In the early hours of the day, a soft tapping of a hoof on their room made Spike jerk awake. Already awake, Twilight looked at the door curiously before vanishing from sight. Spike slipped from bed and stretched before ambling over to the door and its soft tapping, "Yeah?"
He pulled the door open to reveal a stallion with a beard, robes, and a pointy hat. For a moment Spike thought back to Starswirl the Bearded, but there were differences, starting with his bright yellow fur color. The stallion smiled at Spike, "Many apologies. I did not mean to awaken you, but it is a very urgent matter."
Spike hiked a brow, curious and wary at once, "It's cool. What can I help you with? The libra..." He trailed off and frowned, wondering just how sleepy he was that he'd think he was back in the library that didn't even exist anymore. "Everypony's asleep."
"It is fortunate you are not a pony," he said, sounding genuinely happy about this. "My name is Celestus Span and I have been given a vision. The Princess Luminace sends her fondest regards and wishes that I guide a lost soul."
Twilight suddenly appeared, floating over Spike, "What? Really?"
Celestus jerked back in surprise as Twilight popped into existence, "Oh my, yes. You must be the one." He reached into his saddlebag with his mouth and pulled out a monocle. With a careful flip, it landed in place on his eye and he looked through it at Twilight, "Fascinating... I research the unfulfilled you know, and you are an amazing specimen. I suppose that is why The Scholar choose me for this task."
Spike crossed his arms, "Not that I'm upset you're here, offering to help, but what proof do we have you're from Luminace?"
"Princess Luminace," said Celestus with mild testiness, "You'll have to take it on faith. She is a goddess, after all, most radiant and wise. Besides, why else would I know you were here, and needed my help. You do need my help, do you not?"
Twilight bobbed her head, "We're looking for Queen Iliana, so she can fix... this." She gestures at herself with a hoof. "I want to be alive again, all the way, with a body. Can you help me?"
Celestus gave a slow nod, looking Twilight over again, "I can see you only became a ghost recently, within the year, perhaps even within the month. I'm certain we could help you. There are only two things you need." He held up a hoof, "A lot of diamonds." He put the hoof down and raised the other, "A powerful priest. I am a priest and a scholar, but not of the magnitude you require. That would be far too easy and direct, even for a goddess. I do not even practice divine magic, I am simply faithful in my ways. I do practice arcane magics, but that won't help this matter."
Twilight sagged as Spike spoke up, "We should have brought some diamonds with us from Equestria."
"Where?" asked Celestus, "No matter. We are not there, so we will do it the old-fashioned way, by paying for them. There are many powerful priests in this city, and grand churches where they work. Come, we will visit one." He turned, but the others didn't immediately follow him and he looked over shoulder at them, "Well?"
Spike pointed into the room, "We have other friends, and they're still sleeping. Do you want to come in and wait for them?"
Celestus' ears perked up, "Oh! I am being so rude right now. Yes, I will wait for them." He trotted in past Spike and Twilight and settled himself into a comfortable position, looking quite patient. He drew out a thick tome and began reading through it quietly.
Twilight leaned in towards Spike, close enough that he could feel the chill of death radiating from her snout, "I think he's being honest, but keep an eye on him."
Spike nodded as he replied just as quietly, "Will do. He seems nice enough."
Spike then returned to his bed, to discover that Soft Mane had woken up at some point. Sleeping beside her had been a new experience, but not one he was sure he really liked, or didn't. He had slept with Twilight before, but this was... different. She was sitting up and looking at their new guest. When he climbed up onto the bed, she leaned towards him, "Who's that?"
"Celestus," replied Spike, "He wants to help Twilight, said Luminace sent him."
Soft looked surprised, "Huh, that's really lucky."
"Divine intervention?" said Spike, half joking, but Soft nodded as if that was the obvious answer.
