Consequence of Will.

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.