//------------------------------//
// Modern History 
// Story: The Magic of Technology 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

“What- what happened?  Where’s Lyra?”
Twilight stares at the new, suddenly frantic mare in the room.  “Uh…  I don’t know.  We revealed the Elements of Harmony…  and you appeared.”
The mare sighs, closing her eyes and turning her head skywards.  “The Elements of Harmony, huh?  Then…  then she’s dead.”
“D-dead?” Rarity asks.
The mare nods.  “I…  I don’t know how, but she ended up on my Moon with me.  Only…  she wasn’t an alicorn, so she lacked the strength to survive.”  She turns her head slightly, gazing at the moon, through one of the openings in the ceiling.  “I would have recovered and returned many years ago, had she not been there.  As it was, I spent every erg of power I could to preserve her.”  She sighs.  “It wasn’t enough.  We both faded, together – another thirty years or so, and we would have ceased to be.”  She looks back down.  “Then there was rainbow light, and magic, and here I am.”
“Can we go back for her?” Rainbow asks, causing her friends to perk up instantly.
She shakes her head.  “She’s gone.  Sure, you could go up there after her, but she’s not there.  She’s dead.”  She sighs.  “In any case, how long has it been?  I fear I have lost count.”
“Uhh…” Applejack mutters.
“Wait,” Twilight blinks.  “You’re-  You’re Princess Luna?”
She nods.  “That I am.”
“Then-!  It makes no sense!”
“...  What?”
“I’m starting to think that legend, and prophecy, was wrong,” Applejack mutters.
Luna raises an eyebrow.  “Prophecy?”
Applejack nods.  “Yup.  According to legend, a thousand years ago, you became Nightmare Moon and killed Lyra, forcing Celestia to imprison you in the moon for a thousand years…  with the Elements of Harmony.”
Luna lets out a laugh.  “Yeah, no, that certainly never happened.  For one, this ‘Nightmare Moon’ sounds like fiction; for two, I never killed Lyra…  and three, the Elements of Harmony don’t imprison, they reform or heal.”





“That was…  like, wow,” Twilight utters.
The timberwolves had attacked again.  Princess Luna had been amused, stepping in their path and playing with them.
Everypony had stared when she let the wolves reach her- and their claws did absolutely nothing against her unprotected fur.  Sure, they also did nothing against the armor she wore, but still.
Then Luna had squashed them, one by one, with her immense power and some fairly simple combat magics.
Luna shrugs.  “Comes with being a Princess of Equestria at a time when Lyra was still alive.  She was an amazing enchantress.”
“...  Huh?”
“What?  Even Celestia can’t make a shield tough enough to stop a Timberwolf.  Their claws are magic resistant, and really good for puncturing shields.  The enchantments Lyra worked into our armor, though…  I have no idea how she did it, but it doesn’t care if they’re magic resistant or not, it stops them anyways.”  She shrugs.  “She put a lesser version of the same enchantment on the Royal Guard armor, if I remember right.  Something about not having as much orichalcum to work with.”





“I give you…  Princess Celestia!”
Celestia doesn’t appear.
“Uh…” Mayor Mare begins.
Rarity appears on the balcony.  “Apologies for the delay, we’re having…  technical difficulties.”  She vanishes back behind the curtain.
“What in tarnation is that supposed to mean?” Applejack asks.
Princess Luna, next to her, chuckles.  “Celestia probably noticed when I lowered my Moon.”
“Why would that result in, uh, ‘technical difficulties’?” Twilight asks.
“It wouldn’t,” Luna shrugs.  “That’s what she’d tell her ponies, though.  Imagine what she might be thinking.  She’s been controlling my Moon for a thousand years, believing me dead…  and suddenly, I move it again.”  Her horn glows, eyes closed, for a second.  “...  Yeah, she’s looking for me at the old castle.  Hmm, I have an idea.”  She whisks her way out of the crowd, vanishing before anypony can follow.
Two minutes later, a Royal Guard appears to whisper something to Mayor Mare.
“What?” Mayor Mare squawks loudly.
The Guard continues whispering, then, when Mayor Mare finally nods, disappears.
The curtains close.
Mayor Mare steps back up to the podium.  “It would seem Princess Celestia is unavailable,” she begins, blinking as if she doesn’t believe her own words.  “So, Ladies and Gentlecolts, I give you, her sister, Princess Luna!”
The curtains part again, revealing Princess Luna, walking regally up to the edge of the balcony.  She isn’t as tall as her sister, nor as large; she makes up for it, though, with her muscular tone, giving her the appearance of somepony used to hard labor rather than sitting on a throne.
“Good morning, everypony!  It sure is good to be back.  I must apologize for my absence these last thousand years; I was tied up in dealing with an infestation of moon bears.  I will also apologize for my dear sister’s unplanned absence from this ceremony; on my return, I noticed a pack of Solar Sasquatches homing in on her Sun.”  She sighs dramatically.  “She has departed to take care of them before they become a bigger problem, and should be back before the day is out.  In any case, she has asked me to raise her Sun in her place.”
Then, she raises the Sun, and everypony shifts from confused to cheering.





