Chapter 5: Harsher Worlds
Spike paced back and forth, his tail swinging while he walked. He took a few breaths, hoping they would calm him down. They did not. It had only been four hours, he reasoned. Twilight had been gone longer than that before. Part of his mind dimly registered that there was something problematic about him being used to this kind of situation. He kept walking rather than thinking about it. Spike kept his hands occupied by squeezing them together periodically, eyes flickering from one wall to another. He sighed, looking over at the book on races of Equestria that Twilight had left behind. With a sigh of resignation, he sat down heavily upon Twilight’s bed, searching around for something, anything to keep himself preoccupied. A comic immediately piqued his interest, and he forced himself to maintain a semblance of calmness while he skimmed through the pages. Like with so many other things in Twilight’s life, the only thing he could do now was to wait until everything was over and she finally remembered to come back for him.
By the time the sun had started to go down (in a more wobbly arc than Celestia would set it with on any day with a semblance of normal involved, at that), Spike had turned to sending messages asking after Celestia’s health. When he blew on these messages, however, the familiar green fire did not consume them in a whirl of smoke. Instead, they burned themselves to a crisp in his scaly purple hands. It was at this point that Spike began to well and truly panic. With a push from his shaking hands, Spike launched himself from the bed. He proceeded to pace upon landing, eyes searching for anything that could preoccupy him while he waited. Something that made him feel like he was useful. With a huff, he cast his eyes around the room. Maybe Twilight needed some chores to be done? He noticed with a rush of almost-joy that dust bunnies were lurking in the dark corners of Twilight’s room. Twilight might be mopping up a crisis in Canterlot, but at least he could mop up the kitchen until she got back. The thought was almost hollow to him, but he grabbed the dustpan and broom with a sort of clinging fervor nonetheless.
---／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼---
Twilight’s hoof was tightly clinging to Celestia’s talon, making sure to be there for her throughout the entirety of the ordeal. Fried slices of fish flesh slithered down Celestia’s throat, piece by horrible piece. But while her entire being wretched at the idea of eating another animal, the cramps that had been rocking her body for the past hour were at least fading. She looked over at Twilight and smiled, a smile which Twilight returned with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. Celestia squeezed a talon around Twilight’s hoof, which made the little alicorn tense up. Celestia relaxed the talon’s grip, but still held onto Twilight for support. Tension hung in the air, but Twilight and the atmosphere eventually followed Celestia’s talon in gradually relaxing. Once the room had returned to a semblance of calm, Celestia went back to the slow, agonizing process of eating the body of a once-living being killed so she might live. The gravity of her actions did not escape her. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw a terrified fish in horrible pain, struggling to free itself of the hook wrenched into its gasping lips as it was lifted from its world by a giant monster it couldn’t hope to understand. She swallowed another lump of meat like it was a lump of bile that had welled up in her throat, her neck shuddering all the while. Life faded from the eyes of the fish, its terror and pain being replaced by a cold void of nothingness. All for her. That she might live.
Her vision of the cold reality of the carnivore’s life was broken by a shift in the way Twilight was holding her hoof. What had once been a simple rigid support for Celestia’s own tension was now a tender cradle. The hoof softly wrapped itself around the gnarled talon, and Celestia looked at the delicate limb in surprise. She paused a moment, attempting to process the sensation. Eventually, she simply closed her talon around Twilight’s hoof and squeezed in turn. Celestia looked up to search Twilight’s face, hoping to see the kindness she knew her student was so often devoted to showing her. The poor little alicorn seemed to be completely unaware of what Celestia’s intentions were, for she looked down the moment Celestia looked up. Celestia noticed with no small amount of confusion that the most radiant of blushes was striking up on her ex-student’s face. Twilight pulled her hoof back bashfully not long afterwards, curling away from Celestia’s inquisitive stare with that same luminous red tint upon her cheeks. The scholar’s eyes were fixed solidly upon the floor. Celestia opened her mouth to ask about what the issue at hoof was. It was only when she felt the scraping of keratin upon keratin that she remembered that she had a beak and not a mouth, and could not produce words as she knew them. Instead, she let the moment hang in the air, hoping that Twilight would explain her actions.
