//------------------------------// // Heartbroken // Story: The siren call of Sunset // by Hope //------------------------------// Twilight had read the same block of text from one of the pearl-recordings five or six times before she finally gave up and looked away, using a fin to massage her eyes. It was midday, the day before her coronation, but all she could think about was Golden Breeze. Every time they spoke, it felt like the unicorn was hiding a hundred secrets, yet Twilight trusted her just enough to keep going back. Four meals together. A week of conversation ranging from political to personal. She still hadn’t told Breeze that she was a Queen, or about to be one. Yet she felt like Breeze was hiding just as much from her. She floated back to lay on a cushion, looking up at the ornate carved crystals that formed the chandelier in the Canterlot Castle. Celestia’s home for… how long? She said a thousand years, but it was well known that ‘a thousand years’ was a cultural idiom, meaning more accurately ‘since long before records were kept.’ So how old were those crystals? That was easier to answer. They had been installed two hundred and fifty one years ago by one of Twilight’s ancestors. Dusk Gleam, a legendary enchanter that had discovered permanent light spells and helped improve the longevity of pearl enchantments. How old was this castle? Construction had begun seven hundred and eighty years ago, and it took almost twelve years to be completed, the largest underwater structure built by merponies without using surface pony materials or fallen ships. How old was Celestia? Twilight looked at the pearl again, focusing as hard as she could on the text. “Eftsoons, delate un Nebeski Al Ria Kor ascend Queen, clepe Celestia. Bruit anent baseborn levant er gehenna.” She diligently translated each word to the modern version, step by step. “Once again, we report the offense of ‘Nebaski Al Ria Kor’s ascent to Queen, to be named Celestia. The rumor is that she is born of low standing and has left without paying her debts to…” Gehenna. The word didn’t appear in any of her translation sources. It didn’t even appear to be one of the four surface pony languages that merpony text had been developed from. This was the only pearl she could find that contained it, and the only one that mentioned Celestia’s ascent. It had been filed as being fifteen hundred years old, at the advent of pearl-enchantments, one of the oldest in Canterlot. Twilight put the pearl back into its storage cubby and left the Assemblage room, swimming out into the rest of the castle as she thought over what Golden Breeze had asked her the first day they had met. ‘Are your queens like that, Twilight?’ Celestia… Celestia was unapproachable. Powerful and beyond question. Was it because she didn’t allow for dissent? Or was it, like Twilight had grown up believing, because she was so wise and so intelligent that she truly did know best? Learning more about Celestia’s past, not just her rulership but whatever came before, was essential to understanding if Celestia was the kind of ruler that denied the claims Sunset had levied about monarchs. She stopped at a junction, and decided that, as she was ascending to become a queen herself, it was time for her to stop assuming things, and assert herself. She swam down the vertical shaft, instead of up. Down, into the lowest levels of the Canterlot Castle, where Celestia kept her chambers. It was not visiting hours, so that was most likely where she was. Down, down, until the light-gems set into the walls were dim and the water had the pressure that made it impossible for any sea creatures but merponies to descend so far. Selkies would be crushed, sea serpents were too buoyant, barely anything came down this far but merponies. The guards outside of Celestia’s chambers floated forwards as Twilight approached. “Is Celestia available?” she asked simply. “She will be available shortly, if you don’t mind waiting,” one of them offered. Twilight had practically grown up in this castle. She knew most of the guards well, including these two. She felt comfortable asking them possibly uncomfortable questions. She settled down on her tail and thought about how to phrase it before nodding her head a little. “Do either of you know how old Celestia really is?” Twilight asked. “I was writing my coronation speech and I wanted to be as accurate as possible with how long she’s ruled Canterlot and the surrounding areas.” The guards shared a hard to read look. Some small amount of fear and apprehension mixed in with more. “Twilight… part of training as a royal guard is a list of questions not to ask,” one of them said gently. “Questions that cause more trouble than they’re worth, or that are secret for a reason. That is one of them.” Twilight was immediately disturbed by the idea. Celestia had always encouraged her to be curious. To learn, and find real answers to the questions she had. The concept of Celestia refusing to answer or allow questions like that… Maybe because of security, that was acceptable. Not every guard could know every detail of a Queen’s life and goals. But surely Celestia would be willing to tell Twilight. Her protege, her only student. “I’ll be gentle when I ask her then,” Twilight decided. She was well known for being stubborn, for sometimes having a one track mind when it came to knowledge, so the guards settled in without argument. A short time later, the doors opened and a maid swam out with a trash bag and some cleaning supplies, giving the guards and Twilight a small bow before going on her way. “Princess Twilight to see her Majesty,” one of the guards said softly into the crack in the door. The doors then opened and the guards waved her in. Twilight had been here before, but it was always a wondrous thing to behold. A spherical room carved into the stone, the walls enchanted to show the true positions of every star in the sky above, even when they couldn’t be seen due to the sun. In the center of the room, a three-layered living space hovered, fixed in place with thin stainless steel rods at the top and bottom, giving the appearance of being free-floating. The bottom layer was heated by a hydrothermal vent that opened into the bottom of the sphere, which could be opened or closed with a lever. The chair and cleaning implements were coated in a thin sulfur dust, while the steel supports closest to the vent opening had thick built-up deposits of the stuff, apparently not something that troubled Celestia, even if Twilight was always bothered by the appearance of contamination. The middle level held a nest of finely woven