The tale of the founding of Equestria and the birth of pony kind
Ever wonder where ponies came from? Where Equestria really is? This is the unwritten history of pony kind and Equestria that Celestia doesn't want you to know. Ponies weren't always free, and Equestria was once unknown even to the Royal Sisters. Follow the tale of Luna and her faithful companion Starshadow as they free the ponies from human oppression, and try to find a place in the world where ponies can be free for all time. Will Celestia side with her sister, or will she help the human that raised them both? What will the humans do to stop the ponies from releasing themselves from bondage?
As the needle pierced the embryo and injected the final engineered DNA code Ryan relaxed. It had been a long year with the all sorts of crazies on both sides making his work hard. The government had said that genetic engineering was ok as long as it was not used on humans, with the exception of the military applications that they wanted to use it for. This was going to make his company rich and his bosses promised him a percentage of the profits if he could do it.
When the word had been giving that they could engineer any sort of animal they wanted, a toy company had come to Lunar Technologies, and commissioned them to make them a special breed of ponies. They wanted to be able to sell live versions of their popular toy line, but they need them to be close to what the show had depicted them as. So, over the past year Ryan had worked day and night to fulfill the contract.
Ryan stood about five foot ten inches tall. His stature showed he was well fed, but he carried himself in a way that gave the impression he knew how to handle himself. He had shortly cropped blonde hair, and green eyes. He always had a slight smile on his face like he knew something no one else did, and his face showed signs that he enjoyed laughing.
At first he worked in the main labs, but that turned out impossible once it leaked what Lunar Technologies had agreed to. First, came the threats from religious fanatics and those that felt such research was immoral. Then came the constant inquiries from the fans of the show asking about the progress of the new pets. If this had been the extent of it Ryan would have been able to continue working the main labs, but one day something happened that forced the company to relocate his work to a secret facility.
The tragedy made headlines throughout the world. Ten people were found dead in the main labs of Lunar Technologies, and none of them were employees. It seemed that a group of five religious fanatics and a group of five overly dedicated fans had broken in to labs looking for Ryan’s work. The fanatics planned on destroying everything and possibly blowing up the whole lab to make sure. The fans just wanted to see if any ponies had been made yet and steal them. When both groups came upon each other it turned into a brawl and one of the fanatics accidently set off one of their explosives killing everyone.
The relocation wasn’t all a bad thing for Ryan though. It gave him access to the research the company was doing for the military. He saw the chance to make his ponies even more like the show than he originally thought possible. He could actually make unicorns with the ability to move small objects and pegasus ponies that could actually fly. He got permission to do these things as long as he kept it on a small scale, because the military scale of these abilities was massive. They had started to unlock the ability to allow humans to use all of their brain at one time without causing them to go into convulsions from sensory overload.
Ryan looked down at what he had created, and felt a sense of pride in the fact that he had managed to make a whole new species. He placed the embryo into the growth chamber that had been designed to accelerate the growth of the creatures to allow rapid production. He then filled out his paperwork and set everything up for night. He knew tomorrow all his hard work would pay off.
She stretched out her legs and felt an odd sensation throughout them. It was the feeling of blood flowing through them for the first time. She felt something else warm pressing against her. She opened her eyes for the first time, and the low light from the lab seemed like staring into the sun. She looked down to see a small black pony cuddled up next to her. The black pony contrasted against her white coat, but other than that they were the same. They both were ponies with wings and unicorn horns. She saw her sister open her eyes and look upon her, and knew she would do anything to protect her little sister.
Suddenly the lights got brighter and her sister cowered into her closing her eyes against the brightness. She had already gotten use to light so it didn’t bother her as much. She saw a strange creature walking towards them on two legs. She stood up on shake legs and placed herself between the strange creature and her sister.
Ryan looked at the two creatures in the maturation chamber and couldn’t believe his eyes. How was it possible that there were two, and yet they weren’t identical? He had placed one embryo into the chamber. He watched as the white one took its first wobbly steps to place itself between him and the black one. Looking at the white coat of fur, with wings that actually seemed useable, and the impressive horn, he knew he had succeeded. These would be the prototypes that would allow them to spawn any of the three variations they would need.
He looked at what he had done and felt a sense of accomplishment. He had created a new life form. He went to the control panel for the chamber and checked the vital signs for both ponies. They both appeared to be in good health, and their brain activity suggested higher brain functions. He looked into the eyes of the white one and spoke aloud, “I shall call you Celestia and your little sister will be known as Luna. I wonder do you understand what I am saying?”
Celestia looked at the human, yes that is what it was, she wasn’t sure how she knew but she did. She looked at him and responded in halted speech, “I-I c-can un-understand you, b-but I am not s-sure how. W-Where are we?”
Ryan looked surprised he knew it was possible, but he didn’t expect it to work this well. When he had been trying to find a way to make it possible to mass produce these new creatures, he had to find a way to speed up their mental development. He had found a research that had been forgotten, and decided it might have merit. The ability to clone a human with genetic knowledge to decrease its need to be taught, the military had Lunar Tech look into it. It had been abandoned when the UN declared human cloning to be illegal. Ryan knew that he would have to incorporate human DNA into the mixture to give them human level intelligence, and knew that there had to be a way to at least give them a basic education at birth.
Ryan took a second to recover and smiled. “You are the first of you species and shall help create many more. You are special and should always remember that. You, Celestia shall be our show pony, and as for you Luna you shall provide the necessary genetic samples to create more of you.” he explained in a cold calculating voice. He walked over to another human and talked to him in a hushed voice and then came back over with him. “Celestia you shall come with me as I introduce you to the board of directors, and Luna you will go with Eric here as he has some tests he needs to run on you.” Ryan than opened the door to the chamber to let both fillies out.
Luna looked at Eric he was shorter than Ryan and had a scruffy beard starting grow, he looked to be skinny as his clothes didn’t quite fit as well as Ryan’s did. He wore faded grey slacks, with an off white button shirt with the top button open, and the required lab coat. He had medium length unkempt brown hair and a permanent sour expression on his face. Luna looked to Celestia “S-sister I d-don’t wish to go with him.” She pleaded looking at Ryan “C-can’t I go with y-you and Celestia?”
