//------------------------------// // Royal Flush // Story: The Slumber of Gaia // by Khenlos //------------------------------// That night I didn't have a restful sleep. Even with all the excitement of the previous day my mind wandered to past times... sad times when I had to watch my children kill themselves in pointless wars about everything. Even when I gave them everything I had... they still wanted more. They were young and brash back then, but they learned as time went on. I tried to think on the wonders I would be seeing the next day with small success, but before I could delve more into the past the sun rose from the horizon, bringing a new day. I noticed that the atmosphere was tense, and all the young ones were watching me as I ate, as if I was going to grow a head or something like that. At least the little one from yesterday, a unicorn called Blueblood, was being a dear and ate all his breakfast in silence, leaving his plate squeaky clean before muttering something and leaving the table. I was so proud of him! After the uneventful breakfast they started to talk about something while I was sorting out more of my new lexicon. I was looking about that 'moon' thing when the doors of the dining hall opened to show another alicorn, this time one with a lovely pink coat and multicolored mane. Twilight smiled widely at the pink alicorn and ran towards her... and gave her a hug? They also did this funny dancing that made all of the present ponies giggle. Were they sisters like Luna and Celestia? They looked the youngest of them all, that was for sure. "Ah, so she is the pony I've been hearing so much about lately..." She said, giggling "Sorry, I always wanted to say that. My name is Mi Amore Cadenza. But please, call me Cadance. It's a pleasure to meet you" She said, making a small bow at me. "Such politeness... Don't worry about that, dear. I'm Gaia, and it's also a pleasure to meet you, young Cadance" I said to her while smiling. "Welcome back to Canterlot, niece. How was the train?" Luna asked her. "It was nice as always, aunt Luna. I even had breakfast there. I'm ready whenever you are" Cadance replied with a perky voice. Luna and Celestia nodded at her words. They had planned something for today then? I think they talked about something yesterday... Oh well... I noticed that Celestia rose from her throne and walked towards me. "Gaia, I need to tell you that some of my fellow princesses are a bit... skeptical about your claims and we would like you to accompany us somewhere where you can show us your powers without disturbing anypony." Celestia asked me. Ah... so we reached that point. "Of course I would go with you, dear. Just lead the way" I told her. The other princesses got around us, almost making a ball of fur and feathers. "I don't think we would be able to move if you all stick to me like tree sap." I told them while laughing. I also noticed that Cadance was a lot warmer than the others. I wonder if it's because she looks to eat more healthily than the rest? Celestia chuckled at my remark. "Oh, we are ready to depart. Just try to clear your mind, and close your eyes" She said. What what? "Why would you...?" I tried to say when suddenly her horn sparkled with energy, just before a flash blinded me. I knew that something was very wrong in seconds. We moved in a instant from the castle to a place far away to the south. My inner compass went nuts and I almost lost my breakfast. In a couple of seconds my vision cleared to an apparently barren land. "What!? How did you do that?" I asked Celestia, who looked pretty proud of herself right now. "That was a teleportation spell, Gaia. One of the many things an alicorn can do with magic" She told me with a smile. "You need to learn the basics first though!" Twilight said with a wider smile than Celestia. They loved to teach, don't they? "But first we have something to do. Before anything else we need to perform some standard scans on you, Gaia." Celestia told me in a more serious tone. "Go ahead. I already had to live through something like this, if a bit more invasive" I told her. Twilight looked a bit conflicted, but pulled out a strange device from her bags... Oh she had bags like me! Mine are prettier though... "First we are going to measure your magical output. I'm going to put this ring on your horn You see that the ring is connected to this machine? It will tell us how much magical potential you have, or at least a good approximation of it. It's a modified version for alicorn-like beings. I did it myself!" Twilight explained proudly. She was just like my son, with his little machines... "So, we put this right here... Alright! and now we turn this on..." She said while pressing a button. The little machine exploded as she pressed the button, scaring all of us. I quickly went and looked over her, as she was rigid as a statue. "Goodness dear, are you alright?" I asked her as I checked her face and eyes "Thankfully you seem unharmed..." "What happened, Twilight?" Celestia asked. "It overloaded... in barely a fraction of a second" Twilight said in a whisper "It should have been able to take all of our powers combined, and it just... exploded..." "Aw, don't worry about that. You can make more, it was just a machine" I told her, patting her head. The other alicorns were looking at me a bit perplexed. What? "Gaia, you seem to be an ancient being..." Celestia started to say, but I cut her off. "Stop that, you're going to make me blush. I look hardly that young" I told her with a timid smile. "...and that you were from other planet. I think that maybe our way to count days and years differ in some way. Gaia, do you know what a second is, and how much time is