Of Wings and Horns
A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfiction written by Iron Pony Maiden.
Freely inspired by “That Night, Atop the Tower” written by SoundofRainfall.
Beta-reading by Supernovae.
Twilight closed her eyes, trying to gather all the sensations she felt right now, on the top of this tower, alone with herself for the first time since the ceremony. She could hear the noises from the city, smothered by the distance, the music and the laughs from the ponies still enjoying the party, but she focused on the unheard sounds of the night, the noises made by the whole land of Equestria she would see if she opened her eyes.
The wind started to blow, caressing her coat, making her mane float and her wings’ feathers quiver.
She opened her eyes, and brought her new attributes in front of her, without having any trouble in controlling them. It was like they were part of her since the beginning, even if she wasn’t completely used to the feeling of the feathers. Thinking that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had this sensation since they were born made her realize she never completely knew how her friends were seeing the world. She wondered how Applejack and Pinkie Pie were feeling being surrounded by ponies with magic or the ability to fly. Well, mostly Applejack. Pinkie was another story.
She still hadn’t flight a single time, everything came too quickly and she didn’t realize yet all the meanings of her rise. But now, right here, her wings spread and fully conscious of the weight of the crown on her head, she started to become aware of her new situation.
Wherever she looked, she saw the beautiful landscape of Equestria, turned sublime by the light of the stars and the radiance of the moon, villages far in the distance celebrating the coronation in unison with the capital city of the country, full of ponies enjoying this event with their pairs in harmony.
Equestria, the land where she was born, where she lived, in which she learnt everything she could about friendship, magic, the land she discovered, she protected, she loved.
And now, it was the land she ruled. Because she was a princess. The Princess Twilight Sparkle.
She closed her eyes again. She felt like her crown was even heavier than before, as if it was slowly crunching her head. It happened so fast, and it seemed to her like she left Canterlot only a week ago to oversee the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville, the journey that set her destiny as a Guardian of the Elements. The first step on the road that lead her to this day.
An entire country to lead, and a few days ago, she was still a student unicorn living in a library and sharing her everyday life with other normal ponies. It was too much for her.
She closed her eyes, avoiding the sight of this country counting on her, and breathed deeply, holding the tears that were ready to flow on her cheeks. How did Cadence manage not to panic when she learnt she had to rule the Cristal Empire? Maybe she was bound to be a princess since she was a foal, but she certainly was not prepared to take the control of a lost northern land. And Shining Armor? The poor unicorn was promoted to the rank of prince, how did he do to take the news so calmly? Well, at least he didn’t grow wings during the process.
Twilight was lost in the unknown. She realized that she didn’t know very much about alicorns, very few books treated the matter and apart from the three princesses, she had never heard about another winged unicorn. And now she learnt that a normal pony could be turned into one.
Oddly, it made her think about Rarity, and the travel the five friends made to Cloudsdale to cheer Rainbow Dash. The Lady got a pair of butterfly-shaped-bubble-wings, and also bragged a lot about it. But nobody realized how close she was to be an alicorn at the time. This thought made the new princess smile lightly.
A slight flap came from behind her, followed by the sound of hooves walking on the tower’s floor. A big silhouette sat at her side without saying any word, and Twilight laid her head on the warm white coat, as a huge wing wrapped her tenderly. The two mares stayed in this position a little while, then Celestia removed her wing and asked:
“Are you afraid, my dear?”
Twilight kept silent a few seconds before answering:
“Yes, a little.”
“It’s normal. I didn’t expected you to be confident with all of this immediately, but don’t be afraid, my sister and I will guide you. You won’t be alone.”
“I have so many questions right now, Princess…”
“Celestia.”
“What?”
The white alicorn smiled gently and said:
“I have always dreamed to say that to you: call me Celestia. You’re a princess too after all.”
Twilight smiled back.
“You will always be my princess, Princess.”
“Well then, if you want to play this way, Princess…”
The two alicorns laughed lightly, and Twilight turned her head to the landscape.
“Now I realize how little I know about alicorns, Princess. To be honest, I’ve never been really interested in studying you, both out of respect for your privacy and, I must admit, a complete lack of care. But I started to think about you, your sister, Cadence and the ceremony, and now I have an awful lot of theories and questions.”
“Then, propound your theories and ask your questions, my dear.”
