> Alicorn Sisters Beneath the Skin
>  by Pastelglitches
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> In All But Blood
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The castle doors draw to a close, and the change is immediate. The polite smiles on both princesses—one careful and practiced, the other awkward and wobbly—fall. Celestia’s hands quickly go to rub her cheeks, her face muscles exhausted by the neverending grin she painted for their subjects. First there was a castle tour, and then overseeing courtroom cases, and then dinner with aristocrats. 
Beside her, Luna lets out a groan as she stretches her arms. “How doth thee yond ev’ryday?” they breathe.
Celestia chuckles at her sister’s Old Ponish. “Imagine doing it alone all these years, sister. It’s taken everything in me to not simply smite some of these ponies; their idiotic philosophies, their disgusting crimes… It’s enough to drive anycreature mad.”
“Then why did thee rid us of the death penalty?” Luna shakes their head. “You used to love it! Those gents called thee Sol Invicta, the unconquered sun! You were ruthless and terrible. Uh, i-in the valorous way,” she adds, awkwardly meeting the taller woman’s gaze. “You even madeth Invicta thy second name, backeth at which hour t wast— ah, back when your name was Caelesti instead of Celestia.”
Celestia sighs through her nose. “The years brought change, sister. Our names were simplified. Celestia has been my name for 1,000 centuries. It feels more like my name than any of my others, now.” She frowns. “... After the— the banishment, I changed my ways. I saw how war was ravaging our streets, how much needless death I was spreading throughout my country and others. I didn’t like who I had become without Father to guide me, so I… stopped enabling my poor behaviors. Tried to be a motherly figure, somepony kind and generous. And that’s who I am, now.”
“You don’t have to be kind and motherly to be a mare, sister.” 
Celestia laughed, honestly, cheerfully. She didn’t even blush at the sound of her own snort. Luna missed seeing their sister like this, carefree and blunt. When they both first came to power, Celestia’s soft moments quickly became just a memory. Memories that little Luna craved, still, even as her sweet foster sister turned into the fearsome Sol Invictus. 
So you gave her a taste of her own medicine, Luna’s thoughts chime, and her face cringes. Memories of their fight flash in her brain. How tears streamed down Celestia’s face, the brutal anger that raged in every bone Luna had, the screams from nearby ponies... Instinctively, Luna takes a step back from Celestia. 
Her eyes catch on the act, but Celestia only curls her lips in a small smile, her eyelashes fluttering knowingly. She continues regardless. “I’m perfectly aware that being a decent person doesn’t make the mare, Luna. I’m a woman because I was born as one. My biological parents just didn’t know it, and now they never will. I’m sure Father and Mother made better parents than they ever could.” Then she shrugs lazily, but her gaze holds Luna for a moment too long, something sparking there within the pink. “Swift reformation is possible for any creature; that’s why I never gave up on you.”
Luna feels the need to gasp. Instead, she snaps her head in the other direction—any direction other than Celestia’s, really—and takes a single second to breathe in. “Uhm— w-what became of Mother, Father, and Papa? And of our brothers and sister?” 
Celestia presses her back against the door, arms crossed and face blank. “That’s… a lot of stories to tell in one afternoon, sister. I mean, you have dream duty due in a few hours—”
“The fate of our family didn’t wait. Neither shall I.”
Celestia frowns, considering. She blows some of her hair out of her face, blowing a raspberry, and heaves. “Guess I’ll just speedrun it, then.”
“What is a speedrun?”
“You’re about to find out!” Celestia booms, a grin splitting her face. Her wings flapped excitedly. “Okay, ready?”
Luna puts their hands in front of them. “Decidedly, nay! Grant you mercy, but I’m well, actually—”
“Alright, first off: Father. As you now, he disappeared mysteriously with the rest of the Pillars. Nowadays, they call him the Father of Modern Magic. They even think he cast the spells himself!”
“What?” Luna flinches. “But— but Mother was the spellcaster! Father barely had any magical talent, though his mind was beyond his years, so he invented and wrote the spells, but Mother was the one that tested them out, she was the one that put her life in danger time and time again in the name of magic—”
“I know, Luna, I was there—” 
“And you haven’t corrected them?!” Luna shouts, cheeks going purple. “They’re erasing Mother’s legacy!” 
“Not completely!” Celestia says. “They... know her as Clover the Clever, not Twilight Trefoil. She’s a legend among ponies, a brilliant adventurer.”