Soft slipped from the bed and went over to her armor, starting to prepare for a new day. It was a chain reaction that couldn't be stopped, as the others began to rouse from the activity. Applejack leaned over the side of her bed, peering at their new guest, "Well howdy there, stranger."
Celestus looked up from his book, ears going back and looking nervous. "Hello," he said in a soft voice, reminding Applejack immediately of Fluttershy.
"Don't be shy there, fella. We're not going to bite ya," insisted Applejack in kind tones.
Rainbow was not as subtle, rolling from her bed with a thump. She got to her hooves quickly, looked around, then was on their guest in a flash. "Who are you?"
He cowered at her suddenly approach and Twilight intervened, "Rainbow, down. He's here to help, and you're scaring him."
Rainbow huffed softly, "Sure, yeah." She turned and walked away, and Celestus turned bright red through his yellow fur.
"Ma'am... you really should be dressed," he squeaked, turning in place to not face either of the naked mares anymore.
Applejack grabbed her stetson and plopped it into place before hopping free of bed and stretching out.
"I'm not dressed," pointed out Twilight.
"You are also a ghost," argued Celestus. "You... do not appear to have any objectionable anatomy to see."
"Are you calling me objectionable?" asked Rainbow with a loud snort, "I'll show you objectionable."
"Rainbow..." said Twilight, frowning at her. "Be nice."
Soon enough everyone was dressed. Drowsy End knocked softly before entering, not waiting for a reply. "Breakfast," she announced in her sleepy way, carrying a heavy tray laden with eggs, toast, a pitcher of something, and other treats beside. She set the tray down on a small table and moved to depart, "Eat well." Though Twilight was in full view, Drowsy paid her little mind, and the door was soon closed behind her.
Breakfast, hot breakfast, was not a treat to be turned down by any of the travel-weary ponies, or dragon, or pony satyr. They enjoyed the fresh food with appreciative mumbles and voracious nibbles. The drink proved to be some kind of squeezed fruit. They didn't recognize the flavor, but it was delicious, and went well with the rest. All too soon, the food was demolished, but so was their hunger. Twilight moped as she watched them eat, but resisted the urge to whine about it.
Celestus turned to Twilight and spoke a few arcane words of power. A bolt of darkness lept from him to Twilight. She jumped back, surprised and alarmed, but his aim was true. The bolt brought a strange kind of pleasure and vitality instead of the expected pain. She shuddered and blushed, her misty form pinkening around the cheeks, "Oh, what was that?"
Celestus explained, "Negative energy feeds and restores the undead, as you currently are. While positive energy remains largely the domain of divine magic, negative can be slung by arcane magics well enough. Now that we are all fed, shall we be off?"
"Off ta where?" asked Applejack.
Spike answered, "We're going to see some priests about fixing Twilight and find out how much it costs."
Rainbow shrugged as she hovered in place, "I thought we were looking for that Queen?"
Soft Mane seemed to grasp the idea quickly, "The Queen would be nice, but we need a priest anyway, powerful enough to fix Twilight. We may as well find one while we're here."
Twilight nodded, "Sounds like we have a plan then." She drifted up to Celestus, "I don't suppose you have a way to make the city ponies not panic when I go along?"
Celestus shook his head, "The public opinion of the unfulfilled is quite low, and for good reason. Most are angry and prone to lashing out. They are so desperate to fulfill their destiny that they will bully, hurt, or even possess the living to make it happen."
Twilight tilted her head, "I can do that?"
Celestus replied, "Do what? Bully? Hurt? Without doubt."
Twilight shook a hoof at him, "Not those things! The last one, possess things?"
Celestus looked around, then back at Twilight, "I should not encourage it."
It was too late. Twilight's curiosity was bubbling and would not be put down so easily. She looked over her friends nervously, unsure which to try with. Spike raised a claw, "You can, uh, wait, what is possession, exactly?"
Soft Mane offered the answer to that, "It means she would hop inside of you, and control your body. You would become a passenger in your own body while she was there."
Spike shivered, "Creepy."
