I found Pepper at one of the upper balconies. Her illusion up like always as she looked up at the stars.
"You talked to Princess Luna," I said as I walked up next to her.
Pepper startled slightly and then nodded, "I-I did," she agreed, "...Fluttershy accompanied me."
"That's good," I said and floated an apple from my satchel before splitting it in half with my magic, offering her one half.
She took it in one hoof as she looked at me, "...Why me?" she asked after a long moment, "I know you said but... it still doesn't make sense. I'm a nopony. I spend the evenings selling noodles. I’m not a hero, I’m not a princess."
I chewed slowly on a piece of apple before I sat down, "Very good noodles they are too. But that's who you are now," I said, "But that doesn't mean it's who you will always be. Things change, ponies change."
"But what you're asking of me-"
"Is a lot," I agreed when she trailed off, "More than I have any right to. Especially when I know that one pony can't change the world. No single pony, be they thestral, unicorn or alicorn can change the world."
Spicy Pepper looked at me in surprise, "But... isn't that what you want me to do?"
I smiled sadly and shook my head, "No, Pepper. Changing the world is impossible. The most any pony can do is change themselves and that's all I really ask. But that's harder than anything else."
She frowned in thought for several long minutes, looking out over the dark countryside before she shook her head, "Not sure I get it."
I smiled, "Don't try to change the world, Pepper. That's too much pressure, too much for anypony. All you can do is be the change you want."
"You want me to go unillusioned."
"Yes. And go through the decursing process."
Pepper took a deep breath, "If I... If I do... I talked to Princess Twilight. If I do, I won't be able to hide again."
I nodded, "That's right. To be an example to the other bats to do the same. You can't change the world, Pepper. But you can show others how to."
She took a deep breath, rubbing her eyes with a pastern, "I... I don't know if I can."
"You wouldn't be alone. Fluttershy is with you. You will have the official and full support of all the Princesses."
Pepper took another deep breath, "...I'm a nopony."
I sighed softly and took a step closer, "Pepper, I'll let you in on a secret. Nopony is a nopony. Everypony is somepony, with dreams, thoughts, fears and hopes. Everypony is important. Do you know what I did before I became an Alicorn?"
She shook her head.
I smiled and sat down, "I worked in a bookstore for a bit, but then I started to write books. Just a regular unicorn."
Pepper looked at me in surprise, "You weren't a thestral?"
I shook my head, "Not originally," and I raised my wings, looking back at them, "...Do you have any idea how hard it is to learn to sleep comfortably when you're not used to wings?"
That drew a small giggle from her, shaking her head, "Not really," she admitted with a small smile.
"Well, let me tell you, it took a bit," I said and stretched my wings to the side before folding them again, "But look at me now."
She shook her head, "That's different."
"Why?"
"...You may have been a unicorn before, but you're an alicorn now. I'm not, I never will be."
I sighed softly, "Pepper, alicorn or not does not matter. I have a horn, big deal. My wings may have helped me discover what was wrong easier, but I would still be doing what I could to help."
She frowned at me, "But..."
"Me being a bat helps more than me being an alicorn," I told her quietly but seriously, "Would you have listened to a random unicorn?"
Pepper was silent for several long moments before she shook her head.
"The only thing that matters, Pepper," I said and put my hoof on her shoulder, "is you. Yes, you being a bat will help get others to listen, but it's not why I chose to ask you. I chose to ask you because I think this is something you can handle. You are a very capable pony, Pepper."
She looked up at me and shook her head, "I don't know if anypony can do what you want of me."
"Maybe," I admitted, "Maybe you’re right. Maybe nopony can ever make things right, here or in my world. But... don't you want to try? If we don't, in a few hundred years there may be no more bats left. An entire tribe of ponies gone forever. Isn't it worth trying?"
Pepper was silent for several long moments before she set her jaw and looked up, meeting my eyes and nodding once.
####################
I found a bath!
As it turned out, the crystal castle had a similar bath as the castle in Canterlot, a large chamber beneath the castle itself, seemingly cut out of the crystal itself filled with warm water.
Dunking myself beneath the hot water, I then stood back up, shaking my mane and wings. This was something we didn’t have in Nocturnis.
But it is something we should build as soon as possible. I think a public bathhouse would be good for ponies.
