Solaria ~ Book 1: The Runaways

Chapters

Act 2: Dreams Of A Sister
Act 4: Hopes Of A Mother
Act 5: Laughter Of The Mad Scientist
Act 6: Deception Of Beauty
Act 7: Silence Of Loyalty
Act 8: Celestia
Act 9: Projects Of Our Leader
Act 10: Filly Of A New Age
Act 11: Hour Of Shadows
Act 12: Pinkamina Diane Pie
Act 13: Rarity
Act 14: Resolve Of Strangers
Act 15: Hatching Of Hope
Act 16: Depth Of Despair
Act 17: The Sweetness Of Her Voice
Act 1: Grip Of Stagnation
Act 3: Thoughts Of A Rebel

Act 2: Dreams Of A Sister

If there was one problem with the government, then it was that the temperatures issued through the Standard Weather Act of the year 1 of the Dictatorship were far too hot. At least, that was what a pink maned pegasus filly named Celestia thought. Not that that was a problem, under normal circumstances at least. But it had to be just today that the ventilation system was out of order. It was, like, a million degrees hotter than outside. And of course the teacher wouldn't let anypony open the windows.

School was stupid!

Miss Numbers, or Squarejaw as she was called behind her back, stood in front of the class, reading out loud from a book, her eyes on some beach far, far away, happy that she hadn't at some point decided to teach the younger generation about history and instead had enjoyed a long and illustrious carreer in teaching chemistry at the Canterlot University. Celestia could just hear it in the voice of the teacher. The disdain, the boredom over the subject matter. She felt a grumbling escape her, small, but considering how silent it was it must've reached somepony.

Yet, they all just stared to the front, some bored, some somehow still interested at the subject at hoof. Some tried to not listen but just like the teacher herself, they failed to remain in their fantasy worlds. The history of the Dictatorship was just so captivating, despite being teached at least once a year. Or because? She didn't really know, but it came to her own attention that she really wasn't getting into the lesson. It came harder with every day and the more she tried to concentrate, the more the things outside the classroom bewitched her.

As a jetcar flew by she asked herself who sat in it and came up with a story on her own. A spy, like in one of the movies that she was still 'too young' for, fleeing for his life, having stolen the car from another pony. With him was a suitcase in which the core data to the Dictatorship's defenses was stored and following him were the ponies of MAGIC, the special forces of the state. She was thinking how they'd chase through the streets, past the towers and using every trick possible with the anti-gravity magic and boosting spells that had been embedded in their machines. She imagined the spy turning around one wrong corner and suddenly his car was hit with a rocket. She heard the explosion in her head and followed the parts that flew around with her eyes. Fire was everywhere, but the agent was unharmed, falling through the burning remnants of his vehicle, a cocksure smile on his face as he spread his own wings and started soaring through the sky, Tia following him.

"WHOOSH," she exclaimed a bit too loud and after a second, her eyes were widening, as she looked around. Ponies stared at her, some started to giggle, others whispered something. She couldn't hear, instead tried to make herself as small as possible in her chair as Miss Numbers was closing in, the world's darkest frown above her eyes.

The teacher then asked: "Is there something you want to tell us, Celestia?"

With that all the attention was on her and she needed to save face as quickly as possible. "I just thought the story of how Pansy reunited the pegasi could use some sound effects, Miss Numbers. It's kinda boring without," she said, adorning the same smile the agent of her daydream had worn. Surely it would help getting her through this situation and Squarejaw would surely get the joke. She would start to laugh and everypony would tell her how funny and witty she was.

"Celestia, office, now," the frown disagreed.

And that's the story of how Celestia got kicked out of the classroom for letting her fantasy get out of hoof yet again. At least it had been established by the second time that had happened that she had to go to the nurse office and take medication. She hadn't really bothered asking why for the first few times, the school nurse had gotten his job for a reason. Although she had overheard that he couldn't actually just prescribe medication when he wanted to.

This time, after she entered and he had affirmed who she was, Tia immediately went to ask the question: "What do I have to take the pills for?"

"It's a rare condition, Tia," the school nurse, a creme colored stallion with a green mane named Meadow Heart, told her after evaluating her for a second more. As she sat down on a chair in his office he took out the pills she had to take. "The collar normally allows us to focus on important things, but the bodies of little fillies sometimes have a problem responding correctly to the signals it sends-"

Celestia frowned. "I'm a mare," she insisted, interrupting him. She already was in 8th grade, almost a fully functioning adult pony. The nurse looked at her from his own seat, a smile on his face that indicated that he could've made a jab at her. Bein the gentlecolt that he was, however, he did not do that.

"Yes, of course, forgive me," Meadow instead said, "however, you're still growing and somehow that affects the collar, too. The pills serve to help your body grow more accustomed to the signals. It is necessary to keep everything under control, because if your body doesn't respond to the collar, you might stop function properly."

She sighed, touching the metal ring around her neck, before looking at the cup with the pills he was handing over to her. Celestia took it, like all the times before and chugged it down.

"They don't really work, though, do they?"

"Well," he answered, thinking about what to say next, "As said, it's a rare condition and..." He was biting his lip, clearly not knowing what to say next. "Well, Celestia... Uhm, it'll take a few months, yes, a few months before the effects will be truly noticeable. Until then you just have to keep trying to stay focus in class, would you do that for me?"

She nodded, "Yeah, sure. Do I need to go back to class?"

He looked at her for another moment, "Well... Yes,"

"But I don't feel well," she lied, "What if I suddenly fall on the ground and can't stand up again? What if my heart starts beating so hard that it'll feel like it's going to explode and my dinner will come up again?"

"Well... First off, Tia: Equines can't do the last thing you just said and the rest is just as unlikely." He always did this, crushing all her hopes like nothing. "But since I'm generous today and I know you're not going to be productive until you get yelled at by the proper person... Yeah, you can go for today."

Celestia cheered, thanked him and left the room.

