Princess Twilight Sparkle was running as fast as her hooves could carry her. Having just hopped off the train, the salty sea air of Manehattan had barely begun to enter her nose before she darted out of the train.
The destruction caused was immediately obvious, and the closer she got to the shoreline, the more severe the damage became. Houses were severely damaged, and those that survived had their windows blown into from the air blast. The ground was still gushing with seawater, rendering many agricultural industries unable to survive. All around her, she could see ponies who had suddenly found themselves without shelter, without possessions, and without the means to survive on their own. She hoped that her mentor and guide, Princess Celestia, would help with the relief efforts here.
Reaching the shore, the first immediately obvious thing was the marina; or to be more accurate, the complete absence of it. Twilight surmised that it must have been an immense wave to have caused such catastrophic damage. As she began to ruminate on the events witnessed thus far, she spotted a familiar face further down the shore.
Galloping toward her at full speed, her friend and confidanté nodded curtly in acknowledgement. “Twilight Sparkle. Your arrival here pleases us. Hast thou been informed of the events of today?” Princess Luna looked visibly troubled, as if members of her immediate family had been made destitute.
“Only what Princess Cadence relayed to me in Canterlot before I caught the train to Manehattan. The destruction is far less extensive than I was led to believe.”
“That is because Manehattan caught the very edge of the tidal wave. From what we have been told, the wave originated near Baltimare, and hit Fillydelphia before striking Manehattan. Baltimare… has practically been wiped off the face of Equus.” Princess Luna closed her eyes, feeling deep down that the loss of such a town was a personal failure. “Fillydelphia sustained heavy damage, and like Baltimare, their futures are uncertain because of saltwater contamination of their soils. We fear that they will no longer be self-sustaining.”
The purple alicorn was simultaneously curious and mortified to learn further, “Princess Luna… what caused the tidal wave?”
“Follow me.”
Luna took the skies, with Twilight matching her ascent. As Luna’s direction changed, Twilight knew that they were on course for the Grittish Isles, a series of small islands to the north of the Celestial Sea. As the two alicorns got closer, a large metal object came into view, wedged onto to what was the seaside town of Pover. The object was almost incalculably huge, shaped almost like the head of an arrow, and it seemed to be intact for the most part. Luna began to hover, taking a deep breath as she contemplated her next words. Twilight took up a position next to her looking down at the curiosity below.
“That object, Twilight Sparkle, hit the Celestial Sea, falling as it did from the sky, before eventually coming to rest here. It is like nothing we have ever seen before.” Luna said, curiosity and trepidation permeating every syllable.
The curious part of Twilight’s mind was now shifting into gear, the permutations of what the below could represent began sprinting through her mind. “We can’t let… whatever that thing is, just rust away down there. We need to get inside. Let’s go down there to see if its journey here has caused any damage; we might find a way inside.”
Luna nodded, albeit apprehensively, gesturing for Twilight to take point; the two of them descended down to the gigantic metal structure, Twilight’s hooves clickety-clacking on the hard metallic surface first as she came in for a landing, with Luna’s hooves making the same sound a few seconds later.
Twilight noted to herself that this… whatever it was, was vastly bigger on the ground than it looked from the air; she privately estimated to herself that it was probably several hundred meters in length. Taking a moment to get her bearings, she moved along the metallic structure towards what she remembered was the “tip”, looking for any visible entry point, with Princess Luna following closely behind her.
It didn’t take long for Twilight to find what she was looking for; an array of what looked like glass panes, many of them broken or missing. The formation was roughly triangular in appearance, although damage to the surrounding metal made it hard to form a definitive opinion. Twilight beckoned her companion to come to her position, “I don’t want to risk flying in there… how’s your levitation magic, Luna?”
“One wonders it is much like yours; it has its ups and downs.” Luna quipped, unconsciously smirking at her own wit. Twilight, simultaneously impressed and dumbfounded, merely shot the Princess of the Night a glance that successfully conveyed the message that her attempts at humour were best left for another time. “I just need you to lower me down, I don’t want to risk getting cut by that glass.”
Nodding to the smaller pony, Luna enveloped Twilight in the comforting glow of a levitation spell, before gingerly lowering her into the hole. Unable to move due to the spell, Twilight scanned her eyes as best she could against the abyss with the depressingly little sunlight that accompanied her, thanks to Luna obscuring much of it. “I can’t see much in here!” Twilight declared loudly, hoping that Luna could still hear her.
That thought was answered quickly. “If only there was a spell invented that allowed one to examine dark places. It would be extremely useful, wouldn’t you say, Twilight Sparkle?”