Twilight, for her part, simply hugged her wings around herself and stared firmly down at the covers to Celestia’s bed. With every moment she seemed more and more and uncomfortable, until at last she sighed and hung her head. “I’m sorry, I just--I’m enjoying this more than I should. I know it’s hard for you. I should be--” She didn’t get a chance to finish the rest of her sentence, because by the time she had vocalized part of the thought, Celestia had already taken her hoof in her talon once more. She gave Twilight a squeeze, prompting the smaller alicorn to look away once more. This time, however, Celestia caught a glimpse of a warm smile from her ex-student before she hid her face away.
She looked about for her pen and paper, but was cut off by a flash of green light appearing in her peripheral vision. Her saurian eyes flickered to the source of the blur of green energy.A scroll landed at Twilight’s hooves with a pop of energy, a diversion which the young princess wholeheartedly dove upon in order to better avoid any awkward questions about why holding her crush’s hoof--or, rather, claw--might cause her cheeks to flush. With a flourish of salmon magic, she unfurled the scroll and began to read.
---／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼---
“Come on, Twilight. Come on.” Spike continued to wander, his little claws folding in on themselves in anticipation. He rolled his eyes and placed his hands on his hips, inspecting the house. “Maybe I could dust again. Or I could do some baking? No, I can’t do proportions right whenever I’m waiting for her.” He found himself walking towards the kitchen as he talked to himself, instinct propelling his little dragon feet to the nearest source of comfort he could find. “I guess I could go to Rarity, but what if Twilight doesn’t want me bringing anypony else into whatever’s going on? She said it was urgent royal business. If she wanted help, she’d have come back to town for it. Of course, it’s not like she’d come to me if she wanted any help. Maybe I better ask the girls.” He kicked at a speck of dirt. “But then I’d be breaking the promise I made to not tell anypony. Agh, whatever.” He stalked down the stairs and to the familiar hoard he had managed to earn from work with Rarity earlier in the month. “It’s not like this is the first time she’s ever been away a full night. Nightmare Moon, Discord, planning for the Equestria Games.” As he said this, he wandered into the kitchen and counted his way past the counter, the oven and over to the refrigerator. “Guess I’ll just have to tuck in for the night.” Sure enough, a pile of gems tucked safely behind the broom and dustpan--the last place Twilight would ever think to touch--awaited him. “And she wonders why I’m fat.” Spike said as he let himself take in the sweet, brief release of delicious food.
---／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼---
“It’s from Luna.” Twilight sighed, the tension in her wings and shoulders instantly dissipating. “She has a list of spells for controlling yourself in the dreamscape ready for you. Do you think you’re ready for investigating dreams?”
Celestia paused, then gave a shaky nod. She looked back at the bag that had once contained fish meat still lying upon her bed like some dark accusation. Celestia repressed a shudder, vowing that she would never let the sensation of eating another animal become routine. Twilight touched her side, her hoof oddly tender again. “What’s the matter?” The gentle, nasally voice of her most loyal friend inquired.
She pointed a hooked and vicious claw at the bag of fried fish, bowing her head in remorse. “Was the fish not good enough? I could always--oh. No, no I think I get it.” Twilight sighed. “I know. I can’t imagine what it’s like right now. But, I mean, it’s not the worst magical disaster either of us has made, right?” Twilight gave a nervous laugh. Celestia shook her head again, making sure not to break the facade of calm she had about her. Rather than tell Twilight how she felt about the meat, she motioned for a piece of paper, and Twilight made sure to provide.
“Worried about you,” it read.
“Me?” Twilight suddenly felt a sinking feeling in her gut. “I’m fine. I mean, the fish was hard to find, and I--” She caught sight of Celestia’s look and knew, even through the veil of harsh predatory avian biology, that her mentor could still see through her as always. “Yes, it was hard adapting. It’s hard seeing you like this. You’re so strong and kind and important and I--well, I don’t think anything bad should ever happen to you.”
“It’s my duty.” The words came fluidly and naturally from talons that were otherwise still awkward and unwieldy, a far cry from what they had been hours ago. Twilight had even gotten used to not cringing at the ugly, ugly scratches that served as letters when she read them. “Nopony should suffer under me.”
“But you shouldn’t have to suffer for m--I--argh!” Twilight flopped her wings out in exasperation, her hooves flying above her head for a moment.
