Bigger Than the Sun

The sun princess threw off her crown and shoes as she flew through the brisk morning air. The small tears that formed flew back into her eyes, forcing her to turn her head down and wipe them away. She thought her sister would be pleased to have her gone. Celestia had seen how sad Luna was at the Summer Sun Celebration. The ponies did not worship her sister like they did herself, and she was leaving the spotlight. Why would Luna decline such an offer? Her sister did not need her. She wanted to be a princess, but Celestia had realized the truth of it all. Celestia had realized that she did not want the frivolous and wasteful life being looked up to and relied upon by so many granted her. Celestia wanted to be as free as the universe itself, unbound by anything.

She had realized just this morning that it was her destiny to roam the land. She was immortal, others were not. Eventually, civilization would fall, and she'd be left without anypony anyway. Right?

The white mare continued flying into the low sitting sun as fast as she dared. Celestia wasn't an apt flier, and her sister was even worse.

"Thou wouldst be abandoning us...." The princess cringed at the memory. She didn't want things to contradict her beliefs.

The runaway forcefully shoved the thought out of her conscience by trying to overwrite it with a random tune she made up on the spot. It worked.

She had never been this far out to the east from her castle. She felt like a little filly finally being let into the woods to explore. It was exciting.

There is so much to this world of ours, and we have forever to experience it. This is freedom, this is living! This is truly what an immortal being such as ourself is meant to do. It is what we were created for.

She smiled at her pleasant, self gratifying thoughts. She always got along with herself so well. "Yes, we agree. It is so nice to be free. There is so much. What shall we experience first?"

"Maybe we should try licking the droplets of morning dew off a fresh leaf!"

"But what if we were to become ill?"

She paused for a moment. "What would it matter, really? This is a possibility, yes. But what if we do get sick? Will this not simply be something else we can experience to achieve a more enlightened state?"

The princess liked the phrase she supplied herself with. "We like this: 'enlightened state'. This is truly the essence of what we wish to achieve, no? Yes, we see thine point now; in fact, let us be sick. Make us be sick, why don't we?"

Celestia flew on a bit until she reached a clearing. The grass there was taller than she had ever seen, going almost a fetlock over her own head. The wispy foliage was still thriving too, and looked bright green to the point that Celestia thought it might have been capable of growing even taller.

Waiting a second to recuperate her energy, she sat down in the small field. It was peaceful there, and she wouldn't have to worry about anything, so long as she never went back to the castle. Really, she was still high off the excitement and scandal of leaving so suddenly and unexpectedly.

The sun was still quite low, and didn't even breach the peak of the mountain she was sitting in the shadow of. It was pleasant. The seasons were changing, but it was odd, Celestia thought to herself. She herself made this change happen, and it was almost... against nature. The fact that the cold set in part of the year, killed off the weak, let the trees rest, and rejuvenated the soil felt like a natural thing, but it wasn't. It was the opposite of natural: synthetic. Of course... the unicorns before her and her sister did the same thing... but did that make it natural? What really made something natural?

And really, aren't unicorns themselves natural, thereby making the things they do natural?

Celestia and most others would indeed classify the dam a beaver builds as "natural". So why then, was not the castle she used to live in not?

Was it reflective of the creatures self-awareness?

A beaver had a choice to build a dam. Some didn't even build dams. Did beavers see an unnaturality in their work, just as ponies did?

Do beavers squabble over pointless problems, like I once did? Thinking that made the princess feel a sense of deep pride.

No redundancy, now. No squabbling, no, no, no!

"No!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, testing her voice.

"Echo!" she said again, listening for the reverberations.

She smiled. It was so perfect, just being right there and then. We have no worries. This is freedom. We are free now to do what we wish. There is no disagreement here, only the single cadence of the universe.

Ah, and our only duty being to discover what lies beyond this mountain, and then the next.

"We feel that we should just sit here and wait."

"We are a fan of this idea."

"Yes, after all, do we not have eternity?"

"We do...."

"So let us just waste a little time; we have plenty enough."

"We see what thou meanst."

Celestia laid her head down in the grass. It itched a bit and a blade was close to getting in her eye, but she ignored it. She closed her eyes and fell into a nap.

The princess no doubt woke up on the wrong side of the prairie. One side of her was wet and chilly, whilst the other was hot and dry. It was a quite uncomfortable situation, to say the least. But she did not mind.

We have experienced something else. 'Tis magnificent.

She stood up and shook her body, trying to removed the moisture.

The ex-monarch looked up at sky, noticing that it was midday. Had she took a five-hour nap?

"Ah, lovely," she giggled.

She went about the edge of the clearing, looking at the forest around her. The closer she looked, the more foreign things seemed. She had... never seen the detail of a leaf so finely. It was... weird.

The bark of the tree shared the oddity of the leaf, and so did everything she gazed upon. The world was big, yes, but it's parts were unimaginably tiny....

And yet, she was focusing how much bigger it was. Odd.

This thought did not dawn on her, however. Ignorance is bliss, is it not?

The princess had never had any time to inspect the sky like she was now. It always pained her when her sister told her about an arrangement she was proud of, and Celestia was not able to view that night.

After examining all the technicalities of the already midnight blue east, Celestia finally looked over to the west. The twilight was still fading, but cosmic bodies could be seen with the lack of light pollution.

Granted that it was still early, the west seemed unusually dim compared to the east. The princess paid little heed to the subtly until she realised the cause. Luna had been doing this for most of the day hours, no doubt, as the moon was not even overhead yet. It stunned her, and she wanted to turn away, but the sky was all-encompassing. She made a compromise and headed for an overhang she spotted in her peripheral vision. She quickly sat down on her haunches and stared at the wall. Why would her sister do such a thing?

She turned around, hoping it was just a mis-sight; it was not. There, above horizon in west, were two words. COME BACK, it read in all capital letters. Her sister had spared no expense, too: it was made of all the brightest stars. Sailors were cautious that night, as not even the north star was spared. Celestia knew it was for her. Her sister was the only one besides herself who could shape the heavens at will.

Or... or maybe it wasn't... It couldn't be... No... it's.... Stupid night sky, We are seeing things....

The princess turned around and laid her head down on the loose dirt of the cave floor. She was happier like this, so why wasn't her sister?

We are free now, and Luna has Equestria to herself. Ponies can finally bask in the moonlight and see her. Is she that unhappy without us?

Maybe we should send her our own message.... But what, and how? And why?

"No, 'tis a stupid idea, truly."

She pouted. Why? The message was simple and clear cut. Her sister wanted her to come back. That was her last coherent thought before she fell asleep.