9. The Six New Mornings - Seraphina
The Conversion Bureau
HUMAN
in Equestria
By Chatoyance
9. The Six New Mornings - Seraphina
Lime Sherbet is used with the permission by the superb author Gabriel LaVedier, from the excellent Dames Of The Tea Table, which you should read because it is wonderful.
Every morning, Lime Sherbet, the head of the Royal Maids and the Mare In Waiting To Princess Luna, made her rounds. She always took a personal interest in making sure that everything was sparkling and perfect for Celestia before she went to bed. Hers, of course, was the night shift, but just because her mistress was the princess of the stars did not mean that she cared any less for the princess of the day.
Today was a special morning, for one of Lime's personal concerns, and she wanted everything to be especially nice.
Her staff seldom failed Lime, of course, and those times could be counted on three hooves, and in each case there had been a very good reason. One had been due to a very pregnant mare finding herself in labor in the middle of dusting the Royal Library. The second had been due to the first escape of Discord - and Lime could not blame the newly hired colt for hiding within a closet in terror. The third, well, the third was due to youth, and heat, and while perhaps inappropriate, had ended in a very happy, and enduring couple.
Life in the Castle was always interesting, and so was her large and diverse staff.
Lime took some tasks purely for herself. Special tasks - tasks where she felt extra love or attention or devotion was needed - she hoarded to her own care. Before she went to bed, she always made princess Celestia tea, so it would be waiting for her when she arose. The princess liked a cup of tea before she raised the sun, and Lime felt that the tea that inspired each day should be... perfect.
A relatively new task was the Waiting Room. The Waiting Room had been established, as all new rooms were, by an act of the princesses. One day, there was a new door, and behind that new door was a new room. The room was sizable, and round, with windows and pillars and a gorgeous domed ceiling. Custard Creme had found the new room and reported it immediately. It was a game the entire castle staff played with each other. They liked to try to find new rooms before the princesses announced them.
The greatest prize would be seeing a new room actually come into being. There was endless speculation about how it might happen. Some, like Custard, felt sure that a princess would be there, creating the new space. Others, like Vanilla Gelato, were convinced that the new rooms just 'grew' like buds on a rose bush. Rose Bush, the Second Gardener in Waiting under Celestia, felt that new rooms appeared in a flash of lightning and dweomer. She was fairly adamant about her view. The truth was, not one pony had ever seen the event happen, yet.
Lime personally suspected that the princesses were playing right back, and were careful to keep any pony from seeing a new room added. She had once asked her mistress, Luna, about this, and her only answer was a faint smile and a request for tea and cakes.
Inside the Waiting Room were six statues. The creatures were 'humans', from the Human Masada on the other side of Canterlot Mountain. They were all human fillies and colts, and they were in various poses. One of the flat-muzzled beings had a terrified look on it's features. It had been lithified in the middle of dragging its hindquarters as if trying to escape something terrible.
Two other statues were prone - a colt and a filly human who lay on back and belly, respectively. The colt appeared to be in pain and had been injured on his poll, and the filly seemed to be trying to cover something with her body.
One of the statues was double. A large human foal - Lime couldn't tell if it was a colt or a filly - held a smaller filly up over it's head. The two could have been turned to stone while dancing, except for the looks on their faces. The larger creature appeared to be struggling, with a look of calm resignation and determination. The smaller human filly looked down on the other in mixed gratitude and grief.
Only one of the statues appeared happy. It was a human filly, standing on her hind legs, with her forelegs out to the sides. She was Lime's personal favorite to dust, because she just looked so very joyful.
Lime would talk to the statues, when she dusted them. They couldn't hear her, of course. Turned to stone, they were were without thought or feeling. But that didn't matter. What mattered was showing love, whenever and however she could, and the poor little humans just seemed so alone in the Waiting Room. At each Hearth's Warming, Lime always made sure to put a few decorations in the room. It was silly, really, but she always wanted every guest in the castle to feel loved and cared for.
It was a maid's job, after all, to express the benevolence and greatness of the princesses through every detail and every deed.
