Solaria ~ Book 1: The Runaways

by TrampingPony

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Adventure
Length: 21946

A day that never ends, a world stagnant for a thousand years, two creatures who are remnants of an age long gone. They intend to destroy the bright facade of a different Equestria and restore what was once intended to be the homeland of harmony.

Ponies who don't sleep don't dream.
Ponies who don't dream don't imagine.
Ponies who don't imagine don't advance.

It took every last bit of strength, but ponykind defeated Discord on their own a thousand years ago and as the old magic waned, the unicorns brought forth new kinds of power and ushered forth the dawn of a new era: The Age of Technology and Harmony.

All looked like it would go well and for a century it did, but something was going on behind the curtains of this glorious and shiny country. By the time the first ponies noticed, it was already too late. Still, ponies remained who dreamt of the old magic.

A day that never ends, a world stagnant for a thousand years and two creatures who are remnants of an age long lost. They intend to uncover what lies behind the bright facade of Equestria and restore what was once called the birthplace of harmony.

Coverart by: Akili-Amethyst

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-28 22:16:55 UTC

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

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Act 7: Silence Of Loyalty

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Act 8: Celestia

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Act 9: Projects Of Our Leader

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Act 10: Filly Of A New Age

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Act 11: Hour Of Shadows

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Act 12: Pinkamina Diane Pie

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Act 13: Rarity

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Act 14: Resolve Of Strangers

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Act 15: Hatching Of Hope

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Act 16: Depth Of Despair

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Act 17: The Sweetness Of Her Voice

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Act 1: Grip Of Stagnation

Something was falling, crashing onto the ground, whirling dirt and dust around. She looked at it, not knowing how to express her emotions. She faintly heard the rumbling of the machines that went on, tearing the structure down. Like many others, she watched, unlike them however, she wasn't mentally there at the spectacle. Few exciting things happened in Ponyville and the deconstruction of some old house was probably the closest thing to entertainment that had happened over the past few days. Things like this made her remember why she preferred her own foalhood, with her father taking her fishing and her mother swooning over the tiny dresses she had made for her dollies.

"Never thought I'd see that place gone," she heard somepony say, gripping her attention. She looked from whence the voice came. Caramel was standing there, with some of his friends. His voice carried a certain melancholy. She knew why, too. The building had stood here long before the filly had even known Ponyville existed. Caramel, being born here, just watched some piece of his past being toppled. She also knew that that was the worst kind of feeling, like a hole opening in your chest. It was tiny, but it would probably stick around.

"I heard, the Apples wanted to extend their business and bought this land for a hefty price," she heard another say. Roseluck, that one was, the owner of the local flowershop. A gossip she was, having been told that specific piece of information by the one who had sold the house. Well, the right to brag had been hers, now that she thought about it. Even Applejack had congratulated her for it.

"I didn't like the owner anyway," she heard the pony beside her say. She lifted an eyebrow at that, questioning who would even consider saying something as rude as that. She then turned her head, revealing some stranger she didn't know, probably a traveller from one of the great cities. Unlike those country bumpkins around him he wore attire aside from the collar. And with attire she meant a  brown sports coat and a grey-violet scarf.

"Why?" the mare asked dared to ask, even though she didn't particularly care for the pony's opinion.

"Her designs were terrible and so... so, new." There was venom in his voice as he uttered the last word, the most dreaded word of them all and the most terrible insult.

She looked at the stranger, a thousand angry responses running through her head. That one was a stallion, a bit handsome, his style didn't leave much to question, but still, what he wore had been in fashion when she had been a little filly, not even attending school. It was that thought that let the anger fade and she was left with a sigh, before she managed a small giggle. "Well... I guess the world just wasn't ready for real fashion." With that she picked up her tray of bags and turned away from the Carousel Boutique, not even waiting for his response. Carousel Boutique had only been a short chapter of her life and even though her dive into the fashion industry had been nothing but a complete failure, she'd still learn her lessons from it. For example, she had taken Applejack's advice and had haggled the orange pony into throwing a fit – not that that had hindered her from buying the space anyhow and then providing her with a glass of the finest apple cider.

Rarity walked across town, her deep blue mane moving slightly in the breeze, while the sun stood above, ever-vigilant. Judging from its position, it had to be about 3 AM, which meant she still had some time to catch the train to Canterlot. The thought of her 'countryside'-designwork came back to her and she sighed once more. Rarity had loved fashion. She had even provided the costumes for her friends during stageplays back in school and hadn't thought that her dreams would end in such a bad shape. She had always thought that she had a talent for such things but in the end, it hadn't been at all like she had imagined. She thought it the saddest thing, that she couldn't pursue her dream anymore.

Ponyville looked like any other sunny summerday. An idyllic town with seemingly no hold over the technology that was available to all ponykind. It had looked like this for a thousand years, if not more and the first changes were apparently both brought by Applejack's determination and ambition, as well as Rarity's failings at business. Really, she wished to be AJ at this moment. That pony made more money in a week than the rest of the town did combined in a month. Maybe her lot would've been better if she had been born part of the Apple family and not some fisherpony's daughter.

A thought she immediately discarded, as she remembered what had driven Applejack to this point.

Rarity took another deep breath and looked over her shoulder, her eyes fixed on her luggage. She had even less baggage than when she had arrived in the boutique. She had been young, idealistic and had still styled her hair in imitation of her mother. Now she just shuddered at the thought. It seemed so long ago. Business had been terrible, since nopony had liked what she had done with the fabrics and how she'd done it. Now it was gone and Rarity would leave Ponyville. That was as sad thought in its own right, but most of the ponies she had known over the course of her life, though they had come here, too, were now spread across the entire Dictatorship.

She remembered Pinkie Pie, who at one point had decided that becoming a host for a TV show was the best way to make everypony smile – From what Rarity heard, that plan had worked out. Then there had been Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, two local pegasi who had seemed nice enough, even though one was too brash and the other too shy for Rarity's taste – They had vanished without a trace one day. The only pony she still had contact with was Daisy, one of the so-called Flower Triad.

The thoughts drifted, but she became focussed once more as she approached the train station, the sole reminder of how advanced Equestria really was. Amidst the age-old architecture it stood out with its glass-roof and the minimalistic, yellow colored spires from some synthetic material Rarity didn't even know the name of. It was easier and more economic to get than rock and wood the pony had heard. Not that she cared, the designs were nice to look at and acted as a nice opposite to the countryside surrounding the station so it was fine.  She liked contasts like that, they were nice.

She walked through the front gate, grabbing a ticket from her baggage to check which platform her train would leave from.

