The Hall of Eternal Bonds
written by Twilight Sparkle
The Hall of Eternal Bonds has been around since even before databases and documentations became a regulated system. In fact, one could attribute The Hall of Eternal Bonds as being one of the reasons such systems were created to begin with, at least as a form of inspiration. It serves as a sort of database all its own, that only the Royal Pony Sisters are allowed to access. For that matter, they are the only ponies that know the magic necessary to access the information kept within The Hall of Eternal Bonds, though most everypony knows what is inside of the massive structure.
The Hall of Eternal Bonds has been moved around Equestria several times, though the most recent records of it have it being first within the ancient castle in the Everfree Forest as a large underground chamber, and now within the mountain that Canterlot is attached to. The Hall can only be accessed through several long and winding hallways within Canterlot Castle, and several illusion spells block the last leg of the hallways from being navigated by anypony but Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as well as whoever they are bringing with them.
A visit to the Hall is a great honor to be allowed to be a part of, as well as being something that is a part of a great celebration. This is because the Princesses only visit the Hall for two, possibly three reasons. One reason is personal, while the second reason is for more detailed tours of the castle and documentaries, such as this paper I'm writing right now. The third reason is a great, celebratory reason: marriage!
The Hall of Eternal Bonds gained such a name because, around twelve-thousand years ago, when magic and alchemy and science all began to come together into a sort of scientific rennaissance, Soul Crystals were discovered. Aside from being able to store small amounts of magical power within them, something deemed useless in most circles, a discovery was made that would change another long-lived tradition: the ability to store the memories of a pony's life within them simply by 'activating' the crystals and having the pony in question wear the crystal around for however long it takes to 'fill' the crystal with memories and experiences.
In most circles this was still useless, but in regards to Princesses Celestia and Luna, this was a gift from the universe itself! The reason is that these crystals, when used to create a vast 'network' of memories with a large number of crystals all from the soul and mind of the same pony, can allow anypony that knows the specific series of incantations needed to activate the dormant memories in the crystals to view these memories and even re-live them, with the average ratio of memories being one year to a minute.
This was such a wonderful discovery to the Princesses because, long before their immortality was taken into consideration, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia had lovers here and there in their infinite lifetimes, ponies that meant the world to them, or so the records state. But they would always outlive them, watch them grow old, and then die, while they stayed eternally young. This brought great emotional pain to the sisters every time it happened, both when one lost their husband or mate, and when their sister lost a loved one.
As if that weren't enough, the psychological impact of losing so many loved ones over what would be an eternal lifetime wasn't considered until they began to obsess. They feared that they would eventually get on in the years enough that they would begin to forget their lost loves, the ponies that meant so much to them, that the thought of having to watch them grow old and die didn't matter compared to being able to be with them and hold them close, and feel the warmth of somepony else's love for them.
Their subjects began to worry greatly for their Princesses. Everypony knew and still knows that while they may live forever, they are not invulnerable, despite the great power at their disposal. They feared that madness would set in, or the possibility of yearning for suicide! Nopony knew what to do....but that was when an idea was brought forth, that for the time, set things right.
It was a simple idea, but it worked: every single lover of either Princess would record their thoughts, memories, everything that they possibly could, and they would create what was known as a 'Bond Book', to be presented to their love upon their death. That way, they could never truly be forgotten, and memories could be rekindled. This worked for a very long time, but the flaws in this idea became all too apparent, soon enough.
The Bond Books began to become coveted blackmail and ransom items, the security needed to keep them secure of a ridiculous level, and even some of the guards that were tasked with guarding the books would sometimes betray the faith of the kingdom in order to try their luck at getting a lifetime's worth of Bits!
This wasn't even counting the fact that Bond Books couldn't possibly capture ALL the memories that their lovers would wish to leave behind. How can one live one's life when they have to record most of the things they think and do? Not every pony out there was an articulate writer either, so often many scandalous secrets had to be told to Scribes and Scholars in order for their more intimate thoughts to be written down, borderlining on writing pornography in some cases.
One of the biggest flaws, however, was the possibility of omission. Anything that their lovers didn't want known about themselves they could simply not write down or give any information about. They could cheat on Luna or Celestia, whomever they were married to, and never tell about it. This is of course not the purpose of the book, to keep tabs on their lovers, but several of their mates spoke of the book inspiring such odd thoughts in them, making them follow the line of thinking where they would say to themselves 'well they would never find out if I keep records of everything else that I do in this book, so why not?'
The possibility of omission bothered Luna and Celestia more than anything else that was flawed about Bond Books. Not because their lovers could easily leave out details about cheating or doing things that were bad behind their backs, but it was the fact that, just as many Bond Books were the case, it made their lovers seem like paragons of ponykind, and that meant that they were missing a whole side of those they loved whenever they referenced their Bond Books to remember them. The memories became fakes to them. Nopony is and ever was perfect, but their Bond Books would have the Princesses remember otherwise. Soon, the Princesses even lost faith in the Bond Books, and the problem began to arise once more, though not to the degree it did in the past. Bond Books could still be relied on to spark old memories, inaccurate though some of them were. There was no fear of completely losing grip on the memories of their lost loves.
