//------------------------------// // Chapter One - Lunch // Story: After the Fall // by Sapidus3 //------------------------------// Whirlwinds of dust rose up and fell back to the ground as the wind surged erratically. The tiny bits of dirt and pebbles kicked up in the gale were harsh against her skin. Celestia had lived through far worse, but worried for her companion. Celestia did not think the other alicorn would do anything to shield her eyes. Straining herself the former sovereign ruler of Equestria pulled dregs of magic into her horn and formed a barrier to keep the dust and sand out. Her shoulders slumped at the effort of performing a task that was once so simple. She gingerly picked her way through the shattered rubble of the ruined city. Her careful steps were not out of any concern for sharp pieces of stone and splinters of wood or even the shards of glass. Celestia wished to take care if any relic of her ponies long gone could be found underhoof. So many things had been destroyed, and she did not want to be responsible for any more. Celestia knew that there was much to find and wanted to recover as much as possible. However, somewhere the charred crystal stump of a once great, but now dead, tree was hiding. Perhaps she did not want to find everything. Luna had her opinion, of course. Officially Celestia’s stance was in favor of finding whatever remnants they could find. However, she suspected that the ruins of the old crystal palace would be too much too soon. Celestia needed to be more delicate in her handling of the past than she was in even her steps. She was not quite certain what she was searching for or what would be the key, but was not willing to risk accidentally breaking whatever it was before she found it. Each day was a near duplicate of the day before. Wandering through desolation with only a superficial goal, and no real long term plan. For as long as she could remember Celestia had always had a plan, but it had all unraveled so quickly. Celestia had been outside all day, and without Cloudsdale, her “summer” sun was particularly brutal. She sent out a pulse of magic to dim the sun slightly, only a minor abuse of her station, and wiped the sweat from her brow. Her attunement to the sun was one of the few things that had not been affected, and adjusting the brightness had actually been easier than creating her dust barrier. So far she had not found anything of interest, but her twin hearts had not really been in the search today. She looked over at the mostly intact ruins across the street. The main awning was gone, but above where it once had been was remnants of a sign, “-ville Central Ba-.” Celestia tended to avoid banks. Their vaults tended to be filled with nothing but now worthless coins and gems. However, their sturdy construction meant that many of them had survived the fall in reasonable condition. Eyeing it up, she decided that it would make an excellent place to find a midday respite from the sun. They would search for a little while longer, and then she would call a break. The former princess of Equestria continued to shuffle through the stones looking for anything of value. When she found the a partial tea set, Celestia opened her saddle bag and packed it in along with some scraps of newspaper for protection. Somehow the tea set had made it through everything with only a few chips. It was certainly not the nicest set she had come across since she had set out on her mission, but it reminded her of the one that use to be in her study. Hopefully, it would do the same for her companion. If only they had tea. Celestia shook her her head. She had tea of course. The metal tins inside her saddle bag carried that precious cargo. She had made that find before they had even made it outside of Canterlot. She just needed water to actually make the tea. Celestia snorted in frustration. With each passing day, she was growing more convinced that Luna had the right of things. Perhaps they should simply hide themselves away in Luna’s insane castle and try to pretend as if nothing had happened. Attempting to discover items that could spark memories was almost glacial in its success. Of course there had been success, small as they had been, and Celestia was willing to spend centuries sorting through rubble if it meant she could help her special somepony. As she continued sorting through the rubble her eyes spotted something new. “Oh! A chess set.” Chess could work. Celestia gazed back at her silent companion and then at the board. They had spent many hours out on the veranda playing. She could just barely see the corner of the black and white checkerboard peaking out from underneath a fallen support beam. Her golden aura enveloped the large wooden crossbeam, but as she felt another drop of sweat moving down her brow, Celestia let her magic dissipate. She lowered her head and pressed it against the beam and began pushing it forward. With a soft thud it rolled over onto its side. She looked down at her work. It was still an adjustment doing things by hoof that she would once use magic. Pawing through the now exposed rubble, Celestia let out a sigh. The board was somehow intact, if damaged, but most of the pieces were missing. “It looks like we just have a rook, two bishops, and five pawns… Maybe the others are somewhere around here.” She craned her head upwards as a large shadow passed over the ground and saw Luna circling around them like a vulture. Each pass tightened the circle and brought her sister lower to the ground. “I asked her to stop doing that”, Celestia mumbled more to herself than anything else. “I wonder what brings her by during the day?” As Luna closed the distance, Celestia narrowed her eyes and spotted what she was fairly certain was a brown picnic basket being carried by her