//------------------------------// // Replacements // Story: Apoptosis // by Biochi //------------------------------// The universe was screwing with Celestia and it wasn’t Discord this time; she had checked.  The rational progression of time had become unmoored during what she thought of as “The Week From Tartarus.”  The days following her oft lamented letter to Twilight seemed no longer progress from one moment to the next, as they had tended to do for the last several millennia.  Instead, time seemed to lurch between periods of temporal dilation and compression.  Paradoxically, the combination of effects led to the perception of some hours being longer than a day should be while each day seemed to flash by in a blur.   The nights were, by far, the worst.  Each moment spent in the cloying darkness seemed to stretch into eternity.  During those elongated seconds, Celestia had time to review her entire relationship with Twilight, the curriculum she had crafted for the mare, and what choices she had made that led them to this point.  And yet, while her self-imposed torment seemed to continue over eons, the nights themselves seemed to fly past in a scant few minutes.  Each morning when she raised the sun was one less day for Twilight to live and no prayer or invocation would delay the coming of that fateful day she had chosen for her beloved student’s execution. She had, at least, been successful at pretending to be more composed than she was.  She had endured the meals with Luna with some semblance of grace Dutifully, she nibbled at pastries and sipped at tea. Luna had been pleased at her re-appearance at the dining table and had, in return, suggested that Celestia begin taking the noon hour off for herself.  Celestia had admitted on the spot that this was one of her sister's better ideas and the solar princess immediately implemented the change in her schedule. She would have liked to have spent those hours in her garden, but Discord’s presence among the verge stripped the green-space of any potential peace.  Instead, she had migrated to the rooftops of the palace, following some instinctual pull from her astronomical counterpart. The day was Friday and the hour was noontime so Celestia was perched like an anhinga on the roof of the ivory tower that had once housed her protege.  Her wings were held out, splayed so as to collect every last droplet of sunlight while she sat back on her haunches.  Her head was held high, exposing her throat so that her first, oldest, and most steadfast friend could caress the tender flesh there with golden kisses.  The white goddess lost herself in these moments, the only peace she knew during these days of horrid anticipation.  She’d always loved her sun but now she loved it all the more because it would never judge her, never leave her, and never ask her to lie. Her reverie was interrupted by a pegasine guard wearing the livery of her own Solar Guard.  The stallion fluttered to a loud and clattering landing upon the slate tiles and addressed his diarch.   “Your majesty?” Regretfully, she opened her eyes and lowered her head so her eyes would meet the guard’s. “Yes?” “Princess, you requested to be informed when C-, Shining Armor arrived.” She allowed herself a sliver of entertainment, “Yes?” “Um,” the suddenly off-balance guard stammered, “He’s here.” Wearing the ghost of a smile, Celestia replied.  “Have him meet me in...” she glanced back up at her fiery orb, “ the Solarium.  I will be along in a few moments.” “As you wish,” was the guard’s boilerplate reply as he leapt away from the tower and took wing. Alone once again but no longer lost in her sunlight, the despair that was her steadfast companion returned to its perch in her heart.  She hadn’t felt this alone since the first few nights after her sister’s banishment.  Celestia knew that there was no way she could share the details of this approaching tragedy with Luna.  Not only would her sister react poorly to the revelation that Twilight Sparkle must die for the universe to continue but Celestia wanted Twilight to have the best possible weekend before her execution.  She did not think that her sister’s acting abilities were up to that particular challenge and therefore had to be kept in the figurative dark until after the deed was done. Celestia allowed herself a few more minutes of suntime as it would likely take Shining Armor that long to walk to the Solarium from wherever the stewards stashed him.  The great white mare groaned as she rose to her hooves, not out of pain or stiffness but out of an utter lack of enthusiasm for the deceit-filled conversation she was about to partake in.  She paused at the edge of the roof and contemplated the volume of air between her and the cobblestone paved ground.  Her mind went blank as she stepped off the ledge. There was a peace in surrendering to Gaia’s pull.  With gravity’s aid, she built up speed rapidly and soon the various windows, crenulations, and other architectural motifs were passing alongside her in as an unresolved blur of motion.  