//------------------------------// // Chapter one: The thousand year old filly // Story: Stop Patronizing the Sun! // by Foal Star //------------------------------// Celestia groaned as she slowly woke with her head pounding from what felt like being hit by a train. Her whole body was still shaking from the ordeal yesterday, and The other day Discord had almost destroyed Twilight and her friends, stolen the elements of harmony, and caused chaos to reign in Ponyville. The damage alone was something she was still dealing with, cornfields now ruined, many florae being destroyed by the chocolate rain, and that wasn't including the countless houses and roads completely destroyed. But then the lord of chaos regressed Celestia into a filly during the entire ordeal leaving her helpless to support Twilight and her friends. But the princess was able to send her the notes she wrote to her about friendship at her fainting cost. From then, she has been slipping in and out of consciousness, and it took her some time to grip the reality that she was now a young filly of the age of five. Unable to fall back to sleep, the filly slowly rubbed her eyes and looked around with a pout at what appeared to be a little filly's room. She now had a filly sized vanity table, a dollhouse, a pink plush carpet, a closet full of dresses hung up inside. Each dress, friller, and poofier than the last, even Philomina's perch, was now a bright pink. The princess hated this room and how it reflected what Discord did, transforming her into a filly and making her room look like this. The filly then turned her attention to see a beautiful unicorn maid slowly entering the room. The maid in question had a lovely prench maid outfit with a grey coat, a dark blue braided mane, and sea blue eyes. The mare had this lovely smile seeming trying too hard to make her feel better as she entered and curtseyed. “Good morning Celestia.” “Morning, Mrs.Mop Bucket.” The princess sighed as she slowly picked up from her much smaller bed by the maid's magic. The princess then slowly trotted over to a mirror and got a look at her smaller stubby body, a short flowing pink mane, and tail. She could only look at her reflection in anger as it reminded her of what Discord did to her yesterday. “I can't believe he did this! I'm going to make him pay dearly when he gets out of his stone prison!" “Aww, don’t worry; you're still the princess of the sun; now come on, let’s get you ready for the day. And remember, I told you that you could call me Moppy.” The maid cooed as she escorted the filly towards her private bathroom. Even though Mop Bucket was trying to be kind, Celestia didn't like how her staff treated her like she was helpless. The filly furiously shouted at her caretaker. “I can take my own bath!” As she was carried off, kicking and whining. The maid scolded Celestia like any other filly.“You are a filly, and until you're an adult again, I'm your guardian, so please stop fighting.” "Fine, but please stop treating me like a helpless child." Celestia snapped, but the maid didn't head the princess as they came to the bathroom and filled it with bubble bath soap. The little alicorn princess tried to squirm away, but she was magically plopped into the bathtub, and the maid went about scrubbing the filly’s body down and washing her mane as she cooed compliments. Celestia scoffed at the comments and mumbled irritably under her breath but endured being washed. The maid wasn't paying attention to Celestia's insults as she was then brought out of the bath and covered up in a fluffy towel and dried her up, then went onto brushing her teeth and patting the princess's mane dry. Moppy then brought her to the closet and browsed through the many dresses Celestia had. “Hmmm, so what color of dress would you want to wear today…” She then picked out a frilly yellow dress with poofy sleeves and white frills outlining the outfit's seams. “This one just seems to brighten up the day; it's just perfect.” "Ugh, why do I need to wear a dress!? I didn't wear them when I was a big pony, why would I wear one now!?" Celestia shouted as she stomped a hoof in protest. Mop Bucket sighed, trying her best not to get too angry at the princess but understanding a bit she didn't like being babied so much. The maid then continued to explain. "It's just to make you look pretty. You don't have to wear one...I just thought you would look nice in one." Celestia paused, seeing her caretaker getting all teary eyed. She didn't want her maid to feel bad as Mop Bucket was trying to care for her and relented, "fine, I'll wear one just this once." The mare then slowly placed the dress over her body, adjusting it so fit snugly around Celestia's tiny body. The maid then placed a shiny tiara on her head while pulling frilly white and yellow striped socks over each of her hooves. The maid then brushed her mane and stood