Chapters The Strange and Secret Life of Lumen Sky
Chapter 2- What Lay Beyond the Threshold
-Twilight-
As we descended into the darkness the door shut at the top and all light was lost. Our horns glowed with light and he shot a large orb of light to the bottom of the stairs.
"I don't remember any spell like that, where did you find it," I asked, wondering if there were books somewhere that I didn't know about.
"I found it," he answered casually.
"Really, where," we had reached the bottom where the concrete floor clicked eerily under our hooves.
"That will be a story for next time," he walked over to a large burlap lump under the stairs and pulled the sheet of revealing a mannequin with strange looking armor on and a shield leaning against it.
"Is that the armor and shield you told me about?"
"Yes, it took me about eight months of on and off work to make it," he said as I looked at the small steel loops that made the armor and shimmered in the light we cast around the room.
"It is steel mail and can stand up to a ton of things and is a great deal lighter than what the Royal Guard wear."
"How do you know that?"
"I was doing a job for Celestia and the guards were teasing me about how I was wearing an apron and evidently made me wear their armor. It was so heavy that I almost fell forwards."
"Well, may we proceed?"
"Why of course," he said as he tossed the burlap sheet over the armor and shield. He turned towards a small steel panel set into the wall. He lowered his horn to the level of the panel. He raced forwards, driving his horn into the panel so his head touched the steel.
"What are you doing?" I said, very concerned with his horn.
"Don't worry, horns are hard enough to handle it," he grunted as he shifted his horn around behind the panel, where clicks and thumps were heard.
"What about the hole in that plate?"
"Don't worry, it is enchanted to repair itself- nhh- when it takes damage." There was a very loud click and a crack split the wall and opened to reveal an elevator car.
"Well then, no turning back," he pulled his horn from the wall and turned, walked into the car, and said, "Are you coming?"
"Yes," with that I got into the elevator with a pony I had just met about thirty minutes ago. The car started down and the air became very cold and cave-like.
"Below us is a secret compound thirty stories below the surface and nopony knows about it except my, acquaintance. All this is the product of two years of behind the scenes work. At the top is a compound for miscellaneous activities and the lower you get the more dangerous and amazing the labs get. That is where my dangerous experiments go on and we are going to visit them all." He said as the car came to a stop and the doors opened with a comical ding. "Here is the top floor, there are four floors below us. This is where living quarters are and other facilities are. Below us is a horticulture lab, a biology lab, an astronomy center, and a jet propulsion and flight center with more labs at the bottom. Between that and here are nine flights of stairs and a ventilation shaft." I looked around and noted that this floor looked very creepy. I turned and saw a sign with arrows pointing to different areas and one of them was an amphitheatre.
"Why do you have an amphitheatre down here?"
"Oh, um, well, stuff like, umm. I really don't know, I haven't found a use for it yet." He was definitely hiding something there.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," his face was straight and he really looked like he was telling the truth but I knew better. I would probably wait until later to investigate. He led me to a steel door and we descended down the stairs to the horticulture lab.
He took a card out of his pocket and slid it through the reader and its light turned green with a click. He opened the door and a hot, humid draft came out and rows and rows of sand covered fields lay before us. In the center was a room with windows on every side except a section of one side.
"Please stay on the path, the sand here is sterile for a microbe free environment in which to grow plants." I looked around and saw no plants or anything growing or alive.
"Have you used it before," I pondered aloud.
"Not yet, I haven't had a reason to use it," he said as he opened the door to the lab using his card again. Inside everything was very new looking and in order just like his kitchen except everything was made for running tests on plants. He flipped a switch and the lights came on and buzzed for a fraction of a second. The lights were like the ones upstairs but were longer and cylindrical. There was a fume hood in the corner and outlets and plugs for gas and electricity. There were all kinds of glass and plastic containers for containing specimens.
"Wow, this is amazing. Is the plastic synthetic or natural?" I asked as he wandered around scanning everything.
"Oh, yes. It can also be broken down into biological material to keep from harming the environment. Just so you know it does not break down in water, that would be impractical for lab ware." He said that with just a tinge of resent .
"Cool. Does the fume hood have its own duct separate from the ventilation shaft."
"Oh yeah. That would be very silly." I started "nerding" out at the sight of all the lab equipment that I had back at my castle. Most of the other machines I had never seen before and had no idea of what they did. There was a panel on the wall near the door with dials, small LCD screens, and buttons on it.
"What is that for?" I asked, nodding in the direction of the panel.
"That is where everything for this floor is controlled. Temperature, humidity, you name it. It can also lock down this floor if the need comes. The only thing you need is the authorization card and the password." He started looking out the door and sighed. "I really want some more ponies to know about this place so it is not just a waste of time and energy."
"Don't worry it will just be a matter of time before this place will be used more than it ever has. I can guarantee it."
"Okay. Oh, I almost forgot to put my mask away," he said. The mask lifted off his head and a dark blue bubble enveloped it and popped with an audible sound.
"Where did it go," I asked.
"Back upstairs, I also turned off the torches too. That would have been a disaster if something caught fire," he said as he walked to the door. I looked around and said lets go. When we walked back into the stair well I started to feel like this was a pony to be reckoned with. He had a lab and a whole complex where he could make dangerous things. I shuddered, just the thought of that made me uncomfortable.
It took almost an hour to get through the next three labs. After finishing the astronomy center I asked, "I almost forgot, what is your name?"
