That night I didn't have a restful sleep.
Even with all the excitement of the previous day my mind wandered to past times... sad times when I had to watch my children kill themselves in pointless wars about everything. Even when I gave them everything I had... they still wanted more. They were young and brash back then, but they learned as time went on.
I tried to think on the wonders I would be seeing the next day with small success, but before I could delve more into the past the sun rose from the horizon, bringing a new day.
I noticed that the atmosphere was tense, and all the young ones were watching me as I ate, as if I was going to grow a head or something like that. At least the little one from yesterday, a unicorn called Blueblood, was being a dear and ate all his breakfast in silence, leaving his plate squeaky clean before muttering something and leaving the table. I was so proud of him!
After the uneventful breakfast they started to talk about something while I was sorting out more of my new lexicon. I was looking about that 'moon' thing when the doors of the dining hall opened to show another alicorn, this time one with a lovely pink coat and multicolored mane. Twilight smiled widely at the pink alicorn and ran towards her... and gave her a hug? They also did this funny dancing that made all of the present ponies giggle. Were they sisters like Luna and Celestia? They looked the youngest of them all, that was for sure.
"Ah, so she is the pony I've been hearing so much about lately..." She said, giggling "Sorry, I always wanted to say that. My name is Mi Amore Cadenza. But please, call me Cadance. It's a pleasure to meet you" She said, making a small bow at me.
"Such politeness... Don't worry about that, dear. I'm Gaia, and it's also a pleasure to meet you, young Cadance" I said to her while smiling.
"Welcome back to Canterlot, niece. How was the train?" Luna asked her.
"It was nice as always, aunt Luna. I even had breakfast there. I'm ready whenever you are" Cadance replied with a perky voice. Luna and Celestia nodded at her words. They had planned something for today then? I think they talked about something yesterday... Oh well... I noticed that Celestia rose from her throne and walked towards me.
"Gaia, I need to tell you that some of my fellow princesses are a bit... skeptical about your claims and we would like you to accompany us somewhere where you can show us your powers without disturbing anypony." Celestia asked me. Ah... so we reached that point.
"Of course I would go with you, dear. Just lead the way" I told her. The other princesses got around us, almost making a ball of fur and feathers. "I don't think we would be able to move if you all stick to me like tree sap." I told them while laughing. I also noticed that Cadance was a lot warmer than the others. I wonder if it's because she looks to eat more healthily than the rest? Celestia chuckled at my remark.
"Oh, we are ready to depart. Just try to clear your mind, and close your eyes" She said. What what?
"Why would you...?" I tried to say when suddenly her horn sparkled with energy, just before a flash blinded me. I knew that something was very wrong in seconds.
We moved in a instant from the castle to a place far away to the south. My inner compass went nuts and I almost lost my breakfast. In a couple of seconds my vision cleared to an apparently barren land.
"What!? How did you do that?" I asked Celestia, who looked pretty proud of herself right now.
"That was a teleportation spell, Gaia. One of the many things an alicorn can do with magic" She told me with a smile.
"You need to learn the basics first though!" Twilight said with a wider smile than Celestia. They loved to teach, don't they?
"But first we have something to do. Before anything else we need to perform some standard scans on you, Gaia." Celestia told me in a more serious tone.
"Go ahead. I already had to live through something like this, if a bit more invasive" I told her. Twilight looked a bit conflicted, but pulled out a strange device from her bags... Oh she had bags like me! Mine are prettier though...
"First we are going to measure your magical output. I'm going to put this ring on your horn You see that the ring is connected to this machine? It will tell us how much magical potential you have, or at least a good approximation of it. It's a modified version for alicorn-like beings. I did it myself!" Twilight explained proudly. She was just like my son, with his little machines... "So, we put this right here... Alright! and now we turn this on..." She said while pressing a button.
The little machine exploded as she pressed the button, scaring all of us. I quickly went and looked over her, as she was rigid as a statue.
"Goodness dear, are you alright?" I asked her as I checked her face and eyes "Thankfully you seem unharmed..."
"What happened, Twilight?" Celestia asked.
