The Coronation
“You seem nervous, Twilight Sparkle.”
The mare in question bit her lip. She tried to look away, and only hesitatingly she allowed herself to face the pony speaking to her. She saw a face wreathed in stars, impassive as ever. After a few seconds she thought she felt ready to speak, but as she opened her mouth the taller alicorn leaned down and placed a hand on her cheek. The touch was delicate, silky, and her fingers slowly ran downward, brushing over her jaw and neck and down to the gold and pink quartz brooch that clasped over the collar of her gown. “Please, relax,” Luna said, offering the faintest hint of a smile.
Princess Luna. She was still a Princess. It was important to keep that distinction for as long as it was necessary.
Twilight Sparkle took in a deep breath, but it still came out in a weary sigh. She brushed at her bangs and turned to the side. To the left, when she probably should’ve turned to the right. To the left was the mirror she’d been looking into for the better part of an hour, and in it she beheld herself, garbed in the finest and most extravagant dress she had ever worn—which was a feat considering the dresses Rarity had already made for her in the past. The shades of cerulean and silver and platinum cascaded over each other like a waterfall. It made her unassuming frame appear a fair deal more vivacious than it otherwise should have. “That’s easy for you to say,” she replied, unable to keep some bitterness out of her tone, “you’re not the one taking the throne in a few minutes.”
“No, I am not,” Luna murmured, returning to her neutrality. Her reflection came into view in the mirror beside her. The blue pony stood nearly a head taller than her. Her wings hung half-open behind her, where Twilight Sparkle’s were clasped tightly against her back. She didn’t tend to be especially ostentatious, but the clothes she wore tonight seemed particularly plain, simple midnight blue drapes that hung from her shoulders and encircled her frame, hugging her chest and waist and thighs.
It was understood that she wasn’t the focus of attention on this day. That was Twilight Sparkle, no matter how much she may have dreaded it. All the same, that couldn’t stop her from internally cross-referencing Luna’s fashion with her knowledge of the trends of old Canterlot, the vogue that would surely still be preferred by certain ponies. To say nothing of her more curvaceous figure.
Then Luna’s fingers touched her again. Gently brushing aside her mane, knuckles rubbing against her neck and the underside of her chin. She felt like protesting but again her voice wouldn’t come to her. She found herself leaning into the mare’s hand, and the reflection of Luna smiled at her. It was so comforting, in a way that she felt she had longed for so long even though it had never occurred to her before.
It was almost enough to prompt her to think on how unusually intimate this was for the aloof alicorn.
“It was not very easy for me either, though,” Luna said dully, her azure eyes closing momentarily. “After so very long, returning to Equestria, finding that so much had changed. Everypony had forgotten about me; they had only known my sister for a millennium. I had to make myself known anew, all while standing in her shadow. I felt like giving up sometimes…but still I persevered.” She then held Twilight Sparkle’s chin and forcibly—albeit still gently—turned her gaze to the side, putting her warm smile upon her directly. “You are a far stronger pony than either of us, Twilight. You will be just fine.”
She let go, and immediately the mare lamented that lack of contact, but the warmth in the core of her being remained. She managed to beam back. “Well…if you say so, Luna.” After a few seconds she sputtered. “I-I mean, P-P-Princess—”
Luna snorted and held a hand over her muzzle but still broke into a fit of laughter. The sight of her regal demeanor shattering so abruptly was almost alarming. “Oh, Twilight, so formal to the very end. Really, you should know that even if we weren’t abdicating, you’ve been a Princess yourself for years now, you don’t have to prostrate yourself before us at every turn.” She kept her mouth covered, but it seemed as if she was smirking, her eyelids lowered halfway. “Although, if you so desired to, we would not object.”
Twilight Sparkle’s face reddened furiously. Her wings unfurled and curled around herself, almost like a shield. “L-L-Luna, w-what’re you—”
Then there was movement. Hoofsteps approaching, clopping against the floor one after another. Twilight Sparkle impulsively looked to the door of the dressing room, then back to Luna, but in that short span she had recomposed herself entirely, standing tall and stoic once more.
(Princess) Celestia entered the room. Her presence always made the light around her seem brighter and the colors more vivid. Her white dress was similarly ordinary in its design to Luna’s, but it was nigh-impossible to make Celestia appear plain. The sight of her billowing multicolored mane, snow white coat, and grand wings and horn was something that instilled awe in anypony who saw her. It was instinctual, perhaps, for the ponies of Equestria who had lived for generations under her rule to revere her.
(Twilight Sparkle dimly reflected on what Luna had told her and felt a twinge of guilt in how she didn’t express the same admiration for the lunar diarch as she did for her more well-known sister. She would have to remind herself to check in on the two of them frequently after they were settled into their retirement, and in equal measures rather than showing preference for Celestia.)
“We’re all ready to go,” she announced, her words bubbling with excitement.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Luna replied with almost exaggerated drollness, and she feigned the motions of yawning, “I was beginning to think you were having second thoughts about this.”
“Nonsense, sister,” Celestia replied, addressing the blue mare briefly before turning her focus toward the third alicorn in the room, “I couldn’t stand to see our new ruler’s ascension delayed a second longer.”
Twilight Sparkle wouldn’t have minded delaying it a few minutes longer. Or hours. Or days. Or weeks.