"Hmmm. My name is Nathan, Nathan Sky," he said as as we descended the stairs to the bottom floor of the complex.
The Strange and Secret Life of Lumen Sky
-Night-
After Twilight's visit to my store I have been working on the Mark III and doing more safety and output tests. I was also working on "recruiting" other ponies to use my labs so they didn't sit and gather dust. I also improved the controls of the jet which I dubbed the F-23 so it could handle better at faster speeds and higher altitudes. After being seen by Twilight it had a maximum altitude of fifty thousand feet. Now, it can reach almost one-hundred thousand feet above sea level. Now, back to me meeting Rainbow Dash, well, that definitely could have gone better. She seemed just a little threatened by how I could create a sonic rainboom without wings. She may have been also slightly annoyed that Twilight made her do that so...I had also been looking for ponies that would greatly benefit from the complex. I picked Vinyl and Octavia because they could definitely help me with my music. I almost told them I could make music but I didn't, I just told them it would be a nice place to test acoustics for songs down in the amphitheater. They did get a little skeptic about why I had an amphitheater down there; I was not ready for that. I almost buckled under the pressure, almost. Okay, I did, but, I made them swear not to tell anypony I could. That was the hardest thing to say for me up to that point in time. I kind of felt good to tell somepony, it also kind of made me feel bad about how she really didn't react the way I thought they would. Then again, it is not that uncommon to play a musical instrument. Octavia was more interested with how I conduct an entire orchestra by myself, even though it had half the instruments a full size one had. She thought that was rather extraordinary and told me that I should play at a music festival when I decide to tell others what I could do.
About an entire month had passed since I had told Vinyl and Octavia when I got a letter from Twilight saying that she wanted to know when I was going to use the particle accelerator and demonstrate my jet. She also mentioned that she may have told Luna about this whole thing and she wanted to know more. After reading that I rushed to my desk in the office and started writing back.
Dear Twilight,
What were you thinking when you told Luna. Her sister is who I have been hiding all this from and she is the last pony I would want to know after Celestia, but none the less, send her over and I will let her in on this. I am not mad at you I am just very, very afraid that the compound will be seized. Also, I will be testing the accelerator on Tuesday at midnight so get everypony who you want to witness this (strictly your friends) over here around ten to go over safety protocols. I am still testing the F-23 so it may not be ready any time soon but I may demonstrate it after we are done with the particle accelerator. I will also be taking some ponies on rides at cruising altitude. Just something to think about for Tuesday.
Sincerely,
-Lumen
After that I went out behind my shop and my horn started glowing. My eyes dilated into slits and my fangs grew longer and sharper. I took a deep breath and blew on the paper sending green flames spiraling over the parchment burning it to ashes and the smoke drifted very quickly away. My horn stopped glowing and my normal form returned. That was the transfiguration spell I had mentioned to Twilight during her first visit so I can send her letters without being discovered by postal workers. It was nice and could be a very good party trick but that would have to wait.
Later that day a pony came into my store and the bell rang and I heard the clicking of shoes on the tile floor. I looked up from by project and saw a darkly tinted distortion of Princess Luna's hair though the visor on my mask. My anxiety level went up, my heart rate increased, and my hooves started shaking very slightly. I told my self to calm down to keep from ruining the small figure I was blowing.
"Hello," came the voice of the princess.
"Yes," I replied, taking my mask off to come around the front to kneel.
"Are you the Lumen Twilight has told me to see?"
"Yes my liege," I said kneeling on the ground.
"Well then, let's see this compound of yours."
"Okay then." I said trying to sound happy. I walked back around the counter and turned off the burner with a hissing click. I pulled the locking pin on the gate and motioned for her to follow. As we walked back I had the realization that I was still shivering very slightly.
"What am I to expect while here." She said while looking around.
"Anything and everything. Lots of things exist down there that will blow your mind."
"Should I expect to have my mind blown in that case?" She asked while eyeing me suspiciously. I felt uncomfortable under that look.
"Thoroughly." I said with a slight grin.
Two hours later we emerged back to the store front and Luna was thoroughly impressed and was wondering and had asked lots of questions...and then some. She said she had an amazing time and was looking forwards to Tuesday morning.
"Thank you again for letting me see your compound," Luna said.
"Oh sure it was my pleasure." I replied, trying to hold back my anxiety. As she walked out of the store she took a breath before crossing the threshold and disappeared into the late afternoon. I closed my store and headed to the amphitheater where my grand piano sat on stage. I went up to it and played a single chord and listened to it dissipate. I sighed and played from memory a song I remember from my days at the orphanage. I involved several instruments and they played with me as my problems and feelings poured out in the song. When the song was over I felt better. I almost started singing during the next song but I stopped my self. I really did not want to hear myself sing that evening. That was when I zoned out and started thinking. There was definitely something more special about Luna that made me feel anxious around her. That was when other instruments started and made the song I was playing even more emotion filled. That was when a single thought came to mind.
"Aw crap." I said dismissing the thought. I put my head down on the top of the piano. I really thought that was true but I really did not want to admit it. I played several songs that evening and by the time I was done it was late so I went upstairs where I ate dinner, showered, and went to bed. I had a dreamless sleep that night.
The Strange and Secret Life of Lumen Sky
Chapter 5- Tuesday Morning
-Night-
Finally, Monday evening was here. After two day of waiting I felt like I was going to explode with the anticipation. It was all ready eleven, so I got really nervous. At eleven twenty-one Fluttershy walked in the door.
