Alicorn Biology: Princess Celestia

by Bicyclette

Rating: mature
Tags: Bon-Bon, Princess Celestia, Sex, Lyra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Drama
Length: 11422

Lyra has been happy for her wife ever since she got the letter from Celestia. She just wishes she knew what "chosen by Celestia" meant, or why Bon Bon needs to wear her wedding dress for it. -:-:- A story about Equestrian sociology of religion

Excerpt

With a deeply apologetic tone, Celestia spoke.

“It is customary for the best mare to watch the entirety of the consummation from the other side of the ceremonial arch, but if it would be too much for you…“

Table of Contents and Warnings

Part 1: Safe (Published)
Part 2: Suggestive: Emotional cuckqueaning, Celestian theology (Published)
Part 3: Suggestive: Ceremonial cuckqueaning, history of Equestrian wedding customs (Published)
Part 4: Explicit: Physical cuckqueaning, Futa alicorns, Celestian theology (Published)
Epilogue: Suggestive (Published)

The sequel, Alicorn Biology: Princess Luna, coming some time in December!

Author's Note

This was supposed to be a dumb fetish thing but I can't help but worldbuild and get deep into backstory. It's also really fun what came out of combining the fan characterizations of Lyra (silly, irresponsible, no discernible job) and Bon Bon (serious, runs candy shop, inexplicable Brooklyn accent) with the canon characterizations of Lyra (child of privilege, up to being Princess Cadance's bridesmaid) and Bon Bon (devoted agent of Celestia, up to living an entire fake life in her service).

Also, they're marriiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddddddd :)))))))))

Published 2020-10-30 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2020-11-16 02:27:36 UTC

Part 1 [Safe]

“I have to admit, when Celestia’s letter said the royal carriage to Canterlot would arrive by noon today, I was a little nervous.” Bon Bon stared upwards at Lyra’s aura as she expertly pulled out the last roller from her mane in a motion that was smooth despite the slight rocking of the flying carriage.

Lyra smiled at Bon Bon, as well as at her understatement. “Anything’s possible when you have a wife by your side who knows you as well as I do.” They stood up slightly on their seats to bump flanks, then burst into a shower of giggles.

“Oh, here, the finishing touch.” Lyra floated over the daisy she had been keeping, tucking it behind Bon Bon’s ear. With that, her fine white veil flowing over her mane and neck, and her bouncy pink-and-blue curls that would be the envy of any Canterlot socialite, she looked every bit as beautiful, if not more so, as she did on their wedding day not two moons ago.

“Perfect! See? I told you we could get it done on the way over!”

Lyra was glad to see Bon Bon’s body relax, putting an end to the state of panic she had been in since the morning when the cross-eyed mailmare apologetically hoofed over the response letter from Celestia she had at first mis-delivered.

Bon Bon leaned over to kiss Lyra warmly in thanks. They held each others’ gaze for a second, smiling.

Then Bon Bon turned to look ahead. Lyra followed her gaze. Over the head of the carriage pony, she could see the spires of Canterlot getting closer as they began their descent. She could even make out the tiny figures of worker ponies scrambling around the scaffolding that jutted out of the back half of the Castle. A scab over a healing wound.

“I still can’t believe that the Goddess chose me.” Bon Bon said with wonder in her voice. “Do you know how long it’s been since the last time She chose somepony?”

“Yeah, a long time, right?” Lyra tried not to show any sign of uncertainty in her voice or specify any length of time whatsoever. With Celestia herself having ruled Equestria for more than a thousand years, what did “a long time” mean? Years? Decades? Centuries?

“Oh, it’s been years! She hasn’t chosen anypony since Princess Luna came back, of course.” Lyra nodded as if it were obvious how that one fact implied the other. “But an Earth pony like me? One that didn’t even grow up in Canterlot? I don’t even know!” She stared off into the distance as if peering across the gulf of time. “Centuries, at least!”

Lyra bristled inside as she did every time Bon Bon put down her own roots, even inadvertently. It wasn’t that Bon Bon felt any spite about it. Quite the contrary. Lyra always remembered Bon Bon’s reaction when Lyra told her off-handedly that when she had gone to the wedding of Princess Cadance, it was as a bridesmare and not as a mere guest. It had never been a big deal to her, but Lyra still had to spend that evening reassuring Bon Bon that yes, a highborn unicorn like her could love even an Earth pony from humble origins like Bon Bon, and that such differences never mattered anyway, and that Bon Bon was worth more to her than all of those fancy Canterlot unicorns combined. Including the Princesses.

She played that one off as another silly Lyra joke when Bon Bon gasped at the sacrilege, but she had meant every word.

“We’re not even at the Palace yet but it’s already so magical.” Bon Bon’s voice was practically glowing. “Everything’s even better than what I could have dreamed of as a filly! The ornate scroll we received. This fancy flying carriage.” She smiled at her. “My beautiful wife by my side.”

Lyra’s heart melted at her sense of wonder. She didn’t have the heart to tell her that the ornate scroll was actually Celestia’s standard letterhead, which she associated more with her lackluster grade reports than anything else. Or that the flying carriage was part of a fleet of dozens, and only evoked memories of grumbling fillies in school uniform dreading the next interminable royal function they were being carted off to as the face of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

“I’m just so happy that you’re so happy, Bonnie. Nothing could make me happier than the fact that Celestia chose you, and that she sees how special the pony I married is.”

Bon Bon looked like she could explode from happiness right then and there. Lyra felt a bit guilty at how correct that answer apparently was, still without having any idea what any of this meant. Getting away from the endless parade of obscure millenia-old ceremonies, rituals, and customs was one of the biggest reasons she had moved away from Canterlot in the first place, but in this moment she wished that she had paid more attention to those things growing up. At least then Lyra wouldn’t have to pretend to know what was going on. Plus, she would be able to understand just why Bon Bon was wearing her wedding dress.

She really should have said something a week ago when the first letter from Celestia arrived. But Bon Bon so clearly expected Lyra to know what being ‘chosen’ meant that she did not have the courage to ask. It was also a bit strange in the first place that a ceremony meant for Bon Bon specifically needed her wife’s consent, but Bon Bon was so excited for a “yes” from Lyra that she could not help but to agree enthusiastically. Whatever it was, she knew, loved, and trusted her Bonnie. No matter what, soon enough they would be back in Ponyville, settling into their new lives as wife and wife.

Also, a bit selfishly, she hoped that actually seeing how these things went from the inside might dampen her… enthusiasm for the whole thing. Celestia may have shaped the society they and their ancestors have lived in for more than a thousand years, but in the end receiving her attention wasn’t life-changing, and the ponies who did were really no better than anypony else. Lyra certainly didn’t think that about herself.

The carriage landed directly in front of the doors of the Palace and the couple disembarked. Lyra tried to strike a balance between polite eye contact with the silent pegasus pony that had pulled them all the way from Ponyville and not showing any sign of recognizing him, as then she would have to admit to herself that she had never learned his name despite the years he had spent dragging her and her school friends around Canterlot.