Lime had been told that the poor creatures had run away to seek the help of the princesses. They wanted to be proper ponies, something which Lime could heartily understand. The poor things looked rather ungainly, and for the life of her, Lime couldn't figure out how they managed to trot with all of those bent spines coming off of their forehooves. The things didn't look like claws, and they didn't look like parts of any sort of paw. It seemed to her that the thin spines were probably floppy and would catch on things or be crushed under the human's frogs.
They probably limped everywhere guarding their malformed forehooves, Lime decided. It was likely painful. They would be so much happier as ponies.
When the statues were all dusted and sparkling, Lime went back outside the room and wheeled in the cart with the flowers. Rose Bush had prepared some lovely wreaths and arrangements of globe amaranths. Lime carefully arranged the flowers around the statue of the little human filly, laying on her belly. Luna had told her that the poor thing had died trying to save the colt who lay on his back. They had been found together, the filly covering the colt, protecting him.
Lime imagined them to be in love, and when she was dusting, she would remind one or the other that they would see each other again.
When everything was just right, Lime looked one last time at the lithic human filly. It was a pity, she would miss the poor creature's resurrection. But bed called, and she was on the night shift, and there would be things to do for her princess, and tasks to attend to. Before she left, Lime kissed the strange little thing on the poll. "Have a wonderful life, little filly. I hope someday I get to meet you for real. All my love!"
Then Lime rolled the little cart out of the Waiting Room. When it was safely back in Bush's garden, Lime gratefully trotted off to a well deserved rest.
Seraphina Hollande tried to read from her book, but it was dreadfully dull, and entirely in French, and she hated reading old books in French because they were always about dreadfully dull things said in ridiculously overblown ways. Father was always such a pain about it - 'This is a book! A real book! Not some cheap holonovel, this was made from trees and the flesh of animals and printed with ink to last the ages! Treasure it, ma petite fleur de chou, for no peasant could hope to touch such a wonder, much less appreciate it!'
She took hold of the book more solidly, and tried to concentrate, but the words kept changing. That was very strange.
"Tacite en France de Montesquieu a Chateaubriand... I know a certain unicorn mage who would adore that. After a thousand years, though, I think I am with you. Dreadfully dull. Would you like some tea?"
Seraphina jerked her head up. Across the embroidered linen of the table, over the pages of her book, princess Celestia sat. Her horn was glowing, and she was pouring tea into a cup.
"H-How did you... oh... princess!" Seraphina's eyes filled with tears. "You're back! You're really back... oh I've missed you so much, so very much, I..."
"Shhh.... shhh... there now, have some tea won't you? There is something we need to talk about." The princess smiled, but there was a serious look in her eyes.
Seraphina tried to calm herself, and carefully set her father's precious book aside. Somehow, the princess had returned, and this time she was no shade or ghost, but appeared physically there. Seraphina took the cup and carefully sipped it. It was neither too hot nor too cold. It was delicious.
"It is still your wish to become a pony and live the rest of your life as one of my subjects?" Celestia took a sip from her own levitated cup.
Seraphina almost bounced in her chair. "Princess, please, please let me be a... oh... oh my..." She felt lightheaded, then filled with dread and sorrow and... "I remember... running away... this can't be real!" Seraphina looked around the room. They had all moved to Equestria. Paris no longer existed. Earth no longer existed. This room was impossible. "I'm... we're not really here... are we?"
"'Real' is such a limiting word." Celestia took another sip. "But, no, in the terms you mean, this is... a dream, I suppose. Yes, that will do. A dream. But it is not an ordinary dream. It is a very real dream, because it is inside my mind, and that makes it different from the dreams that you might have."
Seraphina tried to make sense of this. "Wait... I'm... in your dream? I don't understand. I'm the one dreaming, aren't I?"
Celestia looked at the young girl, across the table, with endless compassion, but also sadness. "No. I'm sorry. You can't actually dream anymore, so I am dreaming you for you. I am here to fulfill my promises to you, and to your parents. I am also here out of love."
"I'm dead, aren't I?" Seraphina was surprised that she was not upset or frightened by the thought. She felt curiously calm. "I froze, didn't I?"
