Students of Heaven

[Gentian]

I'm starting on another story. I plan to do it the same way I did Blueberry; keeping all the posts in this thread so they aren't spread out among my lexical tomfoolery thread. I will link it there, though.

Anyway, here's the blurb:

Celestia, the most noble of entities. Filled with love and compassion. Powerful, wise, immortal.

Lonely, sad, and wracked with guilt at her failures.

Come, reader, and learn the story of the magnificent Princess of the Day. Part of it, at least, for the story of an immortal must be without end. Only part of it, but enough to see who she is, and what she longs for.





To any who choose to read it, thank you! I hope it'll be worth your time.

____________________________________________


Students of Heaven



1 - Genesis

Dear Princess Celestia,

I wanted to let you know things are well here: the sun shines, birds sing in the trees, and I've come to see you were right yet again; life is so much better with friends. Snips and Snails have taken quite a liking to me. They sulk around, destroy things, and intimidate the students - all on my behalf. Most importantly, though, they recognize my greatness. In fact, they do so much for me, I can just sit back and bask in the misery.

You see? I'm making progress!

You may have refused to make me an Alicorn, but it doesn't matter. There's no magic here, anyway, and even without it, I already rule. This whole area is “under my thumb.” Don't they have the cutest expressions? But it's true: I rule. I rule a school, yes, but the wails of a child are no less real. Their anguish is felt as keenly, and their tears are just as sweet

I rule a school, yes, but it's a school of flypaper, and they are the flies. Did you know that their lives are ruined if they don't graduate? It's true! Unlike us, these things have no harmony, so their society, and even their own families will turn on them if they don't; their whole futures are ruined! Not only that, but, in many cases their parents simply don't want to have them at home. Their own children! Can you imagine? Because of this, my little flies find no rest no matter where they try to flee, and it's also why I so relish playing at school-life; they're trapped with me, in a way adults never would be, and it's all thanks to you.

Every time someone goes hungry because I've taken their money; every time Snips, and Snails destroy a project for me, just so I can laugh as the child fails; every time someone is late because they're too afraid to pass me in the hall; every time I lie to Flash, and he lashes out at the others in my “defense;” every downcast eye, every fearful whimper, every tear-filled breakdown...they're all because of you.

I want you to remember that.

I may be on the other side of the mirror, but I am still me. Indomitable, unstoppable me, and everyone here is mine. Remember that, too; you're the kind of pony who would care. They aren't your ponies, they aren't even ponies at all, but you care.

Sleep well, Princess. See my face when you close your eyes. Dream about all that I've done here, and so, all that you have done through me. Dream, too, of all the suffering still to come. The sweet, sweet suffering. I wonder how much longer it will be before I rack up a suicide? Wish me luck!

Your faithful student,
~S


I have always hated cruelty. Almost every pony does, and before Sunset left me, she used to as well. Her pride, and ambition made it difficult for most to see, but she was always kind-hearted. To see her now, embracing sadism, honing it to a needle-point, and casting it straight at my heart, pains me more than a hoof across my face. And of course, that's why she still sends me these letters. She never answers mine, and doesn't want to; she merely means to hurt me, and I let her, reading every word of every letter, hoping each time the one penning itself across dimensions to the pages of my book will be the one which lets slip a change of heart. The smallest hint will do.

But this one is like all the others, steeped in rot and bitterness, so I don't deign to reread. Instead I let my eyes pass over it again, marveling at the graceful flower of Sunset's writing, still shining gold with the book's magic. It's beautiful. I need to see something to remind me of the pony she used to be, and that, at least, has not changed.

Sunset and I have always shared a love for chirography. As long as I've known her, she has taken pride in having won every calligraphy competition she'd entered, and the way she would beam whenever she'd had a new ribbon or trophy to show me had brought smiles to my lips, too. Not the smiles of diplomatic politeness expected of a Princess, but the radiant, prideful smile of the mother my poor, orphaned Sunset so needed me to be. Which I tried so hard to be.

While her first few letters from the other side had been in the finest High Classical Equestrian, she'd adopted an elegant Spencerian hand shortly after acquiring ones of her own. Perhaps, in eagerness to show me how she could not only survive, but thrive under any adversity?

In slow silence I rise, leaving the open tome on my desk, and walk to my balcony. The white walls of Canterlot glow a bright yellow-orange in my mid-afternoon sun. Pegai flit between my towers, and the faint sounds of hooves on stone echo among my walls and gardens. Ponyville and Cloudsdale dot my horizon. All of Equestria is spread out before me, but I don't see it. Instead, I see the past...


