thenearshore | -Overflow- for 24

Entry tags:

-Overflow- for 24 - Autumn Reception

Who: Everyone!
What: Autumn Reception
When: September 30, 6 PM
Where: The Gods' Meeting Hall
Summary: The Heavens are throwing a formal party! Old and new gods alike are invited, so put on your nicest outfits and some good dancing shoes, and come see what this shindig is all about.

Continuing from HERE!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I can never tell if you're being serious when you say things like that, because I think I know what princesses are supposed to be like but I know our worlds are different so... it's just... strange sometimes.

Well, you must consider that for a very long time, I was the only one. I raised the sun each day and the moon each night, and had done so since long, long before any living pony was born. It is very difficult to think of such a pony as a pony -- more like a natural feature, like the sun itself. Always has been there, always will be.

Oh...

[That makes her so much older than she'd originally thought - in the sense that...]

Or like a goddess, right?

[That's what it sounds like to her. That Celestia was already basically immortal even before coming to the Far Shore.]

I do not know if that is entirely fair. From everything I have seen in the Far Shore, the gods are both far less present and far less active than I ever was. Here, I am Inti, goddess of the sun, but I have yet to actually so much as nudge the sun along in the sky! Whereas in Equestria, I did that every morning.

[So more like a very physical goddess.]

That is pretty weird... Forrest's power is a lot like the goddess he's representing. I wonder why you can't 'nudge the sun along' like that.

[But-- Ah!! She remembers one thing!]

Didn't I see you in the sky pushing clouds one time? It's like that but more powerful, isn't it?

Well, for one, the sun here doesn't actually move. For another, there are so many physical processes dependent on it that moving it around would probably be disastrous.

[So strange, and she struggles to understand how the system hasn't collapsed on itself yet.]

Weather control is something quite different, honestly. That's pure physical work. Changing the seasons is magic -- and raising the sun and moon takes something of all three pony gifts to do properly. Before Luna and I took on the jobs, it took a full six of the strongest unicorns to take on the task, and it drained them immensely... but we alicorns actually gain strength from it.

I don't really fully understand all of the magic parts, but I guess that makes sense for someone who's not a pony. It still sounds really cool - that you and Luna could do what it took six others to do! I knew you were powerful, but that's especially awesome.

[She does remember basic science lessons from her world, but then you throw keyblades into that and some things just stop making as much sense - that and seeing Naminé and Roxas across from herself and Sora.]

That is kind of weird, then... I wonder what the original sun goddess was supposed to do that they gave you the role for. Or one of those other sun gods either.

[To the question, Celestia shrugs. She doesn't understand -- the whole notion of gods is so far from what ponykind has ever envisioned. There are no ayakashi, no prayers, nothing anything like the Far Shore in Equestria.]

Alicorns are indeed special, as I've mentioned. We have the virtues of all pony types, and we are very rare. The four alicorns in Equestria today are two more than there have been since Equestria was founded.

Oh wow... baby twin alicorns or something?

[That's what is sounds like to Kairi. She can't remember if Celestia explained how alicorns were... made. If they were born, or something else special determined it, the way that you were either a god or a shinki.]

Princess Cadence and Princess Twilight Sparkle both earned their ascension fairly recently. [Which is, at least, half the story.]

[Okay so not born then. Ascended she can kind of understand - a transformation of sorts.]

So it's kind of like a hero going on a quest, but for princesses?

[If they had to 'earn it' and all.]

If life itself is a quest, perhaps. Both the other princesses earned their titles by doing a deed of some note, but in both cases it was the culmination of a great deal of time and effort in simply being the sort of pony who ought to be a princess.

Well that's pretty cool for them! It's not the kind of thing you can consciously try to make happen, then? Like... a list of items you have to do in order to become an alicorn.

[It's kind of like becoming a hafuri, to her.]

Not in the least. It was a great surprise to both of them. [Celestia can't help but chuckle, remembering the expressions on both of their faces.] Whereas my sister and I took a different path. We didn't even know our talents when we started ruling Equestria.

Like a fairy tale... what a surprise, you're right. More than a surprise birthday party and Christmas combined!

[ She smiles, thinking of a comparison like that that Sora would have appreciated. ]

They must be really nice ponies then for that to have happened to them, right? They're friends of yours?

Cadence is my adopted niece, and Twilight Sparkle was my prize pupil.

[She can't describe them as friends. Her own position and her history make for too much of a gap between them all for the title to be genuine.]

[ Kairi nods. So she knows them well, then. That was kind of her point. That Celestia could be proud of them not just on principle of becoming alicorns, but also based on their history. ]

I'm happy that you have some more alicorns to return to, regardless.

[ She smiles then. It's hard to say that she hopes she can meet them, because she realizes that they could arrive as shinki, not unlike herself, and not recognize Celestia apart from being a pony. ]

[And she is. But friendship is a very special thing, after all.]

[As for the possibility of a shinki pony arriving here? Well -- Celestia has concluded that would be an absolute disaster. Doubtless said pony would quite logically conclude they ought to know Celestia, thus putting them automatically in danger of the corruption that comes when a shinki grapples with the past they don't remember. It is far, far better that this never come to pass.]

As am I, I assure you. If I am being perfectly honest, the last thousand years were a little lonely.

[ She gives Celestia a sympathetic look. ]

I don't think you should feel bad admitting that. It's such a long time.

[ She knows she has no concept of what a thousand years would feel like, maybe some of the gods here do, but not her. At best, she has a grasp of a decade being a long time, guessing that that is just over half of the time she'd been alive back home. ]

And it sounds like you couldn't have done much to change that yourself, either.

I did what I could. [Which puts a gentle gloss on her efforts to teach and guide Equestria as a whole, and several young ponies in specific, over all that time. But it doesn't really matter, not for the purposes of this conversation.] And that time is well past now, so there is no reason to dwell on it.

[ Kairi considers Celestia's words before eventually nodding in assent and smiling. ]

That's a great way of looking at things, Princess. I'm glad I bumped into you again tonight.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

-Overflow- for 24 - Autumn Reception

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Wrap for me