//------------------------------// // Act 1: Theories // Story: Friendship is Failure #9: Inherit The Sun // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// ACT ONE The six friends reappeared in the streets of Canterlot, but everything seemed very different. Not only did the palace seem a bit smaller, and missing several towers and wings, but houses were much smaller, made with more simple thatched roofs, and the ponies themselves were all wearing old-style clothing. Stallions wore suits, had pocket watches, and wore a bowler, top, or skimmer hats. Mares wore simple dresses. Some wore bonnets, others wore fancy hats. “Wow! Where are we?” Spike asked. “Not where… but when.” replied Celestia. “This is what Canterlot looked like one-hundred years ago.” added Twilight “I remember studying it in Equestrian History.” Princess Luna looked all around her, at all the many things she had missed out on being banished to the moon for so long. “It still fascinates me; all that happened in my absence.” Celestia felt a bit down about all that, but that wasn’t the reason she brought them. “Come with me…” she instructed everyone, and they all floated magically along the wind. “Oh, but… what if some-pony sees us?” asked Fluttershy. “They won’t…” replied Starlight. “I’ve seen this kind of magic before. All these are just shadow-images of the past and memory. No-pony down there can see or hear us.” “That is correct.” Celestia assured her. “Come along…” Onward they flew, until they reached their destination, “…The Summer Sun Festival!” cried Twilight. Surely enough, it was almost exactly the same as the one she had just witnessed before the time travel, only there weren’t as many ponies gathered round because Canterlot was not as populated as it was back then. The royal fanfare announced and Princess Celestia, or rather her past-self took the stage, welcoming her guests and preparing to raise the sun. “This is so incredible!” cried Spike “The festival happened way back here as well…?” “Oh, much longer than that.” replied Celestia “The Sumner Sun festival is one of the most well-known and noblest traditions from ancient Equestria, but that’s beside the point.” She then pointed her hoof at a single pony amongst the crowd. His name was Dr. Beckon Rates: He was a red unicorn, with a dark brown mane. He was also a scientist and scholar, whom taught at Canterlot School while maintaining a life of philosophy founded through his research and discoveries, hence why his cuitemark was a picture of a pendulum in a flask. He was also engaged to a very lovely mare; Petal Dance; A Pink unicorn with a long yellow mane. She was a basic flower pony. She sold all kinds of beautiful flowers. Naturally, her cutiemark was a big basket of flowers. She unfortunately was standing with her father; Preach Choir. He was a pale yellow unicorn with a short grey mane, due to his age. As his name, and his tome cutiemark picture, inquired, he was the town preacher of the church, and he was rather skeptical and somewhat uneased with the engagement. He was never one to care for science and discoveries and all that, as he preferred to stick to believing in the power of friendship, the righteous in magic, but as a preacher he also preferred not to get so overly worked up at every little detail and, as was entailed in his biblical studies; respect his fellow pony-kind. “Wow, I don’t think I’d want to get into an argument with that pony.” said Spike. “Keep quiet, the ceremony starting.” Twilight snapped. She had quite forgotten in all the excitement that she and the others couldn’t be heard anyway. Celestia’s past-self prepared to raise the sun, but the real Celestia motioned her friends to, “Look at Rates…” Everyone looked down at the young pony and saw him don a pair of unusual spectacles, with a load of tiny but weird gizmos and gadgets on them. He put the glasses on, and stared directly at what was happening. The real Celestia was growing nervous at this point, that she suddenly froze the images, like hitting “Pause”. She looked very shameful, and was quivering softly. “Sister…” Luna cried in concern. “Something wrong?” asked Starlight. Celestia almost went into a hyperventilation, but managed to get a-hold of herself, and she told the others “What you are about to see is a deep and dreaded secret I have held for ages.” The others felt nervous but curious at the same time, and Celestia made the images go again. That’s when her past self’s horn was glowing and it was the moment of truth…! The sun began to rise… only… it was rising very slowly, like it naturally would. It didn’t raise at the same speed as Celestia rose in the air herself. “What the…?” cried Twilight. “What’s happening?” asked Fluttershy. She suddenly got her answer as the sunlight shone directly down on all the ponies, through the sun-monument on the stage, and Past-Celestia’s cutiemark began to glow brightly as the light! “It can’t be…!” cried Starlight, but she knew exactly what she was “She’s absorbing the energy from the sunlight.” All the friends slowly gawked at Celestia, whom was looking greatly saddened and ashamed of herself as she slowly admitted, “…I… cannot truly raise the sun.” Twilight felt like she wanted to fall down, though she was floating in midair. “No, that can’t be true!” Princess Luna confessed, “I’m afraid it is. My sister cannot truly raise the sun, and I myself am incapable of raising the moon.” “No way!” snapped Spike “I can’t believe that. I mean… we see it happen. I even saw Twilight shift the moon all around when she tried to raise it.” The friends agreed to that, but Celestia insisted “…Just watch the images. You will see.” Rates was shocked by what his glasses had revealed to him. They were his own special invention that would prevent him from being tricked by any illusion caused by magic, and what he was exactly what the friends had seen. “I knew it…!” he said softly to himself, and he excused himself from the crowds in such a hurry, and went right past his fiancée and her father, not even stopping to say hello or say where he was going. “What’s up with him?” Petal asked; “Probably in such a hurry to get back to his science mumbo-jumbo.” said her father. “I really don’t know what you see in that pony.” “Father, he means well, and he’s a good-pony.” “Ha! Then why did renounce his faith in our Celestial House… turn his back on the foundations that make this world righteous?” Petal hesitated. It was true, her fiancé had quit attending her father’s services some time ago, but she was confided between herself and Rates. “Father, he doesn’t mean any harm. Don’t go hard on him.” “Oh…” her father scoffed “Well, I supposed it’s not that much trouble, and if you’re happy… I supposed I can