moon ruined it last year, though." Replied Sweetie Belle.

"Watch your mouth, Sweetie...  Ugh, so much work left.  Perhaps Twilight can help us sort this out again."

Instead of replying, Sweetie belle simply turned around, and walked into her room.

Upon her door shutting, the ground began to vibrate.  It was subtle, almost too small to notice, but but it went on long after the door shut.  It was offputting. Offputting enough to turn Rarity's attention outwards again.  Apparently, she wasn't the only one who found it strange .  The entire town froze, and gazed in unison.

In the distance, over Ponyville, one of the mountains to the West, opposite from Canterlot, bore a new mark.

Though hardly visible, approximately six hundred feet from end to end, was imposed a scar.  A scar of yellow-brown earth, devoid of plant-life, taking a concave, crescent shape.

Hardly visible at all from this distance, let alone through a neglected glass window, were the various pieces of debris, such as uprooted trees, and great boulders.

Confused, and frightened animals scurried away from the mess, some burrowing out of the ground, some crawling out of folds in rippled sod, and some flying out of sideways trees, though these details were too fine to be known to the inhabitants of the little town.  A cloud of dust at least as wide as Ponyville roiled up into the sky, however.

The town did not stay still for long.  Most witnesses simply shrugged, justifying the event as too distant to matter.

Twilight was sent a letter to investigate from the princess.  She was to make sure that nopony got hurt, or worse, killed...  So she decided to bring her friends for the sake of safety, and company.

Within a half-hour, the group was quickly trekking up the mountainside, almost beginning to race when they neared their mark.

Rainbow Dash was first on the scene, almost by default.  Sitting down impatiently she waited for her friends.  They arrived shortly, and together they started to inspect the rubble.

"What do you think happened to the animals who were caught in the landslide!?" Asked Fluttershy.

"Don't worry about it, these are Everfree animals, ah reckon they can take care of themselves."  Said the orange one.

    She was probably right, Everfree animals possessed unnatural strength, and were very resilient.  As long as the ponies of Ponyville were around, they were amazed by the incredible hardiness of the Everfree wildlife.

"I don't hear anypony shouting for help, I think we should probably just go home." Rainbow Dash said.

"Rainbow, we've hardly seen half of this thing."

"But nopony ever comes up these mountains, what are the chances...?"  She was asking, before something caught her eye.

"Twilight, what is that?"

The mane six's sights converged  on what Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof at.  From a distance, it appeared to be a rust-red pole jutting out of the mountainside, and upon closer inspection, that's exactly what it was.

"Is that re-bar?" Asked Applejack.

"But what would re-bar be doing up here?  There were never any buildings up here, ever!" Rainbow Dash said.

"You don't know that Dash, this re-bar is telling me the exact opposite." Twilight responded.

Pinkie gasped,exclaiming  "Somepony could be trapped down there!  We gotta save him!", before digging at the dirt around the re-bar with her hooves.

"This is useless, we need to get help." Twilight said.

"Well go get the princess's help!!"  Said Applejack.

"It's not like we can just call her for everything, she's a busy pony!" She replied.

"Well there's possibly the life of somepony at stake here!  Just go!"

"Alright, I'll go!" She exclaimed, before vanishing in an explosion of light.