Celestia’s eyes flickered for a moment. She knew that what she was about to say might make Twilight even more frustrated. It might be false, and she might be accusing a friend when they needed support more than accusations. But if she was right--and Twilight’s past behaviour in similar situations gave her every reason to believe she was--she would be able to confront a problem she knew Twilight would never willingly bring before her. A problem that, now and many times prior, had bred catastrophes from the smallest of issues. A problem that only Celestia herself could catalyze, and thus, logically, only Celestia herself could resolve. “You blame yourself,” she wrote.
“I…” Twilight’s ears folded back, and she sagged a little under the weight of her own thoughts. “It’s my spell. I didn’t check every species, and I didn’t make any emergency plans, and I asked it of you, on top of everything else I’ve ever pushed on you, and it shouldn’t have ever left my lab. I should have gone to Rarity. I--”
“You trust me enough to ask to test spells for you. I knew the risks when I got the missive.” Celestia wrote the words as quickly as she could, but they came out harsh and near-illegible in her rush. She took the time to write the message out again, this time adding “I’m always glad to get correspondence from you. I miss adventures like yours. I’m touched whenever you share them with me.” She didn’t write ‘I miss you’, for she hoped Twilight at least knew that much in her heart of hearts.
“But you shouldn’t have to suffer.” Twilight said more firmly. “Not when it’s me. You always want to put yourself before everyone. Please, Princess. Don’t do that for me. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand seeing you suffer, ever. I know you feel like you have to for everyone else, but, I just--” Twilight took a deep gasp of air, knowing that she would need as much oxygen as she could get if she were to overcome the wall of tension between herself and the mare she so cared for. “Whatever you want to save me from or stop me from feeling, it’ll never, ever hurt as much as seeing it happen to you.” She looked down at Celestia’s alien, monstrous body and the remains of the grisly meal before her. She thought back to the scar on Celestia’s horn from where Chrysalis had burnt it. She thought back to how she’d felt when Celestia had been taken by Nightmare Moon or the plunderseeds. “It doesn’t matter what it is. I don’t want you to suffer it on my behalf.”
“It’s my choice.” Came Celestia’s answer. “And I choose it for you.”
Twilight read the words slowly, once again, and then took a very, very deep breath. “It’s the wrong choice! And it’s not because I don’t deserve a martyr, though I can tell you I don’t. It’s because I--” Twilight’s voice suddenly dropped. “I lo--” She shook her head, pressed through and soldiered on. As always, her Princess needed her, and that trumped any obstacle. Even her deepest fear. “I love you, Princess Celestia.” She glared out at the rest of the universe, silently daring it to deny the truth of her words. “And I never, ever want to see you suffering on my behalf because you think it will ‘make my life better’. It won’t. Period.”
Celestia looked taken aback at this. She closed her eyes, a pensive look overtaking her for a moment, and then she took the pen to paper with a slow, reluctant pace. She set down the next sheet with a heavy talon. Her note read: “I’m not the pony you think I am.”
Twilight’s ears folded back, her gaze hitting the bed once again. “I…” She sagged, letting her wings droop at this. “I know. I know what I think of you is unrealistic. I know I smooth over your flaws, play up your good points, ignore some of the real you for what I want you to be. I know it and I know it’s weak--But can you blame me? It’s just the natural reaction in my position. It’s--” Twilight saw the look of concern that Celestia was giving her and noted that if she did not find a way to prevent herself from talking she would soon reveal her most treasured and humiliating secret. Thus, she stopped herself from uttering the words that were dangerous and sweet as candy fugu by shoving the proverbial hoof into her mouth. She didn’t fight to hide the blush that was coming so much as dive faceforward into the covers of the bed to obstruct it from Celestia’s undoubtedly curious observation. It came as a surprise, then, when Celestia passed over a note saying “That wasn’t what I meant.” Then came a much more dreaded one. “But tell me more about this.”
Twilight swallowed. “I-I just. No, I can’t.” Twilight shrank away. “Maybe I shouldn’t be here right now.” Celestia pressed her advantage,
“But you want to be.”
“I want you to stop asking me questions.”
“I’m trying to help.”
“It’s not helping.”
“You are hurting yourself. Tell me how to make you stop.”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Twilight’s wings raised in frustration. Celestia sensed the reaction was more born of fear than of anger, but still the words came out hard and aggressive. “Even when I try talking about your personal problems it has to be about me! We can’t go two seconds without something hammering home just how inadequate I am! Can’t I just help you once without needing some sort of correction or assistance or…” Twilight became quiet for a moment. “Maybe that’s what Luna meant.”
