I awoke to the sound of birdsong and blinked against the light filtering in through the branches of the tree above me. The sun was rising above the horizon in the distance which put it straight into my eyes.
That's what I get for not checking the direction of the sun before going to sleep. Luna was nowhere to be seen, but after I dropped the thing I had been carrying twice, she hard ordered me to get some rest.
She had been right, of course.
No nopony was in sight, other than...
Celestia was standing at the top of the hill, her horn lit brightly, her wings half spread as she raised the sun.
Her coat shone in the bright light, even dusted with ash still, she looked… radiant.
I rubbed my eyes for a second against the light before struggling up to sit with a yawn, finding myself bundled up in a thick blanket, several stones set around me, glowing softly as they radiated heat. I felt better, like last night had been a long day instead of 'about to drop dead at any moment'. I remembered the blanket, but the stones were new.
Stretching my wings for a second, I got to my hooves as I folded the blanket and floated it up to hang on a low branch before I made my way over to Celestia, waiting for her horn to stop glowing before I moved up next to her, "Good morning," I said, looking out over Ponyville.
The village looked mostly like it always did. No fires.
But the center tree the library had been built into... it was just gone. And every single window in the village seemed to have been shattered. Most of the snow inside the village also seemed to be missing.
"Good morning, Page," Celestia said softly and folded her wings as she looked out over the village.
"How's it looking?" I asked, turning to look up at her.
"Twilight was the only pony that was hurt," Celestia answered my unspoken question, "Other than some panic, everypony else is okay."
"That's good."
Celestia took a deep breath before she nodded, "It is. It could have gone so much worse."
I frowned slightly at her, "Where is everypony?"
"Asleep," she said and gave me a small smile, "You weren't the first pony that fell asleep, and you were hardly the last. Everypony that needed too is given shelter at the Apple Family farm. Luna didn't want to wake you and I volunteered to stay and keep an eye on you, I needed to raise the sun anyway."
I blinked at her, "Have you slept yet?"
"Not until every single one of my little ponies are safe."
Save me from overly responsibility taking alicorns!
"...At least clean up a bit, you're covered with ash," I told her and brushed my wing along her side, "I mean, seriously. How did you even manage to avoid all that ichor?"
Celestia got a flash of amusement across her face for a second, "Because I didn't use any cutting spells."
I flicked my ears and scraped my hoof against the snow covered grass, "I suppose that's fair enough," I admitted, "But still. Get some rest, everypony is safe."
She shook her head, her mane flowing freely, completely ignoring the light wind from the west, "I'm fine, Page," she said and spread her wings before she sighed, "...There is a reason I don't cast spells with my talent behind them… fire… it doesn't like being controlled,," she continued and looked down towards the village.
"Hard to just open a walnut when all you have is a sledgehammer, but this time a sledgehammer was exactly what we needed," I agreed before I smiled up at her, "...Speaking of which, I am really thankful you didn't hit me with that particular little ray of sunshine. Because, damn."
Celestia actually cringed slightly and I quickly shook my head,
"None of that!" I told her, "Enough is enough, Celestia!"
"Just because you don't blame me doesn't mean I don't blame myself," she said and looked to me, "Just like I blame myself for this. I destroyed Midnight's best chance to get back home."
"No, you bucking didn't!"
She took half a step back at my tone, "Page.."
"No!" I snarled and stepped forward, putting my hoof to poke her chest, "Don't you fucking dare turning 'Saving Equestria from eldrish tentacle horrors from beyond time' to 'failed to protect magical artifact'! You saved Equestria! Nopony died! Nopony else could have done what you did and I am not going to have anypony say anything else, you included! The fact that you managed to even keep the rest of the village from burning down is nothing short of amazing!"
Celestia's ears flicked back, "Page, I-"
"No! Don't you fucking dare! I have seen you do this for six months and I'm not taking it anymore!"
She spread her wings and took a deep breath, "...That's not fair."
