Part 3 – Every Last Thing
When Celestia finally alighted on the eastern balcony, the mood in the Hall of Dawn and Dusk was, predictably, something that might charitably be called organised panic. Her approach must have been spotted, because groups of worried looking ponies were already shuffling in.
Her golden shoes, freshly recovered along with the rest of her regalia, clicked down on marble floor and she allowed her momentum to carry her smoothly over to the centre of the room where the sandglasses sat.
“Auspex?” she said.
“Um,” the Auspex replied, fumbling slightly. It was still Fern. He was probably doing the early morning shifts all this week. “An hour, twenty three minutes to sunrise.”
“Good,” Celestia said, finishing an exaggerated inspection of this cycle’s sandglass and at last looking at the assembled mass of ponies as if seeing them for the first time. “Not meaning to pry, but I would have thought many of you would be at home, asleep, by now?”
Reassuring her staff sufficiently that they went home was not that simple, but it wasn't too difficult either. Most didn't know what was coming in nine days' time. Of course, those who did were harder to placate.
“Your Highness,” Quill said, bowing his head as he and Captain Whiskey approached. He hid it well, but Celestia could see real anxiety. “We need to talk about…” He glanced about the Hall. Ponies were filing out in ones and twos. “But perhaps not here.”
Celestia suppressed a grimace. “How widely are things known?”
“Don’t worry, we swore everypony to secrecy,” Whiskey said, and Celestia relaxed a little internally. “Didn’t want a panic starting.”
“Quite,” added Quill. “That was one point the Captain and I were able to agree on.”
With a gesture of the wing, Celestia lead them out onto the empty eastern balcony where they would be able to speak more freely.
“Dunno how long its going to last though,” Whiskey said as they stepped out into the cool night air. “I gave the guard their marching orders. Observers have been stationed. We're on schedule. In fact…”
This was the moment, the moment where she would put her desires above those of Equestria. It was a betrayal, a betrayal of her subjects and everything she and Luna had worked to build.
A glance up at the sky was enough. The moon was not visible from the east balcony at this time, but she knew the sight of it well enough.
“There will be no battle between myself and Nightmare Moon.” She dropped the statement like a fallen star.
“What!” Whiskey's exclaimed through the empty streets of pre-dawn Canterlot. Quill did little better, although his should wasn't quite so loud.
“Well, I’m all for fighting battles that never happen…” Whiskey remarked carefully.
“Is this wise, your Majesty?”
Celestia ignored them. “Quill, if you could take down an agenda for a meeting this afternoon? Same attendees as yesterday.”
Quill nodded, horn glowing as he summoned his writing materials.
“Firstly, I’m moving the Summer Sun Celebration to Ponyvilie. The mayor of Manehatten isn’t going to like that, and I’m going to need a pony to keep her occupied with excuses. Next, I’m going to need a company of guards equipped to escort civilians into the deep Everfree...”
The eyes of two of her most loyal subjects slowly widened as the list grew. When she was done, both seemed to be having trouble finding their voices. Then, remembering the hour, she ordered them to sleep.
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Celestia's mouth opened wide into a deep yawn of its own accord as she made her way into the Gardens. She should have followed her own orders and gone sleep the moment the sun was in the sky. She would, just after Twilight’s lesson. She could have cancelled it, and had been sorely tempted to do so. Her wings were leaden, she hadn’t slept for a full day-night cycle, and she felt drained from her conversation with Inanna. But some stubborn part of her refused to allow her to, and so here she was, dragging herself to the gardens where the lesson was scheduled.
The irony was not lost on her that it had been Twilight who had arrived tired and yawning only a day ago.
The Gardens were Celestia’s favourite place in the entire palace. She sometimes came here on those rare occasions when she still felt homesick, though the perfectly trimmed hedges and carefully tended rows of flowers weren’t the way they should be. Philomena would be about somewhere. She wondered if Philomena was happy here, or if the Phoenix thought of home too.
She found Twilight lying on the turfed top of the eastern wall. It was a lovely spot, framed by the canopies of two trees that had grown up the sides of the inner wall, with a view that spanned over Canterlot to the mile upon mile of fields and hedgerows beyond. Twilight herself was watching the sunrise, smiling faintly. Beside her, a firefly lamp, flask, and book lay forgotten.
Celestia silently climbed the gently sloping stairway and took her place at her student’s side. Some of her mane must have drifted into Twilight’s peripheral vision because Twilight turned to face her, smile expanding.
