thefarshore | Heaven's BBS

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Heaven's BBS | Text

From: Inti
Date: June 28

Greetings to everypony. My name is Princess Celestia, and here I have assumed the role of the god Inti.

This is not too far away from my role in Equestria, and yet this world's sun seems to require no intervention -- magical, divine, or otherwise -- to keep it moving neatly through the sky. I am also told that the moon keeps its own schedule irrespective of the night. All things considered, I have to conclude that things work very differently here.

Nonetheless, I am particularly interested in meeting other gods whose domain includes the sun. I would like to invite you all to my temple, so we can greet each other and learn more about our gods and our purposes of here. (Of course, anypony else is welcome to come as well. I have so much to learn here!)

Lastly, please allow me to conclude with a compliment to these amazing communication devices -- but perhaps we could find a way to make them more accessible? I am fortunate to have my magic, but if an earth pony or pegasus were to come here, they might have a terrible time with working these things.

~Princess Celestia

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Who can say?

[ It came like this. But it also looks exactly like her Ideal Paradise. So clearly, even the makeup of the Heavens themselves bow to Shikyoin Hibiki's will.

Where should she take her guest to best make her at ease...Ah, Hibiki knows. She'll hold this door open. ] I trust your own lodgings are suitable.

[...She isn't getting that tasty flower snack, is she.]

To be honest, they're a little opulent for my taste, but I am very used to that after all this time. [Centuries of Canterlot rule means that she must dwell in the luxury her ponies expect.] And it was not quite meant for an equine, but fortunately I have found that humans and ponies seem to share many similarities, which means the adjustment is trivial.

[Tucking her wings in to fit through the door, Celestia steps through with a grateful smile for the courtesy.]

[ She will once Hibiki figures out how to give them to her. It seems awkward when the guest doesn't have hands. ] I'm gratified to hear that.

My apologies should you run into the same difficulties here...

[ It's a sitting room, with a side table. Hibiki makes short work of swapping the flowers from a vase in the corner with the ones she'd been holding them, placing the vase on the side table once Celestia draws closer to it. (The flowers originally in the vase, she's secreted on her person. She can do that.) ]

Are you able to accept a token of my appreciation?

[Oh, this is a charming room. Celestia looks around it curiously, taking it in with a smile, before turning her attention back to Hibiki.]

I would be honored. [As far as she knows, she is -- nopony told her that any rules applied to gods that ought to prevent it. A curious way of putting the question...]

Then, please. [ Hibiki pushes the flowers towards Celestia, taking out a few. She has an Idea. ] To adorn your new abode.

And - [ If permitted, she will step close enough to begin weaving a few choice roses into Celestia's magnificent mane. ] Your radiant person.

[ Her smile is genuine. Hibiki has always enjoyed bestowing gifts. Especially to the worthy. ]

[Celestia accepts the flowers.]

[The process this takes is, of course, magical: her horn lights up with a golden glow, and a moment later this same aura appears around the flowers in Hibiki's hand. A force lifts them away as gently as can be.]

Why, thank you.

[Aww, for decorating, not for eating? Well, maybe they are of a breed that looks better than it tastes. That can happen.]

[Meanwhile, Hibiki may have just stumbled into hard mode. Celestia has no problems with her mane being augmented this way, but the mane itself is no easy beast to tame: not only does it constantly drift and wave in a wind only it feels, but the colors within also wave and drift without any regard for the mane's motion itself.]

[ She never should have doubted a True Princess! The levitating flowers don't faze Hibiki. She occupies herself in decorating her guest.

Mysterious forces are at work in this mane, it seems. Shikyoin Hibiki, fortunately, is an undefeatable genius.

She's actually getting the flowers to stick. ]

[Her mane at least feels like a normal mane beneath all that magical impressiveness. She at least isn't trying to stick flowers onto sheer magic.]

Do humans often keep flowers around, then?

Not all. I find they refine any occasion.

[ There we are. Hibiki pulls out a closed hand mirror (monogrammed, with a small crown on it) and pops it open to show Celestia her handiwork. ] Your nobility, however, makes even the palest petal blush.

[Celestia is used to this sort of flattery, even as she considers how she has been quite enjoying the lack of bowing and over-the-top pronouncements in her presence since coming here.]

But you don't eat them, do you? In Equestria, flowers are exchanged the way one might also exchange... oh, a box of chocolate? As a friendly gift and a snack.

That we do not.

[ Hibiki has been known to pose with a rose in her mouth. But she doubts that's what Celestia meant.

This does provide an excellent segue to the Princess's purpose in coming here, however. Hibiki fetches the teacup she'd had waiting for herself in this room (there is always tea) and heads back over to join her guest. ]

Your heart must be aclamor with such queries.

