Celestia sat on her throne, prepared to make the most royalest of decrees. This was what royalty did, after all—wear crowns, raise suns, and make decrees. She didn’t know exactly what to decree, though. Surely it couldn’t be harder than raising the sun.
Decrees could not be obvious statements. Decrees could be new laws, but she wondered if the laws that were already in place were fine as is. She didn’t feel like looking up those laws anyway. That would just mean more reading and more work.
She was here now and she was more than capable of making decrees, so there was no real reason to hold back. It was time to cement her status as princess of this vast land.
Straightening her back, she lifted her hoof and thrust it out in grand sweeping motions. “We hereby decree that all decrees decreed by Us are henceforth to be decreed decrees!”
She sat back and smiled, satisfied by her work. Most certainly easier than sun-raising. She felt so good about that one that she decided to do another one, this to ensure her earlier decree was valid. “We hereby decree that last decree was also a decree!”
Once again satisfied, she eased into her chair and sighed. This was living. A tiny bit of disappointment nagged at her, though. She had been hoping that some sort of note had been made. Decrees didn’t feel quite as official if they weren’t written down. Her decrees needed some form of permanence.
However, the room was empty, with the exception of a guard standing in the corner. At least one guard was required to be in the same room as the ruling party at all times, as part of a coordinated effort. Although this guard was mildly amused by her ‘decrees’, he wasn’t really paying attention.
Celestia summoned him anyway. “Subordinate guard!”
Rolling his eyes underneath his visor, he turned and bowed to her. “Yes, your highness!”
“Do We have a scribe?” Celestia felt stupid for asking this question.
The guard shook his head, bellowing his answer from across the room. “We do not, your highness!”
“Well, uh…” Celestia rubbed her chin. The tapestries in this room stifled her voice and stiffened the silence, making it a tad awkward. “Is there a village nearby?”
“Yes, your highness!”
She cleared her throat. “Well, We require somepony to make a record of everything We declare. Subordinate guard, We bid thee to hire a scribe from this village and bring him to Us at once!”
“Yes, your highness!” The guard ran off, first to tell nobody else in the castle about this because he was the scribe and simply didn’t want to write down every inane thing this princess said, then to go to the village south of the castle and find somepony that could take his job for him while he made a lateral career move to candle making.
Celestia waited on her throne. No use decreeing until the scribe was hired. She waited patiently, in the meantime soaking in the regality of the room.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the earthy scent of freshly scrubbed stonework. Repugnant, Celestia noted, as she would rather not have to smell it at all, but it was part of the castle’s character. Regardless, she made a mental note to order more thorough scrubbing of the stonework. Complete cleanliness carried a certain sense of triumph with it.
When she opened her eyes, she gasped a little, then exhaled.
Discord’s abomination stood at the other side of the room, silent and still as a statue. Celestia made another mental note for her next decree to establish cockatrice-free zones. The creature’s beady little eyes didn’t blink, but watched Celestia intently as if she was the freak of nature.
Celestia felt a pang of dread. “You better not be the scribe.”
Interpreting this as an invitation, Tricia scuttled forward, chattering in curiosity at the pretty little blue pony’s taller, less blue twin.
“No, no, that’s enough,” Celestia said, backing into her throne a bit. “Stay. Stay, girl.”
Tricia recognized these words much more clearly. She sat where she was, a little disappointed that she couldn’t meet this new pony, but stayed diligently at attention.
Celestia frowned. “Don’t stare at Us like that, filthy vermin, you’re creeping Us out.” The creature paid no heed to this. Celestia squirmed, not sure if she felt like making any more decrees until the real scribe came.
Conveniently, a guard rushed into the room and announced, “Your highness, your presence is requested in the foyer—er, Royal Hall.”
Keeping an eye on the cockatrice, Celestia scurried out of the room and shut the door behind her, trapping Discord’s monster of a pet in the Royal Throne Room. She’d be sure to have a discussion about that with Discord, but later.
