Unbounded Dimensions
Luna groaned and gently rubbed her head as Doctor Whooves left her after his lecture on time, muttering something about a 'TARDIS', whatever the hay that was. She was trying to process the information he had given her, and it wasn't working out so well for her. Time, apparently, can bend itself to make certain events happen. Why, the Doctor himself didn't know, and him trying to explain it left the princess even more confused then she was earlier. She needed something to distract her from thinking too hard about this, so it was a pleasant and very welcome surprise when she heard a Royal Guard approach her, and said guard pointed at the general direction of Canterlot.
"Princess Luna, Royal Guard Roko and his comrades have touched down in the Canterlot landing area. They shall be with us shortly." Luna nodded, and smiled slightly. At least she'd be able to talk with the pony that was writing the story of the events that were happening here. It was no mere coincidence that this story was being written about the events happening right now. She then yawned, and raised her left hoof to look at the custom-made watch she had there. She was surprised and confused by what time she saw.
"What is this? It cannot be! It's only been two hours since we've casted the spell?! But Whoove's confusing lecture was at least an hour, and while the labyrinth isn't that far away from the castle, it still should've taken us awhile to get back here, and I did hold audience for those damn aristocrats a little while..." Her thoughts were interrupted as Roko and his chosen squad arrived with two mares, presumably the writer and a friend of hers.
She looked at them curiously, wanting to discern any little detail she could obtain on a quick glance. One was a unicorn, with a white coat (Although it took awhile for her to accurately confirm it as white because it was a bit difficult to tell since it was stained with what looked like salad dressing and various bits of organic matter) and vibrant pink mane, complete with a pair of headphones around her neck and a music player on her back. Her cutie mark was of a pair of headphones, fittingly enough. The other pony was a pegasus, her coat was a light blue and her mane was long and silvery. 'Looks like Trixie, if she was a pegasus' Luna thought absently. Her wings were covering up her cutie mark partially, but Luna could just barely make it out as a quill being dipped in ink. She was also visibly shaking, probably from the fear that she would be sent to the moon. 'She's probably the one named Vidhwansak' who's writing the story, Luna thought, 'But who is the unicorn, and what to what purpose does she serve in her story?' The Royal Guards bowed, and quickly, the pegasus followed suit. The unicorn was slower, watching the Guards and the pegasus for a full five seconds at each of them before realizing that she should do the same.
"Rise. Roko, you and your comrades may go and have a much needed rest, and I thank you for your services. I wish to speak with these two alo-"
"Sister, where is the kitchen? My stomach wails for the beautiful and wonderful sight of food!"
Luna turned around, annoyed. Neutrality was standing inside her court, rubbing his eyes with a hoof, taking the scene in with a relaxed air. Unfortunately, the other ponies in Luna's court weren't as relaxed. The Royal guards tensed slightly, Luna glared at her brother, the unicorn looked on in confusion while the pegasus literally fainted on the spot. Luna sighed as she looked in dismay at the pegasus. Her talk with the writer wasn't going to happen now, apparently, thanks to Neutrality and his stomach. She motioned over at the pegasus guards, and, nodding, Roko and his comrades took the feather-light pegasus away to the infirmary. The unicorn raised a hoof, presumably to stop the guards from taking her friend, but stopped, flinching, as the unknown Alicorn stomped a hoof none-too-gently on the floor.
"Seriously, Luna, it's been thousands of years, I'm starving! Where the hay does an Alicorn go to get some food around here?!" Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get his directions to the kitchen anytime soon, as an irritated Luna began to let off steam.
"You just had to come by NOW, you just made the pony I wanted to talk to faint! This is an important matter!"
"What about her marefriend?! I'm sure she can answer your questions, whatever the hay they are! Now tell me where the kitchen is, I'm not about to starve to death!"
Gydina blushed, and shook her head quickly. "N-No, I'm not her marefriend..." 'At least, not yet', the Unicorn added in her head as an afterthought. Her voice was gone unheard as Luna began shouting in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Fortunately for the unicorn, having been listening to loud music for most of her life, she wasn't as affected by the Voice as a pony should've been. However, the moment the other Alicorn started yelling as well, she gritted her teeth and covered her ears with her hooves, as two Alicorns yelling at each other were much worse than one and strained the ears of everypony within earshot of Luna's court.
