Chapters Celestia always ate lunch at the same place. The bleachers by the field. It wasn't terribly comfortable, and no one else was there, but it was the only place she could watch the pegasi's flight practice.
Flight entranced her, probably because it was unattainable for her. She was a unicorn. One of the most outstanding unicorns in her class, but still just a unicorn. What she had always wanted to do was fly, so she watched the flight practices religiously. After so much time, she had memorized the team and their skills, which, in those days before cutie marks, was no small accomplishment.
Still, even in the face of all this knowledge, the one pegasus that always caught her eye was the blue one. Dark blue, like the night sky. She found out from a friend that her name was Luna, and that, like her, she was quickly distinguishing herself as one of the school's top flyers.
They were currently practicing a routine for one of the games. Celestia was never, as the other ponies were, impressed by raw displays of speed, and thus was always unimpressed by the beginning of this one. It mainly consisted of them flying around the field in circles until they became a blur. But then the good part came. They would start flying amongst each other in complicated shapes, forming a beautiful mass of bright colors. She always waited for this part. It was awe-inspiring. But also terribly difficult, and once again someone flew off course, violently knocking every member of the team to the ground in the process.
"This is too hard!" someone yelled, nursing their bruises. "We should do something simpler! And cooler!"
"Like what?" Luna said with the venom of someone who had gratuitously crashed for the 20th time that day.
"Like flying down from the stratosphere and breaking the sound barrier!"
"If you want to disintegrate yourself and a good portion of the field on reentry, be my guest," the coach said. "Now let's take 10 and try that again!"
The team begrudgingly scattered, knowing all they had to look forward to was more inevitable pain. Only Luna and a couple other pegasi remained. Celestia felt suddenly vulnerable now that almost everyone had left, and tried to nonchalantly eat her sandwich.
"Hey," Luna's teammate said, "look up there." She looked up to the bleachers.
Celestia shrank back.
"What's up with her? She's been watching us every day. It creeps me out."
The other teammate laughed. "Watch. I bet she has a crush on one of us. Just like that girl last year."
"What?" Luna said. "But we're an all girl team."
"And?" The teammate stared at her. "Don't tell me you're that naïve."
Luna blushed. "T-That's ridiculous. And wrong."
"How do you know?"
Luna didn't want to admit why. She had, like them, noticed the unicorn, but once, she looked back. Her eyes were wide with envy, not lust. But she knew her teammates would never believe her, so she lied. "I know her. She's just here to watch me."
"If you say so," the teammate said. The rest of the team started coming back, and everyone did stretches and mentally braced themselves for the next attempt.
– – – –
Later that day, Celestia saw Luna outside of class and approached her.
"Thanks," Celestia said. "I heard everything."
"Oh," Luna said. She sheepishly scratched her head. "It was nothing."
Celestia fidgeted. "Do you think you would mind… actually becoming friends?"
Luna gaped. She didn't want this to get out of hand, but she wasn't quite sure what to do either. "I'll think about it," she stammered, and quickly flew off.
Celestia expected as much. Luna was her idol, after all. How could she ever really get close to her?
It wasn't possible… right?
– – – –
As usual, the team just barely managed to perfect the routine the day before the game, and after that they started practicing less and less. After all, the jousting season was ending soon, and after that the flight team would hardly be needed for anything. Celestia knew she would eventually have to find something else to do during lunch, but decided to put that thought off and continue eating. Even though the field was almost completely empty, she had nowhere better to go.
She heard some footsteps behind her, and turned to look.
"Hello?"
Celestia's eyes widened.
"Hi," Luna said. She sat next to Celestia. "Don't you have any friends eat lunch with?
"Some," Celestia said, "but I prefer watching the flight practice."
"What on earth is so exciting about it?" Luna said. "We must've crashed like, 70 times."
"56," Celestia corrected, then gained some fervor. "But watching the process is the fascinating part! When it's finished it doesn't seem real. It's so rehearsed and perfect that it really doesn't capture the essence of flying." She paused, looking embarrassed. "I'm rambling."
"No, it's okay," Luna said. She tried to break the awkward silence. "But isn't magic fascinating? I mean, you can lift things with your mind."
"Not really," Celestia said. "When you're a unicorn it's so normal. Most of the time you just use it to grab things." She looked down. "These days, the only thing that keeps me interested in it is the possibility I could use it to fly."
Luna looked up, then down at Celestia. "You don't need magic to fly."
"What?"
Luna grabbed Celestia. "Don't be scared," she said, then started flying upwards at horrific speeds. Celestia didn't have the guts to look down. They quickly burst through the clouds, giving Celestia a good look at the city. On the ground it seemed huge, but in the air it dwarfed in comparison to the the the rolling fields and mountains that surrounded it. Luna rocketed towards one of the mountains, prompting Celestia to hold on tighter for dear life. From a distance it was impossible to tell, but this particular mountain was covered in forest, and Luna flew low to the trees. Celestia was struck by the beauty of it all, but she kept getting distracted. Her mind kept wandering back to a class she had years earlier. She kept thinking back to something about altitude changes, but she couldn't figure out why.
Then she realized her ears were constantly popping, she had a splitting headache, and was extremely short of breath. Suddenly she remembered that pegasi, because of their frequent flying, had biological defenses against altitude sickness. They could fly up and down to their heart's content without any ill effects, but anyone else had to take precautions to avoid becoming sick, like casting a altitude sickness prevention spell on yourself. Something that, in the heat of the moment, Celestia forgot to do and was dearly regretting.
The panic of realizing this did not help, and Celestia could feel herself becoming nauseous and losing consciousness. She tried to say something, but vomit caught in her throat and she just ended up coughing. She ended up having to hit Luna lightly before she noticed anything.
At first, Luna looked down confused. Then the realization dawned on her and she became panicked. She looked back and forth, wondering whether to land here or go back to school. Eventually she decided the school.
"Close your eyes," Luna said. "We'll be back on ground before you know it."
Celestia obliged. She could feel strong gusts of wind as Luna flew as fast as she could back to the school. Celestia realized this was her actual speed, and before, even when it appeared she was going at supersonic speeds, she was holding back significantly for Celestia's sake.
Finally, they stopped. Celestia expected the nausea to go away instantly, but it didn't, and if anything she felt sicker. She could feel Luna awkwardly shifting.
"We're here," she said. "You can let go now."
Celestia opened her eyes. She looked up to Luna, her eyes half closed, staring at her for an inordinate amount of time. Luna couldn't quite tell if she was staring at her or just into space. Then Luna remembered what her teammates said. Was she—?
Then Celestia swallowed and leaned in closer. This prompted Luna to take decisive action and quickly set a startled Celestia down.
"Look, I-I need to say, I don't," she said, blushing, "you know."
"Oh, no, I wasn't!" Celestia stammered, leaning against a railing. "I was… just about to hork, honestly, until you scared it right out of me."
"Okay. Yeah," Luna said. She looked incredibly embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't even think… and then I just assumed…"
"It's okay," Celestia said with a twinge of guilt.
They stared at each other for a bit.
"We should hang out more often," Luna said.
Celestia's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Yeah. I don't have much to do during lunch."
"Don't you have, like, tons of friends?"
"Mostly teammates. Bunch of meatheads. I could use some better company." Luna smiled. "So what do you say?"
"Yeah!"
And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.
At least until they were both drugged and kidnapped on the way home.
