Horrible nigtmares from a time forgotten are haunting Celestia. She decides it is time for her to reveal her own and Luna's past and face the possible consequences that will follow.
"I-if only things could have been different, If only they didn't do what they did, if only we hadn't betrayed him things could be different... I wish they were."
Two months has passed since Tirek's defeat and the emergence of Twilight's castle. Celestia is having horrible dreams, nightmares about the one she and Luna betrayed long ago. About his kinds extinction and the horrible events that followed. It's time to face their past, reveal what should not be revealed, relive pain that cannot be forgotten and face the possible Consequences of their past mistakes.
It was so dark, so cozy and relaxing. Celestia could lie there forever. She felt more relaxed than she had felt in centuries. There was no sound or any implication of anything being out of place. She grazed the surface beneath her, expecting it to be her soft bed, but were met with her hoofguards scraping against a metal surface. She didn't remember taking on her hoofguards. Celestia found it odd, but was to tired to investigate or care. So very tired. She could hear whispers, they were almost like a soft breeze but even weaker. She couldn't hear what the whispers said, but she didn't care. The hard surface beneath her filled her with more comfort than she knew she could ever feel.
Celestia could hear a faint ringing starting in her ears. It was annoying but didn't sway her from her resting. It became louder and louder and stopped as if it had never been there.
"How adorable."
A shiver went down Celestia's spine as she heard the deep sinister voice. For some reason she could feel herself starting to sweat under the voice. She didn't know why. Celestia wanted to get up, but her body didn't want to. It was almost as if something was trying to hold her down. She forced her eyelids open with great difficulty only to discover herself lying in her throne room. The throne room was dark, only illuminated by her sisters moon giving light through the stained glass windows that bounced off the white marble walls of the room. She couldn't remember herself going into her throne room. Celestia glanced around at the pictures in her windows. They depicted the grand victories and trials Equestria had endured throughout time. Her students and friends victory over nightmare moon, Discord, Tirek and many others. There was something wrong with the room. Celestia couldn't place it, but it felt unfamiliar.
"Hahahaha."
A small laughter rang through the throne room. The same sinister laughter. A drop of sweat dripped down Celestia's muzzle and she could swear she saw a shadow move outside one of her windows. She finally struggled to her legs. She couldn't understand why it had been so difficult to get up. The air became icy cold around Celestia, but it was weird, it felt almost... Alive. As if someone was breathing down her neck.
A sudden thunder sounded outside the throne room and it's lightning lit up the entire room for a split second. In that moment, Celestia could see shadows in the room that shouldn't have been there. Small piles and a long form that resembled that of a snake. Celestia was getting scared. The voice seemed familiar and yet not. "Hello?" She called. No one answered.
Celestia caught sight of something moving in the corner of her eye and turned her head to face it. She gasped in surprise. The stained glass window on her right side had been changed, but that didn't make it less familiar. Celestia's stomach dropped and she could feel tears pressing in her eyes as she processed the picture in the glass. It showed the greatest attrocity ever commited in Equestria's history. She turned away and clenched her eyes shut. She couldn't look at it without feeling the pain of the past pricking at her heart. So much pain.
"Awwww, poor wittle pwincess, does it hurt to look at it?"
First now did Celestia recognise the voice. She wished she hadn't because it only made the pricking in her heart worse. The voice laughed again, louder than before and then abrubtly stopped. It snarled, growing more malicious. The voice filled her body with dread.
"You can only imagine the pain it brought me, that you brought me..."
Celestia tried to speak, but her mouth wouldn't let her. Tears dripped down her muzzle and only now did she realise she was shaking. She slowly opened her eyes once more and saw her now altered throne room. All of the stained glass windows had changed. All of them depicting the horrible achievements of one particular individual. Each picture more horrible than the next. Suddenly an image blinked across her eyes. Celestia could see endless pony corpses spread across a large meadow, blood from the victims shading the grass on the meadows green in a dark red color. The sun was eclipsed by the moon, but it's colors was odd. Instead of giving the world beneath it a orange hue, it gave everything a cold blue color. Celestia now noticed something that made her blood run cold. All of the pony corpses were alicorns.
She blinked and the image was gone. She gasped again for air. She looked around and saw her throne room had been darkened by some unnatural light. At the other end of the room she could see red glowing eyes and the darkened form they were attached to. The form was about three times her own size, but it had a more serpentine shape. she couldn't make out any details, it was to dark.
"But trust me, Celestia..."
Another image flashed across her eyes. It showed a burning castle with living ponies trembling beneath a serpentine shape that was covering the same eclipse. It was the same darkened figure she had seen in her throne room, laughing with malice at the ponies. It all seemed so familiar, so awfully familiar. She blinked again and this time the figure was halfway across the throne room. Celestia tried to move, but she couldn't. Her hoofs wouldn't let her. She could hear snarling and she could make out from it's form that it had a tail and wings, but not much else.
"What im going to do to your 'precious' Equestria..."
Another image flashed before Celestia's eyes. It was her, Luna and Discord, rolling and playing in the same meadow that her previous image has shown full of alicorn corpses. The image changed, and now it was a familiar event Celestia had hoped she could forget, but she never would. The day she and her sister betrayed him, the day all other Draconequui went extinct. She blinked and saw the figure were now only twenty feet away from her. Lightning flashed outside again and Celestia could make out the mismatched limbs. She tried desperately to move her legs, but they wouldn't react. She was stuck. Her heart was pounding and tears kept pouring down from her eyes. Celestia had in her long reign over Equestria not been scared more than a couple of times. But she knew that there was no creature in existence that scared her more than the one approaching her.
"Will make what you did to me seem like a childish prank."
Images kept flashing across her eyes. A familiar draconequus terrorizing ponies and slaughtering alicorns. The sky raining fiery rocks, rivers turned boiling and plants wilting. A malicious laughing in the distance. The horrible images stopped flashing and Celestia froze. In front of her, only inches from her snout, was the creature she feared the most in the world. The creature, she had once called friend. A creature, she had once loved.
"But do not worry, my dear..."
As the creature talked, the unnatural darkness covering it disappeared, revealing the last draconequus. Discord. But he looked different. More beastly. Long claws were stretched from his eagle talon and lion paw. bony spines erupting from the start of his neck and stopping at the end of his tail. Celestia stared at the enlarged draconequus and could feel her heart pounding faster as he gave her a toothy grin, revealing his razor sharp teeth and that one larger fang.
"Instead, enjoy the ride."
Another image went across Celestia's eyes. It was the inside of canterlot throne room but here, canterlot was in ruins. Twilight and her friends were all lying on the floor, lifeless. Large gash wounds were covering them all. Near the throne, Luna was hanging from a long piece of metal, impaled on it. Celestia blinked and now, Discord was coiled around her like a massive snake. Celestia could feel him tightening around her, crushing her bones. She let out an agonizing scream, but that didn't stop Discord from tightening the grip further. He grinned maliciously. "P-please, D-Discord... Im s-s-ARGH! Sorry!" She managed to get out despite the agonizing pain. He laughed again and looked at her with a mix of hatred and amusement.
"Your words mean nothing to me."
*CRACK*
Celestia woke up screaming and shaking. Her heart was pounding. She put her hoofs over her eyes and started to sob uncontrollably. The nightmare had all seemed so real. Part of it was. She took away her hoofs and looked as well as she could, with tears pouring down her face, around the room to confirm her castle wasn't in ruins. Her sight was blurry from the tears, but she could still see it was her room and her bed.
"CELESTIA!" The door to her bedroom burst open, revealing a frightened lunar princess and two spearwielding guards assisting her. When Luna saw Celestia, her eyes widened and she levitated the guards out of the room before they could see Celestia. "GET OUT!"
The guards both landed on their rumps against a wall. They looked at eachother shortly before turning their confused gazes to the Lunar princess. "But your highne--" They didn't get to talk further as the door to Celestia's bedroom slammed shut.
Luna trotted, worried, over to her sister who had, once again, buried her face in her hoofs. Luna sat down on Celestia's bed, put a hoof on her shoulder and gave her a comforting smile. "Celestia, what is wrong?" Luna asked sympathetically. She could feel Celestia shaking.
"I had another nightmare..." She answered as tears dripped from her muzzle.
Luna's eyes widened and she could feel her own blood running colder at the mention of the nightmare. Without further thinking she pulled Celestia into her embrace, hugging her tightly. "I-it's okay, Celestia." Ever since Discord had been freed on Celestia's command and reformed, she had been getting the occasional nightmares and they were getting more frequent. Nightmares of a time long past and the consequences of the their actions.
"Why won't they go away?!" Celestia screamed while sobbing, as she clinged to Luna, as if, for dear life.
"I-I do not know, sister." Luna answered with sadness in her voice. It was not because Luna hadn't tried to make the nightmares go away, but they just wouldn't. No matter what she tried, she could not despel those nightmares. She had even tried to enter the nightmare herself to pull Celestia out, but that had only resulted in Luna getting the same nightmares she had tried to despel. "It doesn't make any sense. He's reformed, this shouldn't be happening..." Luna said to no one in particular.
Celestia looked away, tears continueing to drip. I wish I could tell you why, Luna, but it is too painful to even think about. She looked out of a nearby window where she could see the lights from Ponyville. But perhaps it is time. Luna joined her in her gaze out the window. Celestia's lower lip quivered and she looked back at her sister and nodded. Luna understood and returned Celestia's nod. "It's time. We have to tell them."
"Huh?" Twilight looked up from her book in confusion. She was sitting on a bench in the middle of Ponyville, trying to relax in the sunlight with a book about physics. Towards her came a familiar baby dragon, running, with a rolled parchment in his hand. Spike stopped just in time so he didn't hit the bench. He was panting and breathing heavily. He must have run all the way from the castle. Twilight thought. "What is it, Spike?" She asked cheerfully.
"The *pant* p-pri *pant*" Spike tried to speak, but he was to out of breath. He could feel his lungs burning as he didn't do alot of excercise. "J-just give me a moment." He managed to get out before falling over, the parchment falling into the air.
Twilight grabbed it with her magic. It had the crest of princess Celestia. Twilight smiled widely. "It's from the princess." She said excited. "It's probably her response to my latest report on Harmony magic." She opened the letter.
Dear princess Twilight.
I request you and your friends presence here in Canterlot, as soon as you possibly can.
Luna and I have something very important to tell you all.
Your former mentor, Princess Celestia.
Twilight raised and eyebrow in confusion. It sounds important. I just hope that it's not another maniac trying to take over Equestria. She levitated the, still panting heavily, purple baby dragon onto her back. "Come, Spike. We have some friends to round up."
