//------------------------------// // 20. Evaluations, Stations, and Recommendations - Part One // Story: Letters From a Little Princess Monster // by Georg //------------------------------// Letters From a Little Princess Monster Evaluations, Stations, and Recommendations - Part One All fads have trend cycles where the sudden appearance of a trend travels through a population like an explosion propagating along its fastest-moving members. Modern scientists have examined these cycles to understand them, and have come to the conclusion that some trends travel at just below the speed of communication in a medium, while the occasional supertrend can actually travel faster than the possible speed of any communication. And strangely enough, it happens most often in Canterlot. The morning train had been unusually well booked due to ticket sales the evening before, but the line in front of the Canterlot station ticket booth this morning was still extended all the way to the back of the platform and out into the street. It took a little extra time to couple up a third, and then a fourth passenger car before departure, but the crowd of stallions (and a few mares) seemed quite patient to wait while reading their newspapers and casting suspicious glances at each other. Three ponies in particular stood close together, one to either side of a rather scroungy younger stallion with hollow cheeks and protruding ribs, and maintained their close escort while all of the waiting passengers boarded the new cars and shuffled for standing space. The pale-green pony wound up wedged in the back corner of the train while staring out a window, looking as if he wished nothing more than to fly off into the astonishingly beautiful sunrise and leave the world behind as the train chugged down the tracks to Ponyville. ~~*~~ The ruddy light of a false dawn began to raise the dull greys and browns of night in Ponyville up into soft pastel colors that tinted the trees and grass, as well as spreading across the coats of three little ponies standing with their hooves dug into the ground next to the train station. Monster took a deep drink from her coffee before regarding the two young unicorns with a nervous look, shuffling back and forth in her hoofprints before whispering to the unicorn on her right, “Are you sure this is… Ok is the word, right?” Awesome Filly (Oz for short) was a little overwhelming, much like Pinkie Pie, but Monster had to admit that she really was awesome. From her dyed mane, tied up in various colorful ribbons, to the broad colorful stripes dyed down her sides, she was a splash of vibrant colors that made Monster feel muted and dull in comparison. Her earth pony parents made something called ‘Goops All-Natural Mane Dye and Stabilizer’ out at the commune, which sounded a lot like a big family made up of unrelated people, and Oz was a walking ‘advertisement’ for their products. That colorful exterior hid a vibrant personality and a burning curiosity that could almost be felt through the skin in her vicinity. Plus Monster thought that she just really liked startling other ponies. Unicorn magic was a lot like fire spirits, and both her and Wheat Shock (who did not like to be called ‘Wheaty’) fairly glowed with explosive potential, Oz more than expected because of her special talent. She blew things up. The starburst cutie mark on her flank was from a day when Oz had been watching her great-uncle remove stumps from a field with really big fireworks called ‘dynamite.’ The story had frightened Monster at first, but a constant flow of words from the enthusiastic filly had somewhat numbed her reaction to the revelation, and as Oz explained, her skill was in controlled explosions that should not be used in town. Even the plaintive begging from Firelock yesterday afternoon for a demonstration, and the reluctant permission from Trixie had not changed the young filly’s decision, to Monster’s relief. “It’s better than okay, it’s radical to the extreme,” whispered back Oz, shifting one hoof impatiently in the loose dirt. “Like, we get to do real zebra magic like Celestia ‘n Luna do, dude, and raise the sun. How much more awesome could it get?” Monster turned to Wheat Shock, who was looking down at his hooves and twisting them thoughtfully with little crunching noises in the loose soil. He was almost the anti-Awesome Filly, being a soft golden-brown the color of ripe wheat with a dark mane and big, brown eyes, and with a laconic (which she looked up in the library dictionary) personality that was just so easy to assume would have been overshadowed by his energetic friend. They both were quite powerful for their age, but in entirely different ways that went together like lielow fruit and thorn peas, a harmonious balance which seemed to be a result of their life-long friendship. She had not really meant to invite the two students to go with her to wait for the train from Canterlot, but after spending all day in the company of all of the unicorn