A single pony of the Royal Guard stepped forward to greet them.

“Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings,” she said, in a way that was not a question. “The Princess is ready for you. Please follow me.”

Lyra resisted the urge to just casually ask the guardsmare for which of the Halls or Ballrooms or Chambers they were supposed to go to in order to smugly lead Bon Bon there herself. She knew that this was Bon Bon’s moment and not an opportunity to show off to her wife. Besides, who knows what changes might have taken place during the rebuilding?

She was surprised by how the entrance hall was so unchanged from how it had been throughout her fillyhood. Every statue and drape, every slate and arch, down to the streaks in the marble. But that made sense, as most of the damage had been in the Throne Room and towards the rear of the Castle. Even if the entrance hall had been damaged, a precise reconstruction would be a strong message to all of Equestria that Cozy Glow’s successful attack on Canterlot Castle changed nothing about the strength and security of Celestia’s rule, or that of its coming continuation under Princess Twilight.

So Lyra could not join in on her wife’s oohing and aahing at the splendor of it all. It was a place that was about as exciting and unfamiliar to her as the Ponyville town hall. What she wouldn’t give to see it through the eyes of an Earth pony who grew up in a working-class family in far-away Bronclyn.

Yet something seemed off in all this. She didn’t notice until that sense of propriety burned into her from her Canterlot upbringing whispered to her. Hey, didn’t it look a bit ridiculous that your wife is wandering around the Palace in her wedding dress and veil, gawking at every ornate doorway and stained glass window they passed by? She then realized what was off. They had not seen anypony. Even in the middle of its reconstruction, there should have been somepony running around the Castle’s halls. Dignitaries, representatives, Castle staff, Royal Guard. Yet the only ponies they had seen so far were the pegasus that had carried them from Ponyville and the unicorn that was leading them now.

Said guardsmare then turned down an unfamiliar hallway, and Lyra realized with surprise that they were entering a part of the castle she had never been to before. They were led to a set of spiraling stairs that went up and up and up. When they stopped at a set of double doors that split a sun motif, Lyra realized where they were. Celestia’s personal chambers. She had never heard of a royal ceremony taking place in Celestia’s personal chambers. What was going on?

“The Princess left specific instructions that Her honored guests are to enter alone, so I must leave you now. It has been an honor serving Her guests.” The guardsmare bowed her head then took her leave, trotting off the way they had come. That was also new to Lyra. She was left alone with Bon Bon, who was looking up in awe at the double doors.

The doors opened in a glow of magic, and the two ponies entered. Lyra, for once, shared her wife’s nervousness, though not her excitement.

The circular room would have been flooded with light, had the curtains on the large windows not all been drawn. The dim lighting gave an odd atmosphere, as did the odd layout: a freestanding white arch straddling a stripe of red carpet. Lyra almost didn’t notice Celestia herself standing in front of the arch, her mane and tail aura blending into the room’s dominant themes of lavender and dark green.

Lyra looked down to see that the red carpet, which clashed unfortunately with the green flooring underneath, ran from hers and Bon Bon’s hooves, up through the arch, and to the base of the steps of the luxurious canopy bed on the other side of the chamber. The intimacy of the bed and the haphazardness of the pile of furniture and decorations crammed around the small fireplace in the back just added to the strangeness of it all. This was indeed Celestia’s personal chambers, temporarily set up for some sort of ceremony. Something about all this, and Bon Bon’s wedding dress, started turning the gears in Lyra’s head.

“Your Majesty!” Bon Bon cried, bowing her body down towards Celestia. Lyra glanced at her and quietly mimicked her action, though she did not close her eyes. Her instinct for greeting the Princess was a hoof wave and a “Hi, Princess Celestia!” Celestia gave her a knowing smile, as if she knew this.

“Bon Bon!” she greeted warmly. “My former agent!” Lyra blinked as she remembered that, oh yeah, that was a thing. “And Lyra Heartstrings, my former student.” Lyra smiled at the recognition. “Please, do get up, the both of you.”

They did so. Celestia was beaming at them.

“I am just so happy to see you both! It has been a joy watching two ponies from such different trots of life, whom I’ve cared for in such different ways, find each other.” She sat down for a moemnt to bring her hooves up to her cheeks. “Even just standing next to each other, you two are just… just so… adorable!”

Celestia was showing a side of herself Lyra had rarely seen before. The Celestia she knew growing up was more knowing smiles and wry amusement than beaming grins and plain excitement. She practically looked like she was about to prance around.

“I was so excited to get your wedding invitation, and really wish I could have been there! But managing the first moons of the reconstruction of Canterlot sadly kept me too busy to attend.” She chuckled. “Though I suppose, in a way, I am making it up to you now”.

“Oh, it’s okay, Princess!” Lyra waved her off. She was relieved to have finally figured everything out. The arrangement of the room. The wedding dress. Even the odd secrecy, maybe. It all made sense to her now!

“I mean, I understand you really wish that you could have been there, but you didn’t have to go through all this just for us!”

Celestia and Bon Bon both stared at her, the happy energy of the room suddenly deflating.

“W-what are you talking about, Lyra?” Bon Bon asked with a quivering voice.

“Oh, you know! The letter, the carriage to Canterlot, the ceremony, and all that. It’s so that Celestia can marry us together again, right? Since she would have offered to do that if she could have come the first time.” Lyra chuckled. “I mean, why else would you be wearing your wedding dress?“

Celestia’s eyes widened, and Bon Bon gave her a sad look.

“Lyra…” Bon Bon sighed. “You know I love you, right? I love your sense of humor. I really do! And I understand that you get nervous when things get too serious so you like to joke to lighten the mood. But this is the most important day in my life and I… I would prefer if you just took it more seriously.” She smiled concernedly at her.

“Oh, of course!” Lyra said, relieved she had gotten an out for her mistake. “Yeah, just trying to lighten the mood, y’know? Just being me.” She rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof nervously. “But I know how important this is to you, Bonnie. I love you, and I want to take it seriously.”

Bon Bon smiled with relief. Lyra continued.

“Like, my thing wouldn’t even have made sense anyway, thinking about it! If that’s what it was, I’d have brought my wedding dress too, and the rings!”

The relief in Bon Bon’s face dissolved. As did Lyra’s, as she thought about things a bit more. If that wasn’t it, what was all this about? The most important day of her life? Weren’t they just talking about their wedding day?

“Lyra…” Bonnie said with dread and hesitation in her voice. “Could you tell me exactly what you think is going on here?“

“I…” Lyra froze. She glanced over to Celestia who, if anything, looked even more worried than Bon Bon did. The dread she heard in Bon Bon’s voice started to make her stomach feel sick. She couldn’t lie any longer.