"A-am I late?" Said she.
"Nope, go find a spot in my living room to sit."
"Okay. Um, where is that?"
"Oh, that is in the back room, through the door, right down the hall. You can't miss it."
"Okay, thank you." She walked into the back and I heard the door close. I continued to wait and almost twenty minutes passed before the rest of my guests arrived. Most of that time I waited just pacing around my store and seeing if Fluttershy was okay in the back by herself. After they were all assembled in my living room I started my safety orientation.
"All right. I know you are excited and I am too, but I have to tell you about the dangers and procedures of this machine you will witness on its maiden voyage. Yes, it will be boring but it may keep you alive in the case of a system failure." Rainbow Dash groaned and several others just looked at me like I was completely insane.
Nearly an hour later the ten of us were assembled in the control room of the particle accelerator dressed in yellow radiation suits looking over it through the large window filled with an ionized form of cadmium for some protection from any potential radiation.
"Okay, you know the drill. Keys ready!" We all lifted a hoof off the ground where our keys were to turn the electronics on and activate the accelerator.
"Keys set!" We put the keys into their slots.
"I am so excited!" Pinkie Pie looked like she was about to go nuts if something interesting didn't happen.
"Turn!" We turned our keys and the dashboard lit up and we started the preheat and vacuum sequence. The vacuum pumps started whirring and the gauge for chamber pressure started dropping.
"Vacuum pressure reached Lumen." Twilight reported from the other side of the room.
"Start preheat sequence." Applejack started pushing buttons and the large power supply in the far corner of the accelerator room started putting out over three thousand volts at nearly ten thousand amps. A very thin white line appeared in the video feed on the TV screen over the window.
"Is that all we're here for?" Rarity was looking at me from her station.
"Yes, that thin line is a solid stream of electrons flowing around in the chamber."
"In English please." Appplejack said.
"That is in English, but if you want me to sum it up. That is a stream of electricity, or the particles that make it, streaming around the chamber. The whole point of this is to prove many theories made by the Board of Equestrian Scientists, that I am not a part of, most of which involve the speed of light in a vacuum and the various things that make up the particles."
"That makes sense surprisingly." Octavia said over the growing hum of the accelerator passing Mach one. There was a brilliant flash of light that had no distinct color and a huge surge of feed back on the camera.
"Ooooo. Nice light show, when do we get to the good stuff?" Pinkie was starting to lean over the dashboard and press the visor against the window.
"Soon, soon. We still have about three hours until the accelerator is a maximum power. I know everypony in here won't be able to stand for that long so, let's go do something else." Twilight looked like she was having the time of her life and everypony else looked like they were ready to drop to the floor and sleep.
"Do we have to keep these suits on or can we take them off? They are making my wings cramp." Dash was starting to unzip the back of her suit.
"You can, but you have to be ready at a moment's notice to put it back on." She just took it off and took it with her as did most everypony else. We got through the air lock and I ended up putting on a lab coat out of peer pressure. We went into the main landing where the halls to the various labs were.
"Now, we can do one of few things. We can go play games or, we can go and be bored because there is not much to do down here." They were looking at each other.
"Well, I don't know about you guys but I am going to go play some video games." Dash was starting to step forwards.
"It might not hurt just to try." Fluttershy had remained almost invisible to me for almost an entire hour.
"Well then, let's go. I have some computer games for creative minds." I wandered down the hall to the electronics lab and opened a door on the side of the hall and turned on the lights in a small computer lab. Most of them just sat at their computer and watched what I was doing. I got all the computers turned on and started my own.
"Where do you get all this stuff Lumen?" Twilight was sitting at her computer watching me over her monitor.
"Oh, most of it I can get for factory defect or just broken. I take it and fix it and here it is."
"So you can just get a broken particle accelerator and fix it just like that?" Applejack was watching me from the back of the room.
"That I made, the parts were broken and the plans were...borrowed."
"Really?" She was going all the way to find the truth.
"More like I looked at the design and made several parts they couldn't make." I started warming up my projector.
"Who did this come from exactly?" She raised an eyebrow.
"The Board of Equestrian Scientists of course."
"You really do need some help."
"Just a little." The projector turned on and I pulled up ImagineCraft.
"How did you afford all those parts?" Twilight looked like she was going to pull a calculator out on me as she stood up.
"I used a small supply store and got most of the components for really cheap."
"Oh." She sat back down.
"Hey, where's the good games?" Dash stood up and glared at me.
"Oh, heh, I don't play those kinds of games. Instead I play ImagineCraft, I has action aspects of it."
"It sounds super lame." My eye twitched.
"Oh, just wait. ImagineCraft is actually fun. You ponies in the back looking like you just got though an entire lecture on the Higgs-Boson, you can join in at any time you like." They just looked at each other. I started talking about ImagineCraft and explained how to play and that kind of thing for about an hour.
By the time I was done Rainbow Dash was still skeptical but she decided to give it a try. Fluttershy looked like she was going to march into the middle of a food fight but just played. By the end of their first day Dash had a decent shelter and Fluttershy had just wandered around despite my warnings. As the sun set on their first day in game Fluttershy called me over.
"H-hey. Can you help me?" Her face said everything I needed to know.
"Sure. What do you need help with?"
"Everything." She looked away a little.
