//------------------------------// // The story of the box // Story: Derpy's box // by Vidhwansak //------------------------------// The story of the box "Bear in mind, Twilight, Ditsy, that this tale is very old, and as such there will be many confusing things that you may wish to ask questions about. While I don't mind having a few questions here and there at appropriate times, too many will hinder the time we have to spend together, so I ask that you sate your curiosity for once, Twilight." Celestia looked at Twilight with a steady stare, and the unicorn, in turn, blushed. "I promise not to ask too many questions and disrupt the tale, Celestia." The alicorn smiled, satisfied with her student's answer, and then looked at Luna, who winked at Twilight mischievously. "Fear not, Twilight, for all questions will be answered, within reason and if there are not too many of them!" Celestia confirmed Luna's statement with a nod, and stared intently at Ditsy for a short moment before speaking up quietly. "Now, you say that Ditsy here looks similar to another pegasus in a story..." Ditsy looked up from the muffin she was happily munching on, and looked at Twilight in confusion; she still didn't know why she was here. From what Twilight said earlier, she reminded the unicorn of another pegasus, but that still didn't explain the significance of needing to meet with the princesses. "I am?" Celestia nodded slowly, with a slight smile on her face. "You are, Ditsy. Twilight has also mentioned that you have a nickname that some ponies use offensively, known as 'Derpy'; all I can say is that there is nothing to be ashamed of that name. In fact, it's the very name of the pony that's in this story, so you should feel honored. Lulu?" "Did you need something, Tia?" "Will you tell most of the tale? After all, I wasn't there to see what happened." "Yes, sister, of course. As Tia has said, Derpy is the name of the actual pony that opened the box." Twilight and Ditsy both looked at Luna with different thoughts swirling in each other's head; Twilight, with heavy interest about this box, and Ditsy, with heavy confusion about the whole thing. Luna, smiling slightly, looked over at her sister. "Tia, do you still hold the very box that Derpy opened?" "I do, indeed, however as of now I fear I have grown too attached to the warmth of this chair, and I don't believe any servant whom I may call upon would know what I would be talking about nor know how to find 'Derpy's box'." Luna sighed, and shook her head slowly in despair at her sister's laziness. "A pity, then, that your royal rump does not want to leave your chair; it would be nice to allow them to see the box that changed Equestria forever. Fear not, Twilight, Ditsy! We shall start the story regardless of the box." Celestia rolled her eyes, and took a sip of her tea before speaking up. "Luna and I were the only ones who inhabited Equestria at the time of this story; there was nopony else, no other beings; just me and my sister. The world was also still under the raw influence of our magic as we continued to shape it to our liking, so we didn't give much thought to the fact that we were the only beings on Equestria." Luna bit into a muffin, chewing it slowly before swallowing it; Twilight took this opportunity to ask a question. "So the world was created by magic; specifically, your magic?" "Indeed! Tia and I have shaped this world with vast amounts of magic; there is so much of it that even we cannot control what it does anymore, and the magic is making its own changes as it sees fit, even as we speak! Why, the world today isn't the same as the world we created so long ago!" The unicorn flattened her ears, clearly uncomfortable with that thought. "So...Places like the Everfree Forest...?" "Completely untouchable by our magic; it is a wondrous place, is it not? Free from our control and able to change anything it wants, whenever it wants!" Both Ditsy and Twilight shot each other a worried look; upon seeing how distressed they were at that piece of information, Celestia cleared her throat, and looked pointedly at her sister. "Of course, we have been keeping tabs on places such as the Everfree forest to ensure that such wild magic does not grow out of hoof, so there is nothing to worry about." "True, true! There is only so much we can do, however, and I think one day such magic may even be stronger than ours!" Deciding that a fearful audience did not make a good audience, especially if her sister continued to go off on a tangent completely unrelated to the story, Celestia decided to be blunt with Luna to get her on the right track. "Lulu?" "Yes, Tia?" "I think it's best if you continue on with the story. Please." "Oh, I almost forgot about that! Well, to explain in a little more detail about how we created the world, we raised mountains that kiss the sky, created scars in the land that to this day still remain, and have created lush, green fields to cultivate food with...But it was empty, oh, so empty, with only us residing in the world! It was then that Celestia decided to create life by molding clay, something that we had never tried before, although her intentions for doing so were dark indeed. The result was a beautiful, innocent, and somewhat clumsy mare." Twilight raised up a hoof, frowning slightly at her mentor, and Luna took the opportunity to finish the muffin. "You created the first pony? From clay, and the pony was a mare?" Celestia nodded slowly, with a faint blush on her face. "It was only to be expected, Twilight, since Luna and I are both mares, and clay is an easily moldable substance, is it not? Do not ask about how stallions were 'made', though, because it is a rather embarrassing story