The Folly Of Princesses

by Steel Resolve

Chapter 9: Butterfly Migration

In battle, the goal is, at its core, to get the other being to stop attacking you.

This was, of course, the most simplistic way to describe it, but it was one that Celestia held true to whenever forced into a situation in which she had to fight another being. Her goal was never to injure, or to kill, but to end hostility in whatever way she needed to.

What she was engaging in with her nightmares was therefore not a battle, but wholesale slaughter.

The creatures of nightmare gave no quarter and asked for none. They came at her from all sides, attacking in what could only be described as a flood. She in turn did not so much attack or defend as she did carve a path through the horror.

She was aware, somewhere in the back of her mind, that what she was attacking was not pony, nor even griffon or dragon or yak. It was good to remember as she cleaved through a royal guardspony with blood red eyes and a greyed out mane and coat. She chanted it in her head as the two halves burned away in her sword’s wake. She knew the stallion well. His father, grandfather, and great grandfather going back at least seven generations had all been guards before him; he had recently married and his wife was expecting. She had even approved his promotion last month.

Somewhere to the left of her, Astra’s voice cried out in delight. “That’s one thousand two hundred and three! How many are you up to?”

“I’m afraid I stopped counting around the time I cleared out the majority of the griffon forces,” Celestia replied. She threw up a wall of force to keep the rest of the horde from coming any closer, if only to spare herself more unpleasant recognitions.

“How am I meant to know if I am winning, then?” Astra replied, blocking a blast with her golden shield while thrusting her lance into the breastplate of a charging earthpony.

Celestia finished casting the spell she’d been crafting, and the center of a horde of Sombra’s Crystal Forces approaching from the west erupted into flames the height of grown trees. “I think I may have pulled ahead again with that one,” she said with a sigh.

Astra groaned loudly. “Must you take the fun out of everything?”

Celestia’s mouth quirked up into a half smile. “We’ll call that eight hundred as a rough estimate. I’m afraid I didn’t have time to do a more accurate count. That makes fifteen hundred or so.”

“Yes, but you’re cheating! I thought we agreed we’d strictly be fighting hoof to hoof and blade to blade.”

“We never discussed how to fend them off at all!” Celestia protested, sending her molten blade spinning into and through a line of spearponies advancing on her flank.

“It was implicit!” Astra demanded. “If we’re going to be tossing off spells I’ll need to figure out how you cast them from your memories and that will add precious seconds because I’ve no wish to just make things happen in place of spells, that would be cheating myself!”

Celestia’s ears perked up. “Wait... you’re saying you could simply cause explosions without the spell casting necessary?”

“Of course! I’ve already told you, I’m a being of pure thought, this realm responds to that very easily, but that would be cheat—”

“Then cheat, for the love of the sun!” Celestia bellowed. “Clear out some of these—”

In a wide radius around her, roughly four similar sized explosions to the one Celestia had caused went off, decimating the forces centered near them and leaving a large swath of charred battlefield between them and their aggressors.

“We’re not counting those,” Astra declared with a surly tone.

“As you wish,” Celestia replied.

Astra took a moment to fly to her side, observing the steadily advancing armies as they closed in. “I suppose I can’t properly experience terror, since I don’t really fear this form being hurt, but why were you having such trouble when this happened before? I find this rather fun!”

“It wasn’t like this,” Celestia answered. “I was younger, I’d just lost my sister, and that alone made me feel so unsure. I ran, and flew, and only fought when cornered.” She gave Astra a brief but heartfelt smile. “And I had no allies to defend me.”

“And you couldn’t have imagined armies of your own?” Astra pressed, answering Celestia’s smile with a cocky smirk.

“I would never have pictured commanding armies at all. My sister and I were the most reluctant sort of rulers, then. One thousand years of building a government, training guards... even if only for basic defense as they rarely see oppositional forces... it changes your mindset. I’ve fought every single one of these forces in the past, but it’s all been in the more recent time after I lost Luna.”

“I suppose you have matured just a little in that time.” Astra replied.