“Princess Celestia!”
She couldn't help but smile back and like yesterday morning after her troubled dream, she felt her worries recede a little. They would be back, but for now she forced down tiredness. She would be the impish and carefree princess for Twilight, even if she didn’t feel like it today.
“Good morning Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said, leaning over to have a nose at the battered and yellowed paperback Twilight had been reading. It looked to have been reread so many times the cover was in danger of falling off. Surprisingly, Twilight quickly moved to hide the book, as if embarrassed over the contents.
“Twilight, there’s no shame in enjoying a good adventure from time to time,” Celestia said. She hadn’t had time to read any herself, but she understood that the Daring Do series had been a Canterlot-wide sensation with the young ponies a few years back.
“I know, Princess, sorry,” Twilight said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Celestia said. “Still feeling down over teleportation?”
“I just don’t see how I’m supposed to learn it,” Twilight admitted. “The study notes don’t seem to help, and Blink herself makes no sense!” Her student’s tone became frustrated, angry even. “I mean, she doesn’t use proper sentence structure, she changes tense at random, she leaves thoughts half finished, and I swear there’s a bit where she suddenly decides that semicolons are the best thing since sliced bread or something, because she starts using them all over the place.”
Twilight paused. “Twenty nine semicolons. In two pages. Twenty nine. I counted. Only one was used correctly, I think by accident.” The unicorn deflated, her scholarly indignation subsiding for the moment. “What kind of pony writes like that?”
“A great one,” Celestia answered, simply. “A hero to many who lived in her time.”
“Oh,” Twilight said, head sinking down into her neck. “I forgot, you knew Blink personally, didn’t you? Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said, “I think that there is a lesson here for you. It is a fine thing that you are as learned as you are, but that does not mean you should use that as an excuse to look down on another because of it.”
Twilight’s ears drooped. “Then I suppose trying to translate Blink’s account into proper sentences wasn’t the way to go?”
“Correct,” Celestia said. “Because unlike the magic of more eloquent unicorns you have studied, the way that Blink said the things she said are perhaps more important than what she actually said. Those words, including the errors, are your best link to Blink—who you must never forget was a living unicorn, I might add, not just a page in a spellbook.”
Twilight simply slumped down, so Celestia continued. “In many ways, it wasn’t fair of me to start you on Blink. We can put together a list of other unconventional unicorns for you to study—you can work up to Blink. But I’m afraid that’s going to have to wait a few weeks.”
“Princess?” Twilight said, glancing over questioningly.
Celestia glanced down at her hooves. “I’m afraid something has come up that is going to demand my full attention.”
“Oh. Can I help with anything?”
“I—” Celestia’s put-on smile became a little sickly. Oh. There were her worries. Welcome back, you weren't gone long were you? “It is just a matter from my own past, a thousand years ago,” she explained, attempting to sound dismissive. “Nothing to worry about. If I think of any help I need, I will certainly let you know,” she hastily added when she noticed Twilight frowning.
Technically the truth, but Inanna’s laughter still echoed again in her head. Twilight. She was going to use Twilight to buy back Luna. Not a guardspony who had sworn loyalty. A filly who trusted her to teach magic. And she was sitting right there.
Could she really do this? The question hung unanswered in her mind.
“In any case,” she added hastily. “Why don’t you think of this as an opportunity? Take a few days’ break, or perhaps study something a little different for a change?”
“I understand completely, Princess,” Twilight said, not managing to mask her disappointment well enough.
Celestia bit her lip. “Actually,” she began, “I had no plans until this afternoon—” you’re going to regret this, Celestia, when you fall on your face asleep in front of your staff “—why don’t we make this an extra long lesson?”
Part 3 – Every Last Thing
“Nightmare Moon, an Anthology of Legends?” the grey haired mare said from behind a pair of thick reading glasses. “Actually, deary, you missed it by minutes. It was just checked out by a nice young mare. Literally just a few minutes ago. Fancy that! Funny old world. First checkout in three years on that book too. Would you like me to put it on reserve?”
Quill had to try very hard to avoid grinding his teeth together. “Nevermind. I need anything else you have on the same subject, and ‘The Collected Writings of Elm, Volume II: The Elements of Harmony.’”
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Towering mountains of white drifted past, their apparent lazy pace being an illusion created by their sheer size.
“Sky” banked hard into a canyon formed between two massive culmulous clouds and begun her descent down to Ponyville, her wings screaming in protest throughout. “Sky” ignored them and tried to press a little harder. She needed to know how fast she could make this trip.
