Chapter 2: Alicorn
5 years later...
"But mommy, it's my special talent! My cutie mark says so!" Princess Celestia exclaimed, pointing frantically to her Sun cutie mark.
"Yeah, YOU CAN'T STOP US FROM DOING OUR SPECIAL TALENTS!" Princess Luna said, addressing her mother in the royal Canterlot voice, then laughing at her own audacity.
"Luna!" Queen Galaxia hissed "What did I tell you about using the royal Canterlot voice?" While Queen Galaxia's expression was one of seriousness, Luna and Celestia were howling with laughter.
Finally, Queen Galaxia broke out into laughter. She didn't like being to serious around her children, she enjoyed when her daughters laughed.
"Anyway, you ponies are to young to control the Sun and the Moon." Queen Galaxia said firmly, but the princesses dismissed their mother's seriousness and rolled their eyes. They only heard those words ten times a day.
"Besides," Galaxia continued. "It's my special talent too." The Queen smiled, trying to lighten up the mood. As if on cue, the alicorn foals peered at their mother's cutie mark, half of a sun, half of a moon, and stars surrounding it all.
The moon hung high in the sky, surrounded by bright little stars and gray clouds.
While the night was beautiful, morning was right around the corner, which was why Galaxia and her daughters were awaiting the pull of the sun and moon, which signaled sunrise.
Then, there it was. The pull. "It's Dawn!" Galaxia said in a sing-songy voice. The grown alicorn positioned herself on the balcony, sitting on her haunches and looking out at the sky and all of Canterlot alike. The Queen took a deep breath and took the moon in her telekinesis grip. It was best to lower the moon first, thus avoiding the risk of having the Sun burn the Moon.
Once the moon had fallen, Galaxia reached for the Sun. Today, the Sun was groggy, moving slowly, but as time passed it began to move with more ease.
It took about an hour for the Sun to sit in the sky fully, but all the while, the two princesses watched. Well, one of them did. Luna zoned out about ten minutes after the moon disappeared. Princess Luna didn't care much about the Sun, but Celestia found both celestial bodies equally interesting.
At about seven the Sun was sitting fully in the sky. However, the job wasn't over. Galaxia had to hold the Sun in the sky all day until it was sundown, and in order to do that she had to be awake.
Galaxia lay down on the floor of the balcony, exhausted. Raising the Sun drained a lot of energy, and keeping it in the sky drained even more. Now that the Equestrian Queen had to share her sources with both her daughters, she was a lot weaker. Of course, she could have Celestia and Luna raise and lower the moon and sun, but that wouldn't be fair to them. It would ruin their childhood, and Galaxia knew what that was like.
"Go play..." The alicorn said, rubbing her forehead and standing up once more. The two sisters happily obliged, and left the balcony, waving and planning their day. Shortly after, Galaxia followed, and trotted tiredly down the hall and to her bedroom.
Once she was in her room, the Queen shut the door behind her. Galaxia had a massive headache, and thought it best to relax. She trotted over to the glass wall in her bedroom and, with a flash of white light, cast a spell. A spell that would keep the Sun in the sky for roughly eight hours while Galaxia slept.
Once the spell had been cast, the Queen lay down on her bed, daydreaming. One day, the sole ruler of Equestria would be retired. One day, approximately twenty years in the future, Celestia and Luna would control the sun, moon, and all of Equestria. Queen Galaxia thought about the afterlife, and what it was like. She knew it existed, and from personal experience. And soon, she would be there. With everypony she lost.
But not today. Not tomorrow. Eventually, though.
The Queen drifted into thought, and then, into sleep.
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"So what are we gonna do?" Princess Luna asked, scraping her hoof against the dirt.
"Well it's no fun when Discord is gone."
"What about Concordia?"
"Her too..." Celestia said sheepishly. Luna smirked. They both knew little Tia had a little crush on Discord. Just a little one.
"Dissy and Tia sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love! Then comes marriage! Then comes a foal in a big fat carriage!" Luna sang, flapping her wings to the beat.
"Lu...why don't you just tell the whole world!" Tia hissed angrily. Luna opened her mouth to sing it in the Royal Canterlot Voice, but broke out in laughter before she could speak.