Luna opened her eyes. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. She tried to move. She couldn't. Something was restraining her, but she couldn't tell what. She tried looking around, but realized her eyes were covered with a piece of cloth. All she could make out through it were vague spots of light.
She felt the most important thing was to gather information, so she began to rely on other senses. She sniffed. Smoke filled the air. But it didn't smell like normal smoke. It had incense in it. She listened. Various people were talking in hushed whispers. Two voices were closer to her, and she could begin to make out a conversation.
"Are you sure? She doesn't look like—"
"The signs are clear. She's chosen a co-ruler."
"Are you sure?"
"Completely."
A shuffling sound.
"Are you sure about this?"
"We have to abide by her choices, even if she doesn't know she's making them."
A brief pause.
"You're right."
Silence.
"She's awake."
One of them walked over and took off the cloth off Luna's eyes. It didn't help much. The room was unnaturally dark to begin with, windowless, and lit only by a few small torches. It was impossible to make out anything but the vaguest of details. The ponies in front of her had hoods over their faces, making them utterly unrecognizable. From the corner of her eye, Luna saw a glow, and turned to look at it.
Celestia was on a large table, surrounded by a powerful aura of magic. A couple of unicorns were monitoring the process, and were busily consulting tattered scrolls.
"What are you doing to Celestia!?" Luna yelled.
"Nothing we haven't done to you."
Luna lurched. "What?"
"We needed to make sure we had the process right before we used it on her."
"What process?"
"Preparing you for the change. Try to get up."
Luna struggled. She was being held back by a spell. Nothing happened.
"Try harder."
Luna exerted herself. After a while, she felt herself move, if only by a centimeter. Then she heard a cracking sound.
"What was that?" she said.
"Look down."
The restriction around her head loosened and Luna looked down. She noticed that she, too, was on a large table, except hers now had a large crack in it.
"Did… did I do that?"
"Yes. You feel stronger now, don't you?"
Luna noticed that even in her restrictions, she did. It disturbed her. "What did you do to me!?"
"I told you. Preparing you. It's a pittance compared to what your real transformation will be."
"My… real transformation?" Luna started resisting harder. "I don't want to change! Let me go! Let her go!" She started trying to move as hard as she could. After what she did to the table, she was confident she could escape. It started making creaking sounds the more she struggled. Finally, she got her wings free, and extended them with such force the table broke. She got a couple inches off the ground, but even stronger restraints quickly appeared and held her back. The figures began talking to themselves.
"Now do you believe it?"
"She is strong."
"She will make a fine mate."
"What!? What do you mean, mate!?" Luna yelled. She tried struggling more to no avail.
"Don't bother resisting." The figure approached her. "Even if you manage to escape, the wheels of fate have already been set in motion. This cannot be stopped no matter what any of us do now. But we can make it more comfortable. You would like that, wouldn't you?"
Luna shot a glare back.
"You'll understand. In time." He gestured. Someone rolled in a table full of equipment of some kind.
He brandished a needle.
Luna screamed. "What are you doing!?"
"Making things easier. You'll need a symbol to rule, won't you?"
– – – –
"I saw her walking down the street. I recognized her from school, so I began to wave, but then these guys came out of nowhere, grabbed her, and teleported her away. I ran around shouting for her but nothing happened." He looked down. "It took place over a couple seconds. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful."
"That's fine, son," the inspector said. "Can you tell me exactly where she was when the men teleported her away?"
"Over here." The student walked over to a spot on the ground and pointed at it. "Over here. I'm sure of it."
"Thanks," the inspector said, taking some notes.
"Do you think you'll find her?"
"With your testimony, possibly," the inspector said. "There might still be some magic residue in the spot where she was teleported away."
"Magic residue?"
"It's not common knowledge, but everyone's magic leaves a unique scent, especially with a complicated spell like teleporting." The inspector patted the student's head. "You did good. Now go home. They might still be out there."
"Thanks, sir," the student said, and flew off.
The inspector watched. "Just what is this world coming to?"
– – – –
After a while, Luna figured out what they were doing to her. This part, at least. They were tattooing her. That's what all the needles were for. It must've been quite complicated, or them quite incompetent, because they had been at it for at least an hour.
The strange thing was how painful it wasn't. She could feel the needles going deep, but for the most part it only hurt slightly. After a bit of a rough spot, she asked them to increase the strength of their painkilling magic, but they said was none. Her endurance was apparently part of the increased strength she had received in her preparation.
Luna passed the time wondering what on earth they were planning. The only specifics they had mentioned were her ruling, a more thorough transformation, and that her strength would make her a suitable "mate." The last one bothered her the most. Were they planning on selling her into prostitution? The thought crossed her mind, but didn't seem to fit the situation. The circumstances seemed too controlled, too religiously intricate for them to have such a base motive. What was going on seemed more like… a ritual.
The other thing that bothered her was the "she" the figures were referring to when she first came to. They mentioned having to obey her, even though she didn't know she was ordering them. What did that mean? How was that possible? And then they said they started the preparation process on her first because they needed to perfect it before they used it on Celestia.
Was "she" Celestia?
One of the figures slipped with the needle, making Luna swear. The coincidence made her think she was on the right path.
At first she did seem oddly interested in Luna, and Luna was worried something inappropriate was going to happen, but after knowing her for months, Luna had dismissed that as paranoia.
She couldn't have anything to do with this, could she? But the figures said themselves she was ignorant of this. She wouldn't know.
What did Celestia have to do with this?
– – – –
"So? Do you know anything? Why did you call us up here?" Luna's mother asked.
"Your daughter was teleported away from the scene. We found some magic residue left over." The inspector produced a small flask, sealed at the top. "Tell me if you can recognize the scent." He opened and moved the flask closer to Luna's mother, since she was a pegasus and could not on her own.
Luna's mother sniffed it. "There's nothing, of course," she said testily. "They hid their traces."
"Let me see that," Luna's father said, taking hold of the flask. "It might just be a simple dispersement spell." He applied a spell of his own to the contents and the vapor inside gathered into a thick hazy ball. He sniffed it. His eyes widened.
"What? What is it?"
"You try." He held the flask out.
She took a whiff and gasped. "But they—"
"There's been rumors," Luna's father said, "rumors that they've been involved in something fishy. Some kind of cult." He hit a wall. "I should've known something was suspicious about her!"
"Now, it isn't her fault…"
He grimaced. "I know. But still… they could be using her. They could've been using her this whole time! Just to…!" He couldn't continue.
"So you agree it's them?" the inspector said.
Luna's mother was taken aback. "You knew this whole time?"
"We needed confirmation. Can you think of any place where they might be holding the two?"
Luna's father glared. "I know exactly where they are."
– – – –
With one final prick of the needle, the tattoo was done. Luna could hear Celestia groaning as the magic aura around her increased in strength.
"What now?" Luna said. "What are you going to do with me now?"
"Don't worry. It's nearly over."
He started gesturing to some help, but right then a panicked figure ran up and whispered into his ear.
"I see," he said, then dismissed them. He turned to Luna. "It looks like you'll get your wish. For now. Remember, the process can be delayed, but it cannot be stopped. It can never be stopped." He turned to the other figures. "Ready?"
They said nothing, but their determination was clear.
"Now."
And at that, a door burst open, flooding the room with light, briefly blinding Luna. "You're all under arrest for—!" someone screamed as a squadron of armored ponies rushed in, but they stopped as soon as they saw the scene. A large, smooth, marble room covered in intricate designs and magic runes in every inch. Celestia and Luna restrained on elaborate pedestals, Luna's housing a large crack. And on the ground, about a dozen hooded figures, utterly lifeless.
