Pony POV Series side story: The Day Love Cried

by Alex Warlorn

Rating: teen
Tags: Sad, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Romance, Fluttershy, Original Character, Tragedy
Length: 5887

Set in the Pony POV Series verse, the Alicorn Venus once had a son named Cupid, today no one even remembers he existed. Why? Learn the full and truth details now from her own mouth.

A side story of the pony pov series. It was intended as a world building journal entry, but it became too big for that. This is the story of Venus, and her son, Cupid. Cupid was the foal of the Alicorn Venus, back between the age of the Three Tribes, and Discord's rampage. He was a messenger of love. Now he no longer exists, it's like he never existed at all. What happened to him? Venus at last tells her side of the story in this interview quoted directly from her.

MLP FIM: Copyright Hasbro

Art by Red Tallin. http://redtallin.deviantart.com/art/Venus-328583593

Published 2015-02-20 01:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-02-20 01:10:01 UTC

Interview with the original love goddess

My name, (one of many) is Sixth Venustas Ai Astarte. Venus, The Sixth Tarot, The Lovers, Concept of Love, all loves. No, not selfish love. Selfish love is just selfishness wearing a golden mask. True love, is not selfish. I am an Alicorn.

Do I consider a dragon's love selfish love? No. A dragon's love is a willingness to die protecting their horde.

Was I the Hearts and Hooves Day Princess who was turned into the first changeling queen? I would rather not say if I am, or if I am not, thank you very much.

When my sister Cadenza entered mortal life as the Glow and Show Pegasus Pony, Bright Glow, I appeared to her often as a custom avatar I created that was named Happy Glow. Presenting myself secretly as her 'special friend.'

As did my sisters Abbatissa, Alicorn of Prayer as Starglow, and Galaxia, Alicorn of the Stars, appeared as Dazzleglow. That was our Avatar's names. We helped and played with her.

The four of us saved two teenage mares in a damaged balloon from shark infested waters, the two of them were destine for great things.

But we were told we had crossed a line. The POINT of a concept living a mortal life was to experience life as any mortal would. It was said we had given Bright Glow 'special treatment' when we were supposed to treat her as any other mortal. We had given her living breathing magical friends rather than playmates and support. Guardian Angels are supposed to be sublime, not obvious.

Bright Glow should have saved Bon Bon and Patch with only our indirect help we were told.

This might sound harsh, but understand this: a mortal life is meant to allow us to understand the lives our decisions and choices so heavily effect. To know the trials and tribulations of a mortal so we may better protect and nurture them. I believe you know what Luna was like before she had that opportunity...How can I be the Perfect Love if I have not experienced true love myself, experienced myself?

So we were bound to never appear to others besides her. Even when we DARED break this vow to help her when she was placed in a mental hospital, we found ponies were not willing to accept the existence of what we were, they saw us as aliens, delusions, dreams, special effects, and more. It could not be helped, what we are was beyond what most would accept existed.

We appeared to her what little we could. When she was finally freed on the day of the world changed (and then) destroyed, her strongest thoughts now were of Patch, the dear friend she had made and wanted to see again.

In the remade world she became a sweet bell of a pony, and was happy. In the destroyed world, she became the sublime guardian angel to Patch we had failed to be with her.

Oh. OH! You wish for me to speak of that? . . . I ask of you please do not do this. As a ~~once~~ never a mother, I beg you.

. . .

As you wish.

Once upon a time, before Megan Williams was brought to the world of ponies by Firefly (who would become the FIRST 'General' Firefly in the final war with the witches), there was a pegasus stallion.

He served at Dream Castle, one of many Guards, protecting the unified herd of Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies.

He was bold, clever, and determined: something pegasi stallions in his day had in spades. The centaurs had bred pegasi for war after all, though new concepts and gifts guided them in a new direction than that of their half-humanoid predecessors.

But he was unique.