"Risk of some exile's life, ah'd say.  No use living in such a place, is there?"  Said Applejack.

~~~~~~~~

The distance to Canterlot was much to far to do twice.  Long teleports were uncannily known to have adverse effects, like tiring the user magically, causing distortions, or sometimes even stealing body heat to the point of freezing.  Nopony was stupid enough to go more than a couple miles without special reagents.

Twilight re-apparated in her library, behind a now startled Spike.  Who immediately sent a stack of books upwards, and screamed, before turning around.

"That always catches me off guard!" The young wyvern said.

"Sorry Spike.  I need you to send a letter." Said Twilight, with a slightly annoyed expression towards the strewn literature.

"Celestia?"

"yes, of course.  Who else can even receive those letters?"  Spike dug around a bit, and fetched a quill, and scroll.

"Luna maybe....?  I'm ready."

" Dear princess Celestia

It appears we have encountered a potentially urgent predicament regarding the landslide on the  western mountains.  We have discovered evidence that there is an underground construction of some sort, likely collapsed, within the mountainside.  We request that you lend us some of your work-force to remove the debris, and free any potentially trapped ponies in the construction.  Or maybe, if we're lucky, find some meaningful ruins.

Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle."

Spike emitted a short belch of green flame from his maw, and the paper crumbled into a grey ash, before it flew out the window.  Taking a peak, she could see the small cloud of green plasma accelerate to intense speeds within seconds, and shoot out of view.

"Thanks Spike." She said.

"No problem." He was in the process of saying, but Twilight vanished too quickly.

"Geez, somepony's in a rush."  He muttered to himself, before picking the books back up.

~~~~~~~~~~

She flashed back again, reappearing in an electric *BANG*, among her friends,

The yellowest one nearly fainted, and for a split second, her smooth hair stood up in spikes, before she cowered under her front hooves.  She took a peak to see that it was Twilight and immediately stood up again, a slight blush on her face.  all the rest were only mildly startled, Pinkie Pie stood unfazed, and staring intently at Twilight.

"Hi Twilight!" The pink one said.

They had been expecting her return.

"Ah don't s'pose you got the Boss Hoss to help you?"

Twilight cracked up a bit, and so did the rest, until Pinkie Pie just plain burst out laughing.  She only really earned glares, but obliviously continues bellowing.

"Boss Hoss huh?"  Dash asked.

"Wow, how informal" said Rarity.

"Celestia isn't a horse, silly filly!" said Pinkie.

“But I sent the letter, she should be here any minute.” Twilight responded, ending the fit.

Another few minutes passed, in which the ponies nervously scraped the dirt.

In an amazing feat of speed, the alicorn descended from the sky.  Following her were a few unicorn students twilight recognized, about six, so far nameless pegasi, and an equal number of strong, earth stallions.  Occupying flying carriages pulled by guards.

It took the princess a grand total of seven minutes to gather a workforce, and arrive, miles from Canterlot.  This wasn't the first time in her ageless existence she had to rally up a workforce in a moment's notice.  Unfortunately such action interrupts all of her or business.

"I want you to get this excavated."  The alicorn said to one of the crew.  Getting a brisk nod in response.

“What are the pegasi for?”  Twilight asked

“You never really know.” Said Celestia

Right before leaving, she turned to applejack, with a stupid grin on her face, and whispered something into her ear.

She stood up from her kneel, and took off

The orange pony turned a few shades paler.

"Boss..  Hoss..  She heard that..."  Applejack choked out.

"It's called scribing." Responded Twi

They laughed some more, and Twilight Sparkle told Applejack that Celestia was just messing with her.  After which, she loosened up quite a bit.

The team of work-ponies began their labour.

Mounds of dirt weighing at least half a ton each were scooped up in bubbles of magic, and expertly tossed rearward.  Grains, pebbles, and boulders alike tumbled down the mountainside, ripping up dust, and threatening a rock-slide.  The earth ponies, and pegasi simply shoveled surrounding dirt away that might become a hazard to the excavation.

The soil was moved within minutes.  Soon, there visibly were five or six feet of rusty steel rebar, jutting out in a rough circle from the mountainside.

Amidst the rebar, in the face of a dusty concrete circle, a large metal door was uncovered, round, and turned so its side pointed out of the mountain, like a butterfly valve.  After a short time of careful excavation, it rolled out of its perch, cracking from its hold in the caked earth, when it was a little more than half-uncovered.  It almost crushed the pony who had taken the final piece holding it fast.  Its heavy, steel, gear-like form bounded down the mountainside with tremendous momentum, embedding itself halfway into the ground when it slammed into a foothill.  An audible, concussive thump resounded both through the air, and below their hooves.

