Celestial's Half-hours

by Celestial

Love is Blind [Sad]

"Starswirl, my faithful student."

Celestia approached the young blue unicorn in the main corridor of the Royal Castle, and nuzzled him affectionately. He was carrying large tomes in his saddlebags, and looked neutrally attentive.

"There's a most intriguing set of artefacts Luna has recovered from an enchanted tree in the Freeroam Forest not far from here. Perhaps-"

His demeanor instantly shifted to intrigued as he waved a hoof to Celestia. "Oh, there's no need to even ask, Princess. You have my undivided attention." With just that, they trotted in the direction of the Royal Vault, Celestia explaining in her warm voice all the way through what they had already gathered about the six coloured gemstones, and what made them seem very special indeed. Starswirl just nodded along, gears already spinning furiously in his head.

---

Starswirl shoved telekinetically the quill against a wall of his study chambers, leaving a small splatter of ink on it. Why were these dumb rocks deflecting his efforts all the time, when the Royal Sisters had managed with next to no knowledge of their workings to activate them?

He was hiding his head in his hooves when Celestia entered the laboratory.

"Is everything well, Star?" She asked gently, in a comforting tone, walking towards him while examining his drawings and research papers scattered around.

He grumbled. "Just a little impasse, nothing more. I'm sure I will get the proper resonance matrix in no time."

She draped a comforting white wing over him, which he accepted reluctantly. "While I'm confident in that, I'm also sure taking some time off your studies and enjoying some fresh air might do wonders for you. All my other subjects are so happy whenever they get to enjoy a little free time and make some new-"

"Friends, friends, yes, Celestia, I've heard this a thousand times already," he monotoned. "Friends distract me from my research, and ultimately give me nothing I need. Now, if you're done, I may get back on figuring-"

"Perhaps I could help?" Celestia half-pleaded.

Starswirl sighed. "I have already your reports on your interpretation on the Elements, and I've expanded on them since then in almost all sections. You have no need to be here, Celestia. You can go have fun and mingle yourself; I'll stay here and do what I do best."

Celestia sighed, retreating the white wing to her side. She could have always forced him out of his smelly alchemical laboratory, but she couldn't help but factor that she was the one who proposed him this task in the first place. Torn with guilt, and with a flicker of hope that he might conclude this, or reconsider himself, she walked for the door.

"Be well, my student."

---

Entry #98

... The Elements exemplify indeed a basic fact of Nature: that any single creation thereof is incomplete, and is meant to be compensated in multiplicity for protection, support, masking flaws with another's strengths, and overcoming challenges bigger than a set amount.

I, however, find myself utterly repulsed by this vision. If the individual cannot be perfect, then I see no point of trying at all to improve or discover. Life is meant to be perfect. It is demanded of it, the directive flows in it as truly as blood or sap does. And perfection means spontaneous expression of what Nature holds, in all of its facets; spontaneous, unimpeded, instantaneous channelling of its Magic, instead of the normal bodily restrictions that even a unicorn never really learns to overcome in a lifetime.

Instead of allowing All that is Good to spread out and dilute itself through Creation, converge all that into a single individual, a pinnacle of Power and Change. Order perpetrates division; a true avatar of Nature shall instead unite.

---

As the Rainbow of Harmony had completely ran over Discord, Celestia couldn't stop the tears flowing from her closed eyes, as she struggled to channel the Elements and keep her concentration.

"I'm sorry it had to be like this, Starswirl. Please, please forgive me for ever being so blind. Never should I have left you alone through this. Come back to me, and I will make it up to you in any way I can."

---

Celestia sat laying in front of the statue of Discord, alone in the secluded inner atrium of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Her mind wouldn't stop coming back to those fateful days. Thinking back at how the grand, promising unicorn and the terrifying avatar of Chaos couldn't be more opposites to her. And still... the Elements had found nothing to fix in him. The transformation into Discord had left no part of her former student behind, so all the mercy they could bestow was to suspend his life and prevent him from causing any more harm.

Luna found her sister in the same position as the last two times she had come here: sagged, eyes downcast, almost unmoving in her penance.

"Why are you still troubling yourself so, Celestia? Was one pony so important to you to forget the rest?"

The Princess of the Sun gave no answer.

"So important to come each night here to grieve? To give your time to a blind and deaf statue of an avatar of all that we oppose, of a deceiver and a sadist, when you could be caring about your subjects? Or your sister?"

Celestia sighed. "He was my best student, Luna... His talent, all his power... He had so much to give to ponykind, I-I had never laid my eyes on such a unicorn like him. And now he's just..."

"Something that you would do well in throwing away and never think upon again."

Celestia sagged even more, and shook her head. "It's not so simple, Luna..."

"Oh, surely, we know all about that. It wasn't just his gift with magic, we've come to observe, as your words betray you. You felt something more for him, is that not? You have come in time to cherish him deeply, caustic and insufferable as he may have been."

"He wasn't that way on the inside, Luna, you should have se-"

"So much your obsession with him was," Luna continued in a louder voice, "That he came to completely obscure your judgement, thus allowing him to continue his study on the most powerful of the Kingdom's weapons, when what sits here in front of Our eyes very clearly speaks that he really shouldn't ever had! Are you a fool enough to deny even this, dearest Sister?"

"..."

Luna breathed out as she deflated her anger. "Let this be a lesson for you, Celestia. Love you gave to a mere single pony, unwavering faith in a simple being, all the hope you put in it, and it all crumbled in front of your very eyes. I truly hope you will exercise better judgement on the matter in the future."

With that, she retreated back into the shadows.

Left alone once again, Celestia sobbed openly, and spilled fresh tears.

"You don't understand, Luna..."

Author's Note:

Prompt #530: The measure of her heart.