Students of Heaven

[Gentian]

6 – Deep Calleth Unto Deep

Canterlot
Present Day

My golden sun blazes down from a cloudless, sapphire sky, and my garden is filled with the perfumes of flowers. The breezes are cool, the marble and porphyry of my balcony are warm, and the sounds of water trickling off the mountain, mix with Philomena's soft, peacock-like cries; what a lovely day!

Silently, I close my eyes and drink it all in. My head tilts skyward, and my suns golden rays smile upon my closed eyelids, as I do back up at them. Pleasant moments pass, and another scent on the air finally reaches maturity, telling me the best moment of this lovely day has arrived. Or possibly the worst. Certainly the most anticipated, for that unnamed scent, humid and mild among my flowers sweet pungence, is the new tea I have to try!

While I don't keep it a secret, few of my ponies know that for hundreds of years I've indulged in the hobby of cultivating tea. Camellia sinensis, primarily, but not all of them have yet been given names, and some are so much changed they would surely need new ones. It's just as well, I'm the only one who knows of them, and so the only one who needs to remember them.

Many of my blends, and strains have won contests. Some of them have won many, and are enjoyed well beyond the borders of Equestria proper, for both their flavor, and the beauty of their blossoms. They're entered anonymously, or by proxy of course; it's the only way to avoid favoritism, and the easiest way to hear my ponies honest opinions of my products. And hear it I do, using it to make Equestria's best teas even better.

Now, after nearly 4 decades of selective breeding, and magical tweaking, I think my efforts have yielded another treat with which to delight my ponies' tongues! Of course, there's only one way to be sure.

I smile in anticipation, and bring the cup to my lips. Its contents' delicate bouquet fills my nostrils. I pause a moment, and look beyond it, marveling at the sight of my demesne; Cloudsdale shines distantly in the bright sunlight, its alabaster spires contrasting beautifully with the blue sky. Ponyville nestles idyllically in the rolling hills to the southwest, their slopes dark with fecund orchards of apple, and pear trees. I close my eyes, again, savoring the moment, and allowing my anticipation to build. At last, I drink, smiling as its warm astringence meets my tongue.

Yes, this is delicious! Even when measured against the absurdly high standards of my gardens. I think I'll give it a name to honor Luna. She was the one who introduced me to tea, after all, back when she was still an earth pony, and another relished sip tells me this drink just might be worthy of her.

The sound of a door hurriedly opened intrudes on my reverie.

A guard pony canters down the arcade, looking rather worried. I nonchalantly take another sip.

He leaps from the top of the stairs with his wings spread, and glides to the grass. Such urgency! It was only a few little steps.

He stops a few meters away and bows deeply. I regard him with a calm smile, and take another sip.“Princess! You ordered to be notified at once if your alarms on the mirror were tripped!”

My heart skips a beat. I hold the liquor on my tongue. Could it be? After all this time, has she at last come back? “Yes,” I reply with a serenity I suddenly no longer felt. “Has somepony come through?”

“Not exactly, Your Highness...”

________________________________


It's sunset, and the air on my balcony is still. A speck appears on the horizon, toward Ponyville. It's so distant it seems to hang motionlessly in the sky, but I know it's moving at considerable speed. Gradually, it draws closer, and the acuity at which I usually leave my eyes is able to resolve it through the glare: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, glowing with my sun's low, red light.

My eyes track her progress as my mind puzzles over the day's events. Some pegasus guards race to intercept her, as she draws near, then quickly let her pass. She comes straight toward me. Landing too quickly to stick, her momentum carries her in a circle, trotting around behind, then beside me, before coming to rest. Her tail flicks anxiously, and her face is filled with concern.

“Is it true?” she asks breathlessly. I quietly nod; her ears and tail droop. “Oh, Twilight...I came as soon as I heard. I teleported all the way to Ponyville, right to her castle, to check for myself,” her frown deepens. “Even when I couldn't find her, I still hoped she might have come here.”

“Not yet, Cadance, but if she does, we'll know; Equestria is on high alert.”

