Some ponies, when faced with a day of doing nothing, choose to get work done. Bon Bon was one of those ponies. She had taken over the kitchen of the farmhouse, labouring away, until at last, she had produced something, an idea that had been lingering in her mind for quite some time. She had turned the whole kitchen upside down and made a huge mess.

Sentinel, his eyes narrowed, his ears perked forwards, examined the end results of Bon Bon’s hard work. There were little chocolate princesses, each of them glazed over with a candy coating. Celestia had a white candy shell, Luna had blue, Cadance had pink, and Twilight Sparkle had a purple candy coating.

They had no eyes, no defining characteristics, which somehow made them even creepier. Sentinel shuddered. The very idea of eating one unhinged him. He looked up at Bon Bon, his eyes going wide, and he shook his head, which caused his tufted ears to flop around.

“This is too weird. I couldn’t eat something like this,” Sentinel said in a low squeaky voice.

“Sentinel, son, you eat tubes of toothpaste. What’s wrong with little chocolate princesses?” Bon Bon looked at her creations, a whole herd of them standing upon the table.

“I can see little plot puckers!” Sentinel said, pointing with his wing.

“Well, the creamy filling has to be injected somewhere!” Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “I guess I need to do a better job of hiding it.”

“Creamy filling?” Sentinel asked.

“Candy goo. Sort of like marshmallow fluff. Princess Celestia has vanilla, Cadance has cotton candy, Luna has blueberry, and Twilight Sparkle has grape,” Bon Bon replied.

“So you jammed an injector into their backside and filled them full of creamy filling?” Sentinel eyed the candy creations and felt even weirder. He heard Bon Bon choke and the sound of her heart beating faster filled his ears.

“Sentinel… don’t say it like that… it sounds dirty!” Bon Bon looked down at her son as she bit down upon her lip, trying not to smile.

“I can’t eat these. Where does one start? It feels disrespectful to bite Princess Celestia’s head off… and as for eating the other end… that’s just wrong. There are… filly parts on the other end... I’d never be able to look Princess Luna in the eye ever again if I gobbled her backside.” Sentinel backed away from the kitchen table and let out a whimper.

“I have finally found something that Sentinel doesn’t want to eat. Perfect. Just perfect.” Bon Bon heaved a sigh as Sentinel continued to back away.

“So wrong…” Sentinel shook his head. “Nope.”

“What’s wrong?” Luna asked as she trotted into the kitchen. She came to stop with a curious expression upon her face. She looked at Sentinel, saw his disgust, looked at Bon Bon, and then her eyes came to rest upon the kitchen table where the herd of candy ponies stood. “Is that me?”

“Yes Luna… and Bon Bon wanted me to eat you! But I said no!” Sentinel cringed and waited for Luna’s reaction.

“I can see my own anus.” Luna’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the candy version of herself. “Why does candy me have an anus? No… wait, better question… why does candy me have an edible anus?”

A screech of horror escaped from Sentinel and the colt closed his eyes.

“The creamy filling had to go in somewhere,” Bon Bon explained in a sheepish voice.

“I see.” Luna lifted her head high, smacked her lips, and then looked Bon Bon in the eye. “These are quite well made. Am I to assume the final product will have details like eyes, tails, and manes?”

Bon Bon nodded. “Yes, I plan to paint the eyes on and add spun sugar manes and tails. Even cutie marks if I can manage it. For now, they are just bodies. Rich chocolate with a hard candy shell.”

“And a creamy filling, squirted in through the edible anus.” Luna’s ears pinned back at the sounds of Sentinel’s shrill echolocation whistle of horror. “Can I have one?”

“Please do… by all means, try one. Show Sentinel that it is okay to eat them,” Bon Bon said to Luna.

Lifting one up with her telekinesis, Luna eyed it, examined it from every angle, and then bit the head off of one. She chewed for a moment, her eyes closing as an expression of bliss crept over her face, and then Luna said, “Mmm, vanilla. Spicy and strong! Is that a hint of bourbon?”