"Here, how about I show you how and you can use that as a reference." The color was starting to return to her face.
"Sure." I went over my computer and started showing her what to do. I went over the basic shelter design and how to gather resources. She was getting along nicely until Twilight started playing. Twilight had apparently soaked up a ton of information in the short time we had and was starting to freak her out by talking to me about concepts that were way out of Fluttershy's grasp. Soon I got Fluttershy to the point where she could go to the Nether and said that she can handle herself from there.
"W-wait, come back. I still don't know what to do!" She started to move her player away from the portal.
"Yes you do. I did it without any help."
"Yes but you're you. I'm just me."
"I know but you got this far. You were the one playing, not me. I just told you what to do and how to get there. You did the rest. Now, go to the Nether and show the game that you are in control."
"Okay. I can do this. I am in control of you game." With that she stepped through the portal and ended up in the hellish realm that is the Nether. Applejack came over and started watching her play and Twilight came over to my desk where I was making course corrections in Equs Space Program.
"What are you doing?" She leaned over my shoulder and watched as I manipulated the maneuver node for the correct burn to get an orbit around Mün.
"I am going to put a Equine on the moon." I started my burn.
"Is that Luna's moon?"
"What, no, this is a simulation for aerospace flight." She glanced over at me and then back at the computer.
"Then who's is it?"
"Nopony's. This is a fictional solar system. It is really quite cool, plus, there are a lot of cool things to do." I finished the burn and turned to face her.
"What is the point? To do space stuff or actually do research?" Luna was watching to screen as the small vessel started to separate from the lander.
"Both. You have a budget and have to do all kinds of things to get funding for building. It is actually really complicated."
"Really. Let me land you Kerbin on the moon."
"Sure and it is an Equine, Equs is that planet over there." I wheeled the camera so she could see the small planet and got up so she could sit at my desk.
"So, how do I do this." I explained the mechanics and controls to her.
"And remember, don't land too hard or you risk an explosion." She nodded and started to lower the small lander to the moon.
"Slow down Twilight."
"Yeah I'm on it." She fired the thrusters and the craft started slowing down.
"Extend the landing legs."
"I know!" She mashed the key and the legs came down. The craft was about thirty meters above the surface and she cut the engines. She watched the craft slowly sink to the surface and the legs fell off and the lander fell over.
"Well, that could have gone better." She turned and glared at me.
"Like you could have done any better."
"You wanna go?"
"Yeah. Let's see this amazing landing." I opened a sandbox file and made small space plane.
"Is that what you are going to use." Twilight pulled a chair up to my desk and watched what I was doing on the projector screen.
"You better believe it." I got the plane off the runway and pulled it into the air and made a wide circle around the space center.
"Why is that white darling. Couldn't you have made it another color?" Rarity had apparently been paying attention this whole time and finally decided to say something.
"Because that is all I have. The white keeps the plane from overheating." I started to fly straight for the tallest building in the center.
"Oh. Couldn't your little green beans just wear something better like..."
"I am sorry to cut you off but I have to concentrate here." I cut power to the plane's engines and pulled it into an upright position and fired them and started to adjust my angle as the plane sunk closer to the building's roof. I cut the engines and the plane landed vertically on the roof.
"Bu...what...how!?" Twilight's jaw dropped.
"Who says I can't fly." I looked over at her with a small smirk.
"I wanna try!" Pinkie ran around the corner and jumped into a chair and started to pull up the game.
"Looks like fun." Applejack sat down next to Dash.
"Is there any colorful aspects of this game?" Rarity looked at my work and looked over at me.
"I think there is here let me see." I pulled up a page on it from the internet and showed her.
"Ooo. I think I know what I can make now!" She raced over to the computer and sat bouncing a little in her chair. I showed them how to save file edit all the tech into the game and showed them how to build. From there they went nuts. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy joined in and we had a decent multiplayer server up and running with almost everypony doing something. Twilight was still irritated at me and Luna was still watching from the back.
"Hey," I nudged Twilight, "watch this." I had made a small craft that would spin and launch an Equine out at several times the speed of sound. I flew it to another rocket I had made and started spinning it.
"What now, are you going to one-up me again?"
"Nope, watch." I got an Equine out and it was flung out into the side of the ship, launching it out into the water where it started flailing very violently. She just looked down at me. I could hear Luna and Octavia snickering from the back of the room. Then Twilight's face got stern again.
"Wait, who's watching the accelerator?" Her eyes started getting big.
"I am. I have the stuff pulled up here. See." I opened the tab on my computer's desktop and showed her.
"Cool. Wait, why is it reading in kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour."
"In the big world of science we use the same easy system of measurement."
"Oh, I forgot. Well then, is the accelerator ready for the tests yet?" We looked over to where Dash had shouted about crashing her ship and was watching the explosion. I looked back and saw the speed of the particles.
"It should be ready now." I turned to face everypony. "Okay, I know you are having fun but now it is time to run the tests that will answer many things about our world. Please save your progress and put your radiation suits back on so we can get this over with." Dash groaned and I went to the back to check on Vinyl and Octavia. Vinyl was leaning against Octavia who was just staring into space.
"Are you two okay?" I sat down next to Octavia.
"Yes, we are fine. I don't think that Vinyl will be very happy with being woken." She looked over at her.
"Yeah probably not. Well let's go then." Everypony was leaving the room and the only ones left were the three of us.
"When are you going to tell them."