As she entered the Royal Hall, she heard a sharp knocking at the door. She opened it, expecting her sister to come back with a scratched knee and Discord carrying in the little drama queen. Instead, she opened the door to a total hottie.
This gentlepony was a 4-foot-tall heartbreaker on hooves. He had a dark coat with darker, luscious locks of hair that cascaded down his head like a lush black waterfall. His eyes were soft, yet piercing, with deep red irises enveloping his ocular apertures and white parts that were a healthy shade of white, probably. His breastplate, shin guards, and short, succinct red cape accented his features well. To top it all off, he had the most devilishly handsome smile. This was literally and technically the most beautiful stallion she’d ever seen.
“Greetings,” the stranger said. He set the cake in his hoof down and gave a gracious bow. “I am Sombra, king of the Crystal Empire. I have heard Equestria has new rulers. Is this so?”
“Yes, that’d be me.” Her heart melting, Celestia almost leapt forward and offered her hoof. Sombra kissed it like a true gentlepony, and Celestia giggled like a true schoolfilly.
“Ah, yes,” Sombra said, a glint in his eye. “And what a marvellously beautiful ruler it has.”
“And what a marvellously good-looking ruler your land has. Tall, dark, and handsome,” Celestia marveled, looking the unicorn up and down. “You’re perfect.”
Sombra gave a charismatic grin. “You’re perfect, too, so this must be the work of fate.”
“Mmm,” Celestia said, completely lost in his deep, handsome red eyes. She barely noticed those eyes glance away, first casually, then awkwardly, then mildly uncomfortably.
Sombra broke the silence. “I brought a cake.”
“Oh, lovely!” Celestia said. He truly was the whole package—gorgeous, well-mannered, and in possession of cake. She floated the cake over to the plinth, still focused on Sombra, wondering whether she’d stay in this dream forever or wake up next to him. Either would’ve been positively delightful.
Sombra broke the silence once again. “May I come in?”
“Oh, of course,” Celestia said. “Welcome to my grand Royal Castle!” She swept her arm back, giving Sombra a chance to mentally introduce himself to the foyer.
Sombra stepped inside, surveying the architecture. It was rudimentary and boring, but it was best to be polite for now. “Yes, grand indeed.”
Celestia followed his eyes, nodding and sighing. “Grand, yes. So grand,” she mumbled, admiring the architecture of his flowing ebony mane.
Sombra looked at Celestia, to see that she had once again paused to stare stupidly at his face. Celestia was not the type to initiate a conversation, apparently, so he decided to stop waiting on her. He glanced down at her flank. “Destined to raise the sun, I see.”
“Mhm,” she said, nodding and falling into a trance. “Destined.”
Sombra waved a hoof in front of her face, then in front of his own to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. Nope, she was simply that dense. He tried to snap her out of her stupor by raising his voice. “You do raise the sun, right?”
“Oh, that’s me, yes.” Celestia checked to see that her cutie mark was, in fact, a sun. “Yeah, I raise it every morning and lower it every night.” She grinned, proud to literally be able to boast this, but waved her hoof like it was nothing. “All me. Yes. I raise it.”
“Impressive.” He arched an eyebrow and smiled. “It must demand a high caliber of magical prowess, I imagine.”
Celestia nodded. She wasn’t sure about the ‘caliber’ or the ‘prowess’ bits, but she heard ‘high something of magical somethings’, which she definitely had if that’s what he was interested in. She had the highest something of magical somethings around. “Yeah, I’m very good at magic. The best that I know. I know so many spells.”
Sombra’s eyebrow arched. “Really? How many?”
“Oh, tons. I’m not sure I could count them all.” Her mind grabbed at Star Swirl. “I’ve been mentored by some of the greatest minds in history and stuff. I know a ton of magic. Like, so much.”
“Is that so?” Sombra said. “Please, your highness, if you may be so gracious as to humour me, I would love a demonstration.”
