The Unknown - Part 1

The shimmering moon above created a blanket of soft light over Ponyville. The view was perfect from Luna’s perspective as she admired her masterpiece. Luna’s eyelids drooped a little with tiredness due to her short slumber. The constant worry of last night’s situation had left her in a state of tossing and turning in bed.

“I should get an early start. The Canterlot Library opens at 6 am.” she said.

Holding the moon at the edge of the horizon, she turned on her bedroom lights. They blinded her slightly as she stumbled to her closet. Her eyes blinked in rapid succession until her vision came to. Opening the closet door, a few miscellaneous objects flew out, including her saddlebag.

“How did that get in there?” she wondered and placed it aside.

Searching through her closet, she found some things from her precious past. Things like dolls and a fake plastic crown for when she played princess as a filly, before she became one. Digging deeper, her hoof touched something hard. Reaching into the darkness, she brought it out into the light. It was a shoe made for her other persona….as Nightmare Moon. Shaking her head, she tossed it into the abyss of the closet.

“Never again.” she uttered. “I’ve caused Equestria enough trouble, it’s time for me to fix a problem for a change.”

After a while, she found a black cloak.

“Here it is! Hopefully, nopony will notice.” she said, wrapping it around her and placing the hood on her head. To not raise suspicion, she lowered the moon a little more, just in case anypony was viewing the sky at this hour. Luna raced over with her bag to her bedside table. She stuffed a water bottle, her recovery pills, and a few oat bars in the bag before turning off her lights.

Luna peered through the crack in the door to be aware if any guards went by.
The coast was clear.
Taking precaution, she widened the door’s opening slowly to which in response, it creaked. She held her breath until it was enough for her to slip through. Slowly closing it back, she tiptoed quickly through the halls and ducking behind plant pots for cover.

Across from her, a window was slightly ajar and next to it, a guard. Thinking quickly, she scooped up a rock with her hoof from the plant pot, tossing it far away. Fortunately, it hit something metal and made a hollow sound. The guard turned his attention towards the noise and walked over to investigate. Stealthily, she moved across the room and quickly opened the window to climb out.

“That was close.”, Luna huffed. “I was nearly caught.” Placing the window back, she went down into the bushes outside of the castle. With the moon looming overhead, she took a moment to adjust its position.

“I must keep an eye on the moon in order to keep it in proper motion.”, she thought,
“ Celestia will be up soon, it’s almost time for her shift.”

She zipped throughout the streets, trying not to be seen by early risers or store owners opening for the day. Making her way down the street, a store light came on and Luna quickly bolted as to not be caught. Suddenly, she bumped into something. Making her stumble to the ground, she didn’t get a proper look at it.

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry.” said a female voice. As Luna regained her sight, the figure was indeed a pony, an aqua green colored unicorn to be precise, and she held out her hoof to help Luna up.

“I can’t let her know it’s me.” Luna thought. Then, she got an idea: Talk in a deeper voice. Luna took her hoof as the unicorn helped her up.

“It’s fine. I was just in a hurry to get to the library.” she said in a low tone.

The unicorn nodded, “Well, that’s good. Glad you’re not hurt.” Then, she trotted off in the other direction.

A sigh of relief escaped her mouth as she ran towards the front door of the library. The librarian walked outside, opened the doors, and started to sweep the front entrance. Luna raced past her without acknowledgement. Running down the corridors, she found the door that lead to the space section.

“Excellent. This area will have something on the patterns of the sun” she said.

Overlooking each title of the books, she came across the “Astronomer’s Guide to the Sun”. Taking it off the shelf, she scanned the room for a hidden spot. A beanbag was comfortably sat at the corner of room and Luna headed that way. She noticed a window and quickly remembered her job.

“Dang it, almost forgot.” she said.

Dropping the book, she swiftly lowered the moon out of sight, just as the few peaks of sunray were showing. Satisfied, she grabbed the book and walked over to the corner to read.

