Flare
Celestia
Princess Celestia went through her daily rituals: get up, stretch her wings, flare her horn to warm up her magic, raise the sun, and then head to breakfast. As she walked out of her chambers, she levitated her regalia on seamlessly. She slipped her peytral over her neck and fixed her crown atop her head. As she walked, she stepped into her horseshoes. She reached out and pushed open the doors with a foreleg, then closed them behind her with a hind leg. She gave a warm nod to the two guards standing at attention outside of her chambers, and made her way to the private dining hall she shared with her sister.
As she walked through the endless corridors, she gave greetings to the servants cleaning the castle, which they returned. After a few minutes she reached the room and found that her sister was already there. Said sister was busy feasting on pancakes and syrup like she was possessed.
Lulu looked up at her with tired eyes and said a few words muffled by her full mouth. "Mmo, Mmia!" She swallowed her bite. "Hello, Tia! I trust you had a good night?"
She nodded. "Very nice, thank you." She took a seat next to her sister and began nibbling at her pre-prepared salad. "Was there anything important overnight?"
Luna's face tightened. "As a matter of fact, there was. My night guard are discretely increasing their security in the city as a result. There's been a spot of news from the Griffon Empire."
"What is it?" she asked, taking a bite of tomato.
"You might want to swallow that first, sister." Celestia did. "Alright. No official word yet, but there are rumors that one of their border-aeries discovered a second centaur."
Celestia's eyes bugged out and she nearly choked on her own spit. "What?!" she asked incredulously, fixing her sister with a collapsed-iris look. "I beg your pardon?!"
Luna nodded grimly. "For the time being, it seems that the griffons have the situation under control; the Department of Arcane Displacement is handling the case, since she claims she was turned into a centaur." A female centaur? Celestia briefly wondered what that would look like. Her mind dredged up images of Tirek and changed several features, but none of it looked quite right. "Evidently, the centaur also does not know of the ability to steal magic. Let us pray it remains so for the time being."
"You said she was turned into one," Celestia said. "What was she before?"
"That, the rumor mill couldn't say," Luna said. While she was speaking, Celestia took more bites of her salad and raised an eyebrow. The rumor mill? "Oh do not give me that look, sister! I have gotten word from reputable sources as well. Needless to say, I am quite worried about this." Luna ate another piece of her pancake. "The course of action seems quite hidden."
Celestia had to agree. On one hoof, a centaur was a matter of global importance. The chain reaction they could create with their dark powers was unspeakably horrific, and even if Discord or the Bearers managed to contain the centaur and strip her of her stolen magic, she could do immense damage in the meantime. A centaur required immediate action.
... but on the other hoof, if Luna was to be believed, the griffons had her under control. It was none of their business to be so involved in foreign affairs. Especially not when this centaur was not Tirek. Scorpan had come from the same lands he did, after all, and in the end he did them no harm. If this new centaur wasn't even a centaur originally, Celestia would do herself a terrible disservice to condemn her despite having committed no crime. What would it say of her if she sent ponies to investigate this centaur, in another nation, with no reason besides being changed into a species whose one known member had been a maniac? That was not a road she wished to travel down...
"We should leave it to them," she murmured. "The centaur is on their land, it is their responsibility. Yet I still do not feel quite right with simply doing nothing in regards to such a large potential threat."
"Perhaps we should send an envoy as a show of good will to her?" Luna suggested. "Or perhaps we simply wait to see the situation evolve, but prepare some safeguards in the process?"
She took a deep breath, reviewing her options. "The Griffon Empire does not need us to hold their talons," Celestia said. "Nor have they for a very long time. They are capable, and it would be remiss of us to act as though they aren't. We should make sure the Elements are safe, in case worst comes to worst, but beyond that let us trust the griffons' abilities." She did wonder, however, how the other nations would react.
"Agreed," Luna said. They returned to their meals.
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
Cygnus X-1
She could not feel the rotation of the planet, but it rotated all the same. One interval the organics knew as a 'day' passed, and Cygnus awoke slowly from her deep slumber, and wiped the annoyingly common crust from her eyes. The room was dark, since there were no windows, but a flickering candle provided the meager photons she needed to be able to see.