back, admiring the dollified Celestia looking quite adorable in her new outfit and cooed, “now come on; let's get you breakfast.” Celestia didn't feel like protesting as the mare led the little filly off; she looked so embarrassed as many of her staff dawwed at her, and some waved a hoof with smiles on their faces. The princess rolled her eyes feeling patronized and annoyed that ponies were treating her like she’s helpless. The filly continued to trot through the halls until they came to the kitchen, where she was seated at the table while the maid went to make pancakes. Celestia sat there paitently but squeaked upon seeing her sister Luna slowly walk over with a smile. “Oh, there she is, my Precious little sister!” “Eeep! Stop doing that, Luna!” Celestia whined as she stomped about, getting frustrated as Luna came over, hugged the filly and ruffled her mane. “Now, are you ready to raise the sun?” “Yes, of course, I am.” the princess of the sun grumbled, already getting annoyed by the fact she being patronized by her younger sister. “And you know that if you need help, I’ll be there,” Luna replied as she placed a hoof over her chest. Celestia turned around and snapped, “I don’t need help! I can do this on my own!” Mrs. Mop Bucket then trotted over and placed a plate of pancakes over to Celestia, who drooled and was about to dig in. But the unicorn maid started cutting up her food, then gave her a rubber pink rubber fork and placed a pink sippy cup next to her. “There you go, sweetheart.” "A sippy cup! A rubber fork!? Why can't I eat like a normal pony?" Celestia complained, wanting to throw another tantrum over wanting to use regular cups and silverware. Mop Bucket feeling bad for the princess, explained in her patronizing tone. "Princess, you're a foal, and you might spill or shatter glass which could cut you. Please just use the sippy cup for now, ok?" The princess took the pink plastic cup and suckled on it, drinking the orange juice but was still angry at all the constant babying. The princess then started eating her breakfast silently, not wanting to draw any more attention to herself as Luna paused she now had to talk to her sister regarding some hard truths. “Now, as you know dear sister even though you're a filly, you don’t have to do your royal duties. I've been looking into somepony who will take your place until you're an adult again.” “What!?” Celestia snapped, shoving a hoof on the table. “I am not going to be replaced! I am still your older sister; I am still over a thousand years old even if I look like a filly!” She continued eating her food, grumbling irritably as Luna blushed and continued, “oh, you get so cute when you throw a tantrum...but ok, you can try doing your royal duties, but if you get overwhelmed, let us know.” Celestia getting quite annoyed and had enough of her sister's patronizing, shouted, “fine! But, you need to trust me to do my duties, Luna, and stop patro-patro-patro whatever. You know what I mean.” Luna became concerned and replied, “Sister, I noticed that when you’ve became a filly, your vocabulary has lessened, and your overall education level may have regressed as well.” “I don’t need to go to school! I know my ABCs and 123s.”Celestia whined and squeaked, hearing how silly that sounded. She then quickly took out a piece of paper and a quill. “watch!" The princess shouted and quickly wrote down one plus one equals four and showed it to the mares, not realizing the answer was completely wrong. “See! I know my math!” Both Luna and the maid gulped, and now we're even more concerned. Moppy sighed and shook her head; it seemed that Luna's fears maybe, in fact, true as she asked, “look, Celestia, let’s worry about this later; why don’t we go out into the garden and have you raise the sun?” “Yeah, let's go! That'll cheer me up!" Celestia squealed excitedly and waddled off, getting excited as she was escorted into the garden. As Celestia toddled through the garden being escorted by her maid, many of the ponies dawwed as she walked by with a blush on her face. The patronizing continued with the nobles whispering to each other as she shuffled by with her head bent down, feeling too embarrassed to look her subjects in the eye. They made it to the podium standing before the ponies below as Moppy came forward to a microphone and tapped it. “Hello, everypony I am Mrs.Mop Bucket and will be Celestia's caretaker for the time being. I know that yesterday was chaotic to say the least. But thanks to the heroic efforts of Twilight and her friends Discord has been turned into stone. But sadly there was a casualty Princess Celestia was regressed into a filly against her will. Even after she was regressed, the princess heroically sent Twilight’s assistant Spike all the friendship lessons that her prized student has learned since living in Ponyville, which lead to Twilight and her friends defeating