Celestia studied her tea for a moment, before looking up again. "Yes. But your body was preserved by my Royal Mages, and has been kept for the past two years within a room inside Canterlot castle. I am..." Celestia took another sip. "Emulating your mind. Like the old games you liked to play on that machine in your room."
Seraphina tried to wrap her brain around the implications. "I feel like me. I mean, I'm here! I... I feel like I'm alive!"
"You would." Celestia smiled. "In my thoughts, you are alive again. For now."
"Can... can I be alive for real? As a pony?" Seraphina put her cup down and pressed her palms together, in front of her. "Please? Please Celestia? I'll be the very best, kindest pony I can possibly be. I promise!"
"That... is what I needed. I needed you to ask me to transform you." Celestia lowered her cup to the table.
Seraphina pushed back her chair and stood up. "Please! Please make me alive again and make me into a pony! That's the whole reason we left and went into that awful forest! Please transform me! Please make me a proper pony!"
"You're sure now?" Celestia liked to tease sometimes. Seraphina grinned as Paris started to fade away. "No take-backs, you know."
"No take-backs! Make me a pony! Your little pony! Forever and ever!" Seraphina laughed. Celestia could be so silly sometimes, even though she was a princess. That was one of the things Seraphina loved about her. "Pony! I want to be a..."
The statue that had been the medically lithified corpse of Seraphina Hollande began to grow transparent. Sparks of recondite energies flitted about within the fading ghost of the statue like fireflies in a vanishing fog. When the statue had entirely dissipated from the base upon which it rested, Celestia, princess of the sun, turned to an empty part of the room and focused her will.
Dweon by Dweon, Celestia wove a new body from the stuff of magic itself. Within her mind, the pattern of Seraphina Hollande was cradled, a precious, frozen snapshot of long dead meat. For the rest of the day, Celestia stood thus, streams of thaumatic force ribboning out from her like thousands of tendrils, making, creating, structuring and supporting.
As the time for night arrived, Celestia's sister, Luna, stepped into the room and watched her older sister work. Within the thousand streams of light that emanated from the diarch of the sun, the shape of a pony could be seen now, almost solid, nearly complete. The little filly would be a pegasus, fitting, Luna thought, within the culture of the humans. Seraphina Hollande had died, and she would be reborn as a winged angel.
"She ceased to function." A small blue cat at the hooves of the princess of the night spoke.
"Yea. She hath expired." Luna bent her long neck down and nuzzled the creature.
"But she had no thaumatic complement when she terminated. Her information will have been lost forever." The cat stood utterly still, watching the solar princess weave flesh onto the pony body in her magical grasp.
"The filly hath been preserved from harm, Chang'e, for she was ensorcelled to stone e're her body could decay." The night princess had double duty, and wanted to move on. It was up to her to set the sun and raise the moon by herself, and then, much later, to set the moon and raise the sun for her sister. Weaving flesh from nothing took total concentration, and time. Creating the very first ponies after the fall of Discord had been a laborious task for both sisters, long, long ago. "An thou wilt, thee mayest abide here and keep thee watch, other duties are stayed for me."
Chang'e licked her dark blue paw and used it to smooth her ear. Then she tired of watching the ribbons of magic playing maypole around the forming body and padded after her mistress to the solar plinth.
The first thing Seraphina noticed was her own breathing. She wasn't sure which had been her first breath, but she couldn't have taken many. It was a strange, and awe inducing thought, to realize that the number of breaths one had ever taken were still within memory, and counting.
She felt, rather than saw, her hooves. She stretched, as if waking from sleep, and found her forelegs in the process, the sensation of her middle fingers being large and heavy to her. As she opened her eyes for the very first time, she saw the golden-shod hooves of Celestia, and the tip of her regal muzzle. Celestia was laying on the polished marble floor near her, nearly muzzle to muzzle.
"Good morning, my little pony." The smile was sunshine and warmth and love itself.
"Good... morning?" Seraphina's voice was slightly different. It was perhaps a little higher, purer of tone. That consideration was lost as her new nostrils filled with a universe of scents that had been hidden to her simpler, human nose. It took her a moment to regain her composure. "You... smell nice." Seraphina felt immediately embarrassed after her words.
