Barren Woods

by ROBCakeran53

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1221

Celestia remembers a time, and a journey, of two young mares Cel and Lune.

After a tiring day of bureaucracy, Celestia enjoys some quiet time to herself before a hearty fire. Dancing in those flames is a memory, one of a distant past, where two young mares would watch their world change, and themselves, for the better.

Cel and Lune would suffer greatly, but start something beautiful.

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Edited by flutterJackdash, and art is of course by the wonderful Alumx and used with permission.

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This was originally a PANIC! contest entry from 9/4/2020 in the Quills and Sofa's Speed Writing Server, with the subject being Sentimental Journey. It placed 3rd, which was nice. I cleaned it up some, polished a few words, and added another hundred or so for some context. It will be marked complete, but there's a good chance I might add a couple additional chapters as time goes on, however as it stands it's well enough alone.

Published 2020-09-19 15:40:03 UTC
Last updated 2020-09-19 15:40:03 UTC

Barren Woods

Princess Celestia looked down at the line of ponies waiting to see her.

This was the typical routine; day in, day out. Even with Luna’s return, the flow of ponies didn’t relent. Very few liked the idea of a “night court” and all that the implication of night brought upon the imagination.

She was the ruler of dreams, after all, so it really did make sense.

Yet ponies couldn’t accept it so easily.

So morning became afternoon, and soon afternoon was evening. Luna had her sleep, and gracefully took her role as ruler of the night while staff changed shifts and Celestia herself prepared for a well deserved rest.

Except… she didn’t really feel ready for any sort of rest.

So in her private chambers she sat. The massive apartment like space was something very few ponies could explore. Besides her own and Luna’s, there were only two other fully furnished castle quarters, reserved for the other two rulers of Equestria, Mi Amore Cadenza and Twilight Sparkle respectively. Anything else in the castle, residential wise, was simply a large bedroom with a few extra furnishings.

By now, sleep was eluding the eldest royal of Equestria, so Celestia started a fire within her hearth. While not really cold, the alicorn of the sun couldn’t ever be found uncomfortable in any manner of heat. A fire, one especially enclosed in brick and mortar and even marble was something to behold. Watching fire dance and wave about in its little home was magical.

And as she watched the fire dance, old memories would occasionally spring abound. The early days of Equestria, her and her sister’s rule, and many others lost to time that even Star Swirl didn’t record in his books.

Tonight, it was one of those evenings where she felt homesick. Canterlot Castle had been her home for the last nine hundred years, and before that the Everfree Castle a few hundred.

No, her home; her and Luna’s home, was lost to time and nature. A place wild now, where Equestrian magic didn’t dare change in fear it would grow weak from the struggle.

The Frozen North, where the Crystal Empire now stood, was once a prosperous, fertile, and loving place for all tribes of ponies, but the earth ponies especially.

Celestia remembered a time, before the royalty, before the responsibilities, before the troubles and sadness and horn and wings. When she was just Cel, foal of two proud, yet poor Earth ponies who worked and worked and worked until they could barely stand on all four hooves.

Having a daughter like Cel was a blessing, but not a miracle. A colt could have worked harder and longer, but where Celestia, a mare, lacked in pure strength, she excelled in the will and determination to outshow those around her. Her parents could never be more proud, and while most of the growing colts turning young stallions found it intimidating, for a select few it could be very exotic.

And then, one day, Cel’s mother said she was with another foal.

More joyous of times, although harder work in preparation for another mouth to feed, and for her mother’s down time as the months counted on. By the tenth month, it was impossible to require Mother to do anything that wasn’t laying around and resting. Then, before long, Lune was born, another beautiful earth pony, one resembling Father with the dark colors in comparison to mother with the white and light pastels.

So now it was the two of them, taking on the world, while ignorant to the rampant changes and shifts of the three tribes. They were foals, Cel becoming a beautiful young mare with a few interests in her eyes.

A couple town stallions were quick to begin courting her, and she’d always insist on bringing little Lune along. The foal, upwards of two years of age, was a great judge of character, or when she didn’t give them out, the stallion’s reaction to her could tell all.

But there would be a few that mattered, that cared for them both, and shared their love with Cel in all manner of ways. However, after several tries, she was unable to conceive.

It wouldn't be long before Cel was branded barren, and most stallions didn’t give her a second glance. Their father called it a curse, their mother blamed herself for being selfish in wanting a third foal. Either way, Cel would not be going out on her own to start her own homestead with a loving stallion, to continue the family legacy.

That burden would be shifted to young Lune, who was barely of age, yet suitors were already being lined up. It would all, sadly, be for naught.

After the great fires that destroyed much of their home, and had taken their parents, Cel and Lune set off to explore what they could. The climate was changing, ponies increasingly becoming more aggressive and hateful of one another.

Shameful, really, but they had no room to argue, owning up to their own prejudices of the other two tribes, and of stallions who saw the sisters for what they were: a barren, mid-life mare and a much too young mare who’d only been two years into her heat.

And then came the time of the great migration, where a new land had been found and claimed, however not by a single pony, but three. One of each tribe.

So Cel, with her young sister Lune, traveled far and wide to find this new land of Equestria. It spelled out promise for them, a future, and possibly a mate for Lune as she became of age in due time.

The journey was rough, tough, and unforgiving, but the two mares made it. Along their travels, both found love, young and old, shared passionate moments and time better spent expelling sweat with labor than intercourse, yet it was what they desired. What they wanted, and hoped, and prayed for.

For many years they traveled, and promise of settling only led to continued heartbreak. Lune would also be barren, and Cel hugged her sister close while she wept the same tears she had herself many years passed.

Equestria wasn’t a magical, awe inspiring place as passed from word of mouth. It was just a bunch of open land, some mountains, plains, and other forms of land. Yet, promise was given, to those early settlers, of what to expect, and what they were given.

Most ponies sought what was obvious. Farming lands, the skies where clouds could easily be gathered, and areas rich with resources for spellcraft and masonry. However, Cel saw a richer, greener future in a dense area of woods. Along with her younger sister, they began their journey to find a place to call home in those trees. Felling them with respect, building a home, and finding many plentiful resources.

More ponies would come along, and they’d welcome them, and before long a small village was formed. More time passed, and when settling on a capitol, the most bountiful place was that of the Ever Free, where two barren mares would call home and start a new life.

This was only the beginning, and neither knew what challenges lie ahead, but for that time, that era, all was right to them.