'Why did she make me an alicorn, why? Why me?'
This question rebounded inside Twilight Sparkle's mind for the past week, ever since the funeral of her last enemy-turned-friend (Discord withstanding, as chaos never really dies). Sunset Shimmer was not one of her first friends, but she had become a wonderful friend after her reformation. Nearly fifteen years after the theft of Twilight's crown and her experience in the mirror world, Sunset had returned to Equestria. The royal princess', The Friendship court and many others welcomed her into their lives as she reintegrated into pony society. Over the long years it became apparent that the magic of the mirror world extended her life span, she managed to live thirty years longer then Applejack, the oldest of The Friendship Court.
With the ties that bind her life to Ponyville dwindling, new relationships blooming in Canterlot, and the near obsolete status of royalty; Twilight found herself in Canterlot Castle more often then before, even more then when she was a filly. The world may have moved forward to new avenues of leadership, but they still loved their princess', and moving celestial bodies probably had something to do with it. With advancements came perks, at least for Celestia and Luna. It's this wonderful thing called free time, to do what they want, spend time with who they want, and enjoy the fruits of over two thousand years of a successful diarchy.
It was on this day; sitting in their cozy study, with a pot of tea, and the company of a wonderful mare, that the question demanded an answer.
"I was wondering, I mean, yes I miss all of my friends, but I know that they are happy wherever they are, and well I mean they lived great lives and had lots of adventures, but well, maybe I mean..." Twilight's abrupt ramble was paused as she tried to find the words. Celestia smiled gently waiting for the lavender mare to continue, and with a huff, Twilight again looked at Celestia. "Tia," A soft squee could be heard from the alabaster mare. "Why did you make me an Alicorn?"
"I had hoped that you would have figured it out on your own, but I will not deny you your answer." Celestia sighed. Twilight was startled by this revelation, what was there to figure out?; The Elements of Harmony blasted her, she found herself in the Astral plane, Celestia turned her into an Alicorn; end of story. Apparently there was more, but Twilight couldn't see any other angle. She just really wanted to know the reasoning behind it.
"The truth is, I did not make you an Alicorn." Celestia began, while Twilight flexed her wings as if to point out the elephant in the room.
"Well I mean unless every-pony was suffering from a delusion and I was born an Alicorn..." Twilight paused to let the insanity of that statement to sink in. "...then yes, yes, you did." she shook her head in confusion. Celestia gave her a faint smile, before nodding.
"True, that would be very hard to believe and you were, in fact, a unicorn when you were born." She paused in thought, before sighing. "I had a whole speech ready for this moment at one point. The truth, as I said, is that I had nothing to do with you becoming an Alicorn," She frown as Twilight open her mouth to object, wisely the younger mare closed her mouth with a smile. "I did, however, accelerate the process." The Solar Diarch finished, and Twilight sat silently trying to comprehend Celestia's confession.
"I, I, hmm... what?" Twilight finally asked, still unsure of what she meant. "Accelerate? You mean it was...?"
"Going to happen regardless?" Celestia provided, and Twilight could only nod awkwardly. "Yes, becoming an Alicorn was part of your destiny, I just saw an opportunity to save you some pain, and suffering." She laments with a wistful look out of the window.
"I care for you a great deal Twilight, and I knew, know, how much your friendships mean to you." She turned back to the lavender mare, as a sad smile crossed her lips.
"If I had not," Celestia paused for a moment. "Cheated? Yes, cheated, that works. Then you and your friends would have lived your life, very much as you have done now, but the years would drag on and you would be the picture of youth." Lifting a photo of a much younger Twilight, and her first friends off of her desk, before she presented it to the young mare.
"You would look much as you do now, without the wings, but your friends." With the weary sigh, she shook her head. "They would age, they would grow old and you would not, you would not understand this, and neither would they." She paused, whether in thought or lost in a memory Twilight couldn't tell, moments of silence passed before Celestia smiled lightly.
