Sixth
She sensed them long before the planet came within range of Her senses. As She zoomed closer, She also picked up the position of the celestial bodies in this particular solar system. By sheer luck, She’d arrived at a time when they were together. She dipped Her essence into the blue orb’s atmosphere, pushed through the ever-denser air, and burst through the clouds over a tall, white city on a mountain. In less than a second, Her vapors had formed as a fog about a lone balcony, where two startled figures took note.
Her gases coalesced slowly, moving with greater caution this time as they tried to remember Her old, original form. Gradually, oh-so gradually, She regained Her purple hooves and wings and horn. Sucking in Her first true lungful of Equestrian air in what seemed like an eternity, She opened Her eyes to take in the alicorns watching Her from a polite distance. Strange. They seemed so much smaller a few seconds ago.
The white one approached, but slowly. “Welcome home, Twilight.”
Princess Twilight Sparkle blinked at the sounds being sent her way, so familiar and so strange at the same time. It took her a moment to remember how to respond the ‘normal’ way. “Celestia.” Oh, that didn’t sound right at all. Too rough, too impersonal. Funny, how limiting physical bodies could be. “I mean…” She licked her lips. Such a strange sensation. Rather novel. She did it again, just to try it out.
Princess Luna moved closer as well, her motions a little more eager than her sibling’s. “Is everything alright, Twilight Sparkle?”
“Hmm? Oh. Um, sorry.” Ruffling her wings and giving her body and experimental shake, Twilight smiled. “It’s kinda weird, being… me again.”
“Of course.” Celestia offered the slightest nod, her calm and patient smile just as firmly in place as Twilight remembered. “We’ll be happy to help you adjust. Assuming this isn’t just a brief stop before you head back out?”
Twilight hummed, then did it again, delighting in the sound. She tested a few octaves just for the pleasant sensation it brought. Oh, right, there’d been a question. “No, I’m done.”
“Are you sure?” Luna’s face contorted, her brow a mess of furrows and something peculiar in her eyes. Concern, that was the word Twilight was looking for. “You weren’t gone too long. Did you at least see one or two of the sights I recommended?”
“One or two?” Twilight stared at her. “I saw them all. And then some. They were wonderful.” She blinked, looking down only to realize she couldn’t see her own lips in this form. Was she frowning? “That didn’t come out right. I’m supposed to sound excited, because I am. Physical bodies are weird.”
Luna’s wings went slack. “A-all of them? How? That kind of journey should have taken you a century at least. One way.”
Returning her attention to Luna, Twilight asked, “It should?” A pause. “How long was I gone?”
Celestia had a new smile, this one reflecting an emotion Twilight had no trouble placing: pride. “You can tell us, can you not?”
“Oh. Right.” Closing her eyes, Twilight cast Her senses through the solar system. It was nothing to place the location of every planet, asteroid, and comet in the cosmic region. And with Her encyclopedic knowledge of astronomy and calendars and knowing where everything was on the day She left… “Twelve years, three months, eight days. Give or take a couple days.”
Celestia hummed, then looked to her sister. “Luna?”
“Perfectly accurate,” Luna replied, sounding just a little winded. “You… you really saw all of them? In just over a decade?”
“Looks like she broke your speed record by a high margin,” Celestia noted with a light giggle. Oh, Twilight liked that sound! She’d have to endeavor to make it happen more.
Luna pouted and glanced away. “Accursed Mary Sue…”
Twilight cocked her head. That was not a technically accurate term for this situation. Did Luna not know? Maybe She should—
Her thoughts were interrupted before She could act on them by Celestia stepping up beside her and placing a wing on her back. “But are you sure you’re ready to return, Twilight? Did you achieve what you wanted to achieve?”
Twilight pondered this, noting that Luna’s attention was back on her and once more filled with concern. After a moment, she turned around, out from under Celestia’s wing, and stared at the city and the world beyond. The tall buildings of Canterlot, with the thousands of ponies mingling in the fading sunlight. The green hills and mountains and valleys beyond, coated in lush forest. And there, merely a speck in the distance, was little Ponyville, right where she left it.
Home.
It dawned upon her that in all her travels these last twelve years, for all the wonders she’d witnessed, she’d not encountered a single place that held life. Magic… Magic was amazing. Magic could do so much. And now she knew that there were other beings like Celestia and Luna out there, beings like Herself and Cadance. They showed Her such stunning displays on such grand scales.
But none of them had this.
“It really is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Celestia hummed. Luna remained silent.
“Not just the view. Life itself. The concept of it. The idea.” Twilight felt her lips doing something. She felt them with her hoof. Smiling. She was smiling. She rather liked it. “My friends won’t come back, but… that’s okay. They lived, and that alone is a magic of its own. I think I’m just happy that they got the chance to exist, and I got the chance to witness it.” She turned back to the princesses, showing off her rediscovered ability to grin. “I want more of it. More life! More of its magic. More… more friends.”