Make no mistake, all ponies are unique, all life is unique, but his particular uniqueness caught my eye. It called to me.

He once fought through a snow storm to deliver a love letter from a friend to her handsome love! He confessed his feelings to a mare, and accepted without spite or hatred when she turned him down in favor of a round stallion whose passion was wood carving rather than carving up goblins. From a raiding group of goblin slavers, he fought, nearly dying, to protect the life of the fiancee of the mare he also loved. He took on the duties of a married couple for a day, when their responsibilities would not let them have peace on their anniversary. He wanted his beloveds to be happy, he desired true love be allowed to bloom.

He was also a curious pony, daring to venture beyond what the ponies knew when ponies were relatively new players on the map, in a world torn asunder.

This utterly selfless stallion, friend to many, when he met the Grundles, did not judge them by their appearance, but by their actions. He became sincere friends with the Grundle King Hugo The First.

This stallion, Mars, was a brutal warrior against those who threatened those he loved, and those THEY loved, but quick to accept any surrender or plea for mercy. He was the ideal knight, chivalrous and true. This paradox of a pony drew me to him like a moth to a flame.

On one of his many daring and dangerous map making quests, I appeared before him as the most plain of mares, not ugly, not beautiful, not enchanting, not hideous, my face utterly forgettable.

I approached him as such, and spoke with him. He never thought me a witch in disguise, for ponies had much experience by then with Lilith's unholy brood and what creature as vain or shameless as a witch would appear in a form that enacted neither pity nor desire?

And in the guise of a mortal mare, I spoke at length with him as we traveled together. I told him I was a mare who had heard much of him, and wished to be his bard, to chronicle his exploits, so other ponies may be inspired by his acts. Ponies at this point in time, had yet to invent the idea of life-career thieves (that was a profession that they were mercifully quite late in developing. And what was considered the 'oldest profession' by other civilizations, never once sparked in their brains), so the idea of me being a bandit had not been invented yet.

We traveled the edges of Ponyland, skirting the lands of other races far older than his. Learning, understanding, growing. For years I stood by him, unlocking his secrets, understanding him bit by bit. I was capable of combat, but I only fight when it is absolutely necessary. He accepted this. It was not that 'mares did not belong in combat', ponies had no such concept, it was that he saw no need to force his will on me, nor did he often need my assistance. He merely enjoyed my company.

And I ultimately asked him, of WHY he protected the loves of others so dearly, even at the cost of his own happiness. Even when those he himself loved went with another.

"Love is something precious, something beautiful, whether it belongs to you or not isn't the point, love is too dear to let it be torn apart by something as ugly as envy. If I only valued my own love, it'd become ugly. And tainting that beauty is something I will not do."

I blushed as his praise of me. He had called me beautiful. He was not possessive of me. He admired me.

I politely declined when he asked for precise details of my past, I told him of my family, my friends, the places myself had seen. And he accepted this as well. He did not ask if my sisters were more fair than I, despite how plain I had purposefully made myself. Such things mattered not to him.

I told him how my friend Pandora's family and mine were not always on the best of terms, and how this saddened us both. And he offered his understanding. That was the night we kissed.

Yes, I know it sounds as though he were flawless. Perfect...but to me, he was. There was a good reason Pandora used him as the inspiration for many legends of noble knights. He was still challenged in battle, he still faced his struggles... one time I had to carry him away from a battle with a witch to save his life. Another time I had to hit him over the head with a frying pan to break a witch's enchantment over him.

But he did all of that and remained true to his code and beliefs. Mortals throughout time have proven my fallen brother wrong time and again, Mars was one such mortal.

Finally came when we returned to Dream Castle, the strongest basin of Pony civilization. Of course nopony knew me there. I had explained my family rarely made public appearances to any other than Pandora's family. Some ponies liked their privacy, that was a fact of life.

