Chapter 29: Dea Cæli
Princess Celestia walked slowly across the surface of the Moon, her head low in thought. Although this world was a bright beacon of light to the inhabitants of Equestria, that light could not be seen from here. From here, the Moon was a world of gray shapes against darker gray surroundings. Every step of the alicorn’s hooves kicked up a choking cloud of dust.
To the ancient unicorn mages who first explored this distant world with their magic and used it to move the Sphere of Stars, the Moon was assigned the role of the Middle Realm of the Dead, between the Fields of the Blessed and the Torments of Tartarus. The Moon was where the dead that had failed to fulfil their cutie mark but who had not broken the Laws of Harmony were forced to spend eternity. These same unicorn mystics declared it to be the Nexus of Worlds, the place where all possible realities met and canceled each other out. When Equestria met its inevitable end, they solemnly predicted, it would become a twin wasteland to the Moon.
There was nopony left in Equestria who still believed in that particular cosmology. Nopony but Celestia. She spent most nights in a semi-conscious state, half protecting her subjects from the evils of the night, and half wandering this Pony Purgatory, forever searching for the sister she had banished here.
Most nights she found nothing. The other nights were the ones that ended in sobbing…or screaming.
On this particular night, Princess Celestia’s dream search ended abruptly when she came across a very green hedge made of holly, which was being used to conceal a number of humans from view.
The Princess raised her head, and sighed deeply. She wasn’t sure of the exact mechanism, but apparently it was absurdly easy for humans to invade her dreams, and hers alone. Perhaps because of that “Nexus of Worlds” business.
Princess Celestia slowed her approach towards the ridiculous hedgerow to prepare herself. With one significant set of exceptions, the humans who made it into her dreams all wanted one thing from her: power to dominate their enemies. They would try to get this power through flattery or by laughable attempts to outsmart or humiliate her. In every case, Celestia knew that giving a human what they wanted would result in their own self destruction. Only once had she been provoked so far as make the irrevocable decision to actually give a supplicant what he wanted. That was nearly four hundred years ago, and humans had still not solved the mystery of what happened to Roanoke Colony, much less how to end their unceasing torment. It made for yet another mistake for her to dwell on.
The Princess suddenly stopped as she realized that the hedge before her contained multiple humans.
That had never happened before.
Ceelstia took to the air, swiftly flying to where she was an intimidating height above the tiny shrubbery. A blinding light shown down and the bellow of her Royal Canterlot Voice made itself felt as much as heard as she said, “PRESENT YOURSELVES, HUMANS.”
The human Celestia popped into view, dressed in a simple white smock. “Greetings, Your Royal Highness,” she said with a simple bow. “My apologies for intruding on your dreams.”
The alicorn landed, and the light reduced itself to a bearable level. “Your intrusion is forgiven, Celestia,” she replied with a slight tip of her head. Her counterparts never failed to give her precisely the right degree of deference. The Princess was still unsure of the motives of the still-hidden humans, but she trusted that they were being kept in check. “Do you come to seek a boon from me? Or are you perhaps here to ask me a question? Think carefully, child, because this is the one and only time in your lifetime you are permitted to approach me like this.” There was a rather precise formula that had been developed for meetings between Celestias.
“I am well aware of that fact, Your Highness,” the human said, stepping forward out of the hedge. She had kept with the formula to this point, but here was where she went off-script. “I am uncertain if what I wish to ask for is permitted. Therefore, I wish to use my time to inform you of two facts I think you will find useful, and merely request a favor afterwards, a favor you may freely refuse.”
The Princess raised an eyebrow. This human Celestia was entirely too clever for her own good. Her words about being uncertain were an obvious ruse, as she showed a complete confidence in all of her actions. This was a con, the Princess was almost certain of it. “I’m listening,” she said, after it had become clear that her counterpart was waiting on some sort of response from her.
At a signal from the human Celestia, another human stood up from her crouched position inside the holly hedge wearing another smock, this one of midnight blue. “This is my sister…”
“…Luna,” the Princess said in a quiet voice.
“Yes,” the teenager said. “There have been Lunas through the entire history of Markism, and I believe you were never informed of this fact.”
The expression on the alicorn’s face was enough to confirm that statement.
Luna stepped forward, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with the dazed being before her. “All of my predecessors were lost to madness at the time of their Marking. I was the first of my line to be born the sister of a Celestia. She…saved me.” She reached out to take her sister’s hand in her own.