"Soon. Just a bit longer Octavia."
"You have had enough time, either you will tell them, or I will."
"Fine I will tell them."
"Today."
"Fine." She nudged Vinyl and she opened her eyes and sat up and just looked around for a few seconds and then put her glasses on. After Vinyl stood up we left the room and I closed the door and turned the light off.
The Strange and Secret Life of Lumen Sky
Chapter 6- The Amphitheater
-Twilight-
After we got back into the control room, Lumen started walking everypony through how to run their tests while monitoring the accelerator at the same time. After he had finished running Applejack though her duties when we were all greeted with a large tremor.
"What the hey was that?" We all flocked to the window and watched the beam in the accelerator shift a little.
"I don't know but what ever it was there is something wrong." He ran over to his station and started the read off of the data. His face was neutral so I couldn't tell if anything was wrong even when he started running us through how to shut the accelerator down.
"What time is it?" I looked over at him.
" It's, " he looked over at the clock on the dashboard, " oh wow. It's almost five o'clock." I almost instantly looked over to where Luna was standing, relieved that she had gone outside to make way for the sun.
"I'm hungry. Who wants pancakes?" Pinkie said as she hopped towards the door.
"Sure. Let's go get something to eat." Dash followed and we had no choice to go to the dining room while Pinkie was in the kitchen cooking. Lumen had a huge kitchen that resembled that of a large scale bakery. When she had finished we were greeted by a large stack of pancakes and we all started eating. We were all a little cautious because the last time we had pancakes made by Pinkie was a little... traumatic. How one could bake something that big into a pancake, I will never know, be we all thoroughly chewed our food.
"Why are you eating like that?" I had noticed how Lumen was starting to rip his pancakes apart and eat them in an unusual manner.
"Oh. My teeth hurt because I had my braces adjusted a few days ago. Since a few of my teeth are a little offset they bent my wire in two places so they will move. The only problem is how I end up in a decent amount of pain." We all just looked at him and almost wondered the same thing.
"Well, have you taken any pain killers?"
"Sometimes. My teeth will hurt a little when I am not eating but a majority is when I am eating. Don't worry, they only hurt a little as long as I am not biting anything with them." I could see him trying not to sound all "woe is me" in front of us. Now that the social ice was broken we started asking him questions. He had determined that he had lived in Canterlot when he went to school. He had apparently started his education at one of the public schools and then had been asked to come to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. He had passed his entrance exam with a few hiccups but nothing major. He said he vaguely remembered having me in a few of his classes but he never talked to me, even when we were in the library. He was actually younger than me by two years but still had me in a few of his classes when he was first starting out at the school like arithmetic and science. After that he can not remember me except the very big things I did after I left the school, but after he left the school he opened his shop and started working on his lab.
"Wow. When you lived in Canterlot did you live with your parents?" Fluttershy was sitting there looking across the table at him.
"Umm... well... errrr..."
"Oh darling. He has been asked enough questions."
"Oh, okay." She shrunk back.
"Here let me get those for you." He got up and started whisking dishes into the kitchen where I am sure he was cleaning them after he left.
"I still find him strange. There is something... off about him."
"Why do you think so?" I said, waiting for him to come out of the kitchen.
"He just acts... different."
"Oh that is probably just because he doesn't socialize as much as we do." Rarity was looking around the very bleak dinning room.
"I dunno, but there is something that he ain't tellin' us." Applejack was leaning back in her chair.
"Wait, why is the kitchen so quiet." We all listened and sure enough, the kitchen was silent.
"Suspicious, very suspicious." Luna had spoken for the first time all night.
"Let me go check on him." I got up and went into the kitchen and nopony there.
"He's not in here," I called. That was when they all came in and we saw that the back door was just barely ajar. We all looked at each other and I pushed the door open and we walked into a hallway. We heard noises coming from a doorway a little way down. We all walked in and the room was painted black, had huge vaulted ceilings, a few rows of seats, and a stage where Lumen sat staring at a grand piano. Then he started playing.
As more instruments joined they emerged from the darkness enveloped in his magic he sang and his voice rang though everypony in the room. We stood there and when he started the verse about the moon, Luna winced. After that we stood there and listened until he had finished.
[song: end]
Lumen sat back in his bench and stare at the piano.
"Yay! Play something else!" Pinkie shouted and Lumen jumped out of his chair and looked over in horror as we all walked up to the stage.
"W-what are you doing here?!" He was still standing behind the bench as he watched us.
"Looking for you of course silly!" Pinkie walked up to the stage and put her forelegs on the wooden surface.
"Why didn't you tell us about this?" I took a step forwards.
"Because, I was embarrassed. When I was still at the public school my peers gave me a hard time because I had showed them what I could do, music wide. I took it too hard and this is what happened. I lied, I haven't been completely honest with any of you." He walked to the edge of the stage and sat down with his hind legs hanging off. "You may want to take a seat." After we all had sat down he started.
"I may start with what I know, I am an orphan." Rarity gasped and we all glared at her. "I lived in an orphanage almost my entire life and knew almost nothing about everything outside its walls and boundaries. I had no friends because I knew nothing towards making any. They though I was weird because I was talking to the adults more than I was to anypony else my age." His voice faltered. "I was considered an outcast. I also had one of the strangest cutie marks. None of my caretakers or teachers knew what it meant. I-I'm also not who I say I am. My name is Night, Night Sky. I was called Lumen by all the other fillies and colts as part of a gag after the whole music fiasco and it stuck. I never left it because it was the only name I was noticed for. I really have no idea where it came from but it may have something to do with my choice of reading." He stopped and sighed. "That's everything." We all just looked at each other. I decided to break the ice again.
