"Why are you doing this?"
"Because I have to!"
"You cannot stop this, you are about to die."
"It's my duty. I will see it through to the end."
"You do not understand. This has to happen."
"I refuse to believe that! I must… I WILL save Equestria!"
Chapter 1: Another Morning
It was a small, darkly lit bedroom. The bed was tucked away in the farthest corner of the door. A large lump rustled underneath the bed sheets, creating soft snoring within and a pink messy mane sprouted from the top of the sheets.
The door from across the room creaked open as the light from outside shined inside the room and an old mare trotted inside. She was a purple Earth Pony with a short, round-cut grey mane with a short fluffy tail. She poked the rolling lump in the bed with her hoof and said in her jolly voice, "Celeste. Come on, you silly filly, it's time to get up."
The bump in the bed only replied with a mumble and rolled away from the old pony. She simply smirked and quietly trotted over to the window beside the bed. "Rise and… SHINE!" she suddenly ripped the curtains open and the sun illuminated the room. The pink maned unicorn jerked out from under the sheets and shouted, "AGH! I'm up! I'm up!"
The old mare giggled as the pearl-white coated unicorn rubbed her purple eyes awake. "C'mon, grandma, just a little longer, please…"
"You stayed up all night looking at the stars again, didn't you?" the grandmother said in a mock-scolding tone.
The unicorn named Celeste only responded by grimacing at the wall in front of her, as if to decide either to try to stay awake or fall backwards on her pillow. No, no… her grandmother wouldn't allow it, not while she's standing right there. So, she used her magic to lift the sheets up and hop out of bed, landing on the wooden floor with a "clop". Celeste stretched out her front legs and yawned, her pink tail, which was equally messy as her mane, curled up as she did so. She was a young mare who was no older than her late teens. Her cutie mark was that of five blue stars of various sizes that connected to each other with a line.
Her now-illuminated room was very simple by design, not many decorations and no wardrobe to be seen. The only thing to really stand out was the telescope that leaned in the corner opposite of the bed and door. The time of day was in the late morning as the sun was already way ahead of Celeste apparently. Her grandmother turned to walk out the door, "It's a beautiful day outside, why don't you go outside and play with somepony?"
"Aw, grandma, I don't wanna play with old ponies. I wanna go explore." Celeste said with a grudge. Really, she wanted to go back to bed, but that wasn't going to happen.
"So, long as you do something, dear. You're too young to be spending your days in bed. Wait until you're as old as I am and then we'll see." Her grandmother taunted her.
Celeste and her grandmother trotted outside of her home; the former didn't even bother to make herself presentable. Not that that mattered much as she wasn't expecting to do much social work. Her house was small and farther away from the small village that she resided in. It was a simple village isolated from the rest of Equestria, tucked away inside of a forest on a small mountainside. The denizens of the village were much older than Celeste ranging from married adults to old ponies who have had their time in this world. Very few foals existed in the town; they were much younger than Celeste who stuck to their own little group, shunning any grown-ups from interfering with their shenanigans, which, most of the time, included Celeste.
Celeste's grandmother eventually split off from Celeste to chat with an acquaintance while Celeste continued on her way. The old stallion smiled as the purple old pony very slowly walked over to greet her.
"Well, hello there, young lady, fine mornin' ain't it?" the old pony teased.
The grandmother laughed dismissively at the comment and said "I finally got her up, this morning. For her to be up this early means a lucky day for us."
"Honestly, you spoil the poor girl."
"Yes, yes, but I try not to be too hard on her. After all, she doesn't have anypony around her age to be her friend. Let's face it, she's too young to be in this village." The grandmother stated as she watched Celeste tread in between the trees that surrounded the village.
"But she don't have a choice, don't she? After all…"
"Yes," She interrupted as her tone shifted to a much more serious one. "I try not to bring it up. It makes her much happier not trying to remember."
The woods were quiet, the only sounds that could be heard was the birds chirping happily in the branches, the various insects buzzing through the flowers, and Celeste's hoofsteps rustling through the grass on the ground. The brief exercise through the woods woke her up a lot more and she had much more bounce in her step. She rummaged through the familiar woods for hours to find something new, but not much luck: Same trees, same forest, same Celeste. It was as if time had frozen in these woods and never ticked forward for a single second.
She looked up at the friendly birds above and smiled, as if she had unconsciously made friends of them over the many times she ventured through these woods. She began humming to the bird and quickened her pace. As time moved on, her humming turned to slight singing, not good singing, mind you, but it eventually turned into an excitable, nonsensical beat, as she began beat boxing and rhythmic beating of the trees like drums. No pony was around to see her do this, so she was safe and secure in getting lost in her own little world, pretending she was putting on a show for the forest as she traveled through it. But, she was abruptly yanked back into reality when a squirrel jumped off a small branch and the branch smacked her in the face. After a brief survey of the area, she sheepishly scampered away, as if someone heard her.
Finally she reached a clearing in the woods: A large cliff overlooking the vast landscape. From that viewpoint, a good chunk of Equestria was visible. Various clusters of buildings scattered about the land with Canterlot Castle looming above all of them, like an eagle watching over her young.
Celeste took a very deep breath and shouted "GOOD MORNING, EQUESTRIA!" as her voice echoed through the land, there was no answer and Equestria kept going about its business as if she didn't exist. The wind blew through her main as she looked down upon the buildings. A strong feeling of longing came to her, a desire to visit it, all of it; to be a part of whatever goes on around there. Not just what she could see, but beyond what she could see. Maybe there were ponies out there just like her, not ponies who are too old or young for her, but ponies who could relate to her. She closed her eyes and imagined being down there interacting with all the ponies, making friends, having adventured in places she wasn't familiar with. She grew weary of the dull and tired life of her home village.