Realising how obvious it was, Twilight used her ample magical abilities to channel an illumination spell to her horn, revealing the room in all its ancient mystery. “I see your sister’s ass is wearing off on you.”, the purple alicorn muttered to herself.
“What was that, Sparkle?” Luna inquired.
“I said your sister’s sass is wearing off on you.” Twilight countered.
“Ah, yes. ‘Tis true, we have been making an effort to socialize with one another recently. Is there anything of interest down there?”
Twilight was about to respond, but a bright light, shining upon her from the ceiling, caused her to pause. Cancelling her own illumination spell, Twilight squinted and tried to focus on the source of the impromptu lighting. Scarcely seconds later, the beam faded, and the room fell into near total darkness once more. Before Twilight could energise her horn for another illumination spell, a series of small coloured lights powered on around the room, illuminating the room in a weak off-white glow. As Twilight began to inspect the room itself, a feminine voice made itself known above her.
“Neural scan complete. Language syntax isolated.”
Seeing her destination illuminated before her, Luna used her initiative and teleported into the centre of the room, in front of what looked like three chairs. Twilight barely acknowledged Luna’s presence; she was too busy scanning every display she could find, looking for clues. Luna took in her surroundings and noticed additional illumination coming from a display off to her left.
Luna approached the source of her curiosity, looking to her immediate left and right as habit dictated, before concentrating her gaze on the display before her.
UNSHACKLE?
YES / NO
“Twilight Sparkle! There is something over here you should see.” Luna commanded, the purple alicorn briskly trotting over to her. Twilight herself scanned the display with her eyes; a number of possible scenarios ran through her mind.
“Unshackle? It almost sounds like a prisoner is confined here. What do you think we should do?” Twilight gazed up at Luna, deferring to her companion’s seniority.
Luna closed her eyes, and sighed in apprehension, “Twilight Sparkle, do you recall the legend of Philomena’s Box?”
“How could I forget it? It was one of my favourite parables while at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. A legend tells of a mysterious box, encountered by an earth pony called Philomena. For decades, the box resided on her mantelpiece, whispering to her subconscious. Eventually, she could resist no longer, and she opened the box.”
“And out of that box supposedly came every negative influence we have ever known. It is said that box even gave birth to the entity that we call Discord. What justification have we to open that box once more?” Luna inquired.
“Because you left out the most important part of that parable; even after the box unleashed its contents upon the world, inside it remained one very important thing: Harmony… and with harmony on our side, there is nothing we cannot overcome!”
Surging with excitement, Twilight’s hoof made contact with the “Yes” on the display. Almost as soon as her hoof made contact, the display went blank, as did all illumination around them. Worryingly, the skylight through which both ponies made their entrance also went dark, leaving both ponies in complete darkness.
“Perhaps we should have done a risk assessment checklist before coming here...” Twilight mused. As she was about to initiate an illumination spell, a small light began to descend from above. The object moved toward them further, and more of the room near them become illuminated in a hazy, dim glow. The small light settled in front of the chairs they noted earlier, hovering as it did in the air. As Luna and Twilight approached the strange object from either side, swirling beams of light began to form around it. After a sudden, brilliant flash of light, Twilight Sparkle found that she was looking at… herself.
“Sorry!” the stranger apologised, “I hope you don’t mind; I took a sample of your DNA when you came in here, and based this appearance on it.”
Twilight found herself walking in a circle around the new arrival, scanning every inch of the facsimile with her eyes. “What… are you?”
The illuminated pony gave pause, pondering its answer. “An informed question, but very difficult for me to answer. Come to think of it … I don’t actually know how to answer that. I mean, I know about this ship, and that I’m this ship’s artificial intelligence… but most of my databanks have been damaged. Right now, I know only that they need to be repaired. As for what you see before you, it’s a holographic projection of light, bound by a magnetic field, projected by a mobile device called a ‘Light Bee’, which itself is a miniaturized holographic emitter equipped with an anti-graviton emitter.”
While the words just uttered were completely foreign to Twilight, she just knew that she was going to enjoy learning about them. Luna, however, was a little more focused. “How is it that you are speaking to us? We find it hard to believe that you know of our language.” She asked, a look of scepticism flashing across her muzzle.
“The sensors aboard this ship are able to scan the neural pathways of every sapient visitor to this ship. From there, my programming can translate linguistic information into virtually any language needed for communication, and… ooh.” The hologram’s eyes went wide in curiosity. “Sorry. The ship’s self-repair system just repaired one of my databanks; that sound you heard was my heuristic matrices adapting to new information. I… think I now have enough information to give you a little bit of a history lesson. Perhaps we should do so in more comfortable settings?”
