//------------------------------//
// 【Sharing the Night】 Chapter 13 Cut Ending 
// Story: Cast-Iron Cast-Offs 
// by Cast-Iron Caryatid 
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☼ ☼ ☼





Dear Princess Celestia,

Where to start?  First, I have to apologize for what I would like to charitably describe as the ‘panicked retreat’ which I made from your chambers earlier this afternoon.  Being with you, in your chambers and on your bed, as we were, stirred in me certain… feelings, which, quite frankly, my life thus far has not prepared me for.  You’ll have to forgive me for being vague; it really is best if I start at the beginning.



Celestia reread the paragraph several times.  Certain… feelings?  With an ellipses and everything?  Twilight did not write an ellipses unless she well and truly needed to, not in a report.  Celestia frowned.  It had started out as more of a letter, but glancing ahead, it appeared to be a more usual dry report—not that Celestia did not enjoy Twilight’s reports, but now she had gotten her hopes up.

That tease.

Well, there was only one thing for it.  Celestia gulped down her cream, grabbed the report in her magic and dashed back off to her study.  She had a report to read.




Last night, Luna and I visited you with the intent to discuss the gaping hole in the world which was, at the time, leaking night to the surface, as I am certain you had noticed prior.  If this is not the case, then please refer to diagram A.1 in the attached appendix ‘A,’ and make an effort to look out the window more often.  I suspect I know why you appeared to be sequestering yourself in your rooms that night, so I’ll simply move on.

It was our intent at the time to enter into the hole and investigate both the source of the night which was effusing from it, as well as the source of the instinctual fear that has been plaguing me, which we presumed to be one and the same.  I understand that this malady was mentioned to you in passing on the night before last, so you may wish to consult the additional details on the subject provided in the attached appendix ‘B,’ along with the psychological and physiological records in fig. B.1 through B.12.

In these matters, we were successful, and our suspicions confirmed.  Rather than proceed through the events of the previous night in a chronological order, I will instead summarize my findings.  As with the event involving the ursæ  major and minor, these findings are submitted to be irrefutable fact as witnessed by myself in memories contained within my stars.  I repeat: they are fact and should not be entered into any juvenile fiction contests regardless of their entertainment qualities.  It was funny once.  To you.  If you still do not wish to heed this request, I would also note that I quite doubt that the details of these events would be suitable for juvenile consumption, as the subject matter is at times both questionable and liable to lead to some very confused young minds, presuming they are not alicorns themselves.

Also, if they are alicorns, they should probably be hearing about these things from a parental figure they trust.  Ideally, such a parental figure should also be an alicorn.  I have written up some possible lines along which such a conversation might advance, and burned them.  The resulting ashes were to be included as appendix ‘E’ for the sake of completeness until it was pointed out to me that ashes cannot be burned a second time and so, would not have been able to be sent via dragon mail.  If you desire these ashes, I shall post them through pegasus mail instead.

Now, as to the matter at hoof.  As implied by the above paragraphs, the events and information which I have uncovered as a result of investigation into the hole in the world do indeed relate to important information regarding the subjects of alicorns, alicorn physiology, alicorn coupling and alicorn death.



Celestia wasn’t certain what she had expected, but this was not it.  She was tempted to check the appendices out of curiosity but she refused to let herself get distracted.  More important was the tone of the last few paragraphs.  No, more important was the last few paragraphs period.  Twilight would normally never send her a report like this.  Post the ashes?  For completeness?  A script for telling young alicorns about the facts of life?  Alicorn… coupling?

Celestia leafed through the report, but didn’t see any notes or corrections.  It was clearly not a draft sent by accident; was it some sort of joke?  Filled with a strange morbid curiosity, she read on.





a. alicorns

The previous generation of alicorns was originally four in number, each with cutie marks depicting their celestial bodies with very little deviation.  These alicorns had singular names formally followed by two aspects they represented as alicorns, even though they eschewed official titles of all kinds.  These alicorns were as follows:

Luma, the light of day.  A white alicorn with a rainbow mane, and mild disposition.  Her celestial body was a rainbow ring that encircled the world and provided light for the day.  As a modern alicorn exists who would fit this description (Ie. You), I will clarify using existing ponies close to me as reference.  Her coat was indeed much like your own, however, her mane, while also ethereal, was possessed of more saturated colors as per the mane of the pegasus ‘Rainbow Dash,’ (See diagram C.1 in the attached appendix C).  Additionally, while your own mien could be described as mild, it would be more correct to liken Luma to Fluttershy, presuming that Fluttershy was first placed under the influence of some form of anxiety medication, of course.

Vita, the fire of life.  An excitable ochre alicorn with a mane of living fire.  Her celestial body was a ball of fire similar to the modern sun, save for the fact that it burned with a nearly perfect clear flame ringed by only a hint of blue corona to mark its passing against the daylight sky.  The exception to this is when it would pass in front of Luma’s rainbow ring, under which circumstances it would bend and scatter the light to spectacular effect.

Somni, the dream of night.  Midnight-blue coat, aurora-green mane and a personality that is somewhat difficult for me to describe in short terms, as a large part of what I saw of her was colored by her unrequited love for the next alicorn in the list, Fati.  The thesaurus suggests ‘whimsical’, which is accurate enough, as she was the alicorn of dreams.  Her celestial body was a moon.  Note that I write ‘a’ moon and not ‘the’ moon, as there were two at the time, and neither is precisely the modern specimen which is Luna’s.  Somni’s moon was pure white the whole way around and unmarred by the craters and maria of the modern moon.  Poets of the time likened it to a polished jewel that was a window into the dreams which she dreamed for ponies.  These poets were clearly mistaken and possibly imbibing, as Somni’s moon was provably composed of luminescent, yet entirely opaque rock.

