Slowly we enter the acid pits
"...And they all lived happily ever after." Celestia said with a smile as she finished reading the storybook to her beloved daughter who lay tucked underneath the covers with a smile on her face. The little girl then unleashed a weak yawn and pulled herself even further into the comfort of the sheets and blankets on her bed.
"That was a nice story mom." Scootaloo, Celestia's adopted daughter, said with a sleepy tone to her voice as she gave out a second even weaker yawn and her eyes started to fall into the realm of sleep. Celestia smiled at her little daughter as she leaned over and gave her a small kiss on the forehead.
"Goodnight Scootaloo." Celestia said with a smile as she walked out of the room, almost missing the very faint 'Goodnight mommy' from her now-sleeping six-year-old daughter. With the same smile still painted on her face she continued walking to the room nearly six floors upstairs in the castle which contained the only creature which she could possibly say that she loved more than her beloved daughter. Smiling as the thought of her sister came to mind she subconsciously sped up her pace as she continued walking.
"Chloe really should know better." Celestia started humming as she continued her trek up the remaining two staircases.
"Chloe's just like me." She continued humming the song with a smile as she continued walking up the remaining staircase before reaching the end and starting down the hallway. A thought briefly entered her mind about hiring the band that wrote the song to perform at her wedding day, but this was quickly replaced by a realistic thought that told her that she and her lover would probably never have a wedding. With a sigh that slightly dampened her spirit she stopped at the door to her sister's room and gently turned the knob to let her inside. Before she could take a step inside however she was knocked to the floor by a fast-moving blur of blue.
"Thank goodness you're here, I was worried that something had happened to you." Luna frantically said in a tone that clearly showed her angst over the simple problem that Celestia was late for their secret nightly meeting. Celestia only smiled at the display of affection and worry that was commonly displayed by her sister, this was considered normal behavior for the moon goddess who was currently going through puberty and would most likely continue to go though it for at least a couple hundred more years. As such the youthful princess was prone to moodswings and was very emotional at times, this was unfortunately one of those times.
"I was merely reading Scootaloo a bedtime story and it took a little long than usual. She seems to be choosing longer stories for me to read to her and I . . . "
"That's no excuse!" Luna barked at her sister, who didn't seem to be surprised by her outburst as she was mentally conditioned for her sister's mannerisms regarding a trivial matter of arriving at a destination a few minutes later than was previously agreed upon. Situations similar to these had been occurring ever since Celestia had found Scootaloo inside the castle garden and secretly adopted her. Her sister had convinced her that it would be in her best interest to keep Scootaloo a secret from the rest of the ponies in Equestria, and after a minor debate Celestia decided to take her advice. Unfortunately keeping an almost infant-age daughter a secret while you're one of the only two deities in an entire kingdom living inside a large castle containing hundreds of servants is not an easy task, and much to Luna's chagrin, it took up most of Celestia's time which she believed should be devoted to her and her alone. Celestia sighed before giving her sister a small kiss on her cheek that seemed to calm her done slightly from her previous hysterical outburst.
"I'm sorry dear sister, but you must understand that Scootaloo needs at least as much attention as you do, and sometimes I may need to sacrifice some of your time for her." Celestia explained as she un-wedged herself from underneath Luna and proceeded to make her way toward the bed in the far end of the room. Luna gave a growl that went unnoticed by her sister as she likewise started to walk toward the bed.
"But I'm your sister, she's just a lowly peasant child whom you found in a basket outside the palace. I'm pretty sure I should be a little higher on your list of priorities." Luna said with a slightly bratty tone to her voice as Celestia sighed once more before crawling under the covers of her sister's bed, to which the owner of the luxurious bed followed soon afterwards with eyes that betrayed her own anticipation as to the event that would happen quite shortly.
"The way I see it little sister it all balances out. I spend a little time with young Scootaloo by reading her a story and entertaining her in her innocent curiosity, and then I come upstairs and . . . "
"I've heard enough talk for today." Luna said with a smile as she moved a little closer to her sister, who similarly smiled at the display and moved closer as well, bridging the small gap between them as she pulled her younger sister into a deep passionate kiss.