mosses and kelp, a comfortable place to sleep for any sea creature. Next to it there was a small rack of pearls and a bedside stand carved from stone, on which a few unique magical items rested. Only the Crown meant anything to Twilight, the Crown of Canterlot, it gave Celestia power over many of the enchantments in this castle, and protected her from certain magic. Then on the top level, there were many more shelves of pearls surrounding a desk and reclining area, where Celestia floated. Her pure white scales gleamed in the dim light, while shimmering fins and frills drifted around her, bringing to mind a rainbow, or maybe an oil spill if someone were being particularly uncharitable. “Twilight,” she said softly, watching her approach with a smile. “It’s been a while since you’ve visited me personally. I’ll admit I missed it a bit.” If there was one thing about Celestia that had always made Twilight slightly nervous, it was her eyes. Unlike a normal merpony, Celestia’s eyes were slitted like a sea serpents, and around her purple iris her sclera, which would be white on a normal pony, were a bright green. “I’ve missed it too, Celestia,” Twilight said softly, drifting into an embrace and hugging Celestia close. “We’ve both been so busy haven’t we?” “We have,” Celestia nodded. “Which… makes me a little worried when you go missing for hours at a time…” Twilight froze. She hadn’t thought anyone noticed her slipping away, but of course they would, and of course Celestia would be the responsible one, making sure that Twilight was safe whenever she could. “Calm yourself, Twilight, I’m not making accusations,” Celestia whispered, petting Twilight’s frills to calm her down. “But I… I just…” Twilight whispered, her tail twitching back and forth as though she was caught in a trap. “Queens are allowed to have romantic interests too, you know,” Celestia said with a coy smile, slowly letting Twilight go. Romance. Celestia thought that she was sneaking off to have a romantic tryst with someone. This was so much better than the truth. Twilight didn’t even know how to explain the truth, or what it was. Was it really a romance? “I’ve never dated before,” Twilight said sheepishly, blushing as she stopped trying quite so hard to escape. “You’ll find as you ascend, that your interests change quite a bit,” Celestia said gently, taking her fin in her own and squeezing it. “You might find that romance is a new fascination for you, or you might toy with it and then get tired of it. But you must not punish yourself for being yourself, Twilight.” Twilight nodded. She could use this. This was a good way to get to the topic she was interested in. “What was it like for you, when you ascended?” Twilight asked. Celestia looked off into the illusionary night sky, her smile fading a little as she thought. “Well… I wasn’t in a nice city near the coast,” Celestia said softly. “I was in the Grogar Depths, and I had just escaped from… an even worse place.” “Gehenna,” Twilight breathed. Celestia’s head whipped around, as she stared at Twilight with wide eyes, horrified, or possibly terrified. “Where did you hear that word?” Celestia demanded, her voice sharper than Twilight had ever heard. Twilight swam back a little, away from Celestia in fear and confusion. “I was doing research, and–” “Research on what, Twilight?!” Celestia demanded, her purple magic blooming and bubbling around Twilight to pull her closer. “You’re scaring me, Celestia,” Twilight whimpered as she felt herself being drawn in. But Celestia didn’t stop. She didn’t hurt Twilight but she restrained her, seething, panicked as she repeated her demands. “What were you researching, Twilight? What were you trying to do? Did Sunset Shimmer put you up to this?!” That name… Twilight didn’t know that name, but it sparked in her memory somewhere… “No! I wanted to know more about you! About how old you were, and where you grew up!” Twilight cried. Immediately, Celestia’s magic faded, as she wilted in the water, realizing how much her anger had taken control. Her worst fears hadn’t come to pass. “I’m sorry,” Celestia whispered. “Twilight, I’m so sorry, I owe you an explanation.” “No, it’s fine,” Twilight sniffled. “It’s not,” Celestia insisted. “I acted in anger, and fear. It has been a very long time since I’ve done that. Please. Sit.” Twilight slowly drifted closer, still trembling, and settled on a soft seat of moss. “I was once a surface pony,” Celestia said softly. “At least four thousand years ago, though I’m not certain. I was a passenger on a vessel sailing across the ocean, when the ship was sunk by a monster. The Kraken Discord.” “Discord… The Discord that my friends and I fought? Who is friends with Flittershy?” Twilight asked, as her heart started to calm down a little. “The same,” Celestia nodded. “He used to be much larger, empowered by his greed and the evil he consumed. When the ship was torn apart, I fell into the ocean, and I should have died there. But… A being of great power instead seized me.” It didn’t escape Twilight’s notice that Celestia had switched to much vaguer terms all of a sudden. “That being lived in a place called Gehenna,” Celestia continued. “And it brought me there, reshaping me, using me as… a plaything. Entertainment. But eventually I escaped, and when I escaped, I… saved some of the other beings that had been captured. In the process, I started my ascension. I grew larger, more powerful, even more powerful than I am today. That is when I settled the old War of the Seven Seas, when I forced unity between the rulers of each Sea, and I constructed this city in memory of my sister, Luna, who perished in that ship when I was saved.” Twilight nodded, listening intently. She loved learning and she loved history. Here, she was drowning her fear and confusion in those loves. Of course, a student often asks a question that they maybe shouldn’t. “Who is Sunset Shimmer?” Twilight asked. Celestia again looked away, but this time in Shame. “When I told you that you were my first student, I wasn’t being entirely honest with you, Twilight,” Celestia admitted. “I tried to have one student before you. A powerful siren who had turned her back on other sirens for their cruelty, and I thought could embrace Unity like you have. But… in the end, the lure of my past, the stories of power and secrets hidden in the depths… Those were too much for her. She tried to blackmail me into doing what she wanted, and for that I banished her to the surface.” All of a sudden, many many things made sense to Twilight Sparkle, and in that moment she wasn’t sure if she was heartbroken, or blind with rage.