Heaven's BBS | Text

[letteropener]

Date: July 29
Posted by: Inti

Good day, everypony! I have a question for you all: when those ayakashi that looked like fireflies came out of the opening near the viewing, at one point there was a giant sword hovering above the scene.

Does anypony know what that was about?

Comments

[sweetdeath]

Weird. I guess it's got to be somebody's power, then. I mean, this is the Heavens! Somebody's got to have a sword-summoning power.

... Or I guess it could be a shinki. [That's a new thought. As a ladle, he's got to admit, the idea of a shinki who turns into a gigantic glowing sword that radiates power is kind of intimidating.]

[letteropener]

It seems very unlikely that this would be either of those -- unless there are far more powerful abilities here than I have seen. I think it is more likely that somepony brought this power with them when they came to the Far Shore.

[sweetdeath]

I'm sure there's a lot of powerful abilities here. It's the Heavens, right? Even if the new gods aren't as strong, there's the old ones!

Have you heard anything about it yet, though?

[letteropener]

No, I have not. I would very much like to. I am not worried, but I do wish to understand.

[sweetdeath]

I'm kind of curious now you mention it, myself.

-- Anyway, nice to meet you! Do you go by Inti or something else?

[letteropener]

No, that is just -- I have yet to figure out how to make this device stop using my god name alone when I send these messages to the board. My name is Princess Celestia.

[sweetdeath]

Wow, another princess? I don't know if there's any way to get it to use a different name. Mine just uses my name, though, so I don't mind.... Speaking of, I'm Asato! Pleased to meet you, Princess Celestia.

[letteropener]

There is another princess here? I don't believe I've met her. [Or admittedly, she may just not have realized -- human princesses being slightly less obvious than pony ones.]

[sweetdeath]

[Wait, she didn't tell him for quite a while after they met. So maybe it's a secret? Maybe he ought to talk to her about that before he tells strangers....]

Um, yeah, I think there's some people who were royalty back home!

[letteropener]

Well, that wouldn't surprise me. I should hardly be the only one, after all! Though I understand human royalty is determined by heredity?

[sweetdeath]

Yours isn't? How do you choose princesses, then?

[letteropener]

The title is earned, not chosen or given. Even those rare few of us who are born alicorns have proven we deserve it.

[sweetdeath]

Okay, wait. What's an alicorn? I thought you were a talking horse....

[Or, at least, that's what he's guessing from the whole "everypony" bit. It's possible this assumption was a little rude. Talking animals seem somehow normal, though. In their way.]

[letteropener]

Pony. [Why does everypony go straight to 'horse'? It's very strange.] An alicorn is a pony with the gifts and virtues of a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony.

[sweetdeath]

So.. you're a unicorn pony with wings, and, uh...

[What's an earth pony?

He's got the sense to stop before he suggests the first thing that comes to mind out loud, which is 'muddy hooves.']

... um.

[letteropener]

The wings of a pegasus and their ability to control the weather. The horn of a unicorn, and their ability to cast spells. The strength and endurance of an earth pony, and their affinity with the land.

[sweetdeath]

That's a lot of magic.

[Weather control is tough. That's god level power all on its own: for a moment, he wonders what she has as a divine power on top of it.]

So anybody who's born an alicorn where you're from gets to be royalty?

[letteropener]

[Weather control is a fact of life in Equestria. The weather just... doing its own thing, here? Still very weird.]

My mentor, a truly great unicorn named Star Swirl the Bearded, asked my sister and I to become the Princesses of Equestria when it was founded. Before then, unicorns held the titles of royalty and aristocracy, and many still do. But that is not the same thing at all. My, ah, very distant nephew Prince Blueblood is terribly unsuited to rule, for example.

[sweetdeath]

[Star Swirl the Bearded.... okay, okay, maybe this is a normal pony name....]

Oh. Okay, so you rule, but it's still hereditary for titles and stuff?

It sounds like your country must be pretty new, if you're the first two princesses.

[letteropener]

Unicorn aristocracy is mostly meaningless these days, though they put a great deal of stock into it.

As for Equestria, it is somewhere over two thousand years old.

[sweetdeath]

Wait. Wait. Does that mean you're more than --

[his voice rises just a little, not quite to a squeak]

-- two thousand years old?!

[letteropener]

Somewhere around there, yes. I've lost track of the precise time, as you might well expect after all that. My sister and I, being alicorns, age much differently than most ponies.

[sweetdeath]

[He only has one thing to say, very sincerely.]

Wow.

[letteropener]

I'll take that as a compliment. Even if it does concern my age. [She's teasing, honestly.]

[sweetdeath]

Oh! No, I didn't mean -- I mean -- uh -- you sound really young! Like not a day over twenty! I'd never guess!

[He's painfully easy to tease.]