//------------------------------// // The Experiment and arrival // Story: The Parasite // by aggedane //------------------------------// The Experiment and arrival Celestia was awoken form her slumber by a knock on her door, she looked out of her window and saw the moon had just started to lower to make way for her to raise the sun. Slowly she roused herself from her bed whilst bidding the knocker to enter, for someone to have disturbed her at this hour meant it must be important. The door opened in response to her reply to reveal a large dark blue Allicorn, her hair, the colour of the night sky gently flowed in an ethereal wind." Luna?" asked Celestia in a sleepy voice" what brings you here at this hour, is everything alright?" Before replying Luna quickly checked to make sure the corridor was empty before closing the door. "Sister we would speak with thou" said Luna with a regal tone. Celestia gave her sister a disapproving look "Luna you know we've spoken about this before, we don't use words like thou in everyday speech anymore". Luna grimaced as she realised that she had once again slipped back into her old speaking habit. "Apologies sister we..." she caught herself "..I am still finding it hard not to use the old language anymore, what I meant to say is I wish to talk with you". Celestia made her way over to her dresser and picked up a brush to try and tame her wild bed hair. "Of course sister I`m always willing to talk, but would you mind if I freshened up first?" Luna nodded and made her way to the door "I will meet you in the library then". After finally managing to tame her hair and grabbing a cup of coffee from the kitchens Celestia made her way toward the library. Upon entering she found Luna out on the balcony looking through her Telescope. "Find anything of interest?" she asked causing Luna to look up from her viewing, "We have sister and it is most perplexing, I have just witnessed something which should not be theoretically possible" Celestia looked around the room with a confused look on her face "who's we Luna?", Luna gave her sister a look as if to ask "really?", "very well, I! have discovered something." "That's better" chuckled Celestia as she made her way over to Luna's telescope and peered through the eye piece "so what have you found then?". Luna made her way over to a nearby desk and lifted a note pad with her magic, "I have discovered a comet that does not follow the plans that I have laid out", she flipped over a few pages in the note book before levitating it over to Celestia, " as you can see from the notes I have made this Comet appears to be rouge, and to make matters more confusing it disappeared without a trace as I was observing it". Celestia arched an eyebrow "it disappeared, how?" "That is what I am struggling to understand" Luna replied with a hint of frustration in her voice "im worried Tia, what if im loosing my control over the night, what if this rouge comet is just the start and more will follow. Tears began to form in her eyes "what if becoming Nightmare moon has affected me more than I thought, and the effects are only just starting to show". Celestia embraced her sister in her wings comforting her "Luna don't worry about such things im sure there is a reason for this, you've still yet to regain your full strength since that time so maybe this comet has just slipped through a crack". Luna seemingly calmed a little by this raised her head to look her sister in the eyes, "thank you for being here for me". "Luna since that night I vowed to never neglect your feelings again" said Celestia in a reassuring tone "and I intend to keep that vow" After a short period of time the two sisters concluded their discussion on this mysterious rouge comet, having agreed to discuss it at a more appropriate time before returning to their duties (or in Celestias case her bed). Later that morning Celestia had raised the sun as usual despite only managing a few hours sleep that night, before heading to the thrown room to deal with the regular duties of running a country. Shortly before noon her regular routine was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a particularly excited purple alicorn. "Twilight what has you so excited?" asked Celestia as Twilight made her way to the foot of the throne, she bowed before her former teacher "Your majesty iv made a fascinating discovery" she announced with pride before stopping short when she noticed the amused expretion on Celestias face. "Twilight there is no need for such formality with me now, you are also a princess don't forget and therefore we are equal in my eyes" chuckled Celestia as Twilight sheepishly looked at her hooves. "im sorry princess I guess I still need to get used to that", Celestia smiled "there's no need to apologise, now what is this discovery you have made?". Twilight immediately shifted back to her giddy excited mood " well I was up last night doing some astronomy and I think iv discovered a new comet. but that's not the best bit, this comet just disappeared before my very eyes" Celestia listened intently to what her former student had discovered before smiling " it would appear you also caught sight of Luna's mysterious comet". Twilights mood instantly nose dived "you mean im not the first to discover it?" she asked in a crestfallen manner. Celestia noticing her former students disappointment replied " while it may be true that you were not the only one to have noticed the comet it does not mean that you cannot have the honour of naming it and studying it further" Twilight perked up a little upon hearing this "really?" she asked in a hopeful voice. "of course" replied Celestia "now I am about to go for lunch to meet with Luna would you care to join me?" "Id be glad to" replied Twilight as they made