//------------------------------// // The Book // Story: The Republic // by Mediocre Morsov //------------------------------// It was the dark of night, sacred in its silence. The Princess of the Night, Luna, watched over the kingdom of Equestria, ever vigilant. Soaring across the sky, her mane mirroring the twinkling gems of the distant constellations, the princess sighed. It was the time of the New Moon, which normally brightened her spirits, but her enthusiasm had been lacking of late. There were many ponies whose dreams she visited, ponies who struggled daily and seeked guidance in their slumber. She gave them what advice she could offer, and many times it helped, but there were an increasing number of ponies that she could not seem to help. She couldn't place it, couldn't name what they were lacking in life, but they were all lacking something. They all had that in common. It was as if they were trapped, but Luna dismissed that thought as soon as it had sprung up, a small smile finally gracing her muzzle. Nobody was trapped in Equestria except prisoners and asylum patients. Everyone could leave if they wanted to, the Princesses were fair and just rulers and the ponies all had a fair amount of say in their government. Why, Ponyville was practically its own sovereign part of the map, just like many other territories and provinces - so little was the will of the capital, Canterlot, enforced upon its surrounding subjects, that the kingdom might has well have been called a confederacy. And yet, an increasing amount of ponies gave Luna the impression that they were stuck in their lives, that they longed for something that they were lacking - something that the princesses couldn't give. Luna couldn't place her hoof on a name, the concept completely foreign to her. Perhaps she would visit her sister's most faithful student, the aspiring ruler of Ponyville and Bearer of the Element of Magic, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Normally the trip would be over within seconds as the Princess of the Night would just enter the dreams of her subject, but unsurprisingly, Twilight was up late, more than likely busy with her studies. The trip was still short, Luna's great wings and the power of the night bringing her silently to steps of the library Twilight called home. She gently rapped on the door with her hoof and a moment later, a groggy purple and green dragon opened the door, rubbing his tired eyes. He blinked at her a few times and suddenly woke up, bowing. "Good evening, Princess!" he greeted, "Are you here to see Twilight?" "Good evening, Spike." Luna returned the greeting, a warm smile on her face, "I have some questions I'm hoping young Twilight may have the answers to." "Right this way, your highness!" Spike said, leading the way to Twilight's personal study. With little ceremony, the dragon assistant opened the door, "Twilight, you have a visitor." "Not now, Spike." the purple alicorn sighed, flipping through pages of various textbooks and tomes with her magic, "I'm researching one of Starswirl's most difficult spells and half of these books only allude to it. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack." a giggle, "I'm starting to sound like Applejack." "But Twilight, it's Princess Luna." Spike explained, opening the door for the Princess of the Night to enter. Twilight turned suddenly, fighting the urge to bow in supplication to Luna - now that she was a princess, such an action was unnecessary. Even through her royal stoicism, Luna looked more than a little troubled. There was something in her eyes, a twinkle of doubt, though doubt in what, Twilight couldn't fathom. "Good evening, Princess Twilight Sparkle." Luna gave a nod of her head, "We are sorry to intrude like this; I realize you must be quite busy." Luna winced at having used the "Royal We" again; she had been trying to curb her outdated behaviors of royalty for some time, but every now and then one slipped through. Old habits died hard, as the saying went. "It's no problem at all, Princess Luna." Twilight smiled, genuine and bright, "What can I help you with?" Luna's smile disappeared as she struggled to think of how to explain the sensation that was troubling her. "I was wondering if you could help me find out why so many of our subjects are unhappy." "Are so many of our subjects unhappy?" Twilight seemed shocked by the news, "I-I hadn't noticed." "It rarely shows, but it has been increasing of late." Luna nodded, solemnly, "In their dreams where their subconcious desires are at the fore, they tell me of their fears and regrets, of their wants. Yet, they cannot name what it is they seek. They seem... trapped, almost." "Trapped?" Twilight asked, leading the other princess downstairs and into the library in search of books, "Do you mean in a figurative sense, or are they really trapped? Could it be some sort of spell?" "It is no spell I am familiar with." Luna shook her head, "Everypony I have seen in such a way appears to long for... for a freedom, of some sort. They want control, I suppose, but of what, I am not certain." Twilight gave a dismissive laugh that surprised her guest, "I'm not surprised. Plenty of ponies wish they had more power and control. Princess Celestia used to teach me about that kind of stuff all the time." Twilight found a book