No Nose Knows
Chapter 31: 31. - Afterglow
Previous Chapter Next ChapterPrincess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria, Matron of The Sun and Mare of The Morning awoke feeling like she never had before. The morning air was cool and refreshing, birds were tweeting joyfully as they danced among the bushes and trees outside, and there was an energy in the air that simply had never been there before.
There was also the slight hint of sweat that wafted up from the cushions when she stretched out her front legs, and a blush tickled its way across her cheeks when she recalled what had transpired the night before. Twice.
For a short time after the founding of Equestria, Celestia had listened in on an innumerable number of ‘mare talk’ sessions between both nobles and chambermares, and the accompanying stories of late-night rendezvous and succulent sweet nothings had been so steamy that she eventually had to start excusing herself from them. If the truth was to be told, Celestia did feel a twinge of jealousy and anger towards these fortunate females. While they were living life to its fullest, she was forced to play ‘Keep Away from Iron Hoof,’ and she had feared what might happen to her hopes and dreams if she were to be ever caught in an illicit affair.
As the years rolled by, she had forged a barrier around her heart. It was a grand fortress that allowed admittance to none save Luna and her family, and she learned how to find a measure of joy in the success of the mares who possessed what she did not. By the time of Luna’s banishment, her feelings were so tightly controlled by her duties and devotion to her ponies that she had stopped thinking about intimate love all together, and thus it had remained for a millennia.
But in one glorious evening, Baked Bean had completely and utterly obliterated a thousand years of work.
She smiled slightly to herself and gave a short hum of satisfaction. Her Bean had given her a fruit most succulent, and now she no longer had to suppress or ignore the cravings she felt. With him, she would experience a joy beyond compare, and if the residual tingling in her hooves were any indication, this joy would take both of them out past Luna’s stars.
She gave a loving glance down to her lover, her prince, and best of all, her husband. His body was still pressed closely against her, and an adorable smile of contentment resided on his face.
“You didn’t take your medicine last night.”
She jumped a bit at his husky voice, but she laughed outright as his smile brightened and he peaked one eye at her.
“I will admit I was a bit eager to get to bed.” She smirked, but then a hoof went before her nose in alarm when she realized what his statement meant. “Oh no! Don’t tell me…”
“If you did I slept right through it.” He chuckled, then angled his head up to kiss her, despite having morning breath that could kill a chimera, and she gladly indulged in his invitation.
“Think we’ll ever be able to match what happened?” Bean asked when they finally pulled apart.
“I certainly hope so. Last night was…”
She paused, and a pleased smile grew for both of them.
“Woof.”
Bean simply nodded in agreement with a chuckle.
“Sadly, we have other things to do today.” Celestia whispered as she nipped in between his ears. “I would love to stay like this but I’m afraid we can’t.”
“Pesky things and their doing-ness.” Bean muttered in contentment, and a low groan of pleasure bubbled out of his throat while Celestia continued to nip and tug.
Celestia had a thought come to her as she nibbled through Bean’s mane, something additionally she could do to show in a small way how deeply she cared for him. She mulled it over while she moved through his hair, but by the time she had finished she was sure. “Bean, do you want to help me raise the sun today?”
“Don’t I do that every morning?”
“Mm, no, not like before,” she hummed. “You have given me something I will treasure forever, so I wish to show you something too. Here, come with me.”
Bean stretched quickly before rising, and he trailed Celestia out onto the balcony. Instead of turning to the east like she always did, Celestia instead faced him with a warm smile.
“Think you can go on a short trip with me?” Celestia asked.
Bean glanced around. “Where are we going?”
Celestia smiled, and her magic wrapped around him gently. “Up.”
Bean whooped a bit as Celestia took flight and brought him along with her. She made no special moves or course corrections, she simply shot straight up until they had reached an altocumulus cloud that seemed to be many miles above Canterlot. Bean gasped a bit in awe as he took in the panoramic scene before him, and he didn’t even notice that he was standing on the cloud unaided.
“This is incredible,” he softly said. “How high up are we?”
“Oh, only about six thousand feet or so,” Celestia chuckled. “This is just about the upper limit for the Weather Department. There are a few crazy ponies who go even higher, but only after a lot of training and conditioning.”
“Wow,” he softly exclaimed. “I wish I had my notebook.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I’ve never… I mean…”
“Describe it for me, please?”
“Are you sure? It’ll be rough since I can’t edit and proofread, but…”
Oh, that blissful face! It would take an army of changelings to keep him from fulfilling the wishes of that most beautiful face.
“The countryside is now awash in the glow of the twilight of morn, and nature is still,” he began. “The view from here is near infinite, and all is accented most admirably the soft magentas, pinks and blues that now bathe the scene with a subtle and yet elegant touch of nobility.
