Author's Note: Sorry, this took a little longer then I planned to get out. But it's another fairly long chapter coming in at over 10,000 words. Hope you enjoy!

The God Particle

Chapter 26: And the Sun Rises

Even though it was well after one-o’clock in the morning, Canterlot was still buzzing with activity. James worked his way through the crowd with his guard escort, bumping into ponies on several occasions. Another bright flash of light and a loud crack like thunder split the night as a firework exploded overhead. Eventually, the two of them arrived at the castle, the guard pony clearing a path for him to make his way to the main door and inside.

Once inside, he automatically turned to the right and started walking towards the throne room—it was also the direction of the stairwell that lead up to the princesses’ private chambers.

“This way,” the guard pony motioned to the left instead.

He nodded. The guard turned down several corridors, eventually coming to a magically locked door which he unlocked with his horn. Behind the door, a spiral staircase descending downward. He followed the unicorn as he started down the stairs, almost jumping slightly when the heavy door closed behind him and the iron lock fell into place with a booming sound that echoed back from whatever was at the bottom of the staircase. This was a part of the castle he had never been in before. Other than the dungeon and the royal archives, he had no idea what else lay in the subterranean parts of the castle.

At the end of the spiral staircase, the guard began to walk down another corridor. Unlike the rest of the castle, the stone walls in this corridor were bare, their slate gray walls in stark contrast to the vibrant tapestry covered walls in the castle upstairs. He assumed visitors were rarely taken to this part of the castle, given the lack of attention to aesthetics.

They came to another locked door—this one made of reinforced steel. Once again, the guard magically unlocked it and began to lead him down another spiral staircase. The door closed behind them and he heard the heavy locks falling into place as the guard lead him deeper and deeper underground.

“Where are you taking me?” he finally asked, trying to keep the nervousness from invading his voice.

“You’ll find out,” the guard responded, continuing to lead him down the stairs.

The bottom of the staircase opened up into a small square room, again with none of the tapestries or other royal decorations common in the rest of the castle. The air here smelled stale and musty, like the smell of a moldy cellar in the basement of an old house. It smelled as if there was little to no outside ventilation. His guard escort proceeded down a nearly dark hallway to the right, dim lights spaced on top of one wall only lighting the way enough so that one could see which direction to go without bumping into walls. It resembled a subway tunnel, curving off in the distance to he didn’t know where.

The further they walked, the more concerned he became. A feeling that he was being lead to his own doom started to overcome him and he could feel his heart starting to beat faster, the adrenaline starting to flow. Eventually, they came to the end of the tunnel. A very heavy reinforced door blocked the path. Slowly, it started to open, the sound echoing back through the tunnel like roaring thunder as the heavy door inched its way further and further open. A small but growing shaft of light illuminated the floor, bringing at least some relief of his ominous feeling. At least it was light on the other side of the door.

As the door opened further, it became apparent how truly massive it was. He estimated its width to be three feet or more of reinforced concrete and steel. Eight steel bolts as thick around as his arm had been holding the door locked shut. He guessed it had to weigh at least ten thousand kilograms and he didn’t see how one unicorn, even using magic, would be able to move it. His suspicions were confirmed as if opened further and he saw an entire battalion of unicorn guards on the other side. Once it had opened wide enough to pass through, his guard escort lead him inside. Immediately, the door started to close again.

Inside, he found himself in an open well lighted room. In contrast to the gray stone walls of the corridors they had walked down to get here, the walls here had tapestries bearing the royal symbols of Celestia and Luna. There were sitting areas along the wall and a couple of tables in the room. The air, which had smelled stale on the way here, was fresh and clean. His nervousness started to decrease slightly, but he still jumped at the loud boom when the large door closed and the huge locking bolts re-engaged. He subconsciously slowed down to glance around the room more.

“Come quickly now,” his guard escort said, motioning him down the hallway on the other side of the room. He stopped about half way down, turned to his right, magically opening another door. “In here,” he said, pointing inside the door with his horn. James walked down the hall and entered the room.

Once inside, he stopped and took in the strange sight before him. At the center of the room, a large round table made from stone. Standing around the table, several ponies wearing hooded robes, although none of them actually had the hoods up. The color of the robes was split vertically—Celestial white on one half, and Lunar purple on the other. On the front of the robes, Celestia’s blazing sun was embroidered on one side. On the other side, Luna’s crescent moon.

Other than the robed ponies, Swordstorm, whom he recognized as captain of the Pegasus Guard, was there, as were two very high ranking unicorn guards—one in solar armor, the other in lunar armor. He assumed they must be the captains of the Celestial and Lunar Guard.

All of the robed ponies turned to look at him, giving him strange and indecipherable looks. He turned his head to look at his guard who motioned him towards the table with a forehoof. He did as the guard prompted, finding an empty spot at the table. The robed ponies continued to look at him strangely, but none of them said anything. Their looks were starting to make him nervous again, for it was as if the ponies around the table were nervous themselves. The solid stone table, he noticed, had a large crack down the middle of it.

The door he had entered through opened again. He turned to see both princesses walking through it. He bowed, as did all of the robed ponies in the room. The two royal sisters proceeded to two empty spots at the table that were next to each other. He heard the door close again.

“You may all be seated,” he head Celestia say. He stood up in unison with the ponies. Glancing at the door out of the corner of his eye, he noticed it was closed again. The unicorn guard that had escorted him to the room was nowhere in sight now.

“Your Majesty,” a robed unicorn began, looking at Celestia. “I am compelled to remind you that per laws you established yourself, outsiders are not allowed in any Council meetings. Shouldn’t he be removed before we start?” he motioned towards James with his horn as he said the word he.

“He is here at my request. He has been working on an object of relevance and I want his expert opinion. I wish for him to be here. If you have no further objections.” It was a statement. Not a question.

“As you wish, Your Majesty. I have no more objections,” the robed unicorn responded, bowing his head respectfully to his princesses.

Celestia nodded and turned to look at James. “This is a meeting of the Royal Council. Whatever happens behind these doors—whatever is said behind these doors, no matter what it is, does not leave this room without permission from either me or my sister. Understood?”