Once the Lunar Princess had recovered from her laughter, she stood up, wiping her moist eyes with her hoof. "Heyyyy look who it is!" Luna said, pointing her spare hoof towards a blue and yellow speck, floating in the breeze. "It's Auntie Lana!" Princess Luna said happily, and with that she flew into the air. Celestia flapped her wings in an attempt to fly.
Fail.
Tia sat on the ground, giving up on her feeble attempt to fly. Flying wasn't her thing, magic was.
"...BOO!" The pink-maned alicorn foal squeaked and whipped around. In a quarter of a second there was a golden flash, and a seven-year-old Discord lay on the ground against a tree, eyes closed, chest heaving.
"Discord!" Flash. Queen Lana stood next to her son, stroking his head comfortingly.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to!" Celestia moaned. Luna was just standing next to her sister, mouth gaped open.
"What happened?"
"I'm sorry!"
"But...is he dead?" Princess Concordia, Prince Discord's twin sister said.
"Ow..." The group sighed in satisfaction. Discord was fine.
"I'm sorry!" Celestia said, crying now. She didn't like the fact that she had hurt somepony, somepony she really cared about too. She especially didn't like that it was Discord, of all ponies. Besides, now Queen Lana would hate her guts! Oh, Queen Lana would be so angry-
But no. She laughed. Queen Lana of Hybrillia...laughed. "Oh, Celestia. It's fine. He's alive, you just jumped. You got scared. Discord should learn not to mess with you," the draconequus said heartily, prodding him in the stomach with her cheetah claw.
"We should probably take him to Starswirl though. The burn looks pretty serious, but trust me, I've seen worse."
"Well, I guess we should-" Lana snapped her fingers and in the blink of an eye, they were in Starswirl the Bearded's office.
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"He'll be fine. Just a burn, but he'll be fine." Starswirl said, rubbing some green goo stuff on Discord's burn.
"But still...oh Celestia, you must be very strong to have cast such a spell. I've never seen anything like it, at least not from a seven-year-old foal." The bearded unicorn said, levitating the jar of green goo back to the shelf of goos.
"However, I don't think I have ever met an alicorn foal..."
"Now I know not to mess with you Celestia..." Next to Starswirl was a gray unicorn with a black mane and red eyes.
"Yeah, stay away from me, Sombra! My big sister will kick your flank!" The ponies in the room laughed, all except Celestia. She wasn't proud of what she had done. She hated herself for hurting Discord.
"Starswirl...why did I do that!?" Celestia asked, a serious look on her face. Discord and Concordia rolled their eyes at the same time, but Luna and Sombra were to busy screaming at each other to hear Tia.
"Well, Tia, when a unicorn- ahem, or alicorn is startled, we tend to...use magic. What you did was purely by instinct and you had no control over it." Celestia felt a little relieved that she hadn't really had any control over what had happened, but that didn't help much.
"Beardy, can I do that too?" Luna asked, turning her large, adorable eyes to the gray unicorn.
"Yes-"
"See Sombra, I can kick your flank any day!" Luna smirked, lighting her horn, ready for a fight.
"But dad even said unicorns could do it too!" Sombra objected.
"But I'm an alicorn, so I'm stronger." Luna smirked arrogantly. Starswirl shrugged at his son who was peering up at him.
"Why are alicorns stronger than unicorns?" Sombra asked, puzzled. He had never understood what was so different. So what, alicorns were a little taller, and they had wings but what made them better?
Starswirl the Bearded cleared his throat, ready to give a thorough lesson on alicorns.
"Everything has magic in it. Earth ponies and pegasi have magic inside them, but only unicorns can harness that magic because we have a horn. Magic can only leave through something...well, like a horn. It's why we have wands, so that creatures like zebras can use magic. We all know zebras are very fond of magic." Celestia opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Starswirl.
"A creature has as much magic as it can store. You have magic from your head to your hooves. Since alicorns are taller, and have both a horn and wings, they can store a lot more magic and are able to harness it from their horns." The room nodded in agreement.
"Can I become an alicorn?" Sombra asked.
"There's no spell to do that. Not yet."
Not yet, Sombra thought. But eventually there would be. And from that moment on, Sombra fantasized about being an alicorn, a dream he would carry for the rest of his life.