Cold Hearted

by Europa

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Sad, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other
Length: 11491

The last of a species is called an 'endling'. Celestia is the endling for windigos.

She is the last. All her kin are gone. They'd either been blown apart by the Friendship spell so many ages ago or, in the case of her sister, changed their diet from hate to love. Cryoxia is the last of the windigos, but she is determined to be different, to never go back to those days ever again.

She'll make friendship from hate. She'll adopt an alicorn foal as her sister. She'll take physical form and learn how to move the celestial orbs with her mind. Celestial... has a nice ring to it. And she'll ally with the other nations in the world, establish friendship and preach harmony, no matter how they may diminish her food source. She'll make a world so wonderful that it will starve her to death.

Or die trying.

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For antiquity, featured 10/9/14, 10/13/14 -10/16/14

Published 2014-10-07 02:30:05 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-14 02:51:54 UTC

Winter Sun

Celestia

Cryoxia whinnied and swirled through the air, floating in a wide circle above the mountain, her aura of cold turning the water vapor in her surroundings to snow, which drifted down to pile upon the rest her kind had conjured. Her long mane of liquid nitrogen billowed behind her and against her tail-body of microscopic ice particles.

With a delighted cry she plummeted, the chill wind brushing her face as she did. Just before she hit the ground she pulled up, the flowing spikes on the back of her hooves carving gashes in the heavy, heavy layer of snow and shattering the thin layer of ice on top. Cryoxia let her momentum carry her on, away from the mountain, over the snow-engorged plains, to another little town.

It wasn't much. Some earth pony village that had cleared out the snow into thick piles around it. Clearly, they were keeping up. They were coordinating. She couldn't have that, could she? First it would be cooperation, then it would be compassion, then it would be love between them. Cryoxia couldn't eat that! She had to stop it, to drive them against one another. It wasn't anything personal, but a windigo had to eat.

But how? The ponies were wise to their existence, and while they perhaps didn't know precisely their role, they did know that when a windigo appeared, tensions flared, earning them the apt title of demon. It was okay. Cryoxia was clever. She'd circled and harvested hatred for three centuries, and in that time she'd learned a few tricks. How to imitate unicorn magic without a horn. How to coalesce, to turn ice and snow into flesh and blood, to walk among the foodsicles and -

"OOF!"

Someflurry collided into her back, their body flattening her mane to her back and forcing her down, down down into the snow. Cryoxia gave a little ethereal grunt when she hit the ground, but kicked off and turned the tables, twisting around her assailant until they were pressed to their bellies against the icy snow, screeching in protest. "Gotcha," she said.

"No fair! I had you!" her younger sister, Crystalis, complained.

She leaned down and gave her a headbutt. "Nope. Never even close, Crysty."

"I told you never to call me that!" she said, trying to flow out from between Cryoxia's hooves. In response, she pushed down harder and formed ice barriers around her sister to keep her in place.

She supposed she could have let Crystalis win just one bout, but what for? She'd win when she deserved to win. Cryoxia hadn't let her sister win one of their little scruffles ever since they were young wisps, and she wasn't about to start now. "So, what's the big idea tackling me just as I'm about to go get lunch?"

"I want them!" Crystalis complained. "You know I want to try feeding off love!"

She groaned and let Crystalis go. "Oh not this again! Crysty, you know that stuff melts us! You can't eat it, it'll kill you!" she said, genuinely worried. It wasn't that windigos couldn't feel the same spectrum of emotions that their prey could. They could. But there wasn't... there wasn't any magic behind it, no sustenance. And so Cryoxia had set her eyes on the village, but now her sister was pulling this again.

"I can do it!" she complained. "I'm sure of it! I know how to keep myself together. Trust me, Cryo!"

She rolled her glowing eyes. "Fine, fine!" she said, drifting a little further from Crystalis. "Whatever. I'm going to go visit the big to-do over by that cave." Without waiting for her sister to respond, Cryoxia flew off, leaving a trail of dense snow as she siphoned the heat from the air.

The cave, a few kilometers from the desperate town, had a great many of her kin floating around. She could feel it. She could feel the hatred flowing from within, the iced ponies filling the air with the sharp, brisk taste of the emotion. Cryoxia opened her mouth and ate it, feeling it flow through her body as a pall, her internal flurries growing stronger and her mane of liquid nitrogen flowing more languidly. Around her were hundreds, thousands of her fellow windigos. It was likely that every windigo was here, or damn near. Near the entrance of the cave were the Elders, working their demon magic upon the six ponies within.

Cryoxia nickered, and wailed joyfully as the hatred fed her. Such a meal! Such a feast! The space around her began to shimmer with cold as the temperature dropped, dropped, dropped, her icy aura turning the air around her to liquid which rained down, only to evaporate moments later. Crystalis could keep her fool's errand of feeding off love. This, this was the stuff. This was food, this was -

Suddenly it was gone, and then there was a blinding flash of red and pink and an orb of not-food-friendship-love-GETAWAY exploding outwards. Cryoxia screamed as it tore through the other windigos, their bodies gone like wind, and reached her -

***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***

Princess Celestia sat upright with a scream. Her breath caught in her throat and she raised a hoof to her chest, willing her heart to calm down. She felt something wet, and looked around to see that little wisps of ethereal blue fog were wafting off and back into her body, and that her luxurious bed was covered in a thin layer of ice crystals.

It wasn't the first time she had the dream, of what would've happened if she'd gone to the others, if she hadn't stayed in the town to oversee her little sister's fool attempts, gotten separated, and met a young, blue-coated alicorn...

She shook off her nightmare and pulled imitation-alicorn magic to her horn. Pulling herself off her bed, she vaporized the ice with a longing look, and then went about her morning ritual. Raise the sun, put on her royal garments, wash out her mouth, pull the ghostly energy back into herself, etcetera etcetera. With that done, she was ready to go to breakfast with her dear sister.

Opening the soundproofed door with the flick of a wing, she greeted the two guards - Blue Skies and Clear Skies - with a smile and a good morning, which they stiffly returned. Making her way towards the dining room, she passed several maids and other ponies in the employ of the crown with a warm smile. Yet she couldn't help but feel like she was forgetting something...

... ah! Her planner.

Opening a brief teleportation field back to her room, she pulled her schedule book to herself and opened it to the day's date, December Fifth. Breakfast with Lulu, then some paperwork, followed by Noon Court, and then some free time to slip out into the city and feed, followed by - ah! Celestia smiled. Her dear, dear Twilight was coming to share a new changeling-revealing spell with her. She cherished any time with Twilight she could get.

Trotting through the halls, she soon arrived at the dining room. Her guards took their positions outside it as Celestia went inside. Lulu was already there, a mug of hot cocoa resting in her hoof as she pecked away at her spaghetti dinner. Luna had, thoughtfully, already prepared a plate of pancakes and syrup for her, knowing that was always what she had for breakfast on Thursdays.