"Is everypony here?" Twilight asked the mares around her throne room. Most of her friends had arrived after her and Spike had gone around, inviting them over.
Rainbow shook her head. "Naa, were missing Fluttershy."
"It ain't like her ta be late. Maybe we should go look for her." Applejack said, looking to the rest of her friends for their response.
Rarity put her arm over Applejack's back. "Don't you worry, Applejack. She probably just got occupied with angel bunny wanting some ridiculous salad or something along those lines."
Applejack snickered, "Yea' yer' probably right."
The door to the throne room opened, revealing Fluttershy. She had bags under her eyes, wore an unusual frown on her lips, she was focusing on the ground and her mane looked slightly disheveled. She looked troubled to say the least.
"Hey Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash greeted her. "What took ya?"
Rarity raised an eyebrow at her Fluttershy's appearance. Her observant eye taking in every bit of detail. "Fluttershy, darling, is something wrong?"
Applejack also cocked her head at Fluttershy. "Uhh, Fluttershy, ya there?"
Pinkie tried stepping in front of her and making silly faces to try and get her attention, but nothing seemed to work.
Much to everypony's surprise, Fluttershy barely reacted to them talking or them trying to interact with them. She didn't even seem to notice Rainbow Dash nor the rest of them for that matter. She kept her frown, walked over and sat down on her throne. "Hey girls..."
Concerned, all of Fluttershy's friends went over to her. Twilight was the first one to speak. "Fluttershy, what's wrong?"
"Well... There's something wrong with Discord."
Her friends stared at her in confusion, some exchanged looks. A couple of them had the urge to call out Discord trying to trick her or something, but Fluttershy's sad face kept them quiet. Twilight spoke. "What is wrong with him?"
"H-he's been having these headaches..." Fluttershy began. "And also nightmares. I've tried to get him to tell me about the nightmares, but he doesn't want to." She shook her head in sadness. "Yesterday I urged him too hard to tell me and he snarled at me. H-he's never done that before. There's something very wrong with him, girls."
The rest of them looked at Fluttershy in concern. Twilight put her hoof on Fluttershy's back and urged for the rest of her friends to come closer. They all gathered in a hug. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but as much as we all want to help Discord, something important has come up. I promise, we will find out what's happening to Discord after we get back from canterlot."
"Yeah, don't you worry Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash said. Fluttershy returned her words with a small smile. Rainbow realised something. "Wait, we're going to canterlot?"
Applejack rolled her eyes at Rainbow. "Didn't ya listen when ya was invited over?"
Rainbow had been in the middle of a new stunt when Spike had come over handing a letter and briefly telling her that Twilight was inviting her over. Rainbow had of course just skipped reading the letter and just flown over to Twilight. "Uhh, no?"
Applejack facehoofed. "Of course ya didn't" She muttered to herself. "Ah' just hope Discord ain't tryin ta pull another 'blue flu'." She regrettedly remembered the blue flu Discord had given her and Rarity and Applejack shivered. "I've never before sneezed so much in ma entire life."
"I concur." Rarity agreed. "It was a most dreadful experience."
"I liked the baloon he gave me." Pinkie looking dreamily in the air. "Soo shiny."
Twilight rolled her eyes and began telling her friends why she had gathered them up.
Twilight and her friends had just arrived in Canterlot train station. They got out and were met with a surprise.
"Twilight!" A familiar pink alicorn called as she trotted over to the mare she used to babysit.
"Cadence!" Twilight yelled happily back. She hadn't seen Cadence in what felt like forever, but it had only been two months.
"It is so good to see you all." Cadence said and gave Twilight a hug. "Im guessing you were also sent a letter from Celestia."
"Yep." Twilight answered. "Do you know what it is about?"
Cadence shook her head. "No, but it sounds serious."
"Yes, it does." Twilight had been thinking an awfull lot on the way there what it could be that the princess wanted to tell them. She had ruled out the possibility of another megalomaniac trying to take of Equestria since everything in Canterlot was so peaceful and there was no reports of anything unusual. "Anyways, how is it going, Cadence? How are you and my BBBFF?"
Cadence was about to answer, but Rainbow Dash interrupted her.
"EXCUSE me, but can you two play catchup AFTER we have had our meeting with the princesses?" She asked in a annoyed tone while rolling her eyes. "I have flying practice to get back to, and she did say we needed to get there ASAP so come on!" Rainbow flew as fast as she could towards the castle.
Applejack rolled her eyes after Rainbow and walked up to princess Cadence. "Don't mind her, princess, she's always like this when she learns about a new stunt."
Cadence merely chuckled in reply and they all walked towards the castle. Twilight shifted her attention to Fluttershy a couple of times during the walk towards the castle. Fluttershy hadn't talked since they left Ponyville. She looked worried. It was obvious who she was worried about. She must be serious about Discord. I have never seen her so worried. Perhaps they should have tried helping Discord before they left?
Pinkie Pie stopped as her nostrils picked up a familiar scent. Her eyes went wide and she started drooling. "I smell." She sniffed again and got her eyes on a conditory. "FROSTING!" she yelled and darted, in a speed that could easily rival Rainbow Dash, towards the conditory leaving pink smoke in her path.
Cadence stopped and looked confused at Pinkie who had just entered the conditory and seemed to be talking with the cashier. Twilight walked up next to her. "Is she always so..." Cadence struggled in finding the right word.
"Yeah." Twilight replied. "She has an obsession with frosting." Her words only seemed to confuse Cadence more as she gave Twilight the same look she had put in Pinkie's direction. "Don't ask. She will probably meet us at the castle." Cadence cast one last look towards Pinkie and then nodded in reply.
They were met with guards along the way that started to escort them to the castle. Everything seemed to be normal in Canterlot. Same stuck up nobles, same fancy stores and the same beautiful city, but something seemed off to Twilight. There were way more guards in the city than usual. Almost as if all of the guards had abandoned the castle.
The squad of guards stopped at the entrance to Canterlot castle. "This is as far as we go." The apparent leader of the guards said, urging for the mares to go inside.
Twilight's friends went inside. She herself stayed behind. She raised an eyebrow. "Last time we were here you escorted us all the way to the throne room, and now you won't enter the castle? What is going on?"
The guards shifted uneasy looks. "The princesses has ordered for all personnel to stay out of some parts of the castle, including the main corridor, basement and upper floors, until your visit is over.
"That doesn't explain why you aren't inside."
"We thought this as an opportunity to use the extra hoof power to train the rookies and do other tasks we normally are to undermanned to do."
"Oh, okay..." Twilight went after her friends. She didn't like this one bit. What could be so important that the princesses had ordered all personnel out of most of castle? When she finally caught up to her friends, they were already at the entrance to the throne room. Unsurprisingly Pinkie was also there, her snout covered in a beard of frosting.
"What took ya, Twi?" Applejack asked as she saw her alicorn friend walking up to the rest of them with a worried expression.
Rarity noticed the look on Twilight's face aswell. "Darling, is something wrong? You look troubled."
"Huh?" Twilight snapped out of her thoughts. "No it's nothing girls." She gave them a sheepish smile. "Come on, we shouldn't keep the princesses waiting."
The mares were greeted with a known sight. Princess Celestia and princess Luna sitting on their thrones looking regal as ever. It looked like they were arguing. They stopped the second they noticed their guests. Celestia smiled at her former student, niece and friends, but Luna kept an oddly serious, almost angry, frown.
At a closer look Twilight could see Celestia and Luna aswell was having bags under their eyes and Twilight could detect a hint of sadness in their eyes. No, not only sadness, but also pity and remorse. In Luna's there were also anger.
"Princess Twilight and princess Mi Amore Cadenca." Luna greeted both princesses. "We are pleased to see that you all came this quickly." Luna also nodded at the former element bearers. "The faster we can finish this, the quicker we can get some closure."
"I speak for all of us when I say we are glad to see you two as well." Cadence gestured to the mares behind her and smiled at her aunts. "But we are a bit confused. Your letters didn't exactly tell us much." Twilight and her friends nodded behind Cadence.
Celestia nodded. "We are sorry to call all of you here without further details, but both Luna and I thought the matter to important to tell you in a letter."
"What is it you want to tell us, Princess?" Twilight asked. She was confused to say the least. The princesses rarely acted like this. They were normally calm and inviting, or Celestia was at least. Luna seemed to be on edge..
Celestia looked shortly at Luna. "Something I think you all have the right to know. But be warned. The story we are about to tell must never leave these walls. If it did, it could cause mass panic and maybe start a civil war or it could do something..." Celestia's face became grim. "Far worse."
The former elements kept silent. This was important and the consequences were dire if the information were to slip. Even Pinkie forced herself to be still.
"Some of you may have wondered why there is no other alicorns than us four." Luna picked up from Celestia.
Twilight and Cadence nodded. They had been thinking about it. Twilight had searched almost every book there was on information about alicorns, but every time she researched, she came out with no more information than when she had started.
Celestia sighed. "Let's start at the beginning."
Meanwhile at Fluttershy's cottage.
Discord was lying on a couch with a pillow over his head. Fluttershy had urged him to stay there until she got back from canterlot and it wasn’t easy. The headaches are getting worse. He thought to himself as another flash of it surged through his head like a thousand needles. He growled in annoyance. "I need to get out of here!" He yelled and jumped up from the couch. The moment his feet touched the ground another burst of pain went through his head.
"They betrayed me..."
Discord's heart started pounding harder as he heard a voice whisper in his head. He shook his head and dismissed it as being his mind playing tricks. He walked towards the door and stopped as a white bunny blocked his path. It yelled some gibberish at Discord.
Discord groaned. "I know Fluttershy told me to stay here until she got back from Canterlot, but I can't take it any longer!"
Angel bunny yelled some more gibberish.
"What did you just call me? A cry baby? Why you little!" Discord tried to snatch Angel bunny but he avoided Discord barely. Discord turned his attention back to the front door and was about to open it when Angel bunny bit him in his goat leg. "DAARH!" Discord yelled as he felt Angel bunny's teeth sink into his leg. "Get off me you little--" Another surge of pain went through Discord's head.
"I will break them..."
Discord felt a shiver go down his spine as he heard the voice again. It sounded like his own voice ringing through his head. He suddenly felt very angry and swatted Angel bunny of his leg with his strong lion paw. Angel bunny landed with a painful thud on the couch Discord had been laying on. Discord's head was pounding with pain and he proceeded to walk out of the cottage without a second thought.
“The origin of the alicorns is one shrouded in mystery.” Celestia began. “Not even the alicorns knew where they came from, one day they were simply there as if they had always been and yet not. They were naturally intelligent and very gifted in the art of magic and flight. Eventually, they started to question their own existence and sought answers. Many died or simply vanished in this search, but they eventually came across a tree you are all very familiar with. The tree of Harmony. After that, it didn’t take long before they took it upon themselves to spread the word of the tree and spread order and harmony across the land and this is when our story begins.”
