Stained Glass

Admiral Biscuit

The six Element bearers and Spike admired the stained glass window that bore Spike’s visage. He stood triumphant, one claw reaching for the Crystal Heart: a moment of victory that would not soon be forgotten—the salvation of the Crystal Empire plainly placed in the Hall of Heroes for everypony to see.

“Oh, Spikey-wikey has his very own memorial window now,” Rarity gushed, running a hoof across his crest. “Such a brave little dragon!”

Rainbow muttered something and turned away from the mushy garbage Rarity was spouting. Sure, Spike had a stained glass window, but she was in, like, three of them. Or was it four? She began counting the windows. There was one for defeating Nightmare Moon, one for re-imprisoning Discord, and of course, the changeling invasion. There should have been one for her sonic rainboom. Why, she probably had more windows than Commander Hurricane!

She began flying down the hallway, looking intently at the windows, studying them carefully. Not all of the images were entirely clear—especially to a pegasus who'd napped through most of her history classes—which was why there were brass plaques underneath each, naming the heroes and the event.

Finally reaching the end of the hall, she discovered no windows featuring Commander Hurricane. With a slightly sour look on her face, she flew back to rejoin the group.

“How come there aren’t more windows?”

“Ah shucks, don’t ya think your ego’s big enough already?”

Ignoring the barb, she turned to Twilight. Surely the egghead would know the answer. Of course, her eyes were kind of distant—she was looking at the window but not really seeing it. Rainbow waved a hoof in front of her face, yet elicited no response. “Hey, Twilight—how come there aren’t more stained glass windows?”

“How are your classes?”

Twilight gently set the teacup on its saucer, priding herself as always at not sloshing the tea. “Um. . . “ She hated it when Celestia asked that. It always felt like a test to make sure she was keeping up with her studies, and she was. She’d read ahead in all her books, and was already practicing spells that were several levels above her peers. The only sour note was gym class: while she’d found books with all sorts of helpful tips, they were of little use in actually conveying the psychomotor skills needed to successfully score a point in hoofball. It didn’t help that it was against the rules to use magic, and Twilight kept forgetting, especially when the ball came towards her face. On the other hoof, she was getting really good at casting shield spells on the fly.

Celestia was still regarding her with a curious look. Twilight blushed, realizing she hadn’t answered the question. “Um, well, Literature class is good. We’re reading Withering Heights, and I’ve already written a scroll on the symbolism of the protagonist’s struggle against the dominant mare. Trigonometry is a breeze, so I started doing calculus for fun. We’re doing advanced telekinesis in casting class, and I can already move the biggest stone on the field a few inches. Then there’s gym and lunch follows which is really good, they had alfredo pasta today but I didn’t have any because I didn’t want to get any sauce on my book so I just had whole-grain toast instead. After lunch I have a free hour which I spent in the library, then another casting class, and then history. I read ahead in the book a little bit, to where the Canterlot castle was built. It said that there was a stained glass window which commemorated Commander Hurricane installed in the hall leading up to the throne room, and later it said that more windows were added and it was called the Hall of Heroes. I looked, though, and I couldn’t find the window, and the book didn’t say what had happened to it.”

Celestia chuckled softly. “History books don’t always tell the whole story, Twilight.” She looked down at the unicorn gently. “I could meet you at the main gate tomorrow after school and show you. Would you like that?”

“Would I?” Twilight would have leapt from her seat in excitement if she hadn’t already suffered through a semester of etiquette class. “Of course I would!”

“Hey, Twilight. Hey! Twilight!”

She snapped her head around, the memory fading. “What, Rainbow?”

Rainbow took a step backwards, surprised by the harshness of Twilight’s voice. “Er. Twilight?”

“Sorry.” Twilight smiled disarmingly. “I was thinking.”

“I could tell,” Dash muttered. “Hey, Twilight, how come there aren’t more stained glass windows? There aren’t any with Commander Hurricane, and she was, like, the greatest pegasus ever.”

