"I am your Princess! And if you dare to oppose me I'll have you beheaded!" Celestia hissed at the unicorn. She was promptly knocked over with a light tap of a hoof. "Ow! Stop that, you know I'm weak from training."
"You're immortal, get over it!" Starswirl growled at the Princess. "And you don't have the authority to execute me, only the King or Queen can give somepony a death sentence. Besides, I'm not going to let you skip my own class!"
"Agghh!" Celestia growled and hit her hoof into the ground.
"Hey now, you don't see Luna going around throwing fits whenever she doesn't get her way." He turned to the very young blue filly.
"D-don't bring me into this..." She stammered out.
"Fine, Celestia, would you just try the lodestone lift again? One more time? Then I'll let you have my lunch..." He said in a sing-song voice.
"I don't want your nasty lunch." Celestia turned her nose away from the wizard, but her stomach growled. "Ugh... fine." the filly turned to the great metal sphere and began straining as she lifted it with her yellow magic. "grrrr..." Celestia began sweating a bit. The lodestone scrambled her magic, and it shivered where it did take hold. She began lifting it and didn't open her eyes, for fear it would break her concentration. After a minute though, she let go of the sphere, and Starswirl caught it as it fell, putting it effortlessly back in its place.
Celestia panted a few seconds before opening her eyes and brushing her pink hair out of her eyes. A bag of dandelions fell open in front of her. She politely lifted her head and floated the bag up to her mouth, and tried not to dig in too much. Starswirl kept himself from laughing at her rush, but Luna had no such qualms and giggled as Celestia's stuffed face rose up to see what her sister was laughing at. "Oh, ha ha." Celestia tossed the bag at Luna's head, which only caused the blue filly to laugh even more.
Starswirl looked down at the bag and it's half-eaten spilled contents. "My lunch..." He turned to the white alicorn Princess and beat his hoof. "You have incurred my wrath Princess!" A bowl of magic formed in the air. And Celestia's ears dropped.
She immediately pulled out her wings and beat them a few times, but she was simply too young to support herself yet and she dropped right back down.
"I'm telling Daddy!" Celestia yelled as she dove for the entrance to the castle.
"Not if I fuse your mouth shut with a lock!"
"Eek!" And they ran off into the castle laughing, leaving Luna behind on the balcony garden alone.
Just like she liked it.
Luna walked over to the bush and pulled out a book, first with a little magic, which had just left her babyhood's period of bursting uncontrollably, but now left her with very little magic, and then finally she stuck her head into the bush and pulled it out with her teeth. She sat in the dirt on her haunches and flipped it open to the big iron bookmark. She bent down and began forming the words with her mouth, recognizing the letters individually, it was a lot of work, but she thought it was worth it. The book was an adventure story, about a brave Earth Pony knight who went selflessly to fight a dragon that had kidnapped the local monarch's daughter, and stolen the king's gold, right now he was in an enchanted forest, trying to find somepony to lead him to the dragon's mountain.
She wondered how it would end. So far she had only gotten through about four chapters, at about only a page or two a day, she really wished she'd learn to read faster, but they kept telling her 'You're only four, the picture books are just right for you.' so she decided to teach herself how to read.
The story was going a bit slow, so she decided to take a break, and fell onto her back, letting her teeny tiny wings stretch out a little bit. She looked into the blue sky and began daydreaming. What if a dragon came and kidnapped me? And then Daddy and Mommy and Celestia would look everywhere, and they wouldn't find me, and they have to find a knight, to go into an enchanted forest to find out where the dragon took me, and then he'd come and save me and we'd have an adventure, and i'd be flying with him and he would teach me to read, and we'd look at the moon, and tell stories and eat junk food and stay awake every night.
She looked into the sky and smiled. But it began fading away. Why would Daddy send a knight when he could go into the enchanted forest himself, and fight the dragon himself, and then take me back much quicker, and he and Mommy would fuss over her and scold her and then everything would be the same.
Nothing was going to fall from the sky and take her away.
Except that blue box.
