A Cup to Dust

by The Lunar Samurai

Rating: everyone
Tags: Sad, Princess Celestia, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1317

When one banishes her sister for a thousand years, holidays can become shockingly lonely. Celestia devises a plan to bring her and her banished sister just a little bit closer.

Celestia is feeling especially lonely on the first Hearth Warming's Eve without her sister. She makes one desperate attempt to send her a gift.

Written as a response to a prompt from ElectreXcessive

Published 2013-10-08 03:40:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-08 03:40:03 UTC

Cocoa

The darkness of the night slowly crept across the land as the sun retired to its resting place below the horizon. The shadows grew longer and fainter as the light dwindled to a warm pink glow. Celestia looked over the land that had been plunged into the peaceful darkness of night. Overhead, the small pinpoints of stars slowly pierced through the darkening sky. Dots of light also poked through from the ground, each one emitted through an open window or door of a home. Tonight was the night of Hearth Warming’s Eve, and all of Equestria was cozily nestled in their homes. Some were spending the time with their families, others were with their friends, and others were alone.

One lone pony in particular stood on the balcony of her castle, looking down on her subjects. It was a peculiar feeling for Celestia, but her loneliness was self-inflicted, a result of one of the most tragic occurrences that had befallen the country. Silently, Celestia used her power to raise the moon from the horizon, bathing the world in its pallid white glow. Luna was not present. Luna’s actions had been rash, and Celestia’s punishment just. Celestia had rid the nation of one of its most powerful enemies, but at the same time, had rid herself of her own sister.

Celestia gazed at the moon as it slowly rose over the horizon. Somewhere on its surface stood her sister. Months had gone by since that fateful day, but the pain had only been blunted, not extinguished. Every night she wished that she could have done something different, but each time she thought back to the those final moments, she realized that the banishment was the only option aside from death.

As the night’s darkness took hold of the world, Celestia realized a warm glow was creeping out from underneath the door to the balcony. Inside was her own cozily decorated room. Reds, greens, and golds lined the walls and the smell of the holidays drifted lazily through the air. A large fire had been expertly constructed by her attendants, and the faint pops and crackles of the wood could be heard through the door. The familiar setting was awaiting just behind the heavy oaken door, but something held her outside. Something told her that this holiday would be no different if spent in front of the warm fire or out in the miserable cold of the wintry night.

Either way, the emptiness in her heart would remain. She looked to the sky again, to that perfect white circle that hung far beyond the land. It was so isolated, so lonesome, so remarkably sterile, she could not bear to look at it for long. It was a constant reminder to how separated she was from her sister. A renegade cloud drifted across the face of the moon, obscuring it behind a hazy veil. The sky began to populate with more clouds, each larger than the last. As the cover thickened, small flakes of white began to drift to the ground.

The snow was a small yet powerful reminder to how cold the night had become. Celestia shivered, the natural reaction to keep her body warm. The warm light beckoned from behind the door. ‘Come rest in warmth,’ it would call in a sweet siren song, but Celestia knew that a simple fire and other luxuries, as comfortable as they might sound, would not fill the hole in her heart.

“If only there was something I could do,” she whispered as the snow alighted on her nose. Celestia tried to think of something she could do for her sister, but nothing could span the gap of air and void that separated her from Luna. She watched the snow slowly begin to accumulate on her balcony around her. Flake by flake, second by second, a white dusting of powder slowly built up on the stone surface of the balcony only to be whipped and spun by the gentle breezes that grazed the balcony.

Celestia shivered again, this time more violently than the last. She sighed reluctantly and rose to her hooves. A small shower of powdered snow drifted off of her back as her body shifted as she walked toward the room. She opened the door, shielding her eyes from the relatively bright light that emanated from the bedchamber. All around her were the materialistic items that represented the holiday, but the holiday was dead to Celestia. She lifted her mug with her magic from the platter that stood in the corner and brought it over to her hoof. The beautiful ivory colored mug was an heirloom of hers. Her cutie mark was immortalized on its side in dazzling gold and pearl. Inside of its pearlescent walls splashed a dark, warm liquid. The rich smell of cocoa wafted through the air and filled her lungs as she took a deep breath.

Just as she placed the cup to her lips, obeying the sweet liquid’s call to come and taste, she paused. The other mug, made of a perfectly polished obsidian, caught her eye. It was Luna’s mug, and in it sat the same enrapturing concoction.

Celestia’s eyes lit up as an idea slowly formed in her mind. She placed her mug on the hearth a safe distance away from the fire and brought Luna’s mug over before her face. “Its worth a shot,” she whispered as the mug floated in the air in front of her.

Celestia’s magical ability had always been extraordinarily powerful, she knew this well and good, but a doubt formed in her mind. “Can it be done?” she asked aloud to the mug. “Can I send this all the way to the moon?” The ability was there, Celestia could teleport herself nearly anywhere she wished, but she had never tried to move something outside of the nation, let alone the planet. Slowly that doubt blossomed into second guessings.

“What if it ends up somewhere where I cannot retrieve it? What if I destroy the mug forever? What if I- no,” she stopped herself. “You have to try. As far fetched as it is, you have to try.”

Celestia placed the mug on the ground and closed her eyes. The spell would require all of her concentration. Her horn glowed a faint gold as she began to cast the intricate lunar teleportation spell that would send the small sentiment several thousand miles onto another planet. Beads of sweat broke across her brow as she strained through the spell.

Had her eyes been open, and had her attention been on the mug, she would have realized that something was amiss. The mug was disappearing, but in its place a pile of dust was forming, presumably through the disintegration of the obsidian cup. Its structure had been turned to a pile of ash in the presence of the power of Celestia’s teleportation spell.

She opened her eyes and wiped the sweat off of her brow with a sigh of relief, but when she realized what had occurred she shouted out in anguish. She dropped to her knees in desperation and self hatred for what she had done. One of Luna’s most prized belongings had been destroyed by Celestia’s fanciful idea that she could have sent it to her sister across such a wide void. “What have I done?” Celestia asked, her voice shaking as she ran her hoof through the pile of dust. She let her head hang low, her tears dripping off of her nose and into the small pile. The drops mixed with the ashes in pits of dark, saturated bubbles of dust. She had destroyed one thing that her sister had used, and that was one too many. She carefully lifted the dust from the ground and placed it onto the platter, tears still streaming down her face. “How could I have been so foolish?”