The Magic of Technology

by computerneek

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Lyra, Mystery, Science Fiction
Length: 12712

It looks like magic. It's powered by magic. But is it really magic?

Anypony can see the runes, the symbols, the glow. It looks like magic.
In order to turn it on, unicorns have to feed it magical power. It's powered by magic.
But is it really magic?
The only pony that knows... is dead.
Or so they think.

Tags may be updated as the story progresses.

Published 2019-07-08 20:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-07-30 04:01:36 UTC

Prehistory

“Ahh, I’m glad you could make it, Miss…?” The grey-haired admiral gestures towards her, inclining an eyebrow inquisitively, as she enters the dining room.

She sighs. It is true, she hasn’t exactly told anyone her name. Not that she plans to; she rather enjoys the privacy that her ship’s energy transporters and disguise matrices offer her.

She hasn’t told anyone about either of those, either.

“Athena,” she answers his question. “Call me Athena.”

He tilts his head. “Isn’t that the name of your ship?” he asks.

She nods once.

He blinks. “Ahh, okay then. Please, be seated.” He gestures towards one of the many seats at the table, even as he takes the one opposite it.

She accepts the seat, and a steward promptly appears to deliver food and pour wine.

“Dig in,” the Admiral invites.

Some time later, at the end of the meal, the Admiral looks back up at her, swirling his wine. “So,” he begins.

She samples her wine, and raises an eyebrow at him.

“Me and my captains have been reviewing the records from the Battle of South Amsterdam,” he continues.

“You know what I said about awards.”

He sighs. She’d made that plenty clear already at the press conference; neither her nor her ship would be accepting any awards or accolades. “As much as we would like to award you for that, you’ve made it clear you won’t be accepting any, so there won’t be any. It’s gonna be a bear to get that through to Congress, but that’s just the way it is. But anyways.

“The question came up: Where did she come from, and why?”

She tilts her head. “How do you mean?”

He blinks. “Well… When the Tel'Rasi scouts showed up, we had thirty superdreadnoughts in system.” He sighs. “By the time their main force started arriving, we had twenty superdreadnoughts in system. Then, suddenly, Athena was there, dishing out death and destruction in equal measure across the Tel'Rasi.”

She winces. “Actually, no. That was an unmanned fleet- while the Tel'Rasi lost two thousand sixty-nine ships, they suffered only ninety-three deaths.”

He blinks. “Uh… I take it your ship’s sensors saw straight through them?”

She nods. “Most of the manned vessels, and only two unmanned, were permitted to escape.”

“Why were they permitted to escape…?”

“So they can warn the rest of their kind not to attack our systems. The Tel'Rasi may have powerful ships, but they lack a long-range communications system like ours.”

“... Ahh. So, we get to the question: Where did the Athena come from?”

“She launched from her parking space, just inside the chromosphere of our sun.”

“... Your ship can stand the temperatures of the sun?”

She nods. “So long as her shields stay up, there is no naturally occurring temperature in the known universe that she cannot tolerate indefinitely.”

“Um, okay. So… why did she come to South Amsterdam to fight?”

“Because the Tel'Rasi fleet failed to heed the warnings they were sent and attacked the system.”

“They were sent warnings?”

She nods. “As soon as the fleet entered n-space with the intent to attack, Athena sent them a warning, by local n-space transmission, that any attempt to follow through with the attack would result in the destruction of their fleet.”

“The scouts weren’t stopped?”

“No. My ship was operating autonomously during that portion of the battle; I arrived aboard in time to order the main fleet warned. She calculated that your superdreadnoughts could hold off and defeat the scouts with minimal losses; however, it would seem the commander on the spot was unaware both of that fact… and of how to do so.” She glances up at him. “Tel'Rasi tracking systems are nearly unshakable, but any single Tel'Rasi ship can only track six objects at once- and their tracking priority is the nearest enemy objects to their ships, regardless of type. By firing early with his missiles, he could have saturated the Tel'Rasi ships’ tracking capability with missiles – even ballistic missiles fill up those tracking slots – and effectively prevented the Tel'Rasi from firing against his ships. His missiles may not have the power to penetrate the Tel'Rasi shields, but by keeping up the saturation like that, he would have a free ticket to get his energy batteries – which are powerful enough – into range.” She sighs. “Unfortunately, by not firing early, he allowed the Tel'Rasi tracking systems to acquire a lock on twelve of his ships.”

“Twelve? He only lost ten.”

She nods. “The Tel'Rasi missed two of them, and he got into energy range of the vessel that was tracking them before they could rectify that.”

He looks up towards the ceiling. “They had three ships.”

She nods. “He opened fire before the third one entered tracking range; it was focused on his missiles.”

“... Oh. And that massive fleet…?”

She nods. “That’s how the Tel'Rasi storm so many places: They bring so many ships that their individual tracking limits are moot.” She shrugs. “Which brings us to how Athena kept them from returning fire: She filled space with packeted sublight energy fire – or, ‘plasma rounds’ – before the energy discharge from her arrival dissipated far enough for them to see through it.” She shrugs. “She’s a multi-purpose ship. She’s got the big, anti-capital-ship weapons, but she’s also designed for crowd control, with hundreds of thousands of smaller weapons carpeting every excess inch of hull space.”

“Aren’t plasma rounds useless against their shields?”

She nods. “Yep- and she has a limited number of guns big enough to punch through those shields. But the plasma rounds served as tracking control – not one of them got a lock on her or any of her more dangerous munitions.”

He blinks. “Meaning, as far as they know, she blew up their fleet with a plasma storm.”

She nods. “Yep.”

“Ahh… and if the commander on the spot knew of that weakness, what would his best option have been against that fleet?”

“Run,” she answers simply. “It would take roughly two hundred superdreadnoughts to produce enough missiles to saturate their tracking capability all the way in. If he had at least seventy, he could have started firing as soon as he saw them and had the missiles pace his ships in a ring just a little closer to the Tel'Rasi fleet. Those missiles would have dwindled, but he would have enough of them to ablate away to get him into energy range… and last until after he’d shot down enough of their ships that he could keep the rest saturated with his available throw weight. With thirty doing that, he might have gotten into energy range – but only might, and only briefly at that.”

“... You do know the Tel'Rasi ships are faster than ours, right?”

She nods. “In n-space, yes, the Tel'Rasi can accelerate close to twice as fast, and have a thirty percent higher maximum speed. However, the Tel'Rasi lack our powerful warp drives, and would not have been able to catch him if he ran away at full tilt.”

He leans back, thinking, and takes a sip of his wine. “Alright,” he nods. Then he glances up at her. “As much as I’d like to say nobody knows about this meeting, that wouldn’t be true. I don’t know how the Presidential Cabinet got wind of it, but they did, and they asked me to ask a few more questions.”

She snorts. “More like ordered you to ask.”

“It was worded as a request.”

“Like their ‘requests’ are optional.”

He nods gravely. “In any case, are you ready?”

She nods. “I make no promises.”

He lets out a chuckle. “And I bet the first one is one of those. Here goes… Where was she built?”

She smiles. “That’s actually not one of those. She was built in central Kansas- but the construction hangar was destroyed in the Ultorn Bombing of Thirty Six Fifty Two.”

He winces. Just twenty years ago, the first alien race had encountered humanity, rather than the other way around. The Ultorn had bombed several continents with their disintegration bombs, taking ten-mile spherical chunks out of the ground with each one before the exploration fleet showed up and destroyed their ships from behind. With thirty percent of the planetary population up in smoke, the Navy of Humanity had been born that night.

“Was there… any remnant?”

She shakes her head. “The hangar was completely destroyed, along with all records- but the Athena was in the middle of her acceptance trials half a galaxy over.” She shrugs. “She arrived back at Earth, weapons charged, roughly fifteen minutes after the last Ultorn ship was destroyed.”

“Ahh. I suppose that renders the second question – if they could have access to it – moot.”

She snorts. “They’re welcome to access to the crater,” she shrugs, before taking the last sip of her wine, and holding it up to signal the steward for a refill.

He lets out a short chuckle as well, before sobering up. “The third, ah, question… They want her under military control.”

“Not happening.”

He blinks. “What?”