“I know that our situation is but a poor reflection of your own,” the human Celestia addressed her counterpart. “But I hoped to give you a small measure of hope that you too might re-unite with your sister in the near future.”
The Princess smiled gently as collected herself. “You were right: that was indeed a piece of information useful to me. What is the other thing you wish me to know?”
With another signal, an adult human dressed in a white suit with white gloves emerged from the hedge. Upon reaching the lunar surface, he lowered himself to his knees. “I am Truth Delver,” he said, “and I wish to confess to the crime of possessing my counterpart.” His hands clasped tightly together and his eyes were focused on the ground.
“When did this happen?” Princess Celestia asked sternly.
“Thirty one years, seven months and twelve days ago.”
“You are mistaken. I have a spell to detect human possessions, so I would know.”
“He…he was dead at the time,” Delver added, shrinking even further into himself.
“I see. Perhaps you should tell me the whole story.”
And so he did.
& & &
“I cannot hold you responsible for an act of unintentional possession,” Princess Celestia said on the conclusion of the grisly tale. “And it is clear that you have suffered mental punishment far in excess of what you might think you deserve. Truth Delver, I absolve you of blame, and furthermore commend you for providing Equestria with the cure to wasting disease. Assuming your story is true, you are responsible for saving the lives of thousands of ponies to date, and tens of thousands more in the centuries to come.”
The human Celestia reached out a hand to raise Truth Delver to his feet. “I asked my stepfather to tell you this tale because I hope it establishes a precedent. In a hospital on Earth a human named Gus Guiseman is dying of a form of cancer called liposarcoma. If you know of a natural cure to this disease, I would like you to share it with us, so we might be able to save him.”
Princess Celestia knew that name, thanks to the heartfelt—and heart-breaking—confession by the Human Celestia’s predecessor forty years earlier. And now she was being asked to cure that worthy human of a deadly disease.
If this was Equestria, and the petition came from her little ponies, the Princess wouldn’t hesitate for a single moment. But these were humans, a race with no innate knowledge of Harmony. They could be good, but they could also be very, very bad. Not even her own counterparts were immune to the siren song of power. The fact that this petition was so worthy on the surface made it even more suspect in her mind, considering how many times humans had tried to trick her—maybe they schemed to turn the requested cure into yet another planet-destroying bomb? After all, her counterpart was still clearly holding something back from her. This Celestia would have to be tested. “Who else did you bring into my dream?” she asked.
The hedge suddenly disappeared, revealing two human males.
“This is Gnosi,” said the teenage Celestia. “His special talent is how we were all able to appear in your dream. And this is Arbus, one of the researchers working on Gus’ case.” Arbus was a gray-skinned young man with dark green hair. As the lone human in the group who had no idea of the Goddess’ true nature an hour ago, he was obviously the most nervous.
The Princess pointed a hoof at Arbus. “And I assume you thought he would get his talent in re-creating this cure?”
“That was the general idea, yes,” the teenager confirmed.
“This Gus Guiseman—is he a believer?”
“No, he is a man of no fixed religion,” admitted Luna.
“Then why should I help him?” the Princess asked.
Arbus opened his mouth. He wished to inform the Princess that this particular cancer affected a great many Markists, and a cure would be a boon to them.
At the same moment Gnosi opened his mouth. He wished to inform the Princess that Gus Guiseman was only dying of this illness because he sacrificed his life to save all of humanity, including all of the Markists.
Each of them was stopped by Celestia’s hand covering their mouths.
“Gus Guiseman is my friend,” Teenage Celestia said with conviction, staring her counterpart down. “No further answer should be needed.”
The Princess stared at the teenager for a few more moments to make sure she wouldn’t break, and then smiled. “That is indeed the correct answer. Now Arbus, I need you to describe this disease in some detail using laypony terms, as I know of no such ailment with the name of ‘cancer’ or ‘lipo…sarcoma’.
“After you have done this, I will spend the next day confirming what you have told me. If you are the true source of wasting disease’ cure, Mr. Delver, I will work to make sure that your counterpart at least gets some form of official recognition. If ponies have cured ‘liposarcoma’ naturally, and if this cure cannot be easily converted into a dangerous substance, then I will give you that cure. That means I give you permission to visit my dreams tomorrow night. And that concludes our business for tonight. Oh and Celestia?”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“Thank you for your compassion.”
& & &
The humans faded out of Princess Celestia’s dream, leaving her alone once more on the surface of the Moon. She walked off in a random direction, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. As she walked, she was unaware of the trail of vibrant plants she was leaving in her wake.