Chapters Night will fall and drown the sun,
Night will fall and drown the sun,
On the balcony of her castle, Celestia greeted the morning sun. Even after millennia, the first rays of sun still felt revitalizing, it was more than simply the energy rushing through her body, it was all the life it brought to her empire. She stretched her wings, enjoying the sun for a few moments, her magic touching it gently and regulating its enormous power.
After a few minutes on the sun she walked back inside, the castle always felt cold afterwards, but she had her royal duties waiting.
Kibitz was waiting patiently, checking his clock. By his account they were about seven minutes late for the first assignment of the day.
“Good morning, princess, we have a full day ahead.” The pony said in his hoarse voice.
Celestia smiled gently. Of course they had a packed day; every day was crowded when you were the ruler of an empire and still, Kibitz seemed the need to remember her about it every day.
“What’s our first duty?” Celestia asked.
“Right now you have meetings with Crystal Empire delegates to discuss the situation of the next Equestria’s game, a meeting with the EUP generals to discuss budget, and then the prince of the Five Mountains demanded a hearing, but he refuses to say what it is about.” He recited diligently as they walked down the long halls, Celestia appreciating the big vitrals on their way. She had always loved that particular craft, so simple and yet so beautiful. All around her there were the great victories of Equestria, since its foundation to modern time. Many windows still remained blank waiting for future glories.
“And then breakfast?” Celestia asked with a hopeful smile. She stops in front of the door that would lead in the throne room to make sure her royal regalia was perfect.
“And then breakfast.” Kibitz agreed.
Celestia nodded as they walked in the meeting room.
She sat in a chair on the big round table that was reserved for meeting with foreign envoys. She could smell the several layers of protecting magic that blanketed the room. For most ponies they would be imperceptible, maybe at the most a soft tingle at the base of the horn, after all they had been crafted by some of the most skilled unicorns mages of the modern times, but Celestia had herself been apprentice to the most skilled unicorn mage of all times once.
Ceremoniously, the doors were open to give entrance to a couple of crystal ponies wearing an elaborate official garment.
She patiently heard the delegates and promised to think about it as she rummaged through a few ideas that could appease both sides. Maybe put Twilight on the case?
The generals came next, prepared with a long, almost theatrical, presentation and a dance about all the dangers waiting in Equestria borders. They sang about threats that ranged from hordes of changelings to the rising industrial power of zebras, and finally they showed a projection of costs to completely modernize the military forces of equestria.
Celestia gently denied. Despite the amazing number of songs and dances, she still saw little need in the proposed reforms and expansions. She knew that the real threats were long gone; there was little that could really endanger Equestria and she still could count on Twilight, Discord, and if it came to it even her and Luna’s powers to solve any situation faster and cleaner than any army. No, it was better that ponies forget all about war. She was still haunted by nightmares of the turbulent past.
Finally the prince of the Five Mountains came in.
Celestia struggled to keep the smile on, forcing herself to remember that he was not to blame for the crime of their carnivore ancestors. Chances were that he did not even know of the abominable crimes of their ancestors.
He bent down, and then stood back up, pulling something from his elaborate robes. The guards jumped to action, but he was faster. It was merely a contraption of wood and two small barrels of iron, each filled with chemical explosives that with a small spark ignited and with a loud explosion propelled a small metallic bearing forged of mysterious metal.
“Sic semper tyrannis!!” He shouted as the guards finally immobilized him.
“Sic semper tyrannis!!” He screamed as horrified guards saw the fallen form of Celestia, blood streaming from two wounds, unconscious.
The shock and terror would only become worse a few minutes later when all of Equestria saw the sun being engulfed by cold darkness.
The light will die and the moon will rise
They woke with the screeching noise of the raid siren. As a single entity, the thirty ponies of the communal house number 78 woke up with barely controlled panic. They had trained for this exact kind of situation all their lives, and by now it was almost instinct that guided them calmly down the stairs. All of them had already survived to several raids during their lives and many more drills. They walked down the stairs and into the small bunker that was barely more than a hole dug into the bare rock and enclosed with the heaviest steel door they could manufacture. The lights of the house flickered as the energy was being rerouted to more vital sectors of the city.
Lux, a skinny unicorn, was the last pony inside of the bunker. Her responsibility in emergencies was to make sure everypony was inside the moment the doors closed, or if the need arise, to decide when to close the door and let ponies outside to save the ponies inside. She had always hated this particular part of her duties; what could have been worse than to sacrifice a pony’s life to save others?
Sweet Protein, a particularly burly earth pony, tiredly dragged his hooves around counting the canned food they had in case the lockdown lasted for more than a few hours. She secretly hoped that this was just another drill, but she felt the strange tingle in her left ear that always predicted a bad omen.
