Chapter 44
Celestia sat in the grass behind her house and watched the sunset. A hedgerow enclosed the back yard and let her be alone with her sky. She had set the scene with orange and pink as she felt herself suspended over the edge of the world. She met a layer of low clouds on her way down and painted them with a red-ochre. Here she was free to focus on her native element and on beauty. If anyone else was watching, so be it; but she was satisfied simply that it was there.
She calmed and cooled, letting the stars push through as her dominion waned. Then for a moment she was not alone. She could feel Luna awaken behind her and take in the sky even as Celestia gave it up. This dusk did not linger, but came to a close as is the way of things. Now she could rest, her only duty completed for the day.
There was a knock on the door, the front door. She got up and slipped quietly in the back door and prepared to answer her own door for the first time. Her thoughts were disturbed as she passed blank paper on the table. She had gone by a parent-sanctioned route and bought ink, but when she tried to write the letter to Trixie, words would not come. Not to keep her visitor waiting, she flung open her humble gateway and babbled, “Welcome to Celestia, her house, um, you are greeted, here.”
Pinkie Pie snorted in greeting, unfurling a red-striped blowout with each nostril and letting out a ridiculous whine. “Hey ‘Tia! Welcome to Ponyville! You’re invited to the party!”
“Oh, Pinkie Pie!” she responded in surprise, “What party?”
“Your party, of course!” Pinkie Pie cheered. Suddenly she was behind the distinguished alicorn.
Celestia’s mind stumbled, “She’s clearly an earth pony, how could she have teleported—“ and she was being pushed out the door.
“Come on, we better get you to Sugarcube Corner, everypony is waiting, but I was going to surprise you, surprise!” bubbled the party pony. “There’s cake and pie and music, and you look like you need fun.”
“Yes, I would love some cake,” Celestia conceded. She stood and anchored herself firmly to the ground to protest, “I’m not sure about the ponies. I was just enjoying a quiet evening, and they might have more fun without me.”
“Don’t be a Princess Stuffypants. That’s why I threw you a party, so you could win them over,” Pinkie Pie explained. “Show them you can have fun just like any pony.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense. Thank you for helping me,” Celestia said, trotting forward, knowing her host would quickly take the lead.
When they entered the party room of the rebuilt bakery, some of the assembled ponies gave a very staged cheer. Pinkie Pie set off confetti dispensers and nudged her guest of honor as a silence descended.
Celestia stepped forward and hailed, “Hello, ponies. I’m Celestia, but of course you know that. Thank you for welcoming me into your wonderful town. I look forward to getting to know you all.” Most of the guests froze, and Pinkie Pie leapt to put on some up-beat music to fill the silence.
Celestia tossed her waving mane out of the way as she scanned for a familiar face to bail her out. Ah yes, there was Applejack. They might even have something to talk about. “Hello, Applejack, how’s Sweet Apple Acres doing?” she began.
“Oh, not too bad, the fire missed most of our trees. It was easy enough to rebuild the farmhouse, but the trees take years to grow back, you know,” Applejack reported, trying not to show resentment. “How’s Twilight?” she asked of their shared concern.
Celestia paused to put together her answer. “She’s been recovering very well, although she still can’t move her hind legs. The good news is she is breathing normally now, and learning to get around again. It’s a good thing she has her magic. And she has Spike to look out for her.”
Applejack chuckled at that last bit. The cowgirl, still saddened for her friend, put out, “It’s just a shame she got tore up like that.”
She didn’t mention that Twilight was almost killed sacrificing herself for the former ruler, just like Rarity, but Celestia was thinking the same thing. “It must be the Elements of Harmony,” she proposed.
“I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s quite a thing,” Applejack agreed, remembering the feeling of the united Elements.
Celestia realized she was holding some promising information. “My sister offered that if Rarity did her design work here, Luna’s court would still keep her on call. And if Twilight can get a research grant, she might come back out here to study the magic of friendship.”
“Really?!” AJ gave a hushed exclamation as her eyes lit up.
