//------------------------------// // Eternity // Story: Heavens // by Vertigo22 //------------------------------// Goodness, it's windy tonight. Guess that's to be expected for autumn, but I'd hoped that the wind would've subsided after that nor'easter. Oh, why am I complaining? I've got a jacket. It'll suffice. Besides, it's the first cloudless night in a week and I can finally do something other than work. Starlight and Spike are both asleep, having clocked in the moment the sun was lowered and the Moon rose in its brilliance. The memories of entire nights dedicated to spotting each and every constellation I could. You know, they're some of the best memories of my life. Just me and the celestial heavens. What I wouldn't give to feel that sensation again… No, no. That's silly. I love my life as is. There's nothing I would give up. After all, my friends are all here. How could I be so foolish? Goodness, I guess life's been that stressful. The endless whirlwind of friendship problems and work has taken its toll. Rainbow and Applejack have been bickering like scorned lovers. I've tried and tried to get them to not be so petty. Just when it seems like when they've made some sort of amends, they're back at it again like junkyard dogs. Fluttershy's been so distraught by it all. I've had to spend days with her because she fears that her friends will force her to pick a side among all of this. She's spent hours crying over it all. Then there's Pinkie. She tried endlessly to get them to be friends again and threw more parties than I care to count. Even she gave up and now hasn't thrown a party in a week. Rarity… well, she's stopped making dresses. She spends her days crying and eating tubs of ice cream. I'm sure she's going to be absolutely thrilled when she realizes what that's done to her figure. Well, that's if she has any anger left to expend once she reams into me because I wasn't able to fix this friendship problem. I've all but come to terms that they'll be like this until one of them has alienated the other girls. Then they'll pick sides as to who was in the right and who wasn't. I'm not sure if anything will ever get through to them by now. I've tried to play the mediator for so long that I think I was given an honorary doctorate the other day. Or perhaps that was a hallucination from sleep deprivation. Anything is possible at this point—or so I think anyway. Gah, what am I doing? I went outside to stargaze, not to vent. That's why I made you, silly! I needed a friend who can really listen to my problems. The others can't; they just… they don't get situations like you do. That's why you're my best friend in the whole wide world. Now here you and I are. Stargazing. Beneath the heavens! Lemme tell you about how I remember it. Or, no, I don't need to. The sky is almost as I remember it from when I was a foal. Look, I can see Sirius. She shines as magnificently as ever. I can also see the Little Dipper. Oh, oh! Lookie, right there! Next to where the Golden Oak Library used to be. I think I can even see Betelgeuse! Oh, the legends of that star. The memories of feeling such fear when I first read about supernovae. I was certain that at any second, my life would end because its life would end and we'd be caught in the warpath of its supernova. Oh, but such a sight must be unfathomable. I've seen many explosions in my life. My fight with Tirek was quite a destructive one. An entire star though? That's unthinkable. How can such a cataclysm be so terrifying, yet so magnificent? It destroys everything in its wake for light years, yet its fury is so gorgeous. The renditions of it anyway. I wish we could witness one for myself. Well, from the safety of something. I wouldn't want us to get obliterated or die from the radiation! After all, I am sworn to protect my friends at all costs. That's why I'm the princess of friendship and will one day be ruler of Equestria. That's what the lights said anyway. Oh, you know, I never told you about that. It's, like, one of the craziest things that's ever happened to me. Even crazier than when Celestia told me about how she knew I'd become an alicorn. Years ago, I had this… encounter and saw this light. It was like a hug from my mom after I had a terrible nightmare. It flooded me with the most heavenly of feelings. At times like now, I wish I could revisit that moment. It during that encounter that I discovered how I could make my own companion for times like this. The light taught me it. She also showed the worlds too. There were… so many. I saw them all. She said that one day, I'd get to visit them all. She even said that you'd come with me! She seemed to know so much. She knew of all the galaxies. All the stars. All the life out there and even of all the elements that none of us know. Her vast knowledge was—no, is—incomprehensible. It's like she's been alive since the birth of the universe. I wish I could speak to her again. I tried to ask Luna about it, but she says that it couldn't have been a dream because there's no archive of knowledge within the dream realm that's accessible to anyone. I tried to convince her, but she said I must've been hallucinating. I can't fathom why she'd think that. I've never hallucinated in my life. Well, not since I had a 105.3 fever. That wasn't fun, but that was because I was sick. I was healthy when this happened. I know I was. You believe me right? Of course you do, I can see you nodding. Aren't you such a good little doll. Lemme give you a hug… No, wait. You aren't nodding. That's a gust of wind. Or… wait. The sky. It's turned so bright. I can't see the stars anymore. Has… has a Gamma Ray Burst hit us? No, no. This isn't the end of the world. It wouldn't feel so peaceful; so harmonic. This is… it's the light! Oh yes, yes! I—I see it again. The motherly light! Her arms, they stretch out to me; her embrace is as phenomenal as I remember. She's as bright as she was all those years ago. Oh, the sensation is enrapturing. Her call; her warmth. It floods my mind! Yes, yes! I can feel it once more. The lights of her stars; the blaze of the heavens! The comforting love. It's as I remember it. I can see the stars. I can see the galaxies. I can touch the worlds that I never could. I can shape entire celestial bodies. They all fill my soul. They all complete me. The pillars of eternity are built upon this light. I can mold all of creation to my will. She's picked me to be the one to forge a new path for this world. I just know it! These stars aren't just mine to gaze upon. They are my home.