Ryan gave Luna an annoyed look, “Look you will do as I tell you to do. You have no say in what happens around here. You are the sole property of Lunar Technologies, and we can do as we please with you. Now GO with Eric.” He turned without looking back to see if Luna followed his directions. Celestia gave her sister a sympathetic look and then trotted to catch up with Ryan.
Luna turned looking at Eric, “H-hello, my name is Luna. Are these tests going to hurt?”
Eric gave her a strange look between annoyance and anticipation, “Well, my dear little pony they aren’t going to tickle. But since we ended up with two of you instead of one, like we thought we would, it will make things easier. Now be a good girl and follow me to the other side of the lab.” He turned and seemed to walk with a lighter step than before. It almost seemed as if he was looking forward to conducting the tests.
Ryan could hear Celestia walking behind him and smiled, he was going to be rich and these little ponies would be the reason for it. He had finally managed to get himself out of the middle class. He felt a small twinge of guilt as he thought of what Luna would have to go through, but the price of progress had to be paid. He looked down at Celestia and noticed her looking at him with a worried look. He smiled and said in a gentle voice “Don’t worry she will be alright, but these tests need to be done. There is no reason to make both of you go through them. I promise Eric will do all he can to make the tests as painless as possible.”
“You promise?” was Celestia’s reply.
Ryan stopped for a second and looked Celestia in the eye “I promise that all will be done to make sure she isn’t hurt.” Ryan turned and added in a quieter voice barely a whisper “Too badly”.
Celestia didn’t hear the last part and with no reason to distrust Ryan, just smiled and followed him to the meeting. They headed through a decontamination room and into the main office area for the building. Celestia looked around everything was new to her, but felt familiar at the same time. The hallway had white linoleum tile, the walls were painted a light blue, and the office doors were made from a deep brown wood. She could hear her hooves clop on the tiles and the light smacking sound of Ryan’s shoes as they walked down the hall. They passed a few people who stopped and stared at her. As they passed a few congratulated Ryan on a job well done, but Celestia couldn’t relax. Something didn’t feel right about all of this, but she couldn’t place her hoof on what it was. Ryan lead her into down a few more hallways and into a large room were more humans were sitting around a large table. Ryan treated these humans with more respect than she had seen him treat the others. And they held themselves with an air of superiority.
All head turned towards Ryan and Celestia as they came through the door. The room was a large room equal in size to roughly four of the offices that Ryan and Celestia had passed by. The room was dominated by a large mahogany table with plush black chairs around it. The far wall had a large bank of display monitors used for teleconferences and presentations. There various humans there, of different colors and genders. The man at the head of the table seemed to be in charge. Ryan turned his to face the man, and said in a very respectful tone “Mr. Burns, I have finished development of the prototypes.”
The human Ryan referred to as Mr. Burns was an older gentleman with a frail looking build, and a few inches shorter than Ryan. He was bald with blue eyes. His eyes narrowed as soon as Ryan finished speaking. “I only authorized the development of one prototype, Mr. Ingles. Would you care to explain to me why it sounds like you disobeyed my orders?” Mr. Burn finished the statement with a sneer in his voice.
“Mr. Burns I would never disobey your orders sir. I can’t fully explain it until I have a chance to run a few tests, but the one embryo I used to develop the prototype split into two. So, we now have two for the price of one. I left the other with Eric to have test run on right away so we can isolate the different genetic codes we will need to produce our product line. They both appear to be identical expect for the color of their coats and manes.” Ryan rushed through with a slight panic in his voice.
“Very good, Mr. Ingles, it appears you have out done yourself. Not only have you provide us with the prototype for what will be our most lucrative civilian contract, but managed to produce extra product without extra cost. I see our faith in you was not misplaced.” Mr. Burns replied in a shrewd voice.
The meeting went on with all the humans ignoring the fact Celestia was there unless they want something from her. They had her perform a few magical tricks like lifting a pen, and asked her to raise herself off the ground with her wings. Celestia could feel it inside herself that when they had her perform magic that there was more inside her than that. Ryan kept saying the minor tricks were the extent of her abilities, but she knew he was wrong. She didn’t understand anything about how she was created, but from the way he talked she got the feeling things weren’t quite the way he expected. Celestia could only hope that Luna was okay, and wasn’t dealing with the boredom she was.
Luna cried out as the needle was jabbed into her flank. She had been poked and prodded everywhere she could imagine, and other places she wasn’t aware of until they stuck her in it. Eric laughed slightly at the sound of Luna’s scream. “Don’t worry that shot should numb your whole leg as we take a sample of your bone morrow. We need it to study and dissect your DNA.” He said with joy in his voice.
She watched as he placed the vial of liquid he had just injected into her back on the table. She could barely read the label. It stated that he had used something called saline solution on her. Her leg didn’t feel numb she just felt more burning from it. She had been strapped down to a table in a spread eagle fashion which was very uncomfortable to her. Eric came back a few minutes later with a smile, “Well, your leg should be numb now. Let’s begin.”
He grabbed a large needle off the table in front of her and her eyes went wide. “Please, don’t use that on me. Please I will do anything just don’t hurt me anymore.” Luna begged with tears flowing from her eyes. Her coat was matted in several places where Eric hadn’t bothered to place a bandage after extract blood or something else he said he needed. He had forced her to go through all of it without anesthesia.
Eric just grinned at her and said, “I gave you something to numb your leg, so you won’t feel a thing.”
“B-but I can still feel my leg. I-I don’t think it worked.” Luna answered him, her eyes pleading with him to listen.
“Silly pony you are just imagining it. Trust me you won’t feel a thing.” With that last statement he stabbed the needle in all the way to the bone. Luna cried out as loudly as she could, he leg felt like it was on fire. She couldn’t even think to beg him to stop. She couldn’t do anything, but scream. Just as she thought the pain couldn’t get any worse Eric shoved the needle into her bone to extract the morrow. Luna screamed louder than ever before, and then passed out from the pain.