Foggy Skies, a wiry pegasus, typed her personal code on the heavy locker at the back of the bunker, and with a soft hiss the heavy metal doors opened to reveal ten enchanted spears. She took one for herself and passed the others for the nine other pegasus in the bunker. She always liked the weight of the weapon in her hooves, she felt powerful holding it, knowing that the enchantments in it would cut and burn any intruder. The weapon was based on the old lances of the royal guard, the handle was scribbled with enchantments to make it sharper and sturdier, and it’s blade had two small emeralds that glowed eerily with a small ember of dragon’s fire in its interior. There was a small trigger hidden in the cable that she could easily press with her fetlocks that would cover the blade in green fire. She held herself in two hooves, spear straight at her side. For a moment she could believe herself to be a royal guard of old, just like in the histories her mother had told of brave knights fighting for honor and friendship. But the sensation was short lived, quickly replaced by the real memories of the frontlines and all the things she wanted to forget. She felt her eyes warm with fresh tears as the old memories fighted to resurface.
“Anyone saw the new movie?” Windy Whisper asked. “They say it’s about Princess Luna and her defense of New Baltimare!” She spoke animatedly, but the other ponies didn’t seem to care.
“So...” Clover Flavor, a skinny green earth pony stallion, took a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing, “Mine Strip and I received our adoption approval and we are moving out by the end of the week.”
That was all that was needed to completely shatter the silence and make the entire bunker explode into questions and gossip. Everypony wanted to know more about the other pony and if they already had chosen a filly or foal to adopt. This also meant that they would be moving to the communal houses of the inner city. They would receive a bigger place for them and their foal, better rations, and even more free time to help with raising the foal.
The main topic of conversation then changed to the romantics and warming escapades of every pony: who was sleeping with whom for just a little heat, who was sleeping with whom because they really wanted, and who was more than just sleeping with another pony.
Lux was content to simply listen; having just finished a long and tense relationship with Ruby Cogs, she didn’t feel like sharing any of her own stories and was happy to stay away from any relationship for a while. There was always Nox, however.
It was then that silence fell again, as the thumping sound of the big batteries on the internal circle began to resonate even through all the rock that surrounded them. The ponies looked at each other in silence. those batteries would only have been put into activity if their enemy had breached the external gates and was currently pouring into the main housing areas. The pegasi held their spears tighter, looking tensely at the heavy doors, as if waiting for them to be ripped apart at any moment.
“Do you think it is…the…you know?” Stone Cold, an old grey unicorn, tripped over her own words, afraid of uttering the name.
“The Horde was last seen in the fringes of New Canterlot. We should be safe from that at least,” Lux cut the silence. Almost everypony was afraid of even speaking of the Horde, there were myths and rumors that they spread like some form of contagion through thought and word.
“Who wants to eat?” Sweet Protein asked loudly, tactically changing the subject, she didn’t really believe in those silly legends, but why tempt destiny? She began passing around some of the cans. Since they had all skipped the morning meal thanks to the alarm she was sure the ministry of subsistence wouldn’t disapprove of it.
Lux took her can and thought of heating it with magic, but knew that emergency or not, she probably would still need to go to work later and decided to save her magic for that. Her quota was already pretty low as it was. She opened the can and sighted at canned apple. Or at least they advertised it as apple. Ruby cogs had once explained to her that it was in fact a single-cell algae they produced by the tons on the industrial farms that was then processed and flavoured to taste and feel like apple, but didn’t require as much energy to produce as the real ones. Lux however had been suspicious of them. There was only a single pony alive that had ever tasted a real apple and she was sure Princess Luna had more pressing matters than the taste of common rations.
She floated a few pieces of apple to her mouth, savoring the rich and sugary taste of them even though she felt a bit of guilty for using her magic for such a simple task. The apples were much better than the regular oatmeal they had by morning. She ate them as slowly as she could, trying to savor the rare treat, but as always it had ended too fast. She then took her vitamin pills and drank the rest of the syrup from the can.
The talking slowly restarted after the meal, Sweet Protein making her best to avoid the darker topics that were bound to come up. Locked up like that there were practically no communications with the outside world and no way of knowing for sure what was happening.
When the siren finally sounded again announcing the all clear, they all breathed a sigh of relief. There was always the fear that the doors would never open again; that the city would fall and burn, leaving them stranded in their small safe room to starve to death or worse.
Lux stretched happily as they moved in line out of the bunker. She put her heavy jacket on as the cold air rushed in. Loudspeakers were calling out for specific teams of ponies and announcing the victory.
“The PUE confirms that all invading dragons were eliminated successfully,” The loudspeakers boomed. “In celebration of this great victory everypony will receive a twenty grams ration of chocolate!”
Lux smiled. They had won another day. They had survived.
Above her the inner city was in rubble. Several communal houses had been destroyed amidst the infighting. A land dreadnought, an enormous machine of war that seemed like the bastard child of a train and a battleship, lay crippled amidst the ruins of the houses. An enormous dragon lay dead, its claws had almost ripped the inner wall.