“If Celestia doesn’t know what’s going on, maybe this book will. Worth a shot.” she thought to herself. Then, she settled down for a long, exhausted read.

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As the sun rained its brilliance upon Ponyville, its residents were overjoyed with talk of the upcoming celebration and were basking in the sunshine. Except for the Mane 6. They all were busy having a relaxing day at the spa.

“Oh my”, Fluttershy exclaimed, “this is so nice. What an excellent idea to come here, Twilight.” She happily sniffed the air as she enjoyed her Flower Aromatherapy.

Twilight smiled, “Why, of course! I feel like I owe it to you all. You’ve all been hard at work with your contributions to the celebration. Also, Spike is in the Crystal Empire helping Shining Armor and Cadance with royal business, so it just us mares!”

Rarity lifted a cucumber from her eye and looked over at Twilight.

“Nonsense, darling! In all honesty, you shouldn’t have. We would’ve done the work for free, no reward needed.” Rarity said, repositioning the cucumber back on her face.

Some bubbles formed in the spa bath and quickly emerged the pink party pony wearing goggles. She dripped water over the edge as she hung over the side, smiling.

“Yeah, Twilight. If anything, I would’ve been okay with being paid with candy..or cupcakes.” Pinkie admitted, diving back into the tub.

Applejack was having a calming massage when she overheard the conversation.

“Thank ya kindly, Twi! Been working hard trying to get those recipes done right. I was lookin’ for a way to spend my down time.” Applejack stated.

“Me too.” Rainbow chimed in, “ I nearly sprained my hoof trying to do my signature stunts.” She gently rubbed her backhoof as she sat under the hairdryer.

Fluttershy looked down in fear but finally asked, “Um guys? Do any of you know what situation went on last night?”

Each pony looked at each other silently, waiting for one of them to speak.

“Not really, sugarcube.” Applejack said, “ Although, I saw Princess Luna lookin’ a might shakin’ up. I could see it in her eyes that something was wrong.”

“I didn’t truly know what was up but it got Celestia worried too.” Twilight admitted.

Pinkie suddenly sprang up out of the tub and dropped on the floor. “Maybe the princesses are hiding some underlying secrets of Equestria that are too horrific to reveal to us and if we knew, there would be widespread panic and ruin the festival hype!”

Rarity sat up and looked at Pinkie in confusion, letting the cucumbers fall off her face. “Or…” , she started.

“Or maybe it’s another monster that they don’t want us to worry about. It‘s just a guess at this point.” Pinkie said with a shrug.

“ I know that keeping Equestria safe is their priority but we do that too. I would love to fight another monster with my hooves: Thunder and Lighting!” Rainbow exclaimed, punching the air.

“Regardless, their privacy must be respected unless we are summoned by them. I may be a princess but I’m still new at this job. Therefore, I have to wait like everyone else and frankly, I’m alright with that.” Twilight noted and went back to relaxing.

**********************************************************************

Looking out the open window, Celestia sighed. A warm breeze brushed against her face as she remembered last night’s scary situation.

The flash of light.

The sun.

Potential danger.

These words swirled around in her mind as she observed the commotion below.

“What could this all mean?” she wondered, “ In all my years of existence, nothing this peculiar has happened to Equestria..or outside of it for that matter.” She began to pace back and forth across her bedroom floor, pondering the possible reasons for this event to occur.

“A shift in the polarity of the world? No, too extreme.”

“A parallel universe? Impossible.”

She put her hoof to her head, thinking hard about the answer. Walking past a mirror, the sun’s glow ricocheted off it and hit Celestia in her eye. Rubbing her eye, she came to a conclusion.

“A mythical sun beast?!” she exclaimed. Quickly shaking her head, she realized her outburst. “Okay, that is completely ridiculous. I’m starting to sound like Luna” she chuckled.
“Perhaps, an unnatural force beyond our reach has gravitated the sun towards us, making our world hotter. Soon, it will be close enough to-”

A low rumble interrupted her thoughts.