Celestia’s heart throbbed at his request. “Really?”
“Yes.” He put a hoof to his chest. “Would you kindly grace me with your presence at my castle tonight for dinner? I would be beyond honoured. If you would also indulge me in lowering the sun, as well as performing some of the numerous spells you know while you’re there, I’d be delighted.”
Celestia caught her mouth hanging open since he had said the word ‘love’. Which he hadn’t, but he may as well have. “Yes, yes please, oh I would love that too. Thank you.” Internally, she danced and sang much more wildly than a princess should.
“Very well then,” Sombra said, dipping into a bow. “It was a pleasure meeting you,” he half-lied. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“It was nice to meet you too,” Celestia non-lied. She waved as he glided out of the door, his royal red cape and dark hair billowing in the breeze as the door-guard closed the door behind him.
Once Sombra had left, Celestia danced, but didn’t sing in case he was still in earshot. A date! How could she forget the fourth best part about ruling a kingdom, alongside wearing crowns, raising suns, and making decrees: hot Royal Dates! Best kingdom ever, hooves down.
Her dancing died down, however, when she realized what she had to do to earn that hot Royal Date. She’d not only claimed to have the highest something of magical somethings (which she didn’t, being only barely able to raise the sun), but she also claimed to have an uncountable number of spells in her repertoire (and she only knew one spell—levitation).
Panic twittered across her skin like a chilly wind. Over less than half a day, she’d have to master a few impressive spells, and fast. She’d have to consult Star Swirl’s notebook for this.
She floated Sombra’s cake to a guard. “Here, take this to the Royal Bed Chamber,” she said before sprinting away.
The guard lifted his visor. Discord squeezed out of it, cake in hand. Aside from witnessing one of the oddest dance routines he’d seen to date, he was excited for the turn of events. He’d imagined many possible scenarios between Sombra and Celestia, most of them involving Sombra being his usual condescending self, as this one was, but not the one where Celestia fell in love with him. This would be oodles of fun to watch unravel.
With a snap of his fingers, he first teleported the guard that was originally in the armour back into his armour, and then teleported Celestia’s cake to Tricia to compensate for being trapped alone in a room, as well as to punish Celestia for trapping her there in the first place. He himself didn’t like to follow rules, sure, but these were kids. They had to learn some form of good behaviour. Especially Celestia, the little brat.
Fueled by instinct and intrigue, Discord took to the air and zipped through the hall to follow Celestia. It didn’t take long to find her, as she was stopping at every corner she came to, apparently lost in her own castle. He already knew she was looking for Luna’s spell book. He’d seen how slowly the sun rose that morning, and he was more than capable of putting two and three together.
Fidgety as ever, Celestia ran in half-gallops and half-trots. Discord could feel her panic rush through him like a thrill. Laughing, he twirled in the air as he flew, soaking up what little chaos he could.
Celestia heard his laugh and slip to a stop. She turned around, afraid for an instant. “Discord?”
“Hello, my dear,” Discord said, unfurling and landing on the ground. “What’s the rush?”
“I’m…” she said, but she realized she didn’t want to lead him on—no doubt that he would tell Luna if he knew what she was doing. She dashed off into another hallway.
Discord sailed behind, giddy in being two steps ahead of her. “I could help you find Luna’s room, you know. That is, if you want my help.”
Celestia almost stopped again, her heart dropping at Discord’s guess. She kept going, though. She could find her sister’s room without the help of the world’s most annoying babysitter.
Discord mumbled something that Celestia would be better off having not heard. With a snap of his fingers, he teleported the both of them to the hallway where Luna’s room was. Celestia stopped, the teleportation causing her to be slightly dizzy, and she whipped her head to Discord, frowning.
He shrugged and pointed down the hall. “Second door on the right, there.”