"And I don't give a buck. Now get your multichromatic tail down beneath that tree and take a nap!"
Celestia looked like she would protest for about half a second before she folded her wings, "...I suppose I should get some rest," she finally admitted.
Great chapter yet again!!
Celestia JUST GOT OWNED!!!!!!
Chalk up a point for Page, cause Tia needs to learn that no matter what sometimes stuff happens and you need to learn to let go, not always try to 1up anypony by noblily taking the blame.
Page says, after waking up from collapsing from working too hard.
At this rate, he'll turn into a pink pretty pony princess before the series is over, considering how big of an influence Celestia seems to be to him. He now takes responsibility for others, with sending Celestia to bed this chapter and the racism issues this part.
He is an overly responsibility-taking alicorn!
Heroes can be so annoying with their martyr complex.
10385988
Easy to get one when you’re alone for a thousand years with no one else alive to blame.
Thanks for the new chapter! Looking forward to the update!
10385984
You mean that........emperor is coming?
10385614
10385679
Try for not explaining it at all...
10385784
Discord turns personalities around, if you forgot. Worker people become snobs, snobs become party ponies, and so on and so forth. Many things were kinda... Not illogical, illogical is what Discord does, but rather had no connection. Why did Big Mac became a dog? Soap roads, upside buildings. Discord is not just pure Chaos, he's also Disharmony. Meaning he follows SOME logic. As in, straight up reversal of Harmony. Fluttershy became cruel - logical? Logical. Rainbow became a traitor, Applejack became a liar... Granny smith either dislikes culture, or high society, from where such high culture starts. Or she dislikes acting/performances. In case of Big Mac - he likely is "loyal like a dog" to the Apples, so Discord made a caricature out of him. Made him even more of a dog. I keep telling you, Discord is not JUST Chaos, Chaos by itself has no direction, it's entropy if taken to extreme. Disharmony, however, has a very clear "vector", that is to take a society and ram it into ground. Take a person and break them, take all of their qualities, and either flip then into opposites or take them to grotesque heights. To take their connections, be it family or friends, and break it apart.
XD
10386091
The problem here being that he is "Wreck it Ralph". He does NOT do FIXING. He does the BREAKING. He is disharmony, how do you figure that he HELPS HARMONY?
Blank Page, the 'don't bullshit me' Alicorn Sunbutt really need to relax more... That kind of stress reduced cuddel levels... Go cuddel your Brother in Law Celestia. Page is so cuddly after all
*THUMP THUMP THUMP*
Discord: Cadance...I didn't know that you wag your tail like a dog whenever you're this happy.
Cadance: HUSH! I been waiting six months for this moment! I had to leave Celestia alone due to all that guilt being toxic for any shipping intervention from me. Now that Page FINALLY had this OVERDUE conversation...I CAN GET BACK TO WORK WITH HER! Tho I feel bad this moment was the result from Ponyville being in danger...
Discord: Ponyville is ALWAYS in danger! Just last week, they had a Bugbear attack during a wedding and only the bride was mildly panicking! The town is used to this!
Cadance: ...Something really should be done about that...
Discord: Twilight's problem not ours.
Cadance: ...yeah that's fair. Let's go home and work on those charts~!
Discord: Yep Yep~!
*both disappear into wormhole*
10385984
And he’ll at least mentally slap himself once he realizes it.
Thankfully Page is grounded enough (and has enough friends to help shoot him down if he needs it) that he seems to be in no actual danger of turning into the Alicorn of Do As I Say, Not As I Do anytime soon.
“I-I suppose I could get some rest.”
“What was that?!”
“I will rest...senpai.”
“That’s better.”
10386158
How did you mistake me for the person you've been talking to the rest of the time? Pay more attention.
10386300
You have answered, I have replied to you, as for forgetting, I meant if you forgot the show episodes. As in, a third person can reply to THIS comment, and I can remind him of what happened in the show. Now, do you have anything to say on actual comment, or are we gonna sidetrack some more?
