Sometimes They Call Me Super

by KorenCZ11

Persona XI: Faith

Applejack

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“Oh goddess, you’re finally back. I hate to sound as if I didn’t have any faith in you, but you had me worried for a while there,” Celestia said in relief. Ah was feelin’ real dazed and confused, and Ah wasn’t quite sure where Ah was at the moment. When my vision finally stopped multiplyin’ and everythin’ settled inta place, Ah found myself in a room Ah didn’t recognize, sittin’ across from Celestia who was in a rockin’ chair of some kind that had a real fancy look ta it. It was made of a dark brown wood and some kinda violet colored soft plush material, but all along its edges was gold filigree.

The chair Ah was in was similar, but clearly a love seat that had gold designs woven inta the material instead. There was a large brick fireplace with a blaze inside it on one wall givin’ the whole room light, yet it was still dim enough that if Ah let myself get a little more comfortable, Ah could probably go back ta sleep. The air smelled sweet like cinnamon and sugar was just floatin’ around, and all the walls were lined with shelves of books and pictures of ponies Ah didn’t know. A large luxurious bed with a frame likely made of gold sat in a corner covered in bright white and violet sheets, and a deep violet rug sat beneath the chairs just in front of the fireplace. After takin’ it all in, Ah finally asked,

“Where am Ah?” Celestia tilted her head in confusion, then clapped her hooves.

“Oh right. What all do you remember, before you started to dream?” Ah tried ta think back ta this mornin’, but after the Cheval toast, Ah couldn’t remember anythin’ up till… Ah started fightin’ the Mirror.

“Uh, Ah woke up at Rarity’s place, had breakfast there… then Ah was fightin’ the Mirror. Ah don’t even remember leavin’ her place at all, really.” Now that Ah look at her, Celestia was wearin’ what looked like smithin’ equipment and doin’… somethin’ with her magic and a piece of metal maybe, and she just put that white hot rod of some kind back in the fire. Geez, is that fire really hot enough ta forge with? It feels pleasant in here. She took off her goggles and flipped the light switch on in the room.

“I see. Well then, allow me to fill you in. Rarity contacted me shortly after you fell asleep. She told me what happened and I realized that this emotional imbalance of yours was… more than just something that could be handled in the usual means. To put it lightly, you have been walking around as an emotionally broken mare for the last twelve years. To put it accurately, though you might physically be twenty years of age, emotionally you might as well be twelve. It’s honestly a miracle that you managed to live with PTSD this strong for as long as you have.

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen, nor is it the first time I’ve tried to treat it. I’ve had many a war broken patient before, but many never recover from their traumas, and some simply remain broken for the rest of their lives. This treatment I developed is highly experimental as certain laws don’t allow me to test it because of sentient rights and all, but it has a higher success rate than what is currently out there, and works significantly faster. The um… caveat with that however…” Celestia said as she tapped her hoof tips together. “Is that I may or may not have had put you into a drug induced sleep,” she finished shiftin' her eyes from her hooves ta me in quick succession. I doubt I could accomplish that even if I drugged her. Even if I drugged her. I drugged her. Ah put my hooves ta my temples, and then Ah realized Ah didn’t know what time it was. There weren’t any windows in this room, and there was no clock anywhere ta be found.

“Well, first off, Ah can’t believe ya just used me like a lab rat. Second, how long have Ah been out? The drugs were in the toast, weren’t they?” Celestia sighed.

“To your first point of complaint, you are not the only test subject for this treatment, and the treatment clearly worked, otherwise you would still be asleep and stuck in that looping dream. Second, it’s about five thirty am… Sunday, the twenty ninth. And finally, no actually, the drugs were in the syrup. You simply can’t cook it, otherwise it alters the composition, turning what is essentially a powerful but harmless sleep aid into a very dangerous poison. I knew that your mother used to draw pictures on your pancakes with it, so I made the educated guess that you would consume it of your own accord. It’s not as if I didn’t plan for a fail safe, I just didn’t want to make your friend trick you into ingesting drugs if she didn’t have to.” She took the metal rod back out of the fire and started tappin’ it and flattenin’ it out with a pair of metal instruments. It looked like she was makin’ a sword or somethin’ with it.

“Ah’ve been out fer two whole days!?” Celestia sighed again and nodded.