“I’m sorry, Bonnie. I have no idea. I really don’t. I just…“ She sighed. “I should have told you when you got the first letter, but you seemed so excited that I wanted to say ‘yes’ right away, so I did. Then it felt too late to go back and ask what I agreed to, so I’ve sort of just been pretending this whole time. I figured it couldn’t be too different from the hundreds of different royal ceremony things I’ve seen growing up…”

Bon Bon’s worry was replaced by horror. Lyra turned to look at Celestia, who was covering her face with her wings. Something that Lyra had never seen her do. Panic started to set in. What was going on?

“I’m really sorry Bonnie, I really shouldn’t have lied to you like that. But I just trust you, you know? I just don’t see how anything you wanted this much and made you this happy could possibly hurt me.”

Right? Lyra wanted to add, pleadingly. She wanted the expression on Bon Bon’s face to melt away, and for her to give a perfectly reasonable, harmless explanation for all this. Something that explained why Bon Bon was in her wedding dress, why there was nopony in the parts of the Castle they were led through, why they were in Celestia’s personal chambers. Why, in retrospect, Bonnie had seemed surprised at how readily Lyra agreed to this whole thing.

Instead, Bon Bon turned away from her, towards Celestia.

“Your Worship… Which one of us should tell her?”

Celestia did not move her wings from her face. “I believe it is important that it come from you.”

“As you wish, My Princess.”

Lyra did not like the sound of that exchange. She did not like it at all.

Bon Bon turned back to Lyra. “Lyra… we are doing a wedding ceremony of sorts. But you’re not here as a bride.”

In the pause between the two sentences, Lyra mind lived a thousand lifetimes trying to figure out what Bon Bon could possibly say next. Nothing could have possibly prepared her.

“You’re here to give me away.“ Bon Bon smiled softly and looked towards her Goddess. “I’m joining Princess Celestia’s harem as Her concubine.”

Part 3 [Suggestive]

Lyra looked upwards as Princess Celestia approached her. Celestia extended a wing over the unicorn and pulled her to her side. Lyra could not help but derive some comfort from the warmth of the alicorn’s body and the softness of her wing feathers. She pressed her face against Celestia’s side, just behind her right foreleg, and sobbed.

The last time she had done this, she was just a little filly. She was distraught that her little group of friends had forgotten to invite her to a party when they made sure to include Moondancer, even though all she did at parties was sit in a corner and talk to Twilight about books, which is what she did all day anyway.

The world and her problems were so simple back then. How did it all come to this?

Lyra’s sobs slowed to a rhythm of gulps of air, then stopped. She did not know if it was Celestia’s comforting presence or the endorphins released by the sobbing or both, but she started to feel calmer. It was not quite acceptance. What was to come would still be very difficult. But the part of her that would have raged and lashed out withdrew from the scene, its emotional ammunition spent.

Celestia held her for a bit longer, saying nothing. Then she backed out a bit down the carpet, letting Bon Bon take her place with a comforting hoof on Lyra’s withers. Nopony said anything. Nothing needed to be said. No conversation between them could change the situation or the emotional state in a way that anypony there would have preferred to what was.

Celestia broke the silence.

“A part of me wishes that for your sake, we were still in the old days. Then you would have seen the proper form of the ceremony, in a brightly lit Throne Room decorated just for the occasion, instead of this improvised version held in secret.”

She gestured at the left-hoof side of the bedroom with her wing. “That half of the room would have been filled with your friends, family, and representatives of your community in their best ceremonial garb, sometimes having looked forward to this day for years.”

She turned to face Bon Bon.

“Your wedding dress and veil would not have been bought at a store, its quality limited by the budget of a shopkeeper. It would have been as expensive and elaborate as your family and community could afford: a display of their wealth and devotion to the nation. The amount that was spent gave me pause sometimes, but I have to admit it made for some amazing dresses.“

She then looked towards the right half of the room.

“On that side would have sat various court officials and dignitaries from my capital. The politics around who would be invited would get… intense.” Celestia sighed. “That is one aspect I definitely do not miss.”

She turned to face Lyra.

“And you, Lyra. All best mares received an excess of glories from the world outside Canterlot, but being the wife of a concubine was the highest honor of all. Only the most ambitious and calculating mares could ever dream of pulling off such a coup for their careers and families.“

Lyra realized the irony, as the last thing she would have called herself was ‘ambitious’ and ‘calculating’.

“In those days, you could trot into Mayor Mare’s office tomorrow and she would gladly surrender her position to you, if you wanted. And mayorship then was not the neutered office limited to bureaucracy and ceremony it is today. You would have held true power in your community.“

Lyra hoped Celestia was not telling her this to make her feel better. If she had cared about such things she would still be living in Canterlot, desperately climbing every social ladder she could.

“Well, that’s enough reminiscing,” she smiled. “Are you ready, Lyra?”

The sentence was not just a proposal to start the ceremony. It was the crack of a door being held open. Lyra firmly closed it.

“Yes, Princess Celestia.”

“Splendid.” Princess Celestia happily turned and trotted ahead, down the red carpet, to her place on the right side of the arch. Her horn glowed as she began to manipulate a gramophone that was in the heap of furniture on the far end of the chamber. The room filled with a scratchy rendition of the traditional wedding march.

“For centuries, I would have had to hum the music myself. I felt a bit sorry for my secret concubines then. It did spoil what little dignity the ceremony had left. Modern technology is wonderful, isn’t it?”

Bon Bon smiled. Lyra tried to, and only managed a weak one.

“Well, let’s get started!”

Lyra turned to look at Bon Bon, who was smiling warmly at her behind her veil. The sheer fabric covering her face could not stop her aching beauty from radiating through. It was exactly like their wedding day. Except Lyra would not be the pony to flip the veil back with an aura of glowing magic; to stare directly into her endless blue eyes.

Lyra took her offered hoof, and they began their walk down the red carpet. Every step taking them ever closer to the end. When they reached the halfway point, Lyra still held on to Bon Bon’s hoof as she took another step forward, with Bon Bon lurching forward in surprise. Misjudged the distance, she insisted to herself. But she dared not repeat the action. She let go of Bon Bon, who gave Lyra one last smile before turning towards her Goddess. Bon Bon stepped forward alone to her destiny.

She took her place at the other side of the arch, looking up towards Celestia. Celestia let a moment pass before speaking.

“Do you, Bon Bon, accept your role as concubine in my Harem by my grace, to love me and be devoted to me, to join your flesh with mine?”

“I do.”

The pieces fell into place. The part of Lyra that still thought this was all some sort of weird dream, a sick parody of the happiest day of her life, was replaced by a much more horrifying conclusion. Their wedding had been the scratchy reproduction wheezing out from a tinny gramophone horn. What she was witnessing now was the original performance in full brass organ.

“I will now seal you to me with the ring.”

Bon Bon’s cutie mark began to glow, and she excitedly hiked up her wedding dress to see what was happening. The three lovely candies --which Lyra would always kiss in turn to make Bon Bon giggle— were being encircled by a golden band tracing itself out. The band stopped just short of completing the circle at the top, and in lieu of finishing, a sun motif appeared to complete the circle.

Lyra thought of their wedding rings, which like most married pony couples they kept in boxes tucked away in a dresser somewhere. Then she thought about that day.