Celestia chuckled, then coughed as a cloud of ashes that had previously been her third regiment blew past them. “Just a little.”

Astra looked all around at the advancing masses. “This doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.”

“Getting bored?” Celestia replied as glibly as she could under the circumstances.

“Hardly. But I think I’m beginning to understand the concept of hopelessness better. Which is a bit odd, as I was born from hopes and dreams being repeatedly dashed. I’m all hope and want. But this... yes. I think I see now.” She rapped her spear against her shield, her countenance firming into grim resolution. “Fine, let’s face your fears, Celestia.”

She charged forward, a streak of gold and white shouting promises of violence and fury. Celestia watched her charge with her brows high in surprise, then followed, aiming for a giant hulking minotaur brandishing what looked like a stone pillar as a club.

She expected some show of defiance from the ones in front of him, after all, he was clearly a warleader of sorts and would have a squad around him for defence. Instead she found a sea of frozen fury glaring at her, unmoving and silent.

Astra was some distance away, almost looking like she was dancing as she tore through the similar lack of opposition as if through tissue paper. She too stopped after a moment, surprised and looking somewhat unnerved by the oddness of it.

They mutually returned to each other’s side and away from the frozen armies after a few moments.

“Are time outs a thing in war?” Astra hissed in undertone when she was within hearing distance once more.

“Not in any that I have participated in,” Celestia replied. She frowned, uncertain if she could even afford a sigh of relief without knowing how long her respite was going to last. She threw up a shield around the two of them, just in case it was some sort of trick.

After a few moments, she let the shield fall once more. She approached the Crystal Army, still shuddering at seeing the slave helms that robbed them of any expression and turned even the most innocent into a mindless machine of war. They seemed to be in mid charge, only two of their hooves touching the ground in what would seem a horrible position to even attempt to balance in.

“Discord’s gone!” Astra called out from the other side of their self made clearing.

Celestia turned, and found Astra pointing downward from above at the nightmarish Discord grappling with open air, his foe having apparently fled. This didn’t surprise Celestia, as it had been a surprise that he was willing to help at all, but it also seemed to indicate that the friendlier statue version of Discord had left the battle after all of their foes had spontaneously gone immobile.

A bright flash of light in the sky above caught her attention, and she looked up at its source to see her sister hovering above them.

“What do we do now?” Astra asked.

Celestia flew upwards to meet her sister, not even stopping to consider whether this too might be one of her nightmares. She knew of only one pony who could so affect another’s dreams.

---

Luna had finished creating a nice cloud upon which to stand by the time Celestia finished her ascent, and she smiled and embraced her sister as she landed. “Tia! You should have sent word, I would have watched over your dream personally.”

“It was a spontaneous decision,” Celestia replied, returning the embrace.

Luna eyed her curiously after they’d separated, then responded: “Really? That’s rare, from you.”

A mere moment later found them joined by the younger looking version of her sister, who landed in a bit of a tumble of limbs and wings, coming to rest at Luna’s feet. She spat out a tuft of cloud, grinning up at Luna. “I know! She did some selfish and impulsive things! It was glorious!” She hopped to her feet, her wings still outstretched in apparent excitement as she lifted a hoof and pointed at Luna. “She came, Celestia! Just like you said she would!”

Luna looked at what she could only describe as her younger sister with consternation, then found her own face lit with an equally bright smile. “Celestia? What am I looking at, exactly?”

The little one frowned, piping up in a sudden fit of pique. “Hey! I have a name, you know! And I think that qualifies me as a ‘who’, not a ‘what’.” she frowned in sudden thought. “Actually, you probably wouldn’t know. I didn’t have one the last time you saw me! It’s Astra, I picked it myself!”

Luna’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “I... see?”

“Astra is my own personal little madness,” Celestia said conversationally. “We called her Fiend when we first encountered her in my dreams.”

“Oh!” Luna said, appraising the smaller Alicorn anew. “I remember you being bigger,” she said after a moment.

‘Astra’ stuck out her tongue playfully, “I’m not anything at all, really. But I like this body. It’s quick and light! Plus I can do this!” she said, hopping in place and apparently expecting the surface of the cloud rebound her. She looked down in evident disappointment. “Beds are nicer for it. Clouds are surprisingly solid.”

