//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: Terraria // Story: Sun & Moon Act I: Ascending Star // by cursedchords //------------------------------// “Over the long years of my life, I encountered many sages, and equally as many fools. But determining one from the other is a skill that I mastered far too late.”  - High Princess Celestia, Personal Journals (Vol. 3) Dawn came to Everfree, and for once, when Celestia woke up she realized that the Sun had risen almost exactly when she would have liked it to. The golden rays of the dawn slanted through the tall window of her room here in Unicorn Tower, illuminating the space with a gentle light. Celestia didn’t want to get up. The soft down of the mattress beneath her was more comfortable than anything she had ever felt before, and the woods outside were peaceful and quiet. She was finished with her training, so there was no longer a rigid schedule guiding her days, and there were no pressing concerns to take care of, as there had always been in Eridian. She was free to do as she would, for once. Then, almost as if to mock her false peace, the Sun dipped quickly back below the horizon, plunging the world into utter darkness, before rising again just as it had before. Now Celestia remembered why it was that she was here. There could be no peaceful mornings until that task had been taken care of. Her window faced southeast, out over the trees of the forest, until eventually the ground rose up into dark hills on the edge of the horizon. She found the view to be noteworthy, not just because it was another feature of the forest, but because of the way that it felt. With her unicorn magic now awakened within her, Celestia had begun sensing magic around whenever it was present, and here at the Citadel, she could feel more of it than ever before. Something powerful was at work within these woods, and she could feel it the most strongly when she looked out of her window at the distant hills. It was another question for her to answer. The Sun’s light gleamed off of a piece of white paper that was lying on the floor just inside of the doorway, evidently having been brushed underneath some time during the night. With a sigh, Celestia grasped it with her magic and held it up. The solid, square script she immediately recognized as Aqua’s. “Good morning, Celestia. Now that you’ve completed your studies, the time of judgement is upon us. Today we shall see if you are worthy of becoming the third Triumvir of Equestria. But first, it is time for you to finally meet Terraria, the leader of the Resistance, and the one who will be your ultimate judge. This is a magical letter, which will alert us as soon as you finish reading it. We await you and Luna in the Central Meeting Chamber.” Aqua, Master of Water That was it then. Of course she had known that it was only a matter of time until the final test came. For all of the time that she had spent thinking about might happen afterwards, she had probably spent just as long thinking about what exactly her final trial was going to entail. Today it seemed that it was time for her to find out. When Celestia placed the letter down onto the room’s writing desk, it promptly disappeared in a puff of blue magic. Eagerly, she set about preparing herself to meet Terraria. About twenty minutes later, Celestia let herself out of the bedroom, and into the hallway that circled this floor of Unicorn Tower. The interior layout of the building very closely resembled Aqua’s tower from up north, to the point that it was clear where the latter had drawn its architectural inspiration from. Each tower was joined to the main complex of the Citadel via a covered walkway about midway up its length, and so it was to there that Celestia set out. Every corner of Unicorn Tower seemed to have a story to tell, and the painstaking effort that its builders had taken in their reconstruction was plain to see. Important moments from pony history were enshrined in paintings upon its walls, in engravings upon its ceilings, and even in beautiful stained glass in a few large window panes. Just like Aqua’s base up north, the tower was bristling with history, with stories of a time long past, but still remembered, and still fervently hoped for. When she crossed over into the central complex, she found Luna waiting along with an emerald-robed attendant. As she approached, the attendant gave her a small nod, and then turned and began leading the two of them down through the structure, presumably to the Central Meeting Chamber. “Well?” Luna said, looking at her with an excited grin. “Here we are, finally ready to move on. Finally ready to get out there and do something for a change.” “I don’t think that we’ll be marching back to Eridian as soon as the trial is over,” Celestia cautioned. “One day at a time, sister.” “I know.” Luna replied, “but I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this chance, and even one more day is going to be like an eternity. I just can’t wait to get back there, to look out over that city and know that I am going to do something to help.” It was true, and Celestia had spent many of her own nights thinking just the same thoughts. But each time in the past it had been easy to remember that the day of judgement was still far in the offing. There was no avoiding it now. “Luna,” Celestia said softly, breaking her sister out of her thoughts. “I… I suppose I never apologized for before.” “What do you mean, before?” “Well...” Celestia looked away. “Before this, before everything. Before we met Atlas and our