A meeting that did not go according to plan.
The multiverse, the idea in which for every you that has decided on something in your life there is an infinite number of others of you who while being you, have all done different things. If you were an enlisted soldier in this life then another is a gardener, the next an officer, after that an intelligent accountant, a ruthless gang member, a wise beggar, a chivalrous king, a noble hero, and so on. The multiverse was large and infinite, and with the crystal mirror that Celestia privately held ownership of it could all be seen and witnessed. See yourself as anyone that you could ever be and if Discord could be believed with his mumblings when he first saw it, be them as well with the right magic.
But…that would require you to exist in the first place in those universes and to make decisions that your others didn't make, and for one person in particular they didn't do that. Instead, they were often quite the same, still repeating the same decisions that they always had and falling into the same patterns as they usually did. The end result being that they ended up being quite similar to their counterparts with only minor differences at the most to suit their universe.
And who was this person? This enigmatic person who seemed to defy the will of the multiverse? Well, none other than Fluttershy’s brother, Zephyr Breeze. A failed student, artist, writer, creator, sculptor, teacher, assistant, athlete, guard, and so much more; they were someone who had truly tried everything that a person could in a world, and failed every time. Even though he was someone who wanted to be special, to be different, to be someone, and who knew they could be something if they had the chance, they remained the same. Always ending up as just another blank face on the wall that one could ignore when looking at the mirror.
For example the Zephyr who hoped to become a royal guard in their youth never came close to that esteemed position; instead settling as a simple militia member when they failed their tests and cursed their luck as they did menial chores for food and board. The Zephyr who dreamed of becoming a doctor settled for a license in first aid after a single bad study. The ones who wanted revenge for terrible and dramatic acts done upon their family in the past instead settled to wallow in gloom and despair, drinking their mind away. They were all the same even if their backgrounds were different.
Because no matter what background Zephyr came from, no matter who they met, or no matter what they went through, they were all doomed to become the same person. A slothful mooch who depended upon their family to take care of themselves and who only reluctantly parted their ways when forced to do so. A fact that interested Celestia greatly when she came across him by chance through the mirror; enough so for her to one day appear at his doorstep during her retirement. The hopes on her mind being to perhaps warn the stallion of his fate and if possible help him find a way out.
So she did, she stood outside of his apartment door early in the morning during the weekend in a unicorn disguise of a white-furred mare with yellow fur, a variant of the one she used to go out in public in the past, and knocked twice with her hoof at his front door before before she waited for a response.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
By the mid afternoon a few ponies were beginning to return from their work inside and were looking at her now wondering why a cream white unicorn was standing outside their neighbor's door. A neighbor they knew was known to have several unpleasant encounters with anyone around them and that was known for being in debt. A few curious creatures tried to speak to her, asking her what business she had with the pegasus and that it would be better to leave for another day, but she refused them all the same. Simply stating that she had business with the pegasus inside.
So they left her alone, supposing that she was a government official sent to kick out the stallion. A motion that a few supported as they gave the unicorn a water bottle or two to pass the time along with their blessing to stay there as long as they liked, provided she didn’t make any noise. Something that Celestia accepted gratefully as she settled down to wait.
Time passed, Celestia continued to wait diligently, and yet even as it passed afternoon and turned into evening there was still no sign of Zephyr. It was just her, the grime on the apartment corridor, and the smell that came from a lack of utter maintenance in the apartment block. She was alone.
“Hmm,” she hummed to herself quizzically as she looked at a nearby clocktower and finished off her latest water bottle. It was well into the evening, so why hadn’t he come? Was he inside? Was he out in the city? Drunk? Busy? At work?
She peered through a window into the apartment, but she couldn't see anything due to them being caked with grime and hidden by the shutters. An experimental cantrip to clean it away did nothing as the grime was simply too thick to be cleaned and the shutters stuck in place. She could clean it with a heavier spell or force it open with her might, but that would ruin the disguise that she had and something she was loathe to do. Asking him a few questions was one thing but breaking and entering into his home was another.
