Maiden Voyage

by Reviewfilly

T+17 years

Canterlot Royal Cemetery sat mostly out of place, far from the beating hearts of the city’s main boulevards and squares. Its tall iron fences hid a well-groomed garden behind, housing long cobblestone paths lined with benches, lonesome trees, and rows upon rows of orderly headstones, commemorating lives long, short, and in-between.

Few ponies visited the garden, despite its haunting beauty, mostly just those who had reason to come, so it served as a perfect retreat to those who wished for reprieve from the chaos of the city. Twilight did not visit often, she much preferred the solitude of her tower to ponder over the questions posed by her teacher. But today was different, she was done with her tests for a while and she was free for once. She figured that before she carefully dipped her hooves back into social life, she would wind down with one last peaceful trot through the cemetery.

She arrived early in the morning in front of the great double gates of the resting grounds, which she opened with utmost care to remain silent. As with everything else, they too were kept in good shape and often oiled, but Twilight, being both a veteran of libraries despite her young age and somepony who considered herself a pony of decency, did not want to risk disturbing the peace of the other visitors.

As she made her way down the main trail, she decided on a whim to take one of the side-paths she had never visited before. Her eyes passed over the graves next to her. Most headstones looked the same; rectangular blocks of marble, with the ponies' dates of birth and death, names, and finally the symbol of the Sun engraved on them. Occasionally the oldest families of the city requested tombstones that featured the Sun and the Moon together, but the reason for this practice was lost to time even to the families themselves.

So when Twilight quickly noticed a massive curving wooden arch enshrined into an even larger stone plinth, it took her by surprise. The solid beam towered high above her, its end intricately carved into an alicorn flaring a singular wing—the other having seemingly been torn off—whilst reaching upwards. The statue was battered, like it was dragged through the ground, much of the alicorn’s body was missing its paintwork and its horn ended in a slanted edge where its end had chipped off. Twilight glanced up with her mouth hanging open, slowly scanning the structure from the peak down to the bottom. It became a great deal darker as it approached the base, as if it was speckled with layers of dark mould or dust, or perhaps even burned. Twilight leaned a little closer to inspect the spot, though before she could get a better look, a voice gave her pause.

"Hello, Twilight. I did not expect to meet you here."

The voice was unmistakable. Twilight immediately spun around and threw herself into an awkward bow. "Princess! I... I could say the same thing!" she stammered.

"Twilight, I have told you plenty of times, I prefer to look my ponies in their eyes. Please stand up." Celestia smiled with a tiny, bemused chuckle, but her eyes remained distant as she continued to stare at the towering beam and its sculpture. "Tell me, do you know the origin of this beautiful carving?" she asked, not looking at her.

Twilight stared at the wooden alicorn again, wracking her brain as hard as she could. "No, Princess," she finally admitted. "Nothing comes to my mind."

"I see. I suppose you couldn't have been more than a yearling at the time." Celestia nodded to herself. "Have you ever been aboard an airship?"

Twilight was slightly taken aback by the seemingly non-sequitur question. "I think so? Once or twice. I prefer hot air balloons, honestly. You can steer them all alone."

Celestia snorted again, this time with no humour. "I see you're still not too keen on socialising. But the reason I was asking is because what you see in front of you is the former figurehead and part of the hull of the Lux Aeterna."

"'Eternal Light'," Twilight mumbled, as she reflexively translated the Old-Ponish name in her head.

"Correct, my little pony, it was the name of the biggest airship ever built in Equestria." Celestia's paper thin smile began to waver. "They built it in my name. It could carry five hundred passengers, plus eighty more ponies as crew, along with all the cargo necessary for a pleasant journey with no need or want."

Twilight listened to her teacher's words with open awe. "It must be an engineering marvel," she said.

"It was."

Twilight blinked. "So... Where is it now?"

"Twilight," Celestia said quietly and slowly. "Where do you think we are?" She nodded towards the base of the monument.

So far Twilight's attention was fully taken by the figurehead, so she hadn't even noticed that the plinth below held an engraved plaque as well. "Four-hundred and eighty-two," she read with growing dread. "No..."

"I'm afraid your assumption is correct, Twilight." Celestia turned to the side. "Please walk with me." Twilight silently followed and the duo began to make their way towards the gate.

"As you have correctly ascertained, the Lux Aeterna was unique amongst its kind, created for a very specific task." Celestia's face darkened as she spoke. "At the time there was a bit of a diplomatic issue with the neighbouring Griffon Kingdom. A border dispute, if you will. A few frontier towns in Equestria, high in our mountains where mostly only pegasi can live, were claimed by the griffons, as the rightful soil of King Grover's heirs." She scoffed. "It was a pile of rocks without any real worth or value, that I would have been happy to part ways with for favourable deals elsewhere, if not for my subjects."

"Couldn't you have asked them to move? You're the Princess!" Twilight asked with a little indignation in her voice, but the side-glance Celestia cast towards her made any further comments die in her throat.

"You see, Twilight, I might rule Equestria, but I do not rule my ponies' hearts and minds. Pegasi have lived in those ranges ever since the era of Unification. Asking them to move would be to them as if I asked you to raze Canterlot and salt its ruins." Twilight frowned at the analogy and nodded. "So now you might understand that I had to be very careful. Not only did I need to preserve my ponies' best interests, I had to be especially wise about the choice I was to make. The Kingdom's heir had recently risen to the throne and he wanted to prove his worth to his subjects; an outright denial of his demands could have resulted in very ugly outcomes."

The two reached the main route towards the entrance, drawing surprised glances from the others passing by. Twilight said nothing as the princess slowed down or stopped at some of the graves, one question brewing in her mind.

"Princess," she finally said. "What does the airship have to do with a border dispute?"

"Astute as always, Twilight. Throughout my centuries of reign, one thing was always the same about the griffons. They loved war and expansion, yes, but what they loved even more was opulence and spectacle. Since I care very little for the former, I decided to appease them using the latter. I ordered my engineers to create an airship that would awe an entire nation. My intentions were entirely peaceful, naturally, but I had to project some measure of power."

Twilight stared at her with wide-eyes. "You wanted to show that Equestria could defend itself without shedding any blood!" she said almost too loudly.

"Yes," Celestia replied wistfully. "If only it had worked. I remember the day vividly, it was very similar to this one," she began, her words transporting the duo into the past.