Prologue: Reflections
It was not always this way.
Once, these halls were teeming with earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, where now little but dust remains. Once, this place I inhabit was more than a ruin, was a beautiful piece of architecture, the greatest in the land. Once, I did not have to carry this terrible burden, the knowledge that I was responsible for all the death that occurred that day. The fault was mine alone.
And yet, in this wasted land, hope remains. Ponies live on, despite her attempt to kill them. They are a tough race, one that will live for a long time to come. Though natural selection has been unkind to the pegasi and unicorns, with time I hope, I know, that they will once again be a common sight in Equestria.
But I fear the recovery will be very slow. Society had regressed so far. Few of the ponies who now live in Canterlot are willing to change from their ways, despite the safety they have found in the city. Few are willing to connect with me, as well. Only one has truly accepted me.
When I first met her, she had no name and no one else to protect her. I sometimes fear that she only likes me because she had no other options, but after all the time that had passed, I was willing to accept anything, and I still am. She reminds me so much of Twilight Sparkle. Though she is very young now, I hope one day that she will become just as great as my faithful former student.
I also worry for the knowledge that ponykind once held. All records have been lost and my own mind often fails me; I can recall few memories other than those etched in my mind for one reason or another. I fear the ponies will have to start from the beginning, learning as their ancestors did how the most basic of things work, and this will only hinder the recovery of the species.
One thing troubles me most of all. I still cannot raise the sun. The world remains in the same limbo it has been in for millennia, and there is no greater hindrance than this. The ecosystem had been ruined. It takes a huge input of time to aid plant growth magically, and the scarcity of unicorns only adds to the problem.
Besides these problems, there is another reason about the sun that bothers me. The size of the problem pales in comparison to the others and yet it weighs on my mind just as much, if not more so. I promised Dawn when I first met her that I would should her the sun one day, show her her namesake.
I fear I cannot.
Celestia, hearing the scuff of a small hoof on the ground, looked up from the piece of paper she had been recording her thoughts on. Framed in the doorway of the chamber she was using was a small, white-coated filly.
"There you are," she said matter-of-factly, a comically serious look on her face. "It's time for my lessons."
Celestia smiled. There wasn't really any way for the filly to know what time it was, but Celestia didn't want to down her spirits. She carefully put aside the paper she had been writing on, face down, casting a simple spell that would prevent anypony from being able to pick it up to read it should they wander in here.
"Okay Dawn, I'll be right out."
Risen
Written by ElementOfKindness
Lessons
Celestia walked down the passage, with Dawn running ahead of her. She smiled as the filly dashed around the corner, able to keep up a respectable pace for her small legs, despite her limp. Dawn was always so excited to learn, just as Twilight had been, and her eagerness brought a smile to Celestia's mouth, uplifting her damaged spirit for a time. She stepped through the doorway into the main corridor of the castle, giving the familiar surroundings a glance as she turned towards the courtyard.
Many more passages led off this corridor, though not a single one had a door in its opening. They had all long since rotted away, leaving the hinges grasping mere remains and eventually nothing. The ravages of time had affected the rest of the building, too. The stone was faded and worn, and there were holes in the ceiling and walls where collapses had occurred. Under many of these holes were pools of light, unmoving throughout what passed as day and night in the limbo that the world had entered millennia ago.
All of the beams of light leading to the pools could be traced back through the holes to one source: a great pillar of energy, which Celestia laid eyes on as she stepped out into the open. Though she had been the one to cast the spell, she did not know what is truly was, or how it had come to be. She had done it instinctively and she suspected the Elements had influenced her to create it for some purpose. All she knew was that it had brought some ponies to her and for that she was eternally grateful, even if some of the ponies didn't feel the same way at times.
Even as she walked out into the courtyard, a couple of them spared her a glance, before turning back to their conversations without so much as a nod. She couldn't really blame them. Though she had managed to dispel their belief of her malevolence, the memory of the path of destruction the one wearing her form had carved across the land was still a large part of their lore. In this world trust was incredibly hard to come by, even when one had a clean slate to start from.
Not all of the ponies acted that way to her. A few gave her a smile and one even waved in her direction. It was mainly the younger ones, those who had seen less of the world and the horrors it contained. They were much more accepting than the older, more experienced ones, most of which had learnt the hard way what life was like in modern Equestria. Despite this, there was only one who completely trusted and relied on Celestia and only one she really had a soft spot for. A certain little filly.