“Forty eight hours is usually the longest a successful treatment takes. In your case, you managed to succeed in less than the longest recorded success, but you were a little slower than average. I’m honestly quite surprised at how… graphic your experience was. I knew that your anger seemed to flare rather intensely at times, but I never knew you almost killed one of your friends over a back hooved comment about your father. In almost every failed loop, that point of contingency always came up. You have a tendency to beat yourself up over your mistakes rather hard as well.” She spoke almost absently as she sharpened the tip of that piece of orange glowin’ metal. Ah’ve been asleep fer two days. Ah can’t believe Ah lost so much time. Have they been trainin’ without me? Have Celestia and Ah been here the whole time?

“So… what about-”

“Everypony else is still asleep at the current moment. They should rise in a few hours at the latest. Luna has been working them about as hard as I would expect, but without you, they seem to be struggling. A party without its best damage dealer… and, if we’re honest here, leader, tends to struggle as predicted, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely helpless without you. I wouldn’t say they’re incompetent by any means, but of all of them, you seem to have the best tactical sense amid battle. Your… it’s not lover yet, is it?” My face went about as red as her spear and Celestia just nodded.

“I suppose it isn’t. Your boyfriend has been doing his best with Rainbow’s help, but between a lone wolf and a leader who didn’t lead from the front lines, they don’t quite make the cut. Oh, and I’ve been here the whole time, I assure you. I like to manage my own projects, and had you not awoken within the time frame I expected, I would have had Luna pull you from the dream herself. There have not been a great number of tests for this particular treatment over the last century, and with this being the first time I’ve attempted it in nearly two decades, I felt the need to watch closely.

I doubt you remember what happened in each loop, but I always got so excited when events would play out and something new would happen. The first time you got back up after your Mirror killed all of your loved ones in front of you was something to behold for sure,” Celestia said, the childlike excitement in her voice sounding out of place with the twisted subject she spoke of. My brow furrowed as Ah remembered that myself. The first time? Ah don’t remember any of that happenin’ more than once though.

“Okay, Ah figure that ya probably knew better but ya went ahead and experimented anyway because ya wanted ta help. Ah can get over that, it’s done with now. But what do ya mean each loop? Ah… remember everythin’ in… gruesome detail fer what Ah did as the Mirror and myself in the dream, but… we reconciled at the end. In a weird way, Ah feel a whole lot better than Ah did Thursday night.” Celestia nodded and then spun the spear she had made at such a high speed that the metal began ta sing. The orange glow faded and then she stuffed it back inta the fire.

“Ah, right. Well, the way this works is a bit of experimental dream magic mixed in with a few hallucinogens and long term sleep. The magic, in essence, forces you to experience your worst reoccurring nightmare over and over again. In your case, the scene where the Mirror kills your father. I personally don’t have the grip on dream manipulation that Luna does, so sometimes I need her help with that part. The hallucinogens trigger the limbic system, specifically targeting memories that are tied with the chemicals released in your brain that coincide with negative emotion (only because we don’t quite know how to do that with just magic yet). This combines your nightmare with your fears and regrets and pits you, the dreamer, against everything that you could possibly be suffering from of your own accord. The induced sleep makes it so you can’t wake up until the magic has taken it’s full effect and you experience the dream several times, but breaks once the nightmare is resolved in a way that has positive chemicals releasing from your brain.

In ponies with strong wills, this forces them to overcome their own trauma at least once so that when they wake up, they can face these realities knowing that they have the power to defeat them. It’s not a cure-all fix-all by any means, but to use your words, it gets ponies like you to a starting point for recovery. Ponies with weak wills however, have a tendency to just give in to their own despair and are consumed by their nightmares. Luna can bring them back to reality, but these ponies have zero to little chance of ever recovering from their trauma, and have a ninety percent suicide rate. This treatment has lead to the recovery of many, but the loss of a few. Thankfully, you have a strong will, and as expected, you were able to come to terms with the things that have been eating away at you. Now, this should go without saying, but you will need to be able to confide in somepony on a regular basis to keep from falling back into your problems. Anything as deep rooted as this will leave a scar, and that will never go away.” Celestia removed her weapon from the fire and continued to shape the blade. She’d taken some kinda chisel now and started ta carve runes inta the broad sides of it.

“Okay… so, ta sum this up fer my own sake, ya drugged me, and made me experience all my nightmares over and over again, in the hopes that Ah might get over it?” Celestia rolled her eyes.

