Tainted Origins
Celestia and I stayed in our embrace for some time, neither of us wanting it to end. We stood there, unable and unwilling to let go, but the silence could not last forever. Slowly, the realization of what I’d done washed over me. My alterations had worked. Replicating the runes of the Mirror, then breaking the original circle had transferred the spell into my imitation, with me inside it, neither in Manehatten or the sun, but somewhere safer, in the middle.
All for a hug, from my--the, let’s not get possessive--the princess, Celestia.
“That was very dangerous, Twilight. You could have been seriously hurt,” Celestia whispered over my head.a
I nuzzled into the base of Celestia’s wing. “I don’t care,” I replied softly, watching her feathers ruffle with my breath.
“But many ponies do.” The princess shifted back, just far enough to dislodge my head from its warm hiding place and force me to look up at her. “What about all of your friends? The refugees from Ponyville? The thousands of other ponies, including Luna and myself, waiting for you to defeat Chrysalis?”
Great, no pressure then. “But how? We don’t have the Elements of Harmony, and even if we did, Rainbow Dash is still missing!”
“One step at a time.” Celestia finally broke our embrace; I squelched an annoyed squeak. “Applejack and Rarity have been fighting this war for almost as long as you were captured. Your return to us does change things, but not so far to make us replan everything...” She trailed off, as though to contradict her own words. “War is a terrible, terrible thing, Twilight. I worked very hard to keep it from the borders of Equestria, and now I am asking you to dive muzzle-first into the darkest and most scarring part of it.”
To bring back Celestia, I’d do anything. “I won’t let you down, Princess.”
“I know you won’t. You never have.” She smiled down at me for a moment before her gaze hardened. “Listen to me, Twilight. As nice as seeing you again is, terrible things are about to happen, and there are things that I must tell you before they do. Luna has shown me your dreams and I know you hurt, but as much as I want to help you, you must listen first. There is time for everything else later.”
“B-But, Princess,” I stuttered.
For a moment, Celestia’s gaze softened, almost to one of sadness. “Oh, Twilight, I’m not much of a princess now, am I? The only charge I have left is the sun, and it can almost move on its own.”
“Don’t say that, Princess!” I shouted almost without thinking. “It’s not true. There’s a whole city out there willing to fight and die for you, and I would too. You’re still our princess, and you always will be.”
Once again, the alicorn smiled. “Then it is even more important you listen to me right now, Twilight.” She sat down across from me before beginning. “First and possibly most important is Chrysalis herself, and more importantly, where her power comes from.”
My ears started slowly drooping. “P-Princess... do you, um, do you know what Chrysalis had me doing when I was... ah... with her?”
“Yes, Twilight, I do,” Celestia replied softly. “I think you made the best of a bad situation, especially with the little weaknesses put into the... what did she call them? Burrows?”
I slowly nodded. “You... you’re not disappointed?”
“Are you mad at me for distrusting your instinct about Cadence?” When I was younger, I hated when she answered a question with another question, but having used the technique myself I can at least understand the thought behind it.
“No.” It wasn’t a lie. Any sort of anger directed towards Celestia had faded long before Chrysalis begun her invasion in earnest. Cheese-legs had her claws in deep, and her impersonation was good enough it took a fresh mind to see through it.
“We all must make difficult decisions in our lifetimes, Twilight. You were held prisoner, tortured, threatened, and you resisted her until Chrysalis threatened somepony you care deeply about. And even then, you tried to resist and compromise her plans. I have not met many ponies who had the heart to do what you did and the courage to do it so well.”
Find out if the princess wants to smite me for what I’d done for Chrysalis, checked. A little of the weight lifted from my shoulders, but only enough that everything else pushed down a little harder. And she praised me for my failure on top of it. A rush of thoughts turned to speech died in my throat as Celestia raised a hoof.
“We’re running out of time,” she said. A small crash shook the imperceptible darkness around me. “Yes, love is the power and food of the changelings, but I’m talking about Chrysalis’ personal power. The Taint. I ask that you do not interrupt, Twilight, because if you do, I’m not certain I will be able to continue.”
Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was ask why. What could be so terrible, I wanted to ask, that even you, Princess, couldn’t bear to tell? Something about her expression, a small spark of pain hidden deep in her eyes, is the only reason I didn’t. So, as the darkness around me shook once again, I nodded for her to go ahead.
Celestia took a deep breath. “Luna and I first discovered the Taint, though we did not call it that at the time, long before the rise of Discord. We were in a very bad situation; lost, confused, and with the expectations of hundreds on our shoulders we could not afford to make a mistake. In desperation, we made a deal with a stallion nopony had met before, a deal we would come to regret deeply.”
