Version: 1
Celestia happily hummed a slow tune while she scattered seeds along the ground. The colorful birds of the Canterlot Gardens then quickly swarmed her offering. Much to her delight. She enjoyed their antics as they competed to eat the most. Nearby, lying on his back upon a wooden bench, Anon the human stared up at the blue sky in a daze. While often curious, he otherwise didn't talk much. He was an excellent partner for bird-watching, fishing, and other peaceful activities.
Much better company than the nagging nobles or overly serious guards.
Celestia fed the birds until the seed inevitably ran out. Fortunately it took the chirping horde a few short minutes to realize there would be no more food, freeing her to simply enjoy their presence. But the birds did eventually figure it out and took off soon after. The mare sighed, sad to see them leave. The attention of adorable little creatures could be so fleeting.
The alicorn glanced back at the bench, at Anon sprawled across it without a care. She chuckled. Then she made her way over. With his head on one side and his feet occupying the other, there was no room left for her. But that was okay. She just sat on the ground beside him and followed his lead staring at the sky.
"Celestia," he greeted simply.
"Anon," she greeted him back.
"I have a question."
She smiled. "And I likely have an answer."
"Why do you raise the sun?"
Celestia blinked in surprise. "Because it wouldn't rise otherwise? Ponies need the sun," she explained matter-of-factly.
Anon took a moment to respond. "Why doesn't Equuis revolve around the sun? Why doesn't the moon revolve around Equuis? In my home dimension that's how it worked. I don't get it." There was confusion in his voice and maybe just a touch of suspicion.
Celestia hesitated. "It is complicated."
She heard the man shuffle on the bench. He was looking at her. "Gravity," Anon stated bluntly. "Bigger the object, the more gravity it has. The sun is bigger than Equuis so it should be pulling on the planet. But instead you and Luna are doing... what?"
"It is a tradition. Or a ritual. A leftover... habit... from long ago," she said evasively.
Now Anon sat up. "So... you really do move the sun? It's honestly not... a lie?" he asked timidly. Obviously he was trying not to insult her. "You really are powerful enough to do it?"
Pride swelled in Celestia's chest. And embarrassment. "Yes," she replied.
The man spun on his behind and lowered his feet to the ground. "But why? Why do it? Isn't it a huge waste of power? Why not let gravity handle it?"
Celestia turned her gaze down to the rocky gravel at her hooves as she fell into a thoughtful silence. Meanwhile Anon waited patiently for the mare to construct her answer, but after a minute or two he began to seriously consider apologizing. Obviously he had blundered into a more sensitive subject than he realized. But, before he could, the princess made a decision.
"Anon, do you think I'm... scary?"
"Well," the man mumbled slowly, answering her question without really saying anything.
The princess sighed. "Me and my sister are not like other ponies. We are not mortals."
Anon tilted his head at that. "Yeah, I've heard. You two are immortal. So, like, you'll live forever. And you have super strong magic. And I'll admit it, that does make you kind of scary. I wouldn't want to get on your bad side. But that doesn't explain why you and your sister aren't letting gravity take care of the solar system."
Celestia bit her lip. "We aren't just immortal. We are gods. Power incarnate. However... we both desperately wanted -- want -- to be a part of the mortal world. To walk amongst pony-kind and live normal lives."
Anon could only nod along. What could he even say to that?
"Ages ago, when me and my sister descended upon this world, we chose to live as mortals. However, evil was always lurking and would regularly rise up to try and fight us. Of course we were never in any real danger. Though Luna and I had taken on mortal forms we still retained all of our strength. So even the mightiest villain was no more a threat to us than a fly. But every time they attacked us it was our friends and subjects who suffered. Yet no matter how many times we crushed them another evil would eventually emerge soon after. The forms we had taken weren't... scary enough. We needed a way to constantly remind mortal-kind of our godhood. We needed an intimidation factor, if you will."
"So you and Luna ripped the sun and moon out of their orbits. You seized control of the heavens themselves as a way to remind the world not to mess with you every. Single. Day." Anon's mouth suddenly felt very dry. "Wow."
Celestia's ears pinned. "It worked. Very few ever threatened us or those we cared about again. We just... never stopped doing it. It's a habit for us now." She eyed him worriedly. "Are you alright? I realize this knowledge must be disturbing."
"I'm okay," Anon swallowed. "You've never threatened me or anything. Heck, you've been nothing but kind since I ended up in this reality. So I don't know why I should start feeling intimidated now." The man paused just long enough to comb his hair back and take a breath. "Is moving the entire sun really not that big a deal for you?"