Her wings knew the best moment to unfurl and catch the air; she could feel them twitch under their own volition, starting the movement without a conscious thought.  In that moment, time once more unmoored itself from its rational progression and the space between one heartbeat and the next was stretched like taffy. The alicorn took conscious control of her wings, choosing to hold them in their dive position longer than was needed...or prudent.  As the elongated second continued, Celestia’s eyes began to trace the outlines of the individual paving stones as they grew closer, at a languid rate within this moment and at a blistering pace outside of it.  A small, sad smile bent her lips as she considered the ultimate form of abdication.  “Were I mortal, I could just hold still, close my eyes, and conclude my life prior to desecrating everything I believe in,” she thought.  As things were, she mused, she was far more likely to cause terminal damage to the cobbles than to herself.  She would be bruised and battered, perhaps even a few bones broken, but she could survive almost any fall.  All that would die, she concluded, would be her people’s faith in her.  For the next moment (and dozen feet of altitude) she wondered if that was necessarily a bad thing. As she approached the point of no-return, she remembered Discord’s words:  “A grand, pointless gesture.”  This would not kill her.  Even if she were able to kill herself, it would not prevent the terrible consequences of Twilight’s resurrection.  Crashing into the ground would only cause widespread panic among her ponies as they lost faith in her and the nation she built for their guidance and protection.  Celestia confronted herself and her motives with the simple question, “How selfish am I?” “Damn!” she growled while unfurling her wings to grip the air.  Bones creaked, muscles burned, and ligaments stretched taught as piano wire as the feathered limbs were placed under a load measured in tons.  Despite the application of forces only a divine body could withstand, she had held the dive too long and the cobblestones raced towards her as the strange moment shattered.  Gritting her teeth with the effort, she pushed the wings’ angle of attack even further and the limbs obeyed, but only under the most strenuous protest.   Her white bulk was ripping through the air, barely two feet above the stones.  No sooner had her mind returned from the pinhole-focused realm of pain the abuse of her wings had brought her to, she was forced to become very, very, aware of the fact that she was now hurtling towards one of the thick, stone walls surrounding her palace.  Heading towards it at an entirely unreasonable rate of speed.  She extended her hooves below her, making the motions of a prance so as to convey downwards force with a minimum of friction pulling against the hooves.  Even with this odd gait, she had to flap with all the force her strained wings could muster just to not over-top and plow snout-first into the ground. Trading her momentum for lift, she continued to bend her arc upwards.  As she reached the wall, she extended her legs and pushed against the curtain of stone.  The force managed to push the angle of her ascent even higher.  She passed by the crenulations and guard-towers as a flash of white and a gale of wind.  Finally soaring above the obstacle course of architecture, Celestia remembered to breathe.  She maintained her vertical flight, now slowing rapidly due to gravity’s pull and just as she reached stall speed she used her long body as a rudder and turned her flight into a slow, graceful glide that ended at the rooftop access of the Solarium. With her hooves back on solid stone, Celestia took a cleansing breath to begin gathering her composure but that attempt was shattered by the eruption of applause from every quarter.  Scores of hooves beat a staccato ovation as guards broke discipline and joined the civilians in celebrating her aerobatics, completely unaware of the morbid and selfish source of their necessity.  Celestia’s face became stricken as she witnessed her kingdom unknowingly cheering her flirtation with oblivion.  She was only saved from breaking down into a weeping wreck by the sound of seldom-used hinges moaning as they were forced into service.  Reminded of her nearby subjects she clamped the iron mask of composure back onto her skull.   “Your majestic flight inspires us all,” the servant said to her, intending the statement as a complement. “You are too kind,” Celestia replied, suffocating underneath the mask of serenity.  She used her long legs to set a quick pace, not give her subject any time to notice the cracks in her rapidly applied mask. She ducked through the pony-sized door and could feel the muscles in her back relax as the diffracted sunlight blazed around her.  It was crafted as a gift to her many years ago and was designed around the central premise of worshiping the sun in all its glory.  The frame of the chamber was crafted of painstakingly polished brass.  Set within each armature was a pane of the largest, clearest glass available in the era in which it was build.  