Cookies for Heaven

[letteropener]

Who: Princess Celestia
When: October 14-21st
Where: All around the Far Shore
What: Princess Celestia brings cookies and, perhaps more importantly, wellness checks to the temples of the Far Shore.


Two things circled each other in Celestia's mind, forming a taijutu symbol in the way each completed the other: A lot of people in the Far Shore really needed some personal attention, friendship, and care; and she had, thanks to practice and effort, gotten quite good at baking cookies.

So each morning, Celestia cheerfully moved dough into her oven on sheet after sheet, the entire kitchen in Inti's temple animated in golden light like Merlin himself had set it all to baking-- and each afternoon, Celestia took wing above the Far Shore, traveling from temple to temple to seek out the inhabitants therein.

So at some point, an alicorn will come knocking at your door, with a bright smile on her face and a basket of cookies floating by her side.

Comments

[kuroi_taiyo]

[ She probably could without too much trouble, especially with him only tapping into one of his resources when he does use magic. That didn't stop the initial reaction, however.

Or the fact that he was still holding up the wand while staring dully between the alicorn and the cookies. They did smell good. He's not freaking out about there being a talking pony, but it's changed into an odd interpretation that still seems normal to the magi. ]

... What a weirdly cognizant monster. Where'd you come from, anyway?

[letteropener]

[Celestia has a lot of experience answering this question.]

I am a pony, originally from the land of Equestria, where ponies are the dominant species. Here in the Far Shore, I am the goddess Inti, though properly, I am Princess Celestia.

[She inclines her head graciously to him at the end of all this.]

[kuroi_taiyo]

Huh...

[ At least he wasn't surprised by the talking pony part. Probably because of the grinning that she was doing beforehand. He just figured she was some kind of monster instead.

After another moment, he twists the wand back into his hair, pinning it back up very loosely. Even doing that, it's down to his ankles. This does free up his hands to accept the plate of cookies and to snag one off for a taste test. ]

I'm Judar; one of Izumo's shinki. Hey, do all ponies have magic like you?

[letteropener]

[Celestia has worked hard to master cookies, so they're quite tasty! After all, bringing mediocre cookies around wouldn't do at all for cheering up people and making them happy.]

[She's never been called a monster, though. That one almost hurt.
Almost but not quite.]

Only ponies with horns can cast spells. Pegasi and earth ponies have their own gifts.

[kuroi_taiyo]

[ It would probably hurt if he said 'monster' like it was actually a bad thing so much as something as normal as people and bunnies. Or, in Celestia's case, ponies.

... Ah. The cookie is good. That does seem to be enough to open the gate the rest of the way. Saru's horse managed to get onto the grounds without a problem, so this one shouldn't have any trouble walking in as well. Unlike that other horse, whatever its name is, this one was a god and had her own temple to go back to. Which made her way better. ]

Huh... So horns act like wands. What other kind of spells do you do?

[letteropener]

[Celestia walks in without any difficulty at all -- not that she didn't have any number of talents should simple hoofsteps fail.] Well, I have studied a long time, so I know a great number of spells. My talent is for raising the sun each day... though so far, the one here stubbornly insists on doing its own thing, as I'm told is common on human worlds.

[kuroi_taiyo]

Guess you'll just have to make one of your own if you want it to obey you.

[ Because it's only natural that someone who was twisted and raised in the manner Judar has would interpret such a talent as wanting to control the stars or something of that nature. Obedience and power more than brightening everyone's day. ]

Sounds like it'd be... what, light magic, for something like that? I've been using ice and gravity magic mostly.

[letteropener]

I think I probably ought to not do that. Aside from a second sun being quite problematic, all of human worlds seem to behave very differently from what I am used to. The weather and the seasons proceed on their own course, without any management...

[Even as she says that, a breath of wind tugs at her fur and her feathers, making the latter rustle softly. Her mane and tail just keep doing their own thing, though.]

Our magic generally tends to manifest based on the talent of the unicorn, rather than by element or other categorization.

[kuroi_taiyo]

[ Ah, what a shame. It would've been interesting to see what could happen if that had actually been possible. There was something amusing in itself to see something rustled by the natural flow of days and seasons, however. ]

Sure, sure. I can pretend that I get the whole 'talent' thing. Which yours is based around the sun and floating things... Enough to make cookies for people, somehow.

[letteropener]

Oh, no no, telekinesis is so easy it barely qualifies as a spell. Any adult unicorn can do it, as easily as moving something with our hooves or teeth. [Just to make that clear. She forgets sometimes that she must explain this, since it's ingrained knowledge back home.]