Scootaloo lay in her bed within a peaceful slumber as dreams of her adopted mothers played inside her youthful mind. She loved both of her mothers very deeply for the compassion they had shown her by taking her inside their home and raising her as their own. Though she had originally been upset that she would be confined to the dungeon of the castle and unable to socialize with any other children until she reached school-age, but she quickly recovered as soon as the experience of having a kind, caring mother started to affect her. She sighed in her sleep as the nostalgic dream of walking through a flower garden beside her adopted mother regulated her heartbeat and allowed her a calming night's sleep. The peaceful display of the sleeping child seemed destined to be disturbed however, as the door to her secret bedroom opened to allow a shadowed form to step inside. The small unseen body silently moved closer to the sleeping form and appeared to succeed in it's task of not waking the little girl from her slumber. A small light that reflected from the intruder's teeth as a small smile appeared on it's face was perhaps the only thing that the form did which could have woken up the sleeping child. Alas the primary objective of the form seemed to shift as it finally reached it's destination beside the little pony's bed.
"Wake up little one." The form whispered in Scootaloo's ear, the little girl reacted in a slow tired manner as her eyes attempted to open in spite of the natural layer of liquid that seemed to have gathered and hardened at the end of her eyelids. She then moved her small hooves to her eyes and attempted to rub the liquid out of her eyes with the hard tips of her forelegs. The unseen form appeared to be fighting back a small smile as it watched the admittedly cute display unfold in front of her. Once the minor ritual was finished Scootaloo immediately scanned the room as if to discover who had woken her up so early in the night, she seemed to forget this mission however as tears started to form in her eyes and her body started to shake.
"I don't like the dark." Scootaloo silently sobbed as she continued to shake, indicating that the young child was indeed terrified of the darkness that currently surrounded her. The currently unseen form beside her gave a slight smile of amusement at the display, before deciding to make itself known to the terrified young child.
"You shouldn't be afraid young one, mommy's here." The form spoke in as kind a voice as it could manage. This facade seemed to work on the child as Scootaloo opened her eyes almost immediately to stare at the form. After catching a glimpse of the unknown form beside her bed she started backing away in fear.
"But you're not . . . " Scootaloo started to say before a hoof came out from the darkness and defied the laws of physics by grabbing her by her throat and holding the child who currently seemed to be in danger of petrification. The form growled at the child in it's grasp as it quickly turned from it's position to slam the child against the stone wall of the dungeon in which she slept. Scootaloo gave a low whimper of pain as a result of the impact that didn't seem to have any consequence to the intruder who leaned a little closer to the terrified child.
"Now let me tell you something little girl." The form growled as it leaned closer to the scared little girl, who continued to whimper in pain and fear of what torment would befall her.
"If you ever take any more of Celestia's time from me again . . . " The form said as the horn on it's head started to glow and illuminate it's face in the dark dungeon.
"I'll make sure you never feel the comforting light of the sun ever again." The form, now revealed as princess Luna said with a small growl as the light from her horn faded as she let the scared little girl return to her usual level of altitude. The girl continued to shake as even more tears continued to form in her eyes.
"I want my mommy." The girl said with a small sniffle that caused princess Luna to chuckle as she leaned in toward the little girl's now sobbing face.
"I am your mommy." Luna said with a sneer as she turned around and started walking through the doorway and exited the dungeon, leaving a still sobbing Scootaloo in a dark corner of the dungeon.
"Mommy, I had a bad dream last night." Scootaloo said with a slightly apprehensive tone to her voice as a vision of her previous nights experience flashed into her mind. Celestia, who was currently sitting across from her at the table where they were currently enjoying breakfast, almost immediately moved from her seat to envelope her adopted daughter into a hug.
"You poor little thing, would it help if I slept with you tonight?" Celestia spoke in a soft calming voice that seemed to have its desired effect on Scootaloo who almost seemed to melt into a type of putty within her embrace. Of course for the third pony at the breakfast table the simple words seemed to have the opposite effect.