“Sky” was, of course, a disguise, and a rather good one if Celestia did say so herself. She’d given herself the form of a white coated pegasus with a mane of various shades of blue. It was a shape she’d used before. The name she’d picked, “Sky”, was roughly what “Celestia” meant when translated into Modern Equestrian. So much pomp and consequence had been piled onto her poor four-syllable “Celestia”, it felt refreshing to be called by something so free and simple.
The shapeshifting spell, while certainly limited in some respects, was a good deal more complicated than a simple illusion; while it was in effect she actually was a pegasus. That did mean her magic was inaccessible, but the spell could be cancelled by simply clicking her forehooves together three times.
The spell had limitations: it could not add a horn or wings where none had been before and, of course, it could not change the Mark or eyes of a pony. No unicorn magic in existence that could change those. Often, other traits remained unchanged without any apparent pattern. In Celestia’s case, she didn’t seem able to assume a form where her mane didn’t drop over one eye.
They had been a time when she’d been able to locate her sister from miles away by the feel of her magic alone, and Luna could locate her likewise. It was an instinctive bond they shared. It had been a source of comfort, once, now it was a liability. When the time came, she might have to use this form to hide her magic.
“Hey there!” Came a voice to Celestia’s left. She glanced over to see a sky-blue pegasus mare with a distinctive rainbow mane flying right beside her. Most aggravatingly, the pegasus seemed to be matching Celestia’s speed effortlessly. Judging by the many-coloured mane, this must be Rainbow Dash, head of the Ponyville weather team. Ticklish under her wings and fond of chocolate mousse, apparently. A good friend too, although her informant said that about literally everypony.
Unfortunately, not what she was looking for either. Correspondence with the Mayor had revealed that Rainbow Dash had a reputation for laziness and a tendency to be caught napping whenever there was any hard work to be done.
“Oh, are we racing?” The other pegasus shouted over gleefully as Celestia gritted her teeth and willed more speed from her wings. Ponyville couldn’t be more than a minute away, she might as well sprint to the finish.
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“Okay, I admit, that was pretty fast. Still beat ya!”
Celestia stared glassily out into the street where she had alighted, sucking in all the air her lungs could take. Check the time. Mechanically, she reached down and flipped open the small timepiece strapped above her fetlock. Nineteen minutes. If pressed, she could make it from Canterlot to Ponyville in nineteen minutes. Good to know. Extremely respectable time too, given she had been living a sedentary life for all of ponykind’s living memory.
“Hey, what’s your name, anyways?”
The other pegasus was still beside her, not even winded. That seemed incredibly unfair.
“Sky,” she managed. She had to pant a few more times before adding: “You can call me Sky.”
“Well I’m Rainbow Dash, pleased to meet you,” the pegasus said, beating her chest with a forehoof. For some reason, she had elected to remain hovering instead of landing.
“Hey!” Rainbow Dash dove forward to examine “Sky’s” rump. “Your cutie mark looks just like Princess Celestia’s!”
Thankfully, Celestia knew more tricks than just the magical ones.
“Oh, I get that a lot,” she said, shooing Rainbow Dash out of her personal space. “Can you spot the difference?”
Rainbow Dash frowned, assuming a more upright position.
“Oh, I see!” she said happily. “Celestia’s cutie mark has way more wavy lines coming out of it. Yours only has eight. And the colours are wrong.”
“Well done,” Celestia said, giving the pegasus a little smile. “Now, I’m afraid I cannot stay and talk as there are some ponies who are expecting me.”
“Have fun, but don’t be a stranger, Sky,” Rainbow Dash said. “There aren’t many pegasuses around here into endurance flying. You seem pretty good for somepony who isn’t me.”
Fortunately, Celestia had already turned to leave, so her reflexive raised eyebrow was hidden from Rainbow Dash. Yes, the pegasus really had said that last bit without a hint of irony.
So, that had been the weatherpony then? Oddly, she found she had taken a liking to Rainbow. Possibly it had been her refreshing directness, though that might be just the disguise bringing that out. But sadly, she had more important things to do than make friends. Such as planning a battle.
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Thankfully, the hour or so before her guard captain and lieutenants arrived was plenty of time for her to recover her breath. Also thankfully, she managed to avoid that eccentric unicorn who ran a local clothing boutique. It had been a mistake to mention “Sky” was from Canterlot to that one.