[kuroi_taiyo]

Huh. Okay then.

[ He'd compare it to the floating he's managed to do, but that required him remembering how to use magic in the first place. At least in that way. ]

So what kind of spells do you have?

[ If telekinesis didn't count, what does? ]

[letteropener]

[Bemused, Celestia can only smile. The cultural difference between a land where magic is an everyday thing and one where it is strange and unusual is vast.] It's a very long list. Where should I start?

[kuroi_taiyo]

[ Funny enough, he's from a culture where magic was his entire life and still is. Without those memories, however, this world is all he has for reference in return. ]

I dunno. Go with your favorites, or the most impressive ones.

[letteropener]

I can send letters through dragon's fire.

[Definitely one of her favorite ones, allowing her to keep in touch with others as it does.]

[kuroi_taiyo]

There are dragons around?

[ Naturally that's the only part he took from this. ]

Cool.

[letteropener]

I have met one in the Far Shore, who was a shinki. In Equestria, they are not common, but they often pass through and can occasionally be found living or resting in more isolated areas suited to them. And we even have a baby dragon as a citizen.

[Celestia is quite happy to let the conversation ramble as it will. She is interested in others, and has no problem with them being interested in her or her history as well.]

[kuroi_taiyo]

[ Given that she met with a shinki, it's not as if he really had a lot to share in return, after all. It's fine, though. Dragons seem cool. Baby ones not as much, but it's kind of a bummer that he missed the one that had been here. ]

So if they're usually passing through or staying somewhere isolated... Do you have one as a slave for the fire? Pony world got dark.

[ Okay, maybe he doesn't have to share much to make it clear what kind of world he came from. ]

[letteropener]

That would be dark. [Yes, she most definitely thinks that thought says volumes about his world and his expectations, even as she lets them roll off her with no visible change to her actions or demeanor.] But quite the opposite. I raised Spike from an egg, and now he lives with Princess Twilight Sparkle as her assistant and dear friend.

[kuroi_taiyo]

Is that how they spin it? Guess it keeps things in check.

[ It might be more than just being from a world where slavery wasn't atypical. Judar was more twisted than some, just with how he's ended up. In some ways, more than changelings. (He's less likely to turn over a new leaf, to that kind of degree, after all.) After all, he doesn't look for or expect love in anything, much less want to get any.

Are you starting to regret this trip yet, Celestia? ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia does not know regret, even as she understands that Equestria is quite unlike many human worlds. But neither does she intend to allow such misconceptions to stand without challenge.]

'Spin' has nothing to do with it. Spike has been with her through great challenge and great triumph.

[kuroi_taiyo]

Yeah, so you raise someone that could be seen as useful from birth, and they can happily go along with what's wanted. Challenge, triumph and whatever else.

[ There was something inside that twisted and festered in anger towards the idea. It's what secured him deeply in his 'darkness' or Depravity, though he doesn't think on why the whole concept gives him that idea or reaction. ]

[letteropener]

By that logic, raising anypony to care about others, be kind to them, and want to help and aid them is 'raising somepony who could be useful to happily go along with what's wanted'. But in the end, nopony benefits unduly, and everypony benefits more than were they all purely selfish and self-interested. Is that 'dark'?

[Celestia will debate this on its merits for now. She's dealt with worse by far. Cynical as this colt may be, he's no Discord.]

[kuroi_taiyo]

[ No, he really wasn't a Discord.

He was a Spike, essentially. Not that he remembers it. It's just left him with that kind of taste in his mouth. ]

Part of that depends on how you got the egg. Raising something because it'd be handy to send letters back and forth and for the purpose of being some princess's assistant, wanting to do so happily for acceptance and friendship? Yeah. I count brainwashing, or whatever kind of manipulation one would call it, as kind of dark.

[letteropener]

We found it, actually. For whatever reason, its parents had left it behind. I imagine something must have become of them... Dragons are not normally so faithless to their children. [The thought saddens her, though not greatly; she's considered it a number of times over the years, after all.] In truth, I thought for a while that we would never find a way to hatch him. Even I didn't possess the necessary magics.

[kuroi_taiyo]

So either abandoned or they were killed.

[ He was ready to shrug that off as a side comment. Yet he starts to slow, scratching before rubbing the side of his head as a headache that he was ignoring before started to cause more of an unignorable pain. ]

Uh... Magic. What kind do you have that's actually impressive to see and use?