“Y-Yes, Your Majesty,” he said, feeling some of the nervousness return to him now that he knew what he had been brought to.

“Good. You may speak freely here, James. Of anything you feel is of importance. There are no secrets in this room. Not even the ones I told you not to speak of with anypony.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

She smiled slightly at him in a calming way before turning her head to face the Pegasus Guard captain. “Then let us begin. Captain Swordstorm, if you would.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” the captain responded, all eyes turning to him. “Approximately thirty minutes ago, two of my guards on high altitude patrol above the city witnessed an object with a green glow surrounding it rising to the sky far to the North. The object, at the time of spotting, was approximately fifteen-thousand strides above the ground. It continued to rise rapidly until they lost sight of it. About five minutes later, an object resembling a fireball, trailing a long stream of flame behind it, appeared at a very high altitude, also far to the North. Within about thirty seconds, the fireball seemed to disappear. But approximately one minute later, some type of impact was observed on the ground as indicated by an orange flash of flame. The flash of flame was just that. A flash. It quickly dissipated and no further events were seen afterward.”

James listened as the captain spoke. A stride, he had long since learned, was the approximate distance that an adult pony could cover in one slow trotting motion. He estimated it to be about six feet. That meant the object had been around ninety-thousand feet up by the time the Pegasus Guards had spotted it. If it been that far up before it appeared over the horizon, it must have been very far North indeed.

“Thank you, Captain,” Celestia nodded to him, then looked around the table. “Thoughts?”

“An attempt at launching something into orbit around the planet,” one of the robed ponies who he now assumed must be one of the council members responded. “Conducted at night during the Summer Sun Celebration because lots of ponies would be watching the sky. A bold move to make a statement, and possibly cause fear and uncertainty among your subjects, Your Majesty.”

“I agree, Your Majesty. It sounds like some sort of attempted satellite launch,” James responded. “A failed one from the description given by the captain … But as far as an attempt to make a statement or cause fear … It’s possible, but there’s another hypothesis that comes to mind.”

“Go on,” Celestia responded, all eyes in the room on him now.

“Well, it’s possible that instead of choosing tonight to do it so that everypony would see it, they actually chose tonight hoping that nopony would see it. That it would be mistaken for just another firework. Or maybe that it wouldn’t be noticed at all because security would be so focused on Canterlot and the Celebration that nopony would even be looking that far North.”

“I agree,” Swordstorm said. “They were probably hoping we would miss it. But nothing slips passed my guards,” he said with a note of pride in his voice.

“Indeed, it does not,” Celestia smiled at him.

“What of the safety of the princesses?” the unicorn that he assumed was the captain of the Celestial Guard interjected. “We rushed them both down here as soon as we heard of this object rising into the sky. Are the princesses in any immediate danger?”

James shook his head. “From the object itself? Very unlikely. Whatever it was either failed to achieve orbit, or was intentionally designed not to do so. The fireball the Pegasus Guards saw was almost certainly the object reentering the atmosphere. I suspect it was a case of failing to achieve orbit rather than intentional design. Unless the recovery system failed as well. From what Captain Swordstorm has said, they made no attempt to slow the object’s descent.”

This time, it was Luna who spoke. “So what do we do now?”

“My suggestion, Your Majesty?” he asked, getting a nod from her before continuing. “The fact that they saw an impact means at least part of it survived reentry. In the morning, we definitely try to find the object and grab it. Send out Pegasus Guards to search the area where it appeared to come down, Your Majesty.”

“That will be difficult at best,” Captain Swordstorm responded. “Especially to find it before whoever sent it up there does. Even during the day, it would be difficult to tell exactly how far North it came down. At night, it would have been almost impossible.”

“It will be hard, Captain. Yes,” James admitted. “But assuming it was a failed launch, whoever launched it probably doesn’t know exactly where it came down either. And if they were observing it from the ground, they might know even less than your guards do. Also, your guards can no doubt cover much more search area in less time than they can due to strength of numbers. There’s also the fact that if they suspect your guards are out there looking, they will have to lay low. Lest they be spotted.”

“True. We may have a chance of finding it before they do. But at the speed it came down, it no doubt buried itself deep underground—if it even came down on the ground. What if it landed in the water?”

“That could be a problem,” James agreed. “If it came down in the water, it will be difficult, if not impossible to find. But if it came down over land, given the flash your guards reported seeing, I suspect there will be significant damage to vegetation surrounding the area. It should be visible from the air. And if it came down close enough to a town, it’s possible other ponies saw it as well. Maybe we will get some leads.

“If you find it, Captain. Keep your guards a safe distance away from it. The one we have been working on is radioactive. Spending a lot of time near it would be dangerous. Radiation drops off rapidly with distance from the source though. I would suggest your guards take one of the radiation detectors from the physics lab with them to make sure they are a safe distance away.”

Celestia nodded. “Any other thought from any of you?”

James spoke up again. “All that being said, Your Majesty … I cannot conclusively rule out the possibility that this was an attempted attack on Canterlot … designed to take place when there would be a lot of ponies here. I think it’s unlikely, but I can’t rule it out.”

“He’s right, Your Majesty,” another council member, an earth pony responded. “We should cancel the festivities tomorrow. It would be unwise for you to appear in public with this potential threat hanging over the city. And we should evacuate you and Princess Luna to alternate secure and secret locations until we are sure there is no danger in Canterlot.”

Celestia shook her head. “I will not let fear rule my kingdom. Nor will I run away from my duties. The festivities will go on as planned.”

The council member looked down for a moment, wrinkling his brow and appearing slightly frustrated at Celestia’s response. He quickly hid it, however, and then looked back up.

“As you wish, Your Majesty,” he deferred.

“What should we tell the citizens, Your Majesty?” Captain Swordstorm asked.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. There is no sense in causing panic over something that isn’t likely to be an immediate threat. I would that they enjoy the Summer Sun Celebration without the specter of threats falling from space looming over them.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

“Report directly to me as soon as you find anything,” she said, then turned to the council members again. “You may all return to your quarters. Thank you for responding and arriving here so quickly.”

