Ask Alien Celestia and Luna feat. Star Swirl the Bearded

[Silly Druid 4,707]

[OOC: A new year and a new ask thread! This time it's about my headcanon that Celestia and Luna are actually aliens. I wrote about this concept as a soapbox at Equestria Daily some time ago, but you don't have to read that, just ask here about everything you want to know. I don't give much information in the OP, because I'm going to deliver it in the form of answers.]

 

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GREETINGS, CITIZENS OF EQUESTRIA AND BEINGS FROM OTHER DIMENSIONS!!! WE ARE HERE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH INFORMATION ABOUT OUR TRUE ORIGINS AND IDENTITY SO YOU CAN...

Luna, I don't think you need to use your Canterlot Voice here.

OK, so, ahem, we decided that after our retirement, it's a good time to tell you that we're...

We're not from this world. I mean the world where Equestria is, we're not from here. We've come from a different place. And we have a special guest that will help us with the answers.

 

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I'm the wizard known as Star Swirl the Bearded. I played an important role in the events that will be the subject of this thread, so I suppose I can assist in explaining some things here.

 

Rules:

1. No NSFW questions or inappropriate language.

2. Roleplaying is allowed, but not as overpowered, canon-changing or very unusual characters. Ordinary citizens of Equestria are OK, as well as canon characters, unless you change their personality or imply something that isn't canon (I'm the only one here who is allowed to do it ). So if you're a long lost alien brother of Celestia and Luna who has the power to destroy the universe, then this thread is not for you.

[Quinch 1,115]

-kicks back, grabs a notepad and takes a sip of lemonade-

Let's start with the obvious ones. If you're interstellar aliens, what brought you to Equestria? Also, is Swirly over there an alien too?

[Silly Druid 4,707]

1 minute ago, Quinch said:

Let's start with the obvious ones. If you're interstellar aliens, what brought you to Equestria?

I don't think it was planned to bring us to Equestria. It was probably some sort of accident.

We kind of... crashed here.

And we were very young, so we don't really remember what happened before that.

 

11 minutes ago, Quinch said:

Also, is Swirly over there an alien too?

I'm not an alien. I just found them, and made them what they are now.

[Quinch 1,115]

10 minutes ago, PawelS said:

I don't think it was planned to bring us to Equestria. It was probably some sort of accident.

We kind of... crashed here.

And we were very young, so we don't really remember what happened before that.

That's a bit grim. Any other survivors?

10 minutes ago, PawelS said:

I'm not an alien. I just found them, and made them what they are now.

Interesting choice of words there. Are you a mad scientist then?

[Sparklefan1234 152,506]

This is an interesting development. 

Well, I guess the million bit question is: "What planet are you from?".

[Silly Druid 4,707]

32 minutes ago, Quinch said:

That's a bit grim. Any other survivors?

Unfortunately we were the only survivors.

 

32 minutes ago, Quinch said:

Interesting choice of words there. Are you a mad scientist then?

I am a scientist, or scholar as it was called back then. Those who studied magic, like me, were usually quite knowledgeable in other areas too.

And it's not mine to decide if I'm mad or not, so maybe you two can help me with it. You know me very well, am I mad?

Well, maybe a little...

You have very original ideas, that's for sure. But I wouldn't call you 'mad'.

 

32 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

This is an interesting development. 

Well, I guess the million bit question is: "What planet are you from?".

That's the problem! We have no idea. Equestria doesn't have the technology of space travel, and they never made contact with us, so we're kind of stuck here. Not that I don't like it, it's quite a pleasant planet.

Probably they don't know what happened to their ship, and the galaxy is so big that searching for us is a lost cause.

I suppose there was a war against another alien species, and our ship crashed due to being damaged by them. If that's true, our species might lost that war and be totally extinct by now (except us, of course).

Don't say things like that, I still hope we will meet our family someday...

Edited January 2, 2020 by PawelS

[Sparklefan1234 152,506]

3 minutes ago, PawelS said:

That's the problem! We have no idea. Equestria doesn't have the technology of space travel, and they never made contact with us, so we're kind of stuck here. Not that I don't like it, it's quite a pleasant planet.

Probably they don't know what happened to their ship, and the galaxy is so big that searching for us is a lost cause.

I suppose there was a war against another alien species, and our ship crashed due to being damaged by them. If that's true, our species might lost that war and be totally extinct by now.

Don't say things like that, I still hope we will meet our family someday...

 

1 hour ago, PawelS said:

I'm the wizard known as Star Swirl the Bearded. I played an important role in the events that will be the subject of this thread, so I suppose I can assist in explaining some things here.

 

Let me get this straight: 

STARSWIRL THE BEARDED TOOK YOU INTO SPACE WITHOUT ANY IMFORMATION REGARDING YOUR ORIGINS & NOW YOU'RE TRAPPED!? 

WHAT KIND OF A MENTOR ARE YOU, SIR!?

