The Reason Why
Chapter One
The Circle Of Life
The view from that one window in the castle of Canterlot probably was the best one you could find anywhere in Equestria. Miles away you were able to see the snow-covered mountains of the high north shining in the late-summer's sunlight, a railroad track drawing a line through the landscape between the small villages and bigger cities on the way to the mountains, a couple of light white clouds searching their way through the azure sky and changing their forms every now and then. It was an amazing view, not a single pony that ever had been able to take a look through this very window ever had denied that.
But not even this wonderful view was able to distract the pony that was seeing it in this very moment from the worries and fears that haunted her mind. This wonderful view would not change anytime soon, but in the worst possible case there soon would be no pony left to enjoy it, no pony to come up all the way to the castle, no pony in the castle itself.
Celestia's facial expression grew even more sad when she heard a bird sing in a tree near the window. This bird had no idea what was happening, and this bird never would notice that there actually was something happening at all. This bird would still sit here and sing when there was no pony left to hear him...
An opening door threw Celestia out of her thoughts. Her body did not move at all, but her sad facial expression transformed into a calm, neutral one when an other pony slowly walked towards her. She kept staring out of the window for another while until the pony had come close enough. Even before she turned around to face the visitor, she knew who it was.
“Your highness, we are ready. If any of them survived, we will be able to wake them up now”, the gray unicorn stallion said silently. Celestia had been waiting for these words for over three months, even though there still was an if in it that would be able to destroy all hope she had gained from this project.
She nodded slowly. “I will be at the laboratory in ten minutes. Please tell my sister to come too.”
Her voice was calm, but still there was that sad, hopeless part in it. If the project had failed, there was no hope to rely on any more.
No hope at all.
Ten minutes later Celestia met three other ponies in front of a small door that covered an entrance deep under the streets of Canterlot. The caves beneath the city had not been used in quite a while, but lately some ponies that had gained knowledge of those caves had started using them for several different purposes. One of these purposes was the laboratory that contained the last chance Celestia had seen to solve their life-threatening problem.
She was accompanied by the unicorn that had visited her before, her sister Luna and an other white unicorn stallion. The two unicorns were wearing white smocks and foursquare glasses on their snouts. One of them held a key in the air using the magic coming from his horn.
The door in front of them was a massive steely one, almost as thick as wide, to prevent any unwanted intruder from entering the chamber it protected. Neither Celestia nor Luna had seen the inside in a couple of years, since that day when Celestia had stopped the project she now had revived.
Difficult times sometimes called for strange decisions.
When the unicorn holding the key looked at the two princesses' faces, both just nodded to show him that it was time for them to see if their experiment had been successful. Neither Celestia nor Luna showed any kind of nervousness, but that was not because they did not feel nervous. They had to keep calm, no matter what would happen.
The unicorn consecutively stuck the key into the three keyholes locking the steely door and pushed the door to open it. Once the three locks were open, the door moved easily with almost eldritch silence and uncovered a wide dark hall. All the princesses could see was a few red shining dots, all they could hear was a few small motors humming silently and their own hoof steps.
The unicorn that had unlocked the door set his hoof on a switch, and a second later all the hall was lit and gave Celestia and Luna a view that was just too familiar. More than ten years before Celestia had canceled this exact project, more than ten years before she had stopped a group of scientists from building more of those glass coffins she looked at now. It was kind of ironic that Celestia thought of the incubators as glass coffins that were anything but a symbol for hope and new life...
“Your highness... we need to see how many have survived. Could you please follow us?”, the white unicorn whispered.
Celestia nodded weakly. “Sure.”
Her hope however had faded even long before the unicorn scientist had switched on the light. Every incubator had two little telltale lamps, a green one and a red one. The red ones, all fifty of them, still were shining and showed that all the incubators were working. The green lights however showed no reaction at all, which meant that there was no heart beating inside these incubators.
Celestia slowly walked the paths between the incubators, talking a look at every pony inside them. All of them looked different, they all were individuals, almost grown-up, still so young. But not a single one of them ever would get to know what was happening, none of them ever would be able to look out of the window...
