The LUNA Project

by The Equestrian Gentlecolt

Chapter 2 - The Search for More

Luna lay in her bed, lay upon her throne, with her beloved teacher and guide between her hooves. The filly gazed at the face of the device with a mix of disbelief and an inexplicable sense of loss. She had to admit that she had, at some level, realized that this would happen eventually. But that didn't make it any easier to take.

"What... what do you mean I've learned everything?" she asked incredulously.

"I'm sorry, Luna," the device told her in its calm, slightly tinny voice. "You know everything that I know now."

Luna nodded slowly. It was the tenth time they'd had this conversation, and the truth had finally begun to make its way through walls of denial, bringing with it a feeling of acceptance and determination. "Will.... you still show me the pictures?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course, if you would like," the device answered pleasantly.

Luna seemed satisfied with that response, nodding again, and standing. Joints cracked and popped as she rose and opened her wings, protesting being so suddenly put upon after such a long period unused. She gently placed the device down on the bed. Her treasure would be safe there. She knew what she had to do. There was only one way to get more knowledge now.

It was time to go out into the world again, and find more buttons.

---

Queen Celestia, Creator-Goddess of the Second System and Divine Guardian of All Life, gazed sullenly into a mirror as she telekinetically ran a golden brush through a mane that sparkled with all the colors of the Aurora Borealis. She didn't want to be a queen. She didn't like being a queen. Ruling was a whole lot of work, and she would really much rather be back at her old home, watching her old holomovies for the hundredth time or browsing through the millions of familiar files in her library. But her old home was gone, and the library with it. True, the words were as fresh in her memory as when she had first read them, but recalling them just wasn't the same thing.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a polite knock at the door. "Your Majesty," a male voice inquired from the other side, "are you almost finished? Your court is due to start in three minutes." And the throne room is a five minute walk from here, the voice left unsaid. Celestia smiled slightly and set down the brush on her dresser with a soft clink.

"Come in, Michael," she called, magicking open a bolt on the door to her room. There was the sound of a doorknob being pushed down, and a blond-haired human entered.

"I've told you, Your Majesty, you can call me Mike," the human said with a hint of friendly reproach. He wasn't particularly tall, but he was muscular, in a wiry sort of way. He had been a mechanic back home, handling the upkeep of many of the complex machines that had been part of day-to-day life there. But without any machines here to take care of, he had been reassigned to the next nearest thing. Handling the upkeep of their queen.

Celestia snorted and turned a magenta eye on her personal assistant. "And I've told you, if you're going to insist on calling me Your Majesty, I'm going to insist on calling you Michael."

"As you wish, Your Majesty," the human replied with a bow. But Celestia was quick enough to catch the fleeting hint of a mischievous grin on his face before he did, and soon she wore one of her own.

"Shall we go, then, Michael?" she asked, making no effort to hide her grin. "We've still got... oh, about thirty seconds before we're late." And before he could protest, reality warped around them and they were gone, leaving behind only a flash of light and the distinctive "pop" of the laws of time and space forcibly reasserting themselves.

---

It turned out that there were a great many buttons in the world. It also turned out, to Luna's disappointment, that none of them seemed to do anything except make soft crackling noises as they were pressed down, the aged plastic cracking and shedding layers of dust as it was awoken from its long slumber. The mirrors - "screens", she silently corrected herself. They were called screens. The screens remained dark and lifeless, showing nothing but the reflection of a disappointed blue filly.

Luna stomped a hoof on the ground in frustration. The loud sound echoed through the hallways, and had she been younger and smaller, or in a better mood, she would have flinched at the noise. An outburst like that could give her away, and attract predators to her location. But now she almost wished that they would come, the giant rat-things or the great slithering snake-beasts, if only to give her something to vent her disappointment upon.

But nothing came, and her glare soon returned to the latest button to attract her ire. It was marked with the almost-circle with the line through the top that she knew to be the symbol for "on" and "off" together. She was certain that it should be able to activate or deactivate something. But instead it sat there, silently mocking her.

"Fine," she snapped. "I'll find a different button, one that isn't bad." She turned away with a huff. "Bad" was one of the most unpleasant words she knew, but she felt no remorse about applying it here. She began to walk away, but she could almost feel the offending device laughing at her behind her back, taunting her for being unable to divine its secrets. A few more steps only increased the feeling, and her ears flicked back against her head in anger. Unable to stand it anymore, she spun around and-

SNAP!

A searing white bolt of energy arced from her horn to the machine, disappearing into its metal frame. Luna blinked in surprise. She had never been able to use the power like that before, it had always come when she was scared or cornered by a predator. The crackling of her horn faded with her anger, but it was replaced by a gentle humming sound. The machine in front of her was coming to life.

Comments

[jroddie]

sweet jesus. a human. And do I detect the slightest undercurrent of post-apocolyptica? Me Gusta. This would be the kind of fanfic I would write if I was not already writing. Just beautiful. +1 fave.

[The Equestrian Gentlecolt]

12283
Just so.

12584
You do indeed! And I'm glad you're enjoying it so far.

[Undecided]

Yes! Appropriately done, sir.