“Oh!” Twilight brightened. “Right! There are, but they’re not all in the Hall of Heroes. They wouldn’t all fit!”

“I guess that makes sense.” Rainbow looked up and down the walls. “So, what, is there a stained glass window library or something?”

“No,” Twilight said soberly. “Not a library, but a museum.”

True to her word, Celestia met Twilight at the front gate of her School for Gifted Unicorns. She was surrounded by a small gaggle of teachers, all pressing her for questions, but they moved aside when Twilight approached.

“Are we going to the Stained Glass Museum?” Twilight asked eagerly.

A small smile crossed the Princess’ lips. “We are indeed, my faithful student. Tell me, how long did it take you to find what it was called?”

“Almost all of my lunch break,” she said. She’d rushed there as soon as gym class was over, eagerly browsing through books about Canterlot. It had taken her most of the hour to realize that a tourist’s guidebook would be her most helpful resource. There were so many fascinating places in the city, she wondered if she’d ever have time to visit them all; even the castle still held surprises.

“We ought to stop by Donut Joe’s on the way,” Celestia said. “I think you’ll like it.”

One strawberry-frosted donut and cup of cocoa later, Twilight and the Princess soon found themselves in front of the Stained Glass Museum. It was tucked back a little way off the street, with a tidy garden in the front, but aside from the small sign in front of the building, it could have been almost anything.

“I’m afraid we won’t be able to see it all in one day, Twilight. But of course you can come back whenever you wish. The museum is open to all citizens of Equestria.”

As they were walking up the marble steps, Twilight looked up at her mentor. “Why haven’t you kept all the windows in the castle? It’s bigger than the museum; surely they all would have fit somewhere.”

Celestia chuckled. “I think it’s better for ponies to focus on the more-recent past, so I have reserved the Hall of Heroes only for those ponies who have done brave deeds in living memory. I—it’s complicated to explain, but it would be unfair to those ponies who work in the castle, or those who come there looking to the future, were it to be a stale monument to the past.

“At the same time, it is important that we remember where we’ve been, and honor those brave ponies who brought us where we are today, and this museum does that.” She lit her horn and opened the front doors for Twilight.

Twilight looked around the lobby eagerly. The room was a simple open chamber, with a small information desk in the center, and a bored-looking curator examining her hooves seated behind it. She jerked to attention as soon as she saw the Princess.

From reading the guidebook, Twilight knew that the museum was made up of a series of large interconnected hallways surrounding an open courtyard. She also knew that the more central halls held the oldest windows, and that the outermost ring was incomplete. To her frustration, she hadn’t managed to finish the book before lunch ended, and had had no opportunity after that.

She’d been thinking about it all the way over. Should she ask to be led around the oldest ring—where the windows dated back to the very founding of Equestria—or the outer ring, where the more contemporary windows were placed? Or should she pick a middle hallway? More importantly, what would the Princess think of whatever choice she made?

“Perhaps you’d like to see entry to the Hall of Unicorns?” Celestia prompted. “There are several nice windows dedicated to Starswirl the Bearded there.”

“Yes!” Twilight closed her eyes, trying to remember which wing contained the Hall of Unicorns. It was on the left . . . was it the second or third corridor?

When she opened her eyes again, she realized that the Princess was across the room already. Twilight galloped after her, frustrated by her short legs. Next year, she’d learn the spell to teleport—she’d already tried to study it on her own, but it was far too complicated for her to wrap her head around. There were so many difficult variables that went into the casting of the spell, and if it was done wrong, it just sucked up a lot of magical energy without accomplishing anything.

At the sound of galloping hooves, the Princess paused, waiting for Twilight to catch up. As she led the filly into the first room, she began explaining. “Most of the halls have an entry chamber, and they’re generally just decorative windows which feature appropriate themes.”

Twilight looked at the windows in wonder. Over the years, she’d grown accustomed to the ones in the Hall of Heroes, but that chamber was big enough that they fit in properly. Here, in a narrower corridor, the windows seemed to reach impossibly tall, and she realized that she’d have to back up to fully appreciate them.