"Good morning, Luna," she greeted as she closed the door.

"Morning to thee as well, Tia!" she said, stubbornly adhering to the old ways of speech despite Celestia's best efforts. Her face softened. "Sorry we could not aid thee with thy nightmare, thou knows how difficult it is for us to change thine dreams."

"It's fine, Lulu. I'm used to it," she said as she took her place next to her little sister. "So, enough about me. How was your night?"

"Very long and taxing, Tia. The Midnight Court was especially busy with ponies complaining about the snowfall." She smirked deviously. "Thou wouldn't have happened to have had a hoof in the schedule, would thee?"

She busied herself with her pancakes, feeling the odd way they slid down her throat and rested in her stomach. Physical food, what stuff! So tasty but so... not filling. "I don't know what you're talking about, Lulu."

"Oh cease thy denials, sister! We know thy soft spot for snow remains to this day."

She shrugged and offered a sheepish smile. "Well, what can I say?" She ate another slice of pancake. "So, has Twilight spoken to you about her new spell?"

Luna shook her head. "Neigh, Tia. It remains as much a mystery to us as to thee. Thou shalt simply have to be patient, it seems."

About what she expected.

Luna and Celestia finished up their meals while sustaining their sisterly banter, and then it was time for Luna to retire for the day. Both of them stood up and leaned over to each other, sharing a warm nuzzle and hug. "Sweet dreams, Lulu." It always amazed her how warm ponies were.

"A good day to thee as well, Tia. We believe we shalt remain awake for a while yet, there art several novels we dearly wish to peruse." They pulled apart, and Luna lit up her horn. With a flash of teleportation she vanished, leaving Celestia alone. A brief flicker of magic organized their plates and cups to make the maids' job a little easier, and Celestia was away, back to her chambers.

The halls of Canterlot Castle were, in accordance with winter, cold and sharp, just the way she liked it. What would her little ponies think, realizing that Celestia Helio Invictus, Princess of the Day, Goddess of the Sun, much preferred winter over summer? Celestia gave a little chuckle. She knew a few ponies that'd throw a conniption at the very idea!

Meanwhile, her guards shared a nervous look they thought she didn't notice. It was usually an omen of things to come when Princess Celestia gave a laugh like that.

Celestia made the return journey to her chambers swiftly and entered. Her horn lit up with blue-disguised-as-gold magic as she summoned her paperwork to herself, as well as an inkwell and a quill pen that Luna had generously given her from her own wings. Then, laying down on a mattress given to her by a long-dead griffon emperor, Celestia set to work.

First was the proposal for more bits to the snow-plowing services. Cross-referencing the amount of snow scheduled, followed by some looks in the budget, Celestia approved it and sent it on its way. Next was a request by her adopted nephew - what was it with her and adopting ponies? - for funding to a trip to the Great Sea in order to map out some of the islands there. She approved it. Another paper. Denied. Another. Approved. Denied. Denied. Approved. On and on, until there was no more to do. The servants brought her lunch to her room, and while the expertly made salad and dressing was delicious, it just didn't feed her.

She was so hungry, and though she took care to hide the weakness of her steps and her disguise hid her lean form, Celestia couldn't stop the omnipresent emptiness inside of her, tempting her to find a pair of arguing ponies and entice them, tell each of them that they were right and the other wrong, to freeze their hearts and bodies and drain the emotion from them as their cups ran over -

No. She'd controlled herself for twenty five hundred years, this would not be the day she lost control. It was time for Noon Court; that would provide much needed distraction.

The trip to the throne room was, as usual, uneventful. She took her seat on the cold-enchanted throne and made herself comfortable, before looking over at her assistant, Raven, with a gentle smile that the pony returned eagerly. "We're ready to begin, Princess," she said.

"Excellent. Noon Court is in session!" she announced. The gates to the palace opened - letting in a wonderful little breeze and a glimpse at snow-covered Canterlot - and the trickle began.

After so many centuries doing the same thing day in, day out, it was easy for Celestia to fall into a pleasing rut and let her mind wander, while only a fraction of her attention was focused on the court itself. She trusted herself enough to know that even distracted, her decrees would be nothing short of fair and just. She wondered what spell Twilight had come up with now to reveal the changelings. They always seemed to adapt to them so fast, so that once one changeling was revealed and deported to the Badlands - or in extenuating circumstances, granted citizenship - that same spell would be worthless. Though if anypony could come up with a catch-all it would be brilliant, genius Twilight.

There was, of course, sometimes something interesting in court. Like the two business ponies disputing over who had cheated whom. Their names were hardly even noticed by Celestia - she made an effort to know as many ponies as she could, but even her memory had its limits - but their emotions were certainly detectable.

They hated one another. They wanted to destroy the other. Celestia breathed in deep through her nostrils to smell it; bitterness, anguish, betrayal. They had trusted each other and were hurt, they'd been friends once and now they were foes. It broke her heart to see something so precious broken, but on the other hoof she was just so hungry. Surely she could just encourage them a little. Surely, Cryoxia could feed a tad. Just a sip. Cryoxia was sure they'd never even notice the ever-so-slight tint of blue in their vision, that they'd pass off the chill in their bodies as a side effect of the weather. She wouldn't hurt anypony. Just a taste...

She spoke her verdict and emotions were eased, flared tempers went down. Much to her relief the two ponies left the throne room, leaving her to fight the urge to lean back and breathe heavily. She couldn't let her little ponies know anything was wrong. Besides, she could go feed soon.

The rest of Noon Court, mercifully, passed without further incident. Such bitter disputes were rare, thank heavens, but whenever they occurred they taxed her willpower so much. Finally, the last petitioner for the day came and went, a simple issue about how they'd apparently been overtaxed and the Crown owed them thirteen thousand bits. She checked the data and it was legitimate, so she ensured that the mare would get the money she deserved. "Please inform the ponies outside that Noon Court is closed for the day, and they may either attend Midnight Court or next Noon Court to see their requests aired."

With that, she stood from her throne and, with a flash, teleported back to her private room.

Celestia trotted out to the balcony and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. It was time. Making sure that her sight-concealment wards were functional she let ghostly blue energy flicker across her form, engulfing it and consuming her disguise from the inside out, until she resembled little more than an icy cloud, the inspiration for Luna's own mist-transformation magic. She wove a cloak of invisibility around herself and soared out of Canterlot Castle, down into the city proper. It was beautiful, the first snow of winter having coated the city in beautiful, scintillating whiteness that piled on rooftops and the sides of streets, rolled into balls by foals and tossed at their peers. Celestia, with an internal cheer, dove straight through a snowbank and back out into the open, before opening her senses to emotion.

She could see the flickering emotions in Canterlot, red and orange and blue and green, searching for the most blue she could see, and then going after it. She coiled around lamp posts and zig-zagged between ponies' hooves. Eventually she found a dark alley and let herself reform there in a whirlwind of demon magic, taking on the form of a nameless, unimportant earth pony.

