Family time ✓
Twilight Sparkle hugged her foals close with the revelation that she barely knew them. They had hatched from their eggs as little yearlings, flush with personality and love. They clung to her, nuzzling her pelt, bonding with their other mother. All of them together were quite a soothing balm to everything that had just taken place.
There was an ominous crackle and a rumble, and a bright flash shone through the windows, illuminating the library. The foals squealed, scared, terrified, clinging to their parents, knowing they would be alright if they just held on to their mothers, the instincts of foals everywhere.
Twilight loved them. She couldn’t tell if the love was magical in nature or not, and she didn’t care. Right now, love was all that was keeping her together. She locked eyes with Trixie for a moment, and felt an odd sensation, a weird tingle in the marrow of her horn, a feeling similar to what she had experienced just before turning into an ash pile and then becoming an alicorn.
A feeling of something coming. Whatever happened, after this, things would never be the same. She hugged little Rocky closer, wishing her brother was here with her. She wished that her foals could meet their grandparents. She wished for a lot of things.
One thing she did not wish for was Discord suddenly appearing in her library. He did so quite suddenly, and there were five Fluttershies with him.
“You gotta help me!” Discord cried. “You are the only one I trust Twilight Sparkle, to look after my Fluttershies. I need to stop this somehow, I think I might be the only one who can!” Discord looked panicked, frantic, and afraid.
Twilight shivered.
“Hi!” Quadrashy said, seeing potential new playmates, giving them a shy smile, hiding behind her long bangs. They moved and spoke as one.
Fluttershy looked sad and confused, and she clung to her four identical foals.
“Discord, do you really think you can fix this?” Twilight asked, her voice low, and wavering slightly.
“I dunno!” Discord shrugged, his eyes wide. “I’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Several very confusing events proceeded to happen all at once. The itch in Twilight’s horn vanished, sunlight shone through the windows, the feeling of dread disappeared, and there was an insistent knocking at the door.
“Somepony want to get that?” Trixie asked in a hesitant voice.
Go and answer the door ✓
Twilight crossed the room, noticing how quiet it had become. She felt cold chills running up and down her spine. She stood before the door and slowly pulled it open…
Before her stood an alicorn. Only, something felt off. Something was different about her. And beside her stood Frank N. Furter. He was full grown. Twilight Sparkle would recognise that tentacle anywhere.
... ✓
“What the noodle?” Discord quipped, saying what everypony was thinking.
“Who are you?” Twilight asked the alicorn. “What are you and what are you doing here?”
Twilight looked around. The mustard was gone. Ponyville looked mostly normal. Pinkie Pie stood nearby, her usual size, still sucking on a pacifier, also normal size. The diaper was gone. This was the very worst sort of confusion, the kind that Twilight could not stand.
“What just happened here?” Twilight Sparkle demanded, placing as much authority into her voice as possible. “I demand to know who and what you are! I want to know what has taken place here! I demand to know why suddenly, everything is normal.”
“I am Concordia,” the strange alicorn announced, “and I am a harmonequus, just like you. Well, you have the potential to be someday. But I am a special harmonequus, just like Frank N. Furter is a special draconequus.”
“What?” Discord asked.
“Hi dad!” Frank N. Furter said sheepishly. “I thought I’d drop by and let you meet the missus!”
“What?” Trixie queried, her jaw hanging open.
“A miracle has taken place,” explained Concordia, “and everything is slowly being restored. I am fixing all of this confusion.”
“Speak plainly!” Twilight demanded.
“Twilight Sparkle, Frank N. Furter and I are going to settle down and create a new reality. What you have witnessed is a convergence. I am Concordia, and I come from a chaos realm, a realm populated with draconequus civilisation, if one could call it that. I was hatched there, and I was forced to survive. All of my sisters died, one by one, hunted down by the draconequus mobs because we brought order and understanding everywhere we went. We calmed the planet, stopped wars, made the oceans stop boiling, we stemmed the tide of chaos and very nearly destroyed their way of life. And the draconequus were right to hunt us down… only the strongest sense of order could survive. And I outlasted my sisters. Just as Frank N. Furter has outlasted his brothers. We are both prime examples of our kind. With each death of my sisters, I became stronger, absorbing their essence and what they had learned during their brief existence. Frank N. Furter did much the same, absorbing the essence and the life experience of every draconequus he encountered. Do you understand?”
“No!” Twilight shouted, flabberghasted.
“I helped to father a new reality?” Discord asked. “We helped to make a new reality Twilight!” Discord poked Twilight in the side.
Concordia nodded.
“Sorry about the mess. It had to happen. Concordia is cleaning up here. I uh, didn’t mean to be such a pain.” Frank N. Furter leaned on Concordia, a lovesick smile on his face.
“You are a harmonequus?” Twilight asked.
“Yes,” replied Concordia, “just as you are, or you will become, time and learning permitting. You were ascended into the equus race, you are capable of mothering all types of equus foals. Females of our race are the harmonequus species, while the males are the draconequus species. We exist to keep balance. Eventually, a state of stasis is achieved, where both sides are in true balance with one another, and the breeding season begins. You have witnessed this miraculous event. The breeding is a trying time, full of heartache and testing, and chaos runs rampant to allow for the process of creation. Eventually, order is restored. A new reality spawns, and the cycle continues. One day, this process will repeat itself in the reality that Frank N. Furter and I will create.”
