***
Twilight lifted a skittish hoof to the castle door. It was rare that she was invited to Canterlot under the cover of darkness, but on this night invited under the cover of darkness she absolutely was. She looked about to either side of the main door, noticing that the guards had changed from the standard, friendly gold-white retinue to the black and blue thestrals of Luna's Night Guard. She fought down the involuntary urge to shudder.
At last, the door opened with a creak not unlike the awakening of some slumbering metal juggernaut. Twilight walked into the column of escaping light that burst forward from the door, her searching eyes wandering the halls for the only familiar faces in this suddenly alien citadel. It was as if the castle had undergone a horrible transformation, like some creature from a pulpy penny dreadful. In the day, Dr. Castle was a respectable old gentleman who greeted his guests with warm windows and wide, open halls. In the dark of the night, Mr. Spire was a sinister thing of empty ghost-white corridors and long, spidery shadows cast from hollow windows.
"Of course I'm scared." Twilight said, her thoughts pushing out of her mouth to keep her some company. "I've never gone on a dinner date in the middle of the night before, and it's not like I'm exactly the master of dates to begin with. It's natural to be a little put off when your only-two-months-new marefriend summons you to her castle in the middle of the night with no explanation except that she "requires your company"." She opened another set of double doors, which of course did not open with a squeak, instead moaning as if the shadow of death had fallen over them.
Twilight noticed that she was, in fact, completely alone within the confines of this part of the castle. "Maybe Luna's still feeling shy." She said, a nervous laugh accompanying her self-reassurance. She frowned. "It's just Celestia. Come on, Twilight. You love her. And she loves you. You've been in her chambers a dozen times over in the day, and you have freaked out without reason about everything she has ever done the first time she has done it without fail. This isn't going to be any different. It's not like she's a vampire, or something."
With that, Twilight opened the doors to the main chamber, only to find that a large table had been placed along the extraordinarily long red carpet leading to the throne of the two sisters. Torches set on the right side of the table were the only lighting, leaving the figures sitting around the furniture in question half-obscured by shadows. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Celestia at the head of the table, and then gave a blush when she at last noticed Luna sitting at the other end. "Princesses!" She said, giggling in relief.
"Hello Twilight." Celestia said with a quiet smile. It was a halfhearted thing, as if it were that little column of light forcing its way through the darkness from before. She maintained this quiet little smile as she gave Twilight an explanation. "I am sure you are wondering why I called you here, as you well should. The matter I am about to divulge is something that I am afraid is only fit for your ears. As such, I had to be certain we would be in absolute privacy when I gave it."
"What is it, Princess? You know you can tell me anything."
For some reason, that seemed to make Celestia's smile turn sad. It stopped reaching her eyes, as if she was afraid this was the last time she would ever hear those words. "I know, dear. And that's why I am going to tell you the truth behind our immortality."
Twilight reacted to this in much the way that a fish reacts to its tank being tapped. She opened her mouth and retreated a step, returning to her footing with no small amount of uncertainty. "O-okay. That's, uh, wow. Kinda sudden. But, uh, if you feel comfortable, I m-mean... I really would like to know." She made to walk up to Celestia's right hoof, but Celestia shook her head. "Other side, dear."
Twilight walked around the left side of the table, and Celestia stopped her halfway along her walk. "It was in the days of Discord that my sister and I were born. We were a unicorn and an earth pony, at that time. Not special in any way, save that we were the most powerful of our tribe, and that we had an instinctual connection to those two orbs Discord so easily controlled. Our tribe had long suffered under Discord. Those are my cousins he is dangling over a lake of fire in the front hall's windows. The misery he caused bred years--generations--of contempt for him. Our tribe gathered the others together. Rallied them. Us two, we were the strongest, the bravest and the best at leading. So we were chosen. We had heard of a mythical set of artifacts embedded in a tree that not even Discord could touch. Of course, what he could not destroy Discord removed from our power. He set it afloat over a boiling lake and guarded it with powerful wards and horrible monsters. No unicorn, earth pony or pegasus was enough to survive its trials. So we made creatures to equal his magic. Half-breeds that could fight back against him and find the artifacts to end his reign. We made us. And we did this what few desperate tools Discord left us.
"I tell you all this, Twilight, so that you might forgive us of what we did.--"
"Sister, just tell h--"
"As I was saying, we did what we did because there are evils and sufferings in the world greater than the one we committed that day. The one we have continued to commit, to this very day, in fact."
The room, which had been silent before, was now oppressively so. Twilight stared directly into her marefriend's eyes, a pit growing in her stomach. "Evil? Wh-what do you mean, Princess? I-I've never seen you do anything evil." The long shadows at the corners of the table suddenly seemed to grow longer.