"Dead," one of the mercenaries said, feeling one of the corpse's necks. "They must have committed suicide."
Another went over and undid Luna's restraints.
"Don't worry. You're home free now."
Luna looked over to Celestia. "What about Celestia? Is she okay?"
Some other soldiers were there undoing her restraints. She groaned groggily and started shifting around.
"Looks like it."
Luna breathed a sigh of relief. Then she took a closer look at Celestia, and noticed that she had a tattoo as well. On Celestia's hindquarters, on both sides, was a stylized picture of the sun. At first it confused her, but the more she looked at it, the more Luna was overcome by an undescribable feeling it suited her. She realized that the figures had been tattooing her hindquarters as well, and wondered what they had drawn on her. Her line of thought, however, was quickly interrupted.
"Luna! Luna!"
Luna recognized the voice instantly. "Mom!"
She rushed over and embraced her mother.
"I'm so glad you're safe," Luna's mother said, almost in tears.
"I'm fine," Luna said. "They didn't do too much to me."
Luna's mother backed away in shock. "Too much? What did they do?" She noticed the tattoo. "What on…"
"We'll talk about it later," Luna's father said. "She's been through enough today."
"Right, of course," Luna's mother said. "Let's go home." She looked over to Celestia. "But first…"
Celestia had finally managed to shake off her grogginess and was quickly looking around. When she failed to find what she was looking for, she approached Luna's family. "Are… are my parents here?" she said.
"About that," Luna's father said with some difficulty, "they've gone missing."
"Missing!?"
"They disappeared almost right when you two were kidnapped," he said. "Trust me when I say we're going to use all our resources to find them. Okay?"
Celestia was shocked, but she managed to nod.
"Until then you can stay at our house," Luna's mother said. "Is that okay?"
Celestia looked even more shocked, and much more confused. "I can stay at… your house?"
– – – –
The reason for her confusion was that, while on the surface both parents supported their friendship quite strongly, in reality, neither Celestia or Luna had successfully been to the other's house. It wasn't for a lack of effort, that was for sure. They tried to organize sleepovers and study sessions whenever they could, and their parents would always, at least outwardly, be very accepting of this. But circumstances would always suddenly appear to prevent these visits from working. Appointments would come up, sewer lines would clog, fridges would need defrosting, cleaning would need to be done… it went on and on. The closest either had gone to even seeing the other's house was when they walked home together one day and passed Celestia's house. Celestia offered Luna a drink, and right as she was about to step in, Luna's mother appeared out of nowhere, screamed something about urgent community service, and flew off. Too shocked and confused to voice any objection, Luna had no choice but to shrug and follow after.
Therefore, it was a bit of a shock when Celestia arrived at Luna's house and found out she lived in a mansion.
"You never told me you lived in a place like this," Celestia said, gaping at the ceiling.
"I try not to let it get around," Luna said.
They were in the entrance room. The floors were black and white checkered marble. The walls were gray with a hint of blue. Complicated insets adorned them. House staff ran around, attending to arrays of duties incomprehensible to Celestia. The ceilings were raised, and a chandelier hung from the domed roof. Celestia felt such decorations would usually look incredibly tacky, but here, somehow, they seemed to fit. She wasn't sure if this was through some subtle feat of architecture or because she knew Luna didn't let it go to her head.
"Here," Luna said, "I'll show you to my room." She headed up the stairs, and Celestia followed. She, for some reason, thought Luna's parents would interfere with this, but they didn't. Once at the top, Celestia was relieved to find that the house was not, as she expected, a giant maze of hallways, but instead that all the rooms were in a straight line and Luna's was the third to the left. Luna opened her door.
Celestia braced herself for whatever ostentatious display awaited her inside, but was pleasantly surprised by its plainness. The room was large, like every room in the house, but Luna had organized most of her belongings into cabinets, so, save for a couple posters and a near spotless desk, it was empty. The only detail she had been unable to tone down was a large canopy bed with transparent, sparkly curtains useless for privacy but nonetheless beautiful.
"Make yourself at home," Luna said, then headed in the attached bathroom.
Once inside, she turned on the light. She looked in the mirror. She had been waiting for this moment for the last hour. She wanted to know what the kidnappers had tattooed onto her, and finally she got a clear look.
It was a black splotch with a moon on it.
At first Luna was disappointed, especially considering how long it took them to tattoo it on her, only feeling a bit better when she turned around and realized the opposite side was, to the best she could tell, completely and meticulously identical. Then, almost out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something in the splotch. It seemed to be sparkling a bit in the light. She tried turning up the light in the restroom to no avail.
"Celestia?" she yelled. "Can you help me with something?"
Celestia's mind reeled, wondering what Luna could possibly need help with in the bathroom, but she had spent the last five minutes systematically opening every cabinet door in a possessed fascination, and would do just about anything to prevent Luna from finding that out. She rushed in. "Um," she said, "what do you need help with?"
"Could you make a little light? I'm trying to get a good look at my tattoo."
"Oh," Celestia said. "Okay." Part of her wished the favor wasn't so banal, but she effortlessly made some light anyways. Both her and Luna were shocked at what they saw.
What, at first glance, appeared to be a black splotch was in reality an intricate, detailed rendition of the night sky. It was full of stars, both bright ones in recognizable constellations and faint ones forming the distant unreadable outlines of galaxies. Somehow, Luna had no idea how they had accomplished this on fur, it shone slightly on light.
"It's beautiful," Celestia said, in awe.
"It really is," Luna said. She looked at Celestia's marking and noticed it also exposed detail in hers. "Oh! Look at yours!"
"What? Mine?" Celestia looked in the mirror. "Since when—?"
Luna looked skeptical. "The kidnappers gave us those. Don't tell me you forgot."
Celestia tried thinking back. "They had me out for a lot of it." Bringing back the memories hurt, and she looked back towards the mirror. "This might sound weird," she said, "but when you look at these…" She nervously paused. "…do you get the feeling that they somehow belong?"
Luna had gotten that feeling about Celestia's marking and was beginning to feel it about her own. "Yeah." It disconcerted her. "I do."
Celestia looked down. "Just who kidnapped us, anyways?"
– – – –
Finally they were asleep. Luna had given Celestia the bed and was sleeping on the floor. While her suspicions about Celestia's ulterior motives had mostly subsided, she figured it was better to play it safe and look like the better person in the process.
Suddenly Luna noticed a draft. Pegasi, particularly skilled flyers like Luna, could sense subtle changes in the wind other ponies could not. She looked up and noticed her door had been cracked open. She slowly got up, as to not wake Celestia, and approached the door. She lightly pushed it open, and saw her mother outside. Luna slowly followed her downstairs, and noticed the lights in the dining room were on. She knew, from the way sound traveled in the house, that was the only place they could talk at normal volume and not disturb Celestia.
Once there, her father was waiting.
"What's this about?" said Luna.
"Sorry, this is the only way we could talk to you without risking Celestia hearing," Luna's mother said.
"And why is that a problem?"
"We found her parents," Luna's father said. "They're dead."
Luna choked. "W-What?" she stammered. "Was it the kidnappers?"
"They were the kidnappers."
Luna was lost for words. She took a couple steps back, trying to take this in. It didn't make any sense. "Are… you sure?"
"It's how we found you," Luna's mother said. "When they teleported you away on the way home they left behind clear magic residue. They hardly even tried to hide their identity."