“Damn, pony passed out. I was hoping to her it scream some more. I guess I will just have to make do with what I got.” Eric complained to himself. He particularly enjoyed the idea of waking Luna back up and perhaps cutting a few pieces off no one but she would miss, but he couldn’t do that in case someone did miss those parts. He would never cross Mr. Burns. The last person to cost Mr. Burns money intentionally was now homeless.
Eric finished the tests as fast as he could now. There was no use being slow about it now, since Luna was unconscious. He knew Ryan would be done soon himself, and if he didn’t have Luna back before hand Ryan would come looking for her. Eric finished extracting the bone morrow he need and placed all the samples he had taking into a refrigerated container. He then he undid the straps holding Luna down, and let her slide unto the floor with a thud. He then found an intern to help him carrying her back to her cage.
The cage was big enough for an Alicorn to stand up in, and give it a little room to walk around in. It contained found and water with some bedding in the corners. It was really only meant for one, but since they had two it would have to do for now. Eric and the intern placed Luna gently onto some of the bedding. When they intern Eric looked down at the Alicorn and smiled. “I will see you again soon my little pony.” Eric looked down at his handy work; Luna’s matted coat and mane from all the blood, and smiled to himself.
Ryan got back with Celestia just as Luna began to wake up. Celestia took one look at her sister and cried out, and stared at Ryan with hate filled eyes. “You told me she wouldn’t be hurt, but she is covered in blood. What did you people do to her?”
Ryan looked on with a slight disgust at what Eric had done. He knew the guy could be slightly sadistic, but this was over the line. “I swear I knew nothing of this. He was to treat he well, and do the test in the most painless manner possible. I will have a talk with him right away, but first I will get someone in here to clean her and bandage her wounds.” Ryan replied with a hard edge in his voice. As he turned his eyes narrowed, there was no way he was going to let some half-wit ruin his work now. Ryan walked to where the medical facilities were and got a nurse to take a look at Luna. Then he tracked down Eric who was in the break room laughing with a few of the other employees.
Ryan walked into the break room with an expression of anger on his face. The people that saw him come in could see murder in his eyes as he walked straight to the group that Eric was in. Ryan walked right up to Eric without stopping, and Eric never saw as Ryan brought his fist up his waist. Eric had started to say something to Ryan, but was caught off before he finished the first word. Ryan’s fist struck Eric square under the jaw.
Eric felt as his teeth slammed shut, but luckily he had managed to avoid biting his tongue off. Then next thing he knew he was being lifted into the air and thrown backwards from the force of whatever had just hit him in the jaw. He flew back a few feet and then his back felt like it was on fire as he fell in the edge of a table. Then the table began to lean with his weight and he slid down to the floor with a thud. The table having received the majority of the force from Eric’s fall flipped over on top of him. Eric felt a sudden sharp impact in the top of his head as the table came around and slammed into it. Blood began to drip down onto Eric’s face from the spot the table had split his head open. Eric looked up through the blood at everyone else and could see several other employees holding Ryan back. Eric could see in Ryan’s eyes his own death if he didn’t leave right away.
Eric picked himself up with the help of a few others and left the break room straight away. He headed towards Mr. Burns’ office. This could be his chance to get Ryan fired and take over his project, but first he needed to use the restroom to try and control the bleeding.
Ryan watched as Eric left and knew where he was heading. Ryan had known from the start Eric was jealous that he wasn’t put in charge of this project. Ryan shrugged the people off holding him. They were more willing let him go now that Eric was gone. Ryan headed out the door and made his way straight to Mr. Burns’ office hoping he could get there before Eric caused too much damage. Ryan round a corner just in time to miss Eric stopping in at the restroom and so he hurried past it on his way to Mr. Burns’ office. When he finally reached the outer doors of Mr. Burns’ office his secretary looked up at him. “Mr. Burns is not expecting anyone at this moment how can I help you Mr. Ingles?” he said with a polite tone.
“Please inform Mr. Burns that I need to speak to him right away about the project. It seems we may have a problem, and I am sure he would like to know of it.” Ryan said as calmly as he could.
“Certainly Mr. Ingles, please have a seat right there as I tell him.” The secretary stood up and walked into the office. Ryan could hear muffled voices, but not much else. A minute later the secretary came out with a blank expression on his face. “Mr. Burns will see you now. Go right in.”
Ryan walked into the office. It was a large office that took up the whole northwest corner of the building. It had plush blue carpeting, with a bar set into right far wall with an assortment of fine liquors. The left wall held a couple of bookcases full with books, and in the middle of the room sat a large cherry wood desk. Mr. Burns looked at Ryan with dispassion in his eyes as he hung up his phone. “I already know about your scuffle with Mr. Langfield, Mr. Ingles. What confuses me is why you would come here and tell me secretary it was an urgent matter about your project.” Mr. Burns asked in a matter of fact voice with slight amusement creeping into it. “Perhaps if you can give me a good reason for that I won’t out right fire you.”
Ryan turned a few shades whiter than he was before. “Sir, Mr. Langfield was unnecessarily damaging the second prototype. He used the most brutal techniques he could find to conduct the test, and didn’t even give the poor thing anything for the pain. Luna is down in the Lab right now having the blood washed off her, and her wounds tended to. This not only might cause psychological harm to the product, but will cost us time and money in her recuperation. I admit I could have handled the initial confrontation with Mr. Langfield better, but I was furious with him for costing us time and money.”
Mr. Burns felt a smile creep onto his face and couldn’t help but let it stay there. “My boy as reasons go that is probably one of the best I have ever heard. Now, let see….” Mr. Burns was interrupted as Eric Langfield walked through the office doors. “Ahhh, Mr. Langfield I was expecting you. It would seem you have been caught damaging my property, and costing me money. Do you know what happened to the last employee who tried to cost me money?” Mr. Burns looked at Eric menacingly. “Security, come get Mr. Langfield, and escort him out of my building and off the property.”
Eric just sat collapsed where he was standing. He was ruined, and it was all the smug Ryan’s fault. If he would have just not made a big deal over some test tube pony none of this would have happened. Eric looked up as he heard the security coming through the office doors, and debated trying to throttle Ryan before they could stop him. Then suddenly just as he built up the nerve to do it, the security guards had a hold of his arms and were dragging him out of the office.