She nods. “You heard me. Not happening.” She takes a sip from her newly refilled glass. “Though… It’s not that I don’t trust you or your captains – no. If anything, you’d probably be able to use her more effectively than I can.

“It’s the democratic nature of your civilian support structure that I don’t trust. My ship is capable of committing genocide against a star-faring race in a matter of minutes – the level of power I don’t want within reach of some idiot that got elected into office because he played patriot.” She sighs. “It’s been a long time since this country has had a ‘military commander in chief’ – or ‘president’ – that I could trust not to pull the trigger. So, Athena operates independently, protecting humanity but not supporting them.” She sighs. “As such, she will not participate in any offensive, nor will she defend against an ‘attracted’ attack.”

“You know they’re going to hunt you for that.”

“Let them. That ship obeys my orders and my orders only.”

“Even if they pretend it was you?”

She shakes her head. “She can see through that.”

“What if they kill you?”

“Then she obeys no orders.”

He blinks. “No orders… meaning she’d do as she was most recently ordered to do for… forever?”

She shakes her head. “No. She’d divert to autonomous control – she may continue as previously ordered… or she may change her mind and do something else, up to and including making – or breaking – agreements with people, planets… or star nations.”

He nods slowly. “Meaning, if they kill you, she’s just as likely to abandon humanity.”

She nods. “If my death is attached to malicious intent by the nation, then yes, probably. Where she’d go after that is anyone’s guess.”

He tilts his head. “What if it’s accidental?”

She shrugs. “The chance that I’ll die of an accident is slim and none, but if I do, I don’t know. She’d probably factor in any relationships I may or may not have, and how various people or groups respond to my death, in her decision of what to do next.”

“Ahh… Would she tell us?”

She shrugs. “It’s possible. But she’s also capable of lying and breaking promises, so you can’t guarantee anything.”

Ancient History

Princess Celestia’s head twists suddenly. “What in the world…?”

Princess Luna looks briefly in the same direction, at the wall. “What is it, Sister? Did my Moon catch fire again?”

Celestia shakes her head; she and her sister had just gone through the motions of lowering the sun and raising the moon. “No; this feels much more like my Sun than your Moon… and it’s tiny, in the city.”

Luna blinks. “What…? That’s… strange. Do you think it’s worth investigation?”

Celestia nods. “Definitely.”

“Lead the way.”

Celestia nods, turns, and leaps off the balcony, spreading her wings to catch herself in a glide around the castle. Luna follows behind her almost instantly, silent as a ghost.

Celestia wings her way out over the small town surrounding their castle. It’s a comfortable little town, with a population of only two thousand or so- but at the moment, it’s the largest single town in all of Equestria, and the capital of the nation. She banks slightly to both sides for a second, drifting forwards, before banking in a circle and searching the streets below. Thanks to her connection to her Sun, she can sense any fire from a very long way away, but the feeling is always vague, and never very useful for finding the fire. This feeling is stronger, far more like her Sun, yet still small like a campfire. Unfortunately, it’s not strong enough for her to zero in on it any further than this.

Then she spots it. A tiny glow, in that alleyway between two buildings. She swoops down closer, peering between the buildings, trying to identify the glow.

It seems to be coming from the corner in the wall, right next to that small dumpster.

She scans the alleyway, glances back at her sister, and descends. In this day and age, one can never be too careful; she has yet to get her Royal Guards strong enough – or in significant enough numbers – to really control the crime running rampant in her city.

She lands softly in the alleyway, just shy of the dumpster at the end, and slowly, carefully, steps closer. She glances upwards, where her sister circles watchfully overhead, and takes a peek around the dumpster.

She immediately flinches backwards, back out of sight, and draws a series of deep breaths, heart hammering while an iron spear flashes across the alleyway in front of her, impaling itself on the opposite wall.

Princess Luna lands just behind her, stepping forwards. “Perhaps we can-!”

Both Princesses then let out a gasp as a tiny spark of brilliant light floats around the corner, before glowing suddenly brighter and forcing them both to shield their eyes.

Then-

“Oh. Sorry, Princess.” The light dies back down to tolerable levels, and Celestia uncovers her eyes first, her solar connection allowing her eyes to adjust to bright light faster than her sister’s.

A… filly is bowing to her, horn glowing the same gold as is surrounding the point of brilliance floating over her head.

And the half-dozen or so iron spears lined up behind her, all point-up.

She glances sideways at the wall the first one had impacted, to find nothing of the sort. No spear, no mark from the impact, just an undamaged brick wall.

“R-Rise,” she mutters, forcing herself to calm down.

The little green filly rises to her hooves, and Celestia only barely catches her gasp in time; her ribs are showing. “I’m sorry about that,” the filly repeats. “That was my warning spell- an illusion meant to scare off attackers.”

“... And those spears?” she asks, gesturing at the ones floating behind her.

“They’re real,” the filly answers simply.

Princess Luna steps forwards, squinting at the sharpened spears. “That’s… That’s not iron,” she states.

The filly nods. “They’re steel… stronger than iron, and with a magic pattern that shatters the thaumic hold of anypony that doesn’t know what to expect.”

Celestia blinks. “Steel…? That’s stronger than iron… but magically, it’s no different.”

The filly smiles slightly. “Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, may contain other elements. This steel is pretty pure, made with chromium, cobalt, nickel, tungsten, and a touch of orichalcum.”

“... Oh. That would do it.”

“Where did you get them?” Luna asks.

“I made them.”

“Ahh,” Celestia mumbles. “So, what’s… that?” She indicates the point of brilliance.

The filly winces. “It’s… a lesser version of the spell I used to make the steel. It’s going to be…” The filly trails off, looking at something behind them, and her horn flares.

Celestia and Luna both turn their heads to look – but all they manage to do is visually track one of her spears, whistling through the space between them, until it makes its mark, puncturing straight through the thick metal armor of a surprised earth pony with a battleaxe poised to strike Princess Luna. The spear comes out the other side, cleans itself with a little spin, and flies more sedately back to rejoin its fellows.

Celestia looks back at the earth pony for a second, before turning back to the filly. That had been a known member of the anti-Princess splinter group responsible for a majority of the crime going around the city.

The filly continues as if nothing had happened. “It’s going to be a cold night tonight, and I wanted to stay warm.”

“What happened to your parents?” Luna asks.

The filly shakes her head. “I don’t know. They disappeared two years ago.”

“You know what,” Celestia decides. “How would you like to join us in the castle tonight?”

The filly blinks. “You don’t know my name.” It’s not a question.

“Ahh…”

She grins. “It’s Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings. And, yes, I would like that, very much.”

“Three days,” Princess Luna states.

Princess Celestia looks innocently at her. “What?”

They’re in the private chambers of the Castle, in one of the numerous labs Starswirl had designed into the place for some reason, and both sitting in front of the little filly, Lyra Heartstrings.

“You’ve known her for three days,” Luna continues, “and you’ve already made her your personal student.”

“Ahh…” Celestia mutters, averting her gaze.

“One,” Lyra calmly corrects. “She made me her personal student day before yesterday.”

Luna facehooves, shaking her head. “One of these days, Sister, you’re going to regret picking your students so quickly.”

“Hey, it’s worked so far,” Celestia returns.

Luna rolls her eyes. “Yeah, and we’re only five hundred years old out of immortality!”

“So?” Celestia asks.

“Infinite Monkey Theorem,” Lyra states.

Both Alicorns turn to look at her. “What?”

Lyra smiles. “If you sat a monkey in front of a typewriter and had it punch randomly at the keys for an infinite amount of time, it would inevitably produce the complete written works of… oh, I don’t know any famous authors, but…”

Luna blinks. “It’d be random,” she states.

Lyra shrugs. “Sure, the chances of the randomness being an accurate copy of something famous are slim to none, but with absurdly large numbers, it becomes certain.” She turns to Celestia. “The odds of making a bad decision as far as a new student is concerned are a lot higher than the odds of a monkey randomly typing just my last name, so it doesn’t take an absurdly large number to make it certain. And as immortals, you have absurdly large numbers.” She turns to Luna. “Thus, it’s less a question of if, and more a question of when.”

“Why?” Celestia asks.

