Eater of Souls potential age

“Observing a section of space about five months ago. It was the wavelength that stood out. Most stars don’t produce magic in this band. Blue. Yellow. Red. Even purple and pink. But there aren’t very many stars that produce a green wavelength of magic.” She tapped the paper. “Four hundred and thirteen point six six two nanosparkles. Way off for most stars.”

“Enervation from space?” Glory said in bafflement.

“Way off in space.” She returned her eyes to the chart. “Adjusting for the light/magic speed differential constant, the source was in the ballpark of eight hundred million light-years away.”

“Huh?” Triage blinked, then pointed to her horn. “Hey, I’m the unicorn here. You eggheads aren’t allowed to know more about magic than me. That’s just… wrong!”

Moonshadow gave a slightly sheepish smile. “Sorry. This is just our field. Light travels about ten percent faster than magic. As far as we’re concerned, the two are simultaneous, but if a spell effect is big enough or the distance far enough, the difference can be measured. It’s really only something of interest to astronomers… or megaspell researchers,” Moonshadow replied. “Pity we weren’t around eighty million years ago. It must have been a heck of a light show. From the magical radiation hitting us now, it must have been something pretty spectacular.”

“Are we in any danger?” Triage scowled with worry.

“Relax. The field strength is lower than a dead unicorn’s horn. It’s probably been hitting Equestria for centuries now.” Moonshadow sighed. “A pity I didn’t get on it sooner. There’s an academic paper in there on astromagical phenomenon. Maybe two.”

“Publish or perish,” Morningstar agreed with a somber nod. “Isn’t that how it always goes?”

“Enervation from space,” Glory muttered, her purple eyes narrowing in thought. “Moony. You said the light arrived eighty million years ago?”

“About that. Give or take half a million years. I’d need a full lab and about a month to verify beyond that,” her sister answered. “We’d need to find fossilized tree rings, see when they absorbed this wavelength of light. As of now it’s just a hypothesis.”

Glory waved her hoof impatiently. “Could something else have arrived eighty million years ago too?” Glory asked, looking soberly from one pony to the next.

“You mean little gray ponies with antennae?” Triage wore an expression stuck between nervous and mocking. “Space ponies?”

“Statistically, there must be life out there,” Morningstar said casually. “Of course, considering the vast distances of space, the odds of it travelling to us are staggeringly small. Any sign of visitation and such would be of immense scientific and cultural significan--”

“They’ve been here,” Sky Striker rasped, cutting the mare off.

“I beg pardon?” Morningstar blinked in bafflement.

“Extraterrestrial technology has been recovered on Equestria,” the bandaged pony said as the scanner finally beeped and began to print its graph.

Morningstar gave a sick little laugh, “You’re joking.” When Sky Striker didn’t reply, her smile melted away. “You’re not joking…” She started to sputter, “But, why? The scientific opportunity! The experimentation and observation and--” Her eyes hardened behind her glasses. “It had military applications, didn’t it?”

Fallout Equestria Project Horizons Chapter 63