After a chaotic week of feasting, parades, speeches, and photos, Twilight found Princess Celestia in the Canterlot Garden, sitting beneath a willow tree between an Agriculture Budget Meeting and a Security Briefing.
“You have a question, my dear Twilight, I can see it on your face,” Celestia said.
Despite Spike’s indignation, Twilight had spent yesterday, her first free day as a Princess, in the Canterlot Library, leafing through perhap the only books in Equestria that had reliable information on Alicorns. The result was still a maddening pile of contradictions.
“Princess,” Twilight said.
“Please, just Celestia.”
“Celestia, you remember when you first sent me to Ponyville? Because I had stumbled onto the truth of the Mare in the Moon?” Twilight asked.
“Indeed.”
“Well I was reading up on Alicorns and it feels like I’m right back there again. Half truths, mostly legends, contradictions. At at the bottom of it, I think there’s something terrible,” Twilight explained.
Celestia didn’t respond for some time. She stared off across Canterlot. Twilight followed her gaze, and wondered if she was looking towards Luna’s Tower.
“I was very guarded then, because it was imperative that the desire to make friends came from your heart. The Elements would have been useless to you had I foisted a handful of mares on you and forced you to build a relationship. But this is a very different matter. Tonight, after dinner, come meet me in Luna’s Tower.” Celestia said. And with that she rose and headed off to the Security Briefing.
* * * * * *
Twilight had dinner with her friends. The six of them, and Spike, had been set up with rooms in one of the eastern towers near the falls. The sense that this was some heady vacation was wearing away, and the talk over dinner increasingly turned to Ponyville. Twilight loved seeing her parents, being with the Princess, and the warm familiarity of Canterlot, but her thoughts turned to her room above the Ponyville Library. And there, amid the brunches at Sugarcube Corner, weekend Pet Days in the park, and evening picnics deep in the wheat fields of Sweet Apple Acres, was her home. This conflict had driven her to the Library, for some explanation of what was soon to be expected of her.
What she found had not helped in the least.
There she had found stories of Alicorns, an Alicorn people of legend. And then other tales of the past that made no mention of them. And then the bedtime stories that everyone knew. Celestia and Luna, princesses that had always been, who raised the sun and the moon. And then the tale of Hearth’s Warming Eve, where Unicorns, Pegasuses, and Earth Ponies existed with no Alicorns at all.
“Twilight, is everything alright?” Rarity asked.
Twilight looked up. Dessert had been brought in some time ago, and everyone had eaten, while Twilight found she was sitting in front of a dish of melted ice cream.
“Oh, are you waiting for it to become a soup?” Pinkie Pie asked. “I love ice cream soup! It’s so much better than normal soup because you can have bananas and sprinkles and gum drops instead of carrots and peas.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve got an appointment with Princess Celestia, and I guess I’m a little nervous,” Twilight replied. The she looked at the large brass clock at the far end of the room. “Actually, I should probably get there now.”
“I’ll walk you over,” Applejack offered. “No sense in sitting on a full belly.”
“Speak for yourself,” Rainbow Dash replied, having already collapsed onto a pile of pillows near the window.
* * * * * *
Twilight and Applejack headed through the darkening streets of Canterlot. Well dressed ponies were heading off to restaurants and theatres, or heading home from offices. They walked most of the way in silence. Twilight stuck close to Applejack. It was pleasant to have someone nearby, when most of the other ponies backed out of the way and bowed if they noticed who she was. When they reached one of the entrances to the Castle grounds Applejack let out a sigh.
“That’s enough fuss to make any filly nervous. I can’t wait to get back to Ponyville,” she said. “I bet that’s what you need more than anything right now: some peace and quiet.”
“I need an answer to a question, AJ, that’s what’s bothering me,” Twilight replied.
“Questions are always what’s bothering you. And I know Princess Celestia usually has the answers you want to hear,” Applejack said. “But I know what’s really bothering you sugarcube. We’re all wondering it.”
Twilight put her face against Applejacks’ neck. She smelled like hat leather and fields after a rain, which was about as comforting as Twilight could ask for. AJ put a hoof around her and they stood silently for a moment in the dark beyond the Castle wall checkpoint.
“Thanks AJ. Could you-”
“I’ll be in the garden when you get out,” Applejack replied.
“Thank you.”
* * * * * *
At the top of Luna’s Tower was an observatory. The walls were covered with bookcases holding astronomical texts, charts, or pictures of constellations. Luna herself was resting on a pillow near an open window. Celestia was standing in the middle of the room, but Twilight suspected her arrival had just stopped her pacing.
“Good evening Twilight,” Celestia said.
“Hello Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said.
“Good evening, Princesses,” Twilight replied.
