Our session began in much the same way yours did: attending an anticipated celebration of Equestria's triumph over lawless insanity. You all gathered together with many others; you were barely even familiar with each other, though perhaps there was an exception or two. Regardless of that little detail, it was a grand time, at least relative to known history. The winds of change were only barely felt then, weren't they? It was the same for us. It was all the same for us.
Sessions you ask? I'll tell you, but all in good time. You must understand the simpler facts first, using them as a solid foundation that you can build the more rickety facets upon. If you are tempted to skim ahead and sacrifice wisdom for curiosity, pause for a moment and consider this: did you really think the striking similarity between our generations was merely a coincidence?
Night fell at an unpredictably late hour, as it sometimes did. As the sun drew its light away into the far north horizon, the crimson glow of the northern aurora Blood in the Sky flared in the heavens for a few brief minutes, adhering to its regular twilight schedule in a way that the sun and moon had failed to mimic; yet it was almost invisible against the light of a thousand lanterns that were already gently glowing to replace the daylight, filling the massive gardens outside the city with radiance almost as quickly as said gardens were filled with ponies. Scores of them filtered in through the ornately curved gates, trickling in like water through a reluctant dam. Occasionally some different creature would come by though, whether it was slinking cautiously or strolling through the temporarily astonished crowd as if without a care in the world.
"I swear to Cronos himself these featherbrains are coming just to scope us out," Diamond Strike growled to nopony in particular, watching yet another griffon strut into his section of the gardens through narrowed eyes. "I'll bet you none of the other squads have nearly as many of them shaking their feathery flanks all over the place."
"C'mon, Strike," his friend Brick said with a laugh, nudging him in the side. "Don't start betting before we're even holding the cards! 'Sides, I'm pretty sure that roar we heard earlier was from an entire brood of dragons … I bet that's in Livelong's watch."
Diamond Strike snorted. "Huh, that clown deserves it. Can you see the time?"
Stretching up onto the tips of his hooves, Brick strained over the hordes of guests to catch a glimpse of the tall stone clock tower that loomed over a thicket of roses. "Yep, half past nine," he reported brightly. "We can probably manage to slip out of here in an hour at most."
"Thank the gods." He glared menacingly at a pair of diamond dogs lounging near a juggling act; they returned that glare quite willingly, one slightly lifting his lip into a snarl. "I don't think I could stand much more of this screwing around."
Here he broke into an impromptu rant about the ridiculousness of having the royal guards do so much when it was obvious that the oh-so-powerful royalty could take care of any problems quite easily. Brick nodded casually at his harsh words, occasionally turning his nods to a pretty mare walking by.
Willow Wisp smiled uncertainly as the buff gray unicorn guard nodded at her, unconsciously moving her hooves a little faster to put some distance between him and his angry red friend. "Now stay close to me, students," she called over her shoulder, having to raise her voice a little over the noise of the growing crowds. "We do not want you to get lost here; what would your parents say to that?"
"That it's 'quite terrible,'" the three foals stated in deadpan unison.
"Although I think Mum and Stepdad would be kind of reli- … reli … would be kind of happy that I'm not there," a pinto earth filly added thoughtfully. "Maybe it's 'cause I broke their wedding gift from Aunt Chocolate Cake, though."
"Well, your mom sure seems happier to see me than you!" a yellow pegasus colt replied, sticking his tongue out at her.
She gasped at this. "No she doesn't! She loves me more, you big meanie hooves! Now take that back!"
"Yeah-huh she does! She gave me the best hay last time I came over! And your stepdad taught me how to swim properly, too!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Miss Wisp?" said a tan unicorn colt, using his magic to clumsily push his wide-rimmed glasses further up his snout. "May I request retreating to the presence of my elder cousin over there? He seems to be quite despondent in his current loneliness, and in any case I believe I would prefer his mannerisms to those of present company."
"If he really is your cousin, then you may go ahead, Alphabet," Willow Wisp said a bit weakly.
He nodded gratefully and seriously before trotting off in the direction he had indicated.
With a sigh, the teacher turned to the two arguing foals beside her, who were now tussling on the ground and threatening to trip over innocent bystanders. "Pardon me," she murmured, doing her best to steer them out of each pony's way. "Pardon me, my apologies …"
A pair of cloaked ponies watched the blue earth pony move in that awkward fashion. After a few moments, they headed through the thick crowds again, cloth rustling against their bodies softly as they moved.
"I promise it wouldn't cause a scene if we just came in with our entourage," Celestia whispered, resisting the temptation to push her hood back and brush her long pink mane out of her eyes. Nopony had ever warned her about how hot and sweaty and uncomfortable it could get under there, especially not any of the romance novels she'd ever read. Excitement and practicality, it seemed, were simply and definitively polar opposites.
"But it would, Celestia! It most certainly would!" the other hissed back, sounding fearful. "And it would most certainly make the raising of the sun and moon much less impressive in comparison! If it doesn't seem like we're giving everypony our very best effort, we'll be laughed off the stage!"
"Oh, they wouldn't laugh at us," Celestia said confidently, pretending she couldn't feel the little worm of nervousness that her sister had infected her thoughts with. Laughed off the stage? In front of this dense crowd, with all its important nobles and attendees? "We're their future rulers. And goddesses, if the lore is to be believed."
