Waking in Celestia's Soft Embrace
You hear a door open, followed by the sound of hoofsteps and the door shutting a few moments later. The steps are light but you can tell that they carry some weight. The disturbance rouses you from your slumber, which you had been so tranquilly enjoying moments ago. Yet the cloudlike pillow that your head lies on, in combination with the silk sheets, leaves you with no care at all for who entered or for what reason. The immaculate, white pillow balances impossibly on the perfect line between firm and soft, and the magically woven, golden sheets caress your body in a stream of gentle warmth. Within seconds your consciousness fades out again, and the awaited joy of sleep returns.
Somewhere between a second and a day, however, a voice soft and serene flows kindly over your ears like a stream of pure, life-giving water. The voice awakens your heart and your spirit. It rouses you just to the point where you may understand words, and those words reach your soul to be deciphered into a wonderful meaning. It abounds with comforting warmth while still offering its refreshing coolness, and its texture is edgeless and unabrasive. It is a gentle sound, which lets you be awakened so painlessly. Yet it has a steady and sure current, aiming with certain purpose, becoming a river destined towards the vast, unbounded expanse of the magnificent, sunlit oceans abroad. If only you could drink from this stream, then you would go through all your days without dread; you could walk through the dragon’s lair and not be afraid.
“Good morning, my faithful student,” the wondrous voice says. “It’s dawn now, and it’s time to get up.” The voice is full of gentleness and femininity. It comes mildly, staying for a moment and then leaving, seeming to fade in and out without a clear notion of when it began or when it ended.
Then finally, realization sets in as those words become meaningful. Despite their declaration of the night’s end, you don’t want to believe it. It seems like you had laid down only seconds ago, even though hours passed in reality. You know that the blinds to the window next to you are shut, blocking out the rays of the rising sun. You fear that the one having entered might open them and strike you with the sun’s all-reaching power, so you turn over quickly.
With your eyes now guarded by the silky pillowcase, you feel that you are safe. Maybe they will just leave you alone for just a few more minutes. Yet, surprisingly not to your despair but your wonderment, the voice comes again, bearing new qualities this time as well as the ones from moments ago. “It’s a beautiful day outside. Don’t you want to see what it will bring you?”
There is a powerful sense of authority now, shining with graceful brilliance into the eyes of your spirit. Yet the radiance does not blind them. Rather, it reveals the speaker in all of her majesty. Royal as she and the voice are, they are surprisingly not over-demanding like you thought they would be. She sounds ethereal, much like a wise and experienced teacher who asks no more of her students than what she has already taught them, or else leads them into newfound wisdom. Still, this reputation does not move you.
Somewhere close to you, there is the sound of magic, an inconspicuous and unnoticed noise usually, but in the quiet room, you can hear it as clearly as her voice. Slowly and barely to your notice, the warm and soft sheets slide off from your shoulders and float down to cover only your lower back. With the warmth of the sheets lost, a slight groan emanates from your closed lips. You want to cover yourself up again and hide from the waking world, but then something makes you lose all the care or will to complete that action.
Her hoof slowly and gently touches your side. It comes so deliberately that it does not startle you, and she begins to caress your back lovingly. “You’re still a little tired, aren’t you?” she asks. Compassion from the soft stroking of her hoof and her reassuring voice wash over you. “I know how you feel. We both worked so hard yesterday, and I’m very proud of you.” You consider her praise a treasured gift, coveted by all but given only to a select few, and you cannot help but feel the corners of your lips rise slightly.
“But today is a new day,” she says, her volume rising ever so slightly and displaying a very real excitement. “If you get up now, just think of all the things you can accomplish.” It was a question as much as a command. As her hoof continues to lightly trace over your back, brushing you with her unbelievably soft fur, relaxing and rousing you at the same time, you stop just hearing. Now you listen as well. You know that she believes in you from those words. She has faith that you can change the world, no matter how small your actions might seem. Yet she’s right; you can’t help anypony by staying in bed. Still, it would be nice just to lie here for a little longer.
She speaks again. “I was like you this morning too, you know. I don’t know why, but the bed is always softest when you know you have to get up, isn’t it? But then I thought about you and all of the ponies in Equestria. The sun wasn’t going to raise itself, so I knew I had to get up.” There was the compassion again. She knows what it’s like to have to do this. The realization that she had underwent the same trial drives you to fight against your lazy body. Still, it’s really hard.
After a few moments she removes her caressing hoof. You immediately miss the gentle feeling, and the sudden emptiness almost rouses you to get up in order to find it again, but then you hear the sound of something unfolding. Having lost your reason and with it, your sense of reality, it sounds as if a colossal dragon suddenly unfurled its great wings and took flight. This beast holds the power of the sun in its bosom, and the air is rent as its powerful wings slice through it, speeding towards you faster and faster. You cringe in fear a little as the left edge of the bed suddenly shifts downward as though something very heavy had leapt onto it.
To your abject terror, the dragon descends upon you, and you flinch as its wings suddenly encase you, throwing you into darkness. What are you doing sleeping? You want to leap up and run, but you freeze, stricken with paralyzing fear when you realize that the appendages have you completely surrounded. With little else left to do, your legs curl in and you take a deep breath, waiting for the ivory fangs to make their final descent. But instead of leathery wings or long teeth, you suddenly feel something unimaginably soft, albeit very mighty.
Reason finally takes hold of you from the phantasm of your deceptive feelings, and you discover that it was she that was now encircling you with her wings. However, reason can only bring you so far. You still curl up into a tighter ball as she lays down beside you, wrapping her right wing around you and pulling you close to her warm side. You suddenly and vividly imagine yourself being thrown into prison and bound by many chains. The unbreakable bonds securely bind you in seconds, and it seems that you will never escape. Your heart beats as you frantically search for a way out, but it appears that there is absolutely no way. What can you do? How can you free yourself from this almighty one?
Her comforting voice comes to you in your frightful rapture. She softly whispers in your ear, “Come on, we can do this together. I’ll be with you the entire day...” and then the world around you changes. She covers you with her soft feathers and under her wings you find refuge. Her voice suddenly imbues you with strength in place of fear. Her strong yet delicate embrace is your shield and your high wall. Then you remember that she is your princess in whom you trust. She has always been faithful and true, and in this way she trains you to overcome the world.
Gradually, you become aware that she is pressed against you in an affectionate embrace. She is tall and strong but she comforts you, hugging you with such tenderness that you cannot help but feel imbued with great confidence and certainty of the good things to come. Your limbs unfold as much as your proximity will allow you, and you return this sign of trust, most happy that she is with you today. As the flowing warmth covers you completely, you finally press into her embrace and relish the intensifying softness of her breast. You want this moment of perfect peace to last forever, a moment that no one would ever be able to threaten, one where you might be able to make her as happy as she has made you, going forth willingly into the world to accomplish her will.
But with that, you know what her will is for now, and that is the first step. With eyes still full of sleep, you raise your head that was just tucked under hers. Your eyelids flutter open to see the bedroom with light starting to pour through the closed blinds. And then finally, your gaze comes to rest upon a beaming face full of brilliance and splendor. Her eyes are colored a soft magenta and her fur is white as the purest snow. She smiles at you sweetly as she meets your gaze and says,
“Good morning, sleepyhead, did you sleep well?”
