Celestia's Sorrow

Equestrian History

Twilight gasped, and took a step back. “The whole universe?” She said weakly. “The whole... universe... wow... but...”

“Twilight Sparkle! Are thou doubting me!?” Luna asked snappishly. It became so dark Luna lit her horn to guide the way through the tiny, cobwebby passage. “My sister has fallen in love with Him, as she had done when she was just a filly and my parents had created Equestria. He pretended to be one of us... a poor pony that was born from the clouds, the ground, and the jewels your Rarity seeks so much. We, the Alicorns, who represented all of the ponies, were the rulers and founders of Equestria. Very soon, the Unicorns, Earth Ponies, and Pegasi cared not for eachother, and they started to die out.” Luna stopped, and turned.

“Hearth's Warming Eve is a lie. A lie to cover up a brutal war that we couldn't stop. The Carols were what the ponies sang before the battles, prayers to us that they wouldn't die. They didn't find Equestria, they destroyed it. When they were all dead, only the mothers survived. Their children mated with other races. It was no longer forbidden for an Earth Pony to love a Pegasus. And I trust you read about old Equestria? Twilight, I had another brother and a sister. My sister died giving birth to Cadence. And Prince Blueblood is not related to us at all. He's a unicorn, but every one of my kin is an Alicorn.

“That aside, LunarSun had almost no friends. One that was his friend was jealous of our little brother, DarkSky, and decided he would be most loved by the Prince when his brother was dead. So he dared DarkSky to go to Old Equestria, called Wild Equestria then, and bring back a Rabbit-Bird. He did, but the friend let loose an ancient monster- and you know what it is.”

“The BearSpider.” Twilight whispered softly, ears flattening and tail hanging limp.

“My little brother died, leaning against a rock, attempting feeble magic to drive it off, but that wasn't all.” Her voice became soblike, and she was shaking with fear and anger, eyes wide and tearful. “One of the Palace guards told my brother where DarkSky went. Filled with rage and fury, he went to go tell off his friend and collect his brother. When he found him, LunarSun found DarkSky, bleeding to death, as his friend raped our little brother. He was squealing in pain, but not from the wounds, from the friend pounding him... Eyes glowing maliciously, as he took my brother's virginity from him. The friend came inside DarkSky, and my brother had seen to much.”

“My brother jumped at him, but it was too late. DarkSky was dead, and filled with my brother's friend's juices. The friend had gone mad, and he tried to pin my brother down. 'I want to make you come before I die,' The friend said, laughing, 'I always wanted to fuck royalty.' He let the BearSpider loose again. He could control the evil beast, but Lunar wasn't as weak nor as clueless as our brother. The BearSpider couldn't fly. LunarSun jumped into the sky, but the bear pulled him down, and attacked him... Lunar used his magic to snap his friend's neck, but the Bear was still savaging him...

“My parents appeared, filled with anger and fury. My father attacked the bear and my mother brought LunarSun home to be put in Stasis. I thought he was dead, and I was crying, crying hard, but then He explained that he wasn't dead, but would need to be in stasis for thousands of years... it would stop him from dying, and heal him slowly, so slowly... My father died, and my mother went to avenge him, and trapped the bear in a stone prison, and as she was dying, went to my little brother, stroked him, kissed my father, then died.

“Tia kept coming to my room to tell me our brother was okay. That our sister,  Stars, was okay. She slept in my room, and was next to me so often I eventually bursted out, 'LEAVE ME ALONE!' and raced away.” Luna's voice became soft. “My sister left to go see where He had gone. She loved him, so much, it was terrible to see that she knew He had to be gone for thousands of years, until my brother healed...” Luna cleared her throat, which sounded like it had a lump of rock in it. “And that created Deprestia. A few nights ago, Celestia felt His presence. She thought He'd returned to us, but no! He was gone! Still gone, healing our brother. She's been walking the lands as Deprestia at night ever since.”

“He contacted me. He wanted inside my head...” Twilight said slowly. “And he's been giving me dreams.”

“Dreams?” Luna looked up from her hooves, alarmed. “About?”

“Duster. We're falling, and then he was...”

“Was?”

“OH NO! NOOOOOOOOONONONONONONO!”

“What!?”

“I had a dream it killed Duster! We have to hurry!” Twilight shouted, panicking. Luna looked appalled.

“He spoke to you!? Oh, no wonder Deprestia has been getting colder... Twilight, Celestia's not in her right mind. If she's Deprestia and she sees you, she's going to try to kill you! Twilight, you have to hurry and get out of here!” Luna's voice was suddenly croaky and urgent. “What the hell are we still doing in this tunnel!? Come on, let's go, we have to hurry!” Her walking pace became a trot, then a jog. It was hard to run fast in such a dark and confined space, Twilight soon figured out, as she tripped over her own hoof in effort to move faster.

Eventually, Luna realized Twilight was far behind, and slowed considerably.

Luna moved forward, then said, “Stop.”

Twilight lit her horn to see solid rock. “We've been walking for fifteen minutes!” She snapped sardonically. “All to see the BEAUTIFUL rock and handsome cobwebs we couldn't have seen on this whole lovely walk!” The edges of her vision were beginning to blur.

“Twilight. Step back and look at the whole picture.” Luna's voice was aggravatingly calm. Twilight hesitated, but the Alicorn mare in front of her was a Princess, and she was kind... She stepped back slowly, and Luna's horn glowed with a soft, floating sky-blue light. It was like someone lit a dozen candles. The light flew up to the ceiling, and Twilight gasped. Luna carried loose rock from the walls, and grinned, stepping back.

