John Sampson's Story

I have a little time before Celestia lowers the sun. There’s no point in talking to her before then. So I’m going to experiment. I find a comfortable spot in the big courtyard behind the Throne Room and I face the sun.

“We need to talk. You helped me twice now and I owe you. I don’t know that I have anything left to give you but I need a really big favor.”

We have a slow but very informative discussion. It ends when it’s time for the sun to be lowered. I have some decisions to make but first, Celestia. She is still gone to the balcony when I settle in her kitchen to wait.

“Come on in, make yourself comfortable,” I smile, “We have a lot of talking to do.”

Celestia answers, “I’m looking forward to it, John.”

“Hold on to that thought, you’ll need it. We’ve had this conversation before and we thought we had understanding. We didn’t, apparently, because you just did it again. Now I have to make a choice. I can walk away from you. I can adjust you. Or I can accept you. Given how badly you just screwed up, acceptance is off the table. Do you really understand the depth of your mistake?”

“I know you’re upset I left you in the hospital instead of taking a chance on a magic cure.”

“No, Celestia, I’m happy that you value me enough not to take the easy way out caring for me. I’m proud of that. If you had explained it to me back at the beginning just like you explained it to me today I would have probably agreed with you. That’s not the problem. The problem is that you withheld important information about me from me. You could have easily killed me instead of saving me. What do I have to do to fix this problem?”

“I’m not sure we have a problem, John. You just said that you would have made the same decision. You said that last time too.”

“Celestia, I say we have a problem therefore we have a problem. It’s not the decision that went wrong, it’s the withholding. It’s the lack of equity in our relationship. You have failed to realize that by making choices for me, you are endangering me. I cannot accept that in my life.”

“How did I endanger you, John?”

“Just suppose you had been right about the level of energy from the sun overloading me? I would be a grease spot in the hospital courtyard right now. You knew that I had already bonded with the sun. How else did I get saved from the demons? So what do you think I did the very first time I walked under my own power? I headed straight for the open door and the sunshine. It drew me like a magnet. Why not? Nopony had ever mentioned that too much sun might kill me.”

“I sorry, John. I never thought. . .”

“Wrong answer. I don’t care for your apology. And I want you to stop thinking for me. Let me live or die on my own merits.”

“John, you can’t imagine how hard it is taking care of everypony. . . .”

“Wrong answer. I don’t need you to take care of me. You wanted a stallion to be your equal and co-ruler. You got him. Now treat him like an equal or expect trouble."

"Do you really think you are as strong as me, John?"

"In fact, as of today I’m more powerful than you. I can raise and lower the sun without you. Your ponies would rather see me on the Throne. You are no longer the essential pony so you can learn to get along with me or suffer the consequences.”

“So you think you can take me?”

“Have you counted bands lately? Now that the sun and I have reached an agreement I have become exactly what you summoned. Your perfect stallion. That means that I must be stronger than you. That’s the natural order that you screwed up and needed me to fix. Of course I can take you.”

This is going to be interesting. Her eyes are glowing, her horn is fizzling, and she has a wing boner. I put up a soft clear shield just in case.

“Do you really believe that crap, John? You’re beginning to sound like Blueblood.”

“Nope, I’m quoting Celestia. Just look at yourself.”

KaPow! I’m glad I had that shield up. It’s a love tap as bolts go but it would have stung.

“My, that’s an intelligent retort,” I taunt.

BOOM That was not a love tap.

I kick in speed before she can try something else, grab her, and teleport five thousand yards straight up. The instant we get there, I throw a ten yard spherical soft shield around her and hover supporting her with my magic.

Pow! Zap! Bang! She is pissed and she is strong but she’s not getting anywhere.

“Celestia, the rest of the herd knows what I’m doing and why.”

The lights and noises are attracting attention. Pegasi are swarming out of the Palace. The first to reach us hovers in front of me.

“It’s an executive conference, Sergeant. I promised Twilight I wouldn’t let it destroy Canterlot so we moved up here. If there are any questions or concerns take them to Twilight or Luna. Meanwhile please stay well clear. I can’t guarantee the safety of anypony within a thousand yards.”