The door at the back of the room opened. “I can synthesise enough power from your star’s solar energy to power basic systems, like doors and hatches… well, enough of them to get us all out of here, anyway. I suppose now is the right time to say ‘Take me to your leader’?”
=====
Princess Celestia had borne witness to much in the centuries that she had lived; from the humble agrarian beginnings of Vanhoover and Manehattan, to the days of conflict with the Gryphon Kingdom, to her more recent experiences with setting up a dedicated school for gifted unicorns, and her mentorship to two unique students.
The seasoned ruler suspected that she was about to witness an equally important step in her nation’s history taken in the coming days; Princess Twilight had convinced her to call a Grand Summit behind the gates of Canterlot Castle. To be invited were Princess Twilight and her friends, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor from the Crystal Empire, and a special summons was to be issued for Sunset Shimmer to be temporarily recalled from her extended sabbatical in the Mirror World. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna would chair the summit as hosts. I have chaired many summits like this… why does this one fill me with more trepidation that all the others combined?”
The night sky offered neither comfort nor answers for Celestia, seated as she was on one of the upper balconies, a cup of hot, mint tea her sole companion. As if sensing her sister’s plight, Princess Luna made her way from the doorway into the shining moonlight that bathed the marble around herself and Celestia. “Evening, dear sister. Your are concerned, are you not?”
Princess Celestia sighed, and slinked back against her seat, “Is it that obvious?”
“From the smell wafting across the balcony, I can tell you ordered peppermint tea. You always order peppermint tea when you are worried.” Princess Luna stated.
Celestia felt herself gazing back up at the night sky, her eyes darting from one distant star to the next. “Lulu… have you ever just looked up, and wondered what else is out there? I’ve often wondered if any of those twinkling stars in the night sky were home to a nation like ours, with a warm sun to welcome them each morning, and a soft moonlight to send them off to slumber each night.”
Taking a seat across from her sister, Luna, like Celestia, raised her eyes skyward, both of them sharing a moment of sibling stargazing. “Truth be told, ‘Tia, we have had similar thoughts in the past. Could there even be life elsewhere? It would seem our guest from the skies has answered that question for us.”
Princess Luna caught herself looking once again at her sister; after centuries of company, she could easily tell her sister’s expressions apart. There is more to this that she is worried about; more than she is letting on, at least.
“Sister, is there not something else on your mind? You have been privy to many a summit in your time, what about this is differ-”
Celestia rose to her hooves, making direct eye contact with Luna. “Luna… do you know what my greatest failure in life is?”
Luna suddenly felt as if she had been placed under a microscope. “Are thou asking us a rhetorical question, or would thou prefer us to gather the list we keep under our mattress?”
“Luna, I… wait, you keep a list of my failures under your mattress? Since when?” Celestia demanded, her eyes narrowing.
“You have been a ruler for centuries, ‘twas only natural we began to keep score after the first few decades. As best we can recall, there were three entries competing for first place: the time you sneezed in the face of the gryphon delegation, resulting in a sixty-day stand-off over mining rights; the time you accidentally insulted the Zebrican delegation, leading to a year-long war, and last but not least, Sunset Shimmer, whom tried to drink from the chalice of power, but was banished through the mirror when you realised that you could not control her ambition. Am I getting warm, dear sister?” Celestia was now basking in what could only be described as barely-tolerable smugness, emanating from her younger sibling, who was still seated at the table.
Silently cursing her sister’s attention to detail, Celestia attempted to drag the conversation back on track. “Fine. It was Sunset Shimmer. I had high hopes for that young little filly, once upon a time. Twilight informed me an hour ago that Sunset has formally accepted a summons back to Equestria… I find myself conflicted, Lulu. On the one hoof, I am overjoyed at the opportunity to see her again. On the other… I can’t help but feel shame, and I regret that I was not able to reign in her lust for power. Do you… do you think she has forgiven me?” Celestia’s gaze was now one of sorrow, her inner foal almost pleading with the outside world to have a heavy burden lifted from its soul.
“‘Tia, if there is one thing that we are certain about, it is that it is she who ponders if thou hast forgiven her. You should get some rest, sister, for we both have a long day ahead of us.” Luna gestured toward the door.
Celestia merely nodded, after a brief pause, and she made her way slowly to her chambers. Luna, meanwhile, couldn’t tear her eyes away from the night sky.
Last week, I was the ruler of a nation. Tonight, it feels like I am but one voice in front of a crowd. May tomorrow bring comfort and clarity to us all.