But Celestia was looking upon her, beaming, still coming closer. There was no avoiding this, no backing away now. She fought to keep her breathing level, to keep herself steady, to keep her eyes looking straight ahead. “Princess, I just…” she stammered, so quietly she might have thought Fluttershy’s voice was coming out of her mouth, “I just want to say—”
The other mare cut her off not by saying anything but by abruptly throwing her arms around her. Twilight Sparkle might have jumped if that ironclad grip wasn’t keeping her held firmly in place. It wasn’t necessarily the strength that was restraining her—though it was indeed a factor—as much as the gentle warmth that it provided. The cushy softness of the white alicorn’s bosom pressed against her, and through that contact imparted the cozy heat of a roaring fireplace on a cold winter night. Twilight Sparkle fumbled uncertainly for several seconds while Celestia seemed content to make herself comfortable, nuzzling against the smaller pony before settling with her muzzle close to her ear, the sound of her breathing like the pumping of bellows.
“I’m so proud of you, Twilight,” Celestia whispered in her ear, the syllables tickling at her, “I always knew one day it would come to this…I always knew.”
Twilight Sparkle hesitated. Even before she became an alicorn, many of her acquaintances had expressed astonishment at how close she seemed to be to Princess Celestia. She had never thought much of it herself. The mare was many things—friend, teacher, guide, sister-in-arms—but she had always been ruler first and foremost. She had only ever done what seemed fitting for one of such an esteemed position.
But this seemed like a great deal more than just forward affection, or even pride for her former student. Something about this interaction felt profoundly sad. What was it? Was it the nostalgia crashing back over her? Was it simply her feelings about today bleeding in?
Was it the feeling that this was going to be the last time they were able to do this?
Without being fully conscious of herself, Twilight Sparkle reached in turn, around Celestia’s back, locking together behind her shoulders. She craned her neck upward so she could press against the taller mare’s cheek, trying to offer as much as she could. Celestia responded in kind by squeezing tighter and nuzzling back once more, and her wings rustled and fluttered. She did just about everything the embrace called for short of offering a kiss. The squeamish younger pony tried not to think about that.
Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight Sparkle saw Luna standing nearby, and she had that slight smirk again. Despite her mostly cheery countenance, there was something about her posture that struck of melancholy as well, the weary tilt of her eyebrows, the sagging of her shoulders. The lavender mare didn’t understand; she knew that she was nervous, but she hadn’t expected the other Princesses to have any reservations at this point.
“I thought you said that we were ready to go, sister,” Luna added chidingly, “the masses cannot sit around waiting for long.”
Celestia offered an awfully forlorn sigh, squeezing one final time before at last separating. The absence of the embrace was oppressive. “Very well,” she said, and she smiled, but there was that same tiredness to the expression as there had been for Luna. “It’s time to move on.”
Twilight Sparkle only nodded slowly.
The three of them all began to march out of the dressing room. Twilight Sparkle thought at first that Celestia and maybe Luna as well were going to be leading the way, but instead she found herself with them on either side. Celestia’s blazing warmth on her right, Luna’s cool, calming radiance on her left. If she had been looking at their backs it would have been all too easy to maintain a dour expression and keep her head down until they reached their destination. The halls of the palace were largely deserted, most ponies waiting in the courtyard below for the ceremony to begin in earnest. That left them in silence save for the rhythmic clopping of hooves on marble and the relentless back-and-forth tide of Twilight Sparkle’s thoughts.
“I’m not ready.”
“You’ve been preparing your whole life for this, you’ll never be any readier.”
“I can’t just give up my friends.”
“They will always remember you, and you will always remember them.”
“I can’t just take Celestia and Luna’s place.”
“You don’t have to be like them, you just have to be a noble leader.”
“Why are they so sad?”
She gave a furtive glance to either of them, but they didn’t have those bittersweet expressions on their faces anymore, just cordial smiles. They were entering the grand hall, and at the far end the twilit sky was visible through the balcony opening. That was the final threshold.
Twilight Sparkle wanted to stop. Not because she wanted to put off going through with this. Well, not just because of that. There was a strange suspicion that she couldn’t shake off, the feeling that there was something critical that hadn’t been said. There was something she really ought to know that was being kept from her. She just needed a few moments longer to speak with them, to ask what was about to happen.
But then she felt Celestia’s hand. Her fingers slipped in to lock with her own and their palms clasped together. Then Luna did the same on the other side. She felt their respective soothing auras all at once, climbing up through her arms and swirling and coalescing in her chest. Her heart and lungs surged with newfound strength, and she found herself steadying. She’d almost felt ready to let herself fall behind, to trip over herself, but now she strode forward confidently. The doubts started to fade.
“Everything will be fine,” one of them said to her. Or maybe it was both of them. Or maybe neither. She wasn’t entirely sure if she had heard it or if the thought had sprung unbidden directly in her mind.
Out onto the balcony. No going back.
The light did not dazzle her, but the sight of so many creatures spread out in the grounds below was so intense as to nearly be dizzying. In just that moment her brain tried to process every single one of them individually. This was a royal coronation in the middle of Canterlot, a history-changing event that had brought in patrons from all across Equestria and beyond, so of course there were many faces she didn’t recognize, but it was astonishing to think how many were familiar to her.
And then the noise washed over Twilight Sparkle. It was deafening, but it brought her no displeasure. Her prior wariness was melting like snow in the sunlight. She found herself smiling, holding tightly to the hands on either side.
“Fillies, gentlecolts, and creatures of Equestria,” Celestia proclaimed, her booming voice carrying across the palace grounds with ease, “I am pleased to see that you have all convened here today to mark the passing of our crowns and the birth of a new kingdom.”
