//------------------------------// // Chapter 29 // Story: Celestia Goes West // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// Sunny stirred in her hammock. The sounds of the breathing, roaring jungle around her let her know that Marble managed to get her out into the wilderness around them. What’s more, a part of her was incredibly impressed and pleased by his work. The other part of her, the Inner Celestia part, was waking up screaming. “What did you do?” Sunny rolled over and didn’t answer. “Oh no, you don’t!” Inner Celestia roared. “You don’t get to ignore me after that stunt you pulled off! What did you do?” Sunny smiled and responded with a breath barely quieter than a whisper. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “You don’t know what I’m talking about? You don’t know what I’m talking about? You don’t know what I’m talking about?” Inner Celestia asked, nearly yelling in Sunny’s mind. “You told me, you all but promised me that you wouldn’t move on your feelings! You know that any relationship we start is only going to end in pain. So why, by the Sky above, did you kiss him?” “I was tired, exhausted by that magic trap,” came the simple reply. “And now you’re trying to lie to your own conscious. Are you serious, Sunny?” “You’re not my conscious.” “I should be!” Inner Celestia responded. “Because nopony else has decided to speak up about this horrendously stupid thing you’ve just done.” “It’s not that bad.” “Do I need to get the list out again? Do I need to go down the ever-expanding list of reasons why this is a terrible idea item-by-item for you? How about the fact that we’re lying to him, which is no foundation for a relationship? What about watching him grow old? Are you ready for that again? Until time takes away the ability for him to stand? How about the fact that if he does somehow accept your ridiculous attempt at courtship, we’ll only be dragging him screaming into a world of politics and—” “We’re not the Princess anymore,” Sunny interrupted. “Pardon?” Inner Celestia asked, even though she already knew the answer that Sunny had. “We’re not the Princess. We don’t have to worry about politics, responsibilities, or nobles anymore. We don’t even know if we’re still immortal or not anymore. You told Princess Twilight yourself, we could keel over any moment now. We could die in the middle of this conversation. If he did accept, then all I would offer him is a manor house and early retirement for the rest of our lives.” “But you’re Celestia, and you know that name still carries weight, despite everything you’ve done.” “Well, it was bound to happen anyway,” Sunny said in a defense that sounded more like a whine. Inner Celestia blinked. “Are you listening to yourself? What happened to your intentions? What happened to the fact that you know better than that?” They both knew the answer to that before Sunny even answered. Feelings rarely cared for logic or intentions. “Then why? Why would you think that it was a good idea to even try and continue? Why did you let yourself kiss him?” Sunny didn’t have an answer for that. Inner Celestia sighed. “This...this can only end poorly, you know that, right?” Sunny slowly nodded. “It’s nice to pretend, though.” After all, that’s why they were here. They were here to pretend. Celestia wasn’t an average pony by any stretch, but Sunny was. Celestia couldn’t afford to throw her life away, she was too important, even without the crown over her head anymore, but no one would miss Sunny. Celestia wasn’t the incredibly talented, well-trained mare that Sunny was. She just had so many years behind her that she could fake being one. In the end, Celestia couldn’t have any chance of a relationship with Marble, but right now, it was nice to pretend. ---☼--- Marble sat at the burnt-out campfire, watching the jungle for any sign of something following them. The morning sun already raised behind him, and his eye fluttered as he forced them open again. He’d kept watch all night after Sunny...after she went unconscious. The warmth of her stayed with him the whole night, and he rubbed at his jawline where she planted the kiss. “Crazy mare. Hates my guts one second and is kissing me the next. What is going on here?” A part of him pointed out that she was probably delirious at the time. She probably didn’t mean it or even remember it. What’s more, she might not have even kissed him. She might have just brushed against him for a moment or two before she fell unconscious. It was fine. Besides, he kept her alive, didn’t he? That thought stabbed at him with an icy grasp that traveled down his spine into his heart and stomach. Marble managed to keep her alive this time. He didn’t lead her into any traps, and he didn’t kill her. But that wasn’t totally true, was it? He missed the Coatl trap