Once upon a time, a gifted young alicorn tried to become a witch. Well, we all do stupid things from time to time.
While organising the restricted section of the Canterlot Archives, Twilight stumbles across an old secret, one that Celestia had forgotten about, and Luna had hoped long buried.
Drawn back to the Boiling Isles for the first time in many years, the two find themselves wrapped up once more in old rivalries, conflicts, and the antics of a certain demented owl lady.
Neither Hexside nor Equestria have any idea what's about to hit them.
Princess Twilight inhaled deeply as she stepped into the library's restricted section. The smell of old books sent a flutter through her heart, all the more so now that the dust had been completely cleared away. Spike had really outdone himself with the cleaning.
It had been a little while since Twilight had taken over rulership of Equestria, and she had finally managed to free up enough time in her schedule to start properly organising the restricted section. The place was packed full of ancient books, scrolls and artefacts, and Twilight was looking forward to organising and cataloguing every last bit of it.
Settling in at the first shelf, Twilight levitated her quill and parchment and dove right in.
"I'll get you next time, bring your A game!" Celestia grinned as she trotted up the steps to the house she shared with Luna. The other residents of Silver Shoals were finally getting comfortable with having their former ruler around, enough so that the local buckball team had finally given in and let her play, or rather, given her and the team she joined a very thorough thrashing.
It was a refreshing change of pace.
Reaching the top of the steps, Celestia felt a little fuzzy feeling in her chest at the sight of the cute little two-storey house waiting for her. It was half-timbered, with pale blue walls, white timbers and fittings, and pretty terracotta roof tiles. "Luna, I'm home!" She called as she used her magic to open the front door.
The former princess of the night called out a half-hearted greeting. She was curled up on a huge fuzzy bean bag reading the latest entry of her favourite novel series.
"At a good part?" Celestia asked.
"Very," Luna replied excitedly. "The Suriel let slip about the bond the heroine shares with the High Lord of the Night Court. Now they're in his cabin and I think she's about to give him soup which means-"
Celestia half-listened to Luna's gushing as she trotted into the bathroom and set the bath running. Celestia neither knew nor cared for the series, but she did love hearing her sister talking so happily and so freely.
Leaving the taps to run, Celestia walked back to the room with her sister and headed for her own squashy cushion. Just before she sat down a wisp of glittering green magic floated in through the window, stopping in front of her and re-materialising into a scroll with a loud pop.
"Is that a message from Twilight?" Luna asked, her voice tinged with a mixture of curiosity and caution.
"I think so." Celestia quickly levitated the scroll and unrolled it with her magic. Usually, the sisters and Twilight corresponded with letters through the regular post service, something Luna was endlessly amused by. A scroll sent through magic like this probably meant that something was wrong.
"It's addressed to both of us." Celestia cleared her throat and read out, "Dear Celestia and Luna. I apologize for contacting you urgently like this, but I was organizing the restricted section of the library when I encountered something odd."
Luna groaned and dropped her head to the bean bag with a loud whump. "Great. So she's either found some boring old tome and wants to talk about it immediately, or she's found something dark and dangerous that you forgot to tell her about, like your old diaries."
"Don't be ridiculous, there's nothing dangerous left in that library, and my diaries are kept in a much more secure place than that." Celestia huffed and turned her attention back to the scrol. "Specifically, I discovered an old bronze key under the bust of Gusty the Great." A strange sense of foreboding washed over Celestia, though she didn't have the foggiest idea why. "When I picked it up in my magic, I think I accidentally activated it somehow, because it immediately turned into a d-."
Celestia snapped her mouth shut as she realized exactly where the feeling of foreboding came from. Reading on silently, her worst fears were rapidly confirmed. Uh oh. Luna isn't going to be happy. Ugh, I hate it when she's right.
Glancing at her sister, Celestia saw that Luna, unfortunately, had noticed her sudden silence. "Well? What horrid item did you forget about?"
"I-I didn't forget about anything, Twilight just found a relic from our old castle in the Everfree." Celestia rolled up the scroll and tucked it under a wing as she stood up. "Well, I'll just go and see what she's found. It's probably just some old piece of trash or something. Won't be long."
She almost made it to the door, and for a moment Celestia hoped that she was off the hook, but the moment her magic gripped the doorknob Luna pulled her back with a firm, "Tia."
Celestia gulped and looked over her shoulder, trying to feign complete innocence. "Yes, dear sister?"
"You're out of practice, Tia, your poker face is worse than Twilight's," Luna said flatly. "Now, am I going to have to write to Twilight myself to find out what she has stumbled upon, or are you going to stop lying to me?"
Caught out, Celestia grimaced and turned back around, coughing into a wing. "So, well, do you remember, back when we still lived in the Everfree, the old relic room where we stored our more… 'unusual' acquisitions?"
"Yes," Luna replied evenly.
Celestia avoided looking her in the eye. "Do you also remember the key we found? The one with the eye in it that, er… opened a certain… doorway?"
"Oh, no." Luna rubbed her temples with her hooves. "Please don't tell me that you were stupid enough to try and hide that thing in the restricted section. You told me that you had destroyed it!"
"I was going to!" Celestia shot. "I just… couldn't quite bring myself to do it."
"Of course you couldn't," Luna muttered. "At least tell me your former pupil displayed more sense than you and left it well enough alone, or, better still, wiped the thing from existence?"
Celestia winced and shook her head. "Um, no. When she realized that the doorway was a portal she tried going through it and... well, she saw the other side, and now she wants an explanation."
"Fantastic," Luna muttered sarcastically. She gave a resigned sigh and stood up, stretching her wings and saving her page with a bookmark. "Fine, I suppose we had better go and tell her what we know. We certainly can't let her go wandering around the Boiling Isles without some kind of warning."