"It overloaded... in barely a fraction of a second" Twilight said in a whisper "It should have been able to take all of our powers combined, and it just... exploded..."
"Aw, don't worry about that. You can make more, it was just a machine" I told her, patting her head. The other alicorns were looking at me a bit perplexed. What?
"Gaia, you seem to be an ancient being..." Celestia started to say, but I cut her off.
"Stop that, you're going to make me blush. I look hardly that young" I told her with a timid smile.
"...and that you were from other planet. I think that maybe our way to count days and years differ in some way. Gaia, do you know what a second is, and how much time is it?" Celestia asked me. I closed my eyes and looked for its definition. Oh, would you look at that!
"Yes, and it's a time unit I'm familiar with, surprisingly enough" I told her with a smile.
"In that case... how many hours does a day have in your world?" She asked me. Oh, I knew where this was going!
"My planet has a day of over twenty hours. And a year has three hundred and fifty days" I replied calmly.
"That's not so different from our time system..." Celestia said, pensive. Luna didn't look impressed though.
"That may be so, but I want to see what is she capable of" She said with a frown. Girl, you need to smile more!
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
And so, they were asked with the question they were looking for.
"You said you were the warden of your world. Surely you can do something more than watch" Luna said with a serious tone. Gaia laughed at that.
"You would be surprised how much of my work is just watching the world. I could show you but I don't want to disturb this biome" She told them with a serene smile.
"This has hardly any kind of life. I don't think you are going to disturb anything, Gaia" Twilight said. Gaia just hummed and closed her eyes.
"We shall see about that soon enough" She simply said. That's when they felt it. It was just a sudden rush of energy from Gaia, but when she opened her eyes, they knew they were watching something unique for the first time.
Gaia's eyes were now sparking with some kind of power, as some wisps of lime green color were coming out of them. She just looked slowly to the ground, humming to herself.
"Let's see... huh... desert with barely any kind of rain... heat around a third of the temperature over needed to boil water from the freezing point... Aha... no wind from anywhere... that explains the lack of rain. Interesting... there are no thriving animals around, oddly enough... not much altitude, and the magma is stagnant. How boring... Oh? sapient settlement of insectoids... over a couple of thousand souls..." Gaia said as she looked everywhere. After that she closed her eyes and when they opened again they were back to normal.
"T-that is hardly worth anything. We already knew that, even that the changeling hive was somewhere in the badlands. We are going to need more than random facts to be impressed" Luna said, making Gaia chuckle.
"So that's how it is... Alright dear, I'll bite. Are those mountains at the east important in some way?" She asked softly.
"As far as I know they are just as barren as the badlands. Nopony lives there and there aren't any valuable resources in them" Twilight said. Gaia nodded.
"Good. It would be a pity to work on something here and see how it dries to death" She simply said.
"What do you mean?" Cadance asked.
"Don't worry, there will be enough desert left for the little creatures. So, there we go!" She said happily while raising her right hoof. The sand on the ground started to float from the sheer power Gaia was showing, making everypony amazed at her apparent might, only to be scared when she decided it was enough and stomped her hoof on the ground.
All the princesses felt an absurd amount of power coming from Gaia, and the mountains just toppled and went down, shaking the ground and leaving a corridor towards the coast. She stomped a couple of times for good measure, breaking the mountain range in two. Gaia smiled towards her speechless audience.
"The fun has just begun, dears"
Gaia's hooves started to glow lime green as she trotted towards the corridor. Each time one of her hooves touched the ground a plant sprouted, making a trail of green as she walked. The other alicorns managed to control their amazement and went on a chase. Gaia laughed and galloped away, still laughing and leaving now a trail of green grass and flowers behind her. Luna and Celestia opened their wings and decided to fly and watch from above, while Cadance and Twilight continued on hoof.
Soon the celestial sisters noticed that the trail was getting wider and wider as Gaia ran, one biome replacing another in her wake.
Gaia, sporting a wide smile, suddenly jumped high towards the sky. Every alicorn felt Gaia's power building again much like when she flattened the mountains. Gaia started to glow green as she descended, front hooves first. They watched another miracle when the hooves of the green alicorn touched the ground again.