Nowhere
Aeons ago

I'm alone.

It feels as though I've always been alone. An infinity of cold, black silence stretches out around me in time and space. Both are featureless and void, and neither matters: I alone exist, and I am content.

Though there is no way to know how long I have been here, time does pass, and with it, a realization comes to me: for the first time, I am lonely, and not merely alone. I don't want to be alone anymore, so I summon a ghost of my power, and a star springs in to being. It's light and warmth bring me simple joy, and I see that it is good.

Some time after, I channel magic, again, and create a planet, beautiful and blue, and set it in motion. I watch as it circles my star, sunlight glinting off its water and high cloud tops. This waltz between my creations is also good, and it pleases me. Eventually, I descend, and call land from the abyss. Great mountains, and broad plateaus answer me, rising effortlessly from the waves. They, too make me happy, but I'm not yet satisfied; there is much more to do!

As a formless being, I take pieces of my world and shape them further, breathing life into some of my creations, and scattering them across it. For time out of mind, I wander among them, watching as they, animal, plant, star, and planet, grow and change together.

As time passes my work continues. Mountain ranges rise and fall, prairies turn to oceans and back again, continents break and rivers change course. Sometimes I do these things myself, but most of the time I watch, and let the natural processes I set in motion do the shaping for me. It takes a very long time, but what is time to me?

Eventually, I find a creature which I like above all others. With its 4 legs, hooves, a tail and mane, I find its form beautiful, so much so that I adopt it myself, twisting and molding my own shape to mimic it. Larger, of course to suit my majesty. I follow them for uncounted ages, testing them, and blessing them with the barest hints of magic, until one day, they are capable of answering my speech with theirs.

By this time, my magic and guidance have changed them: some of them have wings, some horns, while others lack any outward sign of the magic within; but they are all my children, and I love them. I teach them of fire, farming, architecture, and all the other sundry things they'll need to know to build my civilization, then I settle upon my throne. Now it's time to wait. Eventually, some will be born with potential beyond all others. I will find them, guide them, and when they are ready, I will help them through apotheosis. Then, at last, I won't be alone anymore.


Canterlot
Present Day

Sunset was right, of course: I hadn't made her an Alicorn. But neither had I made Twilight one, nor Luna, nor Cadance. I'd merely planted within them the seed of divinity, and tried to nurture them in a way that would make it sprout true. I had also done the same for her.

Then, as now, my dear Sunset had so much potential! She was incandescent! She shone with it, more brightly than her peers, brighter than her elders, brightly enough to catch my eye. So brightly I personally approved her admission to my school, and paid her tuition, as she had no family of her own. So much so that I took her under my wing, and made her not only my personal student, but treated her as my own daughter.

So much potential, but she has never had patience. She'd left before I could make her understand, but still carried the spark of my divinity which I'd placed within her.

The one saving grace was that she did not know I had given it to her. I had known she wanted it, known she was worthy of it, and oh, how I wished to see her face light up in surprise, when it finally burst forth! I had passed it to her in secret, and to my shame, it was only when she fled through the mirror that I realized how premature my blessing had been.

Yet even in her ignorance, its presence makes her dangerous. Very, very dangerous. If it grows while she still harbors so much darkness the results will be monstrous. Even in that banal world which she now inhabits, her powers would be immense, and made even more formidable be virtue of being the only magic there. The effect on the creatures of that world would be much the same as it would have been for my children if Nightmare had usurped my throne here, and Sunset is right; they are not ponies, but I care.

Something must be done about her, but what? She won't come back, and even if she does, she would still be the same corrupted unicorn. Merely stopping her is not good enough, or I could spirit her back to Equestria in an instant whether she liked it, or not. I must save her, but how?

I watch my ponies in the courtyards preparing for the upcoming Princess Summit. They'd soon be on their way to the Crystal Empire, and I'd follow at my leisure.

An idea forms.

Sunset doesn't know the origins of my “sister,” Luna, or how close Starswirl had come to ascension himself, but she does know about Cadance, and her birth as a pegasus. She doesn't know about Twilight, or that her crown is the renewed Element of Magic...but what if she did?

Swiftly, I return to the book and levitate my quill. Behind my closed eyes I summon all my knowledge of both ponies, composing the letter in my mind again and again; I'll only have one chance to get it right. Soon my eyes open, and I begin to write.