As the princesses turned and started to leave, all of the council members stood, then knelt and bowed. James followed their lead. None of them rose again until after the two royal sisters had left the room. Then, they started filing out of the room as well.

“Come on. I’ll take you back to the main entrance.” He turned to see the same guard that had lead him down here earlier standing in the doorway. He nodded and followed. The guard lead him back down the dark corridors, them up the stairwells, finally arriving at the main entrance. As the unicorn guards posted at the door started to open it and he began to walk out, he was stopped by a forehoof hooking under his arm. He turned, looking at his guard escort.

“Remember the admonishment of Her Majesty. Whatever happens down there … Whatever is said down there, stays down there. Speak of with this with nopony … and no anything else for that matter either.”

“... Of course, sir,” he responded. “Thank you.” He turned towards the door again, walking out into the night, another firework exploding just outside of the courtyard walls.

“Have a good night, Doctor Peterson.”

“Thank you … You as well.” He continued down the path towards the gate. The guards posted at it raised it just enough for him to walk under. He thanked them, then started on his way back towards the Academy dorm.

Just how deep does this rabbit hole go? he thought to himself. He had gotten used to the fact that his world was now ruled by ponies. And he had known that there was a royal council—presumably made up of the princesses’ most trusted and loyal advisors. But that was about all he knew about the Royal Council until now. It was pretty much all anypony knew about them. The Council didn’t exactly advertise their business publicly. The extent of their involvement in the high level affairs of Equestria was something most ponies didn’t know. The ones that did know, didn’t talk about it. Until now, he had never actually seen a council member before. He hadn’t expected them to be dressed in strange robes—the geek in him wanted to make connections to the Jedi council. But that was silly, so he tried to keep his mind from going there.

Arriving back at the dorm, he climbed the stairs to his room, flopping down on the bed once inside. He turned his head, glanced at the clock on the wall. Just after three-o’clock. He thought about trying to go back to sleep, but it seemed very unlikely that sleep would come. And besides, he had to be up again in just over two hours. Instead, he thought about the developments from the Council meeting.

Why would they want to launch something into space? Of course, the thought that it might be some kind of missile concerned him. But what would its payload have been? Probably not another one of the objects like he had been studying. He could think of no possible use of launching that object into space, nor could he think of any possible use of lobbing it into Canterlot and having it land in the city somewhere.

Of course, there was also the question of how they performed the launch. Swordstorm had said his guards reported the object was surrounded by a green glow. Furthermore, the guards had not reported any flame trail while the object was ascending. Only while it was descending.  Perhaps they had used some type of magic instead of a rocket to launch the device?

Unfortunately, there was nothing to do now except wait and hope that Captain Swordstorm and his Pegasus Guards would  be able to locate the object.

An hour later, he began to get ready for the Raising of the Sun ceremony, again showering, grooming with impeccable detail, and putting on the class 1A uniform.

It was still very early in the morning and completely dark except for the ever present lights of Canterlot outside. But it may as well have been a friday afternoon given the crowds of ponies that were already out, or more likely, still out because they had never gone to bed the night before.

The sky above was as clear as freshly cleaned glass. The pegasus weather ponies were hard at work now keeping the sky completely free of clouds, doing everything possible to ensure that, at least on this special day, when Celestia raised the sun in about an hour, there would not be a single cloud in the sky above Canterlot to mar it.

The constant drum of fireworks had finally ceased—for there was now a ban in effect to ensure the safety of the weather pegasi flying overhead. The ban would not be lifted until after The Raising of the Sun ceremony was complete and Princess Celestia was safely back in the castle.

The noise of the pyrotechnics had been replaced with the near constant sound of rushing wind now as the Pegasus Guard patrolled the skies over and around Canterlot, vigilantly keeping watch for any airborne threats, as well as closely watching the crowds on the ground for anything that looked out of the ordinary.

Right now, there was a ban on flight over Canterlot. Only the Pegasus Guard and the weather teams were allowed in the skies over or anywhere near the city. Any other pegasi, griffins, dragons, or other flying creatures that came within thirty miles of Canterlot would be immediately turned back or forced to the ground. The ban would remain in effect until after Princess Celestia had raised the sun.

Suddenly, he was stopped in his tracks as Rainbow Dash landed in front of him. As usual, she almost landed on top of him.

“There you are! Come on! We’ve been waiting for you!” She motioned for him to follow her.

He shook his head, but followed without argument. “Practicing those spot landings again are you? See how close you can land next to me without actually landing on top of me? You know you’re not supposed to be flying, right Rainbow? All of Canterlot is in a no-fly zone right now unless you are a Pegasus Guard or one of the Canterlot weather pegasi.”

She scoffed in response. “Let ‘em try and catch me. There’s not one guard in the entire Pegasus Flying Corps that is fast enough to do it.”

“I don’t doubt that,” he stated flatly. “So did you all stay up the whole night?”

“I did. And Pinkie Pie did. The others slept for a little while. As long as Pinkie would allow them to anyway.”

He nodded and continued following her, waving to Twilight and the others as he spotted them in the distance, then looking back at Rainbow.

“Have any of you had breakfast yet? We have some time if we hurry.”

“Nope, we were waiting for you.”

“Alright. Sounds good. I’m hoping we’ll run into Theory Point there as well,” he said as they joined the rest of the ponies from Ponyville. They exchanged quick greetings, then he lead them off to breakfast.

As they walked to the restaurant, he tried to keep them from detecting his nervousness.  But always, he was watchful, scanning the sky as best he could without them noticing, keeping an eye on the crowds for anything that looked at all out of the ordinary. Sometimes, he would get the feeling they were being followed only to look behind them and find nothing. And through it all, he found he was more concerned for Twilight’s safety than he was for his own.

“Is something wrong, James? Ya look like yur expectin’ somethin’,” AJ suddenly said, looking at him.

“Huh? Oh. I’m just looking for some of my friends from the Academy. And watching the Pegasus Guards work,” he lied.

She gave him a short sideways glance, but then seemed to accept his answer.