"NEUTRALITY, JUST GO FOLLOW A DAMN SERVANT AROUND OR ASK THEM WHERE THE KITCHEN IS!"
"DON'T YOU USE THAT TONE OF VOICE ON ME, SISTER! MATTER OF FACT, DON'T USE THAT VOICE AT ALL, MY EARS ARE RINGING. BESIDES, THE SERVANTS EITHER STARE AT ME WITHOUT ANSWERING MY QUESTION OR RUN AWAY SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER!"
"IS THAT MY FAULT? HUH? MY EARS ARE RINGING TOO FROM HEARING YOUR VOICE, BUT YOU DON'T SEE ME COMPLAINING ABOUT YOUR VOICE!"
"CONSIDERING YOU HAD THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF PRACTICE, I'M PRETTY SURE I'M MAKING THE BEST ATTEMPT I CAN AT SOUNDING LOUD AND ANNOYING LIKE YOU, SISTER!"
"I WAS TRAPPED FOR A THOUSAND YEARS TOO, NEUTRALITY!"
"YOUR ONE THOUSAND YEARS STUCK IN THE MOON COMPARED TO MY...Erm...HOWEVER MANY YEARS I WAS STUCK IN STONE TWICE IS NOTHING, I JUST KNOW I'VE HAD MUCH LESS PRACTICE THAN YOU, SISTER! DON'T USE THAT AS AN EXCUSE!"
"THIS IS COMING FROM THE ALICORN THAT'S NAMED EXACTLY AFTER WHAT HE IS, TALK ABOUT UNORIGINAL!"
"THEN WHAT THE HAY IS 'LUNA' THEN?! I'M SURE THAT STANDS FOR 'MOON' AS WELL!"
"AT LEAST IT'S A DIFFERENT WORD FOR MOON!"
At this, Neutrality had no counter argument. He did, however, have an insult he'd been wanting to fire off forever. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that Celestia already used this insult time and time again, and it's most recent use just before he was freed from his imprisonment in stone.
"Oh, alright then, you win. Little loony Luna~"
Immediately, Luna flared up at the use of that insult, and Neutrality shrank back slightly. Luna stepped forwards towards him, her mane and tail burning like an ethereal dark flame. "WHY YOU-" She was cut off from going any further.
"ENOUGH OF THIS FOOLISH ARGUING!!"
Both Alicorns flinched, and the unicorn trembled as a third voice entered the vocal fray.Fortunately, her joining of the fight also just so happened to end it as well. Looking up, she gaped slightly as she saw Princess Celestia, in her Royal pajamas, casting an annoyed look at both of the Alicorns for the yelling match they just had and she interrupted.
"Neutrality, the kitchen is past these doors, down a right, then keep going until you smell something cooking." Nodding silently, Neutrality brushed past the unicorn, giving her a sheepish smile. After making sure he left, Celestia sighed, and turned to face Luna, who had an exasperated look on her face. "Is there something wrong, Luna? I mean, I know something's wrong if my older brother and younger sister are yelling loud enough to wake me up, but that's beside the point. You seem like you really wanted to do something, Luna, and if I had to guess, you were probably interrupted by Neutrality. What was it?" Luna sighed, and looked over at the unicorn.
"Tell me, did you expect this to happen? And, no, not the yelling match, I mean being summoned here into Canterlot. I suppose you don't know why you're here?" The unicorn looked surprised at being addressed directly.
"Huh? Oh...Well, no. Actually, I don't know why I'm here at all, I'm just taggin' along with Viddy. I don't think she trusts me to keep her apartment intact while she was gone, huh, makes you wonder why she lets me live with her, then. Oh, and, why is dark out here? It was, like, just a bit past lunch time when we left Manehattan, so the sun should still be up, Y'know, all shinin' and stuff? Name's Gydina, by the way!" Luna smacked herself gently with her right hoof. So she was just talking to the pegasus' friend who didn't know anything at all about the story. Wonderful. She looked up as the unicorn sighed.