“Hmm, well maybe I should try another time,” she said to herself eventually as she took one last look before making her way down the hall and towards a set of stairs that his apartment was within. “Maybe he’s on a trip or som-” There was the sound of a door opening coupled with yawning from behind her. Which revealed the disheveled form of Zephyr Breeze as he woke up from his mid-day nap.
“Nyah, meh,” he grumbled to himself as he took a moment to wipe his eyes before looking left and right and noticing the unicorn who he had never seen before. “Uhhh.”
“Ah hello!” Celestia said, a bit taken aback by his disheveled frame before making her towards him. “Uhm, I wanted to ask, are you Zephyr Breeze by any chance?”
“Uhhh…maybe?” he hesitantly answered, still trying to blink out the sleep in his eyes while idly wondering who the strange unicorn in front of him was. “Who's asking?”
“Just someone who was wondering if they could ask you some questions,” she answered him as she produced a clipboard along with a pen to recite her plan of entry. One that she was told by her student had allowed her access to nearly any place that she wanted.
“My name is White Flow," she said smoothly as she approached him again while maintaining eye contact," and I’m a student at a local college conducting a survey. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions based on something that I found. It shouldn't take more than an hour or two of your time.”
However rather than graciously accepting and letting her into his home to answer away like Celestia hoped, Zephyr only sighed instead with a despondent look and said, “look. I think I can take a guess as to what you want now that you're outside my door. My guess is that you want to get into contact with my sister, and through her to her friends, and eventually to Celestia’s favorite former student through me right? Because you think my sister being the element of kindness would be more than willing to pass the word on whatever you found to Twilight.”
“Well forget it,” he grumbled out as he reached for the door with a wing. “I don’t even talk to her anymore these days so I would abandon that Idea if I were you. You're not the first creature that’s tried this before and you won’t be the last.”
“B-but,” Celestia stuttered out in surprise as the stallion began to close the door. “But this isn’t-”
“Forget it,” he said, looking at her with a glare. “You’ll have better luck just sending her a letter to make an appointment with her than trying to get to her through me.”
“But this isn’t concerning them, it’s about you!” Celestia shouted out as she stopped the door from closing with her leg only to recoil as a noxious and mustard-like smell hit her. “ Ugh, w-well mostly about you,” she said, fanning a bit of the air to get the stench away from her. “Oh by the heavens, when was the last time you showered?”
“Uhhh…yesterday?” he said, raising an eyebrow with his hoof still on the door. “What are you on about?”
“It’s just,” she tried to say before gagging a bit as another wave of miasma came from him and threatened to overwhelm her. “The smell.”:
“Uh…huh,” he said flatly to her before looking back into his apartment. Giving a whiff and noticing nothing that smelled amiss. “Look, I’m going to go back to my apartment, okay? Would you mind leaving me alone?”
Celestia honestly wanted to, the stench was that bad. It reminded her of the time when Canterlot’s latrine pit had suddenly burst and flooded not only the castle but the surrounding streets as well during a diplomatic visit in its early days. The stench of which had lingered for a week and prompted the petty council to begin the immediate construction of Canterlot’s sewers.
But she wouldn't be brought down by mere smell! She was Celestia! The sun itself, the embodiment of light, the previous ruler of Equestria, the survivor of Discord, the imprisoner of Nightmare Moon, and the uniter of the Equestrian race! She wouldn't be brought down by something so low as a bad smell!
So sucking in her breath, gritting her teeth, and puffing up her chest she marched to him with her eyes wide open.
“It’ll just…take a few moments of your time, I swear,” she said through strained teeth and a grimace on her face. “This isn’t about Fluttershy, Twilight, or any of the other elements of harmony, it’s about you, ” she said, poking him with her hoof before taking a step back. “Again, it’s about you. Is it okay to talk about you for a little bit?”
