Where Have All the Alicorns Gone?
Where Have All the Alicorns Gone?
The sky was purple overhead and dipped into a smooth and creamy orange as it came to meet the horizon. It was hard to see it behind some of the mountain peaks that shielded this place. It looked so different now. At one time, this was a vast forest and nearby this place was once a thriving town. High up in these peaks, there was once a monarchy. Ponyville was once the perfect place to raise a family. Canterlot was the image of majesty. Those days were long since gone. The monarchy had fallen, most of Equestria had seen its ruin and Canterlot was but a cavity of something that was once sweet.
Now, the bustling place was Dream Valley. At least, from this view, it was. Dream Castle stood as a testimony to strong magic, strong bonds, and a harsh way of life Ponyville ponies could never fathom…but the eyes watching did not find it shocking. In fact, he had seen it before…lived it before. It was just another cycle.
The zebra alicorn scratched his front hoof against the rock under him. He stared calmly down to await the ponies as they would flood from the gates of Dream Castle and into the meadow bliss on the other side of the draw bridge. The smell of fresh flowers wafted even way up here. Roses, honeysuckles, lilies; those were only a few of the wonderful things he could smell. Then there was the water and the grass. It would be a beautiful day of its own making. No pegasi were needed for this…not that any would remember how to manipulate the weather anyway.
He wanted to go and take a closer look. He stretches his black and white wings, the morning chill seeped through his feathers and made him shiver slightly with that shocking excitement of the iciness of the oncoming dawn. He looked like any zebra really in general. He was taller and lankier but he was white with black stripes. That was pretty normal. His hooves were black as well. His mane and tail were wavy, a result of years of teasing and training that coarse hair. Beyond that, he was like other alicorns. He had a long horn coming from his forehead and he had large feathered wings. He was an oddity. He was male, for one thing. The Equestrian alicorns were female. He was a Zebra. Equestrian alicorns ascended from ponies. He also transcended the ages…and lived. The other alicorns, save one, were all gone now. He was the first to ascend…and he would be the last to stand. What had come as a blessing had become his immortal curse. It stung from time to time, but he had overall come to numb himself, for he would see those he cared about in another state of being. That was his gift.
He shivered again, sending a train of spasms from his withers to his dock. It made his cutie mark shimmy. A skull and crossbones: how befitting. Life and death and magic, a constant staple in his long existence. As if it wasn’t morbid enough, he had to add that creepy skull tied about his neck in twine. He appearance had changed relatively little over the years. He once had a mustache. He had a goatee briefly too, but now his face was much like it was at his ascension…plain.
His name was Voodoo: the first in a small line of ascended alicorns, and the only zebra to have achieved ascension. This place, this Dream Valley was not his home turf. Equestria wasn’t even his continent of residence. However, it had been so long since he had come to this place. He had wanted to see what had become of it after the fall of Equestrian society and the waning of alicorn rulership. It ended when Celestia and Luna passed and the world returned to a simpler order.
Simpler…that was debatable. Perhaps it would depend on who was asked. He wouldn’t ask though. He would remain out of sight in this new world of pony feudal herds. He would not complain. They were alive and healthy. He had fulfilled his promise once again to the Star Beings…ancient extinct alicorns that had first come to this planet to recreate the seeds of ascension and simplicity. Or, had he fulfilled a promise to this…Horsemaster that now became like a god among ponies? Whatever it was that kept him alive, he had served it once again as he had done countless times before and as he would continue to do as he was commanded. Star Beings or Horsemaster, he was no god, but the servant to whatever or whichever of these powers were the ultimate.
Horsemaster. Yes. He’d go with that. It eased his brain. After all, the Star Beings created ponykind here on this planet, in this realm. However, they too had once evolved from ponies. Where did they come from? Infinite Origins: it was a real headache…a domino effect that never ended. Horsemaster sounded like a good end cap.
He flicked an ear as he listened to the loud twitter of birds. Life was hard in this new world [of Equestria], but still offered subtle pleasantries. For Voodoo, this was nothing new. The continent of Quagga had always been in a state of countries and rulers and feudal herds and such. That made the Zebras and the Quagga ponies so much more resilient. These ponies here in Equestria now were on a similar level with slightly different customs. Gone were the times of infinite forgiveness and reform; the days of the absolute power of the magic of friendship.
Friendship still existed. Love still existed. However, this magic that once drew it’s power from these things were no longer in full swing. Now, this was a world of war, danger, venom, and other darknesses. Still, his little ponies thrived. They were now adapted to live in this cruel world with the rest of them. They would understand his judgments…if he were in the position to give them. This wasn’t like Quagga and while he looked after the herds, he was not their king. He was no Equestrian king. Still four alicorns ascended in this place. It had that sentimental something.
