Dear Princess Celestia,
My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; it’s the "contents" of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
Dear Princess Celestia,
It's hard to believe that two ponies who seem to have so little in common could ever get along. But I found out that if you embrace each other's differences, you'd just might be surprised to discover a way to be friends after all.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
Dearest Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that it's hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who's not so nice. Though it's impossible to control who your friends hang out with, it is possible to control your own behavior. Just continue to be a good friend. In the end, the difference between a false friend and the one who is true will surely come to light.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
A small sigh escaped Dusk’s lips, nostalgia that was not her own sweeping over her. “You remember when you wrote these, don’t you.” She rolled up the letters and placed them gently back in Celestia’s drawer, handling them with great care; as though they would crumble into dust if she so much as touched them.
“I certainly do, though I have no business knowing.” Dusk closed the drawer gently, and turned around.
Even despite her changes to the rest of Canterlot Castle, Celestia’s room had remained untouched. And she had to admit; she wouldn’t want to change it now. The walls were a beautiful, evening blue with darker clouds swirling across the surface and blue shooting stars painted on one wall. The grand fireplace was certainly a sight to behold, being slightly rounded in shape with a golden crown carved into the top; the rest of it was a lovely lavender color, elaborate carvings etched into the smooth surface. A red floor-pillow sat near the fireplace with a rolled up, golden-blanket-like pillow on one side – a place for Celestia to sit and relax when she could.
The bed was much like Luna’s, a massive canopy bed with silky curtains falling over the sides. The bed itself was golden; the canopy a pale pink, almost white; just like Celestia’s coat. The pillows were purple, with a golden one as well, Celestia’s Cutie-Mark embroidered on the front. The blankets shared the same color scheme.
She felt emotions of mixed hatred and love fill her chest, and she sucked in a deep breathe, held it, and let it out slowly.
“You miss her,” she said regretfully. She stepped out on Celestia’s balcony; looking at the pitch black horizon. “It couldn’t hurt…” she closed her eyes, head lowering. Her horn started to glow magenta, her heart started to flutter….
~~
“What do you mean ‘it won’t work?’ Everypony else agreed!” Pinkie Pie cried in Shining Armor’s face. The stallion took a startled step back, bumping into one of the library’s bookshelf.
“Pinkie,” he told her, “Even with one of us as a distraction there’s no way all six of us could sneak into the castle without being noticed, and set everything up without anyone noticing.”
“I have my party cannon!” Pinkie interjected, pulling the cannon out of thin air as if to prove it. “This baby gets the party started in seconds! Even though setting up the party yourself is much more fun,” she added to herself.
“That still doesn’t help the ‘sneaking in six ponies’ part,” he sighed. Pinkie opened her mouth to argue, stopped, closed her mouth, stroked her chin with a hoof, produced a mustache from nowhere and placed it on her muzzle, opened her mouth, stopped, and sighed. “Okay, okay, I’ll think of something else!” Pinkie trotted off, mumbling new plans to herself. Cadance stepped towards her husband and sighed sadly, “It did seem like a good idea at the time.”
“A party? I still don’t get it,” Shining said.
“It’s Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash said. “Just go with it, and usually it works. Usually.” The cyan Pegasus fluttered down towards them, the other ponies following.
Cadance stared off into space, deep in thought. The others shifted awkwardly, and Shining Armor wrapped a hoof around her shoulders. “What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“What? Oh…” she shrugged. “Sorry, I just… zoned out for a moment.”
There was a long silence, before all the ponies – including Pinkie jumped nearly out of their skins when a fierce knock rattled the door. Without waiting for an answer, the door swung open, and a pony stepped in.
“Hello, is anypony… An I interrupting something?” the confused mare registered the shocked expressions all but Cadance and Shining Armor gave her.
~~
Blinding light, brilliant warmth, Nightmare Dusk felt as though the dancing elements within would tear her apart. The moon was so much different, a cool surface; easy to move, to visit.
The sun was entirely different in every conceivable way. It was massive, for one thing. Much, much bigger than the cold, smooth surface of the moon. Hot plasma made Dusk’s metaphorical insides feel as though they would burst; the magnetic fields were almost too much to bear. The solar wind that made Celestia’s mane blow so beautifully all the time felt like it would push Dusk’s conscious clear out of existence. The fact that the sun wasn’t even really solid made Dusk cringe, as though the gravity would simultaneously stop working and all the chemicals and elements of the celestial body would scatter away. And yet Dusk moved onward, the sun was so much farther away than the moon…
But the alicorn refused to stop going forward, her ethereal form left unharmed by what would have killed a living pony in seconds; even though she felt like she would die right there. She moved, traveled, searched…
‘Nightmare Moon’
The hideously angelic voice assaulted metaphorical eardrums, and yet as much hate is it derived from Dusk; it derived just as much adoration.
