//------------------------------// // 31 - Where love was lost, Part 2 // Story: Just a day in Equestria // by dave89898989 //------------------------------// Celestia looked up at Aora’s approving face, and then collapsed. She must have delved so deep inside herself that she drained all the energy that was being contained. The student wasn’t ready to raise the sun on her own, for probably a while from now. I rushed to help her back onto her hooves again. A weak “thank you” escaped from the exhausted filly. “I’ll take her to her bed, so she can rest from that trial,” I said to Aora, partially carrying Celestia away. “Of course. I’ll be waiting here should you need me,” she replied while in thought. The tired pony directed my to her room, and I put her safely down on her bed. “I’ll leave you here so you can gain your strength. You really must have found some power, look at you! I’ve never seen anything like it.” “Blue, you are kind. But it wasn’t all my doing, as I failed to keep control over that power. I lost it, and hurt myself in the process.” She coughed a few times, then shuddered. “What made you lose control, if I may ask?” “I just...was distracted by irrelevance. I thought of what Aora would say should I have gone wrong.” “Like she would be made at you! Aora is a good pony, she’s too pleasant to get angry at something such as that. Celestia, you don’t have to worry about it.” I put a supporting hoof on her shoulder. “Thank you. Aora and I haven’t really known each other for long, so I guess I was just scared of her reactions.” “There’s no need to be afraid of her, Celestia,” I laughed. “Blue, you only have to call me Tia. Like you, I prefer shortened names.” “Heh, okay Tia. You say that you don’t know Aora that much? I’ll talk to her later, so that she can prioritise making friends with you. After all, being a student isn’t all about working. It’s about developing a relationship and making the most of your time with your trainer,” I started to ramble. “You seem to know a lot, Blue,” the white and pink alicorn gave a small giggle. “Well, I like to pass on the knowledge that I could never give myself.” I frowned hard for a moment, but tried to return my humble smile quickly. “Are you okay?” Celestia asked, noticing my brief change in emotion. “Yeah, I’m fine; don’t worry about it,” I replied. I looked away, and saw the missing cutie mark from her flank. “I see you don’t have your special talent yet.” “Oh yes, not yet. But I know exactly what my talent will be, and that’s why Aora is teaching me. She will be passing down her place on the throne to me through the daytime, and so the responsibilities of controlling the sun are given to me too. The same goes with Luna and Opare, if you don’t know that already.” “Just keep at what you’re practising. One day you will be the pony to raise the sun, I’m sure of it. You have the potential, and you managed to unlock a power I have never seen with my own eyes before. It’s the heart that managed to do that. If you unleash your heart, you release the hidden energies that are determined to do your bidding on the largest of scales.” “My...heart? I suppose I’m still quite young, so I haven’t exactly realised how much the heart matters to me.” Celestia sat up in order to focus more on the situation. “I remember when I abused the power from my heart. I used it to be somepony else, in order to obtain domination over the other ponies. It was a terrible time, because inside my head, my conscious was suffering for the evil ways. I wished I didn’t turn bad, but I lost balance when I was shunned by everypony.” I looked at the floor, disappointed with myself as I thought of that memory. “When did this happen, if I may ask?” The intrigued alicorn moved closer to me, attempting some sort of comfort. “Oh...quite recently, as I recall. Of course this occurred in a far off land from here, so nopony really got word of it.” I had to lie in order to keep the fabric of time intact, but I almost revealed when it actually happened, seeing as the future Celestia was present and all. “I’m sorry, Blue. You’re a good pony, and you lost your way. You’re here though, and I still trust you.” “You don’t have to apologise. It was my stupid decision. Why do you trust me, anyway? I’m such an unstable pony; I could turn at any moment...” “Don’t be so hard on yourself!” “It’s true. I’m an extremely destructive pony, and I’m just...I’m just jealous that other ponies make friendship look so easy. I am trying to be a friend, but I’m just not that good at it.” My negative emotions were starting to creep back into the picture. “You don’t have to be good at friendship to be a friend. Just being there for another pony is enough. They’ll show you the way if you need the support, but it’s a learning curve in the long run,” Celestia sympathised with me. I looked around the room, observing all the objects and decorations making the place look something more than bare. A single tear came from my eye, and stung as it lay there, forcing me to wipe it away. I would have no idea what will happen when I return to the present. My friends had disappeared after saving them from myself, and now I’m alone. Would they take me back? Would they truly accept me as they once did? “Thank you, Tia. I should leave you to rest now. Take care.” “Good bye, Blue. And say hi to Luna from me!” She replied. “I will, don’t you worry,” I said, just before shutting the door to Celestia’s room. I made my way back to where Aora said she would be. For some reason, a number of paper lanterns were in her possession now. “Ah, there you are Blue. Do you mind helping me with these?” She requested. “Sure, what would you have me do?” “Just