She had a little time before the Canterlot train pull up, so she spent it reacquainting herself with the layout of the village, mentally fitting her plans around it. When the train did pull into the station Captain Whiskey and Lieutenants Stonewall and Merryweather stepped off. Whiskey and Stonewall seemed uncomfortable out of uniform, but Merryweather managed to remain relaxed. The two pegasi lieutenants fell into a disciplined step behind their earth pony captain. Out of uniform, they looked ever so slightly ridiculous.
Celestia waved the trio out of the station with a wing and herded them to somewhere they could talk in private. Finding a suitable place was not hard as the buildings here were widely spaced, even towards the centre.
“Gentleponies, the result was nineteen minutes, at the very minimum.” Celestia said. She was pleased to see the two pegasi nod approvingly.
When the creature was freed, the most likely place it would head would be Canterlot. Preparations were already underway to make sure the palace would be clear of nonessential staff and that the few ponies that were around knew to surrender quickly with no heroics.
The Summer Sun Celebration would draw the creature out. It would see an isolated and oblivious Celestia badly out of position with a minimal guard. Ideally, it would decide to strike at Ponyville as soon as possible, but if it didn’t, Celestia would lead her here personally.
“That gives us some flexibility in the timetable,” Whiskey commented. “We decided to put the camp in the Whitetail Woods.”
“There’s a few places where the canopy is thick enough that the ground isn’t visible from the sky,” Stonewall added.
“Place’ll be reachable by missive-fire,” Whiskey said. “They tell me the ley lines are correct and such. I’ve got Shining Armour looking into that right now, since he’s the educated unicorn in our number.”
“Good,” Celestia said. “You two know what to do. I’ll be borrowing Stonewall now.”
“Ma’am!” the captain said, jerking a little as he suppressed a salute. Whiskey and Merryweather then turned and trotted off, looking for all the wide, wide world like a crusty grandsire being looked after by his grown up grandcolt. Stonewall looked wistfully after them, and Celestia suppressed a sigh.
“I don’t bite, lieutenant,” Celestia said. “You can relax.”
One would think a pony with a record like Stonewall’s might be a little braver. A few years back, Stonewall had been first on the scene of an armed robbery in Canterlot that had turned into a hostage situation. Somehow, he had persuaded the thieves to use him as a hostage in place of the shopkeeper and a mother and her foals.
He’d gone above and beyond that which could be reasonably expected from a guardspony, but he had served a higher purpose of the guard—been loyal to that higher purpose: to protect others. She’d said so in her speech as she awarded him his commendation.
Stonewall might very well be her Element of Loyalty.
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“The stallion behind that apple stall is Big Macintosh,” Celestia said, pointing with a wing. Favourite dessert: rich chocolate truffle layer cake, though he only indulged very occasionally and kept that fact from his family, preferring a simple apple pie most of the time. Her informant’s knowledge of the ponies around Ponyvillie might be unparallelled, but her choices of which details to include which to leave out were often… strange.
Nevertheless, the Mayor had been able to confirm that the Apple Family in Ponyville had a reputation for going about their business in a straightforward and honest manner. Such a reputation would be hard to gain and easy to lose in a small community like Ponyville, so it was extremely encouraging to hear they had kept theirs.
What had sealed her choice had been conversing with the brother and sister pair who did most of the work running the farm—well, mostly conversing the sister, who was the talkative pony of the pair. After so much time spent with politicians, they were so very refreshing that Celestia had briefly fantasised about grabbing Twilight and Spike, and taking a vacation working on an Apple Farm.
“An Apple farmer?” Stonewall said. His tone and expression were unreadable.
Celestia nodded. “It’s likely that the sister, Applejack, will be found on the family farm. Either would be suitable. We can fly over now.”
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Celestia had been tipped off about her potential bearer of Kindness, once again, by her informant. They’d had to wait until lunchtime, when fillies and colts went on their break, to see her. Cheerilee was the village’s schoolteacher and, inevitably, Celestia had come to know her favourite dessert too. Anything with banoffee, which was apparently a modern thing involving bananas and toffee. She resolved to try some at a later date.
In this case, the Mayor hadn’t been much help; Cheerilee’s record was rather... bland and uninformative. Kindness and bureaucracy seldom mixed, unfortunately.
Instead she had struck up a few conversations as “Sky” under the pretence of thinking about moving to Ponyville. Quite a few parents were happy to share a story or two of the teacher going out of her way to ensure the well being of her charges. It would be enough, it would have to be. Surely the Elements didn’t require grand, public gestures?