‘Celestia,’ she replied tartly. Their voices echoed in all directions, coming from everywhere and nowhere. ‘Dusk is what we are called now.’
‘…Nightmare Dusk?’
‘…We would prefer just… Dusk.’
‘I see.’ The voice held no anger, or accusatory tone. It held… pain, sadness. Dusk wondered if Celestia had been aware of how much time had passed since her imprisonment.
When she had been one with Luna, she only had a small idea of how much time had passed; she would know how many days had passed when she felt Celestia raise the moon. But she had not raised the sun since imprisoning Celestia; she had no way of knowing how much time had passed.
‘Celestia…’ Dusk started,
‘You sound just like Twilight.’ Celestia stated as though Dusk wasn’t aware of that. ‘…Why have you visited me?’
Dusk remained silent, having no clear answer. Various thoughts crossed her mind before she settled on an answer; ‘Part of me misses you.’
Celestia didn’t answer, as though expecting Dusk to continue, so she did; ‘I don’t miss you, but she does. We visit together; I bring us here for her sake.’
‘I… see. How much time has passed? Centuries?’
‘Only a few months,’ Dusk replied.
‘You visit me so early?’ Celestia said softly. Dusk got the impression that Celestia had something else to say, but was holding it back.
‘How does it feel?’ Dusk inquired. ‘Trapped, having no clear idea how much time has passed? When you may be free again? Whether you will be freed at all?’
Celestia was silent for a long time. ‘…Twilight, I have missed you.’
I’ve missed you too, Princess…
Dusk felt her consciousness moving forward, and met with another. Two ethereal bodies embraced, Celestia’s unbearably hot; and Dusk’s icy cold; and a third: a warm spark.
It was almost as though they melded together, no solid bodies preventing them from doing so. And then Dusk pulled away.
‘Will you raise me, my sun, just once more across Equestria?’ Celestia asked tentatively.
‘Farewell, Celestia.’ And Dusk’s mind pulled back, away; towards earth, towards home.
1896288 I like to think that they're merged
Regardless of being still in construction, this chapter was still excellent.
...now to see just what pony has decided to visit the Mane.
1991632
oooh interesting developments here. :D
Blinding light, brilliant warmth, Nightmare Dusk felt as though the dancing elements within would tear her apart. The moon was so much different, a cool surface; easy to move, to visit.
The sun was so much different. It was massive, for one thing. Much, much bigger than the cold, cool moon. Hot plasma made Dusk’s metaphorical insides feel as though they would burst; the magnetic fields were almost too much to bear. The solar wind that made Celestia’s mane blow so beautifully all the time felt like it would push Dusk’s conscious clear out of existence. The fact that the sun wasn’t even really solid made Dusk cringe, as though the gravity would simultaneously stop working and all the chemicals and elements of the celestial body would scatter away. And yet Dusk moved onward, the sun was so much farther away than the moon…
But Dusk moved onward, her ethereal form left unharmed by what would have killed a living pony in seconds; even though she felt like she would die right there. She moved, traveled, searched…
felt like you repeated yourself here. Maybe use different disciptions.
Beautiful chapter! I really was hoping that Celestia would be contacted at some point, but the setting was vastly different than with Luna! Starting off with the "old" 'Friendship Reports', vivid descriptions on the approach to Celestia and the 'merging' of souls was all very nice!
THIS is the sort of thing that makes me enjoy fanfiction! I don't expect you to do it every chapter but it's good enough to know you're capable! The rest is up to you!
On another note...1991640...crud! FOILED AGAIN!
1992057 Oh, derp. thanks for pointing that out, how embarrassing!
1992339 I was going to have her visit Luna earlier, but cut that out of the chapter to be used later
Also, thank you! I was hoping the Dusk and Celestia scene would be a sort of vivid, dream-like setting and based on your response I assume I pulled it off okay
Also, did you notice how the friendship letters I used are lessons that could apply to Dusk?
Ahh! So there's more to it than just giving Dusk a reason to see Celestia, eh? I like where the story seems to be heading.