The laugh was gentle and utterly charming. "Thank you, my newest subject. Hmmm... do you have a new name in mind to go with your new life?"
The pale lavender pegasus filly became entranced with her own wings, stretching them out and pulling them back to her. "Oh... sorry! It's just all so new!" Celestia smiled indulgently as the newly alive filly thought for a few minutes. "Could you name me, princess? I am so overwhelmed... I can't think of anything!"
"Is that what you want? I didn't mean to rush you, my dear. Back during the Bureau days, so many newfoals already had names picked out for themselves that I quite became used to it."
The filly forced herself back to the moment. She had been utterly lost in the joy of slapping her tail back and forth on the marble behind her. "Um... I would... I think I would prefer a name from you, if you would be so kind, princess. I'm sure you could do better than I, and... it would be special to me."
Celestia laughed again, softly. "Very well then. I name thee Morning Star!"
Morning Star laughed in delight, flexing her wings. "Will I be able to fly, princess?"
"Very well, I would imagine. I built your wings for both speed and control." The diarch of the sun considered this for a moment. "It would be my advice to take things slowly at first, when you begin flight school. I got just a teensy bit carried away so don't try any high speed stunts until you get precision flying down."
Morning Star's eyes grew wide. "I'm getting advice from my creator on how the body she created for me works!" Morning's tone was nothing less than reverent. "Thank you. Goodness. Thank you for my wings. For... my very life, I guess."
The little pegasus filly looked around the room. "They're all... they're all statues! Princess? I don't understand."
"There was little that could be done to save you. The Royal Unicorn Corps was dispatched to your rescue, but all they could do was to preserve you all in stone."
"I'm even more confused, princess. We were trying to get to you, to be ponified! And... I'm a pony now... but what about Asher and Milo and..." Morning Star looked from statue to statue around her. Finally, her eyes locked onto Celestia.
"I am bound by my promises, little one. I must never break the law because I am the law. The Covenant your parents crafted was very thorough, and very specific. I am not allowed to offer any child ponification. I must wait until you reach your human age of consent, which has been set at eighteen. Although you have not aged a day, by the calendar you are eighteen now. The Covenant is concerned only with the calendrical date. Today, it was legal for you to ask for remedial ponification."
"It's been two years?" Morning star studied the statues around her once more. She herself had been a statue, and she had been in this room, made of stone, all of that time.
"Yes. But you are flesh now, and you are a fine pegasus. Your journey, and your long wait, is over." Celestia gracefully stood up. "Shall we go? Please try to stand. I will support you, so do not fear falling." Celestia's horn glowed with golden light. Morning Star felt a soft presence around her middle. Golden light enfolded her barrel and belly, doubtless ready to catch her if she proved unsure on her new legs.
Morning carefully stood, trying to imitate Celestia's rising. First, she placed a forehoof solidly on the floor, and used that leg to push herself up so she could set her other foreleg. Then she positioned her back legs and hooves, and lifted her hindquarters until she stood on all four legs. "What about the others, princess?"
Celestia smiled in approval at Morning Star's easy standing. "When the calendar permits, they too will have their turn. I will ask them each if they desire ponification, and if they wish it, I shall transform them into ponies. Then they may begin new lives, just as you are doing."
"What... what if one of them changes their mind?" Morning Star was still unsure about Asher. He had not gotten to explain his motivations before they had been attacked. Morning was doubtful about the boy.
Celestia suddenly looked grim. "It is my dearest hope that all are resolute in their wish for new life. Try walking now, Morning Star. Do not fret, I still support you."
The little violet filly began testing her new body, taking careful steps at first, and then bolder ones. "I think I have it, princess. You can let go if you want!" Morning was walking easily now. It really wasn't that hard to do, much to her surprise. She stopped in front of the statue of Petra.
"She... she looks so happy." Morning studied the other lithified children, and then Petra again. "It wasn't a bit happy back then. Why... why is she smiling like that?"