"Ok, if that doesn't cause another landslide, then I don't know what will."  Said Dash.

Thick concrete was now visible, with rebar spearing out equidistantly.

The concrete incrementally more resembled a tube over the next minute, traveling into the mountain, as more debris was hurled from its face.  The whole thing was beginning to look like a sewer pipe.

rather quickly, a tunnel was being excavated, chunks of stone being hurled out were quickly replaced with chunks of ice in their stead.

“This place was frozen in, I don’t think there COULD be any ponies in here”  Said Rarity.

"How the hay'd it get frozen in?" Asked AJ

“Easy, something down there's enchanted to absorb heat, and at some point of time, while this mouth was covered, there was a lot of precipitation.  Although... reinforced concrete is a relatively new invention, and it takes eons for a place like this to gather so much ice, something just doesn't add up.  What if there’s history down there?.” Twilight replied, getting audibly excited.

The mane six sat down, and watched intently, as stallions, and mares alike worked tirelessly, exhuming an ever-growing mass of glacier, and rock.  Eventually a call came out from deep within, resounding into the outside world.

"HEY, TUNNEL'S CLEAR PAST HERE"

The girls perked up, and peeked inside, they didn't have to stand outside anymore because they would no longer get in the way of high-speed cobble, and ice fragments en route to exit the cave.

for about fifty feet, the inside surface of the six, or seven foot diameter tube was covered in ice.  which was quickly ground off with magic, by a couple unicorns.  The concrete hallway appeared to travel at a slight down-angle, into the mountain, for about a thousand feet.  An ambient humming, and draft was audible, originating from the far end of the tunnel.

The tunnel was regularly lighted by bright bluish-white tubes, mounted on the walls, which seemed to activate as soon as the mane six passed the ice.  The work team paused, one of who said

"This is as far as we go. We weren't given orders to explore this thing, you can go ahead, and find what you were looking for."

Most of them left immediately.

As they left, they left a substantial coil of rope, with one end tied to the rebar outside of the tunnel.  Which applejack immediately took responsibility of.

Despite not being payed much attention to, Fluttershy was in shambles, and Rainbow Dash was very reluctant to go on.

"This place is too small" the cyan one said.  With a fearful look on her face.  Her claustrophobia was understandable.  Pegasi are very used to being free, in extremely open spaces.

"ECHO" Pinkie screamed, the sound returning many times in the next few seconds.

"Eeep" was all the shy one could squeak out.

"What are these?" Said the lavender one, as she hoofed one of the lights on the side of the tunnel.  Who could not help but stare at each one as they progressed.

"This place is so drab!" Rarity complained.  It was true, the walls were very plain, cracking, and cold, and the whole thing smelled of musty old concrete.

Every hoofstep echoed back loudly, with a sewer-esque distortion the tunnel gave.

Twilight peered back, the mouth of the tunnel was now dark-purple, the sun was setting.

It took another ten minutes, the gaping mouth of the tunnel shrunk to a pinprick, and the end of the tunnel was visible.  Another metal door stood in their path.

This one wasn't rusted, or turned sideways, though.  a button was visible on the side of the door, about a foot higher than the heads of any of the ponies.

As they neared it, they realized that it probably moved the door, quite how though, was a mystery.

the group stood in front of it, it's huge presence slightly intimidating.

"Do you think we should?"  Applejack aked, spitting out the much-thinned coil.

"Of course!  What could possibly be in there to harm us?  There aren't any known creatures that lived past an ice-age." Twilight said. "Those lights alone prove that somepony, or someone was good at using magic.  This might even be where Starswirl disappeared to after his final time spell.  Opening this door could have a profound effect on the future of Equestria."

"I gotta see" Said Dash.

Pinkie pie momentarily spazzed out.  "Whoa!  a double-back leg fold, a tail-twitch, and a neck wobble all at once?"

"what do you think that means?" Applejack said.