A roaring cheer rose up, followed by spectacular sparks of unicorn magic and gouts of flame from dragons. Twilight Sparkle thought that she would be meant to say something, but the solar diarch continued with the formal announcements. Perhaps she wished to keep this up for as long as she possibly could, while it was still her place to do so. Luna remained quiet, making no effort to interject either. Instead, the mare again looked downward, attempting to identify them with greater detail now.
There were so many different creatures alongside ponies. Changelings, dragons, gryphons, hippogriffs, yaks, kirins, buffalo, diamond dogs, abyssinians, and one usually-not-too-troublesome draconequus. Some of them wouldn’t even be here were it not for her involvement.
The many acquaintances that she had opened up to over the years since she had decided to do more in her life than read books. Those she had befriended and bonded with. Those she had assisted in turning to the side of Harmony. Those who had assisted her in maintaining Harmony.
The students who had come from the school. Her school, even if she wasn’t to be principal any longer. Sandbar, Yona, Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus, Smolder, and so many more. Starlight Glimmer sat among them, alongside Sunburst and Trixie, staring up dutifully.
Her closest family, Twilight Velvet and Night Light, Shining Armor and Cadence and Flurry Heart. They each beamed with the same kind of pride that Celestia had demonstrated (Flurry Heart notwithstanding, the filly presently occupied with apple sauce).
And her dearest friends at the center of it all. Rainbow Dash was whooping and hollering with the loudest of them at every opportunity. Pinkie Pie looked like she was barely restraining herself from releasing a shower of confetti and fireworks. Rarity seemed dazzled with awe and nearly on the verge of tears, but who was to say how much was on account of seeing her latest dress in action. Applejack looked up, pleased and contented, and when their gaze met (approximately) she tipped her hat. Fluttershy just looked happy to be there, and she offered a meek wave of one hand. And Spike was flashing a thumbs up and seemed to be mouthing words of encouragement that she couldn’t make out.
These were the ones most important to her.
A squeeze around her left hand. “Chin up, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said with a soft chuckle, “you’ll have plenty of time to look down upon your subjects later.”
Twilight Sparkle couldn’t keep from chuckling, and her grin widened. There was a bubbly feeling inside her. She couldn’t even remember feeling unsure of herself anymore.
“And so,” Celestia said, the dramatic weight sufficiently apparent that the noise started to die down to a murmur, “it is with great pride that my sister and I officially recognize Twilight Sparkle as the new ruler of Equestria.”
The hold around her hands left, but that was quickly replaced by them instead perching upon her shoulders. This contact felt even stronger still, closer to her heart. The calming, profound warmth was suffusing every fiber of her being. Twilight Sparkle nearly felt that she was bursting at the seams. It was enough of a distraction that she scarcely even thought about how unusual this was, how she had no idea what kind of magic was at play right now.
Celestia and Luna’s horns each lit up with magic, and the respective tiaras that always seemed to adorn their heads rose up into the air. They then came together, and with a brilliant flash they merged, fusing into a new crown of gleaming electrum and crystal, which then deposited itself upon Twilight Sparkle’s brow. In unison the sisters said, “Welcome, Princess Twilight Sparkle!”
The roar of the crowd, alongside the crackling of fireworks, the rushing whooshes of the Wonderbolts as they flew by in formation, and the delicate song of Fluttershy’s birds, was overwhelming.
Twilight Sparkle stood proudly, ready to speak to her new subjects, tears in her eyes.
She nearly didn’t hear when Celestia spoke.
“Goodbye.”
She registered the tone of it. The joy. The sorrow. The bitter finality.
Twilight Sparkle started to turn, but it was already too late.
Color bled away into white all around. The roar of the crowd turned into cries and wails just for a moment before it all ran together into a raw tumult of noise. The world was gone for Twilight Sparkle save for the touch upon her shoulders. Except she wasn’t sure that those were other ponies’ hands. It felt like she was holding herself even though her arms were stiff at her sides. Sensation poured into her to fill the void. She thought that she was screaming but there was no voice to make her cries known.
She knew what this was. Raw magical power coursed through her veins, lungs full of fire, nerves flashing with lightning. The signature was akin to her own, the distinct frequency of alicorn magic, albeit with two distinct differences—one blazing as bright as the sun, the other a cool rhythm of waves lapping at the shore—and so much more intense. She had felt it once before when impending disaster necessitated drastic measures. The other Princesses relinquished their magic to her, so that she might use it to save Equestria.
Except, this time, even without the soothing harmony of Cadence, the effect was significantly more concentrated. Twilight Sparkle felt the power within her surging and roiling, like an ocean contained inside her. There was mounting pressure all throughout the inner leylines of her body, as if they were seams ready to burst.
Seconds passed. Or maybe it was hours. Her perception had been stifled, everything lost to her. Was she comatose? Was she dead?
No, it wasn’t that she couldn’t detect anything. It was that she was aware of entirely too much. The flood of images and sound filling her brain was staggering, blocking out any ability to discern more minute details. She was only conscious of base impulses.
Ponies. Kingdom. Throne. Protect. Love. Lament. Regret. Free. Sun. Moon. Power.
Twilight Sparkle concentrated. She focused with all of her might, looking inward. Everything she could to identify—
“You cannot possibly believe that she is ready for this, can you?”
“She has been training for years for this very moment, I can’t deny it to her now.”
“She has loved you for all those years. You love her. Are you ready for this?”