Celestia crossed the courtyard, heading toward an archway that had once lead out into one of the castle gardens. Now most of the wall around it had crumbled, causing the two spaces to merge into one. It was the same as every other time. She rounded the corner and saw Dawn sitting against the wall in the shade of the pillar's light. She always tried to act patient, but as always she gave herself away by fidgeting with her front hooves. Her face lit up as Celestia came into view.
"What are you going to teach me this time?"
She always let Celestia pick the first topic, but soon enough it would be Dawn controlling the lesson, asking relevant questions at first, before branching off in a decidedly non-linear fashion to completely new topics. Her thirst for knowledge was insatiable and her mind was always thinking up new things to ask about. Celestia always did her best to reply, but some of her memories had faded over time and she was not always able to provide an answer to the young pony. This time, she hoped to avoid those questions, for she had picked out a topic close to her heart, one she still knew well.
"You remember the Everfree forest?"
Dawn waved a hoof in its general direction. "You mean that one over there?"
"Yes, that one." Celestia smiled. "Well, there is something very special about it, as you can well imagine given it's current state. I'm going to teach you a bit about its history."
Dawn's head bobbed up and down eagerly. She knew well how difficult it was for plant life to survive in Equestria. The tiny amount of sunlight available was woefully inadequate for photosynthesis to occur and few plants could grow without magical assistance... But Dawn didn't want to think about that too much, for fear that she would trigger other, more painful memories.
"A long, long time ago, more than eleven thousand years past, we ruled Equestria from our castle inside the Everfree forest. It was small, a reflection of the relatively few subjects we had at the time, but it was still a grand building. Originally we built it in the forest simply because it was central, but over time we came to find that the forest was much more than it seemed. Through it and around it flowed magical currents of huge power, much greater than any one pony could ever possess. We tried to tame it, but even as alicorns we were unable to harness it's immense strength. It was purely wild, and we named it Everfree.
"Naturally, the forest took on the same name and in the years to come the magic itself was forgotten, with all of the tales of it's power and mystery being attributed to the forest itself. Though we no longer attempted to harness it, we remembered it when everyone else had long forgotten."
"Why do you keep saying 'we'?" Dawn asked, interrupting Celestia. Her mentor's expression flickered, too fast for the filly to notice, and there was a moment of silence.
"I'm referring to myself and my... sister," she eventually replied, the final word barely more than a whisper.
"Oh," Dawn said, picking up on the tone in Celestia's voice. "She's...?"
"No longer with us."
They sat for a few moments, before Celestia broke the silence. "It's ok Dawn. It was... a long time ago." She considered for a few moments more, not wanting to reveal too much about Luna to the filly and unsure how to proceed with the next part of what she had been saying.
"We ruled peacefully for a long time, but then... something happened. An evil being rose, and we were forced to fight. Much damage was done to the palace during the battle, so much that it was no longer safe to inhabit. The evil was defeated, but at a great cost. After all that had occurred, I could not stand to remain there, even though the castle could be repaired with time. So I moved, picking a new suitable spot for the capital, which happened to be here."
She was deliberately ambiguous and carefully selected the moment when she changed from 'we' to 'I'. Dawn would simply think that her sister had been slain in the battle, not that she was the evil Celestia had fought and defeated. It was better off that way; Dawn did not need to know the truth behind what happened with her sister and later, with Celestia herself. Not for a long time did Celestia think she would be ready to know that, an odd instinct telling her to protect Dawn from such terrible knowledge. The dangerous part passed, Celestia continued with her story.
"But, over time, I came to realize something was wrong. Darkness had seeped into the forest during the battle, and had begin to cause a change. Monsters took up residence in the forest, and a seemingly ominous atmosphere pervaded the trees. As always, the ponies only thought of the forest itself, and they began to fear it, to avoid it. But I knew better. The wild magic, the Everfree itself, had been corrupted. By the time I realized it was too late, though I doubt I could have done anything to prevent it in any case, probably even as I am now.