There wasn't any special nexus of hatred in the area, but she could still feel it in the background. Simmering beneath ponies' hearts. Everypony had something they hated, despised, even if just a tiny amount. Whether it be a person, an event, a failing of their own, from Discord to Celestia to Fluttershy. The crowd of ponies before her was no different.

Stepping out, Celestia applied a bit of demon magic to make sure her eyes wouldn't start glowing when she fed. She opened her mouth and started breathing in. Everypony around her harbored hatred over something. She just had to bring it out; a frigid wind blew outwards from Celestia, going through ponies' souls and causing them to - forcing them to - think about what they hated most. It didn't matter what it was to Celestia, so long as they did.

She began to breathe in the hatred, the spite, anguish, betrayal, fury, all those and more. They were biting, cold, almost like mint. Each breath of emotion brought the ambient temperature down a little more, causing ponies to tremble with the cold no matter how bundled up they were, which Celestia also did to stay in character. They'd chalk it up to the weather.

Every bit of hatred she drained flowed throughout her body, strengthened her, filled up the gaping void of hunger inside. But she was just so hungry. Cryoxia wanted to just take more and more and more until she was finally, for the first time in centuries, in millennia, full.

Stop! She cut herself off when the area was becoming dangerously cold. Ponies were outright shivering and breathing frantically onto their hooves. Celestia retreated to an alley and dematerialized in privacy, cursing herself. She could have hurt somepony; even feeding just enough to fuel her imitation alicorn magic and keep her alive, she nearly had. Recently it was getting harder and harder to feed, so she was always more and more hungry. That was a good thing; it meant that she was making the world a better place. But it also made it so much harder to control herself. She feared what would happen when things got worse. Feeding was already horrible enough, having to hurt her subjects like that, but if she ever lost control...

She mentally shook her head. No, no thinking about that. Celestia had spent enough time feeding, it was time to go meet up with Twilight about her revelation spell. There was some cause for concern about it, given the close relationship between the changelings and her own kind, but Celestia wasn't that worried. It was Twilight, she could trust the young mare.

Celestia flew back to the castle swiftly, reforming under the disguise of her alicorn body, and made to find Twilight. The purple alicorn's letter had said she'd come to the library, so it was to the library she went with a skip in her trot. She quickly checked the position of the sun in her mind: two nineteen? She was late! She hastened into a canter, drawing some odd looks. Before long Celestia found herself in a secluded corner of the library, ready to meet her faithful ex-student.

Twilight was already waiting for her in the little, circular alcove of the library. A whirlwind of notes describing magical formulae and pony-like bodies with far too many holes in its form. Celestia cleared her throat to grab Twilight's attention.

She looked her way and her ears perked up. "Celestia!" she put down the book and trotted to her, embracing her in a hug while Celestia put a forehoof around her. Immediately Twilight stiffened and pulled away. "Princess, you're freezing!" she exclaimed, looking up at her.

Oops. She wove it off. "Oh, I was just spending some time in the snow, Twilight. Rest assured, I'm fine," she said as warmly as she could.

Twilight returned to her notes with a little flutter in her wings. "Alright, so should I get right to it, or...?"

She motioned her to continue. "Please, Twilight. I'd like you to explain the theory behind it."

Twilight smiled, and entered Lecture Mode. "Well, the changelings keep getting used to our revelation spells remarkably fast. Leaving aside how all of them learn how to do so based on one cast of revelation on one changeling, I thought about how they would keep doing it, and realized we were doing it all wrong. Instead of disrupting their disguise, we need to strike at the very core of their power, which relies highly on emotions." Twilight lit up her horn.

Worry tugged at Celestia. Surely, Twilight couldn't mean...

"And due to the reliance on intercortex redistribution matrices, it affects everypony around the caster, not just a singular target, which is unlike past versions. Nothing that uses emotions to fuel itself can possibly resist this spell unless they change that, so unless a changeling stops being a changeling, this will always work." The alicorn's horn brightened, and Celestia gasped.

No! She didn't want Twilight to know, and if she had to know then Celestia wanted to tell her on her own terms. She shielded herself, warded herself in whatever way she could. "Twilight, wait!"

Flash!

Celestia pumped more faux alicorn magic into her wards, but it did nothing. The magic flowed through her shields and back into herself, nipping and biting at her and it flowed up her throat and into her mouth, love and warmth and beauty and spite mixing together into a terrible, corrosive mixture that spilled down her throat, up her nostrils and into her lungs, her stomach, through her eyes and into her brain, her magic, her body.

She retched and realized she'd been thrown back against the library shelves, collapsed to the ground as the magic continued to ravage her, whirling in a horrible spiral of purple and gold and blue and green down her dissolving horn, her ethereal-turning-liquid mane, letting lose the demonic cold that she kept hidden easily with how weak it was, through her veins and heart as her organs dissolved and vanished and her skin boiled off into a homogeneous body of microscopic snowflakes. Then it was over and Celestia, utterly drained, wheezed in her ghostly voice and her head dropped.

No, no, no, she repeated to herself like a mantra. She cracked open her eyes, casting everything with an ever so subtle teal light.

The look of horror and betrayal on Twilight's face was one she never wished to see again. The alicorn stared at her with shock, her jaw working up and down. She had to defuse the situation, fast.

Celestia pushed herself up on her trembling forelegs, her hunger more noticeable now than even before feeding. "Twilight," she whispered, her hooves chilling the ground with a thin layer of frost. "Twilight, Twilight it's me. Please, please stay calm," she said as she felt the rising panic and revulsion in Twilight.

"No," Twilight whimpered.

"It's me," she urged desperately. She called to her demon magic, tendrils of mist briefly flickering about her form but not succeeding in reconstructing her alicorn body. "I'm so sorry. I didn't want you to... please, I'm still Celestia." Twilight's eyes were darting back and forth frantically, the irises shrinking as her mane and tail frazzled. Her horn lit up and -

"Don't go, please."

she was gone.

Moaning weakly, Celestia lowered her head to the ground. What was she going to do?

Author's Note

I hope you all enjoyed. Like always, please do leave a comment. Even if it's just to say what you liked and not to point out an error, everything helps; knowing what works is as important as knowing what doesn't.

I do not own MLP, Hasbro does.

Short story, this'll be two, max three chapters long to work out my writer's block before going back to Supersymmetry.

Worth Melting For

Twilight Sparkle

What do I do what do I do what do I do?!

What should she do what should she do what should she do? Celestia! Changeling! Windigo! Lies! Truth! How was that possible? Twilight thought windigos were extinct, the only reason she recognized maybe-Celestia was because she'd seen drawings of them from way back when.

From where she'd teleported she galloped around haphazardly. What should she do?! There was a windigo in the castle! One that claimed to be Celestia! Something which explained so much. It didn't explain anything at all!

