//------------------------------// // Ch.1- Concern and Regret // Story: Our Technology, Our Culture // by Scripture //------------------------------// “...Didja hear about it?” “About what? Wait…Oh, you mean that weird thing that popped up-“ “Yeah! Right outside Ponyville! Can you believe that?” “Well, of course! Weird stuff always happens here… ya know?” “Yeah... that’s true…” “But…” “But what?” “I don’t know Bon Bon… but this thing that’s popped up seems very… important. Life changing honestly… I mean… Twilight got knocked out right after it appeared and is with the Princess now... you know?” Bon Bon giggled a bit and hugged her best friend beside her. “Yeah, that’s true, but she is an able mare! She’ll be fine!” She giggled childishly again. “You are such a silly filly sometimes Lyra!” Lyra blushed a bit but managed to chuckle slightly at her friends antics. “Y-yeah, I suppose so, hehe…” The candy-maker pony smiled broadly and strode on ahead of her minty green friend. “Yeah! So long as we are together, nothing can go wrong, right?” The musician smiled back and nodded. “Mhm! Whatever may happen, we always have each other!” They merrily laughed as they trotted about town, letting the sun bask upon them. ================ It was as normal a day in Ponyville as it could have been. The pegasi had made today extra sunny with minimal cloud coverage to allow Celestia’s sun to beam down upon her good citizens. The market was in full steam, everypony trying to sell their wares for the highest possible price they could try for. Ponies went in and out of shops steadily, trying to gather their daily supplies for their usual activities. It was as normal as day in Ponyville as it could have been, yet in a peace-loving town, the strangest things always happened. Twilight was the first to discover it. She had her face stuck in a book while traveling through the park when it happened. The air, invigorating. The grass, lush and green. And all around her were ponies laughing, playing, and generally having a good time. Twilight took a moment from her book to breathe the fresh air, exhaling through her mouth explosively. “Ahhhhhh! Today turned out to be lovely! The suns out, the sky is clear, and everypony is really hap-“ Suddenly, as if from nowhere, her head was assaulted by an enormous headache, making her wince from the sharp pain pounding in her skull. “Ugh… what… what the- AH!” This time, she fell to the ground, the pain doubling in force. Her sudden shout out caught the attention of several ponies around her and they were immediately curious about the pained mare. Twilight, however, didn’t even register the ponies beginning to gather around her, the pain intensifying in waves. “GAH! What… What the heck is- ARGH!” Writhing around on the ground now, she barely was conscious about the ponies starting to gather around her, murmuring a bit as someone went to fetch a doctor for her. Nopony wanted to get too close to her. Nopony knew what was wrong with her after all… she could have been diseased! “Please… the pain… its- URGH!” Several shocked gasps came from the small crowd around her as her horn suddenly lit up, spewing out a few sparks from its tip. The ponies around her took a few steps back in wonderment at her horn, which began to glow stronger and brighter. Twilight, at this point, didn’t know what was happening to her, only registering the fact that she was in incredible pain right now, as if her horn was going to split open. The pain suddenly spiked again and the poor purple mare shrieked in agony, barely hearing the shouts of alarm erupting from the others. A thin beam of light suddenly shot up from her horn, reaching about 10 feet up in the air above Twilight. As soon as the beam hit its apex, it severed its connection with the unicorn, leaving her there on the ground writing in pain, breathing raggedly. A brave stallion immediately went to her aid, looking her over to check for any kind of physical injuries. Eventually, others began to slowly surround her. Everyone in town knew about Twilight. How couldn’t they? She had averted disaster in both Equestria and Ponyville several times, saving many ponies lives in the process. The mare was both a hero and a legend throughout the land… But now, now she was reduced to a shivering mess of purple in the middle of a confused crowd. It was then that the stallion who had originally come to Twilight’s aid shouted out in horror. Everypony looked up from Twilight to figure out what had shocked the stallion. Was there some injury on the fallen mare? Had some weird transformation happened to her? Magical backfire? Yet, as they laid their eyes on him, he was not focused on Twilight at all. His eyes were wide in shock at the beam of light, which had begun to open up slowly, like a maw ready to devour all that surrounded it. Panic immediately ensued throughout