“Shall we do this on the balcony, sister?” Luna asked.
“Very well, it’s a warm enough night,” Celestia said.
The three walked out onto the balcony. Down below was all of Canterlot. Twilight looked down into Luna’s garden. There was Applejack, pacing around a bed of roses, and for a moment, Twilight wanted to yell down to her, but she walked out of view. Luna brought out three pillows and set them in a circle and silently, the three Princesses sat. Twilight waited, and after some time Celestia spoke.
“Twilight, how many alicorns have you met?” Celestia asked.
Twilight didn’t know what to say at first. Was it a trick question?
“Uh, just three. You, Luna, and Cadence,” Twilight replied.
“You are wrong, but you are not at fault for thinking so. You have met four,” Celestia replied.
Twilight cast her mind back. Who? How could she have met an alicorn and not remember?
“You have also met the alicorn Crystal Light, though at the time, she called herself Chrysalis.”
Twilight reeled for a moment, and was glad she was sitting down.
“But, how? She was a Changeling.” But even as Twilight asked, she recalled that she had wings, and a horn....was that all it took?
“Sister, please, do not back into the tale. Start from the beginning,” Luna suggested.
“Very well. Twilight, you know two very different histories for Equestria, and you are right to find them contradictory. They both hold truths, yes, but they are both wrong. The truth is something best forgotten, but though I know it will be painful to hear it, you are an alicorn now, so you are part of the tale. You deserve to know,” Celestia explained.
* * * * * *
“Long ago, long before there was an Equestria, there were Alicorns, and Discord,” Celestia said.
“Wait, Discord is involved?” Twilight asked.
“Indeed. But not as you know him today. Though this may be hard to imagine, he is much diminished from his former self. He doesn't even know how far from his original power he has fallen,” Celestia explained. “Discord was not a person but a force. Magic made conscious, pure chaos.”
Celestia looked off into the night sky, and Twilight realized what thinking back to the beginning meant for her, it meant looking back over millennia. “My mother told me that there was a time before Discord, though she had never known it. That distant dawn is but a faint whisper on my mother’s lips, a myth even then. The reality was this: The Alicorn kingdom existed, far to the south, across the sea. It was at first nothing grand, simply a bubble of constancy in the boiling sea of Discord’s chaos, forced into place by the will and magic of our ancestors. Time had no meaning, there was no ordered count of days, just Discord’s torment, his constant assaults, and the belief that it had not always been so. And even that might be wrong. What I can say with certainty is that the first victory in our struggle against Discord came from the sun and moon. We wrested control of them from Discord, and forced them into constancy. Suddenly, where there had been only his will, there was day and night. One following the other. Clockwork. Order. This was the first lessening of his power.
Suddenly, with Discord diminished, we had moments of peace. Our every second was not a struggle for survival. We built a splendid city, ruled by the two Alicorns whose magic had reigned over the sun and moon,” Celestia said.
“You and Princess Luna?” Twilight guessed.
“No, we were not even born yet,” Celestia replied. “Queen Solaras and Queen Nocturne were wise and powerful rulers. They established the Solaran and Nocturnal Noble Houses, and the alicorns beneath them lived in a city of peace and joy. However, beyond the Alicorn City, the world was still at the mercy of Discord, diminished though he might be. Centuries passed before he made himself known to the Alicorns. It was the first time he had been seen in a single, constant form. The Discord you would recognize. We thought he had been greatly lessened, that he was no longer a threat. So when he extended an offer of peace, we accepted. I was there, a young noble of the Solaran House. I vouched for him. And he was let into our city, and-”
Twilight watched as Celestia struggled to continue and failed.
“Sister, take a moment, I will carry on the tale,” Luna said. Celestia nodded and stood, then walked to the far end of the balcony. “It is as she said, though I was too young to remember Discord’s arrival in Alicorn City. I had just been born. We were the heirs of our Houses, their hope for the future of the Alicorn City, and had things gone differently, we might have one day taken up the throne as Queens, but that will never be. So we are Princesses. And in truth, we are not sisters.”
Twilight’s mouth hung open. “But, how? What?”
"When we came to this land, we were the only alicorns the ponies had ever seen. They called us sisters, and I tried to correct them at first, but it soon felt meaningless to try," Celestia said. "Luna was all I had left. As she grew, I simply chose the easiest explanation: that we were sisters. I think I wanted it to be true, but eventually I had to clear my conscious."
“I did not take it well when I heard it a thousand years ago, when Celestia brought me out to this balcony to hear this tale,” Luna said.
“Wait, a thousand years ago?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, it drove me into a dark place. Into the clutches of Nightmare Moon. But I was foolish. Though by birth we are only distant cousins, my heart was weak to forget that we are sisters in spirit,” Luna said.