Celestia returns to Canterlot.  It’s well past noon, and her search for her sister has been fruitless.  What’s more, it would seem her sister raised her Sun – or, whoever lowered her sister’s Moon did, at least.
She really hopes that it was her sister.
She blinks as she approaches the castle.  She’d expected a long line waiting, or perhaps utter silence, when she didn’t show up for Day Court – rather, she sees exactly what the Guards tell her is normally the case:  A few ponies walking out, and a few ponies walking in.  Really nopony waiting.
She flies down, landing on her balcony, and enters the castle through her bedroom.  She makes her way down to the throne room and, upon opening the side door to enter, freezes.
Princess Luna looks over from her position on the throne.  “Ahh, Sister, you’re back.  I’m glad you could join us.”
Celestia passes out.
“...  Or not.”  She turns back to Sturdy Armor, who is in the middle of petitioning the Crown for the Royal Guard’s armor to be credited to him rather than the mysterious Lyra Heartstrings.  “Carry on.”  There is nopony waiting after him, after all, so she sees no harm in letting him finish before refusing.





“No.”
“Thank you, I-  Wait, what?” Sturdy Armor asks.
Princess Luna smiles.  “I said, No.”
“But-!  But Princess!”
“Sturdy, Lyra was an excellent enchantress.  I know for a fact that nopony has come even close to making something comparable to her armor, far less an earth pony like yourself.”
“What-!  That can’t possibly be true!  As an earth pony, I could work the metal far more effectively than a mere unicorn!”
Luna sighs.  “In a typical metalworking environment, sure.  Sturdy, there’s a reason we’re still using the armor she made, and that reason has less to do with tradition, dedication, or remembrance, and more to do with how it’s still the best around.”  She pauses for a moment.  “Go ahead and try.  Get your own materials, forge them into armor.  Make it as tough as you can.
“And if it’s comparable to that which Lyra left us, I’ll have my Night Guard use it instead.”
“What about when it’s better?”
She shrugs.  “If it’s better, the entire Royal Guard will use it instead.”
“Okay.”  He leaves.  The doors land shut.
She turns to look at the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor.  “And he completely missed that there is no such thing as a Night Guard.”
Shining only chuckles.  Long ago, he’d learned to use the enchantments in his armor to his advantage.  Those enchantments would indicate to him exactly who was likely to commit a crime, and who wasn’t.  They’d identify important personages for him, as well.  He’s one of very few Guards that figured out how to do that; all the others have chosen to become specialists, rather than rising to the top like he did.
His armor had recognized Princess Luna as Celestia’s equal, back in Ponyville, and he’d told his Guards.  Celestia’s reaction to seeing her on the throne only cemented that recognition.
Something else the enchantments would do, this time without any interference from the pony wearing it, is alter its own appearance – and its own disguise enchantment- to match the shift the particular Guard had coming.
For a day shift, it would look as it does now, shining, golden plate armor and all.  He’d also be anonymized into a generic white stallion, matching every other unicorn Guard save only for his badge and rank insignia.
For a night shift, it would become dark, midnight blue plate armor, and he’d be anonymized instead into a generic, dark grey stallion, again matching every other unicorn Guard.  The pegasi, for night shift, even appear as otherwise nonexistent thestrals.  He understands it’s an interesting feeling, to have one’s wing magically disguised as a completely different kind of wing, yet still work just the same.
In both forms, his cutie mark is covered up – but if someone were to see it anyways, it’s anonymized itself into his rank insignia, over crossed metal spears to match his armor.





Close to a week later, out in the woods, a unicorn appears with a flash of golden light, collapsing almost instantly to the stone floor in front of a dilapidated throne.
“I’m home,” she mutters, before passing out.