"You pervert. She's just a little kid!" Luna yelled as she slammed her hooves on the wooden table, Celestia turned her head to glare at her sister while Scootaloo turned her head upwards to face her mother.
"Mommy, what's a pervert?" Scootaloo asked with naive childhood curiosity that caused Luna to snicker slightly and Celestia's face to turn bright red.
"I'll tell you when you're older." Celestia said to the child who pouted for a short period of time before turning her attention back to the task of eating the food on her plate.
"I didn't appreciate your outburst earlier." Celestia whispered to her sister with a stern expression on her face as she walked down the hallway beside her toward the castle balcony where the two of them were supposed to give a speech for all of the ponies in the land to hear. Such an event happened on a bi-monthly basis and occurred for the sole purpose of making the two deities more personable and likeable to their subjects.
"Well you deserved it, what kind of pervert asks to sleep with their own daughter. That's kind of sick." Luna commented as quietly as she could so that her message would not be overheard by the guards currently escorting them down the hall.
"You know full well that's not what I meant." Celestia whispered harshly in answer to her sister's wrongful accusation as to her earlier motives. Luna turned her down toward the ground as a reaction to the verbal chastisement.
"I'm sorry big sister, but you have to understand that I love you and . . . "
"I love you too sister, but that doesn't give you the right to be as overprotective as you are. You have to trust that I will be faithful to you, much like I have to trust you to be faithful to me." Celestia explained to her sister, who's eyes seemed to have moistened during Celestia's diatribe.
"But what if I can't?" Luna asked in a depressive voice that came out as somewhat of a desperate plea. Celestia sighed as she leaned in toward her sisters' ear.
"Then I'm afraid that we'll have to end our relationship as lovers." Celestia whispered into her sister's ear so as not to pass on their secret to their current armored escorts. Luna's eyes widened as she turned her head to her sister and opened her mouth as if to protest her sister's previous words. Of course she never got the chance because at that precise moment one of the guards turned around and signaled to the two sisters that they had reached their destination.
"Which one's Celestia? Fluttershy asked one of her friends who stood beside her in the crowd as the twin princesses of Equestria gave their bimonthly speech. Her friend, Twilight Sparkle, turned to her with an almost shocked look painted upon her face.
"Really Fluttershy? You're about to start work as a servant for them and you can't tell which is which." Twilight stated with the same shocked looked on her face that had begun to fade as soon as she caught a glimpse of Fluttershy's embarrassed face as she gave a pathetic little nod. Twilight sighed and pointed to the much older-looking princess on the right who was currently delivering the first half of the speech.
"That one right there is Celestia." Twilight explained, then she pointed to the princess on the left who was much shorter and seemed nervous about giving her half of the speech, as evidenced by the fact that she refused to take her eyes off of her hooves as Celestia gave her speech. Fluttershy looked up and smiled slightly at how different the sisters appeared to be, her eyes lingered upon Celestia for a few seconds before she turned to her friend.
"Is she scary?" Fluttershy asked with childish naivety that contracted quite harshly with her current age. Twilight chuckled slightly before shaking her head.
"No, Celestia's not scary at all. She has to be one of the kindest and gentlest creatures in all of Equestria, her sister on the other hand . . . "
"Is she mean?" Fluttershy asked a little louder than she probably should have in the big crowd. Twilight gave a nervous laugh as a few ponies turned their heads to give the pair quick judgmental looks before turning their heads back to the balcony where coincidentally Luna had started to give her half of the speech.
"I wouldn't call her mean, but she does have a tendency to be a little . . . odd at times." Twilight explained, pausing slightly as if she were searching for the right word to describe the younger princess.
"She looks kind of sad." Fluttershy commented as she watched the younger princess giving her speech while possibly ignoring Twilight's earlier words. The purple pony sighed as she took a glance at the princess before turning to face her friend.
"Yes, I guess she does."