“Princess, when you’re working with infinity, if it can happen, it will happen, eventually. Guaranteed.” She closes her eyes. “We can only guard against it… and try to control when and how often.”

Luna looks at Celestia. “She’s like a miniature Starswirl.”

Celestia smiles. “Except that she knows next to nothing in terms of magic.”

She blinks. “What?”

Celestia nods. “She’s got levitation, and whatever that fire spell is. I haven’t been able to figure out how it works, and when she explains, I don’t understand any of it.”

“Uhh…”

“We’ve been working on basic magic theory.”

“Which makes absolutely no sense,” Lyra interjects. “Magic is like computers: Obedient to a fault.”

“Good luck,” Luna nods gravely. Magic is perhaps the most unruly thing she’s ever tried to work with- and if she goes outside her fairly small repertoire, which includes such things as combat magics and moving the moon, she can lose control and easily end in some spectacular disaster.

As Luna leaves the room, Celestia turns back to Lyra. “What is ‘computers’?”

Lyra shakes her head. “Nothing.”

Boom. Fshwing! Boom. Fshwing! Boom. Fshwing!

Princess Celestia follows the strange noise to one of the lab rooms. As soon as she opens the door, she’s met by a crowd of some half of the Royal Guards in the Everfree, and the rest of the room is filled by glowing golden energy.

She blinks. A couple of months ago, Lyra had designed… something that neither she nor Luna had understood and, in the lab next door to this one, had spent the last couple months producing nigh invincible armor for all the Guards in the city.

… She’d finished the armor for all the guards after just one week but, when the Guard fatality rate plummeted as a result, hundreds of ponies volunteered, rapidly inflating the ranks. And just last week, Guards – and new recruits – from other towns started showing up to get some of their own. For some reason, the unicorn had been slow to produce their armor. Even now, the ‘armor press’ in the other room is silent.

She looks a little closer at the thaumic construct Lyra built in this room. It’s…

It’s powered by that same ‘fusion’ construct she’d come up with… which is in turn powered by her active unicorn magic. She recognizes half of it, matching half of the ‘armor press’ – her ‘steel refinery’, producing orichalcum-infused, permanently enchanted steel. After that, it seems to split into two sides. With each Fshwing!, one side adds a spear to a growing pile, and the other adds a sword to its pile.

Lyra herself, though, is nowhere to be found.

“P-Princess!” a Guard announces, spotting her and twisting to bow. His dented iron armor flashes dimly in the light.

Celestia blinks. He must be one of the Dodge Guards – the ones Lyra hasn’t made armor for yet.

All the rest of the Guards turn and bow in response.

“Rise,” she orders. Then she looks out across the room. “So… Where’s Lyra?”

The Sergeant that had spotted her answers. “Miss Heartstrings said she had some work to do elsewhere and disappeared. She didn’t say where.”

Princess Celestia sighs. “I should have expected that.”

“Uh… She also said to tell you that this, uh, machine, is making spears and swords that only the Royal Guard and the Princesses can wield.”

She nods. “So, just like the armor.”

He nods. “Yeah. She did say there is a cutout to stop deserters or dissenting Guards in their tracks.” He shrugs. “I daresay she’s single-hoofedly revolutionized the Royal Guard.”

Very suddenly, Lyra appears out of nowhere in a flash of golden light. “Alright everypony, the armor press is back online and better than ever!” She glances up at Celestia. “Oh, hi Princess. I can’t help but think we might want to move the presses to somewhere more prominent in Equestria, somewhere anypony can get to easily. Maybe to Canterlot, that Unicorn village on Mount Canterhorn?”

Celestia blinks. Ever since they found her, Lyra has consistently put her expectations on their respective heads… and now that she’s a healthy young mare, that tendency has only increased. “Um… Isn’t Canterlot a bit high up?”

She nods. “Yeah, I would prefer if it were closer to the terrain level as well, but the armor is nearly weightless, and I think the prominence of the location might serve better than simple convenience.” She grins. “We could also make Canterlot the primary Guard recruiting and training hub, attracting a huge amount of trade to the place. With a place that prominent, everypony would know where to go to join the Guard, not just those lucky enough to know a Guard. When I scoured the nation last week to recruit some unicorns to operate the armor press without me, I found out that some ninety-five percent of interested citizens don’t have a clue where to find the nearest Guard, let alone recruiting center.”

“Wouldn’t it be hard for earth ponies and unicorns to reach it?”

Lyra shrugs. “A little, at the moment. But that’d be a nice source of jobs to boost the economy, as well – we can build a railway up the mountain, take them up with a train.” She puts a hoof to her chin. “Might even be worthwhile to move the capital to Canterlot, too. The Everfree is constantly trying to eat our city here, and it’s dangerous to travel to and from it. Move to Canterlot, though, and not only are we no longer fighting the Everfree day in and day out, but everypony knows where to go to seek audience- and isn’t afraid to do so. Could vastly improve the effectiveness of your rule.”

“This… This is true. I’ll have to talk to Luna.” She blinks. “Wait, did you say you recruited-?”

“Some unicorns to operate the armor press? Yep. Took about two days to train them up, the rest of the week has been spent modifying the armor press to be easier to use.” She shrugs. “So all they have to do is provide power… and it doesn’t have to be a constant, steady flow. Once I pump out a few thousand spears and swords here, I’m planning on shutting this one down to make the same modifications.”

Princess Luna trots down the stairs, towards Lyra’s basement laboratory. It’s a couple years after her revolutionization of the Royal Guard; crime has become a thing of the past across the nation. With the migration of the Throne to Canterlot, even though the Royal Canterlot Palace hasn’t been fully built yet, she and her sister’s difficulties in governing the nation are also a thing of the past. What’s more, the wealth of new jobs the construction of Lyra’s ‘railroad’ has created has effectively ended poverty across the nation!

… It probably didn’t hurt that she herself had suggested extending the tracks to connect every major city and town in Equestria. Lyra had agreed enthusiastically, and started planning out where the tracks would go, where they would meet, where trains would be stored… and even locations for a few new cities along the rails.

Exactly why Lyra is drawing a rail line to Horseshoe Bay and declaring that the area will become a major city in the years to come, she has no clue. It’s not the only point she’s declaring major cities will crop up for no apparent reason, either. There’s a couple more points along the coast, some along the opposite coast, and even a spot just outside the Everfree, where a few different rail lines meet.

Then, of course, Lyra is even going so far as to name those nonexistent towns and cities already.

Now, Lyra is reportedly working on making a self-casting spell. She hadn’t been impressed when Celestia had described it as that when Lyra had detailed her project to the Princesses, but she’d seemed to settle, saying it was a little more complicated than that, but essentially similar. In her own opinion, it’s a lot more complicated than that; it sounded more to her like a self-powering spell, though she hasn’t a clue where it’d get the power to do that from.

She pauses as she reaches the door, tilting her head. No, she does have a clue where it’d get the power from; both the armor press and the weapon press, both moved to Canterlot last week, use some kind of ‘fusion’ thingy to convert the small amount of power a team of unicorns can produce into the massive, well-beyond-an-alicorn power levels required to operate the rest of the construct. Thus, if she’s able to somehow siphon off some of that power back to power the ‘fusion’ thing, yet also stop it from going overboard…

The problem is, so far as she knows, there is no way to siphon off a certain amount of power. You get either the full might of the available power, flowing through all possible channels… or you get none. The reason why reiterative spells can very easily produce deadly amounts of feedback if given too much power.

She shrugs, and pushes the door open. She’s here to let Lyra know that everypony has finished moving out of the Everfree City – it’s just her, Lyra, and Celestia left.

Her jaw drops.

Lyra is floating off to the side, eyes closed and horn aglow.

The center of the room is dominated by a massive whirling construct of golden symbols, wrapped expertly around a miniature sun. Not the tiny points of light all her ‘fusion’ things have worked with so far, but a far larger, miniature sun. She can feel the preposterous power flowing through this thing- and holding steady. And it all seems to be sustaining itself. She doesn’t detect any more than a tiny trickle from Lyra, probably just monitoring it.

Then the door bangs gently against the wall, echoing across the chamber.

