Consequence of Will.
By: Aussie Griffin.
Boring legal disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro and was created by Lauren Faust. presentperfect wrote “Act of Will” which this is inspired by.
Chapter 1: The ending of purpose.
Celestia was furious. It had been a week since the infernal machine had appeared and forecast the deaths of many ponies in her kingdom, and sown chaos across the land she'd so carefully cultivated for more than a millennium under her sun. Yet as blind rage made her ready to tear Twilight Sparkle's letter apart with her own teeth, she stopped and swiped it from her mouth by hoof and slammed it onto the writing desk in her study.
Writing with passion, nay fury, she took down notes in ancient tongues and drew arcane diagrams with rare ink till, like a blasphemous incantation against gods more powerful than she had ever been, before finishing. Taking half an hour, her terrible work done, she looked upon it's maddening appearance: that of a prepared speech for an improvised public speaking spot.
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The Wonderbolts themselves flew the message out, personally tracking down and locating every inhabitant of Ponyville for the last month. Everyone who'd seen the machine, let alone used it, was told that they were required to return to the town to be addressed by their Princess at sundown the same day.
The inhabitants and other denizens of Ponyville gathered in front of the town hall as sunset approached and an hour prior to sunset the gilded royal chariot descended from the sky with the Princess striding from it into the town hall with cheers and stomping from the crowd marking her arrival, and as they did so the Wonderbolts set up banners around the crowd that were decorated with sea shells that the Princess knew would reflect sound with better clarity and definition than the Royal Voice of Canterlot. She wanted nopony to mishear what she was going to say.
The crowd was in awe as Celestia strode out right on sunset from the town hall, the radiance of her regalia complimenting the final rays of the sun as she gazed down upon her subjects, her benevolent gaze still tempered by her prior fury. Twilight and her friends had been notified that they were to be in the crowd as normal guests, though she had promised her faithful student an audience after she was done.
“Citizens of Ponyville,” Her clear voice rang out. “In the last week we encountered something that we knew nothing of before: Seemingly certain knowledge of the future. Many of you viewed it as playing a gambling game with your lives. If you got a result of old age and you were young, then suddenly you felt untouchable.” Her countenance became darker and the crowd grew worried as her voice changed accordingly.
“You all focused on yourselves like starving animals.” She let those words sink into the crowd. “I want all of you who are able to look at the cutie mark on your flank, and that of those around you.“ Pausing for breath, her voice softened back to her maternal tones, perhaps even warmer than usual. “When you were all such little ponies, colts and fillies, you hoped to gain that mark. Now, I must ask you all to remember why. Would you have been as happy to have any other image there? Who would have liked to have had something horrifying there? An image of violence or disrespect marking you for the rest of your lives?”
The crowd was starting to look upset and nervous, yet Celestia, from her higher vantage point, held them all with her gaze and her silence. “The truth is that we don't live for our death. None of you did before that idea was forced on you. Before that you lived for the things that made you happiest, and they are the things that can enrich others lives as well.”
Deciding to move on, Celestia left the podium and walked into the crowd as she'd learned in Saddle Arabia. The surprised voices among the crowd and her own guards were silenced as she gestured to a cream coloured earth pony with a red rose on her flank and a mane and tail that matched the colour of the rose. “You didn't stop growing flowers because you couldn't exploit them, you grew them because it never made you dissatisfied with yourself. No effort felt wasted, and things you tried that didn't work just made the ones that did more satisfying.”
She didn't wait for a response, though she did note with satisfaction the crowd looking more thoughtful. Moving further out still, she picked out two locals she recalled well, a smile warmed her features and she gestured with a hoof to Mr. and Mrs. Cake. “Would either of you want your foals to remember you as the ponies that gave up baking to await the inevitable and do nothing more with their lives? I think not. If you knew when your life was to end, your own life would not be what concerned you most.”
Celestia didn't have to elaborate further as she walked on, both the Cakes, as well as several ponies around them, were looking at the babbling infants they both held. “We don't get the most satisfaction from being selfish beings as we are social creatures. When our efforts show skill and our very nature benefits others we derive a satisfaction that goes beyond our personal lives!”
She completed her circuit as the town's lamps and lanterns came on. “None of you saw war or terminal despair on those slips of paper. None of you saw rioting or consequences of mismanagement by the ponies you trust! Your ancestors and yes, I myself, have conspired to give you an Equestria where you risk only the things your put in harm's way and gain the most from the ponies you love, and I saw evidence of the success of those dreams when I looked at my own slip of paper. I realised that not everyone dies from old age, yet if you die from muffins, let it be as you try and dedicate your final years to finding the best recipe in Equestria for muffins, and not as some muffin addict scoring a cheap platter of one bit burned rejects in an alley.”
As a wall-eyed pegasus burst into sobbing against a surprised stallion with an hourglass on his flank Celestia finished. “I did what I did, and have said what I said because I don't want you to think about something you can't change. I want you all to change things for the better! I want you all to live! Have your lives mean something to somepony else and you will never be gone, and I can assure you that almost all of you are thinking of someone who, though no longer in your life, still guides you and shows you how to live better. Now go! Live the lives that Equestrian hearts will remember you for!”