Celestia felt oddly as if her doom was drawing closer with every hoofstep. She had walked the halls of Canterlot castle so many thousands of times, and been to the restricted section more times than she could count, but never before had she felt such a sense of foreboding.
"Oh, relax, Tia," Luna said in exasperation. "We'll just explain what the Boiling Isles, and let her know how dangerous they are. That'll be explanation enough for why we never told her about them."
"Yes, but what about everything that happened while we were there?" Celestia worried aloud. "What about everything we did?"
Luna rolled her eyes. "That was all a thousand years ago. None of our, ahem, misadventures, will still be remembered, and it's almost certain that no creature will still be alive to tell the tale either way, so don't worry about it."
"Hmm, I suppose you're right," Celestia replied quietly, though she wasn't entirely reassured.
Opening the door to the restricted section, the two sisters slowly descended the stairs, marvelling at how clean and shiny their surroundings were. Spike really had outdone himself with the cleaning.
At the bottom of the stairs, Princess Twilight was pacing around in circles. A wooden door stood incongruously in the middle of the room, intricate carvings covering all of its surface save for a glowing yellow eye in the top panel.
"Celestia, Luna! Am I glad to see you!" Twilight beamed as she spotted the two. "Thanks for coming on such short notice."
"It's quite alright, Twilight," Celestia said genially. "How are you feeling? You weren't injured, were you?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, I was just shocked, is all. I was going to take a look around myself, to be honest, but I saw some very strange creatures around and decided that I would ask the two of you about it, first."
"A wise decision. The Boiling Isles are not a place to take lightly," Luna put in.
"The Boiling Isles?" Twilight cocked her head to the side curiously. "That's what that place is called?"
Celestia nodded, glancing warily at the door. "They're a dark and dangerous place. The island itself is formed from the ancient corpse of an immense Titan."
"The island is a giant dead body?!" Twilight asked, horrified.
"It has been dead for longer than any of us have been alive," Luna assured her. "It's size is so great that entire ecosystems have formed in and on different parts of its body. There are even whole towns and cities of sapient beings built all over the place, you may have seen one of them during your brief visit there, yourself."
Twilight shook her head vigorously. "The portal opened onto the top of a cliff looking out over the sea. I would have looked around, but some giant creature with the body of a lion and the head of a pigeon flew down and vomited huge spiders all over the place, so… I kinda bailed." She giggled nervously.
"Hm, that would be a Griffon," Luna said. In response to Twilight's stunned look, she explained, "There are many creatures in the Boiling Isles that share a name with beings from Equestria and the surrounding lands, but most of them bear only the most passing resemblance to those of this world."
"So I noticed." Twilight glanced back at the door. "I have to admit, this does provide an incredible research opportunity, but why did you leave the key here in the restricted section?"
Celestia couldn't meet her eyes. "There were some, ahem, unusual circumstances. We decided that it would be better to close the portal for a while. Luna and I had our little… disagreement a few years later, and it just never felt right going back without her."
"Personally, I was under the impression that the portal had been destroyed, rather than just hidden," Luna grumbled, earning a glare from Celestia.
Twilight didn't seem to grasp the subtext, as she simply beamed at the two. "That's great! The three of us can all go together, you can be my guides!"
The sense of foreboding returned to Celestia in full force. "That sounds lovely, but maybe just Luna and I should go, and we'll write down everything we find for you. After all, I'm sure that you're very busy these days."
Unfortunately, her heart sank as Twilight scoffed and waved a hoof. "Nah, I've prepared things so I can take a few days off right now. All I have to do is make sure I pop back long enough to sort out the sun and moon twice a day."
"What if there's an emergency?" Celestia asked, almost desperately.
Twilight levitated a set of saddlebags and slung them over her back. "I've got a pair of those times you made for Sunset Shimmer. Starlight has the partner for one, and Spike has the partner for the other. I made sure to prepare for any eventuality!"
Luna smirked as Celestia struggled to subtly come up with another reason to keep her former protégé from going back to the Boiling Isles. "I'm sure we can have a quick look around wherever the door comes out. We can always make preparations for a longer stay at a later date."
Seeing that she had no way out of this, Celestia resigned herself to her fate. "When do you want to go?"
"Right now!" Twilight replied eagerly.
"Of course you do." Celestia sighed and glanced at Luna, hoping for some last minute aid, but her sister just gave her a look as if to say, 'stop stalling and get on with it'. Sighing again, Celestia turned to the door. "Alright, let's see how the Isles have changed." Without giving herself a chance to reconsider, she closed her eyes, then grabbed the doorknob in her magic and pulled it wide, stepping through before she could change her mind.
The first thing that Celestia noticed was the salty tang of the sea on the breeze. She slowly cracked her eyes open, and found herself looking out over the edge of a cliff. Far below, the sea stretched out over the horizon, the sun sparkling off the waves like a glittering carpet of diamonds.
It was enough to take Celestia's breath away.
There was a soft clopping of hooves as the other two joined her, and Luna let out a soft gasp. "I had forgotten how beautiful this world can be." An immense purple hand suddenly reached up from the water, several miles out, followed immediately by a giant green tentacle that wrapped around the arm and forcefully dragged it back beneath the waves. "Ugh, and how utterly random and bizarre it can be."
"What were those things?" Twilight asked fearfully.
Celestia shrugged. "One thing you'll learn quickly, here in the Boiling Isles: If something isn't directly bothering you, don't bother it."
Luna chuckled softly. "I must say, being here again like this, looking out across the sea, it almost feels like no time has passed at all."