And he asked him to marry me. He explained that I had been loyal and true to him, and he'd grown to truly love me...He didn't care that he'd been turned down before. All that mattered to him was he had loved again, and he would continue to try so long as love lived in his heart.

I could have simply declined, but I felt he deserved a true answer for all we had seen and done together.

With Luna's moon high in the sky, and Galaxia's stars shining bright, sensing Imperatrix and Princeps around us both, I revealed what I was to him.

He didn't faint. He didn't run away. He didn't scream. He didn't demand to know what I done with the real Aphrodite. He knew me, HE RECOGNIZED ME, regardless of what shape or form I took. He loved the ideal of love, no, he loved the concept of love, he loved me, he loved the virtue of love in all its facets and forms. He loved me for who I was.

He'd loved me when I was plain. He knew not that I was a Goddess when he fell for me. He desired neither external beauty nor a mare of a higher office than himself for power's sake...so for loving me without seeking those things, they were part of his reward. No, I was not a 'reward' to him, I was far more dear to him than that.

As Mars and Aphrodite, we were married the next day.

A year later...our son, the demigod, the concept of the spreading of love, Cupid Eros Ponyland, was born.

My son did more good in creation than you can imagine. He was also responsible for making sure the war between my family and Pandora's did not spill over into the mortal plane and result in collateral damage.

Then...between the founding of Equestria...and Discord's rampage.

Mars's soul had long since entered paradise where I was forbidden to enter. Paradise was the domain of mortals who had passed on, as a goddess, I was forbidden for all existence to ever enter in any shape or form. It was theirs, not ours. I could visit, briefly, beyond the barrier. We can speak. But I can never join him.

...And even then, Mars' heart didn't break. He still loved me and values what little interaction we COULD deeply.

There was a filly, whose name I will not honor by saying, whose cutie mark and appearance I shall not propagate by describing.

She was not ugly. But she was not particularly beautiful. She looked at the ugly with disdain for the pity they were handed out, and the beautiful for the admiration they gained with no effort on their part.

She was not particularly privileged, and not exceptionally downtrodden, she was average in many respects.

In that regard, she was like the mortal form I had assumed during my first meeting with Mars...that makes what would come all the more painful.

But in other ways she was anything but average. She was brilliant in forms of magic that easily rivaled that of Starswirl the Bearded, she would have surpassed him if she had not gone down the path she had. Maybe she would have become this world's concept of magic. There are many good fates for all, my sister makes certain of that. No being in all creation is born with only tragedy and unfortunate paths.

She was also tactically brilliant, having studied Commander Hurricane's exploits in precise detail. She was a flawless blend of war and magic. She was as close to admirable as Morning Star GOT to admiring mortals who weren't fixated on crushing free will or enforcing their ideal of beauty on all. Perhaps in one timeline, she may have been his bride, as rare few mares in creation have been 'privileged' to be. Yes, even in his heart I live, even though he comprehends me not.

There had once been a colt with a pudgy figure who was slow of speech but had an eye for beauty and an understanding of animals that found her attractive where others didn't. He saw her how Mars saw my unassuming form.

She thought he wanted her only because no other would have HIM and that he expected her to accept him because 'the not-beautiful belong together.' She banished him from her sight. She ignored all hints from within and without from her family and heart that a little more socialization could have gone a long way to finding her true place.

She grew aloof and cold, and when even less approached her, she became even more convinced they judged on her station and appearance, rather than her own actions, and grew to hate the idea of love.

She read all she could on the subject of love, to better know the emotion she had declared war on and all the forces connected to it. And, she learned from the newly born changeling tribe, barely a handful at this time, the finer points of earning somepony's love. She did not experiment deeply or thoroughly, on ways to deconstruct love as another lost concept of magic, Sunset Shimmer, had with friendship. But only because she knew it was nonsense to try and wipe out love one pony at a time.

And yet through all of this, she learned many facts and figures...but 'knowing' and 'understanding' being separate concepts did sadly not occur to her.