“I am still so confused.” Twilight closed her eyes, trying to take everything in.
“You are without experience and unable to see everything. One day, I promise, all of this will make sense, should you seek understanding. You have the potential to ascend into something even greater.” Concordia touched Twilight with her wing, lifting her head up so they could look one another in the eye.
“This is starting to make sense.” Twilight opened her eyes and gazed into Concordia’s… she saw universes, new realities, endless realms of potential. Twilight suddenly felt very small and full of wonder.
Frank N. Furter looked down apologetically at his equine siblings, a sad look of regret upon his face. “I know you won’t understand, but I was compelled by forces beyond my control. I had to do what was done. I had to play my part.” Frank N. Furter slumped, looking guilty, and wrapped his tentacle around Concordia’s neck.
“Wait,” Twilight snapped, “was this all coercion? Did we have any choice in this matter at all? Do I actually love Trixie or am I forced into this, forced to play a role in all of this just to bring this about?”
Concordia smiled. “Be at peace Twilight Sparkle. While you can force lust and a mimicry of love, you cannot force actual love. All that can be done is to manipulate the universe to present you with your perfect soul mate and then give you the perfect conditions for that love to blossom.”
“What of the eggs?” Twilight demanded.
“What about them?” Frank N. Furter replied.
“I loved them!” Twilight retorted. “I felt compelled to watch over them.”
“That is a little different.” Concordia answered. “A whole new reality was at stake.”
“So Trixie is my soul mate?” Twilight inquired.
“Is that so difficult to comprehend? We often love those most like us.” Concordia smiled broadly, looking at the two mares now standing together.
“Trixie is very confused. But Trixie does not deny that she loves Twilight Sparkle.”
“Trixie and I are not at all alike…” Twilight trailed off.
Trixie snorted loudly and rolled her eyes.
“Both of you are the different versions of each other, had circumstances been slightly different. Trixie is what you might have been had you not hatched Spike’s egg, and you Twilight, you are what Trixie might have been had her circumstances been different. Both of you are so much alike.”
Twilight and Trixie both turned and stared at Fluttershy, who was looking at them serenely, Quadrashy pressing in all around her. Fluttershy’s words had a painful ring of truth to them.
“This is why I love her.” Discord grinned.
“So everything is being restored?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“Even as we speak.” Concordia replied.
“And what of every mother’s loss?” Twilight inquired.
“I do believe there are four precious gifts offered by the universe to compensate for that.” Concordia answered. “Everything comes at a price. Sacrifices must be made. There must be suffering. But everything balances out. If four perfect foals are not enough, take consolation in the knowledge that you had a part in the creation of a new reality, a new realm, a realm that will one day have millions, maybe billions of lives, and every soul that had a part in this convergence will have countless numbers of offspring they will never know.”
“We have to be born in a mass.” Frank N. Furter offered. “If there was only one of us, it would take thousands of years to learn what we need to know. But when there are thousands and thousands of us all at once, we all can all learn things, different things, new magics, new skills, new abilities, and then we absorb that knowledge as we absorb one another. It is a way of rapidly learning a lifetime of knowledge in a very short period of time.”
“That almost makes sense.” Twilight muttered, looking at her draconequus son sourly.
“We gotta go. I have strong biological and cosmological urges that I can barely contain.” Frank N. Furter announced.
Concordia giggled. “We have foals to make, a new reality to construct, lives to live, there is so little to do and so much time.”
“Look what we did Twilight.” Discord said. “Our son is all grown up and is settling down with a fine mare.”
Resent Discord for the subtle implications that somehow we had coitus ✓
“Will we ever see you again?” Trixie asked, her voice full of emotion.
“Maybe. I suppose we could stop by with the grandfoals.” Frank N. Furter replied. Concordia nodded as he spoke.
“This is quite a revelation. So every now and then, a new reality has to spawn, and this is how it happens.” Twilight said, thinking aloud.
Frank N. Furter kissed his mother, still looking apologetic. “Something has to continue all of this confusion.” He stroked Twilight’s ear with his tentacle as he spoke.
“This confusion is all an illusion. It really is a perfect sense of order.” Concordia offered. “Chaos is the only constant. It is the only real order there is. Understanding that is to know harmony.”
“I should ground you and forbid you from leaving the library for what you’ve done.” Twilight said, scowling, staring up at the draconequus that had just kissed her and touched her with one sucker covered tentacle.
Frank N. Furter kissed each one of his siblings on their heads, pausing to give Magenta a tight squeeze. Magenta resisted for a moment, and then squeezed back.
And then, Frank N. Furter and Concordia were gone.
Just gone. Vanished without a trace.
Begin to gather thoughts to explain all of this to Celestia ✓
“What just happened?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“I am still not totally sure.” Twilight answered honestly.
As her mind swirled with the recent events, Twilight had one terrible thought: What if Discord, Celestia, and Luna are related?
Twilight thought about the eggs…
Eew!
Begin great work to determine the nature of the relationship between Discord, Celestia, and Luna ✓
“Come on soul mate. I need private time alone with you and my family. Everypony else, scram. I need time to make sense of things.” Twilight said as she herded her family back indoors.