Frankly, the promise that a thousand years had gone by was the only thing keeping Celestia calm at the moment, though she couldn't help a faint sense of melancholy at the knowledge that all of her old friends had long since passed. Taking a deep breath, Celestia allowed herself to savour the crisp sea air for a moment, before letting it back out and shaking her head. "Come, let us see if any semblance of civilization has survived through the last millennium."
"Dios mio!" A voice cried out.
"Or we could wait for someone to find us," Luna muttered. The three princesses turned to look for whoever had seen them.
Celestia had a brief glimpse of tightly packed trees, then she yelped and almost leaped back off the cliff as she realized that someone was standing right next to her.
The girl had light brown skin, dark brown hair, and was wearing a distinctive grey tunic. Her eyes were big, brown, and practically popping out of their sockets as she stared at the three alicorns. "So… cute!"
The girl looked as if Hearth's Warming had come early. "Oh my gosh, you can talk!" She darted forward and slid on her knees, coming to a perfect stop inches away from a very startled purple princess. Even sitting on her heels, the girl was barely an inch shorter than Twilight. "Are you a Pegasus? Wait, you have a horn as well, does that make you a unicorn? A pegacorn? A unisus?"
She reached out with a hand, which Twilight gently pushed away with her hoof. "Actually, we're called alicorns. But how-"
Any further words were cut off as two hands smooshed her cheeks. "Oh, you're so cute! And you!" The girl darted to Luna. "You're so cute and dark and blue! You're like a cuddly little ball of night rolled up into a giant plushie!"
Luna tried to glare, but the blush on her cheeks ruined the effect slightly. "I am not a plushie."
"Awww, you're just like King!" Celestia giggled at her embarrassment, then bit back a yelp as the girl suddenly appeared in front of her. Celestia's height meant the girl had to stand to look her in the eye, but that didn't dampen her enthusiasm in the slightest. "And look at you! Cute, but majestic! Soft, but so strong! You're-"
"Charmed, I'm sure," Celestia interrupted, picking the girl up in her magic and plonking her back down at a distance less offensive to personal space. "My name is Celestia, and this is my little sister, Luna, and my close friend, Twilight. To answer your question, Twilight, this young lady isn't a human, she's a witch."
"Actually, I'm both!" The girl tapped her ears. Celestia realised with a jolt that they were small and round, utterly unlike the pointed protrusions witches had. Seeing her surprise, the girl grinned and threw her arms wide. "Behold, I am Luz the Human, witch-in-training!" She quickly stuffed a hand in her pocket and tossed out a handful of colourful shredded paper with a half-whispered, "Confetti!"
Celestia stared at her in mute shock. She had heard stories about humans before, from both Twilight and the legends of the Boiling Isles themselves, but she had never expected to actually meet one, let alone one that was training to be a witch. "How is this possible? Humans can't train to be witches, they don't even have magic?!"
"That's what's impossible?" Twilight exclaimed loudly. "What about the fact that we're still in pony form?! Why didn't the portal change us like the portal to CHS does?!"
Luz looked from one to the other of them curiously. "Well, to answer your question, my magic isn't normal," she said to Celestia. "You're right that humans don't have their own magic, but I found another way of casting spells. So far, I've learned two! As for yours..." She turned to Twilight and opened her mouth to say something, then closed it with an expression of mild confusion. "I have no idea. I don't know anything about portals, but I do know someone who does!"
"I don't know, this all seems fairly suspicious," Celestia said, giving Luz a scrutinising look. Her grey tunic was familiar, but Celestia couldn't quite put her hoof on why.
"I'm not suspicious at all!" Luz replied earnestly, though her face fell a second later. "The person I'm taking you to see on the other hand… uh…" She stared blankly into space for a moment as she thought. "I'm sure it'll be fine! Just make sure you keep your money safe, and be careful where you sit. Oh, and don't touch her staff."
"Who exactly is this person?" Luna asked.
"She's my mentor as a witch! She's… um…" Luz suddenly gave the three a suspicious look. "Are any of you part of the Emperor's Coven?"
"The Emperor's Coven still exists?" Luna asked in surprise.
Celestia sighed heavily. "Of course they do," she muttered sarcastically. Those glorified tyrants caused us all manner of grief when we first came here. It only makes sense that they'd still be around when we got back."
"So… not friendly with the Emperor's Coven, got it. You and Eda should get along just fine!" Luz said brightly. She turned away and gestured for the trio to follow. "Come on, I'll show you where we live!"
Luz scarpered towards the treeline, but stopped when she realised that the others weren't following. "Come on, it's this way!"
"What do you think, Luna?" Celestia asked quietly.
Luna shrugged. "We may as well follow her. She doesn't seem malicious herself, and her mentor should have more information about how things stand on the Isles these days. The fact that they're no friend of the Emperor's Coven works in our favour as well."
"I suppose that's true," Celestia agreed.
Twilight gave her a chiding look. "Aren't you the one who told me that I should try making friends in the first place? Why are you so suspicious?"
"Because the last time we were here, the magic of friendship did us very little good," Luna explained. "Mayhaps things have changed, but most of the inhabitants were more concerned with dominating and exploiting each other than helping each other. Keep your guard up."
"I'll be careful." Twilight started to trot after Luz, calling back over her shoulder as.she went, "But I'm still going to try and make as many friends as I can."
The two sisters shared a look that was half worried and half exasperated. "She's your former student," Luna said pointedly. "And that determination to find the best in creatures is why we made- ahem, let her take over Equestria in the first place."
Celestia sighed in defeat as the two of them followed Twilight and Luz.
