Harmony and peace. Those two words are the only thing that can describe how Equestria is now. Twilight and Luna find themselves happily strolling down the road, the mother-daughter combo a common sight in the streets now that Twilight and Unity deem it safe to explore freely. Currently, the pair are enjoying a lovely snack of ice cream in a wonderfully air-conditioned building. The Pegasi have a heat wave scheduled for the next two days, so ice cream is perfect for the current climate.
"I wish big sis was here," Luna says in a pouty tone, the teenage alicorn eating her triple scoop blueberry surprise. According to the ice cream shop owner, the surprise is that they ran out of blueberries? Kinda a silly thing to call a surprise, but a bit familiar in a sad way too. That doesn't matter, though. Twilight at least has an hour or two to spend with Luna before work begins.
"Celestia is helping out in the griffon kingdom. Tensions are high now that a new king is in charge. She'll be back in a few days, Luna. Your sister is even better than me when it comes to negotiations." Twilight giggles a little bit. She is enjoying a strawberry sundae with extra oats on top, a recent favorite, as many of her old favorites just don't taste that good anymore.
"Ya know, Mom, you used to be pretty good at negotiating yourself. It's still weird not seeing you handle it yourself, handing it over to Celestia so readily." Luna says with a note of her delicious ice cream. While she may be trying to have a serious conversation, to her, it's still the best thing ever to have a lovely ice cream with her mom and not have to do her magic studies for the day! Mom's magic lessons are hard as heck, after all. "Still means we can stick together!" Luna says with a happy hoof pump, causing her to hit her ice cream bowl, launching it in the air. A little gasp and a 'Noooo!' escape from Luna before suddenly the bowl is right back in front of her, Ice cream and all!
Twilight would let out a tiny giggle before saying, "Be more careful, sweetie~. We don't wanna create a mess for Mrs. Creme." She nods as she wipes Luna's face with a napkin Twilight avoids the previous statement. This does cause the blue alicorn to waggle her hoof to stop the napkin! She almost manages it before suddenly her face is clean.
Luna huffs, "Hey! No fair! Time magic is illegal!" She huffs a bit and pouts at her mother. Twilight cheekily smiled her fake smile while putting the napkin down.
"Ah ah~. Mommy spent many years studying said magic so she could use it~. Mommy will use it if nee-."
Twilight doesn't get to finish her sentence, though, as something just feels… wrong. "What is THAT?" she says as she stands up and peers out of the building seeing buildings beginning to float and ponies sliding by on the road. Twilight takes a single step forward before she almost slips herself. "Woah?! Soapy roads?!" She says as she catches herself with a flap of her wings, beginning to hover in the air. Something about this all feels really familiar. Like really familiar. She just can't… remember. A tiny spark of hope fills her chest as a smile creeps on her face. Even though she doesn't know why.
After a moment, she hears a squeak from Luna, the smaller alicorn sliding on the soapy road and nearly passing Twilight by at high speeds. "Mommm! Help!" she shouts as she almost hits a wall. Only to be stopped by Twilight's wing catching her. It's utter chaos out there. Buildings that are floating are spinning like gravity just isn't working. Of course, ponies are beginning to get quite scared and freaking out! This is just intense deja vu for Twilight, but there isn't much time for her to think about that now. In this case, she has to think fast on her hooves, er, well, wings.
“Not that… not that… THERE!" She quickly glows her horn, flashing a powerful spell that spikes outwards. All the scared ponies suddenly flash before they appear safely on top of and inside of houses. Luna lets out a little 'Woah' when she sees her momma's magic work so well. She knew her mom studied magic almost every waking moment of the day. After the last set of friends passed, she was never the same.
"Phew… that was close," Twilight says with a mumble before looking at Luna.
"Luna, make sure everyone is okay. I'll handle this." She says with a glare. Twilight had remembered. Vaguely. There was something she did a long time ago with her friends. Meaning… "AHGN Whatever! Nothing punching the problem can't fix!" Twilight rushes towards the city center with a crash, landing hard onto the road and breaking the soap on the top while caving it so she can stand safely on the land underneath.