“Our Doctor Sparkle’s reports would go to Luna of course, but with my sister’s permission I would like to read them as well,” Celestia continued hopefully. “I do have a lot to learn.” Since they were on the thread of reuniting those six ponies, she noted one that was missing. “Where’s Fluttershy?”
“Bless her butterflies, but that one’s a hard case,” Applejack almost huffed. “She’s still extra shy, an’ won’t come into town much. We fixed up her cottage—it had just been abandoned for years—but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s sleepin’ in the forest right now.”
“Maybe I should talk to her,” Celestia offered.
“I’m not sure that would work out,” the earth pony objected. “She’s all skittish, ya know, and you’re not the least threatening face, no offence.”
“She might be stronger than you think. She actually gave me quite a scare when she caught me—“ Celestia trailed off.
Applejack arched her eyebrow and demanded, “Caught you doin’ what?”
“Maybe you should ask Fluttershy,” the alicorn suggested, rather than stumble over sensitive topics for all involved.
“Mm hm,” Applejack said suspiciously. “I think I will.”
Celestia sensed it was time to move on. She approached Mister and Misses Cake, where they were talking with—yipes—that old produce vendor she couldn’t seem to shake.
“Thank you for opening up your place for tonight,” she addressed the proprietors.
“It’s an honor to have you again,” Replied Mrs. Cake. “Take a cupcake.”
It was red velvet with cheesecake icing. “Mmmm, that is so good,” she said after the first bite. The taste of the treat brought back memories. “Oh right, I have come here before.”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly here, Sugarcube Corner was over there,” Mr. Cake pointed out. The misses jabbed him with her elbow.
“Of course, I’m really sorry that happened,” Celestia condoled. “I’m glad everyone made it out safely.”
“It happened?” the fruit vendor objected. He would have held his peace, but then he perceived her trying to dodge the truth, or so he thought. “Wasn’t it you that done it?”
She had been reminded of Ponyville’s destruction enough times, and she was getting tired of taking the fall for it. “I didn’t burn the town, I stole your fruit and punched your daughter.”
“What? Is that some kind of joke?!” he growled fiercely.
Immediately she wished to disappear so hard that it was all she could do to keep from actually teleporting away. “And I’m sorry about that too. I did save her life. By throwing her out of a wagon,” she said, continuing to dig the hole deeper.
The colt was just about to throttle her when Pinkie Pie intervened, “Yeah, and she was eensy-weensy, and smelled bad!” Pulling Celestia aside, she complained, “You’re not very good at parties. Throttling is a SERIOUS party foul, you know.”
“It’s easier when everypony doesn’t blame you for ruining the world,” the persecuted alicorn pointed out.
“Totally!” her hostess agreed. She motioned to the serious and reserved crowd and added, “These are some tough customers. We need to break the ice into a million pieces! First you’ll need to loosen up a little. Take this.” She held out a big bottle of tequila.
Celestia paused at the sight of the alcohol. She used to be a considerable drinker, but since her return she had not felt the need for spirits. There was no yawning emptiness to fill, and the love and acceptance she had found was enough to drown her sorrows. Still, the situation was desperate, and what would it hurt to have a little fun? She took the bottle and took a sip. It was a good sip.
Applejack caught wind of something going down and trotted to the scene. “Wait a minute, y’all. I don’t see how that will help.”
“Just watch us,” Pinkie Pie boasted energetically. “Unless you want to join us.”
Celestia threw back the bottle, and started to get more comfortable on the spot. Pinkie Pie downed her own magic elixir, chugging a flask of maple syrup.
Applejack could hardly keep up with the bad ideas. “Wait, you’re only supposed to drink a couple shots of that at a time or—put it on pancakes.”
The party master pulled out a new record and challenged, “We can do it on the dance floor! I hope you have some moves.”
“I, I think I do,” Celestia said, downing the tequila and considering that she may never have gotten an honest appraisal, being Empress and all.
