Hi, My name is Dreamy Stardust
Celestia sighed as she raised the sun into the sky, beginning the orbs journey across the sky for the day. The first hints of the orb appeared behind the mounts as a faint purple glow, and then orange, and finally the yellow ball peaked over, giving way to the morning light. Her sister Luna gave Celestia a sideways glance as she in turn lowered the moon from the center of the dark blue tapestry of her night sky, tucking it below the horizon as the white light slowly vanished along with the moon.
Luna turned to face Celestia, "What is the matter fair sister, dost thou grow bored of thy Celestial duties". Celestia smiled at Luna, even with her having returned from the moon, she spoke in such formal speech which had been the norm of elites 1000 years ago, and now the odd accent did give Celestia a small bit of joy.
"It's not that Luna, and you don't need to be so formal with me, for the millionth time, just call me Tia". Lunas face filled with confusion, she looked at the ground, trying to process this information as though this request was a complicated task. Looking up into the eyes of her taller sister and with some difficulty, managed to get out a few words.
"Yes.... Tia.... I.... can.... speak..... in dialect which thou feel of the utmost comfort sister" as she quickly slid back into her old habits. Celestia chuckled to the annoyance of her sister.
Ignoring this, Luna returned to her look of concern. "Sister, I feel as if something is the matter, canst thou confidence in me to what is the matter?"
Celestia looked a bit uncomfortable at this, but she did need to get it off her chest. "Yes Luna, I was thinking about your recent trip to Ponyville on Nightmare night, and how with some work you were able to become such quick friends with the ponys".
Luna tilted her head slightly in confusion "Yes sister, but our subjects showed only fear towards myself before help from the student pony Twilight whom with I made the friend."
Celestia took a deep breath, "that's what's wrong, after seeing how you were able befriend the ponys at the festival, I came to the realization that I don't have any friends"
Luna took a step back. "But what of the apprentice pony, Twilight sparkle, of whom you speak so highly? I became the friends with her when she aided my attempts to speaketh to the citizens"
Celestia shook her head no. "As close as we may be, it would not be appropriate for me to have such a relationship, at the very least it would beg the question of nepotism and could not do that as a leader nor wish that on someone that I care about like Twilight." Celestia sat down on the cold castle floor, a bit defeated by these facts.
Luna looked at her sister with an expression of annoyance, "Well, I am the friend for thy sister, how canneth thou ignore your favorite sister"?
Celestia smiled at luna, "I love you Luna, and....yes you are my friend, and love you greatly, but you're also my sister, and someone I can always confide in, but.... it's just not the same, I have no friends.... that aren't also rulers of Equestria, and are my direct peers. I feel like it might be impossible for me to make friends. I'm so tired of ponys looking at me with fear even though I give them no reason to do so, I'm tired of the formal bows and so tired of being treated like a princess; treated differently"
Luna stared at her sister, Celestias face drooped a bit in sadness. Luna thought for a moment, musing on her sisters words. "Well Tia" said Luna quietly. The use of the less formal language caused Celestias ear to perk up as she turned towards Luna as she spoke. "What if you weren't you; than thou canst try to have the friends." Said Luna as she returned to her normal speech.
Inquisitive of what her sister meant, Celestia asked, "What do you mean by that sister?".
Luna grinned widely, "Well, what if for a day, you disguised thyself as a normal citizen? Then thou canst attempt to make the friend."
Celestia was a bit surprised at the idea, but after the initial shock of the oddity of the idea, she began to consider such a prospect. "I.... think I would like that Luna, to be like everypony else for a day and experienced what our ponys experience"
Luna smiled back, shooting her sister a cheeky grin; teasingly sticking out her tongue. "Let us do it fair sister, we can disguise you like a unicorn".
Celestia looked back at her wing. "Yes, I can make myself look as I did when we were younger." With a bit of focus, a high-pitched sound of magic filled the air as a bright aura began to form at the tip of Celestia horn and slowly expanded to encompass her entire body.