[Silly Druid 4,707]

4 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

Let me get this straight: 

STARSWIRL THE BEARDED TOOK YOU INTO SPACE WITHOUT ANY IMFORMATION REGARDING YOUR ORIGINS & NOW YOU'RE TRAPPED!? 

WHAT KIND OF A MENTOR ARE YOU, SIR!?

It wasn't like that. It was an accident, as we said earlier. He just found us after we crashed, and then he didn't know what to do with us, and there was a problem in Equestria, and then...

And then he decided to use us to solve that problem.

[OOC: I need to go to sleep now, so if there are any more questions, you'll get answers tomorrow.]

[Quinch 1,115]

34 minutes ago, PawelS said:

Unfortunately we were the only survivors.

Wait, so, how do you know you're aliens?

[Silly Druid 4,707]

8 hours ago, Quinch said:

Wait, so, how do you know you're aliens?

Star Swirl told us. A few years after the accident, when we were old enough to understand such things, he told us how he found us, and that we originally looked... different.

We looked very strange to ponies, so he had to change us, to make them accept us as their rulers.

[Quinch 1,115]

6 hours ago, PawelS said:

Star Swirl told us. A few years after the accident, when we were old enough to understand such things, he told us how he found us, and that we originally looked... different.

We looked very strange to ponies, so he had to change us, to make them accept us as their rulers. 

-sips on lemonade as he processes this-

-sets lemonade aside-

-looks between Celestia and Luna-

So... Starswirl the Bearded found strange creatures in a crashed vehicle of unknown origin, then proceeded to modify them so they could rule the world. Or at least the known world at the time.

-turns to Starswirl-

Are you sure you're not a mad scientist?

[Silly Druid 4,707]

2 hours ago, Quinch said:

-sips on lemonade as he processes this-

-sets lemonade aside-

-looks between Celestia and Luna-

So... Starswirl the Bearded found strange creatures in a crashed vehicle of unknown origin, then proceeded to modify them so they could rule the world. Or at least the known world at the time.

-turns to Starswirl-

Are you sure you're not a mad scientist?

Well, that definitely wasn't my first idea after I found them. They were creatures of an unknown species, so I didn't know what conditions they need to live, what they eat, and so on. I had to figure it out pretty quickly to give them a chance to survive. For a long time I was raising them in secret, uncertain what to do with them. I wondered if they could live among the ponies, and I decided that they probably wouldn't be accepted among them. The pony society wasn't as tolerant back then as it is now, mostly due to the efforts of Princess Twilight Sparkle and her School of Friendship. I even considered sending them to another part of the world, where different kinds of creatures lived, but none of them seemed a good choice for them.

I took me over a year to make this decision. The main factor was the leadership crisis in Equestria. My pupil Clover the Clever was one of the Founders of Equestria, so I had some inside information about the meetings of the Council of the Three Tribes, which consisted of the six Founders. Of course after the events of Hearth's Warming they were friends, but that doesn't mean they were well suited to rule together. There was a lot of pressure on them to make them represent the interests of their particular tribes. Also some of them weren't interested in ruling that much, and had other things they wanted to do. And there weren't any good candidates among the other ponies either, because anypony would be viewed as representing only one tribe, and not the other two. So what Equestria needed was a ruler that wasn't a part of any of the tribes, somepony who represented them all. In addition there were some changes in the magical fields of the solar system that made moving the sun and moon increasingly difficult. My research showed that these creatures have a magical power of a different kind than unicorn ponies, which would make manipulating celestial bodies much easier.

It occurred to me when I was looking at the Equestrian flag. Have you seen the play about the Hearth's Warming? When the Three Tribes finally became friends, they decided to share the land they found, and call it Equestria. Then they raised a banner, which became the flag of the new country. And you know what was on that banner? Two alicorns. Why were the alicorns there, when nopony had ever seen one before? The answer is symbolism. It's just like the humans put creatures like dragons and griffons on their coats of arms, despite the fact that they don't exist in their world. The alicorns on the banner symbolized the unity of the Three Tribes, as well as the day and night cycle, which was (and still is) very important to us, as we were the ones who actually controlled it.

So I put two and two together, and it worked pretty well. There were some hiccups along the way, but most ponies gladly accepted their new princesses, "sent by the heavens" to rule them. The rest is history.

[OOC: Sorry for a wall of text, but I decided to write something longer this time, to explain Star Swirl's motives in more detail.]

Edited January 2, 2020 by PawelS

[Samurai Equine 38,373]

Hello Celestia and Luna! I know you're retired, but how do you feel about any ponies that are still loyal to you? Should they stop admiring you both and only be loyal to the current princesses, like Twilight? 

[Silly Druid 4,707]

5 hours ago, Samurai Equine said:

Hello Celestia and Luna! I know you're retired, but how do you feel about any ponies that are still loyal to you? Should they stop admiring you both and only be loyal to the current princesses, like Twilight? 

Of course you are allowed to admire us. We feel honored.

Just don't expect us to do anything.