He often wondered about making himself known in some capacity. Perhaps the Princess Ponies would be a nice place to start. They held the Elements of Harmony now and they were descendants of Celestia and Luna. Granted not a one of them was an alicorn and the appearance of one would never come. He saw descendants during his overlooking visits and was able to see a few bloodlines travel.
“ Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing? Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?” Came the song of the other remaining alicorn. Voodoo had to chuckle as she took a high gait towards him on the narrow rocky trail and towards the flat of the cliff. “ Where have all the flowers gone? Young mares have picked them, every one. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when…AH!” She cried out as she tripped forward, barely able to catch her balance.
“ Oh, when will you ever learn?” Voodoo teased the tall zorse. Her white coat seemed to glow in this dawn lighting. Her short purple mane nearly covered one of her eyes. Purple was her accent color. It was the color of her three freckles, her hooves, and there was a lot of purple in the Mardi Gras feathered mask on her flank. “ I told you time and time again to watch where you’re going, Mardi Gras. Did you make that silly song up?”
“ No,” Mardi Gras breamed. “ I heard it.” She pulled her wings in to close and peered down at Dream Valley. “ What are you thinking?”
“ Same as always,” Voodoo replied.
“ That didn’t clear anything up for me,” the zorse alicorn sighed.
“ Well, what do you think?” He asked.
“ About what? Equestria?” She asked. “ I’m a little sad still, but, y’know, it’s not the first time I’ve seen something like this. It still brings me a chill though. To think, I got to see Equestria when it was young. I saw the monarchy rise. Here I am now, looking down at a feudal kingdom where once stood the castle of the Alicorn Sisters, here in the shadow of what was once Cantorlot not far from here. I once ventured and danced among the vast stretch of the Fjord Peninsula. Then I watched as the kingdom fell.”
“ You and I have planted the seeds of our royalty among ponykind,” Voodoo said with a thoughtful smile. “ Look upon that castle in Dream Valley. Lay eyes upon the ruler here at Dream Castle and what do you see? What do you see in the deepest and most hidden away of her core?”
“ The blood of alicorns,” Mardi Gras replied, growing an almost wicked grin. “ Before me lays a queen of Lwa Line. Before me lays a queen of Voodoo Line. Before me lays a queen of my line. Soooo far back that it’s perhaps so insignificant, but before me sits enthroned our seeds, royal and non. I see upon them Zebras. I see upon them descendants with royal blood but no royal titles. I see upon them the bloodline of leaders.” She paused a moment and flattened her ears, saddened greatly. “ They are his[/I line too.”
Voodoo perked and looked to her a moment. “ A place of convergence between our bloodlines. “
“ There have been many in which I have shared the bond, Voodoo. You know this for this is the same for you. I don’t even really remember them all. I don’t even really remember my offspring. Perhaps I’m terrible that way, caring so little, and yet, down the line, I pick favorites of my long line descendants. I ignored my own foals yet placed blessing after blessing upon their descendants of my favor.” She clenched her withers and growled a little. “ Voodoo, I am perhaps the most unfair. My first foal was the son of a unicorn prince. Yet beyond my foals with my first mate, I do not really remember any, and even among those first foals…I only remember a few. I played favorites then, and I continue to do so. How unfair of me. What a terrible piece of royalty I make. When I laid my eyes upon Blueblood, I didn’t even care. I felt no connection and no desire. That was our legacy, wasn’t it?”
“ It was not Blueblood that sired this new nation,” Voodoo reminded. “ This is a matriarchy. It was his sister that bore forth the nation you see before you now. Does that not please you? Does Majesty not please you?”
She lowered her ears again, “ I…barely care. I take more favor in my descendants that are not of that political line. There down there be your seemingly average earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi who would never, ever, ever know their deepest origins of alicorn lineage. After all, these ponies of this new Equestria barely remember the Harmony Bearers of Equestrian Times. How would they remember the first bearers? How would they remember the Fjordian Times? How would they even remember me? I was ancient even in the Equestrian Age. I’m forgotten, as perhaps you are too, in this new world laid before us.” She smiled at a hopeful thought, however. “ But, who cares, right? This is just a fleeting part of our chronology, isn’t it, Voodoo? More generations will come and more twists and turns shall be lain. My glory days have long since passed. My only purpose in this forsaken continent are the Elements of Harmony’s well-being. My first true friends…they helped me to create them. I do not wish to disrespect their sacrifices to make these things important.” She then turned to the zebra alicorn with a bit of a side glance. “ That doesn’t explain why you come here.”