She was free of school once again and, having her saddlebags already packed up, was free to leave it as quickly as possible, getting into the main corridor, with doors on her sides and some elevators here and there helping non-pegasi get from one corridor the the other. There were six-hundred-seventy-three total in this tower, she knew and it was something she always liked to reflect on, because Celestia had no idea who had told her that.

Canterlot was organized in 63 towers, surrounding the biggest of them all, the Tower of Dreams. That was the first one they had built after the Founding and it still was the most advanced structure in the world. Each tower was its own little community, the ponies in it knowing each other, well, not just ponies of course. Celestia knew that 3 Gorgon-sisters lived on groundlevel, a griffon family had made their home on the 665th floor and there was some minotaur writing about 'The Manliness of Manhood for MEN!' as he would loudly proclaim upon questioning. There were probably more, but these had been here forever. They were kind of like the old guard of the tower.

The towers were all made from the same material: Cookielum, which was named after the pony who had created it, Smart Cookie and their architecture was simple, although only the corridors with their plain white coloration were something to look at. Age had refined at least Celestia's taste in colors and for some strange reasons ponies seemed intent on doing many things without much care, like painting their homes. That and the fact that she was wearing the same kind of clothing her mother had worn her age, was something that bugged her like nothing else.

Fashion had always been the thing that distanced city ponies from the ones on the country. She didn't know the exact history of that, only that the clothes worn during the Founding were the fasion of today. That was why this morning she had put the same aquamarine bows into her mane for a little diversity, even though the same had been worn by her grandmother. The clothing she wore was a blue jumpsuit with green lines on the legs. Standard fashion for everypony, indicating both your standing in society, your current job and was also able to hide the kind of belly you got after eating too much cake, not that she needed to hide the last thing. Nope, not Celestia.

She'd rather worn a dress though, but these kinds of things were for events and going outside the tower. She didn't question it. Instead she simply walked through the corridor, past one door and then another, over a crossing, finding hardly any pony on her way. They were all working, she knew, or resting. The corridors were only filled during specific times. Here and there some other pony walked along, or flew, in case of some pegasi .

Even though she had managed to end school early, Celestia's route still didn't lead her home. Her mother never took kindly to her coming home early due to whatever condition she had, probably because her daughter was failing at studies hard enough as it was. Tia had obviously no intent on getting yelled at and therefore she decided to go to another school first, the elementary one her sister attended. Then she could wait there and bring the little one home. That would get her bonus points.

She giggled, congratulating herself for such a magnificent scheme. First she could quit school early and then she might even get some praise out of the whole deal. Sometimes she was just too smart for her own good.

With wide a smile she trotted on, farther through the corridors. She went on to the edges of the westside, where windows showed the rest of the city. Cars flew around there, leaving trails of blue light behind them. It wasn't just normal cars for, it ranged from bikes to busses and many times Tia had asked herself why those were so popular even amongst pegasi who could just fly from tower to tower. Canterlot was built upon a mountain range and between the towers, on the ground level, there dwelled citizens, too, in the shadows they had built there own small homes, much like the so called bridge-dwellers who resided on the bridges that connected the middle levels of the towers. There was only one word to describe Canterlot with its many layers and its quantity of denizens. That word was huge.

Celestia liked the windows on the westside, because from this specific tower, the sun could always be seen and it made the city look so wonderful with how the shadows were cast and how life seemed to brim outside. There was a bit of pride there, not only that she could live in such a beautiful place, but the ponies had built it. Who else in the world could boast such a thing?

Then she trotted on.

Constructionwise she had never understood the towers themselves. There were two main corridors on each floor, one with the windows and then, connected through side alleys, it led directly to the smaller inner corridor. Between those stood houses ponies lived in, hundreds of them, too. The floors themselves were built very high. She had heard that the kinds of buildings ponies used on the country could easily be fitted on a floor, maybe even two, atop of each other. That was, as her mother had told her once, because in the middle of each tower was the center of each floor's life. Most ponies worked there, the schools stood there, the market was there and the Dictatorship's broadcast screen was there, too. In case one felt like listening to what the leadership had to tell them.

Unlike most ponies, Celestia never got particularly interested in what they had to say, especially since they never saw the face of their own glorious leader. That one was more like a ghost, a god-like figure hovering above them all, a myth, a legend or at least something like it. They only knew something like a 'glorious leader' existed because somepony had at one point told them in school or at home. Celestia couldn't remember.

Her own way lead alongside the windows and after a few minutes she found a small, darkblue filly blocking her way, her lightblue mane well combed, the way Celestia's had been back then she had still been the age where her mother did the manecare for her.

She looked at Luna. "Why are you not in school?", she asked.

The little filly frowned, "We've been done for a while and didn't mom tell you that you'd be in huge trouble if you got home before your club-meeting."

Celestia stared for a moment before she realized that she had completely forgotten that they had a tournament in the chess club today. Even worse, she had told her mother that she would have to stay there and wouldn't come home with Luna today.

"Well, I..." she began, "I was wrong it was tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow." Celestia tried to repair the situation.

Her little sister sighed, seeing right through the deception. "It doesn't matter, I've got some special homework again and I think I need your help today, so... I'm glad we can spend the rest fo the day together."

Luna was a 3rd grader and the smartest pony her age, still Celestia just found it plain adorable how she would always come to her big sis for help. And even though her own mother said that she was probably just humoring her big sister, there was a sense of pride to it and despite, Celestia wasn't that dumb.

The teachers were, because they were the ones giving her bad marks.

Plus, Celestia loved spending time with her little sister. The moment you had a younger sibling you could get away with a lot of stuff, like building sandcastles or utilizing the playground. Ever since she had reached middle school ponies had started to expect being more 'mature' and 'adult' than she wanted to and was glad to have an excuse to sometimes be just herself. Since Luna was still a kid, she enjoyed their time together just as much.