She licks her lips and begins to pace. “Yes, so is the Crystal Empire. This would be a clumsy prelude to attack, but I agree, it's prudent.” Suddenly she stops and looks at me, shifting her weight from left to right uncertainly. “What can I do?”

“Luna is patrolling the Everfree Forest, you may help her, if you wish.”

“What's she looking for?”

“Portals.”

Her brow furrows. “But I saw the mirror, still in Twilight's castle.”

“Cadance, as you know when she found a way to keep it open, I swathed it in alarm-spells...”

“Also prudent,” she says, too quickly.

“Thank you. Right now, those are the only enchantments it still carries.” Her brow furrows, and she cocks her head in the same way she did when I first offered her the spark. A sure sign her mind was racing.

“Was the portal dispelled?”

I shake my head. “Torn free, I think. Without the mirror to anchor it, the mouth will leap about unpredictably.”

“...And the forest's magical nature makes it the most likely place for it to appear!” I nod. “The portal is gone, Princess Twilight is g...gone,” she chokes. “Do you think she went through it?”

I am about to answer, when Cadance shivers visibly, and a familiar chill shoots up my spine. “Sister!” Luna's voice erupts from the aether. “Princess Cadance! We have found it!”


High over Equestria
A few years ago

Even as old as I am, I can still be surprised, and that knowledge pleases me greatly. Moments ago, an incredible burst of magic swept across my world. I felt it, and so did my ponies, all the way to the very cores of our beings. In an awesome front, rapidly rushing over the entire face of my world it sweetened their moods and dreams, and swept my anomie from me. They did not know what it was, but I do: love. Pure, unconditional love, powerful enough to bend the very fabric of reality. What could have caused it?

Instantly, I'd cast my sight across Equestria to its source, not knowing what to expect. Certainly not expecting what I found! A little pink pegasus filly stood at the mouth of a cave, in the snow. It came up to her knees, and lying in it, heedless of the wet chill, was a grown unicorn, openly weeping at her hooves.

She rose, tears still running down her face, and embraced the little filly. Though her snout was lost in the filly's mane, her eyes smiled as she caught sight of the child's flank. She reached out, and her hoof lingered over a cutie mark so new that even a normal pony would still be able to sense the magic of its arrival.

The unicorn began to cry again as she smiled, and, with a seemingly sudden thought, removed her necklace, and pressed it into the filly's hoof. It was a crystaline heart, like the crystal heart of the filly's new cutie mark, but bound in twine, and blazing with invisible magic. Literally a heart, cut from the chest of a siren. A heart filled with malice, bent on snaring its victims with desire, and enslaving them to feed the power of the monster it once beat within. That, or, unbeknownst to all but the most learned, or depraved of ponies, the one who chooses to wear it.

Its raw magical power dwarfed that of either the filly or the unicorn, but it was different. Certainly a siren's heart, but shining and pure. Its selfish cruelty somehow transformed by love. Her love. That was incredible! That was potential! The kind of potential I'd found only once before in my poor, lost sister. Unbidden, memories of her leaped to the forefront of my mind. Still painful, but after all these years, they brought a deep, dull ache, instead of raw, overwhelming anguish.

I had to seize that chance! Tears still falling from her eyes, the unicorn stepped into her cave, and I acted, teleporting the filly, and myself to this special place we now stand. She blinks, looking thoroughly confused.

“W-where...Princess!” her eyes widen the moment she sees me.

“It's ok, my little pony, there's no need to be afraid.” She regards me uncertainly for a moment, then relaxes.

“Not as long as you're here, your highness.” I smile at that.

“What's your name, little one?”

“Mi Amore Cadenza, your highness. But everyone calls me Cadance.”

“Cadance. What a beautiful name!”

She breaks into a smile. “Thank you, your highness!”

I beam back at her. “You may call me Celestia, Cadance.”

“Oh, no!” she shakes her head. “I could never do that, your highness!”

“Well,” I say with an exaggerated frown. “You don't have to, but I'd very much like it if we could become friends.”

