[Story/Chapter Tester]

There was no sound.

All was quiet except for her breathing and her thoughts.

Down at the ground, they built skyscrapers. To ponies on the ground, those skyscrapers reached for the heavens. For winged creatures like Celestia, they were merely stepping stones to the skies.

Canterlot was a great city upon the side of a high mountain, and palace spires pointed towards the heavens. The city of unicorn nobles looked down across Equestria, their eyes looking over all of the land they owned. But for Celestia, it was only an earthly throne. Now, she looked down at the Earth, her eyes searching across the land she shared with all creation.

Looking straight ahead, Celestia was met no longer with just the vast land stretching ahead, but also the vast darkness of the universe of infinite size. Even more so on the dark side of the Earth with the Sun hidden away by her home. It wasn't a common thought, to think of the terrestrial rock as covering the Sun. But to be so high up and away, it was all she could think of.

Celestia saw the world fall away as the earth rolled away into space. This was her planet. They were but a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things. Even herself. And for but a few hours, the alicorn had chosen to escape her small speck of dust for some time to meditate by herself.

It was a tradition of Celestia's to go up and take some time alone. Down on the ground, Equestria always felt so big. So many petty things to worry about. It was a difficult life, albeit one she had grown accustomed to. No, she did not intend on neglecting her duties every time she took such a flight. Instead, Celestia viewed it as a way to return everything to a proper perspective. That the multitude of lives on the blue marble below her interconnected in so many ways, and that those webs of lives created the vast picture of life she saw before her right then.

Celestia twirled effortlessly as she orbited the Earth, wings relaxed against her sides. With proper maneuvering and application of magic, she stopped her movement, looking away from the planet. She left just a an hour before sunset. The flight up to low earth orbit had brought her far across the globe. Celestia found herself deep into the night side of Earth, but up ahead, the atmosphere of the Earth glowed a dull orange, refracting the sunlight.

Oh, the Sun. Celestia was connected with it for as long as she could remember. So long ago, so very young, she remembered her desire to experience her sun...

"Oh Celestia, what are you thinking now?"

It was the light voice of Celestia's dearest sister, Luna. They were barely matured at the time. No longer fillies, but not quite grown mares yet. Celestia turned to answer.

"We are supposed to be the masters of the Sun and Moon. Have you ever wondered what they're really like? It just feels... so... potent."

Luna considered. "I have, Tia, but what about it?"

"I want to know. To experience it. To find myself next to it and know the truth of the Sun."

"The truth, Tia?"

"Just look around us. All the life... given by the sun."

Luna nuzzled up to Celestia. "And I believe there is no better caretaker of the Sun than you, Tia."

Celestia walked forward, engrossed in her thoughts.

"Sister?"

"I just... want to know." Celestia turned to her younger sister with a smile. "Maybe... I could..."

"But Tia, they say it's not possible," Luna said, her expression falling. "That it is something ponykind is not meant to experience."

"They say I am to be the regent of the sun," Celestia replied. "Perhaps it is different for me."

"Oh, Tia..." Luna's face began turning into a frown, if only concerned for her sister's safety.

Celestia sensed it. "Do not worry, Luna. I will return safely."

"But you do not even know how long the journey may be. And the Pegasi- they have told tales of what happens to ponies that try to fly towards the Sun. They do not even near it. They are unable to; as if the universe itself is telling us that it is not meant to be. That any flier is stopped by being unable to physically go on, and that they are forced to return to the earth."

"But we are alicorns," Celestia said. "And connected with those celestial bodies. Maybe it is different. Luna, I will see what the universe will say to me. I will not be gone for very long."

And with that, Celestia took to the skies, deciding to go on a flight of discovery on a whim. She recalled the tales of the Pegasi. How it got harder to breathe as one flew higher up. She casted a spell that she figured would work. And she prayed.

Her powerful wings, already some of the largest in Equestria, effortlessly flapped herself to higher and higher altitudes. It was only a few minutes of flight, but Celestia did not expect the air to become so cold as she left the clouds below. Nervous chills did not help either. She did not expect to feel so lonely so high up. She did not even expect such a flight to be so quick. How long had it been? Mere minutes?

But the Sun enticed her. Its rays continued shining down upon her. Celestia's breathing grew heavier as she exerted herself to go even higher. She recalled her lessons in flight. How flight was limited by one's magic potential. And as an alicorn, that potential was very, very great.

