Delusions
is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic oneshot by Touch the Sky.
The story starts when Twilight asks Celestia a simple question: "I was wondering if you and Luna were born alicorns, and if you weren't, well, what species were you before your ascension?" As it turns out, Celestia and Luna were not always alicorn. They were in fact born mules.
Delusions has a premise that would usually be written as a Crack Fic, however it is completely serious in its narrative. It tells the origin of how Celestia and Luna became the ponies they are.
Delusions provides examples of:
- Adaptation Species Change: Celestia and Luna were born as mules before ascending to alicornhood. In canon, there's nothing to suggest that they weren't always full-blooded ponies.
- Child Soldiers: As teenagers Celestia and Luna worked with rebels against Discord's reign.
- Fantastic Racism: There was heavy Half-Breed Discrimination towards mules in Celestia and Luna's youth. Even millenia later, mules are still looked down upon by both many ponies and donkeys.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Pony/donkey relationships were looked down upon when Celestia and Luna were young. Luna and Celestia faced a lot of discrimination for being mules. Even in modern Equestria there's still a stigma against mixed relationships and their offspring.
- Immortal Procreation Clause: Subverted. Celestia and Luna can't reproduce not because they're alicorns, but because they're just infertile—they were born mules and kept their infertility even upon ascension. Cadance and Twilight don't have this issue.
- Locked into Strangeness: Celestia was born with a white mane but gained her multicolored, ethereal mane upon ascension.
- Magical Species Transformation: The fic is about how Celestia and Luna ascended from magicless mules to quasi-immortal alicorns as a reward from an ancient unicorn for ending Discord's reign of terror.
- Meaningful Name:
- Celestia's parents named her that because her all-white colouring made her look angelic.
- Luna was originally named "Philomena". She was named for her stocky, sturdy form.
- Meaningful Rename: Philomena changed her name to "Luna" upon ascension.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: After becoming an alicorn, Celestia still sees her reflection as a mule; Clover the Clever tells her that she'll continue to see a mule as long as she stays true to herself.
- Painful Transformation: Transforming into an alicorn is painful. Celestia and Luna's ascensions hurt even more than Twilight's (which involved wings growing and a height change) did because they were originally mules. Celestia can't even describe the pain.
- Rags to Royalty: Princesses Celestia and Luna (then known as "Philomena") were born the poor and marginalized children of donkey and pony farmers.
- Really 700 Years Old: In canon, it's vague how old Celestia and Luna are aside from the fact they're over a thousand. In Delusions it's mentioned that they're "several thousand years old".
- We Named the Monkey "Jack": Celestia named her pet phoenix "Philomena" after Luna's original name.