place a small candle inside each lantern. Hopefully that won’t be too hard.” She sounded a little bit patronising, but I shrugged it off, and obliged. The candles were lit, so I had to be careful handling them. I slowly but surely moved one into a hole cut in the middle of the lantern. But as soon as I did it, the paper immediately caught on fire. I blew on the lantern, and then stomped on it to put out the flame. I cursed under my breath. “Ah. You are not disciplined yet, my young foal.” “Excuse me?” I faced Aora with a stressful face. “I did the same test with Celestia, and she had the same results at first. The way to complete this test was to use magic to guide the candle into the lantern, but that’s a little unfair on you,” Aora said, placing another lantern in front of me. “Well, what’s the point of my doing this if I can’t even do it?!” I angrily shouted. “Calm down, Blue. Remember what you said about the power that comes from within? If you can use it correctly, you can surpass the limits of you not having magic.” She was right. “Oh...yeah...thing is, the last time I tried it, I just let loose dark energy,” I kicked the ground with a hoof in annoyance over myself. “You’ve done this before? Then that’s progress,” Aora smiled. “But I’m hazarding a guess that you didn’t harness it right, so the dark overcame you.” “I think so. I’m afraid of trying anything like that again.” I kept my gaze on the stone-bricked ground. “You worry too much. Even if I don’t know that much about you, I get reminded of Opare, my sister. She isn’t the most optimistic of ponies, and I’d say you’re the same. Cheer up, we won’t be here for long, I say to her.” Aora also began to sympathise with me. “Aora?” I said. “How can I be a good pony? All I like to do is get drunk and fight other ponies, just for my selfish needs.” She paused for a moment, in slight shock from what I just blurted out. “Are you fighting to protect something, either way?” I had to think for a second. “Well...I got into a fight to stop a gang of ponies from harming somepony I met...” “Even if fighting isn’t exactly the right answer, you’re doing the good thing and helping your friend,” Aora consoled. “She was my friend...I’m sorry. I had actually made a friend. But even so, I had kept all my secrets from her,” I confessed to the listening alicorn. “You still had a friend, and nopony has to know everything about you, right?” The thought process she had provided me with cleared my head. “I suppose so. But friends like hearing what a pony’s got to say. Even...even if they don’t like what I say, they would still be my friend.” Those who I know have to be happy to see me when I do return. “Yes! Now, do you feel confident enough to use your heart’s power?” The Princess challenged me. “Okay, I’ll try my best.” Closing my eyes, I focussed on finding my heart in the darkness. It wasn’t a beating organ as normally seen, my heart was instead this orange, glowing sphere. It looked almost like a perfectly round supernova. Next to it was an identical ball, but this time it was pure white coloured, and significantly bigger. Perhaps...this was Destiny’s heart? The paopu fruit had brought us together with the unending bond of both our hearts. Somehow, I willed my front hooves to extend outwards and clasp onto the orange object. Opening my eyes again, I thought of lifting the candle, and it did so. Maybe this was how I could make that magic all that time ago, with advancements on my heart. I struggled a little, but I could move the candle around with my mind and my heart’s power. The candle slid through the hole in the dark orange lantern, just barely touching the sides. I placed it down, and my ‘inner hooves’ let go of my heart, as I could see when I blinked. “Well done,” Aora congratulated me. “We can use these for tonight, when the celebrations happen.” “Celebrations?” I asked, catching my breath. “Yes, every year the ponies of the land put up as many lights as possible to ward away the evil spirits that gather. This was instructed to us from the ancient texts of the Equestrian calendar,” she motioned, showing me an old, worn parchment piece with foreign scribbles and illustrations. “Ancient texts...” I was amazed by this new resource, so I became eager to know more. “Yes, we found these in a chest below the castle. The rulers before us talked about it to us, so we went to retrieve this information when we turned to power,” the black and red haired alicorn huffed. “Please, tell me more, I’m fascinated.” I listened in, waiting for more of this. “Seriously? It’s really boring...Opare could tell you more about it, because she’s the boring sister,” Aora laughed jokingly. “Okay then, I suppose I’ll wait until tonight. Meanwhile, what else can I do to pass the time?” I looked around, viewing Canterlot and Ponyville across the horizon. “Hmm, what else can I have you do...Oh yeah! How about you deliver this message to the mayor of Ponyville? You could have a look around there too, to check out the cultures of our subjects and such.” “I’m sorry?” Was she on to me? “Opare mentioned you weren’t from here, so maybe you could see what was different to your lands.” “Oh-oh, yes, sure. Okay, I’ll get that message sent for you.” I stopped myself from going into panic mode just then. Aora gave me a signed envelope and a couple of rolled up documents in a bag, and told me the way to go. I was trotting out through the castle gates, and followed the stony path to the town of Canterlot. Even though this was one of the wealthiest places, the inhabiting ponies looked nothing more than peasants, with tattered clothes and poor looking features. The buildings were structured quite high