The moon will guide and blood will run
Luna slowly walked down the stairs wrapped in almost complete darkness. A single oil lamp showed her the path in front of her, there once had been enchanted gems along the walls, but their magic had faded long ago. Luna knew that if she let anypony know about this place they would insist to install some advanced electrical lighting system or even to produce more enchanted gems, but then this would be another place to mourn the fallen princess and not her sister.
In the end of the stairs there was a giant room, projected by Twilight Sparkle to accommodate dozens of ponies at once, but only three ponies had ever entered this room. The walls were decorated with stained glass, salvaged from the old castle, and in the center of the room there was Celestia.
Entombed in a coffin of diamond, the sun goddess seemed peaceful and serene. Luna sat in front of her, the first tears coming to her eyes. She touched the coffin, its entire surface was meticulously decorated with the story of the Equestrian Empire, all of Celestia’s victories and glories were marked deeply on the diamond.
She silently put down a small candle in front of the coffin, gently lighting it up with the flame from her lantern. The floor was covered with the melted remaining of thousands of candles.
Still in silence she approached the immaculate coffin and touched it over Celestia’s face, wishing she could touch her sister one last time. There for a split second her mind always hoped that the stone would be warm, that Celestia would rise again from it like she had done once so many millennia ago from the ice.
“I miss you, sister,” Luna spoke breaking the silence in the chamber. She always felt lost for words after that, there was so much she wanted to say and still she simply couldn’t find the correct words for it. She tried many clumsy begins of a conversation without knowing how to continue, Celestia had been always the one to know the right words.
“I broke your ponies, sister,” She finally settled on those words, thinking that those were the correct one. “I made them into warriors and conquerors because we needed to survive and now I’m afraid they will never go back... Just yesterday I had to lower the draft age again… I… I don’t know what to do, sister!”
She felt lost, Celestia always made it seem so easy. She had governed for thousands of years, and guided ponykind through what would appear to be an unending golden age. Now she was gone and there was only darkness.
“They want to annex the zebra empire now,” Luna continued. “I already told them no, but the truth is that our own resources are sparse…”
Luna got up and put a hoof over the intricate detailing on the coffin, ponies had lost so much. These days there were so few artists, probably no one that could create something like the intricate sun carved on the diamond. She remembers one day, generations ago, talking with a doctor, he tried to explain the situation with a combination of the traumatic shock of the loss and some kind of syndrome caused by the underground life that was sapping the will of ponies. Ponies simply weren’t built for life underground.
Applejack unfortunately died just a few months later, she never got to saw her farms saving the life of so many fillies. A dreadful industrial accident burnt her extensively, she still survived for a few days, but the fading magic couldn’t save her, and in the end Apple Bloom decided to simply turn off the machines that were keeping her sister alive.
“Mah sister wouldn’t like y’all spending so much to keep her dead body working!” The young mare had said so many years ago.
Thinking of Apple Bloom always made Luna sad, but also a bit envious. The young filly had gone through so much in her short life, but at least for a few years she had something that Luna hadn’t experienced truly in millennia: a sister. She had loved Celestia of course and knew that Celestia also loved her back, but being alicorns came with all kinds of responsibilities and becoming the rulers of an empire just pilled even more responsibilities over their heads.
She sighed deeply, more tears were coming to her eyes a she remembered the few moments she could steal to be with her sister: the rushed breakfasts, the tired late night snacks, the delightful dreams they would sometimes share, the short rest back to back after extenuating combat. Fleeting moments in their hectic lives.
“There was another attempt on my life a few days ago…” She fixated her eyes on the flame of the candle, time was passing fast and soon she would need to return to her duty. “You don’t need to worry tough, it was only an improvised nail bomb so I didn’t get hurt. They still haven’t discovered how that dog did it.”
Luna hated those terrorists with all her heart, she had already faced against all kinds of abomination that this dying world could throw at her without hesitation, from deformed dragons to the strange technological abominations of the zebras, but the only thing that could give her fear were these small groups of fanatical ponies that blamed her for the eternal night. How could she blame then after trying to bring this very same curse upon all of the land not only once, but twice?
She hated how they recruited amongst the young and meek with their ardent discourses and promise of a better next-life in some imaginary plane of existence at Celestia’s side.
She hated them from sending assassin after assassin after her to try their best, she knew they would fail and that was not what worried her, but how many innocents would be killed by their blind crusade.
And especially she hated how they dared to accuse her of having killed her own sister!
She took a long breath and looked up to the many vitrals that depicted their many successes of the past, trying to get some comfort on it.
So many times they had succeeded against terrible forces with their magic and friendship, but now it all seemed like so distant and impossible. She knew more than any other living pony, for a long time in the past things hadn’t been so pleasant, that this was not the first time that ponies created firearms and fought in wars. She had seem armadas of sky-ships burning over crystal fortresses, necromantic magic glittering over the skies of Unicorn cities, fleets of steam-powered dreadnoughts being sunken by tornadoes and so many others atrocities.