Her thoughts about games to play were cut short, however by Luna stating: "I mean it, this is probably the best kind of homework I could've probably been given and I want to finish it as quickly as possible!"

Sometimes she did that, too. Celestia would go off into thoughts and then, as if she could read them Luna answered. Sisterly insight, the elder one figured. Also, Luna seemed to adore homework. Yeah, the filly was kind of a nerd.

Celestia resigned herself, "Okay, okay. Let's get ourselves home."

That was how their walk home began almost every other day, the older one wanting to enjoy her free time, the younger one wanting to do more work, both thinking that the other would think the same as they did. Celestia, like always came up with ways to not do homework.

"You know, you could simply wait for a diamond dog to come by, bet him five bucks that he couldn't eat the paper and then the next day you could tell the teacher that your dog ate it. The dog gets five bucks, you don't have your homework and your teacher therefore doesn't have to correct it. Everypony and a dog win!"

Luna looked at her, while she said this, nodding. She, like always, took it as a challenge and not as a hint. There were millions of ways to not do your work properly but doing it right, that's the most rewarding. To her Celestia was full of wisdoms. At least that's what her elder sister liked to think.

Otherwise they walked through the empty corridors, then into an alley and through the main corridor again. There was nothing happening, at all and they remained somewhat quiet. So it remained until somepony walked up to them.

A mintgreen mare with a white streak in her mane and eyes of gold. She wore bluish grey armor plating over her body, on the left side of the breast something stood written in red letters. "M.A.G.I.C."

"Yo," said the pony as she spotted the two, smiling slightly.

"Hello, Miss Heartstrings," they greeted her in unison.

"I hope you two're being good. Especially you, Tia," she gave Celestia a look and the filly found the ground suddenly much more interesting, giving only mumbling as an answer.

"Yes, Miss, we are just heading home to do our homework," Luna answered dutifully.

Lyra laughed. "Very good. Very, very good. We've got to crack down on a burglary down in the undercity, so I hope you youths don't set the floor on fire while I'm gone. See ya," she ruffled Celestia's mane as she passed by and the filly followed her with her eyes.

Luna seemed intrigued. "What was she talking abou-"

Tia wouldn't let her end THAT question. "Anyway, what kind of history problems were you having."

"Math..."

"Right, yeah, 'math'," Celestia said, laughing awkwardly while cursing herself and her memory.

But at least she had averted the question, although she looked one more time over her shoulder to see the green mare halt before an elevator. The name of that one was Lyra Heartstrings and she was a member of a special operations team called MAGIC, although Celestia had no idea what the title exactly meant. On most days, she also did normal police duty and had caught Celestia in her attempts to live out any kind of rebellious phase. That had resulted first in blackmail, then meeting Lyra once a month for coffee and now they were friends. Because Lyra liked being friends, especially with those who were really unlikely to be friendly with her.

Lyra was also very weird.

She heard Luna talking but didn't really spend any attention to it as her thoughts drifted around what had just happened and she imagined the burglary going on. How the burglar had studied the building he wanted to do intently for months and fitting montage music played in the background as she pictured him laying out his plan, bit by bit. Then one day he claimed the moment right and sneaked in, wearing a black spy-suit, as bodyfitting as a ponily possible – because that's what you wore when you broke in somewhere. She thought how the thief, a black pony, scarred from the war, his red eyes always fixed on the target. Before he went in through the window, his mind drifted towards his wife May Flower, a beautiful mare with a pearl white coat and dark blue mane. He thought about how their everyday lives had been shattered before and how nothing was the same as before. They had fought the EAO, the Evil Alicorn Organization, which was a group of evil alicorns and had lost everything. Now he was alone, fighting the system in a race against time to get his wife and children back.

She felt a nudge at her leg and turned towards Luna who gave her a weirded out look, "You were off again, sis. You sure the medication is working?"

"The doctor said it's gonna take some time. Despite, it's not so bad. Just means my mind works perfectly fine," she answered.

And with that they reached the red door. It was the only door with that kind of color on this floor and all the indication they needed to know that they were home. Celestia felt pretty heavy-hearted during that moment, as they stood on the floor. She reflected on how pure the coloration of it all was and how ominous the red seemed. Seriously, who would choose red as their door color out of free will?

Then however, she spotted something else before said door, both she and Luna. Something that seemed particularly interesting to the sisters. A suitcase parked in front of their home, with a letter attached.

That was how post was handled, it was delivered to the doorstep and left there. Mistakes were never made so the system was pretty lax on everything. Thing was, they didn't transport suitcases. Especially not some with such charming letters attached as:

For Dream World, and thanks for letting me get charred you stupid-

"What does the last word mean, Tia?", the filly asked, the question piercing right through Celestia.

"It's one of of those words you say when you want mom to wash your mouth out, Loonie. Just try to forget it."

"Kay."

And that was that but Celestia decided to be a good daughter and bring the suitcase in. That would surely get her some bonus points. Anything to keep her mom from getting angry.

Her mom was scary when angered.

Act 4: Hopes Of A Mother

She picked up a pen with her magic, gently floating it over the piece of paper and then in one elegant move painted the number on there. She was always extra careful when it came to her calligraphy. Everypony praised her for it, how readable her writing was, how wonderful her numbers looked, how neatly she maintained the layout during tests. It was another thing a pony could either be ‘bad’ or ‘good’ at and Luna enjoyed being good at things. No, that wasn’t right, she enjoyed being the best at things. She wanted to be the smartest, most well-loved and all around bestest pony in all of Equestria. It wasn’t a humble ambition, that had already been told to her. Not being humble wasn’t good but it was there, wasn’t it? She just needn’t ponies tell about it and they would think her nice. She could maintain her way without endangering it with talking. Luna was a smart pony; everypony said so and that’s why she would surely pull it off in the end.

