Chap. 5 - And Steep My Senses In Forgetfulness
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream Chapter 5
--Georg (Editing by AlicornPriest)
How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
King Henry - Act 3 Scene 1 W. Shakespeare
Celestia sat in the shattered remnants of the Hall of the Royal Sisters under her uncaring morning sun, feeling the Elements of Harmony fall from her shoulders. It was the ultimate betrayal, for hundreds of years since she had combined her power with Luna and the Elements to imprison Discord, the Elements of Harmony had fairly sung with a power that both sisters had shared without conflict. Now she had betrayed both her sister and the Elements by using their power to seal Luna away in her own moon.
Laughter was the first gem to fall from her golden yoke, dropping to the stone floor with what sounded like a giggle and rolling itself up into a stone ball. There would be no more laughter in the Royal Castle, her sister Luna was imprisoned in the moon forever.
Then Loyalty fell, hitting the floor with a crash. Luna had always been there for her, they had always stuck together through thick and thin. Until now.
Kindness barely made a noise as it fell, the stone silently formed around it and it shyly rolled to a far corner of the room, as if to flee from one who would be so cruel as to imprison their own sister.
Generosity and Honesty fell at the same time as if they could not exist without each other, each rolling into a stone ball and laying at her hooves with the rest of the rubble.
Then Magic. The last stone fell from the Elements of Harmony and struck the floor in a pool of Celestia’s tears, not rolling itself up into a stone, but like a drop of water hitting an ocean. Ripples swam through the room, cutting through her misery and sorrow with a single note of pure beauty. And a voice. “On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal. Unless...”
* * *
Pony Joe went to the Parnell Pitch 5000 (*)Cappuccino machine and flipped a bright red safety lever up and out of the way, before reaching for a knob. Slowly he turned it up from ‘Regular’ past ‘Strong’ and even past ‘Lethal’, stopping at the final notch. ‘Celestia.’ A howling noise filled the shop as the grinder began to grind, the foamer began to foam, and the smell of tortured steel and glass began to fill the air. Using a heavy oven mitt, he retrieved a double-hoof sized cup from the cabinet and slid it gingerly into the receiving slot. The machine groaned, and a thick black bubble formed on the spout, stretching out to the coffee cup which seemed to recoil away in fear, then hitting the bottom in a coal-black lump that hissed as it began the slow task of eating away the bottom of the cup and attaining freedom. One obsidian glop at a time the cup slowly filled, with tiny white specks in the night-dark brew that seemed to shine with the light of distant stars (or dissolved porcelain). Finally as the noises began to die, a white lump of foam dropped on top, bubbling and fuming with a hiss that resembled a dairy scream.
“Here you go Princess,” the hefty unicorn said, sliding the oversized cup onto a ceramic and steel coaster on the table.
“Thank you,” murmured Celestia, as she turned a page in the report she was reading and absently picked up her coffee to take a drink. The swallow as the first sip went down could be seen all the way down her technicolor mane, which sparkled brightly as a ripple of brilliant light slowly descended from head to hock. Ahh, she thought. Just about right. If only it could be a little stronger. She took another sip and continued to work her way through the reports, while outside the emotionless stars shone down for the few hours they had remaining until banished by the dawn.
“Tough night, Your Highness?”
Celestia always thought the donut shop proprietor looked a little like a glazed regular with caramel topping due to his coat and mane coloring, and the fatigue of the late night sessions momentarily caused her to actually see him as such, before she blinked and brought the world back into focus. Unfortunately that focus included a stack of some very critical reports on the table that just had to be read through and a final decision made by morning or it would seriously cut into her time before that blasted Gala.
“We had an agreement,” she murmured before returning to the report and taking another sip.
“I know, I know.” The chunky unicorn scowled and wiped down the table in his otherwise empty store. “But sumpthin is buggin’ ya fierce, and that just ain’t right.”
There was a tiny click as Celestia sat her coffee cup on the reinforced coaster and gave Pony Joe a stern look that normally turned residents of the castle into little quivering piles of jelly. This was one of the reasons she preferred to sneak out of the castle for a late-night snack here instead of the Royal Kitchens, where the royal servants always tried to stay close at hoof and made such big deals out of minor requests. “Would you like another dollop of whipped cream, Your Highness?” “Have you tried the cinnamon spiced apple cider, Your Highness?” “Is there anything else we can get you, Your Highness?”
The Princess sighed, “Why do you think something is bothering me? It must be serious if you are willing to break our longstanding agreement. You remember, no discussion, no small talk, just keep the maple cremes and coffee coming?”