She walked besides the tomb, in the corner, also entombed in diamond, were the bullets. She leered over the small pieces of dark metal that glistened with rainbow patterns. The gun had been just some common piece of wood and metal and so Luna had burned it without a second thought, but the bullets were the real mystery… No, mystery was the wrong word, they were impossible! They shouldn’t exist anymore, she was sure of it and yet they were there, almost as if to taunt her.
The prince of the five mountains was probably the only one that could answer to the riddle of their existence, but, alas, he was dead. The guards had managed to put him in chains, but it was all for nothing, knowing what would happen he had taken a slow acting poison before his attempt and died even as Luna tried to discover where he had acquired the bullets. He died laughing, knowing that for the rest of her days Luna would never be able to discover why and how exactly her sister had died.
The candle’s flame slowly died out. Luna sighed once more; it was time to go back.
“I’ll win.” She promised to two small pieces of metal encased in diamond. “We did it once and I will do it once more.”
“Hope to see you soon, sister.” Luna smiled to the sarcophagus. “Maybe next time I’ll have better news!”
She took her lantern back and begun the long walk back trough the stairs, making a mental note that next time she should smuggle a few supplies and clean the place a bit.
She walked up through the long stairs that had been excavated during the first days with the help of magic. She slyly walked out of the secret door that and closed it behind her and walked into a small corridor that took her to what once was supposed to be the new royal castle. It had been built in a time where there was still some hope, when magic still heated the cities and illuminated the streets. These days the castle was mostly used as storage, their rooms were all too big and built in a time where heating wasn’t such a big problem.
Now the place was changing once more, soldiers were hurrying around and even the civilians were carrying guns. Their industrial power was now focused on the production of weapons of war; the Horde had been amassing for new attack for the last few months. Luna walked through the halls trying her best not to disrupt the busy ponies and walked back into her room. There had been several attempts to give her a proper royal room, but she had refused intently, there was no need for such frivolous spending, besides she barely slept these days, every time she tried to close her eyes she would see her sister dying as she desperately tried to remove the bullet, sometimes the image of her sister would blur with those of so many other ponies she had seen die.
“Good morning, princess.” Numeric Variable spoke; the deep bags under her eyes spoke of another short night. “I have the reports from the attack on New Ponyville.”
The two of them walked down as Numeric recited the losses of the attack. Most notable was the damage caused to one of the factory farms that were beyond repair. Fortunately the loss of life was low for an attack of such magnitude, but Luna knew that many more ponies still would die due to the damage caused to the infrastructure.
Luna took a few ration bars and a cup of tea as they passed by the kitchen. Being an alicorn she didn’t really needed to eat, but she also knew that Numeric probably hadn’t eaten anything and so she took a small bite of each bar before offering it to the earth pony that would wolf it down without even noticing.
By the time they arrived at the command center, Numeric had eaten three bars almost entirely and Luna was lost in thoughts, trying to figure out how to deal with this new incursion of the dragons. All their Intel said that the dragons had long ago begun to dig towards the center of planet, hoping to find heat and magic amidst the oceans of lava that existed there.
Command Center was a small and cramped room, filled with ponies working quietly on their telegraph machines, keeping the four generals constantly updated not only with the movements of the Horde, but also the status of the other cities.
“Princess,” Silver Bullet, grey earth pony, greeted. She was the oldest amongst the generals and had the scars, from war and disease, to prove it. “My scouts have some disturbing reports; it seems that the horde is digging new tunnels in preparation for the attack.”
“My engineering battalions still haven’t received the fuel they need, without the drills we will be practically immobilized.” Influx, a purple unicorn, always made Luna think about the deceased princess of friendship, at least in appearance. Her personality was much more aggressive and amongst the generals she was the most adept to offensive tactics, never happy to simply sit tight and defend.
“The supplies must arrive by nightfall.” Danger Zone, a red pegasus with extensive scars and a long family line of general and war heroes. “However, if we could use some of those zebra’s eldritch bombs we could…”
“No,” Ailen interrupted her briskly. “We can’t use them for that.” Ailen, a gryphon with stunted wings, he would never be able to fly, but he is a gryphon of ambition and determination. Without the abilities that would make him a good soldier for the ponies, he learned to command and specially how to apply modern technology to the battlefield.
“Look, I don’t want to offend, but without another one of your anomalies, this entire project is just some fancy fantasy that keeps hogging our resources.” Danger Zone replied angrily, she was tired of seeing Luna spend so many resources into the gryphon’s flights of fantasy while they were trying to defend the cities.
“We must manage to defend our city without the zebra’s weapons.” Luna declared. “We will resort to them only in last stance, especially because we don’t have any pony that knows how these weapons really work and not even how to produce more of them.”
“We could have both of those,” Influx suggested. “If we annex the zebra’s empire.”