"But it is!" Luna exclaimed dramatically. "And nothing has higher expectations attached to it than a god! Can you imagine if we don't live up to those expectations? We'll bring shame, Celestia, shame on the entire family! And we'll spiral into ruin and poverty and eternal disorder—"
"Wasn't Aether supposed to have been in charge of the entire sky?" Celestia said, musing into memories of mythological study through dusty scrolls on rainy days. "Record says she couldn't shift the clouds at all. But nopony hated her for it."
"But she wasn't a really powerful queen, was she?" Luna asked, wringing her hooves. "Nopony respects a weak queen, and if nopony respects a weak queen, there's nothing for them to believe in, and if there's nothing for them to believe them, there's no reason for them to keep order, oh, and if there's no reason for them to keep order, the entire empire will fall into CHAOS and SUFFERING and OH THE HORROR …"
"Stop being such a ham," Celestia said, shaking her head in disbelief. "You're lucky you haven't drawn everypony's notice yet."
"If we are going to be weak queens, I suppose we had better get used to that feeling," the night-blue mare lamented, suddenly almost calm again. "Such is our sad fate."
Sighing inwardly, Celestia let her gaze lift upwards to their gradually looming destination: the raised platform in the very center of the gardens. The thing had been constructed that very day, and specifically for this event. Visible from most viewpoints within the gardens, it shimmered with the royal violet and gold colors on gently fluttering flags. It was there that she would be tested, in ten hours' time, in front of thousands of ponies, griffons, dragons, and the like.
For the first time, she began to feel some of Luna's more troubling doubts nag at her mind. Would she be able to raise the sun properly? The entire empire was counting on her and her sister to leash some real order into Equestria, and if they succeeded this would likely be a day of happy remembrance and celebration in centuries to come. If they failed … well, if they failed, perhaps falling into obscurity might be the more preferable of her resulting options.
She had become so wrapped up in her thoughts that she failed to notice that she was swiftly approaching a stock-still unicorn until she crashed into him, sending them both flying ungracefully before they came crashing down to the grassy earth.
"OOF!" they exclaimed.
"Oh! Oh, please excuse me," Celestia said hastily, fluttering back onto her hooves as gracefully as her dignity would allow. "I didn't see you there. Are you all right?"
With astonishing speed the unicorn scrambled back onto his own hooves, transitioning from a sprawled heap to a standing position in barely a second of flailing legs. "Perfectly fine," he said, as if this were all quite ordinary. "… That hasn't happened to me in a while. Rather exciting, really." His mouth twisted into a grin, and he giggled somewhat childishly.
"I am … pleased to hear that," Celestia remarked cautiously, taking an automatic step backward.
A long moment of awkward silence ensued. Celestia had no idea what to make of the stallion: he seemed handsome enough, with his deep brown fur contrasting nicely with his pale blond mane, and at a glance she wouldn't have taken him for the giggling type. But those small red eyes, darting about the place like a snake's, seemed far too knowing for her comfort.
"Oh, hurry up," Luna grumbled, seizing the hem of her sister's cloak in her teeth and dragging her forcibly away. "We're never going to get there and become properly prepared at this rate …"
As they clopped away, Celestia managed to get the briefest of glimpses of the strange unicorn's cutie mark: a pale twisted shape like a limp puppet, almost uncannily lifelike. She suppressed a shiver, and let herself follow Luna's rapid train of worried remarks once more.
Discord watched the hooded figure go, feeling the laughter fade in his throat. He tilted his head to the side in confusion. Strange … she and her sister had so many strings binding them to the rest of the world, creating a fluctuating web of relation that exceeded everything he'd seen aside from himself and his father. Naturally she had to be important, as only important people sneaked around in cloaks in public. But never mind that. What was her deal? Didn't she think it was funny? It wasn't every day that he just smacked into someone like that, especially considering that he was a draconequus. Balance was easy to handle when he could simply float; having to be subjected to gravity was another story altogether.
The chuckles had died away, but his grin remained as he resumed his session of pony-watching. He'd examined them before, of course, but it had been as an invisible state, or else from pulling a few strings to watch from a fair distance. He hadn't been right in the middle of the action before, and certainly not in their likeness. The overwhelming scents of baked goods and aromatic flora tingling on his tongue, the hubbub of hustle and bustle throughout the throng of creatures, the blurs of excited colts and fillies rushing past and bobbing and weaving through their less active adults … this was quite the novelty. He hadn't felt anywhere near this small in decades.
The fact that he actually liked this sensation was nothing short of amazing.
His eyes slid over to a nearby food stand, where its owner haggled with a mob of potential customers over his intended high prices. Feeling mischievous, the disguised draconequus twitched his hoof slightly, pulling on a few strings that connected his state of being with the baked goods on display. A brief shift in reality later, a scone ceased to exist with its fellows, springing into being instead just in front of Discord's face with a small flash of light. With a grin he took a bite out of the floating pastry, letting its warm honey flavor seep into the slightly moist raspberries embedded within. He decided that he liked scones, and proceeded to snatch a few more for his own enjoyment, though he remembered in time to make his horn glow needlessly in order to maintain his disguise. The idea that thievery was typically frowned on failed to occur to him.
