human of the everfree

by Aljazig


Chapter 21: The Sun has died and she killed it

Celestia pov

Today like any other day I had woken up before dawn and did my duty of raising the sun, while my sister lowered her moon. It had always been a calming experience for me to raise the sun. The strain on my magic, the warmth of the star, it gave me a sense of peace, of permanence, everything else had always been ever changing, evolving, but the sun stayed as it was, for it was already perfect.

After I was done I took a shower and put on clean regalia, that I had polished the day before, after me and my sister fought against the Entity.

Even after hundreds of years of training to not let my emotions show on my face, the thought of the Entity easily broke my facade of a serene smile, only to be switched with a muzzle scrounged in disgust and eyes full of hostility. It took me a moment to calm myself enough to put the facade back on, but the memory still lingered.

After a few more minutes of thinking I trotted towards the dining hall, where my sister was already waiting for me to arrive with a plate full of pancakes in front of her.

"Good morning, sister." we said in almost perfect unity, before Luna attacked her pancakes with reckless abandon, not sparing a single one. I just observed her for a few minutes, with a rather rare for me, genuine smile, before I too started eating the pancakes the waiter brought before me.

When we both ate our share my sister went to sleep, while I made a heavy sight and headed towards the throne room. I was tired from the fight the day before and I really didn't want to deal with the nobles' babbling about matters that didn't really matter or worse, thinking they have the right to try marry me. Seriously, sometimes I worry their stupidity is genetic and grows through the generations.

In any case, I had arrived in my throne room, where I sat on my throne and after another long sight gave the guards the go ahead sign, to let the first pony in.


It only took the nobles 3 hours to bore me to death and I still had 2 more. While I was thinking about just adjourning the court and saying it was because of personal matters, I was surprised by a bright flash of lavender light, a telltale sign of the teleportation spell of my student.

Focusing my look towards the spot where the flash originated, I dismissed the noble that I was 'listening' to with a wave of my hoof.

"Court is adjourned for today." was all I said, before the guards had to drag him out, because he didn't want to leave, big surprise. Bringing my attention back to my student I was happy to see she was taking care of herself. The first time she had to preen I had to guide her through it, but like with all things she had to learn she picked it up incredibly quickly. Yes, Twilight was truly a one of a kind genius, she overshadowed even Sunset Shimmer, that had been a one in one million talent.

Twilight looked around, presumably to confirm her surroundings, like I had taught her to do after every long range teleportation spell, before she glared at me and said: "Princess Celestia, why have you not replied to my messages?"

It took me a second to realize what she was talking about, before I looked her in the eyes with a serious and tired look, and said: "Twilight, what I told you the first time that you sent the message still stands. I will not risk the safety of my guards and much less my army, because you would like to find a single human that had escaped into the Everfree, due to your negligence."

But I knew Twilight wouldn't give up with just that and she confirmed it by repeating what she told my in one of her letters: "But, the human hurt me, causing me, a princess, an injury is a grave offense punishable by a lifetime in the dungeons or in some cases even death! The girl is a criminal on the loose and as a princess I demand that she be caught and executed!"

The longer she talked the louder she got and she was pretty much shouting the last sentence, making me cringe at the volume. Trying to calm her down I asked with a calming voice: "Twilight, maybe we could go to my study to continue this talk. I believe the guards are uncomfortable with it. I can also get you some tea and biscuits to cal-"

To my surprise Twilight, my student, who had always listened to every word I said till the end, interrupted me with an angry screech: "NO! I DO NOT WANT YOUR BISCUITS OR TEA AND I DON'T CARE ABOUT HOW THE GUARDS FEEL, THEY ARE NOT IMPORTANT! I AM IMPORTANT! AND I! DEMAND! THAT! HUMAN'S! ..."

She took a deep breath and I tried to cast a silencing spell on her, but was too late: "HEAD!"

Her shout shattered any glass in a few meter radius and you could practically see the eardrums of the closest guards bursting as blood sprayed out of their ears and they fell to the ground unconscious. Twilight's mane was disheveled, her wings were spread wide, but to me the most striking feature and the one that hurt me the most, was her death glare, directed at me.

It reminded me of the look Sunset gave me, the day she went through the mirror. As Twilight turned her back to me and ignited her horn a single tear fell from the corner of my eye and before it could splatter on the ground Twilight was gone. For a moment everything was still. Then the throne room exploded with activity. Medics were called, reports were being made and magical traces were being scanned.

But in all that chaos all I could thing about was the glare Twilight gave me, before she teleported away. It hurt me more than any dagger and when I was finally brought back to the real world my sister was sitting bon a chair in front of me with worry written all over her, while I was laying on a bed in my room.

I gave her a weak smile and said: "I am fine, sister."

She looked me in the eyes and answered: "physically yes, but what I am worried about sister, is your emotional state."

I knew she could see right through me, yet I still lied, to this day I don't know why. "I truly am fine, sister. I... I will manage." I said, this time I forced myself to give her a bigger smile.

"Very well then. If you need to talk you know where to find me." Was her answer that was accompanied with a sight and a serious look. She then walked out of the room, leaving me alone to contemplate, what had gone wrong. I was certain Twilight had a better reason for her actions. She was always kind and friendly, even after she became an alicorn that hadn't changed. She wouldn't do something like this just because I refused to endanger my subjects.

Looking outside the window I noticed it was almost time to lower the sun and raise the moon. Yet this time the feel of the sun didn't calm me like it usually did. There was no usual warmth, it felt almost like the sun was dead.

As I stared at the slowly appearing stars I remembered an old poem:

"The sun shined bright, just the day before"

"I waked under it for hours"

"and basked in it's warm and calming light."

"But today the warmth is gone"

"the calming light has disappeared"

"for the sun was betrayed"

"they killed it and now it is no more."

"The sun is dead and all that is left,"

"is a dark, cold world."