“No,” Luna spoke vigorously. “They will defend their homeland with every last filly!”
“So did the Dogs,” Silver Bullet offered. “And that didn’t stop my grandmother.”
Luna riled her teeth, the diamond dogs had been the first victims of the ponies. She still could remember their screams as the ponies had conquered their five mountains one by one with their recently forged muskets and bombs. The last mountain had been the most hardly defended, each of dog’s pups was armed with their crude fire weapons and ready to die to defend what was left of their homeland, then there was the very last sonic rainboom. Rainbow Dash in a mad charge trough the freezing surface used her signature move to crack the mountain open and expose it to the deathly cold. Luna had promised to herself that would never allow the ponies to go so far again.
“We must focus on the defense of Canterlot now,” Luna proclaimed with all her authority. “Later we will discuss the situation of our resources.”
The generals agreed and the rest of the meeting proceeded in calm as they discussed troop and resources distribution along the lines. Luna as always would stay back and keep the line, there was no point in risking herself against the Horde, even though they were sure the Horde had no weapon capable of hurting the Princess of the night, nopony wanted to think what could happen if the princess spent too much time amongst those monsters.
After the meeting she walked back to the cafeteria in dire need of another cup of tea, Numeric at her side as always.
“You need to find another anomaly.” Luna said as she took another swig of her tea.
“Princess?” Numeric asked in surprise. “I have been checking all the registered cutie marks for the past eight years and nothing has appeared.”
“Do your magic,” Luna ordered. “Find me a new anomaly.” Or ponykind will be lost, she thought.
“Yes, my princess!” Numeric Variable said, she didn’t know how she would do it, but she would never be able to say no to the princess. She still had nightmares about the night Luna had saved her.
Hope will bloom and a light will shine
Twelve hours after the dragon raid Lux had been called back to her job in the inner city. The communal house where she lived still didn’t had electricity and several ponies were still missing, but the city couldn’t stop.
On the inner wall there was frenetic movement as ponies rushed around to repair the damage caused by the attack: one of the big cannons had been torn in half and at least three others that she could see had been melted to an amorphous metallic blob. All over the walls there were claw marks showing where the dragons tried to climb it and, in a few points, there was the splatter of blood where they did manage to climb the walls and brutally killed some of the defenders.
She crossed the security gate with little hassle, the security ponies were too tired to bother with the regular inspections and were content to simply check her ID card and rush her trough. Once inside the inner walls she was assaulted by the loud noise and the strong scent of fake apples that came from the industrial farms, a shift was just ending and a lot of tired ponies were exiting now.
All around her there were gun emplacements and patrols keeping a constant vigil over the industrial farms and the power plants, and towering over it all was Ponyville’s spire. The giant tower was covered in faded crystals, once in the past they could make it shine with magical light and in case of attack the tower could repel invaders with powerful beans of searing magic, but now they were just stones.
Going closer to the center were the giant diesel-power plants that provided power and heat to the entire city, there was four of them working in a constant rotation, three would work and one would be down for maintenance. In the past, as magic faded the ponies had tried at first to heat the city by burning wood and coal, but only when the ponies begun to collaborate with the zebras and those taught the ponies about how to drill and use oil that the cities could have a real chance of survival without constant magic. Big diesel-powered drilling machines begun to create new tunnels and princess Twilight Sparkle herself christened the first of the land dreadnoughts that would become so vital in the defense against the enemies of ponykind. Some ponies spoke of new and even more advanced ways of generating power using the geothermal energy, but these days there was never enough resources to upgrade the existing infrastructure or build a new city.
She slowed her pace a bit; amidst the giant power plants was the only place where you could feel really warm in the entire city. She liked to close her eyes for just a moment and think about how it would be to live in a world that was not cold.
It was then that Nox appeared as she always did: by surprise and without any respect for Lux’s personal space.
The black-coated pegasus hugged Lux tightly, the unicorn had always wondered how she could have so much energy to spare.
“I was so worried with you,” Nox said as she nuzzled Lux’s cheek. “I heard the siren and knew you should be sleeping at that hour!”
“I’m fine,” Lux answered gently pushing the pegasus away. “I was safe in the bunker, we just ate some apples and gossiped a lot.”
Nox smiled and pulled Lux closer once more.
“If you want,” the pegasus whispered in her ear. “I got a can of moonshine and we could share it later…”
Lux blushed a bit, the temptation of spending a night drinking and sleeping with the pegasus was always a very hard one to pass, but right now that was exactly what she would do. Ruby Cogs was a very recent memory and she didn’t wished to drag Nox into her problems once more.
“I’ll probably have to work two shifts to compensate the time I spent on the bunker.” Lux pushed the pegasus away softly. “I have to go now, I’m already running late.”
“I’ll save it for later then!” Nox pecked Lux’s cheek and jumped away happily.
