Discord was on the back hoof. So much so that he didn't even have time to edit the writing of this story in his favor. Not that he even could, with his opponent being so overwhelmingly more powerful than him. His movements weren't getting sloppy or tired, but the barrage of magic, physical attacks, and even tricky moves of the magic meant he was utterly stuck on the defensive.
"No pony should be this powerful! What ARE YOU?!" Discord growls out as he continues to flick away and transform the blasts of magic coming from the angry alicorn. With one quick swipe of his hand, several flying pigs with lances and dizzy eyes start sporadically flying around in a panic.
This, however, does nothing as Twilight suddenly appears behind him. "Gotcha," Twilight says. There is no fanfare behind her voice. In fact, it just sounds cold. A chill runs up Discord's ears as he braces himself for what's to come, as a tide of purple, fiery magic blasts him violently through the air. Twilight simply just watching as the 'Lord of Chaos' is launched far away. She knew that Blast was far too weak to eliminate him entirely. Discord should be pretty hurt, but that isn't why she isn't chasing.
She wanted to destroy him, not hurt him.
"I'm still instinctively holding back. Hmph." She says as the flames die out, leaving nothing but magical clocks and sparkles floating around her. "I can't keep doing that to escape this cycle. I refuse to keep playing my part in this dumb story made for children. When Uni comes back, we're going to finish this. One big cast of the Equality spell across Equis should remove all the disharmony from Equestria. After that, I can focus on other nations and really show them that just because we're nice doesn't mean you can push us around."
Twilight giggles to herself. "Hope you got all that. Now if you don't mind." She says to the air in front of her. Her eyes glared into hundreds of souls. "I don't like being watched."
The fight was over in an instant, at least from Luna's perspective. It was full of colorful lights, magic spells, and explosions that wrecked the countryside.
Luna was not exactly happy about this at all. She's seen her mother tired, disappointed, and mad sure. After all, you can only take so much from nobles and their lies before you get frustrated.
This was different, though. Twilight's magic had no regard for safety or even just incapacitation of its target. The wild beams crashed around the countryside, leaving craters and small pockets of frozen time all over the place, not something that is easily fixed. Canterlot survived most of the blasts, although the walls will need some tending to once the enchantment wears off. The little towns littering the exterior, though, well.
Luna lands in a small village just outside of what would be the Everfree Forest in the future. The buildings were crumbled, ponies frozen in time or in various states of flux. One building, in particular, is constantly making and unmaking itself. It's almost like Twilight had a vendetta against this town in particular. Luna herself has visited this town several times, hundreds even! Mostly with her mother to see her friends. That all stopped a while back, though.
-A few alicorn years ago-
The Alicorn trio wandered through the small village to get some pears and apples from the local farms. Sure, they could get the maids or castle staff to do it, but it was more fun this way. Luna happily skipped along the dirt road while Celestia and Twilight talked about things that go way over the blue alicorn's head.
"Once we get some apples, we can make some candied apples and popcorn and watch a play!" Luna says with a happy skip as she rushes ahead. She was in charge of the money this time, so she's happily loaded up with her saddlebags, trotting along with a smile. Meanwhile, Twilight would rub her head slightly, wincing slightly and sighing.
"Remember, Luna, only apples and pears today. Don't go buying sweets randomly. I'll be talking with my friend at Sweets Central." Twilight says with a smile as she trots to the sweet shop.
That was the last time she saw her mother smile in earnest. When they met up later, she just seemed tired. Tired and sad. Luna and Celestia were obviously worried, but Twilight wouldn't say anything about what had happened.
Since then, Twilight has spent most of her time cooped up at the castle. After that, Celestia was put in charge of pretty much all the foreign policies and meetings. Twilight said that Celestia could handle it better anyways.
In reality, that was the last time Twilight saw her friend, having met them right at their end. She had lost so many throughout the last few years. From her perspective, everything was so quick, ponies coming and going in a blink of an eye. It was becoming impossible to keep up with everyone, especially with how accelerated an alicorn's perception of time is. This wasn't the first time either, sure ponies seem to live significantly longer in this era since this was only the third generation that passed on, but that doesn't make things any easier.