"Six, huh," she murmured and moved through the hall. The Ponyville station was huge, sporting the room for 12 trains and the marketplace for the village was in here, too. Ever since it had been built 300 or so years ago it had acted as the towncenter and nopony was complaining. They were the direct line from Canterlot to the south and back again. Few ponies actually came to Ponyville but commuters had it easy to get to their respective jobs.

She looked at the hall. It was almost empty but that had to be expected. Everypony was watching Carousel Boutique get demolished and that only left a few travellers walking through the large hall, waiting for their method of transportation to arrive. Most of the shops were closed, too, so there was little chance of buying a book or something before she would get on her journey. She sighed, looking forward once more, wondering what the ponies were thinking to just abandon their posts, even though there was still a profit to be made. Country bumpkins they were called, for good reason. Almost all of them lacked any kind of business sense.  Her eyes went over the numbers of the platforms and then a stallion became the center of her attention... no, wait, not a stallion.

An orange mare with blonde mane and tail, clad in a red vest, a black jacket and a... top hat? Rarity had to lift an eyebrow. Was Applejack twirling a moustache while waving at her? She really had to miss Pinkie Pie, was Rarity's first guess as she approached the mare that stood by the platform she had to get on.

"Hello, Applejack," she said hesitantly.

A smile was adorning the orange pony's face. She didn't ever not smile. Rarity thought that that had to be one of the perks of being an idealistic optimist. She returned the smile, awkward as it was, thinking it rude not to. Applejack simply laughed at her unsureness.

"Caught ya offguard, didn't I," she spoke, only a hint of her once so strong accent remaining.

"Y-yeah," Rarity responded with a stutter. Catching herself, the mare quickly regained her posture, however. "What is up with that moustache, darling? That and the... hat..." She found the entire garment quite funny actually, like one of the costumes Pinkie sometimes had worn when she had some particular pinkieesque scheme to do.

"Workers had a strike. One of those "You're not giving us enough money"-types when it really was just "We want more money than we already get, because we still can't bathe in it,' The leadership, nice as we are, decided to play along and help them in our own little way. So we all dressed up and played the moustache twirling evildoes who would only talk about firing ponies from their jobs and giving them less money."

She explained the ordeal like that and got a healthy laugh out of it, too. Rarity thought that she seemed a bit too carefree. "I doubt they felt like you helped," she said immediately and honestly.

Thing was with Applejack, you were straight with her, she was straight with you. It was one of those principles she never intended to lose and it had gotten her as many friends as enemies in the business world. She smiled, though and offered to carry Rarity's stuff. Rarity declined politely, Applejack had already done enough for her and a lady needed to carry her own luggage sometimes. They walked onto the platform.

"I don't even know what they want, 's the thing. Me an' the others are all trying our hardest, yet they keep asking for more, like they don't got any food for their families or beds to sleep on. And really, they all got those. I checked it myself!" The earth pony took a deep breath. "Well, what it comes down to is that I'm thankful that we managed to solve the whole debacle with the Carousel Boutique at least."

Rarity looked to the side. The trains were transported via a complicated system involving gravity-manipulation magic and light-weight spells, cast onto wards, which stood in a straight line by the side of the platform, marking the way the trains moved. The railway, they called it, and it was a simple-looking, effective system, which had been in use for a thousand years, if not longer.

"I just thought... that it'd work out," Rarity confessed, her voice empty. "I love this town, Applejack. I love how Roseluck always gossips about everything, I love how the weather patrol messes up winter wrap-up every year, like it's a tradition on it's own and I absolutely adore the idyllic peace. I really thought, maybe I was right with fashion. It's my talent isn't it? To find something of value and to create something even more valuable with it!"

She let her head down, Applejack just walked beside her. "Which wagon are you in?"

"Six."

"Then we're here," the orange pony stopped and Rarity looked at her.

"I got a letter from our leadership a year ago. I was of age, they said, and they would aid my tutorship in fishing. We've been fishers since forever. I thought I'd break through the cycle, but I didn't." Her friend looked at her, her face unmoving. Rarity couldn't help it, she had to ask. "You didn't ask where I'm going."

"I thought you'd tell me eventually."

If you were honest with Applejack, she'd be honest with you. Rarity really wanted to give her a hug for it, but she felt weak. Her whole life she had prepared for one moment and it had slipped right past her hooves. She would surely have liked fingers now.

"I'm going to Canterlot, I'd rather have coin than live broken on the streets without anything left. Sweetie Belle still looks up to me and I guess, fishing doesn't sound so bad."

Applejack sat down, gesturing her to do the same beside her and they both stared at the walls and ceiling. It was made of glass and the sun stood above it, unmoving, like every day. It had been that way for a thousand years, if not longer and it would never change.

A few moments they spent in silence, but then Applejack spoke.

"They call it the Age of Technology and Harmony, I call it the grip of stagnation. We've been kept in a blissful state for almost a thousand years, maybe longer. Everypony is born in a certain position, a position that has been decided by a pony that lived a long time ago, and everypony dies in exactly that position – I'm talkin' positions of society here, not whatever you're thinking, Rarity. The thing is, I was born the daughter of apple farmers. We lived on the apple farm for nine generations, ever since we were given the space as settlers. My ancestors wanted to travel farther south, with the rest of the family but they were stopped and told that here was their place. And so they built their home, as decided by our great leader. Much like Carousel Boutique, everything remained pretty much the same in this town. While they fly around with jetcars in the big cities, here we live in some idyllic medieval stasis, with the added comfort of having just the technology to keep everything nice and safe. But we don't move, Rarity.

"You were born a fisher's kid and your kids as well as Sweetie Belle's kids were meant to be fisher's children as well. Mum, Dad, BigMacintosh, Me, we were born on the farm, we stayed on the farm and we were told that we would die on the farm. They thought that just because of the cozy standards we live with I'd grow stale, like everypony else, but Rarity, I see what I must do and staying in one place just doesn't do it. I'm a farmer's daughter, but I'm no farmer. We ponies weren't made to remain in one location, we were meant to advance. They all might tell you different but I have one question for you: Why would you stay on the ground if you had wings?

"I spit at the ponies who told me I'd spend my days bucking apples. I worked my flank off to get to where I am now – I'm a tycoon, ponies know me. The apples from our trees are either sold or made into cider and that cider is the finest in the whole world and I'm richer than Filthy. You hear me, I'm the richest pony in Ponyville, because I spat at them and their proclamations. Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're going to fail another time. You're Rarity and you are the best fashion designer this world has ever seen, don't you dare forget that once you reach Canterlot!"

Applejack was looking at her and she seemed like another pony, the smile had faded from her face and instead she looked so much like the pony who had raised herself above her station. Rarity couldn't help but feel a bit more confident.

"You're right. I shouldn't care about what they say. In the end, I'm me."

Applejack still looked at her, a bit confused, "So... you don't think, that our positions are engraved?"