"You have, in fact." Luna chimed in from her left, her face half in shadow. "You have seen us live, when we should be four thousand years since dead."
Celestia swallowed, bringing Twilight to face her strained and haunted eyes. "Do you know what the word "alicorn", at its root, actually means, Twilight?"
"Of course! It's the material found in unicorn horns! Variants are also found in earth pony hooves and pegasus wing bones, though of course less powerful concentrations are found across a pony's bones and are an integral part of all magic ponies can produce." Twilight said, the simple recital of information allowing her to release the odd tension she could feel building inside of her.
"And the only readily available source of extra magic accessible to a group of ponies alone and desperate in a world ruled by a mad god who tortured them for his amusement, yes." Celestia leaned forward, her eyes shining like a cat's under the light of the fire. Her face seemed longer in the shadows of the room, and it made the firm frown on set on her face even more hardened. "We took the name "alicorn" for ourselves to remind ourselves of what we are. What we are made of." At this moment, a pair of thestrals in servant garb made their way from the double doors at the front of the hall to each sister, carrying a set of silver platters along the right side of the table with stone dead expressions. They left the platters, covers and all, at the place of the sisters, leaving Twilight unserved and alone.
"Uh, Princess, a-aren't I supposed to have something, too?" The pit was back, and more pressing and fearsome than ever. Celestia's grimace returned, before it softened into a look of naked pity.
"Twilight, my love, I would never dream of burdening you with this for the world. I only share this part of me with you because you deserve to know. If you storm out of this castle and vow to never speak to me again, as your sister in law did, I will expect no less. For Luna and I deserve no less."
"I could never do that, Princess! You know that! How can you even think you deserve that?! Especially from me!"
Celestia pulled the cover off her platter, a sad, tired look on her face, and set it to one side. Twilight's eyes widened, and she had to fight back the urge to gag. Lying on the plate was a set of bones carved clean. They looked cracked and ancient, and smelled of dust and soil. One of them was the skull, which betrayed their true origin. "Luna and I are cannibals, Twilight."
Twilight's lips worked silently, mouthing the word "no" over and over again. Celestia simply sighed, looking away from her lover and bathing her face in the shadows of the long hall. "I know, Twilight. I know."
"Why?" The words came from Twilight's throat torn and ragged.
"We mentioned Discord. Once we had overturned him, we needed to unite the ponies of the world. Gather them, save them. We defended them from manticores, timberwolves, changelings and rallied them from floods, rogue tornadoes, and earthquakes. We saw them though civil wars and famines and economic collapses. We discovered that even after Discord there was still a need for us. We still had to live on. All the while, the ponies of our tribe offered themselves to us once they had passed on, so that we might continue to help them and lead them. It has been a tradition passed down for millennia. We were needed in the early days, and by the time we weren't, we were a cornerstone of Equestrian society, and we could not truly die off. Nopony else remembered how to move the sun and moon. There was nobody else, Twilight."
Celestia gave a hopeful smile. "But now there is. You and Cadance can learn from us in a way no weaker student could. You had the potential. We gave you some of our power--just enough to jolt you into a new state--and the two of you took to it. You can die mortal lives, pass on the knowledge. Spread the wisdom Luna and I learned from your crystal castles on high. And then, at last, the two of us can finally, finally die."
Twilight looked at Celestia, and saw her staring at the bones in front of her. She did not see a maniac. She did not see an archvillain. She saw a tired, ancient ruler who had sacrificed even her own equinity for the sake of her little ponies. She had never seen so much of Celestia in Celestia as she did in that moment where she was fixing the bones of an old friend with a sad little smile, hating herself for what she was going to do to them but doing it anyway.
And all at once Twilight knew that this pony could not be allowed to die if there was any way to convince her otherwise. "Princess..." She began, her expression solidifying into her familiar battle face. She saw a horror she had to overcome. No different from Discord or Tirek or the plunderseeds or King Sombra or Chrysalis. And at the end her Princess would still be waiting for her. "What was his name?" She had to know for sure she was right. She had to know that, even in this strange world of horror stories, her Celestia was still Celestia.
"He was called Soft Touch. He was a foalsitter in the castle. A friend, too. He liked to watch clouds, and he had a funny accent from the time he had spent in Manehatten. He was very, very good with foals. And I believe he was also known for having a bit of the old family mischief in him." Celestia's smile turned whistful. "You're still here."
"I'm not going anywhere. And neither should you." Twilight walked towards her, and towards the bones lying naked and cold on the table.
"Twilight?"