“…It is for the best. Our time has passed. Equestria is hers now.”
“Speak for yourself, sister. I hardly just got back; I have scarcely whetted my appetite.”
“Perhaps, then, you can consider asking Twilight to clear out your bucket list for you.”
“Celestia…what…what did you…?”
Then, as quickly as it had begun, everything stopped.
A jolt rocked Twilight Sparkle, as if coming out of a dream. There was proper consciousness again, even if her vision swam and her ears were ringing. She stumbled forward and reached out for the banister to steady herself. She had to bend over farther than she would have expected, and there was a crunch as her fingers gripped onto the stone. Her breath came in heaving gasps.
“What the buck did you do this time, you noodly old goat?!”
Rainbow Dash was accosting Discord, and there was a small crowd of bystanders who looked ready to join in. Fluttershy anxiously stood guard in front of the draconequus, who was holding one hand over his heart while wearing what seemed to be an approximation of a colt scout uniform. To his credit, he didn’t appear to be going out of his way to be antagonizing.
Twilight Sparkle paused in her hyperventilating. She was looking down at the floor, and yet at the same time she was looking at the crowd in the courtyard. If she didn’t know any better she’d think that she was in the crowd. She saw the ponies panicking, hiding under tables, bolting toward the exits. Many were on guard, prepared for the possibility of a fight breaking out, the off chance that they were about to face yet another calamity right on the heels of the one that had transpired a week ago. One servant pony was wailing about having to rebuild the palace again.
What had happened?
Or, perhaps the better question, what had it looked like to the onlookers?
“See for yourself.”
There was a noise in her head like water rushing backwards, as if reversing into a container it had evacuated.
And then she was looking up at the balcony. She saw herself, and Celestia and Luna beside her. Those alicorns with their sweetly morose expressions. The coronation had just completed and everypony was applauding. It looked like everything Twilight Sparkle would have hoped it to be.
Then, the three ponies were engulfed in a blinding corona of light. Cries of alarm went up, but the chaos had to wait until all of those in the courtyards had time to get over their shock and surprise, eyes dazzled by the burst of illumination.
Within the nova, one could only scarcely identify the three figures, stark shadows, nearly indiscernible from each other. As the seconds went on, however, the silhouettes shifted, two fading away, while the one in the center appeared to stretch. It was as if they had combined.
Twilight Sparkle blinked and shuddered.
There was a scratching noise. She still saw the balcony, but the light was gone now. She understood that this was the present. There was only a single pony standing atop the balcony, hunched over the railing, clutching at her head as she ached, her skull throbbing. She wore the dress and regalia of the Princess of Friendship, and she bore the same colors, but the details weren’t quite right. The mare was too tall, and far too voluptuous in her physique, a form that seemed too maternal for a pony who spent most of her life reading books. The midnight blue canvas of her mane and tail was host to a lot more than just stripes of violet, joined by shifting multicolored streaks like an aurora borealis, dancing across fields of glittering stars, and they billowed around her like clouds of brightly pulsing smoke.
She could scarcely see the mare’s face when she raised her head, her haggard, distraught expression staring right back, far too familiar to be anypony other than—
“Focus.”
She looked through her own eyes. She looked at her hands. She looked at the stone banister underneath and saw how it had cracked and crumbled under her grasp. That waist-high barrier didn’t seem so safe anymore, and she self-consciously took several steps back. Wary of the idea that her very walking might be enough to damage the floor of the balcony underneath her, she glanced down at her hooves.
Actually, she couldn’t see her hooves, not when looking straight down at herself, or most of her front for that matter. Her chest stood in the way, pert, round breasts jutting out before her, lavender-furred skin filling out the neckline of her silver dress. Twilight Sparkle was dumbfounded for several seconds before the full weight of the realization hit her (and there was indeed weight involved; those mounds were a lot heavier than she was used to, but the difference was more than made up for by her increase in physical strength). With her consciousness returning to herself, she was truly of aware of her own body, and how different her anatomy was, the fullness of her form, broad curves that would make most mares look like twigs by comparison. Just standing there, breathing—and trying desperately to keep her breathing steady—she was aware of the sensation of heft that encompassed every inch of her. Quite a few more inches, too, with her increased height.
Twilight Sparkle had never been bothered much by how modest her figure was, and it was only her steadily increasing public importance that necessitated her maintaining a reasonably attractive appearance. Even then, it was mostly only at Rarity’s behest that she went to so much effort to put on these extravagant ensembles.
(Speaking of which, curiously, her dress felt like it still fit her just as well as it had before, as if it had stretched with her. She thought the fabric seemed slightly different to the touch, smoother and silkier, but she had difficulty processing that information on top of everything else.)
But this…
Her hands were up, by the sides of her chest. She hesitated to touch the pert globes, as if that would make them real. And yet they seemed so soft, so inviting.
“No need to be bashful.”
Twilight Sparkle flinched. These words sprang into her mind of their own volition. Somehow, she was distinctly aware that they weren’t her words. It was somepony else speaking to her. But it had sounded like it was right in her ear, somepony right at her side, and there was nopony there.
Celestia was supposed to be there.
Where did she—
“Twilight!”
A voice was calling to her. A different voice, one that was farther away, but at least something that she could pin down with some certainty. She still cringed as she had to preemptively restrain herself, keep her senses from projecting out toward the source, and to instead cautiously peer over the balcony once again. There she saw a group gathered under the overhang, looking up with varying worried expressions. Spike was at the very front, the purple dragon looking anxious, his wings twitching, ready to fly up to her directly.