and pulled it out with her magic, levitating it towards Luna. "Actually, this was the first book I read on the subject." "The City of Light," Luna read the title aloud, quirking an eyebrow before scanning the subtitle, "A Short History of Equestria's Misguided Idealists." "Yep." Twilight beamed, "I didn't even know about the kinds of ideas that were in that book before I read it. They never taught us about it in grade school, but everypony in Celestia's program had to read up on it." "Misguided idealists?" Luna repeated, "I do not recall any such figures in our history." "If I remember correctly, almost all of the events covered in that book took place during your..." Twilight began, but didn't want to finish the sentence. She didn't have to. "It should put your mind at ease, if nothing else." "...I suppose, at the very least, I should brush up on what's been happening since my banishment." Luna confessed, "Perhaps it will even bring me some peace of mind." "That's the spirit, Princess!" Twilight beamed again and led Luna to the door, "Feel free to keep the book, if you'd like. I can always order another one." "I'll be sure to return it, my friend." Luna gave a parting smile, "And if I have any questions, I hope you don't mind if I come to you with them? I don't want to intrude." "It would never be an intrusion, Luna." the purple alicorn said, dropping their shared rank for a moment to demostrate their genuine closeness, "My doors are always open to you, you know that." "Thank you, my friend." the Princess of the Night said with all sincerity before departing back to the security of the castle and Canterlot. It was a quick flight, even quicker than when she had first headed out towards Twilight's home. She'd be lying if she said it wasn't because she wasn't just a little bit excited to read the book she had been loaned. Luna had been curious about what had occured during her millenium-long imprisonment upon the moon's surface, but she had never actually bothered to study it. She was surprised that Celestia had ceased using both the "Royal We" and the "Royal Canterlot Voice", for one, and only knew the gist of the happenings of the last several centuries. After entering the seclusion of her room, Luna looked at the cover of the book - simple, golden font almost worn off of the bland, drab binding. She opened the book. *-* Princess Celestia awoke and was greeted by the darkness of night. Checking the clock, she could see it was the same time it always was when she awoke, 5:00 AM exactly. This was the time when Luna's night would be ebbing away and allow Celestia to raise the sun and bring the day to all of Equestria. Instead, the shining New Moon and twinkling stars were all that she could see. Suddenly worried, the Princess of the Day all but galloped to her sister's quarters, none of the Royal Guard daring to impede her path. She knocked rapidly at her sister's door and was relieved when a startled Luna answered. "Whatever is the problem, sister?" the darker of the two asked. "Do you know what time it is, Lulu?" the oblivious look on Luna's face answered the question, "It's time for the sun to rise, but the moon is still at its zenith." Luna shot a look at the nearest clock and her eyes widen in renewed shock. "My deepest apologies, sister." Luna bowed her head before using her magic to speed the night past and to the appropriate time. It was a strain, but not altogether painful. Exhausted, Luna apologized again. "It's alright." Celestia gave a caring smile, before frowning in concern, "Is something the matter? You seem distracted?" "It's nothing, Celestia." Luna assured her sister, "Twilight loaned me a history book and I got wrapped up in it." "What book, if you don't mind my asking?" Celestia seemed intrigued, "You've never been a studious sort, least of all with history. Always more concerned with protecting your gaming legacy." "No one must ever know." Luna said quickly and seriously. If Discord ever found out about her pasttime, she would never live it down. "Of course, Lulu." Celestia laughed as she raised the sun with her magic. The burning star rose and drew back the twilight, casting long, stark shadows beneath a scarlet sky. "The title?" "Oh yes." Luna brought the book to the two of them in an aura of starlight indigo, "It's called The City of Light, A Short History of Equestria's Misguided Idealists, though I'm not sure if I like the title; seems a little judgemental." "I know the book well, and it is meant to be judgemental." Celestia nodded slowly, her smile having disappeared, "It was a time of great struggle and turmoil after the rise and banishment of Nightmare Moon - there were many opposed to the throne who wanted to see me cast out." "Why, though?" Luna asked, "I read the book, but it felt like it was just an attack on these "misguided idealist" ponies. I'm not even sure what they wrote, or where to find their works." "You wouldn't be interested in their works." Celestia said with a sudden steel that couldn't escape her sister's attention, "They were mares and stallions who dreamt of half-baked ideologies. They wanted a different utopia, completely disregarding the kingdom I strived to build for them. The kingdom we built for them." "I'd still like to read their works." Luna confessed, "Equites was a very renowned