It worked for the Romans after all.
Right now keeping clean was mostly rain based. Which was fine, but this was nicer.
“Oh!”
I looked over to spot Starlight paused at the entrance, “Evening, Starlight,” I said with a smile.
“Evening, Prince Page. Sorry to interrupt, I can-”
“Not at all,” I told her, “This bath is for everypony in the castle, don’t let me bother you.”
Starlight hesitated for a second before she nodded and put her towel down before moving to the stairs into the water, hooves making a clip clop against the crystal of the bath.
“It’s strange,” I said as I looked at her, “You’d think wet crystal would be slippery for hooves.”
She paused and looked down, rubbing a hoof at the crystal with a small frown, “...It should,” she admitted and poked it for a second before she shrugged and continued into the hot water before she groaned softly and sank down to her nose.
I grinned, “Long week?”
“Mhmm,” Starlight agreed.
I wanted to ask but I moved onto one of the other underwater benches before laying down instead, sinking down to my neck with a small sigh.
Yes. Public hot baths.
Definitely.
Especially as hard as the ponies of Nocturnis works, they deserve one.
…Admittedly, they would be the ones building the baths too…
How would we afford it anyway? Maybe it could be built from local rock, then it would be mostly labor. We had enough unicorns to manage heating crystals.
I ducked beneath the water again before shaking my mane again, relaxing against the wall of the bath.
Yep, worth it. Wouldn’t be difficult to convince ponies about it either.
“We’re almost done.”
I blinked my eyes open and looked over towards Starlight, “Huh?”
“We’re almost done,” she said and stood back up, her horn lit as she worked her mane with her magic field, twisting water out of it, “The spell calculations, I mean.”
“Almost ready?” I asked.
“...Almost,” she agreed, “The calculations are almost finished, then we need to turn it into a spell. But that’s the easy part.”
I smiled, “We’re going home soon.”
Starlight nodded, “A week at most if all goes well,” she said with a smile before she looked at me seriously, “But we might still end up having trouble with it. So it’s not a strict time table.”
I nodded, “I get it,” I told her, “What you’re doing isn’t easy.”
“Took me three years to get the original spell working,” Starlight confirmed and then shrugged a bit, “And that one went to a spot in our own timestream.”
“Difficult to say the least,” I agreed.
Starlight sank back down to her neck, looking at me, “...I have a question about the other Starlight.”
“Yes?”
“Does she know a unicorn named Trixie? Trixie Lulamoon? Blue unicorn?”
“Trixie…” I said with a small frown, racking my memory, “...I don’t know,” I finally admitted, “Not that I know. Don’t recognize the name, sorry.”
“Oh.”
I shrugged my wings, “Sorry. But Starlight has lived in Nocturnis since the start. If it’s somepony you met during the last couple of years and she’s not in Nocturnis, it’s unlikely you met.”
Starlight nodded, looking thoughtful.
“Somepony special to you?” I asked her.
“...I think so,” she admitted quietly, “My best… my only friend actually. Only pony willing to talk to me with this thing on my horn,” she said and motioned to the ring firmly around the base of her horn.
“I see,” I said, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not so bad anymore,” Starlight admitted, “Princess Twilight changed it so that I can lift things now. Thank you.”
“Not up to me,” I told her, “I just suggested it, you’re the one that earned it by showing you could be trusted with it.”
~bells ringing in nocturnis~
EVERYONE! GRAB THE SHAMPOO A RAIN SHOWER IS HEADING OUR WAY!
Finally! it's been a week, I could smell myself!
Great chapter
Pepper: Interesting. Were one of your parents a thestral?
Page: Actually I wasn't even a pony at first! I was born a bald hairless two-legged creature with minotaur paws!
Pepper: Prince Page. You're not helping to convince me I have the proper qualifications if you're going to throw THAT at me.
Page: Oh...point taken.
Am I the only one realllly concerned about this upcoming portal and where it leads? Last time they tried this, they got the noodle-monster-with-too-many-eyes dimension.
Thanks for chapter!
Have a good day!
11343908
Good one! 👍
Isn't it rather difficult to become dry again in a Rain Jungle?
Starlight Glimmer should come with Page...
She can be her own best friend
Sooo... I wonder where in the Starlight Glimmer universe they are...