Celestia tilted her head.
“She’s said there are things about you that would frustrate me. Well,” Twilight sighed, “she was right. Please, stop sacrificing yourself for me. Stop worrying about me. I’m not worth all this, and, more importantly, we have bigger problems. Problems of yours that trump something silly like what I feel for you. Please.”
Celestia looked like she was going to resist for a minute, then wrote. “Alright. When you’re more comfortable.” She paused. There was something her heart wished for her to add, but her mind pleaded caution. She decided, after a quick look to Twilight’s face and the fear that was in Twilight’s eyes, that caution could be hanged in this case. “You will never make me stop caring about you.”
Twilight looked down at the paper and swallowed. She put her hoof on the cover of Celestia’s writings for the second time that day, this time emphasizing a very different set of words. Instead, Twilight’s hoof hovered over the words. “I’m not the pony you think I am”, and the faithful princess simply shook her head at the idea of Celestia reassuring her this time.
---／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼---
Sweeping was excellent, Spike thought to himself in his mind. When he was sweeping, it felt like he was really part of something for once. He had a home to clean. He had a place that he belonged. His brush ran underneath photos of himself and Twilight, and along the place where Peewee’s nest used to be, and behind bookshelves that held the same tomes he had learned everything he knew about Equestria from. The silent house didn’t seem so empty when his claws were working on holding it together. He picked up Twilight’s discarded books and blueprints and nestled them back into her bookshelf and chest of drawers. He cleaned around the plastic bottles holding vitamins he’d been told to never touch on her counter top and made sure to dust the perfectly symmetrical assortments of ancient texts and writing utensils found along her work desk. He soaked what clothes Twilight had (for he had only one little suit that Rarity had made him the once) despite her keeping them immaculately clean and well-preserved. Years of practice had made him a capable cleaner, and so he made his way to through the assembled chores more quickly than he had imagined. “There.” Spike said to the empty house. “Now we won’t have to listen to that annoying squeaky floorboard ever again.” He smacked his claws together to dislodge the dust and some of the grease from them, then looked around at the state of his house. The places where Twilight would usually be reading or Dash selecting the latest foal’s novel stared out at him, daring him to talk to one of his “friends” about how Twilight wasn’t back yet. The only pony who might even go so far as to call him a friend was the pony he loved, and he wouldn’t be caught dead asking for her to take pity on him if he could help it. Stopping him from destroying the town once was more than he could ever repay her for as it was.
So he looked at the darkening evening sky outside and lit a lamp for himself. He could escape to the world where he was a Power Pony amongst a group of six companions if he wanted to, but instead he chose to read that book of races Twilight had to better himself like she’d told him to. So, with thoughts of a different group of seven materializing in his head, the little dragon set to reading about the relationships between dragons and ponies Twilight had been describing to him before her emergency call. With a lazy slump, the little dragon began to work his way through stories of captured princesses and the long road to peace Princess Celestia had forged with bribes, threats and compromises in the early days of dragon kind. The little drake had no idea, of course, that he was about to uncover the circumstances of his birth, but uncover the circumstances of his birth he soon would.
---／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼---
Twilight sighed. “I’m sorry I interrupted you before. Please, continue.” She settled her wings by her side, folded over her hooves and turned to stare into her mentor’s raptorial eyes.
Celestia grabbed down the paper again, writing out her words in the same rugged lines that she had used before. “You know nothing about my history. Everything I have given you to this point has been mere crumbs, and even then you know much of it was spent fighting cruel despots.” She paused, waiting for Twilight to protest, but it seemed Twilight was willing to carry herself with the patience she had held when the two of them had been student and teacher for the time being. “My life was not so charmed as it is now, and I was not always so quick to forgive.” She wrote at last with a halting, haunted talon. “I am blessed to live in a time when creatures like you are everywhere. I savor it. It was my dream from the start.” She reached out for Twilight for a moment, then pulled the claw back. “Peace did not come easy to Equestria. I ended many tyrannies and atrocities to build the land we have today, and in the process left behind many orphans.” She looked down at the sheets of her bed, then looked into Twilight’s eyes. “The book of races that you own covers many of my transgressions, and lets the reader decide whether they were justified or not. When I saw that you were reading it it sparked my memory of the darker times. So I chose to remind myself of how far I’ve come and what I’ve surrendered for this blessed life. I chose to see through the eyes of one of those lost to time who once stood as my greatest enemies.”