Navigating through the trees, the small group finally came out into a wide clearing. The word 'house' was probably the closest fit for the building that dominated the clearing. It had white walls, grey slate roofing, and was dotted with stained glass windows of all different sizes, topped with a large circular one on the top floor that resembled an eye. For some bizarre reason, it also had a tower keep and stone walls around the back, as if it had been built around the ruins of a castle at some point.
An old woman was standing in front of the house, surrounded by heaped piles of trash. She had incredibly pale skin, a wild mess of thick grey hair, a long and heavily torn red dress with matching high-heeled boots, and, to Celestia's vague relief, the typical pointy ears of an ordinary witch. Unfortunately, she was clearly completely barking mad, as evidenced by the fact that she was engaged in a spirited argument with her own front door.
"Eda!" Luz waved as the witch turned around.
"Hey, Luz, I thought you didn't want to stay for the treasure sorting?" The witch grimaced as she spotted the alicorns. "Oh, for the- Luz, what have I told you about bringing weird creatures back here? Remember what happened with the barking toad?"
Luz held up her hands placatingly. "I remember! It's fine, I'm at least fifty percent sure that these ones won't explode and cover everything in deadly poisons. Besides, they were talking about portals so I figured you might be able to help them."
Taking that as her cue, Twilight stepped forward and placed a hoof on her chest. "Good afternoon, I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle."
Eda snorted loudly. "Seriously? What, was Queen Cutiepuff already taken?"
"It's nice to see that the Boiling Isles haven't changed much," Celestia muttered.
"And what are your names?" Eda asked Celestia and Luna with a snigger. "Candymane and Inkbutt?" She frowned as she took a closer at the pair. "Hold on a second… you two look familiar." She stared at them with a contemplative expression. "I don't owe you money, do I?"
"Not as far as we're aware," Celestia replied.
Eda nodded with a smile. "That's a relief. I was about to jump in the house and let Hooty deal with you."
"Yay! I'm being included!" A voice called out. Looking at the door, Celestia was surprised to see an owl's face embedded in it. The owl beamed as it realized that it was getting attention. "I like being included in conversations. Do you want to know if I owe anyone money?"
"You don't have any money to owe to anyone," Eda shot. "Now shut up, there's enough nutjobs in this gathering without you getting involved."
Twilight winced at the casual cruelty. "Uh, isn't that a little harsh? He only wants to- wah?!" She backed up a step as the owl face suddenly extended on a bizarre wooden tentacle until it was pressed up against her cheek."
"See? She gets me!" Hooty started wrapping his odd tentacle body around Twilight, rubbing his cheek against hers as he did so. "You're my new best friend! We're going to talk for hours, and hours, and hours, and hours, and hours, and hours-"
"Shut up, Hooty!" Eda slapped the tentacle, prompting Hooty to drop Twilight and retract himself, offering up a choice selection of irritated retorts until he was settled back in his door. "That's what you get for encouraging him," Eda said, planting her hands on her hips. "So, you want to learn about portals, huh?"
Celestia glanced at Twilight, who was still recovering from being assaulted by a living door. "Actually, Luna and I were hoping to learn a little about the current political and social climate of the Boiling Isles, if possible. It has been quite some time since we were last here."
"Luna?" Eda blinked in surprise. "Hold on a second, does that mean that you're Celestia?" Celestia's blood ran cold as Eda's eyes widened and she broke out into an ecstatic grin. "Now I know why you look familiar, they still have your old wanted posters in the Conformitorium! You're Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon! The Demon Sisters of Hexside!"
Celestia stood, paralyzed on the spot. She had never expected that any evidence of her and Luna's past misdeeds still existed, let alone that someone would recognise them from old wanted posters.
Naturally, Twilight was practically radiating shock and curiosity, not that Celestia could blame her. Glancing sidelong at Luna, she saw that her sister was just as stunned as she was.
"Whoa…" Luz looked at Celestia and Luna with an awestruck expression. "Those names are awesome! How come they call you Daybreaker? Is it because your magic is as radiant as the dawning sun?" She circled her arms as if imitating a rising sun.
Eda snorted. "Nope, it's because she literally broke daytime. The Boiling Isles were pitch dark for like four days afterwards."
Celestia huffed and looked away in embarrassment, pointedly avoiding avoiding Twilight's piercing gaze. "It wasn't deliberate. I thought the sun was just like Equestria's, but it got stuck. I wriggled it loose again as quickly as I possibly could."
"Yep, and almost caused a mass extinction in the process!" Eda added proudly. "Half of the Boiling Isles started to freeze over before the sun finally popped back up, then the ice melted so fast we had a spate of flash floods all over the place. That summer was wild!"
Quietly pondering just how old Eda was to remember that particular incident, Celestia was spared further embarrassment as Luz turned her attention to Luna. "So… why Nightmare Moon? Did you give the moon nightmares or something?"
"You know, I don't actually know that, either," Eda put in. "I heard some Emperor's Coven mooks calling you that, but I got a clipped ear for asking about it. Took weeks for it to grow back."
Luna grimaced, glaring at the witch in stony silence.
Celestia smirked. "Wasn't it because-"
"Don't you dare."
"-your girlfriend dumped you and-"
"Shut up, Tia."
"-you decided to use the moon to-"
"So help me I will tell Twilight about your ex-boyfriend if you don't seal your trap this instant!"
Celestia's mouth snapped shut. She didn't particularly mind Twilight knowing that she had once had a boyfriend on the Isles, not given that he had certainly been dead for centuries, but Luna knew just enough about what the pair had gotten up to to shatter Twilight's image of the elder like glass. That, and what little Luna did know was still embarrassing in the extreme, and while Celestia had a whole mountain of dirt she could dish on her little sister, that wasn't a battle that either of them would walk away from with their head held high.
Speaking of Twilight, the young ruler's insistent stare, or, more accurately, glare, was getting harder and harder to ignore. Thankfully, hard didn't mean impossible.