sister. She stood up straight and could not help but smile. “If she is going to bring food, she can circle around all she wants,” and in a louder voice, Celestia added, “Twilight, it looks Luna has brought us lunch.” There was no response, but Celestia turned around to look at the younger alicorn. Twilight had been trailing behind her, as she did every day, and was now sitting down while staring up at Luna. Twilight’s neck made slow circles as she tracked the darker alicorn through the sky with over exaggerated movements. The movement seemed reflexive more than anything else, but at least she was responding to the stimuli. Celestia felt her words catch in her throat. At some point Twilight must have found a doll, because now she clutched the dirty thing to her chest with one leg. It was hard to tell with all of the grime, but Celestia felt that it looked somewhat like Twilight’s old Smarty Pants doll. She wondered if that was why her former student had grabbed the thing. The sight alone made the entire morning worthwhile. They were making progress. Celestia had to believe that. “Twilight, aren’t you excited that we are going to get to eat? I think the last time was two weeks ago when Luna brought by that strange fungus.” Celestia was not expecting a response, not truly. She hoped that speaking would keep her student’s mind active and keep her from being lonely, but she spoke to Twilight more out of habit than anything else. Every so often she they had good days and could have conversations, or at least things that passed for conversations. Most of the time it was simply the occasional comment, but they had ceased to surprise her when they came. “Cryptococcus neoformans. It was a radiological fungus much like the ones found in the Gallobyl disaster site when ponies finally felt it safe enough to investigate. It’s managed to live by feeding off the radiation that killed everything else.” Celestia felt her smile melt from her face. She had not known that about their meal. There were no health concerns of course, but it seemed wrong somehow. Or maybe it was just sad. Celestia did not think she would share the revelation with Luna. “Come Twilight, let’s see if that bank is safe to go in while Luna is landing. She knows that I saw her basket and is going to draw this out, so we have time. It will be nice to eat out of this sun.” As they walked across the street towards the bank entrance, a hot breeze blew a scrap of paper against her leg. Looking down, she saw a bit of newspaper headline, “Princess Luna to Oversee Peace Talks.” Celestia lifted her leg and let the paper continue its lazy path down the road. The newspaper wouldn’t help Twilight, and she didn’t want Luna to accidently read the headline. Her sister still blamed herself. Even though Celestia secretly wondered what would have happened had Luna made it to the talks on time, she doubted things would have ended any differently. She could not count the number of times she had tried to convince Luna of that fact during their dream conversations. Celestia would never admit it out loud, or even in her dreams with Luna, but personally she felt Twilight’s little democracy experiment was to blame. Individually ponies had been able to aspire to such greatness, but as a herd they would drop down to the least common denominator. Celestia had designed the old monarch-centered system with that simple fact in mind. However, Twilight’s proposal had seemed so good on paper. Instead their ponies threw it all away. Celestia glanced at Twilight walking by her side. She did not blame her student. Once they reached the entrance to the bank, Celestia surrounded the entire building with her telekinesis and poked and prodded. Even simple telekinesis was difficult in most places and impossible in others, but the expenditure of energy was worth it. Even if the ceiling came down on them, they were in no real danger, but she had become fed up with having to dig herself and Twilight out of collapsed ruins. It was bad enough digging around when not buried alive. As she finished satisfying herself that they could safely eat inside, she heard hooves clopping on the pavement behind them. “Sisters! I bring a great bounty for us to feast on.” Celestia was about to take a jab at her sister’s word choice when she saw the basket. It was indeed a bounty. “Is that grass? Real grass? And not that blighted stuff that grows in the waste! And… Tell me that’s a pitcher of water and I’m not just dreaming.” “I told you my sister. I bring a bounty for us to share. Let’s find a nice place to sit out of your accursed sun, and I will tell you of my find.” “My sun is not that bad.” “I’ve been baking in my coat.” “Perhaps you should have a lighter color coat.” Celestia flipped her mane and stuck her tongue at her younger sister. Sometimes the strangeness of it all made Celestia’s head spin. Despite Twilight’s greatest efforts, and all of the “bonding slumber parties” her protege over the years forced them into over the years, Celestia’s relationship with her sister had never really gotten over Luna’s time as Nightmare Moon. There was simply too much hurt on both sides of things. However, once they had gotten over the shock of the world ending, it had been like they were young again. They had all even played a game of hide and seek a few days ago, even though Twilight did not really seem to get the “hide” part of the game and just stood in the middle of an intersection for the duration of the game. More than ever, her sister Luna was well and truly returned to her. It was not long before they were all sitting around in a circle as Luna served each of them a plate of grass and a teacup of water. At first Celestia removed one of the tins of tea from her bag, but as she looked at the cup of water, she changed her mind. They