“But why specifically the terror birds? What about them was worth the risk? Why did you need to get inside their minds and not the minotaurs, or the dragons, or any of those old equine species from before our time that are still around?”
Celestia wrote a simple phrase, her eyes casting down in what Twilight could only surmise was some kind of sorrow. She’d never seen such a look on pony Celestia, and terror bird Celestia wore the foreign expression in a way that Twilight could only loosely connect to equine Celestia’s face. Celestia wrote the words slowly, and with purpose. Twilight noticed with a jolt that it was not unlike the way she had looked when eating the fish she had brought to them earlier. She could only imagine, then, that whatever Celestia was writing filled her with some kind of shame and disgust, and perhaps a sense of powerlessness. So Twilight steeled herself, silently vowing that no matter what the words Celestia put into her hooves said she would not think of her any differently.
When she received the words Celestia had written with such shame upon that simple slip of paper, Twilight almost dropped the sheet. Instead, with a set of hooves she had to force not to shake, she set it down and looked away. Celestia did not bother to attempt to touch Twilight, nor comfort her in any way. She knew that in both their eyes she did not deserve such a pleasure at that moment. Twilight at last let the paper fall to the floor, and its words stared out at Celestia with a damning glare from their position so near her dearest companion. To Celestia’s surprise, Twilight reached out a hoof and touched it to her side, the young alicorn’s hooftip pressing down tenderly against her former mentor’s tense and tired body. Still Celestia could not shake the damning sight of the note lying beneath her predator’s body.
“Because I killed them all,” it read.
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Not to say that this story is bad, but I feel it's the perfect example of what I've been saying about this community and it's obsession with romance/shipping. I always joke that there are these stories out there where the romance just seems ridiculously out of place, like there's a big, over-arching plot and globe-trotting adventure... plus a bunch of random ships, but this one just makes me laugh.
"Watch as Celestia and Twilight manage to turn themselves into monstrous raptors and then struggle to both find a cure and clamp down on their newly developed predatory instincts... plus, you know, they fall in love."
What, why? Didn't being turned into giant birds provide enough plot material to where the story wouldn't have to be padded with kissyfaces? God you bronies, you drive me to drink.
Well, at least we can look forward to freaky lesbian bird sex... Wait, darn, it's only teen.
6072597 The story deals with themes involving Spike, Twilight and Celestia as a functional family unit. The story deals with Twilight's behaviour around Celestia and uses Celestia's current utterly dependent and monstrous nature as a comparison and contrast to Twilight's treatment of Celestia as flawless and well above her in every possible way. The story deals with Twilight's attachment to Celestia and Luna's simultaneous contempt for and envy towards the idea of somebody being that incredibly devoted to her herself. These things aren't strictly necessary to have driven by romance, but they catalyze a lot faster that way. And since I'm writing a longer story than the simple premise you described with more in-depth character analysis and worldbuilding, a good and quick catalyst for these bonds (like, say, speculating based upon her past behaviour that Twilight has a clingy and unhealthy crush on Celestia) helps make that happen more dynamically, creating tension. Of course, since you only targeted the description's basic premise (and you inaccurately represented both what was going on and how the romantic element of the story was going to develop while you did so!), the use of romance as a narrative device certainly wouldn't come across to you (at least within the context of your criticism).
But I don't think you'll like it any further pressing forward. You appear to have an especial contempt for Twilestia and possibly even shipfics in general on this website based on comments of yours I've seen on other stories, so I have no doubt you won't enjoy this one anyway. I suggest, mmm, more productive uses of your time. Like, say, reading something you enjoy and not worrying about what other people like? Enjoy your drink, either way.
EDIT: Aaaaaand your response to my reasonable reply and questioning was to downvote the fic. Charming. Ker-blocked.
6072597
Um, buddy? If you don't like bronies, then I feel compelled to ask why you're even here. This site's called fimfiction.net. I kind of figured that the giant pony banners up top would drive the point home.
6072745
And the rest of what I was going to say was summed up much better.
Always glad to see updates of thist fic
Managing to emphasize the difficulties in communication between two beings with such radically different biology and still have them both come across as relatable to a third species reading about it is one heck of a tightrope walk
My only complaint about this chapter is there weren't enough exploding helicopters.
