On wishes unfilled.

by jnzsblzs

On the future of infinity (Epilogue)

Clover walked out of the room, and back into his own. There were a number of corridors between the two, but he didn’t remember crossing them. He opened his doors only to find his companion Serendipity.

“Clover! You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Without a second thought the sky-blue pegasus embraced her.

“Not quite,” he sighed. “More like the thing that make ghosts hide under beds.” Though Hearth's Warming Eve has brought many wonders to all of their lives, in Clover’s opinion none could compare with the warm embrace of the Pegasus mare.

“So, she’s back.” She broke the embrace but kept herself propped up to eye level with Clover by placing her forehooves on the front of Clover’s barrel.

“Which one?”

“Celestia?”

“Yes.”

“And she knows.”

“Yes… I mean what? How do you know?”

“I have my ways.” She smiled as she playfully tapped his nose, then got down to all fours. “Not that I needed them. This is Starswirl we're talking about. Everyone at court knows.”

“I should tell them not to disturb her.” Clover tried to go for the door, but Serendipity held her back.

“Based on how you look, I don’t think anyone who sees her will have any doubt about that. Any idea what she is going to do now?”

“Tonight? Bawling her eyes out. Without question. Tomorrow? Something horrible.” Clover had a sudden idea and promptly walked over to his personal telescope

“Which is?”

Serendipity’s question registered in his brain but it was hard to allocate any resources to it, as he was looking for something on the Moon. Soon enough he found the new feature, he guessed might have formed after the events of the discussion. A crater, huge, but still too small for the naked eye, under the muzzle of the mare. It looked almost like a teardrop.

He didn’t have the time to ponder too much on it, his partner was understanding of his eccentricities, but her patience had its limits. And he was yet to explain Princess Celestia’s plan.

“She intends to… erase Princess Luna from the… collective memory of ponykind? I guess. It wasn’t very clear what or how she was going to do, but she seemed absolutely determined.”

“Do you think she would actually do that?”

“I’m not sure” he shook his head. “I don’t know them as well as Master. But she is a proud one. And her word is a bind she doesn’t give or break easily. But I do think she is going to eventually relent.”

“Why?”

“You know how she always tells anypony who asks if she doesn’t feel lonely, that her eternal companion is Equestria?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I was just wondering; how long can a concept replace a living, breathing, actual pony? Her sister is the eternal companion she's either looked over or took for granted, but how long can that go on now that they're separated? My guess is… not forever.”

After a few seconds of contemplation, Serendipity spoke up.

“Funny you say that. I have a similar theory about Luna. Us younger siblings have a lot in common. When I was young I often copied my siblings' interests to connect with them. And that made me think. With Celestia being so devoted to “her little ponies”, what if it wasn’t the common ponies’ adoration Luna was after?”

“I guess that makes sense too. Let’s hope this rift will heal in time. But tonight? Tonight’s for tears."

“No.” she grabbed his left foreleg intending to drag him away “Tonight’s for Friendship. Come on, Starswirl would have wanted it. Even for those two. Especially for them.”

Author's Note:

I know, I know. In canon Starswirl didn't die. I just pulled a D&D and kinda forgot about it. Literally. Later on when I was too far in the story, I realised my mistake, but I couldn't find another character who could have played the same role.

The Fausticorn was probably my best bet, but her existence in Equestria the country post unification, would have opened up a can of worm I was not willing do deal with. The amount of headcannon I would have had to make up and tell was unfeasible in the short format I was asked to work with. Also I needed their maternal parent figure in other ways, and this more "ethereal" presence suited her role better.

As to Starswirl my best - and only - defence that his back story is incredibly scuffed as is, so in some ways this probably makes more sense than whatever is in the show.

Still, it is a mistake, and I'm sorry.

Comments

[dart157]

Happy Holidays, my friend. You did a really, really good job with my...admittedly lackluster prompt. Enjoyed reading it a lot!

[Wooden Wheel]

I really, really liked this one story... but is marked as 'Incomplete', so there will be more chapters?

What I initially thought was a simple mistake, should have been the clue to Nightmare Moon of Celestia's bad faith; In all the discussion they had, Celestia always referred to the ponies as hers, "my little ponies", never of them, "our little ponies". That was a nice detail.

One mistakes I caut was:

Tia, we’re flash and blood.

flesh and blood

[jnzsblzs]

11783202
No prompt is weak my friend. Even the smallest things can be grabbed on to write stories. For example the thing inspired me, was your wish to specifically not turn NMM into Luna. That immediately sparked a question in my mind:

What is the closest I can bring NMM to reformation, without actually doing it? That question gave me the next idea: What is the closest I can bring Celestia to fall, without doing that? And from that this story came to be, and I'm very glad I took part in this context, it gave me a lot to reflect about personally, in this holiday season, I managed to create the wordplay I'm probably most proud of in my entire life really, and whole lot more that doesn't immediately come to mind.

But the purest, happiest moment was definitely you liking this story. That is what ultimately this whole thing is about.

Merry Christmas my friend.

[jnzsblzs]

11783430
Sadly no, this is the final story, but I've forgot again that incomplete is the default setting of the site when releasing new stories.

In Celestia's defence, the only reason why NMM called them "our little ponies" is because of her love of the royal plural, she doesn't think they belong to them both either. Luna does, but then again she is too pure to exist in the world. Later on, I do believe Celestia comes to understand the importance of sharing her burden with her sister, as I alluded to that in the second chapter, because that is what we see in the show, but this is a younger, prouder and more brash Celestia than the one in the show. This story was always meant as one of the many steps both of them had to take from the fall of Luna to her redemption in Season 1.

Can you imagine this Celestia having enough humility to effectively stand aside when the elements were dealing with NMM, knowing she can never defeat the monster she knew she created? I can't.

Sadly for Celestia definitely (arguably for Luna too) this was a step towards rock bottom, because as they aptly said in LoK "When we hit our lowest point we are open to the greatest change."

Thanks for spotting that mistake, I corrected it.