Then, Soul Crystals were discovered, and both Luna and Celestia saw the possibilities immediately when they learned how they worked. The first experiment was done with a farm pony ancestor of the Apple Family. Soul Crystals were used to record the young stallion's life from childhood all the way to his death as an old pony, every filled Soul Crystal fused with the stone of a marblestone statue. When the final Soul Crystal was retrieved from him just after his death, the Soul Crystals were linked together with magic within the statue, creating a perfect cycle of memories that, with the proper series of incantations, could be accessed by anypony that knew the incantations....with one drawback: it only worked for Unicorns, because only Unicorns could access the innate Unicorn Magic used to create and link the Soul Crystals together to begin with.
This didn't present itself as a problem to Luna or Celestia, however. If anything, this was the answer to one of their biggest problems in life. They had found their way to forever remember their lovers, all of the bad and all of the good. But then, this also presented a problem all it's own: how could they convince those they married to keep a Soul Crystal on them at all times, and to get a new one while away from Canterlot to continue 'recording' their lives and memories? It was a massive breach of privacy compared to the Bond Books, where they could choose what memories they wished to leave behind. Both had massive flaws, one being that a lack of honesty and virtue would result in flawed and inaccurate memories, and the other would lead to absolute lack of privacy even within their own thoughts.
The answer, as it turned out, was amazingly simple. Before agreeing to marriage, on several occasions throughout hundreds of years, both Celestia and Luna presented the Soul Crystals to their lovers and gave them a choice, either to wear the Soul Crystals as long as they wished to in their lifetimes to create everlasting sources of recollection that way, or to create a Bond Book to leave behind what memories they wished to leave behind at their whim. The key part of giving this choice, however, was that they always made sure to make it clear that, as immortals, all aspects of any one pony's life is sacred to them if they are going to love them and be with them 'til death do they part. Every time, their lovers chose the Soul Crystals, knowing that, save for a few lovers that, in time, turned out to be cheaters that lost emotional and physical interest in the Princess they had married. There was little need to remember them.
After a couple hundred years of mates and husbands wearing the Soul Crystals proudly, as clearly-displayed accessories and signs of dedication and love in equal amounts, Bond Books were phased out and became relics of the past, the Soul Crystals becoming mandatory for marriage, for every suitor that truly loved the Princesses never ever denied their wish to have a way to always remember them. This soon resulted in the creation of The Hall of Eternal Bonds, thus named because the Soul Crystals give the Princesses and their deceased lovers an eternal unity through undying memories of those lost to time.
Every statue in the Hall glimmers an almost neon green, thanks to the numerous Soul Crystals fused with the statues themselves, lighting up the inside of the hall with a dim green glow. All of the statues vary in size, depending on the lifespan of each pony illustrated, some small and some large, the size difference required to accomodate all of the Soul Crystals imbued within them.
The Hall of Eternal Bonds is split into two sections, one section (that is currently much bigger than the other) is Princess Celestia's, the greater size due to the fact that she has a thousand years over her sister in terms of time to fall in love and be married to several ponies, four to be exact. Luna's section of the Hall, even before her banishment, has always been significantly smaller because unlike her sister, she is not as adventurous and outgoing, nor is she anywhere near as social.
There is also a more unofficial rumor about the materials used to create the statues. Almost all of the statues for each Princess's sections in the Hall are made from a different kind of stone, metal, et-cetera. While it has never been confirmed, there have been rumors of conversations overheard between the sisters regarding how well they were treated by their deceased husband before deciding on what kind of material to use to create the statue that will house the Soul Crystals from that particular stallion, with standard granite or concrete making up many of the statues from back before and during medieval times. There were of course some exceptions.
Two of the four suitors Princess Celestia had married during the thousand-year rule without her sister earned statues made of polished marblestone and silver, respectively. It's believed that the higher the expense or value of the materials used, the more they loved that particular husband or mate. This is wildly inaccurate and a rather cold and vile thing to think of the Princesses. Rather, the truth of the matter regarding choice of materials is that it's based upon how well their lovers treated them throughout their relationship, using Soul Crystals the Princesses kept on themselves to review in private upon their husband or mate's death. It is their way of recalling at a glance how wonderful or how bad their decision was to be mated or married to any given pony in their past.
Only one issue remained for the Royal Pony Sisters, and it regarded the safety and security of their lives and memories stored within the Soul Crystals in the statues of The Hall of Eternal Bonds. They solved this problem by way of their impossible-to-comprehend celestial magic. They sealed each statue with impossible-to-detect, and equally impossible-to-evade celestial power, that stuns and assaults the mind of anypony that tries to force their way past the celestial seals to get to the memories locked away in the Soul Crystals. The statues are also firmly rooted to the very spot they're mounted on, their bases made of enchanted stone. When celestial magic is poured into the base of the statue, the base fuses with the bottom of the statue as if they were a single solid creation, and also fuses with the floor, becoming indestructible thanks to the celestial magic imbued within the statue.
With The Hall of Eternal Bonds at their disposal, Celestia and Luna have never had to forget a single lover that they have lost to time, able to relive entire lifetimes worth of memories and cherished thoughts and even vivid sensations of forgotten emotions within the span of only a couple of hours. This is a benefit to all of Equestria, because it allows our leaders, and bearers of potentially world-shattering magic to avoid going insane or falling prey to madness due to emotional distress or unstoppable obsession over the fading memories of their loved ones.