"So I let it be. I kept a close watch over the forest and over... over the village nearby," she said, avoiding saying the village's name. "The Everfree did not try to leave the forest and the monsters rarely ventured outside its borders either, so I thought it safe. It proved to be as such. Few incidents occurred, and those that did were handled by ponies from the village, without need of my or anyone's help.
"And then came The Fall. The sun went down one day, but never came back up. Much plant life died, as did every pony I knew of at the time. But the forest endured. The magic was so powerful, it sustained the trees over ten millennia and though the borders of the forest have moved since then, it is still as large and nearly as dense as it ever was. The Everfree is truly an amazing thing."
Celestia fell silent, her story finished. They both took a moment to contemplate until Celestia spoke again, putting on a light-hearted tone.
"Was that a satisfactory lesson, my student?"
Dawn nodded quickly, happy to learn but already eager to start a new topic. "What will you teach me next?"
Celestia paused a moment, unsure. Normally Dawn thought of something herself, so Celestia had only prepared one subject in advance. Well, she thought as long as I stick to something I know well.
"Why don't I teach you about pony magic? I could-" She cut herself off as Dawn crumpled to the ground, hiding her face behind her hooves and trembling uncontrollably. The alicorn started speaking again, her voice full of concern. "Dawn? Dawn!"
Run run RUN. Not far behind. Getting closer. Running. Running. Almost got me. Almost... STOP. No no no. NO. Trapped. Nowhere to go. Getting closer. Getting closer...
Beyond the terror replaying in her mind, Dawn heard someone calling out to her. Dawn!
It's here. It's going to, going to...
Abruptly she was pulled out of the memory as Celestia grabbed her by her shoulders, gentle but firm.
"Oh, my little pony, I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking... Hush." Celestia pulled Dawn close, wrapping her wings around the terrified filly. She had no idea how she had triggered the flashback: the few she had witnessed had seemed to occur almost at random, with the slightest of provocations. After a short while, the shaking stopped and Dawn began sobbing quietly as the horror of the memory receded. "It's ok, it's ok."
After a few more moments Dawn removed her hooves from her head and wiped her cheeks, revealing the shattered horn that just poked through her straight, pale orange hair. "I, I d-don't want to learn about magic. I c-can't even use it any more."
"That's fine. Why don't you pick something then?"
"Tell me about the sun again," she whispered.
Celestia nodded. 'Lessons' was more or less synonymous with 'story time', but everything she told Dawn was non-fiction and she called them lessons nonetheless. Though she couldn't tell Dawn everything about the sun, the filly still always loved to hear Celestia talk about it.
"The sun was a great ball of fire, many thousands of times bigger than Equestria. It gave off immense heat and brilliant light, but it was so far away from Equestria that mortal ponies could survive under it. It provided the perfect amount of light for plant life to thrive and for ponies to work.
"Every morning I would lower the moon and raise the sun to bring forward a new day, and every night I would lower the sun and raise the moon to begin the night." She had explained the concepts of day and night to Dawn before, even though she didn't believe Dawn would ever get to see them herself. "The moon's presence provided just enough light for ponies to see, but they always slept through the night, waiting for the sun's return. They loved the sun so much that every year they held a summer sun celebration, where all the ponies woke up early and gathered around to watch me raise the sun."
She paused a moment, realizing her speech was heading in a dangerous direction between the topic and Dawn's inquisitive manner. Seeing Dawn open her mouth, she winced mentally.
"Why..." She seemed to be gathering her courage to ask a particularly difficult question. "Why don't you raise the sun anymore?"
Celestia was dumbstruck, completely unprepared for such a direct question. She had been bracing herself for a question that might have led to her sister, and nothing worse. "Dawn, I..." I can't.
The light coming from behind them flickered once, returning to a level more alike to dusk than midday as it had been before. Then they were plunged into darkness.
Darkness
Celestia dashed around the corner back to the old courtyard. She glanced around, trying to orient herself in the relative darkness, before looking towards where the pillar of light had stood. Little remained of it. The central part of it had disappeared instantaneously, leaving a few small wisps of outlying energy floating in the air, forming a circle of light reaching only a few meters in any direction. As she watched they blinked out one by one, leaving everyone blind with the sudden lack of illumination.
She heard running hooves and more than one thud as ponies bumped into each other or tripped over unseen obstacles.