Celestia flapped harder and harder. But it was soon evident that all her flapping would not get her anywhere. Not only that, but it was getting even harder to breath.

'No... am I... am I not worthy either?'

The thought passed through Celestia's mind as she finally fell to exhaustion, then fell to the gravitational pull of the earth. She fell, and fell. Her tired body closed tight as she rushed downwards.

Then she felt a strange sensation. She only registered it for a few moments until she felt herself break through some sort of barrier. But she didn't hear anything. She was clueless as to what happened, but she was still not slowing down. Instead, there was a new feeling building up in her wings. Celestia barely registered that as well before she felt flight magic burst from her wings.

'What... just happened?'

Celestia didn't know how long it took her to fall back down, but she knew she regained her senses as she saw the clouds approach. She opened her wings and felt herself glide on the outpouring of flight magic.

"Tia!"

It was Luna. In a moment, Celestia found her younger sister flying alongside her. It wasn't long before they were both back on the ground.

"Tia, what happened?" Luna held her sister square in her hooves. "There was this great sound, and also this great light! What had occurred in the skies?"

Celestia's expression remained flat. "I do not know, Luna. Just that... I too, was not able to reach the sun."

Luna brought her elder sister into an embrace. "Do not worry, Tia. Perhaps in the future, you will find a way."

Celestia saw the edge of the globe as a orange and blue lining as she orbited farther east. The Sun, when she rose over the horizon, would appear as a brilliant white from orbit. And she felt its warmth much more than when on the surface of the Earth. The rays shone so bright, and they reflected off of her white coat. Her body just felt like it could sink into the Sun's warm embrace. She felt even more livened up then, knowing she was close to leaving the slightly desolate darkness of the Earth's shadow.

It never failed. The memory of her first attempt to reach for the sun would always return. How could it not? But what struck her even more was what Luna told her.

Never would she have expected that such future motivation would manifest in the form of Luna herself...

"LUUUUUNAAAAAA!"

Celestia sobbed as she stared at the moon. And not just the moon, but the new image imprinted upon it.

That abomination had robbed her of the pony she had cared most about. How?

Celestia wondered about how would she live on. She knew not what Luna's fate was, but she knew her own. Possibly an eternity living with the consequence of her failure to protect her.

"No..."

Celestia lifted her head to look towards the white moon through her teary eyes. It may have been careless. It was not at all thought out. It was impulsive. But she struggled to get herself up to her hooves, then pushed off of the ground with all of her might.

The palace had been ravaged by their battle, but the crater left by Celestia's takeoff was the most substantial of them all. Compared to her first attempt, she had years of experience gained in flight. She had learned how to control her pagasus magic more effectively, especially in conjunction with her unicorn magic.

The air pushed against her muzzle, but she didn't care. With one last powerful pump of her wings, Celestia broke past that barrier once more. From that point, it was up to her unicorn magic to control the flight magic. She was going fast, but not yet fast enough. No, there was still faster.

Then magic snapped from her wings. Now Celestia was determined. She fed even more of her immense magic into the stream. The more magic she could put through her wings, the more lift she gained from the thinning air and the faster she could fly. The second sound barrier quickly rippled past her.

Celestia could feel the atmosphere around her. She was high up. So very high up. And she had just passed where she was stopped her first time around.

'There exists no barriers between two sisters...'

Higher and higher she went. At some point, Celestia felt less like she was flying and more like she had thrown herself at such a great speed, that gravity and air drag had simply let go of her.

And it didn't get any easier. It only got worse.

The exertion Celestia was putting on herself, combined with her emotional grief, was tiring her. Especially her lungs. But something was feeling wrong.

She was having great difficulty breathing, and not just from exhaustion. Her wings, no matter how much magic she put through them, were giving less and less control over her flight. She flapped and flapped, but Celestia did not feel as if she was truly flying anymore. Where was she? The night was so dark. And it felt like her own vision was darkening. Her head was starting to feel light.

The loss of control surprised Celestia. In her broken mental state and light-headed sensation, she began panicking. The panicking only made it even worse. She had thought she had casted the spell to breathe in extremely thin air. No, she did. She was sure of it. She did it for Luna.

So what was it now? Celestia was running out of breath. She couldn't control her flight. And she could no longer tell which way she was going. She flailed her wings helplessly, as if hoping that her flight magic could gain some sort of traction anywhere.