In the middle of a random hallway, Twilight suddenly knew what she needed. A list! Graphs! Charts! She wheeled around and sprinted towards her old room in Canterlot. No! She stopped and turned around. There were writing materials in the library. But the windigo was there! Room! Library! Room! Library! What was she going to do?!

No. She had to calm down. The first thing she needed to do was calm down. Reclining against a wall and weaving a Somepony Else's Problem field around herself, Twilight Sparkle began to perform Cadance's breathing exercises. In and out, in and out. Alright. What was the plan? What did she know?

When performing her spell designed to reveal changelings, Twilight had revealed Celestia to be a windigo, or at least a windigo pretending to be Celestia. The implication of changelings and windigos being similar enough to both be affected by her spell was fascinating, but that was for later. So, what were the possibilities? Option one: A windigo had replaced Celestia. That meant Celestia was hidden away somewhere, or worse, and that one of the leaders of the nation had been replaced by a... a monster that fed off of hatred, whose kind had nearly driven ponykind extinct in the past.

Or, option two: Celestia was secretly a windigo. That just raised further questions, such as 'how' or 'why had she kept it hidden from her'? She could understand keeping that from the population at large, but she thought Celestia would have trusted her more. And if she was one, then why had she always acted in such an un-windigo manner? Not that Twilight had previous experience with the winter demons, but what historical records remained pointed in the opposite direction of Celestia's behavior when it came to them.

But what could she do? How could she figure it out? If it was Option One, then she was on a time limit. The windigo could be harming ponies right then, so she had to go stop it. But if it was Option Two, she'd be attacking her mentor and friend. Could she take the risk? Could she alert the guard? No, bad idea. There were no measures in place to take down a windigo since nopony knew what they were capable of, if that was even the right course of action. But who would know?

Luna! Luna would surely know. Right? Right! And if she didn't, then surely she'd lend her aid in getting to the bottom of the matter. But what if Luna was also a windigo? Who could she trust, who could she go to? Discord?! She was still sore over the tatzelwurm.

No. She had to stay calm. Paranoia would get her nowhere. She could go to Princess Luna and cast the spell on her. If she turned out to also be a windigo, then Twilight would remain calm, allow Luna to explain herself, and place a ton of protective wards on herself. If not, then perfect! Princess Luna could help her. Right. She dispelled her S.E.P. field and took off, making a beeline for Luna's chambers. She just hoped that she wouldn't be too cranky about being woken up: Twilight put a little more strength behind her passive shields just in case.

Before long, she made it to the dark blue door that led to the Nightbringer's bedroom. She knocked once to be polite, then opened it.

Much to Twilight's surprise, Luna wasn't asleep but rather laid on her bed, a novel floating before her. Without looking at her, Luna said, "Ah, what brings thee here, sister?"

"Um."

The book dropped. "Oh, Twilight! I'm sorry, I didn't think it was you. Please, come in. Aren't you supposed to be with my sister right now?" The sudden change from old Equestrian to modern was jarring. Did Luna just do it around Celestia?

"About that! Um, would you happen to know if Celestia is, well, there's no easy way to put this, a windigo?"

Luna shot out of bed and slammed the door closed. "WHAT?! How do you know that?"

"T-The disguise spell," she stammered. "This one." She briefly let her horn flare and the magic washed outwards, engulfing the room. Much to her relief, Princess Luna was unchanged. "It, it turned her into a windigo, and I don't know if it's really her or one of them took her place and I thought they were extinct so - "

"Twilight, quiet." Luna took a deep breath, and let it out. Her horn lit up and her royal garments floated over, the taller alicorn slipping into them. "First, Celestia is in fact a windigo. If you left her there on her own, she may be hurt. We're going. You were in the library, yes?"

Dumbly, Twilight nodded. Celestia was a windigo? And Luna wasn't? Weren't they sisters? Were they adopted?

"Good," Luna said. "Then we'll walk there, and I'll look for any trace of her magic in case she moved elsewhere. Follow me."

With a flick of magic, the door opened and a privacy dome formed around the two of them. Twilight followed the Night Princess out of her room and closed the door behind them. "So, how is that even possible? I mean, a windigo? I thought all of them were destroyed when - "

"She got away," Luna explained. "I was a filly back then, and she stumbled into my house looking for somepony. Apparently I, being an alicorn, interested her." She chuckled as they turned a corner. "She never made any attempt to deceive me, of course. We'd both lost our families quite recently and were both in a dark place," Luna said, her voice dipping. ", so after a few weeks of dancing around the issue we sort of adopted each other. Her more than me. I was just a foal at the time, remember."

"Uh huh?" This was all... rather world shattering. So it was option two. But why did Celestia never tell her? Did she not trust her? And, and the way she'd just run out on Celestia like that! What if she really was hurt? Oh alicorns, she felt like she was going to throw up...

"You wouldn't have recognized Tia back then. All moody and liable to bite your head off." Luna gave a wistful sigh as they approached the library. "It's amazing what changes can occur in so many years, is it not?" She paused, her horn flashing brighter. "Hmm, she must've passed by here recently. I think she left the library after the incident." Luna turned to follow some invisible trail that only she could see. Twilight extended her own magical senses, but picked up nothing. "Hmm, yes, I think she went back to her chambers. Follow me, Twilight."

Twilight did, trying to process the information she'd learned in the past... barely an hour. Celestia was secretly a windigo, and was Luna's sister only by adoption. A windigo. Twilight was not hung up on the 'evil' thing so much anymore, now that Luna had vouched for her. But it was still such a shock, such a change in Celestia's nature...

Luna led her over to Celestia's private chambers, and paused. "Twilight, stay out here. I need to go in and talk to her first, okay? Then I'll come out so you can talk to her."

She nodded weakly and then moved to sit against the wall while Princess Luna's form shimmered into mist, slipped under the door, and probably rematerialized inside.

Twilight exhaled shakily and tried to calm her thoughts. Twilight tried to put herself in Princess Celestia's horseshoes. She had to feed off hatred to survive. She was in old Equestria, and ponies were her food source. Then she met one pony like she'd never seen, an 'alicorn'. Presumably her heart had been softened by the pony, then she spent centuries... centuries... alright, so putting herself in Celestia's horseshoes wasn't as easy as she thought.

What was she going to do? It was fairly obvious she was going to confront Celestia fairly soon, but what could she possibly say? Windigo or not, it was clear that this was Celestia, the mare who took her on as a foal, taught her practically everything she knew, who was practically a second mother to her. Probably.

Should she be angry? Disappointed, forgiving? Distrustful, accusing her of brainwashing Luna and replacing the real Celestia? It felt so wrong to feel... well, any of those towards Celestia. Twilight wasn't even entirely certain how she herself felt.

After maybe twenty minutes, Princess Luna's starry form slid out from under the door and coalesced back into a pony. "Twilight Sparkle, my sister is ready to speak with you now. I hope you two will come to an understanding regarding this... revelation of hers?"