Celestus gave a soft sigh, "It is I that opened this jar. If you must, take my body, but you must give it back. Proceed to the temple of Princess Luminace first, and let me speak to the clerics there."
Twilight surged at Celestus. When her body contacted his, he howled in pain. Twilight jerked back, not wanting to hurt him. She frowned and focused, trying to command her form. Suddenly, she vanished. She could feel herself in a dark place, and there was Celestus. She approached him again, "What do I do now?"
Celestus stepped aside, but said nothing. Twilight, a little confused, but taking it as a sign, rushed past him, and suddenly she could see again. She had weight, mass. Her body hurt where it felt like coals had been pressed to it, but she had a body! She looked around the room slowly in a slow circle.
"Where'd Twilight go?" asked Rainbow.
"I'm right here," replied Twilight, but it was Celestus' voice that said it. "Oh..."
Rainbow rushed up into Twilight's new face, "Oh, wow! You're a stallion, Twilight. This is too much!"
Twilight blushed with... his... new cheeks, "I suppose I am. Soft, can you please heal me?"
Soft quickly approached Twilight and laid pink hands on him, soothing the spectral burns that Twilight's clumsy possession attempt had left behind. Twilight relaxed as the pain faded away, "Thank you, you're the best. So, uh, it's good to see you all, for real."
Spike shook his head, "It's nice that you have a heartbeat again, but it's not yours, Twilight. Let's get you a body of your own."
Applejack nodded in agreement, "At least it means we can walk through tha city without trouble."
"It's strange," spoke Twilight, "I can feel him, inside. He's watching what I do. Thank you, Celestus. This is a very precious gift." He moved up to Spike and grabbed him up in his new arms, kissing him on the cheeks, "Oh I missed holding you, Spike."
Spike went rigid, "Uh... I'm glad to see you too, Twilight..."
Applejack gently separated the two with a chuckle, "Save that for when you're back to being a mare. You're scaring him."
Twilight blushed all the hotter, "Oh, sorry." Not that this stopped Twilight in Celestus' body from giving everyone a hug in turn, but he spared any further kisses.
Spike pointed at Twilight's flank, "Look."
All the energetic hugging had nudged his robes out of place, exposing his flanks. Thinking Spike was commenting on that, Twilight moved to set it back in place, but then he saw it. Twilight's cutie mark was emblazoned there in place of whatever mark Celestus had originally. Soon the robe was covering the starry image. "We should go see that priest," Twilight murmured softly with a borrowed voice.
I think you meant "yeah" there, Spike.
travel-weary
They
Even though Twilight is currently possessing a male body, the fact that there are two consciousnesses makes your pronouns confusing. It would be clearer if you still referred to Twilight as "she" or perhaps ascribed the action to "Celestus' body" rather than just he.
Hm, that pronunciation seems to be going around. Stop spreading bad habits, Spike!
5673580 Fixed.
5673581 Fixed!
5673589 More fixing.
"They" didn't recognize the flavor.
EDIT: Whoops, "Pure White" noticed that error before I did! My mistake!
5673600 Albedo beat you to that one.
Extra space after softly.
5673600 Haha! Sniped!
Edit: You may be the first to comment on my user name, fellow nerd.
5673612 Fixed!
5673619 This round goes to you, but there will be others!
And yeah, I couldn't resist showing off that I knew what your username meant.
5673630 Technically, albedo is the fraction of light that gets reflected, not the spectrum, so it would only mean pure white if the light source was pure white. *In the distance, someone yells, "NEEERRRD!"*
5673637 That's with reference to the color of the light itself. My understanding is that albedo measures the reflectivity of a given surface - and as such, the only surface with a reflectivity rating of 1 would be one that was pure white.
This message brought to you by the Foundation for Wedgie Recovery.
"Old-fashioned."
Can't fault them for not thinking about the diamonds. They didn't know they would need any. Twilight really should do some research on divine magic in the future, especially since Luna's bringing it back to Equestria.