“Yes, Sir.” Turning around, “You heard His Majesty. Get clear and stay clear.”

There’s still a lot of milling around near the Palace. I guess everypony wants to watch the show. Celestia is beginning to slow down. I doubt she’s run out of anything, she’s just looking for something new to try.

I ask her, “Why didn’t you ask your Guard for help? Because you knew they wouldn’t.”

“John, why don’t you just let me out of here and we can go back to my kitchen and talk in a civilized fashion?”

“Because you aren’t civilized. All of this cage rattling just proves it. What will happen if I drop the shield is that it will get real physical real fast.”

“I’ve been careful to use things that won’t hurt you. I can’t promise that any more.”

“Celestia Darling, the whole purpose of this is for you to give it your best shot. Please try to hurt me.”

It gets louder, a lot louder. My shield is feeding an amazing amount of energy into my reserves after taking a lot off the top for maintenance. She is beginning to look flustered.

“Come on, All Powerful Alicorn Sun Goddess, kick my ass. Teach the upstart alien colt a lesson.”

“Sooner or later you will have to eat or sleep or something. This strong a shield must be draining. I’ll be ready when it drops.”

“Let me start by telling you how wrong you are. I’m not sustaining this shield, you are. It absorbs the energy you have been firing at it and uses it to maintain itself. You’ve probably stored up a month's charge by now.”

WHAM. WHAM. WHAM. Dammit. I bet they felt that in the Crystal Empire. It woke the entire Castle anyway.

“Make that six weeks. You can’t break it, Celestia. The harder you hit it, the stronger it is next time you hit it. You’ve already pushed it way beyond your ability to damage it.”

She is breathing hard and looking like the wrath of hell personified. Time for the next stage. I put a hundred yard soft spherical shield around us and drop the smaller shield between us. I turn my strength up all the way and do something really tricky, I do an Earth pony anchor without actually touching the ground.

“The true limit on this is my boredom. I’m growing weary of holding you up and keeping you from hurting yourself. If you want to stay in this contest, you are going to have to start holding up your end of it.”

I let her slowly down so she takes the hint and uses her wings. She fires another bolt at me and when it goes past me she screams and charges throwing bolts as she comes. I realize that she’s coming at me horn first and catch her in my magic before she can hit me. All of her bolts hit but in anchored Earth pony mode nothing can move me or break me.

“Celestia, dammit. Calm down before you hurt yourself.”

Nope. She’s struggling wildly now. I can’t just turn her loose until she calms down enough to fly herself. Let’s see if her reflexes work. I turn her around until her hindquarters are against my chest and pull her hard against me. Her wings spring up and she freezes in position. There is a wonderful scent in the air that is triggering some of my reflexes. My instincts all scream `YES!’ but when I go for it, nothing happens. I guess it’s not time for that, yet. Pulling myself up her body until my shoulders are against her wings, I pull her head back and cross horns.

RAGE. BETRAYAL. Submission. So I dump on her. I give her all of my love for Equestria and my ponies, for my band and herd, for my friends. Then I give her my pride for their achievements, for Swift as I watch her meet every challenge in her growth from scarred Sergeant to the most powerful mare in civilian Canterlot, for Twilight going from filly with flashes of brilliance to pure brilliance in a few months. And my hopes, for Sweet, for Rich, for Colt, for all the mares freed from Blueblood, for Equestria. Finally, I show her how she looks to me. She’s the anxious hovering mother afraid to let her foals go. She’s the shining goddess stuck in the mud. She’s the great jewel with too high a price.

I separate from her and move her around until we are face to face.

She’s sobbing, “Do I really look that bad to you?”

“Sometimes. You have your moments of great beauty too but that’s not what this intervention is about.”

I drop the shield and teleport us to Celestia’s kitchen setting her right back where she started.

“Celestia, on Terra there is saying, ‘Be careful what you wish for because you may get it.’ You wished for a big, strong, adult stallion that could be the kind of mate a strong mare like you needs. You got him and you just got a taste of what he is capable of. My mate will treat me with respect or I’ll do something about it. Do you understand?”