"Engraved?" Rarity asked, "That's how they called in school, right? Well, you've made quite an impression over the year, I have to admit and I never quite believed it and I guess, now? Well, you really made an impression. So, I guess, no, I don't think so."

This was dangerous material, the kind of stuff that was better left unsaid. Stagnation was the way to go. Equestria didn't grow, Equestria didn't shrink. Equestria remained the healthiest country in the world through the power of standing still. The sun stood up in the horizon, unmoving, a sign of their power. Equestria always stood at its highest and it would remain there forever.

"Rarity..."

She turned her head towards her friend. "Yes, Applejack?"

"This is going to sound very sudden, but... what do you think about the night?"

Rarity blinked. "What?"

Applejack didn't say anything as they stood on the platform, staring at each other and just now, what Applejack had said, that was beyond 'dangerous' and Applejack's expression told her roughly how her own must've looked at this point. Shock mixed with disbelief could do the funniest things to someone's face. The sun was staring down on them and outside the world remained in it's eternal summer.

Rarity looked at her friend, "I-I don't know," she said.

That was seemingly enough for Applejack, who moved one of her hooves and took something from her pocket, a card of sorts. "That's the address where you wanna go, if you make up your mind. The password is 'The horror, the horror'. If not, well, you can always throw it away or go to the police. I want you to think about it, though. Is that okay?"

Rarity nodded and took the card, she didn't look at it, though, and also, the train was coming.

The railway went from the north down to the far south, connecting one edge of the Equestrian Dictatorship with the other. It made traveling easy, especially since all the major lines went through Canterlot and it was comfortable, too. The train itself was a streamlined thing, round in shape and with a very aerodynamic design, small rods extending from the side that faced the wards, lightning erupting everytime they passed one such. The rooms in it were simplistic and the ponies could seat themselves on cushioned benches.

Rarity had done so and now gazed out of the window, watching the landscape pass them by, all while completely ignoring the six or seven other ponies who were  on the train. Her thoughts drifted, but her mind was at least somewhat focused and in her hoof, the card Applejack had given her remained.

The sun always remained in the same place and nighttime was nothing but a fable, a story that remained of the old days. She led one of her hooves across her neck, where the collar was placed. A bit of technology that kept exhaustion away and enabled her to stay awake until the day she died. Sleep was a fable, too. Of course she had wondered about the stars and such, but it had never occured to her that it was something that was truly needed.

Some ponies, however did.

Ponies who don't sleep don't dream.

Ponies who don't dream don't imagine.

Ponies who don't imagine don't advance.

Such was one of their calls, she thought as her eyes went towards the paper in her hoof. They called themselves the Nightguard, she knew, an ancient society that fought for the return of slumber and dreams. And Applejack was apparently associated with them. She blinked, retreading the alliteration in her mind before grumbling. It was a pet peeve of hers, much like accidental rhyming, for some reason she had never quite understood. Well, the train would stop soon. The towers of Canterlot could already be seen, going higher than the mountains beside it, scraping the clouds. In a few more minutes, they'd be there and Rarity was lost in thought.

She would've liked rain on a day like this. She liked the sun but one really cherished the sight of the land beneath grey clouds after seeing nothing but a bright blue sky with that golden ball of light for most of their life. Maybe it was even due to her being unable to sleep. She never thought much about it, but when, she asked herself if a zebra saw a different world just because they could close their eyes and hide beneath sheets?

She pondered for the rest of her journey but as the train stopped, so did she. She had to go to the job centre, they'd give her a place with good fishing grounds and then, well... fishing.

For the rest of her life.

She trotted out of her wagon with the rest of them, overhearing the other passengers talk. One stallion had come all the way from the Badlands, talking about how he had been nearly roasted by dragons. A daughter whined to a mare, presumably her mother, about the weight of the metal ring around her neck. She'd get used to it, everypony would eventually, the mare replied, annoyance plain in her voice. Another stallion, much younger than the other, about Rarity's age, was talking about how he was going to meet with the glorious Leader herself.

Rarity was happy to move into the city, with its clean pavement and the sun obscured by high towers, jetcars and pegasi who soared through the sky. Rarity had been here often enough to not be in awe at the sight and even if she had been, she knew how unsightly the presence of just another country-bumpkin must've been for those around her, so she kept her posture.

The city of Canterlot was as ancient as Equestria itself. It had been the first city and also the biggest, with a population of about 8 million ponies, even more if one counted every creature with a citizen-pass. They were all living in the giant towers, each practically a small city on it's own. In between one could travel either on the ground by hooves, claws or whatever they would walk on, or by jetbus or -car.

"Why would I come here?" she asked, looking at the many ponies before her and the life bustling above. All in all, it reminded her why she had gone to Ponyville, why she had opened a fashion store. The ponies here were all wearing the same clothing styles they had since the Founding. Lack of style, for a pony like Rarity it was the most frustrating thing in the world.

Once more she looked at the piece of paper. The Nightguard counted as terrorist-organization but the state went over the top with a lot of things and Applejack was far too honest to be involved in anything shady. Well, considering how she's a CEO, Rarity corrected herself, she wouldn't be involved in anything too shady.

She sighed, looking up from the paper, deciding to put it away. Maybe there was still some hope, maybe she could still get a job as a fashion designer.

"A fashion designer?" the mare on the other side of the table asked suspiciously. "Why would you want to be something like that?"

Rarity smiled. "Oh, I've always had a talent for making dresses and-"

"You come from a family of fishers."

"Yes, but as I was saying, I found, from a young age, sewing was one of those things that provided me with great pleasure, also-"

"You should return to your parents, Miss Rarity. It's where you belong. It's where the state needs you." It sounded almost like a mother scolding her child for doing something wrong and Rarity saw it in the eyes of her 'social worker', how completely baffled she was that somepony would just try to break out and then come and whine when it didn't work out.

"Well, the thing is-"

The mare frowned. "Let me guess, you spent all your money on the last train ticket? Listen young lady-"

Rarity looked at the mare as she started some rant about responsibilites, the state and how glorious life would be if we all would just accept our roles. The unicorn watched but didn't listen. She saw how the mare's lips would move and how her teeth would show, perfectly white, like any teeth. She wore a gray blazer atop her purple coat, Rarity deemed it not fitting at all and her mane, though touched with gray, was pretty much pink and green for it's most parts. If it hadn't been for the towerlike hairstyle, Rarity might've found it pretty.

She disliked ugly things, she disliked this pony, who just rambled on how her parents might understand her, but she shouldn't waste the time of honest, working citizens. In the end she had come here just to get scolded about life by some social worker who seemed to greatly enjoy her own speech, it was almost like watching her just eating parts of the scenery.

The white unicorn simply decided to nod in agreement, beg her pardon and walk out without another word, then, she opened the door.