She was still in the D.A.D. room, which was no surprise. Flicking her eyes at a wall-mounted clock - which used, of all things, base eight numbering - told her it was still 'early' in the 'morning'. She rolled around in the bed until she was upright with her legs folded beneath her. It made the sharp edges of her hooves press against her body enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be truly painful.
Cygnus X-1 looked to her left and saw a plate of various pieces of 'meat' had been laid out, along with a cup of some tinted liquid that a moment of memory searching labeled as orange juice; one of the less creative organic words. After some maneuvering she got into position to eat and drink, and cleaned the plate in record time; she was getting better at coordination. Only to be expected, of course. Cygnus finished her meal and relaxed on the bed again, patiently awaiting the 'magic specialist'. At one point she had to go relieve herself, which went without incident, but beyond that she remained in the room.
A magic specialist. She wondered how much they truly did know about magic, that they could have specialists in it. Was it the blind leading the blind? Or was Cygnus not giving them enough credit? The organics had surprised her before; they were, after all, intelligent enough to be self aware!
The fact that they could manipulate the magic field at all was very... worrying. Such a thing was not possible within billions of light-years from home. She was so far from home she probably wasn't within observable range... how was she ever going to get back? Could she?
The clock ticked on until the door opened and Vinur walked in, looking around nervously while his wings gave a single twitch. "Um, good morning Cygnus."
She looked up at him, shifting her black hooves on the bed. "I suppose," she said. "I had not expected you would be here. You are not a member of the Department of Arcane Displacement, are you?"
"No, but they said I should be here since I know you better than anybird else." He ruffled his wings. "So, here I am, getting compensated and everything. Have you had breakfast?"
Cygnus nodded, a weak smile tugging at her mouth. "Yes, I have. It was already prepared for me." She frowned. "Though I am worried about the abilities of this magic specialist. I have doubts that I am anywhere near what they have encountered before in their short lives."
He rolled his eyes, hopping onto the bed and making her lurch with the movement. She toppled over onto her side and propped herself up with shaking arms, glaring at him. Vinur held out a talon and helped her back up. "Thank you. So no, I'm not particularly confident in their ability to return me, but if it brings me closer to having freedom of movement upon this planet, I shall endure."
"Well, that's good to hear," the organic said, patting her on the lower back. She flinched at the contact and pulled away. "So, how are you planning to get back?"
Cygnus X-1 sighed. "To be honest, I'm not sure where to start. First thing I need to do is find out where in the universe I am. I could be seventy billion or five trillions light years away, and both my velocity and acceleration are unknown. Then I have to acquire a power source that can send me back..." She saw a shiver run through Vinur's body at her mention of a 'power source'. Why? "And the energy required to restore my mass and send me back is likely far beyond what can be acquired on a mere planet."
He looked at her oddly.
"Don't get me wrong," she backtracked hastily. "I have nothing against planets, but they're much less massive and hold far less energy than us, especially stars of my mass, so I find it unlikely that - "
"Cygnus," he said dryly. She looked his way, and he had the 'grin' that was indicative of delight. "Calm down. Planets are alive too?"
"Of course they are," Cygnus X-1 replied. "Any cosmic body massive enough to become spherical is aware. Debris like comets and asteroids usually aren't." She sighed. She missed her comets, they were beautiful in their streaming colors. It was a shame her death had destroyed them. "Planets though? Easily." She hummed, looking at the floor beneath the bed. "I wonder what this world thinks of all of you."
"The world's alive," he breathed. "That's... incredible to imagine. Wow."
Three hard knocks came on the door. They were oddly loud, compared to what Cygnus had seen griffon talons capable of. "Can I come in?" came a voice with the low-wavelength- it registered to her ears as high pitched - noise that seemed to be typical of females. "I'm coming in." The door swung inward to reveal a... what was that?
Its coloration was the bright red known as 'pink', for the most part, and seemed to be covered entirely in the same fur that made up Cygnus X-1's lower body. It stood on four legs, but unlike the griffons which had two different endings, this organic's legs all ended in hooves. A fibrous... she decided the word was hair colored bright blue, with nearly-white streaks of yellow through it.
Cygnus frowned when the organic stepped in and flinched, tapping their pink horn with a hoof. She began running through her words to identify it. But before she could speak, the new organic did. "Cygnus X-1, I presume?" she asked, looking at her with strange red irises fluctuating in size.