It had been a day that she had been waiting for a while then. Ponies panicking and running around as yet another monster terrorized the streets. It was not the perfect reproduction, as the monsters were nothing more than creepy little apple creatures and the cause turned out to be Discord and not Twilight and her friends, but it was close enough to that day with the bugbear when Bon Bon confessed her secret and Lyra confessed hers in turn, later that night. Then, their first kiss. Their first everything.

So it was perfect enough. Lyra got down awkwardly on one knee and pulled out the ring she had bought in secret on their last trip to Manehattan. She remembered what happened next with perfect clarity, like how anypony would remember the happiest moment of their life. Bon Bon bringing up a hoof to her mouth in surprise, then turning around to pull out a ring of her own.

Now, whenever she would think about that memory, she would not be able to stop herself from thinking of the more permanent ring magically etched into her wife’s flank, proclaiming her loyalty to a bond deeper than mere wife and wife.

“I am happy to say that I now pronounce you my concubine.”

That snapped Lyra out of her reverie. Lyra watched as Princess Celestia pulled back Bon Bon’s veil. They looked into each others’ eyes.

“You may now kiss your Goddess.”

Bon Bon did so. The music crescendoed.

This was the part of the traditional ceremony where all in attendance would clap their hooves on the ground in celebration. But in the traditional Celestian wedding ceremony, the best mares were expected to, if anything, not exhibit such emotions, for they still had one more duty left to do. One they would undertake later that night, after the reception and after all the other guests had gone home.

The traditional rites allowed for the threshold to be decorated with “works of iron, stone, or wood not to cover the line of sight, or glass”. Between the “or”, the invention of frosted glass in the intervening time, and the industrialization process that brought down the price of a threshold-sized pane of glass from unimaginable to feasible, the letter of the law could be followed while minimizing the discordance with modern pony mores.

As much as she loved her mother, she could not help but take her discomfort as a sweet, petty revenge for all of the things she had said about Bon Bon during their relationship. No, she just felt sorry for Cherry Berry, having to stand there alongside Lyra’s mother with her eyes fixed on the glass. Trying to ignore what Lyra and Bon Bon were doing on the other side, just like Lyra and Bon Bon were trying and failing to ignore them.

They actually had, ironically, the worst sex of their lives on their wedding night. Bon Bon even agreed and was apologetic, but refused to “fake it” and retroactively ruin the meaning of the whole day. They worked and worked until Bon Bon finally arrived at a tiny, measly shiver of an orgasm, which she moaned about as if waves of pleasure were rocking through her body. Loudly enough for Cherry Berry to hear and finally go home, traumatized.

So it did not surprise Lyra to hear what Celestia said to her next.

With a deeply apologetic tone, Celestia spoke.

“It is customary for the best mare to watch the entirety of the consummation from the other side of the ceremonial arch, but if it would be too much for you…“

“No need to change it for me, Princess Celestia. I would rather watch and know than not watch and wonder.” It was true.

“Very well.”

Celestia took Bon Bon’s hoof and led her through the arch. Bon Bon gave Lyra one last apologetic look before stepping through. But she could not conceal her excitement.

As Celestia and Bon Bon ascended the steps of Celestia’s bed, Lyra began to walk forward the rest of the way to the arch. Her hooves felt like lead. As she was taking her place, Bon Bon was lying back on the canopy bed, with Celestia seated in front of her. Celestia’s horn glowed and lifted Bon Bon’s veil and dress away. She was now lying down naked in front of her Goddess.

Lyra’s world was about to end, and she had to watch it all.

Part 4 [Explicit]

Princess Celestia began by kissing Her concubine. Not the unsure peck that Bon Bon had planted on Her during the ceremony, but a deep, sensual one that left Bon Bon panting and flushed when Celestia finally broke it. The panting continued, increasing in intensity as Celestia kissed all over Bon Bon’s surrendered body while softly stroking her breasts and the inside of her thighs with Her wings.

Bon Bon’s legs spread open, displaying her winking clit to her Goddess, slick with its own juices. She began to moan lustily as her Goddess brushed her clit with the gentlest of possible strokes of the tips of her wings. Celestia closed Her eyes, enjoying the sounds with the detached amusement befitting an aristocrat. She was standing over Bon Bon now, so Lyra could clearly see from her position just what was developing underneath her.

It should have shocked Lyra to the core, but it did not. She only remembered two things.

The first was the scandalized look on her parents’ faces when she naïvely repeated what the new filly at school had told her about Princess Celestia’s anatomy. She was a pale-coated blank flank from a remote farming village where she was the only unicorn. She lasted at the school for less than a year before running back to her village in tears. (”Shame, just not a good cultural fit,” her parents had tsked.)

The second was the verse from the Catechism: The Alicorn Princess incarnates all of the features of Her pony subjects. To a High Celestian, that was obviously just an explanation of the wings and horn. But she had heard enough swamp pony preachers shouting in the streets of Canterlot in their bizarre sort of pilgrimage to know that the obvious interpretation was not universal. She had never thought about it much, only felt disbelief that anypony, even a swamp pony, could think up such ridiculous ideas.

But Lyra could not disbelieve what was in front of her eyes.

The length was nearly as long, and the width nearly as wide, as that of a pony foreleg. The curvature upwards was slight but graceful, nearly geometric. The heart-shaped head was perfectly formed to suggest juiciness, like a ripe fruit. The color throughout was a pleasing shade of pink. The smooth surface glistened, slick in the low light.

The Beam of the Holy Sun.

The Living Goddess, Risen in the Flesh.

Celestia bent forward to give Bon Bon one final, warm kiss and then laid Herself down on Her back. Bon Bon, unimaginably excited, got up on her hooves only to fall forward on her knees, supplicating the Body of her Goddess. She wrapped her forehooves around Celestia’s clit, making sure to only touch Her with the parts covered by the softness of her fetlocks, and used them as leverage to plant sweet kisses all up and down Her length.

Lyra could not help but recall Bon Bon’s affectionate kisses on her own clit. But what Bon Bon was doing to Celestia went beyond mere affection. It was worship, in every sense of the word.

As Bon Bon’s kisses transitioned into long licks, she found herself stopped by a mouthful of wing feathers. Celestia gestured her forward with Her wingtips, and Bon Bon got back up on her hooves again. Her forelegs were able to clear Celestia’s spread-open thighs, and as she moved forward Bon Bon made sure to sensually brush up against Celestia’s length with her belly. Celestia closed Her eyes and smiled in appreciation of Her concubine.

Bon Bon got into position, straddling Celestia’s body with her short pony legs. She began to back up, letting out a moan and a gasp as she slid her Goddess into herself. Celestia bit Her lower lip as Bon Bon took in as much of Her length as she dared. Not even halfway down.

Celestia began to move Her hips, and Bon Bon began to move hers as well to follow Her rhythm. The schlicking friction was barely audible to Lyra under the moans of pleasure: the alicorn’s low and dignified, the Earth pony’s uncontrolled and luxuriating. Not only in being filled with the Living Flesh of her Goddess, but also in being stimulated by the pulsing aura of magical energy on her clit.