Of course she started talking with probably the most question provoking statements I’d heard in awhile. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered my “conversation” with the Taint in the Everfree Forest. Two things kept me from breaking the promise I made just a few moments ago: the somewhat worrying shaking of the darkness outside my rune circle, and the consistent sad look in her eyes.
♣♣♣♣♣
We were young, Twilight, you must keep that in mind. Equestria had just been founded, and was little more than a small tribe. For the sake of brevity, I would like you to assume that the events of the Hearth’s Warming play are true--please do not look at me like that, Twilight, it is a topic for another day--and that Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead--the very same from the Hearth’s Warming play--were in charge of this fledgeling coalition.
If my memory is correct, and that far back can be hazy, Luna and I were born to the first pegasus and unicorn couple. At this point, we were just normal ponies, nothing special about us save for our horns and wings--neither of which actually worked as well as a unicorn or pegasus.
Even so, the ponies of this new nation rejoiced at our existence. They saw us a sign that their venture was destined to succeed, which only increased as no other foals born shared both visible traits from the three original tribes. We were almost deified, impotent as we were, and as such, treated with reverence second only to their leaders, and only just. And, as the case often is with foals, all the attention slowly fed our ego, and trampled our common sense.
Then, tragedy struck. Princess Platinum, the oldest of the three leaders, passed away, simply from old age. Equestria carried on, though its spirit of conquest and hope was somewhat dampened. Commander Hurricane fell next, in battle, defending our borders. Racial tension began to rise slowly, as Chancellor Puddinghead remained, the last of the original three. Earth ponies began to adopt a superior attitude, not unlike the unicorns of old, and often mocked the other tribes for the “incompetence of their rulers.” The unicorns and pegasi began to point hooves at Chancellor Puddinghead, blaming her for the deaths of their rulers, claiming them to be assassinated. Within less than a year, all three tribes were at each other’s throats and civil war loomed on the horizon.
More level-headed ponies saw the anger of the common majority, and began to brainstorm solutions to prevent the shattering of Equestria. Placing another pegasus and unicorn in power with Chancellor Puddinghead did not work, as neither of the tribes could agree on who should ascend. Statements from Chancellor Puddinghead did nothing as well. Even Earth Ponies criticized her for trying to deny her tribe’s superiority.
Thankfully, before open war broke out in the streets, somepony remembered Luna and myself, the forgotten idols of a lost age. In a last desperate attempt to save Equestria, Chancellor Puddinghead removed herself from power, placing the vestments on my sister and I, remaining only as one of our many new advisors.
It was a terrible idea. Luna and I were young, almost a decade older than you, Twilight. We had no experience with leading, politics, or anything of the sort. We were scapegoats, Twilight, in power only to be blamed when everything inevitably boiled over. We knew, our “advisors” knew, but the general population didn’t seem to. The tension did not vanish, but it hid behind curiosity as ponies waited to see what the hybrids would do.
In short, we panicked. We didn’t know what to do, so we tried to simply restore Equestria to how it once was. In pursuit of that goal, we alienated many ponies who felt they deserved something from us. Slowly, and completely without help from our supposed advisors, we began to realize that the population was slowly turning against even us.
That was when he showed up. In a town not even twice the size of Ponyville--the size of Equestria at the time--a stallion suddenly appearing that nopony knew drew enough attention that he was shepherded to the building that was serving as the house of government.
This mystery stallion came before my sister and I, looked us dead in the eyes, and offered the solution to our problems, under the terms that we would allow for his master to settle within Equestria. We agreed, and the stallion left, saying that we would receive what we needed on the morrow.
And a strange night it was for when we rose the next day, the sky was empty, neither sun or moon in the sky. But we could feel it, inside. To this day, I can still feel the burning in my horn when the sun is due to rise, awake or asleep. However, it took us three full days to understand what had happened, and as such learn to control the new most basic parts of ourselves, and the massive stores of magical power we now commanded.
During the fortnight of darkness, the waves of rebellion seemed to have stagnated as ponies drew together in scared confusion. Rumor slowly spread that Luna and I solved the problem by taming the sun and moon themselves, and thus the legend of Princess Luna and Celestia was born.
♣♣♣♣♣
I sat still and silent through the entire story, but impatience combined with a thirst for knowledge and growing fear of the world shaking around me finally decayed my resistance. “Princess, I don’t understand. Why is that so terrible?” The second the interruption slipped out, I clapped my hooves over my mouth and gave Celestia my best apologetic look.
To my surprise, she just sighed. “Because of what happened after, Twilight. You see, Luna and I were so busy exploring our new power, power we had been originally denied as hybrids now amplified to ludicrous levels, we never gave a second thought to the strange stallion who came before. Idly we speculated where our ability came from, but we, as they say, did not want to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
“So you feel bad because you forgot somepony? Surely you can’t remember everypony,” I replied, mind still not quite making the connection.