Celestia joined Morning by the statue that was Petra Bettencourt. "Petra was nearly unhurt. She escaped the frost. She asked for asylum and our protection, which we gave. To prevent any argument from the humans, she volunteered to be lithically preserved until she too had legal standing to ask for what you have received today."
Morning Star thought about this, as she studied Petra's face. "Princess... could I... could I come back when it is time for the others to become ponies? I don't know that we are... friends... exactly, but we went through a lot together and... I feel like I want to be there for them, when they wake up. It just seems wrong to... not be there."
The princess considered the request. "If it is all right with your new parents, I will allow it."
"My new parents?" Morning Star was but minutes newly alive, after having been dead and preserved in stone. Now she walked on hooves within a magically created pegasus body, but it seemed that the surprises were not yet over.
"Yes, Morning Star. You have survived a great adventure, but you are still just a little filly. Equestrians live much longer than do humans, and they have longer childhoods. You will be a filly for several decades yet. There are many who would desire nothing more in life but to offer you their love, their home, and their experience. You may choose whoever you wish."
Morning Star looked at her new hooves. "What... what about my... real parents?"
She felt herself nuzzled by the princess. It felt wonderful, and comforting. "I am very sorry, Morning Star, but... they refused my invitation to your new birthday."
"Oh." After that, Morning Star was silent for quite some time.
Lime Sherbet finished dusting the poor little human who was dragging his hindquarters. The green unicorn mare put down her feather duster and used her magic to straighten her maid's mop cap so it sat properly on her poll. After so many years, she did not need a mirror, she could tell simply by how it felt.
During an entire day and night, the solar princess had created a new body for the poor human filly. She had become a lovely pegasus, and for now, until she chose parents to live with, she had a room in the castle. Lime had visited her personally, to help her settle in. She seemed very nice and very proper, as though she were born to the upper tiers of Canterlot society.
The stone base that the new pegasus had once laid upon remained, empty now. Five stone humans remained to face the quiet years of waiting, until they too, could walk free on newly minted hooves.
The little maid turned and trotted to the door of the Waiting Room. "G'night, dearies." She spoke the words over her flanks as she moved towards morning, bed, and sleep
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Oh, it feels like so many little details setting up for stories to come! I look forward with anticipation all the more. Soon enough, I may be leaning so heavily I fall sideways, and come out with a new point of view.
For some reason, I find this section to be hilarious. It's all so... lively, interesting.
I really should read Dames of the Tea Table, though.
aw.
Lime is my favorite pony, right now.
judging by your chapter titles, asher wont change his mind. I'm wondering if he'll need convincing from Luna?
also, what is
MuffinChang'e?2889280
Chang'e (pronounced 'CHONG OO-UH', with the second syllable slightly higher in pitch) is the Chinese goddess of the moon.
Here, it is the name of a cat. A very special, dark blue cat, which long time readers have met before. The cat once had been an artificial cat, composed of an artificial, nanotitanium-carbon composite skeleton and quantum chips, all covered with vat-grown organic flesh with custom genegineered blue fur. She was manufactured in mainland China.
She isn't artificial anymore.
There's a story there.
I think the "before" should have been gone.
And I'm happy we're up to the ponifications now. Chatoyance is better to read when everything is sunshine and roses (literally).
*hoarded
The way I remember it is that you have a horde of orcs, and a hoard of gems. Living versus non-living.
Well, as for the parents, I'm really hoping they all come around, because, well, ultimately they're going to have to face King Osric's statement:
They might be the best and worst that humanity has to offer, but even Tywin Lannister recognizes the importance, and permanency, of family.
[youtube=VzaknJtnIJg]
That's my major qualm in this story, I don't think there was quite enough realistic emphasis on the parents being concerned for their children, ultimately. Even with the preening and educating, I'd like to see that down at the core, they just wanted their children to have the life they deserved, one of happiness. That they simply did not realize what was needed for them to be happy.
2889379
I agree. FIXED. Thank you for catching that. I was having a little trouble with my Elizabethan tonight.
I kind of agree. I grasp that adventures and putting characters through hell is drama, but... the thing I love most is happy endings and tender scenes and joyous transformations.