“Do not blame yourself Luna, I should not have kept it from you for so long. Which is why I’m telling you this tale now, Twilight, I have seen the error of withholding this information,” Celestia said.
Twilight thought for a moment. “So Cadence knows all of this?”
“Yes, we told her not long before she became your foal-sitter. But we have digressed, and the night wears on,” Celestia said.
Twilight felt like she had been caught passing a note in class. She straightened herself on her pillow. “I’m sorry Princess, continue.”
“Discord said he wanted to see how the Alicorn City worked, he wanted to see what life was like beyond chaos. We were excited. We hoped we could show him the joys of friendship, harmony, love, and order. However, it was simply a deception,” Celestia explained. “He pretended to be a friend, and at times he even used his magic to aid us. Decades passed as he visited with various ponies in the court and among the subjects. He truly did seem reformed. But even so we were not foolish. He was never alone with the Queens, he was closely watched while in court. What we were was arrogant. Outside of the court he was given free reign. And that is where he found his weapon against us. Crystal Light was a young alicorn with phenomenal magical powers. You have likely read some of her spells in the Library, though her name has been removed from them. Her specialty was dispelling illusion, magical vision, wards and protection. She was his foil. When word came to us that he had taken an interest in her, we encourage it. Who better for him to make friends with, than something who exemplified everything we stood for? In hindsight though, I see the twisted workings of his mind. He meant to make an example of her, to bring us low by corrupting her and thus exposing the hollow truth of our society.”
“But how did he change her? And where did all the other Changelings come from? Are they all alicorns?” Twilight asked.
“I have wondered that myself over the years. I have tried to uncover whatever foul magic he used to make her into the very opposite of herself, into a being of deception and lies. But it is beyond me. He was lessened, but he was still far beyond us in power. His magic was unmatched. As for her minions, they were never alicorns, but the fruit of their twisted union,” Celestia paused again as a breeze whipped across the balcony, bringing the smell of the garden below up into the air.
“I will tell you of the day Alicorn City fell. I was looking after Luna, who was still quite young. I was taking her to the Academy of the Arcane, where Crystal Light and many powerful alicorns lived and taught the magical arts. Luna was already showing great promise in magic, and she was there to have her abilities tested. While we were on the grounds a terrible explosion shook the Academy. A massive hole in the courtyard opened, and swarms of Changelings began to pour out. They, they left few survivors. Luna and I fled back to the royal court. We held back against Discord and Chrysalis for as long as we could, but soon they had fought their way into the throne room. Queen Solaras and Queen Nocturne, who had ruled our city for hundreds of years, were cast from their thrones. It was... terrible to behold. I grabbed Luna and we fled. We flew north, to this land. What happened next is very much like the Hearth’s Warming Eve stories tell, though not exactly. We found the ponies who live here now, the Earth Ponies, Pegasus Ponies, and Unicorns. They were locked in age old feuds, skirmishing and stealing from one another. Wendigos plagued the land, though they did not blanket it entirely as the tale goes. With the Queens of Day and Night gone, time stood still, and the sun was motionless just above the horizon.. In this perpetual dusk the temperature plummeted. We arrive and I desperately began working to try to regain control of the sun and moon. I realized that if Discord was no longer bound by the flow of time, he would return to his full power. It took many months, but eventually I gained control of the sun, and Luna gained control of the moon, though she was only a child. The ponies here hailed us as their saviors. And though I was heartbroken over the lose of Alicorn City, I knew that Discord would soon come to find the person who was keeping the flow of time moving. Luna and I took our places as rulers over this land, and named it Equestria,” Celestia explained.
“My first memories are of our life here. I do not know why I don’t remember my youth in Alicorn City. Perhaps it ended so terribly that my mind wished to forget it,” Luna added.
“So the ponies here just accepted you all as rulers? I mean, you’ve done a great job, but it seems odd,” Twilight said.
“Their land had been stricken with war, and when the sun and moon stopped, by famine. It was not our desire to establish absolute lordship over them, but to help them unify against the coming threat. I had seen what disregard for the populace had done in Alicorn City, it had allowed Discord to work his machinations among the commoners. That is why we sought to establish a society of equality, where everyp0ny is important, and everyp0ny matters. Had we appeared and ruled this land as Alicorn City had been ruled, I suspect we would not have been welcome for long,” Celestia explained.
“So, in a small way, Discord was right, there were faults in your society,” Twilight said.
“Yes Twilight, that was the hardest lesson to take away from it. While his actions were inexcusable, we had made many mistakes,” she said. “But it gladdens my heart to hear you say it, because it means you have realized in moments what took me years to admit.”
