//------------------------------// // Second Contact // Story: The Sun Rises, The Sun Never Sets // by BRBrony9 //------------------------------// The Sun Rises. The Sun Never Sets. The Sun Rises. The Sun Never Sets. "How can the sun rise, but never set? How? How?" Her own voice filled her ears, screaming at her, yelling itself raw with the question. The question she would never dare give voice to. Not here. Not in the real world, not where anypony could hear her. The Sun Rises. The Sun Never Sets. The more Twilight thought about the forbidden word, the more she yearned after the truth behind it. Spike had ignited something in her, by accident, to be sure, but still, it had happened. She had to admit that she kind of liked it, that little naughty feeling, for even to think about such words was approaching heresy against the Glorious Sun. She did know that much, though she still did not know why. But now, thanks to Spike, she wanted to find out. Her studies took her to the observatory, high above the city on the opposite side of the valley to the royal palace. From there she could watch the stars, the Sun, the Co-Orbital Body, everything. What a hideously desolate place that Co-Orbital Body appeared through the telescopes. Barren, lifeless, cratered. It looked like a vicious war had stripped the whole sphere clean of everything and left the anorthitic surface pockmarked with atomic craters. Maybe that was it, maybe that was the truth she was missing! Maybe the history books had been scrubbed clean of any mention of an interstellar war. She knew that there were a few orbital battlestations left over from the aftermath of the Great Unification War, after all, their nuclear-tipped missiles and tungsten kinetic bombardment weaponry still a constant threat to any province, city, region or other group (though what other groups were there except the followers of the Glorious Sun?) that might deign to rise up in rebellion. They had been used once or twice, she knew, to put down some Zebra uprising a century or two earlier, though the details were fuzzy in her memory. The craters that attack had left were still popular sightseeing spots for passengers of spaceplanes on final approach to New Zebrica, a city established under that name after most of Old Zebrica became little more than radioactive dust carried out to sea on the wind. So that was it, then. A war between Equestria and the inhabitants of the Co-Orbital Body. Aliens? Now that had an interesting, resonant ring to it. Aliens! Maybe if she looked hard enough at the Body she could be the first pony to rediscover alien life. Although, she reasoned, that would probably land her in hot water. If this war she had conjured up in her fevered imagination had actually happened and had been buried under the sands of time on purpose, the state would most likely not take kindly to her dredging things up again. The state, or the Sun...what was the difference? She turned the telescope toward the Old City, up on the mountainside. She couldn't see much, in truth. The palace walls were high, studded with battlements and towers, crenulations along the top, firing ports for archers or musketeers from long, long ago in the past when such things mattered and battles could not be decided at the simple press of a single button. Of the Princess herself there was, of course, no sign. Not strictly true- her portrait was gazing down upon Twilight as she messed about with the telescope, as it did everywhere. Her majestic, divine visage, both benevolent and stern at the same time, watched over every public meeting house, every office, every gymnasium, every communal hall where her praises were sung. Every apartment had its portrait, too- Twilight's was in the lounge so that visitors could see it and be assured that she was quite in tune with the orthodoxy, for only a subversive would not proudly show their loyalty. Twilight turned the telescope back up to the sky, where she was supposed to be looking. It was getting late, but she had been able to take most of the readings she was meant to be taking. The observatory was still affected somewhat by the massive glow from the city, but it was impossible to get far enough away from civilization to get a truly clear sky without going into the Degenerate Zones, those places beyond the true borders of Equestria where there was nothing and nopony, only the remnants of lesser species and the wilderness of an empty land. Danger lurked out there for anypony who dared to venture through the security barriers and border checkpoints. Few ever did, other than an occasional intrepid hunter or a military convoy heading out for population control. Changelings, feral Diamond Dogs, angry Zebras, Parasprite swarms, and other bizarre aberrations left behind after the brutal bath of hard radiation and combat magic that stemmed from the Great Unification War. Other than danger and death, there was nothing out there any longer, which was why most astronomy and astrophysical work was done from orbit these days. Twilight hoped to take a ride to one of the space stations someday when she was fully qualified, and take a look at the breathtaking view of space for herself. Then again, how was space much different to the Degenerate Zones? There was nothing out there in the vacuum, either. While the Chief Astronomer was busy with a jocular, guffawing vid-call from some colleague or other, Twilight slipped away from her desk where she was meant to be working, and into the archive room. The observatory, though old and lacking some of the more advanced interferometric equipment that was used in