She looked at the number on the paper and then at the problem beforehand. “Four times ninety-six,” she mumbled. Luna was a smart pony with absolutely no weaknesses or faults and this was far too easy for her. Sometimes she didn’t even understand how other ponies could have problems with these kinds of things. Really, there was nothing as wondrous as a pony having trouble with a simple math problem. Who was the teacher taking her for, anyway?

A drop of sweat moved down her forehead as she stared at problem, her mind racing. “It should be four hundred-forty-three,” she mumbled, absolutely unsure about her answer. She was smart, she could solve this. She had faced problems far worse than this and was sure that she, the smartest pony in her class could overcome.

She couldn’t though.

Instead she just sat there for many more minutes, figuring out if something was wrong and if there was, then what exactly. Thing was, she couldn’t. Even her perfect little mind shattered at the sheer complexity of the problem. She grumbled, leaning back in her tiny chair and looking at the ceiling. Her room was painted in a dark blue but otherwise it was entirely spotless. The toys were kept in Tia’s room, so Luna would never feel too inclined to play with them during work, although it was more to sate Tia’s own desire to distract herself from work. Sometimes she wondered how her older sister could do that. Only sometimes, though. She was a perfect little pony and perfect little ponies never worried too much about the misgivings of others.

Playing was a misgiving and she should do her work for her parents, for Equestria and for herself. Everypony said that it should be so, everypony except Tia. She frowned, because that was also the reason there was nopony but Tia she could rely on. Everypony liked her perfect, everypony loved how she could be smart and do things on her own nopony else could. Everypony except her sister, Celestia. She made the decision quickly, grabbed the piece of paper with her mouth and let the pen float in a position where it was held only by her ear, leaving her concentration for the sneaking to come.

Their arrival back at home had gone about as expected, with their mother glaring at Tia until she’d spill the beans on her own. The other filly always seemed to become so small when confronted with her own faults and never managed to say anything against their parent in this kind of situation. Yet, even though they both had expected the inevitable to come, it hadn’t. The moment their mother had noticed the suitcase all the rage had seemed to fade and even when she had told Tia that the girl was grounded, her attention had already left her daughters. Whatever that suitcase meant, it had saved the day for the household.

With her sister grounded, though, that made asking her for help only easier. This way Luna wouldn’t need to go looking for her somewhere else. She hated doing things like that and so she couldn’t help but smile a bit as she opened the door. She had good practice in sneaking, although she was nowhere as good as Tia. From everything she had heard the only thing Tia was perfect at was sports. She was the fastest runner, the strongest swimmer, the highest jumper and even the most elegant flyer of her class and she had heard her mother even say that her love for physical activity was her most redeeming trait. Luna found it sad how their own mother talked about her eldest daughter.

She went through the small corridor, past the bathroom, her mother’s bedroom, the living room and only stopped by the side of the door that lead to the kitchen, the only open door. Luna took a quick peek to see her mother polishing the furniture inside, humming the Dictatorship’s hymn to herself. The collar was pressing against her sleek, creme-colored neck and her red mane was falling past her shoulders, flatter than Luna’s own mane would ever be. She wore her own jumpsuit, Luna noticed. Tia called them boring and never understood why they’d have to wear them. She once went to school in a dress, shocking everypony, the tiny unicorn remembered. She nearly giggled but instead decided to move quickly. In one swoop she rolled over the ground, past the door. A move she had learned from the movies Tia had shown her. It was how spies worked and spies knew how to be sneaky.

She pressed against the wall once more and did another check, her mother still doing the scrubbing and humming. Success, the tiny filly thought and immediately moved on, only to quickly walk back and pick up the pen that she had lost during her tumbling. With that out of the way however, she quickly made her way to the last room on this floor. Tia’s room.

Beyond the door awaited a room that was seldom cleaned. Toys littered the floor with wooden bricks creating a town around the bed, small equine figurines its denizens. A dragon stood atop it all, a rare collector’s model from their father’s collection and a treasured thing that normally rested in their mother’s bedroom. Behind the dragon was an army of griffons flying a winged cup for their sigil. She noticed that the banner of the town was held up by a tiny white pegasus, who pointed up to the bed, but was ignored by everypony.

Luna smiled at that, because to her there was one more factor that made Tia a special pony. She was so good at coming up with stories and every night she came to Luna to tuck her in and tell her some new thing she had invented, some new tale, some great adventure that needed to be spread. The stories were the most exciting thing in Luna’s life, right after school and homework and being the perfect little pony that she was.

Her eyes shifted from the scene around the bed over the many more figures, cards and board games that littered the floor to the desk, where Celestia sat, a chess set spread out before her. Was she trying to play the game all on her own?

“Tia?” the younger one asked but Celestia didn’t say anything. Sometimes, she just goes off into her own little world, Luna thought, the words once said by Tia’s teacher to the mother, If the medication does not start working soon, she may need to be hospitalized.

The tiny filly frowned and moved closer, stepping over the chaos and then sitting down besides her sister, staring at her with her big, cyan eyes.

Celestia took a bit, but as she moved her fingers towards the white tower to make her move, she noticed her sister. The two stared at each other for a moment, before Celestia opened her mouth. “What are you doing in my room?”

“I need help with homework.”

There it was; the smile of a sister that would always help her younger one. The smile that predated all circumstances where all problems would soon be solved. The smile that gave Luna a bit of hope.

“Show me what you got, pipsqueak,” she said and seemed to overflow with pride. Luna always told herself it was because her older sister was proud that Luna still understood that she needed help, that she wasn’t there yet. It was the kind of pride that soon enough would contaminate Luna, since she was proud, too, of having made the right decision. So she showed her the problem and after but a few seconds Tia said.

“You’ve got it wrong. Four times ninety-six is three-hundred-eighty-four,” Tia told her with a smile.

Luna looked at it and stared at her sister, not really understanding where she had gone wrong.

“Ninety-six plus ninety-six is?”

“One-hundred-eighty-two.”

“Plus one-hundred-eighty-two.”