"I have NO idea!" The pink one said.  "Should be fun to find out!".  Immediately after, she bounced up, and slammed the button with her nose.

The rest of the group gaped for a second.

"Uh oh" said Dash, as Fluttershy backed into her.

“Sorry, had to do it to advance the plot.” The pink one said.

Steam burst out of the crack of the door, hissing, and dampening the nearby concrete.

The door rolled into an alcove beside it, pushed by an unseen force.

Inside, there was but a single room, about thirty feet squared.

The way this room was furnished was strange.  The floor was made of criss-crossed strips of metal, making a mesh, with the thin-sides pointed up, and down.  There was a large, metal table, with a strange, glass pod mounted to its top.  The walls, and ceiling were made of metal, there was a large, metal cabinet on the near, right wall, and a tall metal pillar, with the top cut at a slant, also about a foot higher than any of the ponies, covered in switches, and dials.  A large knife switch, painted red stood out from the rest of the items.

The whole room was cold, very cold, and absolutely still.  Finally, there was a metal tube, standing six feet high, in the middle of the room.  There were gaps in its hull, which a blue light shone through.  It hummed loudly, very loudly, but dully.  The air around it seemed cold.  Perhaps that's what caused the ice to stay frozen.

On the button panel, there was only one set of recognizable symbols, which read:

"457,695"

From the walls, and ceiling, more of those autonomous light-fixtures were mounted.  The lighting they provided was bluish-white, like a hospital.

Nopony said anything, they just walked in, each wincing slightly as the metal-grate hurt their hooves.

All six wandered to the table first, which, conveniently, was quite close to the floor.

Twilight sparkle was the first to look, and let out a gasp, as she beheld, there was something inside of the pod.

It looked like nothing any of them had ever seen.

Through the glass, the group observed an unfamiliar form, with a gait like that of an upright dragon.  It had four limbs, a torso, a face, and joints in most of the appropriate places, but almost completely lacked scales, or hair for that matter.  On the ends of its forelimbs, it bore hands, though lacking the claws of a dragon. Its forelimbs themselves were far longer than that of a dragon's.  On its rather flat face, what could only be its snout protruded, but did not contain its jaw.  Its eyes remained unmoved, staring straight up at the roof of its pod.

Several pieces of smooth, shiny, oblong black metal were hovering around it, each about an inch long, at random points, hovering an inch from its skin, in the pod with it.

"What is it?"  Asked Applejack.

"It looks so.... naked."  Said Rarity.  The creature had a little bit of clothing, but it was nothing more than a pair of short white pants that covered its nethers.

"Is it an alien?" Asked Dash, who got a pretty supportive look from Twilight.

"Is it even alive, still?  This looks like a technological tomb."

The cabinet was locked, by means which none of the ponies, not even Twilight Sparkle could pick.  It had three, deep sockets, which appeared as something should fit into, and it split down the middle into two heavy doors.  The whole thing made out of an amorphous, glossy, black metal.

“We should probably tell Celestia about this” Said an unsure purple pony.

"Of course we should!  This is something unwitnessed by ponykind!" Said Rainbow Dash.

"I dunno, Dashie, this thing looks familiar.  An old mare once told me a story of an adventurer who unwittingly brought a spirit of Chaos into the world.  The description of his form was similar to this thing in here, but I was just a little filly, and she was pretty senile."

The nearby pillar, which everypony figured to be a control panel bucked as it warped.  Pinkie stood atop it, gazing down triumphantly.

Twilight visibly winced as Pinkie pulled the red knife switch without so much as a thought.

It made the noise of rust getting ripped from its host.

"What are you doing??!!  You can't just..."  Twilight screamed.

“Setting it free, duh!”  She calmly replied with a great grin.

A humming sounded, much sharper, and more irritating than the glowing tube in the middle of the room.

Several clacks could be heard, as the oblong pieces of metal dropped to the bottom of the glass tube.