The book had told her that all of the windows in the main part of the museum were fitted with light-crystals so that they would glow pleasantly regardless of outside conditions.

“That window dates back to pre-unification,” Celestia began. “It shows a tribe of earth ponies giving tribute to the unicorns, in return for the unicorn council raising the sun.” She pointed to a hole near the top. “It was broken in the siege of Fillydelphia, and never repaired—at the time, the unicorns didn’t know how to make colored glass. That was an earth pony skill.

“They kept it in their council chambers for nearly a generation before I ordered that they remove it. It sent the wrong message, I felt—it was not about unity and harmony, but about slavery.”

“Why is it here? If it sends a bad message, wouldn’t it be wisest to destroy it?”

“No, Twilight. We cannot change the past, as much as we might like to. It is better to serve as a reminder of why the old way of doing things had to change than to hide it and pretend that it never happened.” She paused for a moment and pointed towards the next window. “Now, this one is a tribute to scrollwork in general. The spell which is shown on the glass is said to bring good luck to the caster, and many a generation of student has cast that very same spell on herself before an examination.”

Twilight hastily skimmed the words. They nagged at her mind; she’d seen a similar spell before—but something was missing from this one. “Princess, I don’t think this spell could work. There’s no effect, just a target. If a mare were to cast it, all it would do is make her horn glow before the spell fizzled.”

Celestia smiled. “Most unicorns aren’t as studious as you, and never noticed that.”

Rather than continue to hallway of unicorns, Twilight headed back towards the main foyer. “Can we look at the others? Before I have to choose?”

“Of course.”

They went next to the pegasus entryway. Both sides were flanked with portraits of Commander Hurricane. In the first, he was standing proudly atop a cloud, with an entire pegasus hipparchy arrayed behind him. Twilight moved in close, taking in the details of the image—the artisan had painted fine details on the stained glass, and even though time had faded the image somewhat, it was still easy enough for her to imagine what the window had looked like in its heyday.

Across the hallway, the image was still martial. This time, neat ranks of earth ponies dressed in heavy armor were lined up on the ground, while soaring above them was Commander Hurricane.

“The Hearth’s Warming Pageant is not entirely accurate,” Princess Celestia said quietly. “Simply a foal’s tale, although the moral is worth knowing.”“There wasn’t an endless winter?”

“Oh, there was, and the tribes feuding did empower the Windigos. But they did not resolve their differences in a cave, but rather on a battlefield.” She pointed to the first window. “It wasn’t until long after unification that the first pegasus got her cutie mark in glassmaking. So both of these were made by earth pony craftsmares, in honor of the peace treaty between the pegasi and earth ponies. You see, the pegasi needed a source of food, and the earth ponies were tired of fending off their raids. I do not know who first proposed an alliance against the unicorns, but that was a turning point, as there were now two tribes guarding the diminishing food sources.”

Twilight considered that. She’d never really thought too much about where her food came from, but now that she was thinking about it, she could see how the earth ponies and the pegasi had a clear symbiotic relationship. “Are all their windows about war?”

“Not all of them, but the pegasi do glorify great deeds, and most of their windows reflect that.” Celestia nuzzled her student. “Do you wish to see the earth pony entryway before you make up your mind?”

Twilight shook her head.

“You do not?”

“I’ve already made up my mind—I want to see the earth pony hallway.” Twilight took a breath. “They invented stained glass, right? So that means that everything else in the museum comes from that, and I think I’ll understand it best if I start from the beginning.”

She lead the way back to the main foyer, then looked up and down the halls, trying to orient herself. She hadn't had time to fully examine the tourist guide, but she thought she could remember the map. The earth pony hallway was all the way on the left.

Just to be safe though, she let Celestia lead her down the hallway. In case she was wrong.