Luna had to think about that for a moment, getting the numbers straight in her head. “Three-hundred-eighty-four!” She almost shouted it out, the brilliance of the whole problem seemingly falling straight into her head. Sometimes she forgot that multiplication was really simple at its core.

She hugged Celestia. “Thanks, sis. You’re really the smartest pony around.” Celestia returned that hug immediately.

“Thanks, sis.”

The tiny filly let go before it would get awkward and looked at the chessboard. “What’re you doing with that?”

Tia blinked. “Oh, that?”

Her sister nodded.

“I’m just going through the tournament in my head, how it might play out. Right now I’m at Swift Turn’s and Frost Dale’s game, Frost Dale’s turn – She likes white more than black.”

“Oh,” Luna said, “how do you think it’s going to end?”

“Well... Frost likes complicated plans and enjoys playing with the expectations of the other pony, while Swift really likes abusing the rules and exploiting other ponies’ not-knowledge of them but isn’t all that good when it comes to the actual game. Frost doesn’t like it when other players don’t challenge her and so she tries to prolong the game as much as possible when another pony isn’t as good as she is. She hardly ever goes directly for the dictator and plays around with the towers and pegasi, while using trying to sacrifice as many unicorns as possible. She doesn’t like unicorns.” Celestia pointed to the figurines while explaining, her mind somewhere else. Luna wanted to ask where exactly, but a good little filly didn’t ask stupid questions. She thought that might be a stupid question even though stupid questions were hard to figure out.

Celestia looked at her sister, “What?” she asked, apparently not being able to read the look on her face. “You want to play a game?”

Luna looked at her, “Chess?” She wondered whether or not she should be excited at the notion, since she didn’t find much of an appeal in the game, even though smart ponies seemed to enjoy it the most.

“Naah, chess’s booooooring,” Celestia whined, “I don’t even know why I joined the club. Really, I thought there’d much more romance and intrigue around it, but no, ponies just play chess there. Like it’s some kind of chess club.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Not the point.”

“Then what i-,” she didn’t finish the question, because it would’ve ended up being a stupid one. Luna wasn’t stupid. Luna was definitely not stupid. She was a smart pony and nopony could ever deny it. “What’s up with the town?” she instead asked, hoping to divert attention.

It worked.

“Oh, that’s something really awesome. You see, while I was in school, a spy flew by-”

What followed then was Celestia whooshing through the room, assigning names and histories to the figurines and talking about all that had happened to the point where the Luna sat by her side once again just for the sake of sitting by her side and listening to the story.

“-and that’s when the dragon Myxrwhullzag got involved.”

“Mirzwullzag?”

“Mxyurwuldag.”

“Oh... okay.”

“Anyway, he used some sort of evil spell to bring the griffons under his control and marched on the pony lands, destroying our capital and now the Dictatorship is entirely occupied by griffons... Well, not entirely. One small village of indomitable unicorns still holds out against the invaders. So Mynxdurldag has gathered his armies to crush them. So my little ponies are now gathering to face this great menace.”

“How will one village defeat an army of griffons?” Luna asked.

"Magic.”

“Do they have a potion to make them super strong?”

“No, they’re just going to shoot laser beams at them until they’re dead... But, the potion would work, too, I’d guess.”

“How’re they gonna use magic?”

“What do you mean,” Celestia tilted her head. “They’re unicorns, right?”

“But unicorns can’t use magic without a H.A.R.M.”

“Well, magic came back, you see. When the dragon destroyed the Tower of Dreams.”

Luna looked at her sister, “How does that work?”

Celestia opened her mouth, then looked at the figurines. For a moment Luna thought the story was over, destroyed the grenade-like question and its pieces now flew through the sky into unknown directions. However it didn’t go as intended as Celestia’s look was more quizzical, a look that asked just how she had come up with that.

“Meh, chances are the government is hiding stuff from us. The old one the griffons had did that,” she concluded and for one moment Luna thought her sister some kind of deluded conspiracy theorist.

“But the state is good to us,” she defended her home immediately. Celestia laughed at that.

“Maybe that’s what they want us to think. Who knows how much they can manipulate us with those collars?”

Luna looked at her and then started to giggle, “You’re silly.”

“Well, one of us has to be and you most certainly aren’t silly.”

The two practically glowed at each other for a few moments, before Luna remembered that she had more homework to do and turned towards the door. “I’ve gotta go, still stuff to do,” she said opening it.

“Kay, kay,” Tia said, sitting by her toys and figuring out the story behind them.

Luna wanted to exit but halted herself, there was still one thing she wanted to ask before she left. “Tia? Will you tell me a story tonight?”

“Yeah, sure.” Tia’s smile was radiant. “I still got a few up my sleeve somewhere. I should find a good one that’s boring enough for you to sleep to.” Luna hoped not, but didn’t say it. Any story from Tia would be awesome.

“Thanks, Sis.”

“No problem, my little pony.”

The red-maned earth pony was still in the kitchen, now having heaved the suitcase onto the table where they normally ate their food. She looked at it with her grey eyes, both curiosity and fear locked inside them and it made Luna wonder what was inside that box. She wasn’t going to ask, still being all stealthy and stuff. So instead, she waiting for an opening, the moment to leap back into her room and finish the rest of her homework. And that was when the doorbell rang.

Their house had two smaller floors, neither high enough for a pegasus to fly within them and nowhere a window. The upper floor was for living, the lower one for storage and entering. It wasn’t the nicest thing for guests, Luna thought, but that’s how all the living quarters were arranged. She knew that from visits to her friends, even though Tia doubted their existence. She half expected her mother to turn and move away, the first thing she did and Luna got ready from the sprint. What stopped her was the far sound of the door opening and closing and somepony slowly approaching, calling her mother’s name.

A stranger’s voice, she knew and froze up, looking past the door into the kitchen, where the stairway went down and a brown stallion moved up, his body charred and his mane burnt to a crisp. She couldn’t help but stare, not being able to make a sound or move.