Eventually, the helpless flailing spread to her legs. Then her head. The last thing she remembered was focusing on the moon, which she had never seen in such a clearer white.

'I'm sorry, Luna...'

Celestia stared deep into the white of the Sun as it rose above the horizon. Even the heat of the star struggled to thaw her heart every time the memory surfaced. Her full underside was revealed towards the Sun, but inside, it felt chilly. Every time she recalled the memory, the cold throes of the tragedy reached inside of her.

Her heart felt as cold as the morning she woke up, crashed down somewhere far away from their castle. Yet her coat felt warm, also similar to how she felt this morning.

It would be a while before she learned why she felt, and in some places looked, like she had been lit on fire after she had fallen unconscious, but she didn't care too much at the time. In her anguish, Celestia managed to ignore even her burnt feathers as an immediate problem.

Later on, she would look back at that night and wonder how she didn't die from what had happened. The day after, she had healed all of her injuries, which included broken bones in places, but otherwise did not think much of her unconscious crash into the terrain.

Regardless of the aftermath of that flight, Celestia released the breath she was holding inside of her from recalling the more stressful emotional memory of losing Luna. She sought to regain control of her emotions and bring herself back to the present. Allow her sun to give its warmth to her.

Before, she would even spin around and turn her back towards the Sun to ease her chilling spine, but she had since learned to grasp control over herself when reminiscing that specific memory.

Besides, the memories afterwards were filled with more feelings of triumph than despair. They always brought a smile to Celestia. The journey she embarked on was difficult, but she did it for Luna, and that made everything right. As the sun shined on her body, Celestia craned her head up and saw the Earth at the top of her vision. It was a blue and green marvelous sphere, and that was one of the first great truths about the universe she had learned about...

"Star Swirl, I require your assistance."

Celestia approached the unicorn wizard with an air of determination. It had only been a few days since her loss of Luna. She had taken that time to grieve and berate herself. She had countless sessions with important figures concerning the loss of the second alicorn on Equestria's thrones. And she had reflected on her failed journey to reach out to the moon.

Star Swirl turned to face her. "Of your many recent concerns, Princess, with what do you ask my assistance for on this day?"

"I need a mind like yours to help me in finding a way to fly to the moon."

The unicorn froze in place. "Fly to the moon?"

"I have already asked General Firefly for her expertise, but I believe that the task will require a great amount of magic as well. And your intelligence in general will be of great use."

"I see," Star Swirl said. "When would you prefer that we begin?"

"Officially, later, but I would like to take the moment to speak with you now that I am here. Recount a few details of my experience."

"Very well. Continue."

"As I fly higher up, it changes," Celestia said, walking towards a window. "I have long used the method of unicorn magic to achieve faster and higher flight, as well as breathing spells to allow me to fly in the thinner air. But that night, I flew further than I had ever before. I reached a point where I was no longer flying and I could no longer breathe."

Star Swirl nodded sagely. "I see. What else can you tell me about those altitudes? Anything you saw?"

Celestia bit her lip. "No... It was dark. Even in Luna's magnificent night... I could not see very much."

The unicorn smiled. "Well, my Princess, you are a very intelligent pony yourself. Advancement will require more details. You seek to achieve an immense goal. It will require a vastly large amount of details. Only then will we have sufficient knowledge to work from."

Celestia nodded in understanding. "Very well. I have plenty of hours to myself for a considerable length of time. I will go and repeat my actions from that night today, while it is still daytime."

With that, Celestia walked out of the wizard's room. First, the alicorn headed for her room to retrieve an item that would be of use. Once there, she opened up a chest of belongings and took a necklace with a few hoof-sized crystals. The necklace was created for a pony to wear underwater; the crystals were enchanted to hold air and would act as an extension of one's lungs. Celestia recalled that hers would hold enough for a few hours, more than enough to last her experiment. She removed her golden neckpiece and replaced it with the necklace.

Afterwards, the alicorn walked to the courtyard, where the afternoon sun was high above. General Firefly had agreed to help the Princess in her ventures, though as a pegasus, she could only do so much. It would be up to Celestia to do much of the experimentation.

Celestia looked upwards and traced a line down from the sun to a random spot high in the sky. She would make that spot her target. The deep blue sky was void of any clouds. She took a deep breath, then strongly flapped her wings, sending her upwards.