the crowd of onlookers, everypony colliding and racing against each other while screaming their heads off. Twilight, by some miracle, had begun to get up slowly as the pain began to recede from her body. “Ugh... where… where is everypony going…?” The purple unicorn still felt a bit shaken up, but she began to truly register everything around her. Ponies shouting out in shock. Grass and sod being kicked up by hooves. Many of them heading for their houses, locking the doors and shutting their windows in a cacophony of slams. The unicorn blinked a few times, trying to make sense of it all. She knew something was up, but she could feel the edges of her mind getting black and unresponsive. No… Can’t… black out here… got to… resist… However, try as she might, nothing seemed to impede or stop the flow of her consciousness leaving her. It slowly slipped further and further from her body like a gentle release from the outside world. Not so much however, as to not feel something grab onto her coat sharply and immediately pull her backwards… Backwards, into the gaping maw. =============== “Thank you, Shining Armor, but please… you know as well as I do that this situation should not be taken lightly!” “But Princess, I-“ “I know she is your sister, but we have to think about all of Equestria first. If we tell everypony that your sister was abducted by this… this… well, whatever it is, then hysteria will take over and they will panic all over again!” The white stallion sighed and hung his head a bit, defeated. “Yes. I… I suppose you’re right Princess Celestia…” He brought his head back up however, his eyes full of confusion, anguish, and frustration. “But we have to do something about it!” He bowed his head again, his mind full of regret. “I haven’t seen her in so long and the one time I even mentioned to see her again was my wedding… What kind of brother am I if I can’t even see my family anymore?” He sighed longingly, but shook his head, looking back up at the Princess. “Either way, I don’t think everypony is gonna believe your story for too long…” Another sigh, but this one from a large alicorn with a flowing colorful mane. She was looking out of her balcony window, studying the sun, when she slowly turned around to face the male unicorn, both of them looking at each other with worried eyes. “Shining… I know how you feel… I have known Twilight through a good portion of her life and we both know she is an amazingly smart and talented pony. She… she will return. We both know it…” Slowly, she began to descend the steps from her small balcony and approached the unicorn, who honestly wasn’t caring so much in presentation at the moment for the princess. Shockingly for Shining, she wrapped a motherly wing around him and held him closely. Shining didn’t know what to do at first, but eventually he could see the slight watering in her eyes, slightly gleaming at him. It was then he knew that she truly was worried about his sister, and with all the stuff that had happened in Equestria for the past year, this seemed like a tipping point for her. I suppose... I suppose even gods have their limits sometimes… Unconsciously, he warmed up to her, knowing that she needed the comfort as much as he did. Sniffing a few times, she finally let go of the embrace and stepped away from Shining, who now had a more formal stance to himself and a new determination in his eyes. There was a long silence between the two of them, both letting their thoughts fester and boil in their brains. They both knew there had to be a plan of action against this… thing that popped up in Ponyville. They couldn’t just leave it there and- “Halt, you two! We are a part of this as well!” Both the ponies snapped out of their thought processes as a dark blue alicorn suddenly flew in from the window, landing lightly on the ground near them. Shining Armor watched as she stoically trotted between them with a slight smile on her face. Celestia, however, cocked an eyebrow up in curiosity at the interruption by her sister. “Oh? Luna? Do you have a plan?” Luna smirk spread a bit wider and she nodded. “Yes, we do have one, dear sister!” Her smile faltered a bit suddenly and she hung her head a bit. “I… I need to do something about this myself sister… I failed to protect a great friend of mine, not only when the Changelings attacked, but now when she was taken up by that… thing…” She looked up at her sister with a bit of fire in her eyes. “We do NOT want to live with the regret for having not been a part in the saving of thine student!” The lunar princess shuffled a bit in place and toned herself down a notch. “So please, even though what I will say is a bit… irrational, I think it could work out pretty well if we do it right… ok?” Celestia was silent for a moment, making Luna a bit uneasy at her prolonged and thoughtful stare. Shining was also a bit unnerved by