"Correct. Are you a pony?"
She raised an eyebrow. "... yes? Never seen a pony before?"
"No," Cygnus replied. "I have not. You are a pony in the Griffon Empire; are you an immigrant?" Vinur watched the two of them from the side.
The organic chuckled. "Actually no, that's my folks." She tapped her chest with a foreleg. "Born and raised Griffonian here. Now, let me just get started with the checkup."
While the pony-unicorn trotted around the bed and bent under it, fussing with something, Cygnus was confused. The concept of organics immigrating to live among another species was confounding.
A faint pulse rippled through the air, and the dryness scratching at her throat all at once vanished. Vinur looked over at his left wing, briefly extending it and then folding it back. The pony shuffled back out from under the bed, inhaled, and exhaled suddenly. A sneeze, perhaps? She looked up. "Alright. So, first I need to - oh! How inconsiderate of me! I know your name but you don't know mine." The unicorn hopped up onto the bed; Cygnus took note of the four-pointed bright blue shape on her flanks.
"What did you do?" Cygnus interrupted. "My throat feels better now. What was that?"
The pony blanched, then chuckled nervously. "Oh, nothing important right now. Anyway, my name's Tola Insight, I'm here to investigate the magic that turned you into..." The mare gestured at Cygnus with a foreleg. "... this."
"You won't find anyth - " She cut herself off when the organic's horn began to glow bright red, and a flat ray shot at her. Cygnus X-1 recoiled, but relaxed when she didn't feel it doing anything. Still, was the red glow her magic? Her magic glowed? How inefficient was it, to waste so much energy in the production of light?
The scan started at the top of her head, moved down her torso, then finished at the bottom of her forehooves. The pony trotted around her, scanning Cygnus's entire body. As she did, Tola's muzzle turned increasingly scrunched.
When the red beam finished scanning her black tail, the pony stepped back and eyed her curiously. "It doesn't make sense," she whispered. "There's no transformative magic at work." Her eyes widened and the irises shrunk. "That must mean you're really a centaur," she breathed.
"Whoa whoa whoa," Vinur said, climbing over the bed to reach Tola. "Miss, Cygnus was explaining to me earlier that it wasn't necessarily magic that did this to her."
She raised an eyebrow. "Really? I'm sorry, but what else could do this?"
"Quantum incident, at least that's the closest translation. My particles could've spontaneously teleported here in such an arrangement. There is also a multiuniversal ripple left over from the universe's formation encountering me. Possibly a string vibrating in one too many dimensions in my vicinity. Any one of those events is overwhelmingly unlikely, but I'm here so one of them must've happened."
Tola's eyes briefly crossed. "Strings - nevermind." She shook her head. "Is there any way you could demonstrate these events?"
She frowned instinctively. "No, I'm afraid not. Multiuniversal ripples are impossible to generate from within, teleportation via quantum uncertainty is just shy of impossible, and I doubt your control of the magical interaction is refined enough to influence strings. It's possible that the magical interaction in its simplest form could help me return, but..."
The pony frowned and tilted her head. "Then I suppose we're all just going to have to take you on your word that you aren't originally a centaur?"
"There is the mist thing," she mentioned.
Vinur groaned. "Enough with the 'mist thing'. It's not proof of anything!"
Says the organic who's never even set claw in the void! she thought with a spot of frustration. "Fine then. Let's say I am truly a centaur who was simply displaced. How much does that change?"
Tola nodded, bouncing lightly on her hooves. "Alright, we're getting somewhere. Now, Vinur's story about your appearance checks out with known teleportation spells, and you haven't committed any crime or drained any magic - " Tola cut herself off and her eyes went wide. Vinur's eyes also expanded, and the pony shoved a hoof in her mouth.
"I can drain magic?" she asked. "That's rather contradictory." Wait a moment. She thought back to one of her conversations with Vinur. He'd hastily mentioned that she was draining his 'funds', but in light of the knowledge that she could supposedly drain magic - which was ridiculous, how did you 'drain' a fundamental interaction, so it must've been a contraction for something similar - then that meant what he'd actually meant was...