I wonder... could a story that had no drama, no pain, just pleasure, work? Is it even possible to keep it interesting and concentrate only on sunshine and roses? If I could pull THAT off... then again, it might just be boring. It sounds like something I would like to read. What do you think? Is it even possible?
2889387
FIXED!
I want the families to all come around too. But real life, sadly, has taught me that Game Of Thrones (which I love, by the way) is often too true about the other side of that talk. Families fall because they don't understand Osric's Rule. It's sad.
We have seen one father change his worldview for his son so far - Brin, who was the most adamant, begged Celestia to ponify his son Asher to save his life. We know Ophelia has gone pony herself just to be a mother to Oliver. There will be others, probably.
But some parents are just too proud, or bigoted or narrow. I am putting my own life in the story there - my own parents rejected me entirely for my gender issues, and my father put a gun to my head. If not for a passing car, I would be thirty years dead.
And I am not the only Queer person to lose their entire family just for existing. It is way, way common. During my transition, I cared for a 16 year old gay runaway. He ran away from his Southern father because his dad tried to kill him with a belt and an axe. He managed to wound his father by taking an eye, and he just ran. He had scars on his body.
There were dozens on the streets, or in special brothels for children, just like him. I rescued him from a sexual predator. In return, he kept me safe and alive on the street, during that time.
If I were being very realistic, nobody else would support their children in the story except for Brin and Ophelia Sachs. But, as you probably know by now, I don't do brutal reality, I tilt humanity slightly towards the kinder most of the time. I tend to make humanity just a little nicer, just a little better than it really is. Than I have seen it.
But then, when you are a triple minority, you tend to see a lot more truth than if you are wealthy, white, straight, and male. Everything seems wonderful if nobody is rejecting you. It's hard to imagine parents rejecting children - until it actually happens.
It happens.
2889433
Chat, have you read my attempt at epic poetry, The Six Deeds of Harmony? I don't think I've seen a comment from you on it, and if you like writing stuff in Early Modern English then you might enjoy reading it as well. I'm horribly behind in making chapters but I have to be in a very tiring (for me) mindset to be productive. It's not dead, I promise!
I normally don't get caught up in spelling minutiae, but I feel this is a special case. I believe "e're" is simply "ere" without the apostrophe and the following sentence
the first "thee" should be the subject-form "thou" rather than the object-form "thee," while the second "thee" should (I think?) be a possessive "thy," though that one's more of a guess.
2889464
I am on your epic poem now.
I will double check the details of Luna's speech with Aedina tomorrow (she's my expert)... we were having derp trouble doing this, so it's worth a second pass. Thank you for the alert.
Hi Muffin!
Hmm, six. Six young ponies, whose lives were tied together before they even realized it. Six ponies who might become good friends some day. Six is a good number.
2889628
Hee!
Here I give a great sigh of relief. After reading this chapter, I want to know what's going to happen with all of them or at least Seraphina and Ashley.
Don't mean to sound silly. I read 1 morning when the chapter clearly read six mornings. That's 5 mornings I did not get as advertised!
I hope at least one of these kids has their family come around with them. In a situation as ah, unusual, as this trading in your hands for hooves would be a small price to pay to make your family whole again after several years.
2889464
New discovery for the day~
2889475
Old habits die hard for Luna, as it were. Ye Olde Butchered English might be something that is unavoidable in the wake of cultural shock.
2889387
One of the things that can be observed with powerful clans would be the length that the patriarch/matriarch might go toward getting what they wanted. I mean... look at Joseph Kennedy for one. He essentially had crippled his own daughter through lobotomy, and rendered all of his sons incapable of being truly independent of him. We have the story of what Ivan the Terrible did to his own son, and then there's the case with the Tudors. Another recent example would be Stalin...
Frankly, I am not too sure with matters of family would be of real weight to those that are all about individual ambitions.
Another good chapter, very lighthearted. :)
Spelling nitpick: "calender" -> "calendar".
The art you do for each chapter is a very nice touch. I do wonder who her new parents are. Maybe a nice couple in cloudsdale?
2890480
FIXED!