Back in the labs Celestia was trying to comfort her sister after the nurse had cleaned and bandaged Luna. Luna was being stubborn though. “Celestia you let him take me away and do horrible thing to me. How can I trust anything you or that human Ryan says again.” Luna said with a mixture of pain and anger.
“Luna, please understand I didn’t know. Ryan told me it wasn’t going to be painful, and I think Ryan didn’t know either. Please dear sister we have to do what they say. We don’t even know anything outside of where we are.” Celestia pleaded with Luna, in a calm and gentle voice.
“Fine, I will give them another chance, and I believe you sister” Luna said, and then her tone got darker “But if it happens again I will do everything I can to make them suffer as they made me suffer.” As she looked at Celestia back up a step. Luna’s eyes had become completely turquoise with a dragon like quality to them.
Two years have passed since Celestia and Luna were born into the world. Since that time Lunar Technologies had starting producing their line of intelligent ponies. They marketed earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies. There was a call for Alicorn ponies, but it was decided those would not be marketed due to the possibility of reverse engineering. Ryan had become a silent partner in Lunar Technologies, but still worked in the labs. Mr. Burns decided that it made sense to give him a vested interest in the company while still using him. Ryan had managed to get Celestia and Luna to trust him again, but he could tell Luna would never truly forget the incident with Eric.
Eric found himself on the wrong end of a lawsuit and lost everything. First, his job, money, and benefits, then his house, wife, and children, but then he just disappeared. No one had heard from him since. There were rumors that he was trying to sell what knowledge he had on these now extremely popular pets, but no other company seemed to possess anything close though. There was another less popular rumor that suggested he had started some sort of cult, but this was unconfirmed.
From the very start the ponies where a hot selling item for Lunar Technologies, but the religious extremist protested and tried to get legal injunctions placed on the selling of ponies. What they didn’t know was that Mr. Burns had already paid the right people to keep such things from happening. Ryan mean while worked to see if they could find other uses for the ponies. The military had shown interest in possibly using the pegasi for military recon operations. There had been some progress in the field of military applications, but it had to be kept very secretive.
The ponies hit the international market and they exploded. Most people got fillies, but colts were offered too. The ponies were capable of reproducing on their own, but every new pony was required to be treated and inspected by an official from Lunar Technologies. Anyone that failed to comply with this found themselves in legal trouble with Lunar Technologies and their local government. A tight leash was kept on the ponies. The biggest worry was making sure the unicorns had limiter and termination chips plant within them. This was to keep the unicorns from become a danger to anyone, and from being used in an illegal manner.
Celestia and Luna now resided at Ryan’s estate and were well taking care of. Mr. Burns thought it odd at first, but Ryan explained it away as simply wanting to keep the keys to his success close. Ryan had a private lab installed in his estate that was connected to Lunar Technologies for research purposes, but everything was logged and reported back to Lunar Technologies. Ryan still didn’t know the full extent of Celestia or Luna’s magic abilities. He had seen them a few times when they thought they were alone performing feats of magic that should have been beyond them. It has got him curious, but he refused to tell anyone else. He want them to stay here were he knew they would be safe. At first to him they had just been a product to make him rich, but after two years they were more like daughters to him.
Ryan had never married due to being too busy with his work. He had a fling here and there, even now he had a woman staying with him, but it was already fallen apart because of his work. So, he started talking and getting to know Celestia and Luna. Eventually he started treating them like daughters. They had their own room in his house and were never treated like simple pets. He even educated them beyond what the genetic memory and given them. They absorbed the knowledge quickly and Celestia seemed to have a thirst for it. Luna did her best, but seemed more into other areas of knowledge he didn’t want to teach them. He once caught her read a copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Ryan tried not to encourage it, but did not deny her access to the information if she wished it. It just seemed it would be useless information for her. She was destined to live out her days in Ryan’s estate.
Ryan looked out the window to see Celestia and Luna playing in the pool. They appeared to be having a swimming race. It was cute to watch them, his legacy to the world. He then sat down on his couch and turned on the TV, ironically there was a commercial for his ponies just wrapping up. He smiled to himself and wondered how many kids just saw that, and were now bugging their parents to buy them one.
Ryan was trying to catch up on his favorite shows since he never had time to actually watch them when they aired. Suddenly from outside he heard a crash and what sounded like an explosion. He ran out worried that some nut job had broken in somehow and was attacking the girls. As he ran out he saw Luna standing outside the pool looking at something in the yard. Ryan followed he gaze and saw Celestia laying down in what was left of the grass in the spot she was. Ryan then turned back to Luna real quick as his brain told him that something had been different about Luna’s eyes. As he looked again they seemed the same as always. Ryan’s mind couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing. Celestia appeared to have been caught in whatever exploded, but seemed to have only minor injuries, and Luna appeared not to have been touched by it. Neither of the fillies had noticed him yet and they were glaring at each other.
“What is wrong with you Luna? Why did you? How did you? What is wrong with you?” Celestia screamed at her sister. She started to pick herself up off the ground. She picked up a small notebook that was blackened and burned.
Luna gave her a threaten glare, “I told you to stop reading my diary, but you just had to try and keep it from me. So, I just did what I must to make you stop. Maybe next time you won’t try and act all perfect, and think that just because you are better with magic I can’t do anything.” Luna stated this with anger but a slight touch of awe in her voice. That is when she noticed Ryan.
Ryan gave her a disappointed look and then stated loudly enough for them both to hear, “What is going on here?”
Celestia looked at Ryan sheepishly and said, “Ask her she tried to blow me up.”
“Only because you stole my diary, and I didn’t try, I did.” Luna replied with an air of superiority.
Ryan was stunned for a second he wasn’t sure what to do at this point. There was no way that either of them should be able to use magic in such a manner. The restrictor chips, while not quite as limiting as he told his bosses, should have made something of this nature impossible. This also brought up a question of how much power did this two really have. Unicorns had started to show higher levels of magic control within certain areas, but nothing to the point of causing explosions. Ryan looked at Luna with a serious expression, “Young lady go to your room. I will speak to you about this after I have made sure you didn’t hurt your sister too badly.”