Luna nodded sagely, “Stratus always are. If you want a good bounce you need a cumulus. They are very fluffy.”

Astra’s eyes grew round with wonder. She peeked out over the edge, scanning the surrounding sky. “Really?” she whispered.

“Pegasus beds are crafted from them.” Luna replied, nodding knowingly. She too knew the joy of a good bounce. “ ‘Tis softer than the finest down, and springy as a sponge cake.”

Astra turned back to Celestia, “Tia, can we please—”

“Another time, Astra,” Celestia answered wearily. “I need to speak with Luna.”

Astra pouted, but didn’t argue, muttering about ‘holding Celestia to her promise’. She sat down heavily on her rump, looking at Luna expectantly. “All right,” she said with a little huff.

Luna gave her sister a curious look, then sat down herself. “I’m going to guess it’s something important if you were willing to brave nightmares to get my attention. You could have just sent dragonfire, after all.”

“That one is still a little taxing,” Celestia admitted sheepishly. “And in fairness, I wasn’t expecting such a difficult time.”

“She was expecting to shake you awake somehow,” Astra said with a chuckle. “How that was supposed to work, I have no idea.”

Luna nodded, still looking at Celestia expectantly, “Speaking to the moon might have been more effective, but a representation of me would have gotten the attention of one of my selves. Intent has power, here.”

“So, wait...” Astra replied, cocking her head to one side. “The silly idea would have worked?”

“It’s not silly!” A smaller and younger-looking Luna said as she landed on the cloud with a pompf. “Dreams just have their own rules.”

Luna’s mouth quirked up in annoyance. “Figment, I told you to get out of sight.”

“Well then, tell her to stop being wrong!” Figment said insistently as it pointed at Astra. “I’m not the one coming into somepony else’s dream and trying to tell them how their world is supposed to work.”

“Hey!” Astra protested. “It’s not my fault if your silly dream logic is silly!” She stuck out her tongue at Figment and blew a raspberry.

Figment’s expression grew surprised and upset, her little wings raising in a posture of imminent violence. “I just said—”

“Figment!” Luna said sharply. “Stop that at once.”

Figment’s mouth snapped shut, her wings dropping to her side and ears laying back in dismay. “I didn’t mean—”

A quick but meaningful frown was all it took to silence Luna’s virtual doppelganger.

Luna sighed, smiling apologetically at Celestia. “Forgive this little one’s impertinence, sister. Figment means well, but should know better than to make a nuisance of itself.”

It was Celestia’s turn to look nonplussed, and she did so, looking down on the tiny blue alicorn and asking: “A little friend, I presume?”

“A figment,” Luna explained. “Inhabitants of the Dreamscape. They enjoy acting as impetus for ponies in our dreams, shaping themselves to our memories, becoming parts in the play of our mind. This one was tasked to watch for you, and keep you safe from nightmares. It was not tasked to argue with its betters.”

“She’s not better than me!” Figment protested vehemently, pointing at Astra.

Celestia frowned. “And she does this while taking your form?”

“I wasn’t in this form!” Figment protested. “But the princess said I am not allowed to use the other form I used anymore.” she pouted momentarily. “I thought that one was fun, although holding still all the time wasn’t. But I did get to fight off an army!”

Celestia looked surprised at this revelation, giving Figment a grateful smile. “I see. You stayed in character very well, little one.”

“I told you she liked it!” Figment crowed in triumph. She hopped around in a circle, looking very pleased with herself. Astra watched with evident interest.

Luna shook her head incredulously. “Yes, well, I still haven’t heard what was so important. But perhaps let’s sojourn to a place not filled with ravening hordes.” She opened a door in midair, gesturing to her garden beyond. “Hurry through. I’m not entirely sure I know how I’m holding them still and I would hate to be interrupted further.”

Astra went first, emulating Figment’s pronking with obvious pleasure. Celestia eyed the door for a moment, then stepped through herself. Luna was last, stopping at the threshold for a moment to halt Figment from joining them.