"Stop!" she called in a loud yet still controlled voice. The majority of the noises ceased and she cast a basic light spell, a faintly yellow glow emanating from her horn. The light revealed a number of ponies in the courtyard. Some were standing or sitting, while others where lying where they had fallen as they tripped over rubble or each other. One mare had a serious looking laceration where she had fallen against some rough stone, her own weight dragging her down the wall and tearing away her skin.
Celestia moved over to her quickly, taking a closer look at the wound, from which blood was dripping in no small amount. The mare shied away briefly, before realizing that there was no point and deciding Celestia was only trying to help. Celestia scrutinized the torn flesh, before raising a hoof and running it over the injury. The mare flinched again at the touch, but her eyes widened in wonder as the flesh stitched itself back together where Celestia's hoof ran, leaving very little to show there had ever been anything wrong with it. She looked up in shock at the alicorn.
"Y-you..."
Celestia just smiled at her, before turning to face the other ponies in the courtyard. They all looked equally shocked, both at what she had just done and at losing their source of light. Surprisingly, Dawn was the first to speak.
"What... what happened?" she asked in a soft voice, almost a whisper.
I... don't know. "The pillar has served its purpose. There is no longer any need for it; It was created as a beacon for any ponies that may have been out there, and here you are." I really hope I am right, Celestia thought as she gestured towards the ponies in front of and around her. One earth pony, his coat a shade of brown, looked dissatisfied with her explanation.
"Oh, and being a beacon was it's only purpose? You may not have noticed, but not all of us can create light at will!" he said in an harsh tone. Celestia's eyes flashed dangerously as she rounded on him.
"Forgive me," she said in a scornful tone. "I clearly didn't think of that. After all, I have only languished all on my own in this darkness for ten millennia." She paused a moment to ensure she kept her temper in check. "I realize you need light, but there is nothing I can do about..." She gestured to where the pillar had been. "That."
"Oh? And how did the pillar appear originally? I saw it form with my own eyes from a long way off, so if you have been here for so long, surely you would have knowledge of how it came to be?"
"I don't... I wasn't in a... coherent state of mind for much of that time."
Her opponent snorted. "Here you are, a great royal alicorn, and you don't even know how to bring us some simple light." He sneered at her cutie mark, the sun on her flank still exactly where it had been for the majority of her life, mocking her ever since she had learned she could no longer raise the celestial body that it depicted. "Well, I know now not to ask help of you again."
The mare who Celestia had just healed gasped quietly and looked to run after him as he turned and walked out of one of the courtyard's exits, but was held back by one of Celestia's hooves on her shoulder. They both looked after him with similar expressions of regret, watching as a few of the older ponies followed after him. The pair could tell from the looks on their faces, subtle though not unreadable, that they were not going to rebuke him.
***
"We cannot rely on her to provide for us, and Canterlot is too dark without a local source of light. Either we find a solution or we leave."
The brown earth pony Steel Venture left no room for disagreement, though he doubted anyone currently in this room would dare to disagree even if they did hold a different opinion. This meeting wasn't even entirely necessary, but it was the quickest way to set in motion the things he needed done.
"We're not all fighters like you, Steel." It was a dark green pony who had spoken, and he was gesturing towards Steel's cutie mark, a sword and a scroll. "Canterlot is the safest spot we've ever found, and I think it would be best if we found a way to stay here."
Steel nodded, looking at him across the stone slab that served as a table. "I can see the logic behind that. But, how can we continue to live here? The princess cannot be trusted, and there are not near enough unicorns to provide the light we need to be productive."
Another pony spoke up. "I dislike the princess as much as you but... is there really anything wrong with letting her help?"
"We survived just fine before we came here." Steel gritted his teeth. "Why should we start relying on others to do our work for us now? She has done nothing to earn our trust, so we will not ask her for help." He sighed in exasperation, then silence filled the room. There was only one solution he could think of, other than moving on. They would leave the city if he asked them, but as long as there was another option...
It would be difficult, but all he had to do was play his cards right and everything should fall into place. Steel turned and walked over to the entrance of the room, leaning through the door frame and fixing Celestia and his wife with a glare where they had been trying to eavesdrop.
"You can come in now."
He turned back to face the others in the room, waiting while the newcomers entered and took up a place along one wall.