"Whoa, a little tension between sisters, huh?" Eda waved a hand dismissively. "Believe me, I know the feeling. I can't count the number of times me and my sister have gone at it like lunatics." She sighed and smiled nostalgically. "That's what families are for. Anyway, enough mushy crap." Eda jerked a thumb towards the house. "Come on in, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, as long as you tell me how you pulled off some of the insane stuff I've heard over the years."
Eager to prolong the interrogation that she knew was coming, Celestia readily agreed, already mentally calculating just how much she could downplay or outright deny whatever Eda had heard about them. "That sounds like a marvelous idea! Let's all go-"
"Actually, if it's not a problem, I just need to have a quick chat with my friends first," Twilight cut in, her tone deceptively, and disturbingly, light and cheerful.
"Sure thing, kid. I'll see if I can scrounge up some food while you do your thing." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she walked towards the house. "I wonder if we still have any of the fat left from that trash slug?"
Hooty opened the door as she approached. Luz waved enthusiastically before following, the door closing behind her and leaving Celestia and Luna to their misery.
Realizing that she could put off the inevitable no longer, Celestia turned to face Twilight. The younger princess had a frosty glare on her face that Celestia suspected could send a terrified shiver down the spine of any student. It was certainly enough to give Celestia herself pause.
"Care to explain yourself?" Twilight said quietly.
Celestia coughed delicately. "Well, um… where should I begin?"
"Oh, I don't know," Twilight said sarcastically. "How about we start with why she called you Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon?!"
The sudden usage of the Royal Canterlot Voice was a considerable shock to Celestia, both intellectually and audibly. With the benefit of hindsight, or rather, the thirty or so seconds she was stuck waiting for her hearing to return, she realized that it was probably only natural.
"I understand your concern, Twilight, but I assure you, back then, they were nothing more than nicknames," Luna said in a placating tone. "It was only much later, decades later, in fact, that I would use the moniker again in my jealous bid for power."
"And the wanted posters?" Twilight asked sharply, not dissuaded for an instant.
Celestia sighed. "There was a group, the Emperor's Coven, who were trying to enforce their rule over the rest of the Boiling Isles. They forced the other inhabitants to restrict and bind their magic when they came of age, only permitting them to use one type of magic for the rest of their lives." She gave Twilight a serious look. "I think you of all ponies will understand when I tell you that Luna and I flatly refused to follow that silly rule."
"Technically, we would have been fine if we had joined the Emperor's Coven, as they permit their members alone to use the full spectrum of magic," Luna explained. "However, given that the Emperor's Coven largely uses their freedom to oppress others, we felt that joining them wasn't something we could stomach. Thus, we became renegades."
"Renegades is a strong way of putting it," Celestia said quickly. "We were more… um… what's the word I'm looking for... activists?" Twilight still didn't look convinced, so Celestia just sighed and said bluntly, "Look, we were only a little older than you at the time, and we did a few things we regret. We all do dumb things every now and again. You should know that as well as I."
That finally seemed enough to mollify Twilight. "I… um… suppose we do." She blushed and rubbed her neck awkwardly, and Celestia if the young princess was remembering the times she herself had done something dumb in the heat of the moment. "So… you both had special someponies here?"
Celestia blushed. "I had one, yes, a long time ago. Luna had several."
"Not all at the same time!" Luna cut in a little too quickly. Clearing her throat, she gestured towards the house. "A-anyway, we shouldn't keep our new acquaintances waiting."
"Good point." Celestia took a step towards the house, then paused and gave Twilight a wary look. "Um… I would be very grateful if you could keep an open mind while we're here."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Why do I get the feeling that the two of you have a long and sordid past here that would make Discord blush?" The elder pair gave her looks that were entirely innocent and not at all guilty as sin itself, getting a resigned sigh in response. "Fine. I'll keep an open mind, but we're discussing those wanted posters in great detail when we get back to Equestria." She frowned as a thought occurred to her. "They aren't going to cause us any problems while we're here, are they?"
"Of course not," Celestia replied sincerely. "It was a thousand years ago, I doubt anyone other than Eda even remembers us."
Celestia wasn't sure whether she should knock or not. Hooty just stared blankly at her, not helping matters in the slightest. She had assumed, given that he knew the three princesses wanted to go inside, that he would simply open the door and let them pass, but he seemed to be waiting for something.
Either that or Hooty really was just as dumb as he looked.
"Are you going to let us in, or not?" Luna asked roughly.
"Okay, hoot!" Hooty clicked his beak and the door swung inward. Celestia sighed inwardly at Luna's boorishness, more due to the fact that it was actually necessary on occasions like this than any other reason, and stepped inside.
The room had seen better days. Or, maybe it hadn't, and it was always this much of a mess. Either way, the place looked like a cross between a half-repaired bomb site and the cell of a deranged hoarder.
A once-luxurious red fainting couch sat against one wall, surrounded by piles of odd collectibles, bric-a-brac and junk, ranging from hockey sticks and bowling balls to broken old radios and what appeared to be some sort of stripped-down combustion engine. A huge pair of red curtains was tied back behind the couch, displaying even more items mounted on the wall. A huge wanted poster bearing a stylized image of Eda together with some small black demon took pride of place. Tucked in the corner was another poster, this one of Luz with the words BANNED written in scarlet capitals across the bottom.
"Hey!" Luz called brightly as she hurried through a door in the corner. She had swapped her uniform for a pair of high-waisted jean shorts, black leggings, and a white-and-blue hoodie. "Welcome to the-ow!"
"Welcome to the Owl House!" Eda exclaimed, throwing her arms wide and apparently glossing over the fact that she had just swatted Luz with a ladle.
