Dear Luna
Tobay Today was the best best best day of my life I dont know what how to write about it
At the start i thout today was going to be THE WORST because stupid profeser swirlbutt got us to come to school before the sunrise becaus he wanted to dimon demanst show us how unicorns rase the sun and i was sooooo tired but anyways it was just before the sun comes up and me and Verna are waiting for swirlbutt to start the class...
“Celestia!” Vernacularous stampeded over to her front gate with all the energy a filly could hold, “Are you ready for today, Celestia?! Celestia?”
“Verna...” The white-furred little sun-filly marched out with her pink fluffy mane dragging against the cobble, awake long before the actual sun is set to rise. “It's like... Five... I need more sleeeeep...”
“You'll do fine, Tia, and I packed you cupcakes.” A bag floated alongside Dreamscape's as she walked Celestia out to the gate. The bag exchanged telekinetic grips as Celestia passed the boundary of their home. “Just do as Starswirl says, all right?”
“Fine, Dream... I'll do what Swirlbutt says... Thanks for the cupcakes...” She yawned and nearly collapsed against Verna.
“Thank you, Miss Dream! Come on, Celestia, wakey wakey, we get to watch the sunrise today!” Verna dragged Celestia on down the road towards Starswirl's tower, Verna's guardian Gambit escorting them a few dozen steps behind to give the girls privacy.
“You're welcome! Be safe you two!” Dream waved the two fillies off as they disappeared into the skyline.
“Vernaaaah... The sun rises every day, why would I want to watch it..?” She whined during their journey up the hills and down the snaking paths.
“Cause we're going to get to practice raising it! Weren't you listening yesterday? Aren't you excited?!”
“That sounds so boring! Who cares about pulling some bright ball up into the sky..? I want to SLEEP.”
Verna burst out in giggles, “You're always so funny, Celestia!”
The two friends trotted along the path up Canterlot mountain, a path they knew so well from years of travel that the deep darkness of the sunless morning didn't hinder their trot. Within the hour they were trotting up on Starswirl's tower, much different in this pre-sunrise setting as the plains and roads were coated in shadow. Though Starswirl made up for the darkness by enchanting the stone surfaces of the tower, creating a faintly fire-fly reminiscent glamour of lights glowing all round, including lighting up a small stage on wheels cutting off the path to the front door.
Tia and Verna joined into a gathering of their fellow classmates already arranging before the stage, all of them looking up to Starswirl trotting across the stage, pulling out boxes in his magical grasp and placing them down by the front of the crowd. Verna's guardian nodded to the girls and waved as he trotted off, leaving them in their professor's capable hooves.
“This is gonna be dumb...” Celestia grumbled, her voice drowned out in the midst of her peers chatting amongst one another.
“You need to be more open minded, Celestia, who knows, this could be very interesting!” Verna argued back with a smile.
Celestia yawned and rubbed her eyes with a leg. “Nahhhh... Doubt it.”
With a few last students being dropped off and Starswirl approaching the top of the stage, his horn lit up his face, “All right, class, by my count you are all here so we may begin. Now I know waking up so early, before the sun even starts to rise, is not very enjoyable, but as we discussed in class yesterday, the vital role many unicorns have of lifting the sun is one of the most esteemed jobs in unicorn culture. Believe it or not, I woke up at this time for twenty whole years in a row lifting the sun before I retired and became a professor.” He gave an old charming smile and a hearty chuckle to his crowd of groggy students.
Tia turned her head over to her friend, raising both eyebrows and huffing out of her nose.
“Just listen, Celestia, it'll be fine!” Verna whispered over.
“Now, as promised we will be meeting with the current sun conclave and watch how they raise the sun ourselves, but while we wait for them to arrive, I have prepared a quick exercise for you all to try together, as I hope one day each of you get to experience working as a sun raiser. This should help give you an idea of what that might be like...” The elderly stallion's magic wrapped itself inside of a box he had laid out, and out floating came a large wooden carving of a cartoonish sun, roughly the height of one of the fillies and colts he was teaching. It was worn out and aged, painted ornately with bright yellows and oranges that were chipping away, and had a hefty bag of weights nailed to the backside.