"Did you write that song?"
"No, an author by the name of Mandopony wrote it. He is one of the ponies that I look up to. I can make music but I can't write it very well."
"Cool, how many instruments can you play?"
"Almost anything in a normal orchestra. Individually, I really stink at brass instruemts, they make my lips swell and sometimes bleed. Anything else I enjoy playing."
"Woah. Do you know of any really cool songs?" Dash was leaning really far back in her chair.
"You have no idea how many songs I know." With that he started playing songs we might have heard of once or twice. Many of which required almost every instrument he had on stage behind the huge curtain. Most of the time he would switch between playing different instruments and others he would just stand up in front of the assembly and conducted them with a white stained baton. When he was done he closed the curtain and led us back to the hall.
"Well then, after that little thing, let's go see the thing I am most proud of." He led us back down the hall and all the way down to the Jet Propulsion and Flight Center.
The Strange and Secret Life of Lumen Sky
Chapter 1- An Unexpected Visitor
-Twilight-
It was a little early for a walk but today was different. I was about to run a very, very important test but I had broken my last stirring rod (which by the way are glass) and I really did not want to bother Celestia, Luna, or anypony else for that matter, so I went out to get it myself. I also was just a very small amount of tired of being inside my castle. So, I left around seven o'clock and strolled down to town not knowing where I was to get the rod because Celestia usually took care of that. I ended up almost to the edge of town when I saw a small shop boasting it sale of lab glassware. I strolled over and opened the door and entered the slightly musty shop. I heard a bell and I looked up and saw the bell several inches away from the edge of the door frame. I noted that and wandered through the aisles of glass trinkets and apparel. There were many different statuettes and only those in a row were the same shape but none had the same paint or color scheme. This shop was starting to make me doubt the sale of lab glassware.
I eventually reached the front counter where a rather odd pony sat blowing a small glass statuette. He had a grey coat, a brown mane and tail, had a small build, and was wearing a welding mask. He sat in front of a torch spouting a beautifully violet flame behind a small plexiglass shield where a small desk stood with all kinds of tools used for shaping the glass into shapes.
"How can I help you?" he said without looking up. That was when I realized he was a unicorn because he was sitting next to three identical torches where more glass art was being made. It was surrounded by a very violent blue hue and both were very similar to the one the the young stallion was crafting.
"How can I help you?" He said again.
"Oh, yes. Do you have any stirring rods, the glass ones?" I asked.
"Yes, how long, 20 centimeters or 30 centimeters?" I noticed the arid smell coming from the glass that was burning as he crafted.
"How about 30?"
"Sure, that will....." He looked up and lifted the visor on his mask to reveal two very large brown eyes. I was surprised that he knew I was standing there without looking up and how he almost melted the glass statuette when he looked up. He said, "You are Princess Twilight," as he came around the front of the counter and knelt. "I am very sorry your majesty."
"Oh it's fine." I replied, very boggled by this young stallion that had just gone from completely inattentive to very alert.
"Let me go get you your rod." With that he disappeared into a back room and started rummaging around.
"Might I ask, what are you going to use this for?"
"Oh, just a test I was going to run," I absent-mindedly replied as I looked around the shop just taking in all the strange things he had on display.
"Hmmm, I sometimes I will do a few myself when I have the time." Came his muffled voice from the backroom.
"Do any involve this," I said, pointing to a beaker of purple liquid perched atop a shelf as he emerged.
"Gaaaaaa! Don't touch that!" He shouted as he placed the parcel he had on the counter and rushed over.
"What is it? Is it part of an experiment?"
"If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anypony, even your friends," he said as he hastily whisked the beaker off the counter and into the air looking at me with his wide eyes he greeted me with.
"Why not my friends?" I asked, wondering why he would say that.
"Everything I do that is not part of my shop is extremely top secret. If word got out I would either have a museum or a notice to vacate the premises on Celestia's orders. I really don't want any of those. I can see if your friends are ready with time, if you want, but you must make the decision."
I stood thinking for a moment, what would a glass blower be doing that he would want to hide from all of Equestria? There was no way that I was going to keep secrets from my friends. Not now, not ever.
"No, I don't want to keep secrets from my friends. Wouldn't you know that we don't do that?"
"No. I wouldn't know because I have only a few friends, if you count Dr. Whooves, but The Doctor is more of an acquaintance than anything." He sat down on the floor and looked up at me as very small drops of tears began to become visible at the corners of his eyes. I could have sworn he was straining himself not to cry. His eyes could have looked into the deepest part of my soul if they belonged to a foal, but they didn't.
"So this lab of your's, is it all just a way to get attention?"
"What, no. It is for science, I make friends without it."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Who are your friends?"
"Okay, you got me. Yes, sometimes I will try to use it like that."
"Wow. You really need to get out there and make some friends. Without the lab's help."
"Fine I will. But when, how, and most importantly, who?" He was starting to come back to his senses and was looking at me like he worked for me.
"Hmmmm. How about some of my friends. You have to get along with at least one of them other than me."
"But who?"
"I really don't know. I need to figure out your personality more first."
"Okay. So, after that how are we going to keep in touch?" He stood back up.