The tube warped in a polygonal style, short, crystalline, grinding noises could be heard, as the pod split up into an array of congruent triangles, which flew away from a center-point a short distance, before vaporizing.

The creature did not move for many seconds in suspense , but its eyes finally did.

It wildly flicked about the room, before training on them..

They were getting ready to burn rubber, right the hell out of there, until it softly  said.

"Doc?"  Nothing more than a dry whisper.  Though it resounded in the skulls of the bystanding ponies like artillery shells.

"Doc?!" It said again, with more strength in it's voice.

"Doc, I can't see!"  It hoarsely groaned.

What felt like an hour passed before it spoke again.

"doc..."

"doc, what are those?"

a lazy, limp arm tumbled out of its glass tomb, pointing a weak finger at the group of ponies.  All of whom flinched at the horrific sight.

~~~

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~~~

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(Pointless suspense adders are pointless)

    The whole group stood stone still, not doing a very good job blending in.  (About as well as a bunch of skittle coloured ponies in a dimly lit, monochromatic, blackened steel room.)

Apprehension is such a funny thing.

    Some more details about our “alien”:

It was ghost pale.

It had canines.

The little hair it did posses was black as night, and gathered on top of his head

It just used a finger to point.

Its weak voice clearly sounded masculine, but nopony was going to make any assumptions.

YOU GET IT, IT'S A DAMN HUMAN!!

Fluttershy squeaked.

The group simultaneously flinched.

On this, the creature turned its head slowly, so it no longer had to strain its eyes to the side to look at them.

“Doc, you aren’t here... are you?”

Rainbow dash killed the suspense, a stern expression appeared on her face.  She trotted up to it.

“What are you?” She asked softly.  Getting urgent gestures from her friends to come back.

“I think I can see again”

She moved in closer, now only about six inches from its face.

“What are you!?” She asked louder.

The whole group was silently screaming, covering their faces with their forelegs, and hooves.

“You look...... kinda cute.” It said.

The remark threw rainbow dash out of her offensive stance, and cleared a lot of the tension that was stringing the group up.

It was not intimidated by her.

“The question is.... what are YOU?”  it asked, in a groan.

It sat up.  Everypony flinched.

“A Pon-”  Dash began to say

“Wait a minute, you look kinda like horses........ Small horses...  I swear this is familiar.”

“They all di.... disappeared, a lo.... long time ago.” Twilight stammered out.

“Ponies” Dash finished.

“Ponies... Ponies.... Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know where the Doc is, now would you?”  Mumbling something along the lines of “... There’s more of them?”

Dash re-assumed her stance.

“What are you?” Demanded Dash.

“I am what you would call a 'human'.  Didn't the doc tell you about this?”

“Who's this Doc?" She inquired further.

Fluttershy was almost fainting behind her friends, quivering, and flat against the ground at this point.

“Will you save it Dash?”  Twilight said.  “we can have him explain himself when we have him in Canterlot, with Celestia, Luna, and some scribes to write down what we learn.”

“Celestia, and Luna?” It quizzed.  “They are still around?”

“What do you mean?  They are immortal!  Nopony could replace them!” Twilight replied

He only furrowed his eyebrows, and mumbled "Frickin' crazy ponies."

Pinkie was encouraging the shy back one up at this point.

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Celestia was back in her castle, expecting a letter, any minute, from her student, though doing her normal chores adherent to being a princess.

Luna was re-learning the layout of the castle, there had been a lot of changes over her thousand-year absence.  Though she had already learned all of its basic layout, there were hundreds of secrets, nooks, and crannies where artifacts of high magic, or treasure lay.

    She was just getting strong enough to bring night about by herself again.  In fact, tonight was the first night she had tried since her return from banishment.  Not surprisingly, it was beautiful.  Far more beautiful than Celestia could have ever done.  The stars were made to appear bright again, the moon was full, the constellations were exactly right, the milky way behind the stars was very clear, and a few ponies stayed up a couple extra hours to witness its awesomeness.