“Go and rest, little one. The night comes apace from now, and others will need your aid.”

Figment frowned, looking ready to protest, which was a little disconcerting as it was still maintaining the look of Luna’s younger self. After a moment it nodded. It gave her a look of determination before it allowed its form to dissipate into stardust, after which Luna shut the door behind her.

---

“Darling, we’re going to fall behind.” Rarity called back to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was engaged in a staring contest,and had been for some time. She was not making any headway, due to the fact that her opponent did not possess the capacity to blink. It was not going to end well for her. The unknowing opponent was dressed in a rather plain dress and was also threatening Fluttershy’s title for the quiet game. Of course, no judge would ever rule in favor of a painting, but Fluttershy seemed to be determined to defend her title nonetheless.

Fluttershy eventually turned away, trotting after Rarity. Perhaps she had silently declared herself the winner. “I like her smile,” she announced sporting one that was similar enough to the painting as to be uncanny.

“She’s known for that, yes,” Rarity replied with a smile of her own.

All around them ponies gathered in little groups, some led by tour guides like their own, some on self-guided tours. Here and there she could see groups of Griffons, which, while not as numerous as the ponies, were in large enough numbers as to blend in quite well themselves. Rarity suspected that mix might be the reason for the omnivorous diet to be found in most of Prance.

There was little of red meat to be found in the local cuisine (and thank goodness, as it would have greatly concerned her marefriend as to the source) but fish, both fresh and saltwater, variety seemed to be staples. Fruits, vegetables and grains were thankfully in attendanceas well, but one did like to attempt new dishes on occasion.

There was a lot to see in Mareis, and indeed, they’d seen much in the week that they’d spent there so far. And yet...

More than anything, she wished she could kiss her sister good night, or absently pet Opal while working on a sketch.

She felt thoroughly ungrateful for these thoughts, as this trip and all the bits they were using for various souvenirs and extravagences were all being afforded to them by Fluttershy’s impressively large bank balance. No assurances of not needing the money for ‘much of anything, really’ could dissuade Rarity from her feelings of guilt. And sadly, no feelings of guilt could quite make the feelings of homesickness go away.

Mareis definitely had its appeal. It was the city of love, and lights. The culture of the ancient world, the couture that continued to shape the rest of the world’s. The museums, the restaurants, Mareis had everything.

Everything except... her sister, and her perpetually hard-to-please cat, and her dreadfully tacky parents in their dreadfully tacky home. And her other four best friends. And her little shop where she could create some of the things she’d been dreaming about for the last week and had filled her sketchbooks with, and—

“Rarity?”

Rarity slapped a smile on her face and turned back to Fluttershy quickly. “Yes, darling?”

Fluttershy had stopped in front of another painting, a rather famous piece by a pegasus painter called Many Clouds, who had spent much of his life painting scenes of large gatherings from his perch atop his namesake. It was a scene of ponies and griffons having a picnic near a lakeside, the foals and griffon cubs frollicing with their friends and respective pets.

Her darling seemed a bit fixated on the pets, and when she turned to Rarity she seemed a bit apprehensive. “Rarity... um... can I tell you something without you getting too mad?”

Rarity cocked her head to one side in confusion, uncertain what exactly Fluttershy could have been worried about but doing her best not to treat her newly wedded wife’s worries without a proper respect, even if it might possibly upset her. “Of course, Darling!”

Fluttershy took a deep breath, glancing back at the painting for a moment before looking at Rarity once more. “Would... would you mind if we maybe went back home for just a little while? I know we said two weeks but I’m worried about Angel and all my friends at home and I would really feel better if we could visit for a while, then maybe come back here, or go anywhere else you wanted, really.” She exhaled as she finished, looking slightly relieved to have said it, but still a bit nervous to see Rarity’s reaction. “Please?" She added.

Rarity simply looked at Fluttershy for a long moment, then broke out in a brilliant smile. “Darling, of course we can! Truthfully I’ve been struggling with a bit of homesickness myself, but I didn’t want to mention it because I didn’t want to spoil the mood!”