“That’s not the nicest way to say it, but essentially correct. As I’ve learned over my many centuries, the most self confidence imbuling way to overcome a challenge is try, try, and try again until you succeed. If you, or anypony for that matter, can work up the drive to keep going until you win, then you will more than likely accomplish what you set out to do one way or another. To put it into more real terms, when a war is fought between two groups with a particular agenda, there is a specific kind of group that can win a war that they should realistically lose. Do you know what kind of war this is called?” I’ve gotta give it ta her, of all the thin’s Ah thought were gonna happen today, a history test wasn’t one of em’. Ah thought about it fer a minute, and then somethin’ came ta mind.

“Are ya talkin’ about that war a few centuries ago where that group with the invadin’ force that could ‘topple countries whole’ pulled out because the smaller country was willin’ ta do anythin’ ta win?” Celestia nodded.

“That is what we later referred to as a ‘pony’s war.’ They had no right to fight as hard and as well as they did, and even with the odds that were stacked against them, they still pushed through and succeeded all on their own. The very thing that won them that war was their will to continue the fight till the end. In the world of politics, losing as much as fifteen percent of your army is unacceptable. At that point, the loss in life far outweighs nearly every other repercussion possible. The smaller country manage to kill or imprison twenty percentof the super power’s standing army before finally, they gave up. Add on to this the fact that they managed to drag that war out across twelve yearsand you have something truly astounding. An indomitable will.

When Luna and I finally heard word that this power actually retreated, and what their casualties were, we each took a turn to visit the winning country just to see how it could have possibly happened. Much of that land was devastated by the war. Creatures of all kinds were left without basic needs of survival and subject to atrocities now banned by the world council in war. Cities were in ruins, lands laid barren by the destruction and poisoned by the early technology that would eventually become nuclear bombs, and these creatures fought tooth and nail for this ruined place for twelve whole years! I was so fascinated that I eventually tried to pose as one of them and ask, why? Why fight for ruined land? Why fight when those you had to return to are no longer with us? What made this worth it all? And their answer, was so simple, even a child could understand it. ‘It is our home,’ they said. Destroyed, desolated, and decimated, with the land and their own hooves and claws, they could rebuild and start over as long as it was still theirs.

For the longest time I tested and experimented to see how that kind of will, that kind of unshakable fortitude could be cultivated in ponies, and what I found was that overcoming hardship in the face of impossible odds is what causes it. You, for as unfortunate as your upbringing was, have grown to have that same indomitable will because of it. You survived, you grew, you realized that you were somepony who could do more than others and then you decided to try and make somepony else’s life better at the cost of what could be your own someday. If there was anypony who could pull themselves out of their own suffering, it was you.” She then started to spin that spear again until the runes no longer glowed red hot.

“Ah mean… wow. Ah just don’t know what ta say. Ah guess… Ah never really realized just how highly ya thought of me.” She… believes in me… Celestia levitated the cooled spear to me and then passed me a roll of some soft and sticky black material.

“Really now? After I put you in charge of keeping my very own daughter safe on the battlefield, it never occurred to you that I may just have the teensiest bit of faith in your ability? I didn’t give you a higher rank than the others out of the gates for no reason after all.” She laughed and Ah couldn’t help but crack a smile myself. “Wrap that tightly around the center of the shaft. I’ve still got enough time to make about two more of these before we need to go prepare for today.” she ordered.

“Oh, sure. Uh, what exactly is this anyways? Well, besides the obvious.” Ah asked as Ah started ta wrap the spear. Celestia took a cauldron of out from the center of the intense flame with her magic and started to have the bubbling silver liquid inside float into the shape of the spear head.

“A God Slayer,” she stated as if it were an everyday object. Ah tilted my head as Ah looked at the thin’.

“Huh?” Celestia finished formin’ the point with the tools in her magic and then set the spear head back in the fire.

“Rainbow Dash said that Ramiel had a field of energy that she could not pierce in the briefing Wednesday. All Thursday, I tried to come up with what exactly a field like that would have to entail. After learning more on the subject, she stated that it was more like the barrier she was trying to penetrate had several layers to it. If ever she got through the first barrier, there was always just another, stronger barrier beneath it ready to fill in the hole. She knew it was some kind of energy, but she also knew that it felt like the barrier was always moving somehow. So that got me thinking: what can be moving at all times, but form a physical barrier at the same time? What is similar to magic, and similar to light that might act like this, but still be clear enough to see through?