Luna started to protest, “But… I was…”
Ryan cut her off before she could finish, “No buts young lady, go to your room now. I don’t care what Celestia did, nothing excuses blowing up your sister. Now upstairs, and don’t come out until I tell you to.” Ryan stood up straight with a firm expression pointing towards the house.
As Luna stormed into the house pissed off she looked back to see Ryan pandering over Celestia. This just made things worse; she grabbed the door with her magic and slammed it shut behind her. Then proceeded to her room and locked the door magically. She flung herself on the bed and turned on the TV.
Luna couldn’t believe that Ryan took Celestia’s side on this. He always took her side. Sometimes she felt as if he never really wanted her to be. She grabbed her pillow with her magic and cried into it. She just wanted somepony to love her. She didn’t ask to be brought into this world where ponies were slaves to humans, or to have her first day of life tainted by some demented lab worker that took joy in the pain of others. She cried and yelled into her pillow asking why she had to be alone in this world. She just wanted to be loved like her sister. Celestia got to go to all the public appearances and Ryan’s reason was always the same. Luna’s coat color made her less appealing to the audience that the appearances were targeted at.
Luna was started to gather herself back when she heard the news come on her TV. “Our top story tonight, a man was arrested for illegally breeding the new pony pets that have swept the world. The irony is he was the one to call authorities when the illegally bred ponies revolted against him and his cult. We have a correspondent on the scene trying to figure out exactly what happened. We are going to go live now to Jim who is on the scene. Jim can you hear us?”
“Yes, Claire I can hear you. I have to warn parents and those with weak stomachs they may want to change the channel, because the scene here is very disturbing. It appears the cult run by one Eric Langfield was illegally breeding ponies for all sorts of depraved acts. In a second we will show you some of the footage we recorded earlier before being forced to a further distance from the area. It seems the cult had tortured, mutilated, and performed sexual acts on the illegally bred ponies. By being born without a control chip the ponies revolted injuring many of the cultists and even killing a few. As you can see behind me,” the camera moved away from the face of the handsome black man to over his shoulder where humans were rounding up ponies that were resisting the attempts to put them in horse trailers to be transported somewhere else. “The ponies are being rounded up and taking to Lunar Technologies for reprocessing. It is believed they are going to evaluated the emotionally damage done to the ponies involved and try to rehabilitate those that can be and install the mandatory control chips in them. After that they will be found good homes to live out the rest of their days.” Suddenly the camera still focused on the ponies being corralled into the trailers caught as one of the ponies got free. It was dark blue pegasus with a rainbow tail and mane. The human that was dragging her along fell onto the ground face first and she then pounced onto the human behind it dragging a pink pegasus with a blue mane and tail.
Then all hell broke loose. Luna watched as ponies began to revolt against the humans. At first the humans tried using ropes and nets to contain the situation but it became apparent that was not going to work. Then the police stepped in trying to use OC spray and tasers, but though they got a few of the earth ponies they seemed to shake the effects off. The unicorns seemed to be able to stopped both from ever reaching them and the pegasi used their wings to push the streams of OC spray and the leads of the taser away from them. In fact the pegasi caused more than one officer to be hit by their own OC stream. That is when the cops decided to go to lethal means. By this time most the ponies were free and running for the tree line, but a few stayed to cover them. Luna watched in horror as the cops gunned down more than one pony. The camera never wavered from the action.
The few unicorns that had stayed managed to deflect a few of the shoots off what Luna could tell was a magical shield, but she saw the strain in their faces and knew they would never be able to hold it for long. The dark blue pegasus had stayed to help but then took a shot in the wing. It then decided it had no choice but to leave. Three earth ponies had stayed and took the brunt of the gun fire. They had seen what Luna had. The unicorns’ magic wasn’t going to hold long, so the earth ponies got between the cops and the unicorns. The earth ponies took a hail of gun fire and fall beneath it. They laid there for a second, but then suddenly stood back up. Despite the many bullet holes they managed to stay on their feet, and even some of the wound were pushing the bullets back out. Luna knew what was going to happen though and couldn’t let it.
Luna had never tried this before but had read many theories on how it would work. Luna could feel the rage inside her and knew her eyes had changed to dragon like already, but that was good. She knew that her magic was much stronger when she was enraged. That the rage could override the control chip completely, she look at the TV screen burn the picture of the ponies’ stand into her mind and then wrapped herself in her own magic. She willed her magic to move her through the world to the ponies so she could save them. She felt a twinge in the base of her skull; it was the control chip trying to shut down her magic. She struggled against it trying to smoother it, but it began to grow stronger. She could feel her magic slipping away from her, and began to lose hope. Why would it now stop her, she managed to override it to cast the fireball on Celestia, but now it refused to let her save those poor ponies. Then all her rage came forth she felt it infuse her, and she felt as it made more physical changes to her. She didn’t care, she felt the magic the rage brought attack the control chip, and it won this time. She felt her magic yank her out of her room.
Outside the house Ryan and Celestia were just coming back inside to talk with Luna. Then they heard an explosion come from the upstairs in Luna’s room. They ran in to see what was going in. Ryan was ready to scold Luna for being reckless, but when they got upstairs they could see her door blown off its hinges. They stepped inside and everything was a mess. The TV was on its side but they could see what was going on. They saw the police show down with the ponies going on live, and then suddenly they saw a black Alicorn with a dark blue swirling mane appear out of nowhere. The Alicorn enveloped the ponies near it in a visible magic shield of dark energy. It then spoke in a loud booming voice, “Enough, my brave little ponies flee to the forest, and I will protect you from these monsters.” The Alicorn’s voice was distinctly female, and to Ryan and Celestia very familiar. It was Luna, but how they did not know.
Luna looked as the unicorns helped the earth ponies that were still breathing to the tree line and she only turned to the humans as she felt their bullets try to break through her shield. Then once again in the booming voice she addressed them, “You dare try and kill me when I have done nothing but help those being mistreated by your kind. Let it be known that pony kind has suffered under human oppression long enough. I will not stand for your mistreatment of pony kind any more. The revolution has started and I call to all ponies to throw off their shackles and join us. The Pony Resistance Force will not rest until we are granted a place free from human oppression. It doesn’t matter that we were made by human, because you made us with the intelligence and emotion. We are not property, but sentient creatures the same as you.”
