(no subject)

[letteropener]

[Name]: Dragon
[Age]: 32 :/
[Contacts]:
♦ DW: dragonoflife
♦ AIM: Dragon of Anger
♦ Plurk: dragonoflife
[Timezone]: Eastern
[Other Characters]: None



[Name]: Princess Celestia
[Canon]: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
[Age]: Well over 1000
[Gender]: Female.
[Canon Point]: End of Season 3.

[History]: Celestia's history at the pony wiki

[Personality]: Celestia, being practically divine in pony terms, is the pinnacle of wisdom and virtue in Equestia. Thousands of years of life and rule had taught her patience, kindness, and empathy. In normal life she is peaceful, serene, and content almost to a fault.

Despite her position, Celestia doesn't stand on ceremony in the slightest if it isn't required. Her formal visits to Ponyville generally carry great pomp and circumstance, with her being borne in a carriage and her royal guards deployed while the town breaks its neck preparing, but that's because the ponies feel they ought to give their princess that due, and Celestia understands their need and desire to. On her own, she isn't above just dropping by Ponyville out of the blue to pick up a friendship report, without any ceremony. She doesn't really care how other ponies behave; she's completely fine with Pinkie Pie showing no real manners while eating in her presence, for example. When she's put on too high a pedestal, she's not above a harmless joke to break the ice -- when her teacup was being refilled after every sip, she only pretended to sip from it to provoke a tea-spilling refill. She has a sense of humor, and isn't afraid to laugh at herself even in private.

All that being said, Celestia does exhibit a desire to put aside the boring parts of ruling. She won't cancel the Grand Galloping Gala no matter how boring she finds it, but she's not above inviting six ponies who really don't belong there in the hopes that they'll shake it up, nor is she above ditching the event to laugh with those ponies at the local donut shop after they've wrecked the Gala.

Used to being in the limelight, Celestia is almost always on display -- calm voice, wings half-spread, and perfectly aware of her effect on others... but this isn't really her true self. In private, or in the casual presence of ponies she has a particular bond with, such as Twilight Sparkle, Celestia drops the careful serenity and calmness and sounds like a perfectly normal pony, practically like a different pony altogether.

When her subjects are threatened with harm, though, Nice!Celestia vanishes, replaced by a stern and forceful ruler who has no patience for those who would cause such chaos. Against a serious threat, Celestia is direct and to the point; she will explain the situation, but she won't beat around the bush doing so. If it's a foe she believes she can fight, she won't hesitate to directly attack; if not, she'll deploy whatever forces she has available to ensure it's stopped. And if the threat comes from someone who meant well, but really ought to know better... well, Celestia will still be very upset. But in that case, she can be talked down; she understands everyone has to make mistakes.

In the end, Celestia isn't afraid to make hard choices to do what's right. After all, she banished her own sister for a thousand years out of necessity, no matter how deep the pain it caused her, for the good of her subjects. And for the good of her subjects, she allows the creature who caused endless suffering to ponykind to be freed in the hopes that he could be redeemed, no matter her personal feelings on doing so.

[Abilities / Strengths & Weaknesses]:

Obviously, Celestia is a pony, with all the attending benefits (such as general physical superiority to a human) and drawbacks (no hands).

As an alicorn, Celestia has the strengths of all three types of ponies:

-Earth pony strength and sensitivity to animals and nature. These are particularly ill-defined in the show, but for Celestia's purpose, she is basically good with animals in general and a capable steward of Equestria.

-Pegasus wings. Celestia can manipulate the weather, most explicitly by moving clouds by direct physical contact, and causing them to discharge their contents by physical manipulation. Clouds are effectively semi-solid to her; she could 'swim' through them, or lie on them to sleep. Pony flight allows for three-dimensional movement without any actual regard for aerodynamics, and unlimited hovering.

-Unicorn magic: Celestia is the most accomplished spellcaster in Equestria, having had hundreds upon hundreds of years to practice. Unicorn magic is extraordinarily diverse, ranging from the most basic telekinesis, to transformation spells (a frog to an orange), blasts of magical energy, conjuration of mustaches, animation of inanimate objects... the list goes on. Some specific cases are discussed under limited powers, but in general Celestia is capable of a very wide array of magical effects.

Personality-wise, Celestia's greatest strengths are legion: she is kind, patient, wise, forgiving, tolerant, serene. Her major weaknesses are twofold. She has never forgiven herself for her mistakes, most particularly the heavy blame she places on herself for her little sister's conversion to the malevolent Nightmare Moon. Stemming directly from this, Celestia has all but replaced herself with the Princess; she is barely even capable of considering her own thoughts or feelings in any self-oriented capacity. Her minor indulgences in mischief or whimsy are the closest she gets to having a personality that is not oriented around the Princessly mask. (Then again, being free of the obligations of rule might cause this to change in a dramatic way.)

As a former wielder of the Elements of Harmony, she can never use them again.

[Limited Powers]:
Flight: Celestia will not be able to fly between islands or ships. This is intended to be not so much a failure of her actual flight longevity, but instead an inability to orient herself on the sea and thus navigate between islands.
Magic: Celestia's magical ability will be globally nerfed in magnitude. She will be unable to affect celestial bodies with her magic, unable to change the seasons, unable to teleport for significant distances, and unable to employ banishing or destructive magic on the effortless scale she displays in canon.

[Other Important Facts]: Her favorite music is 80s' metal.

[Samples]:
♦ Thread: A reasonably hefty DM thread.
♦ Post:

[The handwriting -- such as it is, being written by telekinesis by a handless equine -- is flawless. Broad, beautifully curved, and so perfect as to make a third-grade teacher weep tears of perfect joy. A thousand years of royal proclamations and decrees, scrollwork and spell transcription, will do that to a person.]

Somehow, in all the years I have lived, I have never been to sea like this before, and I regret it. The waves hold power and majesty, the sun shines brilliantly over an endless shining ocean, and out here it feels as if this ship is the only thing in the entire world. Such complete isolation... I wonder how it must be for those who do not have these journals, or the Naviraimant, to communicate with others. The entire world could fall out of existence, and you would never know... you would only sail forever, alone.

It is a very enlightening experience, and I am curious to hear how you all are handling it -- both those new to the sea, and those to whom it is as familiar as a cloud blanket to a pegasus foal. Please, share with me your stories.

Princess Celestia [And so elegant is her signature.]