"The world needs you. Both of you." She turned to look back at Luna, who had discreetly been eating while Celestia had explained, and was now staring across at them from above an empty plate. "Not because you can move the sun or the moon, but because of you. And I need you, too. I can't stand the thought of a world without you. Not for something like this."
"Twilight, I am eating ponies."
"And the griffons see that as a sign of respect. The minotaurs do so to conquered enemies in order to regain their strength. Other ponies don't have to do it, so doing it is creepy and wrong to them. And it should be. But we alicorns, we do. You get your bones from people who know, yes? People who love you and trust you?"
"Twilight, don't defend me, I don--"
"I want to join you. I want to be there for our little ponies when they need defending. I won't be able to protect the country, or my friends, or my family forever unless I can."
"But you--"
"Are you going to stop me?" Twilight punctuated this with a fiery kiss, pushing Celestia head back against her chair with the force of her love. "Are you going to say there are places you went that I can't follow, even when I want to and I know the risks?"
"No, but Twilight...You have to understand, you will have to live with the knowledge that you are violating another's remains. That they deserve the respect of burial instead of--"
"Eat me too, then. If you won't let me live with you, then when I die, I want you to eat me and keep giving to your life. I love you. And nothing disgusting or wrong or anything like that is going to change that. So long as the pony I find is still you."
Celestia sighed, and then wrapped a wing around Twilight, a smile bigger than she would have liked cresting her face. She levitated a rib cage over onto Twilight's plate.
"I love you, too, my not so little pony. And if you really wish to choose to live this life with me--with us--then I will not stop you, and nothing about you will make me stop loving you."
Twilight took the first bite of her new life, a smile upon her face.
I never knew the the Princesses were osteovores.
this was sweet...in a disturbing sort of way.
Gruesome, but not enough to stop my liking to Celestia, Luna and Twily.
Well, that... wasn't dark. Or disturbing. Or even off-putting.
To use a corpse, to utilise it, is probably the oldest invention of mankind. We used the bones of every creature, be it animal or man, for weapons or tools. These silly burial rituals mankind developed only happend, because we had no use for the remains any longer.
Also, I don't belive in an afterlife. I would hope for one, but not count on it. And even if I would belive, I can only imagine an afterlife for our "souls", whatever that may be.
So, if it would be usefull, to utilise a dead body, I don't see a problem.
And in the case of Celestia and Luna: It's no different then an organ donor. Just instead of a new heart or lungs, they get the bones and the magic inside of them.
Nicely done Knight of Triple Dog
This was amazing and sweet! I mean, it could've taken a really dark turn given they're eating bones, but Celestia made it sound about as bad as it is, basically the magic equivalent of organ donation.
The only off putting part is Luna was incapable to restrain herself and ate while Celestia talked... that's both rude and a bit disrespectful to the dead in my eyes.
Wow.
You had me going there for awhile. I was expecting something to happen to Twilight, either against her will or after she's been brainwashed or something.
That said, very well written.
4621440
And now I'm imaging Three-Dog with three heads. Still as a radio announcer, and I like it. That would give Fallout some color.
I don't believe this needs a dark warning really. While slightly off putting, Luna and Celestia are not actually harvesting ponies and then killing them. They eat what has naturally passed away and only to aid their ponies.
Once you take out our religious interpretations of the afterlife and our own taboo's on the sanctity of a corpse( which reminds me that these ponies were willing to give themselves, which negates the whole desecration thing) it's not overtly wrong. Morally perhaps, but nothing outside what we see in the animal kingdom.
Well that was rather dark of me. But I actually did find this sweet in a sort of twisted, demented sort of way.
4621375 I should hope not! I wouldn't let fan fiction lower my opinions of a character in any case. I don't get creeped out by Pinkie just 'cause Cupcakes exists.
4621863
4621382 This is precisely what I was going for. Celestia and Luna feel horrible and revolted about themselves. Twilight comes in to remind them that they are just doing what they need to survive, and that they are still good people despite violating societal taboos and their own morals about the sanctity of another's body. I'm always fond of exploring how genuinely sweet and loving the bond Twilight and Celestia have is. However, given I've gotten comments such as "Christ on a crispix", "disturbing" and "gruesome" about it, and one member of the collab in particular refuses to even have this prompt mentioned in his presence, there is certainly some backlash here.
Because of this, and because I want to give sensitive people who like cuddly pony shipping a chance to enjoy Twilestia on their own terms, I think the warning is the most fair and considerate way to come at this.
4621456 Luna's sense of tact and respect has always been pretty shoddy. She out and out tells Twilight she's not competent enough to meet Celestia's test to her face after Twilight a) saved her life and b) helped her make friends where before she was a social pariah. Respectful is not a word I would use to describe her.