Discord! So please give a round of applause to Celestia!” Everypony clapped and cheered as Celestia stood on a stool to reach the microphone stumbling about abit. Soon the cheers turned to dawwws. The princess gulped feeling quite nervous as she started her speech. "Hello my subjects, today I came to tell you that I, princess Celestia have been turned into a five-year-old according to the doctors that checked up on me. They also gave me a lollipop and a stick-” She paused and gulped, realizing her foalish nature took over for a bit. Many ponies dawwed again, and she gulped and grumbled at herself for being so foalish before she continued, “sorry, what I mean is that they said I was otay, and I fine. But, since Discord is trapped, there is no way right now that I can be turned back into a big pony. But I still know a lot and plan to continue being your princess, and today I gonna prove that.” The princess raised her wings and soared into the air, flapping as hard as she could, lighting her horn everypony watched as the sun slowly came out from the sky. Celestia held her horn's power as the sun entered into the air and shining overhead sending its rays down to the ponies below. The princess looked up, smiling proudly, feeling so happy that she didn't lose the powers to raise the sun and squealed, “See, I told you I could do it!” The filly then suddenly felt weak and groaned as she rubbed her horn as she had a pounding headache and then without warning fainted on stage. The filly slowly woke up again back in her bed, feeling groggy, and she had a horrible headache as she rubbed her horn and asked. “What is going on? What happened?" She turned to see Moppy, a doctor, and Luna all standing over her, and they were talking in hushed whispers as Luna turned to face her sister and, with a worried tone, exclaimed, “Oh my Faust! she’s awake!” Celestia blinked and asked, “what is going on? What happened?” Luna sighed feeling relieved her sister was okay but her fears regarding her sister's magical abilities being reduced were of concern as she continued, “now, I know you might hate to hear this but raising the sun took a lot out of you. I...I will raise the sun for now on.” “What!?” Celestia cried out with a look of horror now on her face. The doctor came over looking stern as he explained, “you used way too much magic, which is what caused you to faint. Raising the sun is too much for a young filly to do. Having that much strain on your body could cause irreversible damage to your horn and overall magical ability if you continue.” Celestia kicked about and shouted, “I am not weak and don’t need to be treated like a filly!” Luna had enough of her sister's behavior and slammed a hoof on the ground and snapped, “young lady, that’s enough!” The princess of the sun pouted but stopped as Luna turned to the doctor and replied. “Thank you for your help; we’ll take it from here.” The stallion gave a nod and slowly left the room as Luna turned to her sister and continued. "Now, what happened this morning clearly shows that you're not ready to perform your royal duties. So I’m having your top assistant Quill Feather to run the kingdom during the day.” Celestia kicked and whined, “this isn’t fair!” Luna came over to her sister's bedside and nuzzled her as she continued. "I know, and I’m sorry this is happening to you. But you need to be patient while were figuring out how to get you back to your normal age, ok? I can't risk having you hurt yourself." The little filly just slumped under the sheets, not liking the answer as Luna sighed, seeing there was nothing else she could say to make her sister feel better. The princess of the night then turned her attention to the maid and asked, “Mrs. Mop Bucket, please watch my sister and make sure she stays out of trouble?” “Yes, princess Luna, I'll take good care of the princess.” the maid replied as she curtseyed. The princess of the night then yawned as her eyes drooped. "Ok, I’m going to get some sleep, good day, you two.” The alicorn princess then slowly trotted off as Celestia stuck her tongue out, and Mrs.Mop Bucket came over and asked, “now, why don’t we go and take a walk around the palace? You could take a break from being cooped up in here all day.” The princess went deeper under the covers and cried out, “I’m just going take a nap like a filly you all think I am!” Mop Bucket sighed as she looked down, wishing she could do more to make Celestia feel better. But it was clear she wanted to be alone, so the maid got up and curtseyed. “If you wish to take a nap, that’s fine; I’ll be outside if you need anything.” Mop Bucket then slowly walked out of the room and shut the door leaving Celestia to tear up and started crying. Tears started streaming down her face, feeling so weak and helpless, unable even to raise the sun or perform her duties; she didn’t know what else to do but cry.