When Celestia bowed dramatically by spreading her wings and lowering her head and neck at the end of the speech, the crowd cheered in a controlled uproar, their stomping hooves and shaking the earth itself. Celestia departed by walking into the town hall where Twilight Sparkle was waiting with the other elements of harmony. Ordering her guards to leave the room, she spoke to all of them, yet asked Twilight to hear her out before reacting.
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Chapter 2: Love me while I'm there.
Consequence of Will.
By: Aussie Griffin.
Boring legal disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro and was created by Lauren Faust. presentperfect wrote “Act of Will” which this is inspired by.
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Chapter 2: Love me while I'm here.
“I will try and be brief. The strange box did not leave Ponyville and is exactly where it was.” The shock on their faces and the words forming on their lips were halted with a hoof gesture. “I have enchanted it though. Only the most vile, mean-spirited and destructive of ponies will ever find it, and the rest of this town is now even further from being nihilistic than before.”
“Ni-la-whut?” Applejack cocked an eyebrow.
“That means they aren't thinking that nothing matters any more.” Satisfaction turned to maternal warmth and reassurance as she turned to Twilight Sparkle. “Now, my faithful student, I want you to tell your friends what it said on your slip of paper.”
Twilight's entire body went into shock as she stared at her mentor wide-eyed, and her friends were little different. Princess Celestia simply closed her eyes and waited despite Twilight's own looking for re-assurance. Eventually she choked out “It said “ACT OF WILL”. Princess, what does that even mean? That sounds like you...” She could no longer speak and her eyes filled with tears as Celestia opened her own and sighed, her face downcast.
“After my sister's exile I was unable to wield the Elements of Harmony. My only benefit to Equestria was my experience and diplomatic connections, and my battle with Queen Chrysalis showed there is no advantage to a single, powerful pony wielding the sun to watch over a single kingdom anymore. Some time in the future all my little ponies will have enough resources, courage and friendship to be able to manage the heavens without Luna or myself. On that day Twilight Sparkle...”
“Oh Princess!” Celestia suddenly found her student on her rear legs, throwing herself at her. Forelegs clasped on all they could hold and tears streaming down her face she sobbed. “Please don't leave us!”
Celestia could see the other “elements” looking upset. Closing her eyes, she considered simply kneeling down and holding her student until she stopped crying, yet this called for her to be the ruler that was guiding her student, a task harder because she was to teach others to rule themselves.
Settling at leaning down and wrapping a wing around her crying student, the words came clearly to her. “Please Twilight Sparkle, you must accept that things change. What you worry about will take generations. When I exiled my sister I observed that ponies could forget a someone who'd once been important...”
At Twilight's renewed sobbing Celestia caved in and knelt down to draw her into an embrace, only to be hugged by everypony else in the room as she was afraid would happen. All she could say as they blanketed her with love was: “Even I don't know what happens once we die. I just know that this is one of the memories I will ensure I take with me.”
She felt the tears and hooves and heard the sobs of her most loyal subjects and she tried consoling them to the point where they could leave the room without alarming other ponies. “Even once people think that I've become one with the sun, I would take on the appearance of a normal pony, dye my mane pink, use a shrink spell, hide my wings with an illusion and take a name like “Sunburst” or “Sunny Day”. You can't just assume that things will go right straight away, you have to be patient and careful. Even when the appearance of Princess Celestia stops being here, it will be a long time before I'm confident that Equestria will manage everything that I have... but I do know your capable of it some day.”
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Dear Princess Celestia,
I have tried to write this letter more times than I can count and Spike has gotten really worried about me needing him to postpone it so often, so I'm going to do this with my own magic. I guess I knew that you'd outlive the elements of harmony, and I guess we're still going to be needed... or at least our job descriptions will be, perhaps more-so if your plan ever....
I'm still getting over what you said, and the truth is I understand that you probably have seen more life times and bad things in your experience than most anypony can imagine, yet I ask you: Is it possible to stay around as a different pony? Even you could still enjoy being somepony else for a day or two now to practice... I'd help you if you want.
The truth is that I don't want to stop living in this world. Ponies are happy and fulfilled and you are what they model themselves on, not a legend that gets twisted for political reasons. Remember, we need good examples too... I still use you as my best example of being a pony... and I keep crying when I think about others not seeing what I see in you. You're calm, you're strong, you're funny and you make me feel like I had a second mother when I was a filly.
I'm afraid. I saw my slip of paper and it said the same as yours. Do I wind up so sick that living becomes too painful to bear? Will I loose all my friends? Do I loose my children?
I don't know, yet I'm going to take your advice to heart and if I end my own life, it will be for the good of Equestria, and I promise you it will not be pointless. The life you showed me...it's about something bigger than any one pony, even one who is as loved as you.
Hoping you don't mind the tear stains, your faithful student... who thinks of you as a second mother,
Twilight Sparkle.