“It all started a little over 1700 years ago.” Celestia lit her horn, showing images of a time long past. The images showed green fields, beautiful sunsets and a enormous palace that covered most of Canterlot mountains side. It was made out of pure marble and crystal that radiated light. It kind of resembled Canterlot except for the fact that it was at least twice it's size and looked more linear in architecture. Twilight, Cadence and their friends could faintly see winged and horned ponies walking about in the streets. “This city was known as the Beacon. It was called this by anypony who laid its eyes upon it. To most, it was a beacon of hope and peace. It was also the citadel and only city of the alicorn race. What you see here is Equestria as it used to be before the three tribes united in friendship.”
“Ooh, colors!” Pinkie pies eyes became as big as plates.
“The nature is so pretty.” Fluttershy peeped as she looked in awe of the magnificent images.
“That castle is magnifique!” Rarity exclaimed as she saw the palace. “I have never seen a more gorgeous building.”
“A lot of hard work went into that.” Applejack nodded in approval.
Twilight looked confused at her former mentor. “But princess, this looks so… Peaceful? And this doesn’t explain why you and princess Luna are the only natural alicorns left?”
“We will get to it.” Luna explained. “Be patient with us, Twilight Sparkle. You must be able to have all the pieces to understand the puzzle.” She nodded at her sister to continue.
Celestia smiled and continued. “The alicorn race came to believe they were the living representations of order and harmony, which was partially true at the time. The alicorns who ruled the city were known as the council of order. It consisted of eight alicorns, each one from their own part of the city. Their decisions were always very one sided in a sense. One would bring up a topic for discussion amongst the group, they then would decide whether or not to partake in the outcome of the discussion after a vote. It had always been all or nothing to avoid conflict. If one declined, the topic would be dismissed and they would move on to the next.”
Celestia looked grimly into the floating picture as the image changed, revealing a tall female alicorn with a white as snow coat and a mane that looked like liquid gold. She wore a warm smile on the picture that could make any stallion melt on the spot. “This was our mother Harmonia. She were in the council and was responsible for the defence of the city.”
“Whoa?” Rainbow Dash started. “Where all of you alicorns born supermodels or were it just your family?”
“She’s… Gorgeous.” Cadence said, mouth wide as she stared at the image.
Twilight raised an eyebrow and snickered. “Easy there, Cadence, remember you have my brother to get home to.” Cadence’s cheeks became a tint redder and she rolled her eyes at Twilight’s words.
“Please, enough with the interruptions.” Luna said, looking down at her two nieces, unamused. “We will have plenty of time for questions and such when we are finished.”
“It’s okay, Luna.” Celestia said, putting a hoof on her shoulder from her own throne. “I know you want to get this over with as soon as possible but--”
“You have no idea, sister.” Luna interrupted her. “I never want to remember that time. So many horrible things happened and we should keep those things buried in the past!” She shied away from Celestia’s touch and teleported out of the throne room.
Celestia sighed and looked back at her guests. “She will be back, don’t worry. This is just very painful for her to remember.” She saw the questioning looks on her guests faces. “You will know why soon enough.”
She continued her story. “One day a discussion arose in the council. It was about the Tree of Harmony and it’s relation to us. An argument began between the council. An argument about our world’s history. You see, it was always believed by the alicorns that the Tree of Harmony had been the source of all life on our world and without it, our world would be a desolate wasteland. Many believed in this theory including most of the council members, but then one of the council members came with a question. The council member asked: If the tree has formed our world and it’s races, plants and oceans, then why are there races like the griffins, forests like the everfree and storms and tidalwaves in the ocean? It was a logical question and yet it quickly steered the argument out of control. They all agreed that they should find the reason as to why these things existed as it didn’t make sense that the tree of harmony would create such things. It went against everything the tree stood for.”
Celestia sighed and levitated a book she had been keeping out from behind her. The book was big with a dark blue leather cover. Gems in every color covering it. It wore the text: ‘Traveling journal of Starswirl the bearded’. Twilight’s eyes went wide as she read the words on the cover. Celestia continued. “It was around this time that Starswirl the bearded, the first unicorn to be taught magic by alicorns, made a great discovery. A discovery that would cause many horrible actions in the future.” She opened the book on a specific page. “Before I read this out loud to you, you must all understand that around my races time of peace, trouble was stirring with so many others, including the draconequui. They were being hunted and skinned by minotaurs and griffins alike, and the alicorns did nothing to prevent it.”
“Wait, princess, did you just say draconequui as in plural?” Twilight asked before Celestia could continue.
“Yes, Twilight.” Celestia’s face became grim once more. “There were once many draconequui. They were a peaceful, if a little odd, race and they didn’t deserve what happened to them.”
“Why didn’t the alicorns or your mother help them?” Rainbow Dash asked as she had now started hovering in the air.
Celestia shrugged. “It will all be explained.”
“Uhh, princess.” Fluttershy began shyly. “Did you know Discord at the time?”
Celestia’s face became pained and she began to sweat as she remembered the last night’s horrible dream. “Y-yes, Fluttershy, I did. But I will get to that.” She shook her head clear of last night and looked down at the book and began to read out loud.
From the Cave of Harmony to the Mountain of Turmoil
I have scoured the Everfree forest for nine days now, yet I have not found a single clue that could lead me to the tree of Harmony.
In my journeys around the forest I have come across many uncategorized plants and unknown animals. But I will need to focus on those after I’ve found the tree.
Setting up camp at a swamp for the night.
Journal entry: 363
I feel like an idiot for two reasons.
1: Turns out the swamp I set up camp at was housing three hydras. They forced me deeper into the forest and I eventually had to stop and regain my breath. That is where the second reason comes in.
First now do I realise that the closer I get to the forests center, the more peaceful it becomes. I’m also sensing a strange magic as I get closer to the center. The alicorns told me that the only way I could find the tree was to follow the path of Harmony. It seems they were right.
Setting up camp at a large chasm. Hopefully I can actually get some sleep tonight.
Journal entry: 364
I have found it!
It took forever and a day and also more blisters than I can count, But I found it!
Turns out the tree is located in a cave just beneath the chasm I was sleeping at. Funny how those coincidences are.
I am standing just outside the cave and I can barely contain myself. Finally I can get some much needed answers. All I need, is to walk inside and...
Wait. Something just entered the cave with the tree. I have no idea how it got in there without me noticing. It’s a draconequus. It’s tall, it’s skin seems to be resembling that of a turtles shield, it has no hind legs, but instead a long black dragon tail. Two curved horn go sprouting from the back of it’s white pony head, a blood red lion mane replacing the normal pony mane, pair of brown pegasus wings on it’s back. Its arms were those of a gecko and a tiger, both golden in color. It looks evil. That’s the best way I can describe it. No wonder the alicorns allow them to be hunted, it’s hideous. It seems to be speaking to the tree! This only confirms my former theories. Draconequui are completely…
I don’t believe it! The tree is answering! It’s… Beautiful. It’s hard to describe, but it sounds like music. Light is emanating from the tree and beautiful ethereal tones sound in my head as if I am standing right next to the tree! But it’s not talking to me, it’s talking to the draconequus. Wait, why would the tree of Harmony speak to something so vile and feral?
No time for that now. I will describe the conversation as best as I can for future generations to come. Maybe it’s important. I’ve snuck closer and I can now hear the draconequus clearly.
He is speaking of his race. How they are hunted and shunned for simply existing. He is asking the tree to help them. More beautiful tones sound in my head. The tree is answering that it won’t help as they are not of it’s doing and that his race is the complete opposite of what it represents. No kidding, just look at it.
To my surprise, the draconequus is not angered by the tree’s words. It looks saddened. It thanks the tree for it’s time and is now slithering away. I actually feel bad for it…
The tree is talking again, stopping the draconequus! It says that he should seek out…
Sorry, I dropped my pen, but you will probably be able to understand why. The tree said word for word: Seek out my sibling for he is everything that I am not. He can do everything that I can’t and I do everything he can’t. If he deems your race worthy, he will help.
This… This is revolutionary! Marvelous! This could not have gone better! I only have one question.(actually I have more than a millions but I will have to settle for one for now) What does the tree mean with: If he deems your race worthy?
The draconequus is answering. He asks where he can find the tree’s sibling. (I would also like to know that.)
Harmonious tunes fill the cave and my head. It’s saying… Let the chaos in your heart guide you.
Great that just means...
…
…
…
You have got to be kidding me. I’ve just realised that it will be impossible for me to find this ‘sibling’. As ponies are drawn to the magic of order and harmony, it is only logical that creatures made from this ‘sibling’ are drawn to it’s opposites. It can take me years to find that blasted thing!
The draconequus is leaving. I have come up with an idea. It is risky, but it might be worth it in the end. I will follow this draconequus in its journey to this ‘sibling’ of the tree of Harmony. I just hope it won’t notice me until we are there. I may be a powerful unicorn, but even with all of my years of studying various magics and races, I still have no idea just what an angered draconequus is capable off. Wish me luck.
Journal entry: 365
It’s been a week since my last entry. I regret not getting to update sooner, but as it turns out, draconequui(or atleast this particular one) are really fast. Over the last week, I have been trailing it as best as I could with my old worn out limbs. It took the draconequus three days before it took its first break on this journey where it just laid down and began to sleep on the spot. I’m amazed that it could last this long without food, sleeping or drinking. I myself almost lost it several times over those 3 miserable days as I had to make stops to drink and eat. I fell asleep shortly after.
It seemed to be leading me north-east. Exactly where, I am not sure. My legs are still aching from the constant straining I have put them through. I haven’t felt this worn out since my last trip to Draconia. Unbelieveable how quickly those reptiles get offended. Oh, how I miss The Beacon. I miss its shining towers, its beautiful hallways, its endless assortments of book and libraries. But most of all I miss Harmonia. That mare brightens my day just by thinking about her. Her beautiful eyes, her golden mane, her sleek gorgeous body
Celestia's eyes widened as she deciphered the text Starswirl had frantically tried to conceal and a shiver went down her spine. This was actually the first time she had read all of these journal entries word for word. Normally she had just skimmed through it only catching the important details. For Starswirl to have feelings towards her mother... The thought was uncomfortable to say the least.
The sun princess' sudden stop in reading slightly worried the ponies she had been reading to. What had she read? Why did she shiver?
"Princess, what's wrong?" Twilight asked and the rest eagerly awaited answer from Celestia.
