The Rescue

by Diamond Sparkle

Her New Home

After stopping in Manehatten and Stalliongrad, the train came to Canterlot and Celestia stared smiling at the Royal Castle in front of her. She could remember from her Changeling dream every detail of the royal palace, from the rarely used dungeons to the statues in the Royal Gardens, from the Throne room with it's beautiful stained glass windows, to her lovely soft bed. And the guards and the servants and how much they respected and loved her. Her name was not called and she had no choice but to watch the spires and the tall towers of the place she had memories of living in for two thousand years vanish away into the distance. Soon enough the train stopped at Ponyville, far from the fine wealthy streets of Canterlot, where a guard read out her name amongst others and reluctantly she stepped off the train. Facing her were two earth ponies, a white stallion with a hoof as his cutie mark, a gray mare with a heart as hers, and a white blank flank who let out a whinney of sheer delight at her beloved sister coming back to her.

Her parents trotted up and kissed her tenderly on her cheeks and her forehead. "Celestia, we are so delighted to have you back. Tonight, we party. We may not be rich but at least we have you. What was it like in that Changeling hive? Did they beat and mistreat you?"

Celestia hesitated. If I was to tell you what really happened, that they made me think I was an immortal alicorn with a whole Herd of ponies doing my bidding, and that I wish that I had never been rescued at all, your feelings would be deeply hurt. "I'd rather not talk about it right now," she said grumpily. "I've been through so much after all."

When they got home Celestia had to force herself not to turn her nose up in horror. She, who had two thousand years of complete luxury in the Royal Suite, who once owned an entire castle, now had a small house of five rooms of which only one was her own. Of the rest, there was her parent's bedroom, her sister's room, the dining room and the kitchen. For a bath there was a tin one that had to be filled by hoof. Oh, yes, they had decorated the house with paper chains and a sign saying "Welcome Home Celestia" but clearly her parents were poor. She decided to find her new possessions. There were five books;that must be where she earned her book cutie mark from, her talent must have been reading. There was a doll and a toy sceptre, a bracer fixed to it, and a crown.

A crown made of cardboard, with semi-presious stones.

No diamonds, rubies, emeralds or sapphires here, but plenty of other jewels. Amythests and topaz, quartz and garnet, agate and moonstone and here and there a little silver charm. She eased it onto her head and it broiught her some comfort. At least she still had a crown of sorts.

She read her diary. Her father was named Iron Hoof, her mother was named Beauty and her sister was named Luna. They only had enough money to send her and Luna to school for one month in every three, the rest of the time they worked twelve hours a day either bucking apples for Applejack's Loyalty Corperation or, when apples were not in season....pulling carts full of....horse excrement and other such rubbish and spreading them out on the fields. Although she was top of her class, they had no money to educate her or her sister beyond secondary school. She could forget about getting a university degree and getting a good job that would lift her out of poverty. She would spend the rest of her life toiling away and earning barely enough bits to eat and pay bills and taxes, her only holidays being New Year's Eve, Hearth's Warming Day and Princess Aurora's birthday. It was not that she was stupid, far from it, she could read aged two and read adult books aged three, but there was no money for further education.

Celestia had to really struggle not to howl and burst into tears. She, who could remember so much about her life of luxury,a life where she ruled the whole of Equestria and talked with ambassadors from other countries, would never enjoy power or influence or luxury again. Just then she heard her father calling her to eat.

"Hey, you think you're a Princess," her father said with a laugh. "I suppose tonight you are.Tonight, as well as the apple for each of us that we normally eat I brought a cake. Normally we'd never see cake outside of the Holidays. Applejack is a harsh boss, but even she granted a day off from apple bucking to spend a day as a family together after all that you went through in that Changeling hive."

With memories of huge meals with every kind of fruit, grass and vegetable as well as many a cake in her mind, Celestia sadly ate the small meal and savoured every last crumb of the cake.

"Time to go to bed, we have twelve hours of apple bucking ahead of us," her mother said.

Why would any Changeling in their right mind want to impersonate me and life this hard life of toil? It must be because my parents and sister love me so deeply that to a Changeling, the meal of love would be worth it. But I'm not a Changeling and...I want to hunt down an undamaged Changeling hive and beg them to put me back into a pod to feed their grubs. I want to be an alicorn again. Celestia thought. Her bed, when she went to it, was hard, with only a single pillow instead of the five she was used to and she tossed and turned and got very little sleep. It seemed to her that she had only just fallen asleep when her father nuzzled her awake. "Celestia, wake up, it's time to go.apple bucking."

Comments

[DezzarTac]

damn thats harsh.....I like it! *fav*

[Mossy Pages]

I want her to go back to the changlings...
Poor kid.