philosopher, I remember. I can't imagine that he would have written something that would evoke so strong a rebuttal. Other authors here, who are credited as outspoken against the kingdom and prominent rebels - I've never heard of them in any of the brush-up courses I've attended." "They're not mentioned in most classes." Celestia explained, "In fact, I prefer it if they were alluded to as little as possible. They were volatile thinkers who wouldn't listen to reason - they wanted anarchy, and after we had battled so hard against Discord, too..." "You didn't... burn their texts, did you?" Luna asked, quietly. Celestia shook her head. "I would never burn knowledge or history, even if it is lies and wishful thinking. All of their works survive, what could be recovered, anyway." Celestia explained, "In the highest echelons of our library, in one of our most seldom visited sections, their works are stored. Even Twilight has never ventured up that far." "Whoa." Luna's surprise escaped her lips before she could stop it. Books Twilight hadn't even heard of? "Please don't go there, Lulu." Celestia sighed, "Their words are sweet, like honey, but they infect the mind with a cancer." "Celestia, be calm." Luna laughed, "I have never seen you so worked up about books before. It's just printed text. Do you fear something so simple would bring me to turn against you?" "Words have a way of stirring the heart, Lulu." the elder sister explained, a warning tone in her voice. With that, she left Luna to her business. *-* It had taken a few hours for Luna to finally get to sleep, and when she rose in the twilight of evening, she decided against going out to visit her subject's dreams, too tired for such duties. Instead, after raising the night, she allowed herself a few moments rest. It was set to be a very peaceful evening, and she started with a few rounds of one of her favorite games, quickly getting frustrated as a player labelled "xX_cHaOs_LoRd-Xx" constantly beat her at every turn. She threw the headset off with a spell and turned the system off. "Discord..." she muttered under her breath and could practically hear his snickering in the background. Suddenly tired of gaming, she tried to find other things to occupy her time that wouldn't be as strenuous as leaving the castle - she had spent much energy rushing the dawn. Her bored thoughts drifted to the library. It wasn't as if the books were forbidden - it was just strongly recommended that she should avoid them. Even then, Luna was almost equal to Celestia. By Equestrian law, she was equal to Celestia in authority, her decrees over the night absolute. She glanced around the hall nervously, slightly excited at the prospect of disobeying her sister's request, even if it hadn't been a command. Luna trotted into the library, the night librarian bowing in fealty to her princess. Luna gave the librarian nod of greeting and continued on her way, up the stairs and to the higher echelons of the library, where the shelves became more and more coated in dust and cobwebs. The books, increasingly devoid of detail and attention, were practically indistinguishable from blocks of grey dirt. At one point, Luna finally stopped and wiped the dust from a shelf label with her hoof. RADICAL IDEOLOGY Luna quirked an eyebrow at the curious name before taking a deep breath and blowing the dust away. At once the uniform grey of the shelves became alight with colorful - albeit faded - books, pamphlets and various other assortments of parchment and rough binding. Some were beautiful works, age having little effect on their immaculate leather binding, while others were little more than mismatched sheets of papers bound together with string, the print barely legible from years of erosion. She recognized a few names from the history book Twilight had loaned her: Star Spangled, Scarlet Banner, Equites. She frowned at the idea that even one of Equites' works would end up shelved in a distant, forgotten part of the library. She had known the philosopher before her descent into jealous rage. He had been one of countless Canterlot students, his works forming the basis for future Equestrian philosophy and politics. If Luna remembered correctly, Celestia was a big fan of his ideals. They had been close, though their teacher-student bond had been nothing like that of Celestia and Twilight; Equites was certainly a bright student, standing out of his peers, but Twilight was a star pupil, shining brighter than any other. Luna glanced across the collection of works and saw that, rather than usual alphabetical system of author and title, the books had been arranged in chronological order. Equites' works took up a decent portion of the beginning of the collection, then mingled with the works of Star Spangled and other, less renowned authors - if that were possible. At very beginning, in the highest left-hand corner, sat a moderate-sized tome, decently-bound with most of the gold letting still colored in. Luna brought it down with her magic and read the title. Republic She recognized the book. The City of Light had referred to it as a "damning first step down the path of selfishness and disharmony" and called it the cornerstone that set the way for future radical works. With a cautious glance around, Luna made sure she was alone before opening the book.