“Booooriiiiing.” Celestia groaned out, getting a stern look from the professor.
Meanwhile a round of aweing ensued as all the other foals' interests were peaked. “I have this model sun here, and using the telekinetic deadlift measurements I got from each of you last week, I have made this just heavy enough so that if you all work together and try as hard as you can, you should be able to raise it together! And speaking of which, I'm very happy to announce that this class has had the highest average lifting weight I have ever seen from a set of foals! It's a remarkable achievement, and all of your parents will assuredly be incredibly proud when you tell them you are the telekinetically strongest class I've ever held.”
A round of cheering came from the tightly knit class, though Celestia remained unimpressed, even after Verna turned to her and pronounced her glee. "My goodness! I thought I didn't do well at all, but the best class ever? That's astounding!"
“How much did you lift?” Celestia turned with a drowsy frown on her face.
“U-uh... Um... F-fifteen pounds. How much did you do?” Verna's smile fell away as she bit her lip.
“Three hundred... Aghh... Or was it four..?” She yawned out.
“What?”
“So class! Are you ready to try and lift this little sun here?” Starswirl chuckled as a wave of bright magic whizzed around the wooden face, causing it to begin glowing intensely, causing the fillies and colts to shield their eyes as they adjusted to the floodlight blasting in their direction. “I'll place it back down inside the box now, and then I'll count to three, and on three everypony grabs hold and lifts as hard as they can...” The toy sun floated back down into the container, “And for those still struggling with broken line of sight telekinesis, focus on this handle right here.” He pulled out a thick rope and slipped it through the hook at the top of the sun inside the crate, letting the rope slump down the front of the box.
The horn on every single pupil, apart from one especially despondent Celestia, lit up at once. The messy rainbow of lights in the crowd came pouring into the box like a river, each student latching onto a different portion of the toy sun, and with a wide range of straining groans they pulled and pulled with all of their power.
With a small rumble coming from the box, Starswirl smiled and stood back to watch his little artifact rise.
Though as he waited and waited, the fillies and colts couldn't do much more than shuffle the thing around, despite their great effort. Starswirl turned to the crowd and saw them all wincing and pushing themselves to their young limits, pondering why they were having such a hard time.
Then he saw Celestia and her sleepy set of eyes sitting back and watching her fellow ponies work their flanks off while she lazed about. “Miss Celestia!” He roared out overtop the constant sizzle of magic in the air right down to her, causing her to jump awake.
“H-Huh?! W-What?” She called back, slightly startled.
“You know what, Miss Celestia!” He belted out, pointing a hoof at the crate.
“Come on, Tia... P-please... For me... Ahh!” Verna begged to her, still trying and failing to lift it herself.
“Fine...” She grumbled and rubbed the sand out of her eyes once again, “But this is stupid...”
The light-furred little filly stood up with her back straight, her eyes sharply focused on the crate, and her horn erupting in a fiery and erratic glow, out-shining those beside her, her light bleeding out of the homogeny of the crowd. Once her target was visualised, she shut her eyes tight and took a deep breath. Celestia always found it easier to manipulate objects she couldn't see with her eyes closed as it provided less distractions. She grounded herself in the path, pressing the rough cobble down into itself and shooting out her telekinetic reach.
And... A latch. She felt the weight of the sun through her psychic tether. “Oh wow... This thing is damn heavy... N-No wonder ya'll need me.” She cracked a smile with that comment to Verna, who was far too occupied to have heard it let alone reacted.
Though now it was time to prove herself... She gave the sun a magical tug, putting a few dozen pounds of force into it to test the waters.
It didn't even budge. “Oh... Mnf...” She strained her face and took a big breath, “That's how you wanna play huh... How about... THIS!” She threw her horn into the air, doubling, tripling in brightness as she pulled with all of the energy and focus she could harness to pull on the sun.
Once more, it didn't even budge. Celestia felt the entire weight of it sitting on her like she was holding up the entire world on her shoulders. “AHGAAA! COME ON!!!” She screamed out loud enough to break the concentration of the entire class, who now turned to watch the beacon of magic leaving the filly as she thrashed and kicked against the cobble path beneath.