Lux kept walking toward the center of the city, the warmth of Nox’s body a waning moment of happiness, passing by what once had been the villages created by the pony nobility, but that had been converted in military barracks and garages. She could see the shapes of two other land dreadnoughts parked there being worked on by large teams of earth ponies. Most of the army was comprised of earth ponies and gryphons, unicorns and pegasi were considered more valuable in maintaining the cities.
In the perfect center of New Poniville is the arcane research center or the Center as most ponies called it. Designed by Twilight Sparkle herself, the colossal building had been supposed to work as a central conduit for magical energies, a small team of unicorns using specially constructed machinery could not only provide light and heat to the entire city, but in an emergency they could shield the entire city. That at least had been her dream, by now the tower was a decrepit giant, the circuits of magical crystals had faded long ago and the pylons that would conduct magic trough the city had been dismantled for spare parts.
Lux passed by a tired guard with a flash of her identification card and walked two floors up to her workstation. The place was a grey and rusty spacious room with twenty chairs around a smaller cube of concrete with big tinted windows that allowed them to peek inside the smaller room, but prevents anyone inside to look outside. She quickly connects the wires to her horn and a diminutive green light is turned on over her station. Together as one all the unicorns begin to focus on one of the simplest spells any unicorn ever learned.
The Center now was used as a command center for the military and industrial lords, but it also provided a much more important function, something that the military, industrial and agricultural lords would pay dearly for.
Sunlight shines into the smaller room. Not really sun light, in fact a pale comparison, but the light produced by unicorns was the closest thing possible. Twenty foals run into the room, the interior is decorated with green visages and even a mural showing ponies around a big apple tree. They play and run around, happy to shed their heavy coats for at least a couple of hours every day. The Center has four rooms working almost non-stop to provide every young foal with enough magical light so they can develop their innate magic adequately, as it had been discovered in the first days ponies totally deprived of sunlight would never develop any kind of magical ability and so they became useless.
The rooms had been built as magic had begun to fade, the unicorns couldn’t keep the entirety of the city illuminated anymore and so a system where the magical light was concentrated in a small room was devised. As the years passed more and more unicorns were required to the task, once there had been needed only five unicorns to illuminate the entire city, then ten unicorns to generate enough light to forty foals, then fifteen unicorns for thirty foals and now it was twenty unicorns for twenty foals. Lux always dreaded to think of what would happen to the next generations as the number of unicorns needed would keep growing and the number of foals would keep dwindling.
Lux focused her magic and let it flow through her and into the machine. The first minutes were always easy, but to keep the magic for two hours straight was extremely hard. Some unicorns took medication to ignore the pain that come with the effort, others would simply power through it and took pride in their resistance. Lux had her own tricks, a few times she had recurred to drugs, but she usually preferred to avoid them in fear of causing micro fractures on her horn without even noticing.
By the time the two hour alarm sounded the unicorns were struggling to keep their magic going, some of them had already collapsed on their chairs. They helped each other to get out of the chairs and disconnected their horns before dragging their hooves to the rest room. The small room was barely more than a table, a few chairs and a small cabinet with water, but for the unicorns it was a paradise after the extraneous activity. Some of them simply dropped on the ground and slept, a few would manage to sit in chairs before sleeping. Lux took a can of water with her own hooves, using magic for at least a few hours was out of question or she could risk micro fractures on her horn that could lead to weeks of recovery or even complete loss of magical ability. She pressed the can against her horn, the cold felt wonderful against her hot horn, and let her body slid down on the floor.
The small speaker on the room cracked to life and with a monotone voice spoke.
“Worker 211-LG, please report to your supervisor immediately.”
Lux spits her water, she was sure that their production was in the acceptable levels and even though she had been late a few days it had never been more than a few minutes! She finished her water in a single gulp, shoved the can in the garbage bin, and rose to her hooves. Around the other unicorns where giving each other disgruntled looks, each trying to guess what she had done wrong and hopping that they wouldn’t be punished as well. No one liked to be called to see the supervisor because it meant that they probably had screwed up and would be reallocated to some horrible position that no sane unicorn would want or even being given to the military and end up as biological hardware in some of the big war machines.
She tried to smile confident to her coworkers, but they all knew what would happen, they all had seen it before. Star Chart, the oldest unicorn of the team, even gave her a pat on the back and a small smile as she walked out of the room.
She followed the faded white lines that showed the path to the supervisor’s room in complete silence. By the looks of the hinges Lux could guess that in the past it had been a much bigger and sturdy door, but it now probably was being used in some place considered more important or even melted down.
She knocked on the door a single time, part of her wishing that nopony would answer and she could return to her deserved rest, but soon the door unlocked with an electronic buzz. She walked into the room, small and bare of any kind of decoration, there was only a small stone table and a locker of cheap steel. The pony sitting behind the table was so grey and dull that Lux could almost confuse her with the walls of stone.
“Worker Lux?” She asked in a tired voice.