Luna watched this process as Celestias wings shrank until they were seemingly absorbed into her sisters back, Lunas gaze went from looking up to meet her sisters eyes to looking down as Celestias height reached that of a typical pony. Finally, her ephemeral multicolored mane became a solid light pink and landed limply on her back. With a final touch, a fake cutie mark of a series of stars in the shape of an octagon concealed her true cutie mark. Celestia opened her eyes and looked.... UP? at her younger sister who was laughing hysterically at the change. "Now thou are thy little sister".
Celestia smiled, taking in her new form, or more accurate, her ancient form, before she had become an alicorn. "Well, that wasn't nearly as difficult had I feared. I should be able to stay in this form if I don't use too much magic, a strong impulse of alicorn magic would reverse the spell."
Luna giggled, “wow, maybe I should have just gotten you to transform thyself like this 1000 years ago, it would have made conquering Equestria easier if I simply locked you into this form. “
"LUNA" Celesta spat at her sister with an angry look.
Luna gave a cheeky grin "I'm only making the joke sister, I no longer harbor aspirations of imperialism". Lunas grin faded as she looked at her sisters pink hair with a bit of sadness, "Sister..... you could have changed your hair back to its old color at any time couldn't you?"
Celestia grimaced, "Yes, it was a scar that I deserved, and a reminder to not repeat my greatest mistake." Before Luna could answer, Celestia interrupted her sisters thoughts with a request. "Luna I can't teleport too far in this form without breaking the spell, let alone a place as far as ponyville, would you.... mind?"
Luna giggled and nodded, with a high-pitched sound of her magic, and a poof, Celestia felt her body being pulled and stretch, finally after a couple seconds, Celestia heard a loud bang as the spell concluded, Celestia found footing under her hooves once again. The smell of burned hair and sulfur invaded her nose. No matter how many times she teleported she would never get used to that, but luckily the odor was soon replaced with the deep natural aroma of the forest. The forest was still dark; illuminated only by the beams of light striking the ground as they fought their way through the trees. She found herself looking into a cave.
Celestia sighed, "Luna has such terrible aim with her teleportation, or maybe 1000 years ago there had been something here and not just the endless trees of the Everfree Forest. but at the very least she needs to learn to quiet her spells, what is she thinking making such a loud bang, luckily nopony was here to witness such powerful magic" Celestia turned away from the cave and spotted a path leading away from the cave and presumably, toward Ponyville. She began to trot quickly along the path towards ponyville. Behind Celestia something began to stir within the cave. Something big.
"I haven't walked such a long distance in some time" mused Celestia as she trotted along the path, catching her first look at ponyville through the trees. Excitedly, she broke into a gallop as she raced towards the town; her breathing became heavy and strained, but Celestia did not recognize the pangs of pain within her lungs or legs, another pony would have been slowed down with their bodies cries of pain, but Celestia was not used to running as she either flew or teleported to any place greater than a few mares lengths away and had done so for centuries. The pain continued to grow, and her body strained, but Celestia barely registered the struggles of her body, finally reaching the sign outside of the town that read "Welcome to Ponyville". Celestia paused and smiled, having reached her destination; she raised a hoof to take a step forward, a big smile on her face; right before her vision started to darken, her body having been ignored by its owner gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground.
"Are....Are you ok?" came an unfamiliar voice but concerned voice.
Celestia groaned and opened her eyes weakly to look up at the concerned unicorn. This unicorn wore a bright white mane and a light pink coat. Two flower baskets hovered in the air above this ponys head with a slight whirring noise as she held them with her magic. The unicorn breathed a sigh of relief as Celestia pulled herself up into a standing position, "I'm glad you're ok, my name is Blush Blossem, what's yours?"
Celestia thought quickly of a cover name. "My name is.... Dreamy Stardust, and thank you for your concern". Blossem smiled, I'm glad you're ok, I always wake up early to pick flowers for my business, so luckily, I happened upon you on my way to the edge of town. Would you like to join me?"
Celestia paused for a moment. No bow, no formal speech, no.... fear towards her, this felt wonderful. With a smile so big it could have rained sugar she replied, "Of course Blossem, I'd love to join you".