it?" Celestia asked me. I closed my eyes and looked for its definition. Oh, would you look at that! "Yes, and it's a time unit I'm familiar with, surprisingly enough" I told her with a smile. "In that case... how many hours does a day have in your world?" She asked me. Oh, I knew where this was going! "My planet has a day of over twenty hours. And a year has three hundred and fifty days" I replied calmly. "That's not so different from our time system..." Celestia said, pensive. Luna didn't look impressed though. "That may be so, but I want to see what is she capable of" She said with a frown. Girl, you need to smile more! "Well, what do you want me to do?" And so, they were asked with the question they were looking for. "You said you were the warden of your world. Surely you can do something more than watch" Luna said with a serious tone. Gaia laughed at that. "You would be surprised how much of my work is just watching the world. I could show you but I don't want to disturb this biome" She told them with a serene smile. "This has hardly any kind of life. I don't think you are going to disturb anything, Gaia" Twilight said. Gaia just hummed and closed her eyes. "We shall see about that soon enough" She simply said. That's when they felt it. It was just a sudden rush of energy from Gaia, but when she opened her eyes, they knew they were watching something unique for the first time. Gaia's eyes were now sparking with some kind of power, as some wisps of lime green color were coming out of them. She just looked slowly to the ground, humming to herself. "Let's see... huh... desert with barely any kind of rain... heat around a third of the temperature over needed to boil water from the freezing point... Aha... no wind from anywhere... that explains the lack of rain. Interesting... there are no thriving animals around, oddly enough... not much altitude, and the magma is stagnant. How boring... Oh? sapient settlement of insectoids... over a couple of thousand souls..." Gaia said as she looked everywhere. After that she closed her eyes and when they opened again they were back to normal. "T-that is hardly worth anything. We already knew that, even that the changeling hive was somewhere in the badlands. We are going to need more than random facts to be impressed" Luna said, making Gaia chuckle. "So that's how it is... Alright dear, I'll bite. Are those mountains at the east important in some way?" She asked softly. "As far as I know they are just as barren as the badlands. Nopony lives there and there aren't any valuable resources in them" Twilight said. Gaia nodded. "Good. It would be a pity to work on something here and see how it dries to death" She simply said. "What do you mean?" Cadance asked. "Don't worry, there will be enough desert left for the little creatures. So, there we go!" She said happily while raising her right hoof. The sand on the ground started to float from the sheer power Gaia was showing, making everypony amazed at her apparent might, only to be scared when she decided it was enough and stomped her hoof on the ground. All the princesses felt an absurd amount of power coming from Gaia, and the mountains just toppled and went down, shaking the ground and leaving a corridor towards the coast. She stomped a couple of times for good measure, breaking the mountain range in two. Gaia smiled towards her speechless audience. "The fun has just begun, dears" Gaia's hooves started to glow lime green as she trotted towards the corridor. Each time one of her hooves touched the ground a plant sprouted, making a trail of green as she walked. The other alicorns managed to control their amazement and went on a chase. Gaia laughed and galloped away, still laughing and leaving now a trail of green grass and flowers behind her. Luna and Celestia opened their wings and decided to fly and watch from above, while Cadance and Twilight continued on hoof. Soon the celestial sisters noticed that the trail was getting wider and wider as Gaia ran, one biome replacing another in her wake. Gaia, sporting a wide smile, suddenly jumped high towards the sky. Every alicorn felt Gaia's power building again much like when she flattened the mountains. Gaia started to glow green as she descended, front hooves first. They watched another miracle when the hooves of the green alicorn touched the ground again. Green light exploded from her, shaking the ground as a green sphere of energy expanded wider by the second, leaving grass and greenery where it touched the ground. In a couple of minutes every alicorn was on the ground, mouths agape as they were now enjoying a sunny morning on the now green prairies. There was a small portion of desert far to the west, but half of the badlands were now just plains of green. Gaia was still jumping around, assisted by her wings, as she made trees grow here and there. When there was enough green Gaia decided to land and started to make a small riverbed with her own hooves, humming an alien tune as she worked. "C-Cadance... you didn't see any kind of darkness in her heart, r-right?" Celestia said, shaken by the show of power. "No, auntie. She is just as pure as a baby foal" Cadance replied with a small smile. "How i-is that you are s-so calm after, well... T-this!" Twilight pointed out to the now green landscape. Cadence looked at Gaia with a tender smile. "Because I also felt her love, Twilight. And she could rival me in that area. She just loves... everything, form the smallest plants to the ugliest creatures. She truly has a heart of gold" Cadance explained, her smile not wavering a bit and her tone one filled with conviction. Meanwhile, a changeling was wondering why there was grass at the hive door.