Faster and faster she pushed herself. Effortlessly, she broke the sound barrier. Not long after that, she outflew her pegasus magic, leaving behind another spectacular explosion. She focused her unicorn magic through her wings, propelling her even faster.

Air compressed ahead of her, and she felt the tip of her muzzle and hooves warm up. Hot, even. She had a passing thought about how the air drag might have affected her ability to fly faster. Still, Celestia felt that the ordeal was much easier this time, surmising that it was because she was physically refreshed and psychologically calmer.

The minutes actually felt slower than from that fateful night, but Celestia counted the ascent as taking around three minutes at the longest before she started having the sensation of no control again. At the same time, she also felt as if she could pour immense power through her wings and fly even faster than before, without any air drag stopping her. So she did, sending her even higher up, into the aether where she would lose control, even faster.

The alicorn felt the onset of panic but immediately forced herself to focus. She started to hyperventilate in anticipation. And quickly, her breathing slowed as she felt herself calm down.

With the necklace giving her air to breath, she did not have to worry about her head feeling light. She felt... mostly normal, if cold. Very chilly, in fact. And yet, she was still going higher and higher... while her ability to control her flying through her unicorn magic was disappearing more and more.

Her heart rate, already fast from her physical exertion, now lent its effects to mental concerns. Again, the threat of losing focus loomed in Celestia's face as she continued to uncontrollably rise further from the earth. A fear that she would somehow not be able to return.

At that moment, she wondered if it was the same feeling of helplessness Luna might have had. It caused sadness to well up inside of her, and at the same time, connecting herself to her sister gave her the will to face her fear.

'Focus, Celestia. Luna would want you to focus. To return safely.'

Celestia remembered the first time she flew high up. Luna was so worried.

Through sheer will, Celestia calmed her breathing and stopped all attempts at using her magic to fly. Now was not the time for panic. It was the time for observation and learning about what she had gotten herself into.

For the first time in her flight, Celestia focused on her surroundings and felt herself in awe. It was no longer simply bright like the day... but everywhere above, it was black like the night. The horizon was different- unlike the horizon she knew on the ground, this one instead glowed blue. But if the sky was the backdrop of the horizon on the ground, then what was this dark backdrop of the horizon of the sky?

The Earth glowed below her. Glowed, she thought, compared to the backdrop of darkness if she looked straight. Around her, she could see the edges of the vast lands on which she and her subjects lived upon. And even further, perhaps to the far edges of the vast lands of their neighboring countries.

A chill went down her spine as she suddenly felt small. A powerful alicorn... humbled by the truth of nature. Well, that, and it was absolutely freezing.

With her mouth agape, she looked around. The world... it just seemed to end. Like she was on a large disk, with edges far away and nothing past them. And those edges were a radiant blue, a border against the abyss.

Celestia smiled as she remembered that specific moment. She didn't know what she had gotten herself into, and even more, she didn't know that there were still more wonders of nature waiting ahead.

She slowly twirled herself around with a precise application of magic. She stopped herself facing the Earth below. She was passing over a large continent, somewhere halfway around the world from her home. Places she had very rarely visited. The thought occurred to her that visiting such places was much easier now. It wouldn't take her much time to just fly over herself. And now that Luna was home, perhaps she could put her flights to different uses.

Distances became strange to Celestia after her experiences. It all depended on the context. At the beginning of the millennium without Luna, different countries were far. As the years passed, it didn't seem so. 'Far' became the Moon.

Nowadays, she used relative distances interchangeably. Right now, she considered herself truly far away from anything. Not as far as Luna and the Moon was, yet it was still considerably far.

Or to be technically correct, how high she was above the Earth. That, at least, was something she quickly realized that first flight...

"The world is round... And larger than the impressive size I had already imagined it to be..."

Celestia took her first thought and passed it through her mind once more. A round world...

She looked around again, and this time, barely made out a slight curvature on the edges.

"Maybe round... like an overturned plate?"

There were some ponies that theorized about the true nature of their world. Some even searched for evidence that the world was a sphere, much as the same as the sun and moon were widely believed to be. A few came to conclusive measurements with mathematical proof. Celestia was never sure what to think of the theories, but now, she was giving them some consideration.

"If it is a sphere, then just how big is the world?"

The thought shook Celestia. She wasn't sure she could imagine something that great of a size. Evidently, the ponies that calculated the size of the Earth had an easier time than her coming to terms with that idea. Maybe.