"But why—?"
"When we searched through their house we found tons of hidden documents. They were part of a large cult, one that has apparently existed for hundreds of years unnoticed," Luna's father said. "They've done nothing but wait this whole time for some prophecy to be fulfilled."
"Which is?"
Luna's father looked down. "We don't know yet. But, from their documents, we've been able to piece together their goal." He inhaled. "To breed some type of perfect immortal leader who will unite the world under their rule."
Luna gasped. "I remember that! They told me they were preparing us for some kind of change. And that this tattoo was some kind of symbol to help me rule." Luna paused as she the implications of this sunk in. "But that's insane! We're just children! First years in high school!"
"Exactly," Luna's father said. "And these people raised Celestia, clearly under some deluded impression she was their prophesied leader. And since she grew close to you, they figured you were too." He looked out the window. "Truth be told, I had heard rumors about them, but I thought they were too absurd to be true."
"The point is," Luna's mother said, "when we break the news to Celestia, we're not going to mention this. I'm sure she wouldn't want us to tarnish their name like that, and more importantly, we don't know what type of mental health they left her in. What if they had conditioned her to believe them? And so on." She looked at Luna, who had been taking this in a stunned silence. "Do you agree?"
"Of course," she said, "it's just… a lot to take in."
"We'll tell her tomorrow," Luna's father said. "And that brings us to our next point." He cleared his throat, as if the next thing he said was going to be monumental. "We're thinking of taking Celestia in."
Luna gaped. "What!?"
Luna's father cleared his throat, knowing this would prompt a huge reaction. "She has very little other family," he said, "and we don't know if they were involved in the cult as well. We have little choice. They could derange her mental state even more, and god forbid if their prophecies are actually right."
"And since you two are friends, we hope she will take it better," Luna's mother said. "What do you say?"
"It sounds fine to me," Luna said, wondering why they were even asking. "But can she have—"
"She'll get the room next to yours."
Luna sighed in relief. "Good." An awkward silence filled the room, and Luna felt the need to say something. "Um, the kidnappers did something to us. It made me stronger. That crack in that one table… I did that."
Her parents eyes widened. "You?"
"Yeah," Luna said. Luna took their stares as skepticism and looked around the room. "Is there anything you don't mind broken?"
"No, you don't need to demonstrate," Luna's mother said, a bit panicked. "We're calling a doctor in tomorrow."
"Oh. Good," Luna said. "And about the tattoo…"
"Well, unless you really wanted it removed," Luna's mother said, "I think it looks fine."
"You know what I think about those things, and even I don't have a problem with it," Luna's father said.
Luna, a bit confused, stole a glance at her own hindquarters. What at first seemed like an arbitrary shape was starting to seem like something more. She began to suspect that feeling of the mark belonging, a feeling that only occupied the edge of Celestia and Luna's consciousness, affected other people much more strongly.
"Anyway," Luna's mother said, "we kept you awake long enough. We should go back to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."
"Yeah," Luna said, lots on her mind. She walked back up to her bedroom. She hoped tomorrow would go smoothly.
– – – –
It didn't.
Celestia took the news very poorly, especially after Luna revealed her parents had committed suicide. She couldn't stand watching Celestia beg for details, and wasn't quite sure if her parents wanted that part under wraps, so she blurted it out. Either way, it didn't help, and Celestia teleported away in a fit.
Luna's parents expressed some concern about finding her, but Luna knew exactly where she was.
She flew to a rock outcropping that overlooked the forest they flew over that first time. They had been there several times since. There, as she expected, was Celestia, bawling.
"Go away," Celestia said without much conviction, and did little to act on it. Luna landed next to her and covered her with one of her wings.
"There… it's okay…" Luna said, gently patting her. "Just let it out…" She leaned against Celestia, and the two looked out at the vast landscape that stretched in front of them. The majestic forest. The rough, massive mountains. And the city, down below, looking so small and vulnerable.
Celestia could see nothing but destruction everywhere she looked. She searched desperately for some evidence to the contrary. For some sign that something in the world was worth saving. She felt, in some inexplicable feeling, that one was destined to appear.
The sign never came.
Author's Note
Maybe someone stepped on it.
Two months later, Celestia was still beside herself. The crying was over, but that only helped so much, because now she was in a constant depressed haze. Luna's family tried everything they could think of to lift her spirits, but nothing worked. So they, with some reluctance, finally decided to let Celestia see what little of her parent's last effects appeared not to contain disturbing cult materials. It didn't contain much useful either, but in absence of anything else to try, it was worth a shot.
"They're in this chest," Luna said, patting the dust off a large, intricate wooden chest in their attic. "It was in your house, filled with things…" Luna paused. She had seen the inside, so she couldn't say it was left behind as a loving token without lying. Unsure, she decided cautious tact would be the safest option. "…I think they wanted someone to have."
Celestia stared at the chest longingly.
"Do you want to be alone?"
"Yes, please."
Luna left.
Celestia looked at the chest. She circled around it. It was so elaborate looking. It had to have some hidden meaning. She was sure her parents would never buy a chest like that without a reason. It would be like them. They always had a reason, always had a plan, one that she was sure extended to even their smallest actions.
That's why Celestia found it so hard to believe they had, with no plausible reason, suddenly committed suicide. She really wished someone would just tell her the truth about what happened.
But none of that mattered now, because Celestia was sure the chest would give her answers. She unhooked the front latch and opened it, bracing herself.
Inside, Celestia found the largest collection of banal, useless crap she had ever seen. She was surprised anyone collected any of these things in such quantity, let alone her parents, and let alone as last effects. Old yearbooks, class rings, clippings from sweepstakes, dull pencils, erasers, coupons, and other garbage filled the box. If there was anything useful it had been removed. Celestia hit it in frustration.
"Dammit!" she screamed. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Tears began to form. "Why does everyone have to patronize me!? Why can't anyone tell me the damn truth! " Once again, she collapsed into a sobbing mess, unable to handle the sheer cruelty and incomprehensibility of her situation.
Then she heard a clicking sound. She looked down. A small slot had opened towards the bottom of the chest. Wondering if it was what she thought it was, she looked inside the chest again. As she suspected, it was subtle, but the inside didn't completely reach the bottom.
She pulled open the slot, which revealed a hidden compartment. The first thing she noticed was a letter on top. Recognizing her mother's handwriting, she immediately grabbed and read it.
"Celestia,
If you are reading this, we are most likely dead, and your guardians have most likely hidden our actions from you. Don't blame them. Anyone would misunderstand our intentions from the outside.
If you did, however, our lives would be for naught, so we have enclosed all our knowledge in this briefcase. Inside are pure facts. We will not attempt to make anything more palatable than it really is. Read it, interpret it, reach your own conclusions, and we hope you choose to continue our research."
It was short and curt, but it had a ring of truth to it. This is how Celestia knew her parents. Driven, honest, but not sentimental. She was glad for even this small piece to remember them by.
But that wasn't all. Beneath the letter was a large, flat briefcase, too flat to hold anything but a single layer of papers. Celestia opened it.
Inside, with what was no doubt extremely complicated magic, it was bigger than the outside, and stuffed to the brim with a vast collection of documents. She started sifting through them. She couldn't make heads or tails of anything this quickly, but they seemed to be describing various incantations and prophecies. Intricate illustrations adorned most of them. One in particular caught her eye.
It was a picture of her. She was sure of it. But the scroll it was on was obviously ancient and made far before her birth. How was that possible?