The pleasant smell of the Meadow filled the air with a fresh and earthy aroma, the air still felt a bit cool in the early morning, giving away only slightly as the morning sun gently touched the field and the two with warmth as the light was beginning to find its way across the field, and almost reaching the edge of the forest. With every step the dampness from the early morning dew found its way onto the fur just above their hooves giving a slight but noticeable sense of discomfort.
"It's so funny, you're white with a pink mane and I'm pink with a white mane, it's almost like we're twins." She smiled at Celestia "well.... sort of anyway. Celestia chuckled "We're reverse twins", Celestia replied. Blossem laughed sincerely despite the terrible joke.
Trotting into the field Blossem smiled at Celestia. "Ok Dreamy, come over here and take a look" Celestia took a second to react, but quickly enough as to not draw suspicion, she recalled that this was her temporary name, and she trotted up to Blossem and looked where Blossem was gesturing with her hoof. "This is a Blossem, they're pretty common on this side of Ponyville, they're my bread and butter for sales at my booth, although if you find an especially good-looking flower of any type, feel free to grab that too" She smiled at Celestia and gave a wink. "Here's a basket" Blossem hovered the basket over to Celestia; setting the flower basket down in front of her. "And don't worry about putting too many flowers in there, I'm pretty strong, I can carry both if they're full fairly easily." Celestia nodded softly, lifting the basket with her magic, she gently plucked a Blossem and placed it into the basket.
The task of picking flowers was rather tedious in nature, but Celestia was more than happy to do a bit of labor for the payment of being treated like everypony else for even a day. Celestia filled her basket with flowers as she slowly walked through the field alongside Blossem, making sure not to miss or worse, step on any flowers. glancing over at Blossem, she could see that her basket was most of the way full, compared to her own which was a quarter full at best. She was having fun though, walking alongside Blossem and having an extremely casual chat, and though the simple musing of the weather and what to eat later were likely mundane to most ponys, such a casual conversation was exhilarating to Celestia. Blossem set a few more flowers into her basket "that should be enough for today Dreamy, it's Tuesday, and sales aren't going to need both baskets to be filled." Celestia smiled and nodded, both ponys turning back towards the path and beginning the walk back towards town.
"Oh my Celestia!" called out Blossem.
This took Celestia aback, and her mind raced; how did she know, was her cover seen through so easily, could she lie her way out of this? Blossem turned towards Celestia, a smile on her face. Celestia nervously got out a few words, "how... how did you kn...." before she finished her sentence Blossem interrupted, "look at this flower! This is one of the nicest blossems I've ever seen, one like this will fetch a good number of bits by itself at the market" Celestia calmed down and let out a sigh, she hadn't been discovered, rather her name was used as a pejorative. She had suspected ponys did as such, but never heard any do in her presence and this made her chuckle. Blossem hovered the flower in front of Celestia, "See how big it is and how perfectly shaped the petals are? It's rare to find one like this outside of a plant breeder" She placed it on top of the flowers in her basket and continued to trot, Celestia more than amused by Blossems excitement. They continued chatting as they left the field, Celestia normally had a keen sense of observation, but was too distracted to notice the increasingly loud sounds coming from the forest that they walked away from as something huge was moving.
Blossem showed Celestia to her flower stand in the open market. The market had a pleasant odor, the odor of flowers filled the air, not quite as strong in field, with the missing smell being replaced by the scent of the pine booths which formed a line within the market. "Hi girls" Blossem called as she waved to the other flower ponys: Daisy, Rose and Lily. They waved and Celestia sheepishly waved back to them.
"Who's your friend" Inquired rose, Blossem, nudged Celestia towards the other mares.
"Her name’s Dreamy, she helped me pick flowers this morning, and it was so wonderful of her" Blossem beamed. They chatted with the other mares for a bit, before Blossem broke away from the idle chat, and walked towards her sales booth with Celestia. "I have to go to work now, but you're more than welcome to hang out with me and help if you'd like to help.
Celestia smiled "I'd love to, just point me at what you need done.
Blossem nodded in response. "To be honest, it's not a lot of work, I just hang out and try to draw in customers as ponys walk around the market."