"'Evening, gentlecolts," he called out to a delegation of zebras lazily, with his voice muffled due to a mouth full of food. Most of them naturally rolled their eyes and went on their way, due to a justified disdain of his lack of manners; but one, after glancing worriedly after his fellows, trotted up to him with a curious expression on his striped face.
"Mister, you speak our this tongue?" he asked in disbelief, using said tongue as he spoke. "It this is strange that … how do you that say … only one ponykind out of many and all commonfolk should be learned in such! I that was of the true belief that only the high royals of our this empire were knowing of it."
"Oh, I guess I just pick up a few words here and there." And of course by words he meant strings that he'd unconsciously pulled at. Apparently there was such a thing as trying too hard to blend in.
"It this is fascinating," the zebra said in awe. "I this know that in Quaggaia nothing such happens under the Caesar's rule. You these ponykind are quite lenient with foreign items and such, no?"
"I suppose they – I suppose we are," Discord said, feeling suddenly highly conscious at the fact that he had been shoehorned into being a spokesperson for a race he didn't belong to.
"HA! No longer can you avoid the confession of your mysterious sins!"
A pale green shape smacked down between the two, crumpling into the ground from its speed. They glanced down at it in bemusement, discovering it to be a small pegasus with an unkempt indigo mane, groaning slightly as he rubbed his head. Several papers had been strapped to his back, and a few came loose upon impact, which he hastily gathered up before passersby could step on them.
"Hey! Listen, you!" the little pegasus exclaimed, looking up pointedly at Discord. "Yeah, talking to you over here. You can speak Quagg … Quagga … you speak their language? Where've you been hiding, I've been looking for somepony to translate their gibberish for me since hours ago!" Rummaging through his mane, he somehow retrieved a fluffy quill and an inkpot, which he hastily set down as he prepared to write something. "I've got a ton of questions to ask these zebra heathen!"
The zebra backed up with a little caution, mumbling something under his breath.
"Huh? What'd he say? Tell me what factoid he deigned to say!" the pegasus demanded, nudging Discord's knee due to lack of ability to poke him anywhere higher.
"He said that he just can't understand why foals your age are allowed to speak so boldly to elders without repercussion," Discord lied smoothly.
The pegasus paused. "… You sure he said that?" he asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.
"Absolutely."
The little pony still looked rather skeptical; but after a few more moments of scrutiny he turned back to the zebra and puffed out his chest before bellowing in an impressively and unexpectedly loud voice: "And YOU, sir, are an ASS! CLEARLY we ponies receive cutie marks as TINY COLTS, thereby reflecting our relative immaturity to your own more CIVILIZED ways. PERHAPS you should show some cultural SENSITIVITY, ESPECIALLY considering how GRACIOUSLY our empire has welcomed your RIDICULOUS AMBASSADOR and so deserves at least a little bit of CONSIDERATION AND RESPECT IN RETURN!"
Several ponies nearby fairly galloped away at his ridiculous volume, seeking a slightly calmer sea of insanity for refuge. Naturally this resulted in colliding with others, who looked rather annoyed at this sudden development for a few moments before allowing them to mingle at that new distance.
The zebra, naturally, ran for his life.
The pegasus blinked as he blankly watched the foreigner's retreating rear for a moment, mouth forming a slight O-shape. Then he smacked his head into the ground repeatedly. "Ugh. Did it again. Why'd I do it again?"
Discord frowned. While he had expected chaos to ensue from the little pony's rage, the subsequent self-punishment had been less than predictable. All of the ponies in this city were crazy.
"Ahaha … so sorry you had to see that," the pegasus said, rubbing his head again. "At times I'm just too honest for my own good. Say … I don't believe I've seen you in this fairest of cities before."
Discord shrugged. "There's about a million ponies in the city. It shouldn't be so strange that you haven't seen me."
"Considering that I'm the town crier and announcer for everypony who enters and leaves Everfree, it is pretty strange." The pegasus tapped his head knowingly. "Photographic memory. It has saved lives."
"I came for the celebration just today," the draconequus in disguise lied again. "Even you were probably too busy to notice me come in."
"Hm. Fair point," the pegasus conceded, though Discord caught a new hint of suspicion in his eyes just the same. "Still a funny thing, though. Borderline hilarious. Name's Notice, by the way — Short Notice."
He held out a hoof, which Discord shook readily.
"You see, I'm trying to compile a lot of information on our 'visitors' in order to take a decent report to Their Majesties," he went on. "To see if their policies have relaxed, you know. Preventing spies and assassinations from becoming legal and destroying the entire world. Also taxes. It's very busy work, oh yes, it's very busy … still, somepony's got to do it."
"How do you have time for all of these duties?" Discord asked, intrigued by these seemingly impossible feats that such a little pony could accomplish all on his own.
"Ah … I don't really know myself. Things just need to get done, so I stand up and go ahead and charge like a madpony and get them done! Fairly simple when you boil it down, but still glorious! What did you say your name was again?"
"I didn't." Discord cast his gaze about with seeming idleness, searching for inspiration. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the white shape on his own flank, which had automatically appeared upon transforming into a pony. He took note of its flailing shape, the uncanny smile stretching its apparently wooden face, and the thin threads connecting it to bars floating above, and quickly put together a decent enough lie. "I'm … Strings. Puppet Strings."