The offices of the job center were as simple as they could be. Some greyish white ground from the same synthetic material as the walls with an ugly brown carpet upon it that mainly served to keep ponies from playing ice-hockey on this ground. The walls were white and some somewhat comfortable chairs stood by the side of the wall. Ponies could wait there in an atmosphere that didn't seem unlike awaiting your own execution. The only other occupant had been a pony that had entered a few seconds before her, she hadn't been able to see anything but now, as she walked out, she exited through another door.

Her coat was the color of light raspberries, her mane a pale golden stream of hairstrands with a lone lily adorning it and her eyes shone like the sun itself. Rarity could do nothing but gasp, for what she saw was the leader of the Flower Triad, trotting and waving her hair in glorious slow motion.

"L-Lily?" she stuttered and the pony everypony in Ponyville was pining after (Rarity cursed herself yet again) turned her gaze towards her.

"Rarity, what are you doing here?", she asked with a voice that was like honey for the ears.

"W-Well," she really wanted to speak something but in the sight of Lily Valley her mind just turned to jelly. Who could remain completely sane in the sight of such a wondrous beauty, who was like a lone pearl found amongst a thousand rocks on a beach that spread across the world and-

Lily seemed to notice how Rarity stared at her and frowned. "You're not talking purple prose in the back of your head, are you?" She seemed greatly annoyed. Well, of course she did, everypony reacted that way towards her.

Rarity shook her head, clearing her thoughts. "I- Well... Sorry."

Lily sighed, "Honestly, I don't get what's up with everypony... Well, at least you're not like one of the office workers. Heavens know, they chew on every piece of scenery they can find."

Rarity lifted an eyebrow, really glad with how Lily had changed the topic so smoothly, she truly was such a wonderful mare, as brilliant as a sapphire underneath the bluest sky. "Are they all like that?"

"As far as I know and they seem to have a lecture for every situation, too. Well, anyway, what's your boutique doing."

Rarity grimaced. "Not... so... well," she tried carefully. Lily sighed.

"Another poor soul gotten by the system, then. I really liked your dresses and the prices seemed fair, too. I wear the one I bought every chance I get." And there it was, the mental image of Lily prancing about in one of Rarity's dresses, a wonderful sight, as she danced through a field of flowers and-

Rarity stopped herself, trying to remain focused. "Well, nopony but you and Applejack came to buy so..."

"It's almost like they're told not to, right?" Lily laughed.

Rarity didn't.

"What do you mean?"

Lily just smiled. "Nothing in particular. How about I treat you some food. You don't find many ponyvillians up here in the big city."

Rarity smiled, gladly accepting the proposal and they both walked out of the offices, Lily talking about how her life had gone ever since she had left Ponyville. She had been the heir to one of the biggest business chains in the flower market. Two years ago, her father had mysteriously vanished and she had taken over, leading them into a prosperous time. She was one of the bigger voices in Equestria, Rarity had known but the way she talked about other ponies of import seemed unreal to the mare. The glorious Leader was mentioned. The second time in one day, this city really was different.

However, as they walked through the streets, Lily began to wonder. "You know, about what I said earlier, the thing with them telling ponies to not buy stuff at certain places?"

Rarity could still hardly focus on what Lily was saying, it was like the pony's charisma was just oozing out. It had been that way ever since someday four or five years ago, she had been told by Applejack, the day she had fully grown into a mare and everypony began to notice her beauty. Still, she absentmindedly answered, "Yeah?"

Lily looked at her, "I actually believe that's what happened with you."

They were in the middle of the street, some other ponies looked at them, or rather at Lily. Flying cars were soaring about and some Pegasus was yelling something at somepony else. Rarity's eyes perked up, her eyes remained on Lily. They walked in the middle of a huge crowd, yet nopony was paying attention to what they were saying.

"Applejack contacted me today, she told had happened and... well, I wanted to hear it from you. What happened to you, happened to other ponies as well, you know. They tried to escape the system and failed, they were broken and returned into the line deemed appropriate for them. That's what they want to do with you."

The words rung heavy enough and if it hadn't been for the fact that it was Lily, the most beautiful mare, who told her that, she would've at least looked away.

Lily opened her mouth yet again, "I helped Applejack to get where she is, I can help you get where you want to go. I can help you cheat the system. In return however, I need something."

The unicorn looked at the blonde pony with a lily in her hair. "Like what?"

"I... We, need hooves. AJ told you about us, didn't she. I help you, if you join us."

If one thing was true at this moment, it was that Rarity was completely dazzled by the pony on the other side, who stopped to look at her intently. The moment seemed to last forever, it almost felt like she had just been asked if she wanted to marry Lily. Almost strange, she wasn't even into mares to begin with. Not that she really cared. She could help Lily, this wonderful mare and in return she would maybe get a second chance.

They stood beneath the towers of Canterlot, lights were flashing, advertisements were playing on huge screens, ponies were walking past them and cars were flying above. It was the feeling of a thousand butterflies in her stomach, weird to describe, not unlike a first love confession.

"I-..." she started but immediately rethought, "Yes, I would gladly help you."

"Twilight is not far away, Rarity. Welcome to the Nightguard," Lily then spoke and her white teeth flashed in a smile that, for a split second, made the white unicorn with the dark blue mane shiver and think that something felt wrong.

Act 3: Thoughts Of A Rebel

Somewhere, something was falling. Rarity could see it from here. A thin cloud of brown and grey rose up on the far end of the tower's walls. For a moment she had to wonder what had happened over there and if anypony was hurt. The lighting in the elevator was bright, the one of the undercity fairly dim. That and the distance to the happening made it hard for her to see any details. At least everypony else in the elevator was calm, even her own companion. Rarity had little to smile about right now, but she took the moment for what it was. Like before, she took the moment to wonder about the lives of somepony else. Lily's eyes remained looking forward, like small golden orbs, painted with but a black dot, standing in front of a white wall. In the few moments of sanity which Lily's presence did grant, Rarity found herself wondering, even if it was just for a few seconds, what it made her become so infatuated her so with this mare. But the question would go unanswered.

When they had left the offices, Rarity had not looked back and hadn't spent much of a thought on the whole matter, either. She was talking with a terrorist, wasn't she? She was going to join an illegal operation, wasn't she? Yet still, she found herself looking at the city before her with other thoughts on her mind. Even as they had stepped into the elevator her mind had remained mostly focused on the side of things that she herself deemed unimportant. Even now, she tried to find other things to think about, other things to look at and that was why she found herself staring at the sight below.