Poor Celestus. Tackled, wrongly accused, embarrassed, hit with negative energy, possessed, and made to kiss a dragon. Luminance didn't prepare him for the madness that is an adventuring party that's largely from another universe. This is going to be a long day for him.
Still, Twilight has a friend in a very high place, and she's willing to help. Huzzah! Let's just hope that this can be taken care of with some speed. Twilight's in good shape for now, but frustration and desperation have done unflattering things to her in the past...
5673712 Luminace can't just grab her by the ear and haul her, but sending a faithful is almost as good. Celestus is a good pony, at least, and a neeeeerd, as is befitting the faithful of Princess Luminace.
All the energetic hugging had nudged his robes out of place, exposing his flanks. Thinking Spike was commenting on that, Twilight moved to set it back in place, but then he saw it. His own cutie mark was emblazoned there in place of whatever mark Celestus had originally.
I can agree with most of how this is written, but it just feels wrong with that last sentence.
5674165 Tweaked. Hopefully better now.
Twilight seems to have taken a rather nasty hit to her, Diplomacy, stat? Or the base stat that it gets the modifier from?
Lots of diamonds, usually means lots of medium level or a high level adventure needed to pay for, but they can already effectively plane walk to gem world?
How much would that fire ruby heart that spike had, be worth on Everglow?
It's a case of David using the physical gender of the body, which folks not "in the know" would use when addressing/describing "Celestus Sparkle."
So... any plans for Sunset Shimmer to wind up in Everglow due to "reasons" and be a centaur or pony-satyr?
Oddly enough, she could wind up a gnome for stylistic reasons due to the non quadrupeds on Everglow hewing to the Pathfinder mold: PF Gnomes have to full range of EQG skintones available.
5673646 A surface with a albedo of 1 would be pure white, but something that was pure white would not automatically have an albedo of 1. Fresh snow has an albedo of 0.9 and some mirrors are as low as 0.5. They reflect the entire visible spectrum, but still absorb some light. The definition of albedo is strictly reflectiveness and does not specify color.
5674310 If Sunset Shimmer went to Everglow, she would turn into a pony. That's what happened to the Dazzlings.
5674327 The definition of albedo doesn't specify color, per se - but as you noted, if something has an albedo of 1, it must be pure white.
It's true that not all pure white substances have an albedo of 1; snow doesn't because it absorbs some radiation (mostly due to its endothermic nature); mirrors are a bad example anyway, largely being silver with tin, copper, and other materials.
But the larger point still stands. If something has a rating of "albedo = 1" then it will be pure white in color.
I don't know about that, Princess Luminace is the goddess of nerds...
5674359 But the terms are not interchangeable, an albedo of 1 is more specific than pure white. Aside from that, the reason I chose the name is because nothing in real life actually has an albedo of 1.
It's like "to infinity, and beyond," only without the copyright issues.
5674377 I wasn't suggesting that the terms were interchangeable; I was simply citing one of the most notable (to me) characteristics, which is that having a rating that high necessitates that specific color - I wasn't trying to imply that that was the only such property of such a rating, nor that that was what the rating meant in its totality.
5674377
5674359
And that concludes this week's episode of "More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Stuff That Doesn't Matter." Tune in next week when we examine the social implications of quilted paper towels and go undercover in the Absorptive Paper Syndicate.
5675156 Why should I? Isn't the whole point of alicorns that they're amalgations of all three tribes?
Edit: Heck, didn't Faust outright state at some point that they embody the traits of all three?
Edit2: Dude, I apologize if I somehow offended you, that wasn't my intent, but kindly tone down that demanding attitude. It ain't appreciated by anybody.
5675212 A question is not a demand. What people say, and what's actually done, are far different things. Twilight does not grow any stronger, larger, tougher, or do anything remotely earth-pony like. Aside from the word of a few... there is no proof that Twilight has a drop of earth pony blood/magic.