“No, John, I do not understand. Why are you treating me this way? What is wrong? You just had my full submission and didn’t do a thing with it.”

“I’m your co-ruler, your mate, your herd stallion and still you treat me like a foal. You withhold life critical information. You try to manipulate and control me. That's what's wrong. When we kissed, I dreamed that we finally had something. Now getting you covered is secondary until we have a future.”

"How can we have a future when you reject me?" Celestia's hurt and confusion deepens.

"I've never rejected you. I've been trying to reach you for months but you let me get close then push me away. Do you remember when I told you that your methods would call for an accounting some day? I guess that day has come."

“So what are you going to do? Leave?”

“Leave you? Yes. I’m as rich and powerful as you in my own right. I have more mares than I know what to do with. The one and only reason I’m wasting another minute on you is that I respect my friends enough to try to not force them to pick sides.”

“Where would you go? I won’t have you in Equestria.”

“I’ll bet good money we’d be welcome in the Crystal Empire. Of course it would be a waste of a perfectly good castle to leave you here all by yourself. No, it would be much simpler for you to leave.”

“Do you actually believe you could throw me out?”

“I know I can. The question is, can you throw me out? Let’s just skip the preliminaries and go straight to a proper battlefield. I’d prefer The Badlands. Where would you suggest?”

“So you don’t want anypony to see you lose?”

“No, I don’t want innocent ponies hurt by accident. But if you want an audience, we can just go right back to five thousand yards up and I’ll put up a thousand yard sphere for an arena.”

“So you can control the field? No way.”

I’m direct, “Pick a spot. I’ll go wherever you like.”

“How can I possibly trust you again?”

“The whole point of this is that you don’t have a choice anymore. I’m stronger than you right now and I’m still growing. You have three minutes or forfeit.”

I stared at Celestia for three and a half minutes of silence.

“Goodbye.”

I teleport to Twilight’s tower.

“ARRRHHG!”

Ponies and one small dragon come boiling down the stairs. Twilight slams to a stop in front of me.

“Celestia?”

I nod, “Who else? I can deal with nests of demons but one damned mare frustrates me.”

I’m covered in warm furry love but that only strengthens my resolve.

“I’m going to be gone for a while. When I proved to Celestia that I was more than her equal she made it clear that she isn’t going to share power.”

Twilight is worried, “Is that what you two were fighting about?”

I replied, “No. The fight was over her treating me like a foal and endangering my life. When I proved to her that I am deserving of respect she went over the edge about losing power.”

A shocked Twilight says, “There has to be more to it, John.”

“Of course there is. You need to know this, Twilight. I could have been completely cured on the first day by simply rolling me out to a courtyard. Celestia knew it and decided not to mention it to me. And that’s not the bad part. She decided not to risk me being overloaded and burned out by the sun’s gift. I understand that. But when she didn’t tell me, she set me up for disaster. The very first thing I did when I could walk farther than the toilet was find an open door and walk out to the sun. I needed sun. And nopony had told me that it might overload me.”

That’s worth a collective gasp.

Twilight says, “That’s a pretty good reason to be pissed . . .”

“No, Twilight, that’s a reason to be annoyed. Pissed came when she told me she didn’t see how it was that big a problem. That launched me into ‘it’s a problem if I say it’s a problem’ and we went from there to a full on battle.”

“You don’t seem any worse for the wear.”

“She never landed a blow and I never threw one. I stopped the fight when she tried a suicide charge on me.”

“Oh. If she is that mad, how did you stop her?”

“I grabbed her and when she wouldn’t stop fighting, I mounted her. She locked up and I dumped all my feelings on her through her horn. She calmed down and we went back to her kitchen. That’s when she started the ‘there’s not enough room for both of us in Equestria’. She won’t fight and she won’t give.”

“Wait a minute, John. You mounted and she submitted and nothing happened?”

“I couldn’t. I was drawn up and ready to go when I hit a wall. She hasn’t held up her side of the deal we made and until she does the Oath won’t let me. She did that one to herself.”