“She’s eating her sister!” Sentinel cried as he ran out of the kitchen.

Standing inside of a castle that had the curious distinction of being made out of wood, Princess Twilight Sparkle looked out of a crooked window. Beside her, Princess Cadance stood.

Outside the window was a terrifying one hundred foot tall unicorn with a bright orange frizzy mane. It raised a massive hoof and then crushed the castle while letting out a roar.

“RAAAAAAAAAAWR!”

The two princess lay in the rubble of the ruined castle as the terrible princess eating monster began to dig through the rubble consisting of wooden blocks. The princesses, powerless, could do nothing to save themselves from the horrible monster.

“No, no eat me!” Princess Twilight Sparkle said in a high falsetto.

“What does this happen to us?” Princess Cadance asked, her body buried under the rubble. “Now gobble time, oh no!”

The monstrous unicorn snatched up Princess Twilight Sparkle in her maw. There was a terrible chomp, and then Princess Twilight Sparkle’s gooey insides squirted out, going everywhere, as poor Princess Cadance watched, still pinned beneath enormous wooden blocks.

“Noo!” Cadance begged in a squeaky falsetto. She sounded as though her mouth was full.

“Yes! RAAAAWR!” the giant unicorn roared, little chunks of Princess Twilight Sparkle spraying everywhere. “I bite you head off!”

“Something is wrong with Harper,” Berry Punch said as she watched the filly wreck a castle made of blocks and then gobble the candy ponies inside.

“What makes you say that?” Lyra asked as she tried to hold in a chuckle.

“She’s enjoying this too much.” Berry Punch grinned and then turned to look at Lyra. “I love that little booger.”

“She’s something. She’s growing up… she has a personality now… humour. She thinks and does crazy stuff. Every day she shows off a new part of her.” Lyra leaned over on Berry Punch and wrapped her foreleg around Berry’s shoulders. “Harper is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“What about Bonnie?” Berry asked.

“Bonnie too.”

“And us?”

“And all of you, I suppose.” Lyra prodded Berry Punch in the stomach with her other front hoof. “You though, I’m not sure about you.”

Berry Punch threw back her head and laughed.

Leaning against each other, the two mares watched as Harper gobbled her treats. The other foals were not so keen on eating little candy ponies. Sukari had ran out of the room, Peekaboo was watching Harper, the little pegasus’ eyes were wide with terror. Cadance had not witnessed the carnage, she was off taking a nap with Derpy.

Turning her head, Lyra Heartstrings surprised Berry Punch with a kiss, pulling Berry in and working her over. Before anything became too heated, Lyra pulled away, blinking as she recovered.

“Having a big family is the best thing that could have ever happened to me…”

For a moment, the scene was almost too painful to look at. Princess Celestia felt a powerful sense of melancholy overcome her. For some reason, seeing Bucky and Keg Smasher together reminded her far too much of Sombra and Briarburner.

Poor Briarburner had met a bad end.

Keg Smasher was bellowing with laughter after making a joke at Bucky’s expense, cracking wise about Bucky’s small size. She watched as the big pegasus slapped Bucky on the back, which almost knocked poor Bucky out of his chair. Briarburner was always making jokes about Sombra’s ‘finer’ qualities and would always point out any embarrassing flaw.

The similarity was almost too painful to bear witness to. The whole room was filled with riotous laughter, laughter that grated upon Celestia’s nerves, laughter that Celestia could not bear to listen to.

The large alicorn eased herself out of her seat and slipped away, glad to leave the room. It was far too hot in there, too many bodies, too much sound. She walked down the hall, not knowing where she was going, wondering about Tourmaline and Glass Slipper as she wandered.

Just hours from now, Bucky and many, many others would begin the purge. Celestia felt a heaviness in her barrel, worried for Bucky’s safety, worried about his methods, worried about everything that could happen.

Already, Bucky was becoming a pony that would be remembered, much like Sombra was remembered. Alas, Sombra was not remembered for pleasant reasons. As she walked, Celestia’s mind drifted and then part of her slipped free from her body.