[Quinch 1,115]

8 hours ago, PawelS said:

Of course you are allowed to admire us. We feel honored.

Just don't expect us to do anything.

That's all right, I never do.

Also, what does he mean by... "hiccups"?

[Silly Druid 4,707]

2 hours ago, Quinch said:

That's all right, I never do.

Also, what does he mean by... "hiccups"?

Well, there were some individuals who refused to accept our authority. The most notable of them was Princess Platinum, who, as we wrote in our journal, was a "pain in the hindquarters". But we've come to an agreement with her eventually.

[Quinch 1,115]

59 minutes ago, PawelS said:

Well, there were some individuals who refused to accept our authority. The most notable of them was Princess Platinum, who, as we wrote in our journal, was a "pain in the hindquarters". But we've come to an agreement with her eventually.

Did you yell in her face with a smaller face that came out of your face?

[Silly Druid 4,707]

1 hour ago, Quinch said:

Did you yell in her face with a smaller face that came out of your face?

I have no idea what you're talking about. But I did yell in her face, using my Royal Canterlot Voice. It also involved a manticore, and one of the traps we installed in the castle.

When it comes to intimidating ponies, you're perfect for the job, Luna.

[OOC: Sorry, I don't get the reference.]

[Quinch 1,115]

19 hours ago, PawelS said:

I have no idea what you're talking about. But I did yell in her face, using my Royal Canterlot Voice. It also involved a manticore, and one of the traps we installed in the castle.

Intentionally, or....?

Spoiler

 

[Silly Druid 4,707]

3 hours ago, Quinch said:

Intentionally, or....?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I don't know why you showed us that picture, but if you suggest that their appearance was similar to any of the alien lifeforms visible there, then it's not the case. Actually they looked like this:

Spoiler

[OOC: Now I get it that you mean the "Alien" series. It's not something I enjoy watching, and I don't remember any details about it. So if you're going to make more allusions to it, I'll probably miss them again. Sorry about that.]

[Sparklefan1234 152,506]

"What's the difference between being an alien & being a Unicorn?" 

[Silly Druid 4,707]

2 hours ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

"What's the difference between being an alien & being a Unicorn?" 

Well, this particular alien species has some unusual properties that make them different from unicorns, or ponies in general. These include a very long lifespan, and a special kind of magic that allows them to control the movement of astronomical objects with ease, and enter other planes of existence.

I can go to the dream realm...

And I have a special dimension that I can enter too. It's the place where I took Cadance and Twilight to help them become alicorns.

[Sparklefan1234 152,506]

"What do alien Princess ponies do for fun?"

[Quinch 1,115]

So, if alicorns are aliens, how does Cadence factor into this? Or Flurry Heart?

Edited February 1, 2020 by Quinch

[Silly Druid 4,707]

14 hours ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

"What do alien Princess ponies do for fun?"

We lived among ponies for very long, so we learned from them about the little pleasures in life that we can enjoy. As we sing in our song, "there's a lotta little things you gotta do in this world". I suppose in the world where we were born things you do for fun are very different, but we were too small when we crashed to remember anything clearly.

Also, we're different from each other and we often have different ideas what is fun and what isn't.

 

8 hours ago, Quinch said:

So, if alicorns are aliens, how does Cadence factor into this? Or Flurry Heart?

Good question, my friend. Actually not all alicorns are aliens. You see, I knew Celestia and Luna would live for a very long time, but not forever. And, for obvious reasons, they can't have children. So I needed to find a way to allow them to appoint their successors. That's why I gave them the ability to help ponies become alicorns too. This is tied to their alien magic, so only they can do it. It requires a pony to do something exceptional that involves magic, which creates an overflow of magical energy in that pony. The ability I gave Celestia and Luna directs this energy into powering the alicorn transformation.

So far Luna haven't used this ability, and Celestia did it twice.

First there was Cadance. At some point I realized that the Crystal Empire is going to return, and I need somepony who is good at love magic and loyal to Equestria to rule it and handle the Crystal Heart. I didn't know anypony who would be able to do that, so I set a magical trigger: whenever a pony performs a great achievement using love magic, it gets teleported to my "dreamscape", where I can help with the transformation. It happened to be Cadance, which is described in the book... hmm, where was it?

(goes to the library to find the book)

Here it is. "Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell". It's all explained there.

Then I needed a successor for Luna and myself, and after a failed attempt with Sunset Shimmer, I put all my faith in Twilight. Which was a good idea, as she managed to finish Star Swirl's spell, and ultimately become the leader of all Equestria.

Yes, that spell... it's a different story. Anyway, in case of Flurry Heart, it was just genetics. The alicorn transformation changes the genes of the pony, and this change can be passed to the next generation. I guess I haven't explained that to Celestia and Luna properly when they were young, so when Flurry Heart was born as an alicorn, they were surprised.

Or you did explain, and we forgot about it. It was a very long time ago when you were our teacher.

Edited February 1, 2020 by PawelS