Suddenly something in the corner of Celestia's eye drew her attention away from the pony she was watching, a light orange earth pony stallion. She immediately turned around and saw that she had been mistaken.
She saw two green lights flashing.
“This is a miracle...”, one of the scientists whispered after they had approached the two incubators with the flashing lights. They looked at the two ponies inside them, both sleeping peacefully and breathing softly. This time the princesses were unable to hide their happiness completely. Looking at the two young mares that had survived finally gave them hope again. One of them was a carmine pegasus with a blond mane that was lanced by a light green stripe, the other one was a white unicorn with a violet mane.
“Wake them up, please”, Celestia prompted the scientists. “They will be fine, won't they?”
“They will, your highness.”
The two scientists laid their hooves down on a switch on each of the two control panels attached to the incubators. A minute later the anesthetic that kept the ponies asleep was replaced by fresh air.
“We needed to be sure the ponies wouldn't wake up before it's time”, one of the scientists explained. Celestia and Luna did not react to that at all, they just wanted to watch the ponies that were waking up.
When the process was finished, the scientists pushed the glass domes away that had kept the ponies safe and warm for three full months. For the first time in their short lives they were not surrounded by glass any more.
The pegasus mare was the first one that moved. She stretched out her hind legs and rubbed her closed eyes before she slowly opened them. Celestia immediately came a step closer and gave her face the nicest and friendliest look she could get. Once the carmine pegasus had opened her eyes completely and gotten used to the light shining in her face, she turned around her head and looked at Celestia – in a naive, almost childlike way.
One scientist came closer and whispered into Celestia's ear.
“Her brain will need a few more moments to work properly. The growth modification also has given them some basic abilities, but they will need to find them in their brains first.”
The nodding Celestia uttered showed that she actually wasn't really interested in that right now. Her attention was with the pegasus that looked at her like a mother.
“Hey... Can you hear me? Do you understand me... Carmine Haze?”
Celestia had noticed that every incubator had a little metallic panel with a name in it, so this should be the names being meant for these ponies.
Carmine Haze reacted with an inquiring look at her but also nodded a moment later.
“I... I think I can understand you... Carmine Haze... is that my name?”
Celestia did not answer. She just looked into the pony's eyes and shed a tear. She was unbelievably happy that Carmine Haze was alive, as if she was Celestia's own child. She couldn't help but wrap her fore hooves around Carmine and hold her for a few seconds.
“Carmine... welcome to Equestria.”
Celestia and her companions were so distracted by the pegasus pony that they almost didn't notice that the unicorn mare had woken up too. The first one to approach her was the gray unicorn scientist.
“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna... she is waking up too!”
Celestia looked up from her hug. She was waiting for the unicorn to open her eyes, to see her first thing too. However, since she didn't want to leave Carmine all alone, she silently told Luna to take care of her. Luna understood and came closer to the second incubator to be able to watch the unicorn mare waking up.
Finally she opened her eyes and stared forward, but there was nothing to stare at. Her eyes also looked strange, her pupils were filled by a white mist.
The white scientist immediately lit his horn and pointed the light right into the mare's eyes.
No reaction.
Luna's friendly face turned sad within a second. “Is she... blind?”
“She is”, the scientist answered.
The unicorn mare herself maybe still was unable to understand what the ponies were talking about, but she noticed herself that something was wrong. She tried to get aware of her surroundings by groping, but except the incubator bed she was lying on there was nothing. Her whole body started shaking and she fearfully crouched down on her bed.
Luna came an other step closer and slowly touched the young pony's mane with her hoof.
“Ssh... no need to be afraid, Cura Satora. I'm here.”
Her hoof stroked the unicorn's mane to calm her down, but the shaking did not fade until Luna sat down next to Cura and held her close to her chest.
“I... you... who are you?”, Luna heard the unicorn asking.
“I am a friend. My name is Luna.”
Author's Note
I composed a piece of music for the intro of this story:
http://soundcloud.com/naturematthe/intro-menue