Then she noticed that on the drawing's hindquarters was that mark. That exact same mark that the kidnappers had tattooed on her.
That mark of the sun.
But if the kidnappers had done that, they must have had access to these documents, because the marks were identical. Since her parents went to such elaborate means to keep these documents secret… did that mean the kidnappers were her parents?
It was definitely worth investigating. Celestia closed the briefcase, climbed down the ladder, and started carrying it to her room.
On the way she ran into Luna.
"What is that?" Luna said, unable to restrain her utter confusion. She was reasonably sure that chest didn't contain that briefcase. It looked too… practical.
Celestia tried to think of something to say. She knew that Luna's parents were trying to hide something from her, but she wasn't sure if Luna was involved. She ended up settling on a particularly ungraceful, "It's nothing."
"Was that in our attic?"
"Yes." It wasn't a lie …
"Let me see."
Celestia was not prepared for that. "What?"
"I bet it's embarrassing photographs of my parents or something. Let me see."
"What!? No!"
"Come on!"
They started struggling over the briefcase, and in the confusion, Luna snapped it open. Celestia gasped, fearing the arcane documents would spill out and be taken away from her.
Instead, they were rained upon by a veritable ton of half sharpened pencils.
Luna spit one out of her mouth. "That was in that chest, wasn't it?"
Celestia looked around, confused. She realized the briefcase must have multiple storage compartments, one only visible to her. Luckily, this gave her the perfect pretext. "I thought I'd empty it and use it for school," she said with as much embarrassment as she could muster.
"Okay," Luna said. She started picking up pencils with her mouth and redepositing them into the briefcase. She hoped Celestia would get the hint after about five, but she didn't. "Do you mind?"
"Oh. Right." Celestia used her magic to put all the pencils back in the briefcase and close it. She started heading back to her room.
"Wait," Luna said. She paused and looked down. "Did that… help?"
Celestia looked back. She smiled. "You know what? I think it did."
– – – –
Ever since that day, Celestia appeared to undergo a miraculous recovery. Luna's family attributed it to seeing the chest. That was half right. The chest meant nothing to Celestia, but the documents its secret compartment contained entranced her. The things they described were so outlandish and fascinating she couldn't help but read them voraciously whenever she got the chance, even if they did seem ridiculous to the point of being fiction.
But then she decided to put them to the test, and, mostly out of curiosity, tried one of the minor rituals described. To her shock it worked perfectly. She tried another. The same. The more she reread the documents, the more she realized they described the real world, and proposed an entirely different system for understanding the underlying workings of magic, one far more efficient, accurate, and powerful than what she was being taught in school.
With her newfound knowledge, class magic exercises became child's play, and she quickly soared to the head of the school. With increased understanding of the documents, she could even pull off feats previously thought impossible, making her participation in the introductory magic courses somewhat ridiculous. The school therefore decided to give her free reign of one of the magic laboratories to conduct her own research.
This was, of course, exactly what she planned.
Now she had all the resources she needed to attempt the most difficult, draining, intricate spell described in the documents. It was her mission from then on perfect the holy grail of her parents' research, the entire point of their existence for the majority of their adult lives.
Knowing that her parents' death was not in vain, that their work was beyond genius, and that she would, most likely, be able to continue it, was more than enough to raise Celestia's spirits. She became confident to the point of being cocky, and despite having a quite meager social life before, somehow attracted a large group of friends. Her and Luna started becoming distant. Luna didn't mind terribly, happy to see her friend finally out of her deep pit of depression, but she did yearn for those older, simpler days when it was just them.
Then the serial killer appeared. Their arrival sent the town into a scared submission. One day someone found a horribly mutilated body and from then on it never stopped. Each day had a new victim. The killer's only motive appeared to be harvesting organs. Each victim had one missing, always extracted in some intricately, sickeningly efficient way, and nothing else touched. They had no interest in valuables or any normal values whatsoever for that matter, because the victims had utterly nothing in common. Capture was hopeless. They teleported onto scenes, got the job done, then teleported away, never taking a step or leaving behind the faintest trace of magic residue, something previously thought impossible. The victims hardly even got a chance to scream. At some point, the rate increased to two victims a day and the death toll was over 100.
And somehow Celestia was not able to take any of this seriously. This drove Luna nuts.
"Don't you care about anything besides yourself!?" Luna yelled.
"Of course I do," Celestia said. "I just know the serial killer won't touch us."
"How!?"
Celestia smiled. "Woman's intuition."
Luna looked at Celestia with a face reserved for ponies engaged in dangerous stupidity. "Really."
"Just trust me. I'm sure they'll be done soon."
"Why?"
Celestia smiled again. It was beginning to become unnerving. "I'm sure they're close to their goal," she said. She turned to Luna. "Tell me, Luna, what could anyone possibly need more than 100 bodies for?"
– – – –
Exactly as Celestia had predicted, though, the next week the killings stopped. That would have been strange enough if it wasn't for the way she entered school the next day.
There was nothing terribly odd about any of her actions. What was strange was how she performed them. It was hard to point out anything specific about it, but Luna knew everyone else suspected something too. She could see the edge of doubt forming on their faces. Each of Celestia's steps seemed labored yet powerful at the same time, like she was restraining herself. She seemed to move more… smoothly, something Luna would not believe possible had she not seen it with her own eyes. She wondered if Celestia had been working out, but couldn't think of any opportunity for her to do so, especially since she had definitely not been like this the day previous.
But the strangest thing was her hair. It didn't look that different, but something about it now made you nauseous if you stared directly at it for too long. Luna spent more time than was probably safe examining it, and after closing each of her eyes, realized that it had, somehow, stopped moving in perspective.
Other than that, however, Celestia acted exactly the same as usual, and Luna, in her ignorance of magic and thus just how impossible everything she saw was, dismissed it as another failed experiment.
– – – –
That night's dinner was oddly forced.
"Hello, dear."
"Evening weather's nice, isn't it?"
"Lovely."
"Pleasant."
"Unbelievable."
"Stunning."
Luna didn't get the code. She looked at the disgusting red mass that, to the best she could figure, was only on her plate. "What on earth are we eating?"
"I'm," Luna's mother stuttered, "trying… something new."
Luna arched her eyebrows. "Which is?"
Luna's mother looked at Celestia awkwardly. Then back to Luna. "It's… a surprise."
Whatever it was it was awful. Luna vomited into the bathroom sink afterwards. She only finished it because her parents looked so desperate. But Celestia…
At that point, Luna was suddenly overcome with a wave of nausea and exhaustion and couldn't continue that line of thought. She crashed into bed and instantly fell into a deep sleep that, in her last moment of consciousness, inexplicably filled her with terror.
Luna woke with a start. It wasn't a loud noise that woke her. In fact, it was the opposite—the air was filled with a grotesque silence. Usually some slight commotion was audible from anywhere in the house, but today, nothing. She could only make out vague, quiet mumbling from outside.
She got up, which revealed how dizzy she was. She stumbled into a wall. She felt ill in some utterly unnatural way. It was whatever she had been served the previous night, she was sure of it. She had to ask someone what it was, that much was certain. It wasn't any normal food. It felt like it was infecting every fiber of her being, and she couldn't stop thinking of it. It was so red, like it was bleeding and still alive.
It could have been meat, but she doubted even that could affect her so deeply. Everything, literally everything felt different somehow. In searching for a way to describe it, she realized everything seemed sharper now. She could see things she could never before, remember things that were previously buried in the back of her mind, and every motion now felt effortless and strong. It was similar to what she felt during the kidnapping, just multiplied a millionfold.