The way Ramiel acts when it transforms is actually very similar to a magnetic fluid, or a ferrofluid if you’ve heard of it, as opposed to the liquid crystal it looks to be made of. When this thought came to me, I realized that what Ramiel is is not actually a solid being at all, but a liquid crystal that is constantly being manipulated by magic to form its shape. The SE field isn’t actually just a natural barrier, but the very thing that gives Ramiel the ability to move and act. I asked her yesterday to see if she remembered if the part of his body near the area of his field she attacked changing shape, and as I thought her answer was along the lines of ‘You know what? Now that you mention it, yeah.’

Going ahead with this assumption, I started making something that… will likely cause more trouble than it’s worth. That aside though, these are also the only thing that I can think of that would be able to penetrate that field without the disaster of using pure destructive force. Disruption crystals are highly illegal in not just Equestria, but around the world because of their potency in dissolving magic and the ability to weave them into metals. Alicorn magic however, is much, much more effective than a disruption crystal. To give an example...” Celestia took some of the liquid metal from her cauldron in the center of the fire and laid the orange glowin’ stuff around the top of the javelin shaft and bottom of the head, then pressed the shaft into the spear head. She spun it in her magic, makin’ that whirrin’ metallic noise again till it cooled. She then spoke some words Ah didn’t understand, and the runes along the spearhead all started ta glow with her gold magic. She gave me the spear and then formed a magic wall in some empty space of the room.

“I want you, with everything you have, to punch this wall. Trump card ready, fire on all cylinders, if you will.” Ah was about ta complain about possibly breakin’ somethin’, but by now, Ah knew better than ta question her. Damn, Ah bet this is gonna hurt. The magic block in front of me wasn’t even opaque, it was just like a wall of glowin’ solid gold. Ah’ve never even seen magic this solid before. Ah got up from my seat and stood in front of the wall, Celestia watchin’ intently as Ah let the power fill my hoof.

“Here goes nothin’!” Ah let go on the wall, and by the goddess did it hurt. The wall didn’t budge fer even a second, the force of percussion caused a wind ta bounce back and blow every piece of loose cloth and paper all over the place, and the fire behind me nearly flickered out. Ah pulled my hoof back and shook it as hard as Ah could ta try and get rid of the burnin’ pain now in my wrist. “Goddess damn it, that hurts!”

“I’ll say. I had to fortify the wall a bit more just to keep from letting you crack it. It’s hard to believe how much stronger you’ve become since I first met you almost a month ago. But that wasn’t the point of this exercise. The point is, you now know just how hard my little wall here is to break. With pure force that is. Now, take the javelin, and poke it. Lightly, as if you’re just trying to stoke a hearth.” Ah frowned. Really? Is that all it’s gonna take? Just a tap? Ah did as Ah was told, and sure enough, that was all it took. From the center of impact, as very light as it was, the spear absorbed everythin'. The wall of magic dissolved from the center out, all the gold turning inta sickly green and flowin’ inside the spear, causin’ it ta from an aura of the same color. Then Ah heard Celestia flop onta the rug behind me.

“Holy hell, what happened?” Ah panicked as Ah went ta her side. She coughed and hacked a bit, then started ta pick herself back up.

“Urp… u-unlike the disruption crystals…” she started through a pukey burp “That javelin will absorb any magic it touches. It then floods the original caster with a hearty dose of magic drain, taking as much magic away as it can store. A normal creature using any magic, this would kill as the spear itself can hold more magic than the average unicorn is capable of. Then, once the spear has drained as much magic as it can take, it can then discharge that magic if one just so happens to say the right incantation.” She put the fire out with her magic, revealin’ that there was still a ton of clean, unburned wood underneath her cauldron and then removed a section of the grate above the wood and pointed the spear at it. “I don’t recommend looking directly at this.” She warned.

She then spoke some more of that language Ah didn’t understasnd, and from the tip of the spear came a big, blindin’, green colored beam. It hit the wood and passed ta the white blocks of some kinda stone beneath and shook the ground around us like an earthquake hit, or lightnin’ struck it. Whatever the base of her fireplace is made out of must be some kinda crazy magic enhanced stuff because it survived the blast, but the wood was cauterized inta charcoal anywhere it wasn’t just a clean burn in the exact shape of the energy that just passed through it. The rest of it reignited inta ghostly blue flames, and Ah felt like my skin was searin’ just from lookin’ at it. Celestia dropped the spear and then quickly controlled the fire, dispellin’ much of that heat ta who knows where.