"No more difficult than brushing my teeth," she admitted with a wince.
"But... it's so big. Moving it must take ungodly amounts of power. How can you just hurl it across the sky like it's nothing?"
Celestia licked her lips nervously. "Anon, if you really want to know... I could show you what Luna and I really are."
There was a moment of awkward silence.
"What you really are?" he echoed with confusion.
"Be warned, seeing the real me might... make our relationship more... difficult." The mare shuffled in place uncomfortably.
For some time neither of them moved or said anything. Anon could only stare at her as his mind spun. Meanwhile she did everything she could to avoid eye-contact. A gentle breeze made the branches of the nearby tree groan. Birds tweeted. The grass swayed.
The man licked his lips and his fingers twitched.
The mare rolled a pebble underneath her hoof.
"Celestia," Anon started. The alicorn flinched. "You're... not some terrible monster... right?"
The princess snorted with amusement, but her anxiety remained. "No. But... the real me is definitely a lot bigger than you think."
His brow dropped. What did that mean? The man couldn't deny how curious he was now. Anon stood up. "Can I see... you? The real you that is, please?"
Celestia cringed. "Just... don't be scared. I promise I'd never hurt you."
Anon nodded, struggling to contain his anticipation. How were they going to do this?
The alicorn slowly rose to her hooves. Then her horn began to glow with golden light. Anon closed his eyes as the spell went off and he suddenly found himself floating. His arms flew out to his sides and his legs kicked as any sense of balance disappeared. After flailing for a moment he finally realized just how different his surroundings had become.
He was now adrift in outer space.
Down and to the right he could clearly see the sun shining away brighter than the rest of the stars in the vast expanse around him. To the left was a little blue and green planet, though at this distance he couldn't make out anything further. The moon was not visible from where he was. Glancing about he didn't spot any other objects he could identify, but while turning his head he caught sight of something strange far to his right. A wavering pastel colored flag.
Surprisingly, turning around was tricky without gravity.
Though when he managed it he was left both speechless and confused.
The "flag" was actually Celestia's mane rippling in that ever non-existent breeze while the rest of the mare hovered ominously behind him. The alicorn, who was normally so animated and full of life, now seemed disturbingly still. Like a statue frozen in time. And that wasn't all that was wrong. There was something deeply off about her appearance in this alien environment. It was like she was right there in-front of him, perhaps a bit too close honestly, yet she also seemed to be incredibly far away. The paradox of visual information made Anon's brain hurt as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
Celestia's face appeared to be warped, as though he was viewing her with a fish-eye lens. Her muzzle and eyes were far too big while her legs seemed to get smaller the farther down he looked towards her hooves. And blurry. Her face was unusually distinct, every individual hair standing out in a creepily detailed manner he'd never experienced before, yet down her neck the detail seemed to wash out and a fog of blur began. Until he reached her legs and he could barely make out anything beyond the color white. There was also the impossible amount he had to turn his head to take in all of her. Like the space she occupied had been stretched.
For a minute or two they simply stared at each other. Then Celestia moved. It was a tiny motion, she just tilted her head forward a bit, yet Anon could swear he felt something massive shift. Like watching a huge avalanche rocket down a mountain. Then the mare blinked. A second later Anon thought he felt a thump in his chest like he had just been hit by a wall of displaced air. While in the vacuum of space. That didn't make any sense. Tilting her head? Blinking? Those were nothing actions. Barely worth noticing. So why did they feel so significant?
"Do you understand now?" he heard Celestia's voice in his head.
Anon jerked, unprepared for the telepathy. How did he respond? Just think back? "Uh, can you hear me? What's going on?"
The mare in front of him did not move. Her horn didn't even flicker with the sign of a spell. Yet he heard her in his mind again. "I'm showing you my true self."
The man rubbed his head, his confusion still too much. "I don't get it. I see you, but you don't look any different. Well, except for this weird distortion."
He could hear the mare whine with distress in his mind while she tilted her head and her brow lowered in frustration. Again, that sense of overwhelming power passed through him. Like he had just witnessed something big happen. "Anon... the real me is a goddess. Think about that as you look at me again."
The man tried, he honestly did, but he still could not make sense of it. Celestia seemed desperate for him to figure it out on his own, but the mystery was just too thick. This bizarre place, the creepy warping of space and visuals, he simply couldn't make sense of it. Anon shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry Celestia. I still don't understand. What am I supposed to be seeing?"