She eyed the door, which was slightly ajar. She hadn’t checked this place yet, so it very well could’ve been Luna’s room. However, Celestia couldn’t help but feel this was a setup. She turned to Discord, squinting. “Why are you helping me?”
“You were going to find it one way or another,” Discord said, grinning. “I’m dying to know what happens when you do, so I hope you don’t mind if I speed things along.”
She eyed him. He was wearing that mischievous half-smirk he always had on before she walked into a practical joke. Watching her step, she sauntered up to the door slowly to avoid hitting any invisible barrier too hard.
She cracked opened the door to the room, carefully at first in case a bucket of water sat at the top, or if this was a portal to the edge of a cliff. However, she saw nothing teetering precariously on top of the door, and this definitely looked like a room. Luna’s two blue suitcases lay open off to the side of the room, and the bed was characteristically untidy. She then spotted what she was looking for: Star Swirl’s journal lay open on the ground. She ran up to it, flipping through it to find a spell that was both impressive and easy to do.
“It’s rude to go through someone else’s things, you know,” Discord said, crossing his arms.
“It’s ours to share,” Celestia said, though that wasn’t entirely the case. Star Swirl had given it to Luna, so it was figuratively hers. However, this was a valuable resource, and Luna was selfish if she was planning not to share it with other members of nobility, no less her own family.
Discord stroked his chin with a talon. “Did Luna give you permission to come into her room and read her books?”
Blood rushed to Celestia’s face. She was hesitant to lie, instead settling on a half-truth. “Not exactly, but she has to learn to share.”
“Ooh, so this is breaking and entering and unlawful seizure of property!” Discord curled around the dresser. He made an orange and a goblet appear out of thin air, then squeezed the orange until all of its liquid had been extracted. He took a modest sip and smirked. “How juicy.”
She picked up the book with her magic and started to leave with it, but remembered that Luna might not like it if she discovered her sister had barged into her room and taken her journal. Instead, she set the journal back down on the ground and said, “Discord, We would appreciate some privacy.”
“Oh, sure, of course,” Discord said, twirling out of the room. “I’ll leave you all to merit your sister’s distrust and swoon over Sombralicious in peace.”
“Wait!” Celestia said.
Discord halted. He swiftly flew in reverse, through the air and around the dresser in the exact same position he had been in before. He folded his arms and rested his chin on one fist. “Mmyes?”
Celestia swallowed, knowing she’d have to choose her words carefully. “You know about Sombra?”
“Indeed. Sombra, your dear northern neighbour.” Using magic, he donned a red cape, breastplate, shin guards, and a crop of stiff black hair complete with sideburns. “Most powerful figure north of this castle. Has differing viewpoints on social structure and equine enslavement than I do, but who am I to judge?”
Celestia looked down, feeling sheepish in pressing on. “I mean, you know about me and Sombra?”
“Oh, yes, your hot date.” He leaned in close, his Sombra garb disappearing and his ear doubling in size. “Why? Give me the dirty deets, sister.”
“Stop!” Celestia blurted, blushing. Discord was such a barbarian. She took a deep breath in and counted to five in her head. When she was finished, she looked down at the book. “We just met. Today.”
“Yes, I know,” Discord said. “I was eavesdropping, after all.”
She almost shot him a glare for that, but his regular sly smile was gone. His smile was only friendly, almost as if she could trust him. She breathed in once more, then took a risk. “Please don’t tell my parents.”
Discord considered this for a moment. He could sympathize, having had to bear Celestia’s parents for years by now. Just because he ran kingdoms differently didn’t mean his ways were ‘wrong’ or ‘immoral’ or any other meaningless words ponies liked to use. He knew how limiting limits could be.
Plus, there wouldn’t be much fun in telling her parents now. In fact, the longer it went on, the more potential for chaos there would be. What if Celestia hooked up with Sombra, and even eloped or something? Her folks were bound to find out sooner or later anyway, and what a firestorm that could bring about. Good things come to gods who wait.