I'm going to have to be careful about that - the spell checker doesn't catch it, because a 'calender' is a series of mechanical rolls, and thus is not caught as a misspelling. ARGGGHHH!!!!
2890732
As the next chapters unfold, we shall follow up on every character, and discover what happens to them all, and also resolve the unanswered questions posed earlier.
Just bear with me, I know, I'm a bit wordy and my stories go on and on...
2889401
As Bad Apple's tales tell, some adventure is ncie. As near-everything else shows I give my all to happy days and sunshine. I forget where I said it, probably in comments to a story, but I sometimes pull back the curtains (The Bad Apple Chronicles, The Nightwatch, The Day of Remembrance, Pony PSAs and Ad Spots, New Pony Tales) and show the workers who give their all to protect and nurture every celebration and cheerful song the united sapient citizens bring forth. It's also why I fix so much on hybrids. They are peace, unity and love.
You and I are a rare breed, it seems. So few writers care for peace. Though I did convince a notoriously bloody and transgressive writer to write a story with a wonderful ending.
Another great chapter in an incredible story. Keep up the good work.
2889401
What is possible is to write a story where the bad things are thing that don't hurt you, only the characters. Or you can write a story with a long denouement, like Lord of the Rings--the last 7 chapters are fun-and-games after the important work is done.
Not all truth is ugly, and not all beauty is lies. Every time I check my privilege, I remember that I want to spread it to others, not abandon it myself. I hope that, in a saner world to come, you learn the joy of being confident that there will be no pain.
I love Wikipedia.
2893328
Wikipedia is easily one of the greatest creations of human endeavor in the history of mankind. This is my unshakable judgement.
2889433 Hmmm... thinking on it, 2890347 has a point. Though I'd like to point out that Joseph Kennedy's daughter was mentally ill at a time when "no treatment other than incarceration was considered to exist in the 1940s." But then I look at his tack record and sheesh, McCarthy?
But then I found this. Though that's more about backing down from wars and less about treating your family as fellow human beings. So yeah, I guess that as world leaders the number's going to be rather skewed for how many are willing to bite the bullet.
2893457 Agreed, it's how I figured out that stuff about Joseph Kennedy. I knew they were bootleggers to begin with, but dang, McCarthy, that guy was a righteous ass.
2891920 True, I remember when I was young, I met a girl who had a developmental disorder that prevented her spine from developing properly. Her siblings were probably the most well behaved children I had ever met. Then I look around my university, and find an 80% female student body, and many of which are from South-East Asia and the Middle-East. I ended up studying for the finals this year with a young woman planning on returning to her home country to become a leader.
Now I'm wondering what Oliver will end up as. stalwart protector that lifted a girl up in an attempt to save her life, with a touch of simplicity and reticence...
Earth Pony?
Earth Pony.
2889324 The cat came back? I approve!
Also she seems like an interesting character in her own right, and I hope we get to hear her story at some point.
2889401 You should check out Cloud Wander's stories.
Oh hey it's muffin :O I always thought that cat was just Luna in disguise. Perhaps there is a story yet untold behind her...
Also,
what you did there, I seen it.
Lime Sherbet evidently never saw a Minotaur if she believes that the humans walk on their forelimbs. The only canonical minotaur is IronWill. Although introduced in a terrible episode, he is a good character.
I suspect that Chang’e is a piece of Princess Luna, like the ShadowBolts. Chang'e is a Chinese MoonGoddess and Princess Luna is an Equestrian MoonGoddess.
I just wanted to say the picture at the head of this chapter is the creepiest picture I have ever seen that would fit without blinking into a children's picture book. And that's including Roald Dahl.
4691895
Ever seen the Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey?
3253852 I don't
.
4753107
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer
Hey, when you live forever, you take your amusements where you can.
...but isn't Luna the cat? I'm so confused.
In any case, Morning Star's rebirth as a pony - there's no other way to describe it - was a beautiful scene. And she sounds like a rare beauty.
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We'll find out much more about Chang'e the Little Blue Cat in another book, but suffice it to say that she is perhaps Luna's kindest action of all.