“Yeah, it’s just....you done read that same folder three times already.”
Celestia looked at the report in shock, flipped to the end, and dropped it back in her bag. “Stupid reports anyway. Buck ‘em all.”
“Sorry, Your Highness. Your sister still not sleepin right?”
The Royal Stare returned to the unicorn shopkeeper, this time turned up to Melt. “What have you heard of our sister?”
He shrugged, oblivious to the focused stream of wrath that should have at least had smoke rolling from his mane. “We’re open late night, your boys up in the castle drop by after work, before work. They normally don’t let nuttin slip important like, but like I says, they’re worried too. I tells ‘em you got things well in hoof, dey ain’t too sure. Specially the bats. Err, I mean the Night Guard,” he quickly corrected, as the Royal Glare began to creep up to lethal intensity.
The Princess sighed, and bit off a chunk of maple creme donut as if it were an offending nosy pony’s head. “Yes. She’s not sleeping well. And she is growing more distant by the day.”
“D’ya think she’s gonna turn....I mean....Nightmare Moon?”
“No,” Celestia said distantly. “That was long ago....”
“Princess! Princess! Your sister is flying away with all her followers!” The Guardpony was almost frantic as she burst uninvited into her meeting and showed her the exodus in progress.
“Good riddance!” spat Celestia in fury as she went to the edge of the balcony and watched the dark mass of ponies vanish off into the darkness. “She has spurned me, insulted me, and done all but strike me over the past few months. Perhaps this means we will get some peace for a change.”
“But...” The Guardspony paused, looking conflicted. “She took some who were not her followers anymore. There are at least three families we know of who had spurned her, and cannot be found.”
Celestia looked off into the distance with a growing sense of unease. “No. That can not be. Check again. My sister would never force somepony to go with her into exile.” The Princess of the Sun stood on the balcony for hours, looking out into the dark city as more and more reports came flowing back. Missing children, missing families, reports of their removal under cover of darkness, and the occasional body where a pony resisted their capture too efficiently. And worse, a growing sense of discomfort and pain as if her sister were drawing upon dark powers long forbidden.
“We must do something, My Princess.” The Guard captain pointed to her soldiers already massing over the city walls. “I can have a force of several hundred after the rebels in under an hour. They seem to be building something in the Wintercastle area, but our scouts cannot get close to look. Their air patrols are stronger than ours, and there are beasts in the forest that were not there before.”
“No.” Celestia stood and spread her wings. “We will go and speak with our sister alone. Stay here and await our return. We should be back before dawn.”
“Princess? Are you there? Princess?” She blinked at the sight of the donut shop proprietor waving a fragrant raspberry-filled Bismarck in front of her nose. “Oh, good. You kinda tranced out there again, had me worried.”
Celestia stifled an embarrassed yawn. “We apologize for our actions. It seems we have not been sleeping well either. Perhaps some more coffee...” She looked at where the remaining coffee had dissolved out the very bottom of her cup and was working on eating its way through the table. “Or not.”
“Princess, you gotta get some sleep. That fancy party can run just fine without your help on the planning end, but if you drop off in the middle of it like that, ponies are gonna talk. Maybe your sister is just having nerves about the big party too.”
The Princess shook her head. “No, I could only wish.” She swept the table clean of paperwork into a bag, somehow managing to include the Bismarck in the collection for later. “Farewell for now. We shall take thine advice to heart, and catch at least a nap between now and the festivities.”
“And take these back for yer sister please?” Pony Joe brought out a warm bag with the familiar smell of maple icing wafting from its hidden depths. “It’s the least I can do for her.”
“We thank you.” Celestia gave a nod of her head and a wink. “But next time we expect you to abide by our agreement.”
“No conversation, maple frosted donuts, and keep the coffee strong and refilled. Got it.” Pony Joe watched the Princess trot out the front door, and regally fly up into the air back to the castle, followed by the two Guard pegasi who had been standing out in front of the store. “Worst tipper in the city,” he muttered as he began cleaning up the mess. “She must be worried as all getout to slip back into talking all Royal.”
* * *
“I still don’t see why I have to do it.” Pumpernickel split his glare between the breakfast cart and his superior in the Night Watch. Actually, since he was low pony on the Buffalo Pole, almost everypony in the Night Watch was his superior, but his recent antics had only made a bad thing worse.
“You’re the one who talked us into that crazy idea about swearing to Luna, you’re the only one with the big brass ones who talked to both her and Princess Celestia, and you’re the one—” The Night Guard with the grey hairs in his mane gave the breakfast cart one last looking over before pushing it over to Pumpernickel “Who is outranked. So shut up and do your job. Before we get you an apron.”