A moment of uncertainty flashed through his face as she watched on. One that very well knew that what was going to be discussed wasn’t going to go well. For a moment he looked at the handle of the door that he had in his hoof for a moment as he debated on simply saying no, slamming the door shut, and ignoring her until she went away. It was something that he had done before a few times and it seemed to have worked before, so why shouldn't he do it now?
Idly judging the weight of the doorknob and the door that he had in his hooves. He looked towards it and gave himself an internal nod. It wasn’t worth his time whatever this mare asking her was. He had better things to do anyway, like actually catching up on his sleep for once.
So slowly he closed the door without a word. More than content to let his actions speak for himself, and he was about to close it when in a motion of panic Celestia uttered the magic words that would get his attention.
“W-wait I can pay!” she said in desperation as she quickly levitated out a hefty pouch of coins that she used to pay for a few snacks that she got before arriving. “I-I can pay for your time.”
That got his attention and more importantly to Celestia his cooperation. With lightning speed, he snatched the bag, stowed it under his wing, and kicked his apartment door open while taking a few steps back to let her through. Only pausing long enough for him to say, “after you,” to her.
Walking into his room the first thing that Celestia discovered was that the source of the noxious smell that she found moments ago didn’t come from Zephyr. Because Zephyr smelled fine now that she had a closer look at him, a bit like lavender and hair products, but largely fine. It was his apartment that was the problem.
Filthy. If there was one word to describe his apartment room, it would be that it was filthy. From top to bottom, from left to right, and no matter what way she looked at it his apartment was utterly filthy. For example, the only nearby table was filled to the brim with bills and dirty plates, the only trash can that was in was overflowing with half-eaten food and paper plates, trash and used items were strewn all about his room, and the less said about the carpet the better.
Stunned, reeling, and staggered Celestia stood transfixed at the scene before and she would have done so potentially until doomsday if Zephyr didn’t intervene to save her. Idly chuckling to himself as he closed the door behind him and as he made his way to the table while giving her a poke with his wings to wake her up.
“Eheh, sorry about that,” he said apologetically to her as he began to transfer the various dishes that were there to his nearly overfilled sink .” It’s been a while since I’ve had visitors and I wasn't expecting any to say the least.”
“I-I can tell,” Celestia said as her face tinged slightly green before it resumed back to its ordinary color as she cast a spell around her head to temporarily pause the need to breathe and smell. “So let’s cut down to the chase I guess? Preferably before my spell runs out and I need to breathe again.”
“Sure, ” Zephyr said with a shrug as he finished moving the plates to the sink before taking a seat in a chair for himself. “You have my attention for at least the next few hours, so hit me with what you have.”
She did, she honestly did. She tried to explain the multiverse, the idea of alternate selves, her findings, and Zephyr’s predicament to him in the hopes that he could listen. But annoyingly as she did, she found that while he sat there listening he often ignored her in her eyes. Instead, he were more than content to simply wander his apartment, idly try to read one of the many overdue bills on his table, clean for a bit, and at one point play with a small skateboard toy on his table. Doing nearly everything that she believed a person could do in the small room that he was in that wasn’t just listening to her directly.
It irritated her. The stallion may have said that they were listening but she could tell at least to her eyes that he wasn’t. Instead, he was just paying her no more attention than someone would to an ant. Even if the information that she gave him was not only classified but world-breaking as well to the point that it shattered one of her past student's minds and turned her into villainy the stallion ignored it all the same. Paying it no more attention than someone would when listening to an advertisement on the radio.
“Zephyr,” she said, grinding her teeth for a moment. “Are you listening to me?”
“Hmh?” he said from across the room as he idly went through a box. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she gritted out, “are you paying attention to what I’m saying.”
“I am,” he answered her as he looked through the box. “I’m listening, don't worry.”
“But are you?” she said with a glare from across the table where she stood. “Do you even understand the full weight of what I'm saying to you?”
“Ehh sorta,” he said gesturing with a so-so motion with a wing as he continued to dig through the box before finding a picture and cocking his head to the side to look at some errant detail in it. “Something about the multiverse, copies of me, you looking at them, and how I stay the same throughout all of them?” he said looking at her with a raised eyebrow and an expectant look. “Those things?”