Lyra instinctively touched her own horn, remembering her past clumsy, failed attempts with Bon Bon.

She could not help but be mesmerized by the contrast between her wife’s tiny pony body and the majestic grandeur of the alicorn’s. By the heights of pleasure her wife was experiencing in the expert hooves of an immortal Goddess. By the glistening of her wife’s juices trickling down Celestia’s length. She felt a stirring in her belly.

Maybe this was the natural order of things. Maybe mere ponies were always meant to have this be their greatest ambition: to be concubines in the harem of an all-powerful Alicorn Princess. Against such a relationship, what value was there in a bond between mere wife and wife?

Bon Bon’s moans started being screamed, higher in pitch and faster in tempo. She tried to stifle them, and they started to come out in squeaks instead. But she could not hold it back any longer. She closed her eyes and came, collapsing forward onto Celestia’s chest as she did.

“I’m sorry… your Majesty…” Bon Bon squeaked as waves of pleasure undulated through her. Celestia smiled down at her serenely.

“The orgasm is a gift from alicornkind to all mares, Bon Bon. It is always an honor to both receive and give. Never apologize for enjoying one.”

Bon Bon smiled and visibly relaxed at that, letting herself sigh with pleasure as the last of the waves came and went. The Princess caressed Bon Bon’s body with a wing. Bon Bon sighed contentedly again.

Celestia continued to patiently hold Bon Bon with Her wings, even as Lyra could see that the Princess was still very much hard. Bon Bon opened her eyes, smiling at her Goddess. She planted her forehooves back onto the bed and got back up, giving a glance backward as she prepared herself. Celestia stopped her.

“Why don’t you lie on your back, this time?” the Princess suggested. Bon Bon obediently followed Her orders and rolled off Her body, onto her back. She looked up to see the Princess standing over her, Her erect clit casting a shadow on her face.

She closed her eyes and eagerly opened her mouth as wide as she could. She was well-rewarded with a mouthful of silky, soft alicorn clit.

She made a muffled, worrying sound as Celestia thrust deeper, blocking her airway. She calmed herself down successfully as Celestia made Her first few thrusts down and up her throat, but the panic began to return, and Bon Bon began to struggle. Lyra was about to say something when Celestia’s horn glowed, and Bon Bon’s chest expanded gratefully, freed from its need of external air. Her eyes rolled back as she began to get used to the exciting and novel sensation.

As Celestia’s rhythm became faster and faster, Lyra was mesmerized. She imagined herself in Bon Bon’s place, gazing upwards at that unending length of pink, knowing that the Goddess could run her through with Her full length if She chose. The stirring in Lyra’s belly returned, and she instinctively began to move her right forehoof back to her crotch before she stopped herself.

Celestia pulled back, and Bon Bon took her first gulp of unteleported air just in time to receive her Goddess’s blessing. The Princess let out a pleasured sigh of relief as She released ropes of cum —enough to impregnate a thousand willing mares— all over the face, neck, and body of Her grateful concubine. She looked downward to admire Her work. It was beautiful.

To Lyra’s surprise, the Princess then turned to her and spoke.

“Would you like to consume the Royal Ichor? It is considered an honor.“

“An honor?” Lyra said, conflicted.

“Allow me to reword that. It would be considered an honor to me.” Celestia bowed her head towards Lyra.

Lyra felt as if she could not refuse. She hesitantly walked forward, through the arch and up the bed, as Celestia smiled at her. She stood over the figure of her wife, who seemed completely insensate to the world behind her closed eyes and beatific smile. Did she even know that her wife was right in front of her? Or worse. If she did, would she care?

Lyra did not know what it meant that Bon Bon had never looked more beautiful than she did in that moment, her lovely face covered with pearly streaks of the Goddess. Quaking, she brought her face down to scoop up one of the streaks with her tongue.

She had no idea what to expect, and not just because she had only been with mares in her life. On top of the salty tang there was a sweet fragrance that was just intoxicating. And the gluey texture was just pleasant to roll around in her mouth with her tongue. Lyra could not stop herself from wanting more.

Bon Bon opened her eyes.

“Lyra, honey…” Lyra smiled with tears in her eyes at hearing that term of endearment. “Please… share…”

Lyra locked lips with her wife, and pushed a load of Celestia into her mouth with her tongue. Bon Bon savored it greedily before swallowing.

Lyra did not know why, but she began to cry. She continued her work as she did, the salty taste of the tears mixing with the salty taste of the alicorn cum. Every time she had a mouthful, she would roll it around once in her mouth before transferring it to her wife, who would coo happily as she did so. Soon enough, she could not see any more on Bon Bon’s face. Her work was done. She continued to cry. She could not identify what she was feeling.

She felt a presence, and saw that Celestia was standing behind her, on the steps of the bed. But not just Her presence. For the first time, Lyra felt Her power. The energies needed to raise and lower the Sun itself every day, which could just as easily blast a tiny pony body into nothingness. The authority to rule a nation, which could elevate a candymaker to a royal consort on a whim.

Celestia spoke.

“I can tell that you are in an emotionally heightened state right now, so I will not accept a ‘yes’ at this time. I will need you to take a few days to think it through.” She took a hopeful tone. “But I cannot help but think that my plans for Bon Bon would go so much better if she also had a harem sister. And thinking about it, you are especially qualified for what I have planned…”

Lyra looked down at her wife, whose face had transformed from a half-lidded daze to an excited smile.

Lyra wanted to say more than just ‘yes’. She wanted to beg the Goddess to take her. To use her body for physical relief, just as She did her wife’s. To take what was Hers by right of Her superiority. All unimaginably swamp pony things.

She could not refuse. She could not refuse. She saw it at last. Behind the knowing smiles and the serene expression and the ‘perhaps’es and the ‘I just thought’s was the wisdom of a thousand years of innate magical power and biological immortality. Enough to build an entire society around the denial of Her own power and biology. If She had planned this from the beginning, with all of Lyra’s experiences since birth coming together to craft a perfect concubine for Her plans, would Lyra know? Would it make a difference? Maybe her life had always been at the mercy and the whims of the Living Goddess.

She finally figured it out. What had caused her to weep. It was the collapsing of the fictions that she had been building up her whole life. The scaffolding holding up her entire world.

The fiction that she had overcome her Canterlot upbringing, and had successfully resisted internalizing the elitism of her parents and community. Collapsed by the disgust she had felt at her wife.

The fiction that she truly knew her wife, and that her different religious beliefs did not mean she had a worldview and inner self that Lyra would never truly understand. Collapsed by the betrayal she had experienced from her.

The fiction that despite the fact that she lived in a monarchy, its ruler Celestia was, in the end, just another pony like her and everypony else. That ponies held their own destiny in their hooves, and were not mere pawns in the plans of the superior beings among them.

Collapsed by the reality of Alicorn biology.

