After five years of being the amazing combination of a unicorn and a pegasus, Twilight is called to the castle by Celestia. Little does she know that the things she will hear and see there will change her life, and her perception, forever.
The Alicorn. As far as anypony knows, only royalty can be born as this legendary species. Except me, of course. When I harnessed the magic of friendship, I managed to accomplish something that even Star Swirl the Bearded was unable to nail down in his spells. That's like some random joker (Mr. Cake, for example) finishing Einstein's theories just because he had friends. Which, when you think about it like that, is pretty amazing, and rather impossible.
I might not have been just any old unicorn. I was in fact one of three in the entire known history of Equestria to have a cutie mark of, and a talent in magic. The other two being Trixie (who seems like more of a con artist than a true sorcerer) and Star Swirl himself. I, being 'curious to a fault,' as said by my mother, had always wondered where Alicorns had come from. I always got a vague answer from whoever I asked: “the same place you came from, (insert term of endearment).” Which, of course, confused me further, since now I thought I came from some magical place in the sky or something. I started asking every adult why the Princess could be an Alicorn, but I couldn't. Long story short, I never got my answer, and there were no books to read, and nopony else to ask on the topic. None of the experts had given the idea much thought, so I just went on wondering. After a year or two, other 'I wonders' took it's place, but on the day of my transformation, the idea was renewed. And then, there was the letter from the princess. The one that would lead me to the truth. The truth of the Alicorn.
1
It's been exactly five years since the cutie mark incident, and my metamorphosis. I'm still living in Ponyville of course, but the Princess has long since stopped requiring me to send her letters. After I had written some magic, something that to my knowledge she had never accomplished, she realized that I now knew more than she did on the subject of friendship. In fact, it had been a while since I had received a letter from Celestia; though I didn't think much of it. She only sends me letters in case of emergency, and my friends and I had taken care of all of the looming emergencies. What evil would want to visit a place that has a Princess of Friendship?
Anyhow, earlier today my friends and I had stopped the Cutie Mark Crusaders from releasing an angry dragon, in another attempt to find their talents. The CMC's wrote to me about how they shouldn't endanger other friends just because they wanted something. I had just received Scootaloo's letter from Spike when there was a knock at the door. I glided down from my bed and opened the door, revealing the upside-down, cross-eyed face of Ditzy Doo, the mail pony.
She scrunched her nose and said “Um... I have a, uh, letter for you,” She opened up her saddle bag, dumping the contents all over my front porch.
“Oh.. oops... um, I got it.”
“No, no,” I interrupted, sorting through the letters until I found mine.
“I've got it.” I scooped up all the other letters and tucked them back in her saddle bag, securing the latch.
Before I could protest, she spun off into the night, corkscrewing every which way. I gave a silent prayer to any homes in her way, and went about opening the letter.
It read,
Dear Twilight,
It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of talking to you face to face. I wanted to bring you back to Canterlot, to see you again. And to talk to you about something. There's something that I've been meaning to tell you for some time now, and I haven't quite found a way to say it. Please don't invite your friends though-- I would like to see you alone. Come prepared for a few days, I am unsure about how long this will take.
Your mentor,
Princess Celestia
I flipped the letter over, looking for any more information, but found nothing. I didn't know when she wanted me to come. I didn't know why she had sent it through the regular mail when I had Spike, who would have delivered it much faster. I guess she really didn't want anypony to know about this, and Ditzy was too... preoccupied to really care.
So, the next morning I packed my things, left Spike with a fake testimony with Owlicious, and left for Canterlot. I avoided the gaze of Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack on my way to the train station. I certainly didn't want to have to explain to them that I was receiving secret information that they could never get themselves.
I waited for the train, alone, for the first time ever since I'd come here. It was sad, like those parts in books where the train is always carrying away someone who is deeply loved, and they will soon perish in a war or in some terrible accident. Morbid, I know, but I could only sit and wait for the train to Canterlot and wonder what was going to happen when I reached my destination, and if I would return from the trip at all. Whatever it was Celestia needed to tell me, it sure seemed important, and she definitely didn't want anypony else to even have a chance of hearing it.
Eventually, my train pulled into the station, and I hopped aboard without any hesitation. The train bumped rhythmically along the tracks, my forelock swinging in front of my eyes with each jolt. I was sitting in a car all by myself, which only added to my feeling of utter despair. What could be so important and so secret that my friends couldn't even hear it? Celestia knew that I could trust my life to them, and they'd accept it willingly. So the question was-- what was more important than my life?
The train screeched into the station, jolting me out of the quick nap I had attempted to take. I tentatively stepped down from the car and began a quick trot towards the castle. I was so nervous it took all my focus just to keep putting one hoof in front of the other. Of course, I was so caught up in walking that I did not see my older brother, until he was right on top of me.
“Twily!” Shining Armor yelled from across the street. Leaping over to me in a few quick bounds he continued, “What are you doing here, sis? Why didn't you tell me you were coming?”
I winced at his questions.
“Umm...” I murmured, continuing my straight path along the sidewalk, “Royal business. It's a secret.”
“Hey!” he said as he stepped in front of me and stopped me in my tracks. I still wouldn't look him in the eyes.
“I'm your brother. I'm also a prince. Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll understand.” Holding back tears, I simply said, “I really don't think you will.” and brushed past him. He didn't come after me.
After several more narrow escapes with old Canterlot friends, I finally reached the base of the staircase to the castle. I sighed and started the trek up, since using wings or magic was strictly forbidden within the boundaries. You'd think I would get some kind of pardon from this, me being a princess and all, but apparently not.
About halfway up, I lifted my head to see the face of Princess Celestia gazing down from the top of her tower. She caught my eyes and gave a small wave, withdrawing from the balcony to meet me at the door. I sped up a bit, the promise of satisfying my curiosity urging me on. Panting, I placed my hoof at the top, looking up into the smiling face of my former teacher.