“Maybe I’ll think more clearly with some breakfast.” she said, rubbing her stomach.

Making her way down the corridors, she couldn’t help but notice the sun’s extreme glow through the pane glass windows. Some of the windows held Equestria’s history.

The Rebirth of the Elements of Harmony. The Defeat of Discord. The Coronation of Princess Twilight.

Celestia thought, “ Hopefully, we won’t need to take away the Elements from the tree in order to solve this problem. This may be an unusual experience that will turn out good. Who knows at this point.”

The air filled with the smell of fresh oats as she entered the dining area. The chefs were hard at work, preparing the morning meal. Their focus quickly changed as Celestia entered the room. All bowed down to her, forgetting their cooking duties for a moment.

“Please,” Celestia said, “ no need to bow. Just came to see what was on the menu.”

A bowl of oats and a cup of tea was placed in front of her. Licking her lips, she dove in. Even with her constant worrying, it was still a nice day. Everypony was doing their daily errands or gossiping in the streets.

“Why should I even worry?” she thought, “ Nopony is freaking out or questioning anything. Maybe I should -”

“Princess Celestia!!” a guard exclaimed as he burst through the dinning room doors.

“What’s the matter?” she wondered, anxiously as some oats flew out of her mouth.

“It’s about Princess Luna…she’s missing!” he said. Celestia gasped.

“W-What?! Do you have any idea on where she could be?” she asked, panicking.

“No, Your Highness. One of the royal guards checked to see if she was still in her room and she was missing. No clues left behind anywhere. She could be miles away from here.” he explained.

Celestia gulped, nervously but quickly collected her thoughts. “Please send out a search team to find her. I’m afraid she might do something drastic out of fear.”

The guard bowed his head. “As you wish,” he said and ran off to rally up a team. Celestia made her way to the throne room, slumping in her seat. She put her hoof to her head, leaned back, and sighed.

“Why Luna? Just…why?” She asked. Then, silently, she started to cry.

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“Was she in the café?” said a faint, husky voice.

“Negative.” another voice responded.

“Was she in the castle labyrinth?” questioned the husky voice.

“No.”, another male voice said, “ Part of the search team in Ponyville claimed she wasn’t seen there either.”

Luna opened her eyes a little at the sound of other ponies talking in the hallway. She didn’t realize she fell asleep while reading. As she regained consciousness, her hearing became clearer.

“Well, for Celestia’s sake, we must find Luna.,” said one stallion, “ We don’t need another catastrophe on our hooves.”

Luna’s eyes widened. “The Royal Guards.” she thought. She couldn’t risk letting them see her here. She wasn’t finish with her research. Upon hearing their hoofsteps, she dove behind a library bookcase. She peered through the books as she saw two unicorn guards searching the area.

“Maybe she could be in here?” said the yellow unicorn.

“Why,” repiled the orange one, “ I kind of doubt she would be here. It seems pretty random.

“Doesn’t matter. We need a full scale search.” They started to look in every bookshelf corridor, quietly calling the princess’s name.

Luna closed her eyes tightly. “Just go away,” she thought, “I need to study. There’s something wrong with the sun and I need to-”

Suddenly, fast trotting could be heard in the main hallway. Luna quickly ducked lower into her hiding spot. “This better not be another guard.” she hoped.

“This may be disastrous.” Astrolight said, rushing through the halls. “I need to get to Princess Celestia and warn her. Then, I’ll come back and do more research.” Making sharp left and right turns, he avoided ponies while trying so desperately to escape the library.

“Ow!”, he exclaimed. He rubbed his head in pain.

“Watch it, bub!” a stallion retorted. He brushed the dust off himself with his wing and continued to stand at attention, ignoring the pony that ran into him.

“Sorry. I was in a rush and..” Astrolight came to realize that he accidentally ran into a royal guard.

‘My apologies.” he said, straightening his glasses and bowing. “Well, as long as I’m here, I would like permission to see Princess Celestia. This is a dire emergency.”