their way to the dining room. On their way there they talked more about what could have caused the comet to have just vanished without a trace. Celestia had theorised that it may have been a remnant left over from Discords rein that had been long forgotten about till now. She explained that Discord had caused so much chaos in his time that it had damaged the very mechanism of their solar system leading to the need for Celestia and Luna to manually keep the system running by raising the sun and the moon. When they finally made it to the dining room they found Luna waiting for them already munching her way through her dinner. "Ah their you are" she said through a mouthful of veggie burger "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten to eat again, oh hello Twilight" she said as she noticed Twilight following her sister into the room. . "After our little talk last night I made it a point not to forget about lunch" chuckled Celestia as she took a place at the table "it would seem that you weren't the only one to see this comet last night, Twilight saw it as well". "Oh?" asked Luna, turning towards Twilight "tell me what do you make of all this?" Twilight who had taken her place at the table looked thoughtfully for a moment, "in all honesty I don't know what to think, iv never before seen or heard of a comet acting like this before". Celestia cleared her throat to get the twos attention " I may have an idea to at least determine whether or not this comet is a remaining fragment of discords time", Luna paled "sister please tell me you are not going where I think your going with this line of thought". Celestia merely nodded " we need to ask him in person". "And there it is, the words I really didn't want to hear" groaned Luna as she finished off her dinner "sister please do we really need to bring him into this?" Celestia chuckled "I know you find him annoying, but if you want to try and find the answer to this comet then we must look to all sources of information." "Annoying is an understatement" Luna mumbled under her breath "fine if we must we must, but lets at least wait until after dinner". After they had finished eating they made there way to the library to perform the summoning spell. Celestia ensured that everypony had vacated the room before heading to the library centre. "Ok are you ready?" she asked. Luna and Twilight simply nodded while mentally bracing themselves for whatever chaos that may be about to ensue. Celestias horn began to glow and arcane symbols began to fade into existence around her, they slowly rotated, getting faster with each revolution until their spinning became nothing but a blur. Just as Twilight began to feel slightly dizzy from the spinning symbols there was a sharp crack followed by a brilliant flash of light. When the light finally faded a new figure could be seen in the centre. It looked like a bizarre fusion of several animals, the legs were that of a dragon and horse, the arms of a lion and a bird of prey, its body appeared to be serpentine in nature but was covered with fur instead of scales. From its back sprouted two mismatched wings, one from what appeared to be a bat, the other a normal birds wing. Its tale was that of a dragons and finally its head appeared to be that of a goat. All of this fused into one being which currently now lay stretched out in a hammock that seemed to be held up by nothing but thin air, it wore a large pair of sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt that would have caused Rarity to faint in shock if she had seen it. "Tch has the sun gone down already, Celestias getting sloppy with her time keeping" Discord grumbled as he lifted his glasses, noticing for the first time that the Alicorn in question was now right next to him "why my dear Celestia how marvellous to see you again" he said as he slithered out of his hammock which proceeded fold itself into a origami goose an fly off out of the window, "I was in the middle of a holiday to the south pole, but it appears Equestria is lost without me" he chuckled "now what can I do for you?" Choosing to ignore the slight against her time keeping Celestia merely put on her best, if somewhat forced smile "Discord I apologise for disrupting your holiday", though how anypony could class the south pole as a holiday destination was beyond her "but my sister and Twilight here made a rather interesting discovery last night and would like to ask your advice". Discord vanished and appeared with his claw around Luna " ahh so little Luna here wants my advice, do tell im all ears" he said as he literally turned into a giant ear with two little eyes on top. Luna for her part was trying to resist the urge to use her royal canterlot voice while he remained in that form " last night while I was star gazing I noticed a rouge comet that wasn't obeying my plans for the evening, before I could cast a spell to move it to a proper place however it vanished". Discord who had been listening with only vague interest perked up upon hearing this point, " so your saying it just vanished without a trace?" he asked, as he himself vanished only to reappear floating inches about Twilights head " and you saw the same thing did you?" Twilight Eeped and scooted back a bit, after a second recovering from her shock she replied " yes I did and iv brought the notes I took as well in case your interested" pulling out a small notepad from a nearby saddlebag, Discord took it from her and with a flash now wore a long white lab coat and ridiculously thick glasses "mhm, mhm oh I see yes very good" he muttered to himself before closing the note book and clearing his throat "vel vhat ve have here is defiantly a disappearing comet". Luna facehoofed "we know that but what we want to know is do you have anything to