“An Apple farmer. And a schoolteacher?” was Stonewall’s only comment.
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As they made their way back from the schoolhouse, Stonewall looked troubled.
“It’s not my place to say anything,” Stonewall replied, when Celestia asked about it.
“Stonewall, if you have concerns, I want you to voice them.”
Stonewall glanced down at his feet, frowning as his lips moved. “I—what I mean is,” he gulped, “a schoolteacher and an apple farmer, ma’am? I—that is to say—well, um, I just don’t feel very comfortable about this. Ma’am.”
Something in her throat twisted, but she kept her face firmly in control.
“Remember, they will be perfectly safe,” Celestia said as reassuringly as she could. Twinge. Honesty again. It didn’t matter. She would be giving that connection up soon enough. “And I won’t force any pony to do this against their will.”
At least that second part was true.
It seemed to placate the lieutenant, though he still looked unhappy. They walked back in silence to for a while.
“Your ‘contact’ was next?” Stonewall asked, breaking the silence at last. “Where are we meeting her?”
“I don’t actually know. It is more likely that she will meet us.”
This seemed to only confuse Stonewall more, but then, he had never met her contact. Celestia sighed, she would be around somewhere. She went back to contemplating Stonewall’s words.
He’d been right; she was asking ponies to carry her own burdens and take risks they could not possibly understand. What would Luna think of her, if she were here now?
With a brief flash of anger, she told herself that she didn’t care what Luna might think. Wanting her sister back for her own comfort was unforgivably selfish. Whatever happened, the sins of the upcoming days would be hers and hers alone. Luna might be angry, but her conscience would be clear. What happened to Celestia after solstice didn’t matter anymore.
She was barreled over by something pink moving at high speed. She reflexively tensed, ready to throw off the attacker, only to realise that the attacker’s intention was to give her a hug.
“Sky!” called an excited voice.
It was the last of the candidates from Ponyville: Laughter. Favourite dessert? Her informant actually hadn’t said what her own favourite dessert was, but Celestia guessed it was simply everything.
“Hello Pinkie Pie,” Celestia said, attempting to maintain some composure despite the air being squeezed out of her lungs.
Pinkie Pie let go, choosing to bounce up and down in front of Celestia and Stonewall. “I haven’t seen you in ages! And you have a friend! That’s super-duper spectacularly great! Um, what’s he scowling at?”
Pinkie flashed Stonewall a calculating look, then bounced across to him from Celestia.
“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie.”
Stonewall glanced in askance at Celesta.
“No, that didn’t work,” Pinkie said to herself. “What we need here is a duck.”
Of all her other candidates, she harboured a few doubts. Ponyville alone contained a population of a few thousand ponies, even before the rest of Equestria was considered. Most of the Ponyville ponies she had talked to, she’d only done so for a few minutes. Her choices had come down to local reputation.
There were no such doubts with Pinkie Pie. In all of Equestria and in all the lands beyond its borders, there could surely be no pony quite like Pinkie.
Laughter was the hardest element to find a bearer of. Or at least, the type of bearer Celestia would need. She had initially assumed they would be an entertainer; perhaps a stand-up comedian or a writer of one of the great modern comedies. But she had never found one who seemed worthy. Her intuition always told her to keep looking, but it never told her what to look for.
Everything became clear as daylight the moment she met Pinkie Pie. She had come to Ponyville as “Sky” to attend the performance of a relatively unknown pegasus comedian, stage name “Fast Wit”, and had left in a foul mood. Not only had she dismissed her three other candidates from this particular outing, but Fast Wit hadn’t even been that funny.
Celestia had been coming out of Ponyville town hall when she became aware of the pink earth pony walking beside her, examining her with scrunched up eyebrows and the thoughtful expression of a workpony inspecting a difficult job.
Two minutes later she had been grinning helplessly like a foal.
Pinkie Pie embodied mirth, joy and laughter more completely than any pony she had ever known. The comedians and entertainers might make an audience laugh, but here was a pony who lived and breathed laughter with her every thought and action. Her life’s purpose, making others smile, was so simple and yet so very profound.
Back in the present, Pinkie was holding—and talking to—a small rubber duck in some kind of attempt to win a smile from the dour Stonewall. Celestia had been nodding along, not really paying attention.
Suddenly feeling mischievous, Celestia stepped towards Stonewall and whispered: “Give Pinkie a smile, Lieutenant, and that’s an order.”