The pegasus was still annoyed at the situation. “No way. The Princess is already in distress about Luna’s mysterious absence today and there’s no need to have her go into a mental breakdown.”

“Luna’s missing?! That’s awful.” he said. “But still, I need to talk to her. This could have effects on the entire nation.”

“Sorry, Four-Eyes! I can’t afford, rather Equestria, can’t afford to lose a princess and have another princess have a breakdown in the same day.” the guard rudely proclaimed. At this point, Astro had enough of this pony’s remarks and was about to give him something to complain about. Then, he realized he had a photo.

“Look, I see that you’re really annoyed and I’m the last pony you’d want to see today but..” he quickly lifted the photo to his face “ look at this photo.” Viewing it, the guard eyes widened and shook his head. “

Alright, you win. Just follow me.” Astro nodded and both ran into the direction of the exit. “Thank you, sir.” he said aloud. “Even if you were an asshole.” he commented in his head.

“I knew it…I fucking knew it!” Luna thought. She repositioned herself in her hiding spot as the guards came back to their original starting point.

“Where could she be?” said the red guard. He removed his helmet, wiping sweat from his brow.

“I don’t know…Maybe we should check the left side.” the orange guard replied.

“Good idea” Both were quickly approaching Luna’s hiding place.

“Crap,” she thought, “ I need to leave now!” She quickly reviewed all the spells she knew in her head. Then, she finally got it. The Invisibility Bubble. A second level spell for any unicorn to learn on a whim. It’s second nature to an alicorn. Thankfully, that little power nap gave her some strength to muster up a spell. Luna’s horn sparked and lit up as she quickly performed the spell. Luckily, the guards didn’t noticed the beam of light emitting from the bookshelf. She slipped on her cloak to get some extra cover-up.

“This is our last chance to find her.” one said.

“Highly doubt she’d be here. She’s a full-grown mare. There’s no where else to hide.” said the other, “Even behind this bookcase.” He lifted the bookcase and…nopony was there. Luna flew out of the room as quietly as possible so she wouldn’t knock anything down to gain their attention on the exit.

“Phew, that was close.” she stated, flying down the main hallway. “Now, I need to know what the photo had on it. Forget the research, I’m on a mission! I can’t miss what possible information this pony has for me.”

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The atmosphere on the outside of the castle may be bright, but inside, Celestia was worried sick. Her head was in her hooves, sporting a despaired expression on her face that no one could see. Sitting there, she thought about why her sister would do such a foolish thing.

“I-I knew she was upset”, she started, “but I never thought she would do something like this.” Everything seemed to be taking a horrifying turn for the worst. “Maybe I should’ve taken this mission myself. I am her big sister and best friend, basically.”

Celestia grew more and more sad as the minutes passed by, although, they felt more like hours. To her, the outside light seemed dimmer in her eyes.

Suddenly, a loud bang echoed through the castle halls. Celestia came out of her sorrow state and lifted her head up. “Luna?!” she asked, aloud. Sadly, no. A green unicorn with a scared look on his face was approaching her fast.

“My deepest pardons, Your Highness.” Astrolight said in between breaths. Celestia rose from her throne. “No, It’s quite alright. What brings you to the castle?”

Without hesitation, he pulled out the sun photo from his saddlebag and presented it to her. “I was doing research in the observatory when I found this on the sun. Then, I traveled to the library to find out what it meant.” Celestia lifted the picture for a closer look. A highly developed photo of the sun was shown with an giant, ominous black spot in the center. Celestia’s eyes widened in fear.

“It turns out it’s called a ‘Sunspot’ that can unleash millions of particles into the universe. Ones that could possible harm everyone.” She shook her head in disbelief. How could this be happening? What could this all mean? She stood there, motionless, in a trance, observing the picture.

Astro took noticed and shook his hoof in front of her face. “Um..Princess?”
Celestia blinked rapidly. “What?..oh, I’m sorry. I was just thinking.” She gave a weak grin to him but internally, she was losing it.