Twilight was tired. The Queen hardly got to spend any time with her friends because of work. She barely had time to even do anything she enjoyed anymore. Equestria was just plain old getting too big for her, not to mention she wasn't exactly a leader back at home yet, either.
Ah, that too. Studying time magic led her to find a spell that let her see into other routes, other timelines of her life. She's seen what should have happened. The spell would have just failed normally, left her in place, and she was off to another adventure the next day with her friends and family. Course, this didn't happen in her reality. Instead, the spell kicked off and dropped her here. It's like the universe had it out for her since the start.
Why was it always her and her friends fixing everything? Sure, she understood that eventually Celestia, at least in a different timeline, intended her to take over Equestria. That doesn't really explain why she almost constantly left the fate of her entire kingdom in the hooves of six normal ponies. Aside from the situations when they were captured, which would never have happened in her current timeline, Celestia and Luna seemed to leave everything to them almost the entire time.
There had to be something out in the cosmos that was doing this to her across all those different timelines. There had to be a reason why she wasn't allowed to live in peace without all these problems that came from being an alicorn or a ruler. Was it just her 'destiny' to be a hero at this point? Did she or any of her friends even ask for that?
Worst of all, the bonds she made and all her friends left behind would eventually become pain.
Because Immortality is a cursed thing. So Twilight searched for a spell, and when she didn't find one, she decided to make one herself.
-Present-
And that was that. Twilight spent most of her time studying magic, having figured out how to control time not long afterward. No one dares to mention how unhealthy it was for her to spend over twenty hours a day studying since she is the Queen.
Luna shakes her head, trying to poke at the magic surrounding the town with her own. However, this is not the best idea, as she quickly gets knocked back by the sheer amount of power radiating from the spells on each of the ponies. Luna knew she could not fix this, even with her sister's help. Her mom was just, frankly, too powerful at this point.
"This is gonna be a problem," Luna mumbles as she flaps her wings to fly up, something she usually doesn't do. The blue alicorn flew to the castle as quickly as she could. This was no time to be a kid, after all.
Equestria was in danger if her mother was this upset.
A short while later, Luna meets up with Celestia outside the castle. Luna called in backup because she didn't know what she was dealing with here.
With a quiet yet worried step, the pair walk into the castle.
The air in the castle was stale, with the guards wandering the halls and doing their duties. It was almost like everything was frozen to the pair. There was no laughing from them or their mother's friends wandering around the castle. The guards are even wearing their more efficient battle armor, and all the curtains around the windows are drawn shut.
Luna quickly shifts behind Celestia, who puts a wing over her little sister. "I don't think Mom is corrupted by dark magic like I was. This place would be empty if that was the case." Celestia says, wiping the sweat off her face. She had just flown at top speed to return to Canterlot from the Griffon Kingdom, so she was rightly exhausted.
The pair take a moment to ask the guards where Twilight is. He shakes his head but still points them toward her study, where the team starts running as quickly as they can.
The door is large, with runes glowing gently all over the surface. Celestia and Luna stare as they try to decipher the spell, locking them out of the study. Celestia finally huffed and knocked on the door violently. "MOM! Are you alright?!" She says with a worried tone in her voice.
Apparently, that was enough! The doors push open as Twilight reveals herself from inside. A soft gaze comes from her eyes as she hugs the pair. "Sorry, sweeties, Mommy was wrapped up in something." She says as she closes the door. Taking a deep breath and giggling.
Celestia opens her mouth to try and say something, but Twilight cuts her off. "I don't really have time to play with you two or do anything today, though. I'm working on something for when Uni returns. So you two can do what you like. Celestia, I hope the talks with the griffons went well?"
Celestia blinks. "Uh yea, they went fine, but uh m-" She gets cut off again. A little bit of frustration escaped her with a snort.
"That's wonderful. They won't expect us when we declare war later then." Twilight says with a completely neutral and very fake smile. "You've done great, Celestia. enjoy your day." She says before she shuts the door in their faces, the slamming motion barely missing a small piece of paper floating out due to a draft in the study.
