//------------------------------// // Into The Sun // Story: Beyond Me // by Boopy Doopy //------------------------------// Celestia took a deep breath, calming her nerves as Twilight stood at her side in front of the hospital doors. She hoped that this meeting would go smoothly. She couldn’t see why it wouldn’t, but Asher was a bit of an unpredictable one. The filly’s entrance into Equestria has already pushed events to happen differently than what she’d expected and she wanted to keep control of the situation. Not being in control made her anxious, as well as frustrated her. She only waited a moment after taking a breath before entering the building, the receptionist gasping at the sight of her. “P-p-p-princess Celestia!” she stuttered. “Wh-what are you doing here? We just- we saw Nightmare Moon and-” “Fear not, my little pony,” she told her kindly, but with authority. “Nightmare Moon is no more. The only pony you saw was my sister, Luna. If you would though, could you-” “Princess Celestia!” a group of fillies cheered, interrupting her. The group ran up to her and hugged her legs, which made her giggle. As they did though, she noticed the mare with them, Lofty if she remembered correctly, had an almost sour expression on her face. However, she didn’t change her own face in the face of this, opting instead to ignore it. She did make a note to ask Asher about what she might have told the couple. “See Diamond? I told you the princess was coming to visit Asher! He really is from another world like he said!” “Woooow… is that true, princess?” Diamond Tiara asked as she looked directly up at her. “Is Asher really from another world, or is that just a joke? Are you really gonna talk to her?” She laughed at that, telling them, “Why yes, I am going to talk to your friend, but you should ask for yourself if you’re curious about their origin. Unfortunately though, I will have to chat with you all later, as I mustn’t keep my sister long. If you could direct me to where your friend is at?” “Oh, he’s in room four with Rainbow Dash!” Sweetie Belle told her. “We can show you where it’s at if you want!” “That’s quite alright, little filly, but I do appreciate the gesture. Thank you.” With that, she left them, not wasting any time to make her way inside. As she did, she thought about how it was interesting that more than one pony called her ‘he’ as she requested. She also noted that she did tell ponies about her alien status in Equestria and worried about it a bit. However, she put those thoughts out of her head for now and focused on the task at hand. She and her student entered the room and could immediately tell how heavy the air was. While the pony in the bed, Rainbow Dash she knew, looked surprised by her appearance, Asher was clearly expecting her, and had seated herself in a chair and glared at her when she walked in.  “Good morning, my little ponies,” she greeted kindly. “I’m sorry to see the condition you’re in after last night's events, but I do hope you’re feeling better this morning.” “Yeah…” Asher replied, a tone in her voice indicating she wanted to say more. Before she could though, Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Wow, you’re actually visiting us, Princess Celestia?” the mare asked. “I can’t believe it! Oh! Can you put in a recommendation to the Wonderbolts about me? You should’ve seen the way I fought Nightmare Moon last night!” “I’ll certainly see what I can do, but for now, you should focus on resting and healing yourself, my little pony. I do hope you’re able to recover from your injuries in a timely manner.” “Awww, thanks princess!” Rainbow told her happily. “But don’t you worry about me! I’ll be back on cloud patrol in a jiffy! You should’ve seen how clear the skies were last night because of me!” “They were quite so,” she agreed, “and your work is appreciated. I’m very happy to meet you, although I must ask if it’s acceptable that I take Asher to the side for now and converse with her alone?” “Oh, I’m sorry! Absolutely! I can’t believe you’re asking me that! Don’t let me stop you, go right ahead!” With that, the alicorn turned to the filly and asked, “Asher, if you would?” “Fine,” she sighed. “Let’s get this over with.” I barely noticed that the librarian was with us when the three of us entered an empty room in the back of the hospital. I was focused entirely on Celestia at that point and trying to think of how I would say what I wanted to say. I was angry, and wanted her to know exactly how wrong what she did was, but didn’t want to scream and yell like I felt was bubbling up inside of me. I had to control myself and be level-headed. From what I already knew about her, I knew she was going to try and make excuses. She seemed like the type to do so, and I wanted to refute them every step of the way. There were a couple of chairs in the room, so I took a seat while the two of them stood in front of me. Twilight gave me a slightly nervous smile and a wave as I did, although I didn't return it, still peeved about what she told me yesterday. Not that she noticed, immediately turning to the princess speaking to her. "I met with her yesterday," she explained, "although it was just for a few minutes-" "I'm not a 'her'," I immediately corrected for her, sounding a bit aggressive with it, wanting to make sure this was made clear in the beginning. "I'm a 'he'," I said, "and that's what I want to be called." "Didn't we talk about this before?" the mare asked. "You're just a little filly. Even if you feel like you're a colt, that doesn't make you a colt." "Yes it- mmmmm…" I trailed off, trying to think of how to phrase my argument. I couldn't say that it did, because I didn't really believe that either. I mean, I was a boy, but I had to think about it from her perspective. I thought about Caramel for a moment and tried to think