“Twilight,” she hummed, “you came. I wasn't sure if--”
“Of course I came, Princess. What did you want to tell me?” I cut her off, too curious to be patient. She blinked once, slowly, then turned and went to the door, mane and tail swaying elegantly behind her.
“You see, Twilight,” Celestia spoke over her shoulder, “I know for a fact that you always wanted to know about Alicorns. You seemed to be the only one who found them such a mystery.”
“That's right!” I affirmed.
“Well...” she took a deep breath, then stopped and turned to face me, “I know about them. All about them. Everything you ever wondered. All the questions you ever asked, I'll answer them for you, under one condition. You must never tell another living soul about what I am going to show you.”
I nodded courtly as Celestia led me to the library door. She walked to the shelf containing several ancient tones on biology. Her horn lit up with a blue glow, as she shifted the entire shelf up, revealing a small hatch in the floor. I knelt down and flipped open the hatch, and pulled out a small, wooden box. It was badly water damaged, and had some stains that resembled blood. On the top, a metal plaque was mounted that had a sun emblazoned on it. Celestia's cutie mark. I opened the box with my magic, while Celestia replaced the shelf. Inside was an enormous stack of crinkling parchment, which was so tightly packed that the top few pages fluttered to the floor. I set the box aside and lifted the pages, stacking them neatly.
“Wait,” I muttered, peering at the blurry, damaged pages, “Is this... a diary?”
I glanced at the dates, “FROM NEARLY ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO?!” Then, it hit me, “Is this your diary?”
Celestia sadly responded, “N... no,” then took a shaky breath, “It was a friend of mine's. She...” I saw the beginning of a tear at the corner of her eye, “Well, you just read it and see. But on no account can it or it's contents be shared outside this castle!”
I jumped a bit at her sharp reminder and nodded. I have only heard Celestia raise her voice at me once, when I ruined my brother's wedding reception.
She exhaled sharply, “Oh, I'm sorry. It's just--”
“I understand,” I interrupted once again, “Don't worry about it.”
Celestia looked ashamed, but quickly covered it with her pleasant aura and said, “I have a guest room set up for you, but you're welcome to read that anywhere in the castle. I'd suggest a room with a fireplace, but your room should be rather comfortable. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.”
“That's fine. Thank you. And I promise: not a word of this will leave the room I read it in,” I swore.
The Princess smiled sweetly, “Thank you Twilight. I knew I could trust you with this.”
I bowed my head politely and walked past her, heading toward my favorite room in the castle-, the tower inspiration room. It was situated at the very top of the highest tower in Canterlot, it had a loud, crackling fireplace, and walls decorated with spiraling murals about Equestrian history. It meant another long climb, but whatever these diaries were about, it sure was important to Celestia. I wanted to know every word by heart, forwards and backwards. This was the best place to absorb it that way. When I was little, I had used it as my study room. Now it would be a sacred place. For the next few days, it was where I learned the secret that Celestia had held so close.
I laid down on the Persian rug, putting the cushion I had loved so much as a filly between my foreleg joints, and began to read.
January 1st, 1011
Well, here I am. The first day of a new year. My parents told me that today would be the day I learned about their 'surprise'. They told me they had enrolled me in something. Something they thought would put our names in the history books forever...
Well, here I am. The first day of a new year. My parents told me that today would be the day I learned about their 'surprise.' They told me they had enrolled me in something. Something they thought would put our names in the history books forever...
I went on to read about several ponies of whom I had no recollection, and was about to look them up when I remembered, this is a diary. Everypony in it isn't going to show up in the history books.
I was in the middle of a lengthy description of a colt named Ink Blot when the room got... fuzzy, and then it got fuzzier. I was squinting to read the parchment right in front of me when all of a sudden--
I was fine. I was alive, and I could read again. But the parchment looked new. I jumped up and walked out of the room, past a mirror, and saw a face that wasn't mine. It was yellow and round, with big shining eyes and a curl of crimson hair falling around a tiny horn.
Jarred, I cut off my magic and -boom!- Was back in the palace.
"ohhhh..." I murmured in understanding, "a memory imprint." I told nopony in particular.
For those ponies who don't study magic, a memory imprint is a way of locking your memories into an object. These diary pages didn't just tell you what happened, they showed you what happened. But, the trick was that the pony who recorded those memories could choose who would view them. Not to mention, it was a very advanced spell. How could a filly as young as that perform a spell of this caliber? Also, a young pony like her would probably lock it to everypony, excluding herself. Then... how did she know that I would need to read this some day? I didn't even know.
Just as I was about to chase down the Princess to ask about it, I remembered the advice of Cadence: 'Just breathe, continue, and the answer will become clear.'
Trying to keep this in mind, even though I was ready to run screaming from the the tower, the palace, and the city itself. I picked up the page, closed my eyes, and became--
"Rain Song!" chirped a particularly sweet-sounding voice.
"I'm coming, mummy," I replied, against my will. This would take some getting used to.
I took some tiny, skittering steps out of the small room I was in, and turned into a second room. It was a bit larger, but, other than that, they were very much the same: small, drafty, no windows, one door. I could tell from the shape of the building that these were the only two rooms it contained. Sitting on a small mat were two ponies: one was a unicorn, the other an earth pony. The unicorn was a lovely mare, but her mane was matted and greasy. I could tell that, if it was clean, it would be a very delicate blue, but in this condition it looked more like a dark brownish-green. Her cutie mark, though also covered with grime, was the image of a snowflake. The earth pony was a strong-looking stallion, whose mane and tail were in even worse condition. His gorgeous orange hair was a sickly gray, and his white coat was flecked with brown, grey, and bloody red patches where wounds were healing. His cutie mark was a flame. I knew that, even though I couldn't see it. Did I have her knowledge, too?