"I think I can handle that". As the day past, Celestia watched Blossem bartered with customers, Celestia was no sales pony, but she smiled and spoke kindly to the customers that approached the stand, and it was fantastic to speak so informally to other ponys; even managing to make a single sale by flirting with a stallion. The contents of the baskets slowly dwindled down to almost empty. "I'm surprised we were able to sell out today, Tuesdays almost always leave me with unsold flowers, we make a good team!" Celestia shook her head no. "I didn't do that much, you sold almost everything yourself".
Blossem stuck out her tongue playfully, "I disagree, you made the day easier, and having a pretty mare in the stall really brings in the Stalions".
Celestia blushed,”I... I guess" she said meekly.
"Thank you for helping me today, I really appreciated the help" Said Blossem. Using her magic, she pulled the flower that Blossem had gone on about from the basket and hovered it towards Celestia, placing the flower into Celestias hair. Celestia looked joyful but confused.
"Didn't you say that this flower is worth a good number of bits on its own? Are you sure you want me to have it?"
Blossem nodded "I am, replied Blossem, you worked hard today, and I wanted to do something special for you for all the help you've given me.
Celestia looked away, "I didn't do that much, I don't deserve this", Celestia started to hover the flower back to Blossem, but Blossem was too quick and snatched the flower away; placing it back into Celestias hair.
"Ok, well then, just take because you're my friend, I really enjoyed our time together today, and I hope we can spend more time together again"
Celestia felt her eyes began to water, she blinked hard in her attempt to hold back tears. "Thank you Blossem, you have no idea how much this means to me."
“To be totally honest with you Blossem, I need to tell you something, and I hope you can still accept me as your friend when you know the truth” Celestia said with uncertainty in her voice.
Blossem smiled, “I'm sure whatever it is, we can still be friends”
Celestia nodded, she wasn’t ready to tell the truth, but drip feeding her the facts bit by bit would make it more palatable. “I’m a high-ranking government official, and I’m used to ponys in Canterlot treating me differently, and to be honest, I kind of hate that. It so refreshing for you to treat me as an equal, and today was the best day I’ve had in some time.”
Blossem hugged her and Celestia returned the hug in kind. Blossem calmly replied, “It doesn’t matter to me, we’ll be friends regardless, maybe I could even visit you in Canterlot sometime.”
Celestia gave a short and unconfident nod “of course, we’ll... have to figure something out.” Celestia hugged back fiercely, wishing this moment could last forever, but whatever had been lurking in the forest had made its way to ponyville, and the bliss Celestia felt would be short lived.
A thunderous boom rang through the market, interrupting their moment, cries and screams could be heard in the distance, and ponys could be seen running away from the residences.
Celestia looked at Blossem nervously, "Please get to cover Blossem, I need to see what's happening"
Blossem grabbed her leg "What you doing? We don't know what's happening, we need to get to safety", Celestia just shook her head ‘no’ and ripped her leg away from Blossem, she dashed through the crowd, dodging the ponys running in the opposite direction, with Blossem in close pursuit.
As the crashes became loader, Blossem shouted at Celestia "What are you doing Dreamy? please stop, you're my friend and I don't want to see you hurt" There was that word again, what had felt so wonderful a moment ago now felt like a dull pain as she felt like she was almost betraying Blossems trust. She did not yet know what she was approaching, but she needed to protect her ponys. She did not want to reveal her true self to Blossem if it could be helped, but judging by the screams, it would be.
Celestia rounded the corner, entering the residential district and what she saw filled her heart with dread, an ursa major. The translucent and light purple bearlike creature was covered in a sea of white specs representing constellations of stars, with those dots sparkling almost as brightly as the real ones. It would be beautiful if it was not so terrifying. The air was afoul with a great and earthy odor that the ursa, likely having never bathed had brought with it, and ground quaked with each step from the creature as the incredible mass moved through the town.