about how I would argue on their behalf before coming up with something. "Okay, first of all," I started, "I am a boy. I was born a male and that is how I will stay the rest of my life regardless of what happens to me. Since I was born as a male, even though I look like a female now, I'm still a male. But-" I watched her raise her hoof to interject but ignored her, continuing, "but there is a thing called respect. Even if you don’t think I’m a boy, it’s still respectful to call me what I want to be called.” I felt slightly ashamed that it took all of this happening to me to realize it was disrespectful to go against people the way I had been, but clearly it was a lesson that other people needed to learn, too. Other ponies as well it seemed. “Well, I can be respectful,” she countered, “but there’s a limit to how far that extends. I wouldn’t call you a manticore if you said you were a manticore, either, because that’s not what you are.” “I just told you that I am a man!” I said. “Even given that truth matters, I was born as a male. I was a male every single day of the first almost quarter-century of my life up to two weeks ago!” I glanced up at the princess who stood behind her, noting that she stayed oddly quiet during the exchange, and gave her a look to tell her to agree with me. “But that’s not what you are right now, so-” “Twilight,” Celestia finally said, “Asher is speaking the truth when they say that they are a male. I’m unsure if they’ve told you this before, but they are not native to Equestria. Where they come from, they are indeed male. They’ve been transformed since coming here, however.” I noticed her use of the word ‘they’ to refer to me rather than he, but didn’t take offense to it. I figured that either way, it was so much better than being called a girl, and silently wondered to myself about using those pronouns for Caramel. “But that’s not what she is right now!” the purple pony protested. “Quite true,” the pony said, “but not everything that’s true needs to be said, Twilight. A lesson you should learn, that everypony needs to learn at that.” “Well, it’s not true, but even if it was, I wouldn’t want to be called a girl, okay?” The librarian, Twilight, rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Whatever.” I could tell she absolutely didn’t like the idea, and was about to say something else before Celestia broke in first. “It’s not whatever, Twilight Sparkle. This is the pony who will be living with you for the time being. Please be respectful, even if you disagree.”  She sighed at that, simply saying, “Yes, princess.” “Good, now that that’s settled, we can make formal introductions between you two. Asher, this is my student, Twilight Sp-” “Before we do all that,” I interrupted, “I want to talk to you about what happened yesterday, because what happened was, honestly, not right.” I could tell she looked nervous by that idea, sending the briefest glance to her student. However, she didn’t decline. In fact, she stayed silent, giving me the floor and waiting for me to speak first. “What happened yesterday, with Nightmare moon,” I told her, “wasn’t okay. It’s not okay for you to just let that happen. It’s not okay for you to just let people- err, ponies- be hurt while you sit back and do nothing.” I didn’t try to keep the anger out of my voice, scowling as I said it, wanting her to know just how upset I was about it. “I understand, but I think you’re misunderstanding what happened last night, Asher.” “How can I possibly-” I tried to get out before she held up a hoof to stop me. “Do you remember what I told you before, when you and I were speaking in Canterlot together?” “Yes, you said that your sister was going to come back and cause chaos and that she-” I used a hoof to point in Twilight’s direction, “-would fix it. Which means you knew she was coming, you knew she would potentially hurt ponies, and did nothing about it anyway.” “Princess Celestia would never do that!” the librarian yelled angrily. “You can’t talk to her like that!” “Be at ease, Twilight,” Celestia told her, placing a wing on her back as she did so. “It’s quite alright for ponies to have concerns about what happened last night. Although I must say, Asher, it sounds like you took what I said and came to your own conclusions about it. I only told you that my sister, Princess Luna, would be returning and that my student would aid in handling her return. Nothing more, certainly nothing about letting havoc wreak.” “No, no you’re twisting that,” I argued. “The fact that you knew she was gonna come here and you knew who she was means that you knew she was going to do what she did, even if you didn’t say it.” “I will admit, I did know that Nightmare Moon was ready to return from her banishment, but once again, I had planned for my student to take care of things, and that she has. I would honestly say that I’m quite proud of her.” Twilight smiled bashfully, but I didn’t buy it, continuing, “That’s all good, but it sounds like you’re just setting things so that can happen, and it’s not okay.” “You spoke of that deity before, God, correct? And you talked about how you were trying to figure out why you were in Equestria and what you should be doing here. Would that not be the same thing?” “You are not God!” I yelled angrily at her. “Don’t you try and use that argument because you are not God! It’s not the same thing at all, not in the slightest!” “Quite sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you with the comparison. In any case, I knew she was coming, and that’s why I got my student on the case. Nothing more.” “Well it sure sounds like you’re playing games with my life and the lives of other ponies, and I don’t appreciate it.” “Believe me when I say that I would never do such a thing. I would never intentionally put any of my little ponies in