had found a hoveful of bottles of water now and again, but she and Luna had agreed to save them. The idea of a fresh cup of water was almost intoxicating at the moment. She looked at the grass on her plate. Before the fall, she would have called it sickly, and in reality it was a pale green and scraggly. However, there were no diseased blotches, and pale green was still green. She leaned over with her muzzle and bit up a mouthful. The sensation of taste exploded on her tongue and Celestia had to wrestle with a desire to gobble everything up or to savor the flavor. A moan from Luna caused her to swallow. “Truly sister, you cannot fathom the temptation I wrestled with not to eat this bounty before arriving.” Celestia smiled at her sister. Luna always made the same joke whenever she found food. “Is there no more of it then?” “Neigh, this is not all there was. I found an entire field in a small valley up north, but I was worried about taking too much. I know not why, but it seems the earth is beginning to recover there. It is also where I found the water. There is a natural spring, and somehow the rock is filtering the water.” “A combination of small rocks, gravel, and sand can create a natural filtration system. Especially if charcoal from charred and dead plant life is mixed in.” Twilight recited in a monotone. Both Celestia and Luna looked to the younger alicorn, and Celestia saw that Twilight had not begun eating and was staring down at the grass on her plate. With unsteady telekinesis she pulled a fork from her saddle bag. Grabbing a bit of the grass on the fork she levitated it towards Twilight’s mouth. “Come on Twilight. Try some of this grass that Luna brought us. It’s really lovely.” Twilight leaned forward and took a bite, chewed and swallowed. Celestia felt a pressure on the fork and released her telekinesis, allowing Twilight to continue to eat by herself. “How has she been?” “Please, don’t talk like she can’t hear or understand you.” Luna sighed, but complied, “Twilight, how have you been?” Twilight did not even look up from her plate, but simply took another forkful of grass. “She’s…. Yesterday wasn’t great.” “I could tell as much from her dreams. With only the four of us, I see much at night. I meant today.” “Today has been a good day, hasn’t it Twilight?” Celestia paused for a response that never came, “Twilight found a nice little doll just a little while before you came. I’m going to be keeping an eye open for some needle and thread so I can fix it up for her. Do you want to tell Luna about your doll at all?” Luna glanced at the lump of cloth and stuffing next to Twilight before replying, “Perhaps I can procure some more water from the spring to clean her doll off. I don’t wish to risk damaging a healing ecosystem by over harvesting it, but I think it could spare that much for one such as Twilight.” Celestia smiled at her sister, but could not help but feel some of the weariness that Luna wore on her face. “That sounds lovely.” “I spoke with our niece last night.” “Cadence? It’s been some time since she let you in her dreams.” “Neigh, in pony. She sought me out as I soared through the night.” “Is everything alright?” “She says… She says that she can sense love over the horizon. She is convinced that there are survivors. She is going to… search for them. Cadence has welcomed me to keep tabs on her dreams while she is gone, but that we should not expect her back for some time. She expects her journey to be long.” “She sensed-” Celestia was cut off by Twilight. “The magical ley lines covered the globe. Including tributaries and flow bleed they possessed a ninety nine point eight percent planetary coverage. The odds of a living pony surviving the Line Burn is negligible.” “Ahh yes… I am afraid I agree with Twilight. Is Cadence certain?” “She claims she is. For myself, I believe our niece is only chasing shadows. I suspect that your love for your dear student is not enough to sustain her.” Celestia was proud that the blush on her face was only a minor one. Years ago Cadence’s meddling in her relationship, or rather non-relationship, with Twilight had been her greatest annoyance. The number of times the annoying pink alicorn had hinted that Twilight would perhaps be interested in a threesome between Celestia, Luna, and herself had been enough to drive her mad. However, it had been months since Cadence’s had last visited. She understood. It was hard seeing what had become of Twilight, and a shameful part of her wanted to follow Cadence and leave her former student behind. But Celestia still believed that she could help heal Twilight and would do everything in her power to do so. Unfortunately, it meant that she had abandoned Cadence to her self imposed isolation. Celestia hesitated to ask her next question, “Do you plan on accompanying her?” “I… I know that it is not good for her to be on her own. However, I do not wish to leave you alone either sister.” Celestia glared at Luna. “I wouldn’t be alone. Twilight and I will be fine. I’m worried about Cadence. She has become more and more reclusive with each passing month.” “We are dealing with things in our own way… I offered to travel with her, but I am afraid it was half hearted. I do not believe she wished me to come with her any way. However, with Cadence on her own little adventure, it will give me more time to spend with you... And Twilight.” “And more time to work on your castle.” “Yes. I do think you and Twilight would like it. I’m even working on building an observatory.” Celestia bit her lip in contemplation. The idea of such luxury was nice, but Twilight did not need to be isolated from the world. She needed to face and overcome her pain. “Have you heard from Discord at all?” “I have not seen hide nor tail of that selfish trouble maker. With a flick