"There is a way for earth ponies to obtain their own light. I have no doubt that is is magical, but it is certainly no unicorn magic." He hid none of his contempt for unicorns and the way the world forced earth ponies to rely on them. Some of the others in the room began to look nervous, shooting glances towards Celestia. Others held his gaze, beginning to realize what he was referring to. He flashed a predatory grin back at them. "What? It's not as if I've never killed one of the beasts before."
In his peripheral vision, he saw the alicorn frown slightly in his direction. "Oh, don't worry, princess, these creatures are naught but evil. I'll be doing Equestria a service by ridding it of a few. Then again..." He paused a moment, pretending to think. "I think I may need some help. Any volunteers?"
Not one pony in the room responded. While at least half of those gathered didn't even know what he was talking about, they picked up from the others that it was something to be feared. Steel's gaze flicked to Celestia for a moment before returning to the group gathered around the makeshift table.
"Nopony wants to come? It's a dangerous place, out there. Not somewhere a pony should venture alone." He smirked at his own joke. "You know I'm going to go either way. Surely one of you is brave enough to join me? Safety in numbers and all, you know."
A long period of silence followed, stretching out until Steel began to doubt his assumption had been correct.
"I'll do it."
His face broke into a grin. Celestia just couldn't let one of her precious little ponies go running off on their own. He was confident, but not stupid, and having an alicorn along on the trip would make it almost too easy. Just as a safety net. He had not survived this long by taking unnecessary risks.
"Why thank you, princess. I'll be leaving in ten hours. See you at the gate."
He turned and exited, leaving a room full of ponies shocked at his boldness.
***
"But I WANT to go with you!"
Celestia recoiled a little, surprised at the volume in Dawn's voice. "You cannot come. I would not be able to protect you out there. It is exceptionally dangerous, as you well know." she replied, firm but not unkind. Normally she wouldn't dare to say such things to the mentally scarred filly, but she had no fear of triggering another event with Dawn in her current state and Celestia needed to win this argument.
"I can take care of myself!" Dawn shouted back, her one good eye affixing Celestia with a look of fury.
"You are not going." Celestia was beginning to get uneasy. The last argument she had had was with her sister, shortly before she died, and her inability to win that fight may have been responsible for The Fall itself. The filly didn't respond, but just continued staring at Celestia. The alicorn sighed. It was time.
"Dawn, I know you're angry, but you just can't come with me." Dawn looked to start yelling again, but Celestia held up a hoof to stop her. "There is something I want to give you. I wanted to wait longer, to be sure first, but now is the right time for me to try." The filly gave her a confused look, totally unaware of what Celestia was talking about. "It once belonged to a dear friend of mine, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind me handing it down to you."
It was sometime in the fourth millennium of her isolation that she had figured it out. In a rare moment of clarity, she had been focusing on a rock, studying it, simply because she had nothing else to do. All of a sudden, she had felt a connection to something inside her, something seemingly familiar but at the same time something she knew she had never touched directly before.
She had probed at it and received no response. When she tried to contact it more directly her horn had began to glow with a purple light, unlike her usual color, and a shimmering, sparkling mist of the same hue had flowed out of it. When it had finished, a sizable cloud floated before her, though it quickly began to dissipate. Celestia had realized she could no longer feel it and, panicking, drawn it back into her horn. She had been baffled for a few moments, but then it had occurred to her. She knew what it was.
"Which friend?" Dawn asked quietly, her anger not forgotten but put aside for a moment.
Celestia smiled down at her. "She was my student, just like you. I should never have gotten this from her, but I did, and now there is no reason not to give it to you. I am still not certain of the energy transfer spell, but I think we will be fine. Are you ready?"
Dawn's ear's perked up as she tried to make sense of what Celestia had just said, then she nodded. Celestia leaned down, her horn glowing a soft purple, with wisps of energy floating around it. She held it a short distance over the filly's head and a purple mist started to flow from it, washing over Dawn's still form below. To Dawn, it felt like a cool breeze, cold but not unpleasantly so. It was refreshing.
Celestia, looking down at her, saw the mist stick close to the filly's body, becoming concentrated at a few points. It flowed into her, passing through her skin with a slight tingling sensation, particularly on her forehead and ruined eye. The mist at these points increased in brightness, becoming almost pure white in the center and fading back to purple near the edges of the concentrations. It kept flowing into her until naught but a glowing white cone of energy protruding from her forehead remained, her unseeing eye also glowing pure white.