completely, which was a stupid move. Of course, the ancient Lusitanpec ponies would have a tool to fight against unicorns. Why hadn’t he seen that? Most of the devices would be acceptable provided the unicorns didn’t fly, and there was a chance that the magic detection triggers had deteriorated over the years. However, a spell as potent as teleportation would, of course, still trigger them. How didn’t he see that happening? Marble nearly killed her by overlooking that. How had he let this almost happen again? The pegasus shook his head and forced himself to stay awake. He couldn’t let this mare down. He couldn’t go through failing someone like that again. Marble glanced back at Sunny’s hammock, where the unicorn still lay asleep, drained from his mistake, and shook his head. How did this mare do this to him? How did she make it impossible for him to let her go and make her own stupid mistakes? Why did he care so much that he started taking responsibility for her like this? By Celestia, why? Marble sighed before glancing back at the jungle surrounding them. If that monster followed them here, he wouldn’t have time to worry about much else. His ear flicked behind him as he caught the sound of Sunny rolling in her hammock again before he heard her mutter and sit up. “What time is it?” she muttered. Marble forced himself to stay in his seat instead of running up to make sure she was okay. Rushing to her side was a little more intense than he needed to be. “Getting close to noon,” he replied. “How are you feeling? You were out all night.” “Fine now,” she replied. “That trap drained the magic and energy from me, but other than that, I’m fine.” Marble felt his heart unclench as he learned she was okay before he nodded. He wasn’t sure he could take the knowledge that she was hurt in some way. They sat in silence for a second or two before Sunny spoke up again. “You never told me what you found, by the way.” Marble pointed over to the rolled-up skin that held the feathers. “You know the Coatl feathers?” “Yes,” she replied, speaking with enough tone that Marble could hear her eyebrow rising in confusion. “It’s a cloak of them. Dozens and dozens of feathers weaved together in a cloak. Enough feather to cause a storm strong enough to travel across the world.” He turned and stared at her blinking face. “A-are you sure?” she asked. Marble spent some of the last restless night trying to do the math in a vain attempt to get his mind off the unconscious Sunny. A single feather caused enough wind that it tore boulders of the ground and snapped trees like twigs. Taking that kind of wind, a hurricane-force gale that could casually pick up homes and multiplying it by thirty times would be bad enough, but the cloak had at least fifty of the sky-blue feathers, each one a storm in its own right. The pegasus nodded. “Even if the storm doesn’t physically reach, the fallout would be. That thing has the power to destroy countries, Sunny.” The unicorn blinked before she slipped out of her hammock and crossed the distance to him. She sat beside him and stared down at the skin that held armageddon. “It’s worse than I thought it was,” she finally said after the silence between them stretched on a second too long. Marble nodded. “It’s worse than I thought too.” They sat there, staring at the jungle around them. “Okay,” Sunny said, finally. “Getting you back to civilization just got a lot harder.” “What makes you say that?” Marble asked. “The mandrill was after this. I’m sure of it now. He’ll try chasing us if he has the chance and—” “You think the mandrill’s still out there?” Marble asked. “I thought we killed when we brought the temple down on its head.” Sunny shook her head. “Primates are incredibly strong and durable. You saw him smashing through the traps. Between his strength and the fact that we were all fairly close to the top of the temple when it came down on us, I don’t think we did much more than slow him down. If we’re lucky, we broke a bone or two.” “How do we stop something like that?” Marble asked. “We collapsed a building on it, and the most you think we did is inconvenience it? What do we need to do? Kill it with a silver blade or something?” Sunny shook her head. “It’s not like that. He’s tough. Far tougher than any pony has right to be, and ponies are pretty tough to begin with. Poisons or suffocation would work best, but that’s not for you to worry about. What we need to worry about is trying to get you and the cloak back to Equestria.” Marble frowned. “You’re going to try and take on that monster and whatever this Lady Dusk is by yourself?” Sunny blinked before she looked up at him. “I’m trying to get you to safety like you said you needed.” Marble shook his head. He couldn’t leave her like this. Honestly, he couldn’t let her go no matter what she