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“I hope you don’t mind” It said.

It dangled its feet out of the pod, forcing itself upright when they connected with the ground.

It was frightening to the ponies to say the least.  It stood higher up than any of them were long, on two, wiry, single knee'd back-legs

The black, metallic spheroids followed it on its way out of the glass coffin, hovering, upright over the ground.  Like scattered ducklings behind their mother.  They dipped, and bobbed over the metal grating as they, and their master hobbled for the panel Pinky was just on moments ago.

“I might have to go back to stasis” it grumbled as it awkwardly stepped forwards, catching itself falling multiple times.  (It probably ignored the fact that it was awoken from suspended animation by ponies, because it was very, very groggy.)

After looking drunkenly for only a few seconds, the biped reacted as if it’d been struck.  Snapping away from the dashboard as if it saw the eyes of the devil laying there.

“457,695......  oh, that’s sobering.” He mumbled.  A single tear began to well up, only to be swiped briskly, and cast unto the floor..

It got on its knees.

“what’s wrong?”  Fluttershy asked

“all..... gone” He muttered.

“They’re all gone.... My whole race!...  The job will be finished by the solstice!”

“What!?” Said the group in unison.

“It means I have been in suspended animation for over four-hundred fifty thousand years!....  M.A.G.I.C. succeeded in its endeavours, and has wiped out our entire race, and I am the only survivor, only because I was in complete suspended animation.  I'm soon to be vegetabalized like the rest, unless by some freak accident, something might change me enough to let me slip through, or you happen to have some otherworldly material, like enderblood, and there's no way you could get enough to keep me for an extra day!” It yelled, pressing its hands into its forehead.

“What in the hay are you talking about?”  Applejack asked.

It paused, at this, and continued. “I guess the only thing that will remain of my race is what I pass on, and the only option is knowledge....  Do you ponies know what magic is?“

“Why, yes, it’s a very important part of our culture!” Twilight said.

“Then I will teach your people the deep, dark secrets of M.A.G.I.C.  The secrets that lie behind its very foundations” It concluded after a minute.

“What did you say about magic?” Asked Applejack

“suspended animation?” Asked Twilight

“Vegetabal...ization?” asked Pinkie Pie.  Who was about to elaborate on her inquisition until Twilight plugged her maw with a hoof.

“I.... I will explain in.... In.... what was that place mentioned?”  Red marks of light tears on his cheeks, and around his eyes.

“Canterlot” Twilight answered.

“Y...Yes, Canterlot...  But first...”

He stood up off his knees, and walked in a slump, to the tall, metal cabinet.  He motioned his hand upwards, and three of the... about twelve oblong metal pieces floated up into his hand, orbiting slowly around each other.

He smiled a little, but it faded away in short order.

“I have been meaning to ask, what are those?”  Twilight said.

“Just modern technology.  Multipurpose material.  We call it ‘Pullus Ferrum'.  This specific forging made devices known as 'Orbitors'.  They do lots of things.”

He pushed the three masses into their matching three sockets on the metal cabinet.  Almost without delay, the doors popped open.  There hung about six pairs of long leggings, and tops, that looked more like armor than clothing, made of a black, reflective material, stretched into strings, and woven, with thick plates of a similar make attached here, and there.  Below the clothing, hung several odd looking devices on hooks, made out of an identical black metal.  One looking like an extra-long unicorn's horn, with a handle obviously designed for hands to clutch, and with smaller horns spiralling up, largest at the base, and smallest at the top, comparable in appearance to a ferrofluid spire.

This device, it grabbed, along with some of its strange clothing.

“aah, this old friend... it would be folly to leave home without it.” The human said.  “Who knows what the field has done to the world, I might be killed in seconds proper knowledge.”

“Uuuh... We know.” Said Applejack.

"Oh... Right."

While he was fitting on the clothing, Rarity was itching to make a comment, and was just opening her mouth when Twilight stopped her.