“Well, y-yes,” Celestia started to say. “But that doesn't mean-”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Zephyr started to parrot off with a hoof before walking around the room. “It doesn't mean anything if I don’t know the context behind it, but do keep in mind that I'm just a nobody, you know? You're talking about some pretty big egghead stuff right now. So don’t blame me if I can’t…you know,” he paused for a moment before gesturing wildly in the air as if he was tracing a rainbow and then saying, “ get the big picture.”
“Because remember,” he said, idly knocking on his head as it produced a semi-hollow sound. "I'm just a college student who never passed school. Try not to blame me too much if I missed anything important with that big speech of yours that was so important to you."
“I suppose,” she said with a through gritted teeth. “At the very least you're able to comprehend the words of what I'm saying to you.”
“Good, glad that I got that covered,” he said with a smile as he continued to dig through the box. “Anything else on your mind? Or did you just want to tell me that weird fact?”
“Well yes, but no, but, ” she started to admit out loud before eventually arguing with herself. “I mean, yeah, sorta? Not really? I mean I managed to tell you what I wanted, but I didn't get to do the other- ”
“Well glad that you managed to do that at least,” he interrupted her as he put down the box and looked at the clock. “Because you're all out of time.”
“T-t-time?” she uttered out loud with disbelief. “It’s only been a few minutes!”
“A few minutes?” he said, cocking his head to the side before pointing at an old rundown clock that was on his wall. “Miss, it’s been about three hours since you started talking to me!”
And looking at the clock Celestia could tell that Zephyr was right. It wasn’t exactly three hours, but it was close to it. Close enough that she knew she had stayed well past the point that he could accommodate her casually.
“I uhm,” she tried to say utterly speechless, “but I.”
“Sad that you didn’t do your survey?” he tried to answer Celestia as he made his way over to the door and opened it revealing Luna's night sky. “Don’t worry, there’s always next time.”
“But I,” she stammered despondently as she was gently escorted away with a wing by Zephyr. “I didn’t do it.”
“Didn’t do what?” he growled with irradiation. “Didn’t convince me that you needed my help so that I could send a letter to my sister so that you can get a one-to-one talk with The Princess of Magic herself? You mean that you didn’t get to do those things?” he pressed her.
“Well guess what buddy,” he continued as he poked her clipboard with a wing. “I managed to take a look at that clipboard you have while I was wandering around and you wanna know what’s on it?”
“What?” she asked, a bit confused as she looked down at the survey that she hadn’t looked at much until now. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Oh nothing,” he affirmed with a shake of his head. “It’s an entirely ordinary public survey. The kind that you’ll see students, teachers, or activists bother people about on your local city corner so they can know what's going on in their city. Nothing wrong with it in the least.”
“But that's the thing,” he said as he pointed towards a section of the survey that was on her clipboard with a wing. “It's ordinary, entirely ordinary, and nothing of what you’ve told me just now in the past few hours relates to it. That survey and what you’ve told me are as close to each other as the sky and the ground.”
“So go ahead,” he continued, glaring at her. “Tell me that you didn’t get to do the thing that you cared about. The thing that I'm sure your life depends upon,” he emphasized while making a set of quotations. “I’m waiting.”
Struck speechless by Zephyr’s words Celestia could only glare at him as he looked at her in return. Because with everything that she had said, everything that she had learned so far prior to this, and he was thinking of this as just a simple college project?! This…this wouldn't do at all.
“Well,” she said through gritted teeth and a flare of her nostrils as she stomped her way towards him. “I was hoping that you would listen to someone for once in your life.”
“Listen to you?” he scoffed. “I already did. You're talking about some weird arcane theory that I’m sure matters to a lot of your professors and your grade, but that doesn't matter anything to me.”
“Oh doesn't it?” she said poking him with her hoof. “Because I’m sure that you didn’t listen to the other half of what I just said. The part about you.”
