Discovery

by Just a tree

Wide-eyed wonder

Celestia awoke.

She blinked, her big purple eyes closing and opening once, as if to make sure they could. Lifting her head, she looked around to see where she was.

It was a grassy clearing in a peaceful looking forest, with early sunlight just starting to show through the branches overhead. She heard the songbirds chirping good morning somewhere, and it felt right. This was where she wanted to be.

And, why did she want to be here?

She blinked again, and her mouth curved into a slight frown as she looked down at her little white hooves. Was it the birds? No, they were nice, but that wasn’t it. The sun, then? That felt closer, but still wrong. The trees?

Try as she might, she couldn’t think of the real reason. Maybe that meant she was wrong, and she shouldn’t be here. That idea felt like the worst one she had had so far.

Haunted by the possibility, she tried to forget it by distracting herself. She lifted one front leg and put it hoof down on the ground, then did the same to the other one, so that she could stand up. A whole foot off the ground, she almost expected to wobble and fall back down, but she was stronger than she thought. Her four legs were as steady as the trees all around her.

Now on her hooves, she decided that right here, in this clearing, wasn’t exactly where she wanted to be. She just wanted to be here, in general. She lifted her leg again and took a step forward, and then another. Soon, she was walking out of the grassy clearing and into the deep green forest.

---

She didn’t know where she was going, but she felt like she would know when she saw it. Along the way, there were plenty of other things to see as well. Over there, an ancient fallen tree trunk was slowly returning to the earth, going fuzzy and soft with moss and lichen. Mushrooms grew in the damp shade by the roots of the tall and proud trees. A shaft of sunlight fell through the leafy canopy, shining a spotlight on a barren rock.

This was a good spot for a rest. She walked over to the sunlit patch of ground by the rock and lay down. No longer moving, she went over everything she had seen so far. What came to the front of her mind was that now that she thought about it, the grass back in that clearing had looked pretty tasty.

That clearing was far away, now. She didn’t want to walk all the way back there. There was perfectly good moss right here. Yes, perfectly good, she told herself, even though it wasn’t grass. It only looked gross because of the color. As she was working up the will to give it a try, a flicker of movement caught her eye.

She turned to look at it. It was a little blue butterfly, its wings fluttering back and forth to fly, even though it looked almost as if it was drifting in the breeze.

“Hello, little butterfly. Where are you going?” she asked. It didn’t answer, not that she expected it to. Neither did she expect it to flutter right up and perch itself on the horn poking out of her pink mane.

“Oh, you came to see me?” She looked upwards with only her eyes, just able to see the white spiral and the butterfly she knew was there. It flapped its wings once, as if stretching them. “That’s very kind of you. I’m going somewhere too, but I don’t know where, yet.”

The butterfly flew off, gently weaving its way through the air. Celestia watched it go, feeling a little sad, even though she had known it would have to leave eventually. “I suppose I better get going too.” She looked at the moss again, and decided she wasn’t hungry. She climbed to her hooves and left the rock behind.

---

As she walked along, she started hearing a strange sound. It was like a distant roar that never ended or changed, but just kept going and going. Looking around, she figured out it was coming from over there. She turned and started walking towards it.

The trees thinned out, and she found herself standing on a rocky riverbank. Upstream, the water was calm and smooth, but downstream it started speeding up and rushing over the rocks. At a certain distance, both the river and the forest just disappeared, giving way to blue sky. That was where the roar was coming from, and curiosity made Celestia move closer.

As she got closer, the roar grew louder, until she could barely hear her own hooves striking the ground. There seemed to be a distant valley with a lake beyond the edge, for an edge was what it seemed to be. When she reached it, she stopped and just looked.

The view was breathtaking. Everything she had seen up until now had been within her reach, but from here, it felt like she could see forever. There was a valley framed by mountains that rose up majestically in the distance, one in particular reaching high, high up into the sky. At its foot lay a forest just like the one she had walked out of, with little trees so far away they were smaller than her hoof. Bordering the forest was a curved, deep blue lake, which caught the outpour of the waterfall.

The waterfall was powerful and a little frightening. What had been an unthreatening little river became a display of inevitability. All that water flowed over the edge and just fell, spraying out mist as it crashed into the rocks far below. This was the source of the endless roar that had drawn her here, so was this where she was meant to be? Where should she go from here? Her eyes traced the flow of water downwards to its end.

Should she follow the river over the edge?

Her heart pounded at the thought. Her hooves had been firmly on the ground ever since she woke up. Now her path was to leave the earth behind.

But she didn’t have to do it like the waterfall. She remembered the butterfly in the forest, and she spread her wings. She bent her knees –

- and leapt.

For a moment, she hung seemingly motionless in the air. She saw every detail of the view laid out before her, the mountains, the valley, the forest and lake.

And then, like the water beside her, she fell.

From the corner of her eye, she could see the water keeping pace with her. Around her, the cliff face raced past. Before her, the rocky ground rushed upwards to meet her.

She grinned widely and tilted her wings, swooping up just as the water hit the bottom. She laughed as she soared over the lake. Everything was so fast!

A cloud floating over the forest caught her eye. She smirked and beat her wings, zooming upwards and forwards. As she was about to pass over it, she closed her wings and tucked her head towards her hooves. She felt herself falling –

-but before she went too far, she felt the soft cloud catch her, just like she knew it would. She rolled forward, and when her hind legs touched the cloud, she kicked out and shot forward even faster than before.

She let out a wordless cheer at her success. Oh, she loved this. What else could she do up here? There were plenty of clouds to work with. She thought for a moment, just gliding, before she took off for the biggest bunch of clouds in sight.

---

The sun was setting by the time Celestia finally had her fill. Wings a little stiff, she gently drifted down out of the sky.

As she came in for a landing by the lake, she saw a dark splotch on the grass. It wasn’t the right color for a rock, or a bush, or even a cloud shadow. She tilted her wings to land by it.

Now that she was closer, she could see what it was. The orange sky had faded to violet when she touched down, but she could see that it was a sleeping pony, with her eyes closed and her legs folded under her neatly.

Celestia folded her wings and looked at the new filly. She was blue, with a lighter blue mane and tail, but just like Celestia, she had a horn and wings of her own.

Who had left her here? Was she safe all on her own like this? Celestia had been fine all day, but this filly was little, even smaller than Celestia. She might not be able to find her way by herself.

No, she decided. This filly couldn’t be left alone. She needed somepony to protect her and keep her safe, and Celestia would be that pony. It felt right.

… just as soon as she had a nap. She was tired.

She walked up to the filly. Carefully, so she didn’t wake the sleeper up, she lay down beside the little blue pony. Before she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, she spread one wing and draped it over her new friend.

Comments

[Those Kids In The Corner]

This is nice. It's short and sweet as some would say. I like that.

[Celestias Paladin]

And the ending made me smile

[Technopony145]

All my d'aww are belong to this

[Rklk]

noice work :D

[The Slending Angel]

Can we have one from Lun's PoV? We have one from Sol's, so it seems only fair.

[Just a tree]

5285212 So that's what it was missing.