The princess closed her eyes and eased her head back. Yet the man could have sworn reality itself vibrated during the brief three seconds it took her to complete the motion. At the same time the fish-eye lens effect lessened significantly, but now Celestia's face had gained a layer of blur. Why though? Why did her every tiny twitch suddenly feel so huge? Where had the princess taken him? What was this bizarre dimension? What was happening here?
"Anon," Celestia's voice began anxiously. "In my true form... I am bigger than Equuis itself."
The human's eyes widened and his mouth hung open. He spun around back towards the planet he had spotted earlier. At Equuis. Then he looked back at Celestia.
Suddenly it all made sense.
Now he understood.
The warped appearance, the blurring, the sense of scale whenever she so much as shifted her weight. Now everything was clear. Celestia was beyond any description of size. If the distances were even close to equivalent, the white goddess before him wasn't just bigger than Equuis. She might have been bigger than the sun itself. How was this possible?!
The human gaped fearfully at the titan before him.
Anon was nothing. Less than a speck of dust. Utterly meaningless before her sheer enormity. How could she even notice something so insignificant? To her, even planets would barely qualify as toys. He was so completely overwhelmed by her presence that he lost all awareness for several moments.
"Anon? Anon? Anon! Are you alright?" came a mare's voice breaking through the daze.
The man blinked and found himself back in the castle gardens. The birds were tweeting. The wind was blowing. The sky was blue. And Celestia was normal sized.
He collapsed back onto the bench, breathing heavily. "I-I-I don't know," he admitted.
Celestia shrank a half-step away from him and her ears pinned even lower. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
Anon put his hand on his heart and simply felt his racing pulse. He looked at the princess with awe and terror. "W-what... are you? Was that real?"
The mare shivered and focused on the ground as she replied. "That was my true form. My true... size. The real me."
Anon glanced up at the sky. Still a clear sunny day. "Where?" was all he could manage to say.
Celestia swallowed. "Hidden by a thick bubble of magic. No one can see me or Luna from the surface. With a telescope or any other tool. We don't want... mortals to know."
The man's head jerked to her. They locked eyes. While he was still battling with the emotions that had crushed him a moment ago, he couldn't help latching onto her words. "But you just told me? Showed me?"
The mare leaned forward and seemed to regain an ounce of her confidence. "Yes. Because I trust you."
"W-what?" Anon mumbled. "Why?"
"Because," Celestia began. "You are like us."
The man shook his head in disbelief. "What?" He wasn't a galaxy sized god juggling planets and stars.
"You know what it's like... to desperately want to fit in."
Anon sat up straight at that, suddenly catching his breath. He stared at her and she stared back. He saw in that instant something deeper. Celestia was an incredibly powerful being. She truly deserved the title of goddess. Yet the mare standing before him was about as terrified as he was. But what could scare a goddess?
Rejection.
She wanted nothing more than to live a normal life. To be like everyone else. Like him.
Anon had lost everything. His family. His life. His world. Here in Equestria he was a freak. One human stranded in a world full of ponies. Even living in the castle, sheltered by the authority of the royal family, he still felt out of place.
The Celestia in front of him wasn't some all-powerful god beyond mortal comprehension.
She was a simple mare with simple desires.
She liked peace and quiet. She liked cake. She liked practical jokes. She had a beautiful laugh. She was his friend.
And right now the look on her face, the desperation and the fear, said it all. She needed him to be a friend, not a cowering worshiper.
Despite the trembling in his legs, Anon mustered the will to stand. The mare next to him then blinked in surprise as he stepped up to her. She then gasped as he rubbed his hand comfortingly along her cheek. Finally, he closed in for a hug.
"Come on Celestia, let's go get something to eat."
"R-right..." was all her shaky voice could manage.
Author's Note
Inspired by an interview I heard many years ago. Who was interviewed exactly I don't remember. But what stuck with me was this belief the guy had about the character of Superman. That he is supposed to be a god that desperately wants to live a mortal life. Such a cool concept in my opinion. So I applied that idea to Celestia (and Luna) with a macro twist and sprinkled some wholesomeness on top. First edit had a longer ending too, but I cut it because it only dragged the story. I even had this whole scene where Celestia reexplains how trivial it is for her to move the sun. But after realizing it was simply a waste of time and words I went for this abrupt ending instead. So much more emotional in my opinion. I hope you agree and enjoyed.
Also had a fun time making the cover. For my first crack at it I tried to use a screenshot of Celestia with a photo-realistic Earth in front of her, but it looked terrible and pixelated. So I tried making it from scratch and was SUPER happy with how well it turned out. Maybe I just got lucky though.