“Twilight, what…” He stopped himself as his eyes widened in amazement at the sight of the alicorn. Even at that distance, it must have been apparent that she had changed. Twilight Sparkle silently hoped that her bust wasn’t as immediately noticeable as her mane. Finally he finished the question, “What the hay happened?!”
“I…I don’t—” The mare cut herself short as well, a hand flying to her throat. Her voice sounded different, just slightly, the tone richer, more refined. No time to dwell on that at the moment, however. “I don’t know! Celestia and Luna just…they cast some spell, and now they’re gone!”
Nervous and conspiratorial whispers rose up from those who overheard. Even if the sisters had renounced their official titles mere minutes ago, their inexplicable disappearance would quickly cause a stir.
“It is your duty to uphold order.”
“There’s no need to worry,” Twilight Sparkle said, the words emerging from her mouth before she had even thought about speaking them. She didn’t think either about her tone, and it came out as calm and authoritative and reassuring all the same. Celestia had been talking that way during her speech. “This dilemma will be resolved as quickly as possible, first I simply need the time to—”
No, this wasn’t right. She couldn’t possibly be calm right now. Her entire world had just been flipped upside down, two of the most important people in the country and her life had vanished, her body had changed to an extent that she wasn’t even fully aware of, and she was hearing voices in her head! It was a miracle that she hadn’t gone into a full-on panic attack yet. In all likelihood, that was just around the corner, only one nasty surprise away.
And, lo and behold…
“Twilight, are you alright?” Spike called out to her again. His wings beat at the air. “Let me see you!”
A nervous gulp. She wasn’t exactly ready to let other creatures see her and speculate upon her new form. On the other hand, at a moment like this, she deeply needed the presence of her friends to keep her grounded. “J-just a moment, I’ll c-come down!”
She just had to spread her wings and fly to the ground below. It was easy, second nature to her by now.
Her wings unfurled from behind her back, and there were a few gasps of awe. She allowed a detached glimpse of herself to flit through her mind and saw her feathery span extending much farther to either side. Everything was so much bigger, it seemed completely unreasonable. She braced herself and prepared to leap over the damaged balcony.
A flurry of motion.
“Too much.”
“Too late.”
Her hooves kicked off from the floor and her wings pumped once. This was accompanied by a loud boom that rent the air, a gust of wind and a thunderous impact. All at once, the ground fell away from her, her altitude rising at a dizzying rate. That one motion had enough unrestrained strength to send her as high as the looming palatial towers. Unprepared for this abrupt acceleration, she then found herself fumbling with a yelp, as she might have when she was first learning to fly. More than that, and more pressingly, however, she saw the balcony that she had been standing on start to collapse, damaged by the force of her launch, fissures spreading across its surface. Chunks of stone were falling toward the crowd that had gathered beneath.
“NO!” Twilight Sparkle cried out.
Magic came to her far naturally than flying, thankfully. It only took the thought of reaching out and picking up all that debris for her horn to light up and extend a field of telekinesis to accomplish that very task. Shimmering magenta light enveloped the falling rocks one by one, safely suspending them in place.
She might have put a little too much force into the spell as well, though, as the rocks all crushed into dust within her magical grip.
Meanwhile, her wings had stiffened, instinctually locked up in her fit of terror, held out to the sides and letting the warm air keep her aloft, gliding downward.
But even with that task completed, the alicorn found her magic continuing to surge. The reservoirs of power inside her had been flung open and now she had misplaced the key to lock them shut again. The uncertainty of her own strength combined with a rush of adrenaline had made the perfect storm of expending far more energy than she’d needed to. Her billowing mane roiled with chaotic flashes of color as bolts of light lanced from her horn and collected above her. Twilight Sparkle gaped at the sight of this concentrated mass of magic, rapidly accumulating more and more. It was an immaterial ticking time bomb.
She couldn’t put a stop to the flow of magic leaving her body. It had to be directed somewhere it couldn’t cause further problems.
Just put it back where it came from. Who was saying she couldn’t do that? Twilight Sparkle pushed aside her conflicting thoughts.
“Inadvisable.”
“Why not?”
While magic continued to pour from her horn, the surface of the brilliant mass distorted and a piece was pulled from it, a strand that led back to her. It made contact with her sternum, seeping through the skin, and she felt the raw force of her magic in a way that she hadn’t been able to before. Not merely within her, but on the receiving end of it, it was like a light with the intensity of the sun and moon and every star in the sky. And this was just the beginning of it; there was still so much more to take in. It was just what she would have to do. Acting as was necessary to ensure the safety of her subjects was imperative.
Twilight Sparkle completed the circuit and welcomed the magical energy into herself. Immediately it became apparent that the effect wasn’t quite what she might have hoped for. Instead of remerging with the ambient streams of mana that flowed through her body, the physicality of its presence remained, and it was rapidly filling her. The mare felt that same feeling of strain again, the pressure of her form being unable to withstand the extent of her power, but this time it was all the more intense. A sharp cry escaped her as pulsations rocked through her, her head throbbing.
Her wings faltered, and she rocked as her altitude dipped. There was a collective gasp of alarm from down below. Everyone was now watching her with rapt attention. There was also the flapping of wings, wheeling around her, creatures capable of flight who had tried to approach but seemed to know better than to attempt to get too close. The unstable magic still lashed out chaotically at random intervals.
“Twilight!” Spike again, all the more desperate and upset now. “What are you doing?!”
