Celestia raised her eyes from the table where the meal was set up before her to look out at the choice of venue. “I must say,” she said softly, “I hadn’t expected a date above Echo Canyon.” The intricately carved geological structure stretched for miles in both directions from where they sat, the slightest sound within the canyon setting up echoes of echoes that rang across the length and breadth of the canyon, spilling up and over the edge to sing out across the wasteland surrounding it.
“I’m not much of a one for crowds,” her date replied, leaning back in his chair. He was human in appearance, although the only part of him not covered by an all encompassing black robe and gloves was his finely chiseled face, his piercing green eyes, and his flaming red hair. Celestia admitted privately that he was quite handsome by human standards. “The wasteland... it speaks to me. And the hollow canyon... I’m comfortable here.”
Celestia suppressed her frown at the rather depressing tone of her date’s conversation. “I must admit, the view is breathtaking, Mr…” She hadn’t gotten his name yet, as his profile had only listed him as ‘Number VIII’.
He smirked at her. “It’s Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?”
Celestia chuckled. “I believe I do,” she replied. She glanced towards the meal, a vegetarian pasta that looked quite delicious. “You certainly are a gentleman,” she said, taking the human term into account, “choosing a meal based on my diet.”
“Made it myself,” Axel replied. “Never tried it before.”
Celestia took a bite. “Delicious. An excellent job for a first attempt.”
Axel chuckled dryly. “I have a way with flames.”
Celestia quirked an eyebrow up. “And yet you seem to have forgotten to light the candles,” she chuckled, beginning to gather her magic with the last light of the setting sun to light them herself.
Before she could, as the sunlight faded, Axel snapped his fingers. The candle wicks leapt into flame, illuminating the table. “I was waiting for sunset,” he said calmly. “Didn’t want to take away from either the candle light or the beauty of the sunset.”
Celestia smiled. “Well isn’t that romantic?” she said softly.
“If you say so,” Axel said, turning back towards the canyon.
Celestia frowned as she continued to eat. “For someone who’s gone to such effort for this date, you don’t seem very into it.”
Axel shrugged his shoulders. “This wasn’t my idea. My friend made me sign up before he...left.”
“Your friend?” Celestia inquired.
“Yeah,” Axel admitted. “Roxas.”
Celestia tilted her head as she examined Axel’s face. “He seems very important to you.”
“He’s the only one I’ve ever cared about,” Axel replied. “He makes... made me feel like I had a heart.”
Celestia’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
Axel sighed. “I’m a Nobody,” he explained. “The empty shell left behind when a person’s heart is consumed by darkness. I don’t have real feelings, a real heart. But I remember what it was like to have them, and so I can pretend.” He shook his head. “That’s why I don’t have any real enthusiasm for this date. It can’t go anywhere... when I have no heart.”
Celestia lowered her eyes as she thought about Axel’s words. She could feel that he truly believed what he said, but something about it all rang inherently false. Before long, she found what she thought was the hole in the logic. However, she couldn’t quite figure out how to explain it. Then inspiration struck, and she lifted a rock in her telekinesis. “Is this rock real?” she asked him.
Axel quirked up an eyebrow. “Duh.”
She dropped the rock, letting the clack as it hit the ground fill their ears. “That sound...is it real?”
Axel nodded. “Yeah. Where are you going with this?”
Lifting the rock again, she tossed it into the canyon. When it hit the bottom, the clack of its impact echoed through the canyon, the tunnels and other features warping the sound until it was completely different from the original sound, layering over each other into a sort of new harmony. “Are the echoes real?”
Axel shrugged. “Of course they are. You can hear them, can’t you?”
“But the sound is now completely different than how it was. The new echoes are made from echoes of the original sound, the original rock. How can it still be real?”
Axel shook his head. “Just because what originally spawned the sound is so far removed doesn’t make the sound any less real.”
“But it does for your feelings?” Celestia asked archly.
Axel looked at her sharply. “What are you talking about?”
Celestia smiled. “Look at this as a metaphor. The rock is your heart. It may be missing, but an echo of it remains within you. The first sound of the rock falling is the emotions of who you were when you had your heart inside you. The successive echoes—as different as they’d become—are the emotions you experience as you are now, those generated by the echo of your heart. But just because they are echoes doesn’t make them fake.”
Axel stared at her for a while. “Do you really think that’s true?”
Celestia’s smile softened. “Let me ask you this. If your friend signed you up for this and then left, and you were convinced nothing could come of this...why go through with it?”
Axel shrugged. “Because he did this for me. He thought it would be good for me, obviously. Because…” He frowned. “Because I didn’t want to turn my back on him... and hurt him.”
Celestia’s smile widened. “That’s an emotional decision, Axel, not a logical one. If you could only fake emotions, they wouldn’t factor in your decision making process. The fact that they do means they are quite real. Never doubt them again.”
Frowning, Axel conjured a chakram out of flames, fingering it as though its weight could reassure him. “That’s a lot to take in, Princess.”
Celestia shrugged her shoulders. “Take your time with it.” She giggled. “This isn’t the first time I’ve had to give such reassurances. Comes with being a teacher.”
Axel quirked an eyebrow up. “You’re a teacher? Does that make me one of your students?”
Celestia chuckled. “If you are, you’re certainly a delinquent. I can tell that easily.”
“What are you going to do? Give me detention?” he asked playfully.
“If I have to,” Celestia replied, crossing her hooves under her chin.
“Careful, teach,” Axel cautioned, heat in his eyes and voice that had nothing to do with fire. “There’s no telling what I might do if I was all alone with you in the classroom.”
Celestia grinned widely. “We’ll see about that.”
Luna knocked carefully on the classroom door. “Sister?” she called. “Celestia, are you in there?”
There was shuffling inside. “Luna? Why are you here?”
“Spring break is over, Celestia,” Luna explained. “The school needs the classroom back.”
“A week already?” Celestia exclaimed, shocked. “Guess I lost track of time.”
“Easy to do that when you’re having fun,” Axel said as he opened the door.
Luna glanced over him. He was still dressed in his Organization XIII outfit, looking as unruffled as when he went into the classroom. Behind him, Celestia straightened a rather mussed—and rather skimpy—teacher outfit. Luna frowned. “Will we need the janitors?” she asked dryly.
“Definitely,” Axel replied as Celestia giggled. They headed towards the exit of the school.
Luna glanced in the classroom and noticed something missing. “Where’s the ruler?”
“I’ll send it back once Axel retrieves it and I’ve cleaned it!” Celestia called back.
Luna did her best not to vomit at the mental images that spawned in her mind.
Axel laughed. “This was fun, Celestia,” he said. “I hope we can do this again soon.”
“I hope so, too,” Celestia replied.
“It’ll have to wait until I finish dealing with my... compatriots, though,” he pointed out. “Still, shouldn’t be too hard. Besides that, I still need to find Roxas... so I can tell him what you’ve taught me.”
“I hope to meet him one day,” Celestia replied. “Until then, good luck.”
“You, too,” Axel said softly.
Two months later, the events of Kingdom Hearts 2 happened. Celestia spent the next month binging on chocolate and cider before eventually returning to herself—due to an intervention on the part of Luna, Twilight, and Deadpool—and then returned to the site.