“What—” Stonewall protested, caught between the princess he had sworn to serve and pink earth pony who was giving him pleading puppy dog eyes while still holding the rubber duck. Something cracked, and the poor guardspony began laughing uncontrollably.
“And now we need to do something about you, Sky,” said Pinkie, turning on Celestia with that creased up, thoughtful expression.
“Me?” Celestia asked, curling her lips up as best she could.
“Your smile’s not right,” Pinkie said with an air of finality.
“I… It’s not something you can fix, Pinkie Pie,” Celestia replied, meeting Pinkie’s gaze and placing a hoof on the other Pony’s shoulder. “Not with a rubber duck.”
Quickly, Celestia turned from Pinkie, taking to the wing. The last expression she had seen on Pinkie’s face… seldom had she seen a look so profoundly helpless and sad on a pony.
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The sun hung low in the sky by the time Celestia returned to the palace. Its orange light spilled through open westward window along with air loaded with the remains of the day’s blasting heat.
“…ten tents, sixty firefly lamps, standard rations…”
She tried to pay attention to Whiskey’s words as he went through yet another equipment manifest. She really should. She had been the one who summoned him in order to go through this and half a dozen other bits of minutiae.
It wasn’t necessary for her to do all this. She shouldn’t be doing this. It was an insult to Whiskey’s skill as a Captain to be checking up on trivialities like these, but everything had to be right. She had to see everything was right, with her own eyes. One little detail out of place and…
She sighed. She ought to be sleeping. She’d scarcely managed two hours in the last few day-night cycles.
Quill was waiting outside her study, actually blocking the door. He was nervous, but as he looked up, he seemed to steel himself.
“Your Majesty,” he greeted her, actually bowing down. Whiskey immediately frowned, but then he often did around Quill.
“Quill Scratch,” Celestia said.
Quill sucked in a little air and began. His words fell out one after the other and seemed rehersed. “Your Majesty, I am one of your advisors, and so it is my duty to give advice. This includes warning you when I believe you are acting in error. You explained this particular duty to me and though I’ve never had to perform it before, at least not with respect to with something this important...” Quill glanced at the carpeted floor then back, “I believe you are making an very grave mistake.”
Breath caught Celestia’s throat and she was silent. Quill seemed to take this as a cue to go on.
“I’ve reviewed the original plan you outlined for dealing with Nightmare Moon, and quite frankly, I couldn’t see anything wrong with it. The new plan? I just don’t understand it. It seems to involve so much unnecessary complication—and that’s quite before the bits that involve deception in order to engineer a situation in which Twilight Sparkle will feel friendship.”
Quill paused a moment to gather himself. Even Whiskey seemed thoughtful. “I just don’t understand what makes this new plan more appealing. Princess, if you could tell us, maybe I could understand the logic better.”
At some point, Celestia had collapsed back on her haunches. How could she answer Quill? What was she doing, risking everything this way?
“Luna...” This time, it was Celestia who was looking at the floor. “I have a sister. Luna. She is Nightmare Moon, or trapped within an evil that makes her be that creature. I never truly learned what happened that night. But if the five Elements of Harmony could be used along with the sixth, it might bring her back.”
She looked up into the eyes of her advisor, whose mouth was wide open.
“You have a sister?”
The advisor was first incredulous but thoughtful an instant later. His eyes slowly rolled upwards to the ceiling where a faded image of two winged unicorns had been painted; one pointed upwards, chasing the sun; one pointed downwards, chasing the moon. Quill was not one of her most trusted advisors for being slow of thought.
“So all this complication is to save your sister, then?” he said.
Celestia nodded.
“I see,” Quill said. “Then my original assessment still stands. I think you are letting your personal feelings cloud your judgement. To ensure the safety of Equestria, my advice is you abandon this course of action, and return to your original plan.”
Celestia simply stared. She needed to find the words to answer Quill, but there were none. She could still see Stonewall's dissaproving sideways glance.
An Apple farmer. And a schoolteacher?
What was she doing? What was she doing? She opened her mouth to try and answer—
“Oh shut up, Quill,” came Whiskey voice, the earth pony in question jumping to position himself between Celestia and Quill. “Yer full of it. This is Princess Celestia’s sister we’re talking about here. Family. Yer don’t know how important that is until yer lost it. ‘Course they don’t teach you that in yer fancy ‘corn schools, but it’s true. As far as I care, the guard are with Celestia. Now shove off.”