The teacher and her student stopped in front of a small alcove. It was flanked on either side by tall stained glass windows, both depicting earth ponies working the land. Twilight knew by their clothes and the farm buildings in the background that the scene depicted was post-unification. That struck her as odd: her logical mind would have put the oldest windows at the front, yet she knew that the earth ponies had been crafting stained glass windows for centuries before the unification. Some of them, she knew, had been given to the unicorns as tribute.

She didn't mean to mention it, but she couldn't help herself:Twilight was a curious pony. "Why aren't the oldest windows first?"

Celestia chuckled. "As the head curator of the museum says, they aren't as 'aesthetically pleasing,' but I will let you be the judge of that." She pointed a hoof towards the window on the left. "This one depicts the harvesting of an alfalfa field, and was made in honor of Lucerne Sprout, who founded the River’s Bend settlement. And right beside it, the first pear harvest in Sunny Meadows. Maquette and Flashed Glass were always such rivals, and tried to outdo each other with their windows.”

Twilight studied the windows. She wasn't very familiar with farming; the palace had plenty of gardens, but she was aware those weren’t the same as farms. Sometimes, on a particularly clear day, she could look out a palace window and see some distant fields checkerboarding the landscape, although they were much too far away to make out any details.

She also was not a student of botany; however, even a neophyte like her could tell that the plants represented were all distinct species. It struck her as an interesting insight into the mindset of earth ponies: that they would put such minute detail into the stained glass window. "Were the two windows made at the same time?"

Princess Celestia shook her head. "No. The window on the left was made first, by ponies in River’s Bend, and upon hearing of it, the ponies of Sunny Meadows decided to send a representative to see it and then make a better window." She pointed a hoof at the small brass plaque underneath the window. "The whole story is there."

Twilight looked at the plaque, and thought about reading it. Then she thought about the Princess standing next to her, and thought about how easily she could spend the day or more reading about the windows. She would have liked to, but deep inside she felt that the opportunity to visit at least some of the museum in the company of her mentor was an opportunity not to be squandered. She could learn about the windows from somepony who had been there when they were made, who perhaps knew things about them that the history books would never say.

In a rare moment of wisdom for such a young filly, Twilight shook her head. "I can come back and read it later, Princess."

Princess Celestia beamed at her, and let her through the archway. "This is the oldest known stained glass window."

Twilight looked at it. It was what her art teacher might've called ‘primitive.’ The design looked like something a foal might make. The colors were garishly bright, and the form was abstract. If it was meant to represent anything, Twilight couldn't figure out what.

"That window is older than I am," Princess Celestia said.

Twilight looked at it with newfound respect. It might be ugly, but it was very, very old.

"It decorated a granary in the pre-unification lands. The tribe gave it to us as a gift after we took the throne."

The next window was easier to understand. It depicted an earth pony family tending their fields, and Twilight started to wonder if all the stained glass windows were going to be of earth ponies caring for their lands.

As they went on, however, the windows depicted other scenes. Other ponies. Heroic warriors. Leaders. Explorers. And, on one occasion, just an ear of corn.

Throughout it all, Princess Celestia gave a small summary of the window, who it had been made for—if that was known—and when it had been given to the Crown.

In most cases, she even knew the artisan who had created it.

Twilight took it all in, absorbing the history like a sponge. She’d never really thought about just how old Equestria was. She’d never really thought about how old the Princess was.

There were some ponies she knew already—every foal knew the names of Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie—but there were so many names she’d never heard; so many ponies who had been important enough to warrant a stained glass window in their honor and yet would be otherwise forgotten.

When they finally reached the end of the hall, the Princess leaned down and nuzzled her. "I think we've seen enough of the museum for one day. I have my royal duties to attend to, and I wouldn't want to make your mother upset by keeping you past your dinner time."

She had been feeling a little bit of hunger, but she’d pushed that to the back of her mind. A learning opportunity like this was more important than dinner. “Can we come back?"

"Yes, my faithful student. Shall we meet here again in one week's time?"

Twilight nodded.

Author's Notes:

Pre-reading by AShadowOfCygnus, MSPiper, and metallusionismagic.