As far as stars go, it wasn’t a very big star. But then again, it was still a star, and it was her first. It would have to do. It had taken her a long time, and many planets (oh, so many planets) to reach this point, and she wasn’t going to wait any longer.
Celestia concentrated. She checked for signs of life, first, obviously. Careful probings of the solar system, gently gliding a wave of her magic over surfaces of the nearby planets. Just to be safe, she reached out, extending her power to the nearest stars, the waves of her spell glittering over the oceans of sulphur and phosphor. Even a chance of life early in development, and she’d go somewhere else, find another star. But just like elsewhere, nothing. Never anything, never anyone, never a home.
She took a long breath. The dizziness she felt could be from straining her magic, but it was more likely to be simple excitement. This was the first star. Maybe it would be different? Feel different.
She hesitated. What if she... what if it was lethal, even to a being like her? It wasn’t safe. This wasn’t safe! She stopped, and for a moment just felt the space around her. Space carried no sound, no touch, no taste. In the silence, she could still hear the echoes of feet dancing, of laughter. Space carried no love, no caring. This was it, this was what it would always be. All there, for her. Eat, or be eaten by the emptiness.
It was over fast, she consumed the star in one, large bite.
It tasted bland.
The planets scattered, free from the now flattened gravity well, as she slowly wept. She remembered tasting a rainbow once, but no longer what it tasted like, but it was something else than this. She had felt joy, but who was there to feel joy with anymore? She should’ve kept her sister close, maybe Luna would’ve made her see the bright side of this. She always had, even when they were young. But she was out there, likely just as desperately clinging to memories, in a futile search for life.
But stars, they don’t just disappear. Celestia didn’t feel it at first. She was used to her powers slowly growing by now, as she had consumed more and more of tiny bits of the universe, so it wasn’t anything new, and it never made a difference. It was all the same, all just empty matter.
But then, there was a tingle. It grew from inside her, filling her heart. Suddenly she shivered, let out a giggle, then screamed in pain, and there was only a moment before all her senses exploded in a spectrum of colour. She was so alive, so very alive she’d have to shout in an outburst of pure joy, to tell everyone, to tell the world. And she did! There were no words, just her open voice, and the sound of it carried along a surge of magic reaching to the ends of the world.
This wasn’t a star being consumed, this was a star being truly born.
As she rolled around after, smiling, feeling her new self, she noticed the true extent of the star’s... no, her own powers. She started to giggle uncontrollably, then laugh, as she felt their young magic entangle with hers. It was there, after all this, it really was there, you just had to know where to look.
She would have a body again, physicality to fit them, meshing with the local life, yet still of her own. It wasn’t about design, it was about magic, about what was right. About harmony. Immediately she began her travel towards them all, the new life, the new people she’d meet, all of her new friends to be in Equestria.
Along the way, she reached out, and let her magic carry one short letter to the edges of the universe. “Luna, dearest sister. We can go home again.”