“ There are still fond memories for me. I was the one to coronate Celestia and Luna in Equestria. I was the one who welcomed Cadence into this new world of ascension. I greeted the Harmony Bearers in the Cantorlot gardens.”
“ You came to mourn Luna,” Mardi Gras stated matter-of-factly. She gave a stretch and looked to him like school filly, batting her eyes with her next words, “ She really loved you, y’know.”
“ Hmph,” was his initial reply. “ She was a good mare.”
“ So, you did like her back?” She gasped. “ My dear Voodoo, how strange of you. You are a stallion who could have any mate of your choosing and as many as your choosing. I’ve seen you over the years. You’ve done just that. Three at a time, a harem herd you make,” she laughed. “ Be them Zebras, be them Horses, be them Ponies.”
“ Be them Changelings?” Voodoo added, more as a mudsling at Mardi Gras than at himself. “ If I recall, that was all you.”
“ Everyone is entitled to some times of foolishness,” she defended. She then flicked her ear, “ Y’know, come to think of it, I don’t recall you ever having an alicorn bride.”
“ I did once,” he replied. “ That was before my ascension. Needless to say, as wonderful as she was, that was a mistake I was not to make again. Alicorns should not pair.” He lowered his voice. “ Alicorn pairs…open the door to much darker and more severe pain…than it’s ever worth.”
Mardi Gras looked about nervously. She hadn’t meant to open up that ancient wound. It was one thing that Voodoo really had never told her. That probably explained his patience in her prodding. “ Forgive me, Voodoo. I hadn’t meant…”
“ It’s alright,” he assured. “ Needless to say, despite the blind eye I would cast over that young princess, never would that eye lay upon her in such a manner. I would not chance those horrible consequences again. She would not be so understanding.”
“ There was a chance that she’d bare unicorns.”
“ Yes,” he agreed. “ But the chance of that horrible repeat was there too. I…am not like the other alicorns. You, above all, should understand what this ascension does to the innermost workings of possibilities within us. You…who were sterile and ascended as one heck of a brood mare.”
Mardi Gras blushed a bit. Still, that was a rather popular Quagga trait: directness, and the unintentional tone of rudeness. She was rather used to it, but every so often Voodoo was able to hit her with one hum dinger of a comment. “ You’ve made your point.”
“ There was always the fear of too many alicorns,” he sighed. He then forced a laugh as he looked over the vastness of this new pony world. “ In a world where there were five, there stand now only two.”
“ To think, if we could have welcomed one more ascendee, we could have taken the Elements of Harmony and made them an alicorn rite,” Mardi Gras stated.
“ That is a nice thought,” Voodoo replied with a concerned face. “ However, I doubt it would work. Two alicorns already had their elements chosen and among the five of us who did exist, it would be hard to determine the exact nature of who would bear what. You and Twilight-Sparkle already stood as Element Bearers.”
“ Pffft, of course I’d appoint myself as Laughter again!” Mardi Gras cheered, puffing out her chest. “ I am the queen of cheer!” She then tapped her chin with her hoof as she looked up in thought. “ I do see your point though. Twilight-Sparkle created Magic. It would therefore seem fitting, as she created Magic, that she’d continue to be Magic. Just as I created Laughter and would therefore retain it. Though I think you fit Magic more than she does.”
“ I don’t think I fit any of them. I’m outside the realm of reason.”
She nudged him with a wink, “ Then, we’d just have to get a seventh alicorn and have you create your own element.” She giggled as he arched a brow at her. “ What do you think your element would be, if you had to create one, Voodoo?”
He thought about that for quite some time. It was a pretty interesting question indeed and one he’d never been asked before. Fitting, of course, for the Princess of Harmony to have addressed it. He had been called the Prince of Destiny before but he wouldn’t consider destiny to be an element of harmony. It was just a silly title. Perseverance? He lived his whole life working against the odds. Perhaps, it was Courage? His courage did prompt him to do many things and it was during his acts of courage that he ascended. Though, was that Loyalty that drove him to do that? He had looked after the pony herds of his day, ruling over them like a medium connection between the Star Beings and the ponies. Or was this some ultimate plan of fate from this Horsemaster they now worshipped? It was then he perked and seemed to find a great sense…a great deal of absolute peace, “ Faith.”
Mardi Gras felt a leap in her heart at the sound of it. She too felt a great sense of ease and peace when she took it in and let out a sigh. “ Faith. Yes. That’s a good one. Perhaps…when the world changes again, we should implement it.” She looked to him almost with a hint of mischief. “ Lest we create it in these days and hide it away for a prophetic time to choose a chosen one for some grand matter. Listen to the other world, Voodoo, and tell me, will there be alicorns again? Would not this be a wonderful way to rekindle what is lost?”