and isn't really needed to be known for this one." At the subtle nod of understanding from Twilight as she poured some more tea into her cup, Celestia continued on with the tale. "So, I shaped the first pony; I shaped her like I saw Luna and I. Before I continue, however, just to clarify, did you say the pony in the story you read was a pegasus, right?" After a nod from Twilight, Celestia shook her head. "Close, but not close enough. No, she wasn't a pegasus, she was actually an alicorn. However, at the time, I did not know how to imbue magic into the horn, nor how strong earth ponies should be, so she ended up as a winged unicorn that couldn't use magic, had a bit too much strength, and could fly just like a normal pegasus today. This doesn't honestly change much in the story, but it does help to know who this pony was." Luna spoke up, then, cradling her cup of tea in her hooves. "She was gray, with a blond mane; in fact, you nearly look exactly like her, Ditsy. I believe the only differences are that your coat is lighter and the fact that you have a different cutie mark; her's was a lamb, which represented her innocence." Ditsy frowned as she bit into another muffin. "Nearly exactly like her..." "Yes, Ditsy. She really was the most innocent little thing, perhaps even shyer than the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy, and it was just adorable how her eyes would...Well, 'wander' around, like yours." Celestia coughed guiltily, and offered a sheepish smile. "I was new to making ponies, and I didn't think about her eyes." Luna frowned, and gently nudged her sister with a little burst of magic. "Even so, sister, your hoof was...'Shaky' at best. I have always been the better artist, you know." Celestia did a mock gasp, and looked hurt. "Your words wound me, Lulu." "I'm not sorry. I speak the truth!" "Well, the truth sucks. I didn't think you were sorry either. Moving on, I named the pony 'Derpy' because of the eyes she possessed; a rather curious trait of hers that would work favorably in my plans." "Plans?" Ditsy asked, taking another bite into her muffin. "What plans?" Twilight set aside her cup of tea, and stared intently at her mentor. Celestia looked over at her sister, who nodded slowly, and the older royal sister chuckled nervously before speaking. "I didn't like Luna." At the sight of the widened eyes of Twilight and Ditsy, she tried to soften her words. "Well, to put it less bluntly, I was jealous of her at the time. She created the most beautiful stars out in the sky, while I truly did not have anything to call my own, as we created the earth together, and the sun, while admittedly was mine, it's just not something you're supposed to stare directly at. To see those wondrous works of art that my sister created compared to mine was...Disheartening, to say the least. So I conspired against her; you see, there was this box that has been with us for quite a long time. We don't know where it came from, but it was with us since the beginning of time, ever since we found it; in fact, when I first woke up, it was the first thing I saw in this world. It's actually indestructible, so we still have it now, to this day. "We never opened this box, for we could feel powerful magic inside of it; powerful magic that threatened to overwhelm us. As long as the box never opened, however, we were safe. Probably. We placed this box in our little home, and sometimes, Lulu and I played a little game, making guesses about what could be inside that box." Luna poured herself the last of the tea and grabbed the last muffin, much to Celestia's disappointment. "LuLuuuuuu!" Luna stuck her tongue out, and sipped the tea quickly. "They're both mine, Tia! But yes, we would make guesses about the box's contents; ah, those were the days, just me and you, Tia." "Indeed. Looking back, those days weren't so bad. Anyway, so the plan to 'get back' at Luna was to place the blame on her...Although, I needed something to happen that Luna wouldn't be able to connect back to me, at least, directly. I needed another pony to do my 'work'. I then decided that, if I couldn't do it, why not create a pony to do it for me? "After Derpy was created, I told Luna that she would be taking care of her, as I was going to spend more of my time designing the world and adding new things to it, even though I didn't really need to add anything more. It was...A decent excuse at the time, because Lulu believed it." Luna sighed, and flicked a crumb at Celestia. "I was sixteen hundred years old, Tia!" Upon the confused expression on Twilight's face, Luna explained. "We grow up more slowly than normal ponies. Or in Celestia's case, not at all. She still acts like a silly filly." Ignoring the look of indignation on her sister's face, Luna continued with a smirk on her face. "So I came to Derpy's care whenever Celestia was out 'designing' new things in the world; I didn't mind, though, because I was smitten with how Derpy acted. She was so adorably innocent that even I couldn't hold out on...What is it called today, 'D'awwing'? However, one day, she inquired about the box..." Luna paused for a moment, thinking about how to continue the story, and Ditsy raised a hoof up during this. Celestia nodded at the pegasus, and offered a smile. "Is there something you need, Ditsy?" "I want more muffins, please." "Consider it done! We may as well order some more tea, as well." Celestia ringed the same bell, although she only rang it twice; she repeated the action, and before she set the bell down, as before, Steadfast Runner as well as Bounding Skies were at Celestia's side. "Yes, Princess Celestia? How may we serve you?" "Could you bring us another plate of muffins, Bounding