Cygnus locked eyes with Vinur. "You lied to me?" she whispered. Her next breath was surprisingly strained. "You... lied to me?" she repeated softly. Her eyes went down to the mattress as she processed the implications of the broken trust. The organics had the intellect to lie...
"Well I - " the griffon began.
"Oh pluck me," Tola whispered. "Me and my big mouth. T-That's it then, I'm done. I-I'm done..."
"Why?" she asked. "Why would you conceal this information from me? This is something I could possibly use to go home!" Her voice steadily climbed in volume. "You could've told me this earlier! What right did you have?!" she shouted, standing up on the bed so as to be slightly taller than Vinur, who shrank back. "Well?!"
"W-Well," he stammered. "What was I supposed to tell you? I didn't exactly have many reasons to trust you at the time! So sorry for trying to keep myself safe, and you from doing anything stupid!"
"Anything stupid? What could I possibly have done with this knowledge that qualifies as 'stupid'?"
"Getting the attention of the Elements of Harmony for one!" he shouted back. "You go around draining magic, either you're beaten down before you get too strong or Equestria brings their harmonic magic to bear against you, and that is something you cannot fight!"
"The Elements of Harmony?" she asked. "I doubt they can do much. After all, I am a - "
His wings flared out. "Oh enough with the whole 'I'm a star' crap! Look at yourself Cygnus, look at yourself! It doesn't matter whether or not you used to be a star, you aren't one now!" he shouted.
That hit her hard. She recoiled and the fusion-heat building within her vanished into vacuum. She fell onto her haunches and raised a hand to her chest, where the faint ba-bump of her 'heart' resided. Cygnus looked down, her eyes feeling strangely hot and itchy. "You're right," she muttered, looking over herself. Cloven black hooves attached to legs, covered in red-brown fur. Spindly arms with fingers. "I'm not a black hole anymore." She looked Tola's way; the pony had been watching the back and forth warily. "What do we do from here?"
"Well," she said. "You have to understand, there's no evidence you were transmuted, and all we have is your word that a nonmagical, undetectable force transformed you. Aside from me getting tried for incompetence, what's probably going to happen is you'll be released into someone's custody to keep you safe. Whether that's somebird else, or the higher-ups decide Vinur's familiarity with you is enough, I have no say in."
"Why would you be tried for incompetence?" Cygnus asked.
"Because," Vinur explained. "She wasn't supposed to let slip you can drain magic."
She took a moment to think it over, realizing that from the organics' point of view she just made a potential enemy more dangerous. "Only if they know you told me," Cygnus said. "You have opened a potential avenue for my reconstruction, as such the least I can do is ensure you are not penalized for doing so."
The pony shook her head. "No, I plucked up, and I need to face the music for it."
"That is incorrect," she said, carefully climbing off the bed. "You do not need to. It is perfectly viable for all three of us to keep our mouths shut. Should I ever need to demonstrate the ability to 'drain magic' - " They blanched. " - I am certain it can be excused as me reading an account of Tirek's abilities."
Tola looked down, frowning, then sighed and looked back at her with eyes slightly coated in dihydrogen monoxide. "Oh... thank you. I don't know what to say."
"Then figure it out," she said.
Tola raised an eyebrow, confused. Why was she? Was 'don't know what to say' one of those idioms? "No but really, thank you. Now, if you'll let me scan you again, for good measure?"
"I am in no position to stop you," Cygnus said. Not unless I figure out what 'magic draining' is, and then learn to actually use it, she thought.
"Alright, hold still." The mare's horn glowed bright red again, releasing a second ray that scanned over Cygnus X-1's body. It tickled this time around, an odd and unpleasant sensation that had her squirming to get away by the time the unicorn was finished. Tola frowned. "Hmm, still nothing." She tapped her one, singular horn. "Really strange. I mean, my gut's telling me that you're lying to me, but if you're not, then this is really, really strange." The organic grinned. "Hey, maybe you should write some papers about those other events you talked about."
"Why?" she asked.
Vinur stepped in. "It'd give you something to do, and if you contribute to the world's knowledge of how the universe works then hey, that's brownie points." Cygnus stared at him, unblinking. "Um, brownie points. It means more people will have a good opinion of you, in this case."
She nodded. "Ah. Perhaps I can do something along those lines. It may be tricky to adapt to your symbols of math though."