“ Perhaps, in time,” he admitted. “ Alicorns…are extinct, Mardi Gras. You and I stand outside the reasoning of the laws of ascension. You and I are forever relevant. You and I have received a special blessing…and the most cruel of curses to ever be cast upon an equine.”
“ How so?” She asked, intrigued by such a notion. “ Would not all the alicorns have eternal power? The sun and the moon are constant. Love and friendship are constant. That covered the for Equestrian alicorns. How does that differ from harmony and faith?”
“ The sun and the moon were manipulated by unicorns at the time of the sisters’ ascension,” Voodoo explained. “ They were among the manipulators and became supreme at the duty after their ascension. In this world, the sun and the moon rise and set on their own. No forces are needed. The ponies of this world simply exist in this world, rather than shape its physical laws. Celestia and Luna held no more purpose. They weren’t needed for anything further. Love and friendship existed before and after Cadence and Twilight-Sparkle. They merely reached a highly enlightened state about those fields. They were princesses of the Magic of Love and the Magic of Friendship simply because they understood those things in levels that put them at the pinnacle of the peak. They were to teach others.”
“ Did you not promise them immortality?” Mardi Gras asked.
“ Do they not have it?” Voodoo retorted. “ Forever will there be stories to immortalize every one of them. If not here in Equestria, then shall there be records in the great lands of Quagga. Does not Lwa La Kwa have the Temple Antiquity within its borders? Does now Adabbalon have the Fort Adabba Archives? Does not Zora revel in the glory all about its innards with universities and museums and academies? And do not the Nequaggapolonians fall under the requisites of learning all histories of the sacred natures? Does that not only name just a mere few of the speckled cornucopias of knowledge to confirm immortalities of spirits?”
Mardi Gras had to go deadpan in her expression there. He got all fancy again, didn’t he? “ Yes, there is all that stuff. It’s just normally when you mention the word immortal; mortals tend to define it differently.”
“ That’s their problem,” Voodoo replied curtly.
A long time passed between them in silence after that. The sun had come over the peaks of the mountains now and bathed the sweet meadows outside of Dream Castle in a welcoming light. The draw bridge fell and out came that flood of ponies, eager to greet the day and go about their agendas.
“ Will there be alicorns again?” Mardi Gras asked again suddenly.
“ In time, I believe there will be alicorns again,” he replied. “ Somewhere, in any point in the near or far future, a pony will ascend again, and we will come to greet him or her.”
“ Near future? You don’t honestly think ponies in this sort of environment can reach ascension, do you?”
He chuckled, “ I did. When I did it, we were far more ignorant than they are. Alicorns came and a grand civilization blossomed. That civilization fell. From those ashes, alicorns came and civilization rose again. It then fell again. It’s just the cycle of things, Mardi Gras. Alicorns will come again one day. It may just be one or two besides us, but there will be another alicorn someday. Civilization will change again and again. It will rise and it will fall. It’s just the nature of it all.” He looked at her face a long moment, seeing nothing readable. That was unusual for her personality. “ Personally, I think…I rather like this world. This brings back so much nostalgia that I can almost cope with the losses of those more enlightened times. Can you feel it?”
“ Yeah,” she replied, though unconvincingly. “ This reminds me of Fjordian times. Things were hard yet…simpler then. If that makes any sense.”
“ To me, it does,” he replied. “ But something is bothering you.”
Mardi Gras bit her lower lip and looked at Voodoo like a shamed filly, “ Voodoo, …did…I do this to them?”
He seemed rather surprised by such a question. “ Why would you blame yourself for the fall of Equestria?”
“ Discord,” she said simply. “ If not for me, there’d be no Discord problems.”
“ If not for Discord, there’d be a lot of worse issues in our midst,” Voodoo soothed. “ He was part of whatever ultimate plan there was. You needed him when you found him. Then, if not for his antics, there would have been no ascension for Luna and Celestia. Then it wouldn’t have mattered what happened after that. You did nothing wrong, and, in a morbid sense, neither did Discord.”
“ How could you say that!” She gasped. She flattened her ears tightly. “ The worst part is that…I don’t know whose side I would have gone to. Who did I owe the most loyalty to?”