She tilts her head to one side, and her candy-striped mane falls over her shoulder. She seems entranced by the possibility. “You want to be my friend?”

“Mm-hmm,” I nod. “And maybe talk a little bit. Would you like that?”

“A whole lot!”

“And I would, too!” I say with my warmest smile, and we do. Talking about this and that as we walk through my clouds. I ask her questions, and she asks me, too. I learn all about her home and family. She tells me about school, and her favorite sweets, and so many other things. My senses are sharp, my attention is focused, and in truth, even ignoring my gentle, magical probing of her mind, she's told me very much more than she realizes. I'm quite happy with what I've found; she really could be what I've longed for since that day.

“Cadance, do you know why I've brought you here?”

“No, Princ...C...Celestia.” Her voice shrinks to a whisper at my name. “I don't even know where we are,” she says, pulling her eyes away from me, and looking around. For what seems like the first time, she notices she isn't standing on the familiar surety clouds, but on 'nothing:' a floor of pure magical force, and far, far below it, so far the sky is black despite my sun, my world spreads out like a shining gem. There's a satisfying gasp as her little jaw drops.

“We're high above Equestria. Right over Canterlot, in fact.”

“Wow,” she peers through the floor. “Canterlot?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“We're so high,” she says in quiet awe. “I can't even see it. I've never even heard of anypony coming so high.”

“Very few ponies do, Cadance. Not even the clouds come this high, or the air you breathe. Nopony can come here unless I bring them, and I've brought you because I want to give you a present.”

“A present? For me?”

“Yes, Cadance. It's not a present you can hold, but it's very, very special.” She tilts her head, and furrows her brow, looking extremely nonplussed. “Special, like you,” I say, and she breaks into a sudden smile. “One day, it will change you.”

Her brows furrow again. “Change me?”

“Yes, child. One day, when you're ready, it will give you a new strength, and a very special job to do.” I can see her mind working furiously. Even as young as she is, she knows I wouldn't be here if it weren't important. If she can understand that, maybe she can also understand my meaning, even if I don't simplify it so much?

“One day you'll become an Alicorn, Cadance. And one day, long after that, you'll become like me, and if you do your job right, if you love your ponies, and take good care of them, they will all love you, in turn.”

“Like the way we all love you?” What can I say to that? What words can adequately express the way she made my heart mawkishly leap? Fortunately, she speaks up almost immediately. “If it means I can help more ponies, then I want it!”

“Are you sure? Once I give it to you, it becomes part of you. You won't be able to change your mind.” A lie; until it blooms, I can remove the spark as easily as I bestow it, but it is a white lie, and I must know her reaction. Once more, I expand my senses, and quicken my mind. Once more, her smallest expression tells me her deepest thoughts.

She nods with surprising solemnity. “I'm sure,” and she is.

“Then close your eyes, Cadance, and open your heart.” I will the spark to pass to her, and for show, gently tap her head with my horn.

Instantly, a burst of light shoots from her chest, and I laugh in delighted surprise! So soon?

It swirls, and jumps around her, and carries her tiny frame into the air. Now she's smiling, too, her face shining in sheer bliss. “It's so warm!”

She floats, engulfed in a brilliant light which grows and feeds upon itself. It surges back through her body, and up her neck, pouring, then gushing, and finally blasting from her eyes in an unstoppable torrent. Still, it builds, and she lets loose an exhilarated yell as it bursts from her forehead in a searing flash of pure magic, leaving a long, radiant spire in its wake. She bobs subtly, laughing and languidly spinning about her axes, gradually sinking lower and lower as the light fades away.

At last her hooves touch the ground. Her eyes are crossed, focused on her new horn. She grins soundlessly, twisting her head this way, and that, and turns on her hooves in a complete circle.

“What happens now, Celestia?”

I'm not sure how to answer. Nightmare Moon announced her arrival with a spasm of hate and fear so keen that even a thousand years later its wound still has not healed. Cadance announced hers with a wave of calming love pure enough to wash the taint from a siren's dead heart. I don't know what happens now, but for the first time in far, far too long, I know genuine hope.