Celeste took one last glance at the world before her before turning away to explore more of the woods. But a small sound stopped her in her tracks, a sound like a spark, a flicker. She quickly turned around and saw a small light on the edge of the cliff. The light flickered and sparked more and more in mere seconds. Curious, she slowly creeped closer to the event that was unfolding before her, but immediately stepped back when the flickered turned into a large light that illuminated everything, even in the clear daytime.
From the light emerged an alicorn, a pony with both a horn and wings. She was much taller than a regular pony. She was quite regal in her appearance with a white coat and a beautiful colored mane and tail of blues and pinks that floured magically in the air. Celeste was awestricken by the display and froze completely in place. The alicorn clumsily tried to keep herself afloat by flapping her wings, but gravity proved better as she plummeted down and grabbed the edge of the cliff. Celeste, reacting on instincts, rushed over to rescue the mysterious pony. Grabbing her slender hoof, Celeste pulled the alicorn upon the cliff to safety. Upon closer inspection, the alicorn was badly injured. Her body was broken, scared, bruised, and burned. Her right eye was bloodied and disfigured. She was not quite as graceful as seen clearly. Celeste looked at the alicorn's cutie mark and saw that it was an image of a sun.
"Are you okay?!" Celeste said with concern, "Who are you?!"
The alicorn responded by barely trying to pick herself up, but Celeste stopped her, seeing that she was in no condition to even stand. The alicorn opened her eyes, and looked upon Celeste's face.
"Y-you…" the alicorn weakly said. Her voice was soft and gentle. Celeste curiosity was peaked now that the pony began to speak. "Please… you must… you must listen to me. Equestria…" She stopped in pain.
"What about Equestria?" Celeste asked trying to calm the pony down.
"There… there isn't much time. Equestria is in great danger. What… what is your name?"
"Uh… my name? It's Celeste, ma'am." Celeste responded.
"Celeste… you must save Equestria… You… are our last hope."
"Me? Wait, why me? What am I doing?" Celeste was very confused.
"No time to explain. I must… give you my powers. Use them to save Equestria…" The alicorn's horn began to glow and illuminated light upon Celeste.
"What?! What's happening?!" Celeste began to levitate into the air and began to glow. She felt a surge of power flowing through her body. It was so much for her to handle that she began to black out. The last thing she heard was an echo of the alicorn's words in her head, "Celeste... you must save Equestria… You… are our last hope."
Celeste opened her eyes; she laid flat on the ground. She began to bring her wits back to her. The alicorn was nowhere to be seen. Was that a dream? Did she fall asleep all the sudden? She looked out to Equestria and saw the sun was beginning to set. She picked herself up and began to stretch, but in doing so, she noticed something odd, like an extra part was stretching. She looked back and saw two extra, feathery appendages had sprouted from her back. This naturally surprised her to cause her to shout.
"Wings?! How- what-" she confusedly exclaimed as she grabbed one of them to inspect it. "Am I a pegasus all the sudden?!" She felt around her forehead and found her horn still intact, "Nope, still there. Wait! Am I both?! What's going on?!"
As she was inspecting her wings, she noticed something odd about her cutie mark. When she inspected it, she noticed it had changed into the sun cutie-mark that the alicorn had. This caused her to shout once more.
"Okay, okay. Don't panic! Everything is fine!" she talked to herself hysterically, "They're just wings and a new cutie mark, that's all. You're still you, Celeste! You're still you! Right?"
Unsure about that statement, she rushed to the closest body of water she could find and looked at her reflection: same messy pink mane with pearl-white coat, just with wings now.
"What happened to me?" then a grim realization struck her like lightning, "How am I going to explain this to grandma? Ooohhhh, boy this is bad."
She took a few deep breaths to think about what to do. Realizing a plan, she trotted back home.
Celeste intentionally took alternate routes to avoid any of the village citizens. When she made it back home, she quietly slipped through the door, hoping her grandmother wouldn't notice. Low-and-behold, there she was standing in front of the stove cooking dinner. Thinking quickly, Celeste used her magic to yank a cloak from the closet and cover her wings before her grandmother could turn around.
"Oh! Home early are you? Just in time for supper! Why don't you have a seat? I'm almost done!" Her grandmother smiled.
Celeste smiled sheepishly and said, "I… uh… got to go to bed, grandma!"
"To bed? Why it's a little early." Her grandmother was shocked to hearing this news. "At least stay for dinner."
"IIIII'm not hungry." Celeste said awkwardly.
"Celeste, are you feeling alright? Are you sick?" Her grandmother said in a concerned tone.
Celeste's face turned to an offended look "What? I'm not-" then suddenly realizing what had just been said, quickly turns to a smile, "Er… yes! I am sick! I don't feel too good…" she lets out a few false coughs, "I'll just turn in early today." She casually tried to trot over to her room.
"Would you like some medicine, dear?" her grandmother asked.
"No! No! I just need some rest! I'll be fine. Just some good old fashioned rest!" Celeste exclaimed and let out a few more coughs before slamming the door behind her.
The old mare shook her head and muttered to herself. "She is quite a bizzare child…"
Celeste held her back to the door and listened outside to make sure her grandmother wasn't going to sneak inside. After hearing hoofsteps travel to the other bedroom, she sighed a breath of relief and took off the cloak.
"What am I going to do?" She asked herself while looking at her wings. Frustrated, she climbed on the bed and planted her face into the pillow using her magic to pull the covers over her. What a day.
She propped her chin on the pillow and sighed, "I'll figure it out tomorrow…" She yawned and her eyes go heavy. Maybe going to bed wasn't such a bad idea after all. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.
To be continued…