"DISCORD! I know you're there!" She says, yelling loudly, her royal voice booming across the entire town, the very earth shaking and her body glowing as a bubble of pure harmony encases the area, restoring it to normal.
This, of course, does not go unnoticed, as a deja vu-inducing voice rings out around Twilight.
"Oooh~? Now who is this? I heard Celestia was gone and expected an easy time playing with ponies, but this is unexpected~." Discord says with a smile as he flies around the engraving on the fountain. Twilight glares at him as he moves about like a snake through the water.
"I've heard a lot about you, Discord. I'll give you one chance to fix Canterlot before I send you to next Tuesday. Literally." She says as the glare intensifies. She will defend her ponies to the last breath if needed, and as for sending him to next Tuesday. Well, she can do that literally and figuratively now!
"I won't have you messing with my ponies!" As she says that, Discord quickly appears behind her with a flash of light, a small burst of chickens appearing with him as they all panic and run around the entire town square. Loud clucks and coos rang out.
'Good thing Celestia ISN'T here.' Twilight thinks to herself.
"Oooh? You've heard of me? By who? Was it the Queen? Maybe the King? Hmmm. No. Far too obvious." He says as he rubs his chin before he perks up. "Wait a minute. Undetectable by me, incredibly strong, chaos magic not working on you directly." He says as he snaps his fingers at Twilight. "That means… My sister," he says with a blink of realization, which begins to turn into a small, unbridled rage.
Twilight stands tall, unfazed by Discord in the slightest. She remembers now her memory journal had a lot about this creature. "Discord, a draconequis, self-proclaimed master of all chaos and spirit of chaos. That sums things up well?" She says with a cocky smirk. Twilight may not remember how Discord was in the future. But her past self was smart enough to write down how strong the creature was.
And how to beat him.
Discord is far too busy flying around to find his sister, wherever she may be hiding. Suddenly he turns around and quickly flies up to Twilight, getting face-to-face with her. "Where. Is. She?" He says with a reasonably intense glare, Twilight meeting it with her own, resulting in a long-standing staring contest.
'Is he asking about his sister? Of course, he's probably worried about her.' Twilight quickly thinks.
"She's on a trip with her family, and probably won't be back for a few weeks." She simply says. Ever since the creation of the Equality spell, the crime rate has basically been reduced to zero! So the reformatorium closed down about one or two standard years back.
"As for where, well, that is classified information." She says with a shrug. Twilight has no intention of letting Discord roam free, so the less information he has, the better.
Twilight then takes half a step back, bumping into Discord, who suddenly appeared behind her. "Oh, I am sure it is, but I have zero intention of leaving until I find her. My sister is not only the most dangerous spirit out of us all but also probably the most insane." He says as he wraps an arm around Twilight's neck. The pair also stands at about equal height, with Twilight being ever so slightly taller than Discord! This allows them to glare at each other equally without straining to look the other in the eyes.
"So you won't tell me where my sister is? Hmmm? Well, that's alright. Now that her seal has broken and I can enter this realm, I'll just have to spruce up the place. That always makes her come running! Oooh, how about clouds that rain chocolate chip cookies instead of water?" Discord says with a smile as he tries to snap his fingers. Suddenly he finds himself cratered into a nearby mountain, with a bright flash of purple being the only hint of what happened. It was instantaneous.
"Ow! Wait!? That actually hurt?!" Discord yells out suddenly as he pulls himself out of the mountain. That shouldn't be possible! No matter how powerful a PONY could get, they shouldn't be able to actually DAMAGE him. Sure, banish him, maybe even break his corporeal form or seal him away, but actually DAMAGING him? "That should be impossible!"
Suddenly another Discord appears. "Ah yes, Twilight Sparkle, she's much more powerful here than she is in the show. By quite a bit." He waffles. "Good luck other me. I'm totally rooting for you!" He says as he sits back with a little flag with Discord's face on it as he eats some popcorn.
