An Eternal Evening

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

I’ve always been what most ponies would call generous. I’ve funded towns, sponsored students, and dedicated more than enough time on the job that the overtime pay would be enormous (if I actually got any). It’s always been this way for me; my raising of the sun is the power I wield to give.

If someone asked me, though, if I was a generous pony, I don’t think I would answer yes.

There are ponies even I look up to, and the ability to give is one of the few traits I find most admirable. My mentor, Starswirl the Bearded, gave himself up in so many different ways for ponykind, by raising the sun previous to me, teaching Luna and I the rules of life, and (as far as I know) giving himself up to save us all. I also point to many members of the nobility, who although overshadowed by a select few, have only done good for the nation by giving all of their time and resources away to help aid us.

That’s the problem I have with myself and generousity: I view it as synonymous with self sacrifice. In my position, the only thing I’ve sacrificed in a long time is my time, but I’ve got a nigh infinite amount.

Even if time wasn’t a part of the equation, I still get a good rest over the night and subtly extended tea-time over an extra ten minutes. It becomes impossible to actually be generous or sacrificial when it’s your job.

That being said, I was off of the job when the sun moved below the horizon that night.

Normally I would go right to sleep. Ruling a country takes energy, and even I can’t go long without my beauty rest. I used to be in a groove for sleeping: after I would lower the sun, I would rest until about thirty minutes before the raising of the sun.

When I get into a groove, it’s tough for me to get out of it. I find my ruling becomes lackluster and I start to become irrational.

As I flew back toward the camp in front of the castle, I realized that I couldn’t let myself fall asleep that night.

My eyelids immediately became heavy and my wings started to freeze up. I just had to point out to myself that I missed my critical slumber. I shook my head, yawned, and focused on the cool night air.

And careened into a cloud.

I scrambled out of the white fluff and glanced around to see if anypony saw me. I was nearing the camp, but far away enough that unless I was being watched I was okay. The crash woke me up, and through my sudden lucidity I managed to get back on my hooves.

As I leapt off the cloud and took to the skies I judged the moon’s position to find the time of night. It was about 11:00, two hours after ~~Luna’s~~ The Affliction’s act of treason.

I glided down to the grass outside the castle and gently (and more regally than last time) touched down. Sky Flyer was discussing something with a group before seeing me and dashing over.

“Do you have an idea for how to build the monument, Your Highness?” he asked.

I nodded my head. “I’ll need a team that can carry some resources and eventually start building the foundations.”

He grinned. “I know who will take up that offer. There are two groups resting right now,” he pointed to a small camp area with around twenty cots laying on the grass surrounding a crackling fire. Twelve of the cots were filled with ponies sitting down, talking, or sleeping. “And you can have both of them. Once they get to the mountain you can direct them on what to do.”

“Thank you, Sky Flyer. How is everything working around here?” He grimaced at my inquiry.

“Well, it’s becoming a bit of a task for some groups to get resources. We stopped sending out teams for food because, well, look to your left.”

I turned my head and saw a mountain of red apples carelessly tossed on top of one another. I reached out with my aura and grabbed one. “That’s an awful lot of apples.”

“That’s what we said. Clean Tome and Mixed In are out trying to give everypony more clear directions. The abundance of apple trees is becoming a burden where the groups are spending more energy to find trees that aren’t near here and are usable.”

I took a bite out of the apple. “Maybe we should start a farm; it seems that’s the more successful endeavor at the moment.”

He gave a curt laugh and said, “There won’t be enough resources easily available to us unless we take the trees surrounding the castle, and even then, the size you want for the monument could be too large. What do you think we should do?”

I pondered the question. Resources have never been dire for us, because we never had a need to use so much. Even if we had enough wood and stone to build the full thing, the lack of time and preparation would make its appearance laughable. There was no way that we could build it all and make it look nice. We were doomed from the start.

“I don’t think I’m going to need those two groups. Building the monument has been all talk from the start, and completing it in time is a mere illusion that we can’t—”

My last words struck me; a mere illusion. If I could get enough ponies to learn an illusion spell, then we could pretend we already completed the monument.