Luna’s eyes flashed, the wind picked up and suddenly the moon eclipsed the sun, “To show you the extent of my conviction I will show the might of an Alicorn. We are the mother’s of our race and contain the full potential of our race.” She then called upon all her magic she felt the control chip try to activate the kill switch that should terminate her, but her magic and rage completely destroyed it this time. Then she summoned forth a fireball the same as she used against Celestia, but on a more massive scale. Then she launched it into the crowd of humans. The News crew luckily far enough away not to be caught in the blast recording all of it, the fireball exploded with massive force. Luna hadn’t wished to kill anyone but only to scare them. The fireball left minor burns and knocked people down from the concussion of the explosion. A few people towards the epic center sustained major injuries mainly from rounds cooking off in their guns and magazines on their belts.
Luna used the explosion to slip away into the woods. Most the ponies had stopped when the fireball had exploded, and only came too as Luna tried to round them up. She called to all she could find and told them to follow her. She gathered as many as she could and even recruited a few pegasi to help her. She sent a few pegasi to find a place they could hide before the humans had a chance to recover and come after them.
A dark blue pegasus mare flew up to Luna, “Ummm, miss Alicorn I think I found someplace for us, but it seems a little out of place here. It looks as if it hasn’t seen any humans in a very long time.” She kind of looked nervous since Luna’s power was still radiating off of her, and the fact the moon was still eclipsing the sun.
Luna looked at the mare, “Show me please and my name is Luna. You have nothing to fear from me. I am here to help every one of you. I know how it feels to be mistreated by the humans.” She smiled at the pegasus.
“But the moon is blocking out the sun making it hard to see, and it didn’t start until you showed up. And since you have a cutie mark with the moon and all, I thought maybe you could you know fix it.” The pegasus smiled with a very shy and innocent smile.
Luna looked at her flank and realized the pegasus spoke the truth, “Huh? When did that appear? I have never had a cutie mark. I was told my sister and I probably would never get one. Show me this place and then I will see what I can do. “
The pegasus looked at Luna and saluted her. She then flew off with Luna in tow. They flew for about three minutes and came to what appeared to be an ancient castle, but it looked unlike anything the humans had built. As Luna got close she could feel magic emanating off of it. It was in good shape, and even the trees hadn’t growing into it. She had a feeling that the reason it was still in such good shape was the magic was protecting it and hid it from anyone without magic.
“Lead all the ponies that are with us here. We shall use this place for now. I am going to stay here to try and see if I can fix the moon somehow. Oh, and what is your name?” Luna inquired of the pegasus.
“My name is Rainbow Flash. Fastest pegasus I know of.” She puffed out her chest. “I will get them here Miss Luna.” Then she darted off in hurry to get the rest of the ponies to the castle.
Luna now left to her own thoughts looked at her flank again and thought on it. It did seem that the moon eclipsed the sun when she began to fully release her magic even though there was not supposed to be a solar eclipse now. She reached out with her magic now fully at her command, and felt the moon. It felt right to her as if she was meant to be in control of it. She willed it back into its normal position, and felt it resist at first but then give. The moon slowly moved out from in front of the sun and returned to its original position in the sky.
Now with that fixed she knew her next course of action. She knew Celestia would be hard to sell on this revolution she had started, but what if she could make another Alicorn to help her. She remembered something Eric had said to her before he tortured her. That they had developed another serum to produce an Alicorn with different genes should they ever need to bred them, but she had never heard of it being used. She had overheard a few of the others talk of it too. Supposedly it didn’t have the human genes in it, because it was meant to be used on a human. She assumed that was another reason it was never used. She began to plan her infiltration into Lunar Technologies.
Ryan and Celestia watched events on the TV unfold with horror. They knew who the mysterious Alicorn was, but didn’t understand how it could be Luna. Her appearance had been so radically altered. The reporter and her camera man were still recording the aftermath of the fireball Luna had used to cover the escape of the ponies. Police officers were being pulled from the scorch earth many wounded from cooked off rounds and even a few dead. The earth itself was scorched black and there were a few bodies of ponies killed by the police at the edge of the fireball. Those offices not caught in the blast had started searching the edge of the tree line for clues to where to ponies had gone.
The area itself was very secluded with one large farm house with multiple bedrooms, and a large barn with stables to house all the ponies that were kept there. It was surrounded on all sides by woods for miles. There was only one access road caught through the woods to access the property, and that had a metal gate that could be closed to keep people out. There were no trespassing signs all along the roads to try and keep people out.
Ryan was the first to speak, “We have to find her Celestia. She is in danger and doesn’t know it. Mr. Burns isn’t going to just let this go; it is his company’s reputation on the line. I should be able to track her location with the chip that is implanted in her. It also works as a small GPS device. And I need to find some place for you to hide. They will be coming for you too.”
Celestia looked at Ryan and nodded, “I don’t fully understand, but I will trust you. But please bring Luna back to me. I don’t want to see anything happen to her, she is just scared and upset. The creep managed to still cause her pain after so much time. When you find her though you should bring me, I can talk to her and get her to come home. Besides it isn’t like Mr. Burns knows for sure that was one of us. Like you said her appearance was altered. “
Ryan led her downstairs and made a few phone calls. He called his on again off again girlfriend, and asked her for help, “Claire I know we aren’t on the best of terms right now, but you always said you loved the girls. Well, something happen and I need you to let Celestia stay with you for awhile, but you can’t let anyone know she is there. I am worried about her safety, and think my company might be looking to recall her back to the lab.” Ryan listened to Claire for a few seconds. “Look I understand that, but you are the only one I trust to keep her safe and hidden. You have made it clear that you hold your morals above money, and that makes you the best person for this.”
He listened to a Claire for a few more minutes and then responded, “Ok, I promise I will explain everything to you as soon as I figure it all out. You will be the first person I tell. Thank you so much for this Claire. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to my girls.” He turned to Celestia with tears in his eyes. “You are going to stay with Claire for a bit she is going to be her shortly with her van. You listen to her and be a good girl, okay?”