“No No No No. The first stallion capable of dominating Celestia doesn’t cover her! Did you tell her why?”

“I told her all she needed to know, that she is the problem and I am out of sympathy.”

“No No No No. This could be catastrophic.” Twilight is frantic.

“I hope it is. I’ve tried everything I can short of exiling her or killing her. She needs a major shock.”

“John, please don’t do this. A conflict between you two could tear Equestria apart.”

“You think I don’t know that? My Oath won’t let me anyway. So I’m leaving. I’ll spend a day or two setting my affairs in order then I’m gone. And nopony is going with me. Equestria will need all of you that much more when I’m not here.”

We have a giant wing hug for a while and much sadness.

“I have to tell Luna. Go to her when I’m gone. Spend time with her during the day. She needs you and you need her. In case I don’t get back, I want everything I own in trust for my herd. Swift is head admin but all of you must work it together. Twilight, use them for support when Celestia tries to cut you off. I will be back but I don't know when. Do the things I would do while I’m gone like starting magic schools for Earth ponies.”

Twilight asks, “Do you really think she’ll do that?”

“If you make the mistake of telling her you agree with me she will probably lock you out of the Castle. I’m going to dispose of all my tech before I leave just in case. Right now I need to go see Luna and in the morning I’ll tell Fred. Swift, ready or not the decontamination is going off tomorrow.”

Luna is sitting at her kitchen table crying.

“Luna, what’s wrong?”

“Thou be planning to die.”

“Who told you that? Because it isn’t true.”

“John, the moon talks to the sun. I know thy plans.”

“Then you should know that I will be back.”

“Thou art planning to burn out. Thou will not be back from that.”

“No Luna. I am planning to operate at a level that would burn me out if I tried to keep it but instead I will do my job then go into recuperation before the burn out occurs. It will take years but I will come back. Meanwhile Celestia will have plenty of time to contemplate life alone at the peak of ponydom.”

“I understand thou be annoyed at my sister but is this a proper way to express it?”

“Luna, did you know that the sun could cure me?”

“Of course. The sun has been asking for thee. Celestia told me that she be doing the necessary things and I should help her keep thou calm and controlled.”

“Luna, do you know what I did just hours after you left? I got out of bed and went looking for the sun. I was drawn to it. If Celestia had been right about the overload, I would be dead right now. So much for ‘doing the necessary things’.”

“Be this the object of thy aerial confrontation?”

“Not exactly. The center of the fight was her insistence that there is no problem. But that is over and I am moving on. I need you to watch over my body while I recuperate. I will just appear on AJ’s farm as a large mare. I will live there with Fred and work on the farm as an ordinary Earth pony. I will not remember you or anything else that has happened to me before arriving on the farm. Swift has charge of my wealth while I am recuperating and can be counted on to support me or you in any way needed. I would prefer that as few as possible are aware of where I am. When the time is right, I will come out by myself.”

“Why wouldst thou want to be a mare?”

“Because Equestria needs my bloodline but it needs it properly applied. Any stallion with my blood will be a target for Celestia because she wants to control the new blood and therefore Equestria. A mare will do her no good and one foal a year will let my bloodline trickle in without disrupting things. I will probably take up with Fred because there is already a deep bond there but who knows what else is possible. Fred and Big Mac have always been best buddies so a coalition is likely. You and AJ will make sure I stay safe and do the right things.”

“This seems so extreme a measure, Friend John. Is there no other way?”

“There is more to it than I have told you. I will be operating at this extreme level for the specific purpose of eradicating all demons in Equestria. They have some of my tech and if left to pursue the knowing of it, they will end the Royal Herd and control Equestria. With Celestia’s help I might face them as I am. With Celestia’s opposition it is sure Equestria will fall to the demons. So Celestia’s suffering is justice for her disruptions. My regret is that so many others must share her suffering.”

“Now thy decisions seem sensible. I will help thee all ways that I can.”

“Just be with me for the rest of this night. I need the simple joy of a good friend to brace me for what is coming.”