Epilogue [Suggestive]

It had been an amazing evening in Ponyville. Pinkie Pie always pulled out all the stops for farewell parties, and it somehow fit Lyra and Bon Bon perfectly while still being very distinct from the wedding reception Pinkie had also planned for them just two moons earlier. It was nice to see all of their friends together again, and Lyra had to keep reminding herself that it was not the last time they ever would. Canterlot was just a long carriage ride away, after all.

Lyra smiled as she thought back to them. Derpy and Maud and Carrot Top and Noteworthy and Octavia and Vinyl and so many more. Even Cherry Berry had shown up, though she had drunk way too much of the punch as always, so neither Lyra nor Bon Bon could make much out of that tearful speech she had given them. But Lyra was relieved that their friendship hadn’t been totally destroyed by the awkwardness of the wedding after all.

But they were definitely living here now, in their chambers in the remnant of Canterlot Castle. The furniture that had perfectly fit their cozy little apartment above Bon Bon’s candy shop in Ponyville looked very out of place against the Late-Celestian Regal architecture and fixtures, but Lyra had insisted that it was necessary to bring them in order to make her feel as if she had moved in instead of being just a visitor.

Of course, in the end, there was only one thing that Lyra really needed to bring in order to make any place feel like home.

Lyra reached up to squeeze the sides of Bon Bon’s face with her hooves, leaning the weight of her unbalanced body into planting a deep kiss on the Earth pony, who had to steel her legs in order to not buckle from it.

“What was that?” Bon Bon asked, as she recovered.

“Oh, just kissing my wife.” Lyra smiled.

“Wife and harem sister.” Bon Bon smiled back. Lyra had to begrudgingly admit, the quasi-incestuous appellation did give her a frisson of excitement whenever she heard it. In contrast, Bon Bon was pleased beyond words at being able to say that sentence. As if she had everything she ever wanted or could want at this point.

That made Lyra very happy.

“Stand there for a moment,” Lyra said. Bon Bon did so as Lyra walked a bit past her and stopped, so that they were no longer face-to-face but flank-to-flank. She turned her head to look at their cutie marks next to each other.

A harp and three candies. Both encircled by a golden ring, each topped with Celestia’s sun motif. She could easily convince herself that it was nothing more than the perfect pair of wedding rings. Unlike the ones sitting in their drawer, these were permanently on their bodies. How many couples in Equestria could say that? Only one. In a way, wasn’t this just a symbol of the specialness and strength of their marriage? In a way, wasn’t this whole crazy thing with Celestia just another life change that they were facing together, as loving wife and wife?

But she could not deny that things were different now. The sheets on the bed were crisp and barely touched. This despite Lyra’s allergy to doing her share of the bed-making, which Bon Bon had suffered through their past several years together. They hardly slept in it now, and on the few nights they did, what was once such a constant source of warmth and fullness somehow felt so cold and empty.

They were used to sleeping in a particular way now. Faces nestled on either side of Celestia’s neck. Hooves held across the middle of Her body. Sides cradled by Her soft wings. Bodies warmed by the afterglow of Her gift. It felt so natural. As if they were always meant to be holding a third body between them. One that could caress their faces. Massage their necks. Grope their flanks.

“Just what are you thinking about, honey?” Bon Bon asked, curious. Lyra snapped out of it.

“Oh, just wondering about things,” she said truthfully. “About what the Goddess told us earlier.”

“Yeah,” Bon Bon smiled in understanding. “We’re going to execute missions for her soon. Isn’t it exciting?”

“Yeah, it is,” Lyra admitted. It was funny to her how Bon Bon so naturally slipped back into using the language from her Agency days. In the early days of their relationship, Lyra had sometimes daydreamed foalishly of what would happen were the Agency to be a factor in their lives again, and how she would navigate being the marefriend of a secret agent of the Equestrian intelligence services. But Bon Bon had always assured her both that it would never happen and that it was much less exciting than it had sounded.

But Lyra was now privy to an actual state secret. One that painted a very different picture of the world from the one she had developed growing up in the circles of the Equestrian elite, who were under the false impression that they were the ones who really ran Equestria. And with these missions, she would finally find out the true workings of this Alicorn-ruled world they lived in. Its true past.

Lyra smiled at the irony.

She was truly excited. It was surprising how much she had changed from before, when she had been looking forward to settling down into a nice, long, boring life with her Bonnie in a quiet farming village, away from all this nonsense of royalty and aristocracy.

She did not know how the future and what she learned on these missions would change her further.

Lyra only knew two things.

She loved her wife.

And she loved her Goddess.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading, everyone! I do put a lot of time and try to cram in a lot of neat ideas and references in what I write, so I am thankful for every eyeball that graces these pages. If you do pick up on any of those things, especially the academic allusions, please leave a comment or drop me a line. It would really keep me going to know that there were those out there who were picking up what I was putting down.

The sequel, Alicorn Biology: Princess Luna is in the works, and I have the main ideas and themes for Alicorn Biology: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Alicorn Biology: Princess Twilight Sparkle. I plan to finish them by December, January, and February, respectively. Hope to see all of you there!

Part 2 [Suggestive]

Lyra’s jaw hung open. Then she burst out laughing. Bon Bon and Celestia shared an uncomfortable glance.

“Oh, that’s a great one, Bonnie!” She wiped away a tear with her hoof. “I knew you had to get back at me somehow, but I would never have expected you to say anything like this!“ She chuckled. “Wow, you are really good at putting on an act! I almost believed you for a sec!“

“Lyra…” Bon Bon’s tone was firm. “I’m dead serious. I’m joining Princess Celestia’s harem.”

This was getting beyond the limits of a joke in good taste. Lyra’s eyes narrowed in anger.

“What? That’s ridiculous! That’s absurd!! Celestia doesn’t have a harem! That’s…”

Lyra was at a loss. She had always known that Bon Bon held a lot of Low Celestian beliefs, but never thought of her any less for it despite her own unflinchingly High Celestian background. She didn’t mind the cake altar in their bedroom, and it was actually kind of cute how Bon Bon would say grace before orgasm (Lyra had even taken it as a fun challenge to stimulate her enough so that she would forget to). But belief in a Celestian harem? Was Bon Bon really one of those ponies?

“Sorry, Bonnie. I just have a hard time believing somepony as sensible as you believes in that nonsense about Princess Molestia-“

“Lyra!” Bon Bon interrupted angrily. “I’m not some sort of swamp pony! It’s obvious to anypony with a brain that Celestia doesn’t keep dozens of mares locked away in underground dungeons or… or… teleports around Equestria relieving Herself using unaware ponies, or anything like that! That would be blasphemy!“

It struck Lyra that Bon Bon was using the same tone Lyra’s mother had often used to talk about her.

“My family are Minimalists! We believe that ever since the closing of the Convent, She has only had one concubine at a time, hidden behind an official position, just enough to satisfy Her needs.”

Lyra was taken aback by her certainty.

“Oh. So you believe the Celestian Convent was actually her harem?”