4621974 that is very true, almost makes me wonder how she managed to survive politics thus far...
4621974 My comment wasn't even meant as a complaint, sorry if it looked like it was.
Also, to make me really dislike my favourite characters in a fan fic is to make their actions more brutal, sadistic and psychopathic. And this prompt wasn't it, it was just very mildly gruesome.
I'll shut up now.
4622101 No, don't worry. It just sounded as if you would suddenly start hating Luna, Celestia and Twilight if they were written OOC instead of the fan fic presenting them that way. You have my word that I will never write a pony OOC for the sake of a story. Ever.
4622027 She didn't. She became so alienating to everyone around her that she went insane with loneliness and self-pity and became host to a demon of hatred and jealousy. It's only in the modern era, with the help of understanding ponies like Twilight and Applejack, that she's become a stable (if still blunt and socially off-putting) member of society.
Since I first read this prompt, it's cropped up every so often in my thoughts. It doesn't bother me that Celestia and Luna eat left over ponies. What bothers me is that I don't know how many ponies they have to consume, how often, and how publicly. I mean man, it's implied to be a deep dark secret that the sisters and only a few others know, so it can't be eating ponies every meal and not likely every day...
LOGISTICS MAN, THE LOGISTICS....
That niggled at me much more then the "cannabalism"
4622192 True but there was at least a 3000 year interlude where she did do politics correct? You said they were 4000 I think? And 1000 of those years were mooned.
This was heartwarmingly disturbing in a very Pinkamena way. Beyond that I have no idea how to feel about this.
4622242 I could provide answers, but it's kind of more fun to watch you try to find them. Mwhahahahaha.
If you really, really do wish to know, I can explain the implications for you. But why ruin your fun?
4622267 In this world they were only politicians for about fifty years before Luna snapped. The rest of the time they were more like conqueror-chiefs or defenders, sort of like Alexander the Great. I suppose you could include it in the same 'verse as my earlier story about Twilight travelling back in time to meet Celestia as a chieftain of an ancient tribe, if you like.
Huh. That was... actually pretty good. I think both Luna and Celestia (primarily Celestia) are too hard on themselves. It's not like they're going around and murdering ponies and butchering their corpses in the dark of night to feed their malevolent urges for fresh bone... It is, in a way, very much like organ donation, and while eating the dead bones of your own species/subspecies is fairly creepy, it's got nothing on REAL old school cannibalism.
Overall, this was an original idea and nicely executed. And while I can't "officially" upvote individual chapters, have an Upvote anyways.
4622779 Twilight agrees with you. Of course, it's one thing to look at a horrifying and disturbing action from an outside perspective and quite another to go out and do it. Celestia can't forgive herself for her actions, but at least Twilight can.
4622808 Damn good thing she's around to give that forgiveness, then.
4622835 Absolutely.
When the discussion of the alicorns began I was starting to wonder if they were going to eat her horn.
While I did say it was a tad creepy on the forums, that was more an initial reaction. I did enjoy the prompt both for the more original approach to the origins of alicorns but also for the deeper bond between Twilight and Celestia, especially demostrated when Twilight is willing to follow Celestia in this tradition.
4622988 I was very careful to do my best to focus on keeping everyone in character and have the story fit the tone/setting of the show beyond this single dark element. Something like that would not recognizably be Celestia, which would mean it would never make it into the collab. Heck, I was wary about even posting this one to begin with.
4623001 I'm glad you could find some merit in it on second viewing.
Oh... it's so romantic.
Creepy and romantic and actually felt in character (once you take the huge initial step of the alicorn condition being sustained by cannibalism). Nice job!
Almost wish it could be fleshed out more, though you'd need more of a conflict to drive the actual story. Cadance being opposed already might be one direction to take - maybe she tries exposing the tradition to public knowledge?
4625010 Hehe, flesh it out. I mean, err, uh, I have no real intention of expanding upon the concept. It was supposed to be a self-contained oneshot. Were I going to expand it, however, I would probably instead make it an examination of the fallout between Twilight and Cadance once the latter figured out what decision Twilight had made, and also Twilight's attempts to get Celestia to stop hating herself for her actions.
I keep comming back to this promt. It's just that memorable.
Jesus H. Christ...
I see no problem here. Morally this is all on the up and up.
Well.... this is an interesting idea to say the least. Usually their respective celestial bodies are the source of their power, not another pony. Literally.
Hmm.... I wonder how Cadance will react if she finds out about Twilights choice. And... random thought... I also wonder how long Chrysalis could live off of Twilights love for celestia when she's willing to eat other ponies if it means that she could remain by her side?