Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

4

"It will all be gone by tomorrow. The castle, the island, the bridge, all of it. Shattered into diamond dust and soap bubbles, then notes, then nothing. It's how I've built it." Starshine looked to the horizon as the Sun set, and cast its rays through the castle of crystal and silver on the floating isle of obsidian anchored to Ponyville by a bridge of gold and ivory.

"Why?" Sunburst asked, his attention split between her and the sunset. He didn't want to look away, afraid she'd be gone as well by the time he looked again.

"Because it's not up to me to decide," she said. Her tone was as serene as her expression, her breathing deep and calm. "But I wanted something beautiful to show, for a little while. Not forever."

"But why not?" he asked again.

Starshine turned towards Sunburst, and she looked at him the same way she'd been looking at the sunset. "Do I have the right to?" she simply asked. "I have the power to. But do I have the right?"

Sunburst stared back, fully focused on her now. "How can I answer that any better than you?"

"You can't. But you can give your own answer. Then we'll have two of them, and maybe we can build something greater with lots of imperfect things together." She smiled. "What would you do if you could remake the world?"

"I wouldn't really be remaking it," Sunburst replied. "It would be a copy. I'd be running away and abandoning the old one. It's cheating, and a little cowardly perhaps, or a very megalomaniacal thing to do. It wouldn't be helping the world here."

"What if the only way to solve everything is to start clean? What if this world is tainted at the root and you can't fix it?"

"I'll never know for sure if I run away. I choose to have hope."

Starshine again looked at the horizon, and at all that was between it and them. "What will you do, then? If you don't wish to be a god, you can't act like one. You see why I did this the way I did, I'm sure."

"You're afraid," Sunburst said, but he wasn't answering the question or Starshine's other words. "You're more than you were meant to be, and can do more than it was meant to be able to. But you shouldn't be asking your questions to me, my answers aren't yours."

"They're not. But if I only listen to myself, I'm no different from someone who chooses to abandon this world for their own creation."

"You'll have to choose, one day."

"And I wish to make the right choice, when that day comes." Starshine sat a little straighter, still smiling, still breathing calmly. "What do you wish for, Sunburst?"

Smiling, he too looked towards the horizon, as the Sun fully sunk beyond it and the sky turned from red to blue. "I'm not sure yet. But I'm getting there, I know that much. I'll make my choice too one day."

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

That's why you take a picture, so it'll last longer.

That which exists has the right to perpetuate its existence, this is a fundamental part of existence.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Fascinating. Starshine truly has grown far beyond what she was meant to be. So now what? Only she can answer that, but she’s wise to seek external input before deciding. We’ll see what she settles on in time.

[Saix]

Starshine has a strong taste in aesthetics. I wonder how different it is from Sunburst's.