My heart froze as Celestia’s expression fell. “I wish it was that simple. Some years later, after a string of disappearances, our version of court at the time began hearing reports of odd creatures lurking around the outskirts of town. Descriptions were vague, but most involved pegasus-like features, but with wings that extended past the flanks, and small points extending from the hooves.”
“Wait, you mean...”
Celestia nodded. “It took another month before we found them. It was in a house, deep in an arm of what would eventually be renamed Whitetail Woods. They fought, if you’ll excuse the pun, with beak and claw, but at last the creatures were subdued. And such, the Griffin race was born. In the basement, we discovered a sinkhole filled with black, bubbling substance.” She shook her head slowly. “Another pony, one we never did catch, had foalnapped ponies, usually from the outskirts of town, and experimented on them with Taint to create a new race. His true intentions we never discovered, and to this day, the true origins of the griffins are known only to a select few.”
I reflexively thought back to what I had first thought to be a hallucination in the Everfree Forest. “The... The Taint talked to me, when we found Fluttershy in the forest.”
Before I could move, my vision was filled by two lavender eyes rimmed with white fur. “When was this?” Celestia demanded, staring deep into my eyes. My cheeks slowly started to warm up. “How do you feel?”
“W-Why? What’s wrong? What’s going to happen to me!?” I blurted out, breathing starting to speed up.
“Just answer the questions please, Twilight. I have to make sure...” She was using the same voice that was always there to comfort me when I was younger and something had gone wrong.
“Two, maybe three weeks ago, in your old castle,” I replied on reflex. “Since then I... I can’t really say I feel any different from normal... not that I really know what normal is anymore...” I added at the end under my breath.
Celestia withdrew, intense gaze subsiding. “I apologize Twilight, I...” She ran a hoof over her face, something I had learned over the years meant something was really bothering her. “The Taint is... evil, I can think of no other way to say it. Alone, it can’t do anything, but it is very good at working its way into ponies’ minds. It takes your darkest thoughts, twists them, then gives you the power to make them real.”
“It took my sister from me,” she continued much softer. “We were working constantly to try and eradicate any traces of Taint we found. It was a losing battle to be sure, as we didn’t know what creates it, but ponies, and even other creatures twisted by Taint have done... terrible things, things we could not allow to be repeated.
“Luna had just returned from the southern border where she was hunting for almost a month when the Nightmare overcame her, and I refuse to believe my little sister turned on me by coincidence. I will not allow it to claim you as well, Twilight.”
I closed the short gap between us before stretching out and gently wrapping my forelegs around my princess’ neck. “I won’t let it, princess. I never had any intention of listening to the Taint, and I definitely don’t now.” Celestia wrapped her neck around mine, resting her head on my back.
“Just be careful, Twilight, please. The Taint took my sister from me, I don’t want to lose such a brilliant student and good friend too.” My heart both swelled with pride and melted in agony. Just a friend... Swallowing my pain, I pulled away from Celestia and nodded.
“--light!” The sound floated through the air, just barely registering.
“Did you hear that?” I asked the princess, ears stretched as high as they could to try and find the sound again.
Celestia cocked her head slightly. “I think somepony is calling your name, outside of the Mirror.” She gave me another smile. “You should go. We can always talk later, and it sounds like you are needed.”
I really didn’t want to leave, ever. I was perfectly content in this shaking darkness as long as Celestia was here, but she was right. “There’s just one problem...” I laughed nervously. “I, uh, don’t know how to leave.”
With care, Celestia moved me towards the edge of my runes before moving back to the now dull original circle. “By the way, Twilight,” she said, catching my attention once again. “These ponies know you, all of them. The resistance movement was built around your return; they know who you are, they know what you are capable of, and they will look to you for guidance.”
“But what about Rarity and Applejack?” I asked. “I don’t know how to lead a war!”
“Neither do Applejack or Rarity. Together, however, with Luna and I behind you, I think you will succeed.” Her horn lit up, and a golden rune sketched itself, completing the original circle of the Mirror. “Now just remove one rune from your circle, and the spell should cancel.”
“I’ll talk to you later, princess,” I said, reaching a hoof out to erase one of the runes.
“I look forward to it.”
With the last runic circle broken, the light from the spell faded, and the now empty room was thrown into darkness. I cast a longing glance where Celestia once stood before heading back out into the hallway.
“Bout time ya came outta there, Twi’, we were gettin’ kinda worried here,” Applejack said the second the door closed behind me. A massive crash echoed around the building, shaking dust from the rafters onto our heads.
“What is going on out here?” I asked, flicking dust from my mane.
“That’s what we were trying to tell you,” Rarity replied, quickly tapping her hooves against the floor. “Manehatten is under attack.”