This time, it was Quill’s mouth that hung open. The unicorn glared at Whiskey, then remembered himself enough to bow slightly to his princess and stalked off.
Celestia didn’t dare look up until the advisor was out of sight.
“Thank you, Whiskey.”
“Ah... don’t mention it,” the old captain replied, sounding oddly uncomfortable.
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What in the nine bleedin’ layers of Tartarus had he done that for?
After his outburst, Whiskey had staggered out of Celestia’s study and found a little back room where he could think. He fished out a little metal flask from his uniform, unscrewed the cap, and took a swig of his namesake.
The princess’s plan was five kinds of bleedin’ insane. Quill had been perfectly right to be questioning it. But then he’d just had to open his mouth because the sound of Quill’s over-educated voice had been annoying him, and, well, to be frank, talk of sisters had just made him think of his wife and foals in Trottingham who he hadn’t spoken to in five years because he had been such an bleedin’ idiot for most of his entire life.
He took another swig.
Heck, he’d been planning to say much the same things. He didn’t really understand the magic was supposed to work, but it all seemed to rely on happenstance and things beyond anypony’s control. Such as the fact it was apparently important that Twilight Sparkle make friends. That wasn’t going to happen.
This was, after all, the filly who stalked the palace grounds either shouting at or outright avoiding all other ponies her age. All she did was study. Rumor had it she had essentially cut all ties with everypony who wasn’t her brother a few years back, and even Shining said he didn’t see that much of her these days. And the fate of Equestria depended on this filly making friends?
He took an extra large swig.
☼ ☼ ☼
The February moon rose high into the empty night sky and a harsh wind only added to the already considerable chill across Canterlot. For a thirteen year old Twilight Sparkle, the richly furnished room where she slept provided little shelter. It was dark and it was cold and she could never be comfortable under such a high ceiling.
Twilight Sparkle, father is holding a little get together. Wine and cheese. Why don’t you come along?
It was the end of a very long, very bad day.
Twilight Sparkle! How fortunate that I just happened to run into you. Could you do me a favour, since we’re friends? It’s about my latest test score. If you could just talk to Princess Celestia...
One of many, really, but this one had been the worst for a while.
Twilight! Why do you want to spend time with Moondancer and her friends? You should be spending time with us. I know, you could introduce us to Princess Celestia.
Morning would come, and with it, the princess. Everything would be all right then. But for now it was cold and dark. Her breath came out in a little fog.
Twilight, I have a favour to ask...
She didn’t bother starting a fire or lighting the candles. It didn’t suit her mood. The little paperback book she was looking for was already on her writing desk, rather than on the bottom shelf with the rest of her Daring Do collection.
You said you’d go to her party? Our party will be much better…
It was still fairly new, but already it showed signs of overreading. The pages fell open naturally to her favourite passage.
Ah, perhaps you could put a good word in with the princess, little filly. Maybe she would like to come to my next get-together. Wouldn’t that be nice?
By the light of her horn, she began to read.
Daring leapt on top of the pile of crates, flaring her wings to steady herself as she did so. She made another futile attempt to reach open sky but she didn’t make it ten feet before she was dragged back down to earth by Quzelqotel’s strange gravity magic.
The spirit simply laughed. “You’re finished Daring,” it said. “Give me the Empyrean Key.”
“You’ll never find it Quzelqotel!”
“So be it.”
The spirit raised his mismatched forelegs, the lion foot glowing red while the eagle claw glowed blue. Daring slumped, the fight finally leaving her. Quzelqotel had shown he was capable of incredible magical feats. Only luck had kept Daring alive this long and now her luck had finally run out.
“Nooo!” came a cry unlooked for. From behind a pile of crates, a trio of ponies emerged at a full gallop, one red, one white and one electric blue. Cherry, Willow Bark, and Lightning.
“Respectively,” Twilight unconsciously murmured.
Lightning lowered his horn, shooting a beam of bright blue magic while the other two ponies charged. Quzelqotel was only just able to duck out of the way of the beam before being knocked off his feet by the galloping pegusus and earth pony.
“You haven’t seen the last of me, Daring!” the spirit screamed, before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Daring got to her feet, uncertain of what to say. She eventually settled for: “you came back for me.”
“Hey,” said Lightning. “I know we’ve had our differences in the past, what with being rivals and such. But you looked to be in real trouble there.”
Willow Bark stepped forward, grinning. “You know, you’re actually a lot of fun Daring, even if you have an annoying knack for getting the artifacts first.”