"Aggh!!" The Doctor looked around, the controls were smoking. "What's wrong girl? What happened?" He looked down in confusion as the module broke open slightly and a small sphere bug-like thing came out, with a bit of wire stuck in it's mouth. "You! No, you get out!" He made his wings reappear and swatted it at the doors, he switched it back to the great blizzard and opened the doors, kicking it out. He slammed the doors behind him and shivered. "W-well... that was a bit over the top... I can't stand bugs for some reason."
But the Tardis was still smoking, and the Doctor had left the door open as it re-entered the vortex, it appeared back over Unicornia, and the shockwave sent him sprawling out of the Tardis, he saw it fly off without him and in his desperation he flicked out the homing signal on his screwdriver.
He caught himself on his wings and began gliding backward, watching as the Tardis disappeared over the horizon. "Well, that's a problem-" he slammed into a tree.
"Um..." came a hesitant voice from above him.
The Doctor picked himself up slowly, and dematerialized his wings and brushed himself off. He heard a stifled gasp from the foal in front of him as he did so. "Oh, I'm sorry if I interrupted your-" He scanned the balcony. "-reading time, I'll just be off."
"Wait! er... I mean..."
"Hm?"
"are you... an adventurer?"
The Doctor raised an eyebrow and looked down at the very small filly. She was a unicorn foal, with a light blue mane and a slightly darker blue coat. She had very clear blue eyes, that shone with intelligence. "Why yes, I am, how did you know?"
"I..." She blushed and looked down. It would sound stupid if she told him that she had fantasized about going on an adventure with a mysterious stallion. "...I could just... tell?"
The Doctor blinked twice and smiled. He called his wings back into existence with an orange 'poof' of Time Lord energy. "Well, you're dead on, what's your name?"
"Um- L-Lu-Lu-..."
"Well, Lulu, how about you don't tell anyone about us meeting for me? I'd get in trouble if anyone knew I was falling into people's yards again."
"Uh... okay." She didn't feel like correcting him. "But..."
"But?"
"Only if you take me on an adventure!" She got out.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "You're forcing me to take you on an adventure?"
"I'm sorry... I won't tell..."
"Oh, I don't mean that, just ask and I'd do it." he smiled down at the filly. "So... what kind of adventure do you feel like?" He looked down at the blue blinking Screwdriver. He pulled it out and input a command, he then buried it in the center of the lawn. Once the Tardis repaired itself it would reappear in this spot.
"Um... one with... dragons."
"Do you have any dragons here in the castle Lulu?" The Doctor asked.
"N-no."
"Well then, let's do something else right now, I kind of have to wait for my box to come back to the castle, so let's have a little adventure in the castle, and then I'll take you to see some dragons later."
Luna knew that this was more than she had expected would happen anyway, and she agreed with some furious nodding. "Yes."
"Then lead the way Lulu, let's have ourselves a little adventure!" The Doctor got up and galloped to the door. Luna smiled widely at her new friend and began running down the hallway as fast as she could, stretching her little wings as far as she could. The Doctor noticed, and his eyes widened in recognition, but he didn't stop. He promised Lulu an adventure after all.
They spent the day playing in the halls, hiding from guards, following servants, and eventually they came back to the balcony and the Doctor sat down next to Luna's book. "So, Lulu, should I read you the story, or would you like to finish it yourself?"
"Um... I really want to see how it ends..."
"I don't, whenever I read a book I rip out the last few pages first, so that I never have to know that the story ends!"
"Well... if the story goes on forever... you don't know if it turned out good for everypony in it..."
"But what if the story ends and it's bad?"
"... w-wouldn't you be happier knowing for sure? Wouldn't you rather know it turned out as well as it could and be satisfied with an ending, than worrying about it?"
"...when something ends, it's sad for me." He looked down at the book. "I don't have the choice of ripping out the last pages in real life, so at least with stories I don't have to go through that."
Luna looked curiously at the Time Lord and she opened the book to the last page, and she carefully ripped it out with her teeth. She stuck it into the bush, then moved back to her book-marked page.
"W-will you read it to me? Slowly, so I can follow along?"
"Sure."