The filly's mane lifted up a little, the power of the magic at work setting small currents in the air and causing her hair to float around her head. Celestia watched on in awe, never having seen such a thing in all her long years. She waited, the filly's expression unreadable as the magic worked, until the filly's hair fell back down and the light faded out. Dawn blinked several times, before reaching up to touch her face.
"I... I can see properly. My eye..." But her eye had not been the only thing she had felt the magic touch. She reached up with her foreleg and waved a hoof past her forehead. When she felt no resistance her face fell and her eyes began to tear up. "I thought..."
Celestia didn't let her continue. She reached down a hoof and guided Dawn's back to her forehead. This time the filly felt something.
Her horn.
Dawn flicked her head back up from it's downcast position, her eyes sparkling in wonder, and Celestia had to jerk her head upwards to avoid having her face gouged by the newly formed horn protruding from the filly's head. Dawn touched it again, feeling all the way up and down it's length, before glancing around and noticing a small rock nearby. She focused and after a moment the rock shot into the air, flying over the pair and landing a good few meters away. Both ponies blinked in surprise and a moment of silence followed before Dawn spoke.
"...How?"
Celestia understood what she was asking. Besides wondering why her attempt at levitation had contained so much power, the filly was visibly desperate to know where the magic had come from. Celestia had explained to her before why she could not simply heal Dawn as she healed some other ponies, because her wounds were too old and too severe. This was something different and Celestia had not known what to expect, but it appeared to have turned out to be more than she had ever hoped for.
"Raw magic is a very... unpredictable thing, so I can only guess exactly what happened. When not in a raw form, unicorn magic can only be focused through a horn, so it makes sense that it would repair yours once it chose to bestow itself on you. As for your eye..." A slightly pained expression came over Celestia's face. "Twilight was blind in one eye too. She couldn't heal it herself by using magic through her horn, but raw magic follows different laws, so it was able to recognize and regenerate the injury even though you are a different pony."
"Did you say Twilight? As in, Twilight Sparkle?"
Celestia sighed. She had slipped up and mentioned Twilight by name once before and had been forced to tell Dawn about her. She hadn't revealed everything, especially not anything at or around the time of The Fall, but the filly knew who Twilight was and a little about her. Celestia nodded in response to Dawn.
"But she was so powerful!"
"Yes. I suspect that is why the results of your spell were so unexpected, for you now hold that power. When you cast the levitation spell, I noticed your horn glow purple, which I assume is not your natural color. In time, it will return to how it was before, as your own magic recovers and asserts itself. Because you are not Twilight herself, you will never be able to harness the full potential of her magic, but you will still be able to use some of it in addition to your own. Do not abuse this."
Celestia made eye contact with Dawn, her expression showing how serious she was. Dawn nodded, then surprised Celestia by throwing her hooves around one of Celestia's forelegs in a heartfelt embrace. She whispered something, so quietly the alicorn could barely hear her.
"Thank you... mommy."
Celestia blinked, unsure she had heard correctly. Had Dawn just called her 'mommy'? Surely she couldn't think of Celestia like that. But, Celestia thought, it made sense in a way. Dawn had no parents and no other relatives that Celestia knew of. She spent most of her time with Celestia, and Celestia cared for her like any good parent would. So what was she, if not the filly's mother?
The alicorn leaned down to nuzzle Dawn. "You are most welcome."
The moment passed, eventually, and they separated. Celestia steeled herself and said the words she had been dreading.
"It is time for me to go."
The filly sighed sadly but, much to Celestia's surprise, just nodded.
"I know," she whispered.
"Thank you," Celestia replied, tears forming in her eyes for some reason she couldn't discern. "I'll be back before too long. You should practice and get used to your new magic. And maybe try to make some friends, hmm?"
The filly nodded and Celestia leaned down to kiss the top of her head before walking towards where her traveling companion was waiting. There was one thing nagging at the back of her mind, one thing she hadn't told Dawn about the gift she had given to her, but she dismissed it. She would tell her later. Celestia turned her head back to the filly, speaking over her shoulder.
"Goodbye, Dawn. See you soon."