My son Cupid, freely passed between the barriers of the spirit and living world, he did not make his existence unknown or hidden. Few desired to do him harm, and few even could.

One day she visited him at his cloud residence. And she acted as warm and kind as she wished others had to her once upon a time, but now her heart was as cold as ice.

My son, still a colt in terms of a deity...was enraptured by one 'his age' willing to approach him and spread love to him! He began to trust her fully. I warned him that I was NOT in her heart, but he believed he could melt her heart of ice...How I wish that were the truth.

Since I was not in her heart, I could not see all she did, and the universe, and all of time and space, is a large place, and no concept punishes for POTENTIAL wrong-doings, and to do such would be to invite Justitia and Judicium's wrath.

She dug underneath the tree that was once Tirek's fortress, Midnight Castle, in an age when others began to think the long dead centaur was mostly a legend. The same tree where Magic Star created the Alicorn Amulet that saved Ponyland from the Witches.

Indeed, she and Magic Star were much alike. Magic Star was an Earth Pony who knew magic better than most unicorns, the filly was PEGASUS who also knew magic better than most unicorns.

She found Tirek's Chariot of Midnight, that all others thought destroyed. With brilliance that may have even surpassed Magic Star's in magical crafting, she reforged part of the black iron into a new shape, a new form, but its dark purpose remained the same as it had been when Tirek attempt using it at Midnight Castle.

The Concept Killing Spear, the most dreaded weapon in creation that even Strife in her love of conflict saw unfit for mortal hands, had been created.

She would have revenge for her many spurred loves both real and imagined...As she departed on her dark errand, the colt that loved her tried one last time to declare his feelings for her, unknowing of her intent...sadly at the time all his genuine words did was make her desire to achieve her goal even more...I cannot say 'I wish I'd seen something wrong through him', regret I cannot feel...guilt, however, I can.

Then came Hearts and Hooves Day, the day that my son was most honored, in particular by the changelings for he gave them the means to co-exist with their fellow ponies. The day he loved most, because it was time he did what he loved more than any other.

They had agreed to meet that day and they did, at the appointed time, the appointed place.

She did NOT try to hide her intent when they met. She felt happiness for the first time in a long time at what she was about to do.

Pandora, spirit of Imagination she is, tried to reach me in time to warn me of the dark imaginations that had solidified into a darker intent in the pegasus' mind, but sadly she did not make it in time. She only knew I needed to be warned seconds before it was too late.

My son was not a warrior, his was a messenger of love, he had never used his bow to harm another living thing even during the war. It was no weapon, it was a tool for great good. And even now...he couldn't bring himself to harm the filly who had approached him so warmly that day they met.

M-My poor baby...my poor little baby...the child I'd raised since he arrived on earth from Mother...Oh My Parents, please don't...Please, just give me a moment...

For one moment, all forgot what it meant to love another, and then a feeling of sorrow flickered across all the living, as every trace of my son having ever existed was undone. The idea of SPREADING love ceased to exist, had never been, the concept of it, my son, was deader than dead.

Black Hearts and Hooves Day had come.

I drew in breath, and screamed. With my son erased, never been, I felt myself chopped into pieces, links broken. I have never known such pain before or since.

I did not know malice, nor did I know grudges.

But I knew loss and fury well enough. I knew a mother's wrath.

Never before or since, have I known such quantities of them in my heart. Even when Morning Star turned against us. Even during the war when my brother Currus perished.

The power of the Concept Killing Spear, new to the universe, had for the time granted her some stealth, some protection, that was at an end.

Unlike when my sister had tried to bring the Windigos to the mortal plane, none of my siblings took up arms to stop me. Justitia and Judicium had already unlocked the door. The coldblooded murder of an innocent child who had done no wrong was one of the most vilest of things in both their sights, whether it was their nephew or not. This little filly had done far, far worse.