“Yes sir. Right away sir.” He muttered under his breath as he turned and rapped lightly on the bedroom door. “Join the Guard. Serve breakfast. Get murdered by thousand year old princesses who think they are slipping back into the past.”
Raising his voice, he called out, “Princess Luna, your breakfast is here.” A faint grumbling noise from inside the room gave him a momentary hope that the Princess of the Night had actually fallen asleep, perhaps snoring too loud to hear the light knock on her — horseapples. The faint click of the latch preceded the door swinging silently open.
“Come in, and bring the cart.”
Pumpernickel shrugged and looked helplessly at his Night Guard commander, who was trading positions with the Day Guard commander Ixnay and his partner while paying him slightly less than zero attention. “This sucks,” he muttered to himself as he pushed the cart quietly into the Princess’s dark bedroom. His heart nearly stopped when the door slammed shut behind him.
“Thousand year old princesses who think they are slipping back into the past?” The voice of Princess Luna was very soft and very... predatory.
(*) The motto of the Parnell Pitch company was “Good to the last drop — No matter how long it takes.”
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(updated with minor changes, pulled a OC character name that was giving issues, grabbed a cup of coffee)
The cliffhanger ending before the commercial: Will Pumpernickel get eaten by a resurgent Nightmare Moon! Will he really taste like Pumpernickel? Or does she have something more Clop in mind since he's already in the bedroom? Stay Tuned Next Week....
1034573 Well, it kind-of hinges on your definition of "Plan". Luna's current mental state is...hm...Iffy. Celestia has breezed her back into the same castle she has inhabited *alone* for the last millenia, the servants don't really think she belongs, everything in the whole castle that she touches belonged totally to Celestia until just a few months ago, her last encounter with her sister involved turning into the living embodiment of evil and trying to kill her during a revolution. And she's spent the last thousand years in the moon trapped with this same evil creature. She has major guilt issues, and has NO IDEA why Celestia would trust her so much again after all she put her through. (Answer: Celestia truly does love her sister, and would walk through a thousand years of hot coals for her. Luna does too, she just isn't thinking about it at the moment)
That brings us to the plan. It's a little sketchy, but from Pumpernickel, it's a masterpiece. They swear loyalty to her, leave the castle with her, and go...somewhere else until Luna can get her head screwed on straight but they're not going to say that.
Major problems with the plan: 1) Luna is reminded of Nightmare Moon everytime she looks at a Night Guard. 2) Abandoning their oath to Celestia and swearing exclusively to Luna is TREASON. (although if they had pulled it off and brought Luna back all happy, it probably would have been forgiven.) 3) Gathering her supporters and flying away is *exactly* what she did when she turned into Nightmare Moon and 4) Pumpernickel thought of it.
Oh ho, Tartarus hath no fury like mare who's being talked about behind her back.
Or rather, in front her door.
Buffalo Pole, lol
.
And Pumpernickel is in for it...
Also i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/328/813/8d6.jpg
Just remember that millennia-old goddesses tend to have very good hearing... and not necessarily a sense of humour to match.
(Updated Chap 5 with one dream that I just *had* to get wedged in, and corrected Pony Joe's type (he's a unicorn, not an earth pony))
Don't care much for this take on Celestia. Way too casual and blunt too fit my impression of her. I don't write myself but I imagine Celestia and Rarity first person are the steepest hills an aspiring fimfiction writer could chose to climb. I admire the effort put into this, but this Celestia is just too much of a turnoff for me.
i1149.photobucket.com/albums/o593/Ralph2012/Spike-reading-something-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-28606431-500-561.jpg
I loved the 'He's absolutely bucked.' feel i got after reading the last line.
Ixnay
Really?
Was the other day guard named Emonay?
I doubt many would get the joke, but I was a Physics major at UQ and walked past that experiment two or three times a week.
Unless...?
Well, okay. We kinda know the rest. More or less
Hah. Immortals have special needs
...you're gonna have to break a few laws of physics for that. And possibly summon a couple of the creatures that dwell in Tartarus.
Pony Joe is made of awesome. And possibly asbestos.
Ah yes. Sharp hearing. Thousand year old princesses with sharp hearing who think they are slipping back into the past
I was prepping for one of my typical snarky peanut gallery responses:
"
Luna: "I HEARD THAT!"
Pumpernickel: "
But then this:
Oh, HELL YES! That is MUCH better!
Straight to Favorites with this story!
Well, Pumpernickel, it was nice knowin' ya.
You know, I'm actually quite glad I get this reference. I really, truly am.