"Er, thanks for having us?" Twilight replied uneasily.
Eda laughed and waved a hand dismissively. "What, are you kidding? There's no way I'd turn away Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon! You two were my idols back when I was in Hexside!"
"Hexside school still stands, then?" Celestia asked, surprised.
"Unfortunately, yes," Eda huffed. "Still, I suppose I can't complain too much." She jerked a thumb at Luz. "At least they're giving this little mess a good enough education that she won't end up like Hooty or King."
"I resent that!" A squeaky voice snapped. Celestia watched in surprise as a tiny humanoid creature, barely as tall as Luz's hips, scampered into the room. He had pitch-black skin, and had a head that resembled a horned wolf's skull, albeit with one broken horn and missing its lower jaw. Either that or the little creature just had a very odd fashion sense. The creature pointed a clawed, damning finger at Eda. "You know damn well that Hooty's intellect is way beneath mine!"
"Pffft, as if Hooty even has an intellect," Eda grumbled.
The creature cocked its head as he spotted the visitors. "Who the heck are these guys?"
Eda gave him a look that was almost smug. "They're guests from out of town. King, meet Princess Sparklepants-"
"Twilight Sparkle," Twilight put in sharply.
"Like that's any better," Eda mumbled. "And this one is Celestia." She jerked a thumb at the alicorn in question. "You might know her as Daybreaker."
King's eyes widened. "Daybreaker? But that means..." He glanced briefly at Celestia, but his gaze slid swiftly to Luna. "NIGHTMARE MOON?!" Luna squawked in surprise as King darted over to her and clasped his arms and legs around her foreleg. "MY HERO!" He squealed.
"Wha- ew, get it off!" Luna flailed her forelimb wildly until she managed to flick off the offending creature. King sailed through the air until he slammed into a wall with a worrying wham and dropped out of sight behind the couch.
The three alicorns stepped forward in concern, but King hopped up onto the back of the sofa, apparently unfazed, and stared at Luna with a look that could only be described as rapturous. "Terrifying majesty and callous cruelty. You truly are the Nightmare Moon of my dreams!"
"Great, another tiny fan," Luna grumbled, though she didn't look particularly bothered now that the limpet had been detached.
"Can we expect any more, er, guests?" Celestia asked.
"I don't think so," Eda replied. "No-one else lives here, unless Luz has dragged back another pathetic creature to try and cuddle at night."
"Not recently!" Luz said, snapping a salute.
Eda gave her a suspicious look, but Luz just stared at her innocently until she gave up and dropped into the sofa. "Alright, this is everyone! Okay, Sparklebutt, what did you wanna know about portals?"
"I am not Sp- oh, forget it." Twilight pressed a hoof to her chest as she breathed in, then held it out as she exhaled, performing the simple breathing exercise that Cadence had taught her. "First of all, I'm trying to figure out how it's possible for there to be humans and unicorns in this world at the same time. The last time I went through a portal to a human world, it transformed us into humans."
Eda frowned and hummed as she thought. "I'm guessing that your human world doesn't have any magic at all of its own?"
"None whatsoever," Twilight replied. "Not do they have unicorns, pegasi, or alicorns such as ourselves."
"I figured as much." Eda nodded, as if something had clicked into place. "Luz' home doesn't have magic either, but whenever a witch like me visits we take our magic with us. Maybe it's something like that? After all, the Boiling Isles does have unicorns, so the portal doesn't transform you?"
"It's possible," Twilight conceded. "But how do you keep your magic in a world that doesn't have any? Whenever I've been to a human world, magic completely disappears."
Eda waved a hand dismissively. "I told you, we take our magic with us, literally. Every witch has a bile sac attached to our heart that produces magic. Where does your magic come from?"
"Every creature in Equestria gets their magic from the environment, and our connection to it," Twilight replied. She rubbed a hoof under her chin contemplatively. "I suppose that actually explains the situation pretty well. We stay in our ordinary forms here because the Boiling Isles has enough magic for us to draw from. It's not Equestrian, but it does the job."
"That makes sense," Celestia added. "I always was able to use my own spells as well as some of the native witch spells."
Eda grinned and leaned forward. "You didn't just use our spells, if I remember rightly. Didn't you both used to transform your bodies into witch-forms as well?"
Twilight's head whipped around, her eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. "You can use transformation spells?!"
Celestia could hardly blame her for being surprised. Back in Equestria, such spells were so difficult and dangerous that only the very highest level of unicorn could cast a full-body transformation. Only the changelings had the ability to change themselves into an entirely different form for extended periods of time. Here in the Boiling Isles, however…
"I suppose this is where we show her how it's done?" Luna asked.
Celestia nodded. In unison, the elder princesses ignited their horns and drew circles in the air above themselves, Celestia's magic glowing golden, Luna's a deep blue. With a flick, each circle sank over its respective owner, and the princesses called out, "Polymorph!"
It had been an age since Celestia had last used a polymorph spell, but the magic still worked just as she remembered. Tentatively, she opened her eyes.
The others were staring at the sisters in amazement. Glancing around, Celestia caught a glance of herself in a mirror, and she had to admit that she couldn't blame them.
Celestia now stood on two legs, a good six inches taller even than Eda. Her skin was now as white as her fur, her hair still rippled in an invisible breeze beneath her crown, and she still had pointy ears, though now they were closer to those of a witch. Her peytral was now closer to an elaborate torque, and her body was swathed in an elegant knee-length white dress, cinched at the waist with a golden chain. Comfortable sandals protected her feet, with light leather straps tied in elaborate knots up to her knees. In her hands, Celestia clasped a simple white staff, inlaid with gold filigree and topped with her own horn.