Man, yes. Having never met humans before, I have very much to learn, especially since I am now to live among you. [Not that everypony here is human, of course, but the majority are, and the Near Shore seems to consist entirely of them.] I have picked up on some of the basics, of course.

Is there any way I can be of assistance?

[ Demonstrations. Explanations. You name it. She's got it.

Ah, but a caveat seems fair, so as not to give the wrong impression. ] Granted, I'm a fairly advanced specimen of humanity, but I'm especially intimate with both their specialties and their foibles.

Well, to start with...

[She has many questions, and no real sense of what humans consider proper. On the other hand, if one of her questions isn't entirely proper, well, Hibiki seems like she could stand to be shocked or scandalized just a little.]

Is clothing a rule for humans? I don't believe I've seen a single one who doesn't wear it.

[ ....well

they're

beginning with the absolute basics then.

Recovering from a sudden, frozen blink, Hibiki laughs. ] There truly are no humans in your homeland.

[ She's picturing the Palps. Except with ponies. All living in harmony and idealism beneath their virtuous Princess.

PonyPara, that's what she's picturing. ]

[She's not too far off, thanks to two thousand years of effort on Celestia's part to make Equestria that way.]

That's correct. There really are no humans in Equestria, or anywhere else in the world that I have ever seen, and I have seen most things in the world. On the other hand, we have many other species that live with us, whereas humans seem not to from what I have observed in the Near Shore here.

That...varies.

[ Sudden flashback to goats in her drawing room, goats in her dressing room, a screaming bird in the halls of her quarters--

but it was all for her friend, so Hibiki can't mind any of that much more than a single shadow passing over her face merits. So. Back to the question. ]

Clothing is both polite and an expression of personality. You, for example...

[ Hibiki gestures with a hand and a shimmering aquamarine dress appears floating, shimmering, in midair. ] Would deserve nothing less than to be clad thusly.

I've been unclear, I'm afraid -- we ponies are quite familiar with clothing, as fashion statements. Style and fashion are critical in Canterlot especially, but in all of Equestria.

But it is optional, as I myself demonstrate at the moment. [Her shoes and accouterments of royalty don't count as clothing. And frankly Celestia is sick of dressing up.] But it does not appear to be that way for humans, which is what I was wondering.

I see. [ Hibiki dismisses the illusory dress, though a few rose petals drift down. Those are real. They...happen, sometimes. Occupational hazard of perfection. ] You have a rich and varied culture.

[ As well as providing confirmation that some worlds bear no resemblance to others. Hibiki would remember an "Equestria" and a "Canterlot", even populated by humans.

Why couldn't PriPara managers have culture, like anywhere blessed enough to be ruled by this individual? Hibiki's fortunate to have ultimately ended up with Ando. All others are completely unnecessary. ] Did anything else about ours confuse you?

[Oh, dear Hibiki. Culture is so very, very overrated. Some days Celestia would give anything to put her crown aside and go live in Ponyville like a normal pony off the street.]

Well, I have already covered the fact that the weather and the seasons and the sun all handle themselves here, though I am still learning how humans have grown to deal with all of that randomness. And am I correct in understanding that there are no different types of humans?

Not...species, no.

[ Or breeds, the way horses work, and presumably ponies may as well. ]

Upbringing tends to create distinctions. And, of course, differences in talent.

[ Money, too, but Hibiki takes money for granted to the point it doesn't even occur to her to mention it. She has unlimited funds and other people don't, but that's not why she's exceptional. She's exceptional because she's Shikyoin Hibiki, and she would be exceptional no matter where she came from.

Fortunately, however, she's from somewhere with class. ] I suppose those who employ sentence enders can still be considered "human"....

But not physical differences. I should explain that ponies generally come as earth ponies, unicorns, or pegasi, each of whom has a different strength and gift. But humans are not custodians of the world, the way ponies are...

[Celestia still struggles to comprehend this one notion. (Celestia also keeps calling to mind the mental image of the Great and Powerful Trixie for some reason.)]

[ The Great and Powerful Hibiki has a certain ring to it, though it all seems rather unnecessarily self-explanatory. Redundant, even.

Hibiki is not entirely certain what a "custodian of the world" is supposed to be, but she does know it reminds her of her trip to not-Preece, so. ]

Fortunately, we are all hardly human anymore.

[ Though she supposes the same limitations and lack of physical distinction applies. People still look the same as gods. Act the same, too, presumably. ]

[And now we're onto something else Celestia is still working to understand -- a point which she'd raised with other humans before, but still is not certain she has truly understood from all sides.]

Is that true? I know we are gods now, but I do not really feel all that different from before. But on the other hand, I am an alicorn and thus somewhat unusual for ponykind. Has becoming a god made you feel different?

[ Hibiki shrugs. ] Who can say. Upon achieving perfection, one does not continue polishing a piece.

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