Suddenly, Luna realized her leaning on the wall was causing it to buckle under the pressure and jumped away from it. She moved so quickly she never even noticed when she was in midair, and had to look around to confirm someone hadn't teleported her. Then she realized she was standing and her sense of balance had returned. Somehow, in that short span of time, she had become reaccustomed to standing.
This only strengthened her resolve to find out what was happening to her, so she began to walk out of her room. This was, as she expected, more difficult than usual. Her body appeared to be improving faster than her mind could comprehend it, and she felt she had to restrain herself with each step to avoid taking one large one and crashing through the door. Because of that, reaching it took an inordinate amount of time. She wasn't sure if this was because she was walking slowly, or because her senses had been so fine tuned time appeared to pass slower.
Eventually, she reached the door, a moment she was dreading. She was afraid that with a single push of her hoof it would come crashing down. Yes, that would enable her to exit her room, but the power she was feeling scared her. Luckily, she didn't have to, because the door, suddenly surrounded in a blue aura, opened on its own. Luna put herself on guard.
"Who's there!?" she yelled, then gasped. Her voice came out far louder than she had intended, and it somehow sounded different too. Deeper. More authorial. She tried to ignore it and move on, but she couldn't. As soon as she took another breath, the new location pushed her into sensory overload.
The first thing she noticed was the smell. She could tell from it that no one was in the house. This was not entirely surprising from the silence, but still disconcerting she could smell that much. When more of the smell reached her nose, she realized that wasn't completely accurate—nothing alive was in the house. It was faint, but the stench of death hung in the air. With it was the smell of smoke. Something had been burning, but wasn't any longer.
Next was the noise. Even in the brief time she had been awake her hearing had improved slightly, and the mumbling outside, which before she could barely understand at all, began to become comprehensible. At the moment, the overload made it difficult to understand anything, but if her sense of smell was any indication, her mind would soon evolve to compensate. Right now all she could pick up were random words like "monster," "explosion," "end," which admittedly did not fill her with much confidence.
Then sight. This, luckily, did not feel as different as the other senses, and visually, aside from being able to make out each individual dust granule, the house looked the same as usual. Just empty.
Luna started walking around. She was beginning to become at least comfortable enough with her body to move around. Upon closer examination, the ability to see the distribution of dust particles, which at first seemed like a novelty, proved useful. She noticed they had been displaced strongly by widely spaced footprints. She deduced from this the house staff had run away, as fast as their legs would carry them. Whatever had attacked the house, which seemed like the most likely explanation now, must have been so horrifyingly powerful they had no choice but to run.
She began to track their footprints when she remembered her original goal—to find Celestia or her parents and ask what happened last night. As she ascended the stairs she tried her best to keep focused. Her mind had not yet evolved to take in all this data, and it was easy to become distracted.
Then she realized with some confusion and horror just how little it seemed to bother her now that her body and mind were rapidly changing into something else, into something she knew nothing about and doubted anyone else did. She remembered being horrified at her changes just minutes earlier, but now she could only call forth those feelings as memories. Now it seemed only a fact of life.
Without noticing, she had reached her parent's room. Personally, she had wanted to reach Celestia's first, but she doubted she could stay focused long enough to find it in this state. She mustered up as much weakness as she could into her hooves and knocked on the door. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
She was reasonably sure from the scent no one was, but she hoped she was wrong. She wasn't. No one responded. Not only that, the more the door got pushed open by her knocking, the more she realized that the faint scent of death was emanating from this room, and the only reason it was faint was the door. She braced herself. She supposed it was naïve to think her parents had been spared in an attack that scared away the entire house staff and had the entire town nearly silent in terror, but she could hope. She opened the door. Immediately the stench overpowered her, and she tried to not examine its intricacies. There was one corner to round before she could reach her parent's bedroom. She rounded it slowly.
Not even the scent could prepare her for the sight. She figured its strength was due to her amplified senses, but she was wrong. The room was indeed in such a state to reek that much. Almost every inch of it was caked in blood. Hardly anything recognizable from her parents remained. She didn't know a lot about anatomy, but she knew enough to know pieces were missing, presumably eaten. Its brutality reminded her of the reports of the scenes the serial killer left, but it lacked the sometimes artful simplicity of their crimes. This was brutal, animalistic, messy. No wonder the house staff had run. Whatever did this had raw power beyond the darkest corners of Luna's imagination. Only two details caught Luna's eye as being controlled, and unfortunately, the message those details spelled out made the situation infinitely more complicated and hopeless.
One, a sentence was spelled out in the curtains with her parent's blood. "Come with me, Luna."
Two, a hole had been blasted in the wall. It had been carefully framed in a way to make the Royal Castle the only thing visible.
Luna recognized the handwriting immediately.
Celestia.
She did this.
She did all of this.
She changed Luna, killed her parents, and now had her sights set on the castle.
Luna extended her wings. She no longer bothered to restrain her now freakishly powerful muscles, and thus the wind raised by this sent the walls shaking. She didn't care anymore. Stopping Celestia was now her only objective, and she was sure she would need all her strength to do so. She flew out through the whole towards the castle at top speed, the ground an incomprehensible blur. She could hear townspeople scream in the distance. Someone yelled, "It's another one!" but she dismissed it.
When she reached the castle, she briefly wondered how she would find Celestia, but quickly noticed a large, obvious hole blasted into the roof of the main wing. Of course. Celestia was leading her here. She rushed down and landed in the room with a deafening thud that sent shockwaves through a large portion of the castle. She looked up.
In the corner was a large section of the royal family, huddled together. Next to them were the corpses of the king and queen, cleanly split in two. Around them were the corpses of various soldiers, treated with much less respect.
The culprit, Celestia, was proudly sitting on the throne. Whatever grotesque transformation she had been undergoing the day before was nearing its completion. She was significantly larger. Her poise was tall, proud, and unnaturally still. Her horn was thinner, longer, and… she had wings. Huge, powerful wings, carefully extended just enough to reveal their massive size. Her eyes looked down at Luna, amused but full of contempt. That stare alone was so belittling, so complete in its disdain for life, it could have robbed the strongest knight of their confidence. Unfortunately, it was not the worst part.
Her hair. Her hair, which previously filled Luna with just a vague sense of nausea and discomfort, was now something strange and disturbing. It did not move in perspective. From every angle it appeared exactly the same, except not, because at the same time it never stayed still, not even when Celestia did. It colors had been altered, and now, instead of being Celestia's normal pink, her hair was indiscriminately filled with every color from this world's color spectrum and possibly a couple other's. It was only through her vastly improved vision that Luna began to see a glimmer of order in the abomination, but even then she could just barely comprehend the phenomenon, and for a normal pony it must have been the first step to madness and despair.
Celestia opened her mouth.
"Do you think I should call myself Queen Celestia? Or Princess? I can't decide," she said.
Luna didn't respond.
"I think I'll go with Princess." Celestia smiled. "It sounds less intimidating."
She was barely recognizable. Only with great focus could Luna find any similarities between this and the voice of the friend she once knew. It was deeper, older, and somehow laced with the same unnatural qualities her body now had. But the intonation was the most different. Usually she talked quite fast, as if there was never enough time to say everything she wanted to, but now she moved slowly, letting each word linger in the air, as if time was no longer an object.
"Did you… did you do all this!?"
"Yes."