"I wanted to save you from that, the pain of being static and not knowing why, the heartache of being a normal unicorn but watching as all of your friends and family die. So I gave you a test, in reality it was to make sure you would be ready for the change, and when you passed, as I expected you would, I had rigged the Elements of Harmony to..."
She frowned and Twilight watched as her former mentor and marefriend had a small silent argument with herself. After a few minutes she nodded and gave Twilight a reassuring smile before reaching across and gently placing her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
"They, well to put it bluntly, vaporized you." She grimaced when Twilight's eyes went wide as saucers. "It's okay, there wasn't any pain, right?" Taking a moment to find her voice, and organize her thoughts, Twilight cleared her throat.
"Well no, I mean, all I really remember is a blinding light and then I was in the Astral plane," Celestia nodded, patting her shoulder one more time before withdrawing her hoof. A small frown crossed Twilight's features, whether from the loss of contact or the rather morbid question she wished to ask. "Does that mean the Elements killed me?". A look of shock crossed Celestia' face and soon she was shaking her head.
"No... well yes, but in the end no." Seeing the understandable confusion on Twilight's face Celestia smiled. "I see my answer was as clear as mud, this is why I should have wrote this conversation down, maybe a small pamphlet "So you're going to be an Alicorn." or something along those lines." The pair giggled, with a happy sigh, Celestia nodded.
"In truth, you can't really 'die'," using her wings to quote the word die, she rolls her eyes. "I have, on more then one occasion..." She paused, a tinge of red gracing her cheeks. "... accidentally, or on purpose been "killed" either by somepony else' hand or my own." A very confused look crossed Twilight's face.
"I don't mean any disrespect, but why would you try to kill yourself?" Twilight asked, a hint of worry creeping into her voice.
"I... well, it was after the first time I had come back, and I well... Luna dared me to jump in some lava." Celestia finished in a near whisper, while Twilight blinked and shook her head.
"I didn't quite catch that?" and Celestia blushed, before hiding her head in her wing. "You know it's very rude to mumble." Earning a sigh from the alabaster mare.
"I was dared to jump into some lava." she admitted, and Twilight just stared. "We were still young, and well very foalish and we happened to find some wild dragons... we observed them from afar, and one night after a bit to much moonshine, and some stupid dares... I well... you get the idea."
A slow blink from the lavender mare, A part or her mind was ecstatic to hear more of Celestia' past, while the other part just kept screaming 'ALL PONIES ARE CRAZY, EVEN YOUR MAREFRIEND'.
"Anyway we are getting off topic, Yes the Elements of harmony vaporized your previous shell, I just hurried the process of forming a new vessel so you wouldn't miss your friend's lives, once you returned to Equestria, as an Alicorn, then it would seem natural that you would remain ageless as your friends got older, or at least I hoped." She paused, trying to recall if there was anything else.
"Oh! And I mean, I really didn't want you to have to go through the whole growing wings bit, it's incredibly painful, Luna often tells me that I had it easy, apparently growing a horn is a massive headache." Silence fell while Twilight glared at the alabaster mare, she wasn't entirely sure if that was meant to be a joke, or maybe she was being literal? No, this was too much already.
"Okay... but how did you know I was going to become an Alicorn?" Hoof meets face, and Celestia groans.
"Right, that well I have known since I met you all those years ago, when you were taking your test to enter my school." The two mares smile in the nostalgic memory. "As I said, I had never, and still have never, met a unicorn with as much raw power as you had, you rivalled me when I was a full grown mare." Slight tinge of red graced Twilight's lavender cheeks. "Over those years I determined that you too would become an Alicorn, in truth I was secretly praying it to be so, you were such a joy to be with, even now." A coy smile crossed her features.
"Now all these years later, well here we are, most of the worlds mysteries are a mystery to both of us, what I know and you don't grows ever smaller," They shared a smile before a comfortable silence fell in the study.
Only one thing nagged at Twilight, she didn't like cheaters; if one couldn't do it by oneself then it just couldn't be done... TIA CHEATED!
"Tia," (squee) "You know how I feel about cheaters." Celestia gulped as Twilight levitated several feathers.