//------------------------------// // Revelations // Story: The Result of Absolute Power // by SvenFoxx //------------------------------// With a startled gasp, Celestia shot out of bed. Panting, sweating, and her heart hammering a mile a minute, the Alicorn of the day took a moment to realize she was awake, and not standing in front of a small army of vengeful ponies. Clarity filled her. A vision, portents of possible futures. A vision of Cozy Glow, and of the ambition of a single filly. A vision of the Elements of Harmony acting to preserve the Equestrian Way. A vision of Equestria, the ideal, the dream, burning to the ground around her due to the single worst decision she could ever make. "I've spent far too much time in politics," Celestia grumbled to herself, rubbing her head with a hoof. Had she seriously considered Tartarus a viable punishment for a child? Had her future self grown so cold-hearted to do that? She frowned. How far into the future was this possibility? As of now Twilight had only just defeated Tirek and embraced her destiny. There were lots of details in visions that Celestia would not be able to recall, a sort of safety feature that prevented too much tampering with time. For instance, she knew Twilight would come to run a school based on Friendship, or its ideals. But the details of this school, the forming, the paperwork involved, the location, and the staff escaped her. But Cozy Glow was clear in her mind, as was every detail regarding the Pegasus filly. This told Celestia that Cozy Glow, her actions, and the results of said actions was the focus of the vision and what she should be paying attention to. After beating her future self over the head a few more times in her mind, Celestia got to work making notes and plans. The first thing that needed to be addressed was Tirek's involvement. His power could be learned, and was not something unique only to him, it seemed. Granted, Cozy Glow seemed to use a bastardized version of the magic absorption ability, likely because Tirek had little desire for competition, but still. That had to be guarded against. Ending the centaur lord's life briefly crossed Celestia's mind, but she almost immediately rejected the idea. She and Luna had promised Scorpan that no true and lasting harm would come to Tirek unless they were the results of immediate self-defense. Besides that, making rash decisions is what led to her future self making that stupid decision in the first place. No. Tirek would be dealt with non-lethally. "Hmm..." Celestia hummed to herself as she got dressed in her regalia. A quick check on the positioning of the sun told her it was still too early to bring it over the horizon. Everyone in the castle was either asleep now, or busy with the night shift. "Perhaps a change in his current prison?" An idea bloomed. Quickly gathering some paper and a quill from her desk nearby, Celestia jotted it down. She'll work more on that later. For now a more pressing concern needed to be addressed. --- Celestia entered the Royal Archives, a cup of steaming coffee floating along in her aura next to her. She nodded to the on duty archivist and made her way through the aisles. "Apploosa, Arendight, Buckingham, Canterlot... ah, here it is. Cloudsdale Census Registry." Removing the large book from the shelf, Celestia carried it to a table and began flipping through it. While she knew a bit about Cozy Glow due to the events she witnessed in her vision, Celestia didn't know everything. One of the bigger question marks floating over that name was where she lived. Clearly, the first place to look would be Cloudsdale, the effective capitol of Pegasi. Unfortunately, it seemed Cozy Glow was not listed in this registry. She put the book back and grabbed the registry for Ponyville. Nope, not there either. Canterlot? No. Putting back the last book, Celestia tapped her chin in thought. It seemed locating the errant filly would not be as as simple as she had assumed. Perhaps one of the smaller villages? Or maybe one of the few nomadic tribes roaming around? No, Cozy was wearing some pretty expensive gold jewelry in her vision, and most nomads didn't bother with material possessions beyond what was necessary. So probably a small village. Celestia frowned, her memory tickling her. Hadn't there been a settlement request recently? A Unicorn that Celestia had almost mistaken for Twilight had requested permission to begin a village near the Badlands. Despite the oddity of where she wanted to start her village, the unicorn had filled out all of the proper paperwork and had gone through all of the correct channels and red tape. Celestia had asked if this was meant to be a mining village, since the badlands were a known mineral ore hotspot, but the Unicorn had stated she did not intend to turn the village into such, but just in case had filled in the proper forms for that as well, even going so far as make sure the percentage of profits going to the crown in such a case would be ten percent greater than standard. Assured that the Unicorn was not attempting an illegal mining operation, Celestia had discussed it with Luna and they both agreed to have a surveyor draw up the boundaries of the prospective town. What had made the meeting stick in Celestia's mind was the lawyer this Unicorn had brought with her. He smiled a lot, but the smile was... unnerving. Not malicious, but... forced? Yes. The