Celestia looked at Ryan hold back tears of her own. She had never seen him like this before. He had always showed them a strong front that allowed for no question of his authority. “Of course dad, I will be a good girl.” Tears started to fall as she got closer to Ryan and wrapped her hooves around him in a hug.
At first Ryan started and had a look of surprise on his face, because they had never been so open with each other about their emotions. The fact she had called him dad touched him deep down inside. Until now he had been lying to himself saying he was just protecting his creations, but in truth they were his daughters. He wrapped his arms around Celestia’s neck and hugged her back, letting his tears fall as well. “I will, I will bring her back to us I promise. Now, you go get ready to go. We don’t want to keep Claire waiting when she gets here.” He let her go, but felt her linger a moment longer.
Then she let him go and turned around heading to her bedroom to pack her things. She tried to rein in her tears, but they wouldn’t stop falling. So she did her best to get there through the blur of her teary eyes. She made it to her room and began to pack what little she thought she would need. Since they really didn’t wear clothes expect as a game, but she packed some anyways. She was part of the way through as she had to stop and cry. Everything was just so wrong. This wasn’t the way things were suppose to be. She didn’t mean to tease Luna about her diary; she was just trying to have a little fun. Now, Luna had gone off somewhere and attacked police officers on national TV. It was her fault, if she hadn’t of caused a problem with Luna none of this would have happened. Now all she could do is go hide while Ryan fixed everything.
Ryan watched Celestia walk upstairs to her room and could see she wasn’t taking it well, but he had no choice. It was only a matter of time before the truth about the control chips being faulty came out. He knew it would eventually, but he hoped that it would come out in a way that made it seem a small thing. Now, an Alicorn had attacked and even killed police officers, this was going to be a PR nightmare for Lunar Technologies, and probably meant that he was going to have a lot of explaining to do. He walked over to the security door that lead to his private lab, and punched in the combo to open it. His tears were still drying on his cheek and threatening to spill over again, but he knew he didn’t have the time to cry now. He had to fix this somehow. He felt responsible, because he didn’t bother to talk with Luna about what had been bothering her. He felt he had failed her as both her guardian and father.
He walked over to his computer and placed his finger on the biometric scanner. There was a short pause and then the screen came up. He opened the program that logged all the movements of his girls. The control chip sent the GPS information to be logged every ten seconds so that there was a precise movement log. He went into Luna’s movements and it at first couldn’t make sense of what he was looking at. He understood everything up to the time she was in her room, but then it suddenly said that she had moved five hundred miles in under ten seconds. And right before that the chip had tried to institute level four control measures but had been overpowered. Then it hit him, and he couldn’t believe what this meant. He was looking at it in the terms of science and that what had happen was impossible, but then he realized magic didn’t follow the rules of science. Luna had learned to somehow teleport herself without anyone knowing. He smiled slightly to himself, because he felt a swell of fatherly pride for Luna. He hadn’t realized just how smart she was, because she stayed quiet most times. She only really talked to Celestia.
He then reviewed the logs more and noticed that Luna had gone into the woods and spent quite awhile in an area with nothing in it but trees. Then the chip reported a level five control measure was attempted. He couldn’t believe it, that was meant to kill and was suppose to be a last resort measure. It seemed though the chip failed that it had been completely fried by something before it could complete the level five measure. It wasn’t reporting anymore which meant the control chip was completely destroyed. Well, at least he had someplace to start; he wrote down the coordinates and headed back up.
Claire was just pulling up as he came out of the lab, and he headed to let her in. Claire stood about five foot six inches tall with black hair and deep blue eyes. She had a lithe body and carried herself with an air of someone with breeding, but knew she was not above everyone else. She smiled as Ryan let her in, “Is she ready? We have to hurry up because I don’t want to take the chance of running into Mr. Burn’s personal security.” She said to him her voice carrying a musical tone to it, but with an undertone of seriousness.
“Let me go check on her she should be almost done.” Ryan said after closing the door behind Claire. He walked upstairs to Celestia’s room and knocked on the door before walking in. As he opened up the door he saw her standing up hastily from her bed. Her coat around her eyes was wet and she looked like she had been crying. He walked over and gave her another hug saying, “It will be ok. I think I know where she is and will find a way to get there without anyone following me. I am going to do everything I can to make sure she is safe. Though I am not sure she even needs me. Now grab your stuff and head downstairs. Claire is waiting for you.” He let her go and watched her grab her saddle bags and head downstairs. He stayed there for a bit, something told him it might be the last time he saw this room, and his daughter.
He walked out if the room with a small dark blue book in his hand. As he got downstairs he smiled at the two girls and walked over to Celestia. He showed her the dark blue book and then placed it in her saddle bags, “Keep it safe for your sister. She will want it when she sees you again, I am sure of it. Now, go with Claire and be a good girl. Remember everything I taught you and I will see you once I have found Luna.” He hugged Celestia one more time holding back his tears. Then he walked over to Claire and whispered something in her ear. He then smiled and walked into the garage.
Claire smiled at Celestia, “Come on he has a lot he has to do, and we need to get you to my place to settle in. I am sure it will only be for a few days.” She opened up the door and waited for Celestia walked through.
Celestia stopped half across the threshold and looked back towards the garage. She suddenly had a feeling of finality, almost like she would never come back to this house and something more, but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. She sighed and walked through but not before magically bringing a picture of Luna, Ryan and herself happy together in front of the house. It was taking the first day they had come to live with him two years ago, and now it seemed so long ago. They were all happy and it seemed those days would never end, but now it seemed all that had been a dream. She walked to Claire’s van and waited for Claire to open the back door for her. She then climbed in back. As Claire pulled down the driveway Celestia looked at the only home she had ever known and couldn’t shake the feeling it was her last time to see it. She then saw her father standing in the front door watch her drive way. Celestia finally couldn’t take it anymore and broke down into a crying fit holding the picture. She cried until she fell asleep.