observation satellites and orbital stations, was the original, having been founded way back when astronomy first became a dedicated science that could actually serve a useful purpose. Simple optical telescopes, of the kind Twilight had just been using, were the order of the day back then, centuries before radio telescopes, interferometers, radar, lidar and spectrographs had ever been theorised, let alone put into use. That, in her mind, meant that if anywhere was likely to have information on the origins of the forbidden words she was now so intrigued with. Racks of dusty, musty files and faded, yellowed books greeted her in the dim light of the archive. If she were to be cornered, questioned by the astronomical staff, she would claim to be looking for period-charts of the Co-Orbital Body's movements centuries ago, to compare against her current observations and to help her understand the rate of recession, for the Co-Orbital Body was moving, imperceptibly slowly, away from the planet. That was a well understood and documented scientific fact, and it gave her a good reason for being in the archive, though she would no doubt be reprimanded for being there without express permission. It would only be a minor infraction, however, for she was a familiar sight in the observatory as part of her studies. Canterlot Royal University was the finest in the land, and its science departments the greatest and most well-funded. Unicorns only, of course. Nothing but the best. Twilight thumbed through mildewy piles of old papers, research from centuries earlier. Ancient texts, some dating to well before the Great Unification War, when things were broken, fragmented. When there was chaos instead of order, when the unifying banner of the Glorious Sun had not yet pacified the differences between races and species. How awful, Twilight mused. How awful it must have been, to live without atomic energy and microwave power grids and spaceplanes, and automats and robo-vacs and joy-pills! How awful indeed, and worse by far, if one went back to a distant enough date, to live without the Sun. Not in the literal sense, for the orb would still light up the world each day and fade each Even-Day. But to live without the Glorious Sun and her guiding hand, steadying the tiller of Equestrian progress and making it the wonderful, truly wonderful, place that it was today. How awful. Reams of paper, endless orbital diagrams, some not even correctly placing the Sun at the centre of the solar system. Ha! Imagine. The poor pitiable oafs, those 'astronomers' must have been, scrambling in the dark. Imagine placing the planet at the centre! How ignorant. Not only science and physics should have told them that was backward, but simple devotion and loyalty. Ah, but, she had to remind herself, these were the bad old days. This was during the Discordian Period, when the evil spirit of disharmony reigned. Gosh, to find documents going back that far, over a thousand years! Before the founding of the observatory, even, perhaps donated to it by some keen (though terribly ignorant) amateur astronomer. Truly remarkable! Only when Celestia overthrew the tyrant and destroyed him did the science improve. She could trace an illuminated history of astronomy. Oh yes, right from its origins in ancient times, all here in the archives, buried under so much other useless and endlessly repeated paperwork. Did the observatory really have an orbital diagram for every single circuit that the Co-Orbital Body had made around the planet in the last six hundred years? Amazing, and extremely tedious in equal measure. She felt compelled to look through them anyway just in case, those from recent history, those from fifty years back, a century, two centuries, four, eight. But here, at the bottom of one stack of orbital diagrams from five hundred years ago, badly drawn and deeply inaccurate. Yes, here she found something! Checking her wrist-chronometer, Twilight realised it had been two hours since she had indulged herself in this orgy of letters and numbers. The observatory staff must have imagined she had gone home long since. No matter, here was something interesting. Intriguing, even. To Mage-Astronomer Deep Frost, Your Excellency, I write to you today to express my admiration at your completion of the first mapping of the surface of the near-side of the Moon. Moon! Moon! Twilight felt her face flush at the sight of the word, a word which made her slightly nauseous and slightly upset. It was a bad word, a forbidden word. But why? She continued reading the letter. Such an achievement is unparalleled in our young field. I am sure Her Highness Princess Luna will join me in expressing her delight that you have made such a great leap forward in the scientific survey of her realm. I will not meet with Her Highness for another week, but when I do I shall convey to her my warmest appreciation of your achievements in the hope that she will be amenable to your receiving some form of appropriate recognition of your most excellent work. Perhaps a donation of royal funds to your observatory will be in order. Yours Cordially, Chancellor Heartstone, Royal Academy of Equestrian Sciences Twilight read the letter and found herself more confused than when she began. Princess Luna? Who was that? The title and the pronouns used indicated she was female, but beyond that...Princess of where? Some foreign land? Luna did not sound like a typically Zebrican name, nor Griffon for that matter. It was not a name she had ever heard before in her life, yet here she was being casually referenced by the Chancellor of the Royal Academy of