More seriously though - lovely to see an update - there are so many fun ways this could progress.
One of my most favourited stories - I clicked really hard.
I am really enjoying this story. At first my mind wandered many possibilities of where it would be going, but I'm always happy when the paths that attract me the most are not necessarily the one the author chooses. So at this point, I have no idea where the hell you're going with this, but I'm coming along for the ride.
One comment - and I make this only after reading through all chapters so far once - but did you give a solid description of Tia's form? I have to admit my mental image of her is a bit... vague. The TV monitor in my brain shows her looking somewhat like an evil chocobo from Final Fantasy. And is she writing with her feet/talons or arm/talons? Sorry if I just missed the obvious.
Thx!
6073605 Chapter Two has two paragraphs devoted to describing her form at its very start, while Chapter One has a detailed description of the terror birds in general near the middle portion. I don't remember if I wrote down whether or not Tia was using her arms or her legs to write, but it is indeed her arm claws since they are the more prehensile of the two. Either way it's worth reminding people what she looks like and what's going on, so I'll be sure to put another description in an upcoming chapter. Thanks for the catch and I hope you keep enjoying this wild ride!
6073058 6073539
6073411 I've always been fond of challenges. Besides, it's an excuse for me to write about terror birds!
What the actual hell. Fish isn't sentient >_> Why would Celestia guilt-trip over THAT, of all things?
Edit: She's big on guilt-trips in general, I see. To be honest, I'd expect her to deal with the whole 'I killed terror birds' thing about as well as with others. Fix an issue if it's fixable. Write down the info and move on if it isn't (this case). I _honestly_ do not see, why would she feel gulty about it. Granted, she tends to avoid capital punishment, as it were, in general. But a species of natural predators, pretty much tailored to hunting ponies, which cannot be reasoned with (since the same could probably be said about griffons and dragons as well, but they at least sapient and can be negotiated with), there really is only one solution. What's there to be guilty about?
6073868 I guilt trip over eating fish, thank you very much (though for ecologist reasons, not for vegetarian reasons). And I'm not a born and raised vegetarian who has never had to eat another animal and is doing so out of necessity. And I don't live in a world where all animals appear to be semi-sapient from what Fluttershy's menagerie has shown us. Celestia is a being of empathy first and foremost, to my mind. As for the terror birds, I thought it was obvious that they were a race of sentients themselves like griffons and dragons. Sorry if that wasn't clear. Regardless, she committed genocide against them. Why would she not feel guilty about that, even if it was necessary? Celestia beats herself up about preventing her sister from murdering the entire world in the only way she knew how. I imagine she'd feel ashamed about murdering an entire race of sentients, too, even if it was the only way.
EDIT: Also, you're making a metric crapton of assumptions about the terror birds based upon info I've not even touched in the story. I've said nothing about their culture, their relationship with ponies beyond the fact that they were predators of ponies in the prehistoric age or how intelligent they were. If you're going to flip out over something that happened in the story, please make sure you know the full context first and then see.
6074031 I know the context I'm given and assume from there. Such is the nature of headcanon, or worldview in general really. It often forms with a bare minimum of 'objective' facts present and proceeds to shift and adapt as new facts come in. Or it doesn't, but that's a whole different story. My point is, don't bash for assuming something drastically different from your idea. Any kind of involvement in a story/subject/world/life involves filling the gaps with... often, garbage. Sometimes gems.
That said, I honestly expected Celestia to be the only sapient terror bird. You know, the spirit in a different shell? Also, I flipped out about fish :P As you could probably guess, my view of the issue is different. The rest was just suprising.
Also, unless I miss something (?), so far only ground-based lifeforms have been shown to have any kind of sentience. Them being more advanced, and stuff, I assumed the same couldn't be said about fish.
Also. Luna is her sister. The terror birds are the... probably, THE enemies of her little ponies. It's a little different. I always thought the various races coexist, because a) they couldn't destroy each other with any reasonable amount of commitment, so there's a power balance of sorts b) the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts, and they understand it. The terror birds would be unlikely to contribute to the whole... And, apparently, they could be wiped out. So, they were.