Ryan watched as his other daughter left with the closest friend he ever had. He knew now that this was the last he would see of her. He saw that she took a picture off the fire mantle and smiled to himself. At least she would always have something to remember the happier times they had. He then turned around and grabbed the bag he had packed with some hiking supplies that he would need to make his way to the place where Luna was last known to be. He then pulled out his cell phone as he walked into the garage. “Go my dearest daughter Celestia, live a good life, and protect and love your sister. You two are my legacy to the world.”
Luna was going over in her head what she remembered about the layout of Lunar Technologies labs. She used her magic to levitate a stick and began drawing a sketch in the dust on the floor, when she heard the ponies arriving. There was more than she thought there would be. Rainbow Flash was leading the way to the castle there was at least a dozen pegasi, ten unicorns, and a couple dozen earth ponies. Some of them were wounded and be taking to an area that seemed the best place to tend their wounds with plush beds. The castle was unlike a design seen by human eyes before. It had a wall with guard towers like any normal castles and a main fortress in the center of the walls, but what made it unusual was the tower that came out of the center of the fortress that was actually a tree turn into a structure. The center of it was hollowed out with a spiral staircase and one to two rooms on each floor. From the outside it looked like a large tree that had growing out of the middle of the fortress. Luna had gone up to the top of this tower to move the moon and now made her way back down.
As she got to the bottom a unicorn had already started to organize everything she carried a cutie mark with a five point star on her flank. Luna just sat back and watched her for a bit. “No, pegasi are being housed in the east wing with the unicorns. Where is the pony that I sent to find a kitchen? You go find Apple, make sure he didn’t get lost or something. “She pointed at a pretty yellow pegasus with this demand. The response was barely audible, and the pegasus flew off being overly cautious not to bump into anyone.
Luna walked up behind the purple unicorn giving the orders, the unicorn’s mane and tail was a dark blue with a purple and a pink streak through it, Luna came around to face the unicorn, “ What is thy name miss?”
The unicorn at first didn’t seem to respond as she was going over her check list of things that needed to be done to make the castle livable. She started speaking to herself, “Check for food and food prep area, Check. Check for comfortable place for wounded, Check. Find a place for the non-wounded to sleep….” Luna nudged her gently with one of her wings. She looked up in a bit of a daze and then started, “I-I am sorry, I was just making sure everything is in order, you Highness.” She then bowed before her in a sign of respect.
Luna was uncomfortable with this attitude towards her and didn’t understand where it came from. She took the unicorn’s face in her hooves and brought it back up. Looking into her eyes Luna said, “I am no pony important, you don’t need to bow to me. In fact no pony here has to ever bow to any creature every again. We are free and shall free all our brothers and sisters still in bondage, including my dearest sister.” Luna’s voice had become louder as she said this until her voice was booming throughout the castle. When she finished she realized that everypony was staring at her. She blushed a bit and smiled shyly, “I am sorry everypony. I got a bit carried away with what I was saying, but I believe in the words that I spoke. We shall free all ponies everywhere.” Turning back to the purple unicorn once the other ponies turned back to what they were doing, “Now, my little pony what is your name?” Luna asked politely.
The purple unicorn smiled at Luna as she picked herself up from her bow, “I am known simply as Sparkle, since I have a talent for magic and it causes my horn to sparkle.” Sparkle blushed a bit at the end of the statement.
“Why is it everypony seems to listen to you and you don’t seem to have any scars unlike the rest?” Luna inquired of Sparkle.
“Well, it is a bit of a long story, one second.” Sparkle turned around to speak with a grey pegasus mare with blonde mane and tail, “No, no Ditzy Doo I told you to take the blankets to the infirmary not outside.”
Ditzy Doo blushed, a deep red, and replied, “My bad Miss Sparkle.” She looked around and blushing once more asked Sparkle, “Which way is that again?”
“Down that hallway to the right Ditzy, that is where Flutter said she found it.” Sparkle turned back to Luna as Ditzy flew down the right hallway with a hoof load of blankets. “I am so sorry about that your High…. I mean Luna. I was “special” Eric kept me for himself, but not before they tried to treat me like the rest. It is a long story, but in short when they tried I lost control of my magic and one of them got hurt really bad. From then Eric kept me away from everyone but him. He let me organize things so the rest of the ponies got better treatment than before, but I couldn’t stop them from doing the worst of it. I was just able to make sure they got fed and the wounds after sessions treated. Eric made it clear that he didn’t care about us, just the money he was making off us. He also talked about you very often. Eric told us that you were the reason we all existed to begin with, and that he hated you for costing him his job. You became a bit of an icon of hope for us, because you were the first pony to ever hurt him.” Sparkle blushed again a bit. “Look at me rambling on. I am sorry, if you want to know more about what had gone on at that camp then ask Flutter, she got the worst of most of it. I spent most my time in Eric’s room when not tending to the other ponies. Now if you excuse me I need to go see if they found the kitchen yet.” She waited a few seconds for Luna to nod approval and then Sparkle trotted down the left hallway the direction Flutter had traveled.
Luna walked through the castle, the open passageways lined with stained glass windows depicting events that she had never read in history books. They seemed to show a race that looked a lot like the elves written about in myths. It showed them battling the humans, at first they seemed to win, but then it seemed the humans began to develop technology to counter the elves magic. Further down the hallway it showed that even some humans joined the elves, human mages. As the human mages appeared to rally against their own the humans seemed to shun the magic and rely on their technology. The battles started to depict more and more mythological races rallying with the elves, but the human’s technology was overpowering them and their armies seemed endless. The last pane showed all the non-humans and human mages coming together over a magical device performing a ritual and the humans walking past them with a bewildered look on their faces.
Luna looked at this last panel, because she had never heard of anything mentioned in myth or history about it. In fact this whole castle seemed like a dream. This shouldn’t exist here and everything depicted in these windows could never happen according to human history. She was here though in this castle and began to wonder if these events in the windows could be true. If it was it gave her an idea on how to save all the ponies, but she would need to find the ritual the magical races used to hide themselves. This meant she needed to keep Sparkle close if she was as gifted in magic as she claimed. Luna walked back to the top of the tower to think about this and wait for night. Tonight she was going to Lunar Technologies to retrieve the Alicorn serum she had heard about, because they were going to need an Alicorn with a human’s gift for war.