Short Notice gave him a heavy-lidded grin. "Of course you are," he drawled, before poking the unicorn in the leg. "You know, for a chronic liar you're not all that bad of a guy."
Discord felt a slight pang of dismay at having his bluff called so easily, though he also felt relieved that this little pony hadn't asked the ridiculous question of whether he was really a unicorn. That would have been an awkward subject to dodge around. "Well, for a half-pint I guess you're not all that bad, either."
The pegasus rolled his eyes. "Oh, I am wounded! Though I guess I should be glad you didn't straight up call me a colt."
"Why would I?" Feeling mischievous as usual, "Puppet Strings" leaned down slightly with a leer. "… You're not actually a colt, are you?"
Short Notice's expression shifted almost instantly to a glare that perfectly reflected that old adage of looks that could kill. "I am most definitely not a colt," he said flatly. "And by the graves of my illustrious ancestors, that is the truth."
If he had been asking his question in earnest, Discord might have been affected by the fierceness of the answer. As it was, he simply grinned and nudged the other playfully, nearly knocking him over. "I guess that's a small mercy, then."
The fake scowl Short Notice put on at this quickly dissolved as both of them broke out into laughter. At that moment, perhaps, it all began … the bonds of friendship, beginning to form. It was only between two ponies then, but that was a fine beginning on its own.
Sometimes the most massive infernos begin with a single spark.
As the night wore on, the festival grew ever louder as the many guests grew rowdier with adrenaline, intoxication, or exhaustion. Once dignified dancing gave way into a livelier stomping around, many parents finally decided to give up and haul their foals home to avoid letting them get crushed to death by a few misplaced hooves. The stench of sweat and pheromones hung heavily in the air. Above it all, the clock tower indicated the lateness (or perhaps earliness) of the hour, its minute hand slowly making its way around the engraved circular face.
Willow Wisp sat nervously in the boughs of a looming oak tree, eyes darting about at the broiling scene below her. She wasn't entirely sure how she had gotten up there, but at least she was safe from the domestic violence the night had wrought upon the gardens. For now, anyway.
Behind her, the faint snores of two sleeping foals were just audible. Tired out beyond anything they had ever been before, they were currently nestled up in a place where the tree's branches grew particularly close together, their hooves drooping over thin air. Willow Wisp wasn't quite sure how they had gotten this high up either; but as long as she could keep her eye on them for their parents, everything would be fine.
"Sleep well, Spark, Chocolate Ice," she whispered for the fifteenth time. A tiny snore was her only reply.
A yawn escaped her soon after she had spoken; her eyelids, which had been drooping for quite some time, now fluttered as though resisting the great weights that metaphorically hung from them. She fought the urge to simply drop into blissful slumber; she still had to make sure the foals would be safe, after all. Then again, they were hardly about to get into trouble, were they? They had been even more tired than she was. And it was unlikely that somepony could hurt them in their current resting place, unless that pegasus couple kissing passionately beneath them randomly decided to rocket upwards and snap all the branches in their way.
Surely it could not hurt to doze off for just a few minutes, could it?
She let her eyes drift closed, casting her vision into darkness aside from the dancing afterimages of the thousand lantern lights—
BWONG …
With a sleepy sniff she jerked back to wakefulness, pink eyes blinking furiously as she sought out the source of the solemn sound. What had that terrible noise been?
…
Oh, of course. The clock tower, chiming the hour. But why was it being so insistently loud about it this time?
BWONG …
Some distance away, in the shadows of a dimly-lit pagoda, Diamond Strike twisted his head around to glare at wherever he thought it was. "Damn clock," he swore. "Of course it'd do that right when it's about to get good." With a groan he pulled himself out of the embrace of the pretty pegasus he had been wooing, tossing his golden mane out of his face as he glanced around for his helmet.
"Where are you going?" she asked, staring at him with confusion and a bit of fearfulness.
"It's time," he explained, magically putting his helmet on again; his mane slithered into hiding as he did so, concealed by the uniform's silvery crest. "All the guards have to be on duty when they start raising the sun. If I don't get into place really quickly, I'll be in some deep …" He paused briefly, remembering that he was speaking to a mare. "… some deep trouble."
The noise within the pagoda, which had gradually grown quieter over the course of the small hours, turned raucous again as the gamblers within were shaken back to wakefulness. He tried to rub his throbbing temples, but as the helmet was in the way his efforts came to nothing.
BWONG …
"Oh." She giggled, fluttering her eyelashes. "Will I be able to see you afterwards?"
"Sure thing." He lifted a hoof to her neck, stroking down her mane and along her back, which elicited a shiver of pleasure from her. "We can get right back to where we left off."
"You kidding, Strike? We still need to get to that rematch!"
"Brick!" the unicorn exclaimed, whirling around to face the pony who had shown up seemingly out of nowhere. "Can't you see I'm wooing a lady?"
"Eh," was the simple reply to the heartfelt question. "The cards are more fickle." He shifted slightly, and the resulting shuffling sound from his saddlebags made it clear that they were full of them.