lives changed. I thought that I was looking out for us, but I guess now we both know that I was just being selfish. What I should say is, you were right, Luna.” “Oh, come now, sister.” Luna placed a comforting hoof upon her shoulder. “I understood back then why we did what we did. And it wasn’t your fault that our lives were hard. What you or I did back then doesn’t matter. What’s important is that now we’re going to fix things. After today, and after Discord, we’ll be able to live the life that we always deserved.” “But that’s just it!” Celestia snapped. “It’s not going to the same, Luna. After today, one of us is going to be a Triumvir, with responsibilities, with duties, with all of Equestria hanging in the balance each time we make a decision. And the other...” Celestia returned her gaze to the floor. “The other is just going to be watching from the sidelines, forgotten to history.” “Is that really what you’re thinking about now?” Luna said, pulling her sister to a stop mid-stride. “None of that matters. Perhaps only one of us can be a Triumvir. Perhaps only one of us can be Equestria’s hero, and have her name in all the history books from now until the end of time. But the other will never be forgotten.” Luna let go of Celestia and brought her hoof back to her chest, placing it right over her heart. “I swear to you that you will always be my sister and my equal, Celestia, no matter if one of us wears a crown or lives in a palace. We will always be together.” “Of course,” Celestia replied, and raised her own hoof to her breast to mirror her sister. “And I swear the same. We will always stand together.” She smiled, and then reached forward to embrace Luna in a warm hug. It was probably the last time that they would be together like this, at least for the foreseeable future. For while she agreed with her sister’s sentiment, a part of Celestia still knew that it was only wishful thinking. Only one of them was going to be Equestria’s champion. “Okay, now let’s get on with this thing,” Luna said as they released each other, and pointed ahead to a large set of oak double doors that their attendant had just stopped beside. The murmuring of many conversations drifted through them, though everything went quiet when the attendant banged once on the large iron knocker. After an instant, the doors began to swing inward with twin creaks from their hinges. With one final nod to Luna, Celestia stepped inside. The doorway opened up into an expansive hall, which from its size and shape Celestia guessed must lie near to the centre of the Citadel’s tower. Underneath a high vaulted ceiling stood four hewn wooden chairs, facing inwards on a flat, raised platform. Behind each chair were rows of benches, rising up in relief to each of the far walls. Most of the seats were empty, except for the section on the wall across from the door, which was filled with ponies of many colours. Each of the chairs was flanked by blazing torches, their light casting a warm orange aura over the room. As she climbed up the steps to the centre platform, Celestia could see that three of the chairs were occupied: Aqua sat in the chair to the left, dressed in voluminous purple robes that the young alicorn had never seen before, with a shining white diamond set upon her brow by a golden circlet. Atlas, who sat immediately across from his partner, was also attired in haughty formality, with a matching circlet, though his was set with a sapphire. Its twinkle complemented the shine of the lenses of his glasses, as well as his bright white teeth. He seemed to be the only pony in the room who was smiling. Finally, between the two of them on the far side of the space there rose a small dais, upon which sat a chair so large and ornate that it was better called a throne. Each of its four legs had been carved to resemble the trunks of great trees, and indeed as they rose up from the floor their branches spread and interwove to the create the throne’s seat and back. Over the top, the trees ended in twin blooms of leaves, one framing the Sun and the other the Moon. And seated on the throne she could now see a small pony, with a snowy white mane and a coat of shining emerald. Around a large opal brooch bound at her neck, cloths of many colours fell: yellow, red, and green, like the colours of the forest in autumn. Without a doubt, this was Terraria, the Master of Earth. For the moment, her head was bowed as if in deep thought, and her face could not be seen among the locks of her mane. Their attendant led the two sisters right to the center of the room, then departed for an empty bench after giving a deep bow to Terraria. Celestia felt small in the cavernous space, especially since the benches behind Terraria’s seat were filled with all the ponies of her Order, and every one of them seemed to now be watching in expectant silence. After a moment, Aqua rose from her chair in a rustle of fabric. “The Orders of Water and Air submit Celestia and Luna, of Eridian, as candidates for the position of third Triumvir of Equestria, in accordance with the old laws, and the traditions of our Orders,” she said, in a voice that was dry and monotonic even for her. Celestia realized that Aqua was very likely just following protocol, speaking words that she had said many times before. With luck, she would not have to say them again. The words seemed to rouse the old Master, and slowly Terraria brought her face up, as though she were waking from sleep. “Air approves?” she asked, in a voice that boomed out over the quiet space, surprisingly deep