Starswirl considered revealing himself, but he didn't understand the Doctor's purpose in being there, would revealing himself make it harder or easier for his old... friend? Acquaintance? He met him twice in his life, and though he did convince Starswirl to join the King as his adviser, something Starswirl found he didn't regret, what reason did he have to help the Doctor? Starswirl looked on from the shadows as the Doctor and Luna read from the book Luna thought no one knew about, Starswirl had to specifically ask that the gardeners not touch the book when they came to the Princesses' balcony. He looked as Luna smiled at the Doctor, a whole, real smile. She would grin or giggle, but she didn't have control of any of her magic, and was at his and Celestia's lessons as a tag-along, she never really was content until he left her alone with her book.
He made the Princess smile, and gave her a companion. That was enough reason to not tell the guards, wasn't it?
"I saw the Doctor again today!" Luna said cheerily, shaking out her wings, which had grown several inches over the last few months, and the feathers had gotten fuller.
"Ugh, again with this 'Doctor' nonsense. You're too old to believe in imaginary friends." Celestia said, batting her wing over her sister's head playfully.
"He's not imaginary." Luna said grumpily, trying to put her hair back in place. "And even if I did have imaginary friends I'm still young enough for it to be normal to have them..."
Celestia sighed and sank back into her bed. She was almost thirteen now, and Luna was eight, she invented an imaginary friend when she was about four, and told her in secret when she was six, that every few months, and occasionally weeks, a time-traveling pegasus that could make his wings appear and disappear would arrive in an invisible blue box. 'If it's invisible how do you know it's blue?' Celestia first asked, 'it's not always invisible!' Luna would defend. "Whatever Luna."
"He is real! The next time he comes we'll go and see you."
Celestia raised an eyebrow at this, but continued to lie in the bed. "When do you think I'll get my Cutie Mark?"
"What are you talking about?" Luna asked.
"I asked a servant the other day, she says that most fillies get their marks before they're ten... I'm thirteen."
"Twelve."
"Whatever! I should have one by now."
"I'll ask the Doctor how he got his." Luna said, going to her own bed and sinking into the too-soft mattress. "Besides, maybe Alicorns don't get Cutie Marks."
Celestia had never considered this. "Wha-what do you mean? Father and Mother-"
"Got theirs a few years ago, what I mean is, what if it takes a lot longer for Alicorns? Maybe you won't get it until you're a thousand, or a million."
"Don't be silly, you have to discover your special talent to get one... that's all."
"So it's not that we're Alicorns... maybe you're just untalented." Luna picked up her pillow with telekinesis and used it to block the pillow launched from Celestia. She then stretched out her wings and jumped from the window.
"You better fly!" Celestia yelled after her, taking to the sky after her little sister. Luna pumped her little wings as hard as she could, giving herself extra lift by converting her unicorn magic to pegasus (a technique she was proud of inventing). She looked to the sky and saw a blue box, suspended in the air, with doors opening for her. Celestia's eyes widened as she took it in, a handsome stallion walked to the entrance and gave a wide smile.
"Hey, Lulu, need a hoof getting away?" he spoke with an accent she was not familiar with, perhaps a deeper rooted Unicornian?
"Thanks Doctor!" She turned to Celestia and stuck out her tongue as she flew into the box. The Doctor gave her a wink that made Celestia blush, then he swung the doors closed and the box disappeared without a sound.
Celestia simply hovered in that spot for a few minutes, observing the empty expanse of sky, with her mouth hanging open.
"So, that was my sister, I told you all about her, right?"
"Yep, I also met her in the future."
"Did you meet future me as well?"
"Yep."
"Were we married?"
The Doctor walked over to the kitchen silently, Luna following behind him, seeing his face was frozen. He calmly poured himself a cup of tea, took a sip, and then spit it out, dropping the cup at the same time. "B-what?!" He finally exclaimed. Luna simply began laughing at the oddness of the Doctor.
The Doctor simply laughed awkwardly and began cleaning up the tea.
"So, where do you want to go today?"
"How about 'when'?"
"I already went over this Lulu, I don't want you to have any spoilers- you're a very prominent figure, your life is made up of fixed points." But the Doctor wasn't even sure about that any more, he couldn't sense time as well as he could before, he didn't have an innate sense of what was malleable or fixed anymore. But with someone as important and long-lived as Luna, of course there would be plenty of fixed points. "If I changed anything, if I did anything for you besides what I'm already doing... It could end disastrously."
"Hmph." Luna sat down on her haunches.