BWONG …
Rolling his eyes, Diamond Strike quickly kissed the mare goodbye and proceeded to trot with his friend back to their quadrant of the gardens. "You ruined the moment, Brick," he growled, shooting a sharp frown at random bystanders here and there. "She was the one for me, I know it."
"Oh yeah?" Brick snorted, grinning like an idiot. "Then what was her name?"
"… Shut up."
BWONG …
Meanwhile, a violet curtain hanging above the raised platform at the center of the gardens concealed the frantic movements of a certain blue alicorn.
"Just calm down, Celestia! Do you need another drink? A pinch of salt, maybe? I know Father said we had to watch ourselves with that stuff, but maybe if you felt a little looser you'd be able to channel your magic more easily. Oh, here are those gold bracelets you were looking for! They'll look great in the sunlight, all shining and everything. Don't forget to breathe! But remember, don't breathe too quickly either or you'll faint, and fainting in front of the entire empire out there isn't going to be a good thing!"
"Thank you, Luna, but I'm feeling perfectly calm," Celestia told her sister serenely, shifting slightly on the golden cushion she was seated on.
Close by, a pale yellow unicorn yawned and snuggled deeper into her own violet cushion. She seemed perfectly oblivious to the surrounding noise, as well as to the tiara hanging down from her horn in front of her closed eyes.
BWONG …
"Oh Celestia, you don't have to hide your feelings from me!" Luna panted, darting back and forth between servants and chests and baskets and all sorts of odd things lying about the area.
The white alicorn watched her younger sister zigzag around with bemusement. "Really, Luna, I'm fine," she said with a slight laugh. "Just ask Galaxy. I'm not acting as though the world's ending, am I?" she asked, turning slightly to face the older unicorn sitting beside her.
The addressee had been staring off blankly into space, but with a slight twitch she jerked back into reality as she met her younger sister's gaze. "Hmm? Oh, I suppose not," she said distractedly. She let her eyes fall downward, poking at her bronze-colored cushion with a pale purple hoof.
BWONG!
"See, Luna? The eldest sister knows best!" Celestia said with a bit of triumph, looking around at her with a grin.
"Well, I suppose," Luna conceded, with her voice partially muffled from the salt she was now anxiously chewing. "But anything could happen out there, on the stage! And that was the last chime the clock made, just now! How can you not be the least bit worried?"
Her smile fading a bit, Celestia sighed. "Right now I'm thinking that if anypony here is worried, it's you." Her horn glowed, and a thick ball of slimy salt was wrenched out of a dismayed Luna's mouth. She tossed it away with a flick of her head, letting it sail into a crowd of drunkenly disoriented ponies who immediately grew confused at the sudden "snowstorm" they found themselves in.
"Ah! But you're—"
"Luna, could you please just come over here for a moment?"
More surprised than anything, the blue alicorn trotted obediently over, tail swishing behind her.
"Sit down," she said kindly, gesturing to the silvery cushion on her other side. When Luna reluctantly did so, she placed a hoof on her shoulder and made a face upon feeling the tension knotting up the muscles there. "I want you to relax, all right? Just relax. Take a few deep breaths and try to enjoy yourself."
"But I just … that is … I mean … everything has to be perfect," Luna stammered. She lowered her head, letting some of her mane blot out the lantern lights. "I don't want to let everypony down … and I don't want to let myself fail. Or let you fail either."
"Oh, Luna." She pulled her younger sister into a hug, understandably startling her. "I know the feeling too. Believe me, I do. We can't fail when everypony is counting on us … but that's why we've been trained for this. Mother and Father have done their best to prepare for this day …" She paused, frowning slightly. "Or maybe this night? It's hard to tell with time."
Luna nodded a bit jerkily, and without warning leaned into her sister's larger body. With a smile, Celestia draped a white wing over her, pulling the younger alicorn deep into a feathery embrace. She bent her head down and rested it against Luna's, brushing the blue mane out of her face with a bit of magic.
Neither noticed a nearby attendant gently shake awake the pale yellow unicorn on Luna's other side, which elicited a sleepy noise somewhere between a grunt and a sigh. Nor did they see Galaxy sitting stock still, staring down at the platform beneath her, with rose-colored eyes shining a bit wetly in the golden glow.
This stillness couldn't last for long, of course. It had only been a few minutes before the clinking of hooves on iron drew the three sisters' attention. With nervous hearts, they glanced up at the familiar newcomer.
"The time has come," was the only thing their mother said. But that was all they needed to hear.
It was difficult to breathe.
If the hordes of ponies had been an overwhelming force before, it was nothing to how they now thronged together around the platform, crushing against each other in an attempt to draw closer to the place where they knew royalty stood at that very moment. Heat wafted from them in great waves that were visible even in the dim light (for the lanterns were finally beginning to burn out and die, most likely to emphasize the upcoming transition between night and day). Voices had dwindled to a million murmurs, rippling across the gardens and beyond into the city itself. The entire place was a powder keg of anticipation, and it would only take one spark – one tiny little seemingly insignificant spark – for all hell to break loose.
And Discord loved it. Oh, he knew quite well that he shouldn't actually cause any such thing to happen – he couldn't risk exposing that some draconequi still lived, after all. But his kind were meant to mold reality into whatever fanciful shapes they pleased, letting its components slip and slide through reality like a light breeze. And living creatures were the perfect catalysts for that sort of chaos … But he couldn't, of course. Too much could go wrong if he did; and even if they destroyed each other over the course of wars that spanned centuries, they would simply rebuild and come to blame the draconequi. They always did.