Luna stops huffing. “I don’t understand. Mother should be given her complete due. Before you, she was the most powerful unicorn I’d ever known! And now they only remember her as a legend? They don’t even call her her true name?” 
Celestia’s gaze meets the floor. “History gets squandered as stories pass down generations, Luna. One small misremberance can completely change the tale. Our subjects are stubborn, sister, and more so enjoy stories that wrap it up nicely. They tend to ignore the truth in favor of something easier to swallow. Nobody cares to hear how the great Starswirl the Bearded was actually just a smart, bisexual, polyamorous writer with so little magical power that he had to get someone else to cast what he thought up. That’s too sad for them. There’s no books on how Starswirl married that pony, and how they both fell in love with an immigrant of a different species. Too scandalous, that. They just think Twilight Trefoil was Starswirl’s personal pupil, and that Scorpan was simply an exotic friend instead of their lover. The tale of Tirek’s defeat is one without our parents, without how their love charged Papa’s betrayal.” Her brows knit. “They don’t care to know.” 
Celestia’s hands grip her own arm harshly. “Once they got the idea that Father had all the power, they stuck to it. No matter what I said to the contrary. Constantly fighting with younger ponies on history you yourself saw unfold… it becomes fruitless. It’s like talking to a brick wall.”
Luna groans again. “We… und’rstand. Tis not fav’rable, but we— I... get it.” She sighs. They can tell there’s going to be a lot of that, today. “... I remember that Papa went back to Labyrinth after Tirek was imprisoned to tell his people. What happened after he returned?”
Celestia mournfully shakes her head. “He— he didn’t.”
Luna feels their breathing hitch. “But... h-he promised.” 
“I know,” Celestia says, sniffling. “I’m sorry.”
Luna feels tears prick her eyes. Her lower lip quivers. Suddenly, she wishes she had scheduled this conversation for another day. Don’t pout, Lunares, Luna tells herself. Don’t cry.
“No matter,” they say quickly. “And of Mother? I-I remember she was determined to rescue Father.”
“Yes, Mother… Mother had to step it up for the rest of us kids, but I think being at home just felt so empty without Father and Papa. A house filled to the brim with foals, and yet… it was so hollow.  She became obsessed with finding Starswirl. Every adventure they tell of her now, all of it was just a stepping stone to her. A detour on a greater plan. At her worst, she even created these trails, they were… originally designed so that somepony worthy would continue the search. Nopony ever did. Eventually, Mother turned sickly and desperate. She sent all but one of our brothers to find Father. You remember what happened to Amore when she went looking, what she found, how it all fell apart. Gusty got glory, but John… John became a bedtime story to scare foals: the Headless Horse. Honestly, I don’t know what happened to the rest. We never heard from them again. I do know that at least some of them became fathers of their own— we were aunties, Luna! Not that I ever met any of the originals, except Amore’s children. I only know our great, great, great, a lotta-other-greats niece, Twilight Velvet. I even made her daughter my personal pupil.”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna breathes.
Celestia nods slightly. “She has strong power in her blood. She proved that when she discovered your arrival, and I’m sure she’ll prove it again.”
“... What’s your plan, with her? You sound like you expect her to ascend.”
Celestia smiles. “Well, she wouldn’t be the first alicorn in this century. You remember your meeting Cadence?”
Luna’s neck puffs up. Her cheeks turn red, and their face meets their palms. “I hate you for that, Celestia.” 
“Your jaw was practically on the floor!” Celestia giggles. “It was the best! I should’ve recorded it.”
“Maybe if you told me about her before the personal bodyguard you assigned me tried to introduce me to his alicorn marefriend, I would have been more prepared!” 
“Where’s the fun in that, sister?” Celestia smirks. 
“I’m serious, Nicole— I mean, Caelesti— whatever your name is! Dalcop!”
“Dalcop isn’t something people say anymore. Try clown bastard.” 
“Shut your peasant mouth, you cream-faced driggle-draggle!” 
“So mature, Moondancer, so very mature,” Celestia sings lazily.
Luna stills herself and practices breathing. “I hate thee,” she manages through grit teeth. 
Celestia bumps their hips. “Right back at ya, you loiter-sack.”
“At least I’m not a stampcrab!”
“Whatever, stymphalist.”
“Yaldson!”
“If my biological mother was a prostitute, then good for her! No whorephobia allowed, Moondancer!” 
“I-I didn’t mean it like that!” 
