To Eat the Sun
Castle Everfree had stood for almost a century. Its ramparts had endured angry deer, slavering beasts of the forest, and even the depredations of chaos incarnate.
But it, like so much else, had not withstood the royal sisters’ feud. Beams of focused shadow had sliced through the stone like so much butter, severing key supports and leaving the castle to gradually crumble under its own weight.
Architects insisted they could restore it to its former glory, but Princess Celestia had refused.
“Can thy cranes and buttresses retrieve My Sister from Moon and madness? Canst thou with stone and plaster repair Our sundered harmony? If nay, speak not of glory restored.”
So it was that she decreed moving the capital, from Everfree to the mountain fastness of Canterlot.
“The forest be the greatest lover of the Sun. The seas surge to embrace the Moon. The mountains care little for either, and it is ‘pon their neutrality where We shall reside in equality anon. Thus have I foreseen.”
Moving all and sundry was not an easy task, nor was it made easier by the Princess’s melancholy. Though she had left the fugue which had gripped her in the hours after banishing Nightmare Moon, she was still of greatly ill humor, spending many hours sitting before the ruins of her throne and saying nothing, bare of regalia with her mane and tail like fallen pink banners.
“My Sister laid my failings bare,” She managed at one point. “I deserve no throne, but no other can bear the crown. So I serve you still.”
By her side was the same mare who roused her from that waking death, the humble Mince Pie, with mane of brown and mien of unease. A few weeks after efforts began, the tan earth mare approached what remained of the thrones. “Your Highness?”
“Aye, friend Mince?” said Celestia, speaking “friend” as though it were a title worthy of more reverence than Princess.
“Little but you remains in the palace, Your Highness. Naught else but the Royal Library and some relics—“
Celestia rose. Even unadorned, with Her hair in tangles and wings unpreened, Her presence brought Mince to silence. “Leave them to rot.”
“But, Your Highness—“
“But me no buts, friend Mince," Celestia said even as She made Her way out of the stricken throne room. "I am sick of this place, sick unto death. I have let it fester too long in me. I have but one more task, then I wish to never lay eyes on this damnéd wood again.”
“What of the Elements, Your Highness?” said Mince, struggling to keep pace with her Princess.
“Unresponsive, to me and to the Tree. I fear in My desperation, I broke them beyond repair.”
Mince gulped at that. “I… see.”
A smile, thin but fond, darted across Celestia's lips,. “Go, dear Mince. What errand remains concerns thee not.”
The little pony quivered in her stride, but shook her head. “All due respect, Your Highness, You have been alone overlong as it is.”
The smile stayed for longer this time. “’Twill be quick. We will meet in Canterlot, where I shall brush the gravel from My coat and thou canst regale me with songs and sweets, as thou hast afore.”
But Mince still did not stray from the Princess's side.
And Celestia's expression fell. “Mince. Please. I have asked thee as thy friend. Pray do not make Me command thee as thy Princess.”
After one more moment, Mince could do naught but bow. “As you say, Your Highness.”
"Aye," Celestia said with a frown. "As I say." There was no more royal We, for the sole remaining sister could not claim to speak for both. But, she told herself, she would not need to speak for lost Luna in this.
Celestia, still clad in naught but in her own fur, strode into the forest, head high and wings flared. Some laborers averted their eyes from Her glory, while others gazed in naked awe. As she strode across the castle bridge and into the forest itself, the onlookers remained, beasts of the wood and the deer of Thicket.
Mayhaps the deer speak differently of that day, but they keep their own counsel and tell their own tales. We can speak only for what Celestia Herself tells of what followed.
Once She reached the deepest, darkest part of the Everfree, Celestia released the hoofpress on Her heart. Her mane and tail burst into open flame, the dust marring Her coat flashing into vapor and the clinging pebbles dripping away like water. Tears boiled away even as She shed them, and she cried out to the land itself.
"Everfree! I am Celestia, Steward of the Sun! Answer My summons or I shall burn thee to the ground and salt the earth such that no shoot shall rise even upon My Sister's return! I would know what foul hex thou placed upon Us, that did sunder the bond not even Discord could touch! What curse of thine could not bear to see two mares happy in one another's presence, ruling with wisdom within thee?"
Only Her own echoing voice answered her, returning to her mocking and manyfold from the trees. Her flames flared stronger, and the trunks around Her began to smolder.
"Answer Me, thou blasted hedgerow! I am the Sun, and I will not be ignored! Thou hast a will, any pony of the earth knows this. Rouse it or be wiped from the face of the world!"
And still did naught but Celestia's own words meet her. The ground dried and cracked around her, and the leaves burst into a canopy of fire.
"If thou wilt not truck with me, then I shall paint a portrait of Luna with thy ashes, so that thou art remembered only through her face!" Celestia screamed, voice scraping her throat as she spewed embers with every breath. "Any tree I see will be reduced to charcoal! Any scrap of green blackened! The Sun shall look upon naught but ruin and rejoice!"
And, with a rumble, something more answered her.
