Chapter 4: Moonlit Reminiscence
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I sip my hot cocoa as I sit, watching the sunset. I see Luna exit onto a balcony on a tower across from me, watching it set as well until it is just a thin red line on the horizon. She turns and blinks as she looks my way. After the moment passes she gives me a hoofwave as her horn lights up, which I return halfheartedly with a forepaw before reorienting myself to watch the moon rise in its turn.
The mystery of what UnOwN are doing on Gaia still churns at the back of my mind, but isn't enough to distract me from the thoughts I have been trying to avoid for most of the day. I'd managed to hold it together so far, but now that I didn't have any excuses to do something else, I had found a comfortable spot on one of the Palace's towers and pulled my powers in and let the tears that had threatened for a while now flow in the solitude.
Or so I had thought, until the soft clack of heavy hooves on the roof behind me startles me enough to jump and release my grip on my powers, sending my cup of cocoa flying from my paws. I drifted upward uncontrollably, slowly twisting through the air as sensation and information flood my mind in a confusing, disorienting torrent before I manage to get it under control and rein it back in to just the area of the roof. Physically reorienting myself takes longer, and I already know who had interrupted my brooding by their sunny presence.
Though I was glad to see my cup of cocoa floating next to her in a golden aura.
[Hello Princess Celestia. Thanks for saving my cocoa. What brings you here?] I project as cheerily as I can manage when I finally steady myself, floating around the conical roof's peak in an almost painfully forced playfulness.
Celestia just looks at me for a long moment with a frown and concern in her eyes. I still can't get any readings on her. Not even a guess at her True-Heart slips through whatever she's using to so completely conceal her thoughts.
[Princess?] I ask, tilting my head to the side as I start to feel concern myself.
Her neutral mask snaps into place. "Are you alright Elsa?" she asks.
[I'm perfectly fine, Princess,] I say as nonchalantly as I can manage, [why wouldn't I be?]
She gives me another long look, and my tail starts to fidget beneath me from the scrutiny before I make a conscious effort to still it. "I see," she finally says. "It's just that this tower is where my rooms are, and while I was setting The Sun I thought I heard someone crying above me..."
I wince, not even trying to hide my reaction. My ears lie flat as I scrub my paws against the tear matted fur on my face.
"I would understand if you don't want to talk about it," she says.
I sigh and turn away, my entire demeanor drooping, even descending a couple feet in my hover. [It's nothing, Princess Celestia. Just homesickness... mostly...]
"Mostly?" she asks. I hear the quiet clack of her hooves on the roof tiles as she carefully picks her way closer.
I float, staring at The Moon as it continues its ascent, now high enough to no longer need Luna's assistance, and the stars as they begin to peek out of the velvet sky. The silence drags on as I slowly drift downward until I'm sitting on the roof. I don't think the Princess would press if I asked her not to, but a larger part of me wanted someone to talk to.
[I lost my parents two weeks ago...] I project after a while. In terms of mental strength, it's barely above a whisper.
Celestia settles next to me. "I'm sorry for your loss," she says, and I can hear a sincerity in her voice that can't be faked. "Were you close?"
[The closest...] I say, the tears coming back to my eyes. [They were all I really had back home.]
"No other family? No friends?" she asks.
I shake my head. [Not really] I say. [No family besides them, anyway, and I sort of drifted away from all of my old friends when life took us in different directions. There were a few people I was friendly with, but they were all people I worked with so it was more professional than anything...
[I'd talk to Mom and Dad at least once a week... Mom and I would spend hours talking about everything and noting until Dad would butt in with one of his stupid jokes and then I'd talk with him for a while before it would get too late and we'd have to go...] I hear the rustling of feathers behind me, and a wing spreads to gently tuck me into the Princess's side.
The silence drags on for a long while like this, with me leaning into the hug and drawing what comfort from it I can. Eventually my tears stop, and a few minutes later the Princess breaks the silence. "Is that why you decided to come to Equestria?" she asks quietly.
[Partly,] I say. [It still hurts to think about them, but I'd already gotten through the worst of the grief by the time the opportunity came. Mostly I think I came here to find purpose. Even before the accident, I was starting to feel like I was just coasting through my life, so when the opportunity was presented to me, I took it since I didn't have anything holding me there anymore.] I snuggle into her side a bit more, curling my tail around my feet and basking in the warmth she gives off. The quiet of her mind is strangely comforting after spending all day surrounded by the noisy, open minds of others.
We stargaze for a while, Celestia pointing out constellations and explaining the history behind them. She seems tired, but happy to spend the time with me, and eventually the conversation turns to the upcoming Nightmare Night celebration.
[Yeah, I do want to go out on Nightmare Night,] I say. [I saw a shop earlier today where I could get most of the things I would need for a costume, but I'm not sure where I would get the money to pay for it] To myself I entertain the idea of tracking down loose change that's fallen into storm drains by the psychic impressions left behind on it, but the thought is interrupted by Celestia before I can start working out the details.
"I'm sure I could spare you something from my personal finances for the occasion," she says, rubbing a hoof under her chin before cracking a yawn wide enough where I hear her jaw pop. "Ow, oh, excuse me, it's later than I thought."
[That's alright, Princess, but are you sure?] I ask as we both get up. Celestia hops down to her balcony, using her wings to glide while I drift behind.
"Perfectly sure." She replies with a nod, sending me a sly smile before whispering conspiratorially. "I've been hedging investments for centuries. Don't tell anyone this, but at this point most of the funding for Equestria's day to day government expenses comes from what I pay into the treasury out of the interest I make, rather than taxes.
"Of course, larger projects and infrastructure improvements still require leveraging donations from the nobles and merchants, but I think I can spare a few bits to help a friend put together a Nightmare Night costume." I hang there in stunned silence as she opens the door and trots into her room with a giggle.