Celestia rolls her eyes. “Now look who’s being an abydocomist.” 
Luna’s fists ball. “You didn’t even tell me you had a daughter, Caelesti! That’s pretty big information!”
“She’s my adoptive daughter, Lunares. It only became official a decade or so ago.”
Luna bites. “We both know family doesn’t end in blood. If it did, you and I would not be the Alicorn Sisters.” 
Celestia’s eyes widen. A soft hand squeezes Luna’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean it like that, Luna. I just—” she hesitates. “1,000 years is a long time to be alive. It’s a long time to be alone. I couldn’t date my subjects, or else somepony would figure out that I like mares. Even if I did manage to fall in love, who’s to say my lover wouldn’t feel spurned when she discovered my differences from the average mare? I couldn’t just say that, oh, being an alicorn made me grow a penis!”
“I really didn’t need to hear that—”
“I know, I— sorry. There’s only so many creatures I can afford to be my true self around.” Her face softens. “I, uh I missed this. Talking trash and bickering and being vulgar. It’s exciting!” She laughs. “You’re the only pony that’s ever known all of me, even all my names.”
Luna’s quiet for a moment. “And you I,” she says.  
Celestia nods, smiling. “I’ve never told anycreature what you were born as. Moondancer always fit you better, and then Lunares Invicta came along and you sounded like a complete badass. Luna takes the cake, though.”
“I agree. They all feel like me, but…”
“Luna’s the most you.”
“Yes.” Luna mumbles emotionally. Her back slacks against the doors beside Celestia. “Faust, it’s so great to talk about this again.”
“I know what you mean.” 
A quiet beat passes. There’s a comfortability in the air that Luna doesn’t want to disturb, but she finds she doesn’t want the talk to end. So many moons spent without her dear sister, nor anybody else to talk to. She couldn’t even talk, trapped inside the moon, helpless as Cosmos whined and whined about the alien’s own banishment. If Luna had had ears while inside the moon, Cosmos would have talked them off. (Or clawed them out. That one was a real brute.)
“What about Stygian?” Luna asks suddenly. “You said Mother sent away all but one of our brothers. What happened to Stygian?”
“Disappeared, around the same time as Father.”
“Faust!” Luna curses. “Ah— Aunt Platinum?”
“Settled down, had a child, died peacefully. Her bloodline is still active. Descendants live in Canterlot, actually; the Bluebloods. Youngest has the title of Grand Duke: Vladímir. It’s just a title for him, though. They hold no true power, other than politically. He’s… certainly an acquired taste, but Caddie loves him. They consider themselves cousins, even have regular spa days.”
“Well, that’s good news.” Luna smiles a little. “And— and your family? Cadence makes you happy?”
Celestia can’t bring herself to look at Luna. “Sh-she does. So much, sister. But… there’s something else. Uh, remember how I said I couldn’t date one of my subjects?”
Luna nods, the smile already falling. 
“Well,” Celestia makes a popping sound. “About 20 years ago, I… I had a…” she stops. Then, she balls her fists at her sides, squeezes her eyes shut, and quickly yells: 	“IgotmarriedtoaforeignleaderwemetduringapeacemeetingshekissedmewhenIgaveheracastletourandI’vebeeninlovewithhereversinceshe’snotaponyshe’sahippogriffandwehadachick!”
Celestia breathes air into her lungs before she suffocates.
Luna blinks rapidly. “You— you what?” her hooves stumble on the ground. “And you didn’t tell me until now?!”
“It wasn’t safe!” Celestia pleads instantly. “None of my people knew! Her subjects did, but we were private about it! She— she went into hiding when— when the Storm King rose. She— she fled with our daughter, and… and I haven’t seen them since.”
The anger bubbling in Luna’s chest quietly dies down. Her face is white with shock and she feels goosebumps rising on her skin. Still, her arms enwrap her sister and Celestia melts into the touch.
“I’m so sorry, sister,” Celestia hiccups, laying her chin on Luna’s shoulder. “I’m so—”
“Stop, we— I’m sorry, too, okay? Just…” Luna burrows her head into Celestia’s chest. “Can we—you and me—just be honest with each other? About anything, about all of it? Can we stop keeping things from each other for the other’s protection? Please?” 
Celestia puts her arms around Luna, holding the mare closer. “I… I think I could manage that.”
“Does that mean yes?”
Celestia lets out a broken laugh. “Yes, idiot!”
Despite herself, Luna joins her. “Then… me, too.”