“Rares, I know what you’re thinking, but this creature is obviously grieving.  A comment on its strange fashion isn't going to help.” Twilight said, with a hoof on Rarities shoulder.

“I’m sorry” The white pony said, a look of guilt crossing her face.

“I assume that your kind doesn't know much about its origins, now does it?” The human said.

“We have a recorded history of about 50,000 years, there are much older countries, with much longer history attached to them.  Though in those times, the lands were ruled by chaotic forces.  Records past then are...  inconsistent.”

“Damned machine.  Can simulate a genetic algorithm, but doesn't have a hint of empathy for some things.  Say...  You and the white one have horns, can you manipulate the field?”  He asked, pointing to Twilight.

“You mean cast spells?” Twilight quizzed. “Of course!”

She then levitated the fractal horn out of the humans hands, and dropped it back down.

“Oh, this history lecture is gonna be a lot of fun.” It said.

It stood up, and lifted up its soft, toed foot, and motioned towards it, a few of the

metal-objects out of the cabinet hovered to it, melded together, and transmogrified into a boot that couldn't have been thicker than paper, and on inspection, wasn't.  This process it repeated for the other foot, covering both in a hard shell of black, polygonal metal.

All six ponies stared in awe, none had ever seen anything like this, magic tricks, sure, but this material was beginning to scare them.  It stood up on its two feet, and said.

“Well, let’s get a move on then.”

It couldn't run very fast, only about one third as fast as any able-bodied pony, its lack of forelegs on the ground was probably to blame for that.  So the ponies slowed town to a trot.

     Everypony, but the pink one was wondering how it managed to balance all of the time on those two long, spindly, weak-looking legs so well, though Pinkie always had a freaky talent for standing on two legs.

“You are the weirdest creature I have ever seen in my life” Said Rainbow Dash, while they were in the deep end of the tunnel.

“You obviously haven’t seen much of the deep ocean, have you?” It said, earning a confused look from everypony around.

"You guys have no idea.  Stop looking at me like that."

They spent a while walking out.  The pinprick of night, barely visible from their end of the tunnel beckoned, the powdery smell of old, moist concrete was beginning to make the ponies nauseous.

On the way out, he learned the names of the ponies, starting with Twilight, and ending with Rainbow Dash, but none had asked him for his name, so he hadn’t told.

    It took a good twenty minutes to get out of the cave, and on the last stretch, he snatched one of the glowing blue-white tubes from the wall, and tinkered with it a bit, before it glowed about six times brighter, and was half concealed by the creatures' orbiters, to form a bright, floating lantern, almost blinding to whatever it shined upon.

“At this rate, you’ll be dead before you even reach Canterlot” Dash bluntly complained, earning a hurt look from the human, before he smiled, and motioned to the remaining mass of liquid metal, forming black spheres in his hands, that his long fingers grasped around.

Apparently pushed upwards by his boots, and given balance by the spheres, he was hovering, and was about to show off his speed when...

“you know what, let’s just all teleport, wandering around the night, especially in the Everfree Forest is a BAD idea, and there’s miles of Everfree from here to pony-ville, and miles more to Canterlot.  According to you, we don’t have much time, and it could take the rest of your life-span to teach us all you know.”

“I agree, but you’ll see that, despite the fact that I will definitely live for at least six days, at least, I will only really be able to teach for the first three” it said morbidly, apparently also being familiar to the concept of teleportation.

“What do you mean?”  asked Twilight Sparkle

“will the teleport mess up my mane?” Rarity asked, before receiving a fiery glance from everypony, and the human.

“sorry”

“it will be a challenge teleporting all of us though” Twilight said.  “It takes a lot of energy to teleport even one pony, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand on my own after the jump”

“I have a solution” The human said, re-ammassing all of his liquid metal, except that on his feet, into a single lump, hovering in front of him.

“Touch it” it said simply

It did so itself, and the liquid began to act like an adhesive, sticking to his finger, before spreading over its entire arm, and then his entire body, leaving gaps only for his eyes, mouth, and nose, the whole process took only about two seconds, for the fluid glided swiftly.