Luna and Celestia were beaming down on her. “I told you this vacation would be good for you,” Celestia declared with a hint of merry ego.
“You were right.” Twilight, recalling the motions all but forgotten in her journey, approached Luna and hugged her tightly. “Thank you so much for telling me how to find those places. It was exactly what I needed.”
“You are most welcome, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna returned the hug, but upon separating she cast a half-serious scowl at the young princess. “But in return I expect you to show me how you achieved such ludicrous speeds. Even as a living goddess, that should be impossible.”
Twilight giggled – oh, another nice sound! – and nodded.
“Deal.”
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- PaulAsaran · 45k words · 66 2 · 1.2k views
- MagnoliaThourns · 24k words · 41 6 · 1.2k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 5.5k words · 81 3 · 1.3k views
- BlazzingInferno · 19k words · 87 1 · 978 views
- PaulAsaran · 5k words · 84 3 · 1.4k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 3.1k words · 57 3 · 1k views
- Snake Staff · 19k words · 113 5 · 1.8k views
- MagnetBolt · 3k words · 45 4 · 642 views
Stats
Page generated in 0.113 seconds
Total duration
811 users online
1,050,296 hits today, 2,123,720 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh no, you beat me to writing a story off Drops of Jupiter! D:
It better be a good one. >:B
9244567
Oops, sorry! I’ve had peeps do that to me before.
But look at it this way: if it’s not, you can write yours and gloat about how much better it is than mine.
Woo! Glad to see it's up.
I figured that Twilight's friends were dead, but this is a lovely way for the Sisters to help her cope. Well done.
I like how each of the chapters had one of Twilight's friends represented in the form of some sort of planetary cosmic magic, I've never seen that done before, it's honestly quite impressive. Well done.
How about a bonus chapter about everybrony's favorite Mare In Black: Sweetie Drops? Maybe in the deep gravitational well of a neutron star?
9245169
Realizing that now. Neptune does have diamonds in its interior, but they're pretty small. Plus, all that methane reflects blue light and transmits red. But I shouldn't be too worried about that, because no star is deep blue.
Ponderous mysticism meets character exploration through a cosmic lens? This is my jam.
hehe... ludicrous speed.
9244616
And thanks again for the help!
9244629
9244855
Looking for a new world because Equestria was destroyed? Huh. Despite how common the general idea is, it never occurred to me.
9245205
For one, I think I'd rather keep this limited to the Mane Six.
For another, I've no idea what a neutron star would have to do with a secret life of espionage. Perhaps something involving dark matter, but more likely something obtuse, like a rogue planet hidden in a nebula. But then it would need a Lyra nearby that it passes regularly, revealing the lie to the 'rogue' status. And of course, Lyra would have to be something utterly forgettable, like a probe from a long-lost civilization, but herself caught in the gravitational well of a black hole, perhaps?
yee，hey，your article is wonderful.Could I translate and share them to my Chinese friends?
9245846
Absolutely, go ahead!
Exquisite and extensible! After all, at the very least, Twilight will one day go out and make a memorial for Spike when he passes on centuries from now.
Also, I was going to write an offshoot about how Luna told Twilight her friends had been memorialized in the stars, prompting her to ask for coordinates. I didn't think I'd come so close to an actual prequel!
Also also, the various Magics could apparently incarnate in Equestria as alicorns. I kind of want to see their reactions to life, both as it and interacting with it. Though the nebula may have already done that during the Mirror Pool incident...
In any case, a lovely collection from start to finish. Thank you for it.
9246583
Glad you enjoyed it! I considered doing a chapter for Spike, but then remembered my chosen timeline and realized he probably hadn’t kicked the bucket yet. Still, the option is there for sequels in which Twilight or someone else meets other such celestial figures. I’ve considered having one where Cadance does the same thing, except that she doesn’t have so many direct, known characters to interact with so it would have to be something much shorter.
Curious that you had such an idea that mirrors mine so well, although the exact nature of the Magics’ existences isn’t so clear cut as that. At least, I don’t think so; I didn’t bother to clarify that in my head.
A sequel of alicorn visitations could be... entertaining. Definitely something worth considering.
But she never visited Jupiter...
9248131
Maybe she did and I just didn't let you see it. Maybe it was too... private (oh la la!).
9248143
Okay see now you need to write an T-rated bonus chapter where she has space sex with Jupiter.
9248152
...
...
Well.
That's a very different interpretation of the phrase "Drops of Jupiter".
9248403
Now I’m going to write a story called “Sploosh of Jupiter” with a story description “Twilight has space sex with Jupiter”.
9248572
You have my permission to blame me for it.
That was a ton of fun to read!!! Thanks for sharing with us!