Equestrian Sciences, an institution which still existed. The observatory of Mage-Astronomer Deep Frost, presumably, was the same one in which she now stood, albeit in an older form and a different building. And he talked of Moon! Moon... She still winced when she thought of it. A sickening word to read, let alone to speak. To speak it...a forbidden word, to speak it out loud...she dared not do so deliberately, even when alone. Twilight returned the letter to its place and looked for another document, something, anything to give further clarity to her swirling, confused mind. Another letter, yes, perhaps this would be more clear. This one had some kind of stamp, it looked like a royal seal...but not the Sun's seal, no. Most peculiar. Saddle Arabian, perhaps? A crescent shape upon it, like a single slice of melon. Twilight withdrew the brittle paper from its envelope and read it. Mage-Astronomer Deep Frost, Please accept my heartiest congratulations on your achievement in mapping the surface of my moon. I understand this to be an impressive feat in the field of astronomy, and I certainly feel it is a wonderful sign of your devotion to me. I thank you for your zeal, your skill, and your loyalty. As a token of my pleasure, I shall be donating a sum of thirty-thousand bits to the funding for your observatory. May you continue to impress and expand the scientific horizons of Equestria. Her Royal Highness, Princess Luna Twilight blinked. This made no sense! No sense at all. Her Royal Highness? Why, only Celestia signed herself in that way! Yet the letter purporting to be from 'Princess Luna' spoke of the scientific horizons of Equestria. Not of Saddle Arabia, or Zebrica, or the Griffon Kingdom. Equestria. Who was this...this...impostor? And why did she call it 'my moon?' And what was the moon? She looked again at the seal affixed to the envelope. The crescent, the surface mapping, astronomy...it had to be the Co-Orbital Body. It looked like that crescent when it was waxing and waning, when the light from the Sun struck it only a glancing blow. Moon...was Moon another name for it? A former name? A forbidden name? Twilight started, shoving the letter back into the mass of papers as she heard footsteps, no time to think more on her discovery or why it had been buried there. "Who left this confounded light switched on?" the Chief Astronomer called. "Somepony here?" "Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" Twilight stood, brushing her skirt free of dust. "I just..." "You still here, girl?" the chubby stallion chuckled, his aging features crinkling with mirth. "By the Sun, I thought you'd gone home long ago! Find what you were looking for?" "Oh, yes, yes..." Twilight nodded. "Just...I was just looking for some orbital charts for the m...for the, uh...monthly...you know, the monthly orbits of the Co-Orbital Body. I wanted to compare...compare my readings today with those of centuries ago." "Ah, tracking the recession?" he nodded sagely. "A fine area of study, though rather tedious after the first hundred or so orbits," he smiled. "You should run along, anyway. It's getting late. I shall be locking up the observatory in a moment." "Oh, yes..." Twilight feigned surprise after looking at her chronometer. "Gosh, is it so late? I'm sorry, I had no idea! Oh dear, my pet must be wondering where I am. He'll be waiting for his feeding." "Ah, you have a pet now?" the Chief Astronomer smiled again. "Dog, is it?" "No, he's, uh...a dragon," Twilight replied. "Oh yes, of course. I forgot, you work at the Hatchery, don't you?' he nodded. "Not given you any trouble I hope? Chewing the curtains, setting fire to the carpets?" "No, no," she laughed. "We engineer those kinds of traits out of them before hatching." "Of course, of course," he patted her shoulder. "As it should be, naturally. Well, I shall see you next week. Praise the Sun, and good Even-Day to you!" "Good Even-Day!" Twilight left the archives and grabbed her things before leaving the observatory. She had almost been caught perusing something that contained forbidden words, and it made her heart pound. It also made her feel surprisingly good, surprisingly excited. She vid-called Rarity from the VTOL pod and arranged a dinner date, which was followed by some pleasant fun in Rarity's bedchamber, this time without any stallions and just each other and a few joy-pills for company. Back in Twilight's apartment, Spike ate the noodles she had summoned from the automat for him, and curled up in his basket to sleep, quiet, alone, and content. "Rarity?" "Yes, darling?" Twilight rolled over in bed to face her friend, their manes equally disheveled from the Even-Day before. "Have you...ah...no, never mind. Nothing." "What's on your mind?" Rarity asked quizzically, placing a gentle hand on Twilight's bare thigh. "Nothing wrong, I hope?" "No...nothing's wrong," Twilight replied. "i just came across something. Something that's made me, well, a little confused." "Well, what do you want to ask me?" Rarity questioned her, sitting up and letting the blankets slide from her bare bosom. With her magic she opened the curtains wide, bright, brilliant rays of sun streaming in from outside of her seventieth-floor apartment. "Have you ever heard of a Princess Luna?" Twilight asked her bluntly, getting a blank stare in response. "Why...no, I can't say that I have. Who is that? A friend of yours?" Rarity asked. "Oh, is she a stripper? Not one of those Pegasi who pervert themselves for money, I hope. How gauche! Somepony who actually makes others pay for titillation." "No, no..." Twilight shook her head. "I don't