“Yes! Those mares were Her concubines!”

Lyra was about to retort, but she held it back.

Well, if you had gone to the School for Gifted Unicorns, you would have learned this on the first day of Early Celestian History, but…

She hated herself for that instinct. Instead, she began with the next sentence, her voice defaulting to the calm tone she had absorbed from her years of listening to her teachers’ lectures.

“Bon Bon, that’s a false interpretation of the nature of the Celestian Convent. They left their families and renounced future sexual and romantic relationships with ponies outside of the Convent in order to ensure their loyalty to the early Celestian state, not because they were her harem.“

Her grades were bad mostly due to the magic classes; she was always good at history.

She pushed further. “And this belief that Celestia dissolved her harem and started to have concubines secretly right around the time when written daily records started being preserved and pony literacy became commonplace is awfully convenient. That just makes it an unprovable matter of faith! The ‘harem of the gaps’!“ The phrase had always stuck with her since Comparative Religious Studies.

“Lyra…” Bon Bon replied gently. “It’s not a matter of faith.” She turned to face Celestia, and Lyra followed suit.

It somehow only then struck Lyra that there was somepony in the room who could clear all of this up very directly. To be fair, Princess Celestia had always refused to confirm or deny details about historical events she had lived through to her students. As Lyra had gotten older and as her questions about the past became more difficult, Celestia’s answer to consult the official histories and historians felt more and more like an impenetrable shield, to the point where she no longer thought of the Princess as even a possible source for such answers.

Even now, she seemed very reluctant to comment, and conflicted in general about the conversation that had just occurred in front of her.

“Your beliefs on this are true, my child,” Celestia confirmed. “The Convent was my harem, and after its dissolution I have always taken only one concubine at a time.”

Bon Bon smiled in vindication, and not just over Lyra, it seemed. Lyra was shocked, though she did not know if the upending of her worldview or the implications of what Bon Bon had said being true affected her more. The creeping sense of horror and dread as it all began to sink in confirmed it was the latter.

“So that’s…” she pointed a shaking hoof at the canopy bed on the other side of the room. “That’s the…”

“That’s the Altar of Consummation,“ Bonnie supplied. Lyra could feel the capital letters in her voice.

“And that’s where…”

“The Ritual of Consummation is done, after the concubine is given away to be sealed to the Goddess.”

“And that is…”

“A mere beam of the light of the Holy Sun, that is reflected in each moment of lovemaking between every pony couple.“

Lyra did not want to think about what that implied for the place their lovemaking held in Bon Bon’s worldview. But then she did, and it was about as painful as she expected.

“Bonnie… I just don’t understand…” Lyra quivered, with betrayal and pain in her voice. “We… we just got married! And now you’re talking about me giving you away? What about our wedding vows!?”

Lyra didn’t know how she expected Bon Bon to react, but what she didn’t expect was for Bon Bon to look back at her with a look of pain and betrayal of her own.

“Lyra…“ she said in the same worried tone of voice as earlier. “Do you actually remember our wedding vows?”

Lyra’s mind raced at this unexpected response, fetching and collating the associated memories at a breakneck pace. The wedding was a traditional one, much to Lyra’s parents’ chagrin. Lyra just wanted Bon Bon to be happy. Bon Bon’s father was delighted, despite the fact that it was so traditional he wasn’t allowed to take the place of her deceased mother in being the best mare: the one to walk Bon Bon halfway down the aisle then give her away, symbolizing her leaving one house and family to join another.

Bon Bon didn’t have any sisters or childhood friends she was still close with, and having her Canterlot cousin in the role would have been, if anything, even more awkward than a complete stranger. So the role had gone to Cherry Berry, Bon Bon’s closest female friend in Ponyville that she wasn’t marrying that day. A mare with whom Bon Bon had lunch with a couple times a moon and had shared many conversations, laughs, and experiences with, but didn’t even know Bon Bon had a dead mother before she was asked to be her best mare. Cherry Berry tried her best to hide it, but it was obvious to all how relieved she was when Bon Bon let go of her hoof and the attention shifted away from her.

Lyra’s mother had let go of her hoof at the same time, as was the custom for two mares getting married. Unlike Cherry Berry, she was very good at hiding her feelings about the whole thing. But nopony at the wedding wasn’t aware of how she disapproved. All in all, that part of the ceremony was very awkward, indeed.

But yes, that’s how traditional the wedding was, up to and including the vows.

Do you, Lyra Heartstrings, take Bon Bon to be your wedded wife by the grace of Celestia, to love her and be devoted to her just as you love and are devoted to Celestia, to join your flesh with hers until the day she is blessed to join the Flesh of the Living Goddess?

“I…”

“What were the last words of the vow, Lyra?”

Until the day she is blessed to join the Flesh of the Living Goddess.

Until.

“I just thought that was a metaphor for `until you died’ or something!”

“What? That doesn’t even make any sense!” Bon Bon stuck a hoof towards Celestia. “The Goddess is right there, do you see a bunch of dead mare corpses attached to Her?”

“I know it doesn’t make sense!” Lyra protested. “I just thought it was an old religious thing! I didn’t think it literally meant anything…”

“Lyra…” Tears were welling up in Bon Bon’s eyes. “Are you saying that our wedding vows didn’t mean anything to you?”

“Of course our wedding vows meant something to me!” Lyra panicked. “To take you to be my wife, to love you and be devoted to you, to join my flesh with yours. That was the important part to me!”

“Well, I meant every part, Lyra!” Bon Bon was crying now. “Every part was important to me!” she sobbed. “I’ve always known! You’re a Canterlot pony, I know all of you see Her differently than ponies like me do. I just thought that… you would at least mean our wedding vows…”

“I… I just…” Lyra began crying as well, squeaking out, “I had no idea it was so literal!”

This was crazy. Was she wrong? How could she possibly be the pony in the wrong here!?

Just then, Lyra felt a calming presence. She looked up to see Celestia towering over Bon Bon, covering her body with a wing. She spoke in a soothing voice.

“Do not be sad, my child. This unfortunate misunderstanding is not Lyra’s or your fault. It is mine.”

Bon Bon looked up at her, blinking through her tears, confused.

Celestia sighed. “It is not only that Lyra grew up in Canterlot. She was a student at my school. I was her teacher. Her principal. I was a mother figure, in a way that was more direct than the role I take on for all of my subjects. Even especially loyal and faithful ponies like you.”

Bon Bon smiled at that.

“So when you told me that Lyra enthusiastically accepted your selection, I admit that I was surprised. I had expected a conversation with her first, or at the very least some questions. But I figured that she must have had them with you, and that she understood fully the import of the selection, and learned to see me in a way that would have been unimaginable to her just a few years ago.“

She turned to Lyra with a look of serenity.

“I must apologize to you, my former student. It has been centuries since I have taken a concubine under similar circumstances, and in my excitement I was not as diligent as I could have been in confirming your enthusiastic consent. Coming close to the end of a reign that has lasted for more than a thousand years, I treasure these rare moments when I discover that I still have important things to learn and ways to grow. I am humbled by the experience, and thankful to you.”