The edge of each window was beveled so as to bend and split the light into a cascade of miniature rainbows that chased each other around the bone-white, sun-bleached wooden floor.  Standing beside window bearing a rather obvious nose-print was Shining Armor, former Captain of the Equestrian Guard, currently the Prince-consort to the Crystal Empress.  His posture was tall and proud as he saluted her, his smile lighting up his face almost as much as the raw sunlight that danced across him.  Celestia felt a pang of envy. “That’s no longer necessary, Prince Shining Armor,” Celestia answered his salute. The stallion sheepishly moved his foreleg from his temple to the back of his skull, mussing his blue mane in embarrassment.  “I’m sorry, Princess.  I’m still not used to all this.” “How can Cadance bear to open her heart up and love someone who dies a little more each day? she wondered.  “Is she an oblivious fool or a far stronger mare than I?  She has to know what's coming.” “Um, Princess?” Shining prompted as the silence grew awkward. Celestia breathed out a single chuckle and shook her head.  “My apologies, Captain.  I am a touch distracted.” “No problem, Your Majesty,” he answered.   His entire demeanor communicated the presence of an alert but calm mind within his white frame.  Celestia could see the physical appeal of such a stallion but the aging process would not recede from her mind’s eye.  “Will Cadance seek to follow this one into death or will she somehow persist beyond his end?  What would become of the world without its goddess of love? Could she fall into darkness?” she wondered.  Out loud, she said, “Captain Shining Armor, I’m glad you could come.  The process of training your replacement is continuing apace but I’m beginning to think that it might be helpful to us for you to sit down with Acting-Captain Bulwark and verbally fill in some of the gaps in your reports.” Shining Armor was unable to completely mask the sudden nervousness that gripped him. Celestia tried to reassure him, “Not that there’s anything wrong with your reports as they were filed but reading about the many security operations you oversaw is qualitatively different than discussing them at length, over a few days, with the ability to ask an unlimited number of questions.” “Oh!  No problem Princess,” he replied as his easy calm quickly restored itself. Celestia nearly smiled as she contrasted him with his sister’s more high-strung character. “I packed light and should be ready to meet with Lieutenant, I mean Acting-Captain, Bulwark as soon as I can stash my bag into the barracks,” he continued. “Ah, well, there is an issue with that,” Celestia almost-lied adroitly.  “I’ve already had Bulwark move into your old quarters and with the separation and re-establishment of the Guard into Solar and Lunar companies there just isn’t enough room to put you up at the palace.”  While it was technically true the Bulwark had changed quarters to take over Shining’s old space, that move had been instigated by Celestia only four days ago. “Oh,” Shining said as the implications of the word “replacement” began to sink in.  “Um, yes, of course.” Celestia continued, “Is there any way that your parents could put you up for the duration of your stay?  Because you are here on my behest, the crown is most willing to compensate them for any additional expenses related to your visit.” “Oh, no, no, Princess.  They’ll probably feel like paying you for getting me to visit them.” Celestia managed a short but honest laugh.  “That is most delightful to hear.”  Switching back to the primary subject of the conversation, Celestia continued.”  “Bulwark is in the Solar Captain’s office, I’m sure you know where it is.” “Er, yeah,” was his slightly-stilted reply. Celestia allowed her amusement at the gentle teasing to show on her face.  “Excellent!  I’ll leave the scheduling up to the two of you.  Oh, and please give my regards to your parents,” she said as she headed for the stairs leading back down into her home.   --------------------------------- Twilight and Luna’s outing to the Canidian embassy had been a disaster and Celestia had been hearing about it all night.  First came one of the ponies who worked at the embassy as a janitor (a spy) reporting in about the diplomatic “kerfuffle.”  Later a missive arrived from the embassy, strongly protesting the attempted assassination of the ambassador’s daughter by Twilight Sparkle, notorious catspaw for Princess Celestia.  After that came the newspaper reporters speculating about the impending war between Equestria and Canidia.  As dates go, this one did not turn out well. Eventually, she received word that the mares in question had returned to the palace.  While on one hoof she was relieved that the embassy hadn’t taken the pair into custody, she felt that a couple of days in a Canid prison as punishment for the international disaster those two had created wasn’t entirely out of proportion.  With a final glance over the quickly growing pile of diplomatic cables she got up to head over to Luna’s apartments.  