“Me?” he said with a roll of his eyebrows. “What about me?”
“I’m talking about the part where you stay the same,” she emphasized to him. “The part where no matter where I looked, no matter how far I cast my net, and no matter what scenario or world I found you under, you always stayed the same. That’s what I’m talking about Zephyr.”
“You're an anomaly as far as I'm concerned in the matters of the multiverse,” she continued, prodding him with her hoof forcing him to step back under the weight of it as he could glare in response. “A statistical constant that should never have existed in the first place but somehow does. Because everyone changes throughout the multiverse, going through different experiences, different things, and meeting different people as chance and possibility changes their lives along with the decisions they make. The way it should be.”
“But you don’t!” she cried out in frustration, her voice tinging with the Canterlot voice. “You still somehow repeat the same mistakes, doing the same things, time and time again no matter where you are in space or time. Apparently, it doesn't if you're in the guard, the mines, the deserts, or the jungle. You still keep on running around in circles like your a-a headless chicken, a fact that utterly befuddled me as I studied it.”
“That's what I’m here for,” she breathed out as a thick plume of ash unknowingly followed her breath. “To inform you of this cycle that you're trapped in and if I can do something about it, but you know what, forget that. No wonder you are the way you are if you react the way that you did with the information that I gave you. Because only someone like you, a slothful and foolish idiot who thinks he's better than everyone else, would respond like that. Everyone else would freak out. Sunset did, I did, dear Twilight and her friends almost did, and nearly everyone that I knew in the world who looked at that mirror or who knew of the existence of the multiverse did as well."
"But no, not you," she continued stepping towards him while he stepped back as shadow started to loom over him. "Not someone like Zephyr Breeze. The continuous and sole anomaly in the world who is a plague upon her sister, her friends, and the world. He wouldn't react like that at all. Instead, I'm going to guess that he's going to think that he’s either special enough to bypass it or just too ignorant to understand what's been told of him. He would never react like that. Because he's too much for him to react otherwise."
Stomping her way out the door Celestia made to close it with her field but stopped as she realized something. The door was too small for her. It was just fine a few hours ago, but that was when she was...
"P-Princess Celestia?" Zephyr Breeze nearly whispered out loud utterly shocked that the former princess of Equestria was in his apartment room. "Is that you?"
Looking at herself in the apartment's outdoor window mirror Princess Celestia saw her reflection through the grime and could only sigh at the revelation that had occurred. Another plan failed yet again.
“Yes my little pony,” she said despondently. “It’s me, Princess Celestia. You're not dreaming, I am indeed in front of you, and this is real.”
“But why?” he asked, utterly confused. “Why are you here? Shouldn't you be doing other stuff right about now? Like saving the world, enjoying your retirement, or whatever you're doing now? I thought your days of being a princess were over.”
“They are,” she confirmed with a nod recalling her recent vacation in one of Equestria's Islands with a wanting sigh. “But my days of helping ponies aren’t over, at least not yet. I still hope to help them in whatever way that I can. Helping people like you,” she said, lying a bit with her intentions while pointing towards him, “who are dearly in need of it.”
“H-help?” Zephyr croaked out a bit as his eyes shifted nervously for a moment. “What’s there to help? I’m doing fine at the moment. I mean I've got my apartment, my job, and me. I t-think I’m doing fine.”
“But are you?” Celestia said inquisitively. “Are you really?”
She surveyed across the room, picked up a bill that was on the table, read through it, and floated it back towards him.
“This is overdue by a month and a half, Zephyr,” she said pointing towards him and highlighting it. “Give it ten more days and you won’t have any water here anymore. Is this the kind of life that you want to live? One where you're too lazy to pay your own bills?”
“No!” Zephyr protested, stomping his hooves on the ground. “I-I can pay for it. I have money!”
“Oh really?” she said dubiously. “Well then, show me.”