“I—” She winced. She wanted to curl into a ball, fold her wings around herself and shut out the world. This was a disaster beyond anything she could have imagined.
“Steady.”
“I’m redirecting the magic!” Twilight Sparkle said back, yelling over the roar in her ears. “It needs to go somewhere safe!”
“You might wanna stop, egghead!” That was Rainbow Dash’s brash voice. “Otherwise you’re gonna have a real hard time fitting indoors!”
What?
Opening her detached field of view came a lot more naturally now than she might have liked, for better or worse, even in the midst of everything else that her mind was having to work through. She saw herself, with another pang of remorseful dissociation at how she identified that warped, vibrant body as her own. She saw the other creatures circling around her—Spike, Rainbow Dash, Cadence, a few pegasi in Wonderbolt uniforms, among others. She saw, alarmingly, the huge ball of energy that hovered above her, a blazing amalgamation of magenta and gold and silver that was like a miniature sun. It dwarfed the creatures around her.
It didn’t dwarf her, though. In fact, Twilight Sparkle herself was dwarfing her subjects as well. The purple alicorn looked to be as tall as a house, and she was continuing to grow by the second. The pressure within her had evened out, but the actual volume was continuing to build with nowhere to go. She was stretching again, and now there was no end in sight.
She looked down, and her heart sank. Her rate of descent wasn’t increasing, but the ground was nonetheless approaching more quickly as her hooves extended to meet with it. Panic had set upon the crowds once more as those who had not already left scrambled to evacuate, but that might not be enough. The past few seconds had been enough for her to expand from the height of a domestic building to that of the town hall back in Ponyville. She didn’t dare attempt to flap her wings, not knowing what gale force winds that might produce, or to teleport, lest she disrupt the tenuous connection of her magic. She lifted up her legs, passing over the courtyard and past the surrounding walls and outlying structures of the palace grounds. Her hooves touched down on the grass with an earthshaking impact, and she stumbled as her inertia carried her before she settled into an urgent trot down the hills.
It was a dizzying process, and it was all happening far too quickly for her to pore over the details in the extensive scientific manner that she would typically prefer. The earth sundered beneath her hoofsteps, leaving deep divots in her wake, foliage crushed and toppled. If she looked back—physically or mentally—she would see that even though she was descending the mountain slope, the rooftops and minarets of the palace weren’t getting any higher, and soon she was able to see over them. By comparison, the buildings of Canterlot spreading out beneath her looked like they might as well have been toys, and her strides were bringing her closer at faster and faster intervals. She cringed and winced, but she didn’t have any choice but to walk.
It was fortunate that the city was just about completely empty, nearly everypony having already gone to the coronation. This left the streets vacant as Twilight Sparkle’s hooves came pounding down, narrowly threading the needle between the line of structures on either side. Concrete yielded to her just as easily as grass and dirt, and the tremors produced by her passing caused lampposts and stalls to collapse, and more than a few windows shattered. A boulevard that would have afforded plenty of space for carts and carriages to be drawn through was scarcely wide enough her to stand with her hooves side by side. Not that she had the time to observe such a detail.
“Tread carefully.”
“Don’t falter.
The pressure of her body, the heat of magic flowing into her, remained constant. She wanted to think that the ball of energy above her was starting to deplete and shrink, but it was hard to judge when her own sense of scale was extending farther and farther. She felt the monumental weight of her body, swaying about with every step, a colossal effort to lift her legs and to swing her arms. She muttered a silent curse as she tried to look down to see where she was going, only to again find those damnable breasts in the way, the size of hot air balloons with a miniature valley between them. It became necessary to make use of her detached internal vision to see herself, her brain overtaken by a disorientating twofold flood of visual input. She also felt newfound friction in the way that her thighs ground against each other, implicitly guiding her into a gait with her hips rocking from side to side, and occasionally one of her calves bumped against a building, carving away part of the old edifices. Implausibly, her gown remained intact after all this time, but it definitely no longer felt like cloth, smooth and subtly intangible, like she was wearing a cloud, the silver folds rippling and billowing in a manner not unlike her mane and tail. The weight of the gleaming crown upon her head, now expanded to such a scale that it could have been an esoteric artistic sculpture that represented the monarchy of Equestria occupying a street corner, was largely forgotten.
With Twilight Sparkle covering more ground with every step that she took, it hardly took much longer for her to reach the end of Canterlot and step over the walls that didn’t even come up to her heels. Now she was cautiously making her way down the much steeper slopes of Mount Canter, crags that might have once merely been an exhausting climb but were now irregular and misshapen hoofholds for her to attempt to navigate. Her wings fluttered and shifted, assisting with maintaining her balance, but she still couldn’t risk too sudden movements. She wouldn’t have expected it was possible for a creature to exist at a size like this, internal processes like pumping blood having failed several stories ago. She didn’t know how much it might hurt if she were to trip and fall, but she didn’t want to think about the amount of destruction it would cause, an impact like a meteor landing.
The air was growing thin around her face as she came to stand on level ground again, a single hoof occupying the space of a city block. She turned around and saw that she was now taller than the entirety of Mount Canter. The city of Canterlot was close enough that she could have reached out and touched it—and picked it up from its foundations—and yet it seemed so distant, so small, the buildings little more than colorful blocks. She couldn’t even identify any individual creatures. Craters bored into the earth marked her passage, each larger than the last leading to where she stood now.