“Time?” Her mother exclaimed. “What happened to you?”

The stallion collapsed on the edge of the stairs, with Luna’s mother rushing to his help, grabbing the first-aid kit from the shelf it was stored in, moving directly to treat him. He looked at her. “The egg...” he muttered.

“It’s here, it’s safe. Time, now tell me, what happened.”

“MAGIC,” he said, “They found us. I don’t know how. Applejack said that she used her contacts to let them search in all the wrong places, had convinced them that we’re nothing but some office workers who try to be a bit stealthy about our billiard games or something,” As she took his hoof to look at his hoof he groaned in pain. “A battlesuit came, shot at me with a cannon. I tripped before it hit me and the shot went over me. I ran, I survived.”

“You’ve always been the lucky one,” her mother said, a sudden smile overcoming her fearful expression. “These wounds aren’t half as bad as they look. I can treat it with what I have here,” she almost laughed. “How did you manage that with a battlesuit at your hooves?”

“I have no idea how I made it out alive. I have no idea how I did it. Really, I’m as perplexed as you are,” his voice was weak but he turned to smile at her now. “Don’t ever let them send me south again. It’s not worth the charred fur.” There was a moment of silence. “I missed you Dream World.”

“I missed you, too, Time Turner. I missed you, too.”

Luna had used the moment to sneak past the door, but had seated herself on the floor, still listening into the conversation. Who was that pony? What was he doing here? Where had he come from? What egg? Was there an egg in the suitcase?

She heard movement and her ears were perked. She didn’t know what was going on and she knew that she had still homework to finish. The thing was, she also didn’t want to go. Luna knew that something was off and she knew that if she stayed and listened, she might find out what.

Tia’s words rang through her head, the ones about the state hiding things. Was that what was bothering her? Why? Something in the back of her head was nagging.

She heard them, sitting down by the table, on the cushions.

“So,” Time asked, “want to know about the south?”

“It’s just desert, right? Nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah, ‘til Old Peak.” Even Luna felt the sudden shift in the mood. “Dream, there’s something horribly wrong at the Peak. I know I was there but I can’t remember anything about it. There was a fence, there were guards, that I know. I got in, I know that, too. Next thing I know is my left forearm hurting like hell and I’ve got this egg clutched in my other. I was running like Cerberus himself was behind me and I don’t even know why.”

Luna’s first instinct was to grab her collar.

“I phoned in with Moonlight but the number was dead and now this. Bloody Suit appearing during a meeting. Lily even got some new blood.”

“Lily?”

“Yeah, Lily Valley. You know, most gorgeous mare in the entire world? She’s kinda famous.”

“Oh right,” the tone sounded to Luna like a mixture of disbelief and enlightenment, not a combination she’d thought to be possible, “that one.”

“Anyway, I got ‘ere fast as I could. Don’t think they traced me. They sent only one suit so they must’ve been pretty confident about their work.”

“Yeah,” her mother said and something started to feel very wrong. She didn’t know what.

“Anyway,” her mother said, “You’ll stay here for the night I presume?”

“Positive on that one, you think I’ll disturb the girls?”

“No, you’re an educated stallion, right? So you can help Tia with her studying, sometimes I worry for that girl and the medicine isn’t working, either. This way she’ll never be useful to anypony.”

“Well, maybe she can get hospitalized. If things go well, you’ll meet her again in ten years.”

Luna lifted her head.

“I doubt Luna would take well to her sister just leaving.”

“It’s to get her head fixed. You don’t keep broken tools around anyway.”

Luna gritted her teeth, hoping that her mother would speak up against that notion. Tia was bright, Tia loved stories, Tia could be so many things. She was cool and kind and always helpful. There was only one answer their mother could give: Nopony will take my child away.

“Sad as it is, you might be right,” was the answer given. “Come on, I think I have a bunk for outlaws downstairs.”

“You keep bunks for runaways?”

“I have a teenage daughter, better be prepared for anything.”

There was laughter but Luna couldn’t find a smile, she stared at the floor and couldn’t make a single noise. Her mother had objected, back when the doctor had said the same thing. Had she given up? How could she give up on Tia? How could she think of Luna’s sister that she would never be able to be productive and why would she send her away? Tia wasn’t dumb. Tia was bright and smart and loved stories, she was perfect, Luna found, the most perfect pony in the world and the most wonderful sister. Sure, sometimes they’d get into each other’s mane a bit too much but in the end Tia would always come to her, apologize if needed and tell her a bedtime story. That’s how things went, that’s how things should remain.

She wouldn’t let anypony touch her sister, she wouldn’t let anypony do anything against her family. Not the doctors and not some stranger who had no idea what he was talking about. It didn’t matter who he was to her mother, he didn’t know Tia and he most certainly didn’t know Luna. He wanted to take something important from her, then she would make him feel exactly that way.

She stood up, hearing into the kitchen, noises were coming from below the stairs. Whatever bunk they were talking about, she hoped they would stay there long enough. So she sneaked towards the table and climbed on it, fixing the suitcase with her gaze.

“So... you’re an egg. I know about eggs. Baby birds are in eggs. So you’re a bird and that means you can understand me,” she said, her expression so angry it looked like she was pumping herself full of air. “They want to take away my sister, you know. Chances are because they have me as a perfect pony. If that is the case, then let me ask you: Do you think that’s the right thing to do?”

The suitcase gave no answer. She took that as a “No”.

“Do you believe that just because a pony has been somewhat forgetful with things, they can just go and take everything away from her and her sister?”

The suitcase gave no answer. She took that as a “No”.

“There’s a ton of things I want to do together with her. There’s a ton of things we will do together, so if they want to take her away, it’s on account of me being perfect and her not. Which brings me to my last point: Do you know what I believe in?”

The suitcase gave no answer.

"I believe that the small things can have the biggest effects on the world."