"Alright well," Tola said. "I need to go and deliver my findings. Um, thank you for... you know, keeping this quiet." The pony blushed, red showing through her pink fur.
"Why thank us? It takes literally no effort to do so," Cygnus told the retreating pony.
"It's just - " The pony raised a foreleg and waved it at her. " - nevermind, Cygnus. Anyway, goodbye to you two, thank you for your cooperation, and we'll see if we can't get you sorted out quickly, yeah?"
"Yeah?" she asked, and the pony left, closing the door behind herself with 'magic'. Once she was gone, her throat dried up again and she turned back to Vinur. "So, draining magic," she said.
The griffon looked a lot more uncomfortable. "Well, yeah."
She threw up her hands. "How does that even work? Draining a fundamental interaction like that?"
He tilted his head. "A fundamental what?"
"You know, fundamental interaction?" A blank stare was her response. "Oh for the love of - okay. You know what a force is?" He nodded. "Okay, well, in the universe every force can be reduced to being caused by a combination of five interactions. You should know what they are, they're in your dictionary."
Vinur frowned. "Most people don't have a vocabulary the size of an entire dictionary."
"Then what's the point of having - nevermind. So the five are gravity, electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear, and the phenomenon you call magic, which is more field-based than the others and only interacts with - nevermind. Which is why the concept of draining magic is such a ridiculous one, so it would be appreciated if you elaborated." Cygnus narrowed her eyes. "Unless you feel like keeping something else from me on the assumption that I have not the intellect to defend myself?"
"I'm not entirely sure I want to explain it to you," he said, flapping his wings to get on the bed and look down at her. "I mean, if I tell you how, what are you going to do?"
"Analyze it to see if I can use that ability to return home," she explained briskly.
"See that's just what I'm worried about!" he said, pointing at her. "What if you need to hurt others in order to go home? Hmm? I can't just let you do that!"
"So, what?" she demanded. "You're just going to keep me here? The little centaur-star that you keep around as a trophy?" she spat. Heat was rising inside her body again. "Is that what you'll reduce me to, Vinur?"
"If it means keeping everybird else safe then yes!" he roared, flaring out his wings.
She drew her hands up and inhaled. So, that's how it's going to be? Cygnus X-1 ground her teeth together, the fangs poking her gums hard enough to draw mist. "Fine," she said simply. "Then I'll just stay here." She lowered her body and sat, crossing her arms. "I'll just stay here and die."
"You're not going to die, Cygnus."
"Of course I am!" she snapped. "Even if I don't age, do you know of any living being more than ten thousand years old? No? I don't think so! With my abilities I may be able to extend that to one hundred thousand at maximum!"
"Oh boo hoo," he said. "You'll only live a hundred thousand years, that's so short of a time!"
"It is for me! I'm five million years old, and still young! I may as well tell you you're only going to live another half a year, at the absolute most!"
"Enough with the five million years old! Nobird's buying it!"
"So what, you want me to start pretending my origins are something they aren't just for your sake? To soothe your precious, sensitive organic mind?!"
"You wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for me!"
"You have no way of proving that!"
Knock knock knock. The door pulled open and one of the griffon 'Skyguards' poked his head in. "Is everything alright?"
"No!" she shouted out of reflex. "It's not! I'm going to be stuck on this planet until I die!"
The organic raised an eyebrow, then looked at Vinur. "Sir, if you're causing our guest distress, then perhaps it'd be better for you to go home."
"Maybe it would," he agreed snappily, stomping over to the guard. She glared at him as he retreated, but he didn't so much as glance back at her. The Skyguard stepped back and Vinur shut the door briskly.
Cygnus X-1 clenched her fists and shook in impotent rage. Summoning all the chemical force her body could she jumped upwards onto the bed, beating at its pillow fruitlessly with her hooves, a surprisingly cathartic venture.
It's just like an organic body to get relief from causing physical damage, she raged. Once her meager strength was expended she flopped down on the bed, waiting patiently and mulling over her next course of action.
She could leave. She could get up, walk out the door, and search for another organic nest to aid her. She would also have to acquire food and water on her own, as well as shelter, and bypass the organics keeping her there, and rely on her less than stellar strength to move a comparatively large distance.