I did not care how much of a disruption I caused. The entire planet quaked as I appeared in my largest, most fiery avatar. I would have retribution!

Did she cower before me? Did she admit her wrongs? Did she beg for forgiveness? Did she calmly surrender having reached her goal? With Love Itself before her ready to avenge the loss of my son?

She only thought how now she would kill me too.

I do not know hatred. I would have forgiven her had she repented with an honest heart. She did not. So I would not forgive. I would have no mercy for this foal.

She was no Nightmare, no mad filly, no hurt and angry foal corrupted then made a pawn, she had done all this with a cool and clear mind of her own will.

I did not known if she had murdered my son to draw me out, or if she had even THOUGHT that murdering the son of a goddess might have consequences, I did not care!

Before her muscles could finish processing the electrical signal from her brain to raise the weapon at me...I blasted a hole through her treacherous abyss of a heart. The hole in the shape of a heart symbol.

She looked down at the hole in her body in shock and confusion, then up at me, like she didn't understand what had happened, or how this could have happened. She was no Tirek, she was nowhere near as clever.

And she fell, dead before she hit the ground.

I did nothing when Strife took the foul weapon for herself, I did not have the power to destroy the thing, and I wanted to be rid of it. Strife assured me no mortal would ever again possess the spear.

I destroyed every earthly record of her, and had Pandora wipe the memory of her from everypony who had ever known her as thoroughly as only a Draconequus can. They knew there HAD been a filly they had known, but her face, and her name, and her cutie mark, would remain blank forever.

And I blasted her private homestead into a smoking hole for good measure.

I did all this before she could ever be mourned. And none ever would mourn her name. Even in Tartarus she would remain faceless, nameless, and markless! Even she would not remember her name or what she or her cutie mark looked like.

Father stopped my wrath for only the fraction of a moment it took for Him to show her all that her selfish act had destroyed throughout history and ask if it was worth it.

She said it didn't matter because it could not be undone, so what was the point of feeling sorrow? Her inside remaining as cold as her spirit's expression. And that was the extent of Father's mercy for her. Father is all forgiving, but He is not without a terrible fury of His own for crimes so vile and hearts so unrepentant. He is slow to anger and quick to forgive, but when His anger is invoked, He puts Havoc's to shame.

I tore her wings from her, and I ripped out pieces of her soul, not bothering to be gentle, adding one of my own feathers to keep it from dissolving into nothing, mixing them together and made something new that would loyally and lovingly serve me for all eternity, and my new servant would ultimately earn my love as part of my family. The last thing the filly would have ever wanted. I turn what was left of her body to ashes and tossed the rest of her spirit into Havoc's waiting maw myself.

It was all in all, it was far too merciful and lenient a punishment!

Do not think this was selfish vengeance for myself alone. While she murdered my son...in reality she had done far far worse. Allow me to tell you a fraction of what My Father showed her.

It originally took ponies a few hundred years to completely recover from the end of the Age of Wonders, and even Discord's rampage lasted half the time it does now. Equestria was double the size it is now, and the Deer's empire at its peak was only two thirds its historic maximum size. Make no mistake, this was not due to economics or conquest. I remain at the foundation of Equestria. Equine requested to be be part of Equestria, even the changelings eventually… but now my son had never existed to spread me, spread love.

Hybrids were much more common, they now inhabit Oblivion.

Medical science was more advanced...Applejack's parents lived that fated day.

I will not say...who had been mothers and fathers in Ponyville before time had been twisted. Only know, those erased, had inspired many other ponies to greatness.

Twilight Sparkle's library ~~once had~~ never had a laptop.

Luna and her moon tribe regularly greeted guests on the moon.

Cadence and Chrysalis peacefully became Cadenza again with Sweetie Belle's prodding to end the conflict, on its first day in the wedding hall.

Trixie attended Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns… though she and Twilight did not become friends until years later in Ponyville.