I understand that the moon and sun are different but I'm sure you can find a way to make the ambience for the proper meeting with Luna interesting, especially since it's a nice and quiet place to look at the stars, the sun(carefully of course) and the planet when in good company.(Not that I would know first hand but Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin might share the sentiment.....Penny for your thoughts?)
P.S.: I sent ya' another collection!
1993556 For some reason I love that you said 'ambiance' ... not sure why, I just do
I'm not quite sure what you mean 'penny for my thoughts' ..(Sorry, I'm an antisocial egghead )
QUEUE PUZZLE MUSIC!
1930465 I noticed that you attempted to reply to a comment by writing @. To do so properly, pick the comment that you wish to reply to by moving the mouse over to the upper right corner of it and a "..." like symbol should be visible. When pressed, this symbol should automatically write ">>" followed by some numbers in the 'post comment' section. The numbers represent the SPECIFIC COMMENT being replied to as if it were a license plate so no two comments should share the same number even if multiple were written by the same person.
Note: You may do this several times if you wish to reply to several people at once but keep in mind that wherever the blinking "I" like symbol is when writing then that is where the number will appear so treat is as though it were a single letter or number! You may do this next to each other without affecting the individual links but if you write between, press 'space', erase or alter the ">>+numbers" in any way then the link(s) will NOT work! Finally, if you are finished and press 'Add Comment' or 'Preview Comment' and notice that the numbers turned blue then the link should have been successful and if you 'refresh' the page and notice that the number changed into the username then the link is truly confirmed!
Try replying to me for starters! It can be about anything! I'll try to pay attention in case you did something wrong.
1993590
You're welcome!?(Also, and I know it could've been a typo, it's ambiEnce!)
'Penny for your thoughts' is like saying "Hey! Here's an idea!" as in I'm hoping that what I wrote regarding the meeting with Luna could give you some ideas on what to write in case you missed something for the following plot.
1993590Oh! By the way, don't worry about the 'antisocial egghead' thing. One: you seem nice enough and two: I can probably count my friends with only one hand if it's about who I actually keep in contact with. I'm not an antisocial but I hardly qualify for 'sociable' as it is!
1993940 Oh, Okay then. Thanks!
To be honest, right now I only have a few friends I really call friends, all of the others it seems are going through the typical 'I'm an angsty teenager' thing, and either consider me 'below them because I'm not angsty,' or look up to me because even though I'm younger than them I have 'wisdom' or something Seriously... everybody comes to me when they have a problem. Why!
1994209
Heh! At least people go to YOU! Lately, I'm lucky if I can have a decent conversation with someone every three days! I can handle peace and quiet but it gets to the point where it's SOOOOO BORING to be at home and it doesn't help that I don't do much besides studying for my B.A. in Digital Producctions. I've TRIED to get a job but no luck so far.....
Then again, I understand if you feel like you're being smoothered but don't take time spent with others for granted.....even if it's some random guy from the internet!
1994209
Oh, yes! Please don't become an angsty teenager. It's the age where the brain developes fast along with the rest of the body but not everyone copes with it well! Keep your core attitude flexible but firm!
1994346>>1994385
I think at one point when I was 11 I was on the way, buut I saw all my other older friends begin their descent and I'm like 'forget this,' and started doing more productive things like writing and drawing (I think people were repelled by the fact that I was the kind of person who read science books for fun rather than actual study)
1994405
You have an admirable way of thinking. While I find the fact that you read science books for fun instead of regular studying somewhat questionable it speaks volumes on your mentality. I'm impressed really!
By the way, it's close to 00:00 on your side isn't it? Shouldn't you get some sleep? Not that I mind writing of course...
Edit: Heh! I did not mean to quote the whole comment...
1994480 I stay up late, my mother makes me come to bed at 12:00 but usually I don't actually go to sleep until 2 in the morning. It's not that I don't respect her rules, it's just that my body refuses to let me sleep until then
Anyway, thanks! I've impressed you!
1994505
Careful not to get in trouble!
1994518 It's only 11:10 over here right now, so I'm safe for another forty minutes I spend the other two hours in my room reading with a booklight, and thus I remain safe!
1994575
Oho! Crafty one aren't you!
By the way, I'll be awake for a while longer so I'm available if you need someone to write to.
1994620 Okay! Although I'm a little busy right now, writing down an idea I've had in my head for quite a while... Princess Luna goes into a Black Hole!
1994632
Well like I said I'm available, but only if YOU are so I'll leave you to your thoughts..... Otherwise PM me. Interesting story title by the way!
hmmmm interesting...me thinks i see whats happening to Dusk's mindset
1991639
Indeed.