They arrived at the restaurant without incident, quickly grabbing one of the last available tables—for it was already packed with ponies from out of town. Eventually, he spotted Theory Point at another table. He waved to her, and she nodded and came over.

“Hey Theory. These are my friends I told you about.”

“Oh? A pleasure to meet you,” she responded, looking them over. When her eyes passed over Twilight, he thought he could detect a slightly cold look in them. The tone of her voice had what he thought was a hint of insincerity in it.

“Likewise,” Twilight responded, the same hint of insincerity in her voice.

He blinked and was silent. There was a certain amount of tension in the air between the two unicorns. It was subtle, but it was definitely there. Was he somehow the object of jealousy between the two of them? Not necessarily a romantic type of jealousy. But a scientific type of jealousy? Being what he was, and being what they were, he was obviously of great scientific interest to both of them. Was it a jealousy of possession? As if he were some golden artifact of great value that both of them wanted to own, but only one could have? A prize to be won by one of them?

“I’m uh … gonna go see if I can find Delta and the others,” Theory Point finally spoke up. “It was nice meeting you all,” she said in a tone that sounded somewhat forced and insincere.

“Likewise,” Twilight responded, sounding equally insincere as Theory Point trotted off to the other side of the crowded restaurant.

Well, that was awkward, he thought to himself as he turned to look back at the ponies gathered around the table. For several long seconds, there was an uneasy silence. He wondered if all of them except for Twilight were thinking the same thing he was. Eventually, Applejack spoke up, breaking the tension at the table.

“Ya know, with as crowded as this place is, I dunno if we’re gonna have time to eat. Maybe we should wait until after the ceremony?”

James nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s probably a good idea. Come on. Lets go. I found the perfect spot for us where we will have a great view. And there won’t be any crowds.”

They got up, left the restaurant, again having to wiggle their way through the massive crowds of ponies. Once outside, they made their way to the Academy campus, where he led them inside the physics building. They climbed several flights of stairs, coming to a featureless metal door at the top. He used his building keys to unlock it, leading them out onto the roof of the building.

From here, they had a spectacular view of the castle, and of the platform where Celestia would land to raise the sun. Several Celestial Guard members were also stationed on the roof, as they were on any roof that provided a potential line of target to the platform where the Princess would be. But they recognized James, and said nothing.

A rushing sound overhead as three Pegasus Guards flew over the building. The guards eyed him and his pony companions for a few moments, but upon recognizing them, did not stop to investigate.

“Wow! The view from up here really is awesome!” Rainbow Dash commented.

Yes, the view from the top of the physics building was amazing. But truth be told, that wasn’t his primary motivation for bringing them up here. The real reason was that he wanted to get them away from the crowds—away from the possibility that anything could sneak up and attempt to harm one of them in the mass confusion of the crowds. Up here, he would see anything approaching the building from a long ways off. As far as threats from the sky, he had faith in the Pegasus Guard—that they would deal with any of those threats before they got anywhere near Canterlot, and that anything that was already in Canterlot and attempted to leave the ground would be intercepted before getting very far.

He looked around the roof once, then turned back to them. “I’ll be right back,” he said. then he walked away from them. They watched him for a moment, then turned back to look out over the edge of the building at the crowds below.

Perfect, they weren’t watching him. He used the opportunity to scout out the roof, checking every space that could potentially be used for hiding. Even though he knew the Celestial Guards stationed on the roof had no doubt already cleared every potential hiding spot, he checked behind every smokestack, every ventilation shaft. Was he becoming paranoid? He wasn’t sure. But in this case, it seemed like an over-abundance of caution couldn’t hurt anything. And he was absolutely determined not to let any harm come to Twilight, or any of the others … But especially not to Twilight …

Finding nothing, he returned to the rest of them, looking out over the roof again to make sure nothing was approaching the building.

“You seem mighty nervous, James,” Applejack commented.

“Oh … Well, first Summer Sun Celebration and all. Nervous, but mostly excited.” He smiled awkwardly.

She continued looking at him, but said nothing. He could feel her staring into eyes though, as if she were trying to read them. He was certain she didn’t believe him. Lying to the Element of Honesty, he thought to himself. Of course she can tell you are lying.

The sound of trumpets from below diverted both his and her attention back forward. The ceremony was beginning. He breathed a sigh of relief that it had distracted AJ. At least he wouldn’t have explain himself to her. At least not for the time being.

The regal trumpets finished their majestic call. All eyes went to the towers of the castle. For security reasons, nopony that did not need to know, knew which tower Celestia was in. Or which one she would appear from.

The constant roar of the crowd had gone silent as all waited expectantly, scanning the towers of the castle looking for any sign of Celestia’s appearance. The only sound now, the constant roar of rushing wind as the Pegasus Guards continued their patrols overhead. The air was alive with anticipation, electrified with excitement.

A loud roar of wind, like a squadron of fighter jets flying over in full afterburner as a delta formation of Celestial Guards flew overhead towards the castle, flirting with the sound barrier, but not quite breaking it. As they approached the castle, three of them banked sharply, breaking off from the formation and descending rapidly towards one of the towers. They leveled out just in front of the tower, joined by three more Celestial Guards who had flown out of the window of the tower. And in the center of their formation, was Celestia herself, in all her regal solar glory. The three that had remained in formation had made a sharp turn, now guarding the skies above the Princess.

The once silent crowd was now alive with excitement, ponies pointing at the tower she and her guards had emerged from.

Celestia and her escort flew out beyond the platform, still flirting on the edge of the sound barrier as evidenced by the loud roar and the occasional vapor cone that would materialize into view and then dissipate in front of the formation. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Rainbow Dash staring up in the sky, no doubt dreaming of being up there with them.

The formation made a tight turn, expertly maintaining a constant distance apart from each other as they started to descend towards the platform. As they approached it, Celestia and three of the guards in the formation flared their wings, transforming from near supersonic flight to a graceful feather like landing in the blink of an eye. The remaining guards that had not landed with her closed up the formation and pitched up sharply, climbing back into the sky and resuming their patrol overhead, ensuring no harm would come to The Princess on this day.

