Written by: Pearple Prose
*****
"Okay... How about now?"
Twilight peered up at the night sky through her telescope, her eyes dancing back and forth between the constellations and the star maps by her hooves. After a few moments of tense silence, she nodded. "Yep. Everything checks out." Twilight ticked off her checklist.
Luna sighed in relief, wandering over to a nearby cushion and collapsing onto it. "I am glad! Always a bother getting the stars back after a certain trickster god messes with them like that." Luna glanced up at Twilight, who was idly clearing up the star charts and getting ready to turn in for the night. "I thank thee for thy help, my love."
Twilight chuckled, walking over to her lover and curling up next to her on the seat. Luna wrapped her wings around her and rested her head in the curve of her neck. "No problem, Luna. Though, I'm kinda curious; does moving the stars drain you at all?"
Twilight felt Luna's contemplative hum against her neck. "The actual magic itself does not draw from a mana pool, like unicorn magic does. Rather, alicorn magic flows from the world itself. I suppose you could say that it is a mechanism of the world, and that we are the ones who maintain it."
Luna chuckled ruefully. "Well, that is the theory, at least. Many call us gods, but truthfully we are as bound as any mortal. More so, in fact. Our cage is just far more gilded."
The two fell into a solemn yet thoughtful silence as Twilight mulled over the new information.
"So... Were you worshipped? Did they always think you were deities?"
There was a pause. A rather ominous one. "No," Luna said. "We were not always seen as such. That was only after we defeated Discord." From where she lay, Twilight couldn't see Luna's expression of anguish.
Oblivious, Twilight pressed on: "Oh? What about before then?"
"...They called us witches."
After a moment, Twilight laughed. "Witches? But that's so silly!" She elbowed Luna playfully. "Come on, be honest. Nightmare Night was days ago!"
"Tis no lie. We realised early on that, while our friends and neighbours grew old and failed, my sister and I still looked young and fresh. It didn't bother us at first, but when we discovered that our magic was growing, seemingly without limit... well, things got rather grim."
Twilight's playful smile withered and died. She felt Luna squeeze her tightly, but her voice remained flat and cold. "They tortured us. Tied us to cinder blocks and dropped us in lakes, watching as we drowned. We couldn't actually die, of course, so we just waited until they got bored, more often than not."
Luna wasn't hugging her now; it was more like a pony adrift at sea, clutching desperately to a piece of driftwood. "Then they burned us at the stake. Celestia went first. I can still hear her screams. I was so angry. I wanted to burn them all. And then the sun rose, all on its own. Celestia's body glowed just as brightly. She came back, with wings aflame with the fires of judgement. Eyes glowing with all the power of her charge."
The room fell into grim silence. Twilight didn't speak, just allowing Luna to hold her tightly. She was trembling.
"..What happened next?"
Luna barked out a harsh laugh. "She forgave them, in the end. She always was the more benevolent of the two of us. But I wasn't. I destroyed them, with all the divine might of the moon and the night itself."
Twilight’s eyes widened. “You mean—”
“Yes. Nightmare Moon was born that night.”
Luna laughed. It sent shivers down Twilight’s spine.
“Witches? Not too far from the truth, honestly.”