Fati, the fate of death.  Fati had a violet coat, black mane and a dour personality.  She was the only one of the previous alicorns who cared much for mortals, and this caused her to be somewhat estranged from the others.  She did not return Somni’s feelings of romantic love.  From what I saw, Fati provided the world with nightmares, many of which were prophetic or designed to teach restraint, and it is in this way she claimed to be metaphorically ‘guarding the gates of death’ lest ponies enter before their time.  Like Somni, her Celestial body was also a moon, though hers was black and virtually invisible against the night sky.

Solaria.  This is where it gets complicated.  I mentioned that there were ‘originally’ four alicorns, and this was not an error.  Luma and Vita were romantically involved and all that this implies.  In the final years of the old world, they decided to consummate their love in a special way and join together to become a single alicorn via a process which I am not entirely clear on and may never know, as it was not part of the memories which I have recovered.  This is not any great loss, as the event was, to put it mildly, a mistake.

The error was not in execution.  It is my understanding that the process completed flawlessly, giving birth to the alicorn Solaria, who was gold from horn to hoof.  Her mane was fire rimmed with rainbow, and her genesis resulted in the sun we have today.  This alicorn, however, was immediately crushed by the perceived loss of the two ponies who had come together to make her, both of which she viewed as her true loves and whose companionship she was bereft of.



This passage, Celestia decided with some relief, was a reassuring return to form.  The content itself was more than a little disturbing in what it suggested, but at the same time, it spoke of a Twilight Sparkle much more in control of her faculties.  Still, it wasn’t as reassuring as she told herself.  Twilight had still decided to send it in spite of the earlier sections and there was no shortage of ill implications written between the lines—or straight on the lines, as Celestia was capable of counting to three as well as any other pony.  Surely enough, the next section did little to reassure her.





b. Alicorn Physiology

The alicorns of the previous generations lived for a very long time[citation needed].  Data collected at the end of their lives suggests that they continued to grow for this entire period with the rate of growth slowing over time and resulting in alicorns roughly three ponies tall.  The exact rate and falloff of growth is not known at this time, but is observed to be similar for all specimens in the data set with one notable exception.  See fig. D.1 through D.4 in the attached appendix ‘D’ for possible extrapolations of the growth data.

The exception in these matters is Solaria, whose genesis resulted in an alicorn roughly fifty percent taller than the others.  This deviation from the norm suggests some catalyst for the growth beyond the purely physical.  Whether the root cause of this aberration is an aggregation of soul, magical power, some other force or some or all of the above, the resulting alicorn was observed to be well formed and healthy in body.



Celestia had to reread the section several times.  The actual information was fairly straightforward, cementing earlier implications that not only was this ‘Solaria’ her own counterpart, but that the events which Twilight had deemed a ‘mistake,’ had persisted to the current age.  In essence, Twilight was telling Celestia that there was something wrong with her.

And yet… the comment about Solaria being ‘well formed’ stuck in her mind for some reason.  She knew Twilight and she knew her writing.  It was not the sort of thing she would normally write, and that only made Celestia wonder at the significance of it, if she could not bear to let it go unsaid.

Celestia shook her head and pressed a hoof into her temple.  No, she was reading too much into it.  She was just letting her own odd feelings for Twilight Sparkle paint pictures that weren’t there.  There were far, far stranger things about the entire report to guess at the meaning of.

Like the next section.





c. Alicorn Coupling

The memories which I examined contained one case of alicorn coupling between Somni and Solaria.  Please see diagrams F.1 through F.24 in attached appendix ‘F,’ for illustrations of what this entails.  The entirety of appendix ‘F’ should be considered both explicit in nature and possibly confidential as it relates to the essential truth of alicorn existence.



Celestia barely read this section.  As fascinating as it was that her faithful student had apparently sent her explicit materials, including diagrams—diagrams!—her eye was immediately drawn to the blank bottom half of the page where small yellow note had been affixed.




Celestia, I’m not really sure what I should do with this information.  I’ve never been one for romance because there was always a piece missing from it for me.  This is that piece, and I’m not entirely certain that I wanted it.  I don’t know if you knew about this, but I have my suspicions.  If you don’t want to know what I know, do not see attached appendix… whatever I wrote above.

Suffice it to say, this is why I was uncomfortable with you today.  There are certain things that cannot be unseen.  I don’t know what this will mean for our relationship.  I’m sorry I ran away, this is really something I should talk to you about in pony, but it’s much easier for me to write.  I’ll finish the report later.  I don’t really feel like doing it now, but I want to send this.  Spoiler alert: they all died.



Suddenly, the haphazard state of the report all made sense and she felt bad for thinking poorly of her student for it.  No, Twilight Sparkle had been completely serious.  She had seen something that well and truly bothered her, and it showed in her writing.  Even still, it was hard for her to accept.  The very idea that there was some secret alicorn… ritual that had gone unnoticed until now and could have this deep of an effect on a pony like Twilight, she didn’t want to believe it.

And yet, Celestia had only to look at herself.  All of her confusion, the jealousy, even the fantasies involving cake, they all made perfect sense now.  It was the most natural thing in the world.  Regardless of what was contained in appendix ‘F’—regardless of the… messy details—there would be no going back from this.

For the two thousand years of their lives, Celestia and Luna had only ever had each other; eternal sisters.  They had each sampled the world of mortals and found it wanting in their own ways.  Now, the truth was out.  Alicorn was meant to lay with alicorn, but there was a problem.

They only had one Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia was preparing herself to turn to appendix ‘F’ when she realized that the bottom of Twilight’s last note had been folded under.  Curious, she unfolded it.




Postscript: I think I’m in love with Luna… and I might be okay with that.

Postpostscript: What do I do?