"I don't know," she said cautiously. "I mean, she's a windigo, but she's Celestia, and I don't know what to think! How does she feed herself? Does she have the emotion conjured? I don't know of any spell that can create emotion out of thin air, just encourage and amplify what exists, so either way she'd need a pony - "

"Twilight, you need to understand this. My sister does feed off ponies, but she does it so little."

"So she hurts - "

"She's starving herself, Twilight," the Nightbringer said sharply, making Twilight's mouth close. "Every day she rules this country she starves herself for the good of the people. She's always, always hungry, but she puts up with it because she loves our little ponies. She's still the same self-sacrificing Celestia you grew up around. Please remember that."

Twilight bit her lip and nodded. "Alright. I'll go in."

She stepped towards the door and, closing her eyes, opened it with a burst of telekinesis. She trotted in and closed it behind her, shivering. The air inside was cold, and the culprit was obvious; the door to balcony, and therefore the winter cold, was open.

Twilight looked around the familiar room, and was all of a sudden overwhelmed with nostalgia. She remembered this place. She remembered prancing around as a filly, eagerly devouring the heavy tomes Celestia kept for herself. She remembered the tall, off-white alicorn pushing her away from some of the more adult books, and she had no idea why for several years. She remembered the bed, the table with papers piled on top of it, the pictures of various ponies on the walls. Celestia's royal trappings were in an undignified pile on the bed.

The fireplace was lit, and even through the cold Twilight could feel its warmth on her face. She looked towards it and gasped.

There was Princess Celestia laying down, one forehoof crossed over the other. The Princess's body faced the fireplace, but her head was turned to look right at Twilight.

She'd largely regained her 'pony form', but there were still notable differences. Her eyes, for starters. Instead of magenta, the irises were the same brilliant, glowing blue that Twilight had seen in the library, blue fog spilling out of the eyes like Sombra's dark magic. From seemingly random spots along her body filaments of teal mist writhed around, like a pillow with the stuffing half pulled out of it. Celestia's horn didn't have the usual spirals a pony's horn did, and was instead inlaid with fluorescent runes all along its length with a plume of mist spewing from the tip. And there was Celestia's mane; while her tail was normal, her mane was a flowing mass of some incomprehensibly cold liquid.

As she walked further in Celestia gave her a weak smile, which Twilight returned.

Twilight trotted next to her and laid down, also crossing her forelegs and looking at the fire, relishing in the warmth. She turned to the Princess.

"Celestia, I'm - "

"Twilight it's all my - "

They paused, and Celestia motioned for her to go first. "Celestia, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have just ran out on you like that. The least I could've done was hear you out, but I panicked and I just left you there after I hurt you." She lowered her head and splayed her ears back. "I'm sorry."

"Twilight, you have nothing to apologize for." Celestia moved a foreleg over to Twilight's, but then thought better of it and pulled it back. "You had no idea that your spell would change me back. I didn't either until you explained how it would work, and I wasn't fast enough to tell you to wait." She lowered her head. "I can hardly blame you for teleporting away, I can't imagine what sort of shock it must have been to you."

She nodded. "It was a surprise, but it's still, um, it's still you. That much is obvious. But I have to ask why."

"Why what?"

"Why did you never tell me?! I mean, keeping it a secret from Equestria I can understand, not everypony would be so understanding, but I thought, I thought." She bit her lip. It was hard to accuse Celestia of anything, but this was something that had to be done to clear the air. "I thought you trusted me enough. Ever since you took me under your wing, you've taught me time and again the importance of honesty, of coming clean to those you care for, and now to find out something like this?"

Celestia winced and looked away. "You're right, Twilight. You're absolutely right. I should have told you. I should have trusted in you more than I did, but I was afraid. Only Luna's ever known my secret, and for the thousand years she was gone nopony else knew. I grew used to nopony knowing. When Luna came back, her casual quips behind closed doors about my true nature? Even that felt foreign." Celestia lowered her head. In the meantime, the mist seeping from her horn fell down and covered her horn, seeping into it. The runes on it vanished and were replaced by the typical spirals.

"So it was strange enough to have Luna knowing, meaning you didn't want to tell me because that would feel even stranger," Twilight muttered, looking into the fireplace. "I guess I can understand that. Princess, does... anypony else know?"

"No," she said guiltily. She extended her forelegs and rested her head on them. "No. Not my niece, not my nephew, nopony else. I should probably write Cadance, she at least deserves to know." Celestia chuckled a little. "Though I can imagine the look on her face when she learns her aunt is the last member of a species that feeds on the opposite of her specialty."

"Wait," Twilight said, her head shooting up. "Last? You're an endling? For how long?"

"Ever since the tribes merged, I suppose. A great many of my kin went to that cave, and even in those times with such abundant food our numbers weren't incredibly high." She lifted her head back up to look down at Twilight again. "It's possible that others escaped the Friendship spell, but if they're still alive to this day then they are keeping an extremely low profile for me not to be able to detect the tell-tale signs of a windigo."

"But - !"

"Twilight," Celestia said sternly as some of her ghostly strands of magic pulled back into her coat. "It's not much of an issue. Discord's the only one of his kind, yet he never lets it depress him does he?"

"That's different! He's the only one because he's the first draconequus. All of your people..." She didn't need to add 'died'.

Princess Celestia sighed. "Not all of them. My sister - blood sister, not Luna - is still alive, though she's not a windigo anymore."

Her ears perked. "Really? Who?"

Celestia's smile grew wry. "You've actually met. She rather ungracefully crashed your brother's wedding with an invasion."

Her jaw dropped. "The changeling queen? Chrysalis? She's your sister?" Today was just full of world-shattering revelations wasn't it?

"Younger sister, actually." She closed her eyes and sighed wistfully. "Always wanted to make me so proud, to prove that she was capable and didn't need 'big sis Cryo' giving her free meals. She was always the odd one out among us. Always going on and on about how we could be better than we were, how feeding on love would encourage the emotion, and the ponies wouldn't even want to stop us. How much better it would be for both parties involved. Everyflurry thought it was a fool idea back then." Everyflurry? "But she showed us, didn't she?"

"Wait, she used to be a windigo? But, so if feeding on love changes a windigo into a changeling, then - "

"No, Twilight," she said sternly. "When a windigo feeds on love, they die. It is poison to us. Crystalis wasn't the first windigo to get that idea in her head, but everyflurry else who tried to do so died. Until the wedding I didn't even know she still lived, I assumed she either died in the Friendship spell or in her attempts to gain nourishment from love." She sighed. "Apparently she was succesful; she's good friends with the diamond dog Alpha Pack, with all the food she and her people could ever need."

"Then why did she invade?" Twilight asked, fearing they were steadily drifting off topic. "How did she not die when she ate love?"

Another strand of Celestia's demon magic sank back into her coat. "I suspect she knew of my plight; no doubt with her own emotion senses she knew who I really was." Her plight. She's starving. "Despite her actions, I believe her true motive was to... help me, if she's anything like she was back then. To show that she is strong, capable, that she could beat me in a fight now that she had love magic to counter my hatred spells. Twilight, you're a younger sister. Tell me, how much does Shining's approval mean to you?"