be happy too, just as long as…” “Just as long as I know where my faith lies… I know. It lies with Friendship, magic, and the belief of Celestia.” Petal pecked her father on the check, and then left him to find her fiancé. She knew, from the way he had run, he had retreated to his home and laboratory, not far from the fair grounds. She knocked on the door, “Beck…? Are you in there?” “It’s not locked.” Rates called to her, and she let herself inside the small house. Rates was a serious pony when it came to his work and studies. He had small chemistry sets in a corner of the one-room house, posters of star constellations and of the moon, and many shelfs of books. “Petal… I’ve done it! I’ve confirmed my theory of the sun.” Petal froze on the spot, “What?” “I mean it…” Rates said, with giddy in his voice, “I’ve always theorized that the sun and stars can’t simply be manipulated, especially when confirming it with natural science studies. Now, thanks to my disillusion-specs, I’ve finally seen… Princess Celestia can’t actually make the sun rise or set. It’s all an illusion, a trick.” Petal did not like the way he was preaching, against such things that were her faith, her family’s faith, and the faith of many ponies all over Equestria, “I can’t believe that…!” she simply said and turned to leave, but Rates dashed up and stopped her, “No, no… hear me out… Petal, for a long time now, Natural Science and Faith and Belief have always been on opposing sides. Some ponies believe in one truth and try to silence the others out, thinking they’re always right. But just think, like all the scientists and naturalists of the past, what if I was able to help them bridge that gap; introduce new theories and new ideas of ways for everyone to think instead of being pushed all the time of what to believe in?” He was starting to sound like an obsessive mad pony, but Petal knew him better than that. “You just be careful, Beckon Rates. You’re going to marry me… not your work.” He smiled at her, and they shared a soft kiss. Over the past month, Rates made it his mission to get what he saw out into the public to help induce his theory, even if it meant labeling the Princess herself as a “Fraud” as the case was, which also included a full documentation of his theory and how he had seen with his own eyes that Celestia could not in fact move the sun, but rather just absorbed light from it as her source of power, and that the illusion that the sun and moon moved were just that, illusions caused by the magic: “Any pony or creature nearby would fall under the illusion the magic created making them only See the sun actually moving.” Some ponies found this theory interesting, and began to study more in the fields of natural science, but as was possibly anticipated, many ponies were livid and outraged by such a thing. Especially Petal’s father as he read the daily paper which featured an article on Rate’s theories and teachings. “He’s crazy; absolutely blasphemous.” “Father he’s not being blasphemous!” Petal protested. “Oh, you would say that about him, wouldn’t you? Look at this headline; he’s calling the princess a fraud and a cheat!” “He didn’t say she was a fraud, he said that she just isn’t what she seems, like is all magic.” “Well, it’s all the same to me.” her father grumbled “Now he’s brainwashing ponies all over to think like he does. Making them turn their backs on Celestia, or the very prophets we live by through friendship and magic!” Petal didn’t like the way her father was acting, as if for once he was willing to forgo respecting his fellow ponies. “Father, can’t you just let it slide? It’s not doing any harm and neither is Beck.” “Sorry, hon… but this time I just have to put my hoof down.” her father said “The last thing I want is people leaving my flock the way he did, and saying that friendship isn’t magic and that it can’t help you like he did.” Petal had heard enough and got up to leave. “Where do you think you’re going?” “I’m going to see Beck.” “Not if I have anything to say if it you won’t. He’s nothing but bad news and you won’t see him so he can put all these ideas into your head.” “But we’re engaged, and I don’t care what you think of him… I care for him and I will see him as I like.” Before her father could protest, his daughter had gone, leaving him feeling disgusted in her. “I don’t know where she gets it from. Her mother was never this much of a nag.” He really felt Petal didn’t understand. He wasn’t trying to smite or badmouth Rates. All he really wanted was for him to stop his preaching, feeling that he was wrong to do it in every way; wrong to mix up ponies emotions and ways of looking at life. Just then, the mail pony dropped a series of letters through the mail-slot. “Ah, mail’s in.” He ran through the letters, and discovered one of them was from his friend who worked as an attorney at town-hall. “Dear Preacher…   I think I may have found a way to get that no-good science blabbermouth to hush up.   Look at the document I’ve enclosed and you’ll see what I mean.”     Preacher looked at the document enclosed with the letter, and as he read it, his eyes twinkled, and he looked up in a thankful prayer, “Celestia, bless you.” The six friends saw the whole thing, “What does he mean?” Spike asked. Celestia, looking more shameful than ever admitted, “It turned out that a law had been passed long ago about the teachings of friendship and harmony in Canterlot; and that any teaching against it was highly illegal. It was just never enforced.” The others didn’t like where this was leading. “Didn’t you know of it?” “Of course I did…” replied Celestia “When I read the headlines, I was surprised that my secret had been discovered. Many ponies had theorized about it but were just never able to prove it, but after receiving so many letters of protests, calls for the law to be passed in order to maintain the good order the ponies had…” she paused, and she didn’t have to say another thing. “You passed the law…” said Fluttershy. Celestia nodded regretfully, “Even though I always felt every-pony had a right to their own opinion, this was a strong secret that I always feared would cause a rift in the harmonies and friendships established throughout the land. And just at all that happened recently-- all these uproars, and ponies arguing with one another-- I couldn’t bear it. I was worried what would happen if this continued; that many nations and countries would turn on others. So I felt I had to pass the law. Even though I knew what would happen then to Dr. Rates.” The next images everyone saw was that of Rates being arrested for teaching theories of the sun and stars to his class, which was made illegal by the passing law, and he was hauled off to jail!