She found herself in an endless grey expanse looking at two figures who were gazing down into what appeared to be a pool of water, but Celestia knew it was not a pool of water. She approached the pair, clearing her throat to announce her presence.

“Come… sit with us,” Platinum said in a soft voice.

A pained expression crept over Celestia’s face. She came closer, her ears pinned back, her head held low. Standing close to Sombra, she raised her hoof, stood there for a moment, and then extended her hoof.

It passed through Sombra’s body, encountering nothing, touching nothing solid.

“Each time you come here, it is always the same.” Sombra sounded sad and his head drooped. “My body is lost to you. Why do you keep trying?”

Lifting her head, Celestia did not respond to Sombra’s question.

“We had a chance to see him and speak to him recently in a dream. He’s grown so much… he holds so much promise,” Platinum said. She turned away from the viewing pool to look at Celestia. “We’re both so very proud of him.”

Tilting her head forward, Celestia looked down into the viewing pool. She saw a familiar young unicorn with her snoot in a book. Beside her, a pink earth pony foal was also reading. The water rippled and the image shifted, changing, becoming something else. A lunar pegasus colt was talking to a tiny zebra filly. The water rippled once more. A griffoness sitting in a rocking chair and holding a teeny, tiny hippogriff appeared.

“We’ve made peace with the fact that we may never cross through the gate. If Buckminster’s ascension is what is actually required for us to pass though, we don’t want it,” Platinum said as she turned her eyes down into the viewing pool.

“Had I the power, I would have you released from this place,” Celestia said to both Sombra and Platinum. “I… I still love… I am so sorry… I…”

“Will you please stop torturing yourself?” Platinum turned her head and looked at Celestia. “It does not become you.” Platinum patted the greyness beside her with her hoof. “Come and sit with us.”

Celestia looked down at the spot where Platinum had indicated, a spot between her and Sombra. Celestia felt a tightness in her throat. She had come between Platinum and Sombra once. She had done that and so much more.

“That was over a thousand years ago. Look, I forgave you and even welcomed you into our bed… something I did not do with Sombra’s other wives and mistresses.” Platinum patted the greyness once more.

The white alicorn drew in a ragged breath and took a step forward. She thought of Platinum dying, those final agonising moments Celestia had endured, watching a loved one go.

“Buckminster shares such a different relationship with his wives.” Sombra looked up from the pool and shook his head.

“For you, you had those you loved, those you lusted after, and those you had obligations to.” Platinum looked her husband in the eye.

“You met all three of those criteria.”

“Flatterer.” Platinum rolled her eyes and waved her hoof in a dismissive manner.

“He is so much like you,” Celestia said as she sat down between Sombra and Platinum. “He is about to lead our armies into a major conflict… he is drinking and having a laugh with his friends. He is confident.”

“As well he should be,” Sombra replied. The dead unicorn lifted his head high. “He’s reached the absolute pinnacle of power that a unicorn is capable of. He’s my flesh and blood.”

The viewing pool shifted, this time showing a bright orange unicorn that had streaks of crimson in her mane. Upon seeing her, Platinum smiled and then said, “She too, shows promise.”

“Sunset Shimmer will be a worthy replacement for Bucky when the time comes. She is learning his craft, his secrets.” Sombra peered down into the water. “She has exceeded all of my expectations.”

“There is a strong potential for wings in her future.” Platinum scooted a little closer to Celestia, even though they could not touch. The dead unicorn mare sighed.

“Not everypony agrees with Scorch’s ideas.” Celestia peered down into the pool and watched as Sunset Shimmer danced with Trixie and Bartleby. “But I must confess, a set of wings would be a beautiful addition.”

His eyes locked upon the pool, Sombra said, “There are other major powers in the world than just equines… it would be good for them to have representation. If Scorch wants to turn her into an alicorn to safeguard his interests, he should be allowed to do so without interference.”

Finding herself in agreement, Celestia nodded. “I just hope that the world is ready for that kind of change.”

Author's Notes:

3:38 AM update. Have fun.

Creamy typo filling.