“The rolling greens add to the picture, cascading across and along in such a way that all before it must bow in respect to the calm and respectful strength that it naturally holds,” Bean continued. Celestia gave one of the largest smiles she had ever given in her life when she noticed that his view was not on Equestria, but on her. “All of this blends into a perfect union of harmony, and for the stallion who finds himself in the presence of such vibrancy the words to fully describe the singularity of beauty simply do not exist. Here, in the pastel paints of the morning, there is the totality of meaning, of desire, of passion and of devotion. Here, in this moment, is where I find I have truly found Home.”
“Not bad at all, my dear Bean.” She giggled, and she gave him a nip on the neck in gratitude.
“Thanks. So, how exactly am I supposed to help you? I thought you said only a princess could raise the sun.”
“Yes, but I never said a pony couldn’t help me.”
“So, but…” he stalled. “But I can’t help you. I don’t have magic.”
“Yes you do,” she whispered.
“Earth pony magic?” he asked, and she nodded. “But? But how can that help?”
“Earth ponies are not just tied to the land, Love, though that is where they feel it the strongest. An Earth pony can also manipulate other things, if they try.”
“I think I was sick the day they explained that in school.”
Celestia chuckled a little before continuing. “It’s not very complicated. Earth is an element, but it is not the sole element in our world, and any element can be moved about by an Earth pony who knows what they’re doing. A pony who irrigates her crops is using those properties of manipulation just the same. My sun is an element, and I use the strength of the earth pony to lift it into position.”
“You do?”
“Yes. Here. Turn to the east.”
“All right,” he replied as he did so.
“East would be to your left, love.”
“Oh. Right.” He chuckled with a bit of embarrassment.
“Now, reach out towards the sun.”
“With my arms?”
“With your heart,” she replied. “In the same way your love reaches out to me.”
Bean smiled and attempted to do as his beloved had instructed. He focused on the feel of the sun, the warmth and the light and how it moved across the sky in its prescribed manner, and he let his heart yearn for that which Celestia commanded.
It took a moment of concentrated effort, but when he did feel his own ingrained magic connect with the power of the sun he staggered a step or two back in amazement. He could feel it! He could feel the power that would bow to no other celestial object, the strength that supported life for all who dwelled under it, and the heat that could incinerate all who approached unaware unless it was tempered, controlled. This was the heat he had known all his life, the heat that both baked bread and warmed hearts.
The heat of passion that he now felt towards Celestia.
“I feel it,” he whispered to Celestia. “It’s incredible.”
Her horn lit as she stood side-by-side with him, and he felt her magic begin to weave in with his. The weft and the warp of the two magics into one was as intense and yet resplendent as anything his mortal mind could ever possibly comprehend. He realized that if he would remain so intertwined with his wife—if he never allowed anything to tear what had just been woven between them—then he could not and would not ever want for anything.
She would give him everything he could ever need, want, and more.
“Bring it up, my love,” Celestia stated with a broad smile.
And when he attempted to do so, Baked Bean felt something. With the sun rising under the combined power of his wife and himself, he felt a magic surge that penetrated his whole being. It moved through him, enveloped him, and caressed him in a way that only Celestia’s magic could. From his nose to his tail, and from his ears to his hooves he felt it.
And there was only one other thing that could compare to the bliss he then felt.
When he finally felt that the sun was in the proper position for the day, he gently lowered his arms, and then felt a small jolt of surprise when his legs again touched the cloud beneath him. He had been flying, in a literal way? How could that have been?
“Bean!” Celestia called out with a gasp of surprise. “You! You’ve!”
“What?” he asked.
“Your cutie mark has changed!”
Bean twisted around and looked at his flank. “It did?”
Indeed, it had. A perfect replica of Celestia’s cutie mark now resided behind the book on his flank, and the pages now bore words, words that Bean was unable to read.
“Oh, Bean!” Celestia said with a happy sob.
“Wow,” was the best word Bean could come up with to describe the situation. “This is… just… wow.”
* * ✹ * *
“Uh, Twilight? I normally don’t question the scientific method, but are you really sure this is going to work?” Bean asked with a nervous chuckle.
“First off, the scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating the phenomena of our world. What I am doing simply one step in that process,” she replied while making sure the straps on Bean’s colander helmet were secure. “Secondly, I know this will work. The Whooves-Gait test is the most accurate and well-known cutie mark analytic test in existence.”
Bean gave Celestia a worried look, and she returned a reassuring smile before replying.
“She’s right. Besides, do you really think I’d let my faithful student do something that had the slightest possibility of harming you?”
“I suppose not.”
“Now, since I’m doing a test on your cutie mark you’re going to feel a slight tingle just under your fur.” Twilight handed Celestia a pair of welder’s goggles and placed a pair on herself. “This is normal, but please say something if you feel a burning sensation, all right?”
“What’s with the goggles?”
“Safety first!” she shouted. Celestia quickly pulled her goggles down over her eyes as Twilight reached for a large electrical lever, and Bean winced slightly when the switch was thrown with a slight maniacal laugh.