The ponies gathered below became even more alive, cheering their Princess loudly, competing with the roar of the Pegasus Guards overhead to see which one of them could make the most noise. The crowd seemed to stretch on forever, the end of it nowhere in sight.

He became more excited as well, but with his increasing excitement, also came increasing nervousness. He had told the Captain of the Celestial Guard at the Council meeting that he didn’t think there was any immediate threat to the princesses, and they had trusted his judgement. What if he was wrong? He was increasingly on edge, expecting something to happen any moment … An assassination attempt perhaps.

The trumpets sounded again, and Celestia spread her wings, rising into the sky with more grace than any bird. Angels themselves could try for all eternity to approach her grace, and they would never even come close. Light seemed to radiate from her, as if she were the only source of light in the entire Universe. The sky behind her began to glow orange, changing to yellow, and finally to brilliant white. Then, Celestia’s majestic sun appeared above the horizon. He had to turn his face to avoid being blinded by its brilliance, as did all of the ponies.

As the sun continued to rise over the horizon, he felt the same feeling of awe, the same powerful feeling of magic, come over him that he had felt when he had watched her raise the sun so many months ago … That he had felt the first time he saw her on that day he arrived in Equestria. Again, time seemed to stand still and have no meaning.

But this time, despite being overcome with awe, he maintained his vigilance, keeping an eye out on the ground for any potential threats that might be approaching the physics building.

It felt like hours, but in reality, he was sure it was only minutes. The feeling of magic slowly started to dissipate. The roar of the crowd increased in intensity again as they cheered their princess loudly.

She landed back on the platform with the grace of a butterfly landing on a flower. He got the impression she would have liked to stay longer and socialize with the crowd. But the Celestial Guard would have none of it. Three of them banked sharply, breaking from formation and diving down towards the platform again. When they were nearly there, she spread her wings, along with the guards standing on the platform next to her, and took to the sky. With expert precision, the Celestial Guards formed their shell of protection around her again, the entire formation banking sharply and speeding off towards the castle once more. She landed on the balcony outside one of the windows, along with three of her Celestial Guards. Then, she disappeared inside the tower.

Her appearance had been brief, but the crowds of ponies still roared in approval. A long line of ponies quickly started to form, making their way to the castle courtyard for the feast that would soon begin.

James breathed a sigh of relief. At least it seemed Princess Celestia was safe and there had been no attempts to harm her. He remained concerned for the Elements of Harmony, however. He turned back to the ponies.

“Well, my first Summer Sun Celebration is in the books,” he smiled, still trying to hide his nervousness. “Shall we go get breakfast? If uh … it’s alright with you all, I’d prefer to avoid the long lines at the public feast and go somewhere private?” The truth was, he didn’t mind the long lines himself. But he still wanted to keep the Elements of Harmony out of harm’s way. And that mean keeping them out of large crowds.

“Sounds good to me,” Applejack responded. “I don’t know that we got time for the feast anyway. Me, Braeburn, and Big Mac have to be at our booth when the market opens up in an hour. And Pinkie and Rarity do as well.”

Rarity and Pinkie both agreed that a private breakfast would be best, much to his relief.

He lead them back to the door, opening it and starting down the stairwell to the ground floor of the physics building. Stepping outside, they made their way through the crowds, which were not as bad as they were off campus—especially with the rush now to get to the courtyard for the feast.

Leaving the campus, they continued towards the downtown area. They passed a small crowd of ponies on the side of the road who started shouting angrily at James when they saw him in his Academy uniform. Some of them held crudely painted signs with slogans saying such things as “Down with Celestia and Luna!”

One of the protesting ponies stepped onto the road and started walking next to James. “Why do you serve the tyrannical sisters? Down with Celestia! Down with Luna!” he yelled out.

James kept walking, ignoring the protesting pony walking next to him. But out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Twilight turning her head, glaring at the protesters.

“Just keep walking,” he said quietly to her. “Pay them no mind.”

She did so, but he could tell she had to use all her restraint to avoid yelling something back at them.

The protesting ponies continued to lob shouts and jeers at them, taunting James about supporting royal tyranny by being part of the Academy. The protester walking next to him eventually fell back once he got a little too far away from the safety of his companions, turning and going back to rejoin them. They made no further attempts to follow them. Eventually, they stopped shouting at him and his companions, turning their attention to the next unfortunate ponies that passed by them calling out their anti-princess chants with renewed vigor.

“They have no right to speak about Princess Celestia and Princess Luna like that!” Twilight huffed.

“There’s no law against speaking ill of the princesses,” he pointed out. “Large celebrations like this, the protesters are gonna come out of the woodwork because they can get a lot of exposure.”

“But still … And to attack you like that,” she complained. “It’s a noble thing you are doing, teaching young ponies who are the future of Equestria.”

“I’m not letting it bother me, Twilight. You shouldn’t let it bother you either. It doesn’t matter what the princesses do, how fairly they rule, or how prosperous the kingdom is. They can’t make everypony happy. That’s true of any form of government.”

She nodded slightly, and continued trotting along next to him, not saying anything further. He glanced over at her, noticing she still had an annoyed look on her face.

“Don’t let it ruin your day, Twilight. Just because they aren’t happy doesn’t mean you should let them make you unhappy as well.”

She nodded. As they continued walking, the annoyed look on her face eventually went away. He was glad to see she had let it go.

They arrived at the restaurant James had chosen. He was still somewhat on edge, and he chose a table near the door to the kitchen so that they would be able to slip out the back, hopefully unseen if they had to. And if they were seen, well … then they could make a mad dash for the kitchen and out the back if they had to.

Despite the feast, the restaurant was still nearly full—many ponies having had the same idea about avoiding the massive crowds and long lines at the public feast. It was several minutes before they were waited on.

“Ah, good morning, James!” a tan colored earth pony said, smiling, then turning to the ponies seated with him. “Gentlecolts and ladies, it is an honor to have the Elements of Harmony in my establishment. I do apologize for the delay.”

“Good morning to you too, Harvey. The delay is perfectly understandable,” James smiled.