Flaring his nostrils in anger Zephyr did. Making his way into a small side room of his apartment where his bedroom was, pulling out a small writing kit, and a nearly empty purse, and made his way back. He was just about to start counting out the bits for the bills when Celestia’s voice stopped him by saying a truth that he dreaded to hear.
“Y-you don’t have enough money do you?” she said curiously looking at the two purses that she saw at the table and the stack of bills that were on it. “Because I know how much money is in that pouch I gave you, and trust me when I say this. All that’s in there is just loose change that I happened to have at the time.”
Scattering the pouch on the table she gestured to the stack of copper and silver-colored coins much to Zephyr’s absolute horror.
“See?” she said, grabbing one copper coin and holding it up to him. “It would take about twenty of these to equal one bit and the silvers are about twelve. There's no way that you could hope to pay for even one of them with these.”
Looking closely towards him with concern she then spoke, “are you sure you don’t have anything else?”
“I-I,” Zephyr tried to word out as sweat poured down his brow.
“You don't do you?” she said in a cold and breathless voice to Zephyr as she realized the circumstances that he was in. “You're about as poor as a drunkard without even the sense to be one. Is it because you're too lazy to work? Wasting your days away in your room or around the city chasing inane and childish dreams that you could never achieve?”
“N-no,” he croaked out in reply, feeling very small. “N-no. I-I, I haven’t. I’ve done things”
“Then what,” she continued forcing her muzzle down until it was nearly poking him while staring daggers at his own eyes. “What have you done in the past few years that you’ve been here?”
“Well I-I, I have an apartment,” he squeaked out as he tried to avoid Celestia’s glare. “I have that.”
“That isn’t enough child,” she answered him. “That isn’t nearly enough. All you have to do to do that is to merely have enough money and to have the sense in your mind to start looking. In fact,” she paused for a minute as an idea entered her head, “one moment.”
Turning her attention to the bills that were on the table, Celestia quickly sifted through them all until she came across what she hoped to find, the original application for the apartment. A glance at it and a highlight revealed a stanza of line that she knew was there. An agreement from a third party to co-sign the apartment to Zephyr, the origin of which she knew to be Fluttershy’s parents.
“Hmph, couldn't even sign the apartment in your own name,” she said with disappointment as she floated the paper over Zephyr's eyes. “Didn’t have enough credit or history to do it, child? Did mommy and daddy have to help you?”
Zephyr tried to speak to her, to protest, to say anything that he could back at her, but all he could mutter out was a dismal, “mhmph.” During which Celestia only stared at him.
“Well?” she asked him again, her eyes boring into his soul. “Did they? Did they help you or not? You don’t have to answer that question if you don’t feel like it, but then answer me this instead child. Is there anything else that you’ve done apart from that?”
“W-w-well, I-I,” Zephyr whimpered out in protest, only causing Celestia to crank her head closer to him.
“Well? What have you done then?” she asked him. “Have you made some friends, met people for the first time in your life, talked to someone that you didn’t know, went to the library, said hello to someone that you weren’t romantically interested in, took out the trash before you needed to, or worked a job that didn’t last more than a few hours or days? Have you done any single one of those things child?” she asked him again with fury in her eyes.
Zephyr could only wordlessly open his mouth and make a garbled sound as tears welled up in his eyes. Ignorant of this, Celestia continued, too annoyed by Zephyr's past actions to her to stop.
“Because you say and believe that you're clever, that you're smart, that you're strong, that you're good-looking, that you're lucky, and you have every quality in the world that a pony could hope to be in the world,” she said tipping his head up and forcing him to look around the room. “So why are you here, loafing around in an apartment room doing nothing and being nothing? Would someone with your talents instead be like your sister? At the top of the world instead of where you are now?”
There was only silence in reply. Annoyed, she turned to him with fury in her heart to ask him one last time.
“Well?” she said, her voice containing a hint of the royal voice with it as she looked at him. “What do you have to say for yourself, Zephyr Breeze?”.
For a time again there was nothing, but slowly, ever so surely Celestia could hear the sounds of a whisper.