I refocused on Sky Flyer and reassured, “I know what to do.”

He slackened his shoulders in relief. “What are you planning?”

“Once we get the foundation and outline built on the monument—which will take a good amount of time, still—I’m going to need every unicorn to come back to this spot. They’re going to learn an illusion spell.”

Sky made an “oh” in resignation. He paused. “I didn’t think you used much time in learning magical spells, Your Highness. Who will teach them?”

I grinned. “I know a mare.”’

He stepped to the side and insisted, “Your ponies are over at the campfire. Take it away.”

As Sky Flyer disappeared into the forest—most likely to help another group—I trotted over to the campfire and the ponies loitering there. Once I came into sight, each pony quickly scrambled to their hooves and bowed.

“Rise, my little ponies,” I declared. “I’m going to need you all to accompany me to the Northern Mountain and start building the monument. Bring all the materials you can carry.”

I scanned the twelve ponies who were moving to the spare materials on the ground. They were evenly split into thirds for each species, and all seemed to be comfortable around one another; a few couples were staying very close to their partner. As most of the ponies strapped items like wood, stones, or tools onto their backs, I took to the air and started toward the mountain again.

I landed at the base of the mountain slightly off-balance. I stumbled in place before two ponies, a pegasus and a unicorn, straightened me out.

“Are you alright, Your Highness?” The unicorn asked.

Or was it an earth pony? My eyes were starting to drift shut, and the world transformed into a blurry haze for a few seconds. I quickly raised a hoof and slapped the side of my muzzle. I glanced at the pony below me, watching with worried eyes, and was relieved to find the she was indeed a unicorn.

“I’m fine. Just a little bit tired. Let me go to the waterfall over there and reawaken.”

She stepped away from my side and returned to the rest of the group beside the pegasus.

I hastened over to the waterfall that fell to the base of the mountain and dunked my head in. The cool waters rushed over me and I felt awake and relaxed for the first time that night.

I pulled out of the waterfall and shook myself off. The rest of the group was congregating a pile of all the materials they brought along, as well as a unicorn teleporting more in. As I neared their chosen spot I examined what was inside the pile: wood planks, loose stones, an apple or two, and cloud bits that would be used to bind everything together.

There was no way we could build a good monument out of those materials, but we didn’t need to.

“Okay, everypony! Come around and hear my plan!” The ponies circled around me and I started to speak.

“The goal is not to build a full monument. We’re going to build an outline of half the monument, and for a short period of time, cast an illusion spell on that half. When The Affliction sees half of the monument completed, she will release the hostages and we can let down the spell.”

“Won’t that anger her more, though?” An azure earth pony asked.

“If she gets rid of the hostages we can handle her being angry. I’ll start to plan an attack alone. I can’t risk anypony else getting hurt because of this.”

I scanned the ponies and found that most were ready to start building.

“Now, building up to her chest is what we will consider half of the monument. I want everypony to start building,” I pointed to an area higher up on the mountain, “There.”

The crowd started to murmur and shift in place. They went from ready to build to ready to go back to camp.

“What is it?” I inquired.

The crowd continued to look around at one another as if asking, who’s going to bite?

The same earth pony as before did.

“Uh, how should we get up there? Only a third of us are pegasi.”

I looked up at the spot I wanted them to build at. Although there was a path up to some spots, that wasn’t one of them. There was no way to get up there unless, “We build a staircase,” I ordered.

The crowd was still skeptical. “Very well, Your Highness,” The ponies said at once as they turned to the mountain and started to move toward the building site.

I could see them shuffling hesitantly along. Some of them wore angry frowns, and subtly glared at me as they passed. This wasn’t what they signed up for, I thought. Their thoughts shifted from believing I was a good leader to believing I didn’t want to work.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help build a staircase up the mountain, but I felt like it would drain the small amount of energy I had left out of me.

The only thing I could give was my energy, but instead I was taking theirs.

They were sacrificing time for me, and I responded by adding more loads onto their backs.

Who’s generous now, huh?