Celestia was pulled from her current thought process and back to reality by Twilight's question. "Huh?" Celestia shook her head. "Oh, its nothing, Twilight. Sorry, it seems I got distracted." She continued reading out loud.
Okay, ignoring that last part. Eventually I followed the draconequus to the Neighagra Falls where it made its second stop after another 4 days on the run. I’m not going to lie, the moment it stopped I fell on my hooves from sheer exhaustion and almost instantly fell asleep, but I was out of eyesight of the draconequus so nothing happened.
I woke up a couple of hours later to the sound of wingbeats. To my horror, the draconequus I had been following had decided to take flight, so I would no longer be able to follow it. Given the situation, my following action might not have been the smartest at the time. I’m amazed it worked.
I revealed myself to the draconequus and ran up to it before it could take off and started yelling. I pleaded it to stop, wait or at least listen to what I had to say before it left. I will never forget its face. It looked at me with a mix of surprise and annoyance. It told me to make it quick and I did so. I told it I had been following it over the last week and that I desired to travel with it to meet this sibling of the tree of Harmony. It looked at me and stroked its chin with its tiger paw. I was afraid it would attack me or even worse leave me, as I was so close to one of the biggest discoveries in pony history! To my surprise, it actually landed and said I could join it as it needed some company. I later found out his name was Eracul.
At first I was very reluctant to staying close to him or even talk to him as we kept journeying east. I had read that draconequui could be very violent at times, but Eracul seemed calm at all times if not a little sad. To my pleasant surprise, he turned out to be really friendly. Looks like I might have made a friend.
Journal entry: 366
After another week of travelling, with more breaks than before, we have arrived at the edge of the crystal mountains. I had asked Eracul several times as to why we were here. It doesn’t seem like the kind of place for a tree or whatever The tree of harmony’s sibling is. Every Time I had asked Eracul, he just answered with the same words: “Something is pulling me here.” I just wish I had brought a warmer robe.
Of course, lucky as we are, a snowstorm came as we entered the frozen dessert that was between us and the crystal mountains. We’ve found a cave and will continue our journey in the morning. We’re close, I can feel it.
Journal entry: 367
We have been walking for hours through this frozen wasteland. The sky is darkened by clouds and I’ve never felt so cold before. Eracul seems to be leading me towards a mountain clearing that is shaped like a crescent moon. I hope we have finally reached our destination.
We have just entered the clearing and it is like a completely different land. The sky is clear of clouds and the ones coming seems to be going around the clearing and mountain alike. What an odd phenomenon. I feel at peace and warm. I can’t describe it better. The crystals of the oncoming mountain fills the clearing with colors as the suns light is reflected off of them. A hymn is going through the air. It reminds me of the way the tree of harmony spoke. Such a beautiful place. I notice now that the sharp sunlight reflecting of the snow, ice and crystals should be blinding me, yet they don’t. Now I look to Eracul and he looks… Sick.
He kept his arms in front of his eyes to keep them from blinding him, his scales around his body seemed loose and were falling off, his mane was falling off and his skin seemed to be burned by the sharp sunlight. I have no idea why it wasn’t affecting me, but despite my protests, he insists we go on. I had to support him most of the way by dragging him while he slithered as best as he could.
When we reached the end of the crescent moon clearing, as I would like call it, Eracul seemed to be getting better. He could now support his own weight again. I still have no idea what happened but i’m just glad he’s getting better.
I really wish I had started on this trip 20 years ago. I'm too old for adventuring.
Eracul had pointed to a dark point above us in the mountain in front of us. I assumed it was some kind of cave and now we are about to climb the mountain. Wish us luck.
Journal entry: 368
It has been another two days since my last entry. Eracul and I have just reached the cave and I must point out it wasn’t an easy trip. I don’t know how tall this mountain is, but we have at least climbed 9000 feet and it isn’t exactly easy to climb a mountain made out of pure slippery crystal with hoofs.
I’m excited to say the least. Eracul and I are about to make history. I’m getting a strange feeling as we are nearing us the cave. As if something is drawing me in there. There is a very dim light inside. The cave itself doesn’t seem very deep.
I-I don’t know what is happening! I took one step inside the cave and became overwhelmed with emotions. Negative emotions. Voices are sounding in my head and my emotions are conflicting. I feel like i’m boiling alive and freezing to death at the same time. This doesn’t make any sense! I just told told Eracul to go on without me. I have a feeling that if I fully enter that cave, I may never get out. I can hear Eracul talking to something. I can’t hear what he is saying. My senses are getting sloppier. The boiling and freezing part has stopped but the voices keep sounding and so does my conflicting emotions. I can hear what Eracul is saying.
“I have come here in search of help.” He says.
…
…
…
Huh, nothing is answering him. Honestly i’m kind of reliȩ̷͚͕̳̦͉̭̗̬̖̟̤̗́͟v̛̕͞҉̶̮̩͓̮͙̦͍͚͖̫͚ͅè̵̴̛̗͉̱̗̤̲̘͍̤d̠͖̙̹͖́͜
I-I hear voices. It sounds like a thousand voices mumbling at the same time and it is hurting my ears. I feel so… Angry and I want to steal all the books there are in the beacon’s library and why shouldn’t I? No stop thinking like that. So many emotions and they only get worse when the voices talk. It has to be the tree’s sibling. I’m looking inside. I see Eracul and in front of him I see some roots sticking up from the ground. It would look like the bottom of a tree if the roots didn’t look so weird. They were in many colors. Purple, poison green, pink, silver and polkadotted? From some of them’s tips I see liquid falling towards the ceiling? I can’t see what the liquid is, but I wouldn’t drink it if I had the chance. I also see spikes on some of the roots, flowers on the rest and black smoke covering the ground around them. The longer I look at it, the stronger my emotions are getting. It’s maddening.
I also feel a strange sensation in my ears and I hear something slowly breaking. It sounds like glass. The tree answers: “We know.” It voice sounds like thousands of male and female voices, children and old voices slammed into one and some of the voices are repeating its words as it speak for seconds after like an echo.
The cave is rumbling under it’s voice and some of the mumbling voices are now screaming.
Eracul seems completely unaffected by the noise and voices. He asks the tree or whatever it is: “Will you help us?”
I-I don’t know what is happening. The voices of the tree are getting clearer and the strange sensation in my ears are getting worse. I feel as if the ground beneath me is collapsing, yet when I look down its the same crystal floor. I see the smoke at the tree's roots make out shapes. Shapes of ponies writhing in pain, screaming. Some are laughing and I see other creatures aswell, but I cannot describe them, they are too odd. What is happening to me?
The tree is answering. It says: “Depends if your race is ready, are you?” What does that mean? Eracul seems to know what the tree is talking about. He nods. The tree is continuing: “Very well. Your race represents the purest of what I am, therefore I shall grant you my essence. Take it to your people and the power of chaos shall protect you, nourish you and aid you throughout your life.” I am so very confused right now. What is the tree about to do? Giving them its essence? I am trying to write as much down as possible, but the continuing sound of breaking glass is getting worse and I feel dizzy.
Eracul nods and thanks the tree, but it looks like its not done talking. I-it keeps talking: “But know this, my creation, this power comes with a price. It will transcend your abilities and your potential above all others, but beware, the mind is easier to break than the body. Take great care in this gift, for it will become as much a part of you as your own soul.”
The tree looks to be evaporating into smoke. I-I dont know whats-
T-The voices, they are getting worse. The glass is so close to breaking, but how do I know that? My head hurts, I-I can’t!
I’ve just reaquired the journal. I don’t know what happened but I almost fell down the mountain. Luckily, I landed on a small ledge only 20 feet from the cave. My headache, the voices, the conflicting emotions, the weird sound, they are all gone. Although i’m pretty sure I know what sound of breaking glass was now. It was the sound of my sanity breaking under the tree. What terrifying power. I have never felt so miserable. So much conflict, pain, inner Turmoil is the best way I can describe it. I am climbing back up, but there is no way in Tartarus i’m going close to that cave again.
I am seeing Eracul coming out of the cave, he’s carrying some sort of sphere. I feel dizzy and my sight gets blurry when I look at it and can’t make out the details, but it seems to be changing color and shape with no sign of stopping. I asked him what it is. He kept staring at the sphere with a manic grin. I am genuinely afraid of him right now, he has never smiled like that on our journey.
H-he answered and I quote: “Our Salvation.”
He shortly thanked me for the company and hoped that we would meet again someday and then he flew away, leaving me here… I am confused to say the least, but I will have to ponder on today's events later, now I have to get back to the beacon and inform the alicorns about this amazing discovery.
“Uh, uh! What happened next?” Pinkie pie asked as she bounced up and down on the floor with a broad smile as Celestia closed the book she was holding.
The rest of her friends also stood as they listened carefully to the tale that Starswirl the bearded himself had recorded. All except Rainbow Dash who was steadily floating in the air.
Celestia sighed as she felt herself tremble a little under the emotional pressure from the things she was about to recount. “Starswirl returned to the beacon and told my mother and the rest of the council about what had happened. They sent an expedition to the location of the tree, but when they got there, it was gone.”
Twilight looked confused at her mentor. “What? Gone? How could it just be gone?” The rest of her friends seemed to be wanting to ask the same question. Twilight was about to ask more when Celestia held up a hoof, silencing her.
“I will get to that.” Celestia replied with a small smile at her former student. Twilight would never change in her quest for answers and that had also one of the reasons why she had been such a good student in her time. “They found out what had happened a few days later when some griffins and minotaurs came to the beacon seeking shelter from some very angry draconequui. They said that the draconequui had used magic.”
“Wo, wo, wo.” Rainbow Dash interrupted from her spot in the air. “Are you telling us that draconequui didn’t have magic before this?”
Cadence put a hoof to her chin in thought. “That… Would actually explain a lot.”
Celestia nodded. “Yes, draconequui were originally born without magic, but this changed with the help of the Tree of Turmoil. It gave them powers over chaos, power to do anything they wanted and they were strong enough to rival even the strongest of alicorns in magical power.”
“But then how was Discord able to beat both you and Luna so long ago?” Twilight asked.
“It will be explained soon.” Celestia answered. She continued. “The alicorns sent several diplomatic convoys to the home of the draconequui in the white tail woods or as it was called back then, The fauna of fear.”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “What a charming name for a forest.”
Celestia chuckled at her words and went back to her storytelling. “It was called that because few ponies had ever returned from going into those woods. The few that did, came home with hallucinations and terrible tales about many kinds of creatures and even trees eating their companions. Those stories were never confirmed but the alicorns suspected the draconequui for being responsible for those stories.” She received a couple of grimaces from the mares around the room from their thought of them eating ponies.