Lyra gasps, glancing up at her – before turning straight back to the now wobbling construct. “Nononononono-!”

The unicorn’s horn flares bright, pouring power into the construct, manipulating it – but it would seem something happened that she couldn’t catch.

She watches as the innermost layers of the construct, around that star, shatter outwards.

Then the next layer.

And the next.

And the outer layer shatters instantly, the star expanding rapidly from within.

A double ring of dark symbols on the ground suddenly boils with golden light.

A fraction of a moment later, before the uncontrollably expanding star reaches it, she feels it draining her massive power reserves right down to nothing, and pulling for more. The golden glow of those rings is now the deep blue of her aura, with a couple flickers of gold.

Then the star reaches them.

The barrier that formed above those rings holds for half a second, during which both the floor and the ceiling vanish to the star, before they, too, shatter.

Then everything goes dark, and she feels herself falling to her Moon to recover.

“Luna? Lyra?” Celestia calls one last time into the glowing crater that used to be one side of the Castle of the Two Sisters. “Please… Please tell me you escaped!”

When it comes time for night, Celestia raises her sister’s Moon half an hour after lowering her own Sun.

Ten years after the explosion, neither Luna nor Lyra have reappeared, and Luna has not resumed her control of her Moon. Celestia has been unable to squash the rumors among her ponies that Luna had turned evil, and forced her to send her to the moon with the Elements of Harmony. There have even been predictions going about that the evil Luna – which ponies are calling Nightmare Moon – will return in a thousand years to bring about eternal night.

Celestia has no idea where that came from, but she has made a national holiday out of the anniversary of the explosion, with the intent to mourn the loss of her sister and student.

Her ponies, however, had different ideas- and it quickly became known as the Summer Sun Celebration, despite her best efforts.

She eventually gave in, and let it become a celebration of her own survival and ability to continue guiding Equestria… though in private, every year, she mourns for the two lost souls.

History

“Lyra Heartstrings? I’ve read that name before! That was… Wait a minute. Where is… There it is: The History of Equestria. Contents… Chapter three, The Railroad. Um… Yep, there it is! She designed not only the layout of the tracks, but the locomotives themselves! A thousand years ago! So how did Lyra Heartstrings design the entire railroad and make a thaumic construct capable of making modern, enchanted Royal Guard armor…?”

Night Light and Twilight Velvet grin at each other, the former holding a stamped scroll in his magic, while they watch their daughter geek out over her books- triggered, this time around, by her brother’s recitation of the highly magical experience of getting his very own Royal Guard armor.

His very own Royal Guard armor that renders him virtually indestructible, even against attacks that hit his exposed coat… and will grow with him, so it’s always the perfect size.

Reportedly, he’d gotten it by walking through a pathway in the middle of a gigantic, golden, thaumic construct with a point of light at one end. Very simple, very easy.

A thaumic construct, which had refined the steel, formed it into armor, enchanted it, and put it on him in a matter of seconds, that was hidden deep inside the Royal Palace, with a sign in front of it, reading In Memory of Lyra Heartstrings. He had reportedly asked about it and been told that Lyra Heartstrings was the name of the unicorn that built the massive construct.

Shining Armor sighs, glancing up at his parents. “And I haven’t even finished the story yet,” he states.

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” Twilight Sparkle continues. “Here, in Great Magical Tragedies, number four: Lyra Heartstrings was killed by Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago, before Celestia was able to bring the Elements of Harmony to bear!”

“Twilight,” Twilight Velvet interrupts loudly.

The filly looks up suddenly, jumping as if struck. “Wh-what?”

“You’re doing it again.”

“... Oh. Sorry.”

She turns to her son. “Shining, did you want to finish your story?”

Shining nods. “Yeah… I was about to tell you, Twilight, that the induction ceremony happens after going through that construct… Well, the armor is technically a gift from Lyra Heartstrings. Who, yes, died a thousand years ago.”

“But the armor is modern! That’s impossible!”

Shining rolls his eyes at his sister. “And I haven’t even gotten to the best part of it.”

“Oh? What was that?”

Shining smiles. “Oh, it happened just for me, right as I emerged from the construct.” He turns sideways. “Tada!”

Twilight abandons her books. “You got your cutie mark!”

“Um… Princess?” Twilight looks shyly up at Princess Celestia. She’s been Celestia’s personal student for a week, but she still has trouble thinking of herself as anything other than an outsider.

Even now, in a laboratory chamber deep inside the Royal Palace. Celestia has been evaluating her current magical knowledge, so as to get a better idea of where to start with her lessons. Today’s session hasn’t started yet.

“Yes, Twilight?” Princess Celestia asks.

“Um…” Twilight looks back down again, fidgeting with her hooves. “I, um…”

Celestia crouches down in front of her, meeting her at eye level. “Don’t be afraid to ask.”

Twilight glances up, blinks, and averts her eyes. “I… was wondering…” She takes a deep breath. “Who is Lyra Heartstrings?” She glances back at Celestia, before staring at her hooves again. “My books tell me she designed every part of the Royal Equestrian Railway, that she built the construct that makes the Royal Guard armor, that she designed the Palace, that she solved world hunger, that she solved crime. But… but that’s impossible. The Royal Guard armor, for one, is one of the most advanced-!” She draws in a sharp breath, looking up at Celestia.

Celestia uses the wing she’d just laid across Twilight’s back to pull her in closer. “Twilight…

“Lyra was my thirteenth personal student, and the third most powerful, counting yourself. Exactly where she got all her ideas from, I will never know. When I found her, she was starving on the streets, and she knew all of two spells. Can you guess what they were?”

“Uh…” Twilight mumbles. “Self-levitation and transmogrification?”

Celestia chuckles. “No, nothing quite so grand as that. She knew regular old levitation… and she’d figured out how to create a miniature duplicate of my Sun to keep her warm.” She shakes her head. “I never did figure out how she did that. I took her in, I trained her… and a few years later, she started producing.” She smiles. “The first thing she produced, was upgraded enchantments for our castle, deep in the Everfree.

“The very second thing she produced was the construct currently sitting in the Royal Armory upstairs. Yes, the very one that produces the armor for the Royal Guard. It still does exactly what it did then, produces exactly the same armor.” She shrugs. “Lyra was an excellent enchantress, filled to bursting with ideas. So many ideas that, in the thousand years since she…” She pauses to shed a tear. “Since she was killed in the explosion that destroyed half the castle, not one pony has managed to make something even comparable.” She heaves a sigh. “That’s… That’s where you come in, Twilight. You’re my forty-second student- but you’re also the one with the most potential.”

“M-Me?”

Celestia nods, smiling. “Yes, you. You’re smart, and you’ve got power – just like her. You could be the one that designs the next generation of, um…”

Twilight tilts her head. “Huh?”

Celestia shrugs. “I don’t know. I never knew what she was going to revolutionize next until she did it. I didn’t know she’d built that armor construct until ponies started showing up by the dozen to sign up for the Guard. Before then, being a Guard was dangerous business, so most stayed out of it.” She smiles at the ceiling. “I didn’t even know what a railroad was, aside from an easier way for unicorns and earth ponies to climb Mount Canterhorn, until she showed me the blueprints. And I didn’t know we’d need such an easier travel method until she suggested moving our Royal presence – and her constructs – to Canterlot… and mentioned railroads in passing.” She looks back down at Twilight. “She would have gone far. Possibly… Possibly even figured out what it means to be an Alicorn.”

“What?” Twilight asks, staring at her wide-eyed.

Celestia chuckles. “Oh, no, she was a unicorn – but even I don’t know how Alicorns are different from the other three tribes. She… She might have been able to pick out those differences.”

“Then-!” Twilight blinks, glancing alarmedly side to side.

Celestia nods. “Yes, there will come a time when I will have taught you all that I know, and you will have to study on without me; I don’t have a talent for magic like you do, or like Lyra did. But don’t worry, that time won’t come for several years, and you’ll be ready when it does come.”

“So I’m sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration at this year’s location, Ponyville.”

Twilight sighs. “Well, at least she only told me to supervise. That leaves plenty of time for study.” The carriage lands. “Alright then, what’s first on the list?”