“ Neither. Your time of holding their hooves was over,” he stated simply. “ You did what you had to do back at a time when you needed to do it. What happened generations after is not your concern. It was between them, and that was the path they chose. Perhaps, in the big scheme of things, they had to do it. If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t see this world, much more prepared for the darkness and dangers that have sprung upon them. These are hardened ponyfolk. These herds would have been easy pickings if they remained in that same simple Equestrian mindset. Below you, there are now strong mares and warrior stallions.” He studied her features. “ You have your own domain to worry about, Mardi Gras. This one is none of your business. Nor is it ultimately mine beyond the assurance of the thriving of ponykind…” Still no change. “ Mardi Gras, you are the princess of harmony! Harmony is not all perfection and prettiness like ponies think! It is nothing more than an absolute balance! Perfect synch of everything that be! What happened over those many centuries, Mardi Gras, is just that! The disturbance came and the world shifted to put it back into balance. It all played out: the good, the bad, the neutral, because that is the nature of harmony. So, stop with the sorrows and rejoice at that display below! Rejoice at the smorgasbord of tales to share with generations to come! Let them worry and theorize with their feeble mortal minds! Smell that air, Mardi Gras! It is freshness. It is freedom. It is another dawn, which is exactly what we will witness age after age after age! New dawns!”
“ Enough!” Mardi Gras cried out, though she did return to her smile. “ Your dramatic poetic whatever that is…is just annoying. Ugh, royalty…so pompous.”
Ah, that sounded more like the Mardi Gras Voodoo knew.
“ Will we fade away and meet our ends?” She suddenly asked.
Voodoo looked to the rainbow arched overhead. “ Perhaps. But that time is so infinitely far off in the future. You will meet your end when equine-kind can no longer wield the Elements of Harmony. They’ll have become just…animals… They’ll have no need for societies or anything of that nature and will be barely sentient if sentient at all. If humankind, that force that has encroached on the speckled patches of Equestria, lose their respect for equine-kind and become masters over them. Conquer and master the world. There will be no need for your equine elements then, will there? There shall you go dormant with your beloved friends’ spirits. Perhaps you will die all together. Perhaps you will enter a state of torpor until such times when this world will reset. Perhaps, there will be no hope after that, and you will fade away into the Beyond like the Star Beings and the ponies, the zebras, the horses, and many spirits that have passed on. Perhaps then, the Horsemaster or whatever greater being will have mercy and reset everything all over again on a new planet.”
“ Then we’d be nothing. Or I would be nothing. What about you?”
“ Hard to say. Perhaps when the herds here are no longer thriving as intended, I will have me mortality taken from me as well. There will be no one to guard when the herds have become a waste. There will be no need to protect the secrets for there will be nopony to access them. Perhaps I will be the Star Being for a new herd in another world or planet, and in time, I shall pass my post onto another. It is a grim and nightmarish vision that haunts me when I have great fear. Its inevitability is unknown. What I do know is that there shall be several more cycles before we need worry. Still, we would get to finally know peace, wouldn’t we?”
Mardi Gras nodded. “ I suppose we shouldn’t worry about it and continue as we have. That is how we remain functional and happy.”
Voodoo smiled at her. It was nice to see her cheered up again. Then again, Mardi Gras was never one to brood for too long. “ It is such a beautiful day, isn’t it?”
“ Yes, a beautiful dawn. Today will yield magnificence.” She looked to him and giggled. “ Where have all the flowers gone?”
“ Harmony Bearers picked them…every one,” he replied, remembering the tune she sang when she came.
“ Where have all the Harmony Bearers gone?” She asked.
“ To serve alicorns…every one,” he replied duly.
“ Where…have all the alicorns gone?” She asked, with a hint of sadness.
“ Gone to graveyards…almost every one.”
“ Oh, when will we ever learn?” She chuckled. “ Where will the alicorn graveyards go?”
“ Bloom to flowers…every one,” Voodoo grinned. Both of them looked out over Dream Valley with thoughtful smiles. They were caught between their own inner memories of their times past and the glorious display of beauty before them in this new chapter of ponydom. Just another chapter. The story still had a very long way to go with no ending currently in sight. These ponies needed no alicorns, and perhaps that was as it should be. One day, though, there would be someone to ascend. Where the story goes from there, well, not even those two relics knew the answer to that.
Author's Note
Inspired by Tornado Firehooves' stories and the song "Were Have All the Flowers Gone."
Information about Voodoo and Mardi Gras can be found in "World of Quagga" and Mardi Gras' backstory will be published at a later time when I get around to writing it.
The timline in this story is a sort of G1-verse which is used by Tornado Firehooves in his stories and takes places a thousand or so years after the fall of Equestria. Check them out. They are a real treat for fans of both the G1 and G4 fandom.