Before he can retort, Discord has to quickly snap his fingers to dispel one of Twilight's magical blasts, turning it into butterflies made of actual butter. The butterflies then promptly fly off in random directions.
Unfortunately, Twilight expected that, as she crashed into Discord and launched him straight towards the small earthpony village outside of Canterlot. It doesn't have a name yet and is pretty open, so it's a perfect place for something like this! Twilight sends Discord right into the earth below with a quick maneuver of pulling back, stopping time, and slamming down on his frozen body! She then lands nearby with a dynamic superhero landing.
But this time, it didn't hurt? Twilight instinctually held back. The first punch was simply because she didn't realize that Discord was that fragile. Her sparring matches with Uni always ended with Twilight on the floor knocked out or Uni calling the fight when she got hit once. She didn't expect Discord, whom Uni always claimed was even stronger than her, to be that soft.
Twilight clears her throat. "Discord, I don't want to fight you. In fact, I'd prefer if you and Uni worked out your differences and figured things out. You're family, family might fight, but it shouldn't last forever." She says with a sigh. "Come on? Maybe if you two just talk it out?"
Discord gets up from the ground and dusts himself off, with Twilight helping with a simple weave of her magic. Her main objective, namely to remove Discord from Canterlot, worked well! Hurting him wasn't in the plan, but the fact that she could does helps in the long run.
Discord glares at Twilight. "As much as that sounds lovely, your highness. I'll have to pass. My sister is the most low-down, disgusting, and vile creature in the multiverse. You'd do well to also avoid her as much as you can before it's too late." He says with a glare. "As for me, well, I have to do my job. I do not intend to lose to a pony, and Equestria seems perfect to begin an Empire of Chaos like the old days with me and Grogar." He sighs happily. "Now those were the days, he was a visionary, you know. Monsters everywhere, ponies in terror, complete and utter chaos~." Discord says with a happy smile, remembering days long past.
Twilight, on the other hoof, was not quite in the same place as Discord. For some reason, her thoughts were only getting more jumbled. Her patience was already running relatively thin, her heart racing and thumping loudly in her ears. Quickly trying to calm herself, she says, "Discord, your sister is like family to me. I do not want to hurt you or her. Or anything of the sort." She says firmly as she creates a little table out of stone.
"So, can we please come to an amicable solution? Something we can both like? If you want, we can even find you someplace where you can spread chaos and really have fun! You could even let loose from time to time. Just. Don't threaten my subjects." She says firmly… why is she being so nice to Discord? Why does she want to come to amicable terms so badly?! Then it hits her.
'He was my friend.' Yes, it took her this long to remember, but Discord, yes, this very Discord, was her friend in the future. Sure, he was a bit difficult. Sometimes you could even say he was wrong. Such as when he helped Tirek or the first time they met before his reformation. But that little spark of hope truly burned brighter now.
"Please, Discord." She says with a sigh. "I'm asking you as someone who will greatly impact your life in the future. Just. Stop before we ruin everything we will have." She says with a nervous rub of her arm. If she could just have that one little bit. That tiniest feeling of home that she's getting from Discord. The slightest hope that she might be able to hold onto who she was.
Well, it'd be worth it.
"No," Discord says simply.
The glass cracks
Ah. Of course not. It's never that easy. Discord is saying something else, sure, likely explaining why. They are likely talking about something completely irrelevant, like the old days. Old days. That's what they are. That's what they always will be. If she's changed so much that she can't even convince a single draconequis to stop. One that she knows more about than she cares to admit. One that she specifically wrote entire journals about just so she can remember him. What was even the point? Would she even be able to stay the Princess of Friendship when she goes home? Is she even still the Princess of Friendship now?!
The glass crunches as something steps over it.
Something broke. What broke? Why is she even worried about it?