Twilight looked up at the face of the white princess, her sweet smile encouraging her to share the troubles of her mind, as she always did when the unicorn was a little filly wondering about the world. The purple alicorn breathed deeply, gave a quick glance to her own hair then to the evanescent mane of her mentor, and said:
“When I was a filly, Cadence used to babysit me when she had free time. She was young, back then, and I never doubted she was a true princess, neither do I asked myself who and where her parents were. Even if her magic is powerful, like mine it can’t stand against your powers, at least if not improved in a way or another. And well, our manes aren’t like yours, floating and almost unreal.”
Twilight hesitated, and asked:
“Is Cadence… like me?”
Celestia stared at her former student, and nodded. Then she stood up, walked to the edge of the tower, and looked up at the stars.
“Twilight, how old do you think I am?”
The former unicorn took some time to think, gathering everything she knew about her mentor, and said:
“You’re more than a thousand years old, for Luna was banished such a long time. But before that, you defeated both Discord and King Sombra.”
“Sombra was defeated less than a year before Luna’s banishment. The events that lead to the imprisonment of Discord are two hundred years older.”
“So you are… A little more than one thousand two hundred years old?”
“Two hundred twenty-six, to be exact. Or maybe twenty-seven. Luna and you always were better than me to remember my birthday.”
The alicorn sighed, and her look lost itself in the distance, seeing memories that nobody else could remember.
“But I still look like the way I was the day I received the charge of raising the sun, shortly before Discord’s defeat and my accession to the throne. Even if I try to hide it, I am old, Twilight. And to be honest, this immortality thing is starting to weight too much on my shoulder.”
A slight smile appeared on the corner of her lips.
“An old friend of mine used to say that he didn’t envy me, because eternity looked very long, especially on the end.”
Twilight made a step backward, and looked at the white alicorn with both surprise and worry.
“Princess… What do you mean?”
“Everything must die one day, Twilight. From the trees to the ponies, everything that lives is meant to die someway, hoping to have opened its children a way to succeed in their own life. Everything, but me and Luna.”
A sad look passed on the face of Celestia, before she continued:
“I have seen fathers raise their children, those children become fathers and get children, and then again during generations. I have faced countless crises, met thousands of ponies and sometimes talked about their ancestors I personally knew. And for most of my reign, I leaded the country all on my own, dealing with my pain every night when I saw the moon in the sky.”
The princess paused, looking up to the white disk spreading his light on the land.
“Luna and I are the last natural alicorns on this planet, Twilight. I’ve searched everywhere, investigated every single rumor about a winged unicorn, but I never found anyone of my kind who survived our fate. And we are the only two who can handle the charge of raising the sun and the moon. For the sake of the world, we are bound to live eternally.”
Celestia then looked at the purple alicorn with a smile.
“Well, it was still the situation some years ago. But one day, during the inspection of an orphanage, I met a little newborn pegasus, whose parents died from illness when she came to life. And something happened when I first saw her. I felt some kind of power within her, some magic that shouldn’t have existed in a pegasus, and I decided to take care of her. I took her to the castle and made everything possible to make her feel at home, as a member of my family. At the same time, I started to study her odd predisposition to magic, and came to the conclusion that she could use it.”
Celestia looked back at the castle, and continued:
“I searched in the Starswirl wing of the library, and found the old magician already worked on the subject of the magic among the pegasi, and made a theory on it. So, I decided to try them.”
“You… experimented a several-thousand-years-old theory on Cadence?” said Twilight, shocked.
“I made hundreds and hundreds of verifications before putting the spell in practice, and even at the ultimate second, I hesitated. But it was something that has to be tried.”
“But you didn’t have a single idea of what would happen! What if Cadence…”
“Twilight!” shouted Celestia, suddenly standing up, wings spread. “I would never have done this if it was hazardous for the baby! The worst that could happen was that nothing happened at all!”
The white alicorn calmed herself down, folding her wings, and smiled.
“But it worked. The child still had her wings, and a horn had appeared on her forehead, making her able to use her magic. I thought it was the new beginning of the alicorns. Years passed, and the child grew up, showing a special talent in using her powers to spread love around her. I raised her to be a princess too, and maybe sit on the throne, one day.”
Celestia closed her eyes, and her smile disappeared.