Lux confirmed with her head and presented her identification card. The supervisor took the small plaque of bronze and brought it closer to her eyes so she could read it, it was then that Lux noticed the horn stump on her head.
“You have been summoned to the top floors.” She tried to keep her voice detached and emotionless, but the sadness crept into it. The top floors were domain of the military and she had done this kind of thing way too many times to know what would happen to her. “I’m sorry.” She whispered under her breath.
Lux wasn’t listening; she was trying to understand where she had gone wrong. She followed the green lines, took the long stairs and showed her identification to the guards without even noticing, trying to understand what she had done wrong that could justify her being conscripted. She was instructed by the guards to go to the top where she would receive her new assignment.
Two big ponies guarded the door, at least as big as ponies could get these days with their restricted diets. They carefully inspected her identification card and demanded she took out her jackets to be patted down before allowing her inside.
She opened the doors and found two big griffon’s eyes staring at her from behind a big table. She froze in place, something inside her, something primal that said that those eyes were from a predator. She had seen griffons before in the movies and in some propaganda, but to actually see one of those up close was different, there was something that simply couldn’t be captured in a picture and that scared her.
“Worker Lux?” He asked with a gravelly voice.
Lux nodded, resisting her urge to run away from the room. She needed to remember that griffons were a client race of the ponies, they depended on the ponies to keep living. Rationally she knew they were allied, but still the fear in the corner of her mind kept pleading her to run away.
“According to conscription act you are hereby officially pressed into service,” He recited. “And you will…”
“You are scaring her, general Ailen.” A soft voice interrupted him, Lux attention was suddenly attracted to the deep of the room where a deep blue mare had been silently watching her.
The mare took a step forward and Lux almost fainted as she recognized the princess of the night. She couldn’t believe that in front of her was princess Luna and with a note of despair she realized that the princess wasn’t perfect as she was commonly shown into the propaganda. She had scars, several scars trough her chest and back, three long and sinuous that crossed her neck, several of her feathers were broken or cut and even her mane wasn’t elegant and flowing, but it was kept trimmed and seemed to be made of normal hair.
Looking at her like this she felt a pang of fear, to know that Luna wasn’t immortal, that she could be hurt and maybe even killed. She knew that Celestia had been murdered, but that had been different. Nopony knew exactly how it had been done, the official version said something about the elements of disharmony, but there were many other versions running around that spoke of zebra necromancy or even pony sacrifices to dark and forgotten gods that had been cast down an infinite the abyss during the creation of Equestria.
“We need your help, Lux.” The princess spoke and Lux wanted to fall to her knees and kiss the princess hooves.
“Yes, your majesty!” She answered quickly.
“Call me Luna, please.” She asked with an awkward smile.
“Yes, your… Luna” Lux answered.
“As the general has said, we have a need for your services.” The princess said and Lux felt ready to give her life for her.
“We will need you to…” Luna begin, but Ailen interrupted her with a loud cough.
“If you really wish to disclose our secrets I must beg you to at least check her allegiances.” The griffon spoke firmly.
Luna agreed with a short nod. “I’m sorry for having to do it, but the general is correct. I need to make sure you are a loyal pony before telling you anything else.”
Her horn glowed with her softly blue hue and Lux felt incredibly relieved. There were but a handful of unicorns that could use this kind of magic anymore and so this kind of tests would be made in… unpleasant ways. Her heart thumped hard on her chest as the princess touched her horn against her smaller horn, she was sure that a lot of mares and stallions on the city would probably kill for this chance.
The princess’s magic flowed through her horn and into her mind gently, without even noticing she slipped into a dream. She dreamed of her infancy, of playing in the sunlight room with Nox, the two of them pretending to be soldiers fighting for the city, defeating every enemy of the cities and painting marks on their flanks with paint that Nox’s mom had smuggled for them from her work.
Then she was older, studying how to control her magic and working in maintenance, cleaning and helping repair the city. Nox was there too, they would steal moments to be together and escape the monotony of everyday, and a few times they even missed classes to go watch a movie or simply to stay togheter.
There was sadness, cold. A mare in uniform gave Lux a small copper plaque, she spoke something, but Lux couldn’t hear it, she could only see the small plaque between her hooves. In it there was her mother’s name, Steel Rivet, and two dates.
“I’m sorry” she heard a whisper behind her.
What followed was a blurry mess, days, weeks, months that passed without distinction. Lux kept going through the motion mechanically: She would eat, she would work, but there was no purpose or motivation behind it besides simply moving forward. All around there was Nox helping her, forcing her to clean herself, to at least eat something. Then one day, she walked out of her shared room in the middle of the night and walked to the old enchanted steel doors that once had allowed ponies to go to the surface, but that for several generations now had been welded shut. She deposited her mother’s plaque together with others dozens of plaques that ponies had deposited there along the years. She sat in front of the plaque and conjured her light.