"Well, I could send you letters through Dragon's Breath. Oh wait, you don't know any dragon willing to send a letter, do you?"
"Well no but, you know transfiguration right?"
"Yes, why?"
"Well, I have been reading about that and, well, found out how to breath fire."
"Are you kidding me?! That is one of the most unstable forms of magic and it can ruin your body! What were you thinking?" I glared at him and he flinched.
"Well, I have been doing it for about a year now and, well, I'm fine." He was starting to click his hooves on the floor in a surprisingly rhythmic way.
"Fine. Before this takes too long, are we going to see this oh so special lab?"
"Why, of course!" He turned and closed his shop and walked over to the gate separating the store from the area behind the counter and storeroom and pulled the pin up and swung it open. We walked through the doorway to the storeroom and there were five furnaces lined against the wall with more tools to create glass art. There were also glass blowing and molding supplies along the wall like large glass marbles and fine glass sand. There were also several large metal shelves where many parcels sat much like the one he brought out earlier.
He opened a wooden door and walked into his house. I looked up and saw a sign above the door on the inside that said,
Make a Joyful Noise
"What is that for," I said looking at the very professional looking sign.
"What that. That is just something I made to test my woodworking skills. Do you like it?"
"Yes." That sign was very different than anything else I have ever seen before, but it was just a little suspicious. "You have a very nice home," I said this with a lot of appreciation, it was very nice for somepony who relied on a shop for an income. It smelled very remotely of cinnamon and everything was in order and clean. He even had a small potted fern in the corner in front of the window down the hall that extended to our left. There was something odd about the lights though. Naturally me curious mind went to work. Were they new, a different foreign brand perhaps? Wait, they were none of those, they were just, too different.
"Do you like the lights? I designed them with Dr. Whooves, they consume almost seventy percent less power than the normal incandescent bulbs and last about fifty times longer. Both of us use them in our labs and homes, they save so much money it can blow your mind." He was looking at the small light fixture over the kitchen sink with me.
"Well, those couldn't cause problems, they are just light bulbs."
"Heh. Well, they wouldn't if they didn't use very sophisticated technology that does not exist yet. Maybe one day, one day..." He turned to look at the window as sunlight began to stream in great golden ribbons.
"Well then, while you have a moment with your lights I will continue to the lab."
"Oh, of course." He continued walking and we crossed through the living room. There was a TV hanging on the wall with a small computer processor next to it. Then...
"Why in Equestria do you have a sword hanging over your fireplace?!" He jumped a little and turned around to look at me and then realized what I had said.
"Oh, that. Um, well, I made it and put it there. Don't worry it can't kill ponies, it only stuns them, unless..."
"Okay, I get the idea. But why do you have it?"
"Well you know when the Changlings invaded? Well, I made that sword to protect myself and others in the event of another invasion. I also have a shield and armor that go with it." His ears were starting to quiver and was starting to tap his hooves on the carpet floor again.
"Where are they?" I looked at him as I furrowed my brow.
"They are in my basement and we have to pass through there anyways soooo." He strode over to a door and opened it revealing a stairwell that led down into darkness.
"After you," he said as he gestured towards the doorway to darkness. I glanced at him and lit my horn, stepping into the darkness.
View Online
The Strange and Secret Life of Lumen Sky
Chapter 3- The Jet Propulsion and Flight Center
-Twilight-
At the bottom of the stairs was the last door and when the door opened a more welcoming breeze flowed out. It smelled not of a cave, but a home in which nopony had been in for a while. We walked out into the large room that had several hallways coming off of it. At the end of each hall there was a lab specified for a specific study.
"Here is the chemistry lab, physics lab, and the electronics lab." He said while gesturing towards the respective hall. "These are the most used labs in the entire complex."
"Where is the Jet Propulsion and Flight Center," I asked eyeing the beaker of purple liquid that had followed us the entire way down here.
"Oh, that is right over here," he said leading the way to a small prep room.
Once in, he put a lab coat on and tossed me one. The peculiar thing was how the sleeves came all the way down the beginning of my hooves, it was also unusually thick. He walked to a counter sitting in the corner where two gloves that were very thick and blocky; they looked very metallic but bended very fluidly as he put them on. The surface shimmered as it smoothed out to the shape of his hooves.
"Well then, let's press on," he bubbled while walking to a very small room sealed on the other side with a thick looking door. We walked in and the door shut behind us and the smell of fresh air filled the room. There were two lights beside each door and both had turned from red to green. The door opened and we walked out into a very large tunnel that had extremely high ceilings and the walls sloped up to meet the apex of the roof to make the tunnel shaped like semi-circle. It went on for maybe a mile or two and was filled with several large cylindrical objects covered in tubes and other mechanical and electrical components. There was a small car with seats and controls that Nathan was walking towards and it sat on a track that ran the length of the tunnel.
"Well, if this isn't enough for you than your mind will be blown with this." He got in and started typing on the control panel and the cart started hurtling down the track. After a while we passed by a very long window behind which a very large steel torus sat.
"What is that," I said looking at the object.
"Oh that, that's a particle accelerator. I haven't tested it yet, I am still waiting for the right time. Maybe after your friends can come down here I might turn it on," Nathan said with a small smirk. I could tell he wanted to make a small show of using this dangerous and interesting device.