Green light exploded from her, shaking the ground as a green sphere of energy expanded wider by the second, leaving grass and greenery where it touched the ground. In a couple of minutes every alicorn was on the ground, mouths agape as they were now enjoying a sunny morning on the now green prairies. There was a small portion of desert far to the west, but half of the badlands were now just plains of green. Gaia was still jumping around, assisted by her wings, as she made trees grow here and there.
When there was enough green Gaia decided to land and started to make a small riverbed with her own hooves, humming an alien tune as she worked.
"C-Cadance... you didn't see any kind of darkness in her heart, r-right?" Celestia said, shaken by the show of power.
"No, auntie. She is just as pure as a baby foal" Cadance replied with a small smile.
"How i-is that you are s-so calm after, well... T-this!" Twilight pointed out to the now green landscape. Cadence looked at Gaia with a tender smile.
"Because I also felt her love, Twilight. And she could rival me in that area. She just loves... everything, form the smallest plants to the ugliest creatures. She truly has a heart of gold" Cadance explained, her smile not wavering a bit and her tone one filled with conviction.
Meanwhile, a changeling was wondering why there was grass at the hive door.
Ah! Gaia is more earth pony than unicorn in her power usage. About time we saw some epic earth pony action.
Celestia: "Luna? Do you have anything to add?"
Luna: "Bleeeeurrggghhhhh...."
Celestia: "My thoughts exactly"
Mary Sue
Let the downboats and vitriol commence.
Ah, changelings. I want Gaia to meet Chrysalis
5595771 It was implied by the story itself. I mean... did you look at the cover?
PD: I had a giggle with your comment.
Yes!
I don't know why, but reading how Gaia turned nowhere into paradise for some reason reminded me of this...
I bet you that's how she feels.
AND YET ANOTHER AWESOME CHAPTER!
Freakout occurring in three... two... one...
5595765 DAMN STRAIGHT!!!
EQUAL EQUINE RIGHTS TREATMENT FOR THE WIN!!.
Well played, well played. I can't wait to see what'll happen when the rest of the races of that planet meet Gaia. Something tells me that things will get very awkward.
And this makes me wonder what sort of things Celestia and Luna will be capable of in a couple billion years.
5595765 I was thinking exactly that. Always seen Tia more as a Unicorn while Luna and Cadence are Pegasi. Lovely to see a Earth Pony in the mix.
Author, you said this was a SimEarth crossover, yes? I've never played SimEarth and know nothing about it, all I knew was I liked the title and cover art of this story.
This is now my favorite story on this website. Thank you for writing it. You're a brilliant writer.
this was a good chapter
Was reading this on my phone (responding as well) and I caught three typoes. Aside from that, nothing too out of the ordinary.
5595868 It's on the virtual console on the Wii for $8.
Is the alien song the theme of "Spore"?
I bet Gaia has a pet wolf called Okami
5595771
I agree with Hwyther. Did you even read the synopsis? This is a crossover with SimEarth. (read up on that game before criticising her abilities)
So it's absolutely natural for her to have this much power, if not more. Her character couldn't be less sue'ish. Gaia is a wonderful motherly character.
and THIS is why we call it mother nature or mother GAIA she is a MOTHER
5595784 Totally agree with that.
5595838
Pinkie is more than earth pony. She is Pinkie Pie.
5595890
This story is so well written that you don't really need to have played it to understand what is going on.
I do like her concern for the existing biome before she just went about drastically changing it. And that she left a piece of the original one around. Terra forming should not be thoughtless after all.
Speaking of... Teach the Apple Family your secrets! Wait... she just made prairies... The buffalo might be her first loyal subjects.
5595784
the first changeling to meet Gaia will die of love overdose... either that or become powerful enough to wreck the universe.
5595920 A possible suggestion is to probably give her some sort of flaw. Like her being naive to certain dangers or perhaps she might take some things a little too far. After all, she did mention about being short sighted in the beginning, perhaps we should see more of that then talking about it.
Also, does anyone think that her son might get worried over something so he'd might try to come down and find her? (Now there's an interesting thought in and of itself.)
You missed an opportunity to say over 9000 mate.