do with it" "Me?" asked Discord looking hurt " why would I have had anything to do with it?" "im reformed after all" as a halo appeared above his head. Celestia deciding that this conversation may start to go south stepped in, "what Luna means is, is this comet a remnant from when you ruled Equestria before we imprisoned you?". Discord pondered for a moment "hmm I don't think this is my handiwork, I didn't bother messing with space much back then" "you messed with it enough to damage the mechanism" snapped Luna. "Well if somepony hadn't interfered I wouldn't have accidently snapped off the brake lever now would I? Discord retorted, summoning a large broken lever with the words BRAKE written on the side in large red letters."its also the reason why I didn't get a chance to play with space for very long". Twilight was struck dumb by the argument accruing before her, while Celestia was simply watching the proceedings, waiting for the two to finally burn themselves out, after several minutes both seemed to have calmed down enough for Celestia to continue. "Are we both finished now?" she asked in a disapproving tone, the two nodded, " good, now Discord you say this comet isn't your work, have you any idea where it may have come from then?" "My best guess would be that it isn't from our solar system and that its drifted in from a neighbouring system" he replied as he began to rummage through the books on the shelves "as for why it disappeared I don't know, maybe it didn't like you watching it" he chuckled "however if your really worried why not simply grab it and give it a new home here if it decides to show up again?" "That was my intension" Luna replied feeling slightly relived that she may not be loosing control as she feared "however I do not know if or when it will show up again and I cannot afford to spend all my time watching to see if does, I have duties to attend to". "I could keep watch" Twilight suggested. Luna and Celestia looked at each other "Twilight are you sure you are up to that sort of task?" asked Celestia with a hint of concern. "of course its not like I haven't pulled an all nighter before" replied Twilight without hesitation "though il admit it would be a bit easier if I had a team who could take turns to search for it and compile notes". Celestia smiled "I think that can be arranged, very well twilight if your sure you can handle it then this would be an excellent test of your new status" Discord suddenly appeared next to Celestia "while she is on this comet hunt why not show her how to move it herself" he suggested. "I can do that?" Twilight asked with sudden excitement. Celestia shook her head sadly "im sorry twilight but the tomes that contained the spells used to move the astral bodies before we arrived have been lost for centuries". Discord looked sheepishly at the floor" oh about them I may or may not have checked them out of the library before I was imprisoned" "By checked out you mean stole" sneered Luna. "No by checked out I mean checked out" Discord replied appearing behind the librarians desk with a pair reading glasses on the end of his nose "ah look and here's me returning them now" as another Discord appeared carrying some large dusty looking tomes, he walked over to the desk and handed the books to himself, the Discord behind the desk took it and proceeded to stamp them back in, the other Discord then handed over a huge bag of bits to himself and vanished as quickly as he appeared. " late fees" the real Discord said in answer to the confused looks on the three Alicorns faces " there, now if that is all you need me for ladies then I shall be heading back to my holiday". "thank you for your advice "Celestia said as Discord snapped his claw and vanished in a flash of light. "Well we have the tomes back now so I guess I can teach you the basics of astral control" Luna said to Twilight " however I will need some time to revise the spells first, our knowledge of magic has grown greatly and many of these spells will now be outdated and unnecessarily longwinded, in the mean time you can gather your team and begin a vigil for this comet". Twilight nodded "il begin at once, I already have an idea who I want for a team so that wont be hard to do, il let you know if we find anything" Several days passed with no sign of the comet. Twilight ordered the search to be focussed mainly around the area where it was originally spotted reasoning that if it did reappear it would do so in the place where it disappeared. With no sign of the comet for a further week everypony began to think that maybe this comet was just a one off random occurrence and it would never show up again, that was until 2 whole weeks had passed and visual was made once more. The comet was found in exactly the same place as the first time, it followed the exact same route and disappeared at the exact same point and time as it had previous. Twilight, after taking extensive notes compared all the data with her original notes and found them to match perfectly, she was amazed this comet seemed to done a complete loop following everything it had before. With the reappearance a note was taken of the date and a timer set to see if it appeared again two weeks from then, if so then they could at least determine a time scale of when it would appear. During the on going study Luna had been revising the returned tome and modifying the spells into simpler forms using modern arcane symbols. Once she had finished she had begun to teach Twilight the basics of astral control. By the time a further two weeks had passed since the second sighting Luna was satisfied that Twilight had mastered the basics enough to attempt to stabilize the comet on its next passing, Luna would be monitoring her attempts and be ready to step in should