“Now then, as you can see, it deserves its title. This is a weapon of my race from the ancient past. One of my oldest memories is making these with my father before escaping that land with Luna and the elements. They are… terrible things that were used to do terrible things, but in this situation, I don’t know of a better way to fight back against that creature. A similar technology that isn’t nearly as potent or destructive was built into those shields Twilight stole for you all, so as strange as this sounds, you’ll be fighting Ramiel with spears and shields. If it ever comes to the point where you’re so desperate that you need to use the power of the spear’s attack itself, I will teach you, and you alone the incantation to use it. I don’t know how much the magic drain would effect that monster, but if it fires at you, between the shield and the spear, you should be able to absorb it, if only once. Since I started, I’ve made about three of these as of this one, and Rarity and Twilight are not to touch them, so five is all were going to need.

You know how dangerous these are, and you know what they can do to a pony if by accident they use magic to touch it. When we demonstrate these again today, I want you to make it very clear they are for defense and nothing else. Once Ramiel is dealt with, these will disappear and never be seen again. Something like this was never meant to exist in this world...” Celestia said as she stared deep inta the once again pleasant fire.

“Ah see. So… this is part of ‘history forgotten’ right?” Celestia nodded and sighed a long and deep sigh.

“Yes, it certainly is. You might not realize it, but I see a lot of myself in you. You are young, but intelligent. You understand what is important and that you can do things that ponies around you cannot. You take up responsibilities that aren’t yours to begin with, and you have a tendency to meddle where you’re not wanted. A drive to try and help without being asked. These are all the qualities of a leader and a good one. These are the qualities of those that ponies have celebrated as heroes and legends through the ages. Back when I was a child… those ponies were all but extinct. My kind had little love left for each other. Factions had been created, and the option to not choose a side meant death, and choosing a side meant you were loathed by anypony on the opposite side, and likely to be killed out of hate just as idiotic and unjustified as despising a color for being that color. The families of the faction heads hated each other, and sought to destroy one another. And one day… the tipping point came, and all hell broke loose.

Luna was far too young to remember, but I was merely in my teens when it finally happened. An accord was broken. Tools sealed away by our ancestors were brought back out of dormancy and loosed upon each other. My family were the last guardians of the elements and protected the gates on the faction’s borders. My parents knew that this day was coming and these spears are what my mother defended us with until she too was killed in the fighting.

My father had constructed a gate and used all the magic he’d collected in the spears to power it so that we might escape with the elements in toe. Our race didn’t have to end over a petty squabble gotten out of hoof, and without somepony to continue the line, all would be lost in a matter of hours. Before we escaped, my father gave us three edicts to follow in the new world we were going to.” Oh, Ah remember this.

“Ya mean the ones that Twilight told us in her story?” Celestia tilted her head and hummed a bit.

“Well… those are what Luna remembered back from that day. As I said, Luna was very young back then, likely no more than five or six years of age. Without the words she had yet to learn the meaning of, that is essentially what my father told us. One: do not manipulate the wills of the lower species, Two: do not mate with the lower species, and Three: do not explore other realms. However, what he actually said went more like this.

‘Now listen closely girls. Our race has made many mistakes. None worse than pitting ourselves against each other and altering the wills of our fellow pony to do our bidding. You must never treat your fellow sentient as a tool or a slave. You are not a god, and you do not have the right, even if you have the power.

In this land I’m going to send you to, you will be the most powerful beings I know of, and you mustn’t take advantage of this. You will find ponies similar to yourselves, but missing the things that make you as powerful as you are. If you consummate with them, you will continue your own race. Do not breed with reckless abandon, otherwise, the tragedy happening today may just happen again. No alicorn dies by time’s hooves, remember that.

Finally, you must avoid exploring other realms. I know you’ve learned much about our magic, and I plead that you keep it to yourself. The ponies and creatures you find in that world aren’t ready for the power you can bring them, just as we weren’t ready for the power we already had… exploring other realms lead to our downfall, and if you’re not careful, it could be yours as well.’

In a twist of fate, I ended up breaking all of these by her definitions, but not by his. In a bit of rebellion after a millennia of keeping to the rules, I wanted to understand why he said all these things, and after making my own mistakes, I now know why he said what he did. But even then… I still don’t regret it. Exploring another land showed me what opportunity and technology there is to achieve out there, and it also showed me what the love of a significant other feels like. Becoming a mother made me understand their feelings when they sent us here, and how painful it must’ve been to see us go. And tampering with the mind of another reduces them to nothing but an object, and just like he said, Nopony has the right to do that, not me or anypony else. I hate that brand, and it should never have been brought back out of discontinuation, but here we are, and as unfortunate as it is, it keeps our secrets better than any pony ever could.” Ah get that she’s been through a lot, but… why tell me? Is this just more of that show of trust?

