Chapter 4
It was nearing seven o’clock in the evening as Empress Celestia made her way to the guest tower. As she ascended the stairs, her thoughts continued to plague and gnaw at her. She wasn’t a tyrant, was she? How long had she been an object of fear rather than reverence? She had defeated hundreds of enemy warriors in her battles to advance the Solar Empire for the good of her subjects. No, she realized; not to benefit her subjects, but to enhance her own ego and riches. With a horrified shudder, an icy thought crept into her mind; how was she any better now than what Nightmare Moon had been? While the demonic incarnation of Princess Luna had wanted to wipe out all life, Sol Invicta had gone one step further and not only slaughtered scores of beings, but had subjugated tens of thousands of lives, bringing death and blood not by darkness and ice, but by domination and fanaticism. Still, it had been in the pursuit of a good cause, and didn’t the ends ultimately justify the means when all was said and done if what was accomplished was for the greater good?
Arriving at the top of the stairs and to the set of double doors that housed the guest suite, the Empress entered quietly. Inside was a large chamber with a comfortable bed placed off to the far left of the doors. To the right was a crackling fire in the fireplace, and adjacent to that was a small desk. Behind the desk sat Starswirl, and in front of the desk lay a large ornate sitting pillow. The unicorn scholar was currently writing into a small book, which the Empress assumed was his journal, and for the moment his attention was solely focused on that. She slowly walked into the room and waited. After a minute or two of silence apart from Starswirl’s furious scribbling, she lightly cleared her throat. He stopped his work to look up at the white alicorn.
“May I sit with you?” she quietly asked.
The elderly unicorn smiled a little before speaking, “Of course you may. It’s your castle after all! Who am I to stop an Empress?”
A twinge of regret appeared on Empress Celestia’s face as she lay down on the floor pillow, “Please don’t call me that, Starswirl.”
“Very well,” the sage said as he closed his journal and dissipated his writing quill, “then who are you?”
She looked to the unicorn with a pleading gaze, “Starswirl, please, I didn’t mean for what has happened to transpire as it did. I just wanted to fulfill my sister’s dream.”
“You can’t accomplish somepony else’s dream for them; that is for them to achieve and them alone.”
“But it’s because of me Luna couldn’t make her plans work!” she said, her throat beginning to catch as she continued, “I was too callous to see what the herd’s heart was like. I’ve tried to atone for my ignorance by creating this great society, and now you’re saying I am a tyrant, and that it was all in vain?”
“Celestia,” Starswirl calmly began, “You are both blessed and cursed with something many ignoramuses try to achieve, and that is immortality. You are stuck on the outside of our normal lives, looking in on all of us mortals eating, playing, making mistakes, and dying. It must drive you mad seeing us repeat those mistakes over and over again, so you tried to make sure we never made the same mistakes ever again by eliminating all freedom for risk of erring.” He paused for a time, looked into the fire, and became thoughtfully silent, “You once told me that before your sister fell, you just wanted to make everypony happy, correct?”
“Yes,” Celestia nodded.
“Is that the real reason you created this ‘Solar Empire’? By setting yourself up as a god, you could authoritatively command for things to be such and such a way for all ponies to ultimately be happy?”
Celestia nodded once more, “I have always believed that a well-structured state provides the greatest happiness to all ponies. I became a god to ensure that the populace would heed my commands with more urgency, and to avoid the reaction that they had when Luna tried her plan to bring balance to society.”
“But that’s just it!” Starswirl pounced on Celestia’s statement, “If that were truly the case, all ponies would be pleased to see you, not cowering in fear of you blasting them from this mortal plane! You claim to be a god and then you expected ponies to respect you with joy rather than fear? You should have approached this 'god gambit' of yours with more care, and now you are seeing the results of how it has backfired on you.”
“Please Starswirl,” Celestia implored, “end this agony of mine! I created this system of governance and order for everypony's benefit, even those who can't initially see the good that comes of it. What have I done wrong? What have I overlooked? I thought my plans were flawless! How can I ensure I will make all my ponies happy?”
Starswirl sighed deeply, and he looked at Celestia with equal parts mirth and melancholy, “You cannot make ponies happy. That’s the thing! You can’t force any race of this big wide world to be happy; it is something they must achieve for themselves.”
Celestia was truly taken aback by this statement. For nearly as long as she could remember, she had been trying to make her subjects happy by making the world a better place for them, providing structure and stability through her government. Now everything in her world was being flipped upside down. What was left for her to question about herself and her life? Had everything she had ever done all been in vain? Was she doomed to fail by fate; first by not being able to save her sister, and then to also see herself waste years of her life all for an impossible cause?
Starswirl chuckled to himself the tiniest bit, “I’m sure that if you had been blessed with children, you would have been an excellent mother! You would have probably learned that happiness is what we make of it a great deal faster if you had.”
“I may have miscalculated," Celestia finally offered, "But I'm sure with your help, Starswirl, that I will be able to find what exactly I need to do to change my subject's opinions about me. All we need to do is find the right angle from which to approach the problem, and then apply appropriate logic-" the Princess began to mutter audibly as she became self absorbed in her planning.