Well, let's see. My name is--
"Rainy, sweetheart, we have somewhere to take you," the mare interrupted my thoughts.
"Really?!" the filly's smile grew, though she already knew, "When can we go?"
"You're going right now. But we're not allowed to come," her father explained, "you'll have to go by yourself.” He looked upset, like he didn't know exactly what would happen when she reached her destination.
The filly's face fell, "But... why? Why can't you come? Why?" she demanded.
"It was part of 'The Professor's' agreement. No parents, only the fillies. I'm sorry, Rainy, there's nothing we can do. You'll be helping the family!" Father said hopefully, "she said five bits a day. We called a chariot. It'll arrive soon."
As if on cue, the rattling sound of wheels clattered up to the front door. My legs shook slightly, and I ran back into my room, quickly gathering a few items to take with me. I hurriedly tossed my diary, my sweater, and my scarf into my bag, which I then tied around my waist.
I took the wobbly steps to the carriage, hauling myself into the back and whispering, "I'm ready." into the puller's ear. His hooves clopped along at a steady gait, and I frantically stuck my head out of the window, waving down my parents,
"WHERE AM I GOING, ANYWAY?" I yelled to them. My mother called something out, but I guess I'll never know what she said. At that point, all I could do was turn around, sit in the over-stuffed leather seat, and wonder where I was going. But, despite all the questions, only one thought swam through my head: I never got to say goodbye
The strangest thing about 'The Academy,' as the broken-down building was so named, was that it... wasn't really even a building. Sure, the hunks of stone held together with tar could loosely be described as walls, but the roof was almost non-existent. It had caved in more than once, and now had supportive columns made of tree trunks protruding from the collapsing disaster. High iron gates with bold letters that spelled 'The Academy' over and over again, circled the apparent place of learning.
As if to hit confirm the pure discord of the building, the 'm' in 'Academy' fell off as soon as I had stepped down from the carriage. I took several hesitant steps towards the health code violation, than looked back to the driver of the carriage.
"Are you sure this is the place?" I asked him. The disgruntled pony replied, "It's none of my business." and galloped off before I could ask a follow-up question. I took a shaky breath and started back toward the dilapidated building. The double doors, though they must have been magnificent in their prime, were hanging off of rusty hinges, and had a knocker shaped like a draconequus' face. Not only that, but it was too high for me to reach. I tapped on the door with my hoof, which swung slowly open with a creak, revealing the gnarled face of a... pony?
"Hmmmmunghhhhh..." the colt moaned, only the left half of his mouth moved, revealing a row of sharp, black, rotten teeth. The other half of his mouth appeared to be sewn shut.
"Uh-" my voice wavered and I gulped, "uhh?"
Another pony came out from behind him, a mare, looking very annoyed. She murmured something fiercely into the ear of the disheveled stallion.
She had an angular face and a longer snout than usual. When she saw that I was a student, she plastered a fake smile across her face, "Welcome! I am the Professor! And you must be...?"
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I was too busy watching the seemingly melting face of the pony beside her. She maintained her artificial grin, but gave the other pony a swift kick in the rear end. He made a sound, not of pain or surprise, but from the sheer effort it took to haul himself up out of the sitting position and shuffle into the next room. His knobby spine jutted out from his skin, creating strange shapes on his back.
The Professor kept her pretend beam smothered over her face, but her eyes glared down at me as she asked, "Would you like to come in?" I knew that even though it was phrased as a question, it was more of an order.
"Umm... I think I have the wrong h--house. I'm sorry I b-bothered you!" I turned and prepared to dash for it, when a red aura appeared around the iron gate, and it slammed shut, broken lock repairing itself.
"I'll ask you once more," the mare's smile now an evil smirk, and very real, "Won't you please come in?"
"I'd like to take the opportunity to welcome you to the Academy," the elegantly disturbing (or maybe disturbingly elegant?) mare announced, acting as though she hadn't just locked me into her laboratory.
"We are a science-based learning center, mostly geared toward biology and, more specifically, caballiology, the study of ponies. We include hooves-on experiments, written work, and dissections as part of our curriculum. The colt beside me is my assistant, Chip. You will treat him with the same respect you will treat me."
Her hips swung with her gait, showing off a cutie mark with two vials of colored liquid. I supposed she really was a scientist. The pony stepped on a particularly creaky and termite-ridden board, which appeared to trigger the fall of particularly lethal-looking chunk of ceiling. She evaded it easily, but it shattered over the head of the mangled stallion. She reached over with a tentative hoof and brushed the remaining crumbles out of his mane, "Any questions?" she asked iniquitously, broadcasting another deceitful grin.
I simply stood, staring at the room before me. It was full of scientific instruments: tubes of bubbling liquid, clicking and whirring machinery, various dials and gears spinning in different directions.
Beeping, grinding, and buzzing sounds came from assorted metal structures, with screens monitoring things that looked like heart rate and breathing. Everything in the room, instead of being polished and well-treated, was coated in a thick layer of filth. There wasn't a machine in the room without a good-sized dent or two, and many of them continually stalled or had an odd fluctuation every few seconds. Despite it's condition, the system was impressive, even if only through it's ingenuity.
Rain Song, of course, knew none of this. She was very young, and it was at least nine hundred years before these particular appliances would be fully understood and accepted. Therefore, she looked up at the odd pair of ponies before her, and, for the first time, got a really good look at them. The mare was a slender earth pony with a yellow-orange coat, the color of autumn leaves. Her mane, while smooth and flowing, was a shocking red that rivaled the light of the sun for pure brilliance. Around her neck hung a mask, meant to filter impurities out of the air. It had a tangled mess of tubes that snaked over the surface of the metal, connecting like the branches of a tree into one large tube that fed clean air to the mouth. She was wearing a heavy leather jacket, that was covered with pockets, most sewn on by hoof and made of random materials. The pockets were too deep to see inside, or for anything to poke out of the top, but they tinkled with each step. Her eyes glinted with malice, ready to do anything to get me to participate in her 'learning center.'