9250770
I'm reminded a lot of Hello Sedna, except not nearly as melancholy.
9251409
Oh, wow, it's been years since I reviewed that. I do recall loving it, though. It's one of those stories that I sometimes recall, and fondly.
It was a good one. :)
This ... was an interesting read. I figured it out by the second chapter, but it was a good read anyway.
If you do a sequel, what would it be about? Would these ascended friends come home? The stars can be incredibly lonely with nothing but stellar masses to play with every day.
9256706
You don’t have it as figured out as you think, but it’s an understandable misinterpretation. As for a sequel (and I cannot guarantee there will be one), I could go many ways. I could show Cadance’s journey through the stars. I could find an excuse to have the Magics come to Equestria to take on physical forms for brief visits. I could expand upon Twilight’s journey and introduce more Magic entities. Who knows?
9256823
If I was right all the time, FF would be much less interesting, amirite? Winks at the screen
This was rather amazing! I really loved how well each piece can stand on its own--I'd put together what was going on by the time the apple part came around, and by that point was annoyed at myself for not suspecting earlier. But even without the connections to Twilight's pony friends, each chapter was such a lovely bit of atmospheric, expressive exploration that it wasn't at all boring.
And the notion that the universe is so large that there's something out there very much like each and every one of Twilight's friends is a sadly beautiful one, made all the better by the angle of Twilight befriending planets and stars and the like.
This is a really cool story, and I loved just about everything about it. Thanks for writing it!
9300408
I’m just glad it’s been so well received compared to what I was expecting. I really enjoyed writing it, but feared it would be too ‘out there’ for people. So far I’m happy to find that’s not the case.
Also, you’re the first person to comment who actually gets what I was going for (at least openly), so kudos!
I've had this in a browser tab pretty much since you published it, and only now got around to reading it.
I can't help but imagine what, for example, the Federation might think if they were to stumble upon a star system with a sapient belt of rainbow asteroids and comets.
9385793
Might make for a good episode.
...eh, it probably is one, come to think of it. I'm by no means an aficionado.
This was really nice.
I was gonna remark that this was the most unique take on "Describe the Mane 6 without talking about their physical forms" I've ever seen, but I like the message in the final chapter that tied it all together. It's heartwarming.
9397075
I must admit, I struggled for a while to come up with something for each character. Applejack and Rainbow Dash in particular took me a while to figure out.
Your review is completed and can be found here.
I almost don't want to comment on this one. Sometimes I feel like beautiful prose needs to stand on its own, and breaking that delicate veneer with outside words can cause the illusion to shatter. Despite this, I still want to share some thoughts.
I don't read very many atmospheric pieces. I suppose I'm more drawn to dialogue, or maybe I just need to branch out more often. Either way, this is not the sort of writing I'm used to. Maybe that's why I'm so blown away by it. Because there is a beautiful kind of expressiveness and communication that can't be told through conversation.
MLP has evolved to contain a pretty wide and diverse cast, but the unit that is the Mane Six has always been so strong to me. Even beyond their backstories, character growth, etc. the core essence of each of these six ponies we know and love has always been something that fascinated me, drew me in. And I'm so happy to see that realized here. Pinkie as a nebula feels so right, as do all the other space bodies. I'll be honest, it took me a while to realize that the third chapter was about Rainbow and not Pinkie, but perhaps that's just my reading skills needing polishing.
The final chapter actually surprised me. Up to that point, I figured it was purely an atmospheric piece, that we would never see Twilight's physical form (or even have her formally named). That each chapter was a pure demonstration of the embodiment of each of the Mane Six, not necessarily fitting into the larger MLP setting. Perhaps the last chapter would have been Twilight's essence discovering her own celestial body to call home. But what we got gave me some grounded clarity, and I realize the poignancy behind it. Twilight, the real Twilight, remembering her friends through her explorations. Though these bodies may not be her real friends, they indulge in Twilight's wishes and pay tribute to those who have come before. It's hard to determine how much sentience they really have, or if they can truly be defined within our definition of sentience. Perhaps it's all in Twilight's head, and she within herself she is bringing these bodies to life. We don't know, and we don't need to know. I think that's really beautiful.
The Mane Six living on in some way or another, through memories, ideals, or abstract thoughts, is something that greatly appeals to me. In a way, it reminds me of 4everfreebrony's Chant series.
Some people seem to be wanting a continuation, and you say this concept deserves more exploration, but in my humble opinion this is exactly as long as it needs to be. It hits my favourite sweet spot of joyful melancholy and passing time, at least in my eyes.
I realize now I don't think I've ever actually heard Drops of Jupiter. Maybe I should go give it a listen.
Thank you for writing this. I wish I was capable of formulating more adept wording about my feelings, but there it is. Thank you.
~NumberFifth