“I don’t know,” Zephyr Breeze said, his voice sounding hitched and his frame shaking, “I-I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” she said with force peering down at him. Any remorse that she had for the stallion had long burned away and was replaced with a strange mixture of pity along with a need to make him confess. “You know what you’ve done to yourself, what you’ve done to others, and how you ended up here. What do you mean, you don’t know.”
“I-I mean I don’t know,” Zephyr breeze repeated, his voice still hitching and stuttering as if he was a broken record while he held his with his head in his hooves. “I don’t know how it ended up like this.”
“But you do know,” Celestia said empathetically to him now. “You do know ho-”
“NO I DON’T!” he barked as in a flash he lowered his hooves and stared at her with his eyes red with fury and sorrow. “NO I DON’T KNOW. I DON’T KNOW HOW IT ENDED UP LIKE THIS, I DON’T KNOW I-”
“YES YOU DO!” Celestia barked back, interrupting him and causing him to be shoved a few feet even as he dug his hooves into the carpet. “YOU KNOW HOW YOU ENDED UP LIKE THIS, YOU KNOW HOW THINGS TURNED OUT THE WAY THEY ARE, AND WHY YOUR FAMILY LEFT YOU ALONE! YOU KNOW WHY YOU ARE THE WAY YOU ARE, BUT BY THE HEAVENS YOU WON’T ADMIT IT!”
“BUT I DON’T, he tried yelling back even as his face blurred with tears and his ears gave their whining swan song while his throat slowly died, “I DON’T KNOW WHY THINGS TURNED OUT LIKE THIS!!! I D-d-d-on’t don't know why I can’t find a job, I don’t know why everything that I try keeps messing up, I don’t know why I hate myself, and I don’t know why my family hates me-”
“BUT YOU DO YOU INSOLENT CHILD!” Celestia barked back, forcing him back a step. “YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHY THESE THINGS HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU SINCE THE MOMENT YOU STARTED IT! AND YET NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES IT HAS BEEN SHOWN TO YOU YOU STILL REFUSE TO ADMIT IT!"
In a fit of pure rage, she tossed aside the table and made a motion to slap Zephyr Breeze, but stopped when she noticed something. The look that she had was no longer Celestia.
No, instead it was someone else. Someone that she dearly hated, she feared, despised with all of her heart, and who she would not name here. She stood in front of Zephyr’s eyes barking at him instead of Celestia. Somehow through circumstance through the pure anger and frustration in her heart, fragments of Her had risen up to appear in front of her. Not enough to take over her mind, but more than enough for the effects of her appearance to start to appear.
And the cause of it all was a simple stallion who would not listen to reason! Who she had argued with, pleaded with, attempted to bribe, and did everything that she could to get him to listen to reason in the past few hours. He was somehow the reason for causing Her to rise up once again. How stupid was she to even let this argument go this far and didn't she have better things to do than this?
That fact and the following realization were like a calming boon to the burn that Celestia felt within her mind. And with a breath, she calmed herself and stood away from the stallion who was moments away from collapsing on the ground.
“You know what,” she said mostly to herself, “I think I’m done.”
“Y-your what?” Zephyr Breeze uttered. “W-what do you mean?”
“I mean I’m tired of this argument with you,” she said, taking another breath to calm herself. “It’s clear that you want what you want, and that nothing will stand in your way to achieve this so I’ll leave you to it. Drown for all I care in the lonely abyss that you’ve made for yourself.”
Shaking her head to finally remove any last dregs of power her alternate self had, Celestia made her way through the door to leave, but as she did a thought wormed her way into her mind; one of possible redemption. Could this stallion perhaps realize something now with what she said to him? She knew of more than a few people who had redeemed themselves when they were placed in similar situations.
No, no he couldn't. Not with everything that she had done, everything that he had said, and his own actions and declarations along with his eternal pattern throughout the multiverse so far. The chance of such a thing happening was one in a billion, if even more than that, but still…perhaps they could. Harmony after all reserved mercy for anyone that came to them with open arms, no matter how stupid or evil they may be.