Meanwhile, a changeling was wondering why there was grass at the hive door.
He's like "The fuck is this shit"
media.tumblr.com/581e68019de23b210d840418869a7a93/tumblr_inline_nf63ssLrfe1smprhe.gif
FINALLY!
*inserts future world music here*
Time for my daily spell checking session
"That may be so, but I want to see what is she capable of" She said with a frown. Girl, you need to smile more!
"T-that is hardly worth anything. We already knew that, even that the changeling hive was somewhere in the badlands
In a couple of minutes every alicorn was on the ground, mouths agape as they were now enjoying a sunny morning on the now green prairies
All the princesses felt an absurd amount of power coming from Gaia, and the mountainsjust toppled and went down, shaking the ground and leaving a corridor towards the coast.
Gaia's hooves started to glow lime green as she trotted towards the corridor. Each time one of her hooves touched the ground a plant sprouted, making a trail of green as she walked.
5596029
I don't think she needs some artificial flaw, seeing as she is the avatar of nature itself. Nature is neither perfect nor imperfect. It just is.
It adapts and it doesn't care for neither future nor past. I think Hwyther got that very well in his characterisation of Gaia.
She has not a care in the world. Sure, that makes her a little bit ignorant (which could count as a flaw, for example) but at the same time she is a little bit detached from the world because she IS the world.
As I see it her having this much power doesn't need to be compensated because she already has the only personality possible to contain that much power without having the doubt of her possibly being corrupted by it or ever abusing it for selfish reasons.
Or course this is only my opinion and anyone can object to that. But for me she already is perfect and I wouldn't have her any other way.
@Hwyther don't let doubt get to you. Gaia is perfect. You don't need to change anything, if you ask me.
5596102 You are both kinda wrong, Gaia already has a major flaw.... Manners.
Imagine the face of Chrysalis
5596108
If you say so^^
Manners mean nothing to nature (irony of this emoticon intended^^)
5595868
The audio and mouse emulation can be a bit glitchy at times and it's still unclear whether they have the correct rights, so they might have to take it down eventually, but the DOS version of SimEarth can currently be played for free via the Internet Archive's in-browser DOSBox port.
https://archive.org/details/msdos_SimEarth_-_The_Living_Planet_1990
5595986 That's true and it's not that easy or short of a game it you just want to create your own planet due to its age.
Go Cadance! At least someone can take Gaia as she is. The others seem to be serving as foils, thus far, but Cadance feels much better so far. I'm itching to see some Cadance-Gaia interactions one-on one!
Damn. I start to grin like an idiot just from anticipation before reading the chapter.
Omg yes changelings, I can't imagine what better will be if gaia just gonna smooch them all saying how cute they are and they are being dumbstruck because she love them all or I dunno its gonna be good anyway :D
5595808
I love that advertisment sad it was so short time showed, this is example how you should make advertisments.
5596335 Advertisement? Oh no, I actually saw this from Fantasia 2000. The whole nature thing reminded me of this.
So Gaia's gonna feed all the changelings then?
More please!
Thoughts on this chapter:
-Whoa. Twilight's machine blew up a split second after it was turned on? I guess that confirms as to why Discord's jaws dropped when he tried to scan the aura surrounding Gaia early in the story.
-Although people predicted that Gaia will change the landscape in the previous chapter, the execution in this chapter was still impressive. It was fascinating reading about how Gaia changed part of the desert into a lush, green valley. And she can scan the landscape to gain information about the land's information, too!
-Glad to see Cadance appreciate of Gaia's love toward every plant, animal, and living beings in the world.
Another brilliant chapter full of awesomeness. Keep it up!
5596066
derpicdn.net/img/2015/1/7/801330/medium.jpg
Things just got more interesting. I wonder if Gaia will ever actually get to explore?
The queen won't like this
5596396 ....Eh, she isn't a threat.
Gaia will just love her to..... Oh wait
GAIA NO!
5596425
A good way to get fat and an upset tummy
Note Self Never Let Gaia Explore Or Get Interaction With The Changeling's
5596394
5596447 could they stop her? the only thing keeping her their is her friendly nature.