Spike studies the scroll. “Ahh… Number one, banquet preparations: Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Sweet Apple Acres?” Twilight repeats back at him, at higher volume.

“That’s what it says,” Spike informs her.

“ ‘Scuse me, but did you just say Sweet Apple Acres?”

Twilight turns to look at the mare that had spoken. “Um… yes? Do you know where that is?”

The mare chuckles. “I daresay I do. The name’s Applejack- and Sweet Apple Acres is my home.”

“Oh,” Twilight blinks. “Um, Hi, my name’s Twilight Sparkle, and I’m here to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration.” She opens her mouth to say more, but Applejack beats her to it.

“ ‘Bout time someone got that duty. I’ve been coordinating everyone for weeks- even though I’m only supposed to be responsible for the banquet.” She shrugs. “Everything should be coming along nicely, except the weather, but one last check isn’t going to hurt anything. I just checked up with Pinkie for the pastries. She’s got ‘em done ahead of schedule, as always.”

“Uh, what? One pony, all the pastries for an entire…?”

Nod. “That’s Pinkie for you. I was just headed back to the farm to check up on how everything’s coming on the banquet – do ya want to join me?”

Twilight shrugs. “Sure.”

“Well, the banquet seems to be coming along nicely – after that, I think I have something to look forward to at the celebration.” She heaves a sigh. “Assuming I can get everything sorted out beforehoof, of course.”

“Everything sorted out? Something the matter?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Twilight answers.

Applejack raises an eyebrow.

“Just, uh, stopping the apocalypse?”

The other eyebrow comes up.

Twilight hangs her head. “The Prophecy says that Nightmare Moon will return at the Summer Sun Celebration this year, and I’m trying to stop her.”

“... Oh,” Applejack mutters, her eyebrows coming back down. “You figure out how?”

She shakes her head. “Only that it has something to do with the Elements of Harmony.”

“Huh. I’ll meet you at the library when you’re done making rounds, then?”

“The library? This town has one? Where is it?”

“Right off Central Square, the giant tree. You can’t miss it. Anyways, you’ve got that list to take care of, and I’ve gotta finish up the cider ‘fore I call for brunch.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll see you later, then. Spike? What’s next?”

Spike consults the parchment. “Food’s taken care of, next up is… the weather. A pegasus named Rainbow Dash?”

“Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asks, before looking up at Twilight. “You be careful with her, Twilight. She’s as loyal as can be, but she’s competitive. You’re more likely to find her napping or practicing her moves than taking care of boring things like the weather.” She glances upwards. “So, ah, word of advice: Watch out for pegasus missiles. And good luck.”

“Ahh… I will, thank you, Applejack.”

Applejack trots up next to Pinkie Pie. It’s some fifteen minutes after Twilight left the farm; she’d finished the cider in record time, such that it’s not even time for brunch yet.

Pinkie tilts her large bag of popcorn outwards. “Popcorn?”

“No thanks,” Applejack answers, then looks up. “Whaddya watching?”

“Rainbow,” Pinkie answers. “She’s practicing again.”

“Ahh. And forgetting the weather again too, isn’t she?”

Pinkie nods. “Yep.” Then she blinks, and points with a hoof. “Wait. Who’s that?”

Applejack glances over, then lays a forehoof across Pinkie’s withers. “That is Twilight Sparkle, sent from out of town to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. But there’s something big going down real soon – think you can wait the party for after the Celebration?”

“Hmm… Yeah, I might be able to. What’s going to be happening?”

“The Return of Nightmare Moon,” Applejack states ominously.

“Oooh, that. Who’s Nightmare Moon?”

She shrugs. “No clue, didn’t ask. I’m going to join her in the library once she finishes checking on everything, catch myself up to speed and find out how I can help.”

“Yowch!” Rainbow’s sudden yelp draws their attention back forwards.

Rainbow is dangling, by her tail, from Twilight’s magenta aura.

“Careful,” they hear Twilight admonish. “A crash like that can break a wing.”

“I think I’ll take that popcorn now.”

“Decorations, huh?” Twilight asks, looking around. “Wow… This is shaping up to be one of the best Summer Sun Celebrations I’ve been to in a long time. Oh, there’s somepony.” She trots over to the mare she’d spotted looking over the decorations. “Good morning!”

The mare looks up at her, batting her eyelashes. “Good morning.”

“Beautiful…” Spike half-moans.

Both mares look at him.

Twilight pushes him back to the ground with her magic. “Ahh… I’ll have to admit, that’s the first time he’s done that.” She looks back up. “Um, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m here to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. You don’t happen to know who’s in charge of the decorations, do you? That’s about the only detail that isn’t on my list.”

The mare blinks a couple times, then grins. “Well, that would be me, the one and only Rarity.” She looks back out over the decorated hall. “Do you think this is good, or should I redo it again? I really don’t want to disappoint Princess Celestia.”

Twilight smiles. “Yes, this is good. I’ve been to many Summer Sun Celebrations, and this one’s shaping up to be the best one yet.”

Rarity tilts her head and looks at her curiously, opening her mouth to speak.

“Wait a minute,” Twilight states suddenly, eyes going momentarily wide. “Did you say ‘redo it again’?”

“Uh – why yes, I did. I’ve already redecorated a dozen times. It just wasn’t good enough.”

Twilight blinks. “That’s… mildly alarming. Um. Well, since the decorations are coming along so well, I guess I better get moving.”

Rarity follows her. “What’s wrong?”

“Wrong? Whenever did I say something was wrong?”

“Darling, you don’t have to say it when it’s written all over your face. Is there something I can do to help?”

“What-!? Did someone-!?”

Rarity stops her by shaking her head. “I’m not talking about that kind of written, Twilight.”

“... Oh. Well… It’s… there’s a legend.”

She nods encouragingly. “Yes?”

“It’s…” She heaves a sigh. “According to the prophecy, Nightmare Moon will be returning this year to bring about eternal night.”

“Yet it’s shaping up to be the best Summer Sun Celebration yet?”

“Assuming I can figure out how to stop Nightmare Moon, it is.”

“Would you like some help with that?”

She shrugs, taking Spike’s abandoned list up in her magic and glancing at it. “Might as well. I’ve still gotta check on the music, but after that, I’ll be headed to the library.”

“The music? Hmm, then you’ll be headed a little towards the Everfree, for Fluttershy. Very timid, but…” She glances down at Spike, who keeps floating off the floor every time Twilight takes her magic off him, and chuckles. “But if your little dragon is nearby, I don’t think you’ll have any trouble. She loves almost anything that breathes and isn’t a pony.” She glances up at Twilight. “I’d probably better not come with- wouldn’t want him too distracted.”

Twilight chuckles sheepishly. “Yeah, thanks.”

“Hey Twilight! My name’s Pinkie Pie and why is everypony so bland in here?”

Twilight looks up. “Uh, what?” Her meeting with Fluttershy had gone quite well; the music is perfect. That it will be sung by birds is just the icing on the cake. Now, she’s in the library with Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy, hunting for clues for where the Elements of Harmony might be found. The two pegasi had joined of their own accord; Rainbow had said something about not leaving her friends hanging, and when Fluttershy had given her reason, she’d given it too softly to be heard. Nopony’s been having any luck.

The pink mare that had just exploded in through the front door starts dancing around the room, singing a catchy song.

A catchy song that ends with everypony cheerfully eating cupcakes from a platter dominating the middle of the room.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Twilight grins at the eminently cheerful pony.

“Yep, and it’s nice to meet you too!” Pinkie returns. “So, you looking for something and not finding it or something?”

Twilight blinks.

Pinkie shrugs. “A hunch.”

“Nightmare Moon,” Applejack answers, “was apparently defeated a thousand years ago by Princess Celestia, wielding the Elements of Harmony.”

Twilight sighs again. “We haven’t been able to find anything on that.”

“Elements of Harmony?” Pinkie asks, bouncing over to a shelf. “Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.”

Everypony turns to look at her.

“Did… Did you really just…?” Twilight asks.

“Don’t question it, darling,” Rarity informs her. “That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.”

“Wait,” Fluttershy states suddenly, stepping forwards and spreading her wings to stop her friends. “This… This is Manty’s range, and he’s… a little territorial. Can… Can I go ahead and talk to him?”