She shines her light until it pains her and kept going through it. A light to guide her mother’s spirit. She would woke up the next morning with a security mare poking her with a stick and a cutie mark on her flank. That night she would get drunk with Nox and the next morning she was ready to move on.
She grew up, got assigned to her post on the Center and eventually even found companionship with Ruby Cogs. At first he seemed like a perfect stallion for her, but then there was sadness again. In the end there was Nox once more, helping her to get over everything.
She woke up with tears rolling from her eyes, Luna’s deep eyes still were locked with hers.
“Sorry for making you relive this.” The princess said and for Lux’s shock there was understanding in her eyes. All the movies and posters always made her to be so great and powerful, bigger than life itself, but now she could see that the princess was hurt not only in her body, but also her mind.
“It was needed.” Lux said trying to appear strong.
“I’m convinced that she is a loyal citizen of New Ponyville.” Luna declared and the general conceded with a wave of his talons.
“If you allow me, princess, I can explain it all to her.” Lux sight was attracted to this new voice, it came from a scrawny brown earth pony with saddlebags filled to the brim.
“Of course,” Luna agreed. “Lux, this is my assistant Numeric Variable.”
Numeric Variable took out from her saddlebags several sheets of copper, each of them filled to the brim with numbers and notations. Lux tried to read it, but the numbers seemed to dance around in her tired mind so she simply nodded as if she had understood it.
“As you can see I noticed a net increase of about 0,34% in the medium arcane force amongst the foals of New Ponyville. You understand that it is way into the error margin, but still it was an increase and you must understand that any potential increase sparkle my curiosity.” Numeric spoke with passion; it was clear to everyone that she felt proud in her work.
“I decided to dig more, and to my surprise this number was almost constant! Every year the foals of poniville were just slightly better than the medium. My first guess was that it probably meant faulty machinery during the tests, but I decided to analyze only the foals of ponyville and to my surprise there was a small group of foals that where 4,78% above the medium!”
Numeric gave Lux another sheet of copper, this one had a long list of names followed by row after row of personal information: age, sex, sexual orientation, work group, weight, height, marital status, etc etc.
“I tried to isolate what was causing it, trying to detect what anomaly could be injecting magical energy into a closed system. I believe you understand the concept of arcane entropy, right?”
Lux nodded, she had studied it many years ago, but the concept was a constant reality for her: In a closed system the total potential arcane energy tends to approach zero with time. That meant that with every generation there was less magic to go around, in the past the sun had worked as an external source of arcane energy.
“So, I was sure that something was generating new magic inside the walls of Ponyville, but it didn’t matter how many hours I poured upon the charts I couldn’t discover what it was. Until I considered a new variable.”
She gave Lux another sheet of copper; this had the same names from before, but a single row with the unicorn work group that had provided magical light for the foals. All the ones that showed the increased arcane force had been illuminated by Lux’s work group. The unicorn looked disbelieving from the earth pony to the alicorn to the griffon, but they all had serious faces.
“After that it was a simple question of tracking back this anomaly in time, to see when it begun, your work group where responsible for all of them. After that we only needed to discover who was the responsible, we analyzed your group and I’m pretty sure that you are the anomaly.”
She concluded with proud smile.
“No, this must be a mistake, I don’t do anything special! I'm just an ordinary employee.” Lux said quickly.
“No, there is no mistake, Lux.” Luna said in her angelical voice. “If Numeric is saying that you are the anomaly I believe her, because that’s her cutie mark.”
Lux suddenly looked at the princess's assistant, a clear question in her eyes, Numeric turned and lowered her pants just slightly enough that Lux could see the mark on her flank: a percent symbol.
“I Believe you have one too.” Numeric Said as she raised her pants. “I showed you mine, nothing fairer than you show me yours.”
Lux gasped amazed, she had never known another pony with a Cutie Mark! Shyly she turned and lowered her pants just enough so Numeric could see the image of a rising sun in Lux's flank, quickly raising them afterwards. Numeric and the princess smiled.
She could not believe that was happening, it was so surreal that she came to think she was in a hallucinatory dream, maybe she'd be exhausted producing more light and was now in the infirmary, having dreams about the princess and cutie marks.
“We Need your help, Lux,” Princess Luna said and Lux knew then that it would be impossible to say no the princess, just from being close to her she felt motivated to do her best, she wanted to impress the princess, show that she was a good pony.
“If it had been me, I would have simply conscripted you, but the princess believes that you must have a choice.” The griffon general spoke dismissively.
“What is this job?” Lux asked, a bit scared of what could be so dangerous that the princess herself had abandoned the front lines to supervise personally.
“We need you to be employed in a special project that has the potential to reignite the sun and save everypo… everyone.” Luna spoke confidently.
Lux giggled nervously, she was sure that this must have been some kind of dream or feverish hallucination. It wasn’t possible, the princess of the night, the sun shining once more, she being important. No, this couldn’t be happening.