"She's been really mad at me lately. I just wanted her to show her story to the world, so I went to fimfiction.com, made an account under her name, and submitted her story for her. Somethin' about Discord being resurrected by some spell that the two of you cast, and some other spell after that one that turned him into an Alicorn again. Didn't really read that much into it, really. Speaking of which..." She looked behind her, a look of confusion just now washing over her. "Who was that Alicorn, anyway? Is he, like, a nephew or somethin'?" The unicorn didn't notice the look the two Alicorns in the room shot each other. Celestia sighed softly.
"Luna, what exactly did you do?"
"Me? I did nothing! I was simply reading some fanfiction..." The unicorn gasped loudly, and quickly shot forward in front of the princesses, and Luna swore that she heard Gydina's voice go higher by a full octave.
"Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh, OMIGOSH, you read fanfiction?! Did you read Viddy's story? What're your favorite stories?! Do you like..." Gydina trailed off as Luna glared down at her, and sighed. "Alright..." Luna rolled her eyes, and looked back at her older sister.
"As I was saying...I was looking around for some fanfiction to read when I stumbled across a story titled 'Discords Renascent' created by an author named 'Vidhwansak', who I assume is the pegasus. She's been writing everything that happened this night, but what I don't understand is the timeline. It took her three days to write about the events that happened tonight, so I asked Doctor Hooves about this, but even he doesn't know, 'Tia. He gave me some one hour lecture that made me even more confused."
Celestia was silent for a fair while, digesting this information. Then, looking over at the unicorn, she frowned at a detail she heard earlier. It was just after lunch time in Manehattan? That was impossible. And yet...She sighed, finally coming to understand what was happening right now. "Luna, what we have is one of those 'tale-travelers'. Although why this happens, even I don't know, what I do know is that somepony...Or ponies decide to write a story. Unfortunately for the pony or ponies, they somehow end up warping time and space, eventually ending up inside the story itself and with its characters. They'll be stuck inside the story, namely, these two, until it finishes." Luna rubbed her eyes gently with her hooves. That made absolutely no sense at all, yet made perfect sense at the same time.
"So...We're just a story, then, Celestia, made up by ponies?"
"Oh, no, we're quite real and we still have control over ourselves, it's just that, in the end, instead of choosing where our lives lead to in the future, we'll be drawn to the story's conclusion instead."
Gydina blinked, confusion on her face. Eventually, she, too, knew what was going on, and the implications of it caused her to faint on the spot, just like Vidhwansak earlier. Rolling her eyes, Luna ordered a nearby guard to carry her off to the infirmary again, and looked up as Neutrality walked past them, stifling a burp. It oddly smelled of onions and chocolate.
"Excuse me, sisters! And now, I, Neutrality, must be getting to sleep." He walked off, and Celestia almost gagged. She looked over at Luna, who had gone through a similar experience.
"I swear his breath was sweeter when he was a draconequus."
"Yeah...A lot sweeter. Uh, Celly...Will we tell Neu...Discord that this...This is just a story? That he never does get changed back into an Alicorn?"
"No, Luna, and here's why, because of the interference of the tale-travelers, a completely new dimension opens up because of them. Once the story is completed, things in one dimension will return to 'normal', whatever THAT is, and the new dimension picks up where the story left off. So there's no need to tell Neutrality this, because I have no clue which dimension this one is." Luna nodded slowly, and sighed.
"Erm...How do things turn back to 'normal', 'Tia?"
"I honestly do not want to find out, Luna."
"How do you know about 'tale-travelers' anyway?"
"Some theory that some pony I long ago dubbed insane made up, however, looking at the events that seem to be happening right now, it looks like it doesn't seem that far fetched a theory in reality."
Luna nodded, and looked down at her watch again. Five hours until it was her sister's time to raise the sun. She sighed.
"Well, 'Tia, you should probably go back to sleep."
"Yes, I should, I have five hours until it's good morning, Equestria! Good night, Luna, I hope the aristocracy doesn't drive you insane."
"Good night, sister. Hopefully they won't." Luna didn't have the heart to tell her sister that she blew off the rest of the aristocrats, but hopefully, her sister wouldn't realize that she had more than her usual number when she held court. Celestia smiled unknowingly, and walked away to her bedroom. Luna watched her for awhile, then checked to make sure all the doors were locked and that there weren't anymore appointments tonight. Finally, checking off her mental list, she walked up to her throne, opened up her laptop, logged into fimfiction.com, and made her way through the site, looking for a quality clop fiction to help her vent away her frustration.