“Uh… Okay, sure,” Twilight answers, confused.

A wooden roar shakes the woods as the six friends trot through them.

Applejack takes a sniff. “Timberwolves!”

Rainbow jumps into the air as the beasts emerge from the trees just ahead. “I got ‘em! You guys run ahead, I’ll catch up!”

“Now all we need is a spark to reveal the last one,” Rarity states. “Right?”

Twilight nods. “That’s what it said, yes. Alright, stand back- I don’t know what’ll happen.” She steps forwards, and puts her horn down to the five stone orbs Rainbow and Fluttershy had just placed in a circle on the ground.

Applejack looks out the window, towards the evening sun. “We’ve already found them and it’s not even nighttime yet,” she muses, then glances back forwards. “I wonder what Celestia’s going to think when we squish Nightmare Moon as soon as she arrives?”

“Ah-hah!” Twilight exclaims, electricity arcing between the orbs. “There! Now... What the-!?”

A ring of blood-red runes suddenly boil into existence around her, then flash bright. When the glow is gone, Twilight- and all five orbs- are gone.

A scream sounds from outside- Twilight’s scream.

“There!” Rainbow announces, pointing.

Everypony turns and gallops.

“The… The Elements of Harmony,” Twilight pouts. She’d successfully unraveled the spell that had trapped her- an ancient security spell, infected by wild magic. Makes them liable to go off randomly, and otherwise behave strangely, but it also makes them fragile. It had taken her to another part of the castle to hold her in the air… and, in the three seconds it took for her to disable it, plus the six seconds it took for her to stop panicking and realize what was going on, smashed all five stone orbs against the ground, fragmenting them apart.

She sits in front of the fragments, trying to weave them back together with her magic. She doesn’t expect her repair efforts to work, but-

Her head snaps around, fledgling repair spell shattering, as she hears something. It’s… Oh, it’s her friends coming up the stairs!

She looks back forwards, at the fragments, then pauses, eyes widening.

“Twilight!” Applejack calls.

“There you are!” Rarity calls. “What happened?”

“Ah-HAH!” Twilight yells, pumping a hoof in the air.

“Eeek!”

Twilight turns to face her friends. “Sorry, Fluttershy.”

“What is it?” Rainbow asks. “Wait, is that the Elements of Harmony?”

Twilight glances back. “Yeah… that was an ancient security spell, infected by wild magic. I broke it, but before I could, it broke the Elements.” She smiles back at her friends. “But that doesn’t matter.”

“What?” Applejack asks.

“That doesn’t matter, because the Elements of Harmony aren’t those orbs. No- the true Elements aren’t restricted to the physical plane. As such, they’re indestructible.” She smiles. “And I’m glad you all came into this forest with me, too. Every last one of you- because if you hadn’t, I might not have found the last Element of Harmony.”

“What-!?” Rarity asks. “You found it?” She looks left and right.

Twilight chuckles. “Rarity, you gave of yourself and redecorated the town hall a dozen times just to get it right, right?”

Rarity blinks. “Uh, yeah?”

“You represent the Element of Generosity.”

Everypony – save Twilight – leaps back in fright as some of the stone fragments suddenly glow purple, jumping into the air to circle Rarity.

“Uh…” Applejack mutters.

Twilight grins. “Applejack, you told me all I needed to know about the preparatory efforts without my asking. You even told me all about your extensive family while we were checking on their banquet preparations.”

Applejack nods slowly, eyebrow raised. “Yeah?”

“You represent the Element of Honesty.”

Fluttershy squeaks when another set of fragments leaps up, this time glowing orange, to circle Applejack, but nopony else moved – except to watch them go.

“Fluttershy, you informed your Manticore friend – Manty, was it? – what we were doing, so he let us pass. To make friends with him in the first place, though, would have taken kindness – and not a small amount of it. You represent the Element of Kindness.”

Fluttershy squeaks, trying to hide from the pink-glowing stone fragments circling her.

“Rainbow, you risked life and limb to distract the timberwolves so we could run past unhindered, even though we could have fought together. You represent the Element of Loyalty.”

Rainbow blinks as the red-glowing fragments start circling her.

“Me next!” Pinkie bounces to the front.

Twilight lets out a chuckle. “Yes, Pinkie, you’re next. You cheered everypony up when we were down from not finding anything. You represent the Element of Laughter.”

The rest of the fragments glow blue to circle Pinkie, bouncing up and down with her.

“Then – the spark. It wasn’t talking about an electrical spark – no, the spark of friendship. I felt that spark, inside, when I heard you coming and realized how glad I was to have friends like you. The last one… is the Element of Magic.” She looks upwards as, with a brilliant flash of magenta light, a full, unbroken stone orb appears above her head, right as night falls outside.

Then, in a massive blaze of light, the circling fragments all close in on the ponies, the orb dropping onto Twilight’s head, then…

Nopony notices much other than blinding rainbow light until the light fades. The circling fragments have turned into necklaces, and Twilight’s orb has become a crown. There’s also something on the floor between Twilight and everypony else.

“Uh…” Applejack mutters.

The seventh pony in the room lets out a groan, lifting a midnight blue hoof to her horn as she sits up and looks around. “Ow… Huh? What- what happened? Where’s Lyra?”

Modern History

“What- what happened? Where’s Lyra?”

Twilight stares at the new, suddenly frantic mare in the room. “Uh… I don’t know. We revealed the Elements of Harmony… and you appeared.”

The mare sighs, closing her eyes and turning her head skywards. “The Elements of Harmony, huh? Then… then she’s dead.”

“D-dead?” Rarity asks.

The mare nods. “I… I don’t know how, but she ended up on my Moon with me. Only… she wasn’t an alicorn, so she lacked the strength to survive.” She turns her head slightly, gazing at the moon, through one of the openings in the ceiling. “I would have recovered and returned many years ago, had she not been there. As it was, I spent every erg of power I could to preserve her.” She sighs. “It wasn’t enough. We both faded, together – another thirty years or so, and we would have ceased to be.” She looks back down. “Then there was rainbow light, and magic, and here I am.”

“Can we go back for her?” Rainbow asks, causing her friends to perk up instantly.

She shakes her head. “She’s gone. Sure, you could go up there after her, but she’s not there. She’s dead.” She sighs. “In any case, how long has it been? I fear I have lost count.”

“Uhh…” Applejack mutters.

“Wait,” Twilight blinks. “You’re- You’re Princess Luna?”

She nods. “That I am.”

“Then-! It makes no sense!”

“... What?”

“I’m starting to think that legend, and prophecy, was wrong,” Applejack mutters.

Luna raises an eyebrow. “Prophecy?”

Applejack nods. “Yup. According to legend, a thousand years ago, you became Nightmare Moon and killed Lyra, forcing Celestia to imprison you in the moon for a thousand years… with the Elements of Harmony.”

Luna lets out a laugh. “Yeah, no, that certainly never happened. For one, this ‘Nightmare Moon’ sounds like fiction; for two, I never killed Lyra… and three, the Elements of Harmony don’t imprison, they reform or heal.”

“That was… like, wow,” Twilight utters.

The timberwolves had attacked again. Princess Luna had been amused, stepping in their path and playing with them.

Everypony had stared when she let the wolves reach her- and their claws did absolutely nothing against her unprotected fur. Sure, they also did nothing against the armor she wore, but still.

Then Luna had squashed them, one by one, with her immense power and some fairly simple combat magics.

Luna shrugs. “Comes with being a Princess of Equestria at a time when Lyra was still alive. She was an amazing enchantress.”

“... Huh?”

“What? Even Celestia can’t make a shield tough enough to stop a Timberwolf. Their claws are magic resistant, and really good for puncturing shields. The enchantments Lyra worked into our armor, though… I have no idea how she did it, but it doesn’t care if they’re magic resistant or not, it stops them anyways.” She shrugs. “She put a lesser version of the same enchantment on the Royal Guard armor, if I remember right. Something about not having as much orichalcum to work with.”

“I give you… Princess Celestia!”

Celestia doesn’t appear.

“Uh…” Mayor Mare begins.