I think one of the first things page is gonna do when he gets back is find the box that has the crystal castle seed and do a fun montage of trying to get it open
11343987
The Crystal Friendship Castle would be a priceless boon for Nocturnis!
And then you romanced Luna. And then you threw a glorified fruit knife into Chrysalis' face because nopony else was helping Celestia repel an invasion. And then you orchestrated the plan that killed Tirek, only then earning your wings (let's leave out which kind). Anypony could have done that stuff, but you were the only one crazy enough to try.
11344032
also bludgeoned the griffons to peace with diplomacy, organized and funded an expedition to discover the truth behind the batpones, organized the survivors of said expedition when it went catastrophically wrong....
11344047
I was only talking about the stuff that happened before he became an alicorn, because we're trying to point out what you can do without being one.
11344064
TBH he didn't really pick up anything except the occasional day-court after becoming an alicorn, he was already a member of the royal family and treated as an advisor to the court by then
11343940
Midnight remembers that, and this time they have more reference points for the target, that shouldn't happen again...
Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!
I hope he doesn't end up way far in the past to become that statue
11344501
Now that's an interesting idea
11344501
11344562
that's prob what will happen. No other male alicorn in existence except for a threstral that is similar to our Page but larger smells to me like Page gets sent back into the past after all this (maybe with Midnight?). On the bright side, if true both timelines will have a Page (and maybe an extra Twilight) to keep naturally!
11344659
The way I see things the timeline split makes this more unlikely, there's only one of him after all.
Besides, 1: There's no evidence that the statue looks particularly like Page. Yes, it's a Thestral Alicorn, but that thing was studied rather extensively during the expidition, if it looked like Page, that should have been noticed.
2. The statue is older than The Sisters, and it's been established that Alicorn ascention is possible, but rare. It's possible that natural Thestral alicorns are indeed possible, just extremely rare, possibly from a combination of the difficulty of ascention and the comparatively small size of the Thestral tribe.
3. Page has been beating himself to Tartarus for convincing/manipulating ponies out of their comfort zone to do a job for the greater good. I know he has a history of stepping up and doing what needs to be done when the chips are down, I can't see him ever agreeing to turn himself and an entire tribe into blood-drinking vampony supersoldiers. That flies so far in the face of his values, being forced to go through with it would probably kill him.
4. IMO, The idea that the ancient Vampicorn is completely unrelated to Page makes the story better. Yes I'm curious to know more about what happened back then, but making it un-related makes the world a bigger, more complex, more realistic place. Sometimes random crap just happens.
Now, Page and Midnight being dropped back in time to witness some part of that history, maybe even being captured by said Vamponies and brought to the temple, meeting the ancient Alicorn and having to manipulate and orchestrate a daring escape, that would be cool.
11344706
I always liked how page is angry at the statue because it could have done what Celestia and Luna did millenia earlier, it also opens the possibility up that there were alicorns before celly and luna its just they all either were eventually died in obscurity or were tyrants that were killed eventually and forgotten. kind of like a Fermi paradox for alicorns, if alicorns could always exist, and they're immortal, why are Celestia and Luna the only modern examples that have survived past a normal pony lifespan
Sing hey! for the bath at close of day,
that washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!
11344706
That last point could well lead to a similar story to a Dr. Who story called 'Enemy of the World'. It happens that the Doctor (the second Doctor, to be exact) is a doppleganger for a notorious dictator called Salamander and the story revolves around that. Certainly worth a watch, though be warned that it is a bit of a slow burn... Though if you're reading the Pageverse, you probably don't mind that!
No grammar jackboots today, well done!
11344706
Of course, that would result in finding out the real reason the statue was made in the first place--it was a WANTED POSTER!
There was originally a plaque at the foot of the statue that read:
"Wanted
Dead orAlive(ALIVE, ONLY!! AND UNHARMED!!! ESPECIALLY THE GOOD BITS--the rest of him is subject to negotiation)
Reward--10,000,000,000 bits
for the male alicorn who got away before he could be made to breed with all the thestral mares in the kingdom.
RETURN HIM TO US ASAP!!
Bonus reward if you clip his wings so to keep him from flying away again"
Hiver: "FUCK! There goes ANOTHER plot idea I was working on....! "