did. He’d never forgive herself if this went wrong, and with that mandrill thing chasing after them, things could go wrong very quickly. “I’ve changed my mind,” he said, “besides, if that thing wants the cloak, then I think splitting up would only make it worse for both of us. Either it will chase after me, or you by ourselves, and sticking together is probably the only way we’re going to make this work.” Sunny nodded. “I can’t say you’re wrong. Honestly, I can’t. But are you sure you want to go with me and fight the entirety of this ‘Lady’s’ cult or what-have-you to do that? It’ll be dangerous.” “More or less dangerous than running into an ancient temple in the middle of the jungle?” Marble asked sardonically. Sunny gave him an unamused stare. “I’m serious, Marble. This is going to be very dangerous, and I can’t say for sure if we’ll both make it out alive if it comes down to it.” Marble nodded. “I know, and if I’m being as serious as you are, then I can say that it will be dangerous, too dangerous for either of us to let this happen on its own.” “And I can’t let you try and take them on your own,” he thought. “Okay,” Sunny said eventually before yawning. Marble yawned himself. “How long have you been up?” she asked. “Since we broke camp yesterday,” he answered honestly. Sunny shook her head. “Alright, then you need to get some sleep. I think we need to move during the night now, despite the terrible idea of navigating a jungle by moonlight, just because it’ll help us hide from the mandrill. If we switch over to a nocturnal schedule, we’d have a better chance of avoiding the thing. Not to mention it’ll give the cloak more protection if we’re worried about it burning in the sunlight.” “If it means I can finally get some sleep, then I am for this plan,” he replied, feeling the hours weigh on him hard. Sunny managed a smile. “Go ahead and climb into the hammock,” the unicorn said. “Take the cloak with you, and we’ll try moving at sundown. We’ll have to set up a new procedure, but I’ll work on that while you get some sleep. It’ll work out better that way, I think.” “If you say so,” Marble said, too tired to argue about anything else. “Have a good sleep,” Sunny said. Marble nodded and climbed into the hammock. “Okay, I’ll go to sleep, and then we’ll find a way to stop these ponies that are trying to control the weather.” Sunny nodded. “Sounds like a plan, Marble.” Now that he knew Sunny was okay, he found sleep coming to him nearly effortlessly. His muscles relaxed as he slumped into the cloth, and he felt an incredible weight lift off his shoulders. Sunny was okay. He didn’t hurt her. As the last vestiges of consciousness slipped past him and the world faded away, a single thought warmed his heart. He didn’t hurt her like he had hurt Vanilla. She was okay. ---☼--- When night fell, they began moving through the jungle with extreme care. The dangers of pitfalls, hunting animals, and thick foliage and mud became even worse without the ability to see. Sunny’s only advantage here was Marble, who she asked to scout ahead after he woke up before the sun went down, and the small candle-sized torch she used to see by. The little torch barely offered any light, but Sunny pushed herself forward despite that, occasionally using her own magic to feel the ground around her. “‘Energy spells just aren’t as fun,’” Inner Celestia muttered. “An amazing choice there, Sunny. Never mind that it would have been one of the most useful spells to have.” Sunny ignored the jab as she moved through the darkness. She stood by her decision to stick with Control Matter and Body. It meant she was limited, sure, but if she didn’t want to go on an adventure limited, then she wouldn’t have bothered with a disguise. Besides, it was part of pretending. “Are we not going to talk about that?” Inner Celestia asked. Sunny didn’t even respond. “Deluding yourself isn’t healthy.” “I’m not deluding myself. I’m just pretending.” “What’s the difference?” “I know who I really am. I’m just ignoring it for now.” “Because that’s so much better.” Sunny took in a deep breath. “Well, you know what?” she whispered harshly, “maybe, just maybe, it is better. Because Celestia has a lot of problems. She can’t walk out of her own home without being dog-piled by ponies. She can’t even tell them to mind their own business because she’s too busy being the perfect pony everyone knew her to be. Instead, I get to finally be myself for once. I get to be selfish and irresponsible instead of forcing myself to be the pony everyone thinks I am. So maybe I’m not deluding myself, maybe I’m who I was always supposed to be.” Inner Celestia stared down at Sunny with her imperious gaze before she spoke again. “You know that’s not who you are.” Sunny ignored her. Right now, she had more important things to do.