smile seemed overly forced. "Hmmm... Now that I think about it, she failed to provide a name for the town," Celestia mused. She stood up and went to a different section. "Now then... what was her name? Ah yes, I remember." She grabbed a book and started flipping through it. "Here it is. Starlight Glimmer's zoning permit. For the town of... Our Town?" after a moment she shrugged. "Must be a community effort." ---- "I had a vision last night," Celestia offered after swallowing a bite of her cereal. Luna's fork full of mashed potatoes paused midair. She glanced at her sister. "That would explain why I couldn't access your dream. Anything important?" she asked. Celestia frowned. "A pony managed to absorb all of the magic in Equestria and very nearly succeeded in sending it to the void between worlds. If not for a very brave group of friends, not Twilight's friends for once, she would have succeeded." Luna's fork fell back into her plate. "What," she asked with wide eyes. Celestia shrugged. "It requires a bit of context to understand," she said. Luna sighed. "Of course it does. When do you have visions that are simple?" she mumbled to herself. She stood up. "Tell me who it is and I'll have them detained immediately." Celestia winced. "Ah. That would be a... bad idea." Luna regarded Celestia with a cool gaze and arched an eyebrow. "Why?" she asked. "Well, for one, I don't know the timetable we're working on here. I only know it occurred after Twilight opened a school to teach friendship, just at the end of the first semester." Luna nodded after a moment. "And because you don't know when Twilight would open such a school, we have at the very least three months." Celestia nodded. "That... and the vision wasn't about the pony herself, but the very... very extreme reaction of how her punishment was handled." Luna's eyebrow rose higher. She sat down and resumed her dinner. "I'm listening," she said. Celestia took a bite of her breakfast again and swallowed before continuing. "Her name is Cozy Glow, and she was nine years old at the time of this happening..." Celestia proceeded to tell Luna the entire story. She left nothing out. Every last detail. Afterwards, Luna sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I want to chastise you for even daring to have a vision like that, but I have a fairly good guess why my counterpart went along with your plan initially." Celestia looked up, curious. Luna shifted uncomfortably. "I... am scared, Celestia." She held up a hoof, stopping her sister from butting in. "Not of you, no, but... well, the last time I went against you resulted in Nightmare Moon," she said, looking away. "I may have forgiven myself for the events... but I still remember them. The very thought of arguing against your judgments is...uncomfortably difficult for me." Luna's eyes narrowed and she looked at Celestia. "But if you really did do what you claimed, I can see why I would eventually choose to side against you again. I agree with what Twilight said, sister. This must be fixed. You are spending far too much time leading the kingdom if you are receiving warnings like this. Once this Cozy Glow business is settled, you are going on vacation." Celestia sighed. "I probably should. I cannot even remember the last time I had a day off, let alone a vacation." "Now, have you done anything about this yet?" Luna asked. Celestia nodded. "I've begun drawing up plans for a new hospital. I remember in my vision that Twilight seemed to have developed a hospital meant to diagnose and treat mentally ill patients, while also studying them to try and discover ways to prevent their tragedies from occurring again. There's also some plans for a new magically deprived prison. I intend to put criminals with unique methods of controlling magic there." Luna nodded after a moment, seeing the logic. "For those like Tirek, I imagine. Best make it so he can't access the outside world." Celestia agreed. "That was one of the plans for the prison." She sighed. "Finally, I've begun digging in the archives for traces of Cozy Glow to try and locate her. My hope is that I can dissuade her from going down that path with some careful attention. Right now that's all I have." Luna hummed. "Well, I can assure you I will begin scouring the dream realm for this filly while she's sleeping. If you let me look at those plans I can probably help you with those. It may be prudent to involve young Twilight as well. She probably could help with designing the prison at least." Grabbing a notepad from nearby (She had learned a long time ago that keeping stationary in some frequently visited rooms of the castle was a good idea.) Celestia wrote that down. "We also need a game plan for when Cozy Glow is found. We could just let things happen naturally and then change her punishment, but I'd rather prevent the near end of Equestrian magic," she added. Luna nodded. "You may also want to look into this Chancellor Neighsay. He seemed to display some startlingly racist views for a member of the EEA." Celestia wrote that down as well. "I hadn't even considered that. He had learned his lesson, but if we hope to prevent this from happening, he won't learn." The sisters continued their discussion until their respective meals were done and it was time to officially change shifts. Luna made her way to bed while Celestia made her way to the throne room.