of his fingers he could make this all go away.” “I wish I could tell you why he does not help.” “He’s not able to.” Celestia and Luna both looked at Twilight in surprise, and waited in expectation for more to come. “Twilight, do you think you could elaborate for Luna and me?” Just as Luna snorted in exasperation, Twilight completed her thought. “He calls himself the Spirit of Chaos, but that’s not really right. His manifestations obey rules and operate in a predictable, logical manner. Perhaps they are different rules than what we are used to, but he isn’t really chaotic. He isn’t exactly unharmonious either. More alien than anything else. But it’s all about…” Finally Luna chimed in, “All about what Twilight?” “It’s all about chaos theory, which really has nothing to do with chaos as most ponies understand it. Really, it's about small things all adding up to large effects.” “Twilight, I’m not really certain I follow.” Secretly Celestia was more concerned with what had sparked this change in Twilight. She kept a mental list of things that seemed to precede Twilight’s moments of near lucidity in an attempt to unlock the secret to healing her former student. She tried to remember if they had discussed Discord in front of Twilight before. “At one point… I spent some time trying to figure out his magic. He’s not all powerful… He manipulates quantum probability and random chance. Weather patterns, biological mutations, quantum foam...He can cause things to spontaneously or rapidly change and transmogrify, but he can’t make something from nothing.” “Twilight, I’ve seen him-” started Celestia. “He has very good showmanship. If there were still ponies alive, he could twist and transform their bodies however he wished. But he can’t heal the blight. Its radiological properties are non-nuclear in nature. If it had a half-life he could twist things to speed it up and clean everything up at the very least. But it doesn’t work that way. The magic that… It’s a set duration. A fixed time, with no room for chance. Death for a thousand years.” “How do you know that?” asked Luna. “Because I designed it.” Celestia was not sure if it was herself or Luna who gasped and who asked the follow up question, “What do you mean?” however Twilight had returned to staring at her plate. “Sister, what did your student mean?” “I’m… I don’t think she meant it the way it sounded. Or if she did, I don’t think she is remembering things right. I know what her schedule was like before the fall and how she was spending her time. She wasn’t working on anything like… She wasn’t keeping anything like that a secret from me.” “Sister do you think we could have a word in private.” Celestia did not know if she should frown. On the one hoof Luna was not acting like Twilight was not there, on the other hoof she was being incredibly rude. “Twilight, do you mind if I speak with Luna for a moment?” No response came as the younger alicorn continued to stare at her plate in silence. Celestia stood up and followed Luna out of the bank. “Sister. I reluctantly agreed with your reasoning back when thou first proposed it, but I am afraid I must now object. Twilight shows no signs of improving.” “Luna, she just needs-” “Celestia, you are not the only one who cares for your student. Her injuries have driven Cadence from us, and you must be open to the possibility that Twilight will not be able to overcome her mental trauma.” “She is stronger than you think. Every challenge that I have ever put in her way, she has triumphed over.” Even as she spoke a voice in the back of Celestia’s head was calling herself a liar. “Twilight just needs some more time to process what has happened.” “I… As always, I will defer to your judgment. But know that I think subjecting Twilight to this wasteland has borne all the fruit that it will. Further keeping her here is just prolonging her suffering.” Celestia headed back to the bank interior and paused at the door. Twilight was sitting inside the dark room just as she had been when they left. The alicorn was bathed in a dull magenta glow as she held her fork in a telekinetic field, studying the piece of metal. “So will you be staying with us for the rest of the day? I think I figured out where the library used to be, and with your help we can unearth some books. Twilight likes it when I read to her at night.” “She doesn’t even-” Celestia shot Luna another nasty glare, “She likes it when I read to her.” Luna voiced no further objection. Celestia trotted over to Twilight and rubbed her student’s muzzle with magic while whispering to her former student, “Twilight, you have a bit of grass on your face.” Twilight just continued to stare at the fork and Celestia suppressed a shudder as tears threatened to spill out. +++ Princess Twilight Sparkle’s New Deal In a move that shocked all assembled, Princess Twilight Sparkle presented a stunning new vision for Equestria’s future before both the upper and lower councils. “For as long as anypony can remember Equestria has been led by our oligarchy. We have done an excellent job, and one that I am quite proud to have been part of. Equestria has weathered many challenges, and will be sure to weather many more.” Said Twilight Sparkle. Later in her presentation, “However, if friendship has taught me anything, it’s that we all need to do our part, but that we all deserve a say. Good ideas can come from the place you least expect, and there is no reason why every Equestrian should not get a chance to help guide Equestria’s future.” When asked what this new form of government would be called, our youngest princess simply had this to say. “It’s called Democracy.” (See Pg. 13 for more details on what this Democracy would look like). Princess Celestia who was in attendance had this to say about her former student’s plan...