The stallion had scars and stitches all over him. His cutie mark was odd, only sort of half-there, but a recognizable moon. There was a ghost of something over it, something I couldn't quite make out. As he dragged himself around, his hooves made a hollow thunking sound, much different from the usual clopping they're meant to make. His face was contorted into a sort of permanent half-grin, which is what the sloppily sewn stitches with black wire I had first seen were for, it appeared. His ankles were raw and scarred badly, as though he had been struggling against shackles.
"Umm, questions, right? Where do I sleep?" I asked. The mare's smirk instantly became a grimace of annoyance, "What do you care? Don't you want to know about the machinery?" she demanded, lifting her hoof to gesture at the nearest machine, "You see, this one here--"
"No..." I interjected, kicking at a pile of sawdust, "I want to know what exactly we're doing here."
The mare lowered her hoof, a smirk curled across the right side of her mouth, "Oh, yeah? You really want to know?" She turned to the colt, "What do you think, Chip? Should we start our lesson?" the colt blinked once, very slowly, "Good!" She put her hoof around my shoulder, and I caught a whiff of something stale and metallic, blood. she pulled me to her side and bent down a bit to talk right into my ear, "I think it's time you meet the other students."
She grasped my hoof with an iron grip, dragging me into another tiny room. This room had an actual door, but it was made of a thick, double-layer steel and had a port-hole window. The lock was heavy, and could only be closed from the outside. The inside of the room was in pretty bad shape, with one sagging mattress on a box-spring that was torn up and full of splinters, as though a homeless pony had used it for firewood. The walls had streaks of some kind of glue running down them. Something had definitely covered the walls, but it had been torn down.
It was full of very young ponies, of all different types and ages. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns were packed into the room, most of them aged from five to eight. However, a white-coated pony stepped forward, who must have been about twelve or thirteen. She had a short mane that was pink. Even though she was older than everypony else here, she still didn't have a cutie mark. She almost seemed to be protecting the others.
"Well, introduce yourself to the others and get some good rest. We'll start in the morning," the mare said, voice depicting exhaustion.
"Is this a padded cell?" I asked, turning to look at her only after I had asked the question. The mare's eye twitched, "ENOUGH QUESTIONS!" she shouted, slamming the door and trotting away.
"Hello," the white pony said, " My name is Sun Rise. I think I'm the leader. I'll protect you from them, and, if I have to, these ponies from you. Do you understand?" she asked hesitantly, taking a bold step toward me and flicking her tail. It was clear she was afraid, but she was very brave. She wasn't sure if I was with her, or with the strange professor and her eerie accomplice.
"S-sun Rise?" I stuttered, taking a step away from her and backing against the door.
The pony's face softened, "Yes. I'm sorry if I scared you, but we need to be careful. I am Sun Rise, but these ponies call me Celestia."
I woke up this morning after a long night on the hardwood floor. The youngest fillies get to sleep on the mattress, which is probably why all of them have either bedbugs or lice...
I woke up, sore all over, stretching out the cramps in my legs and nursing various splinters. Since the mattress was only big enough to fit a few foals, and the room was meant to accommodate just one adult pony, the seventeen eldest of the group were forced to sleep in a pile on the floor.
The ponies here were all rather unique. I didn't know all of them by name, but there were twin earth ponies (brother and sister), a pegasus whose wing had been clipped after an injury, and a female unicorn with a terrible stutter. Accompanying them, a blind earth pony colt, and a bright young filly who only possessed a book entitled 'Something Happened,' which she would never let go of.
I only knew three by name: first was the white-coated Celestia, who took responsibility for the safety of all the others. Second was the youngest foal, a male pegasus by the name of Thunder Bolt who had a navy-blue coat and silver mane. Last was the mysterious unicorn named Burnt Oak. Most of the other fillies avoided him, and he slept over in the corner, away from everypony else. I was told that he never spoke, and his tan flank was unadorned by a cutie mark. In fact, none of the ponies here possessed a cutie mark.
"Celsetia?" I called. I found it odd to see my mentor at such a young age.
"Why is it that nopony here has a cutie mark?"
Celestia looked confused, and blinked a few times to clear her head, "I... I don't know. Are you sure? I thought at least--"
"RISE AND SHINE!" cackled the voice of the Professor as she threw open the door to the bedroom, "Time for our first lesson! All twenty-four of you have arrived, and we are ready to begin!" Chip sat behind the Professor, his half-grin sagging slowly as he stared at us.
Celestia stepped forward and said, "We're ready. But you have to let me be the first to perform your 'experiments', alright?"
The Professor scoffed, "Fine. Do what you have to do to clear your conscience. I won't get in your way." Celestia glared into the scarlet eyes of the mare. She turned and led the way with a determined trot, the hesitant ponies galloping behind her to keep up. Celestia carried several of the youngest ones on her back, and they bounced with her cantering gait.
After a few confusing turns, the mismatched group reached the main room, the one full of machinery. Several seats had been set up: beat-up lawn chairs, some actual desks, and a park bench or two were lined up against the one empty wall.
"Everypony take a seat. I'd like to explain our first unit!" The Professor announced. She kicked Chip in the rear, and he waddled over to something old and dusty that was covered by a tarp. As the fillies sat down, Chip tore the tarp off of the object: a player piano.