That selfish mare had not just murdered my son. Her actions erased billions. And when faced with the knowledge of this, she had not one regret or guilty thought in her heart.

Mars?...The Concept Killing Spear had not only erased his memory of having a son...it had erased our union, it had erased the part of my essence that existed in my son, it had erased our bond, our relationship had been erased as well. I remembered, he did not.

The one true love Mars had ever known was gone. The one true love I had ever known was gone.

My fury spent...my task of vengeance done…

I took my baby's...took what? Luna got that part of her poem wrong for dramatic effect. My son's body...his bow? They were erased. Gone forever. Even his cloud home was gone, it had never existed. I had nothing to take back with him to remember my son by.

...I was sorely tempted to become a Fallen One...one of the Nightmares. I did face that temptation my grief was so great...thankfully, I remembered it was not what my little Cupid would have ever wanted. I refused to tarnish his memory that way.

I didn't return to my own domain, Luna got that part of the poem wrong too.

I came to Mother and Father, and cried. For the millions of years it took for life to evolve on a planet I wept, though from mortal ponies' perception, the pegasi of the world felt the irresistible urge to make it rain all over Equestria and cry their hearts out for only seven days.

They did not remember my son, but they mourned him all the same.

Havoc treated his new charge the same as he would any other, he was a fair Pony Hell, which made him more terrible than you can imagine. Though he did give me his consolations. After all, he knew my grief well, and I was one of the few who knew he did. All love is me.

Entropy...merely calmly accepted the newest wards who now inhabited her quiet dark kingdom.

Mother showered me with all the love that felt by ponies across creation, showered me with myself, empathy, compassion, understanding, sympathy, endearment to ever so slightly sooth my sorrows.

Father never left my side...though Mother had always been better at showing her feelings than him, she was empathy after all. He merely said that he would comfort Mars all he could with the loss he could not remember but still felt.

Pandora hugged me and gave me the greatest love poems ever written to try and console me, though her siblings had no say in the matter and were far too busy dealing with the upheavals in their own Concepts.

My siblings consoled me in their own ways, as varied as they were.

Puerilis knew this was not time for games and only told me to remember my son lovingly and to carry on in his name. He grieved for all the potential both my son and all those who no longer existed could no longer fulfill.

Amicitia only came long enough to kiss me on the forehead, and tell me she was sorry. She almost acted like it was her fault. She had fellow traveler Anasi to comfort her.

Abbatissa hugged me dearly, all the prayers to Cupid fallen silent effected her terribly as well, but she knew it was nothing compared to what I felt.

Imperatrix and Princeps, could only hug each other and cry, the twins mourning Cupid's death almost as greatly as me.

Justitia comforted me, saying that justice was also closure for the victims in addition to punishment for the evil.

Eremo...only closed a section of his library, containing knowledge that was now invalid, silent and his face without expression...but his notes that day were all tear stained.

Rota Fortuna could not attend...she had much, MUCH to do to repair creation from this unspeakable act. This act that shocked us all. It was so unthinkable, so impossible, something only Tirek before had TRIED TO DO, with a weapon that should not have been able to exist. So much had been ruined. So many lives erased who's fates would now go unfulfilled. I don't know if she's ever truly recovered.

Leo carried me wherever I wished, silent and dutiful.

Turris stood equally silent guard to make sure not disturb my domain while I was in mourning.

Galaxia (when she returned to us) made a new constellation in the sky, though none but us would remember what it signified.

Judicium...kept his record books, of what he considered an open and shut case. He told me that I had done what was right, that even if the mare's guilt was not so immense and horrible, the Concept Killing Spear was something that could have caused unspeakable damage had it remained in the mortal world.

Pensillis...being the saint he was...mourned the loss of a soul so young to such evil that could have done such good. I do not resent him for this. It's his nature to mourn such ponies.