Rarity appears on the balcony. “Apologies for the delay, we’re having… technical difficulties.” She vanishes back behind the curtain.

“What in tarnation is that supposed to mean?” Applejack asks.

Princess Luna, next to her, chuckles. “Celestia probably noticed when I lowered my Moon.”

“Why would that result in, uh, ‘technical difficulties’?” Twilight asks.

“It wouldn’t,” Luna shrugs. “That’s what she’d tell her ponies, though. Imagine what she might be thinking. She’s been controlling my Moon for a thousand years, believing me dead… and suddenly, I move it again.” Her horn glows, eyes closed, for a second. “... Yeah, she’s looking for me at the old castle. Hmm, I have an idea.” She whisks her way out of the crowd, vanishing before anypony can follow.

Two minutes later, a Royal Guard appears to whisper something to Mayor Mare.

“What?” Mayor Mare squawks loudly.

The Guard continues whispering, then, when Mayor Mare finally nods, disappears.

The curtains close.

Mayor Mare steps back up to the podium. “It would seem Princess Celestia is unavailable,” she begins, blinking as if she doesn’t believe her own words. “So, Ladies and Gentlecolts, I give you, her sister, Princess Luna!”

The curtains part again, revealing Princess Luna, walking regally up to the edge of the balcony. She isn’t as tall as her sister, nor as large; she makes up for it, though, with her muscular tone, giving her the appearance of somepony used to hard labor rather than sitting on a throne.

“Good morning, everypony! It sure is good to be back. I must apologize for my absence these last thousand years; I was tied up in dealing with an infestation of moon bears. I will also apologize for my dear sister’s unplanned absence from this ceremony; on my return, I noticed a pack of Solar Sasquatches homing in on her Sun.” She sighs dramatically. “She has departed to take care of them before they become a bigger problem, and should be back before the day is out. In any case, she has asked me to raise her Sun in her place.”

Then, she raises the Sun, and everypony shifts from confused to cheering.

Celestia returns to Canterlot. It’s well past noon, and her search for her sister has been fruitless. What’s more, it would seem her sister raised her Sun – or, whoever lowered her sister’s Moon did, at least.

She really hopes that it was her sister.

She blinks as she approaches the castle. She’d expected a long line waiting, or perhaps utter silence, when she didn’t show up for Day Court – rather, she sees exactly what the Guards tell her is normally the case: A few ponies walking out, and a few ponies walking in. Really nopony waiting.

She flies down, landing on her balcony, and enters the castle through her bedroom. She makes her way down to the throne room and, upon opening the side door to enter, freezes.

Princess Luna looks over from her position on the throne. “Ahh, Sister, you’re back. I’m glad you could join us.”

Celestia passes out.

“... Or not.” She turns back to Sturdy Armor, who is in the middle of petitioning the Crown for the Royal Guard’s armor to be credited to him rather than the mysterious Lyra Heartstrings. “Carry on.” There is nopony waiting after him, after all, so she sees no harm in letting him finish before refusing.

“No.”

“Thank you, I- Wait, what?” Sturdy Armor asks.

Princess Luna smiles. “I said, No.”

“But-! But Princess!”

“Sturdy, Lyra was an excellent enchantress. I know for a fact that nopony has come even close to making something comparable to her armor, far less an earth pony like yourself.”

“What-! That can’t possibly be true! As an earth pony, I could work the metal far more effectively than a mere unicorn!”

Luna sighs. “In a typical metalworking environment, sure. Sturdy, there’s a reason we’re still using the armor she made, and that reason has less to do with tradition, dedication, or remembrance, and more to do with how it’s still the best around.” She pauses for a moment. “Go ahead and try. Get your own materials, forge them into armor. Make it as tough as you can.

“And if it’s comparable to that which Lyra left us, I’ll have my Night Guard use it instead.”

“What about when it’s better?”

She shrugs. “If it’s better, the entire Royal Guard will use it instead.”

“Okay.” He leaves. The doors land shut.

She turns to look at the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor. “And he completely missed that there is no such thing as a Night Guard.”

Shining only chuckles. Long ago, he’d learned to use the enchantments in his armor to his advantage. Those enchantments would indicate to him exactly who was likely to commit a crime, and who wasn’t. They’d identify important personages for him, as well. He’s one of very few Guards that figured out how to do that; all the others have chosen to become specialists, rather than rising to the top like he did.

His armor had recognized Princess Luna as Celestia’s equal, back in Ponyville, and he’d told his Guards. Celestia’s reaction to seeing her on the throne only cemented that recognition.

Something else the enchantments would do, this time without any interference from the pony wearing it, is alter its own appearance – and its own disguise enchantment- to match the shift the particular Guard had coming.

For a day shift, it would look as it does now, shining, golden plate armor and all. He’d also be anonymized into a generic white stallion, matching every other unicorn Guard save only for his badge and rank insignia.

For a night shift, it would become dark, midnight blue plate armor, and he’d be anonymized instead into a generic, dark grey stallion, again matching every other unicorn Guard. The pegasi, for night shift, even appear as otherwise nonexistent thestrals. He understands it’s an interesting feeling, to have one’s wing magically disguised as a completely different kind of wing, yet still work just the same.

In both forms, his cutie mark is covered up – but if someone were to see it anyways, it’s anonymized itself into his rank insignia, over crossed metal spears to match his armor.

Close to a week later, out in the woods, a unicorn appears with a flash of golden light, collapsing almost instantly to the stone floor in front of a dilapidated throne.

“I’m home,” she mutters, before passing out.

Return

“Ugh… Note to self, stone floors are not the most comfortable of beds.”

Lyra rises slowly, stretching herself out even as she complains about the floor. Then, she takes a look around.

“So… the throne room? Huh. Woulda thought it would have been the Vault, where Celestia kept the five Elements she’d located. Musta… Hold on. Yeah, that would do it. Looks like the security system buggered itself on wild magic. Then tried to bite off more than it could chew, and broke apart. In any case, where’s the crater?”

She trots to one of the windows, peering out. “Ahh… Yep, that’s about what happens when you forget to draw enough power for the safeties to work properly. Aside from being trapped on the moon for a thousand years, of course.” She rolls her eyes. “Managed to toast my horn pretty good on the return journey, though. I’ll probably have to wait… Oh, more than a year, probably, before I can go back to full power. And in the meantime, the less I use it, the faster it recovers.” She sighs. “Okay then. Armor?” Her horn flashes briefly, golden sparks flying off the tip. “Ow! Um, check. Yeah, that was too far… I think I’ll avoid any magic expense for a week at least. Should be recovered enough by then to use small magics without causing further damage.”

She turns to trot out of the room. “So, now what? It’s been a thousand years and six days since the disaster… and since Luna returned six days ago, the Princesses probably believe me dead. Hmm… I might be able to turn that into an advantage. Certainly make a great rumors-of-my-death prank.” She chuckles to herself. “In any case, Ponyville should be my first destination. That town should have spawned at least nine hundred years ago.”

She trots down the front steps to the castle, glancing around. “Huh. A thousand years, and the castle’s all that’s left. Well, I hope Ponyville has a Sugarcube Corner- that was an amazing bakery. Speaking of which, I hope Celestia hasn’t changed the currency on us. And that inflation hasn’t gone too crazy.” She shudders. “I should still be able to touch into my storage pockets without popping my horn like popcorn.”

She crosses the bridge, and hits the woods, following the skinny little path.

She ignores the Timberwolves. They don’t attack her.

She ignores the Manticore. It doesn’t seem to realize she’s even there.

She smiles as she passes a cockatrice. She can feel her spell armor’s drain on her magic reserves; however, that drain doesn’t go through her horn, so no harm done- and the power required to maintain invisibility is almost less than zero when compared to her undamaged regeneration rate.

She’d planned on building this armor for the Royal Guard once she finished her self-sustaining thaumic fusion plant. Well, armor of similar capability; unfortunately, most ponies don’t have the raw thaumic capacity to operate fully thaumic armor like hers. Hence why the armor she did give them, around a year before her plant exploded in her face, contains orichalcum. The orichalcum serves not only as an easy anchor for permanent spellwork, but, with the appropriate enchantments, as an ambient power source. Not nearly as powerful as her magic, or that of the Princesses, but strong enough to serve its purpose.