The fillies looked at each other, wondering what would happen. As they mumbled to each other, Chip started to turn the crank to the player piano. Bouncy music started up, and the Professor straightened up, cleared her throat, and sang:
Now, listen up little ponies Please listen to me You're going to be part of something special, Just wait and you'll see. For far too long us earth ponies have had no recognition. This fact has put me and dear Chip into a bad position. But now that I have come up with this fantastic plan, My name and fame and fortune so many years will span! Heads up! Pay attention! For I will help you earn your name! What I have here Is something special Soon you won't be so mundane! And this solution to all our problems This, almost magical, cure I present to you, partners and friends, My invention: The Alicorn!
An awkward silence followed: ponies blinked, looking at each other, trying to figure out what had just happened. Had she really just sung a song about this terrible place? What did she mean, 'invention?' And how would it help earth ponies?
"I have invented so much!" the mare thrilled, "Look at this! I can use it to do magic!" She said, holding up an amulet, "a-and this!" she was breathing hard, trying to catch her breath after the exertion. She took the mask off from around her neck and held it proudly up.
"This is a mask that can allow you to breath amongst dangerous chemicals! Don't you see? I can do so many things, and so can all of you, but ponies are only afraid of my intellect. You can help me!"
Celestia moved nervously in her seat, knowing that something was wrong. She leaned over and whispered, "I think something's wrong with her. She's not right in the head. This isn't normal behavior for a pony, even from a genius such as herself."
"YOU!" she shouted to Celestia, pointing an accusatory hoof, "Up here. Now! You're going to go first, am I right?"
The mare beside me shifted in her seat, "Y-yes"
"'Y-yes!'" the Professor mocked, "Come on, I don't have all day."
Celestia took shaky steps up to the crazed Professor, "What must I do?"
"Test my inventions. You're going to fly Celestia! It's simple: throw yourself at the ground, and miss. It's never been done by an earth pony. You'll be the first. What do you say? Ready to earn that cutie mark, you over-sized blank-flank?"
Celestia's eyes blazed with loathing and trepidation, but she rasped, "Yes."
Celestia was balanced precariously on a rotten board that was so high it was difficult to see her face. I didn't have to see her expression, however, to know that she must be absolutely terrified. She had an odd contraption strapped to her back: made of gears and chains and pulleys with canvas stretched over it. It had two long chains that ran down the length of her front legs, and they had small pedals that were attached to her hooves. When she straightened her legs all the way, the wings folded, moving much in the same way that a pegasus flapped. Theoretically, Celestia would leap into the air and pump her front hooves to move the fake wings, and she would fly. Theoretically. In reality, a pony as young and, admittedly, weak, as her could never move her legs quickly enough to stay aloft.
"Well?" the Professor called up to the terrified pony on the roof, "We're all waiting down here! Show us all that spirit you're so proud to display on the ground." Even from this far off, I could see the Celestia's knees quivering.
"Chip!" The Professor murmured to her partner (though he sometimes seemed more like a pet), "Go up there and make her jump, I don't have time for this." This notion was ridiculous, had she nothing better to do than force filly to jump off a roof?
Chip lurched forward, making his way to a ladder by the side of the building. Celestia's head swiveled from the colt stumbling towards her, to the mare with the twisted grin. She shrunk down smaller and smaller, analyzing every possible escape.
And then, in a haze of fear and confusion, Celestia backed up a few steps, then ran off of the ledge. Her front legs pumped quickly, the wings carrying her several feet through the air. For one moment, it seemed like she might carry herself past the iron gates. But, no such luck. In her desperate movement the chain snagged the skin on her leg, jamming the machine and pulling a good-sized chunk off of her. She cartwheeled through the air, being tossed into the breeze like a rag doll, and making a horrible landing on the point of a decorative piece on the black gate. It sliced a long gash up her back leg and down her side, cutting off half of her tail with it. The brightly- colored hairs floated down upon a motionless body, which had landed on the ground with a sickening thud.
The ponies ran to her, muttering things like, 'Oh my!' and 'Is she okay!?' Some just called her name, over and over. The youngest foal, Thunder Bolt, buried his face in her mane, his body racked by choking sobs. The filly with the book just sat and stared. The twins hugged, crying into each other's shoulders. She was definitely dead, her blood spreading on the yellowed grass beneath us.
I watched from afar, not sure what to say or how to react. I'd only known her for a day, and I doubt the others had known her for much longer, but my stomach dropped into my hooves, and tears burned in my eyes. She had been so brave.
The Professor, emotionless, waved her hoof in the direction of the broken body on the ground. Blood was slowly soaking into the earth, and staining the coats of the foals nearest to her, "Chip, get that thing away from the foals. But keep it inside. I may have some use for it yet."
Some of the very youngest foals clung to the neck of Celestia as Chip started to pull the body toward the door.
"You two!" the Professor flung an accusing point in the direction of the twins, "Get this blood of the fence. We don't need ponies thinking this is some kind of torture chamber, do we?"
One of the foals sniffed back, "With what?"
"I don't give a crap! Use your manes, if you have to!" The Professor shouted, stalking after Chip. She gave a few kicks to the foals still clinging to Celestia until they relented and released their grip.
"She's a monster!" stated the pegasus with the clipped wing. Thunder Bolt nodded, wiping away the last of his tears. A large bruise was forming on his side, where the Professor had kicked him.
"Something needs to be done. There's got to be some way out of here!" I suggested, looking for a possible escape
"Couldn't somepony use magic to open the gate?" the blind colt said, looking off in a strange direction he thought our voices were coming from.
"N-n-none of the u-unicorns know h-how," stated the stuttering unicorn filly.
"And all the pegasi are either too young, or unable to fly,"a filly with a brown mane spoke up.
Before I could think of another idea, the Professor's screeching voice called out, "GET IN HERE, YOU INCOMPETENT IDIOTS!"