"It has certainly been a while since we took these forms," Luna said with a trace of nostalgia. Turning, Celestia couldn't help but smile at the sight of her sister.
Luna was wearing a loose tunic made of dark blue silk, with a matching skirt that had narrow slits up the sides that reached all the way to the tops of her thighs. A platinum chain-link belt sat low on her hips, its weight keeping the slits of the skirt from shifting around enough to expose anything too racy. Luna's regalia had changed too, her crown sitting proudly on her fluttering night-sky hair while her peytral had turned into an intricate medallion that rested just below her collarbone. Midnight blue sandals adorned her feet. Her own staff was black with silver filigree, again topped with her own horn.
"Classy as ever, I see," Celestia sniped.
Luna snorted. "That's rich, after what you were arrested for last time we were here."
"So were you!" Celestia countered. "Twice!"
"Pot, Kettle," Luna said flatly.
Celestia rolled her eyes, only to notice that Twilight was staring at her with bulging eyes. Aaand here we go.
"Transformation spells? Arrests? Human forms?" Twilight listed incredulously. "Why in the name of Starswirl's bells didn't you tell me about any of this?!"
"It was a very long time ago, Twilight," Celestia replied. Determined not to answer too many questions just yet, largely because she didn't want an audience for Twilight's inevitable apoplexy when certain facts came to light, Celestia turned to Eda. "Satisfied?"
Eda grinned. "Not as satisfied as I'll be when you meet Lilith. The look on her face is gonna be priceless!"
"Lilith, your sister?" Twilight asked.
"Yep!" Eda said brightly.
Celestia sighed. "Let me guess, she will also recognise us?"
"Oh, absolutely!" Eda planted her thumb and forefinger under her chin. "In fact, that gives me an idea. How about we all take a walk into town? That way, you can see how the Boiling Isles has changed for yourself, and we can talk more along the way."
"Oh! Oh! Can I come too?" Luz asked, waving her hand in the air frantically.
"Sure, why not," Eda said brightly. "What about you, King? Are you coming?"
King squealed and looked up at Luna. "I'm coming! Can I ride on your shoulders?"
"Not a chance," Luna replied bluntly.
"You can ride on my shoulders if you want, King," Luz told him.
King sighed and scrambled up her legs and torso until he was perched on her shoulders like a toddler. "Your shoulders are inferior, but I guess they'll do."
"Okay, if we're all ready, let's head out!" Eda said brightly.
"Hold on!" Twilight cut in. "I want to try out that transformation spell."
Celestia shook her head. "That spell is more than a little complicated, Twilight. It took me years of study to-"
Utterly ignoring the warning, Twilight ignited her horn and drew a purple circle in the air. "Polymorph!"
A blinding purple flash filled the room.
Celestia blinked to try and clear her eyes. As her vision cleared, a bizarre sight slowly swam into focus.
Twilight was standing in the middle of the room. She was in a near-perfect human form, wearing a purple skirt embroidered with her Cutie Mark, a pale blue blouse, purple and pink leg warmers, simple black shoes, and a small golden crown. The only parts of Twilight's anatomy that truly stood out as strange, apart from her colouration, were the set of feathery wings sprouting from her back and the unicorn still poking out of her forehead.
"Almost," Twilight huffed, planting her hands on her hips. "I didn't quite manage to get the staff part right."
Waves of shock, awe, and, she hated to admit it to herself, jealousy crashed through Celestia. It had taken her weeks to learn how to do a decent polymorph spell in the Burning Isles, and Twilight had somehow managed to do it off the cuff. Of course, Twilight was a magical prodigy, but she still shouldn't have picked it up that easily.
"Impressive," Luna said, inspecting the younger Princess with a critical eye. "How did you manage to replicate the spell so well?"
"It was pretty simple, really," Twilight replied, driving a stake into Celestia's heart. "It somewhat resembles changeling magic, so I just used what I know of that while concentrating on the form I usually take when I enter the other human world."
Celestia barely managed to keep her jaw from dropping. Intellectually, she knew that the only reason that Twilight was neither as powerful or as skilled as her was the thousand years of experience between them. Emotionally, however, this was the first time Celestia had been trounced by experience since she had been a filly learning from Starswirl. She was proud that her student was so incredibly skilled, of course, but it still stung a little being upstaged so easily.
By the time Twilight reached Starswirl's age, she would truly be a force to be reckoned with. Celestia didn't even want to imagine how powerful she would be after a thousand years. Even Discord would have to tread carefully.
"How exactly did you get the staff bit to work?" Twilight asked.
Celestia let out a soft sigh. "I'll teach you later. Come on, let's head into town."
"So, how did you manage to break out of Belos' personal dungeon?" Eda asked.
Celestia fought back an irritated sigh. Eda had kept up a stream of such questions as they walked through the woods. "Simple, really. Belos didn't expect anyone to be able to do it, so he wasn't paying enough attention."
"Hah! Classic!" Eda grinned, apparently satisfied with yet another non-answer. Celestia had been struggling to deflect or avoid truly answering every question she possibly could, at least while Twilight was in earshot.
Thankfully, Luna and King were doing a good job of keeping Twilight occupied, largely because King was keeping up an endless stream of comments about how absolutely amazing and depraved Luna was. Celestia would actually find it hilarious if she wasn't getting grilled herself.
"If I may, where exactly are we going?" Celestia asked, interrupting yet another probing question.
Eda didn't seem to mind being cut off mid-sentence. "Bonesborough. It's a city not far from here."
"Bonesborough?!" Celestia exclaimed. "I'm amazed that place is still around!"
"Bonesborough still exists?" Luna asked, looking back in surprise.