“Anyhow, the draconequui refused to have anything to do with the alicorns and some took that as a threat or a sign of something more sinister. The alicorns also found out what was causing those hallucinations and weird tales. It turned out there was a plant in the Fauna that released a gas that caused hallucinations but somehow the draconequui weren’t affected by it. Many protesters in the beacon insisted that they should rid the world of the draconequui as they were now a threat to them, but those protests were dismissed as the council wouldn’t go to war without a good reason.”
Celestia looked grimly at her guests and sighed. “It was at this times that the alicorns were granted a gift from the Zebra’s of Zebrica. This gift was a sign of their respect and friendship.” Celestia’s horn lit once more and an image appeared. It depicted a stained glass window, but it was blank. “It was called the window of fate. A sacred treasure of the Zebra’s said to have been made from the very sands that control the flow of time. Through it, a chosen few could see the future and some could see the past, but this was very rare. In time of great change the glass would prophesise what was coming. The second it came into the council's possession, it changed into this.” The blank glass changed and began gaining color and images. Blood red from top to bottom, a black snake like cloud with two mismatched horns and red eyes sat in the sky of the window, and in the bottom, a ruined palace that looked an awful lot like the beacon and canterlot but the castle image itself was too blurry to see which it was. Under the black cloud was black smudgy text, but it was still readable. Celestia began reading out loud.
Alicorns will rise and more will fall
But something will come that will consume us all.
Through order, through chaos he shall rise
This world in his image shall be his prize.
Madness and torment he will bring.
as compassion, love, was torn from his being.
Shackled and bound shall be his fate.
But it shall only fuel his hate.
Insanity’s song shall be his mark.
As he corrupts the ponies from the dark.
Times will change and he will be free
For Chaos is eternal and so is he.
Twilight and her friends simply stood there contemplating the words of the prophecy. It sounded horrible and they didn’t know just how horrible that prophecy truly was. The mares didn’t know what to say and glanced nervously at each other before all looking back at Celestia for her to continue.
“Those words sparked fear inside the council for the Window had never been wrong before so why should it be then?” Celestia asked rhetorically before shaking her head. “They decided to tell the public and they were outraged at the words of the prophecy. So much so that they demanded they go to war against the draconequui to stop the prophecy from happening, but as some of you might know, when you try to prevent something you might end up being the cause for it happening in the first place.”
Only Twilight truly understood what Celestia said. She recalled that one time she got visited by her future self and thought something horrible was going to happen and then found out only to find out she herself was the course of the matter.
Celestia lit her horn once more and images appeared in the room once more, but these were more bloody, violent. Pictures depicting battles between alicorns and Draconequui. “My race and the draconequui went to war and over two hundred years went by with little results.” The image shifted, showing a younger version of herself and a filly Luna running around, playing in a room similar to their current throne room. “It was around this time that Luna and I was born.”
“Aww.” Cooed Fluttershy. “You both look so cute.”
Rarity nodded in approval. “I concur, Fluttershy. They look positively adorable!”
Celestia could feel blood rushing to her cheeks at their words. She coughed to get back on topic. “Anyways, since Luna and I were the daughters of Harmonia, we were to become the next great defenders of our countries and we were even made the future keepers of the night and day. Our mother had always been the one to bring the day and our uncle Erebus brought the night.” The image above her changed and showed a black stallion, that was even taller than Celestia, with a light blue mane with black stars circling around in them. He was wearing an oversized version of a night guard armor with spikes on the shoulders. He also had long fangs and slit eyes.
Some of the mares in the room gulped at the sight and Fluttershy was visibly shaking. Twilight spoke. “He looks like a Nightmare Moon.”
Celestia nodded. “Yes, the power of the night and moon manifests in many different ways, but uncle Erebus’ manifestation of the night’s power was the most terrifying ever seen in Alicorn history. He was the commander of the alicorn forces and had the responsibility for all conflict in and outside of Beacon. He was the one who had the final say in how conflict should be handled.”
Twilight looked to be itching to ask a question, but Celestia didn’t let her, for she knew exactly what Twilight wanted to say.
“The reason as to why the night’s magic manifests in such ways is because of what happens during the night.” Celestia continued. “When night falls a time of fear begins. Nightmares infects the minds of any creatures because of the most minimal negative emotions, horrible acts are committed and bloodthirsty creatures roam through the night as soon as it falls. Therefore the night’s magic in its purest form manifests through the emotion that is felt the most during its coming. Fear. As i’m sure you have noticed, Luna can seem very, uh, scary. Not because she wants to be, but it is simply who she is.” Celestia put out her horn and the image above her disappeared.
Cadance chuckled at a memory of Luna scaring the living hay out of a few guards the day after her return with only her Canterlot voice.
Celestia hesitated at what she was going to say next. Her heart was beating harder and harder in her chest as she remembered the events she was about to talk about. She could really use Luna right about now. She took a deep breath and started speaking once more. “Back to the story. When I was twelfth something happened that would change my life forever." Celestia lit her horn and a white bubble appeared around her. "A quick warning, what i’m about to do will make you see my memories through my eyes.”
Her guests nodded and prepared themselves.
The bubble began quickly expanded outward and engulfed the seven mares.
Darkness. That was all Twilight and her friends could see. An all consuming void of nothingness. Neither cold nor warm, there was no air, no sound, no emotion. It was as if everything had been sucked out of the world and replaced by nothing, absolute nothingness. It was terrifying to say the least. Both Twilight, Cadance and their friends tried to speak, but no sound came out, some tried to walk, do anything to move or make contact with each other but no response came from their body. Somehow, they knew exactly where each other was, but other than that, they felt nothing. It was maddening.
Suddenly, a white light shone in the far end of the void and started cracking open as if the nothingness was falling apart to be replaced by everything that existed. Shards began to fall off the nothingness like breaking glass and it revealed a meadow with tall grass during a sundown.
The mares couldn’t help but look in awe at the beautiful sight. Some of them now realised where the meadow was located. It was where Ponyville usually was, but what they saw was from over a thousand years ago. They now realised they appeared to be walking, but they weren’t. At least not their own body. A voice, humming, started to ring through the meadow and caught the mares attention and it felt as if it came from their own mouths. It was Celestia’s voice.
A white alicorn l filly with pink mane and tail hummed a song as she walked through the meadow. She had wanted to go outside her hometown for so long and she had finally found the courage to sneak out and she loved it. The green grass, the wind blowing through her pink mane and the pure smell of nature. She loved it all. She could see her future responsibility, the sun, slowly going down in the distance. She found a clearing in the meadow and sat down under a lonely tree, enjoying the view of the sun.
The filly had only seen the sundown from her room in her hometown so this was something truly special to her, but most of all she enjoyed her loneliness. She was so rarely alone, always pestered by her mother, sister and other alicorns. For once, she was completely and utterly alone. And yet, she almost wished someone could join her in the view of the sundown. The sundown she in time would bring herself.
The filly’s ears perked at the sound of grass rustling behind her and she turned her head.
There was nothing behind her but the tall meadow grass. First now did the filly notice just how quiet it was. There was no sound of birds singing and no bugs buzzing. It was unnaturally quiet.
“Hello?” The filly called. No one answered.
She turned her head back to the sundown and was met with an odd creature instead and she gasped in fright. The creature was about her own size except it was standing on its hind legs. The sunlight blinded her, so she couldn’t make out much detail, but she could see it had four different types of limbs. A talon, a paw, a hoof and reptilian claw. The creature was frightening in her eyes and she eventually found its eyes and they were what made the cup flow over. They were red as blood.
Without thinking the filly rushed to her legs and was about to turn and run away when the creature spoke, stopping her in her tracks.
“Don’t be scared, don’t run away. I’m not here to hurt you or anything of the sort.”
The filly gulped, but didn’t attempt to run away. Instead she looked curiously at the creature, who now had its arms in the air to implicate it didn’t mean any harm, and it looked back at her with a similar expression.
“Who… Who are you?” The filly asked. She gained a bit of courage. “What are you?”
The creature walked closer and moved away from the sharp sunlight so she could see him clearly. The filly’s eyes widened as she looked him over. Arms of a lion and eagle, legs of a goat and dragon, his grey head that of a pony with a goat horn and deer antler, mane of a zebra, on his back were a bat and a pegasus wing, his tail was that of a dragon. She recognised him for what he was instantly. She had read about his kind and their long war with her own race. He was a draconequus.
Instinctively she took a step back. The draconequus’ eyes widened and he took a step back, trying not to scare her.
The draconequus cleared its throat and lowered its stance to seem less threatening. “I’m Discord.”
They both stared into eachothers eyes for what felt like an eternity. Eventually the filly out of common courtesy began to speak herself. “I am…” The filly didn’t get to speak further as her eyes were drawn to an oncoming shadow flying towards them behind the draconequus.
The filly began to panic. The draconequus stepped closer and the filly turned around and began to run home without a second thought.
Black shards began growing around the image and soon the mares found themselves back in the void.
Twilight felt like she was about to panic when she saw the shards appear again and she instinctively tried to gasp, but her body wouldn’t. As all light disappeared, Twilight could only think about her friends and Cadance. How were they handling this? How were they handling the feeling of their senses shutting down and the feeling of the ever growing darkness closing in on them? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she wanted to get out of there. She already longed for the images that had been shown, but she longed the most for the emotions, the senses. She wanted her grasp on reality back.
Time passed, Twilight didn’t know how long it had been since she they had been dragged back into the void, but it felt like days, if not years. There was no sense of time, no sense of direction or purpose, only darkness. Twilight suddenly felt herself getting very angry as she thought to how they had gotten there in the first place. How could Celestia do this to her? How could she do this to any of them? Were they not friends? And more importantly, why weren’t they out yet?
Twilight didn’t get to think further as a blinding light appeared before her and consumed her and her friends.
Twilight gasped as she found herself back in the throne room. She was laying on the floor, trembling from her time in the void. It almost felt odd for her to be able to move her body, to feel herself breathing and feeling the cold marble floor against her side. Remembering back on the void it felt familiar. Like she had experienced it before.
She glanced around and saw that her friends were in similar situations. All of them trembling with the exception of Fluttershy who had started crying. Cadance, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were pale and were looking aimlessly at the floor. Rarity was clutching her mane and testing out her limbs, trying to make sure she still wasn’t in the void. And Pinkie Pie’s mane had completely deflated and she was even frowning. A rare sight for the ponies around. Twilight shifted her attention towards the throne and saw that Celestia was sitting, waiting patiently, for them to recover.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” She said regretfully.
Twilight found the strength and got on her legs. “W-what happened?”
“That was a most horrible experience.” Rarity said, standing up as well.