“But I was wrong. She wasn’t born an alicorn, and could never replace the fellows I lost centuries ago. Still, she had the will and the strength to be a leader, a real princess. Also, the fact that she was now an alicorn could have helped the people to accept the idea that she would, one day, replace me. So I continued to teach her my knowledge.”
The princess opened her eyes and stared at her former student.
“But a particular day, I saw a flashing light on the top of a tower, and a gigantic dragon appeared in the middle of the roof…”
The white alicorn smiled, and Twilight imitated her.
“Back then, I had no idea of what you would become. But I was happy to have you on my side. Cadence was less and less in the castle, wandering outside to discover the world, but I had you, your passion for studies and your care keeping me away from feeling alone. Then, Cadence started to appreciate you, and, well, the rest his history...”
Twilight nodded, remembering her early years in company of her wonderful foalsitter, and the incredible amount of time she spent alone, her head stuck in books of all kinds.
“Then, there was the return of Luna. I never felt so happy in my life than at the second I first saw her for a thousand years. All this succession matter slept out of my mind, and I just enjoyed the present time, so full of events that made me have faith in the future.”
Celestia turned her head to the landscape, looking at the north.
“And the Crystal Empire returned. Cadence had to take the throne to lead the crystal ponies and make them feel like citizens of Equestria. It made me remember why I took her under my wing at first. I talked about it with Luna, and I discovered that she agreed with me.”
The princess looked into the eyes of the purple alicorn.
“We made our time, Twilight. Even if we can, we don’t want to live eternally. Until now, I always managed to prevent the power from overwhelming me, but I’ve ruled this land for one thousand and two hundred years, and every single order I say is executed immediately without discussion. I have the power to raise the sun, and some ponies mistake me for a goddess. If I wanted to be a tyrant, no one would be able to stop me.”
“But you are not a tyrant, and you’ll never be! It is not in your way to be!”
“Don’t be so sure, my dear.”
The princess sighed.
“One day, I’ll tell you the fate of the alicorns, and how power, greed and vanity destroyed an entire race. But right now, everything I want you to know is if we decided to give you those gifts, it’s because it’s time for my sister and me to retire.”
“But… Where would you go?”
“Who knows? Nobody ever returned to say what was after this life.”
Twilight lowered her head, and closed her eyes.
“You really want to die, then.”
“Yes. We were given immortality to be able to perform our duty as princesses as long as we had to find someone to replace us. And we’ve found this person. It’s a bit complicated, but we can give up. And so can you, if one day you feel it is time for you to give way to another.”
“So I really am immortal, now…”
“As I said, you’re not forced to accept it. I would understand if you didn’t want to see your friends aging while you stayed the same. I know it’s the hardest thing in the world to be the only one alive, and see generations passing before your eyes. I just hope you’ll find someone to replace you when your time ends.”
“To be honest, I don’t know if I want that. You made it sound horrible.”
“Because it is. For the last millenary, I had wanted to end it all hundreds of times. But I didn’t, because I chose my duty over my feelings. I will never ask you to do the same, Twilight, as you have your friends to care about. To be honest, the fact that I didn’t have anyone apart from my sister helped me bear the first century. Then I was more used to my condition, and everypony I knew had disappeared.”
Suddenly, a firework exploded in the sky, followed by hundreds of its colorful brothers. The alicorns both looked up at the show, illuminating the streets of Canterlot, and joyful exclamations came from the castle, quickly covered by some music.
“Let’s stop talking about this, said the white princess. For now, let’s just enjoy the present without wondering about what happens next. You have plenty of time to think about that, Twilight. And don’t be afraid. As long as you need me, I’ll be there for you.”
“Thanks, Princess.”
Twilight looked back to the gardens, and was surprised to see her five sitting at the bottom of the tower, playing games and looking up from time to time, as if they were checking if Twilight was still up there. Applejack saw here, and waved her hoof. The others noticed her behavior, and the purple alicorn above them. They smiled and made signs to salute her, and Pinkie Pie screamed something impossible to understand, but somehow cheerful. Twilight smiled, and finally let her tears flow out of her eyes.
“Celestia… Do you think I will be a good princess?”
The white mare approached her, and embraced her with her wing, caressing her mane with her muzzle.
“You’ll make a wonderful one.”
THE END