Discord literally zipped his mouth closed and crossed his heart. Celestia smiled at this. For the first time in a long time, she felt she could trust him. “Thank you.”
He unzipped his lips. “Don’t mention it.” He walked, normally, to the other side of the room. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see where you abandoned Tricia.”
“In the Royal Throne Room,” Celestia said, turning back to her book.
“Right, right.” Discord swirled out of the door, pulling it closed behind him. He left it open just enough such that Celestia would have some warning in case Luna came down the hall. Then, he was off to free Tricia and make sure Luna hadn’t stubbed a hoof or died or anything while he was gone.
Exhaling in relief, Celestia flipped through the journal to see if she could expand her magical knowledge beyond just telekinesis.
~ ~ ~
Concurrently, Luna flipped through Star Swirl’s journal in her mind, out in the clearing in the woods. She could picture each page in her head, and subsequently which spell came after which. The general order was that easier or more common spells were towards the beginning of the journal, and the harder and weirder spells came later.
Could she actually perform any of these spells? No. However, if the fundamental elements of the universe were in fact the pile of rocks sitting right in front of her, maybe she could absorb some of their power, or at the very least, one of these six rock-elements would see her trying really hard to cast spells, take pity on her, and throw her some sort of a supernatural bone.
She had just tried one of the weirder spells: there was a spell that made anything you wanted to smell like a flower. It was one of the more intermediate spells, a step below freezing. Although she’d never tried it, as she’d never seen a point in using it, she figured she might as well give it a go. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t activate any sort of power, but one of the rocks now smelled faintly of lilies.
Perhaps something more conventional would work. Freezing was next in the journal, a common spell but a slightly trickier one to do. Luna wiped the sweat off of her forehead, stretched, and set her hooves into the grass again. This one she had practiced about as much as teleportation, with as little success. No harm in trying, at least.
Breathing was important for this one. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, feeling the air as it funneled through her nose, down her throat, into her lungs, and out again. She tasted the coolness of it and imagined savoring the same sensation in her horn. It tingled. Luna then directed that tingling energy outward, towards the pile of rocks.
A small spark leapt from her horn. She immediately reeled and grabbed her head—brain freeze. The little spark jumped back and forth between the rocks, landing on a nearby sapling. The beam made a small light blue spot in the tree, which spread for a little but not very far.
Luna stared at the patch of hard, shiny, light blue material. She was disappointed, but she had to touch it to be sure. Nope, it wasn’t cold. She’d turned the bark into crystal.
She stomped her hoof. “Not again!”
“This has happened before?”
Luna whirled around to the voice. Standing before her was the closest to anything royal she had seen since arriving. Overall, he was a dark pony, his face framed with black sideburns and a crooked horn underneath a humble crown. Something about him unsettled her, though, and it wasn’t just the sideburns.
The dark pony raised his eyebrows, nodding towards the tree. “I said, ‘This has happened before?’”
“Uh, uh, yeah,” Luna said, blinking a couple times. For a second there, she had forgotten blinking was a thing she did. “Yeah, I did that to an apple once on accident.”
“Is that so?” The dark pony said. He walked up to the tree and investigated it, stroking his hoof across the patch. “Transformed into pure aqua aura quartz. Incredible.”
For a full minute, Luna watched on as the stranger inspected all facets of the patch. When he had looked at it from nearly every possible angle without saying a word to her, she spoke up. “Um, who are you, mister?”
“Oh! How rude of me,” the dark pony said, moving away from the tree and bowing to Luna in a practiced motion. He extended his hoof to her. “I am King Sombra of the Crystal Kingdom. As you can imagine, I take great interest in the work of talented young sorcerers such as yourself.”
Luna precariously reached out to shake his hoof, but he pulled her hoof in to kiss it. She retracted almost immediately, tempted to wipe it off on the ground or something, but she thought that might be rude, so she hid her grossed-out feelings. “I’m Luna. Nice to meet you.”