A lavender pony was running around the feet of the ursa; beams of light shot from her horn, but this seemed to have little effect, other than distracting the ursa with the smallest bit of pain. It was her student twilight, what was she doing? She stood no chance against this monster. She gasped as she realized Twilight was doing; Twilight knew she couldn't win and was instead sacrificing herself to buy time for others to flee. Celestia felt great pride in her student, with that only being overshadowed by fear for her students safety, the creature swatting at the brave pony, an enormous amount of forced behind that massive paw, and direct contact with her small body would mean death. With a great roar, the ursas paw swung at twilight only to miss by a hairs length and strike a house instead, debris flew as what was once a home was eviscerated;
The remains of the home flew towards a group of ponys. No!! shouted twilight as she dove towards the group of ponys, narrowly putting up a shield to block the flying debris. The creature took advantage of this and brought her claw down directly onto twilight who did not have the time to redirect her magic and protect herself. Twilight winced, pointlessly bracing herself as she expected the inevitable, but she never felt contact. She forced herself to open her eyes, seeing a white pony with pink hair holding the paw in place inches above Twilights head, an aura of white magic wrapped around the paw. Twilight looked surprised; shocked that any unicorn could block a direct strike from an ursa. Celestia turned back and smiled at Twilight "You've done better than I could have imagined my student" Causing the look of fear on twilights face to give way to confusion, with the confusion only growing as the unicorn began to glow, a bright white aura wrapped its way around Celestia, the alicorn magic was too much for the spell which made her appear to be a unicorn. Celestia turned towards Blossem who against her better judgement had followed, Blossem looked up at the ursa in terror and down at 'Dreamy', hot tears flowed down her cheeks. Celestia glowed even brighter as the appearance spell continued to fail. She looked sadly at her new friend. "I'm sorry Blossem" she whispered as the spell failed entirely.
The aura retreated into Celestias horn as it disappeared from her body. She grew in height, her mane changed into an array of colors which began to wave in breeze once again, her wings grew from nothing rapidly until they reached their final size, and finally the symbol for the sun adorned her flank. Lifting herself off the ground, Celestias face went from that of that of sorrow, to that of rage. "YOU WILL NOT HARM MY PONYS!! Her eyes turned a bright and blinding white as she flexed her now returned magical might. It was not only that the ursa had tried to harm her ponys, but that the ursa had potentially harmed the first real friend she had gained since she had become an alicorn, and Celestia seethed. Celestia picked the ursa up with her magic, forming a tight grip around the creature until it could no longer move, but even without her iron tight grip, the ursa still would have been paralyzed with fear. Celestia moved the creatures face close to her so that it could see her and her alone. The horrifying beast stared silently, and the terrified ursa stared back. "You will not return and will never approach my ponys again" Celestia said calmly. "Do. You. Understand?" She stated firmly. Still unable to move, the ursa major blinked rapidly as was its only means to communicate. Celestia nodded, taking this answer as a yes. Celestia began to rapidly ascend the ursa into the air, "YOU WILL STAY IN THE FOREST, AND YOU. ARE NOT. COMING BACK!" She shouted as she flung the massive ursa through the air in the direction of the forest, its body travelled upward through the air until it was out of sight, and finally a dull crash could be heard in the distance; the citizens of ponyville felt the ground tremble as the great mass struck the ground.
Celestia sighed deeply with relief, flying downward, and finally bringing her wings to their rest positions as her hooves touched the ground.
The crowd murmured in dull roar: "it's the princess", "the princess", "That's Celestia" she heard in hushed whispers from the crowd. One by one the ponys one by one began to bow before her, almost like a wave, this effect spread through the crowd as all onlookers soon followed suit. Celestia looked through the crowd for Blossem, wanting to make sure she was ok, but she was not difficult to find, she was the only pony that had not quickly dropped into a bow, instead staring at her with her mouth agape.
As their eyes met Celestia smiled "Are you ok Blossem?"
This seemed to snap Blossem of her daze, her shock at seeing that her new friend was Princess Celestia. "Ye-ye-yes, Princess. Tha-thank you princess" she managed to stutter as she lowered her head into a deep bow, her eyes now looking at the ground; and there it was, that feeling of isolation which she had been so desperate to escape had once again caught her. The sight of this filled Celestia with great sadness. There was the bow, the formal manner of speaking and worst of all, the fear. Maybe she really couldn't have a friend; Celestia wanted more than anything in that moment to cry, but she knew that her ponys needed a reassuring leader right now.