It was only now that she felt the flow of magic had stopped. She had finally used up all of the power she had unintentionally called upon in her moment of adrenaline-induced panic, her internal batteries shut off and the chaotic mass of energy completely dissipated. The ocean of heat within her remained, but with the intake cut off there was no longer any steady increase in pressure, leaving her with simply the soothing warmth. It wasn’t quite enough to keep her calm, though. She pressed her hands against her forehead and ran her fingers through her hair as she grimaced. The full scope of the situation had become clear to her, the thought of how much damage she could have caused simply through the act of existing, the degree to which she was now separated from all of the creatures who were supposed to be her subjects, her allies, her friends.
“What is this…?!” the giant mare whispered under her breath, fighting back her sobs, unable to keep a river of tears streaming down one cheek. “Why is this happening?! What…” She gritted her teeth together, indignation rising up. “What did you…do to me?!”
There was nopony to answer her. She had expected a certain pair of voices to respond, but they too were silent. She was well and truly alone.
“Um, yes, hello, down here please?”
The voice was a lot closer than she would have expected one to be, and it was accompanied by a miniscule tapping on the side of her muzzle. She opened her eyes and saw that there was a figure floating—standing nonchalantly in midair, more accurately—right in front of her face, an unusual elongated serpentine shape comprised of myriad animal features. Discord was one of the taller creatures that she personally knew, but at the moment he was smaller than her eye. He was still wearing that mock colt scout uniform. His typically jovial face was occupied by expression that seemed more severe, but just slightly, one corner of his mouth still curled upward.
Regarding the draconequus with anger was a reaction that came easily to Twilight Sparkle, and many creatures for that matter, but at this moment it wasn’t something that she could muster. “You…you don’t have anything to do with this, do you?” she mumbled to him halfheartedly, certain that she already knew the answer.
“Oh, no, not this time,” Discord said, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head, “I’ve sworn off doing anything this dangerous. Can you imagine how many ways this could have gone awry if I’d let this play out on by itself?” He snapped his fingers, and in the air between them there appeared an ethereal diorama of Canterlot, with a giant purple figure that approximated Twilight Sparkle stumbling and stepping all over it, buildings demolished in its wake. The scene ended with the alicorn falling over and flattening half of the city with its rump (which she was pretty sure was being embellished far too much). “Though I do admit it was more than a little entertaining to watch.”
She put aside the desire to comment disparagingly. Her lingering worry was far more important. “W-well, if it wasn’t you, th-then…how did this happen?!”
He peered at her inquisitively. His gaze roved up toward the great curtains of her mane, a canopy that could blot out the sky as easily as her wings, and then down toward her chest, vast slopes of lavender that extended outward. “I’d say that you should ask those two stowaways you have riding inside you.”
“W—” Twilight Sparkle began to sputter in bewilderment before her eyes widened.
“Surely, you’ve been hearing them talk to you, guiding you, yes?” Discord asked, and he tapped the side of his head. “Did you not think it unusual that you’d hear these nagging voices spring up in the back of your mind right after our former princesses of the sun and moon butts up and vanished? They offered themselves up to you so you could be stronger, little miss Sparkle. They’re part of you now.”
She felt a pang, her heart sinking, and she clasped her hands over her chest. “N-no, that…that’s…!” But the more she thought about it, the more the new aspects of her form made sense. The features of an elder alicorn. The colors of the sisters in her mane and tail. The curvaceous physique that might seemed almost uncannily like Celestia’s, perhaps even both of them combined. The i]power. “But…it wasn’t anything like this when I was carrying their magic before!” she insisted desperately.
“Oh, this isn’t quite the same thing,” Discord said, reaching behind his back and taking out a pair of spectacles and a thick, old book, the cover of which read “Foal’s Guide to Vague Magic Rules and Worldbuilding,” and he began to flip through the pages. “Back then, all they were doing was giving you their magic. This was a lot more than that. They gave their entire beings over to you—magic, mind, body, and soul. I recognized it for what it was right away.”
Twilight Sparkle clutched at her chest and stomach, tearing at the ethereal fabric of her dress. She tried to look down at herself, but even with her split field of view she couldn’t peer directly into the well of her essence. She could only rely on the sensation, the particular resonance of her magic (and she had to be careful not to go letting it run wild again). She recognized her own magical signature, and she recognized that of Celestia and Luna. It was not merely something that had been placed within her, ready to be called upon at will, to be removed when no longer needed, it was a force that actively seeped up from within her own body. It was all hers now.
Then they came to her.
“It was for the best.”
“It was her idea.”
“How…how could you do this to me?!” she cried out loud, her voice a warped mixture of anguish and anger, her face set hard into a scowl. She was looking at nothing in particular. Discord silently drifted away from her. “I was scared to death! I could’ve hurt so many creatures! I could’ve destroyed Canterlot!”
“Showed you the way.”
“Gave what you would need.”
“Protect Equestria.”
“How am I supposed to protect Equestria when I’m at risk of crushing it beneath my hooves?!”
“Unintended.”
“Clumsy.”
“Practice will be necessary.”
“Practice?! I can’t…I can’t just practice something like this!” She gestured to her whole mountainous body. “I can’t do this! I can’t…not…” A sniffle escaped her despite her efforts to remain incensed. “Not without you…”
“Always with you.”
“Always at your side.”
“That’s not the same thing…”
Silence.
Twilight Sparkle thought that she felt something. Not quite touch, but the approximate feeling that would result from it. An embrace, first on the right and then the left. Some sense of warmth that wasn’t entirely her own was imparted upon her.