“Perhaps I can interest you in our Summer Sun Special? I spent the last month perfecting it with my top chefs. Of course, this is the first day we are offering it.”

“That sounds wonderful,” James responded. “I’m sure whatever it is, it will be delicious. If the ladies approve?” He looked at the ponies. They nodded.

“Very well. I will bump you to the front of the line. Don’t worry. You won’t have to wait long.” He bowed slightly, then rushed through the door into his kitchen.

“His name is Harvey?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Actually, it’s Harvest Moon,” James responded. “But I call him Harvey. It’s a common nickname back where I am from.”

“Ah … I take it you two know each other then?”

He nodded. “I’m a pretty regular customer here. One of the best places I have found near campus for breakfast.”

“How come we’re getting special treatment though?”

“Well, you are the Elements of Harmony. Everypony in Canterlot knows the stories. You are basically celebrities around here. The fact that you ate in his restaurant will probably double his business for awhile.”

“Really?”

“No doubt,” he nodded.

“Aww, yeah! World famous!” Rainbow Dash grinned.

“Don’t let it go to yur head there, partner,” Applejack spoke up. “Pride cometh before the fall an’ all. Bein’ world famous means there are more eyes on ya waitin’ for ya to mess up.”

“She’s right,” James said, looking at Rainbow.

The pegasus merely huffed in response.

“Myself, I prefer the quiet life back on the farm,” Applejack continued.

Their meals showed up as quickly as Harvest Moon had told them they would. As expected for any Summer Sun special, they were delectably good. They finished their meals quickly and without much conversation, given that so many of them had booths they had to attend once the market opened. When they had finished, Harvest Moon returned to clean up their table.

“Put it all on one tab, please Harvey,” James said.

“Of course,” he nodded and rushed back to his kitchen.

“You can’t pay for all of us!” Twilight protested. “That’s going to be way too expensive!”

“It’s the least I can do, Twilight. To thank all of you for everything you did for me while I was in Ponyville. And besides, you paid for all my stuff when I was staying at the library.”

“With a stipend from the Royal Treasury. That’s hardly the same thing.”

“I want to do this, Twilight. And besides, trust me. With what the Academy is paying me, I can afford it. And I have virtually no expenses, remember? The Academy provides housing for its faculty.”

They went back and forth on it a little bit longer. Eventually, she gave in and let him pay. Then they left the restaurant.

“Well, I suppose we’d better get goin’,” AJ said. “You want to take Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow, and we can all meet back up at the castle when the market closes?”

He didn’t like the idea of leaving any of them alone. But that couldn’t be helped, since Rarity, the Apple family, and Pinkie Pie would all be at different booths in different parts of the market. There was simply no way he could cover all of them. Reluctantly, he nodded in agreement.

“Alright, sounds good. We’ll meet back up with the rest of you tonight.”

Spike, who had been riding on Twilight’s back, jumped off to the ground. “I’m uh … gonna go with Rarity if you don’t mind … You know, in case she needs any help running the clothing booth.”

Twilight chuckled and smiled at the little dragon. “Ok, Spike. Have fun.”

They split up into their various groups, the Apple family, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie trotting off towards the market, while James, Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy started on their way back to the campus. He chose a different route back, not wanting to pass by the protesters again.

“Well, I guess I can give you a tour of the campus,” he shrugged, not exactly sure how to best entertain the three ponies.

“Sounds great!” Twilight said excitedly.

“That would be fine … If you want,” Fluttershy said indifferently.

“Boring!” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

“They have an aeronautics department. Where they design the latest chariots and do research on flying,” he mentioned.

“I’m there!” the pegasus responded excitedly now.

He chuckled as they continued walking back towards the campus.

He spent most of the rest of the day giving them the grand tour of the Academy. They started back at the physics building, where he showed them all of the labs he could. He left the secret lab downstairs where he and Theory Point were working off of the tour.

Twilight was fascinated with the entire tour, and he got the impression she would have spent hours in each building if she had had the time to do so. Fluttershy seemed indifferent to the majority of the tour, although she was interested when they came to the agriculture building and the natural sciences building. Rainbow Dash was bored with the majority of the tour, although she perked up and greatly enjoyed the aeronautics building. He showed her the new chariot that Delta Streak and his team were working on, which she was particularly fascinated by. At one point, he was seriously concerned she was going to hook herself up to it and take it up for a test flight. It took all three of them to stop her from doing just that and drag her out of the lab.

“Well, I suppose we better be heading back to the castle. The markets have already closed and the others should be on their way back there by now.”

“Thanks for the tour, James. I really enjoyed it.,” Twilight smiled.

“Your welcome,” he smiled back as they started towards the castle.

“I need to stretch my wings,” Rainbow Dash complained.

“The flying ban is no longer in effect, Rainbow. And besides, even if it was, that didn’t stop you this morning, did it?”

“It’s not?” she grinned. “I’ll see you back at the castle!”

Before any of them had a chance to respond, she was already airborne, making her way like a rocket back towards the castle.

He looked at Twilight. She just shrugged her shoulders and started trotting back to the castle again, he and Fluttershy joining her.

His nervousness had eased somewhat now that they had made it through nearly the entire day without incident. But he wouldn’t truly feel comfortable until they were back at the castle and he knew they were all safe.

As the minutes passed, he knew that Rainbow Dash would have long since arrived at the castle. In fact, she could have flown there and back to them by now. The fact that she had not returned was a good sign, he thought. It probably meant she had hooked up with the others. If she had arrived at the castle and found they were not there yet, she probably would have come back, worried that something was wrong.

The clear blue of the day sky slowly began to give way to purple, the Western horizon beginning to take on pink and orange hues as the sun Celestia had raised in a spectacular ceremony that morning began to set for the evening. With the fading daylight, his nervousness began to increase again. Once, he even jumped, thinking he saw something appear out of the corner of his eye. He turned, only to see that it was nothing more than the shadow of a tree.

Jumping at shadows now, he scolded himself. You need to get a hold of yourself. Nevertheless, he would feel much better once Twilight and Fluttershy were safely back in the secure boundaries of the castle. He glanced at the two ponies. Fortunately, it seemed they hadn’t noticed him jump. Or if they had, neither one was saying anything about it.