Shaking myself I float through the door. The room is a lot like the majority of fanart for it; circular with a fireplace to one side and a bean shaped mattress set into the center of the floor with a long, rolled pillow at one end of it. What the fanart didn't show was the shelves covering one side of the room with books and knick-knacks from across the ages. The impressions on the Psychic Field are strong here, and the memories associated with everything threaten to overwhelm and overlap each other. Fittingly so, I suppose; this was likely the one place Celestia felt comfortable completely dropping her guard, and she's likely been living in this room for nearly a thousand years. I did my best to block out everything, and ignore the impressions of various stallions, mares and other sapient beings of all genders that had... visited... this room over the years that I couldn't, as best I could...
[Thank you then, I suppose.] I say with a casualness I don't feel as I deliberately turn away from the bed to study the bookcase. [What about you, though? Do you have any plans to dress as anything?]
She sighs. "Not currently. Usually the Palace hosts a costume parry in one of the smaller ballrooms. It's nothing on the scale of The Grand Galloping Gala, but it gives the ponies in the Government an opportunity to rub elbows with the Nobles if they so wish. This month I've left most of the planning to Raven and Kibitz, given Luna's return and recovery. I'd be open to suggestions if you have any," she says, raising an eyebrow.
I curl my tail around me and hold my chin in thought as I turn to face her, absently drifting until I'm floating upside down past the fireplace. Nothing really comes to mind... except...
[Hmmmmm... do you like... bananas?] I ask, an impish smile curling my lips.
Celestia looks nonplussed, but intrigued, and my smile turns into a grin as I begin to explain what I have in mind.
I know where you can go bananas
How do you expect to dress Celestia as The Voice? That'd be a trick.
Why would that happen? A Mew isn't based off of a cat, it's based off of a fetus. ...I think.
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Of course.
I can not wait for the summoners to find out that elsa is the genetic origin of their summons.
She needs more hugs. Lots and lots of hugs. Poor gal....
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This is excellent so far. Elsa is a sweetheart so far, and I'm glad that you still have her grieving. Too many stories have the characters bounce back from that too quickly...and even years later the right sort of reminder can bring that melancholy nostalgia back.
And of course the pokemon Guardian ends up hanging out at the palace with the Sisters.
Truth!
I realized a couple years ago that, given a few centuries to accumulate--much less a full millennium!--compound interest on investments could wind up with an individual immortal owning almost everything, or at least a piece of everything. It would take some major economic upheaval to disrupt *that* apple cart!
Banana carts, on the other hoof...
Fun story.
Celestia is freaking RICH!!!!!
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Letting this one go, since this is more or less behind the scenes world building stuff that won't get highlighted all that much beyond this chapter. It may make a few more anecdotal appearances here and there, but it's not all that important to the overall story itself.
The inspiration for this idea actually came from the Fable games. In particular, Fable III, where you have to "Make Hard Choices" to build up the necessary funds in order to raise an army capable of fending off the Big Bad's forces... or you can just buy and rent out every home and store in the world before becoming King/Queen, wait five minutes, and dump 5-million gold into your kingdom's treasury from your personal funds, which are usually otherwise useless to you by that point in the game anyway...
On a world-building point, Midknight more or less has the right of it in that Celestia has stakes in pretty much everything across Equestria, and yes, this includes Sweet Apple Acres and Barnyard Bargains, though by this point the Apples have paid her back for the initial investment and she maintains a 1% stake more as a formality than anything else. What she owns of Barnyard Bargains on the other hand, is closer to 10%. Business, retail, agriculture, manufacturing, private R&D, housing, media, news, private utilities... you name it, chances are she's probably got a few bits in it. She figured out a few centuries ago that people don't like taxes, and that creativity and the economy both tend to flourish when they have more of that money in their pockets, so she figured out a way to build up to a system where she could still fund the government with as few taxes as necessary, while encouraging both as much as possible.
The initial Economic boom from lowering taxes actually resulted in more tax revenue coming into the government, since there were more Equestrians working, and therefore earning and investing money that could then be taxed, which also opened up more investment opportunities for Celestia to put money into. Give the Economy and those investments a few centuries to build up and you have a recipe for someone with an almost obscene amount of personal wealth, if it weren't for the fact that she turns around and puts most of that money into either the Government's day to day expenses, her School for Gifted Unicorns (which is completely privately owned and funded by her. Students don't even have to pay tuition fees, but the entrance exam and scholastic standards they're held to once they're in more than make up for that), or various charities that she's vetted for where their money actually ends up. Even then, funding the Equestrian Government is a herculean task, and any Major infrastructure projects still require donations from either the Nobles, or public crowd-funding.
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I Thought it'd be funny to add in a Later chapter as a "Were you paying attention" Joke.
This was a epic lore and fill chapter it has my full focus now and love.
No no no no no, its
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/cd7f7c12-60c3-41fe-84fe-1a820a6c2e2a/d5ganxr-d4e41ea1-0e70-4939-89e7-bfd7ec9cef15.png/v1/fill/w_350,h_250,q_70,strp/do_you_like_mmm_bananas__by_turbosolid_d5ganxr-250t.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MzYwIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvY2Q3ZjdjMTItNjBjMy00MWZlLTg0ZmUtMWE4MjBhNmMyZTJhXC9kNWdhbnhyLWQ0ZTQxZWExLTBlNzAtNDkzOS04OWU3LWJmZDdlYzljZWYxNS5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9NTA0In1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.ZuR6Vry_hortu5bdcpEpyLaESigQ6y0TbvArxWP-OzU
Good story thus far. really have been enjoying it... Keep it up if you would!
hay when will the next chapter come out?
I really hope this continues.