She rubbed a forehoof and smiled. "A lot. He was my role model for a lot of my foalhood years, everything I aspired to be. Him telling me I did well was second only to mom and dad doing so."

"Then you can imagine what it would be like for my sister to not have it, or at least to think she didn't. I don't agree with her methods, not at all, but her reasons are touching."

There was a tense silence. "You're hungry, aren't you?" Twilight asked. "Luna said - "

"She would say that, wouldn't she?" Celestia sighed. "Yes Twilight, I am. There's so little hatred in Equestria, even when I take disguise and amplify it. It's usually better in the winter: ponies don't get suspicious of the cold as quickly and I can spend more time feeding off a group before having to move on. It's enough to power my magic and then some; I am a magical construct after all, so the rules are a little different. But even with my windigo metabolism it's just never enough." The tone of voice was so distinctly that of Celestia, even with the meekness, that it was impossible for Twilight to imagine the windigo not being her.

However the image of her mentor, the benevolent and graceful Princess Celestia, draining the hatred of ponies to sustain herself was unwelcome in her mind's eye. "So, why can't you just do what, uh, the changeling queen did and become a changeling? There's got to be a lot of love to eat, even if you just take a little from everypony."

"I don't know how!" she half-wailed. "Every other windigo who tried what she did was vaporized from the inside out. I was separated from her before she could make her attempt, and we aren't exactly on friendly terms right now so I can't just ask her how she did it."

Twilight found her hoof instinctively reaching over to Celestia, but it brushed against a whiff of windigo magic. She withdrew it with a yelp as the cold nipped at her.

"Oh Twilight, I'm sorry! I'm still having some trouble with my disguise after, you know."

Her eyes widened. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Well, the spell was rather unpleasant, and I'm still having a hard time pulling together another body."

"I'm so sorry!" she insisted. "The revelation spell was supposed to be painless, not crippling! I'm sorry, I don't know why it would do that!"

"It's alright, Twilight. You didn't know. It probably hurt me because you oriented it around love magic, which is somewhat of an antithesis for me."

She nodded, picturing the magical formulae in her head. "That's probably it," she mused. "Sorry, Celestia."

"You couldn't have known, Twilight," the taller 'alicorn' said. Her left eye pulled in the mist and reverted to magenta.

They lapsed into silence afterwards, Celestia slowly getting her magic to work again and Twilight going over everything that she'd learned. "Twilight, are we... okay?" By then, the only visible trace of her windigo nature was the off-blue, transparent mane. "I'd hate for something like this to put a strain on our relationship."

In response, she leaned over and gently nuzzled into Celestia's coat. "We're okay." It was weird to be the one reassuring the Princess, but Twilight powered through. "I could never hold a grudge against you, Princess." She pulled away. "I'm still a little sore you didn't tell me, though."

"Sorry," she muttered.

"But you know, I really think you should tell the rest of your family. They deserve to know, don't they?"

"They do," Celestia muttered. She took a deep, shaking breath, and then stood. "Alright. I'll pen the letters right away. Oh and Twilight?"

"Hmm?"

The windigo in disguise smiled. "Your spell was very well produced." The first streaks of color began to flow back into her mane, slowly at first, but then all at once it surged through and the mane of some unidentified, thermally-contained liquid was replaced by the ethereal aurora Twilight was familiar with, leaving no evidence that Celestia was anything other than an alicorn.

Twilight tried suppressing a laugh, which made it snerk out of her nostrils. She too stood on her legs. "Thank you, Celestia."

"Anyway, I'm afraid that the world did not just stop for us. You have a meeting with my sister - Luna, not Chrysalis so don't get any ideas - about the alignment of Pollaus and Beatlegeese. And I..." Celestia smiled. "Apparently I have some letters to write."

"Okay. Goodbye, Celestia." She leaned in and shared one more hug with Celestia, then left her chambers. Twilight closed the door behind her, and let out a shaky breath.

A worried smile tugged at her face when she was confronted by Princess Luna, who'd waited outside and was doing a very poor job of hiding the fact that she'd been listening with her ear pressed to the door; its fur was matted. "Is everything good?"

Twilight nodded. "It's still her, like you said." But Princess Celestia had admitted she was always hungry, and Luna had corroborated the story beforehoof. Maybe she could do something about that...

***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***

Celestia

Celestia was giddy. After the tug of war of emotions, first with Twilight's horror, then Lulu's reassurances, and then Twilight coming to sit down and talk things over with her, she was positively ecstatic! She felt like a little wisp again. Celestia felt like dancing, like she could create an ice age!

She flopped down onto her bed, giggling madly. Twilight said they were okay. She still wanted to be friends with her! She still trusted her. A hundred thousand nightmares banished in half an hour, and Celestia felt like she was on top of the world.

After a few moments, she got a hold of herself and her achingly empty stomach stopped heaving with near-laughter. Alright. She had things to do. She pulled herself off her bed and over to her desk. She lit up her horn with blue magic - she didn't yet have the control to disguise it as gold - and assembled the materials for a letter. Her good feeling was slowly replaced by jittery nervousness, bubbling around her stomach. She'd never willingly told a pony her secret in her life. Twilight found it out on her own and Luna saw her true form when they met.

But Twilight was right. She owed it to her niece to at least tell her the truth. She started penning the letter.

Dearest Cadance,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I'd like you and Shining to come over so I can have a talk with you. No, you're not in trouble, please relax. There's simply a secret about myself that I have recently been persuaded into sharing with you. You and your husband are my family and you deserve to know the truth, whether or not it brings about changes in our relationship. Please respond with a time that you two are able to come visit, or a time I could come to your empire.
Your Aunt,

Celestia

She levitated over a stamp and pushed it down, leaving the Seal of the Sun on the letter's bottom. She folded up the letter into a pale-gold envelope, addressed it to Cadance, stamped it again, and then set it on the Outgoing pile of paperwork for the various ponies working under her to sort out. She tensed, and had to fight down the urge to grab the letter and turn it to ash. She had to tell them. As somepony who preached harmony and honesty, she would be a hypocrite not to tell those close to her.

And maybe one day, the entire world.

Maybe not that much.

Celestia took a deep breath. There was still a lot of paperwork to go through; a princess's job was never done. But before that, an idea wiggled into her mind. Perhaps, perhaps something good would come out of it. She prepared another letter, her quill moving rapidly across the surface.

Crystalis,

It's been a while since we last truly spoke, far too long I fear. I won't ask why you took so long to contact me, and why your contact came in such a form on such a date. But I feel that perhaps we should set a time and a place to meet up, just the two of us. Would five miles north of the Deadened Mountain, seven at night on

Celestia checked her calendar.