She herself bowed to Lyra, underscoring the point. Knowing that Bon Bon would take in every bit of that significance and weight. Knowing how that would affect how she took in what she said next.

“Bon Bon, you must understand. I cannot allow this to continue without Lyra giving her consent. But she is not depriving you of anything if she does not. She loves you deeply, and you must love her just as deeply, if not more, for my sake. You will still be serving me even if that means continuing to live the life you had in Ponyville, and that it would in no way diminish my love for you or my appreciation for your loyalty and faith.”

Lyra couldn’t believe it. Was she being given an out? A way to just go back to Ponyville with Bon Bon and forget that this whole thing had ever happened?

But no. In her heart of hearts she knew that nothing would ever be the same again. If anything, Celestia’s words underscored it. From then on, behind every caress, every kiss, and every loving whisper there would be a part of Bon Bon that was nothing more than the faithful servant following the orders of her Goddess.

At that point, what difference would it make if she were in Lyra’s bed in Ponyville or Celestia’s in Canterlot?

Bon Bon turned to Lyra, the smile on her lips and the look in her blue eyes the same: sad and sweet.

“Lyra, I’m sorry too. Somewhere deep in the back of my mind, I never wanted to have a direct conversation about what this all meant just in case I would find out that you wouldn’t let me do it.“ Tears were in her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I just wanted to believe that everything would turn out as I had hoped. I wanted to hold on to that faith.“

Lyra sighed deeply.

“Bonnie…” She could not believe that she was going to say it. “I’m not outright refusing this for you. It’s just a lot to take in, and I have a lot of questions.”

“Oh, of course, Lyra.” Bon Bon smiled. “Whatever you want to know. And don’t be afraid to say no to all this in the end if it comes to it, please. We are married under the grace of Celestia. I will love you no matter what.“

Lyra felt pained. “You’ve wanted this for a long time, haven’t you Bonnie?”

“Oh, of course!” Bon Bon’s face relaxed and her eyes went distant as she fell into remembrance. “Ever since I was a filly!” She laughed. “Of course, I was way too young to know what it really meant back then! All I knew is what my parents told me, which is that if I was a good filly who obeyed my parents, loved Celestia, and showed Her my devotion and piety enough, when I’m all grown up I could be chosen to live with Her and be Her special companion. I just thought that meant we would have tea parties together or something!“

Celestia smiled. “I also have tea parties with my concubines.”

Bon Bon blushed and giggled at that, each squeak stabbing Lyra in the heart like a knife.

“Yeah, it was one of those silly foalhood dreams. Like how most other fillies dream of becoming Princesses one day, or how colts dream of becoming royal consorts. Even then, I never would have imagined it actually happening.”

Lyra, indeed, had dreamed of becoming a Princess one day as a filly. But growing up attending Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, becoming a Princess was always something that felt like it was on the edge of the possible rather than an impossibly foalish dream. A feeling that was vindicated by her foalhood friend Twilight actually becoming a Princess a few years ago.

It was not the same for Bon Bon’s upbringing, but the gulf was even wider than that.

Lyra let her mane run wild, as if she were still deliberately defying the Canterlot ceremonial codes she had not had the occasion to follow in years. She often slept until noon, getting by on occasional music playing and teaching gigs.

Bon Bon spent hours every week getting the curls in her mane and tail to be just so. She snuck out of bed at the crack of dawn every morning to keep her little candy shop running and making enough bits to pay the mortgage on both the shop and the apartment above it.

There was absolutely no way Lyra could even begin to imagine the joy that Bon Bon must have felt when she got that scroll. How it must feel to have the chance to leap that chasm between wildest dream and reality. Could she really take that away from her?

“Another question.” Lyra took a short breath. ”If you did do this, what would happen after? What would it mean for us?”

“Well, we would still be married. As a royal concubine I would have the option of annulling our marriage if I wished, but I would never do that. Never.” Bon Bon had a serious look on her face. “Even if you decide to stay in the house in Ponyville instead of moving to the Palace.”

Even if… Lyra thought bitterly.

Celestia spoke.

“I will make sure to allow Bon Bon to spend as much time with you as she can, but I do have some plans for her that cannot be pre-empted. There will be a week’s sojourn to the Crystal Empire, for example.” Celestia paused. “It is also… uncertain what would happen after Princess Twilight Sparkle’s coronation.”

Lyra wanted to both know and not know exactly what that meant. But that day was moons away. Maybe even years. Her world was ending now, and she could not help but focus on the immediately possible future.

“So… How does the ceremony work?”

“Oh, it’d be just like our wedding,” Bon Bon answered. “You’d just be my best mare, like Cherry Berry was. You’d walk me halfway down the aisle holding my hoof, then let me go, and I’d walk the rest of the way to be next to the Princess. Then…”

“You don’t need to say anything Bonnie, I still remember our wedding.” It wasn’t even two moons ago.

There was one more question Lyra had planned on asking. Have you always loved Celestia more than me? But Lyra did not have to ask to know the answer, and did not want to hear Bon Bon actually say it.

“Last question. Do you remember the day of Cranky and Matilda’s wedding?

“Yes, of course I remember that day.” Bon Bon smiled. “Though a lot more happened than just that wedding!”

“Yeah, I know.” Lyra smiled wanly. “When you confessed your secret to me, about being an agent of Celestia. I admit it, I didn’t really take it seriously. I grew up surrounded by ponies and parents of ponies who worked for Celestia and swore oaths to her service. I just figured it was sort of like that. But it was more than that, huh?”

“No, it meant that I would have given my life for Celestia,” Bon Bon said firmly. “When you said that thing about my imported oats later, I was afraid you didn’t understand how serious what I said to you was.” Bon Bon paused. “But later that night, when you confessed the other thing…”

“It wasn’t because I had to actually confess something as big as your confession.” Lyra cast her gaze aside, avoiding eye contact. “It was that when you said what you said, I was so afraid. I just couldn’t bear the thought of losing what our time together meant….”

Lyra cast her gaze downward. Bon Bon finally understood why Lyra brought this all up. She got close to Lyra, lifting her face up with her hoof to meet her gaze. She smiled at her sweetly through lidded eyes.

“It was all real. I love you.”

Lyra could not help but smile back, and lift her own hoof to hook around Bon Bon’s raised foreleg. They held each other’s gaze for a moment. Lyra wished that the moment could stretch on forever. But it was destined to be nothing more than a flash of light before an eternity of darkness. A small mercy at the end of a life.

Lyra knew what she would say next, and what would come after. She imagined it painful, though she knew that she could not even imagine just how painful it would be until it actually happened. But that didn’t matter. She loved Bon Bon. So much that she loved her more than she did Princess Celestia. So much that it did not matter that Bon Bon could not say the same thing to her. She loved her so, so, so very much, and in the end, wanted nothing more than her happiness. No matter what that meant. Even if it hurt her unimaginably.

“Princess Celestia, I accept.”