up, and were built out of mostly expensive materials of stone, marble and wood, but there were the occasional scatterings of regal appearing tents. Snow was piled up and shoved to separate corners away from the buildings. How could that be there if we had just come out of summer? I moved on, exiting out of Canterlot across a long bridge overlooking a waterfall. The ground reduced itself into just plains of grass with forests, and flower meadows. Travelling to Ponyville took longer than I thought. Stopping atop a hill overlooking the town, I studied the amount of development. It was much, much smaller than the Ponyville I know, and it was absolutely covered in snow. The ponies there looked even more worse for wear, with blackened ovals under their eyes, symbolising the lack of health they had. I approached the settlement, and took myself towards the largest building in the area. This one wasn’t made just out of dirt and sticks like the other huts, so this had to be the town hall. I walked through the archway, and looked at the stallion behind a shoddily made desk. “Oh, hello there. And you are?” He sounded like there wasn’t much time on his hooves. “I’m just a messenger, with a letter from the royal Canterlot castle.” I took out the contents from my bag, and spread them across the wooden surface. The mayor stallion studied the pieces of parchment and the letter. “Ah yes, the plans to expand Ponyville! Just what we wanted. Thank you for this. Please make sure to thank the Princesses for us, will you?” “Um...you’re quite welcome. Of course I will.” I walked away feeling awkward as this delivery felt too easy. I finally returned to the castle, and it was a delightful sunset again. In the courtyard stood Princess Opare, with a very young Luna, as a simple small filly. They were talking away as I walked up to them. “Hello there, Princess. Hello, Luna.” They greeted me back with a nod, but Luna seemed a bit shy of my presence, being little and all. “You’re just in time, Blue. Of course, tonight's the night of Resermane, or keeping the spirits away. On this special evening, we will colour the moon orange, as it can reflect more light back on to Equestria.” “And how the hay are you gonna do that?” I immediately interrupted, trying to understand the absurdity of that statement. Opare smirked at my disbelief. “You pick up a few skills over the years, young Blue. Of course, I am able to focus more than Aora can, so I studied the ancient texts more than she did. Through lifting the moon, you can do all sorts of things with it, like changing its colour, size, what have you.” “Oh...well, you must show me these texts, as I’m still quite intrigued by them.” “Of course. But now, we must help Luna with the moon.” “But, she’s only a foal!” “It doesn’t matter about age, it matters about where the heart is,” Luna corrected me. “That’s exactly right,” Opare praised her. “Luna, do you understand what you’re doing here?” I asked the filly. “Not...really...” the dark sapphire coated Luna replied, nervous in her voice. “Like you said with the heart, you must look inside yourself for it, and take control. You channel the new-found energy into the moon, and you lift it,” I explained. “And if done right, it will be as light as a feather.” Opare looked at the purples and oranges which lingered in the sky, waiting to return under the horizon in place of the black backdrop. “Just close your eyes to start,” I instructed Luna. “You should see darkness, as normal. And then you go searching in the dark to find the source of light, deep down. It should be a ball with the same colour as your coat.” “I-I found it!” “Good, now grab hold of it, as hard as you can. Will yourself to grasp the ball. Feel the flowing power as your hooves are touching your heart. The power will course around your body, which will feel strange at first, but you’ll get used to it.” Luna jerked around a little as she stood in place. She started to glow a dull white colour. “Okay...what now?” “You can open your eyes again. Here’s the most difficult part now. You must concentrate all of your thoughts on the moon. With that, you should start to think about lifting it, way above your head, way above the skies.” I and the dusk Princess waited in anticipation. The little filly had a fixated look on her face, looking straight into the distance. Complete silence held us in the air for a few moments, before a shimmering light exploded from Luna’s horn, penetrating my vision once again, forcing me to turn away. I had to squint painfully, but I could just about make out the moon, rising up through the atmosphere. She was actually doing it! The light suddenly disappeared though, leaving an exhausted filly now laying down. Opare took care of the rest, and the white craterous plate started to turn a light shade of orange. Just like with Celestia, I helped Luna back on her hooves. She looked tired now, and was breathing deeply. “Did I do it?” “Yes, you managed to raise the moon quite high. You did well. I’m impressed!” the Princess called out. “I suppose I’ll be taking her back to her room then,” I said with a pleased sigh. “That will be fine. When you exit her room, to the opposite side of the hall will be a set of downwards stairs, which is where I will be. I’ll tell you everything then,” the dark orange alicorn approved. Luna also directed me to her quarters. It was in the same room where Celestia resided, with her bed just next to hers. It was a large room after all, and they were sisters growing up together. “Rest for now Luna, you will have more training and studying to do when you feel better,” I told her. She smiled at me, and then passed out before I exited the room.