They were in someone's basement.

“Princess Luna!?” A male voice called from above. It was unmistakably Duster's. They heard soft clip-clops of hooves on stairs, and the pegasus walked down, both wings holding glowing candles. “Luna! You brought Twilight!”

On closer inspection, it wasn't Duster. The pony's fur was darker, and his cutie mark was a green book. But his eyes glowed, exactly like Duster's.

“Sir, do you know Dus-”

“Duster is my son.” The stallion said shortly. “He and I haven't spoke in years.” Twilight was smart enough not to pursue the subject. The rosy glow of the candles lit the dim room and Twilight realized it was filled with hundreds of books, stacked upon books, stacked upon books. She gaped at all the books around her, and had an urge to use her magic to crack open a book and start reading.

“Booksly, we have to get out of here.”

“No kidding! If anyone catches me in a dark basement with a Princess covered with cobwebs and panting, they'll think I was raping you.” His tone suddenly became brisk.

“So, just head through the doors. Luna, you might want to disguise yourself.” Booksly said, nodding smartly, sitting with his long dark brown tail wrapped around his hooves. Twilight trotted ahead, and just barely heard the unrecognizable Luna whisper to Booksly, “You wouldn't need to rape me.”

Twilight pretended as she hadn't heard, but had a particular feeling that she and Booksly were more than friends. They walked out into the street, and Twilight blinked at the sudden sunshine and noise. For a minute she was blinded and deafened at the hubbub and sunshine, but her eyes slowly became normal. She walked close to Luna, mind reeling from what she'd just discovered. Luna's face was stony, carrying a look that made everyone recoil from her like she was a poisonous snake. It was determined, but scary, and when Twilight looked at her, she winced softly or cringed.

They reached the train station, and Luna finally turned to Twilight. “Should I get Duster, as a good-bye?” Luna said awkwardly. Twilight suddenly realized- the dream. She moaned and said, “Luna. Duster. He's still in danger, my notes, I left my notes on the books in my room, he saw them, he thought the bear killed my parents, he thought I was going to go kill it, and now...”

“Oh no! Twilight, do you realize what this means! He's going to let it free! He's going to-”

“I know.” Twilight groaned, voice low. “It's going to try to kill your brother when he gets free. And someone can control it, they're going to do what Lunar's friend did...”

“We have to hurry!” Luna urged.

They galloped forward, knocking over ponies, until Luna said, panting in the sunshine, “There's no way in hell we can run to Old Equestria. We have to teleport.” Her horn glowed, and Twilight touched her hoof gently.

It was all black, like she was looking into a raven's feathers at a new moon. Then it was sunny and warm, but it was too hot and there was so much moisture in the air. It was like a jungle, and made Twilight uncomfortable. She wished her fur wasn't so long, but realized Luna looked designed for this kind of thing- long legs, thin fur, and dark fur. Twilight realized why Luna always wore slippers- there were jagged stones cutting into the tender frogs of her hooves, and it hurt badly. Twilight was limping, and Luna looked back. She hid a smile and conjured glass slippers from thin air to protect the sensitive underhoof.

Twilight put on the lavender-colored slippers, and magicked the stones out of her hooves. As she trotted along, she marveled at how well the reinforced glass worked. They traveled wordlessly through the long jungle, and suddenly stopped.

A deep gorge lay in front of them, a large waterfall gushing water.

“There, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna pointed across the bridge with one hoof. A large stone bit of the gorge was shaped like a bear head. The mouth was gaping open. Twilight could see Luna stiff up. “Someone's inside. Someone's talking to that beast in there.” Luna murmured softly. “The task takes both a unicorn and pegasus to get to. A pegasus to fly, and a unicorn to open it.”

Twilight stared at it. “You're going to fly over there?”

“We, Twilight Sparkle. You created this mess, did you not?” Luna said bluntly.

“Well, technically, if you want to trace it back, some arsehole that was your brother's friend started it.” Twilight reasoned feebly. Luna's glare put ice to shame. “Hold on to my legs, Twilight Sparkle, they tether you to life.” She snapped.

They flew across. Twilight couldn't help but look into the dark gorge below. The rushing water, thousands of feet below, was still roaring loudly in her ears. Fear that she'd never felt before, not even over Discord, filled her heart making it beat rapidly. She felt dizzy and her vision blurred. She wondered what they'd find in there- the bear, eating the one who released it, or a lustful pony wanting to bang royalty and a random unicorn mare?

Twilight's fear was filled with the unknown. Discord, and even the Changelings, had eventually explained themselves. But this beast and it's master would undoubtably kill them, or bang them as they died. Twilight was still saving her virginity, but she was pretty sure Luna had given hers to Booksly. As they landed on the bear's jaws, just missing the wicked-pointed teeth, Twilight said, “What if he... you know...”

“Then we loose virginity.” She said indifferently, but there was fear beneath her voice. They walked in, and something smashed into Luna. It was like a bolt of lightning. “Luna!” Twilight cried, and looked for a pulse. She had one, and Twilight sighed. She was suddenly hit forcefully, but none the less gently, and skidded to hit the stone bear head's teeth. It was so bright she couldn't see her attacker. She shielded her eyes with an arm, and then gasped at the pony standing before her.

“YOU!”

Author's Note: I love cliffhangers, as you might've guessed from the last chapter, but I won't have time to write any time soon after this is published.