Celestia grinned, baring dragon fangs. "Finally. What slugabed answers me? What... lazing..." She trailed off as Her head craned up and up and up.
No beast of flesh, wood, or starlight had answered her call. The very earth rose, a hill erecting itself before her. Claws of ore slipped from paws of bedrock as it stretched, stalactite teeth longer than Celestia exposed as it yawned. Each hair in its great mane was a tree full grown, and each eye a pond kept suspended by the will of Nature.
It glowered down at the Princess as she would an ant. "This One is not a demon to be beckoned, grazer, nor a spirit to be bound. But It will answer thy blandishments this once. This One did nothing to sunder the bond between thou and thine. It was naught but silent witness as you two did drift apart, as the shadows did offer her the succor thou didst not. Thou knowest this, yet gnash and wail. Remember thy place, grazer."
And with a single great paw of stone and soil, it pressed down on the blaze around Celestia and snuffed it with barely a motion.
"Disturb This One no further. Its patience is not without bound, and the favor of the Sun goes only so far." And with that, the great will of the Everfree withdrew back into itself.
Celestia lay for a time in the blurred pawprint crater, and thought, and mended her crushed bones. In time, she was hale enough to trek out of the forest. Only past its edge did she light her horn or spread her wings. All through the journey out, where none beheld her with awe or reverence, she carried herself only as a pony of the earth, rightly chastised by her elder.
"And then?"
Mince Pie, with mane of gray and mien of kindness, smiled at her grandson. "And then, Jam Pie, she did return, and told to me the foolishness she performed in the forest. And it is for that reason that I may thou the Princess, for we are friends, and ponies who are friends should always be equals, e'en if one wears a crown."
"And she really almost burnt down the Everfree?" Jam asked, wide-eyed.
"The pit still be there, if thou knowest where to look, deep and ashen. The princess has oft left Canterlot, but ne'er returned to Everfree. And I doubt she will, until lost Luna's shadow no more lingers over the old castle."
"Her shadow?"
Mince grinned. What was grandmotherhood for, if not to sprinkle in harmless little horrors with the old stories? "Ah. That is another tale. You see..."
Welcome to Story Shuffle 2, where the prompts are doubled and the points don't matter! And this one starts off quite interestingly, with a specific legendary and a one-drop. But "loam lion" sounds right in line with timberwolves and lumber bears, and if you go by the "king of the beasts" angle, well...
As for Akroma, "large angelic being on a vengeance kick" certainly fits a young Celestia. (Meanwhile, Mince Pie comes from a Writeoff entry I still haven't carried over to Fimfiction. And yes, she's the ancestor of exactly who you think.)
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I suppose this could lead to interest in tending rock, but really this only shows that Celestia wasn't to far gone or she's trying to downplay herself, because earth and rock maybe able to smother a flame, but they can't actually touch the sun
I'm already loving this.
👍
Having been out of MtG for years, this'll be an interesting way to see a bunch of cards I've missed out on.
Oh, woah. Seeing the great will of the Everfree!
That was awesome and terrifying! Congrats!
Wait... Was she the origin for Nightmare Night??
And framing it as an in-universe story gives you even more plausible deniability than you already had. Especially given who she's an ancestor of...
We're off to an excellent start. I think I actually had that Akroma, long ago
Good stuff. There have been hints (inconsistent, but when has the show ever been consistent?) that the Everfree itself is a bit of a Lovecraftian horror only kept under control by the Tree of Harmony (or the Treehouse of Harmony[1]): this is a nice take.
[1] On alternate Tuesdays I am convinced the last two seasons are just Twilight having an indigestion dream brought on by unwisely sampling Trixie's Extra Spicy Gumbo recipe.
Huzzah! The story prompts have been doubled!
All in all, a very cool starter. Props for the old-timey speech, it feels authentic.
You write "ye olde speech" very well.
Nice! As others have mentioned, you did an excellent job with þe olden speech.
Nice! Definitely an interesting combo, and you pulled it off masterfully
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But, as the Everfree reminded Celestia, there's a world of difference between being an avatar of the sun and the sun itself.
And the rock farming didn't start for another few generations. A thousand years is a long time.
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Glad to hear it.
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We have cards ranging from Beta through Throne of Eldraine. This should be quite the experience for you.
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I was going for the Pony of Shadows. At least, the variant Applejack worried about back in "Castle Mania." (Remember, this is far enough back that the Apple and Pie lines haven't deviated yet.) Though Mince may well have kicked off Nightmare Night as well.
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Gumbo dreams definitely factor into parts of the later seasons. Not all of it, but I do like the option of dismissing some of the worst cases of character backsliding as Twilight's old and new memories blending in a tomato base.
And yes, there's definitely something going on with the Everfree, even if later seasons took a lot of the horror out of the hellwood.
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Good to hear I nailed the olde timey tone. It's fun to dip into that sort of thing.
Figures a nature spirit known as Everfree would resent summonings or evocations. Highly amusing that both it and Celestia consider smashing her into the dirt hard enough to break (alicorn!) bones as a mild chastisement.
This is the Everfree lore I never knew I needed. More of this, please.