Using her Canterlot voice, she addressed the crowd as they returned to standing. "The danger is over my ponys, and the ursa will NOT be returning. When I return to Canterlot, I will be sending a royal core of engineers and tradesponys to ponyville to assist in the rebuilding of your town" she said, her eyes still affixed to Blossem whos eyes still pointed to the ground in her deep bow. The crowd began to stand back up and cheer, but it gave Celestia no joy. Celestias was certain that her new friend was no longer her friend, but now just another devout citizen. Blossem raised her head finally, mouth hanging open slightly, still in shock. Celestia gave her a small smile and took the flower, which was now damaged from the battle, which no longer retained its beauty, from her hair and hovered it over to Blossem, setting it on the ground in front of her.
"Goodbye Blossem, I had a wonderful time with you". Celestia gave a small smile, Unsure if she had even heard her through the crowd, Celestia flexed her powerful wings and flapped them hard, taking off rapidly, taking flight in the direction of Canterlot. She was among the strongest and fastest flyers, but it would still take a few minutes to arrive, while teleportation would have been instantaneous, Celestia preferred the longer route. She really needed a few moments to herself to think.
The slight smell of incense still hung in the air, her sister rotating the plants and incense throughout the castle the night before as she always had. Light beamed through the large stain glass windows, which reached all the way to the high ceiling, and the air had a gentle warmth to it as her royal unicorns magically controlled the climate within the castle. Several days had passed and Celestia sat in her throne room, still pouting internally about failing to make a friend. Even Lunas pranks, which she took such joy in, or at least the pranking of Luna in return, had failed to cheer her up as such struggled to keep her facade of a smile as she met dignitaries, officials, and Nobels throughout the day. As the hours went on, she quickly became reacquainted with the formality of ponys meeting with her: they bowed deeply, addressed her only as princess and spoke overly formally all while avoiding looking her directly in the eye. That was what got to her the most, the feeling like they were almost afraid of her and despite her never giving them any reason to believe that she would harm them, she was treated as something to be feared, and of all the formalities which Celestia had grown to dislike, this one bothered her the most. Outwardly she maintained her professional demeanor, but internally, she was inconsolable; she had finally met a friend, and lost her all in the same day, it was such a terrible feeling to have gained something that one desired so fiercely, only to lose it quickly after being acquired.
With a knock on the door, a guard poked his head in, "your highness, a merchant is here to see you."
Celestia scoffed oh boy she thought, what fun this will be, maybe they'll want a tax cut, or preference in the governments supply chain. The guard nodded and gestured for the pony behind him to come in. "She is an unremarkable small-scale merchant, but your assistants have allowed her to see you on recommendation by your student Twilight Sparkle." This got Celestia interested as she looked towards the door inquisitively, "Twilights recommendation?" The guard stepped back to allow the pony through.
A light pink pony entered the throne room. She looked into Celestias face, which had the look of surprise, almost baffled by what she saw before her; if though her slightly agape mouth wasn't enough of a clue of her surprise. "Hello Blush Blossem, I'm glad to see again". She motioned for her personal guards to leave, with an uncertain nod, they walked from out of the room, a high pitch noise of magic could be heard as they closed the doors behind them, leaving Celestia and Blush alone in the great chamber.
Blush took a deep breath as she entered the huge and mostly empty room, ridding herself of any nervousness still lingering within her, she deliberately ignored the formality of bowing, walking up directly in front of Celestias thrown with an uneasy sense of confidence. Celestia could see a flower in Blossems hair, it was bent and missing pedals; the same oner that Blossem had given Celestia.
Blossem smiled at Celestia. Meeting Celestias uncertain gaze she spoke, "I needed to return this to you" she gestured to the flower in her hair with her hoof, "I know it's damaged but it's still perfect to me, because it's a symbol of our friendship. Celestias mouth was agape, but Blossem was feeling too confident now to care. I missed you Celestia, how have you been?".
Celestia smiled bigger than she had in years; hopping down from her throne, she embraced Blossem in a huge hug. "Never been better".