“Ah’ll say.” Applejack said, shivering at the memory of the void.
“It was like all happiness and laughter was sucked out of me.” Pinkie Pie her eyes widening and she started to shiver. “All emotion meant nothing. There was only nothing.”
Fluttershy was shaking and kept her hooves over her head, but only enough to minimize her sight and still keep the light. After that experience, the warm light was more than welcoming. “I-it was scary.” She peeped in.
Rainbow dash shook her head, stood up, spread her wings and started to flap them to test them out. “It felt familiar, like I’ve been in that void before.” Her friends nodded in her direction.
“Yeah, me too.” Twilight said.
“Same here.” Applejack nodded.
Cadance stood up and shivered. “I really hope you girls are joking. That was the worst feeling I have ever felt in my life.”
“What you just went through is unfortunately a side effect of the spell.” Celestia told her guests.
“How long were we in there?” Twilight asked.
“Only a couple of minutes.”
“What?!” Twilight exclaimed. “But it felt like hours!”
“Time loses its meaning with the lack of senses that ties it to us.” Said a familiar voice.
The guests turned and saw that princess Luna had entered the room once more. She wore a sad expression.
“Glad you could rejoin us, Luna.” Celestia smiled at her sister and Luna greeted her with a quick smile of her own.
“We wish we could say it’s a pleasure.” Luna replied. “But you are right, sister, we have to face our demons and tis’ long overdue.”
“Yes, it is.” Celestia replied. Luna flew up beside Celestia and sat on the throne beside her. Luna lifted a hoof, urging for Celestia to continue and she did so. “As many of you may have guessed, what you witnessed was the day I met Discord. And at the time I was afraid of draconequui. Our mother had told me and Luna about some of the horrible things they did on the battlefield so that we would never sympathise with them or care for their existence. But that day changed my view on them forever. The draconequus I had met had not wanted to hurt me, he was simply curious. When I came home I told Luna about the meeting--”
“--And I was furious.” Luna continued. “But as time went on and Celestia kept telling me about that day, I became curious myself.”
“Many years went by before I snuck out of the Beacon again, But he was there again and we came to know each other. Eventually we became friends.” Celestia lit her horn and a picture appeared over her and Luna. It displayed Celestia and Discord playing. The picture brought a small smile to Celestia’s face. “I visited him as much as I could, which wasn’t very often. If I was lucky, I could visit him twice every fourth month, as he was my only friend.” Luna coughed. “Aside from Luna of course.”
“Weren’t there any other alicorn foals in the beacon?” Cadance asked.
Luna shook her head. “There were but those few were from another district. To keep things orderly and to create harmonic and lasting relations, a child in the beacon was only allowed to befriend other children from the same district.”
“What a stupid rule.” Rainbow Dash bluntly said.
Both Celestia and Luna nodded. “Indeed.”
“Over the years I started to bring Luna to mine and Discord’s meetings.” Celestia changed the picture and now it showed a teen and a slightly smaller alicorn running away, laughing, from the familiar draconequus. Celestia put out her horn and the happy memory disappeared
Luna sighed and continued from her sister’s stop. “Over the years we visited Discord, the war waged on. Many lives on both sides were lost and our kind even tried recruiting dragons, diamond dogs and even griffins, but they all refused to participate in the war, fearing what the draconequui might do to them if they sided with the alicorns. Then came a turning point. A grand battle came between draconequui and alicorns that lasted for days. When it was finally finished, the draconequui had lost. They had lost almost twice as many in the battle as the alicorns and were forced to retreat back further into their forest.”
“Wow, the draconequui must have messed up bad for that to happen.” Cadance stated.
Luna nodded. “Indeed, the draconequui weren’t trained in the art of war as our kind was. But what they lacked in the field of strategizing they made up for in cunning.” Luna’s gaze hardened. “And this was not the turning point.” Cadance gulped under her aunt's hard gaze.
Celestia put a hoof on Luna’s shoulder and her gaze softened.
“So, what was da turnin point?” Applejack asked.
“Let us continue the story and you will know.” Luna answered. “Shortly after the draconequui retreated into their forest, my kind followed. Discussions were made if they were simply to burn down the forest and then hunt the rest of the draconequui, but in the end they decided not to. Scouting groups and attack forces were made and sent into the forest. The strategy was to drive them out of the forest and then capture the draconequui with the rest of the army surrounding the forest, but that is not how it went. A day went by after the forces were sent inside, but they never returned and soon the draconequui made a counter attack.” Luna shook her head. “The alicorns that survived that day described that the draconequui came out of nowhere. The alicorns weren’t prepared for an attack and was quickly overrun, which shouldn’t have been possible with the many that they had lost days before.”
Luna lit her horn and an image formed above her. It displayed a dark shape in golden glowing chains surrounded by five alicorns, inside a white marble room. Two of the alicorns being Luna and Celestia’s mother and uncle. There were visible cracks across all of the chains, like they were slowly falling apart.
Celestia looked sadly at the image for a moment and then looked back at her guests. “There was a lone draconequus our uncle were able to capture before the long battle. Interrogation for information gave little to no results, but after the slaughter of many of his kind our mother discovered something. The draconequus had only become stronger in his time imprisoned and he was starting to break the bonds that held him. Our mother discovered that the draconequui’s magic was bound to each other.” Celestia nodded to Luna and she extinguished her horn and the image above them faded away.
“Uh, princess” Twilight began. “What do you mean by that their magic was bound to each other?”
“Well…” Luna began.” From what I was told, the draconequui’s magic were bound to one another and at the same time it wasn’t.”
Twilight and her friends gave Luna a weird look.
“Their magic was shared.” Celestia elaborated. “They each had a part of the tree’s magic within them, and for each one that died, that one’s magic would be divided equally among the rest. At the same time, if a draconequus was to be born, it would gain its own share of magic by taking from the ones that already existed. In a way they were each an element of the tree of turmoil similar to the tree of harmony except that they could, and preferred, to use their magic alone.”
“That sounds mighty complicated.” Applejack said with a raised eyebrow.
“It is.” Luna stated flatly.
“Anyways” Celestia continued. “Our mother and uncle realised that over time, the war would only twist more and more in favor of the draconequui. For every draconequus that would fall, the rest would become stronger, while the alicorns would only weaken for everypony they lost. They kept this information hidden from the public out of fear of their reactions towards their discovery.”
“Our mother and uncle began searching for a way to end the war anyway possible.” Luna picked up from Celestia. “First they tried to talk with the draconequui’s leaders, but it proved no result. The draconequui were resolute in getting revenge for their fallen. They said that the alicorns had started this war and the draconequui would finish it. Secondly they tried to contain the chaos magic from spreading when a draconequui dies, but the results proved disastrous, almost killing our mother and uncle in their first attempt. For many months they tried to contain the magic, but no matter what they tried, the chaos magic broke through their magic.”
“Wait, you two were very young when all of this happened, so how do you know all of this?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
Celestia and Luna shared a look. Then Luna spoke. “We spied on our mother when we had nothing else to do…” She admitted. “There weren't much to do in those years other than studying and our occasional meetings with Discord.”
“Oh…”
A short silence followed Luna’s words. Then Celestia began to speak again.
“As we were saying. Our mother was starting to get desperate, so she tried to do as the draconequui when they were in need. Our mother and uncle went to the tree of harmony for help. Unbeknownst to them, Luna and I followed.” Celestia lit her horn and another image appeared. it showed Celestia and Luna’s mother and uncle standing in front of the tree of Harmony while Luna and Celestia were outside the cave, looking in. “Our mother asked the tree for the power to combat the draconequui and end the war, but the tree turned them down. Our mother asked why it wouldn’t help them like the tree of Turmoil helped the draconequui and the tree answered that the alicorns were not ready or in need of such power. Our uncle disagreed and started to yell at the tree about what it stood for, and that they were only trying to accomplish peace and nothing more. Eventually the tree caved in and said that it would help them.” The image above Celestia and Luna changed and the two alicorns were now standing with six gems. “It granted them the Elements of Harmony.”
The Everfree forest. It is a forest that is feared by the pony populace for it is different in almost everyway to the rest of Equestria. The clouds move by themselves, season change by themselves and everything inside of it is just unnatural and different. The creatures that live inside aren’t helping on this matter. Quite the contrary, they are the biggest reason as to why ponies fear the forest. For Everfree is home to many chaotic and strange creatures. Hydras, Manticores, Cocatrices and many others. Each of them frightening and very dangerous. But they all pale in comparison to the creature that has just entered it, for that creature is cunning, calculating, manipulative and can do things that can be hard to fathom.
Discord yawned and scratched his behind as he lazily walked inside of the feared forest. The sudden anger that had emerged inside of Fluttershy’s cottage had seemingly disappeared. And now he was just tired and annoyed. Not to mention he still had a massive headache.
He began to notice just how quiet the forest was. There was no birds singing or animals growling or howling in the distance which was odd. Normally one could hear some of the Everfree’s distant animals noises even from inside Fluttershy’s cottage.
In his absent mind Discord didn’t notice where he was going and tripped over the root of a tree, landing face first in the dirt. He grumbled to himself as he turned onto his back and sat up, putting his lion paw to his head. “This just isn’t my day is it?” He asked no one in particular. As he looked out the way he came from, he noticed a hole in the forest that let him see directly to Ponyville. But what caught his attention was a field with tall grass besides the buildings. His eyes widened as he kept staring at it in the distance. It seemed familiar and yet not.
“I love you, you know.”
A female voice sounded in his head and sweat began to form on Discord’s forehead. The voice was young and it was familiar like he knew the owner of the voice but just couldn’t remember.
“You know that’s impossible, right?”
Another voice sounded through Discord’s head, but this one was male and it sounded like his own, but younger.
“Oh yes”
The female voice said. Discord felt as if something was pressing against his neck and chest. Something warm. He could smell roses his heart was beating faster.
“But I love you none the less.”
And with that the female voiced stopped and the warm feeling Discord felt seized. He gulped. What just happened? He thought. Something strange was happening and he didn’t know what. That feeling… He had never felt that feeling before. It was so warm and cozy and he felt absolute happiness in its short appearance and he already missed it. The only thing familiar he had felt was with Fluttershy, but not of the same magnitude as what he just felt.
A violent pounding began in Discord’s head and he rolled onto his stomach and clutched his head. “ARGH!” He groaned as the pain kept getting stronger.
“She lied to me!”
