Princess Celestia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
solequus) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
mylittlejamjar2014-04-07 02:57 pm
solequus) wrote in mylittlejamjar2014-04-07 02:57 pm
Entry tags:
- !npc: celestia,
- disgaea: zetta [ou],
- dw: 10th doctor clone [ou],
- homestar runner: strong bad [ou],
- jeeves and wooster: bertram wooster [ou],
- mlp: rarity [au],
- mlp: trixie lulamoon [sn],
- mlp: twilight sparkle [au1],
- original: crmsn [oc],
- tmnt: donatello hamato [au1],
- zzz_dan vs: dan [ou],
- zzz_dw: 11th doctor [ou],
- zzz_homestuck: sollux captor [ou],
- zzz_kamen rider: tsukasa kadoya [ou],
- zzz_mlp: princess luna [au1],
- zzz_mlp: twilight sparkle [sn],
- zzz_persona: minato arisato [au],
- zzz_persona: yu narukami [ou],
- zzz_sonic: knuckles [ou],
- zzz_sonic: miles tails prower [au1],
- zzz_transformers: arcee [ou],
- zzz_xenosaga: margulis [au],
- zzz_y!japan: pierrot bolneze [ou]
☼ [visual][locked to in-game characters]
[Hello, ponies. Celestia is in her now-open sky bedroom, laying on her bed. Now that she's back to normal and there is no beehive hair to distract everyone, its pretty obvious that there are injuries on the princess, as well as weird burns on her, that she is healing up with a soft glow of her horn.]
My ponies. I told you after the battle, I would explain everything. That time is right now. I...had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but you deserve to know...
[There was a pause before she continued.]
You likely remember, with Discord's spell, that I had been turned into a young filly. I had no cutie mark, and during those times, having no cutie mark was a death sentence. Luna had received hers, after her first dreamwalk, and soon after became the first alicorn in living memory. So, when those things happened, my greatest desire was to be noticed and acknowledged. I had a great deal of anger in me. But then, I earned my mark, from having an oracular vision. Then, I raised the sun for the first time, becoming an alicorn as well. So I at last caught the attention of someone who had seemed interested in me. He took me aside and taught me, showed me his experiments and magics.
[The very softest of smiles came on her face, remembering.]
That was Star Swirl. He'd showered his intellectual attentions on my sister, and then, he did so with me. He was the first teacher of magic I had, and he showed me a secret discipline he had not even shown my sister...the mirrors.
Ever since he had been a young stallion, before even the founding of Equestria, Star Swirl had been harnessing the ambient magics of the world to create portals to other realms. He'd believed that by creating these portals, he would be able to learn more knowledge, and increase the potential magic that could be harnessed. By the time he'd taken me into his confidence, he had created hundreds - if not thousands - of mirrors. He hid these all in his laboratory beneath the palace, as my father wouldn't have approved.
[The smile became sheepish, almost guilty.]
But I did, because...I was young, and he'd taken interest in me. And so I wanted to learn everything I could to keep pleasing him, so he'd continue to pay attention to me. So he would. Even when Discord came and overthrew my parents, he'd supported me, revealed to me the existence of the Elements of Harmony. They came to Luna and I at our hour of need and helped us overthrow Discord, restore our lands. And we became the rulers of Equestria. Soon after that...Megan appeared in our world.
[She closed her eyes at this.]
She was a kind person, a good person. I became friends with her almost instantly. But she wanted to go back home, had accidentally come to our world with her new magic, so naturally, I thought that we could look for her world through the mirrors. Each night, when Luna took charge of the moon, we'd go. We looked through so many, we lost count.
Each time, though, it had been to no avail. We didn't find her world. Even so, she loved the worlds we'd found, and made me promise that when she left, I'd continue to visit those worlds, and make sure they were all right. Especially as Star Swirl was getting older, and older, and we'd eventually find her home and she'd have to go back and fulfill her commitments there, and to Ponyland. So I would be the only one of our traveling trio left to do it! Of course I promised her...
[That smile slowly turned sad, guiltier.]
...not just because she was my friend, but also, I wanted everybody I met to like me. I didn't want to be that neglected, cutie markless little filly I'd been growing up. I didn't want to go back to those days where I didn't know when my father would summon me, and tell me I was going to see the Pale Pony. Back then, those were my motivations. I wanted to be the best ruler for Equestria, that no one would ever forget.
