Royal Duties

by biasedeyes

Discord in Harmony

When Cadance finally finished her lecture on the current military security of Equestria, she caught Twilight looking at her, stunned.

“What?” she teased, “Certainly you knew your big brother and I had to talk about something between kisses?”

“No...” said Twilight, “it’s not that. It’s just... I really upset the Griffin Kingdom?”

“Well, judging from their troop deployments,” Cadance resummoned a representation of the Equestrian border with the Griffin Kingdom and the troops posted along it, looking just at it had several minutes ago, glowing in different shades of her signature sky-blue magic. “they’re not actually preparing for any sort of conflict, or they wouldn’t show their hoof like this, but they want us to know that they’re militarily strong.”

Militarily strong was right. It had been ages since anypony had come to grief from griffins, but Twilight knew from experience that there was more than just a grain of truth in Old Mare’s tales, several of which featured an unsuspecting pony being shredded between the paws and claws of a griffin. Twilight tried not to think about all the other borders Cadance had outlined, most of them with civilizations even less savory and creatures even more fearsome, and all of them experiencing some sort of action.

“If you ask me, I would be more worried about the Zebrican border.” continued Cadance, giving a half-smile as she shifted the projection of her horn’s magic to represent the thin strip of land in the far south of Equestria which represented its only contact with Zebrica. “We haven’t seen any troops mustering yet, but the Zebricans were naturally outraged at the ascension, as their culture teaches that magic is Zero Sum. Normally, their leaders are quite level-headed, but in recent years, there’s reportedly been more religious fervor among the elders for whatever reason...”

Twilight’s discomfort must have shown in her face at that point because Cadance suddenly stopped and Celestia stood up and walked over to put a hoof and wing over each of her shoulders. Twilight wanted nothing more than to curl into a little ball and become the unicorn filly who had been enfolded in that embrace countless times again. She was so overcome by misery that it took her a moment to realize that her mentor was chuckling, a light, bell-like laugh.

“Twilight, don’t worry about the griffins, they always get uptight at any reminder of the fact that they don’t have magic. I remember, back when I was tutoring Starswirl, the Griffish ambassador tried to threaten a trade embargo because I was ‘too powerful to teach anything’.” Celestia’s wing came in and gave Twilight a little squeeze before leaving her shoulder. Celestia let her hoof remain on Twilight’s shoulder as she turned toward Cadance and Luna and addressed the whole room. “You all know that Equestria’s magic keeps it from harm and makes its land whole and good. There is also a great measure of evil in this world, though, as Luna and I are well aware.” At this, she shared a very grave glance with her sister, and they nodded at each other. “This evil recognizes that the might of Equestria is one of its gravest enemies, and will do its utmost to destroy it. Now, with Luna back on the throne, the Crystal Empire restored, and a new princess with unparalleled magical ability, it doubtless sees that its time may be running thin. We can expect it to throw at us whatever it can from wherever it has managed to gain a foothold. That is where you and your friends come in, Twilight.” she said quietly, pivoting so that she was looking directly down at Twilight’s face, hoof still on Twilight’s shoulder. “I would have preferred to give you more time before asking you to use you newfound power, but simply put, there is none. Equestria not under any peril with three princesses to protect it, but, as Cadance mentioned, Saddle Arabia is doing considerably worse than we are, bordered by ghuls and manticores. What she did not tell you was that Luna and I received an Arabian ambassador the other day, requesting our aid. That is what I wanted to ask you today, to ask if you and your friends would go to protect Saddle Arabia with the elements and your magic.” Celestia looked into Twilight’s eyes with sadness and questioning, and Twilight knew that this was indeed a request, and not a command.

“O-of course...” quavered Twilight, “I’ll have to ask my friends if they are willing, but I’ll certainly help protect Saddle Arabia.” It wasn’t such a difficult decision, seeing as she was the cause of all this tension. Still, it was scary to think of leaving everything she had ever known and striking out on her own so soon.

The questioning left Celestia’s eyes, but the sadness remained. Still, she gave Twilight a little smile and stood up, lifting her hoof from her shoulder.