"Well?"
"... I want to go see the dragons again."
"...alright."
"-and then we saved the world!" Luna finished.
"Hooray for you. All I did today was study my magic, you know, like we're supposed to?"
"Oh Tia, don't be such a downer, I get my work done, and I still have time to have fun with the Doctor."
"Yes, and he's sooo great." Luna bent her head down to look at her sister.
"Tia, are you... jealous?"
"What?!" Celestia lifted her head from the pillow, some of her pink hair falling out of place. "Of course not!"
"No-no, I'm not making fun of you, I'm not... but I have a friend besides you and Starswirl and Mommy and Daddy." She looked very deeply at Celestia, in a way without any sort of aggression or pity, in a way that gave some kind of aura of wisdom whether what she said made sense at all. "That's something you don't have."
Celestia fumed at Luna, and for a second her hair burst into flame, her coat whitening even more so. Her eyes became seething red... then she returned back to normal. "I-I..." She looked up to her sister. "I... I know the maids... and I talk to Belt when I get to my room early..." Her eyes widened, then teared up. "Luna..."
Luna brought herself closer to her sister and they shared a deep hug. "Don't worry Tia, I have a little more than you... but what you have is still something very great."
"When did you become so philosophical?" Celestia said sniffling a little bit.
"The same time you became angsty."
"Oh... be quiet."
Celestia got up from her bed and trotted over to the window. She opened it with telekinesis and smiled as the cold wind of the night came over her. She looked into the deep blue-black of the night, pure and clean, uninterrupted by anything, no clouds could be seen, no pollution of any kind, simply the pristine unblemished white sphere of the moon in a sea of pure black-blue. "Luna... how old do you think we'll be when we get out Cutie Marks?"
"Hmm... I don't know, and I really don't care. It'll come when it comes."
"I'll be sixteen tomorrow Luna."
"And you still only look twelve."
"So do you."
"I am twelve."
"What I mean is... when are we going to grow up? I've looked into the same face in the mirror for four years, the same flank, the same feathers... I'll have to wait centuries before I become a decent flier. And who knows how long it'll be before I get my mark!"
"You're only sixteen, you can't go into your immortality crisis yet..." She considered it for a few seconds. "On second thought, this might be your first sign of becoming a hormonal depressed teenager." Luna shuddered. "I hope you don't act like that for centuries."
"Oh shut up, I can't believe I was hugging you a few minutes ago." Luna hugged Celestia again, and she gave in once more, and stopped talking for the rest of the night. But in her mind she regarded her little world, a balcony, a few hallways, the sky around the castle, occasionally the library or the throne room. Luna had explored the entire world on her little escapades. Luna was right after all, she always was, what Celestia had was precious, but Luna had more. As Celestia drifted off to sleep she had one last conscious thought. 'I need a friend'.
"Y-Your Highness..."
"What is it? Don't you know we are dealing with a matter of extreme importance?!" Orbitus roared.
"I-I know your Highness, but the preparations for Celestia's sixteenth birthday can continue without your supervision... and this matter requires your presence..."
"...What is it?"
"There's some sort of creature in the castle, a very magical, powerful creature."
"An intruder?"
"Not... exactly... oh, and, your Highness?"
"Yes?"
"I'd advise you to bring Starswirl as well."
"What... is that?" Orbitus whispered to his wizard.
"I... I do not know... I have never seen anything like it, a chimera of some kind, perhaps?"
"Should we... talk to it?" Orbitus asked. The strange creature opened another bag of flour and mixed it into the bowl, filling it with water and pulling fire from a torch, with it's bare hands, and mixing it in as well. A few minutes later it was a giant mass of bread, which the creature munched on voraciously. "It seems that it is only stealing food... but the free manipulation of fire? It could be dangerous..."
"Nothing you wouldn't be able to handle."
"Are you suggesting I put myself in harm's way?!"
"No... are you suggesting I should? The frail old man as opposed to the immortal?"
"What's going on?!" Both of them turned around in surprise as Celestia with rugged hair walked in. Orbitus immediately noticed the trail of dried tears.
"Tia, have you been crying? What are you doing out of bed, what about Luna?"