“Well… Ah appreciate ya sharin’ all this with me, but… why me, and not say, yer daughter or somepony… well, closer, Ah guess?” She put her aura around me and levitated me ta her lap, then wrapped a big warm wing around me.

“I see more of myself in you than I do my own kin, and with that comes the same mistakes I’ve made in the past. I tell you these things in hopes that, when one day, you are confronted with a similar situation in life, that you can make a better choice than I did then. I love my daughter more than anything in the world, but she is her father’s daughter, and that makes her less prone to my own faults. You however, have proven time and time again that your gears turn at a similar speed to my own. The more you act and the more I see how you are, the more I wish I would’ve known and helped your parents back then, because I know that we could’ve been great friends. I can’t change the past, and neither can anypony else, so I devote myself to making a brighter future, and I think the future of Manehattan starts brightest with you.”

Maybe it was the warmth, maybe it was the dream she took over when we first met, maybe it was her fillin’ a void that Ah’ve had fer too long. But when she held me there like that… Ah really couldn’t think like it was anypony but my mom holdin’ me again, after all these years. It took me though waves of nostalgia, and Ah couldn’t help but let the tears flow. She’s done so much fer me, and Ah don’t know how Ah could ever repay her. Do Ah really deserve this kinda kindness, after everythin’ Ah’ve done? We sat there together fer Ah don’t know how long as she quietly hummed what reminded me of a familiar lullaby until Ah fell asleep. When Ah came to, she’d had my mom’s pancakes made and we ate breakfast.

“So, if the God Slayers can’t be touched with magic, how are we gonna get back ta the castle before noon? Unless ya’ve got a plane sittin’ around somewhere, we can’t really get ta Manehattan in under three hours, and it’s already nine. And then there’s the spectacle of the princess arrivin’ in Manehattan unannounced with a bunch of spears and some earth pony nopony knows…” Celestia laughed with a fork in her mouth, then covered it with a hoof.

“I think you may be forgetting something, but I’ll explain a few of the secrets behind it too. Alicorns are what would essentially be the perfect hybrid of all three pony races with an extended magical ability. However, with the earth pony traits we have, all of our physical structures work purely on naturally enhanced muscle. Ponies, by nature, rely on the help of magic to fly. Alicorns on the other hoof…” She said as she flexed her wing… and the rest of her. Ya would never think she was bulky if ya looked at her. She’s also real soft and pretty ta the point that one would suspect that magic is at play. But no, when she flexed, she might just put a body builder ta shame.

“Oh, right. Wings. Uh…” Ah swallowed. “Can… can we hoof wrestle? Ah just… Ah just have ta know.” She giggled through a breath.

“Sure, but don’t be surprised if you win. What made alicorns so fearsome was our magic, not our physical strength. This is the result of nearly two thousand years of physical exercise and training, not of any special magic.” We moved aside our plates and she put her massive pristine hoof in front of me. The average pony is about 1.2 meters tall from withers ta shoulders. Celestia was well over two meters. Save fer exceptionally big stallions like my brother, Celestia dwarfs most ponies, and her sister is only a little shorter than she is. Ah locked my comparably tiny hoof around her wrist and mentally prepared myself fer the force Ah was gonna feel.

“Alright… 3… 2… 1… Go!” Ah immediately felt the very heavy weight of her hoof on mine. If Ah had ta compare it ta anythin’, it was almost like wrestlin’ Goose, if just a bit weaker. She looked like she was really tryin’ too, and once Ah saw the faintest flicker of gold by her horn, Ah immediately put her down.

“Good goddess… Ah never knew…” Celestia laughed and picked herself off the table.

“Of course you didn’t. I doubt many ponies still alive know how much physical strength I possess. Unlike you however, I don’t have the added benefit of being able to punch clean through stone without breaking my hooves and bones in the process, let alone steel and even harder substances. It’s also probably a good thing you ended it when you did. I really do hate to lose.” She finished her last bit of pancake and moved to collect the spears.

“As much as ponies like to believe it, magic cannot solve everything, and nothing comes without cost. Were you and I, or you and Luna, goddess forbid, to ever get into a hoof fight where magic wasn’t possible, there’s a good chance you would win. We were put in that kind of situation once, and ever since then, we’ve kept up with training our bodies to make sure we are never completely reliant on magic again. In any case, it’s getting late. I wanted to be at the castle half an hour ago, but forty-eight hours is far too long to go without eating something, and we need you in tip top shape today!” Celestia said as we exited the room. Ah had ta kinda shield my eyes from the brightness that was this hallway.