She could play along with the organics. She would be shuffled into some home somewhere and be reduced to working at their levels, until she could somehow cobble together a way to reach higher levels. Assuming they meant her well.
The problem was, all her plans came down to one problem; Cygnus X-1 was helpless on her own. Whatever mechanism had plucked her from her galaxy, it had landed her not only in a fragile, tiny organic form, but one that was weak even by the standards of other organics. Which led her to be completely at their mercy, led around as if she belonged to them!
You haven't committed any crime or drained any magic, she remembered the pony saying. Draining a fundamental interaction was absurd, but connecting the points and some definition searching led her to the conclusion that whatever the 'magic drain' actually did, it stood a decent chance of making her stronger, since the organics would not have been so worried about her being a 'second Tirek' if he weren't dangerous. It would probably not return her in and of itself, but it would be a step in the right direction to 'drain magic'.
If she could only figure out how. Cygnus X-1 wasn't trusted by the organics, that much was apparent, so they'd be reluctant to give her the information she needed. Which just meant she needed to play along and, when she had the moment, figure it out. Maybe she could even try to figure out what it meant through trial and error.
It was decided. Cygnus X-1 would learn how to drain magic.
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I feel torn on Cygnus' reactions.
Her desire to learn to drain magic is depressing because it plays into exactly what everyone fears from her. In that light, not killing her immediately will become a mistake that endangers many lives, if not the entire world. A poor moral to learn in a setting such as Equestria's.
However, as she pointed out, she is weak; really really weak. She is completely reliant on others for anything when she has never, ever relied on others beforehand. Yet she is also treated as a potential criminal. There is probably some kind of middle ground between apocalypse and draining magic to gain independence. After all, it was Tirek's addiction/obsession to draining magic that was the problem, not the simple act of doing so. Yet if others had their way, she would be the same as an alicorn that was never taught to use magic in fear becoming a new Nightmare Moon.
From a neutral point of view, learning how to use all of one's abilities is something expected, and anything that denies that without good reason (and simple fear of repeating Tirek isn't a good enough reason) is to be looked down upon.
It's her alienation from life itself that is the potential disturbing part. The fact that she takes the message that she can't trust whatever any other being says because she realizes they can and will lie to her is likewise depressing, because it's very easy to just dismiss inconvenient points of view as 'lying', and that may actually be the bigger mistake here rather than being told that her species can drain magic.
Alas, poor Cyggy.
Oh, so the Princesses are finding out now, then? Ought to be interesting...
"Her mind drudged up"
"dredged"
"which used, of all things, base eight numbering"
:)
You have some pronoun inconsistency when the magic specialist arrives; I understand why you don't start immediately using "she", but I'd suggest you use only one of "it" and "they"; having both confused me and broke me out of the reading to sort it out.
Aaaand the magic specialist is likely now mentally kicking herself very hard. :D
Well, this plot seems to be thickening nicely.
It's time for her to kick some ass. I'd probably do the same choice if I was In her position, and to leave a message saying "not going to help me fine die then." Can't wait for her to get some sweet ass revenge.
Feh! She deserves NOTHING!!'
Like all those other bloated, obese supergiants, she foolishly gobbled up all her lighter elements in a few million years and blew up! Now she's a greedy, grabby black hole and wants to suck the life out of everything around her and keep eating and eating and eating, NEVER producing anything useful!
Why should anyone put up with that?!
If she'd been a much smarter and more thrifty red dwarf, she could have lasted to near the end of the universe! But nope, just a spoiled fatass demanding cosmic welfare!
5694805 <- Implying stars have a choice in how much mass they form with. Implying she was actively seeking out matter to absorb instead of floating content with listening to HD 226868 keep her company.
5460484 Have you noticed the theory gathering credence lately it that there was no Big Bang, and that the universe may be truly infinite and eternal?
*throws up hands*
Seriously? Now we're basically back to God at this point!
5694815 Implying that you took my comments seriously...
Seriously?
5694859 Implying I'm taking you seriously thinking I took you seriously when I didn't take you seriously.
... seriously.
5694859
5694882
Come on, guys, loose >imps sink ships.
Oh my.
...Now I just feel sad about Hyperion and all the other post-sphericals.
(listen- there's no word for it that i know so why not)