With that said, Luna grabbed the hilt of the case with her mouth and carefully got off the table and as sneakily as possible went down the stairs. She made little to no sound as she took each step on its own and at the end of the line she saw the final floor with rooms to each side and only one had a light on. The door was right in front of her and so she moved. She tiptoed without even knowing what toes were, the ground cold against her hooves and nervosity leaving sweat running along her brow.

She leant on the last important door to her side, the one with the light.

“You know, I never thought running away from somewhere would end me in a place so cozy,” the stallion said, his voice almost hazy.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” her mother said playfully but Luna thought the same with an entirely different tone of voice. He was going to regret ever coming here and ever wanting to mess with her sister. Nobody ever messed with her big sister.

She went past the door and then hurried towards the exit, not really knowing what to do once she got out but she’d figure it out. It would end up her first prank and she already knew that her mother and Tia would forgive her for it. They were family, nothing would ever tear them apart. Not now, not ever.

Act 5: Laughter Of The Mad Scientist

Her sister enjoyed spy-related stories, that was something Luna knew well. Every night of her entire life Celestia had always seated herself by her younger sister’s bed and just gone on about the most fantastic things. She had talked about warriors in shining armor, large castles and monsters the monsters within. She had spoken of battles amidst the stars, with brave ponies flying from one star to another. She had spoken of old forests and proud cities; of bleak skies and clear oceans. The things that Tia found the most intriguing however, those had been the stories that involved ponies just sneaking through the dark, past all hurdles, through an enemy’s encampment and back to their home where milk and cookies waited, a loving wife or husband, the laughter of children and a realm that would thank them for their work. Celestia never made a secret out of it and Luna always slept well when her sister had real fun telling her stories.

As she walked down the street with the suitcase in her teeth she remembered one particular story. It involved a pony stealing something from a vile lord, something very important and very powerful. She did not remember the thing’s name, but that it could destroy the world as everypony knew it. The story went on how the pony had been kept prisoner for aeons before she finally found a chance to escape her captors, taking their greatest treasure, which was also their greatest weapon with her. With these things the pony fled to the country, her old master not far behind. She slept beneath the trees and in holes, dug in the ground. She drank from the rivers and ate the grass and flowers that grew on the earth. Never did she stop at an inn, never did she ask another pony for help. She was all alone. She sneaked past patrols and toll-stations she managed to evade. Yet, no matter what she did or how she did it, her lord and master followed her.

After a week or two he then found her and captured her again. She remembered Celestia’s look, her eyes staring at her sister. She had told her, that he took what the captive had stolen, showing her a brutal smile of crooked teeth and rotten gums.

“This treasure is mine and mine alone, wench,” he had told her and she had looked him in his eyes and had answered his smile with her own radiant one.

“Is it?” Mockingly she had asked that question and he hit her for it, smacked his hoof right across her face and only a second later he understood what she could’ve meant, so she checked the treasure and found it wasn’t what she had stolen. He turned to her and asked her where it was.

“You can chain me down, beat me or crush me, you can kill me and revive me as often as you’d like. This treasure is lost to you and when it will come back to you, it will be in the hooves of a pony stronger than me.”

He had roared at that and promised her that he would do just that. He had chained her down in the darkest dungeon his castle had, he would beat her and crush her bones. Then he would kill her and revive her, heal her and repeat the procedure until his strength was failing him and age had taken over. The last time he had gone into the dungeon she had laughed at him. “You wasted your time beating one mare and your world turned to ashes already.”

“I don’t care. You will tell me where the treasure is.”

“Even if I told you it would already be gone from the place I left it at. Somepony took it, maybe gave it to another, I don’t know. Maybe it is already in another kingdom, maybe we were lucky and someone managed to destroy it. I wouldn’t know, I’ve been chained her for more summers than I’d like to count. You go on, you go out and look at the world. You are old already but you’ll still see it, won’t you. The moment you climb your own battlements, I promise you, you will see the fall of your own kingdom.”

Tia had then told her that he had laughed, killed her once more and gone to climb the battlements of his own castle and before he’d reached the top she had always told her sister good night. She wondered, why she thought of that story now and even more, what the name of it was, since it surely wasn’t coming to her. It was the treasure its name, too. She still knew that part but the name itself was lost to her. A sad thought, since it seemed almost important. The suitcase had been important hadn’t it? Had she stolen some kind of great treasure? That made Luna feel even more daring than she already had. She was truly the greatest of thieves if she had done something like that. Maybe she could brag about it to Tia later, when she came back and maybe that would be her new nickname: “Luna, king of thieves.” The thought alone made her giggle, yet the weight of her collar felt more heavy than usual at this moment, as if it wanted to slow her down.

Tiny Luna felt more daring than ever before, though and walked straight over the streets towards the next best elevator She had decided to descend to the lowest level and then simply throw the suitcase away. Nopony would find it and if they did, they’d carry it out of the reach of the pony who wanted to harm her sister. That thought made her even more happy when she’d already been and so she walked towards it.

Luckily, there was no line by the elevator. Only another pony she didn’t pay much attention to, much like that pony probably wasn’t paying any attention to her. That’s how it went, wasn’t it? Nopony was really seeing others on the street. Like robots they’d walk to work, or home or the market. Luna thought that a bit sad, but ultimately she had better things to do.

She had butterflies in her stomach as she stepped into the elevator and saw the other pony press the button for the lowest level. She didn’t even have to press any buttons today, so Luna thought this was going well until now. The ride down could take several minutes, considering how high up they were and Luna actually had never went down that far.

Why had she come up with that kind of thought right at this point?

The doors closed and the ride began. Suddenly, Luna started to feel very nervous. Something was wrong. She wasn’t allowed to go this far down, she shouldn’t even have tried to steal something. She’d never stolen anything before and surely not from a friend of her mothers.

Suddenly her breathing got much heavier and she let the suitcase fall to the ground. She looked around and then at the other pony.

A pink one with a mane that was extremely puffy and a white lab coat. She smiled the most contaminating smile Luna had ever seen.