December 22nd be suitable? For all the bad blood our nations have between them, I do miss you. So how about it?
Big sis,

Cryoxia.

She stamped the letter, sealed it in an envelope addressed to the changeling hive, stamped that as well, and set it on the Outgoing bin along with the letter to Cadance. With that done, Celestia took a moment to take a deep breath. She steadied her nerves, and nodded to herself.

"Alright," she whispered. "Alright. I can do this." She shook off her anxiety and turned to the door. She had a meeting with Blueblood to create.

Author's Note

I hope you all enjoyed. Like always, please do leave a comment. I can see how many of you read, 114 likes and 30 comments? :rainbowwild: Even if it's just to say what you liked and not to point out an error, everything helps; knowing what works is as important as knowing what doesn't.

I do not own MLP, Hasbro does.

Frozen Together

Celestia

And that was the story of how Prince Blueblood dumped a cup of coffee on Cadance's head.

Cadance sputtered and coughed as Shining Armor patted her withers, while Blueblood moved back to his seat in the moderately sized study they had gathered in. "Better?" he asked, forcing Celestia to stifle a laugh.

Cadance smacked her lips a few times to taste the lukewarm coffee, and then nodded. "Better." She looked over to her husband, then back at Celestia now that she was no long in stunned shock. "Auntie, did I hear you say that correctly?"

She nodded, immensely grateful that Twilight, Blueblood, and Luna were all there to support her. Even with two weeks to steel her nerves, she felt like she was about to start throwing up butterflies from her stomach. "Yes, Cadance. I am, and always have been, a windigo."

Shining Armor frowned. "Princess, you'll have to forgive us if we're less than believing." He looked towards his sister, who sat stiff as a board in her seat. "Twily, are you in on this too?"

"It's not a joke, Shiny," she insisted. "I saw it myself after using a revelation spell. She's telling the truth."

"Auntie," Cadance began slowly. "Um, not to say I don't trust you or your word but could you perhaps show us?"

Celestia sighed. "Alright Cadance, if it'll help convince you. Just please do not panic; it may be a different shape, but it is still me." It had been hard enough to calm down Blueblood once the reality of her species truly sank in. She really hoped that Cadance and Shining would be more level-headed than her nephew had been. "Here I go."

She took a deep breath, and worked her windigo magic. Her disguise wasn't something that she had to passively maintain, it was more like... like molding her body like clay and then leaving it in a certain form. Twilight's spell had forcibly reverted the shape, and had made the clay 'wet' for a while, unwilling to form, but now she was in full control. A flicker of concentration had her engulfed in a fine blue mist - engulfing hers and the seats near her in frost - and faded to reveal her true form. Celestia coiled her tail around herself and looked at the rulers of the Crystal Empire hopefully.

Cadance gasped and held a hoof to her mouth, and her husband lit up his horn defensively. "You were serious," he breathed as he layered several warmth enchantments over himself and his wife.

She frowned. That was better than Blueblood had reacted, at least. Another whirl of magic, and she regained her alicorn form. "As you can tell," she began as calmingly as she could manage. "I am very serious about this. Please don't feel like you need to defend yourselves around me."

Shining Armor gave her another wary look, then depowered his horn. "Princess, I think I speak for both of us when I say that this is worrying, to say the least. Could you at least please explain to us how this is possible?" Cadance nodded mutely, staring at her aghast.

She looked to Luna. "Do you want to explain it, sister?"

"Of course, Tia." From that, Luna - curiously speaking in modern Equestrian now that they weren't alone - gave the long explanation of how Celestia had been separated from her sister - wisely leaving out just who it was; one thing at a time after all - and stumbled on Luna herself, long before learning of what had happened to the rest of her kin.

"I don't truly remember those times so well; I was seven, and Tia here was three hundred. Buuut..." Luna gave her a wicked grin, and Celestia paled. She's not going to - "She was so awkward back then! Apparently the idea that I needed to eat physical food was the most confounding thing." Celestia blushed and tried to curl up. "And don't even get me started on when she asked what outhouses were for!" Luna looked her way with a self-satisfied grin. "Why Tia, you were rather curious over everything about me."

"I never paid much attention to ponies' daily lives, and you were an alicorn," she muttered in her defense. "I'd never seen anything like that before. It was only later when I started to get worried about my sister, so I had time to be curious."

"Excuses," Luna said cheekily with a hoof to her chest. "So, dearest Cadance, my uniqueness led to Celestia staying with me longer than she had expected and I, being a cute little foal at the time, grew on her." Celestia fought the urge to roll her eyes, but Blueblood did it in her stead. Luna was having far too much fun with this. In front of Twilight no less! This was so unlike her, and part of her wondered what long-forgotten prank had inspired this. "Of course, I'd... lost a lot of relatives lately, even if I didn't know it at the time, so I also grew attached to her." She gave Celestia a smile. "I like to think I had a hoof in changing Celestia from the crass, unlikable mare she was back then into who she is now."

This time she did roll her eyes, momentarily forgetting there were others around to act regal for. "Ha ha, Luna. And perhaps you'd like a reminder of how many times you begged me to make you smoothies with my ice? Or what you did to persuade me?"

Luna's pupils underwent collapse. "You wouldn't dare," she hissed.

"Ahem," Blueblood interjected. "Aunties, please."

"Right," Luna said. "So that's how our story began. Eventually, she realized just what had... happened to the other windigos and by that time she was too attached to me to hold it against me. One thing led to another, and soon we were bringing the Elements of Harmony to bear against Discord, and then being sworn in as Princesses of Equestria." She nudged Celestia with a wing. "Of course, she'd taken this shape by then."

Luna decided to pause and let that all sink in. Celestia looked over at Twilight, who gave her a reassuring grin. She felt somewhat embarrassed about that; so many times she had been the one calming Twilight and telling her that things were to turn out alright. For their roles to be reversed over such a sensitive secret of hers was jarring and uncomfortable; she didn't like it. But she owed her family the truth, didn't she? She just hoped things would go well.

Twilight, despite her initial shock, had come around. Blueblood had panicked more audibly, but however he acted around other ponies he did see her as family. She just hoped that Shining and Cadance would...

Slowly, the pink alicorn smiled, then trotted over to Celestia. They locked eyes, and then Cadance reared up and hugged her. Celestia grinned broadly and nuzzled her, returning the embrace. "All this means," Cadance said mischievously. "is that I am never siding against you in a snowball fight."

"I'm with Cadance on this one," Shining Armor said. "We're not specists."

Of course they weren't. How could she have ever doubted them so?

She smiled. "Thank you, both of you. It's relieving to see that my fears were unwarranted." She pointedly ignored the quiet 'told you' that Blueblood muttered under his breath.

Luna gave her a smile, warm instead of wicked, and nodded. "Of course, sister. We're all family here, remember? We support each other."

Twilight's ears perked up. "Oh! Speaking of which! Princess, can I talk to you alone soon? I have something I need to show you."

"Of course, Twilight."