So I listened to that voice in my head that told me, that I should outshine everypony and show them just what I could do. But when I did that, when I charged forth and decided to become that glorious creature that no one would ever want to - need to - abandon, I became the neglector. I didn't notice those around me start to fall apart. Megan hid it well from me, as did Luna, at first. Star Swirl...
[The very sky above almost seemed to darken as she faltered, just slightly. It wasn't by her magic, which she stopped using, for that moment.]
...As he got older he became more eccentric. More reclusive. He aided in building Canterlot, but he also created the Library. After I told him to cease in further creating the basement, right under my nose he continued. He began to do more extreme magic, more extreme experiments, obsessed with wanting to know as much about magic as possible. He left what he'd deemed 'lesser' spells unfinished in his quests. He created the Basement, first. And then...
[Her eyes misted over just slightly as they opened again, and the sky seemed ever darker, the air ever colder. She shuddered.]
...on the night I ended up banishing Nightmare Moon - just as I'd thought, the worst had happened - he showed me something so horrible that it finished driving him mad. A spell so terrible that what little bit of my mentor had been left was gone. He had decided, the only way to learn all he wanted, was to become immortal, just like he assumed I had been. And to become immortal...to add years to his life...
............He spoke what I can only call the Deplorable Word. And smashed almost all of the mirrors in his possession, in his attempt to complete his wish. I had no choice but to stop him. He tried to attack me, even tried to stop time to try and contain me...but I stopped him first. I had to. But then, there were only two mirrors left in all of the world, once all was said and done. And it was then that Megan also changed, right in front of me. Now she could never go home, and so she cursed me as she went lifeless, the creature coming out from her. I didn't want to hurt her. I didn't want to hurt anyone again. I sent her to the only place I could think of in my panic.
That was when I noticed the forest. The magic from the mirrors were changing the entire area, right in front of my eyes, and it consumed Star Swirl and his laboratory - as well as what was left of my and my sister's castle. I barely escaped the center of the forest with my life.
[She took a deep breath. That dark and cold passed, and the sky was just as brought as it could have been above her.]
I...almost didn't want to. It was my fault, what had happened, that much I'm certain of to this day. If I hadn't been so focused on myself...on my own needs and concerns...my sister would not have lost those years. Star Swirl might have had a peaceful end. And Megan...Megan would be back with her family, back home, where she had belonged.
But...I also knew. I couldn't hide what had happened to Luna - my sister's downfall had been visible to all. But...if everything else had happened, if Star Swirl's madness, was revealed, everything would go back to the way it had been. And perhaps...Equestria itself would fall apart. Much of the foundations had been made possible as a result of his magic research, as opposed to the older, more arcane magic of my father's generations. I couldn't...allow that. So I had to keep going, sealed off what I could...what hadn't been taken by the changing Everfree Forest. And...I never spoke of it again.
Until now.
[Another long pause.]
That's the truth. That's it. And...the reason I went into the mirror...I couldn't forget my promise to Megan. There were only two mirrors left by the time of Twilight Sparkle's coronation, and when I found that there was a very grave threat, I went in. I had to. I couldn't break my promise to a friend like that, not after all that had happened, and had happened because of me.
But I didn't expect Tezcatlipoca to find the mirror to this world. I had not even been aware that her actions had summoned it to her alongside the portal to her Equestria, because we had all been trapped in the black hole by that time. I used what magic I had access to in my human form to save the Element bearers from being crushed and burnt...and I sent them with a note to my sister, here. Explaining everything.
I did not expect to come back at all. Much less to come back and learn where my corrupted alternate self had gone. And I knew that once she was returned to her universe, she would try to come back here. So...
I'm not sure how long the magic from the mirror it will affect the land. But in due time, it will be drawn to the Everfree Forest, to where the bulk of the essence of all the mirrors resides. It will wear off, eventually, once it is finally drawn to beyond our old castle.
[Her head was very, very low by this time, though she may not have noticed it.]
Regardless...I have let you down. I have let everypony - everybody - down. This...this was my fault. I can understand if I can't be forgiven. But...that was the secret I had kept. That was what I did not tell you.