Starswirl looked at her calmly and wait for her to finish. She didn't stop. "Celestia?"
"There's been a major decrease in the weather production from Cloudsdale, so I'll send a representative to find out the issue there. From there we will redistribute more rainfall to the agricultural regions, which will optimize the production of-"
"Celestia," Starswirl was becoming more and more frustrated with her as she continued crunching out possibilities of how to formulate the best possible solution to win ponies' hearts through her deeds, all the while tuning out anything her 'advisor' was trying to say. Narrowing his eyes and frowning deeply, the unicorn scholar conjured up his handy wooden staff once again, and struck Celestia over the head with it. Startled, the white alicorn looked up to her old friend. Satisfied that she was paying attention now, Starswirl grumpily declared, “You want to make ponies happy? You need to get rid of your ugly pride, and let your country see to its own happiness. You are not our mother, and you are not a god. Do you hear me, young lady?”
Celestia silently looked at the frowning old unicorn for a moment, her face completely unreadable. Her chest began to heave and tears came to her eyes as she burst out laughing, and began to snigger to herself.
Starswirl, surprised at this response, muttered to no one in particular, “Well, this wasn’t the reaction I was expecting!”
“I’m sorry,” Celestia giggled, wiping away her tears, “but the way you were looking at me, and the way you spoke, you looked like a crotchety, old schoolmaster trying to scold a rebellious little filly!” She continued snorting in laughter, “That image just fits you so well!”
Starswirl’s eyes narrowed, “Cute. But, it shall be as you said!”
Coming back down from the temporary giddiness of laughing so hard, Celestia finally asked, “What will?”
“So begins your lessons, and if history requires me to be this ‘old, crotchety schoolmaster’ to change you for the better, then so be it!”
“You know I was joking, Starswirl. You can let it go now.”
“You may have been joking, but I, on the contrary, am very serious! After you make first light, present yourself to me here! You will receive your first lesson from me tomorrow morning.”
Celestia rested her chin on her right hoof, “Alright, I’ll play along. What, dear teacher, will we be learning about tomorrow?”
“It will be a lesson in Generosity.”
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I lied again. I updated today instead of tomorrow. You know what? I'll just update this story every Friday now instead of Saturday. If you have any comments, passing observations, what have you, please feel free to comment below!
Interesting chapter you have here. My main concern is Celestia...She's spent years deluding herself with this lie, and with all the evidence, it'd be pretty easy to be trapped in the god delusion. I know she respects Beardy, but how quickly she turned....It seems a bit unrealistic to me. I'm still curious to see how Beardy will teach the lesson though!
2094694
You're right; I should probably adjust her attitude a bit. Celestia does rebound a bit to fast. I'll see what I can do!
Edit:
There! Let's see about that! Do you think this works better?
Nice Lord of the Rings reference...I think. Was that one?
Anyway, awesome chapters! Keep going, I'm starting to really like this story. You're a talented author.
2095086
Yes, it sure was a Lord of the Rings reference! I always pictured Starswirl as Gandalf ever since he first got mentioned in season 2, and so I translated that into my interpretation of him here. Also, thank you very much for the compliment! I hope it shows that I've put a lot of effort into this story.
2095111
It really does. You're doing a fantastic job. And if it wasn't supposed to be a Lord of the Rings reference...then it wasn't. My dad's obsessed, but I've only read the Hobbit and watched the movies a few times. But they were the extended versions.
2095157
I love both the books and the movies for LOTR; they're a fantastic blend of plot and creative mythology which I could never even dream of coming close to writing like. If you're not used to it, though, the books can actually be kind of on the dry side compared to the writing style today.
Though I did base Starswirl's personality on Gandalf, the actual plot to this story is not unlike 'The Once and Future King' by T.H. White. The first and most famous arc in the book, 'The Sword in the Stone', is where a certain eccentric wizard named Merlin teaches a young Arthur lessons that he will need later on in life to become a great King. It's also a bit dry, but a very good read in my opinion!
2095264
Wait a second...Basil...Arthur...Star Swirl....theories are coming into my brain....
2095305
Sorry, but Basil's not Arthur. Nice idea, though!
2095354
Dang it.
So Starswirl shows up out of no where and promptly lectures Celestia on her actions in the time of his absence like a damn school teacher. The fact Celestia believe him implicitly and immediately despite him not being there makes her seem incredibly weak in character and it makes Starswirl into a simple mouth piece for the author to lecture the character I.E. boring. Wise characters don't hand out the answers, they give characters the means to arrive at the answer in their own time. Having this old unicorn simply lecture Celestia on her actions is not a good way to make him seem wise. It just makes him seem like a know-it-all Gandalf wannabe.
You clever son of a gun.
2854157
The lectures/lessons haven't even begun yet, and you're already complaining about what they might entail? Laaaaaaame.
3650443 I'm talking about how this fucking dick of a mage pops in and out of the time stream and proceeds to lecture Celestia's on her actions when he could have prevented her from taking this course in the first place. I'm not talking about lessons in the future, I'm talking about what he's doing now!
I am certain that Generosity will not be followed by Laughter, Kindness, Honesty, Loyalty, or Magic. I am certain that is not where this is heading.