the strain prove to much for Twilight to handle. Two days later the comet appeared once again but this time it wouldn't be leaving. Twilight and Luna stood on the balcony of Luna's tower, as this would be Twilight first experimental attempt at Astral control Luna had drawn a large arcane circle on the floor which would be used as a focusing aid. Twilight sat quietly going through her mental exercises in preparation for the task ahead, when the comet was at an optimum distance Twilight began the experiment. "Now remember what I have taught you don't over exert yourself, keep calm and focused or you run the risk of loosing control of the spell" explained Luna as Twilight entered the circle "I understand" she replied as she took a calming breath, "begin when you feel ready" said Luna as she retreated a distance to give Twilight room to work. Twilight closed her eyes and began to channel Mana into her horn, she ran the spell through her head shaping it and forcing it to take form. Her horn glowed brightly as more Mana was channelled and the spell began to take shape, a long thin chain began to shimmer into existence starting at her horn and reaching into the sky. After several minutes the chain became a brilliant beam of violet light " iv got it" Twilight gasped. "Excellent now remember what I taught you and begin to guide it to the place iv picked out for it" said Luna with a hint of pride in her voice, Twilight certainly is a quick learner she thought to herself. With care Twilight began to guide the comet to its new home in the night sky. "ngh" twilight let out a sharp grunt "something's wrong, im loosing my grip on it, its starting to slip out of the spell" she cried as she focused more Mana into her horn in a desperate attempt to keep her grip. "Twilight calm down and focus, if it is to much for you simply let it go" replied Luna with concern. "I cant keep my grip" said Twilight panic evident in her voice, determined not to fail she threw all the Mana she channel into her horn, she instantly regretted the decision as she felt an uncontrollable flood of Mana surge through her, blood began to leak from her nose and her horn began to smoke "Twilight stop now your loosing control of the spell" commanded Luna as she began changeling an emergency cut off spell. The spell wrapped around Twilight instantly cutting her off from the flow of Mana, the violet chain immediately began to dissipate before disappearing altogether. Twilight collapsed to the floor unconscious her horn smoking and blood flowing freely from her nose. Luna rushed over to her and felt for a pulse, to her relief she found one. with a flash she teleported both of them to the infirmary where doctors immediately rushed over and began stabilising Twilight. It was during this time that the message began, it started faintly before growing in volume "Axos calling surface" "fuel systems exhuasted" "request immediate assistance" "Axos calling surface". The doctors looked around in confusion, was this a message? no one knew, it wasn't in any language heard before, Luna was first to speak "ensure that princess Twilight is kept safe, I must speak with my sister about this new event" and with that she turned and hurried to find her sister. All across Equestria the message was heard, from Cloudsdale to Prance the same message was transmitted, though its meaning as well as language was unknown to anypony. Just on the edge of Ponyville a large and grand looking cloud house floated Inside a cyan blue Pegasus with a brilliant rainbow mane slept peacefully but the peace wouldn't last. Rainbow dash was slowly roused from her sleep by the sound of a voice "Axos calling surface" "fuel systems exhausted" "request immediate assistance" "Axos calling surface". She looked up with a start thinking that someone was in her house " who's there" she called, when she received no reply she looked around confused "did I just dream that voice?" she thought to herself "no I definitely heard somepony". With some effort she untangled herself from her bed sheets before heading downstairs, after a thorough search of her house she realised she must have dreamt it after all "jeez Dash get it together" she scolded herself as she made her way back to bed, lying down she was just drifting off when another noise could be heard. It started as a low rumble which quickly grew into a roar "ugh now what" groaned Dash as she sat up " cant a pony get any sleep around here". She made her way to the window and unlatched it, looking outside she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary yet the roaring was quickly growing to a painful volume. " What the hay is goin on" Dash cried, clamping her hooves over her ears, it was then she noticed a large object falling from the sky it was getting dangerously close to her house "oh Buck" was all she managed as the object passed over her house. Skyglass shattered as the force of the objects passing blew out the windows. Dash dove for cover as skyglass rained down around her, when the last tinkling of skyglass stopped she slowly looked out from her cover "Tank! TANK! where are you?" she cried as she carefully picked her way around the skyglass fragments, to her relief she found him hiding in his shell under her bed "you ok little guy" Tank slowly poked his head out and give a little nod "good just stay there im goin to find out what the hay that thing was" she said as she made her way to the door, looking around every pane in her house had been shattered, it would cost a fortune to replace it all skyglass wasn't cheap after all "and l also want to know who to send the bill to" she added as she took flight following the trail left by whatever it was. Had she known what it was the broken skyglass would have been the last thing on her mind.