There was a city spreading from the roots of another. A long time ago the tunnels beneath the mountains had been housed by the tribes of diamond dogs. With the founding however, they decided to become part of something bigger and with the old Canterlot being rebuilt into what it was nowadays, their tunnel-system became obsolete. Nowadays, the undercity or Digahole, as it was called by its inhabitants, was a conglomerate of large halls, each with a town in its middle, all connected like the towers above with tunnels, through which railways ran, much like the one above ground. Construction-wise the houses were much cruder than the ones that were owned by ponies. Diamond dogs loved the rusty kind of built, Rarity had learned in school. The smaller living places looked like a bunch of huge metal plates put together in cubical houses, stacked upon another. There were larger buildings, too, which looked even less safe. There was something that did manage to create a certain sense of beauty. While Rarity was used to the shimmer of the candlelight, which had made working on clothing late at night so much harder and the lanterns by the side of the streets creating a faint source of light, what she saw here was truly enrapturing.

Diamond dogs had never had a thing for lanterns and lamps, preferring bugs to aid them in the darkness. From what Rarity knew, digging had been a central part of their culture and one needed free paws for that. Considering how fireflies and the like now lived under the insect protection act of the year 5 the dogs had long since found new methods of brightening their halls. The living bugs had been replaced with ones made of metal and they carried around small lights. On their own, they weren’t that great but there were swarms of them, buzzing through the city. The light was always on the move beneath the earth they said and in the first days of the Dictatorship it had often been likened to a meteor shower, Rarity knew and understood. A meteor shower it was, with a million lights swarming over the streets. It almost made her eagerly await the end of the ride.

Then, the elevator halted and without anything to be said, the two stepped out of it and into the life below. Rarity could do nothing but halt once more, gazing in awe at this rustic, yet somewhat homely town before her. The difference to the world above seemed like day and night, as the old saying went. She had never known a night, though. Maybe it was like this, though? Her eyes went up, where only the elevators were small lights against a giant darkness that couldn’t be pierced with eyes. At least not from down here. A million lights and a thousand inhabitants, here, below the world she’d known.

“Come on, my dear,” she heard Lily say, a small smile on her face as she looked at her friend. Rarity nodded and the two started walking. Of course, Lily took helm, braving the surroundings with such wonderful confidence. Still, Rarity managed to follow without much swooning, taken in by the wonders of the city.

Ponyville had been as small in scale as could be, with nothing exciting ever happening and the sun moving only in a small area on the sky, always refusing to get close to the ground. Digahole, however? This town was different entirely from what she was used, too.

Streaming through the streets were diamond dogs, several griffins, she spotted a gorgon over there and a group of centaurs bickering at a shop, while a satyr challenged a minotaur to an arm-wrestling match. Life was bristling all around and even though the houses seemed to be in quite a sorry state it still seemed so much more lively than the clean home she was used, too. She doubted that here the market was the center of action and that the deconstruction of a building was the highlight of the year. For a thousand years, if not longer, this part of Equestria might’ve just been stuck with being more lively than a thousand Ponyvilles. There was a harpy, talking with a pegasus about flight regulations, the metal of their collars shimmering against the light of the swirling fireflies.

“It’s quite wonderful, isn’t it?”, she heard Lily ask and looked at the earth pony who was walking by her side.

She tried to keep her mind from wandering into purple prose yet again. “I’ve been living in the country all my life. It is... quite a change. Still, there’s something about this town. The fashion sense of the diamond dogs is somewhat bad. I mean, It's not that I don't like diamond dogs. In fact, the only thing I 'dislike' about them is their fashion sense, I mean... Just look at their clothes,” she suddenly pointed out, trying to divert from the understatement that she had meant. For my own sake, she told herself.

“When I first came here those had been my thoughts exactly – Well, maybe not the fashion sense but just looking at the grandness of this place? I asked myself what could be more beautiful? There was a pony with me when I made the descend. Rarity, my dear, he asked me a question I would like to put forward to you. It’s an important question, or rather, one of the important questions.”

Rarity was bemused by that and intrigued as well. “Go on,” she said, already guessing where this might lead.

“Why is this beautiful, Rarity?”

The unicorn blinked, her eyes on the smiling earth pony. No purple prose, no thoughts about Lily, instead her eyes went over the city again and the dark sky, all those strange creatures and strangers around her. What made it so wonderful? Everything, she thought but didn’t say it, since it seemed too little of an answer.

“I guess,” she started but trailed off, not knowing where she wanted to go, unlike her friend. Lily lead them through the small streets. Yes, small, the the houses were huddled together, leaving only small room to walk between them. The streets were filled, nonetheless and Rarity started to doubt that her estimation with ‘thousands’ of inhabitants was entirely accurate. A thousand different kinds of people, all huddled together in the darkness.

“I grew up under a warm sun. The darkest it gets is when there is a thunderstorm, with black clouds looming above, lightning striking and rain falling to the earth. You can’t see the horizon anymore, then. Here? It’s like a horizon doesn’t even exist. The sun, the blue sky, these things are discarded for countless specks of light, all trailing across the streets.”

“It’s like the stars have fallen below the earth, right?” Lily japed.

Rarity did not laugh, though, because maybe it was just like that. It made her wonder what a night would look above. How did the world look in the dim light of countless light and the moon sitting there, in the sky, shining on the sleeping ponies. It seemed a romantic thought. Rarity liked romantic thoughts, dreams and such, but it reminded her of how she had dreamt of fashion and the ability to create something new. Somewhere, something was falling and it tasted like ashes in her mouth.

“But you know, it does beg another question. This world is beautiful, isn’t it, Rarity?”, the earth pony questioned, her eyes fixed on the white unicorn. For some reason, Rarity felt the weight of the collar even more than usual, then. She didn’t know what it meant, but she stopped and let her hoof stroke across it, making sure everything was alright before she continued on.

She finally answered: “Yes.”

“There’s opportunity a plenty and everypony has something they can do, no matter how big the task, or small. We all have our jobs cut out for us since our oldest ancestors.”

“Yes.”

“Then, would you say this is actually a perfect world?”

The wrong word, maybe. A stroke of misfortune and the bitter taste of defeat still lingered in her mouth but she knew that it was the wrong word to describe this world. However, everypony was happy to some extent. There was no poverty to speak of, nopony suffered more than another and everypony had their role. Outside of personal glory, maybe it was the right word. Still, she actually had no idea what kind of answer Lily was expecting. Well, Rarity thought, maybe the Applejack approach will work out.

“Yes, in some ways it is. Most ways even.” Just not for me. And maybe that was why she was wanting to fight?

“Well then. In the end, there’s only one question remaining, my dear Rarity: How do you fight a perfect world?”

She hadn’t expected that question. She heard the talking of creatures by their sides as they walked through the alleys and she saw Lily smiling the way she did. Rarity wasn’t able to find an answer, however. There were quite a few things she had answers for, questions she had expected, she had expected to be asked. But the big question? That’s what it was, she knew, the one important question. But then she knew, it was the same as with the question before, just the other way around.