Celestia and Luna both blink in a confused manner before the pair fall into a sitting position. For anyone else in all of Equestria, that would have looked like a normal, overworked mother telling her kids to go play outside while she finishes her daily duties.
For Celestia, however, that entire experience was a threat. 'Don't get involved, you two.' was the underlying message. Celestia is completely frozen in place, shuddering a little bit. She couldn't even imagine what might have happened if she had spoken out of turn. To say the least, Celestia felt afraid for the first time in a long time.
Luna, on the other hoof, was a bit more. Subdued. She's never seen her mother angry. After all, she was more of the perfect child when compared to her sister. So this was all new to her. In fact, the only reason she sat down was because she was still hiding behind Celestia.
"Wow. Mom was kinda rude there. We didn't even get to ask her to fix the little town." She says with a mumble as she picks up the paper.
Reading what's on it does give Luna some pause, though. "Oh. Uh. maybe we should be worried, sis." Luna says as she holds the paper over to Celestia, who takes the sheet in her own magic aura and reads it.
"Worldwide Harmony Project:
Step 1: Remove all cutiemarks that have any dangerous or violent means associated with them. Replace marks with equality symbols for three days.
Step 2: Rewrite cutiemarks into something more suited for peace and harmony. Return marks to their owners
Step 3: Enact plans for the fall of the Dragon and Griffon Empires. The Crystal Empire will handle itself when Sombra shows up.
Step 4: Equestria and the world will be like it will be in the future, and I can finally rest.
Step A1: Find changeling hives? They haven't been around at all since I've come to the past.
Step A2: Find Discord and trap him. He's the only one that can really ruin these plans.
Step A3: Have a family dinner again. It's been ages."
Celestia shudders a little bit. "She's gonna use that creepy spell on everypony? But why?" Celestia says as she stands back up. The pair quickly retreated from the front of the study as they heard Twilight searching around the room. More than likely searching for that specific paper.
Luna mumbles, "I dunno, but Mom has been acting really weird this past year or so." She mumbles a bit. "She's gotten forgetful, and she's constantly just studying her magic. She won't even come outside to watch me and my friends play like she used to. Mrs. Evergreen has had to be the chaperone for the last few normal years." Celestia and Luna manage to get out of the castle. With a quick flap of their wings, they start flying to a nearby mountain.
At the top of the mountain is a small tree, but the tree isn't important. On the tree is a small wooden treehouse, built reasonably well by the two sisters shortly after their battle years ago in the Crystal Empire. The pair made it to have a little place they could bond and make sure that never happens again.
In her study, Twilight just quietly scoffs.
The pair of alicorns gently walk into the tree house. It wasn't exactly built for their new sizes, but it would do. Putting the paper on a corkboard on the wall, the duo sit down and sigh in relief. Luna broke the silence first. "So… what do we do sis?"
Celestia shakes her head. "I dunno. We can't exactly fight Mom directly. Something IS going on, but I genuinely don't know what."
Luna blinks a little bit and giggles as she looks at Celestia. "Wellll. Mom still sleeps at night. I'm up all night. Sooo."
Celestia looks at Luna with a glare. "No."
Luna smiles. "Yes~. It's time for Detective Luna and her lackey Officer Celestia!" She says brightly as the pair are suddenly in a detective outfit and police officer outfit, respectively!
Celestia grimaces. "Luna, this isn't time to play!" She says with a slightly annoyed voice. Luna, however, just smiles.
"Who said I was playing? You have that unlock spell you've been using to sneak out at night!" She smiles at Celestia
"And you do what exactly?" Celestia says with a raised eyebrow.
Luna just deadpans. "I can see in the dark. Comes with the cutiemark. Come on, sis, we have to help Mom. If not, Mom, at least do it for your friends. Cuz we both know that boy you like has a spear master cutiemark." She says cheekily
Celestia sputters, "I do not like him! He's just a really close friend!" She huffs out.
Luna giggles. "Sure~."
With that, the plan was set.
-13 Days Remain until Unity's return-