Who broke it? What broke it? Why is it so hard to? Think about this? What is wrong with her?
Discord. Discord broke it. It's broken. Everything is gone. There isn't anything for her left. This was it. She knew she was going to run into Discord. She remembers she wanted to make friends with him. She wanted to be there with him. He was the only one who could connect her with her friends. She was even going to ask him to send the journal forward if she was successful.
More glass cracks. Shards fall everywhere. The small alicorn holds her head.
Had she failed? Was she this much of a failure? Why? Why did all this have to happen? This was supposed to just be a short trip. An hour tops. Why didn't she listen to Owlowiscious?! Why is she remembering everything now?! Even with all her studies into time magic, there's no way to undo the spell she's already under. There's no way to go home earlier. Her friends. Everyone. How long has she even been gone?!
Surge after surge of memory flows through her mind, like a tempest of thoughts that has no sign of stopping. But none of them were happy. They all reminded her of the life she lost, the friends, the family. At this rate, she may only see her brothers again once she's thousands of standard years old. Will he even recognize her? Will any of them? Will they even accept her back?
The glass cracks further, littering the floor around Twilight. The crunching gets louder as something approaches the small alicorn from behind.
'No. They won't,' Says a voice deep inside Twilight's head. Causing her eyes to widen.
'You are nothing like you used to be. You're stronger, better, and capable; you're running all of Equestria with an iron hoof. Ponies both fear, love, and respect you. Those who need to fear you, fear you. Those that are innocent love you for what you've brought. And those that need to respect you do so! You are not a Princess.' The voice says, sounding soothing, familiar, and tempting. Quiet and soft like a precious blanket.
The glass shatters, with nothing remaining between the small alicorn and the tall one.
All the weight, all the pressure. All those years of seeing her friends she made in this time period die of old age pass on without a thought, leaving her behind. All that hope that she could make one permanent friend that reminded her of her old life, all that hope.
Gone. In an instant. In its place was nothing but the void.
A void the voice was all too willing to replace.
'You are no Princess. You are a Queen.'
'Rise. Queen Twilight Sparkle.' Says the voice, fully revealing itself as a Mirror, reflecting back Queen Twilight's form.
And with that, the Princess of Friendship vanished.
Discord had been ranting nonstop for the last minute. Before Twilight finally breaks the silence.
"Shut up." She says.
Discord blinks. "I beg your pardon?"
"I. Said. SHUT UP!" And with that, a massive burst of magic flows out, a deep, purple flame firing up into the sky, draping the blue-colored surface in a deep purple. Stars appear all over the sky as the sun and moon join the glimmering lights above.
"I. Only wanted one thing. One thing in this life. One singular thing. It was my hope. It was my hope." She says with a stutter in her voice. A final tear dripped down her face.
"But when do I ever get what I want? When do I ever deserve to have a quiet night with a book? A day without a friendship lesson to teach or learn? OR even just some time to be a normal mare and go out to a club, EVEN JUST A BOOK CLUB?!" With each step forward, another memory in her mind breaks. Cracking and shattering noises rang out, but only she could hear them. Every step forward left scorches of flame on the ground that not only ate away at the grass but the very time the grass had remaining.
"Or maybe I just wanted to make my teacher proud? But NO, the universe had to say, 'Oh, let's strand her in the past where she has to take care of two foals, an entire country, and deal with EVERY SINGLE MAJOR THREAT IN EQUESTRIAN HISTORY!" She yells out.
"Well, no more. If the universe wants the Princess of Friendship to solve all its problems. Then too bucking bad." She says furiously
The flames wreath down around Twilight, the sky turning a dark purple as the tall, powerful purple alicorn is entirely wreathed in pure magic. Ethereal clocks, stars, flames, ice, wind, water, and earth floating around her. Her cutie mark changed as each individual star now shares space with a sun or a moon. While the central star is almost entirely cracked down the center.
"I AM THE ETERNAL QUEEN OF EQUESTRIA. And Discord. You will BOW."