"Why!? Why!?" Luna screamed, ignoring the unnatural eardrum ripping volume of her own voice. "Why would you kill my parents!? They took care of you! And now you want the throne!? WHY!?"
"It's simple," Celestia said. "I found out what my parents were doing."
Luna stopped.
"They predicted you would try to hide their work from me, so they installed a secret compartment into that chest that held all their research." Celestia smiled. "Don't you want to know what they were doing?"
"I know what they were doing! You're not answering me!" Luna yelled.
"Oh," Celestia said, smiling wider yet harsher, "so you were hiding that from me."
"Can you blame us?" Luna looked around at the rubble. "Look at what they were working for!"
"They were working for peace," Celestia said. "Peace of unprecedented length and prosperity. But you can't create anything without destroying. It's all part of the cycle. Even your father built his success on the back of others."
"Don't you dare talk about my parents!" Luna screamed. "You murdered them in cold blood!"
"They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Celestia said. "It was… unintentional. I was planning on giving them a seat right next to us at the top of our new empire." Her eyes widened in some sick state of arousal. "We would all rule together as one… happy family."
"You… bastard…" Luna seethed. "You can't even see it's all for nothing!? Do you think you can just get away with killing the king and queen!? Not to mention all those other people! As soon as word of this gets out, you're going to have the entire army of this country and every one of its allies after you! And you're just sitting here laughing!"
Celestia was utterly unfazed. "If word gets out," she said. "Besides, the idea of an army coming after me is hilarious. Just watch." She looked at a soldier huddling in the corner. "You. Come here."
He hesitated.
"Now. "
He rushed over.
Celestia craned her neck down to his level. "Now, take that sharp sword of yours and slash my neck clean through. Quickly now."
He looked upon her in confusion. "Wha… but…"
"Do it. You know how easily I can kill you." She breathed inward, reveling in the possibility. "It will be like snapping a twig. Just like the king."
That inspired the guard to some level of confidence, and in his anger, he slashed her head clean off, just like she instructed. It rolled to Luna, who looked at it in shock.
Then the guard turned on her, his sword shaking. "Now for you," he said.
"What?"
"You're just like her."
Before Luna could interpret that, a blast of magic hit the guard and he collapsed to the ground in a lifeless heap.
"Now, I didn't say anything about that," Celestia's disembodied head said. Her decapitated body moved over, and the neck bent down to reattach itself to her head. Tendons, skin, and then fur slowly formed to bridge the gap, and when it was done, Celestia leaned back and cracked her neck like nothing happened.
"Do you see?" Celestia said. "I can't die. I can never die. That," she leaned closer to Luna, "is the whole point of this transformation. Everything else, the strength, the wings, the power… is just a side effect."
Luna was utterly lost for words. She didn't know what to do. If Celestia was right, she could take command of this country, and, in all possibility, the world. But what kind of horrifying kingdom would she create? Luna didn't want to think about it. She would rather die than submit to Celestia's now deranged mind. Someone had to stop her. There had to be some weakness to her transformation. Everyone died, no matter what. And Luna, with her unusual strength, felt she had an unusual advantage. She lunged at Celestia at rocket speed, hoping to at least disorient her with a blow no normal pony would ever be able to land.
It didn't.
Celestia sent her careening into the opposite wall with the flick of just one wing. Luna was left pathetically gasping for air. The blow hit her with more force than she thought any one creature could muster, and it must have broken her entire ribcage. The force of hitting the wall, which then collapsed on top of her, took care of the rest of her body. Pain enveloped everything, and she knew this was it.
Luna knew it was pointless, but before she died, she had to ask again. Through the blood, she managed to get out, "Why…? I thought… we were… friends…"
Celestia slowly walked over to Luna. Her smile was even more sickeningly wide than before. Her eyes were filled with ecstasy. She had been waiting for this moment, it was clear. Luna was sure Celestia would continue to gloat in front of her, and felt utterly pathetic. She wished desperately that she could go any way but this.
Celestia, unfortunately, surprised her.
"Luna," Celestia said, "you're still alive." She paused. "Why do you think that is?"
Luna looked down.
Her wounds were slowly repairing themselves.
It dawned on her.
Celestia's strange behavior. A suitable mate. The red meat. Luna being sick. Her new strength. The door opening on its own. The blue aura. Her new senses. Her new body. The person that screamed, "It's another one!"
Celestia had done to Luna exactly what she had done to herself.
And in that moment Luna knew that she would never die, that her and Celestia would live together for all eternity, that nothing would stop Celestia, and it would only be a matter of time before her mind would snap under the rigors of that insanity and would become just like Celestia.
Luna, with more certainty than she had mustered in her entire life, knew she never wanted that, and ran. Ran as far as she could, as fast as she could, flew up high into the stratosphere, and rocketed down. She could feel the reentry burning her up, and she had hope. Hope that she, unlike Celestia, wasn't completely changed, and could still die. Hope that Celestia would find the same solace.
Hope that in the smoldering crater she left behind, slowly melted into desperate tears. For a while, she didn't even have a body. It was disintegrated, and she was just a floating mind. She could almost feel death's embrace. Almost. Immediately afterwards she got pulled back and her body reconstructed itself from scratch. First the bones. Then the blood. Muscles. Skin. Fur. Hair. It was obvious then there was no escape.
Celestia landed next to her.
"Do you see it now?" Celestia said. "That this was your destiny?"
Luna could do nothing but cry. Celestia edged closer and covered her with one of her wings.
"There… it's okay…" Celestia said, gently patting her. "Just let it out…"
She wondered whether to tell Luna about the hunger.
No, she figured. It would be more fun that way.
Erotic descriptions I wanted to imply some sexual tension between Celestia and Luna, but in the early drafts the concept of subtlety was lost on me and we got passages like these.
Celestia opened her eyes. To her shock, she had turned around and was inches away from Luna's face. She realized it was the first time she had seen it in detail. Her eyes, so apologetic, were lined by beautiful thick eyelashes. Her mouth slightly opened as she tried to think of something to say. Her hair tousled around in the wind. Behind her Celestia could see the vast blue sky they had just flown in. It was too much. Caught in the moment, Celestia edged closer.
Celestia opened her eyes and looked up at Luna, whose face was inches from her. She looked so awkward and confused, but Celestia could see the kindness that lay underneath. The moment lasted only seconds, but to both of them it seemed much longer. Celestia started moving closer to Luna's face, and then Luna quickly set her down.
Original Ritual Ending You know that part in chapter 2 where Celestia goes to Luna's house? That whole giant 2000 word section was originally this. I much prefer the extended one, but this has a couple things that didn't make it into the final story like an explanation of what they cult did to Luna.
– – – –
After giving detailed statements to the police, Luna's parents sent a doctor to the house to see what the kidnappers had done to her. His prognosis was surprising.
"Well, this is awkward, but you're actually in better health," the doctor said. "They must have spent every cent they had on the best healing spells and equipment available. You're healthier and stronger than most athletes right now."
"And… it's not going to have any side effects or anything?"
"Oh no," the doctor said, "not at all. You're just in the best health you could be."
Luna wondered. Why on earth would they heal her? Was that the "preparation?" But she only had so much time to think before her mother interrupted.
"Would you mind stepping out? We have a personal matter to discuss," she said.
"No problem," the doctor said, and left.
Luna's mother waited a couple seconds to make sure he was gone. "Luna, I know this might be a bit soon, but we have something important to tell you about the kidnapping."