The test was… well, it was bizarre. Bean squirmed a bit and tried to keep from laughing, but it wasn’t easy. It felt like somepony had taken one of Celestia’s feathers and was somehow using that to make every square inch of him ticklish. Thankfully, it only lasted for about twenty seconds or so before Twilight switched the machine off again and moved eagerly to the printout that was now spewing from an opening on the side of the machine.
“See?” Celestia offered. “Not that bad.”
“It tickled,” he replied while trying to scratch everywhere. “That is normal, right?”
“It is. I would actually be more worried if it didn’t.”
“All right,” Twilight announced. She held the readout out for Bean to look at while she continued. “Your cutie mark is a cutie mark for sure. You are not suffering from cutie mark pox.”
“That’s good to know,” Bean replied. “And?”
“Well, that’s about it. There’s no anomalous readings.”
“Again, good to know. But how did this happen?”
“I think I have an idea,” Celestia said.
“Yeah?”
“Cutie marks indicate a special skill or talent that a pony has, but that doesn’t mean that they are locked into a certain position in life. Take Rarity for example: with a cutie mark of three gems one could infer that she is a miner, a jeweler, or a geologist. If you do not know her, it would be hard to believe that she is a seamstress and a fashion designer.”
“Okay, I’m following you so far.”
“So, your cutie mark was a blank book, and you admitted that you were unsure of your place in the world. I think that you had chosen the first step along the path to your destiny, but there was more potential for you to fill.”
“And... now I don’t follow.”
“It’s a bit difficult to explain,” she said. “Let me try this way. When a pony gets their cutie mark, they usually understand why. A pony knows what skill or talent it was that is connected to it. But your cutie mark led to more questions than answers. You’ve said you were confused, and that you never felt like you belonged in the world of cooking, so when you got your cutie mark there were still questions. I think you could have been an author, or a cook, or perhaps an editor, or an accountant, or one of the dozens of other talents that a blank book could apply to, and if you had chosen any of these then your cutie mark would have remained as it was and your destiny would have been set. Since you never found that clarity, your destiny remained in flux.”
“So, I could choose my destiny?” he asked while Twilight was removing the helmet.
“All ponies can choose their own destiny regardless of their cutie marks,” replied Celestia with a quiet giggle. “But we’ll save that for another time. For now, your choices affected your destiny, and now your cutie mark reflects it.”
“So…” Bean thought out loud while taking a moment to make another awkward examination of his rear. “So, my destiny now is to be your husband?”
“It would seem so.”
“Not a bad destiny to have. What does the writing on the pages say?”
“It’s a variation of the Alicorn law marriage clause, written in the old equish I used when I wrote it.” Celestia replied. “It says: ‘my nose now knows to whom it belongs, and I shall remain with her until the end.’”
“That is severely cool. My nose is smarter than I thought,” Bean remarked while twisting to look at his other flank. “So let me make sure I’ve heard you right. My cutie mark changed to reflect my new destiny with you.”
“Yes.”
“With whatever being a husband to Princess Celestia entails?”
“Imagine what I have to teach you, and what we can learn together,” she replied with a nuzzle and nip of his neck.
“That’s a pretty good destiny. I think I’d like to to keep that.”
“I believe that means you have to keep me,” Celestia said with a small purr.
“Oh, how horrible,” Bean replied in faux agony while gently nuzzling Celestia’s neck. “I have to keep the most wonderful mare in existence? However will I manage it?”
“A good question. How will you keep me?”
“Tenderly,” he replied softly. “Gently, and with respect. I will keep you by showing you my love, in all the ways I can think of and hopefully in some ways that I can’t think of at the moment. I will tell you how much I love you, daily, and I will do whatever I can to make sure you are happy. I will be the husband you deserve, that you need, and if I ever am not, I will work with you so that I am.”
“A lofty goal,” she replied with a nip in his mane. “But may I add one thing?”
“Of course.”
“Be my equal,” she whispered in feathery light tones. “Don’t be my slave, or my servant. Work with me, together. Don’t let me pull too much of the load, but don’t pull more than you should either. We are partners now, and a dual-yoke cart only moves forward if both pull evenly.”
“Partners.” Bean moved to look her square in the eye. “I like that. Partners in love, partners in deed, partners in life, and partners in government. I’d even go so far as to be partners in crime with you.”
“Good thing I’m not that type,” she replied.
“Oh, there might be a naughty bit in there somewhere,” Bean said with a mischievous nip of her neck. “If there is, I’ll find it.”
“I have no doubt you will,” she laughed.
“Shall we return now? I do believe we still had some meetings planned for this afternoon.”
“In due time, my Bean.” Celestia replied with a kiss. “All in good time. But first, I think we should discuss those grandfoals your mother wanted…”
“NOT IN HERE!” Twilight protested. “Goodness, there’s a baby dragon here!”
* * ✹ * * FIN * * ✹ * *
Next Chapter: Bonus - Nightmare Night Special! Estimated time remaining: 15 MinutesAuthor's Notes:
What? You don't want this to be the end? There is still more in store for Celly, Baked Bean, Luna and the others?
Well then, have you seen this thing over here?