They continued to talk. Celestia answered some of the questions that Cadance and Shining had, such as if her love magic hurt her - it did, but she was proficient enough in shields to avoid any real harm - or if windigos were in any way related to Discord given the history of spreading disharmony and strife - she truly didn't know, he was an enigma all unto himself. Eventually the day wore on and slowly, everypony began to trickle out of the study. Blueblood was first, followed by Luna to go back to sleep, and then finally she bid the Crystal Empire's rulers farewell.

She stepped out of her study to see Twilight alone in the hallway, a small package resting on her withers. She must have had it waiting out here, probably under privacy enchantments if she knew Twilight. The alicorn looked up at her as she approached. "Prin - Celestia!"

"Hello, Twilight. So, what was it you wanted to show me?"

She levitated the package out. It was a surprisingly small box, made of simple, uninteresting brown cardboard. "So, you told me how there's not much food around, and that you can't feed much. I asked myself what I could do to solve that, and I got to thinking."

"Twilight, you didn't force hatred out of anypony just to give it to me, did you?" It also didn't help that Twilight mentioning her hunger made it harder to ignore.

She shook her head. "No, no! I got to thinking, and I went north to the Crystal Empire. You remember Sombra?"

Immediately her mouth watered and she suppressed a shudder of revulsion. "Oh yes, I do. That monster was so angry at the world. You didn't go poking around at of his artifacts on your own, did you?"

"Not artifacts and not on my own," she admitted sheepishly, looking away nervously. "Initially that was the plan, but I found something outside. Discord was a big help too, he tagged along out of curiosity." She had to raise an eyebrow at that. Discord, actually being helpful? "And we made it safe, purged any of its corruptive influence while retaining the desirable traits and well, however gruesome it is, it's a gift to you." She floated it closer.

Celestia took the box in her own magic and lifted the lid off. Immediately she recoiled in shock; there inside of it was the severed horn of King Sombra, gray at the bottom, red at the tip, smooth and sharp with a wicked curve not unlike a changeling's horn. "Twilight what - "

"Try it," she insisted, looking up at her hopefully, as if she was being graded.

Suddenly, Celestia understood what Twilight - and apparently Discord - meant for her to do with the horn. And it could work, too. She could see the dark magic inside, fueled by the deceased tyrant's hate for the world, trapped in a time loop spell that would repeat every day. Suddenly the hole in her stomach was so glaring, so impossible to ignore. It gnawed at her, it felt like a black hole slowly pulling her inward. This horn was exactly what Celestia needed. She needed to eat. Cryoxia needed... needed to feed.

She opened her mouth and began to drain. Thick coils of black and purple magic, with dark flashes of red and green within, flowed off of the horn and towards her in a narrowing stream, fading to glacier blue halfway to Cryoxia's mouth. In it she could taste resentment, fury, indignity, vengeance, greed. She doubted that any of the emotions had a focused direction to them, but that didn't matter because the hatred was so pure, crisp and refreshing. She drained and drained, gulping down the emotion greedily and there was so much. She hadn't had so much to eat in ages, and she was going to make up for it. Cryoxia ate and ate and ate, until she judged she could eat no more and cut off the stream of hatred with a slurp. She took a breath and looked around.

Fifty paces in all directions around her, the castle was coated in ice that grew thinner the further it was. Twilight had shielded herself, and inside the barrier there was no frost to speak of. The air was bitter and cold, many degrees beneath zero, Celestia's breath steaming and freezing instantly.

The shield around Twilight expanded, warming the air back to normal and vaporizing ice where it passed. Soon the ice was gone and Twilight ended her spell. "Whoa. Never actually seen the process before... I take it it's good?"

Levitating the horn back into the box and closing it, Celestia smiled at Twilight. "It's... amazing, Twilight. I don't remember when I've last had such a meal. And I take it the time loop spell will keep it refreshed?" For the first time in a while, Celestia actually had to put some effort into suppressing her passive demonic chill.

She nodded. "That was Discord's doing, I just made it unable to corrupt anypony. I realize it's a little - okay, very - morbid, but - "

Celestia trotted forwards and brought Twilight into a hug. She had an endless source of food now. Already, she could feel the nourishing strength spreading itself through her limbs, easing the pain. She would not dwindle as the world grew pure, not anymore. She could see the fruits of her labors now. "Twilight, thank you. You don't know what this means to me."

"It was noth - "

"No, Twilight," she insisted, not releasing the pony but looking down at her instead. "I mean it. You and Discord... this gift will save me a great deal of pain and weakness in the coming decades, and in the coming centuries probably save my life. Thank you, Twilight. Thank you."

In the past half of a month, she had put to rest her - admittedly somewhat irrational - fear of her friends and family discovering her secret and shunning her, and she'd gotten a permanent source of food that would sustain her forevermore. It just reinforced her belief that honesty truly was the best policy. Maybe she could get started on making other ancient species acceptable in the public eye, prepare them for when she revealed herself in the future. She'd still have to work the numbers out on that one, but now she really did want to come clean.

Maybe later. No use getting ahead of herself.

She pulled away from Twilight, and didn't bother forcing the tear in her eye to melt. Instead, she let the little icedrop clatter to the ground. "Well I... suppose I should get back to my friends," Twilight said. "I mean, I got the spell in the archives, and you met with Cadance and Shiny, and apparently the horn works - "

Celestia nodded. "Yes, yes. You're right. I still have things to do myself. Thank you again, Twilight, and tell Discord he has my sincere thanks as well."

Twilight began to trot out of the castle at that, shouting a few more farewells over her withers. Once she was gone, Celestia returned to her study and smiled contentedly.

She trotted over to a desk, the box containing Sombra's horn in tow. She had a lot of paperwork in the Incoming pile, and she levitated the first of the documents over. Celestia brought some writing utensils to bear and began. Approved. Denied. Resubmitted for revision. Approve. Deny. Deny. Deny. Approve. She settled back into the pleasing monotony with practiced ease, until...

... until she came upon the letter. It was made of black paper, with a green seal of something that was not wax keeping it shut. Celestia nodded to herself; whoever had delivered her own letter, she'd have to find them and give them a raise. Either way she floated the dark note before herself and with a flick of magic tore it open. Celestia took a moment to sip from Sombra's horn - she'd need to get used to the gruesome factor - and then began to read. It was short, but that was enough to make her smile.

Cryoxia,

I think I'd like that.
Little sis,

Crystalis.

She had plans to make.

Author's Note

I hope you all enjoyed. Like always, please do leave a comment. Even if it's just to say what you liked and not to point out an error, everything helps; knowing what works is as important as knowing what doesn't.

I do not own MLP, Hasbro does.

And that's the story. Ending's weaker than I would've liked, but truthfully this was more a short project to work out writer's block than anything really serious, and with that in mind I'm happy with the result. Back to Supersymmetry.

Also Mad Maudlin? It's really creepy how spot-on you were with the Sombra thing.