It wasn’t the same.
It took a great deal of mental fortitude to not double over and collapse to the ground as the alicorn started to sob. No doubt all of Canterlot and those who had come for the coronation were watching her now, as were any number of ponies for miles in all directions who would be able to see her. Some Princess she had turned out to be.
“Twilight.” Discord came closer again. He was now wearing a more respectable formal suit, not even one of garish clashing colors. “If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion…”
She wasn’t especially keen on hearing what he had to say, but she didn’t have much other recourse right now, so she nodded at him through her bleary eyes.
“Now I still can’t claim to be too familiar with how you ponies are with all your Harmony and friendship and sparkles and whatnot,” he mused, stroking at his goatee and readjusting the spectacles still perched on his face, for maximum pontification. “Most of my experience in matters such as this is, shall we say, a fair deal less pleasant. What I do know, however, is that Celestia and Luna hold you in very high regard, and this was something that they chose to do voluntarily. I believe that they—Miss Sunbutt in particular—truly wanted to do everything that they could to ensure your success as a ruler, and they thought that you would be up to the task for this.”
Twilight Sparkle looked forlornly at him. She tried again to peer inward, to scrutinize her internal workings, but to no avail. She closed her eyes and heaved a deep sigh, a gust of warm air that brushed away nearby clouds. “I might appreciate that sentiment a little better if they’d told me about it beforehand,” she lamented.
“You would not have agreed.”
A frown.
“I’m sorry.”
She gave pause. Amidst her melancholy she felt a kind of redoubling sensation, the morose anxiety compounded by a second layer that wasn’t entirely connected to her own thoughts. After a few moments of hesitation, the alicorn crossed her arms over her front, underneath her bosom. She felt as if she was holding more than just herself. The magic inside her calmed.
“I’m sure we can deduce some way to get you down to your old boring height again,” Discord then said with more than a little derisiveness, “I thought it was an improvement, personally, but you ponies are so concerned with ‘convenience.’”
“What? Can’t you just…poof me back to normal?” Twilight Sparkle asked with her brows furrowed.
“Mmm…” He looked at her pensively, squinting, before he frowned and shook his head. “No, definitely not. That magic inside you is too spicy for me to work with, Harmony and Chaos don’t mix well. You’re going to have to get it out yourself. Not to worry, though, I’m sure those voices in your head can help you figure it out, and in the meantime I can spot you to make sure you don’t step on any orphanages.”
The mare couldn’t fully repress an amused smirk, but it faded quickly. “That’s all well and good, but what am I going to do about…my subjects? What’s everypony going to think about me now? They’re going to have to see me like…like this for who knows how long!” Despite her dress, she felt a sense of nakedness from the knowledge that surely she was being seen by many creatures in every direction. Her chest was bad enough, though at least it wouldn’t be possible to see much from below. She didn’t want to think about the sight that one would get staring up at her colossal rear.
“Oh, don’t you pay that any mind, I’m sure all your little ponies will be fine with it,” Discord replied with a snort of laughter, “they’re usually a tolerant sort. Try to look at it on the bright side for the time being—it will be so much easier now for everyone to see what a fantastic leader you are!”
Twilight Sparkle pursed her lips, but she didn’t object. “I hope you’re right about that. I don’t want to get everypony in a stir about—”
“Oh, and of course they’ll be able to see how much thicker you are than their old Princesses,” he interjected, snickering as he took out a plate with a tall slice of cake upon it before then stuffing the whole thing into his gaping mouth. “And this is only going to be the beginning if you inherited Celestia’s appetite too, just imagine what you’ll look like in a few—”
“Alright, fine, I get it!” she huffed angrily. The frustration had come up after all in the end. She placed one hand on her hip while the other rubbed at her temple. Her stance had grown a little more natural, less concerned with being wary of her surroundings—there weren’t any other settlements in the immediate area of the base of Mount Canter. She was able to be actively conscious of any threat that she might pose upon those nearby. Her gaze turned back toward Canterlot, so small, so meager, yet so full of life. Regardless of the unfortunate details, she was sure that her friends and family must be worried about her, probably even now were looking on and wondering what they could do to help. She couldn’t leave her subjects in the dark when they needed her most—and arguably when she needed them.
“Fine…fine,” she muttered and sighed, and her demeanor hardened, “I’ll be careful, I’ll try my best to…not worry for now. We’ll figure this out. Everything will be okay.”
“That’s the spirit!” Discord cheered as he patted her muzzle again. The touch seemed more substantial than the size difference might have made it, as if his paw were a lot bigger than it physically appeared.
“I just have one question though, Discord,” she then said, looking back toward him, just a little stern, but mostly curious. “How did you know about this…merging magic?”
“Oh, is that all?” he asked drolly, sneering. “Of course I know about it, how did you think I got to be the way I am?” He then extended his body, and Twilight Sparkle gasped in surprise as the various segments that comprised him split apart and hung suspended in the air, his limbs, his tail, his neck, his mismatched horns. “It’s not as elegant when it’s done with Chaos magic, but when you’re trying to accumulate power you’re not going to be that picky about it.”
“I…I see,” she replied. She tried not to imagine what might have happened if such circumstances had happened to her, how much more warped her body could have been.
“Perhaps you would’ve ended up with us as extra heads.”
“Oh, Gods, I do not know that I could have stomached that.”
“At least I might have been able to get answers out of you quicker.”
It was going to be a long night, and an even longer eternity.