I needed to build that staircase.

“We have a change of plans, everypony!” I announced. The ponies that had passed me turned back with eager looks. I softened my voice. “I’ll build the staircase, if all of you can provide me with the materials.”

As everypony trotted back to me, I could see them smile, not just at each other, but me as well.

I switched places with them; the mountain loomed over my head, and the ponies behind me were either resting or handing me tools.

“Well, no point in wasting time. Let’s get started!” I cheered. They cheered back.

I took a bit of cloud with my magic and stuck it on the side of the mountain to my left. Although it wouldn’t seem like it, if we made clouds out of a viscous liquid, it would stick to anything easier than glue.

The wood plank was about my width and was the size of a normal hoof. I jammed it onto the cloud, and it stayed. Carefully, I raised my foreleg and placed it on the plank. I still had my back legs on the ground.

It creaked and slid down on the cloud, but held in place.

The next bit of cloud hit the stone about the same distance above the first bit of cloud. After placing a similar-sized plank onto the cloud, I stepped up onto it. I was now fully on the two planks.

They creaked and slid down on their clouds, but held in place.

And thus I continued the process; place down some cloud, stick a plank into it, and pray that I wouldn’t fall. There was a rhythm to it. I didn’t need to focus on it, and because of that my body remembered it was tired.

Eventually I was on the twentieth step, about halfway to the area I was trying to reach. I moved my head down to look at the ground, and saw small specks of ponies through blurry eyes. By now pegasi were flying up to me and handing materials. One pegasus flew up and delivered some bad news.

“We’re out of wood planks.”

“You only had twenty of them?” I asked, irritated.

“Well, we need to save some for the building of the actual monument itself. If we use them all on just the staircase, we’ll need to set out for even more materials than we already have.”

“You’re right,” I acknowledged, “But what am I going to use in their stead?”

He lifted up some cloud and three stones. “We figured you could stick these three together and have a decent hoofhold.”

The three stones were half my width; I was going to have to scrunch up to continue on.

Yet I did; the three stones were placed to the side of the mountain, and I tried to fit two hooves onto it; I’m sure it was quite the comical sight.

After about ten of those I got back into a rhythm, albeit harder to keep. I placed another step and one of the stones fell off into the abyss below me. I hugged the wall tightly and recoiled my hoof.

There was nothing to do but continue on; although I just had a scare, I still found myself getting sluggish. I teetered to the edge of the step without realizing it and continued a mere misstep away from death. I was unfazed behind my sleepy eyes.

I was on the thirty-ninth step; the pegasus flew up, handed the final batch of materials to me and flew back down into what was now a foggy haze from so high up. My tiredness locked up my wings. The part of the mountain that I had built to dipped in and was a great viewing spot from inside the castle. It was probably why Glowing Sera teleported her magic there; you could see it perfectly through a castle window.

I plunked the cloud and stones to the left side of the mountain and took a step forward.

In a spot that didn’t exist.

I was thrown off balance. My left front foreleg also left the staircase. I could feel the wind ripping through my ears as my eyes turned to face a ground below that was suddenly and terrifyingly clear. All but one hoof was off the staircase, and I could feel it starting to lift into the air—

“Woah there!”

I was enveloped in a teal glow that carried me to the top of the mountain. I was turned around to face whomever my savior was, though I had a feeling I already knew.

“What were you thinking!” Glowing Sera yelled. “Why did you have to scale the mountain? Anypony could have done that! Don’t you understand your value in this situation?”

I was placed gently on the mountainside. “I needed to prove to everypony down there that I was willing to give as much as they have, and in turn they will now build with more confidence and energy than before. I gave some of my energy to them because it was the right thing to do.”

Glowing Sera stepped closer and opened her mouth before being interrupted by a twinkle in the air.

The twinkle hit the mountain stone and rock with a clink. I picked it up with my magic and raised it into the air.

It was a small shard of deep purple that was emitting waves of magical energy.

“Is that what I think it is?” Glowing Sera exclaimed with growing curiosity.

I sure hoped not.

-Princess Celestia