… She’d infused the Princess’ armor with orichalcum as well, and made it a power source, because she knew that’s what they’d expected. Unlike the Royal Guard armor, she’d designed theirs to draw directly from their reserves if need be- and been able to build the enchantments to go beyond the active production of the orichalcum, and to work on more of a momentary basis, resulting in far tougher armor.

Not as tough as her all-spellwork armor, though. Even with an Alicorn’s reserves to work with, she hadn’t been able to fit the same level of protection into their armor as she’d been able to pack into her own, for one simple reason: She didn’t have to worry about the orichalcum interfering with the armor spellwork, so she had far more space to work with. And, she didn’t have to keep adding cutouts for power limiting or orichalcum-based power harvesting. Or even the reserve draw- she just put one of those at the heart of it, and it feeds the entire matrix with exactly what it needs… which is flat nothing when she’s not using it.

She reaches the edge of the woods and switches the invisibility off as she trots towards the town visible up ahead.

“Yes! I hope they’re as good as their predecessor. Or, even, better.” She grins, and pushes the door open. She’d found it: Sugarcube Corner.

A quick glance around the dining room reveals that this establishment is not only better established than the one she knew but, judging by the customers scattered about the tables, possessed of better cooks. She’d never been a very good cook herself; she’d tried, once, and somehow managed to set fire to a pot of water. Without using magic.

… Fire that had spread onto the marble ceiling.

Fortunately, her magic had been sufficient to snuff it out.

But bad cook or not, she’s always been able to appreciate good cooking. And, she’d witnessed a few street transactions on the way here- Celestia hasn’t changed the currency up on her. Meaning, her rather oversized stash from way back when is still valid.

She trots up to the counter.

The very pink cashier lets out a massive gasp, and vanishes into the back room.

She blinks. “Uh, hello?”

The pink mare reappears, stopping with that screeching noise that never fails to amuse her. Then, the pink mare spouts off something way too fast for her to hear straight.

She barely stops herself from going for her magic in time. She’d known a couple of fast-talkers back in the day- and for her, the easiest way to understand was to activate a quick perception spell. Well, technically, it’s a time manipulation spell, being designed to replay the hyperspeed oration back to her at a lower, understandable speed, in a tenth of a second or less. Unfortunately, it demands a lot of power. Not anything big enough to drain her reserves, no- but plenty big enough to make the damage to her horn permanent.

So she opts for the strategy she used before coming up with that spell: Pretend the high-speed vocalization never happened. It can annoy ponies, but more often than not, they brush over it.

Besides, what better place to start with familiarizing herself with the modern pony attitude?

She doesn’t even look at the menu. “Can I get a honeybun daisy sandwich and a chocolate ice cream parfait?”

The pink mare blinks. “Wait, you understood that?”

She smiles, and shakes her head. It must have ended with a request for her order.

“... Oh. Um, that’ll be seven bits.”

She blinks. Inflation must have gone backwards; the last time she ordered that very thing, it cost her almost thirty bits. Granted, that was a thousand years ago- but that means that the fifty bits she’d removed from her thaumic pocket are more than sufficient. She counts out twelve of them, stacking them on the counter in exchange for the food that the pink mare has somehow already finished. It smells divine- and that’s the first time she’s met anypony capable of cooking at warp one without a warp engine.

“Thank you,” she nods, transferring the platter to her back as she turns to select a table.

“Um, excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?”

The green unicorn looks up at Twilight, mouth full of sandwich, before glancing at the indicated seat- across from her- and shrugging.

“Uh, thanks?” Twilight mutters, taking the seat and placing her own food on the table in front of her. She glances up, and pauses, staring at the unicorn’s amused smile. “What?”

The smile only widens, until she finishes chewing that bite. “Oh, nothing. It’s just… you sound like I did, back in the day.”

“Wha-? Like what?”

She shrugs. “Unsure of how to handle yourself in public. Probably been spending too many hours studying?”

“But-!”

“And you’re about to tell me there’s no such thing as too many hours studying, aren’t you?”

Twilight’s ears droop. “Yeah. Applejack disagrees, of course, so… So she made me promise not to study for a whole day. And to repeat the exercise every week!” She sighs, and takes a bite of her sandwich.

The unicorn shrugs. “Well hey, at least it’s not as bad as it could be.”

“As it could be?” Twilight looks up. “How could it be worse?”

“Would it be worse of Princess Celestia herself banned you from all libraries on the planet forevermore?”

“What-! She wouldn’t-!”

“Of course she wouldn’t. But I think we can agree that it would be worse. I mean, imagine the pain of having to work through somepony that didn’t know what they were looking for, just to be able to get your hooves on the books you needed?”

Twilight blinks. “... Ouch.”

The unicorn shrugs. “In any case, if it’s going to be a friendship day, why not make it a good one? My name’s Lyra, what’s yours?” She holds out a hoof.

Twilight blinks. “Uh, I’m Twilight Sparkle. And, um…”

“No relation, I’m afraid.”

“Oh.” Her ears droop. She’d have to look up Lyra Heartstrings once again- find out what she looked like. She does seem to remember something to that end in one of her books… Oh well, something for tomorrow. She can’t study today, or any other Tuesday, without breaking her promise.

Well, that was… informative, Lyra supposes, parting ways with Twilight Sparkle some six hours later.

What she’d learned had been enlightening… and disappointing. Back when she was a filly, and for five hundred years before that, pony society has basically stayed the same. As a matter of fact, it would have ended, if not for her.

Then she had her foalhood, and grew up. And, eventually, got stuck on the moon with Princess Luna.

And, disappointingly, nothing has changed since. Like she’d suspected when she saw how big the crater was, none of her blueprints had survived, save the ones she’d distributed already- but that steam train carried more than enough technology to advance Equestria by a landslide. Twilight had confirmed that they’re all by the original blueprint- and even took her to the tracks to watch one pass.

She’d listened to the gentle whine of the steam-powered electric generator hidden underneath the boiler and the hum of the electric air conditioners on the cars as it passed. Even spotted the heavy electrical cables dangling between the cars, right next to the pneumatic brake lines.

… yet Equestria doesn’t have electricity. Light is achieved by sunlight, torches, or thaumic lights, the last of which is usually in the form of a crystal enchanted to charge itself by day and discharge on demand- that is, an invention of Star Swirl the Bearded some fifteen hundred years ago.

The Royal Guard armor is the exact same stuff she made way back when- and nopony has ever heard of anything capable of scratching it… nor comparing to it. The art of the permanent enchantment remains lost to ponykind; the use of orichalcum as anything but a magic resistance booster is also absent.

The same is true for their weapons. Her swords and spears are practically worshipped for their ability to punch through any defense anypony has ever devised… except, of course, her Royal Guard armor. Which those spears and swords are specifically enchanted not to harm.

She can’t wait to start upending the status quo once again; what would Celestia think if she flew a fixed-wing aircraft – the Boeing 747-8 in particular – to Cloudsdale to watch the young fliers competition? It’s only the longest passenger fixed-wing ever built…

Landing it up there would be a tricky bit of spellwork, sure, but nothing she couldn’t handle. A few cloudwalking spells on the wheels, and some suitable spells to ensure that nothing- not even clouds- got sucked into the engines…

Unfortunately, she’d have to wait a while for that – any attempt to build even the wimpy fusion plants she used to run all her high-power constructs would wreck her horn right now.

And perhaps it’s time for her to find a student of her own, so she can spread her ingenuity across the pony nation- so they can keep going, continue advancing, after she eventually dies?

Then she feels it. Somepony is dumping raw magic directly into the magic field. An utterly useless, wasteful action, to most; to her, especially when working with an ambient-powered spell, it’s useful for causing a local thaumic overload.

Yet one that nopony even knows how to do.

Except for her. It’d been the first thing she’d figured out how to do, even before levitation. Given her power levels, it was an easy way to overwhelm and shatter other ponies’ spells.

She looks.

It’s a foal… Filly, to be specific. White coat, looks to be trying to use magic.

She watches the filly give up, apparently disheartened by the lack of a visible result.

She knows who her apprentice will be.