"It's fine," Luna said, laughing nervously. "Since they actually healed me it's just sort of weird." She bent to look at her own hindquarters. "And the tattoo they gave me doesn't even look that bad."
Luna's father decided to break the news quickly. "Celestia doesn't have the luxury of looking at it like that," he said. "Her parents were the ones that kidnapped both of you. They were found at the scene… dead."
Luna's eyes widened. "What?"
"I didn't want to believe it either," Luna's mother said, "but that's how we found you. The magic residue they left behind when they teleported you away was unmistakable."
"And I remembered hearing rumors about them," Luna's father said. "Rumors they were part of a large, influential cult whose goal was to breed an immortal 'perfect leader.' We're still uncovering documents and spells from their house."
There was silence.
"Because of that, we've both agreed to take Celestia in," Luna's father said. "She has no other family to turn to, and after being raised by those people, she might be unstable. Is that okay?"
"Of course," Luna said, still reeling.
"We had to break the news to Celestia earlier, but we left out the part about the cult," Luna's mother said. "I doubt she could handle it right now. We asked the police to keep that part under wraps, and they agreed. They were pretty influential, so it would start a panic. If you could keep it a secret as well—"
"Of course," Luna said. "Where is she?"
"On the hill overlooking the town."
– – – –
Celestia sat on the hill, still. Beside herself. How could her parents commit suicide? Why? What reason could they possibly have?
She waited for a sign. A sign from fate that she could keep her faith in the world. Anything would do, anything at all.
But nothing came.
Nothing ever came.
Celestia's Original Recovery The section in chapter 3 that talks about Celestia learning magic and recovering was much more sarcastic. I ended up cutting it because I wanted to include more detail about the magic Celestia was learning, but couldn't figure out how to work it into this.
Ever since that day, Celestia appeared to undergo a miraculous recovery. She started doing better and better in school until she was the top magic student in the city and granted access to the best laboratories to conduct her own experiments. School officials seemed confident in her ability to move the field forward. But somehow she had not let this obstruct her social life, even though previously she had very little. Now, inexplicably, she was extremely outgoing and had a large group of friends and many more acquaintances. If anyone had any fault with her it was that she was too perfect, and even then she only had to show them all the stuff she had blown up to convince them otherwise. And if they thought that was too dangerous, she need only point out even her most deranged mistakes had pushed weapons research ahead by decades. And if they thought that made her too perfect, she only had to rape them. (I might cut that.)
On the other hand, around that time a brutal serial killer started terrorizing the town, carving up ponies in ways that pushed the very limits of good taste and probability. With each death the murders were becoming more elaborate. Like the killer was practicing. And with each death the murders became more frequent. At their peak it was daily.
And, of course, Celestia was not able to take any of this seriously. This drove Luna nuts.
Original Celestia Confrontation Not really of much interest, but includes a couple details that didn't make it into the final story.
"Yes," Celestia said, "I am." She waited for Luna to interrupt again. She didn't. "You see, some hundreds of years ago, no one knows exactly when, someone received prophetic vision. A cross between a pegasus and a unicorn would be created and unite the world under one common rule." Celestia opened her wings a bit. "Me."
"You?"
"Look at the original document." Celestia projected an image of the old scroll with the picture of her on it. "This was drawn hundreds of years before I was born. My parents were part of a group that laid in wait for this prophecy to come true, and from the moment of my birth they noticed my uncanny resemblance to the prophesied ruler. While I was growing, they realized the time had come. I was the one."
Luna scoffed. "Did they know you would do this?"
"Possibly," Celestia said. "The prophecy mentioned periods of great strife before my rule." She smiled. "I suppose it doesn't matter if I'm the one that causes that."
"You're sick! Completely sick! And you've got the entire army of this nation and a couple others after you now! This is suicide!"
"Oh, so you don't know yet?" Celestia said. She laughed. "Armies are no longer of concern to me, other than a symbol of power. Let me demonstrate why." She turned to a guard huddling in the corner. "You. Come here."
Story Plan This is the plan that I wrote the story off of. The Obama story was pretty ad hoc, but these days I write summaries like this before I write my stories. Pretty much all my plans for the Obama series I don't have memorized are written out like this.
It's in the far past. The civilization is nearly unrecognizable compared to what we see in the show. Celestia is a unicorn, an only child. Her family life seems normal enough. She attends a private school, and becomes close with a pegasus, Luna, who's a star athlete at the school.
At some point, her parents die under mysterious circumstances, and she's inconsolable. She's taken in by Luna's family, who's quite well-off. Slowly, she recovers.
Then it comes to light that Celestia's parents were part of a strange cult intent on breeding a perfect future immortal leader. Luna and her parents agree to keep this from her, but Celestia somehow gets ahold of some of her parent's belongings. Part of them consist of some of their arcane spells, which she begins to secretly study and perfect.
Celestia appears to make a miraculous recovery, but in reality this is only because she now has something to occupy herself with. And what she is occupying herself with becomes increasingly horrifying. People start hideously dying around the school, their organs being harvested for something, students and teachers mysteriously exempt. Luna begins suspecting Celestia is up to something, but not this, never this.
Then something strange happens.
One day, Celestia comes to school different. It's something oddly imperceptible. She looks the same, but she moves differently. Faster. Stronger. But like she's constantly restraining herself. And strangest of all is her hair. It no longer follows the rules of perspective properly, and looks extremely unnatural in a subtle way. Luna asks Celestia what's going on, but Celestia ignores her. She's confident. Cocky.
That night, Luna feels extremely ill. She vomits into a sink or something and stumbles back to bed, vowing to confront Celestia tomorrow. She briefly wonders why her sickness doesn't wake anyone.
She wakes up, a feeling of unease stirring her from her sleep. Hanging in the air is a grotesque silence. She walks around the house. No one. Empty. Some smoke is wafting around. Concerned, she checks her parents' room. Inside, she finds a shocking scene. Her parents have been brutally murdered, grotesquely mutilated in ways far beyond the other deaths surrounding the city. But something about it seems too intentional. Too artful. And written on the curtains, in blood, is a message: "Come with me, Luna." Next to it is a hole in the wall, through which Luna can see the Royal Castle.
She bolts out, flying towards the castle as fast as she can. She notices witnesses on the ground, silent, as if they've lost all hope. When she reaches the castle, she wonders where to go, but it quickly becomes obvious. There's a large hole blasted in the roof, which she goes in. Inside, she finds the entire royal family and assorted guards dead. They aren't torn apart like the other victims, but it's still brutal. At the center of the scene is Celestia, her transformation nearly complete. She's grown larger, her hair now completely separated from reality as we know it, and now has huge wings. Her eyes dart manically.
Luna is shocked, obviously. She asks Celestia if she really did all this. Celestia says as soon as she found out about her parent's research, she knew this was her destiny. To rule the world. Luna says something about risk and Celestia demonstrates her new immortality in typical Obamaverse fashion—by dismembering herself and making the accuser watch her body reconstruct itself. Except she doesn't do it herself, she forces a surviving guard, under threat of death, to slice her up for demonstration.
At some point, Luna vows to defeat Celestia even at the expense of her own life and lunges at her. Celestia swats her aside like a fly, and Luna ends up crushed under a pile of bricks. Luna is appalled and asks how Celestia could do this. Then Celestia says, "Luna, you're still alive."
Luna's body fixes itself, and she realizes Celestia made her immortal too.
Realizing she has no escape, she agrees to rule with Celestia.
The end.