“I heard the stories, but to think they were true,” the pink earth pony suddenly said and Luna realized it then, the other mistake, the thing she should have noticed.

The earth pony wasn’t wearing a collar.

She couldn’t even say anything, with one loud screech the elevator stopped immediately. Luna lost her balance and fell and the lights went out immediately.

“I had thought they’d do it. I hate this part,” the earth pony grinned and a second later a flashlight lit up between her teeth, “you ‘kay?” She mumbled.

“Y-yes. What’s going on?” Luna felt herself shaking, cold and without any sense of what was going on.

“Lots of things,” came the answer, “For one, one of my friends is currently baking a cake without me. Then I think another one is playing some bizarre griffon sport, another one is currently trying to get out of the friend zone of another pony and-”

“I meant here,” Luna yelled, tears coming from her eyes. The other pony leaned down and smiled.

“Nothing much. Right now we’re trapped by the evil government but don’t you worry. Auntie Pinkie has just the solution for all our problems.”

She moved her hooves and for a second Luna wondered what she was going to do. Then, with one wide movement confetti started flying everywhere and the earth pony named Pinkie exclaimed: “Elevator party!”

Silence followed.

“No? Just me, then? Fine,” she rolled her eyes, but her smile remained. “You’re a hard one, eh? Hold the light and this muffin for me,” she gave both to Luna, who just stared for a moment at the blueberry muffin.

“Where did you-”

“Now! Let’s get down to business,” she sat down before Luna. “I need you to listen carefully: We’re four or three floors below the one we came from, the doors will open soon enough, however: You can’t go home again.”

“What,” Luna asked, “Why?”

“Because in the next few hours the fate of this entire country will rest on your shoulders, princess.”

Princess? Luna stared at her, her mouth wide open. Pinkie just nodded. “Alright, looks you don’t know yet. Meh, everything’s going to be fine anyway.”

“What about my sis, my mother?”

“Everything’s going to be fine, I told you. I know it’s a lot to swallow, even though I haven’t even shown you the kinds of dishes we have here, like the fruit salads, the normal salads, the candy salads. I mean, sure candy salads don’t really exist, but they totally should.... Anyway, here’s what I can tell you right now: I know the collar around your neck isn’t functioning properly, I know you are not really a pegasus, and I know that your name and title is Princess Luna, Ruler of Night and Lord Paramount of the Realm of Dreams. I don’t know about the suitcase, whatever’s up with that, but I do know that in the next 30 seconds the doors are going to bust open and the police’ll try to murder us. I give you a choice: Will you let me protect you, teach you how to fly once more and help us restore Equestria?”

Luna stared at her, not knowing what was happening. There had been a treasure and a pony had taken it far, far away. She didn’t remember the treasure’s name nor the dark lord’s face. She remembered the words, the eyes of the glorious leader watching and somewhere deep down, she remembered a castle and somepony’s smile.

Sister, she thought as suddenly the doors swung open, a dozen armed and armored police ponies standing there.

“Yes,” Luna answered with as much determination as fear and anxiety. The ponies lifted their weapons up, but Pinkie was faster, one hoof going into a pocket of her coat and doing something.

Before anypony could shoot, Luna heard an explosion, the elevator shook and suddenly they were falling down. The entire elevator was falling and they were hovering within it, no gravity holding them to the ground anymore. Pinkie Pie was only laughing, though.

“Geronimoooo~” she yelled and Luna didn’t know what was happening, instead she closed her eyes and let the wind brush against her head, as they were moving faster and faster. Was she going to die here? Really? Just like that?

“I hope you're not thinking anything bad. The worst has yet to come,” Pinkie suddenly announced against the wind and grabbed Luna, who in return grabbed suitcase, she didn’t even know why.

“One!” Pinkie laughed. Luna only kept her eyes closed and thought of her mother and her sister.

“Two!” She thought of a castle in a forest, like in Celestia’s stories.

“I’MTOOBOREDTOCOUNTFURTHER!” With that she felt another gust. She just knew Pinkie had kicked herself through the elevator door and a moment later they landed on the ground, rolling a few times, with Pinkie letting go off Luna, not stopping to laugh.

The tiny filly herself just blinked a few times, before she sat herself up and looked around. Whatever floor they were on, it was completely dark and nopony was here. No rooms, no lights, no nothing. All they had was the flashlight Pinkie had given her. She stared at the nothingness for a moment, the tears coming on their own before she started bawling openly.

Pinkie Pie sat herself up, her bones making cracking noises as she stood up, she herself grunted a bit and then sat down by Luna’s side, trying to figure out what to say.

“I’m sorry,” was what came out.

The little filly didn’t stop crying, so Pinkie simply picked her up. “I’m really sorry. With everything going wrong I’m just happy that you’re fine. They would’ve killed you on the spot if I hadn’t been there,” she only seemed to realize that you didn’t talk to a child like that after she had said it and facehoofed immediately.

“Anyway,” the pink pony said, picking Luna up and putting her on her back. “I told you everything’ll be alright and I mean it. Forget what I said earlier, I’ll get you back to your parents.”

Luna looked at her then, tears still falling. “What is going on?” Was all she could ask.

This time, Pinkie didn’t smile. “A war’s about to start and one side doesn’t enjoy the idea of pet alicorns now as much as they used to.”

“Alicorns? What’s that?”

Pinkie ruffled through her mane, “Short answer is: You.”

Luna blinked at that, her crying stopped, taken over by sheer confusion. What had happened to her? Who was this Pinkie? Where had she taken her? Why had the police stormed the elevator? Why had she stolen the suitcase? It all didn’t matter when Pinkie smiled at her.

“The long answer waits on this floor and since the other princess said I should show you when I could, well, how about I tell you a bit about Equestria, a stolen treasure and a princess that was killed and at the same time not,” the pink pony said and Luna thought only one thing: Like the story, the one which name I forgot.

Act 6: Deception Of Beauty