"Are you Mommy's new helper?" A small, childlike voice asked as Fluttershy trotted through the halls of the castle in a failed attempt to navigate through them and find her way toward where she was asked to meet the princess. The shy little pony turned around to see who had asked her the question and smiled when her eyes found their way toward a little who appeared to be staring at her from a door opening with a large innocent smile upon her face. Fluttershy smiled as she walked up to the little girl, which was admittedly strange behavior for the normally shy pony who would have normally avoided contact with strangers, no matter how young they were.
"It depends, who is your mommy?" Fluttershy asked with a soft smile on her face as she walked toward the young girl. The filly smiled as she pointed toward the wall directly opposite from her with a smile and a radiance that seemed to fill Fluttershy with a similar happiness.
"That's my mommy!" The girl said with a loud voice that seemed to be laced with ecstacy. Flutttershy smiled as she turned around to catch a glimpse of the girl's mother, but frowned when she didn't see anypony there. She gave the little girl a confused look as she turned around to face her again. The little girl seemed to ignore her confusion as she bounced toward the wall she had pointed at and to Fluttershy's surprise, attempted (and failed) to hug the painting on the wall before turning her smiling face back toward Fluttershy.
"This is mommy." The girl said with a large smile on her face as Fluttershy took a look at the painting upon the wall. She smiled as she noticed the golden armor upon the mare in the painting's body as she made a mental note that the girl's mother must be very wealthy to afford such armor, and would have to possess quite a bit of status to have her self-portrait hanging inside the castle walls. Her eyes slowly made there way toward the face of the pony in the painting, subconsciously pausing at the chest area, before her line of sight reached the face of the mare in the painting. With an almost shocked look on her face Fluttershy looked down at the still smiling filly who had managed to walk up beside her while she was studying the painting.
"So, are you going to be mommy's new helper?' The young child asked with eyes that seemed to display a level of excitement and hope that as far as Fluttershy could tell seemed normal for the young filly. Fluttershy gave a small nod of her head that seemed more characteristic of her and the filly's eyes appeared to shine once again as she gave the nervous girl a small hug.
"Yay!" The filly said happily as she embraced the slightly older pony who hesitantly returned her embrace. With a shaky smile upon her face as she hugged the apparent daughter of the most powerful deity in all of Equestria.
"All I want is a playmate for my young daughter." Celestia explained as she walked through the palace garden with no one else with her aside from the castle's newest employee. The employee in question turned her head to look up toward the princess, before turning her head back down and blushing as the princess looked at her with a compassionate smile on her face.
"There's no need to be afraid of me or of my daughter." Celestia said with an almost soothing tone of voice as she gently placed her foreleg around the filly's neck in a failed attempt to calm her. The filly continued hanging her head down as a blush formed upon her face that appeared to go unnoticed by Celestia who continued speaking.
"I used a very special mirror to find the perfect pony to act as a friend to my little darling, and out of all the ponies I considered you seemed to fit the mold almost perfectly." Celestia explained, the young filly then looked up toward the princess with a confused look as the blush continued to remain painted on her face.
"What do you mean by almost perfectly?" Fluttershy asked, causing Celestia to sigh as she lowered her body until her face was perfectly level with the filly's face and stared into her eyes with a serious expression on her face.
"Your sexuality may cause some problems." Celestia explained causing Fluttershy's face to turn even redder as she fought her impulse to shy away and stared at her employer with a confused and possibly hurt expression on her face.
"What's wrong with being attracted to girls?" Fluttershy asked, Celestia sighed again as she returned to her original height and continued to trot through the garden.
"Nothing at all, I too share a similar attraction to females. I truly don't have a problem with it, but my sister . . . " Celestia started to explain before stopping herself mid-sentence and hesitating, Fluttershy looked up at her employer nervously before speaking.
"Is your sister afraid of ponies like us?" Fluttershy asked, Celestia hesitated a few seconds as if trying to find the right words to describe her sister's mindset before responding.
"It's a little bit hard to explain." Celestia explained as she lowered her face once again towards her young employee.
"Let's just say that she has a tendency to get a little bit jealous at times." Celestia explained as she stood up and started walking toward the castle with Fluttershy following close behind whilst attempting to figure out what exactly Celestia had meant by her words.