[There is another, long pause.]
That....that is all.
[Her hoof heavily, shakily went back to the scroll, turning it off.]
My ponies. I told you after the battle, I would explain everything. That time is right now. I...had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but you deserve to know...
[There was a pause before she continued.]
You likely remember, with Discord's spell, that I had been turned into a young filly. I had no cutie mark, and during those times, having no cutie mark was a death sentence. Luna had received hers, after her first dreamwalk, and soon after became the first alicorn in living memory. So, when those things happened, my greatest desire was to be noticed and acknowledged. I had a great deal of anger in me. But then, I earned my mark, from having an oracular vision. Then, I raised the sun for the first time, becoming an alicorn as well. So I at last caught the attention of someone who had seemed interested in me. He took me aside and taught me, showed me his experiments and magics.
[The very softest of smiles came on her face, remembering.]
That was Star Swirl. He'd showered his intellectual attentions on my sister, and then, he did so with me. He was the first teacher of magic I had, and he showed me a secret discipline he had not even shown my sister...the mirrors.
Ever since he had been a young stallion, before even the founding of Equestria, Star Swirl had been harnessing the ambient magics of the world to create portals to other realms. He'd believed that by creating these portals, he would be able to learn more knowledge, and increase the potential magic that could be harnessed. By the time he'd taken me into his confidence, he had created hundreds - if not thousands - of mirrors. He hid these all in his laboratory beneath the palace, as my father wouldn't have approved.
[The smile became sheepish, almost guilty.]
But I did, because...I was young, and he'd taken interest in me. And so I wanted to learn everything I could to keep pleasing him, so he'd continue to pay attention to me. So he would. Even when Discord came and overthrew my parents, he'd supported me, revealed to me the existence of the Elements of Harmony. They came to Luna and I at our hour of need and helped us overthrow Discord, restore our lands. And we became the rulers of Equestria. Soon after that...Megan appeared in our world.
[She closed her eyes at this.]
She was a kind person, a good person. I became friends with her almost instantly. But she wanted to go back home, had accidentally come to our world with her new magic, so naturally, I thought that we could look for her world through the mirrors. Each night, when Luna took charge of the moon, we'd go. We looked through so many, we lost count.
Each time, though, it had been to no avail. We didn't find her world. Even so, she loved the worlds we'd found, and made me promise that when she left, I'd continue to visit those worlds, and make sure they were all right. Especially as Star Swirl was getting older, and older, and we'd eventually find her home and she'd have to go back and fulfill her commitments there, and to Ponyland. So I would be the only one of our traveling trio left to do it! Of course I promised her...
[That smile slowly turned sad, guiltier.]
...not just because she was my friend, but also, I wanted everybody I met to like me. I didn't want to be that neglected, cutie markless little filly I'd been growing up. I didn't want to go back to those days where I didn't know when my father would summon me, and tell me I was going to see the Pale Pony. Back then, those were my motivations. I wanted to be the best ruler for Equestria, that no one would ever forget.
So I listened to that voice in my head that told me, that I should outshine everypony and show them just what I could do. But when I did that, when I charged forth and decided to become that glorious creature that no one would ever want to - need to - abandon, I became the neglector. I didn't notice those around me start to fall apart. Megan hid it well from me, as did Luna, at first. Star Swirl...
[The very sky above almost seemed to darken as she faltered, just slightly. It wasn't by her magic, which she stopped using, for that moment.]
...As he got older he became more eccentric. More reclusive. He aided in building Canterlot, but he also created the Library. After I told him to cease in further creating the basement, right under my nose he continued. He began to do more extreme magic, more extreme experiments, obsessed with wanting to know as much about magic as possible. He left what he'd deemed 'lesser' spells unfinished in his quests. He created the Basement, first. And then...
[Her eyes misted over just slightly as they opened again, and the sky seemed ever darker, the air ever colder. She shuddered.]
...on the night I ended up banishing Nightmare Moon - just as I'd thought, the worst had happened - he showed me something so horrible that it finished driving him mad. A spell so terrible that what little bit of my mentor had been left was gone. He had decided, the only way to learn all he wanted, was to become immortal, just like he assumed I had been. And to become immortal...to add years to his life...