All sound and all of the pain Discord felt seemed to out volumed by the angry voice. The earth around Discordbegan to tremble and he felt his magic going out of control which had never happened before. The earth beneath him turned into a wide variety of candy. Licorice, chocolate and giant gummybears. And as the voice the voice stopped, Discord’s headache inside increased tenfold. “ARRGH!” He screamed and his magic spinning further out of control. Discord heard lightning strikes and what sounded like roaring fire, but he didn’t notice much as the pain kept him crippled clutching his head on the ground.
And suddenly the enormous pain stopped just as fast as it had come. Discord took ragged breaths and he felt sweat dripping from his face. What is happening to me?! He shook his head and slowly stood up. His eyes widened at the sights around him and he gulped.
The ground that had been made into candy had been incinerated and had left black smudge in its place. The trees 30 feet around him were charred husks of their former selves. As much as Discord liked chaos, he had never liked the overwhelming destruction it could cause. Without thinking he snapped his talon and the trees and ground was restored to before his loss of control happened. This is bad, I have to tell the girls. He thought and was about to snap his talon and teleport to Canterlot when something caught his eye. He could see something looking at him and laughing. It had two mismatched wings, four mismatched limbs. It looked like himself. A draconequus, could it be? The creature gave a warmhearted laughter, turned and began running .
“Wait! Come back!” Discord yelled and began running after the creature following it deeper into the Everfree forest.
“With the elements granted to our mother and uncle, the war came to a stalemate.” Celestia continued. “The elements made an impenetrable barrier around the city whenever the draconequui tried to approach it. But that left the rest of Equestria vulnerable and the draconequui went on rampages through the land and eventually settled in the Everfree forest. They knew we couldn’t stay inside forever.”
“Ah’m guessin ya meetings with Discord stopped after this.” Applejack guessed.
Celestia shook her head. “No, I still went to see him whenever I could.”
“That must have been risky.” Cadance imputed.
“Yes and it was no surprise that I was eventually discovered. But it was a good thing that I was discovered when I did.”
“What do you mean, princess? How could it have been good to have been discovered?” Twilight asked.
“Yea. I can imagine you must have gotten the worst scolding ever.” Rainbow Dash supplied as she had started to hover again.
“Because that day I had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting Discord’s mother.” Celestia lit her horn once more and another image appeared showing herself hiding behind her mother who was standing in front something that almost all ponies would have ran screaming away from.
It was a draconequus three times the size of Celestia. It had a grey pony head like every other draconequus, but it was more sleek and predatory like a snake’s. Its eyes, yellow and red like Discord’s but they had that predatory gleam that made them seem dangerous instead of comedic. Its mane was purple and on its back were two massive wings. Both were of a bat, but one was orange and the other pink. Its front limbs consisted of a black bony tiger paw with green stripes with long claws and a long purple crocodile claw. Her back limbs consisted of a cloven hoof and a bird claw. She also had a black dragon tail with orange spines. In other words, she looked terrifying. Behind her on the image was Discord hiding behind her hoof.
Rarity gulped. “Well, she looks friendly?”
“I can assure you, she is not.” Luna replied to her comment. “Eris was Discord’s mother and she was feared among our race. She was cunning, manipulative and a born tactician from what our mother told us. Above all else, she was known as the strongest draconequus, both in magic and sheer strength.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Wait, didn’t you just tell us that they all had the same amount of magic? How could she be stronger if they were all equal in magical strength?” She asked.
“Magic works in mysterious ways, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna answered. “But it is a fact that magic works different from creature to creature. It bonds and reacts differently. One that is more aligned with their magic has an easier way of controlling it.”
“What do you mean by ‘aligned with their magic’?”
“What we mean is that ponies magic fits its user. Unicorns use orderly magic. They need to have full control of it to be comfortable using it. This comes down to the user. The more orderly they are in mind, the easier the have it controlling such magic, but orderly magic in itself is very weak.”
“Very few unicorns and alicorns can go beyond the bounds of their orderly magic and use harmonic magic in its place.” Celestia took off from Luna. “Unicorns like Starswirl the bearded and you, Twilight, are some of those few.”
“And just like ponies, the draconequui were also restricted by their own minds in the use of their magic.” Luna finished.
“Wait.” Twilight interrupted. “How was I able to use harmonic magic as a unicorn, what made me different from others?”
“Harmony is the concept of a balance. Good and evil, light and dark, Chaos and Order.” Celestia answered with a small smile appearing on her face. “And as orderly you are, Twilight, there have been quite a few episodes with you being random and chaotic despite your nature.”
“Oh…” Twilight replied, a blush appearing on her face.
“Yeah!” Pinkie supplied.” Like that time you had forgotten to write a friendship report and went total nut job and, OOMPH!” Pinkie didn’t get to talk further as Twilight quickly stuck her hoof in her mouth, wanting to leave that embarrassing episode as far away from her mind as possible.
Luna raised an eyebrow. “What is this tale of Twilight going ‘total nut job’? I don’t believe I have heard it.”
Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Its nothing, princess Luna.” She said and removed her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth. She should have let it stay.
“Are you kidding?” Pinkie asked, her ridiculously big smile having returned. “That day was so fun! I especially like how you enchanted your old Smartypants doll so that everypony fought to get i, OMPH!” Another purple hoof was stuck into her mouth.
Luna chuckled. “That sounds quite amusing.” She received a small glare from her sister. “Uhh, anyhow, back to the story at hand. Where were we?”
“You were telling us that the draconequui were also restrained by their own minds to use magic.” Cadance reminded her.
“Ah yes.” Luna said and continued her explanation. “As our magic abilities depends on our minds and souls to embrace order and harmony, the draconequui were forced to use its opposites to draw upon the magic of tree of Turmoil. Their magical capabilities were dependent on how chaotic and disharmonious they were as beings.”
“So they had to be jerks all the time?” Rainbow asked with crossed hooves.
“Not exactly.” Celestia answered. “They were born to be disharmonious and chaotic, but like every other creature they could resist and combat their nature and act differently. In the time I knew Discord, he was only chaotic in the sense of playing and the occasional prank he played on me and Luna.” Celestia smiled fondly at the memory. “Other than that he was very sweet and caring.” Her violet eyes seemed to drift away for a few seconds as she reminisced the happy times of her youth and her smile only widened.
Cadance picked up on Celestia’s apparent drift from reality and also the widening smile. “Aunty Celestia, did you have feelings for Discord?”
“Cadance don’t be silly.” Twilight said with a weird look. “There’s no way Celestia could have feelings fo--”
“Yes I did.”
“What?” Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“You had feelings for Discord?” Twilight asked, quite disturbed at her words.
“Are we talking about the same Discord?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I have a hard time believing that ruffian could win the affections of a mare such as yourself, princess.” Rarity said.
“Ah’m with Rarity, it’s hard ta believe.” Applejack said.
“I think it’s kind of sweet.” Fluttershy said, much to the rest of her friends surprise.
“If I could get chocolate rain everyday for being with a stallion I would totally be in love with him too.” Pinkie Pie said with a smile and a slight drool at the thought of chocolate rain.
“I think you misunderstand, my little ponies.” Celestia continued with a raised eyebrow. “This is in the past. I don’t have feelings for him any longer.” For he is no longer the draconequus I used to know. Her thoughts finished.
“Oh…” All of the guests said simultaneously.
An awkward silence arose in the room. The topic they had just been through was a sensitive one. More sensitive than most of them even knew. Twilight broke the silence. “So, uh, what happened next?”
“Our mother was growing restless due to the stalemate while the draconequui roamed and spread chaos across Equestria, and she eventually started recruiting scientists to help her use the elements differently than first intended.” Luna continued from her throne.
“In what way different?” Cadance asked.
“She wanted to use the elements as weapons instead of a defence.” Celestia answered.
“And after a years time she succeeded.” Luna Continued. “All alicorns could use the elements to an extent, but they needed to be used together and to want to use the elements for a single purpose in order to use them to their fullest potential.”
Celestia took over. “Our mother seeked to use the elements to completely wipe out every draconequus at the same time in order go around their rule of shifting power.”
The room of ponies gasped at Celestia’s revelation. The very thought of a pony even thinking of such a plan was beyond monstrous in the minds of guests..
“Luna and I overheard their plan. On the next day they would lower the sun and use the darkness as a cover so they could use the elements on the unsuspecting draconequui that had set up new capital in the Everfree forest.” Celestia continued. “The second I found out, Luna and I came up with a plan and I ran as fast as my hooves and wings could take me out of the beacon so I could find Discord.” Celestia lit her horn and nodded to Luna, who also lit her horn. “This is also something I need all of you to see, but this time it will be better, like you are all dreaming.” Light expanded from the two princesses and reached the guests.
The guests once again found themselves in the void, but this void was different. It was not only darkness. There were spheres of light, dancing through the infinity of the void. The guests could see each other and they could even move, but they couldn’t speak.
One of the spheres came close to the mares who were in the void and it suddenly expanded like the light that had first consumed them and they found themselves in a meadow. The same meadow they were in the first time, but this time, the sun had already gone down, but there was no stars or moon in the sky. They were also much closer to the Everfree forest this time, only a little over eighty feet from it. The very air seemed still, and unnaturally cold. It was almost as if the world had stopped moving altogether.
Out of thin air, a slightly taller alicorn than the one they saw in their first time being there appeared, running towards the forest. She looked wiser, and she was probably in her late teens, but she also looked frazzled. Her mane was disheveled, there were dry spots from tears beneath her eyes. She suddenly stopped and bit her lip as if she didn’t know what to do yet she kept staring into the dark forest in front of her, contemplating what to do. She used her hoof to remove the dry spots beneath her eyes and began slowly walking towards the forest, a sad, uncertain and quivering frown on her face. Her eyes kept glancing back over her shoulder, as if expecting someone was following her. But she kept going until she stopped at the edge at the forest and spoke.
“Discord?”
The instant the name left her mouth, she began to hear rustling in a nearby tree crown. And just as he usually did, Discord jumped down from the tree, a big smile on his face as he looked at the alicorn in front of him.
“Ah, there we have the most beautiful pony in the world.” He said, keeping his smile. “I was starting to think you had forgotten about me.” He gave a small warmhearted laugh which stopped abruptly as he noticed she hadn’t joined him. He stepped closer, his expression having changed into a compassionate and sly grin. “Celestia, is something wrong? You look sad…”
Celestia bit her tongue. She knew what she had to say. She had to tell him what was coming, but she knew him… She knew that if she told him, he would stay and he would die. Celestia couldn’t let that happen, no matter what, she was not going to let him die. She had to go through with her plan even though she wished there was something else she could do. “I’m tired of all of this, Discord. Lets just go, leave it all behind. Away from this war, and all of this hatred. Lets leave and live happily together someplace far away from here.” She said in a frustrated tone.
The draconequus before stood with mouth agape, shocked at her words. After minutes, words found their way to his mouth. “But what about Luna?”