Eda laughed at their shocked expressions. "Hey, the Boiling Isles might be dangerous, but we're not that bad. Whole cities don't just disappear overnight. Not often, anyway," she added in an undertone.
The last sentence drew a concerned look from Twilight, but Celestia just shrugged it off. She had spent enough time in the Boiling Isles to have gotten used to such casual horrors.
Trekking on in relative silence, save for Luz' tuneless humming, the group finally emerged from the forest and found themselves at the end of a cobbled road.
Bonesborough looked much the same as Celestia remembered it. Mismatched houses and crooked towers from the fever dreams of a demented medieval artist spread out as far as the eye could see. Many of them were festooned with oversized bones, bloodshot eyeballs, or demonic limbs and tentacles of every description.
"What is this place?" Twilight asked, disgust evident in her voice.
“This, princess, is Bonesborough!” Eda exclaimed loudly, throwing her arms wide for dramatic effect.
Seeing Twilight’s expression flicker between curiosity and revulsion reminded Celestia of how she herself had felt the first time she laid eyes on the town.
“Come on, we’ll give you a tour!” Luz said eagerly. “Just be careful of the fairies. They like skin.”
Luna frowned thoughtfully. “Speaking of skin, I wonder what happened to that cookbook I left in our old camp on the Knee?”
“What has that got to do with skin?!” Twilight half shouted.
Celestia chuckled softly. She had actually hidden the book in question with a glamour in a fit of anger. Assuming that no-creature had found the sisters’ hidden camp in the intervening years, then it had probably mouldered to dust centuries ago.
Nostalgia hit hard as the group wandered into town. Several places had changed since Celestia had last visited, but lots of the buildings, houses, and even some of the shops were much the same as they had been a thousand years ago.
“I wonder if that old cutesy cafe is still around,” Luna mused.
“You mean the one we were banned from?” Celestia asked with a grin.
Luna smirked at her. “About that, it was only you who was banned from there. I had an agreement with the owners.”
Celestia’s jaw dropped open in shock. “Are you serious?!” Her sister’s smirk just grew wider. “Oh that is just rude. I liked that cafe.”
“You just like anywhere that sells cake,” Luna shot.
The little group casually strolled through Bonesborough, with Luz pointing out cute or interesting places she had discovered, King bragging about areas where he had shown off his demonic superiority, and Eda revealing where Emperor’s Coven guards tended to hang out and which spots were best for separating fools from their money. Twilight was shifting from curious to concerned and back again so quickly that Celestia was beginning to worry that she’d give herself an aneurysm, but she was at least being quiet as she absorbed everything.
As the group strolled down a street full of particularly twisted buildings, Luz suddenly gasped and clapped her hands together. “Hey, I know! Why don’t we go and visit Hexside? Then you can really see how much things have changed since you were last here!”
“Luz, you know the faculty would freak out if they saw these two around.” Eda grinned evilly. “Let’s do it!”
Celestia chuckled at the thought. “As entertaining as that sounds, I doubt anyone there would have a clue who we are after all this time.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Eda assured her. “Luz! Lead the way!”
“Roger!” Luz snapped a salute and immediately marched off down the street. Celestia sighed and shook her head, but she couldn’t help smiling as the group followed the young human along.
As much as she hated to admit it, especially with Luna in earshot, Celestia was actually looking forward to seeing Hexside again. It was a shame that some of the old faculty like Bump would be long gone but, on the other hoof, Principal Faust would also be long gone, which could only be a good thing. Plus, it would be nice to see if any of the students had ever found the secret corridors that Celestia and Luna had spent a year installing.
Celestia lost herself in self-indulgent speculation and fantasy as she strode along. She wondered if the old Grudgby pitch was still around, if anyone had ever found her old Blue Snow costume or her Shiny Chariot cards, whether or not Grom was still sealed beneath the school, and, perhaps most importantly, how or if the Detention Pit had been rebuilt after Luna’s last stint in it. There were a lot of things that could change over the course of a millennium.
“And here we are! Hexside School of Magic and Demonics!” Luz called out theatrically.
“Already?” Celestia snapped out of her reverie and was struck by a wave of nostalgia as she saw the building ahead. Hexside was a huge building built entirely out of white stone, with symmetrical towers rising above the east and west wings and a larger belltower dominating the centre above the entranceway, though in place of a bell it had a giant eyeball nestled amongst a messy lattice of oversized muscles and nerves. The entrance doors themselves were sat in a pillared dais reached by a sweeping staircase.
“That’s actually pretty impressive,” Twilight noted. “Creepy, but impressive.”
Luna let out a soft whistle. “It looks almost the same as we left it, a worthy feat in this fell realm.”
“Not just almost the same, it’s almost identical.” Celestia raised an eyebrow, wondering how that could be possible. “I can’t believe it. I assumed that something would have changed over the last thousand years.”
“Thousand years?!” Eda squawked. “Just how old do you think I am?!”
Celestia and Luna both turned to her in shock. “But, it's been a thousand years since we last…” Celestia felt a chill run down her spine as she remembered that time tended to work differently between worlds. “How much time has passed here?”
Eda stared at the sisters as if they were crazy. “You two only disappeared from the Isles about, what, thirty years ago? Pretty much the only thing that’s changed is that we got rid of Faust and they made Bump the new Principal, if you can believe it.”
Shock and horror rooted Celestia to the spot. She looked at Luna only to see the same awful realisation reflected in her sister’s eyes. Their past wasn’t as dead and buried as they had thought, and now Twilight was in a position to find out about it all.
As if on cue, the door to Hexside creaked open and a terribly familiar figure appeared. The Principal met Celestia’s eyes for just a split second before he let out a blood-curdling scream and slammed the door shut.