“The world isn’t perfect for everypony,” she said.

Lily smiled. “Did you notice something about this town, Rarity?”

The pony shook her head. “Nothing particular, a different style to everything.”

“The clothes.”

She looked at a group of diamond dogs, wearing vests that looked old and ragged. A harpyie in a poncho with holes on it’s edges. In a sense, their fashion choices were horrendous, but beyond that?

“The houses.”

     Put together with scraps of metal, they looked rustic and as if they were about to break down. They didn’t look safe or comfortable, well, not in the common way those words were used. In a way, they had there own charm, Rarity knew, not quite getting what Lily was getting at.

   “Look and think about home, think about how much food you had on your plate, think about the looks on everypony’s faces as they carried themselves through the day and think how the sun remained in the sky your entire life. No winter, no fall, no spring. An eternal summer holding the world in its perfect grip. Think about that and then look around you again. These are no brightly colored houses beneath a sunny sky. These creatures aren’t wearing clothing that’s been in style since the founding of the Dictatorship. They’re wearing clothing that has actually been handed down in and of itself. Think and look. Look at where we are Rarity.”

     She looked but could find hardly anything wrong with it, even though something was indeed there, nagging at the back of her head. The words all rang true but her mind just refused to accept it for what it was, telling her how everything was fine, how everything was perfect.

     “We’re in the slums,” Rarity said, her eyes flickering. She didn’t understand the words that came out of her mouth. The world was perfect, there was no problem at all. The world was perfect and everything was fine.

     Yet it wasn’t. Something was wrong and it needed to be fixed. She just didn’t know why.

     “The thoughts of a rebel, Rarity. They’re hard thoughts to have and harder words to say,” Lily said, pointing at the collar, “and the sun is shining above, an eternal summer keeping its iron grip on us all.”

     Rarity blinked but couldn’t answer, since Lily had stopped. “We’re here,” she said and pointed to a door. Their destination. A warehouse in the middle of the undercity, looking as normal as could be.

     Lily knocked on the door, waiting five seconds. Then another voice bellowed from behind the gate: “Password!”

     “Sweet Apple Acres,” she said and the door opened, a gruff stallion pointing them hurriedly in. Rarity decided to take it as it was and walked inside, hoping to leave her doubts behind if she did it quick enough.

     She knew there were cracks, that something was wrong and that there was something hindering her brain from accepting that, something Lily had showed her. It was hard to keep focus on that somehow, much like it was hard to focus on anything that wasn’t deemed worth the attention by the state. Back in school Rarity always had an easy time listening to the teachers prattling on about history and how the Dictatorship was the best of countries but found herself grow bored as the talk went to the realms beyond the borders, like they hadn’t been of interest to her. Aside from the things she had been expected to keep track of the only thing that had ever come easily to her had been finding something rich and making it even richer. Finding a diamond and putting it on a beautiful dress, for example. A talent the world had quickly tried to disable.

     With her past and the bitter taste of defeat still in her mouth she entered the hall, where the rebels gathered and it was like nothing she had imagined. Not that she had imagined anything.

Ponies who don’t dream, don’t imagine, she thought at that point, a small smile forming on her face.

     There were boxes all around, the walls were plastered with anti-government propaganda and in the middle of it stood a table with more stallions and mares around it, talking about some sort of plan, probably involving rebelling. That’s what rebels did, wasn’t it?

     It was nothing like she had imagined and yet everything she had expected. There was even a guardspony sitting on a box, polishing his gun and eyeing her suspiciously. It felt strangely like a movie, this scene and for a moment she wondered if she should just turn around and walk away. After all, she still had the choice. Applejack had said that.

     Or... had she already played that card?

     Lily walked up to the group. “Heya, guys. I brought us a new comrade.”

     They were ponies of all colors and kinds but strangely enough, the one who caught her attention was the brown pony with the darker mane and the bow-tie. He had been at the train, too, hadn’t he? Was he a part of the rebellion, she wondered.

     “How many are there?” the stallion asked.

   “Well, not many more. This is Lily Valley, she’s-”, started a colt with a moustache beside him.

     “A most beautiful lady,” the brown stallion finished. “Name’s Time Turner, I’m an associate of a common friend,” his smile was one of stiff courtesy and he had little charm to him, Rarity had to confess. That and he completely ignored her. Well, everypony was ignoring her, their eyes fixed on Lily. It seemed almost unnatural.

     “I’m Rarity,” she still said but didn’t get more than a nod in her general direction. These ponies were pretty bad about their business, Rarity noticed. No wonder the Nightguard was something of a small problem for the state.

     “What have you come here for, Time Turner?”, Lily then suddenly asked, her own visage had turned a shade darker when he’d introduced himself.

     The stallion stopped smiling. “I was beneath the badlands, where the last dragons are.”

     Lily seemed intrigued. “Why would that be?”

     “Ever since the Founding and the vanishing of the old magic, Dragons have been fading from the world. No newborns, you see. They just grow old and older, till they die. There’s only a dozen of ‘em left. Our mutual friend, let’s call ‘em that, thought it worth investigating the matter.”

’em, was all Rarity thought at first, but immediately wondered what he was on to. First day in Canterlot and she had already gotten involved in a conspiracy. Disappointingly casual as all of this was, somewhere the little filly in her was giddy.

     “I went down, there. Took the train to Appleloosa and then just walked. Ponies didn’t care, nobody cared. Somebody even thought I was one of those state-issued ambassadors, even though the last ambassador Equestria had lived like what? Six hundred, eight hundred years ago? Anyway, I took my way down into the badlands, with plenty of water and some food, till I reached the Old Peak, the first mountain that had grown out of the world. The last dragons reside there, sleeping their lives away. Only, one thing. And I barely survived the encounter for it, too.”

     There was a pause, another of those grim smiles slowly forming on his face.

     Lily grew impatient quickly. “What? What thing?”

     “I found an egg.”

   “What?”,  Rarity blurted out, all eyes were suddenly on her and she took a step back, but steadied herself immediately. No way she could turn around now, or would, for that matter. “I mean, the dragons are dying out. That’s how it goes. They need magic to survive, the old magic.”

     “Aye, little filly,” Time Turner said with the smile never leaving his face, “and the old magic is gone. Yet I found an egg and guess what that means?”

     He didn’t give her time to answer. “It means, that something is stirring, somewhere. Magic is returning.”

     She didn’t know what to say, then, at that moment. Her eyes were fixed on him just as his were fixed on her. A dragon’s egg had been found.

     “Where is it?”, Lily asked.