............He spoke what I can only call the Deplorable Word. And smashed almost all of the mirrors in his possession, in his attempt to complete his wish. I had no choice but to stop him. He tried to attack me, even tried to stop time to try and contain me...but I stopped him first. I had to. But then, there were only two mirrors left in all of the world, once all was said and done. And it was then that Megan also changed, right in front of me. Now she could never go home, and so she cursed me as she went lifeless, the creature coming out from her. I didn't want to hurt her. I didn't want to hurt anyone again. I sent her to the only place I could think of in my panic.
That was when I noticed the forest. The magic from the mirrors were changing the entire area, right in front of my eyes, and it consumed Star Swirl and his laboratory - as well as what was left of my and my sister's castle. I barely escaped the center of the forest with my life.
[She took a deep breath. That dark and cold passed, and the sky was just as brought as it could have been above her.]
I...almost didn't want to. It was my fault, what had happened, that much I'm certain of to this day. If I hadn't been so focused on myself...on my own needs and concerns...my sister would not have lost those years. Star Swirl might have had a peaceful end. And Megan...Megan would be back with her family, back home, where she had belonged.
But...I also knew. I couldn't hide what had happened to Luna - my sister's downfall had been visible to all. But...if everything else had happened, if Star Swirl's madness, was revealed, everything would go back to the way it had been. And perhaps...Equestria itself would fall apart. Much of the foundations had been made possible as a result of his magic research, as opposed to the older, more arcane magic of my father's generations. I couldn't...allow that. So I had to keep going, sealed off what I could...what hadn't been taken by the changing Everfree Forest. And...I never spoke of it again.
Until now.
[Another long pause.]
That's the truth. That's it. And...the reason I went into the mirror...I couldn't forget my promise to Megan. There were only two mirrors left by the time of Twilight Sparkle's coronation, and when I found that there was a very grave threat, I went in. I had to. I couldn't break my promise to a friend like that, not after all that had happened, and had happened because of me.
But I didn't expect Tezcatlipoca to find the mirror to this world. I had not even been aware that her actions had summoned it to her alongside the portal to her Equestria, because we had all been trapped in the black hole by that time. I used what magic I had access to in my human form to save the Element bearers from being crushed and burnt...and I sent them with a note to my sister, here. Explaining everything.
I did not expect to come back at all. Much less to come back and learn where my corrupted alternate self had gone. And I knew that once she was returned to her universe, she would try to come back here. So...
I'm not sure how long the magic from the mirror it will affect the land. But in due time, it will be drawn to the Everfree Forest, to where the bulk of the essence of all the mirrors resides. It will wear off, eventually, once it is finally drawn to beyond our old castle.
[Her head was very, very low by this time, though she may not have noticed it.]
Regardless...I have let you down. I have let everypony - everybody - down. This...this was my fault. I can understand if I can't be forgiven. But...that was the secret I had kept. That was what I did not tell you.
[There is another, long pause.]
That....that is all.
[Her hoof heavily, shakily went back to the scroll, turning it off.]
no subject
no subject
So you think the removal of the foreign ponies' preexisting transformations and the abnormally large influx of foreign persons are temporary?
no subject
Back during those days, Canterlot was not finished and Ponyville hadn't existed, so there were almost no ponies who had experienced the effects. Everypony who had simply attributed it only to the battle with Nightmare Moon; that was only partly the case, in reality.
no subject
no subject
There was something unusual about the Everfree, even before it became known as the Everfree. Whatever made the Everfree different, was what caused the chaotic magic to be drawn in and settle there. But, I've never been able to find out that reason, nor did anypony before me, as far as I know.
no subject
no subject
[She took a deep breath.]
Twilight, I...he had been a good stallion, once. Somepony who was well-intentioned. He had done many things to help Equestria. Much of his magic improved many lives, in the long run. But somewhere along the way, he lost himself. I couldn't even tell you just when that had been - it may have been in his older years, or even before I was born.
But I couldn't neglect the good he had done.
no subject
Still... we can't repeat the mistakes of the past, even if they weren't ours. These other worlds have been connected to ours for a long time, and the consequences may never go away. It's good that we've accepted the people from them.
I can't help thinking they might find a way here some other way, eventually.