So he simply stood in the midst of the thick tension in his unicorn disguise, grinning at how close they were to that scenario. Really, this was beautiful enough in itself. He hadn't given much thought as to how much chaos could stem from the ponies' rigid order. The daily bustling about of the city had only given the barest hint of this delicious anxiety.
"Whew," Short Notice breathed as he fluttered beside him, fluffing out his stuffy indigo mane. He was scribbling something down hastily on an already messy-looking paper, looking up every now and then at a pair of griffons who seemed to be in the middle of a heated debate nearby. "Can't wait for this to start already. I swear to the gods on high, this feels like the longest night ever!"
"Mm, indeed it does." He made as if to paw at the ground with a hoof, pulling at a few strings to force a shiny red apple appear. It made a delightful crunching sound between his teeth. "Though I suppose we'll be waiting just like this when they're about to make night fall again."
"True enough, I guess," the little pegasus said distractedly, twitching an ear around to better hear what the griffons were lowering their voices about. "From what I've heard, it seems like half the empire has already been petitioning their own preferences about the relative lengths of day and night. This'll probably be where it all comes off the paper and into the open." He frowned, glancing up at the dark sky far above. "Hope they don't have any trouble dealing with it all. That would be horrible and nasty. Anticlimactic too."
Trouble?
Discord blinked, considering the word. Trouble, as opposed to pandemonium … a milder form of chaos, personal rather than widespread, and less likely to be blamed on a race most considered extinct. Perhaps if the royals did have some trouble, just to see how they dealt with it … just to see the looks on their faces … just for a little excitement. And amusement, of course. Amusement was always good.
Now that he thought about it, this would most likely be the last time he'd be allowed to play with the sun.
"Yes," he remarked half to himself, feeling a smirk play about his mouth as the idea grew within his devious mind. "That would be simply awful, wouldn't it."
It was at that moment that a chorus of trumpets sounded from beneath the platform, with their players nestled in their own alcove of orchestration. Murmurs quieted slightly at this, only to die away completely in the face of a sudden wave of shushing.
Then, for the first time in history, the city was completely quiet.
With a dramatic rustling, the curtain drew apart to reveal a positively shimmering golden unicorn. A solid gold crown nestled on top of a thick mane of silver and dark gray, but from the way her bright purple eyes smiled down at the thousands of watchers beneath her. The scepter within a heart that was her cutie mark only served to underscore this detail.
To her side was a slightly taller unicorn with deep purple fur, striding forward on long legs. His golden mane shone and his green eyes glittered in the lantern light, and the silvery crown perched on his head matched the one pictured on his flank, aside from the emerald seven-point star decorating the latter.
The way they carried themselves, with their heads angled down just so to gaze at their massive audience, bespoke of their royal status in a way that mere words couldn't convey, demanding respect with a simple hoofstep.
From somewhere nearby, perhaps from everywhere, the self-important voice of a crier rang out in service to the majestic unicorns: "All rise for Her Majesty, Empress Aurora the Soul of Equestria! All rise for His Majesty, Emperor Eclipse the Light of Equestria!"
Anyone in the audience not standing on their hooves, feet, or claws now hastened to do so, creating a slight wave of movement as everyone tried to stretch over each other's shoulders for a glimpse of the mighty rulers … as well as the four princesses seated just behind them, straining to sit still and proper on their cushions.
The one second from the left caught Discord's attention immediately.
She was obviously the pony he had collided with earlier – the way the strings bent around and through her made it obvious. If her mother's golden fur had caught the light, then this alicorn's white coat positively glowed in it. A pale pink mane fell gently along her neck and across her shoulders; similarly-colored eyes glinted as she turned her head slightly to examine the audience. No cloak served to conceal her thin limbs and feathery wings this time.
Discord stared at her with widening eyes. He had never seen anyone so … so …
So boring.
She didn't even seem the tiniest bit amused at how overexcited everypony seemed to be! A little anxious, perhaps, though that was to be expected – but she wasn't even on the verge of a nervous giggle! How gloomy she must be, day in and day out.
She didn't have her cutie mark yet. He supposed that when she did, it would be a sun sporting an exaggerated frown.
With a sigh, he examined the sisters seated on beside side of her instead. The purple unicorn – Galaxy, was that her name? She seemed just as boring, if not more so. Too mopey for his tastes. The little pale yellow unicorn appeared to be on the verge of falling asleep, eyes drooping. Boring. The blue alicorn seemed slightly more interesting, though. The strings connecting her to the world positively hummed with worry, and therefore spelled chaos just waiting to happen. He grinned.