Skies? Oh, wait; Ditsy, I'm sorry, I never asked, is there any specific kind of muffin that you want?" "No, I just want more muffins! They all taste good to me! ...Unless they're baked bads." Celestia smiled warmly at the pegasus, and then nodded at Bounding Skies. "No need to worry about anything bad being baked here, Ditsy. You heard her; any kind of muffins, so make it quick!" The pegasus pony looked shocked at what Celestia said, and then a fierce grin was on her face as she curtsied. "Quick? You haven't seen quick until you've seen me!" "...I'm looking at you right no-" Celestia's sentence went unfinished as Bounding Skies disappeared from sight. "Oh. Anyway, Steadfast Runner, could you bring us some more tea, please? The same flavor, and not too much, mind you." With her horn softly glowing with magic, she placed the empty teapot on his back, and made sure to latch it onto his tray securely. The earth pony nodded, and sped off without a word towards the kitchens. Luna, by this time, had figured out what to say, so she continued with her part of the tale. "When Derpy asked about the box for the first time, I told her that it was a very, very dangerous thing, and that it was better off that she didn't ask about it again; unfortunately, she seemed to have too much curiosity for her own good, no doubt Celestia's doing. She would constantly ask me, always trying to persuade me to open the box for her, always staring at the box...I tell you, it made me uneasy to see her take such an interest in the box, but I simply wrote it off as simple curiosity; after all, Tia and I were very curious about the box as well, once before. I assumed she would lose interest in it, in time." Steadfast Runner then ran in on the conversation, with a plate of tea. "Your tea, princess!" Celestia smiled, and levitated the teapot from his back onto the table. As the teapot landed, Bounding Skies made her entrance, and pouted as she carefully set down a tray of muffins onto the table. "Stop being faster than me!" Steadfast Runner chuckled, and began to walk away, surprisingly slowly. "Not happening." "Oh, I don't believe you!" The two servant ponies eventually faded away from sight and sound as they argued with one another. Luna looked over at Celestia, and then levitated the teapot over to pour herself some more tea. "You hire the weirdest ponies as our servants, sister." "They are...A bit competitive in their job, I admit, but you cannot deny that they don't get things here on time, Lulu." "True enough. As I was saying, I continued to watch over Derpy, and the days and nights went by peacefully. Sadly, the peace that Tia, Derpy and I enjoyed was not to last for much longer; Derpy, in her desire to know what was in the box, snuck into my room one night, when I was feeling particularly sleepy. She stole the key to the box, and then grabbed the box itself before sneaking off into her room; I still wonder how she managed to not wake me up. "She told me that once she locked the doors and turned her attention to the box, she thought about what she was doing. Remember, she was the most innocent pony I have ever known, and would have never done anything without our permission. However, her curiosity got the better of her, and ruled over her judgement in the end. She inserted the key into the box, and turned it..." Luna seemed to choke, and she closed her eyes. Twilight prepared to say something, when Celestia stopped her student's hoof with her own, shaking her head slowly. After about two minutes of uncomfortably waiting, Luna managed to open her eyes, and smile sadly. "Forgive me, I...Still feel bad about that day." Celestia nodded slowly, and moved her hooves over on top of her sisters, squeezing them softly. "As do I, sister, as do I. It was poor decision making on my part." "If it were uncountless years ago, Tia, I would have doubted your words. Nevertheless, Derpy opened the box. Out with it...Came Discord, and with him, his chaos. He told Derpy how thankful he was for releasing him, a little story of how we refused to open his box and of how boring his life was, contained in the box until she came along, and then he vanished with a 'pop', teleporting somewhere else, leaving behind a distraught, confused, and scared pony surrounded by chocolate bubbles. Derpy shut the box, closing it tightly, and ran into my room, sobbing, beginning to scream about the horrible thing she had done; needless to say, I was shocked, hurt, and angry at her. I demanded her to open the box back up, to truly see for myself that whatever was in the box was truly gone, for I still sensed powerful magic inside the box. Was I taking an unnecessary risk? Could she have been deceiving me? Perhaps, but the tears and emotions I felt from her felt too real to be faked for the sake of satisfying her curiosity. "When she opened the box for the second time, it was not what I expected. Six pieces of jewelry flew out from the box, and were arranged in a circle around us. To this day, I know not how, but I instantly realized that these were the Elements of Harmony...These would enable us to capture Discord the first time, and would be the six things that the future ponies in Equestria would embody. "I heard something whisper to me, in a voice that I cannot remember yet feel like I've known the voice all my life, 'Thank you, for not leaving us in the box as well. We are the Elements of Harmony, and no matter how bleak the future looks, no matter how dark and desolate everything is, you only need us...And a little hope." Celestia took a sip of tea from her teacup, and sighed appreciatively. "That, Twilight, Ditsy, is the story of Derpy's Box, and the first account of the Elements of Harmony."