Starswirl cleared his throat aloud, “It's all right, Miss Celestia, we can stop now, I clearly had miscalculated the weights and made it too heavy, there's no need to strain yourselves anymore.”
“N-NO!!! I CAN DO THIS!!!” She screamed back, tears now running down her face as she pushed past an intense throbbing pain she got in her forehead as she overloaded her horn's output, causing actual heat the students could feel to radiate from it along with the ever-growing flood of light leaving them all blind to her face.
But she did it, she managed to make it budge, it felt like only an inch that she raised it, but each second she pushed she grew more passionate, more desperate to do this, even if she had to do it by herself. And she knew she could do it.
“No, Miss Celestia, please! It was my fault it was too heavy, plea-” He said and lifted up the lid of the box and hovered it above the hefty toy sun, being struck by a massive surprise as he peeked into the container and saw no magical aura around the sun anymore, despite Celestia still burning brightly. “U-Uh... Miss Celestia... What are... What are you lifting..?”
“AAGGGHHHH!! YES!!! YES!!!” Her smile was ear to ear, her face streaming with tears and her eyes aflame with pain. Though her hooves were still kicking and sprawling, she felt a strange lightness, suddenly she was bucking in the air in celebration.
Her horn was so burning hot at this point, it began cooking the water particles in the air and turned them to steam, but she went on. She poured her soul into her horn and out, just to push harder, just to move it inch by inch into the sky.
She could hear Starswirl begin yelling about something, and foal screams as her classmates backed off and turned away as Celestia's little body became completely blinding from every angle. But her efforts seemed to yield much promise as she saw the light through her sealed eyelids grow, leading her to laugh loud enough for the whole world to hear. “Hahahahah! Yes! Just! A little! M-More!!!”
She felt it rise, inches turned to yards, yards to miles, miles that lead to the sky.
Celestia couldn't even feel the ground anymore, all she felt was the cosmos open up around her horn, the wind thrashing at her mane from the magical hurricane she was creating and the greatest sense of accomplishment that had ever felt washed over her.
“YOU ARE WORTHY.”
The voice had come out of noplace yet everyplace, it was inside her and out, from the stars and close enough to touch her soul.
It spooked her.
“HUH?!?!” Celestia's horn shut off, her eyes opened wide and pupils dilated as she whisked her head side to side looking for who said that, only finding out that for some bizarre reason, she was floating in the middle of the air, roughly a meter up, kicking her little legs back and forth.
Upon this realisation she fell immediately, scratching her chin and legs on the cobble as she planted downward into the ground, her migraine kicking her as she's down. “Owwwwww....” She whined and tilted her head upwards, looking around at all the ponies circling her. They were all gawking at her, completely speechless, the entire crowd so deadly silent she could hear the crickets chirping in the distance. “What...? What are you all looking at..?” She asked and stumbled upon a realisation as everything was brighter... A lot brighter.
Looking up into the sky, she could see a clear, cloudless midday sky, with a beautifully bright sun smack dab in the center. “H-Huh? Why is the sun up already? Did I miss the wizzers or whatever?”
“Mmm.. M-Mah... Mih...” Starswirl's jaw shivered, his eyes fixated on Celestia with the fear of the moon in him. “C-Ce-Cel... C-Celes-stia...” He mumbled out, his entire body seized up tightly.
She dropped her head a little at the sight, gasping gently and pulling herself up to a stand, she had never seen Starswirl like this before. “W-What..? I-Is something wrong, Sir..?”
Before her teacher could even grasp at the scraps of answers and questions his mind held, Celestia's flank was pressed on by Verna's hoof, gently being pet in mesmerised softness. “W-Wow...” Escaped Verna's lips.
“Huh?! Ver-” Celestia turned her head to her side to look at what in Equestria her friend was doing to her butt, though her eyes caught onto something far, far more immaculate.
“I HAVE WINGS?!?!?!?!” She yelled at the top of her lungs and spanned out a massive set of pitch-white, fluffy, feathery, luscious wings fixed to her back. “I HAVE WINGS!!! VERNA I HAVE WINGS!!!”