the Princesses but was equally intrigued and curious about Luna’s plan. Just what could the Princess have come up with, and on such short notice? “Fine. I will hear you out and trust you with what you have to say…” Celestia grinned slightly, although touched with a bit of sadness to it. “I hate to say it, but you should repay Equestria with something of your own after all these years away from us… this would be a perfect opportunity after all. Saving a land-known hero from whatever troubles have befallen her… The Court will definitely be having a field day with this…” Shining was shocked that the Princess was even thinking this way about the situation. The sudden turn entirely baffled him! “Puh-Politics?!” Both the Princess’s looked at Shining with an uneasy expression, as if they knew they sudden outburst was going to happen. The unicorn stamped his foot and shook his head, entirely shocked by the situation. “Princess! This is a rescue mission, not some political propaganda material! This is Twilight Sparkle! My sister! Your student! I… You…” Celestia suddenly put up a hoof to quiet the hysterical unicorn and interrupted him with a calming voice. “Shining, yes, this is a rescue mission in all aspects, but unfortunately for us, Equestria has not had conflict in a very long time. Now, I say unfortunate for a very specific reason. Without conflict and disagreement, things become static and still. There is no pressure to advance and everypony only wants to try and live a glorified in peace times. Politicians basically get bored with this life and will try to do their best to take advantage of this system. They will seize it, control it, and warp it to their desires since basically nopony wants to create conflict. Years before, when Discord had been around, we made some of the greatest advancements of our times in technology, culture, and knowledge. But this was only because we needed to and everything we did create was used in the most harmful of ways… ways nopony should ever have to deal with. Now, we don’t have to advance as quickly and politics rule over what we say and do instead. Princess Luna and I are always in the hot-seat with other countries who constantly try to find some reason to better themselves over us or pick a fight over meaningless things. Right now, that spotlight is being placed on Luna, due to her ineptness of being the Goddess of the Moon the past 1000 years. Nopony of this generation truly understands her and many think she shouldn’t even hold herself in the court system anymore. However, I have kept her with me in the system despite others complaining about it. She is my sister and the Lunar Monarch and she has my respect even if the others in the Court don’t. If I can try to put her in the good light of other Ponies, I will try to if only to keep Harmony throughout the land. If we lose this Harmony again and begin to advance like we did in the Discordian Era… well… I can only fear the worse…" Celestia let the words sink in for a moment before finalizing her small lecture. She looked down upon him as a teacher would a disruptive student and cast her gaze on him pointedly. "Do you understand now, Shining?” Numbly, yet angrily, Shining stiffly nodded his head, trying his absolute best to hide his emotions from the Princesses. Somehow he was able to keep his voice even as he addressed her, spilling out a “Yes, Ma’am.” Celestia immediately shifted moods and smiled, nodding at Luna, who had looked to the ground awkwardly throughout the whole tirade. “Ok dear sister… would you please tell us your plan?” Luna nodded and immediately started to belt out every part of her plan, making Celestia cock her eyebrows a few times at the ideas and was particularly shocked at one point. The white unicorn however, was seething inside of his mind however, as the Princess’s words rang throughout his head. This isn’t a rescue anymore… this is just politics to bring Luna in the spotlight! I don’t like how this is headed… I have to save my sister. I have to. I owe her that much. He stared at Luna, then Celestia, who were bouncing ideas and error-proofing the plan as much as they could, and he ground his teeth slightly. I know I am her Captain of the Guard… but… …If she gets in the way between me and my sister, I will not hesitate to do whatever I can save her… A/N- Firstly, thank you Anoobus once again for helping me out with the editing and advice~ :3 Besides that, yes, this is a challenge accepted piece mostly due to a whole huge debacle in another story of mine. Eventually, after a situation diffused, we started talking about tech in Equestria and then how no HiE story has human technology or superior culture. Well, I was a bit with and against the whole idea, but then i thought "Why not try to make it as accurate to how it would TRULY be?" So, now you have this piece of work~ ENJOY! :D