I am not mad. I do disagree, however.
5675248 Fair enough. You have your opinion, I have mine.
Now, back to the story. It's quite good so far, so I'm having high hopes for the rest of it.
5675156 The problem is that earth ponies themselves lack the traits typically ascribed to earth ponies, in the context of the show.
To put it another way, the show has done a terrible job of saying what it is about earth ponies that makes them special, compared to pegasi and unicorns. We're told relatively early on (e.g. in "Hearth's Warming Eve") that they're the only ones that can work the land - that is, perform agriculture - but that's not very helpful, since agriculture is knowledge, rather than an innate ability.
Some of the writers (if I recall correctly) have posited that earth ponies have an inherent connection to the land and its creatures...but there's nothing in the show that really lends itself to this. Fluttershy has more of a connection to nature than, say, AppleJack, and she's a pegasus.
It was only at the end of the fourth season - when Tirek was draining magic from ponies of all types - that we were flat-out told that losing their magic would drain earth ponies of the "strength to work the land."
So we finally had a concrete answer. But this answer presents a very poor explanation. Pinkie Pie doesn't display any particular strength or stamina that's greater than other ponies (something that's made evident in the third season finale, when we see her trying to run the apple farm and being unable to move the plow, for example). Nor do Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Nor does Cheerilee. AppleJack and Big Mac do, but this seems to be a function of a life of manual labor more than anything inherent to them.
As such, the problem isn't that Twilight and the other alicorns - whom I do believe are supposed to represent all three types of ponies - don't display the traits of earth ponies; it's that earth ponies as a whole don't have the traits that were (belatedly) ascribed to them.
5675424 Except they do have solid and well defined characteristics in Everglow, which Twilight does not have.
I think that's about that? Twilight does not measure up to local earth-bound ponies.
5675431 Oh sure; it makes complete sense within the context of Everglow (that's not sarcasm either - it really does make sense).
Everglow is a world that runs on very well-defined rules (the Ponyfinder rules, in fact), and Twilight and the others are "translated" over to them when they crossed over, so c'est la vie Twilight - at your level, you only get one awakened ancestry.
5675469 Twilight will also look different when/if she took on earth pony characteristics, gaining the hard lines and durable frame of a prairie pony.
5675495 What's most amusing to consider is a unification-bloodline pony sorcerer that has the characteristics of more than three tribes, thanks to judicious use of Improved Eldritch Heritage and Greater Eldritch Heritage.
Heck, depending on how you interpret the "Each time you select the feat, it applies to a different bloodline power for that bloodline available at sorcerer level 3 or 9" clause in Improved Eldritch Heritage (insofar as whether or not the various tribal powers of awakened ancestry constitute "different bloodline powers" or not), they could theoretically gain even more.
5675564 I would not allow this in my game. Fortunately I'm not the only GM around.
5675590 Sorry, you wouldn't allow the somewhat-dodgy interpretation of taking Improved Eldritch Heritage multiple times? Or you wouldn't allow somepony to take those feats (to gain extra tribal characteristics) at all?
5675604 Each selection is not itself a 'power' the 'power' is 'gain one tribe'. I wouldn't allow taking it repeatedly to take multiple extra spells or otherwise re-take things that give options. I really don't think that's the intent?
5675615 Actually, I just realized that the entire point is moot.
The original Eldritch Heritage feat says that you can't take bloodline powers for a bloodline you already possess. And since I think that your interpretation of the "take this feat multiple times for multiple powers" clause with regards to awakened ancestry is correct, that means that nopony would be able to exploit these to have more than two tribal traits in addition to their native ones.
Ah well, it was fun imagining "super-alicorns."
This chapter is actually... Really interesting. Celestus allowing her to borrow his body like that is immensely trusting, I think more than anything he could have said or done That proves He's trustworthy. A Huge risk Allowing her control like that.
Twilight is so adorable.