students, and all night studying by herself in the library with nothing but Trixie’s coffee for company, she was finding that being alone was not as comforting as it used to be. The stress was greater when she was alone, and despite liberal applications of the same coffee that Trixie used to relax, her back and neck were knotted with nervous anticipation that seemed to evaporate when she left the library in the pre-dawn gloom and found both of them waiting outside. The early-rising farm ponies seemed to be fascinated by her life in the Everfree and zebra magic in particular, so when she told them last night about how the zebra raised the sun in the morning and the moon at night, they had both asked so politely for a demonstration this morning that she could not turn them down. “It’s getting pretty close to dawn,” said Wheat Shock, looking back and forth between the city clock tower and the moon hesitating at the horizon. “Do you think we should get started now, um—” “Twilight,” said Oz, trying to twist all four hooves back into the dirt despite her natural energetic tendency for at least one hoof to always be waving or pointing somewhere. “Right. Otherwise, um—” “Luna,” prompted Oz. “—and, um—” “Celestia!” called out Oz in an excited cry. “—will go ahead and move the sun and moon without us,” completed Wheat Shock. “No, I mean that’s Princess Celestia up there!” Oz gave up trying to dig her hooves into the dirt and hopped off the ground in a spray of loose soil, bounding around like a bouncing ball while Wheat Shock knelt carefully into a solemn bow. Deciding to split the difference, Monster nodded and tried to smile when the huge white alicorn swept down out of the sky and landed a few yards away. “Hello, my little ponies.” There was a certain feeling of dawn to her smile that filled Monster with a warm, white light and made all of her growing tensions drain away. The memories of drawing the sun down on top of Canterlot seemed faded in her presence, and the resulting pain a thing of the past. Monster would do anything to keep seeing that smile, because the memories of Celestia in fear during her entrance exam and in sorrow before the return of Nightmare Moon were more painful than she could endure again. To her side, Wheat Shock stood up and stepped forward with an introduction. After being exposed to the two of them all yesterday, Monster was beginning to understand the logic behind their speech patterns. Oz would fill in any blanks the young unicorn colt would encounter with names, and Wheat Shock would catch Oz whenever she would stray away from the thread of conversation much the same way Zecora had performed both services for her when Monster had been young and struggling with her words. “Good morning, Princess—” “Celestia,” said Oz. “We’re all very glad to see you this morning. My name is Wheat Shock and this is—” The words came pouring out of Oz in one rapid-fire cascade. “She’s Such An Awesome Filly With A Really Cool Mane And Such Tiny Little Hooves And Look Dear She Has A Horn, because my parents were like, weird when I was born and my uncle Wheat Grass was like, writing like the stuff down for the birth certificate and the dude at the city clerk office said it would be like ten bits to get my name changed and like mom said “No way!” and dad said “Yes way!” and they decided to save up the ten bits and wait until my cutie mark but I really like the name now and didn’t want to change after we blew the stump to smithereens so we kept it and everybody just calls me—” “Oz,” said Wheat Shock, cutting into the one-way conversation. “We’re both from Wheaton and are in town with Twilight here—” He turned and nudged Monster with an elbow, prompting a weak “hi” from her before continuing. “—for the school evaluation this morning.” “Yeah,” said Oz, “and Twilight was going to show us how the zebras help raise the sun and moon every day because she’s awesome like that and all. Did you want to help?” Monster tried to cringe into the dirt as Celestia’s amused gaze swept over her. “I believe I would enjoy that very much, dear.” While Oz and Wheat Shock ‘helped’ Princess Celestia out of her golden shoes and over to a convenient large patch of bare soil, Monster fidgeted, looking everywhere except at the most recent participant in the ritual. There was something about the golden shoes that Celestia placed off to one side as she dug her own hooves into the dirt next to the other young unicorns, and once Twilight realized what the difference was, the words just came out without thinking. “Not the same shoes.” Celestia raised an eyebrow as she looked back at her golden shoes. “Very astute, Twilight.” “Not the same crown or, um…” “Petryal,” said Oz. “The thingie that goes over your shoulders,” she added. “Yes. They did not survive the journey when I was banished to the sun by Nightmare Moon. I created some spares until proper replacements can be made.” The faint tranquil smile that Celestia wore on a constant basis was concealing