The New Gods

SHE was an ancient being, older than almost any other.

SHE was powerful, extraordinarily so.

SHE checked her timetable.

SHE would be expected by great mages to run the diplomatic delegations between the warring worlds of Qota and Tarsus in the following 39 hours, thus ending their 1000 years of ridiculous war. They required her presence there: There would be no possibility of the Qotian delegation getting out of the negotiations alive without her own special brand of divine intervention.

But SHE would also be expected at the 10th birthday party of a very special little princess. Such a difficult choice she was faced with! But SHE smiled. Delegations can be rescheduled by hours or by days, if need be. her favorite princess of the last millenia would only turn 10 once. With a flourishing spell of teleportation, SHE arrived at the very highly placed doorstep of an enormous rambling shack built atop an ancient and sacred tree. Letting herself in without a thought, SHE turned to her room of keepsakes, and selected 6 fairly ordinary-looking stones. With training, Celestia may someday find use for such a rare gift as these particular minerals. SHE sent a notification to the delegation, and closed her eyes.

Softhorn came early, as expected, to the princess, and nudged the little deity awake with a gentle hoof. "Come, your Majesty, it is time!" She giggled with excitement and with nerves. Celestia sleepily opened her wide eyes, heavy with sleep. "Big day, my princess!" beamed the handmaiden cheerfully. The King and Queen stood regally behind her.

With carefully groomed mane and brilliantly polished hooves, Celestia stepped out upon the first step. She had been here before, every single year on the day of her birth when the sun was at its largest and hottest in the sky, and stayed there for those many extra hours. The whole city never failed to turn up for this event, so the crowd was no bigger than before, but she knew that the celebrations and carnivals of the day would be especially grand. With a tinging at her back as her sun rays called out to her, cried to be free of the horizon, she calmly, serenely stepped up atop the platform, head held level as she had been taught. As she appeared, the crowds gasped; they always did. This was the only time most of them were able to see the princess first hand. What was more, she was glowing. The sun's rays, unable to reach her lands before the world had fully turned, were within the princess, and emanated from her instead as she moved up towards the crowd.

Finally, she was standing at the position, her body aching with the need for the sun to be arisen already but her face trained impassively. She lifted her little horn higher, glowing with the sun's power, arose her soft little wings, and took to the air, flying upward exhaustively slowly so as not to spoil her regal appearance. She rose up, and the sun rose with her, until her tiny, billowing silhouette was all the crowd had to admire against a brilliant sunrise of glowing orange, pink, purple, blue, green, yellow. The orb rose, and the intensity of her great colours condensed to an awe-inspiring beauty, and then the crowd had to look away as it grew too bright to see directly.

Celestia, exhausted by the performance but refreshed by the final arrival of her sun, stepped calmly down upon the platform again, refusing her legs the right to tremble even a little. The crowd cheered wildly.

Back in the palace, a grand feast would be laid out, and official guests from many distant nations. The changeling King, Lord Lorvaes of the Darklands, would be causing his usual mischief with the somberly polite delegation from the Crystal Empire. Gifts would be given. Most importantly, SHE would be there. You! Celestia would cry informally, like an ordinary filly meeting a favorite aunt. Tia! SHE would return, swooping down upon the darling creature and swinging her into a tight, nuzzling hug as if she were just an ordinary filly, as her parents looked on awkwardly at their once mentor and daughter behaving so inappropriately. Celestia was still a child, and they would let the moment slip by in laughter. SHE would kneel down by the little pony, and give her mysterious gift, and the promise to teach the princess to one day use them. The princess would be puzzled but pleased by the odd greyish objects, assured that anything so plain looking from HER must be hiding a truly grand secret, just like the egg given to her parents at her birth, only hatching when she was several months old. Philomena would never be too far away during the banquet, cheekily accepting scraps from the less uptight guests in the corner and causing disapproving glances with her playfulness at the shoulder of the princess.

But SHE would be absent at the feast, her mind on a new and more interesting matter.

There, in the newly raised sunlight, basked a small and quite unusual creature, strange enough in shape to have caught and held the attention of the old being. SHE had already shed her tear for this species, was certain that there were no more; so it was with exhilaration for the spirit that SHE placed a gentle paw upon the little creature's oddly bent shoulder, causing him to jump and look up cautiously. For the first time in his life, it was to see a strange and unusual face smiling down upon him. He smiled back. Instinctively, unconsciously, his face lifted up and he felt that warmth in his heart, light and flickering as candle flame. SHE knew what it was to outlive your people. This little creature knew instantly and without quite understanding that he knew, that he was no longer alone. Her smile held a promise: SHE would return. SHE would see that this rather special species would not die out so soon as this child was capable of. SHE would raise this child herself.