“I dunno, that looks kind of dangerous” Said Rainbow Dash

“I thought you were s’posed to be courageous, I say you go first”  Said AppleJack.

“Are you kidding me?  I bet he’ll kill me with that as soon as I touch it”

“Look, will you just touch it?  I never thought this would be an issue.” The human said.

The rest of her peers gave her a glare.

“Alright, fine, I’ll do it.” Dash said, defeatedly.

She did so, and in a couple seconds, there stood a silhouette of a pegasus, taking the mirrored colours of its surroundings, rather than black.

“This isn’t so bad”  Dash said.

The rest of the group complied.

“Ok, we are all covered, Twilight, you can teleport now.” It said.

She did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An instant later, they were in the Canterlot palace.  Not so much as a peep was emitted by a teleport that would usually break windows with a concussive blast.  The pullus ferrum almost instantly separated from the ponies, leaving not a trace of its presence.  No, Rarity’s mane was not harmed.

A few guards swiveled their heads to meet the intruders, but they took no action when they saw that Twilight Sparkle was among them.

The human tucked the light-rod into a fold of its black, metallic clothing.

Before them stood a massive pair of ornate red doors, trimmed with gold, and guarded by many pairs of hardened sentries, who were straining not to give their attention to the human.

Twilight knocked on the door loudly, the white guard-stallions giving very strange looks to the spectacle that stood besides Twilight, failing to keep their composure.

“you had better stay back here” Twilight said. “I don’t want to risk anything going out of my plan to explain this all successfully.”

The doors opened, dragged by more guard stallions.

Twilight entered the spacious room, along with her five friends.  Celestia’s, and Luna’s raised thrones sat in the middle of the establishment, next to each other.  Huge tapestries hung from a ceiling too high to see the details of, at either side of the princesses, with depictions of the sun, moon, and a yin-yang of both.  Both princesses appeared so kind, yet so intimidating, to all but Twilight who was used to being around them.

The white princess closed, and dropped a book she was reading, and said.  “There must have been much more there than a trapped pony for you to come here in person.”

“You’re absolutely right my princess, In fact, it is rather urgent that we get some scribes” Twilight said before getting cut off by Rainbow Dash

“Princess, we found a super-old, techno-alien from four-hundred-something thousand years in the past, and he’s only got six days to live, or five.... or three.... Whatever, He wants to talk abo...”

She got cut off by Applejack “It’s trying to pass on the dying knowledge of its race”

Who got cut off by Celestia “Ok, ok, calm down my little ponies, bring him in, we will have a talk.  Though, this wasn’t planned for, so we may... ”

“MASTER SCRIIIIIIIIIIIIBE!!!” Luna yelled in her royal Canterlot voice.

A dragon, appearing many years older than spike, blue scales, with white spines, almost as tall as Celestia, appeared quickly through a small door, left of the chambers main doors.  He scurried up to the throne, receiving a quiet “Hi gargoyle” from Twilight, as he ran past her.  He gave her a quick smile, before addressing the princess of night.

“You, and your troop, all have a lot of notes to take today.” Luna said much more softly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A small crowd of dragons were present, of highly varying stature, and color.  All ready to take notes, of different interpretations, and viewpoints, of what the ancient being was going to say.

The room was quite small, with a ceiling that the bipeds head often brushed up against, and had ornate marble walls, few furnishings, but a nearby chalkboard, and a chair that it sat in.

Twilight anxiously listened, hoping to hear a Revelation.

“It looks kinda like one of us”

“does it even speak equestrian?”

“Can it breathe fire?”

It sat, quietly, in its chair, until the dragons stopped babbling to each other.

He stood up, placing his black horn on the ground, and began.

The dragons immediately began to write, even before he said anything

“Hello, I am Stoic, Stoic is my name, that is, and I am belonging to the oldest known sentient race to occupy the planet Earth..............”

End of part 1