By the view of the bright and vibrant circular town, or really city below this balcony, Ah guessed that we were in a very high part of Canterlot castle. Of course, she told me we were higher in the air than Cloudsdale is on average, but Ah’d never been on top of a mountain, and my body adjusted ta it without my knowin’ it happened. There was polished white floor all around with intricate violet and gold designs, gold bar railin’ with spiralin’ violet ribbons that rose from the floor ta the top of the rail, sectionin’ it off at each segment. The halls were lined with half oval shaped out croppin’s that alternated between bein’ filled with violet and yellow flowers and what looked like turned off lights.

“If you’re wondering, we are currently about five and a half miles above sea level. You might ask, ‘why isn’t it unbearably cold?’ and that is because of the mountain we rest on. Once upon a time, this place was sitting on what’s known as a hot spot for billions of years, and doesn’t move very much in the grand scheme of mantle convection currents, as it spins in place while the other plates grind and twist against it. Because of the mountain being so close to the center of the continental plate, it’s very unusual to have earthquakes here, as opposed to the outer edges of Equestria where it’s a common occurrence. This particular plate in the earth’s crust happens to be flush with magic as well, so the entire continent is typically of mild climate. The mountain itself is also a well of magic, which makes it easy to alter the atmosphere that passes through here and keep it nice year round. The sky cities work in the same way thanks to pegasus magic and their naturally high cold resistance. Anyways, go ahead and hop on my back.” We approached an outstretched dock in the air, and Celestia stretched her massive white wings.

“Uh… sure…” She was holdin’ the spears, so magic was not an option fer her right now. A hefty jump later, Ah clumsily landed on the Princess’ hips so not ta hinder her wings as best Ah could. She rolled her eyes and huffed, then pushed me up ta the small of her back right next ta her shoulders.

“I promise, you are not the first pony to ride along as I fly. Surely you remember that I have a daughter and a younger sister who was a small child once, don’t you?” she said a bit irritated.

“Uh, yes ma’am.” Good goddess, this is awkward. With me on her back, Celestia walked ta the edge of the dock and stood. The wind was kinda crazy up this high, and while she just stood there like it was nothin’, Ah was developin’ a fear of heights. She unfurled both her wings ta full extent, and only then did Ah realize just how big she was. If she almost doubled the average pony in height, her wings were twice her height in length includin’ the tip of her horn. Ponies need magic ta fly and she doesn’t!? No wonder, ya could hide a damn pillar with these thin’s!

Ah felt the muscles around her back suddenly flex and Ah wrapped myself around her fer dear life. With an impressive force, Celestia’s wings flapped and just about shot us inta the air like a rocket. In mere seconds, Canterlot was well behind us and we were over the base of the mountain. With every flap of her massive wings we gained speed until Ah could see a cone of white form around her horn.

“Get ready, we’re about to break the sound barrier!” Celestia yelled, barely audible in the violent wind around me. Ah clung a little harder ta her body, and then suddenly, a giant explosion of followed. Then… relative silence. Everythin’ was calm in this strange cone of transparent air that formed around Celestia. So calm, Ah couldn’t hear anythin’. Or breathe. Why can’t Ah breathe? Ah started feelin’ my throat compress and my chest get tighter than it already was. Celestia did a quick double take with her eyes at me and then started ta slow down. Ah passed back through the cone and suddenly Ah could take a breath again amid all the noise. My vision started ta return in the second Ah lost it, and sure enough, Manehattan was maybe a couple miles away.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry.” Celestia apologized, although it sounded far away. Ah coughed and hacked a little, but Ah could breathe now, and that’s what mattered.

“Uh, it’s fine. What in the hell just happened?” We started ta slow down more as Manehattan continued ta grow closer.

“I went supersonic on accident. Hoof wrestling you is about the hardest I’ve pushed my muscles in a very long time, so without putting much thought into it, I pushed my wings as well. I had forgotten how fast I can fly without magic. Going that fast without a strong sound protection spell is dangerous, not just to me but to everything around me. Had I thought a little more, I would never have done it. I sincerely hope I never passed over any populated areas, otherwise there’s going to be even more bills to pay and hearing damage complaints… I’m just thankful that you’re so resilient, otherwise I might have killed you on accident.” She gave me a toothy apologetic smile and Ah rolled my eyes.