"Citizens of Equestria!" Aurora declared. Though her voice was not raised very much, the commanding timbre within it reverberated through the air for even the furthest pony in the gardens to hear. It was entirely possible that this effect was created through magic, but nobody really knew or even cared about whether this was the case. "You have gathered here tonight to see the change that shall soon place our great empire once again as a home of gods. Likewise, you visitors from Draconia, you from Quaggaia, from Canasia and all other nations of the wide world – you have come from far and wide to witness the beginning of a new age. Not since the days of Helios and Selene have the day and the night respected the natural order of things. Not since the wars with the foul draconequi have we had the level of order that we shall now renew, as we first set out to do upon their well deserved extinction." Here she paused, faintly flicking a pointed ear as if it itched, before continuing with her speech as if nothing had happened. "This night shall become a morning as your princess, Celestia, proves to you once and for all that the blood of the gods runs through her veins. And when the sun must fall beneath the horizon again, your princess Luna shall show you the proof of her divinity as well. This shall be the day – and the night – which the entire world shall remember as the greatest of all days and nights. Remember this well, our friends. For history shall look back and remember this as the beginning of a grand new era!"
She stomped her hoof loudly to emphasize these last three words, but they were quickly drowned out by the storm of roaring cheers and clopping hooves that met her profound speech. All within the city who had a voice used it at the same time, again for the first time in history.
"It's starting!" Short Notice fairly squealed, eyes shining and locked onto Their Majesties as they trotted off to their thrones at the side of the platform, switching places with the sun princess as she stepped forward. "It's starting, Puppet Strings! This is just glorious!"
"I …" Discord couldn't think of what he was supposed to say. Here was a crowd of thousands of ponies, zebras, dragons, griffons, diamond dogs, and all sorts of races … all of them surrounding him as though he were one of them, and all of them letting out heartfelt cheers upon a royal reminder of the death of his race and their adherence to the strings. These silly, friendly mortal species who had wiped out an entire race and could cheer about it without fetters. Suddenly his hearts felt leaden, unbearably heavy. He had wanted so desperately to witness this?
"Puppet Strings?" Short Notice fairly shouted over the ongoing noise of the crowd. He tilted his head as he examined the disguised draconequus, brow furrowed. "Are you feeling all right?"
Discord exhaled loudly through flared nostrils, eyes narrowing as he glared up at the royalty trotting about on their iron pedestal. "Oh yes, Short Notice," he said tersely. "I most certainly am feeling all right."
And he was. No longer did he have any qualms over messing with this sun princess. She was just one of them at the end of her day, after all.
Chaos would definitely come through this. Let them panic.
Up on the platform, Celestia stood right on the silvery edge as she gazed out at her subjects. Just the tiniest fraction of the empire that one day, by divine right, would become hers to rule … Luna's pawing at her silvery cushion seemed oddly loud from her position. Oh, why did her silly sister have to go and put those worming doubts into her head? She had been perfectly at ease before; and though she knew she looked quite calm and serene she was starting to feel a little bit of a flutter speed her heartbeat.
Panic.
Taking a deep breath, she spread her wings, pushed down lightly, and gently lifted off into the air – feeling the weight of a million eyes trying to pull her down – feeling her feathers rustle in time to short breathing. Here we go. Now or never.
She raised her forelegs to either side of her, keeping an even balance with the beating of her wings as she closed her eyes. The watching crowd seemed to simply melt into the blackness beyond her lids. Smiling inwardly, she called silently for the latent magic within her soul, reaching for the reason that she and her sister were the divinity of the Equestrian Empire. As she grasped it, it naturally attempted to slip away, but she held firm, pulling at it to do her bidding. She felt the leylines of the plane of magic, that subtle dimension where everything held everything else together, and let the magic fly out from her and down those shimmering lines. It was a call to the sun, demanding it to hear and obey its new mistress the alicorn.
And the sun obeyed.
As she floated there in serene concentration, the audience stared in wonder at the faint traces of colors beginning to appear on the eastern horizon behind her. First a mere hint of orange, then a few smudges of pink and gold painted the upper echelons of the sky. The stars seemed to wink out, one by one, giving way to the ever strengthening light. As she ascended, ever so slightly, a brief speck of pure light appeared on the horizon, to bright to look at directly even in its relatively diminutive state. In response to the dawn light, Blood in the Sky faded into sight, its vague scarlet pony-shape cast across the heavens.
The sun drew slowly above the horizon, with Celestia rising just as slowly in response to the magic she was guiding. Even facing away from the eastern horizon with closed eyes, she could almost feel the blazing sun warming her back already. She was doing it! She was really doing it! Doubts or no doubts, she was still the alicorn goddess of the Equestrian Empire, and with the very sun at her command, there was nothing she could not accomplish.
The sun abruptly halted in its ascent, and so did she.
The corner of her mouth twitched downwards in a slight frown. She tugged lightly at the leylines, hoping to set the sun on its momentum again, but it simply refused to budge.
Her heartbeat began to speed up again, pounding against her chest frantically. No! she thought, feeling the worries and doubts rear their ugly heads within her mind. No, no, no! I can't fail already! I've trained years for this final test, and it has to have its reward! And I cannot let these ponies down!
With these thoughts bolstering her will, she pulled at the leylines as hard as she could, letting the magic rage through her like a river in a storm. The sun remained resistant, although she thought that she could faintly, just faintly, feel it give slightly. Feeling a bit heartened at this, she continued to pull.
Within the audience, Short Notice stared up at the straining princess with a puzzled look on his face. "That's weird," he whispered, almost unwilling to break the spell of enraptured silence that seemed to have been cast upon the entire garden. "She was doing just magnificently with the sun before … what do you suppose is causing her trouble with it? Perhaps some foul draconequus is behind this!"