Yet, even with these new ideas, she wondered what it would mean in her journey to reach the moon.

'Perhaps now is not the time to ponder such a question. I should try and learn more from my surroundings.'

Celestia's studious side began to show itself as she began experimenting in her new environment. Although she was shivering from the cold, she still kept her mind on track.

'I cannot fly in any way anymore. Maybe very, very slight movements, but very difficult. How would I go about controlling myself up here then?'

Celestia continued to try and contort herself into different positions. She tried pulling herself with her magic. Yet all she accomplished was leaving herself flailing around, confused. All that was happening to her was... floating around aimlessly while also tangling up her limbs in an attempt to move around. Was she drifting along? Gliding through the strange aether she now found herself in?

It was incredibly jarring, but her incredible will to remain calm and on task overshadowed her insecurities.

"I can control the Sun's path across the heavens, but I cannot control my own?"

Celestia growled in frustration before realizing what she just said. Her eyes moved to look at the Sun. Its warm rays really did look enticing as she froze in the high atmosphere.

"What would happen if I tried to move it now?..."

She grabbed ahold of her sun with her special magic as she usually did, then tried to give a very light, experimental nudge.

Nothing.

The alicorn's face contorted into an expression of confusion. She didn't understand. She knew she controlled the day, and actually as of recent events, the night as well, but when she attempted to move the sun, nothing happened.

'I will have to examine this further when I am back on the ground.'

And speaking of the ground-

'... How do I get back down?'

The thought was first spoken in her mind very calmly, as if asking a very simple question. Her studious expression quickly changed into alarm when she realized-

'How do I get back down?!'

Celestia's first reaction was to begin flapping her wings, but she stopped it almost as soon as she started. Her second reaction was to put unicorn magic through them, but she stopped herself short again.

She was left looking down at Equestria, wondering how she would return. She couldn't even make out where the towns were. Or where her castle was. They weren't exactly large settlements, but she never thought them as so tiny, that she would at some point consider them insubstantial.

Yet here she was, looking for some landmarks and failing to find any.

'Had I really flown so fast that I threw myself away from Equestria?'

Celestia bit her lip in anticipation. She decided to meditate about her situation. She had to return home. For Luna.

In her short meditation Celestia noticed that something felt different. It felt... like the earth was closer.

Celestia decided to hold onto that strange sensation. Maybe something would come of it.

And after about a minute, she realized what was happening.

She was falling. And she was falling fast.

Celestia opened her wings and started trying to feel for some purchase on air. Something to slow herself down.

No luck. The glowing blue edge of the world was now pushing away the black abyss.

Faster. And faster.

But then her wings felt something. Celestia tried to stop her fall, but it was as if she was trying to grip ice while sliding at an incredible speed.

Celestia fell even further. She fought to push away her panic and remain level-headed. The air was getting thicker. Even her hind hooves could feel the air rushing by. She began flapping her wings. And she flapped furiously, because she could feel the tips of her hooves heating up.

In fact, it became so uncomfortable after the first few seconds, that she flipped herself over to face downwards.

And after a few more seconds, it turned out that it was not a very good idea.

'Hot! Hot!'

Celestia then turned so her stomach was facing downward, giving her wings the most area to work with. She also casted a shield spell to prevent herself from being singed as she plowed through the air at high speeds.

And in a moment, Celestia came to a conclusion that it was counter-productive, now that her wings were also shielded from acting upon the air. At least, that's what she assumed.

It wasn't easy for her to think as she watched the ground approach faster than she had ever done so before.

Celestia reduced the size of the shield to just cover her body, leaving her wings out to their purpose. Powerful flexing of her flight muscles worked to slow down her incredible speed; she strained to push her wings and fight against her immense downward speed. And at the same time, she was working through the heat her wings were experiencing.

And soon enough, still high above the ground, her speed slowed to a more familiar level of 'fast' as the air pushed up against her without any effort from her.

Celestia relaxed herself and let gravity take over from there. Maybe she didn't need to put in all that work earlier.

Maybe she should just enjoy the moment. Celestia always did love flying. Many that knew her personally would say to others that her love of flying was nearly unmatched except by the most dedicated of pegasi, and even then, she still considered herself unmatched.

Flying was a wonderful experience, and she knew many with wings would agree.

And right now, she accepted gracefully falling as well, and she wondered how many with wings would also agree.