know who she is, to be honest. I just heard the name, wondered if you'd come across it anywhere." "I don't think I have," Rarity affirmed, standing from the bed and stretching. Twilight admired her naked form in the morning light. Rarity reached into the open drawer of her bedside cabinet (it was always open after they had spent time in bed together, for it was where she kept her joy-pills, Twilight mused, as well as her gun, a handsome silver piece, a gift from her father, or rather her mother's long time admirer, since 'a lady must have some protection,' though against what he had never actually bothered explaining). She pulled out a pair of earrings, ready to spruce herself up and face the day ahead. "Luna, Luna...a character in a VR movie, perhaps?" "No. I don't know...I just found the name in an old document. Really old," Twilight explained. "It also talked about Moon." Rarity spun on her heel, an expression of horror on her face, as thought Twilight had just called her mother something unprintable. "What? Oh darling, honestly! I do hope you've not been reading heretical things..." "Of course not!" Twilight sought to calm her fears. "No, no. I was looking at official correspondence," she half-lied. "The observatory, you see. You know I was there yesterday for my studies. I just happened to come across something that used that word." "Oh, how awful for you. I hope you didn't feel too upset by it," Rarity sighed. "But...it was something official? From the observatory?" "To the observatory," Twilight sat up, resting on the big, fluffy pillows. "To the pony in charge of it. But it was from a long, long time ago. Maybe that word wasn't always banned." "Maybe. I don't know, I've never thought about it," Rarity gave a small shrug that shook her bare breasts lightly before she pulled on her luxurious pink dressing gown. "Neither have I," Twilight replied, for it was true. She never had. Neither Moon nor the other word she had nearly spoken in front of Spike. She had thought about how they made her cringe when she read them, and how they made her flush with disgust when spoken aloud. But she had never thought before about why they had been banned. She had never needed to. Just being told they were banned by the state was reason enough to accept that simple fact and move on. Nopony needed to question why, and nopony did question why. There was no purpose in that. What was decreed was decreed, and it was decreed by the Sun and State for a good reason, a reason that was as irrelevant to their day to day lives as the inner workings of a black hole were to the Diamond Dog who crawled through the sewers to repair damaged pipes. It simple didn't matter if they didn't know the answer. Except now, to Twilight, it did matter. The public square was busy, even though light drizzle was falling, cutting across the neon-sulfur streetlamps and bright, brilliant advertising boards, pattering in kaleidoscopic puddles on the ground. The square was full of ponies, mostly unicorns, cutting from boutique store to boutique store, waiting in orderly queues for the VTOL pods, or heading into the Grand Symphonie, the vast opera and orchestra house that could house some fifty thousand ponies in air-conditioned comfort as they appreciated the latest fine pieces. Tall billboards advertised the Even-Day's performance- Octavia Melody, a noted cellist (though only an Earth Pony). It was not often that somepony from one of the other races got a solo performance at any of the great cultural venues, so she must have been quite the prodigious talent. Twilight Sparkle was not attending the Symphonie. She was in the square for a different reason, namely because it was so busy. Over in the corner of the stone-flagged square were a trio of vid-phone booths, and behind them, each under a plasteel shelter, were two public data terminals. That was her destination. Her hood raised and hands in the pockets of her smart black jacket, Twilight crossed the square casually, ignoring the happy laughter of foals and the rumble of the underground vactrains running beneath her feet. She was trying her best to blend in, to be completely unmemorable to anyone else. Her hood would help hide her mane, her eyes, and also her horn. If anyone had to give a description of her, she wanted it to be as vague as possible. "Remember, citizens!" the loud, booming, stentorian voice of Princess Celestia blared out from the public address system. Though the messages were invariably the same ones on repeat, it still drew the ear, for it was the only time most ponies would hear her speak. "The State is here for you. I am here for you. If you are happy, I am happy. Are you happy, citizens? I do hope so. Enjoy yourselves. The Sun is always watching. The Sun is always guiding. The Sun is always shining. The Sun never sets." "The Sun Never Sets..." Twilight found herself mumbling by rote, along with several hundred other ponies in the square. She must have said it a hundred thousand times over the course of her life, not that she was counting, for who would keep track of how many times they had said something so simple and so true? One might as well keep count of how many times they had said their own name. The two terminals were both vacant, though one drunken stallion was having a hilariously and obnoxiously loud conversation with somepony on one of the vid-phones, bursting into uproarious laughter every few seconds. Twilight approached the nearest terminal and pressed the 'Search Now' button with her finger. Welcome to Canterlot Public Information System (CPIS)! Please enter your query or search term (Maximum 240 characters). Twilight tapped a few buttons on the keyboard, which was damp from the rain despite the canopy overhead. Moon, Co-Orbital Body. Nopony was around. She was safe for now, though she feared just typing that word would invite attention from Network Security. NetSec monitored cyberspace for viruses, malware, or other issues of security and potential safety, for there was always a naughty novitiate computer technician somewhere who wanted to boost his or her own ego by trying to slip something into a local network, usually for particularly unimpressive purposes such as displaying a pair of buttocks (sometimes their own, sometimes not) on a public walkway's neon signs, or turning traffic lights red and delaying some poor unfortunate Earth Ponies on their journey home from work. Twilight had no intention of performing any kind of cyberhack or cyber-grafitti. She just wanted answers. The public terminal, she had reasoned, was safer than searching for those terms in her own apartment. She was far from confident of getting anything useful, but maybe, just maybe...it was certainly worth trying, though perhaps not the first search term she had just typed in. Profanity Filter is On. Did you Mean: Co-Orbital Body? Useless, as she had suspected. Searching for the word moon in the public net was stupid; something teenagers did for titillation, just to make themselves giggle and feel big for typing a rude word and then running away. Most likely nobody would even notice that it had happened. Search Again? Click Here. Twilight clicked, and typed her second phrase. She hesitated, her finger hovering over the 'send' button for a few seconds before she pressed it firmly and determinedly. Princess Luna. Processing Your Request... Processing Your Request... Error. Your Search Returned No Results. No luck. She knew it, but it was worth a try. She hoped it was worth it, anyway. She backed out and left the booth, casually crossing the square, lowering her hood once she was a fair distance away among the crowds, opening her jacket, letting her horn and multicoloured mane be visible, distancing herself as much from her previous appearance as she could. She got herself a fine candied pecan bun from the artisanal bakery and stood outside eating it. Five minutes later, a section of police officers entered the square, clad in their dark uniforms, thick bulletproof chest and shoulder plates, plasteel helmets with raised visors, the standard patrol attire. Their chunky .45 caliber pistols holstered at their hips looked suitably menacing, as did the rail-rifle slung across the back of their leader, a corporal judging by his uniform patches. Twilight felt a pang of dread, though she had been expecting it. Sure enough, the quartet of officers made their way right over to the data terminals. I knew it! Another banned word... Surely they hadn't sent a squad of officers out just because somepony typed 'moon' into the terminal? That probably happened a thousand times a day across the city, bored adolescents or drunken revelers hammering at the keypads. No, it had to be because of her second search. But why? It was just a name, an empty name that had no meaning, no history behind it. She had never heard it before. It was not a forbidden word, a forbidden name- it was one that simply did not exist. The police spread out, examining the terminal, checking the surrounding area. Twilight watched as she munched on her pecan bun. She was worried, but not panicked, for she had foreseen just such a possibility. That was why she had searched the square twice in the past week, looking for cameras or scanner-drones that might observe her. She had not seen anything to be overly concerned about. The bakery had a camera, but she knew that because she often shopped in there, alone or sometimes with Rarity or Lyra, her friend from the Hatchery. The terminals themselves did not have any cameras. None of them did, not in the unicorn areas, for unicorns were considered the most trustworthy, the least likely of the races to cause any trouble. The police, she noted, were all Earth Ponies or Pegasi. A curiosity, or did they know something already? No, no cause for alarm. Most of the lower ranks of the police and the army were of the other races, for they possessed greater physical strength, speed and stamina, perfect for chasing a fleeing suspect or grappling with a recalcitrant drunk. Crime was relatively rare in Canterlot, or any of the other Hub-Cities, for the simple reason that the causes of most crime had been eliminated. There was no want, no poverty, no deprivation, even in the lowest orders, even among the Degenerate Species. All were employed, those who could not work were compensated with handouts, food and consumer goods were abundant, technology made the lives of even the most dim-witted creature a breeze, while joy-pills washed away whatever troubles remained on a tide of euphoria and, if the right pills were taken, arousal, too. Virtual Reality movies were another method of distraction, communal baths and gymnasiums, the opera, the theatre, the cabaret, the Arena too, where boxing, wrestling and other combat sports took place. The Autodrome, where drone-drivers battered each other to destruction in demolition derbies and daredevil Pegasi and Earth Ponies raced each other around the banked circuit in their hypercars. Oh, the distractions were endless and delightful. Everything was taken care of, everything was just so. Just perfect. As it should be. Everything except those two, confusing words. Princess Luna. Who? Who was she? And why did she no longer exist?