“Well, Astrolight. I’m glad that you have brought this to my attention. If it’s not too much trouble, could you go back to library to gather more information, just in case.” she wondered.
Astro nodded. “Of course. I will do my best. There shouldn’t be that much left to look up because it-”

BAM!

Celestia and Astrolight looked up. To their amazement, Princess Luna burst into the throne room. Her mane was slightly awry, her cloak was falling off her body, and a serious, angry look in her eyes.

“Luna.. You’re alive!” Celestia exclaimed, running over to her. Just as she was about to take her beloved sister in her hooves, Luna raised a hoof and stopped her in her tracks. Celestia stood back in shock.
“Look, I’m just here for one thing.”, she pointed at Astrolight, “ Let me see the photo.” He was making his over to Luna when Celestia stopped him. “No.”
“What?” Luna asked.
“Where were you? I had to send a search squad out. I was worried sick thinking that something horrific happened to you.” Celestia explained.

Astrolight slowly backed away from the arguing sisters. “I will just leave now.”, he said, “I’ll come back with some more information on the situation.” Without acknowledgement from either Princess, he ran out the room, towards the library.

“That is exactly what I am talking about!” Luna shouted, “ You’re withholding important information from me.”

“Listen, I don’t need you to get paranoid again. I don’t want you to worry about anything.” Celestia replied.

“If you don’t know what’s going on, the least I can do is figure it out myself.” Luna stated, “I don’t want Equestria to fall due to YOUR negligence as a leader.”

“Luna?!” Celestia gasped, “How dare you say such things! Of course, I don’t want this country to fall but why accuse me of such a giant act of betrayal?”

Luna’s eyes started to well up with tears but she fought it back. “ There were numerous times that you led Equestria to almost being annihilated: The Paraspirtes Invasion, Discord. You couldn‘t even fight Chrysalis back!” She lowered he head in disappointment. “You couldn’t even fight me off when I was Nightmare Moon.”

“Please, don’t bring up our rough past. This isn’t the time for petty altercations.” Celestia said.

“There wouldn’t be any arguments if you just let me in on what’s going on.” Luna shouted.

“Luna,” Celestia pleaded, “ I’m doing this for your own good. I don’t want my little sister to worry about something big like this. The sun isn’t even your object to control!”

The door of the throne room swung open to reveal Astrolight carrying his sattlebag overflowing with papers.

“Princess Celestia”, he huffed, running to her, “ I found out about what the Sunspot means…and it’s not good.” Luna bit her hoof at this statement.
“It turns out”, Astro started, “the spot radiates a magnetic field in the area. It can cause a great phenomena like coronal loops”

“And the downside?” Celestia asked.

Astrolight sighed. “It..it can cause a solar flare. This event causes the sun to emit mass energy volts into the universe. If it reaches Earth, it can wipe out electricity and every living thing on it can be destroyed by its radiation. Unfortunately, for us, this is the year for the solar flare to expand its reach extremely close to Earth‘s range.”

“W-What does this mean?” Luna asked, choking on her words.

Astrolight stayed silent for a moment but reluctantly said, “ We can’t survive. Not a single soul.”

Luna angrily stomped both her front hooves on the ground. “NO!”, she cried, “this can’t be happening! It can’t end like this!” She runs out the room and down the hallway, heading upstairs to her room. Astrolight looks up at Celestia in regret.
“Princess, I truly didn’t mean to upset her.”

“I know.”, Celestia replied, “ I appreciate the help. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a public letter to write. Expect something in your mailbox when you get home.”
He nodded and walked out of the room to allow her to think.

“Of course it had to be something uncontrollable.” Celestia thought, “ I have to send a letter out to all the citizens of Equestria. Everyone must know of this imminent doom.”
She cleared her throat and called out, “Royal Guard?” A white unicorn trotted through the doors and bowed at the Princess. “Yes, Your Highness?”
“I need this copied and sent to everypony in Equestria.” Celestia levitated some fancy parchment and a quill to him. “ Please, take a letter.”