Mortis...he was with Strife and their children, privately regarding the weapon and what to do with it, even if it had come from the mortal universe and we had dragged it into our reality. Even if we could not do the same to Tirek's chariot least we damage reality further than this horrid event already had. Strife kept it in her realm (perhaps the most deadly and dangerous location in all creation), only because Destruction was the only being in creation who could destroy it...and sadly his power lived in Discord.

Morning Star...if anything...only regretted such a great filly had been cut down so early in her life before she could even become a mare, and had been reduced to so little.

Celestia and Luna...were in the mortal world at the time, I, do not resent they were spared seeing this sorrow first hoof. I would not wish it on any pony.

Oh, and in the universes in which she exists, Rancor congratulated me on the thoroughness of my revenge.

Know this. My parents? My family? We never spoke of, we never thought of, we never considered for an instant to wipe ponies from the world for what the pegasus filly had done. We are not Entropy.

I created a replica of my son's bow, and gave it my new servant, and created a larger, more powerful one for myself, along with others for those who devoted their lives to me. So at least, some proof of existence would remain of my foal. Sadly, it was not enough to do all the work he could do...to redo the good his lost existence brought the world...proof was all I could do.

I also created a statue of him at the entrance of my domain, of myself, of love itself, another little proof of existence of him.

During Discord's second rampage, he turned an innocent filly, Archer, into a mockery of my Cupid. Already skilled with the bow, Discord gave her wings and twisted her mind so in parody of my son's duty she began to shoot any pony she laid her eyes on, including her own family. After she was freed of Discord's violation, she nearly forsook her cutie mark in remorse, until Veritas, excuse me, Applejack, spoke with her not to let Discord damage what made her proud.

It is Hearts and Hooves Day yet again.

I see three fillies, like many before them they see the seeds of myself, true love, in two ponies, and just like many before them, they believe they can artificially force along these seeds' growth. And just like many before them, their efforts only stunt my growth. But...somewhere in them, the seeds remain, having taken root, growing ever so slightly...may they someday bloom. I know my son would have loved that. It was something he would have done to help them rather than force them together.

I place shion and tsubaki flowers at the base of my baby's statue. Around the statue's head, I place a ring of forget-me-nots. They'll ultimately dissolve back into this domain, back into me, after all, I am not the concept of nature.

I carefully kiss the statue on the forehead and allow myself to cry. You grieve, you move forward, you survive...but gods never forget.

I have an unexpected guest. Having been so caught up in mortal time, for a moment I forgot time doesn't have the same meaning to us who exist outside of it sans for cause and effect.

"...Hello Venus, I hope I'm not intruding."

"Hello Gaia."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to comfort you...for what happened...I...I remembered what I lost…after I became...when I TRULY became ...well, what I am...and...I just want to say...I'm sorry."

"...thank you."

"Also...I wish to give you these."

"Flowers?"

"My creations...they'll never fade...they'll remain forever. ...If it helps...Um...sorry if it doesn't. They're empowered by the love you shared with your son."

"Then they'll never fade. Gaia. Thank you."

"I've had many wise ponies tell me not to live in the past. Not to be chained down by those who are gone and not coming back. But I think...it's important we remember them all the same...My daughter says that remembering may seem cruel...but ultimately it is an act of kindness. Oh! And she says she's sorry too."

"Thank you Gaia, Fluttershy, I'm proud to have you as a sister."

"And so am I!"

We hugged.

She said. "You don't...you don't need to spend today all alone...unless you want to...I can make you a nice flower garden if you want."

"That...would be nice."

And my pain lessened ever so slightly. I could never replace my son, nor would I want to, but there are many kinds of love, and love between friends, sisters, is beautiful too. One part of that love is that we never have to face suffering and grief alone. And I became just a tiny bit more beautiful at the magic of Gaia's own act of true friendship.

-Fin

Author's Note

A gift to all the readers of the Pony POV Series.

20150225: Added in a mention of Archer and what Discord did to her on the day of chaos.