Fluttershy rushed forward and hugged Rarity tightly. “Thank you! And it’s okay, you don’t have to make me feel better. I just... I get worried, and I didn’t want that to keep distracting me—”

“Darling, I wasn’t lying, truthfully the last couple of evenings the only thing I have wanted as much as being at your side at night was to kiss my baby sister goodnight! I only hope my parents haven’t been letting her cook, and Celestia only knows how Opal is faring—”

Fluttershy pecked her lightly on the cheek, then shook her head. “You’re so nice. It’s okay, really. Let’s just enjoy the rest of our day here and I’ll book us an airship back home when we get to the hotel.”

Rarity thought to protest further, but wisely kept it to herself. If Fluttershy wished to believe she was exaggerating her own worries, it certainly hurt nothing to let her. “And this won’t cause you too much extra expense?” Rarity asked instead. She’d done her very best not to concern herself with the cost of this trip at Fluttershy’s insistence, but even having seen the sheer volume of Fluttershy’s accumulated payments from the carrot juice company for the continued use of her image as their mascot (she still remembered the mixed look of fear and delight that had been on the bank manager’s face as they wheeled the carts full of bits inside), she felt they must have made a serious dent by now.

Fluttershy laughed lightly. “Actually, after I sent Ms. Photo Finish a letter to thank her for all of their payments and explained I was using the money to go on honeymoon, she wrote me back with their best wishes, and they sent along another much bigger check as a wedding present.” she sighed. “They’re really too nice.”

Rarity opened and closed her mouth wordlessly, keeping her thoughts to herself. She knew very well about how embarrassed her new wife was with regards to the unexpected (and largely unwanted) largess of her benefactor. Fluttershy just seemed happy to have some reason to spend some of it, and Rarity felt it would be incredibly ungrateful to express any sort of jealousy over Fluttershy’s income while she was on a trip paid entirely by it.

Yet, as a mare who considered her success largely self-made, seeing somepony stumble into fortune by sheer happenstance made her just a smidge envious, despite herself. She consoled herself yet again with the reminder that money was, in and of itself, merely a tool, not a measure of success.

It was not an attitude many of her peers in the industry shared, but she herself wanted ponies knowing her work, and valued that over mere income.

Still, bits did help in many situations.

She took a look around at the majesty before her. She’d dreamed of seeing this city since she was a foal, but had never imagined actually getting to do so. The idea of leaving without seeing every little bit of it would have been something her younger self would have protested endlessly.

Fluttershy smiled at her shyly as she met her gaze once more.

Mareis was wonderful, and there were many sights left to see. But it could wait awhile.

“We... um... we’ll need to pack in the morning, but... we still have the suite tonight, with that great big fluffy bed... I can have room service bring us something nice for dinner, and then we could maybe...” Fluttershy blushed hotly.

Rarity nodded wordlessly.

Mareis was lovely, but it could wait a while. She promised her younger self they would return soon, and then allowed herself to stop worrying about it.

Fluttershy kissed her softly on the cheek as she laid a wing over her back. “Thank you,” she whispered breathily.

It was an old city, and could take care of itself until she returned. Rarity had other things to worry about.

This was a honeymoon, after all.

---

Pinkie Pie was unreasonably happy.

Which wasn’t to say she was happy beyond reason, that would be silly. She was just so happy that nothing could reasonably make her not happy. Not even a silly bunny throwing carrots at her.

Which was a good thing, because she had a silly bunny and his silly bunny friends throwing a lot of carrots in her direction.

“Silly Angel, carrots are for eating, not throwing!” Pinkie said as she caught them all easily in the baskets she’d brought them in. “Fluttershy would be very upset with you right now!”

The fact that Fluttershy was not there to be upset with him was most likely the reason for all the flying produce. But unfortunately there wasn’t much Pinkie could do about that, as Fluttershy and Rarity were still half a world away on their honeymoon.