So cursing her better judgment, Celestia conjured up a small brass lantern that she left next to the door as she made her way out. Only looking back at the stallion to say, “if you ever want a way out, this will help you more than anyone else can for you to find your way, but if not, then sell it I suppose. It should at least buy you at least a few more weeks for you to enjoy your sinful nature if you do so.”
With that, she spread her wings, turned off the lights, closed the door leaving Zephyr in the dark, and flew away into the night; only taking the time to note to herself on sending a letter of apology to the neighbors in the apartment Zephyr block lived in. Because in her mind from that point on, anyone who lived with him or at least in his vicinity should be well compensated for doing so.
Zephyr for his part remained silent. His head and mind were filled with static, his ears were still ringing, his throat was sore, and his eyes burned more than he could ever recall but yet he remained silent. Only blankly staring at the space where Celestia had left.
For a time….there was nothing. Just him, his fragmented thoughts, the hitched breathing of his lungs, and the lantern. The purpose of which was entirely gone from his mind as he had stopped paying attention to her the minute she said she would leave. From that moment on there was nothing but silence and emptiness.
The moment dragged on, there was still nothing. Nothing except the city birds from outside, the few cars that were about, and the idle hubbub of the city life.
But a few minutes later there was a scream and the sound of someone bashing their head with their hooves. This scream itself was not one of rage or wrath towards Celestia, but instead one filled entirely with gloom and self-loathing. A scream from Zephyr Breeze.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!” Zephyr Breeze yelled at himself as he openly wept in the dark while he wildly flailed, continuing to beat his head with his hooves. “The Princess of The Sun comes one day to help you, and this is what you do to her!? GRAAAAGGH! STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!”
Stopping for a moment to breathe, he watched as tears streamed down his face as he looked around in the dark. He pressed his hooves as hard as he could to his face so that he could have something, anything. to him from what he felt at that moment, but even with the stinging pain that he felt as his hooves dug into his flesh, it did nothing. Instead, it only served as an accent to what had just happened and his own failures.
So gathering some resolve he attempted to stand up so that he could at least turn on the lights next to his door, to at least see something so that he could go to sleep on the old sofa that he had for a bed, but before he could get a steady footing he slipped, teetered his way over, and fell on the ground hitting himself head first on the wall next to the light with a resounding clunk. One accented by the dull and sharp pain signaling a future bruise near his eye and jaw that would swell in a few days time.
With that impact and the realization of what was to come Zephyr then broke. Crying away to his sore hearts content, regretting his actions, and nursing his wounds that he had wishing that it would go away while he remained in a fetal position, but alas it didn’t. Instead, it only served as a reminder as it pulsated away accenting the miasma of pain and self-loathing that he now felt.
He remained like this for a time, sobbing away in the dark while he was left alone, but by sheer coincidence as time went on the tip of his wing caught the lantern's handle that was next to the door and rolled it over to him. When it did he caught it in his hooves instinctively, clutched it, and held it to his chest as tight as he could. His body and wings forming almost a cocoons around it as he squeezed it so that he could treasure the metallic cold that the lantern held for him to soothe his soon to be bruises. Something that it protested as the metal of the lantern warped and bent under his neurosis-fueled might.
Nevertheless, it held and Zephyr continued to hold it as he sobbed and in time fell into a dreamless sleep, and during which something very curious happened.
Because the lantern didn’t just remain an inert piece of junk that could be sold for bits. No, instead in the dark hours of the night as Zephyr snoozed it glowed for a moment. A faint light green flame manifesting inside of it as it listened to its wielder's wishes.
Moments later something flew out of it, a small mote of green light with two pale wings. Looking around the room it searched for something, found it, and eventually brought back a semi-clean sheet that it wrapped around its owner. Taking the time to wipe the stallion's face clean with the blanket before fully wrapping him in it.
From there, it judged the area that it was in, and its owner before heaving an inaudible sigh. It had a lot of work to do.
