//------------------------------// // The Morning After // Story: The Quest For Iscanter // by eternalsquire //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle was eating her breakfast of oats and barley, when she noticed Princess Celestia approaching her with a lilt in her walk. Her smile right now sort of reminds me of Princess Cadence's after her honeymoon with my brother., Twilight thought. She looks happier than I've seen her in a very long time! "What can I do for you today, your Highness?", Twilight asked. "I know that you Mane Six have a lot to do and very little time left to do it in before the launch.", Celestia said. "However, Luna wanted me to inform you that she found some type of projectile on course to our present location. You've all had three days to train, and this projectile is scheduled to impact in about six hours. How is your team's status?" "Well", Twilight explained, "I had compressed my entire magic library long since, but I didn't realize I could have all the information from those books at my hoof-tips simply by copying it all to Moosubishi nano-storage. If you don't mind, I'd like to do the same with the Canterlot library, including the locked archives. It would only take an hour if I can fling the books over to Moosubishi. Better to have them and not need them..." "...Then to need them and not have them!", Celestia finished. "By all means." "I want to take Trixie with us.", Twilight continued. "I know she's in Luna's stasis field right now, but we need the field off so we can get Trixie down from being hysterical. But I know I can train her to teleport, and from there she can learn how to fling. We absolutely have to have more than one of me." "Done.", Celestia replied. "Pinkie Pie is having a hangover from last night's party.", Twilight reported. "I think we need her more responsive than she's being right now, even thought I'm really tempted to let it run it's course so she can learn her lesson. But we just don't have the time. I can detoxify her magically, and there will be some pain for her. Fortunately, she only is supposed to run the mess hall, much later after launch." "Do it.", her mentor said. "I gave Rarity some selected reading assignments in some specialized magic we think she can best deal with, but I haven't heard a thing from her since.", Twilight said. "Fluttershy doesn't have much to do right now. She's just standing there and staring off into space, getting herself mentally prepared I suppose. Rainbow Dash is running test flights of the prototype environmental containment suit that Avatar and Rarity worked together on. If it works, the WonderBolt Black and Red teams will be able to withstand the rigors of space as they fly." "That's about it!", Twilight Sparkle concluded. "That's actually as good as I can expect from my most faithful student taking upon her shoulders a huge amount of responsibility.", Celestia cheered her. "Now, do you have any final questions for me?" "I'm, um, a little embarassed to ask this.", Twilight started. "But in all my studies of magic and it's effect on living things, I feel like my knowledge is leading me to believe that there our reality contains things which are far too orderly to ignore. It almost seems like Equestria had been designed just for us, and that all living things have a common design, and all of space and time can be explained by only a handful of equations which are very beautiful in their terseness. Celestia, have you ever supposed who we are and everything we inhabit has actually been designed by an intelligence far beyond even your knowledge and power? If so, do you really think this intelligence cares about us at all?" "These are such profound questions for my student to asking, and I believe only a princess like you would have the presence of mind to even think of them. You've touched upon an esoteric subject of magic, known as the study of supreme beings.", Celestia replied. Celestia continued. "All I can say is this. There are numerous stories and legends about the existence of a higher power or powers who formed the reality which we inhabit. For example, The Emperor says his line had been originally established by a higher being, and this forms the justification for his line to rule. Of course, he says the Empire abandoned that just after the Second Equestrian War, something which happened way before your time or my time. Only the Emperor remembers." "There's another legend, little more than a tale passed down through the nursery, about how a colt was born of a virgin mare who grew up to be a stallion who pronounced the teachings forming the basis of Canterlot's culture, yet he was killed by having limbs nailed to trees by the Roamers, simply for daring to assert that he was the son whose father created the universe. These both have to be taken with a bit of salt lick. My personal opinion is that we have an Author or Authors who created everypony so we can interact in such a way as to provide a profound message of love, peace, and kindness. Sometimes I like to think I can ask in my deepest thoughts for said Author to continue to write us in such a way as we can continue to thrive. Does that help you any?" Twilight looked at the ground. "Well, I can only hope in my deepest thoughts that the Author of our story writes it in such a way as we can continue to survive sensibly, and also make it so that my brother can have the memories I took from him. I feel very guilty for doing that." "But it had to be done.", Celestia said. "I supposed the Gallopons know nothing about whether the alicorns on Equestria, can use magic, and I mean to keep it that way. Our secret could prove to be a lifesaving edge by the end of our day." "That was kind of begging the question,", Twilight replied, "of why we didn't do the same for the other crewmembers. I get it! Only my brother was able to get up close and personal enough to Cadance to really understand just how powerful she really is, and by extension, us. Everypony else just sees alicorns as leadership figures, nothing more." Celestia nodded. "That's about right. I am glad you were willing to help us out that way. I regret we had to do this to him." Twilight's face turned pale from the memory. "Oh, no.", she whispered. She knelt,face down on the ground, with her rear pointed toward her mentor. Her body began shaking, then stomache promply heaved some of her recently digested breakfast through her throat and spilled it onto the ground. Twilight's consciousness turned inward. Oblivious to the outside world, she neighed in agony from each heave, but eventually her stomache was empty and her neighing subsided. When Twilight came back to herself, she noticed was Celestia kneeling beside her and running her hoof through Twilight's mane to comfort her. "Care to tell me about it, my little filly?", Celestia asked.