They arrived back at the castle. He was relieved to find Rainbow and the other ponies standing outside the gate waiting for them. From the excited smiles on their faces, he guessed they had all had a pretty good day at the market.

“So how’d things go?” he smiled.

“Went really good,” Applejack was the first to respond. “Sold just about half of my entire stock. We planned it just about right. Should have enough left for the day tomorrow. And one of the tea shop owners here likes our apple pie so much that he wants to set up a long term agreement to have us ship him more to sell in his shop,” she smiled.

“Me too!” Pinkie Pie said in her usual bubbly tone of voice. “The same shop!”

“She means the same shop wants to buy pastries from Sugarcube Corner on a long term basis,” AJ said.

“That sounds great. I’m so happy for both for both of you,” he smiled, then looked at Rarity. “And you?”

“One of Canterlot’s top designer clothing stores wants me to design a signature line of clothing for them,” she beamed with excitement. “To be called the Carousel Signature Line. I can’t wait to get back to Ponyville and get started on the designs!”

“That’s wonderful, Rarity,” he smiled again, then looked at all of them. “I’m so happy for all of you. And congratulations. All of you.”

They were interrupted by a Pegasus Guard pony trotting up to them.

“Doctor Peterson. Your presence is requested back at the physics lab.”

He blinked, pausing for a moment before responding. “I’ll … be right there. Thank you,” he nodded respectfully to the pegasus. The guard nodded back, then turned and went back to his duties.

He turned back to the rest of the ponies. “Probably some student had an accident in one of the labs and I need to go put out fires … Figuratively speaking, of course.”

They looked slightly disappointed, but Twilight spoke up.

“Alright. Thanks again for the tour, James. We’ll see you in the morning then?”

“Oh, definitely. We have a whole day of parties to attend tomorrow,” he smiled. “Good night, all.”

“Good night, James,” Twilight responded, the rest of the ponies responding in near unison.

He turned and left, making his way back to the Academy. His first thought was that something had happened with the object. But who had requested his presence there? He doubted it was Theory Point. Party animal that she was, he was sure there was no way she’d be in the lab on the night that was the biggest party of the year.

He arrived on campus, made his way to the physics building. He was surprised to find Swordstorm standing outside the door, apparently waiting for him.

“Captain?” he acknowledged and questioned, approaching him and stopping in front of him at the door.

“We found it,” the Pegasus Guard captain smiled.

“Already, sir? That was fast.”

“You were right. It turned out not to be that hard to find.”

“Oh?” he raised an eyebrow.

“It came down in a forest. Leveled every tree within a hundred strides.”

He blinked. If it had done that much damage, the object must be far more massive than he ever would have guessed … Either that or it had detonated upon impact. Or shortly before impact. He paused for a moment, pondering what it could possibly be. At least, if it was some type of bomb, he was sure it was non-nuclear in nature. If it had been, the flash would have lasted much longer than a brief second, and the damage radius would be much larger.

“Is it secure?”

“Yes. My guards have formed a perimeter around it.”

“Excellent,” he smiled.

“So what do we do now?”

“We definitely go up there and grab it, sir. Bring it back to the lab.”

He nodded. “We’ll have to clear it with Her Majesty first. She’ll no doubt want Theory Point to go along. Do you have any idea where we might find her?”

“Probably at The Underhoof … I’m supposed to spend tomorrow with Twilight and her friends,” he sighed, knowing he wouldn’t get to see them again now before they left.

“I understand,” Swordstorm nodded sympathetically. “Unfortunately, it can’t be helped. Her Majesty will deal with that and figure out something to tell them.”

“I’m sure she will, sir … Have your guards determined if its emitting any radiation?”

“They were able to get within the damage area and they didn’t detect any. But they haven’t actually gotten to the object itself. It dug a crater when it impacted the ground. We’re going to have to dig it out.”

He nodded. The lack of radiation in the area was more evidence that the blast was non-nuclear in nature. “We are going to have to take a shielded container with us. Lead shielded. In case it’s radioactive. It’s gonna be heavy.”

“It won’t be a problem,” Swordstorm assured him. “I’ll arrange for a cargo transport. The pegasi who fly those are used to handling some extremely heavy loads.”

“Very good then.”

“We leave in about an hour. Assuming Her Majesty approves. And I have no doubt she will.”

“I won’t be able to get to The Underhoof, find Theory Point, and get back here in an hour. Not with these crowds.”

He nodded. “I’ll send one of my Pegasus Guards to get her.”

“She’s not going to be happy about being dragged away from the biggest party of the year.”

“Well, she’s just going to have to deal. It’s part of being in the Academy. Sometimes you get called away to something important. Even on festival days.”

“That it is, sir,” he nodded. “That it is.”

“You’ll want to change into your field uniform. It’s very rough terrain up there. And even though it is the first day of summer, bring your heavy coat. It’s always cold that far North. My guards even reported some snow on the ground.

“Meet me at the castle, in the back, in one hour. I’ll let the guards know you’re coming so they won’t give you any trouble about trying to go behind the castle.”

He nodded. “Thank you, sir. I’ll be there.”

He turned, started making his way back to the dorm, while Captain Swordstorm started back towards the castle.

Secret council meetings, clandestine government operations, magical barriers that hold back destructive beings from before the beginning of time … This rabbit hole seemed to have no bottom. He thought about how blissfully ignorant most of the ponies in Equestria were … how blissfully ignorant he had been back in Ponyville. Life had been simple, and a little boring. But at least it was relatively care free. His biggest concern back there had been avoiding Rainbow Dash’s pranks.

Indeed, he was beginning to learn that Equestria was not the worry free Utopia it seemed to be on the surface. The majority of ponies in Equestria had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. They were blissfully ignorant of the work being done by the princesses, the Council members, and the Royal Guard to keep them safe, and allow them to live their worry free lives.

He had mixed feelings about the ethics of it all. On one hand, he wasn’t sure it was right that so many secrets were being kept from the general population—not that it was any different where he was from. All governments had their secrets, of course. But that didn’t make it right.