He was speaking mostly to himself, which was why he didn't look around at his companion and notice the "unicorn's" equally strained expression.
Discord hadn't bothered lighting up his horn – there was no reason to make anypony realize he was the one manipulating the sun, after all. No need to pretend to be casting a magic spell when he was so wrapped up in his workings of chaos, tugging at all the right strings. The sun was actually a relatively easy thing to learn to control through chaos, in spite of any evidence to the contrary; objects tended to be easier or harder to manipulate depending on their connections to the rest of the world, via their strings, and the sun of course had a massive connection with the earth. Finding the strings for that scenario was quite simple. Though it was rather more complicated in practice, it had been little matter at all in days past to make the sun slide through the sky in looping spirals and figure eights. He should know; his father had taught him all about it.
As it was right now, though, it was taking all of his energy just to push the sun downward. He stifled a grunt that threatened to escape from his dry throat, setting his teeth in concentration. He'd heard of the alicorns and the widespread belief that they must be divine gods, but he'd always passed that off as a fantastic story. Even the great power he had felt emanating from the royalty earlier wasn't exactly what he'd call divine. And yet there was that sun princess, stubbornly resisting his attempts to push the sun below the horizon again! This was ridiculous. She was just a pony. Ponies couldn't be gods; the closest thing to that was being a draconequus, and just look at what had happened to them! … Wiped out by these fake pony gods …
As that thought crossed his mind, his efforts slipped in contemplation—
The sun shot up into the sky, transforming the world and lighting everything up with sudden majesty. Celestia burst up with it with a powerful stroke of her wings, high above the crowd for even the furthest observer to see quite easily. With flared wings, she fluttered quickly down to the platform again, gasping as if drowning in the sudden sea of cheers that swept over them. Her royal façade slipped as she touched down, head drooped and panting heavily, so that the brilliant flash at the edge of her vision barely registered. She had really done it! She had brought the sun into the sky!
"Celestia, you did it!" was all the warning she had before Luna barreled into her, practically knocking both of them over. "You're really the sun princess … or sun goddess? Terminology is important here, of course. You have become the mighty sun goddess!" With an ecstatic laugh, Luna poked at one of her sister's legs. "And a full grown mare to boot! You are pretty much the most important pony in the empire, aren't you?"
Feeling puzzled, Celestia glanced behind her to see what Luna was going on about. There on her flank, which had once been as blank and white as the rest of her coat, was a brilliant insignia of a majestic golden sun, with rays shining outwards as if crackling with real flames. She couldn't quite believe it. After all these years, with her true purpose in life still just out of reach, she had finally received what every pony looked forward to receiving: her very own cutie mark.
With a smile she gazed up at the real sun, triumphantly noting the similarities there in its glory. It wasn't just beautiful, of course; it was a powerful symbol marking the dawn of a new age, her status as Empress-to-be, and her future duty in leading her little ponies to an even brighter future. Even the fact that it was the only thing in the morning sky was a sure—
She blinked. Aside from her magnificent charge, nothing broke the bright blueness of the day.
It had only just been sunrise, and yet Blood in the Sky was missing.
She was pulled back to reality as a pair of long, thin blue legs wrapped around her neck in a sudden hug. "This simply has to be the very greatest moment I have ever witnessed!" Luna was cheering, looking slightly unsteady on just two legs. Celestia paused for a moment to collect herself before returning the embrace, letting her confidence swarm back in full force. The missing aurora probably didn't mean anything.
Even Galaxy, after simply watching them for a few moments, stepped forward to give her quiet congratulations. Though their parents had stepped to the front of the platform again, they barely saw them, wrapped up in Celestia's own success as they were. Truly this had to be the best day ever!
"This," grumbled Discord, "is positively the worst day ever."
He had collapsed from the effort recoil and sheer exhaustion of his attempted feat, and though the ocean of cheering ponies failed to notice he had done so, he couldn't help feeling extremely embarrassed. He had gone up against one of those little ponies, and he had failed. Miserably. It was like the whole world wanted to laugh in his face for thinking that he could make them feel foolish in their little delusions of gods and alicorns and whatever else they liked to believe in.
Another drop of sweat dripped down from his mane and splattered on his face. He sneezed violently, then rubbed his eyes with a trembling hoof and scowled. How could she have beaten him? He was decades more experienced than she was, and dealing with chaos on top of that!
Chaos always trumps magic, his father had told him repeatedly. That's how we fell, in a way. We grew too arrogant to notice our doom approaching.
"Citizens of Equestria, Draconia, and all lands!" Empress Aurora exclaimed, quieting the raucous audience just slightly. "Your princess Celestia has accomplished what no other being present can accomplish, in raising the very sun itself! With your own eyes you have witnessed her bend those arcane magics to her whim, breaking from what vestiges of mortality she was born with and truly cementing her place as a goddess of Equestria! For this day, there will be nothing but celebration. All shall remember this day as the return to order in the skies: henceforth, we shall call it the Summer Sun Celebration!"
Discord moaned and buried his head in his hooves as the cheering around him intensified even more. At the risk of making an awful pun, this was most definitely not his day.