The remaining foals flocked to the door, Burnt Oak straggling towards the back. He was the only one of us who hadn't seemed the least bit upset. The twins had finished cleaning the dousing of blood off the fence, and their once beautifully purple manes were now a rusty maroon.
The Professor herded us into the cell, and started to close the door, but she stopped herself and poked her head back inside, "You should consider that a warning. I will decide the fate of all of you, and there's nothing any of you can do about it."
We've been stuck in here a few days now. Once a day, a tray is shoved under the door, with a mushy substance on it that tastes a little like meat and a little like wood.
The filly with the book is reading 'Something Happened' for about the thousandth time. The twins play some kind of hoof game, which provides a steady beat. Thunder Bolt hums little tunes, and a few others will sometimes join in with a song. I just sat in a corner, tapping the wood floor with one hoof over and over. I was alone with my thoughts, gathering as much information about Rain Song as I could. I knew the names of her parents, the school she wished she had been able to attend, the names of close friends, and even her hopes and dreams.
Burnt Oak coughed in the corner opposite from me. His forelock was covering his right eye completely, and his left, which was a dark shade of brown, was staring unblinking at the floor. His mane was pitch black, and his coat was a deep burgundy, giving the illusion that his entire being was, in fact, a charred piece of wood. Of course, the ability to sit stock-still for hours on end only added to this illusion. Of the twenty-one ponies in this room, he was definitely the strangest. Wait-- twenty-one?
I jumped up from my position on the floor, surprising all of the fillies in the room.
"There's only twenty-one ponies here!" I yelped, "Everypony, quit moving! Get in a line!" The jarred fillies hastened to form a line across the room. I counted them quickly. Twenty-one. I counted once more.
"Remind me-- The Professor said there were twenty-four ponies when we first arrived, correct?" I received several nods and grunts of confirmation from the group.
"And then Celestia..." I trailed off, "So there should be twenty-three here, right?" The ponies looked a little confused, "Then who's missing?" Frantically, the ponies ran around, looking for family and friends. One unlucky filly came up short.
"Where's Honey Flower?" she squeaked, "She was my friend! What did they do to her!?" Tears streamed from her eyes, as she sobbed things like, "Why didn't I notice? I should have known!" Another pony put his hoof around her shoulders, leading her away after a small, comforting peck on the forehead.
"Okay, that's one," I murmured, "who else?" Thunder Bolt shrugged, looking me right in the eye. A tiny filly shoved past a few larger ones. I didn't recognize her for a moment, until I realized she was the filly with book. Her novel was abandoned on the floor.
She cleared her tiny throat, leaning in towards my ear and whispered, "Dusty Shaker."
"Dusty Shaker?" I asked the gathering. Nopony seemed to have any reaction to the name, but in the back of the room I saw a double-take from the quietest pony of them all.
Burnt Oak looked up from the floor, meeting my eyes, "Did you say 'Dusty Shaker?'" he asked me.
"Yes," I said simply, a tone of surprise creeping into my voice, "do you know him?"
"Do I know him..." Burnt Oak scoffed shakily under his breath. He galloped toward the door, knocking over two or three other ponies, and pounded his hoof against the iron, "BOILING BLOOD, YOU PROMISED! YOU PROMISED ME!" he screamed, his voice breaking in his agony.
Burnt Oak scoffed again, "You idiots. That's the professor's true name!" He spun to face us, forelock swinging up and revealing a red socket where an eye should have been, "'Chip' as you so call him, is named Full Moon. He's a werewolf, you foals-- part pony, part timber wolf. But you want to know the worst bit about this place!?" He was in a crazed stupor. Just as insane as the Professor, or rather, Boiling Blood.
"I-I'm not sure I do." Somepony murmured from the back of the group.
"I'll tell you why," Burnt Oak's mouth curled into a grin, "Your parents sold you to this place. They needed the money, she needed lab rats. Your parents are living much more comfortably with one less mouth to feed and an extra one thousand bits a month."
"I don't believe you!" I shouted, " My parents love me! They'd never sell me to that... witch!"
"Oh, yeah?" Burnt Oak challenged.
"Yes."
"Well, let me explain this to you, then. Do you even know what her experiment is?" Several ponies shook their heads. "Of course you don't. Well, Boiling Blood is a mastermind. She's been trying to get her name recognized by science for years, but she was ignored because she was an earth pony. She had an idea, a theory, that she could create something of herself that would allow her genius to be properly recognized. The Alicorn."
"What's an Alicorn?" a tiny voice squeaked.
"It's the combination of a pegasus and a unicorn, a pony with the power of flight and magic, a being of enormous power. She was ready to create one, after the successful experiment of Full Moon, but she knew it was too dangerous to start with herself. So, she invited fillies from all over Equestria to participate at her 'Academy'. And she promised me that I would be the first. But she chose my brother instead."
It took me a few minutes to see what was going on. Burnt Oak, he wanted power, but she wasn't going to give it to him. Maybe it was because he was missing an eye. Maybe she liked his brother better. But I think the truth was a lot more obvious.
"Don't you understand?" I asked him, "She only wants your horn! Celestia's going to be the first Alicorn! She was baiting you! You'll lose your powers and maybe even die! And so will your brother! We have to do something!"
As if on cue, I heard the hum of machinery. The experiment had begun.
"ONE! TWO! THREE!" The broken-down box spring hit the door once again with a hollow clang. Only one small dent had formed; there was no way we could get out this way. I dropped the bed, and the others followed suit.
"Okay..." I paced back and forth across the room, "What about magic? There's got to be a way to use it!"
"They're too young." Burnt Oak complained.
"No, you," I pointed a hoof in his direction, "are not involved in this. You're going to stay right here!"
"Hey!" the colt straightened up quickly, "We both want the same thing right now! Let's just focus on getting out of here!"