Pinks tossed the record into the player and turned it as loud as it would go. “This is a real crowd pleaser! We can’t go wrong.”
“Luna have mercy, not that song, Pinkie Pie!” Applejack pleaded urgently.
A punk colt band began to howl lyrics about how hot their mamacita was. “Let’s go!” Pinkie Pie shouted and waved for Celestia to follow. The two headed for an open spot of smooth floor as Applejack stared in horror.
“This town has principles, y’all don’t dance like that!” she warned. “These aren’t soldiers, Pinkie Pie!”
___---\ ==) ____ --.*---
A very confused white alicorn leaned against the wall of Sugarcube Corner and processed the dawning regret of the last couple hours. Her mane and tail lay limp and tangled around her. A pink blur came into focus as it reached out a hoof to shake her. “Tia, are you back?” Pinkie Pie asked, with a mixture of concern and amusement.
From where she lived at the bottom of the bottle of tequila, Celecita had visited Ponyville. She and the Pinkie had crashed their own party so hard that all the other guests excused themselves. As she pushed a crumpled sombrero away from herself, Celestia made a mental note that “me gusta” was no longer an acceptable part of her vocabulary.
She blinked and willed her eyes to look the same direction. She rubbed her head and groaned, “Where is everypony?”
Pinkie Pie shrugged and joked, “I guess they all had someplace to be.”
“Really?” Celestia wondered aloud. She couldn’t quite get the events in order but that wasn’t how she remembered it.
“No, you totally scared them all off. Okay, maybe I helped a little,” Pinkie Pie admitted. “I don’t get your style, but you take the cake for putting it out there!” she laughed.
“Oh no, I was supposed to win them over,” Celestia lamented. “Now I need to apologize for what happened.”
“Totally!” Pinkie Pie agreed. “Lucky for you I know a thing or two about that. First, we should tell Applejack we’re sorry ‘cause she’s our friend. Next, go to that couple you were REALLY weird with. Then we can get the mayor to round up the rest so you can feel like crap in front of everyone,” she finished, with a face of mock humiliation and terror. “And you can get it over with,” she smiled.
Celestia looked down at the floor. This wasn’t how she wanted to start relaxing in the country, but she had certainly been in much worse positions before. Fitting in here was going to be harder than she thought though.
She took a closer look at Pinkie. Her mane was drooped with disappointment, but it wasn’t all the way uncurled. “Oh, Pinkie, I’m sorry about your party.”
Pinkamena tried to hold onto her smile, but sighed as she surveyed the lonely wasteland of tipped tables and scattered party favors. Her enthusiasm was spent, but it was replaced by a defiant, wry expression Celestia had not seen before. “If the ship’s going down, it’s better to go down with all guns blazing,” she reasoned. “No one can say it was boring.”
“I should help you clean up,” Celestia offered. “I did most of the damage.”
“No,” the experienced host countered quickly. “It’s better if you don’t stay over any later.”
Celestia didn’t expect her party friend to think like that, but unfortunately she was right. At Pinkie Pie’s insistence, she escorted the tipsy alicorn back home. By all rights, Miss Pie had consumed enough maple syrup to DIE, but she just bounced through the energy and kept going. Celestia’s metabolism had dealt with the alcohol by the time they reached the house. For better or worse, they were unfairly unaffected.
She leaned down to eye level, and despite their indiscretions, said, “Thanks for the party.” With a sheepish smile, she added, “At least now they know I can have fun too.”
“Yeah, you won’t have to worry about them fussing over you like a Princess ever again,” Pinkie congratulated her. “Now they think you’re a floozy freak. Floozy freak, that’s fun to say!”
Celestia grimaced, and begged, “Please don’t.”
“Alright,” Pinkie Pie conceded. The wry smile was back. “Hey, you might be a lotta things, but you’re not afraid to have a good time. Maybe next time I just won’t invite all the party poopers.”
Celestia’s eyes widened with a mixture of anticipation and alarm, and she mumbled, “Mm-hm.”