Meanwhile, Cherry was thoughtful. “We don’t have to be rivals. If Quzelqotel gets the Empyrean Key then all of ponykind is doomed. Maybe we should start working together?”
Lightning and Daring looked at each other then back to Cherry.
“You mean, be friends?” the pair said at the exact same time.
Twilight noticed she was shivering a bit and the chair had gotten hard, so she paused to carry the little book over to her bed. Everything would be all right again by sunrise, but for now, she could lose herself in the pages.
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At last! At long, long last!
The latter half of this chapter seems to have a lot of messages between brackets at the beginning of chapters. They're clearly not meant to be there, so you might want to remove them.
Celestia knew there were 6 Elements. And she knew what was required to awaken the 6th.
That's how she came up with the plan in the first place.
This is riveting. I can't wait to see how this plays out.
Celestia has made interesting choices. Too bad most of them are wrong.
Oh gosh, a new Powered by Tea story?
Count me excited!
8698177
I was thinking the same thing. It has long been established that Celestia used all six elements to banish Nightmare Moon. I thought this story was intended to fill in the gaps of how Celestia made the decision on how to deal with her return, but it's starting to feel a little more alternate universe.
You have my attention.
I PLAN TO MAKE PANCAKES!!
*15 minutes later*
WAFFLES! CURSES, MY PLANS LIE IN RUINS!! DELICIOUS, CRISS-CROSS PATTERENED RUINS!
Er, dude, you left your notes in.
Also might wanna have your editor give it another once over. Story’s solid, but there’s a fair amount of awkward language here and there, and misused words.
8699330
Yeah, this seems to have been a chapter still under editing.
Still, overall the story's catchy!
Okay well TD and Ghost are both hyping this story and you as an author, so on to the list this goes
Unrelated, but I love your username
You left a lot of stage directions and notes in the final story. Might want to edit.
Hmm interesting plotline, and I'm sure you've heard enough from the other commenters, but if you're manually doing BBcode, I would advise not. Also if you insist on doing it, please use the US English version of words, as centre should be center in order to properly center
[centre]Part 3 – Every Last Thing[/centre]should be[center]Part 3 – Every Last Thing[/center]-- Also I'm not sure if brackets denote comments in BBcode if not properly formatted, but those seem to have stuck in as well.Other than that, this is a highly interesting read, with a curious take on Celestia and eventsI haven't seen before.
I understand that this is a somewhat-AU story, but I don't see the need for making it so. You didn't need to have Celestia be unaware of the Element of Magic. You wanted the tension of uncertainty? She simply could have grave doubts about Twilight adequately fulfilling that role, introverted as that young mare is.
I'm also a bit miffed about not addressing Sunset Shimmer in a story perfectly suited for it. It's obvious that Sunset was Bearer of Magic candidate alpha. Her failure was why the plan in canon was so rushed and flying-by-pants.
Regardless, this is a nice portrayal of an enigmatic character. Nothing brings out candid earthly emotions in Celestia like her sister.
As has been noted, you left some notes in there that you'll want to take out.
In any case, definitely some interesting choices on display. Making the Element of Magic unknown is a curious angle to take, especially without the AU tag. That aside, I really like what you're doing with Celestia. Not only are you doing an excellent job of capturing her internal turmoil, you're also taking a route I've rarely seen with this sort of story. Stories set during the series premiere usually paint Celestia as either an all-knowing chessmistress or the luckiest daughter of a gun in the world. You're splitting the difference and doing it well, epsecially in Celly's hit-and-miss track record when predicting Bearers. And the hints of her deep past are especially intriguing.
Definitely looking forward to more of this.
Cool story so far.
Good work with a new take on just how skilled Celestia might actually be in the so-called "Long Game" that everyone, in and out of the story, assumes she plays.
I frgging love this!!!!! I love it so much!!!!
Let me explain why I love it. Because this is the Celestia I know, and Love. She was forced into making this shady decision, and in the end chose empathy for her family over her ponies.
She decided to be selfish once so she could finally have her family back. And honestly I couldn't be happier. Inanna is the very definition of a Magnificent B*^#^ t. And I love that.
And honestly kudos, really kudos!
I found it amusing while I was reading through this chapter how hilariously wrong Celestia was with her theories for Bearers
The end of this chapter shows that twilight knows (possibly subconsciously) she doesn't have friends, she has FAKERS. And she hates it.