     “I brought to another good, trustworthy friend of mine. The dragons wouldn’t have cared for it, the ones there were too old, too tired to do anything with it. And while getting the information I found something else. I already talked about it with the others-”

     A moment passed with Rarity wondering what she had stumbled across here, a singular moment and a silence that was immediately broken as suddenly the walls of the hall shattered and a loud noise was heard, the noise of anti-gravity drives accompanied by the soft humming of motors as well as the slow building up of energy in a weapon.

     She saw and heard how the boxes tumbled over, she saw the pony with the gun staring in shock at what was going on behind her and for a moment Rarity didn’t want to turn around. She didn’t want to acknowledge what was happening, but then she heard the roar of the speakers, the sound of female voice.

     “This is the Mechanized Assault and Government-Issued Company! Surrender peacefully for the sake of peace!”

     The looks on their faces told everything, it was like they had expected something like this to happen and at the same time didn’t, their eyes looking up. Fear marked them all. Wind blew through the hall scraps of metal flew about and Rarity decided to turn her head, slowly, carefully.

     She had heard of what MAGIC was, both a military unit and something of a special squad for cracking down crime-circles. There was only one member of the unit present, however and if magic had still existed they might’ve taken her on. Or not, she found doubting even that as the wind blew strands of hair over her eyes, which she kept locked on the intruder.

     The thing was made of blackened metal, most of it hidden behind layers of aquamarine dyed armor plating, pressed on the slender form of the battlesuit. The construct stood 13’ tall, it’s shape resembling that of a minotaur, from the digigrade legs to the antennas on it’s head that somewhat resembled horns. It even had hands even though they were worked into the guns, she had been told that ancient spells had been woven into them so they could blast a pony apart even from a hundred meters distance.

     Wait, when had she been told that?

     Even though it would’ve already towered over them if it had been standing, the suit hovered above ground, putting its drives to good use. The sight was as intimidating as it could’ve been.

     “How did they find us?” she heard one pony ask and then immediately after that:“Time’s running!”

     She saw the head move, small lights flickering up, before it lifted up one of its arm and a split-second later a burst of blue-white energy headed over her with only a small hissing noise coming from the weapon. Rarity blinked and then a loud explosion roared up behind her, flashing brightly and kicking everypony else to the ground. Rarity herself didn’t wonder, didn’t ask, at that point her instincts took over,with the explosion she started galloping. Not away from the battlesuit, but towards it, looking at its head with the lights still flickering. There was a small chance, a chance she hoped. Behind the robot was a hole and if the pilot wasn’t paying attention to her – Celestia prayed to every non existent god that ever existed that that was true – then she could run out of there.

     It shouldn’t be and she saw the other hand, the other weapon pointing at her almost immediately after she had started running. However, before anything could happen the pony with the gun fired a shot, she heard,a projectile whizzed by faster than the eye could see and took one of the antennae.

     Rarity looked in shock at the pony, who wore no clothing like a country pony. He had a pale brown coat, accompanied with a dark brown mane and had a five-pointed star for a cutie mark. He nodded to her, his mouth twitching beneath that black moustache of his, as he took up his rifle once more, an ancient carabine like they had been used by the griffons, a long, long time ago.

     She saw the others scattering and Lily still staring, fears in her wonderful eyes, which even with tears in them seemed only like deep ponds with fishes swimming in them, fishes of untold beauty.

Compose yourself, Rarity, she told herself.

     “Lily!”, she then shouted. “Run!”

     There was no time and she wanted to save at least one friend.

     The machine didn’t move, maybe the antenna hit had been important. Rarity didn’t know, didn’t care. She instead hurried as Lily wouldn’t move.

     The moustache pony looked at them both, standing there and then back at the machine, as it didn’t move. He seemed to resolve himself, “Come with me, quickly,” he told them and started hurrying off to the back of the warehouse. Rarity stared at him and then looked at Lily, who didn’t seem to quite understand what was going on.

And obviously: Neither am I.

     “Come on,” she said however, “we need to go.”

     Lily looked at her, “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t think.” That was enough for Rarity and she grabbed the other filly by the hoof leading her away from the police.

     “Something’s wrong, something’s very wrong but if we can escape, maybe we can find out what. There’s something going on here,” was all Rarity could say. There were so many questions on her mind, so many things that needed to be answered and yet she knew that she would probably have to wait for those. Right now, all she could do was run.

     She looked once more over the shoulder, the machine still not moving. She didn’t get it.

     “I used to be on the team,” she heard the moustache say as she and Lily entered the room at the end of the warehouse, a room that, from it’s decor could have been an office once. There stood a comfortable looking chair, a table and a variety of filing cabinets standing in the corner but they were all old, probably unused for a few years. However, she quickly turned her head from all that to a specific cabinet and the moustached pony trying to something in one of the drawers. “And there’s a variety of design flaws the suits of MAGIC have, for one, the wiring is weird, you hit one of the antennae in the right spot, there goes motion control over the suit. You need a good, however and there are few who can hit that spot.”

     Rarity looked at him, obviously astounded by this. “And you’re one of those?”

     The stallion hit something and on the other end of the room a hidden trapdoor opened.

     “The name’s Silverstar, I used to be one of the big names down on the frontier. Anyway, we should go. That’s the safest our safest way out while that pilot is both blind and deaf. She’ll think we’ve went past her. Now, ladies first. Rarity, Lily,” he nodded to each of them and beckoned them to the ladder down.

     Rarity didn’t know how to feel about it at first, but her eyes then went and fixed themselves on Silverstar. He didn’t smile, he still looked worried. The effects of the shot might not last much longer and there was still time for questions when they were outside, so she took grip on the ladder and began her descent, Lily following her, thanking the marksstallion for saving them. Rarity didn’t know whether the others had survived. She had spotted a giant hole where the shot of the suit had hit and wouldn’t have doubted that it had ended poor Time Turner’s life. She wondered how they might’ve found them. It only started to dawn to her as she reached the ground.

     That she might have lead the authorities to the hideout. How else would it all make sense?

     As she picked up the pieces and put them together in a picture that suited her confused state the most, she also found herself in the tunnel hidden beneath the town, a small thing, where one pony had barely enough space to stand straight up or walk and the lights down here had to be more ancient than the the interior of the hall above, since they were flickering, sometimes staying off for a few prolonged seconds.. She was glad for her somewhat more slender built at this one time. For all that lack in strength and stamina she had, this seemed much better.

     Not that she cherished that thought of crawling in the dirt after nearly being killed but she worked with the tools she was given.

     Lily and Silverstar followed her down.

     “Why was there a battlesuit here?”, Lily asked and Rarity knew why.

     Really, it was obvious. MAGIC utilized these battlesuits during a crisis or war and officially they hadn’t been utilized at all in the last one hundred and twenty five years. Then there was a the size and sound the things produced. A thirteen foot machine with roaring motors was hardly something that could sneak up on anypony. So how had it done that. And of course, hidden in that question was another. How did they find us?