"She's asleep, soundly, and I just got mad is all, what's all this?" Celestia walked forward into the kitchen as both of her guardians rushed to stop her, but the creature in the pantry noticed her and froze, a piece of bread falling from it's mouth.
"Celestia stop! It could be dangerous!" Said Starswirl.
Celestia and the creature locked eyes, and she let her expression soften. "No... not to us." She walked up to the creature and lifted him up with her warm yellow magic. He shuddered with fear at the presence of the magic, but soon he relaxed into the warmth and protection of it. He curled up as if he was about to sleep, and she drew him to her chest. "He's just scared and hungry... and needs a friend." Celestia lifted up the bowl of magically created bread and trotted off with both of them in tow with her magic.
"Celestia, what do you plan on doing with that?" Orbitus said with authority in his voice.
"I'm going to feed him, and take care of him, and nurture him back to health... Father... no, Daddy, please, as my... birthday present, just let me take care of him."
Orbitus looked at the sleeping creature and frowned. Then he looked to his daughter and let his face soften as well. "...As you wish... but you have to explain him to Luna and your mother."
"Deal." And she carried him off to her room.
"What is he?"
"I don't know Luna... but it's kind of cute isn't it? If he's just an animal I'll keep him as a pet, and if he's intelligent I'll get him a room in the castle."
"...What do you think it eats?"
"Um..." She looked carefully at the creature in front of her. "He has claws... and he's serpentine... but he also has a hoof and horns, and his head is more equine than anything else, but he does have fangs... I'm guessing a little bit of everything? He was making bread for himself when we found him."
"That shows a bit of intelligence."
"And magical ability, he put water flour, and pure fire in a bowl and mixed them, it baked itself."
"That... would be a very good technique for unicorn bakers, this thing could be very smart..." Luna bent down to look at the little creature, she narrowed her eyes at his mismatched wings. "It must be very difficult for him to fly, unless he has more Pegasus magic than any Pegasus I've ever met."
The two then began making a nest of pillows between their beds, and set him down into it, as Celestia withdrew her magic from him he frowned and struggled against the pillows for a few seconds, then went back to his peaceful sleep.
"...what should we name him?" Luna said excitedly.
"What do you mean-" Celestia stopped herself from saying 'we?'. "He could have his own name, he's probably intelligent... we should wait til he wakes up and then try to speak to him."
"hmm... should we wake him up now?"
"He looked so tired! It would be a shame to wake him now..."
"Then... wake me up when he stirs, I'll just sleep til then." And Luna went back to her own bed and covered herself with her quilt.
Celestia kept watch over her new friend for the rest of the night.
Luna was shook awake by a warm hoof and opened her eyes, rubbing out the grime that comes with falling asleep late. "Wha- what's going on?"
"He's waking up!" Celestia squealed out.
"Who, oh yes, the creature!"
The two Alicorns stood around the pillows watching carefully as the creature stretched itself out, the fur on it's body bristling briefly. It scratched its muzzle and got onto two feet. Yawning and stretching its arms. He opened his eyes slowly and then was gone. The two Alicorns stared at the empty spot for a few seconds before looking at each other, then darting their eyes around the room.
"There!" Celestia yelled as she saw a dragon's ruby red tail disappear behind the bathroom door. The two came close to the door, then swung it open with their magic. Celestia ducked as a piece of soap flew over her head. Luna deflected a loofah. "Come on out little guy, we won't hurt you." Celestia said softly. A bucket of water was flung over Luna's head.
"I might."
"Don't listen to her, I'll protect you, alright?" Celestia reached into the room with her magic, and enveloped everything in the room. Her magic covered the creature, and even though he was more difficult to touch than lodestone for some reason, he felt the warmth and relaxed. "come here..." And the creature did, slowly, hesitating before every step, and watching for hiding spots around every corner. "Hello, can you speak?"
"Y-yes."
"That's good, what is your name?"
"I... no one ever named me..."
"Really? Nopony ever called you anything?"
"Well... they called me monster. Is that my name?"
"n-no."
"Thief? Creature? Thing? Discord?"
"Discord?"
"Yes."
Celestia considered it. "Alright then, would you like your name to be Discord?"
"Discord." Discord smiled widely, revealing a single out-of-place fang. "I am Discord."