At the end of the ride we had reached the end of the tunnel where a very large concrete wall stood and a very large door stood as well. We got off the cart and the door slid open revealing another cavernous room stood but this time, filled with the smell of motor oil, rubber, a slightly potent smell, and the scent of the plains. At one end of the room a large black object stood with a small glass dome stretched from the end of a shiny black cone with a large pole that tapered down to a point at the end. It had two very large, almost sharp, wings protruding from the side and had two smaller ones on the back that were not as sharp as the big ones and were sticking up into the air; they also had smaller rectangles on their back end. Situated on the back were two large black open-ended cylinders coming several feet out the back. The sleek figure stood on three large black wheels suspended on large white supports and looked to be lowered and raised by some form of hydraulics.
"What is that," I finally said.
"That," Nathan said pointing at the figure," that is Equestria's first plane. It seats two, can accelerate at almost one G, and is light enough to be pulled by a single pony. That is not what we are here for though, we are here for another prototype." He walked over to the large steel doors that spanned almost the entire length of the tunnel and opened them with a deafening roar, to reveal a very long stretch of pavement and a very large field. Several small buildings rested just off the road and he was going towards the closest one.
"Is that the technology that Equestira would war over if they had it?"
"Yes, everything in the labs we have passed were locked up from the rest of the world to keep the peace."
"Very interesting. Oh, how far away from the city are we," I said, completely boggled by the time we have been underground.
"We are about a mile out," Nathan called as he strode towards the small cuboid. There were two very large doors at each end of the building and once they were open another large mechanical cylinder sat inside.
"That is the prototype of the fastest jet engine ever made. It has over seventy-two thousand pounds of thrust and has a very powerful afterburner. This is the Mark II and its predecessor, well, exploded, and gave me this," he turned and lifted his mane to show a still healing scar no longer than just a few inches that ran almost perpendicular to his spine.
"Wow. Have you tested this yet," I said, fearing another explosion.
"Well, yes and no," he said while attaching cables to the engine.
"What do you mean no?"
"I haven't tested the afterburner yet."
"Mmmmh, that's what I thought." I said, if I had glasses on I would be looking at him over them. "You haven't told me what that purple stuff is," I said, still wondering why he was carrying that beaker around for.
"That is a high density fuel for a rocket designed to yield a higher thrust than conventional fuels. The only drawback is that it is hideously toxic and will go through rubber."
"Is it that new stuff the pegasi are working on called...called..."
"Dimethylmercury?"
"Yes. Why do you have that?" I said, wondering what he is using that for when the health hazards are that high. This pony is completely insane, I thought. No he's not, it's just that he is, different and just a little on the crazy side.
"It was an experiment and this is the last of it. I sealed it up to keep ponies from being poisoned. The glass is shatterproof and will absorb the contents if broken so I can burn it. It is merely just a sample for reference and a keepsake now."
"Why have you been carrying it around then?"
"I forgot it was there."
"Yeah right."
"Really, can we test this before the royal guard comes and take me for supposedly kidnapping the princess?" He was starting to get a little edgy.
"Fine but, please don't blow anything up."
"Okay." He started hooking up many more cables and sensors to the engine. When he was done he led me to a room with a window facing the engine. He inserted a key into the dashboard and turned it, lighting up dials and making displays light up and displayed many zeros and dashes.
"Here put these on," he said, handing me a pair of headphones. He put his headphones on and flipped the cover on a large button that was glowing red and pressed it. The engine roared to life and dials started to move. He throttled the engine up and a large cloud of mist exploded out the end of the hangar. After the engine reached its full speed Nathan flipped a switch and the dials moved more towards their fullest. He started throttling the afterburner up and the mist came again and the grass outside the door was flailing violently. As the afterburner reached its fullest power, the flaps on the back started closing and a blue jet of fire started extending out the back and from the flame came a jet of pure heat and in that jet diamond shapes formed and Nathan's face lit up as he smiled revealing braces and strange enough, short fangs. As the engine roared on the side became slightly red and the engine started sliding forward as cracks appeared in the concrete floor. His face fell and he started running magic and his hooves over the control panel, I could have sworn that the gloves he was wearing were flexing like fingers. The engine lurched forwards several inches and he hit a large red plunger labeled, Emergency Shut Off . The engine settled back down and the sound stopped as a paper flowed from a printer sitting under the dashboard. Nathan took his headphones off and I did the same.
"Well, that was very interesting. I can't believe how much thrust that put out!" He said as he jumped around the room.
"What were those shapes in the exhaust," I asked, still in a daze after what happened. He grinned, showing his braces and short fangs again.
"That was the exhaust exceeding the speed of sound."
"Does that mean..."
"Yes, that engine can propel my jet to a sonic rainboom."
"That would be a huge achievement for a wingless pony," I said as I tried to calm my nerves, having only seeing very few sonic rainbooms in my life.
"I know but, it still needs testing," he said, almost instantly coming of his hype.
"So if Equestria ever got this from you, then there will be wars?"
"Most likely. That is why I haven't told very many ponies about this. But, I feel that I can trust your friends, like a small tugging."
"Really," I said raising an eyebrow.
"Really." I just looked at him and we started back to the hangar.
The next five minutes we talked about who we could introduce to him. We walked back to the store talking about how my friends would react to this. We eventually decided to get him to meet Rainbow Dash because he might get along with her better than my other friends. When we reached the store he let me take the lab coat and sent me back to my castle almost two hours after I walked into the store expecting to get just one thing.