I rather like the history you're giving Celestia in this story. While many people think of Celestia as a kind and a benevolent ruler they tend to gloss over how she may have gotten there. She may have been kind her whole life but throughout the show we are given little pieces of a darker history. Discord's reign, Tirek's time, even the Idea of a hell like prison where much of the world's evil is being, and that's only much of, not all. Celestia and her sister have lived a long life and vanquished many foes to believe they vanquished them with rainbows and sunshine doesn't work. I can't remember if it's head cannon or not but the elements of harmony didn't come into play until Discord so how did they defeat all the enemies before him, I can't imagine it was nicely. It's a great way to add not only depth to her but show her normalness by exploring the parts of her past she has had to learn to live with. I look forward to further installments of this story and the blooming relationship between these two glorious princesses, though Luna remains best princess.
6074117 As the book in the earlier part of the story chapter mentioned, the terror birds actually contributed culturally quite a bit to a number of races. Their being gone has formed a gap in nature...as all extinctions do. As for the headcanon, I have no problem with that and in fact and both glad and flattered that you've bothered to do such things for my little story, but it's the complaining about things that you've headcanoned that I am taking issue with. As for Luna being her sister, I do agree that it is different, but at the same time, it's frikkin' genocide. There are veterans of WWII who feel guilty about killing Nazis. And with Tia being as kind a pony as she is, I feel being guilty over all the death and devastation she's had to cause in protecting her people, especially when innocents are involved, is the sort of thing she'd do in any circumstance.
6074178 Ah. I remembered the book mentioning terror birds, ancient extinct... things. And that's it. I do tend to forget the little details easy, I suppose. Well, in that case, ignore me, carry on. This is an interesting ride so far.
6074278 Hope you enjoy it all the way to the end.
Well, they wouldn't stop eating ponies!
So F' them!
Geez, Celestia needs to really get more comfortable with xenocide! When a species is a pest, you EXTERMINATE IT!!!
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6074031 Yep, they were a race of sentient creatures... who wouldn't stop eating ponies. Ya know, that kinda makes it worse for the terror birds. They KNEW the ponies could think and speak, they could comprehend that Celestia was powerful... and they decided to keep eating ponies anyway. And, if they really were close to or as intelligent as the ponies, to keep killing them means THEY ENJOYED IT.
Unless you DO go with Tyrantlestia, we must assume that NONE of the terror birds came bowing humbly to her and begging for forgiveness and swearing never to eat pony again. Instead, what we can assume from the evidence is that they totally ignored the pony WHO MOVED THE DAMNED SUN, flipped her the bird (see what I did there?), and went right on gorging on ponies while laughing at their screams of agony.
I call 'natural selection at work' for what happened to em!
Kinda reminds me of LoTR orcs... not even the nicest guy in their world felt any remorse wiping them the hell out!
6074178 I'm sure there were people in "Independence Day" who felt bad about blowing up the aliens...
... who were planning on killing everything on Earth and leaving the planet a mined out cinder when they were done with it...
But most people ignored that bunch of stoners.
6074031 Fluttershy feeds fish to her ferret friends...
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Ghetto Fluttershy shakes her head at Celestia, "Girl, you SRSLY need to grow up! Circle of life and all that other Disney crap!"
6075310 STOP PREDICTING THE PLOT, DAMMIT!
6075258 As for this, it's also reading things into pony-terror bird relations that aren't actually there. You're thinking it's Independence Day but it's actually Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
6077989 And moviegoers sided with the apes...
I, on the other hand, despise filthy monkeys! Especially those disgusting Saiyans!
*Alondro posts a recent picture of himself...*
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I do believe the photographer managed to catch my good side. Almost makes me regret blowing him and his planet up.
i.imgur.com/7FvcfwH.jpg
We finally get to the meat of the story, and things are just heating up! Things are about to come to a sizzling, searing crescendo! Wait, no, I'm mixing my metaphors. Shit.
GO TEAM?!
This comment touches on the meat of my thoughts that have been building up to this point 6074153 . The idea of carnivorous predator birds with an affinity for tasting pony being extinct and the nature of Celestia (particularly that "how she got there" part) makes that last line more foreshadowed than a surprise. I'm thinking Celestia took her course of actions against the terror birds (really, even she calls them terror birds, I don't see how this is super surprising) in way similar to this story, which comes to mind, and had an "anything for my ponies" mindset that led her to being able to rationalize why this species was worth taking out entirely.
I do like the budding relationship between the two. The non-verbal communication that Celestia must use is also a particularly interesting one, and not a lot of stories utilize that these kinds of transformations can come with handicaps.