“Then we should begin right away,” said Celestia in a much louder voice, “there are several spells I wish to teach you, and perhaps... Cadance and Luna?” she asked looking to the other two. Cadance nodded her assent and walked over to Twilight and Celestia, but Luna shook her head.

“Actually sister, I would much prefer to start looking into the portal situation. I will write a summary of useful defensive spells for Twilight later.” Luna said.

“Of course.” replied Celestia, and she guided Cadance and Twilight out of the room and towards the noonday sun ouside, while Luna strode along the halls towards the portal Twilight had used yesterday.

“First of all,” said Celestia, “there’s a reason I asked you to bring only the element of magic. With it, and your new alicorn magic, you should be able to summon all the elements easily.” Twilight realized that she had been wearing the element ever since she got it back, and blushed. Then she closed her eyes, pictured the elements, and tried a simple teleportation spell. She could feel the other elements slide toward the element of magic, and they popped into existence around her.

“Now, don’t try too hard, but maybe you can contact your friends through the elements?” Celestia looked on curiously while Twilight concentrated. She couldn’t really feel her friends, but she could feel vague... presences through the elements which could be them. “See if you can tell them to come here.” continued Celestia. Twilight couldn’t really talk to them, so after a moment she sent a sort of silent plea to the presences she felt to come to her, feeling a bit more desperate than the situation really called for. Celestia looked thoughtful.

“You’ll need someone to help you in Saddle Arabia, someone well-versed in powerful magic, who knows the shape of things. I’d hoped that Sunset could do that for you, but...” Celestia sighed. “Watch carefully, in case you need to cast this spell yourself. You may want to use the elements to help you out.” Celestia’s horn began to glow, spitting out a lot of magic energy. Twilight studied the accompanying aura closely, it looked mostly like a teleportation spell, but the aura grew all spiky toward the end. There was a pop from beside Celestia.

Discord sat in midair next to Celestia, clutching a beverage in his eagle’s claw, dressed in a red and yellow Hirzaiian print shirt. He turned slightly towards them as if just noticing them, and Twilight saw that he was wearing sunglasses.

“Oh, what brings you here? Or, should I say, what brings me here?” he blandly exclaimed.

“We’d like it if you could be Twilight’s... adviser.” said Celestia guardedly

“Oh, and I’d thought my help wasn’t wanted.” drawled Discord. “I was practically kicked out of Canterlot after I helpfully prepared and color-coded your breakfast by calorie content! Really, Celestia, do you not like green eggs and ham?”

“I just said that you were free to do as you pleased, as long as you didn’t bother anypony, and didn’t need to hang around the castle all the time. And, really Discord, you know ponies don’t eat ham.” Celestia gave him a chiding look that Twilight recognized from her time with the Sun Princess, this one considerably more steely than Twilight could remember her giving.

“Yes, yes, I remember now.” said Discord, switching his drink to his lion’s paw and tapping his chin rhythmically. “I went to the Crystal Empire to see if I could ‘use my powers for good’ there, but after a small misunderstanding with Cadance...”

At this Cadance’s stern expression suddenly turned to one of outrage. “Ssss...” she hissed, “Ssmall misunderstanding indeed.” she manged to say, stern expression reasserting itself.

“In any case, I decided to take a short vacation, and, well, here I am.” finished Discord. Cadance and Celestia regarded him coldly.

“Well, it seems that you two are slightly steamed at me, and Luna and I have never gotten along. Congratulations Twilight, you’re the only princess left willing to work with me! Isn’t it an honor?” grinned Discord. “At your service!” he continued, pulling up suddenly from his sitting position into a tight salute, his vacation clothes replaced by some sort of blue uniform.

Twilight couldn’t help but give a small sigh.

Author's Note:

Another chapter... for those who wonder what ghuls are, they're basically more civilized diamond dogs, I've stolen them from The Moonstone Cup.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Also will anypony besides Fluttershy be able to deal with a 'reformed' Discord?

The short answer is no. The long answer is hell no.