and full for her delicate frame. To her left, Atlas nodded decisively. “Ah, then the time is once again upon us, when our fate shall be decided.” Terraria pulled herself forward in her seat, and lowered her hooves onto the dais. Terraria was quite short, so that even though she was standing almost a foot and a half above the two sisters, her eyes were about level with Celestia. Closer up, the old Master’s age was much more plainly visible, as lines of care and worry could be discerned running along her brow and underneath her eyes. Terraria’s slender frame was enveloped by the folds of her clothing, but her head was held high and strong, and the expression on her face was not the blank stare of an aged mind. Instead, her eyes were bright, and rapidly darted over each of the two sisters, taking in details. “Tell me, which one of you is the one called Luna?” Luna stepped forward. “That’s me,” she said. “Ah,” Terraria replied with a nod. “Air’s candidate, I suppose?” She looked over in Atlas’s direction. Celestia kept her eyes respectfully forward, but it was clear from Terraria’s reaction that Atlas had nodded. “Indeed,” Terraria continued, now looking at Luna again. “Tell me, child, why have you come here?” “I am here to help,” Luna said immediately. “I am here to stop the injustice of the King’s rule, and to help ponies once again find happiness.” “Hmm, satisfactory,” the old Master said, with a small smile, “I know of many who found their way to my door by following that path, including the pegasus to your right. No wonder he chose you.” Terraria then turned to look at Celestia. “And that makes you my good friend Aqua’s choice, then?” “Yes,” Celestia replied. Clearly the old Master was going to ask her the same question she had just asked Luna, and so Celestia decided to save her the time. “I came here, because I had to,” she said. “Because there was no other way to lead an honest life, and no other life that I could be happy with.” There were a few murmurs and rustles within the crowd behind the throne, but Terraria’s smile did not diminish. “Hmm, perceptive, direct, just like a certain unicorn I know. So no mystery to that decision either. I suppose you both have been told that I shall be judging you, to see if you are worthy of becoming our third Triumvir.” It was not a question, but Celestia and Luna both nodded anyway. The old earth pony turned back to the dais. “Well make no mistake, your trial is imminent, but it shall not be I that decides your fate. That decision was made by destiny ages ago, and today we shall only see what was already preordained. Such is the way of things. It is the same for all of us, myself and your mentors included. None can escape the call of fate,” she said, and then turned to once again face the rest of the room, continuing in a voice low and grave, “not even a King.” “You all know the story of our nation’s past?” she continued, much louder now, her voice echoing in the silent hall. Celestia sensed that Terraria was not just talking to them anymore, but speaking for the whole room’s benefit, and indeed everypony else was watching her in rapt attention. “You have already seen the dark power that usurped the throne of our ancestors? The grim tale of the rise of Discord, and the fall of Equestria? “Yes, it is a tragedy that we shall never forget. But, my friends, the story does not end there. While there were some traitors who readily embraced Discord’s rule, there were others who already plotted against him. Among them my grandfather’s grandfather, Stout Heart the Bold, and his sister Heirloom.” Terraria turned back and indicated two ponies whose images were carved into the back of her throne. “They fled from the city, along with all those they could find who would fight on with them, and they came west, far from the King’s eyes. “There they readied themselves with all of the might of our ancestors: Unicorns, commanding the Earth and the stars, Pegasi, with the sky at their command, and of course Earth Ponies, grim and determined that this would not be Equestria’s end. Two months later, they marched on Eridian, a host nearly a thousand strong, the starlight gleaming on their banners as beautiful as the lost dawn.” Her words were enchanting, and Celestia envisioned the scene as it must have been, four hundred years in the past. All of the might of the Equestria of old, everything that she had read about in the old books, standing together on the field to face Discord. Unfortunately, she knew that it had not turned out well. “But in that hour,” Terraria continued, “whether in fear at the power arrayed against him, or in spite that there still existed those courageous enough to stand, the tyrant unleashed his darkness upon the land, beginning the first Reign of Chaos. The skies were darkened, the mountains trembled, and his magic roamed free, distorting reality and destroying innocent lives. In terror, the forces of the Resistance were scattered, and their leaders were all hunted down by the King’s sycophants. All but two, Stout Heart and Heirloom.” Celestia noted that the ponies in the room all took a shallow bow at her words, hanging their heads in solemn remembrance. She and Luna did the same. “They survived by coming here, south into the forests, where even the King’s power could not reach them. For a while they merely hid, waiting for the storms of Discord’s anger to subside. But as soon as some form of peace had returned, Stout Heart once again sought to rebuild, for the memory of what had once been had not left his heart, and he had sworn – as we all so swear – to always keep it. “Over generations their cause grew, drawing in hopeful souls from all across the land, and they began building a base here, where they would learn and train for the next battle. But then, dear friends, everything changed. “For it was my mother, Rough Diamond, at work excavating a new hall beneath the earth, who found what we now hold as our hope. Yea, I speak of nothing but the Prophecy of Skullhum the Far Seer, and of its prediction that soon enough we would again be free! “Now Skullhum, so history tells us, was a great dragon from the elder days, before Equestria, before even Discord, when his kind held dominion over all these lands. He was renowned by all his kin as an Oracle, whose sight could pierce the fogs of time and space. As Rough Diamond saw, he had correctly predicted Discord’s rise, though he wrote it down thousands of years before it happened. So we knew that his other words must also be true. “I was but a filly in those days, but like many of you my heart burned for the loss that our fair nation had suffered. I wanted to do whatever I could to right the wrongs of our past. I knew at once that this was my path, that this was how I would do my part. So I studied under my mother, working with her to decipher Skullhum’s words, and to understand what it was that we had to do. And when she and my father had passed on, I built Everfree to protect what they had found, and to preserve what was left of the Equestria of old. “But, you ask, what does the Prophecy say? What is it that we must do see the end of Discord the Foul, and to take back our country? I say to you that it is simple. Skullhum tells us that it will be three heroes who meet the King to defeat him. Two of them are already seated here before you, to my right and to my left, chosen by the great dragon’s words without a doubt. We hope, of course, that the third stands here today. “Now, Celestia and Luna.” Terraria lowered her voice solemnly, and once again looked down at the two sisters standing before her, “The time comes for you to face the test that the Prophecy lays out before you. Within Skullhum’s words, just as there was everything that has guided our Orders, there is this, the last trial which will reveal our third Triumvir. Atlas, if you would be so kind, as to once more grace our ears with those fateful words?” Celestia turned around to follow the old Master’s gaze, and saw Atlas rise to his hooves and clear his throat. Slowly, his melodic voice filled the room with the old dragon’s words: ‘Neath mottled Earth in Everfree, Mind and Spirit in Harmony, When the Light of Order again shines free, Chaos’ End shall find thee. When he had finished, Atlas once again took his seat, looking relieved to have finished up with his part of the proceedings. Celestia thought hard on his words. It was incredible to think that so long ago a dragon could have foreseen so many details of the present time, but if Terraria was right, then this would not be the first detail that Skullhum had predicted. The focus of the room turned once more back to the front, as Terraria once more stood, and brought her gaze back down to the two alicorns. “Since ancient times, the Lights that ordered our days were of course the Sun and the Moon. Skullhum tells us that when they shine free, the path to Discord’s defeat will open. But now, the King’s dark power holds them in sway, weaving their courses about each other and ensuring that none of us can ever forget the crimes that he has committed. Thus the task set before you, Celestia and Luna, is simple: restore the natural order of the Sun and the Moon, and only then shall the path to our freedom be made known. Do this, and we shall know you are our third Triumvir.” Terraria let the last words echo in the space for a few moments, before once more taking her seat. “Are there any questions?” she asked. Celestia took a few moments to again reevaluate everything that she had heard. It seemed simple enough, as indeed she had sensed Discord’s magic at work whenever it grabbed ahold of the Sun and threw it to a new position. A pony capable of undoing the King’s work in such a macroscopic manner would surely be capable of facing him in the true fight. She looked up at Terraria and shook her head. Beside her, Luna did the same, and Celestia knew that her younger sister shared her confidence. Terraria nodded once more, and gestured to Aqua and Atlas, who each rose from their seats and stepped forward. “Then the time for the judgement has come,” the old earth pony said. “The Masters shall take their candidates out into the forest, and leave them alone to do their work. We shall reconvene this evening.” With that, it seemed that the meeting had ended, as once more a chorus of murmurs and rustles came from the crowd, and a few of them rose and headed for the exits. Luna turned to her and rolled her eyes. “Finally,” she said, “I was beginning to think that she was going to keep going on forever.” “Luna,” Celestia retorted. “That was all very important information.” “To you, maybe. All I wanted to hear was that part on the end.” Her sister grinned. “Have any ideas as to how you’re going to make the Sun rise when you want it to?” “I may have a few,” she replied, sharing in the smile. There was a tap on her shoulder, and Celestia looked over to see Aqua beside her, motioning silently back toward the exit. It was time to begin. “Best of luck to you, Luna!” she said. “Same to you,” her sister replied, as she too was turning to leave. “See you on the other side.”