On the other hand, there was nothing the general population could have done about any of it if they had known. So perhaps it was for the best that they simply weren’t told? Why worry them with news of threats they could do nothing about? Threats they would simply have to let the princesses deal with anyway?

If the ponies he had seen protesting on the side of the road earlier … If they had even the slightest clue about everything their princesses were doing to keep them safe … To make sure they could get up in the morning and go outside, knowing they would be safe on Celestia’s watch … To make sure they could go to bed at night, confident in the knowledge that nothing would harm them that night. Not on Luna’s watch. If they had any clue at all, would they still be out there protesting?

He found himself starting to get angry about it now. And now, he understood why Twilight had gotten so angry about it. The very freedom they abuse in order to protest against the princesses … That very freedom, is provided by and kept safe by the very ones they are protesting against. The more he thought about it, the more angry he became. And the more he thought it just wasn’t right for them to be protesting. Not when the princesses, and the Council, and the Royal Guard, were so hard at work behind the scenes keeping them safe, never expecting any recognition for it.

Perhaps that’s why they protested. In their ignorance, did they believe the princesses were just living the lazy good life in Canterlot? That other than raising the sun and the moon, they just spent the rest of their time living a life of luxury and opulence at the expense of other ponies? How wrong they were! How wrong!

He arrived back at the dorm just as the last remnants of the sun were dropping below the horizon.  He wasted no time in going up to his room and changing into his field uniform. Then, he quickly left the building again and made his way back towards the castle.

As he walked, a few pops and flashes as the first fireworks of the night began to start up again. The longer he walked, the more constant they became, until once again, it was a near constant background noise resembling the Fourth of July back home.

He arrived at the castle, passing through the main gate and then making his way through the gardens around to the back. He passed several guards along the way, but true to Swordstorm’s word, none of them stopped him or questioned him.

Arriving at the back, he found Captain Swordstorm, along with an entire wing of Pegasus Guards, geared up and ready to go. Other than Swordstorm himself, there were fourteen more armored pegasi gathered in the staging area. They’re sending fifteen Pegasus Guards up there with us? They’re certainly not messing around, he thought to himself.

“Captain,” he acknowledged as he approached Swordstorm.

“Doctor Peterson,” the pegasus acknowledged back. “As soon as Theory Point arrives, we can leave. She should be here shortly. She had to go back to the dorm and change.  You were right. My guard says she was rather displeased about being pulled away from the party.”

“She’ll get over it. Eventually,” James responded.

“Other than that, we are good to go. We have clearance from Princess Celestia to leave, and we are authorized to collect the object and bring it back to the lab. Assuming it can be brought back safely that is, which is for you and Theory Point to determine.”

He nodded and looked around a bit more. There was one armored transport chariot for him and Theory Point. A second chariot, had no windows. He assumed it must be the cargo transport. Then he looked back in the other direction to see a displeased looking Theory Point arriving.

“They drag me away from the biggest party of the year,” she complained to him. “This better be worth it.”

He realized the Pegasus Guard that had gone to get her had not told her anything. Of course he hadn’t. There were too many other ponies around who could have overheard. It was also possible the guard sent to get her didn’t even know, and only knew that he was supposed to find her, tell her to dress warmly in her field uniform and come to the castle. In fact, now that he thought about it, she hadn’t been at The Council meeting last night. It’s possible she wasn’t aware of anything that had transpired over the last twenty four hours.

He filled her in on the events that had transpired, where they were going, and why. As he had thought, she was aware of none of it until now. Once he had finished, her mood seemed to have improved somewhat. She was still somewhat annoyed about missing the parties tomorrow, and the fact that by the time they got back, the Summer Sun Celebration would be over. But at the same time, he could see the gleam in her eye—the scientist in her that was fascinated and intrigued about going up there and finding out exactly what had fallen out of the sky and did so much damage.

“Let’s pony up!” Captain Swordstorm called out. The Pegasus Guards immediately fell into formation at his command, some of them hooking up to the two chariots.

James turned back to Theory Point. “I think that’s our cue.”

The two of them quickly boarded the chariot, one of the guards closing and securing the door. He watched out the window, as the Pegasus Guards started to take flight, their own chariot lifting off the ground in the midst of them. Strong g-forces pressed down on him like a pile of bricks as the chariot pitched up sharply, entering a steep climb. He watched as the ground fell away rapidly, his ears popping as they adjusted to the rapidly changing pressure. He guessed they must be pitched up nearly sixty or even seventy degrees. He wondered why the pegasi were climbing so rapidly and at such a sharp angle. He quickly got his answer in the sound of a loud pop as something hit their chariot, bouncing off the side. One of the firework shells, he realized. That’s why they were climbing so quickly. To get out of the range of the fireworks.

Another loud pop, as another shell hit the chariot. Then, it was quiet. A few seconds later, the chariot leveled off.

He looked out the window again, looking down towards the ground. Fireworks lit up the sky a thousand feet below them. Looking to the side, as far as he could see, the sky shimmered over the entire city with rainbow explosions of color, as if they were inside a giant kaleidoscope, of ever changing colors and designs. A slight tinge of sulphur in the air from the constant explosions of color that illuminated the night. But from their vantage point, all was silent, as the rainbow webs of color spread out into the night sky, weaving their intricate patterns underneath them, all around them, a surreal experience as if a thousand spiders were performing an intricate dance in the sky, weaving webs of reds, blues, greens, oranges, yellows, and purples. Weaving every color in the spectrum.

He turned his head. Theory Point was watching out the other window, just as mesmerized as he was by the light show outside the window. Then he looked back out the window.

As they left the city, the explosions of color began to dissipate, giving way to the darkness of the night sky. But in the far distance, in all directions, bright flashes of exploding color, like distant thunderstorms with rainbow colored lightning dancing in the clouds, each one of them marking a city or town in Equestria that was celebrating the Summer Sun Celebration, just as Canterlot was.

And so they continued onward, the magic of that special night continuing to mesmerize them with its swirling, dancing symphony of color as their squadron flew further and further into the frozen North sky …