10386325
Dude...that is TWO people now you're been rude to over your theory on "Chaos Lore". You took one tiny easily-ignored sentence and decided it was an act of war against your personal headcanon! Now you're biting the heads off of anyone whose only crime is being mildly interested in what you have to say.
In the end, the behavior of Harmony and Disharmony or the nature of Discord's magic doesn't really matter on this fanfic in the long run. This is a story about an OC and his relationships with canon characters...that is main draw of this fanfic NOT its "lore" and "world-building". Now please...KNOCK IT OFF.
Chapter 23: Page puts his hoof down.
10386325
That in the context of this fic you have already been contradicted by the text. That canon is such an incoherent mess that you can "prove" just about anything by being selective in your citations. And that they devoted the entirety of the episode Fame and Misfortune to telling people like us that we are not welcome here.
10386353
You think I'm rude just because? Get lost. I'm growing tired of pople not listening for my arguments, and it has been going on for longer than you think. Do you want to see my list of deebates where I've been ignored/considered wrong without good arguments thrown back at me? You don't get to judge me, not like this.
10386434
At least canon is CANON, and can be used in arguments, despite being broken. Let me reiterate again. Has Discord fixed anything meaningful? A horn? Table? The Elements. Did HE ever fixed friendship. Whatever friendship fixing happened - it wasn't from HIS side. And I take the rule "first come - first served". If later canon deviates from what was shown in the beginning - I consider the first things canon, and do my best to connect later to the first, if I can't - I flat out ignore later instances. Well, for given definition of "ignore". I try to refute the later instances of canon with first, and I outright don't consider fanon for a valid argument at all.
How much more will you sidetrack? Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony has NEVER fixed anything. And that is that.
10386590
This isn't sidetracking, this is bringing things back to the original topic. The initial comment from 10384473 was about possible future events in this story, and you flatly refused to acknowledge evidence from the prequel as valid for that purpose. This entire discussion has been pointless because the two sides were never talking about remotely the same thing.
10386583
That is your response? "Poor me! No one is telling me how smart I am! I'm tortured misunderstood soul!"
Wow...just wow. At first, I thought you were just lore-obsessed but now...you should go get help for yourself. That behavior is going to lose you any meaningful relationships you have in your life. Not healthy at all.
10386705
"Maybe Discord will fix the table."
Yeah, good statement, except not possible in any way. Unless you actually make Discord as someone who works FOR Harmony. You continue to ignore the meaning of the comments.
Yup! Page still has that human Backbone of his!
10386848
True!
Keep up the work on the chapters!
Somebody needs to keep an eye on Cadence.
10386423
He did that more than ones... Mildly missleading .7/10
I promise, I had no idea you were going to use that line almost the very next chapter after I commented it.
Just a teensy typo in it, here, though...
Little did Page know that having the guts to give her orders to her face was one of Tia's "yes" buttons...
"Bed. NOW. Don't make me grab my belt young lady!"
I like the Lore justification for Celestia in this fic.
Sun is on, or Sun is off.
When Sun is off, normal Alicorn Power levels (which are stron, but not amazingly OP).
When Sun is being actively channelled? The Problem is Gone. As is the thing next to the Problem. And the Building surrounding the Problem. And part of the town that the building is in.
I have this image in my head of her flaring her wings around a small core, and then a focused beam of Sunlight just blasting off into space.
10440929
The area several miles around the problem are also gone, see "Matchsticks"
10440929
Well, Badlands exist in Equestria for a reason, after all. There was a problem. Then it disappeared as dew at the morning. Literally.
Well if that's not the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is
If that's not the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy.
Set Page to cuddle and throw him towards Celestia
Result?
♡
10396808
she literally once said she fell in love with a pony because, he had the guts and strength to go against her.
So hehehe +1 love to page
Can't decide if the story or the comment section keeps me more entertained. Magnificent either way♡