Reach for the Sky

by Ryvaken

Reach for the Sky

Twilight stood on the tallest balcony of her castle. Tonight she was going to do it. No, today. Tonight would be too late. But today was too early. Todusk? She was a princess now, did that give her the right to make new words?

Princess. The word still didn't feel right. She had wings, she'd raised the sun a bunch of times (granted she only meant to raise it once) and she'd blasted a centaurian horror back to Tartarus, but all she got from that was a title and a castle. Granted, the castle was sufficiently...um... (note to self, ask Rainbow to provide an appropriate adjective). Anyway, the castle was great. She was very happy with the castle. Well, other than a bit of nostalgia for Golden Oaks, but last week's book shipment had almost completely restored the collection. That helped a lot.

Where was she? Oh right. Princessness. Big castle, nice title, fancy jewelry, wings, a lot more magic (glee!) and kinds of magic (double glee!) than she'd had as a unicorn, but no real way to apply it. And ponies were starting to notice. Princess of Disaster Relief. Princess Rainbow Friendship Cannon. Princess of Books. Princess of Weekly Crises. Princess the Other One. Princess the Other One Who Isn't Cadence. Princess the Other Other One. Chibi-Princess. Princess Responsible for Multiple Lawsuits Against Journalistic Outlets for Defamation of Character.

It didn't matter. She'd show them. She'd show them all. Princess Twilight Sparkle was going to live up to her title, her heritage, and the faith of her friends. No matter what it took. Even if it meant outshining the sun.

She looked up at the cloudy sky. The pegasi had outdone themselves. Three quarters of the sky, perhaps more, was blanketed in grey and white. The clouds were far enough apart that a pony could still make out the fluffy shapes, but there were so many that nopony was watching the sky. Who would want to watch a sunset or moonrise obscured by so many clouds anyway? They were spectacular on clear days, everypony knew that.

The sky was darkening. Twilight closed her eyes and took in a breath. It would happen soon. It would be...NOW. Her eyes and wings snapped open and her horn lit up like a beacon, blindingly bright. She could see nothing through the aegis of her power, but she did not need to. The sun lay just below the horizon. Its last rays slipped Celestia's grip and entered her domain.

Twilight reached out with her magic and grabbed each and every photon in her greedy clutches. She stroked them like they were her own, her children ready to leave home and play. She gave them her all, every drop of power she could, and shot them east across the sky.

The light of a dying day exploded from the horizon. The rays laughed and raced each other across the sky, only to hit the first cloud. Confused, they bounced around the fluffy obstruction. They painted the white vapors purple and orange with their play, and shot off again, but in so many new directions. What had started as a race was now a swarm, rays of light bounding from the first cloud to every corner of the sky.

And whenever a ray struck another cloud, it happened again. And again. And again. These weakest glimmers of light crossed the sky with an alicorn's grace, neither fading nor dimming as they painted the cloudy canvas in every hue of purple and red. Twilight flew with them, delighting in their play. All of creation unfolded below her, and she directed the glory of her children earthward.

Far below, ponies found their eyes drawn skywards. The land was awash in firelight, the sky burned. From the point of sunset a rippling wave of color and light painted the whole of the sky. Mountainous clouds hung like topaz monoliths. Wisps of vapor sparkled with unseen stars.

Twilight felt the urge to laugh. The light swirled around her, played with her mane as easily as the clouds. Even so, they were nearly spent.

Twilight was unmoved, the glow around her slowly fading. Across the sky she felt new light enter the sky, her sky. She had little time left as she gathered these newcomers in her power. The first light of the night, rising in the east. She called them to her, and they flew against their sunborn sisters.

The purloined moonbeams barreled through the dying light of sun, carving a singular strip of grey-white through the burning sky. The scattered rays of sun faded into the brilliant swath of moonlight, and as the moonbeams passed the skies turned deep blue, their wake tinted a warm pink.

Twilight held out a hoof and caught the moonbeams like a mother cradling her foal. Tired from their journey, they too swiftly winked out, and Twilight stared down at the sky, alone. The sky of purple-blue, a single stripe of pink, solid and bold, standing out and splitting the sky.

Far below, the ponies still stared upwards. Flames that were not flames set Equestria under a warm glow, and now water that was not water had blasted every cloud from the sky. Set among the sparkling lights of the stars was a broad ribbon of pink light, undulating in an unfelt breeze and wrapping the whole of the world like a hearth's warming present.

Her sky. This was her time, this was her message. She was Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn Princess of Equestria. Hers was a name that could be writ on the sky itself. Beware, Equestria, be wary and be glad, for hers is a power beautiful and terrible, she is glory and knowledge and power and she wants to be your friend. So let it be written, stars above as her witnesses.

Then the moon rose, and the pink strip burned and evaporated into less than mist.

Twilight let go of her breath. Night was truly upon Equestria, and Luna had taken the sky. All was well with the world.

At least, until the moon set again.

Comments

[ponies r awesome]

Awesome

[Stella Mare]

Interesting....cool!

[BronyDad]

I'm glad I came by here and read this. That beginning section got a couple of chuckles out of me, and I love your description of the lights. It is also very well written. I only found two very small mistakes.

Granted, the castle was sufficiently...um... (note to self, ask Rainbow to provide an appropriate adjective.)

The period should be on the outside of the parenthesis.

And:

Three quarters of the sky, perhaps move, was blanketed in grey and white.

perhaps *more.* I know that's something you've probably read over twenty times without catching.

Thanks for writing! This was great.

[hyrushoten]

Absolutely amazing. You did a great job describing Twilight's sky and really making me see it. More impressive though is just how thoroughly you got us into Twilight's head in such a short time. You somehow made me feel Twilight's concerns, joy, and her triumph as my own. Once again amazing job.

[Twilight978]

All I can saw for this is it was beautiful the way you wrote it as if someone doing a dance and describing how every step was a new sensation in other words awesome

[Ryvaken]

5910424 Visual imagery is a weakness of mine. This is practice. Also once I got the image in my head, I had to write it out.

[Ryvaken]

5915404 I wasn't going for self-aware light so much as using it as a metaphor. The whole thing should only take a few seconds, and this was Twilight's perceptions of her own action, her own artistic expression in the sky, delayed and stretched out by the perception of what she is doing. Borrowing from Celestia, taking a moment of glory and magnifying it with her own actions into something that causes all Equestria to take a moment and recognize "oh yeah, there's a new princess." Doing so in a way that involves preparation and attention to detail so all she has to do is provide the power and trigger the events, one after the other. But I didn't like the feel of it when I wrote it as a mechanical process of light and refraction and dry dry science science MAGIC! science nerd science math.

Twilight is being pretty OOC here. Thrusting herself into the spotlight like that is more Rainbow or Rarity's style. That's a big reason I left this a stand-alone drabble -- I could never allow a scene like this in a real story with plot and motives and characterization and stuff.

[Draco Dei]

I like this... it is more visceral than The Map turned out to be. Her "Barbaric Yopp" as it were, compared to a life-mission (and the Map only included her 2 out of 4 times, which she had to deal with emotionally).

[nonspecific13]

At least, until the moon set again.

so shes basically just
the alicorn of.. a few minutes between day and night? seems kinda random but alr