I could feel steam streaming from my ears. I wasn't going to stand and take it while that maniac suggested that we were alike in any way. I was ready to say something really abrasive when a lavender aura gleamed into view around the door.
I closed my grimacing mouth and looked around at the group. The only sound to be heard was the humming and clanking structures in the other room.
Then, there she was, the tiny filly with her odd-ball novel was ripping the door off its very hinges. She tossed the door aside with a final grunt of effort, and the group of fillies galloped down the hall at top speed. Some of the pegasi would leap into the air for short bursts of speed.
"Turn right!" A voice shouted over the din of pounding hooves.
"What?"
"RIGHT!" I skidded around the corner of the fork, hooves just barely making it around and slamming into the wall on the other side.
There were several more tight turns before we made it back to the main room. By that time, the sound from the machines was slowing down, and I was a bit worried that we were too late to save the three ponies.
I came to a very sudden stop at the large room. There were quite a number of differences. First of all, the ceiling had swung down on hinges, and a platform was facing the sky. I could see pink hair waving in the breeze, and knew that the dead body of Celestia was strapped to it. Second, a brutal storm was brewing above us, and the electricity in the air was enough to make the fur on the backs of everypony's necks stand on end.
Boiling Blood was wearing the mask now, and it made her voice sound strangely hollow and far away as she shouted at us, "STAY BACK! IF YOU MESS WITH THIS EXPERIMENT I'LL USE YOU AS A REPLACEMENT!"
I back-peddled to a quick stop, several of the other ponies slamming into me, "Oh, no..." I whispered.
"I think I know why she picked tonight to do the experiment..." Thunder Bolt muttered. It was a full moon. I couldn't see it through the clouds now, but I could see it's glimmer through the raging storm. But a full moon meant-- A vicious roar came from the corner. Full Moon had been curled up in the shadows, but all the noise had jolted him out of sleep. His eyes glowed with a luminous, unnatural green, and were surrounded by a wreath of leaves. His ears had grown, and melted into wood about halfway to the tip. Wooden claws had grown out of the skin just above his hooves, and clicked with each small, calculating step he took towards us. He growled, showing a row of wooden teeth, and flicked his tail, which clanked like wind chimes, as it was mostly made of wood. A string a yellow-ish saliva dripped from his mouth.
"Y-you weren't kidding about the werewolf, were you?" I asked Burnt Oak.
"Did you think I was?"
"Well, somepony DO something!" shrieked a panicked voice. I don't know who it was, but some brave soul streaked by in a rainbow blur. He was a pegasus, and he delivered quite a blow to Full Moon's jaw. A few other ponies followed his lead, and soon everypony was kicking and throwing punches at the monster. That is, everypony except me and Burnt Oak.
We had different goals in mind: I was about to dismember Boiling Blood, and Burnt Oak was climbing to the top of the platform, trying to replace Celestia with himself. I marched right up to the psychotic Professor, not caring how tiny I looked.
"Oh, I figured one of you would try to stop me," she said, seeming bored with me, "Just go away, alright? She's dead. There's nothing you can do."
"I can save her from being a monster!" With that, I lunged at the scientist, hooking my front legs around her neck and squeezing. Boiling Blood gagged and choked, trying to pull me off. As she tossed her head around, I caught a glimpse of Burnt Oak. He was undoing some kind of mechanism, and I saw a purple wing unfold limply off the side.
The Professor was starting to go unconscious, so I let her go and used her head to launch myself up to the piston that raised the platform. I grabbed it, managing to skitter up to the top with almost no loss of momentum.
"What is wrong with you!?" I called to him over the din of machinery and screaming foals, "Don't you understand? This is wrong! It's never meant to happen!"
"I don't care!" he screamed back, "THIS IS WHAT I'M MEANT TO DO! SHE TOLD ME SO!"
"Who told you?" I asked not expecting an answer.
"SHE DID!" he shrieked, "SHE DID! YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS!"
My jaw dropped a bit as I understood what he was saying, "Your mother?" I asked quietly.
"N-no-- well yes-- but-- BOILING BLOOD!" sadness choked his words, and tears poured onto the body below us. I noticed the horn stitched to her forehead, the horn of his own brother, of Boiling Blood's son. She had killed her own son.
"I'm sorry. But you have to let it go. You have to move on! No more death tonight!"
Then, it happened. Before I could react, Burnt Oak was tearing the horn and wings off of Celestia, "It's supposed to be me!" he yelled, almost in some kind of drunken stupor. I looked down at where Boiling Blood was regaining consciousness. She looked up at me, her mask looking like a squid, ready to eat me whole. Even though the odd ceramic mask obscured her eyes, I knew she eyeing me for the kill. Half asleep from oxygen deprivation, she began a slow climb toward us.
"Burnt Oak, get out of here! She's after you!" I called to him. He seemed completely numb to me, and instead simply stood looking at the storm, the light glinting off the blood that covered his hooves.
I saw a goldenrod hoof reach over the side of the platform, groping for something she could use to haul herself up. She found the back hoof of Burnt Oak, who jumped as she grabbed it tightly. She then gave a swift pull, tossing the startled pony to the floor. I looked for a way to escape her, but there wasn't a safe way down.
She pulled herself up past the edge of the platform, her mask now hanging around her neck. She had a malevolent glint in her eye as she crawled all the way up onto the metal rise.
"You ready to be famous?" she asked me. Her years of work and preperation was destroyed beneath her, and she knew it.
"Wha.. what?" I asked, too scared to think straight. Boiling Blood didn't answer. She just grabbed my neck and twisted.
I leapt back in surprise, dropping the decaying parchment. The pain of getting my neck broken had felt very real, and left me gasping for breath. After several frantic inhales, I quickly stacked the papers and stuffed them back in the box, shutting the lid tightly.