“I would say the same, but that would be a heavy understatement,” Sombra said. “You’re one of few ponies I’ve met who possess such a potential for power.”
“Oh, thanks,” Luna said, still unsure about this stranger. He seemed very interested in her, graduated from a passive, normal interest to a rising, uncomfortable want.
Sombra took her silence as his cue to continue. “Perhaps we could become partners. Would you like to come live in my castle? I think you’d very much enjoy it there.”
“Um, no thank you,” Luna said, backing up a little. “I have to stay with my sister here. I think.”
“Do you, now?” He leaned back a little, broadening his shoulders and squinting at her. “Don’t you want more out of life, dear Luna? More than lollygagging in the forest and performing spells on simple, ordinary stones?”
At the moment, no, exploring the forest and practicing magic and playing with Discord suited her just fine. “No thank you, sir,” Luna said.
“Think about it.” Sombra knew he could convince her eventually. He just had to find the right hook. “You could be famous. All of Equestria and beyond would know and fear you. Texts and tomes for eons to come would eternalize your face, your name, and all the power that implies.”
She couldn’t think of many more polite ways to turn him down. “Thanks for the offer, sir, but no thank you.”
“Wealth, then! Just imagine,” Sombra said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “You could have all the riches in the world. Multitudes of all the platinum-plated horseshoes, priceless relics, and diamond-studded chariots you could ever want. A palace filled from wall to wall with more gold and jewels and treasure than you could possibly imagine.”
Luna looked around. “But you just told me to imagine it.”
Sombra found himself grasping, running out of incentives. “You could have a lot of friends. Servants to attend to your every whim. Um, you get to sit on a really nice throne. You like dresses? You could have very pretty dresses. Fancy balls and all that.” He tossed a hoof up. “I don’t know, uh. You could have the most powerful magic in the world, is what I’m saying.”
Luna’s eyes widened a little at the last one. Bingo, thought Sombra. “The most powerful magic in the universe, as powerful as—even more powerful than your parents!” He stretched his hoof towards the sky, his cape flowing in the breeze. “You want to raise the sun, the moon, the stars? Create entire oceans and flatten entire mountains? You could even make your own Earth if you wanted! How does all this sound to you?”
Overwhelming. This guy was starting to talk crazy. Not only that, but a little bit of smoke seemed to leak from Sombra’s eyes. Luna suddenly became scared that he would take the elements from her. She side-stepped over to the elements, one hoof raised, unsure if she should run and tell her sister or fend him off herself.
“Well?” He waited for a response, glancing between her and the patch of crystal on the tree.
She could sense a hint of desperation in his voice and eyes. “I’ll think about it,” she said. This didn’t seem to sway him, as he didn’t stop staring. “I promise, Mr. King Sombra—”
“Ah, ah.” He waved a dismissive hoof and smiled. “Please, just Sombra, child.”
“O-okay, Sombra,” Luna said, even more weirded out now that he called her ‘child’ like that. “I’ll definitely think about it, but I need some time.”
King Sombra nodded, then backed away. Luna relaxed a bit at this. He adjusted his cape and said, “I eagerly await your decision, fair Luna. Until we meet again.” He turned and walked away, his cape fluttering in the breeze.
“Bye,” Luna said, not budging an inch until a full sixty seconds after he had disappeared from view. She then turned to the elements behind her, counted them five times over to make sure they were all still there, and rolled them, one at a time, towards the castle with vigor. This was also when she realized her hooves were shaking, and probably had been for quite some time.
She’d have to tell somepony about Sombra, Discord or Celestia or a guard or perhaps her parents. He was scary and aggressive and a little creepy, and had shown no sign that she could trust him. She had to hide the elements and try to activate them somewhere more secluded, like her room.
Rolling the stones like wheels to the castle, Luna couldn’t ignore the queasy feeling in her stomach. Sombra was somepony to be careful around, no question about it.