While Celestia wasn’t going to throw them in irons either, she was planning on giving the notorious duo a firm talking to. As she drew near her sister’s private sector, she heard a loud bang - as if someone had slammed open the heavy double doors to Luna’s apartments.  Her intention to scold Luna and Twilight evaporated as she began to hear their argument. “Halt!  Where goest thou!”  Luna boomed. “I’m going home, to my parents’,”  Twilight replied with sharply clipped words. “Why dost thou conclude our date so early?” “Date,” Twilight deadpanned.  “You call that travesty a date?” “Of course, I took thee to a fancy location for a dinner outing.  This comports with the modern standards of courtship.” “You took me to an embassy.  You were working.  We were working!” “It was a very nice embassy celebrating a happy occasion,” Luna replied in an insulted tone. “We were thrown out!” “Thou wouldn’t stop thy retching!” “Because they served us meat!” was Twilight’s shouted reply. “Thou narry poisoned the ambassador’s daughter!” Luna shouted back. “It was just chocolate!” “Chocolates I commissioned for thee!” “I wasn’t hungry anymore because of the meat!” “Thou canst not just dispose my symbols of affection onto another woman!” “You’re jealous?!?” “Nay, hurt by thine unthinking action” “Unthinking?!?  You took me out for a serving of Claribelle with a side of potatoes!  How is that even legal!”” “‘Twas but gravy, it wouldn’t have been fatal to you.  And the embassy is under their law, thou doth wot that!”  Celestia winced as she heard her sister’s modern Equish disintegrate under the strain of arguing. “‘Not fatal’ is now the minimum standard for our dates?” was Twilight's sarcastic rejoinder. “‘Twas diplomacy!” “If that’s so then it wasn’t a date!” “‘Tis called ‘multitasking!” “It’s called a disaster!” There was a pause in the back and forth, one long enough for Luna to take a calming breath.  “Then come back to mine chambers, let us open a bottle of wine and make some good memories to set the balance even.” “No Luna, I just want to go to bed and forget all about tonight.” “There is no memory from this eventide thou wouldest keep?” Luna asked in a small, obviously hurt voice.  “I... I didn’t mean it like that.  I’m just done for tonight.  I’m too upset to want to have fun and too grossed out to want to eat anything.” “I’m sorry, Twilight.  I had no way of knowing that they’d try to play politics by serving us flesh.” Celestia heard a gagging sound followed by “... I know, and I know that this wasn’t entirely your fault.  It’s just frustrating.” “Let me make it up to you.” “Ok, ok.  I’ll be back over here tomorrow to meet with the Princess.” A very pregnant pause filled the halls, one in which Celestia could just about hear her sister’s withering glare. “The other princess, for Celestia’s sake, I know you’re one too.” “Then why do you give Tia her honorific and not I?  Why do you swear by her name and not mine?” Another silent moment passed in the palace halls, one long enough for a small, purple mare to take a few steps closer to Luna. “Because I’m not as close to her as I am with you.  I can’t very well keep calling you princess after what we’ve done together.” The wound in Celestia’s heart ripped back open from hearing her beloved student’s words. She then heard her sister give a throaty laugh, “Perhaps I may enjoy our ‘nights’ together more if you were to address me by my proper titles.” “Never. Going. To. Happen.” In a goofy imitation of Twilight’s voice, Luna teased “Oh, Queen of Tides!  You have called forth oceans of my-” “Ewww!  Stop stop stop!” the unicorn shouted, cutting off Luna’s lewd soliloquy. Celestia heard her sister laugh.  “Come, come.  Why must you leave now?  Are you not smiling again?” “Luna, I’m smiling because you’re acting cute, not because I’ve stopped being mad about tonight.  Besides, it turns out that my brother’s back home too.  I want to spend some time with him as well.” “In the middle of the night?”  Luna asked, incredulous. “In the morning, after a good night’s sleep,” Twilight explained. “... Fine.  Twilight Sparkle you vex me.” The halls fell silent as the mares kissed goodnight. “Sweet dreams to you too,” Twilight replied with a smile in her voice. “You know...” “Don’t you dare.  Not tonight.” A sigh from the lunar goddess. “Fine.” Celestia ducked down a random hallway as she heard the approach of light hoofsteps.  She felt that meeting her student under these circumstances would be extremely awkward.  From her hidden vantage point, the alicorn watched as Twilight walked by on her way to the main gate.  Her crestfallen features and hanging head clearly communicated her disappointment with how the night had gone.  After the mare passed out of view, Celestia turned around and headed back to her offices.  She had a nation of carnivores to convince that her protege almost assassinating the daughter of their ambassador at her birthday party had been an accident and not an act of revenge for serving her and Luna the meat of a cow.