A small tear slipped silently down my cheek. How could anypony live with such terror on their shoulders? I started wishing that I had never become a princess, wishing my wings had never come to be. One tear slowly became two, and soon I was choking and retching on tears that came all too fast. I clutched my stomach, wishing there was some way to purge the horrible images in my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the Professor, the empty socket, the dead body of Celestia, that awful room! All the terrible things I wish I had never seen danced in my head, swirling and distorting in my mind. It wasn't long before a vicious headache started pounding between my temples, and a stumbled down the stairs to the throne room.
"Celestia!" I called from down the hall, tears still grabbing at my throat and tearing much of the volume from my voice.
The beautiful mare saw me and galloped to my side. She used her head to scoop me on to her back, and carried me into the grand room, whispering small comforts. Once inside, she closed the huge doors with her magic, then sat down, allowing me crawl slowly down from her back.
"Sh, sh," Celestia consoled, "It's okay. I'll talk with you when you're ready," she stroked my head gently with her hoof, but I jumped up.
"No! I want to talk about it now! How could you let me--" I tried to say, but just after I had wiped the tears from my eyes, a new flow began. My face, I saw in the reflection of the stained glass, was stained with dark streaks. My eyes were bloodshot, and still welling up. How could that tiny filly be so brave, and how could I be such a blubbering mess?
"I'm sorry, Twilight. I'm sorry. But... it was your destiny to become a leader of Equestria!" Celestria tried to justify her actions, "I wanted you to fully accept that before I talked to you."
"That's the thing, Princess," I began, smearing away the last of my tears with the back of a shaking hoof, "I had only just gotten used to the fact that I was a Princess, and I was ready to give in and say that I accepted it. But, now.." I sniffed again, waiting for the tears to start up once more, but it appeared that I could cry no longer, "I'm not sure I want to go on being a Princess. If that is what it means to be an Alicorn, than I want no part of it."
"Twilight, I think you're being a bit hasty--"
"No, I'm NOT being hasty!" I shouted, " This is wrong! It should have stopped years ago!" I sighed, "but... before I get too in depth, I actually had a few questions."
Celestia blinked, looking a bit confused, probably at my quick change of heart. Believe me, I was ready to give her a piece of my mind, but I had some really important questions to ask her.
"Go on," she prompted.
I released a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding, "Um... well, first off, why didn't any of the ponies have their cutie marks?"
"Nopony is really sure, but a I believe that she thought using ponies who didn't have it would be a sort of, oh, confirmation that they would want to join in. Not having cutie marks means more potential, and more potential means a better chance of her experiment actually succeeding, " Celestia explained.
I nodded. This made some sort of twisted sense, but it sure didn't make things right. "Okay. Why did Boiling Blood experiment on her son?"
Celstia thought about this for a moment. "Again, nopony is really sure. It probably had a scientific explanation, but as far as I know, it was just because he was there."
I took a deep breath. "Last question-- how did you escape?"
Celestia sighed deeply, sinking into her throne. She gingerly rubbed the golden ornaments on the arm, thinking about how to answer this question.
"Celestia?"
"Well, Twilight, the simple answer is she didn't."
"What? Th-that doesn't make sense," my voice quivered.
The Princess chuckled, her form flickering. "She was a sweet little filly, wasn't she?"
"Princess, what's going on?" I asked, backing away slowly.
"Oh, you little ponies. So naive, so gullible. If I had told you I was Empress of the universe, you'd all just smile and nod and agree, wouldn't you?" Celestia's tone grew harsher, and she spat the last two words violently at me.
"W-what are you doing?!" I shrieked.
"Something I should have done a long time ago!" She leapt down from her throne, flicking her tail and stalking toward me. Her form flickered again, and I caught a glimpse of a terrifying being.
"C-celestia?"
"NO!" she screamed, and I saw a mouth full of ugly, mis-aligned teeth. "There hasn't been a Celestia for two thousand years! It's ME!" her flickering form cut out entirely, and a grotesque beast was revealed.
Tufts of scarlet hair stuck out of a mostly bald orange head. Half of her jaw was missing, showing off a set of green-ish teeth. Pale white wings were sloppily stitched to her back, and they flapped about uselessly by her sides. A dark brown horn was also present, letting out uncontrollable bursts of magic that sent dark green sparks flying in every direction.
The worst part, though, was her flank, which plainly displayed a stolen cutie mark-- one of young Celestia.
The pony cackled, using her disjointed magic to hurl me across the room.
"Please! Stop!" I cried, trying to stand but only sending sharp bursts of pain through my leg.
"No. I created the alicorn! ME! I should get to use it! Me, and nopony else!" she screamed, thundering toward me from across the throne room.
Everything hit me at once. There had never been a Princess Celestia, just a fake biding her time. I was a monster. And I was going to die.
~~~~~
Blood sighed deeply, stepping away from the crumpled body and grinning. Twilight was the last one, which meant that Clelestia alone held the power in Equestria.
"Full Moon!" she howled, summoning her loyal companion.
All that came was the form of Princess Luna, whose once graceful steps were now awkward shuffles. Blood watched as the image flickered and died, and the husky stallion made his way towards Twilight.
"Just put it with Cadance, will you?" she waved her hoof dismissively.
Full Moon made a sound of disapproval.
"Oh, for God's sake, it's not that far," she complained. "Just get it down there. Now!"
Moon grunted, limping away with the lavender body slumped over his shoulder.
Blood walked slowly to the window, resting her foreleg on the sill and gazing out at the horizon. Her pilfered horn lit, and the sun started its slow descent.
A smile curled the alicorn's lips. This was her kingdom, now.
"'And I looked down upon the sunken faces of the once powerful,'" she quoted, "'And on the dirty streets and broken souls. And I thought it good.'"
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