Celestia skipped in a circle, waving and flapping her new gorgeous sets of feathers, jumping up and down with a smile brighter than every star in the sky, repeating over and over in her amazement, 'I have wings' at the top of her lungs.
“T-Tia! T-Th... Th-Thats not all!” Verna wrapped a magical leash around her friend’s leg and held her still, Celestia turning to her bobbing up and down with insatiable eagerness.
“What do you mean?! Do I have more wings?! Another tail or something?!” Celestia began giggling immediately, overwhelmed by pleasure and expressing it in whatever way her body could.
Verna gave her best friend a nervous smile. “You have... A-A cutie mark.”
“What?”
Tia's head twisted back like a lightning bolt, her eyes locking onto the side of her bum.
Without a doubt... Right there, right on her flank, a big, ornate yellow and orange sun was plastered across her fur.
That was when she fainted.
Dear Celestia.
I am so incredibly happy for you! Your new wings are so beautiful, so big and amazing. They're even better than mine.
I don't even know what to say. I think I'm just going to go to bed for now.
Celestia was waiting at the door for Luna to come home that day.
She thought it was a dream at first, not a soul believed that a unicorn filly had raised the sun all by herself, let alone that she had been magically gifted a set of wings. But for it to be her very sister made it so much more unimaginable.
Celestia had never been happier about anything, she had a face sore from smiling, and Luna quickly joined her in celebration.
They played for hours in the garden with the two practicing some, without much luck, leaving her with quite a few bruises. Strangely she found they didn't hurt as much as she would have thought, and they were all healed by the time they were shuffled off to bed by their nanny.
As they went back up to their rooms, Celestia made an off-hoof comment, with a tired yet overexcited smile and giggle she told Luna; “I just wish you had a horn...”
The idea made her head recoil back softly as they slipped into their bedroom, Celestia jumping up with a big flap to land in her bed and nearly immediately pass out.
Luna went over it in her mind, her sister brought up a good point, they both had wings, but only her sister had a horn, and a cutie mark for that matter. How could she not feel overshadowed?
She hoisted herself into bed and pulled out their journal, thinking that maybe some writing would get her mind off of how much more amazing Celestia is than her.
Luna couldn't find the inspiration to write much, so she just finished it up as quick as she could and wrapped herself up under her blanket and shut her eyes.
She couldn't sleep, no matter how hard she tossed and turned, her pillow was too hot, every way she tried laying it was digging at her uncomfortably and her mind wouldn't cease with thoughts of future inferiority. What if Celestia became a better flyer than her? What if she became better at reading and everything else Luna was good at. What if she was no longer Fritz's best student? What if her friends no longer wanted to hang out with her..?
What if I'm not special?
She sat up and looked at their hanging clock silently ticking the day away, then to Celestia. She was snuggled up with her new majestic wings, snoring to herself fast asleep.
She sighed.
This was going nowhere, she decided to go clear her head someplace better... It had been a while since she'd last been anyway.
She carefully pulled her covers aside and cautiously stepped down onto the floorboards with utter silence. She took light steps forward and used her feathers to ease open the door, letting her step out into the hallway and make the trot down to the balcony at its extremity.
Without a second of hesitation her hooves glided over the balcony and effortlessly pounced off the railing.
Her wings erupted out and caught the winds in their feathers, grasping and plunging it backward she launched herself into the sky, gliding out of their home's premises and out over the Canterlot cliff, flying over those enchanted woods.
Her mind was cooled immediately, completely clear as she flew by the luscious rays of moonlight glistening atop the tree line. She felt weightlessly calm, adrift upon an icy breeze. It felt effortless, the glide angled upward and she floated past her favourite perching tree. Slowing as she ascended to a peak in mid-air.
She almost didn't realise that she had stopped flapping her wings completely, being so enchanted by the ray of moonlight enveloping her, she tilted her eyes up and gazed upon the majesty of the full moon.
Her body was frozen in the air with wings dead still, being held up by a foreign magic.
But she was already past the point of asking questions, her mind a still pool of water, now only a reflection of the sight before her.
Whatever beckoned her, it did so without quelling the peace she had. And the call was heard as her wings went to fly her forward again, picking up a wind at her back as she flew up and up.