“Thank you Celestia,” Twilight replied. Celestia nodded.
“We expected Discord or Chrysalis to attack Equestria as soon as time resumed.I immediately took the armies of the various pony city-states and created the Royal Guard. But I knew that Discord could not be defeated with might alone. I consulted with the best and brightest among the three pony tribes. They spoke of a powerful artifact, The Elements of Harmony. I had never heard of them in Alicorn City, and to this day I don’t know who or what created them, but I found them, just like you did Twilight, deep in the Everfree Forest. They had lain dormant for ages, and perhaps their neglect was what led to the strife between the native ponies. Perhaps they were part of that legendary time my mother spoke of before Discord appeared. Whatever the case may be, Luna and I awoke their power. And not a moment too soon. Discord came, though he did not bring Chrysalis or her Changelings, he brought his magic. You saw first hand what kind of world he sought to create. But with the Elements of Harmony, Luna and I bound him. The battle was not brief, it was arduous. It is... difficult to explain what Discord was in those days. He is a being of magic, and no physical harm could be done to him. We had to fight him with our wills, to impose order and sense in the midsts of his chaos. Finally we won, perhaps because we knew that loss would mean the destruction of yet another innocent people. When we used the Elements to overcome him, we did not simply turn him to stone, we bound him to a single physical form. Though he can create illusions to look like many things, they are only illusions.
This cut him off from the bulk of his power, and also from himself. The consciousness that is Discord is now a separate entity from the force of Discord that exists naturally in the world. And separate, they are both weakened,” Celestia said.
“Twilight Sparkle, have you ever wondered why the trees of the Everfree Forest grow on their own, but the plants of Equestria must be tended by our hooves?” Luna asked.
“Uh, no I haven’t. It’s always been this way, hasn’t it?”
“No, when Discord was whole, the world tended to itself. It was not always perfect or effective, but it went about its own business, and it did not need ponies to tend to it so closely. When Discord was defeated,” Luna explained. “Suddenly those processes stopped within the boundaries of Equestria. We had won at a cost.”
“But it is one I am willing to pay. Though the ponies of Equestria must work diligently to keep this land in balance, the effect is beautiful: we cannot take anyone, or anything for granted,” Celestia explained.
Twilight thought on what her mentor had told her. It answered some of her questions, but not all of them, and not the one that worried her most, though she was ashamed to admit it.
“It is late, but your eyes show that you are uneasy. Can I guess what still troubles you, Twilight?” Celestia asked. “What troubles you is the future, not the past. You wish to know what fate awaits you as an alicorn.”
“Will I outlive them? All of them?” Twilight managed.
“My sister and I are alicorns of the original order. Our people existed before time itself, and though we grow, we are not bound by time in the way other ponies are. The truth is this, Twilight Sparkle, and this is exactly what I told Cadence: you are something new, and wonderful, and something we never thought would come to be. We expected to be the final alicorns to walk this earth. We simply don’t know if you will answer to the march of time or not,” Celestia explained. “But know this, you cannot make the mistake that the original alicorns made, you cannot place yourself above this world and hope to survive. Whatever pain it may or may not bring, you must continue to love the people around you, and allow them to love you.”
Twilight looked over the balcony. She thought of Applejack, waiting in the garden, her friends back in the tower, Spike, her brother, her parents.
“I wish I had a better answer to give, my dear,” Celestia said.
“No, it’s okay. I might want the answer, but what I needed was the advice,” Twilight said.
“It pleases this one to hear you say it,” Luna said.
Twilight got up, then stopped. “Wait, where was Chrysalis all this time until the wedding?” Twilight asked.
“When Discord was defeated we took the Elements of Harmony to the ruins of Alicorn City, to see if we could save Crystal Light. When we got there, she was... feral, crazed. Whatever Discord did to her destroyed her, and there was nothing of Crystal Light left in her. We used the Elements of Harmony to put her into a deep sleep, in the hope that someday a change would occur or a cure be found.. She had become a terrible creature, but she was all that we had left. I can only imagine that Discord went and woke her when he escape his statue,” Celestia said. “And that will have to be the end of it tonight, Twilight.”
“Thank you, Celestia, Luna, I know this must be hard to talk about,” Twilight said.
Celestia and Luna shared a look. “Yes Twilight, it is. You should go, I’m sure Applejack will be eager to get some sleep before morning,” Celestia said.
“Good night, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said.
* * * * * *
“So what’d they say?”
“They don’t know. I don’t know.”
“I’m really sorry they couldn’t tell you.”
“No, it’s okay. It just means I have to make the best of it, no matter what.”
“Nicely put, sugarcube.”
Author's Note
Posted this briefly on /mlp/, so you might have seen it there.