Celestia hesitated for a moment, but quickly dismissed her thoughts about what she was doing being a bad idea. “S-she will be fine.” Celestia answered, stuttering at first. She calmed herself, it had to seem natural, or as natural as it could be. “I told her where she can find us, so she might meet us sometime later, but she said she had to think about it first.”
Discord stood there for half a minute or so before nodding. “Okay, Celestia, lead the way. Where you go, I will follow.” He smiled warmly at her.
Celestia quickly turned away, not wanting to see his smile. He was trusting her, blindly, and it was tearing her apart inside that she was abusing that trust. Tears began to roll from her eyes as she spread her wings and began to fly towards their destination. They began to fly east, over forests, hills and mountains, eventually arriving at the sea where they continued onwards over the vast ocean.
They had been flying for hours, in the middle of a storm, closing in on their destination when something happened.
“Ugh!” A painful groan sounded behind Celestia and she turned her head, though not slowing her flight. It was Discord. He was slowing down and he looked pale.
Celestia slowed her flight until she was flying beside him. Thats when she noticed just how awful he looked. His eyes were twitching, his body was shaking and blood was dripping from his nose. “Discord what’s wrong?” She yelled, trying to out volume the howling wind around them.
“I-I don’t…” Discord stopped mid sentence and his eyes suddenly widened, he clutched his head and let out a bloodcurdling scream, after which he started to fall towards the ocean beneath them all while screaming.
“Discord!” Celestia screamed and dove after him. She barreled through the clouds that were in her way and she eventually spotted the surface of the vast ocean. It seemed endless. The dark water revealing nothing but an endless black. There were massive waves crashing through the water. Celestia looked desperately after her friend, but she couldn’t spot him, the star and moonless night only making it ten times harder to see. She ignited her horn to get some light and called after him, but her yells were out volumed by the waves crashing through the water and the howling wind. She began flying over the water, searching for any signs of him between the waves.
Water was washing onto her, carried by the wind and the violent clashes between the water. She was soaked to the bone and cold. She could feel herself starting to struggle to stay in the air under the wind.
She was starting to lose hope and she thought about if she should continue, but those thoughts were quickly dismissed as she noticed a mismatched shape in the water.
Celestia flew closer to the shape, while yelling his name, but he didn’t respond. To Celestia’s horror, he was unconscious. She silently cursed at the whole situation and began to focus her horn, trying to levitate him out of the water, but the wind kept her from concentrating as she was almost blown into the water several times. Without further thinking, she dove into the water and up to Discord while still yelling his name. But again with no result. “Come on, come on, come on!” She yelled while focusing her horn, wanting to teleport, but again, she couldn’t focus with all that was going on around her.
A wave washed over her and she was pulled under water. She gasped as she finally reached the surface only to realise she had lost Discord somewhere between the wave hitting her and her going under. She began to search frantically while calling his name only to be answered by sea water washing into her her mouth and strangling the call. She coughed up the water and continued looking and she found him, floating away from her, his face against the water.
Celestia swam as fast as her hooves could take her after the draconequus. She refused to give up, she refused to leave him. Even when another wave washed over her, she kept going. Despite her body’s aching and prayers to relax, she kept going.
She reached him and pulled him onto her back, after which she ignited her horn and created a bubble around herself and Discord. The bubble emptied of water and Celestia began to flap her soaked wings only to have a wave crash down onto the bubble, almost popping it, but Celestia kept focusing and she slowly rose into the air and eventually made it out of the water’s reach.
“I-its okay now!” She yelled, not bothering to look back at Discord. She kept flying and exited the storm. She sighed in relief. Her wings were aching and she would have to find a place to land, but at least they were both sa--
Celestia’s eyes widened as she realised something. Discord hadn’t moved since she fished him out of the water. And that is when it hit her. From his position, stretched across her back, she should have been able to feel his heartbeat, but she couldn’t.
Starting to panic, Celestia landed on the nearest island she could find. It was a small island, filled with sand, rocks and a few trees. She splayed him out on the ground and checked his heartbeat. There was none. Celestia’s eyes widened. “No, no, no, no, no, no!” She yelled, thinking about what to do. She began to perform CPR, but it had no effect. She tried to use her magic to restart his heart, but this also had no effect, it looked to almost bounce off of him. Several minutes passed as she tried to do everything she could to bring him back, but nothing she did had any effect.
Her heart sank and tears started to flow from her eyes. “Please… Don’t leave me.” She muttered, her tears falling onto the body of the pale draconequus. There was nothing she could do. He was gone.
Celestia sat there for hours, letting tears fall from her eyes and eventually laid beside him, hugging the lifeless draconequus tightly as she buried her face in his chest. That is when she heard it. A low, but steady beating inside of his chest. First she thought her mind was playing tricks on her, but the beating got louder and faster. She stood up in disbelief and looked at the lifeless draconequus. There was something off about the way he looked, but she couldn’t place it.
Celestia jumped as Discord suddenly sat up, gasping and looking at his front limbs, flexing them. Then he looked to Celestia. “W-what happened?”
He didn’t get to ask further questions as he was tackled to the ground by the sobbing alicorn. Discord looked oddly at her before settling in and smiled at the sobbing alicorn who had buried her face in his neck, and started to stroke her pink mane while holding his lion paw on her back.
“H-how?” Celestia managed to ask between sobs.
“How what?” Discord answered, slightly confused at her question.
Celestia rose from his neck and looked into his eyes, tears still trickling from her own. “N-nevermind.” She eventually settled on, finding it hard to tell him that he had been dead for several hours. Thats when she noticed what was off about him. There were wounds after his own claws and talons on the sides of his head. Long red deep wounds she somehow hadn’t noticed before. Celestia’s eyes widened as the marks began to glow a dark purple and then closing, leaving no trace of ever being there.
“Celestia, what’s wrong?” Discord asked as he noticed the weird look on her face.
Celestia quickly looked away and shook her head in confusion before looking back at Discord. “Nothing’s wrong. Come on, we still have some way to go before we reach our destination.” She said and turned away, spreading her wings.
Discord raised an eyebrow at her after which he decided to leave any questions he had to some other time and joined Celestia who had now flown into the air.
They flew for what seemed to be hours and eventually came to an island. It was a large tropical island with palms, white beaches, and even a volcano in the middle of it. The pair landed and fell asleep in each others arms and hooves under a palm to the soothing sound of the waves softly crashing against the shore.
The guests who had been following the memories saw everything come to a stop. The time itself seemed to seize to exist in the picture of the draconequus and alicorn laying, sleeping peacefully on that island.
Then it resumed, but faster than it had before. Time accelerated in the picture, the guests being able to see the waves crashing against the shores much faster than it should. The sky was dark, its stars not visible and the moon wasn’t there. The only thing that hadn’t moved in the picture was the couple that was sleeping in the sand. As the seconds went by, the guests could see a light ever so slowly starting to rise in the horizon. That was when time resumed itself and the guests could see a serene white shape with golden mane and tail approaching the island.
“Celestia, daughter of mine, wake up this instant!”
Celestia scrambled awake to the familiar voice and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the angelic shape of her mother, land in the sand in front of her, the sun blending in perfectly behind her giving her a fearsome appearance. “Oh, no.” She whispered, hoping that what she was seeing was just a terrible nightmare and she was about to wake up.
Discord also scrambled to his mismatched feet, not sure of what was going on until he saw the angry mother of Celestia standing in front of him. He immediately took a step back in fright as his mind began to understand the gravity of the situation he was in.
Celestia gulped. “M-mother, h-how did you find us?” She stuttered, avoiding her mother’s angry gaze.
Harmonia flared her wings, causing Celestia to flinch at her sudden action. “Be silent, you disobedient, foolish filly! I caught your sister as she was about to leave and she told me where you were after a little persuasion! You are to return to the Beacon at once!”
Celestia looked up at her mother with shaky eyes. “N-no, mother. I’m staying here with Discord.”
Harmonia snorted. “What did you say? Do you truly wish to ruin your family’s celebration of victory with your impulsive flight?”
Celestia got a horrible feeling. She knew exactly what her mother was going to say. “Mother, please don’t…” She begged, but Harmonia ignored her.
“You truly wish to stay with the last of an extinct race? You wish to abandon your people? You, Celestia, are to be the next defender of our noble race and bringer of the sun! You will not remain with the last of those monsters left on our world! I will not allow it, we will-”
“Woah, hold on a second!” Discord interrupted, a confused look on his face. “What do you mean by ‘the last of an extinct race’?
Harmonia looked back at Celestia with slight surprise. “So you didn’t tell him, Celestia? Why you wanted to flee?”
Celestia quickly shifted her gaze between her mother and Discord, who looked confused at her.
“Celestia, what is she talking about?” Discord asked.
Celestia gulped once more and settled her gaze on her mother with begging eyes that were starting to tear up. That was when she noticed something odd about her mother. She was sweating, her ears were splayed back and she was standing in a defensive formation, as if awaiting something. “Mother, no, don’t-”
Harmonia stomped in the sand, causing Celestia to flinch once more and silencing her. “Foolish filly! You, draconequus colt, your people has been rid of this earth! Celestia fled with you because she knew we alicorns were to eradicate them in the battle of the Darkest night! She clearly desired to save you, and you are now the last draconequus.”
Discord’s eyes widened and he looked to Celestia with begging eyes who couldn’t look at him. “Celestia, tell me it isn’t true…” He begged, but Celestia kept her gaze away from him.
“I…” Celestia couldn’t say anything more. It was as if her mouth refused to turn the air in her lungs into words. Tears dripped down her cheeks as she finally forced the words out of her mouth.” I’m sorry…”
Time seemed to stand still as those words left her mouth. The only thing changing being Discord’s expression. It first turned into one of doubt and he shook his head, then realisation as he took his arms to his head, and lastly he gritted his teeth in anger.
“Celestia, return with me now and I will allow him to live, but only if you come with me now!” Harmonia ordered, sweat beginning to drip down her forehead and her hoof was starting to shake.
Celestia hesitated and looked back at Discord with teary eyes, his own alit with fire as a maelstrom of emotions swirled through him. Celestia bit her lip and spoke. “Discord, I-”
“You lied to me!” He interrupted with a shout.
The palms behind him’s trunks cracked as the shout reverberated through the air.
Harmonia glanced nervously behind Discord as the landscape also started to change, but quickly snapped out of it, not wanting to show her apparent nervousness.
“Go! Leave and never come back! I never want to see you ever again!” Discord shouted.
Celestia flinched at his words and her lip started to quiver. She turned away with heartbroken eyes and slowly took flight, Harmonia following suit.