She had never flown past the clouds so quick, but her sights were set on the moon, and with the gust guiding her flight she built up immense speed.
The sky became darker and the stars became brighter with every passing second, then her wings crashed down with a boom. Her body left a dark trail from that moment as a deep blue magic streamed from her and left behind a massive dark pulse in the sky. It didn't feel like she was even going that fast when she broke the sound barrier.
Her stretched wings flapped in a rhythmic blur like a hummingbird as her speed doubled every second. She had pierced through what was left of the atmosphere under her hooves, the gorgeous marble of a world shrank behind her as she kept flying, her right forehoof stretched out toward the moon.
All she could do was watch as the moon grew and wrapped around her vision, the distant being now as big as all of Equestria, stretching out into and past every horizon.
Her wings stopped flapping, and she went from faster than a bullet to easing into stillness in seconds, levitating down to the surface that faced her vertically, as if the moon was a standing mirror she saw herself inside.
She placed a single hoof against it and disturbed the dust on it, the magical pulse of the entire moon felt in imaginary tremors that encased the dark-furred filly, like touching a heart made out of dreams; life at its most subtle.
It whispered to her.
“You are worthy.”
She didn't smile, jump or react in any bodily way. Only with two words as silent as the night, “Thank you.”
Her second hoof accompanied her second, and her wings flapped forward. She moved against the moon, pushed it an inch. Then another flap, another inch, pushing it dearly across the sky. Just like before she gradually built up the speed, a rhythmic throwing of her wings pushed back against the emptiness of space, lacking the air to create sound or feeling, casting out the magic of the moon itself to force it forward.
After enough speed she felt herself slow down, leaving the moon to leave her hooves and keep flying away from her.
She watched it shrink again, turning back into the distant icy stone globe in the sky. She only realised she was falling once she hit the atmosphere, the air slashing at her back, her body shooting back through the clouds and then, the very instant before she would hit the ground.
Luna woke up.
“Gah!” She shot up, panting hard as the adrenaline finally rushed through her veins. “Ohhh... Oh my... It was just a dream. Just a dream.” She slumped back into her pillow and felt the relief of reality.
Celestia groaned from her side of the room, “Luuuunaa.... Go back to sleeeep...”
She rubbed her eyes clear, their entire room was lit up brightly, even though she felt much underslept. “Come on, Tia... It's morning... We have to get up.” Her eyes drifted up to their clock, which still said it was just past midnight. “H-huh..?”
A galloping set of hooves came from the stairway and down the hall, “Celestia! Did you do it again?!” Dream's voice rang out with the door soon erupting open, “Did you raise the sun again?!” She panted, distressed and still in her nightgown.
“H-huh... What are you talking about? I was asleep...” She shook her head and yawned hard, looking around at the bright sunlight streaming from the windows high up by the roof. “Why is the sun up..?” She grogged.
Dream turned to the other sister, “Luna, did you s-”
Celestia looked over as well, seeing that Luna wasn't even paying attention to the two of them, instead her eyes were darting between her forehooves, mumbling incoherently. “Was it... N... N-Not a dream...”
“Darling. P-Pull your hair to the side... P-please...” Their caretaker asked with missing breath.
“What..? What's wrong?” She asked with worry in her eyes, before her hoof reached up and brushed at her hair, having it stop once it hit a stump in the center of her forehead.
“WHAT?!?!”
Both hooves now shot up and pulled her hair back, revealing a long dark blue horn fixed directly in the center of her forehead, just like her sister’s. “I-I HAVE A HORN?! W-What?! HOW?!”
“YOU HAVE A HORN!!!!!” Celestia came barreling over, jumping onto Luna's bed with her sister and squeezing her tight in a massive wing hug, both fillies crying and laughing with immeasurable smiles as they embraced each other.
“W-Wait!” Celestia butted in with a gasp, “Does that mean?!”
“D-Does that mean what?” Luna let out nervous and twitchily.
Without words Celestia pulled back the covers and threw them away, pushing Luna onto her side and turning to her flank. A pitch black sky holding a perfectly sharp, glistening crescent moon sat on her fur, her sister's cutie mark before Celestia.
Luna watched as her sister fainted.