An Alicorn's Purpose

When Celestia came down to the throne room, Twilight repeated her story to the solar princess. Her reaction was more subdued than her sister’s, but the panic in her eyes said otherwise.

Celestia brought Twilight up to her study so they could speak in private, away from any who might overhear their conversation. Celestia had even dismissed the guards at the door to her study. When both alicorns were seated, Celestia began.

“I want you to know that what I’m about to tell you is to be kept between us.” Celestia says. “Luna and Cadence, as well as a few, select members of the royal guard, are the only other ponies that know about this. Do you understand?”

“Of course, Princess.” Twilight responded, sitting in front of Celestia.

Celestia took a moment before starting again, trying to collect her thoughts. “The history of Equestria isn’t exactly as everypony believes. What’s told in the Heart’s Warming Eve pageant is true up until the very end. We are short on time, so I can only tell you so much. When the advisors of the three tribe leaders showed friendship to one another, it wasn’t the fire of friendship that they created. It was…an alicorn.

“This alicorn was the embodiment of goodness and harmony. It was she that banished the windigos and freed the leaders from the ice that imprisoned them. After that, the leaders decided to form Equestria under her, declaring her queen of all ponies. She helped the tribes come more together and build Equestria.

“Centuries later, she found herself to be lonely from her friends continuously passing on. She decided to create more alicorns that would live long lives, like herself. She ended up creating six alicorns, Luna and myself being two of them. I don’t remember what she looks like, since she disappeared soon after Luna was born. That is the basic history of Equestria.

“I’m sorry, Princess,” Twilight says before she can continue, “but I don’t understand. Why keep something like this a secret? And where are the other alicorns?”

“It’s not this itself that we decided to keep secret.” Celestia says solemnly. “It’s because of what happened to the others that we kept this hidden.” She turns to the side for a moment, breathing in slowly. “The spell Star Swirl the Bearded tried to cast, a longer version of the spell you finished, was a spell to give the caster immense power. He wanted to use that power to create food for the unicorns, like an earth pony, and control the weather, like a pegasus. In essence, he wanted to become what we are. Mind you, this was all before Equestria was founded, so it would have only benefited unicorns.

“He failed to complete the spell and left it behind. Centuries later, after the coming of Discord, Sombra, and Nightmare Moon, a powerful unicorn by the name of Tempest discovered the spell. He warped the spell and found a way to make it work without harmonious magic. He made himself an alicorn, but his lust for power was unfulfilled. He sought us out and, one by one, eliminated us. Luna was still banished to the moon as Nightmare Moon, so only two of us remained: myself, and Gespenst.”

“Gespenst?” Twilight asked. “That name. I recognize it from one of my books. It was by a Germane author about the afterlife.”

“That’s not surprising.” Celestia continued. “Gespenst is the alicorn of life and death. It was he that killed Tempest and stopped the killings. Afterwards, he and I agreed that no pony should know about the spell Star Swirl tried to create and hid it from the world. Fearing somepony may try to create such a spell from scratch, we forged a spell to erase all written work about the first alicorn, as well as alter the memories of every pony in Equestria. It was a terrible spell, one I hope never to cast again. After all was said and done, Gespenst secluded himself somewhere in the Badlands, living as a hermit to reflect on all that he’d caused and letting the world believe Luna and I were the only alicorns.”

“But you just said Tempest was the one that killed the other alicorns.”

“He was. Tempest…was Gespenst’s apprentice. In his solitude and work, Gespenst grew more bitter as the years went on. More resentful; more hateful, especially of me.”

“Of you?” Twilight asks. “Why would he hate you? It sounds like what happened was his fault.”

“He blames me for what happened to Luna. When she became Nightmare Moon, he tried talking her out of it, tried reasoning with her, but she wouldn’t listen. He hated me for banishing her, said I didn’t give him a chance to help her. The others could see why I did what I did, but he refused to accept it. He loved her. He would have done anything to keep her here, even join her. I couldn’t let that happen. Gespenst went on to train his body and mind for centuries to come, all to ensure that what happened to Luna would never happen again.

“When Tempest came to power, he had little trouble killing the others. I would have perished too, but Gespenst stepped in and killed him first. He blamed me again for what happened, saying I was too weak to stop it. He may be right about my strength, but he took little blame in the event.

“After Luna returned, Gespenst came here to see her. He wanted things to go back to how they were before with him and Luna, but Luna refused. She saw what he became, even if he couldn’t. He blames me for that as well.

“And now, he’ll hate me again. Years ago, when Cadence became an alicorn, he—”

“Wait!” Twilight yelped. “Cadence wasn’t born an alicorn?”

“Oh no, Twilight. Aside from the first six, no alicorn has ever been born. It’s not my story to tell, so I’ll just say Cadence was able to understand the value of love so greatly, I found that she deserved to become the alicorn of love. Gespenst was enraged that I made such a decision without him, but I was able to convince him not to do anything drastic.

“What I wanted was to teach you as much as I could about our history, our power, and then Gespenst wouldn’t have any reason to object. Every time you asked about being a princess, I wanted to tell you, but I could never think of the words. That shadow you saw works for Gespenst, so it’s safe to assume he knows you’re an alicorn.” Celestia lowered her head to the ground, bowing in front of Twilight. “I apologize for all of this, and I hope you can forgive me for whatever happens next.”

Twilight remained transfixed on Celestia, right through the end of her tale. She couldn’t believe everything that she was told, that Princess Celestia, her mentor and friend, would keep such things from her. The thought that she would be part of a spell that erased a memory from everypony in Equestria, even if it was just one memory, is disturbing to say the least. It was probably just her paranoia talking, but everything felt like a lie now. However, she would have time for figuring this all out later. Right now, there was something much more pressing.

“What will happen next?” She asks her mentor.

Nodding, Celestia stood, walking around Twilight. “As part of our agreement of keeping the knowledge of other alicorns secret, the throne room will be emptied of everypony that has not been trusted with this truth exactly ten minutes after sunrise. He’ll then teleport into the throne room, likely with a few others, and we’ll discuss what happens after that. Until then, rest. It will be a long morning.”

After that, Twilight and Celestia bid there farewells and departed for bed. Twilight had quickly made her way to her room, softly closing the door behind her. As she lay in her bed, she couldn’t help but worry for the morning.

END CHAPTER