     “Is it possible-”, she started but was immediately interrupted by Silverstar.

     “Well, chances are they somehow got word about Time Turner coming here with a dragon egg and they wanted to crack things down before they got out of control. No new dragons have hatched ever since the end of the Discordian Age. New dragons could mean that magic is finally returning to this world. Chances are that our beloved leader doesn’t want that. With magic, so tell the legends, come the princesses to govern us all as benevolent rulers. Close to now, basically, only slightly better and with lesser dependence on technology, which is a good thing. Still, I doubt anyone at the top would give up their place quickly.”

     He was right, Rarity knew, but still, the other part of the question remained. “Could they track us? Listened in with the aid of the collars?” That question got her looks but both Silverstar and Lily thought. Rarity only now noticed how wonderful Lily’s hair looked when out of shape, much like a forest, ready to be explored. A jungle with treasures hidden... The thoughts of week-old chips in Lily’s mane put an immediate stop to that train of thought.

     “No,” Silverstar finally said, motioning her to go on, with him and Lily following. “They’re meant to aid us, they keep our bodies active and-”

     “But that’s what I mean, can’t they manipulate us over them? I mean, is there some way to control them. Lily said before that the undercity were basically slums and I know about slums. I read about the ones in the griffon cities, where citizens died on the street with nopony caring for them. If it’s the same then why don’t we, or I at least see that.”

     He seemed baffled by that explanation, as if that had not occurred to him before. Maybe it hadn’t. It was the same thing really.

     Lily giggled. “You’re smart, no wonder AJ spoke highly of you. Smarter than the system.”

     Rarity couldn’t help but smile at that bit of praise. The thoughts of a rebel actually came easy to her and speaking about them was easy enough. Well, at least as long as she managed to concentrate on them. She had made herself aware now, that the collar had something to do with it, probably hiding things from their vision, too. It seemed only logical, yet it didn’t seem to open any new doors. Unless...

     “Are there any in the nightguard who know how to disable the collars?”

     This time Lily was the one answering, “Sadly, not without dying.”

     “If there’s a trick, we haven’t found it out as of yet and I doubt our leaders will give us any secret of theirs. I mean, at least that’s what we know. The Nightguard isn’t a centralized group. More like, a whole lot of smaller groups all struggling for the same goal. We’ve got extremists who’d rather blow buildings up and ponies who try to play at politics to achieve their goals. Really, there’s a lot of ways to reach the goal and maybe some other group has better information than we do. Time Turner might’ve had. I didn’t see what happened to him in the blast, though,” Silverstar said, his face turning down.

He’s probably turned to dust by that weapon. I would’ve had the same fate if not for you, Rarity thought, thinking that maybe she should say it but considering how they were on the run now, maybe it wasn’t the best time.

     The rest of the way was quiet enough, the only sounds coming from lights that seemed to only barely work anymore. It made Rarity wonder when this house had been built. Was it as old as the rest of the city and wouldn’t that mean that the state actually knew about this? She hardly knew what to think about any of this, either. Rarity, from fashionista to outlaw in a day. She didn’t regret it. She had started smelling something foul with the state now. Something was very, very wrong and this unicorn would need to get to the bottom of it, no matter the cost. Also, the business with the dragon egg. Magic, returning?

     Rarity felt her own horn, a decorative bone that could only be used with the right technological aidings. Magic worked differently than it had before, manipulating reality with wires and electricity. There were few unicorns who would get those. Magic wasn’t even needed for most of the tasks, well, unicorn magic anyway. Earth pony and pegasus pony magic needed technical aide as well. Pegasi could walk on clouds if they wore the right horseshoes, Earth Ponies could make the earth fertile with the right instruments. Weather was mostly controlled with suits much like the battlesuits of MAGIC. As far as Rarity knew all those methods were still simpler than getting a unicorn’s horn to work. Earth ponies and pegasi had it ‘in their blood’, so to speak, they could manipulate things without putting thought into it, unicorns not so much. Their magic had worked through the power of the mind. That was why back in the old days they had suffered the worst losses against Discord. The vile spirit had known that concentration had been needed for spells and when they first tried to perform a seal on him he turned everypony mad. For some reason that thought alone made her angry.

     She felt herself stepping on the ground, it was made of metal, built like the rest of the tunnel, no, the rest of Digahole. Metal scraps built together, holding things as well together as they could. Still, all the scraps placed so well together gave her hope. There were questions, she needed answers and surely she would find them. Still, the path went on and for what seemed like an eternity they walked on. The air wasn’t getting any better with the passing of time, either and after the first quarter through the tunnel Rarity already wished it to end. Halfway through the lights fell out completely, much to Lily’s chagrin as she immediately stumbled over a loose plate and fell on her face, struggling to stand up again while Silverstar walked straight into her. Apologizing ensued. After the third quarter Lily asked Silverstar about the others.

     The earth pony took his time answering but finally said, “with that thing disabled and whatever path they took they might’ve been taken by police forces, if there were any outside or they might have escaped through the other secret tunnels. I hope for the latter, of course.”

     Rarity hoped so, too, although she hadn’t even seen all of them. They might be comrades in the future, though and Rarity really wanted to think it would start to get better from here.

     With her mind set straight she walked right into the ladder herself, but didn’t spend too much time whining in pain and instead climbed right up. This one led right into an alley, small and completely dark. The other three followed and Rarity noticed how their hooves were completely black. She hadn’t even noticed any kind of liquid. Maybe because of the air. Once she opened the hidden door and let the air in, she couldn’t help but inhale loudly. At least the slums had fresh air, unlike those the griffons had had in their old kingdom.

     Yet, they were still on the run, weren’t they. “So what do we do now?” Rarity couldn’t help but ask.

     “Well,” Silverstar stated, “you’re new, right?”

     “Yes.”

     “And Applejack trusts you, the one from Ponyville?”

Is she that big a name even amongst terrorists?, she thought but answered: “Yes, I am a good friend to her.”

     “That’s enough for me. Lily, I think I should tell you about another plan we had.”

   “Another plan?” Her curiosity was reflected in those eyes. Eyes that Rarity would most certainly write poems in her diary about.

     “Yeah. Time Turner told us about something interesting and if they’re on to us, chances are it might be hot.”

     “What are you talking about?” Lily asked.

   “I want to get into the Echo-Facility.”

     As Lily’s eyes widened in shock, Rarity couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding. Whatever the Echo-Facility was, it couldn’t be good but sadly she would find out soon anyway, because she just had to get roped in by the underground and the hope of dreams and sleep.  Because ponies, who dream, imagine and somewhere in her future, she wanted to make dresses that would wow just about everypony.