harm’s way, whether it be you or somepony else. That is not how I take my responsibilities to rule over Equestria.” I didn't believe that and didn’t want to let her off the hook that easily, but it was difficult thinking of ways to refute what she was saying. It was so long ago that we talked in her castle, and I was still halfway sick during it so I didn’t retain as much of what she said as I should have. I quickly, silently went through the conversation in my head for a minute to try and poke holes in it before I finally came up with something. “If you’re not trying to play games, then how come you didn’t want me to tell her about what you told me back there?” I asked. “You said not to tell her, and if that’s not playing games with people’s lives-” “I asked you not to say those things because I needed my student to worry about making friends with the ponies around her. If she were more focused on my sister than she was on making friends, things might have turned out quite differently last night. You might not know this, but friendship here in Equestria is a powerful tool, more powerful than even the magic I possess. Knowing my student, she wouldn’t have stopped to make friends for even one minute had I mentioned my sister, and making friends was a crucial part in gathering the Elements of Harmony and ridding her of the Nightmare. It’s not a task any one pony could do alone.” As she said it, Twilight smiled smugly at the explanation, clearly happy that Celestia was winning the argument. “I… I still feel like you’re lying. Well, maybe not lying, but being mistruthful. I feel like you’re trying to spin this in your favor, but there’s no way I can disprove it, and it’s annoying. If you’re as powerful as you say you are and planned for this to happen so that librarian could fix it-” “Well, I’m not a librarian,” Twilight said. “I’m the princess’s student, although I do see it as my job to maintain the library while I’m there.” “-then how come you couldn’t do anything about it, or protect the city or something, or cancel the holiday altogether? Even assuming all of that is true, it seems pretty irresponsible to me and like you were setting it up to be dangerous just so she could save the day.” “Well, I can only say that I had the best intentions at heart, but I won’t go round in circles with you on this. I doubt your mind will be changed on my account if you’re not convinced of my intentions.” “Yeah, well, regardless of your intentions, that’s how it looks from my point of view, so I would at least consider that before making plans like this again. It just looks suspicious and it’s making me angry just thinking about it. But of course, there’s no way that I can prove my point of view correct. All I can do is argue against your version of things, which everyone is going to believe. It’s not fair, especially considering what happened last night because of what you were doing.” “I see…” the princess trailed off thoughtfully. “Thank you for your consideration on that matter. I do appreciate hearing how I’m perceived in my rule, and will make further note of it. Thank you.” I was still glaring when I finished, not really satisfied by how the conversation turned out. There was no apology or remorse on her part, only excuses. I could tell she was trying to keep painting herself as being in the right when I knew she wasn’t, and it only made the situation more upsetting. If she was doing this now while I was telling her off, she was going to do it again when I wasn’t there. The fact that she was smiling at the end of it as though everything was fine when it clearly wasn’t only reiterated that fact and it made me want to grind my teeth in frustration. She was lying, I knew she was lying, but I had no way to prove it. It was effectively my word against hers. Twilight, on the other hand, had a glaring expression on her face, like she wanted to yell at me for telling off her teacher but had to restrain herself from doing so. I knew the first second she got, she was going to tell me off, and considered that to be a good thing, because then at least I might be able to try and get my point through to her. Celestia claimed that she was her student and that she didn’t do anything last night so she could be the hero, so she was just as much a part of this as her winged counterpart, even if simply as a pawn. “In any case, if we could move on please, I’d like to introduce you to my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this is Asher.” “Nice to meet you, ma’am,” the pony sneered, holding out her hoof to shake. That word, the way she said it, got under my nerves more than any other time since I’d been here. Even if I hated it, everyone else has a reasonable excuse to use female pronouns on me. She, however, had just been told that it was a rude thing to do, and did it anyway just to get under my skin. In front of her teacher and the ruler of this country, no less. It made me grind my teeth in anger. The urge to one-up her by telling her ‘Thank you, sir’ was unbelievably strong, but I forced myself not to. Just because she was being disrespectful didn’t mean I had to be disrespectful back. I had to be better than that. Not to mention, I basically did a largely similar thing just yesterday, so I wasn’t really one to talk. “But that was different because I was- no. No, don’t make excuses for why. Just acknowledge that it was wrong. Making excuses is how you enable yourself to do it again. Even if you don’t believe that he’s- they’re- a girl, you still have to be respectful. Something that this pony clearly doesn’t know, or at least just doesn’t care about, seeing as Celestia said as much already.” I didn’t take her hoof, deciding instead to just glare at her, watching as Celestia sighed in disappointment. “I can see it’s going to be a long morning,” she said.