“If Ah’d known ya were gonna do that, Ah would had ya send me ta the castle with yer magic before ya left yerself.” Ah said with a sarcastic tone. “If we’d kept goin’ like that, how quick would we have made it ta the castle? Ah know we haven’t been in the air very long.” Celestia put a hoof ta her mouth as our approach continued ta slow and Manehattan became much, much closer.

“If I had to guess, that was slow to the middle of supersonic, likely just below the center of that speed class, somewhere around mach one and a half. With magic, the best I can do is just under the hyper sonic class, or mach five. To put those in terms you would understand, when the cone started to form, we were at the edge of trans-sonic or about 900 miles per hour. Once the cone was complete, it was closer to 1000. I know that without assistance, I can reach mach two if I’m pushing my hardest, so I’d say we made it to somewhere around 1500 miles per hour. Doing the proper math requires me to have access to variables I don’t know but in any case, that puts us at Manehattan in about fifteen minutes.” She said. We were now over Manehattan, and Celestia started ta decrease in altitude. The gaps between flaps were getting longer as she came ta a still very fast but glidin’ speed. The buildin’s and homes below raced by as we approached the forest.

“So, how did ya figure that out? Ah figure ‘how fast can ya run’ isn’t a question anypony usually knows off the top of their heads.” Celestia sighed.

“Well, to be honest, it was when Twilight was kidnapped twelve years ago. I didn’t care or think about sound protection once I found her location, and I couldn’t just warp to her because I didn’t understand her powers at the time. The problems with me doing that were plenty and took a great sum of bits to repair. Not only did I go mach two above a populated area, but I did this in Manehattan. I broke nearly half the windows in the city, and ruined a great amount of glassware not hidden in cabinets.” Celestia hung her head and sighed as we came ta a landin’ in the forest clearin’ just after we passed the barrier. Speakin’ of which, Ah noticed it flicker as the spears passed through, and one of em’ became fully charged while we did.

“Uh oh.” Ah let out. Celestia followed my eyes ta the glowin’ spear hangin’ off her neck.

“Oh dear. I forgot about the barrier. Goodness, I’m glad they weren’t all charged by it. Damn it, that means we’ll have to carry them through all at the same time and very quickly so they don’t just accumulate magic. I sure hope Pinkie can keep up her speed with all of this gold filled steel on her back… Ugh, just another problem to deal with. I had to replace a whole Mǎnese porcelain shop back then, and they still harbor negative feelings every time I visit little Mǎ as myself. Do you know how hard it is to learn their cooking techniques when they refuse to let me in? And of course to make matters worse, Twilight just loves Mǎnese cooking, and she hardly ever wants anything Equestrian that I know how to make.” Celestia stamped a gold clad hoof into the ground and sighed. Ah put a hoof on her back and rubbed soft circles on her shoulders.

“Maybe you should get some rest, huh?” Celestia laughed a bit and took a deep breath.

“No, no, I still need to be awake, at least till the end of the day. Ninety-six hours without sleep is nothing new to me anyways, I can keep going for another forty-eight if I have to. Once Ramiel is dealt with, then I’ll be willing to take my rest.” Ah tilted my head.

“Wait. How do ya know it’s gonna be him and not any of the others?” Celestia shrugged.

“Call it a mare’s intuition, but based on everything we’ve seen so far, I believe this would be the next stepping stone for us to overcome in Persona’s mind. If it were me, I would want to find the Original at all costs, but only when I am desperate would I play my best cards. If Matarael does what Rainbow suspects, then I would only use that as my last option, but this Sahaquiel character makes me nervous. If hope had been lost and I simply wanted to destroy, then that’s when I would use him. I think Persona knows that Sahaquiel would be a bad pick to actually try and find the Original, so he wouldn’t send him out as anything but to clear the way to look for it himself. Think about it like chess. In order of importance, you sacrifice your pieces from lowest importance to highest importance, and only when you must to gain advantage. Persona suffers the least losses if his bishop is defeated over his knight, so now that he’s lost a pawn and a rook, that’s what he sends in next.

Of course, on the off chance he surprises me I’ll simply grab my other plan for Matarael. And if it’s Sahaquiel… then may the goddess help you. We are not prepared for that, and he may just kill most of you in the process. But I think those chances are slim to none. Anyways, we should move along. The others are waiting for you.” We headed toward the main door, and fer a minute there, Ah felt like Ah was comin' home. Yeah. And honestly? Ah think I’ve been waitin’ ta see them too.