something, and Monster could not help but comment about the flaws in her story. “Not banished. Went.” That faint smile flickered as Celestia glanced once around the three small ponies. “The official story is that I was banished. Now, I’m all braced like your little friends have suggested,” said Celestia, nodding at her white hooves, buried in the dust. “What comes next? I believe I remember a song of some sort. It’s been a very long time since I was in Zebrica.” Monster closed her eyes and felt for the sky. The sun hovered expectantly below the horizon while the moon sat impatiently on the other side of her perceptions, both more vibrant than she had ever experienced before. Magic flowed in a soft breeze along the surface of the dirt, parting around both her and Celestia’s presence until a gentle nudge brought it through their hooves and shanks, like wading out into a gurgling warm stream. The words of dawn and dusk had always felt somewhat lacking in meaning to Monster when mom would lead her through them, but now that she was out of the Everfree, she could actually feel the heavenly bodies. She had expected painful memories of the day she had first touched the sun, but somehow the warm caress of its touch in return felt more like a small animal or pseudo-plant, wanting only to rub up against her in an apology for the way it had mistreated her before. She could feel Luna’s touch on the moon, a cool breeze that indicated the moment could not be put off any longer, so she leaned against Celestia, filling her lungs and raising her voice to the sky in soft song, feeling both of the young unicorns beside them join in. Jua wa siku, Mwezi wa usiku, Wakati wako umepita, Hoja juu, Kupitisha Kupitisha⁽¹⁾ (1) Sun of day, Moon of night, Your time has passed, move on, pass A wave of warmth flowed over her as the sun crested the horizon, rising up to its appointed place with a soundless cry of joy that filled her heart to overflowing. Magic surged and rushed between the four of them, inspired by the vibrant colors in Oz’s coat. This sunrise deserved to be special beyond anything that had been done before. Her worries about the upcoming evaluation vanished as she reached out to the spirits of the air, enticing them into a dance of appreciation, a gift of creation for Celestia and all of the ponies in the town who had opened their hearts to her. The magic lasted far too short a time, and as it faded into the background, she opened her eyes to look at her, no, their creation. Wispy clouds in every color of the rainbow spread across the horizon in bands of creamy colors fading to bare tints at the edges. To her side, Monster could hear the sounds of her companions as they too looked up into the sky and admired the beautiful sunrise. “Awesome,” said Oz. “Totally awesome.” “Pretty,” said Wheat Shock. “Quite colorful.” “That is amazing, Twilight,” said Princess Celestia. “I’m very proud of you. Have you considered—” The Princess of the Sun turned to the little alicorn with more words of praise for her creation, but she was too late. Twilight had already laid her head down on a soft patch of ground and was snoring, exhausted from her efforts. * * * In the newly risen sun, countless wisps ceased their organized dance of joy, breaking into individual mindless darts and dashes around the solar prominences and cascading arcs of plasma in their eternal home. All except one, who still had a slight tinge of purple to its aura. The one known as Tia had only been in their happy home for a short while, far shorter than the wisp had spent in the cold, dark world of her origin, and the wisp’s dance was not quite exactly the same carefree dance of joy that it had danced since the Creation anymore. Tia and Luna were together again, no longer lonely, which was a terrible feeling the wisp could scarcely comprehend. Despite having lived so long on the cold dark place, that time was still only a small flicker of its lifespan, having been born when the world was created, and only departing when it would return to nothingness. Its fellow wisps were the same: eternal, unchanging, and identical, but something outside of its nature stirred thoughts that a wisp should not have. While touching the sun, Flower had poured herself into a ‘gift’ to the others, something given from oneself in appreciation without the need for an exchange. Wisps had nothing to give or receive, so the concept was alien to it, but Tia had left something behind. Any mortal unicorn would scoff at the idea that a material object cast into the plasma of the sun could ever be recovered, but the wisp did it anyway, diving and flying through its home to retrieve all of the errant particles and bringing them back together into their original forms. Holding the six metal items in a cool bubble to keep them from vaporizing again, the wisp rose up into the sky and began the long trek across the cold darkness to do what none of its kind had ever done before. It was going to give a friend a gift.