Being a good friend, she had of course promised to make sure to check on Fluttershy’s animal friends daily while the two of them were gone. She shared this chore with Sweetie Belle, who had been by earlier in the morning, but had been unsuccessful in her attempts to enter the house. This was due to the aforementioned silly bunny who seemed to think making his temporary caretakers upset would bring his primary one back more quickly.

Thinking about that for more than a moment threatened to make Pinkie unreasonably sad, so she quickly thought about how happy Angel would be to see Fluttershy again when she did come home. It helped her keep her spirits up when one of the carrots got stuck in her mane and she had to shake it out, then was forced to gather up the bowling ball, tea set, and detective’s hat that tumbled out after it.

It reminded her that she was due to take inventory in there soon. Also, that she hadn’t been bowling in a while.

Angel stuck out his tongue at Pinkie, but he waved off the assault, looking pouty as he did so. Pinkie, not one to be a sore winner, carried the baskets of produce back to the bowls, doling out carrots to everybunny, even adding a little sprig of parsley to Angel’s dish because Fluttershy had insisted it would make him happy. It didn’t seem to be working, but Pinkie knew why, at least.

“I’m really sorry she’s gone, critters. She’ll be back before you know it, Pinkie Swear.”

Angel offered no further response, picking up a carrot and chewing on it with a look of dejection.

Pinkie decided to let him be, reasoning that it was the most positivity she was likely to see from him under the circumstances.

Feeding the rest of the animals in the house proved much easier, and of course Sweetie had already fed the animals outside, though Pinkie did check on them to make sure their water and feed were still full.

She hummed a little tune on the way back to the market. It was one of several thousand songs bouncing around in her head at all times. Most of them didn’t have words, but could easily have them added for the right occasion. Words were for other ponies, of course. Pinkie didn’t need them to know what her songs were about.

This one was about how happy shopping made her, how much she looked forward to combining the ingredients she was buying into foods for Twilight, Celly, and herself to eat, and how it was a little sad that she wasn’t making food for more of her friends, but also of how she looked forward to throwing them welcome home parties soon. She wasn’t entirely sure how she would have put those feelings to words, but she’d done more with less when put on the spot.

Shopping finished, she pronked home with her saddlebags laden with the fruits she hadn’t found in Twilight’s kitchen, more vegetables for salads, and lots of baking ingredients so that she and Celly could bake together. She had this one she wanted to try with chocolate chips and vanilla and lots of butter and sugar—

She stopped mid-pronk, struck with a curious sensation. She was a mare who could meticulously schedule parties for all of her friends and family. She had dates and times memorized and entire files on everypony she knew, but even she couldn’t necessarily account for every little wrinkle that might happen in a pony’s life.

The sensation was one she rarely felt, but had come to identify after the fact. A little twinge in the frog of her left hindfoot, and a pinch in her right forearm. It meant she needed to be ready to throw a party a little earlier than she’d planned.

Her feet hit the ground with a dull thud. She didn’t have many parties planned in the near future. There was Berry Punch’s birthday in two weeks, Cheerilee’s the week after that, followed by a whole lot more in the months that followed.

Really, the only two she had really soon were welcoming home Dashie and Applejack in a few days, then Rarity and Fluttershy the week after...

She gasped, and the little frown that had been finding purchase on her face as she thought fell off into the dust at her feet, to be replaced with one of the biggest smiles she’d sported so far today.

She couldn’t be sure, because her combo predictions weren’t very exact, but she had a hunch maybe somebunny would get to see his pony sooner than expected.

Comments

[Wydril]

As soon as I saw this chapter get published, I freaked out and thought I had lost two weeks.

[Steel Resolve]

9682345
Nope, I did. I missed my self imposed deadline, but I still needed to have it looked over and edited.

[Wydril]

9682347
I legitimately looked at my calendar to be sure of what day it was. It's good to see Fluttershy remembered her lesson from Green Isn't Your Color (irony) even if Rarity didn't. It would have been cute to see Figment and Astra doing a skit as younger versions of the sisters, maybe another time? Generally a lot of comfy fuzzies.

[Yami Vizzini]

Ooh, more than one long-awaited return here!

[Bloody_Tofu]

Awww. Those two are so cute together.