//------------------------------// // Startling Discoveries // Story: Me and My Daughters // by ArcaneDust //------------------------------// Celestia’s mind was in complete turmoil. The morning had started like any other—she had woken up, taken a shower, and put on her regalia, just like her usual routine—but she hadn’t noticed that she had woken up as a MOTHER! A mother, of all things! Celestia had held numerous titles over the years—Princess, Teacher, and even Warrior—but never, in her many years of life, had she been a mother. She still couldn’t figure out what in Faust’s name had happened. Celestia thought back to the night before. She’d lowered the sun, had dinner with Luna, and then gone to sleep— nothing out of the ordinary! Yet somehow, she had woken up with two little fillies who called her 'mom.’ Celestia sighed deeply, remembering the worried looks on Twilight’s and Luna’s faces before she passed out; they surely were still worried. What a mother I am, leaving those little troublemakers without supervision... She chuckled at her own thoughts before realizing exactly what she had thought. Wait, I’m not their mother! Whatever spell is going on here is messing with my thoughts. I need to keep it together! She needed to figure out what exactly had happened first. The spell had affected reality, which meant that everyone else should have had a new set of memories, thus affecting their minds. Celestia gasped in realization; she only knew one type of magic powerful enough to alter ponies’ thoughts at mass scale. “Discord!” she exclaimed. As she planned how to find the elusive draconequus, she was interrupted by a loud popping sound, and a bright light signaling a teleportation. After the light died out, she could clearly see the aforementioned Spirit of Chaos sitting daintily on a pink cotton candy cloud. “Did you call, dear Celestia?” Discord asked, floating over the distressed princess, who was calming herself to avoid doing something regrettable. “Oh, did I do Something wrong?” he asked, oblivious to Celestia’s predicament. “Discord! I know what you did! You’ll have to turn Twilight and Luna back immediately!” The monarch growled as she stood up from her bed, glaring directly at Discord’s eyes. “But my dearest Princess, I don’t even know what you are talking about. I didn’t do anything to Twilight, much less to Luna,” he explained, dispelling the cloud with a snap of his fingers, before finding himself against a wall with Celestia’s horn pointing threateningly at him. “Discord, I do not appreciate being toyed with, Now tell me what you did,” Celestia growled, as Discord laughed nervously, escaping from his compromising position floating above the distressed Princess. “Celestia, I was with Fluttershy all day long, I couldn’t have done anything,” he explained, as Celestia frowned again. “Prove It!” Discord sighed exasperatedly; this was becoming more and more boring for him. “Fine. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye…” he said, conjuring a cupcake with his magic before slamming it into his eye. “Is that enough for you?” Celestia sighed as her magic died out. She knew, according to Twilight’s old friendship reports, that a ‘Pinkie Promise’ was certainly unbreakable, which meant that Discord couldn’t be lying about this. “Well, if you didn’t do anything, who did?” she asked, sitting on her bed again. “That’s for you to find out,” the draconequus replied, smiling smugly at Celestia’s confused frown. “What do you mean?” Celestia asked with disdain, watching Discord as he conjured a monocle and a fake moustache. “Well dear, I might have some idea about who could have done this,” he said, floating towards Celestia and caressing her cheek with his paw, “but it’s funnier if you figure it out by yourself.” “Discord! It’s not funny— tell me everything you know!” Celestia yelled, pushing Discord away from her. Discord thought for a second before making a green-striped shirt appear on his barrel. “You want a clue?” he asked, summoning a poorly drawn, blue dog. “Shall we give a clue to mean Celestia, Blue?” Discord questioned the mismatched dog, who barked nonsense in response, while the aforementioned princess raised an eyebrow at the exchange. “Blue doesn’t like you,” Discord stated, snapping his talon, making the dog and his shirt disappear, “but since I’m such a nice guy, y’know, I’m going to give you a teensy little clue,” he said. Approaching Celestia’s ear ever so slightly, he whispered a single word to her. “Nostalgia.” “That doesn’t even makes sense!” Celestia yelled, as Discord floated towards the door. “Oh, cheer up, ‘Tia. You’ll have plenty of time to solve this with your ‘student,’ and I’m sure Sunset will be extremely happy that you decided to pay her a visit,” Discord said, watching as Celestia fired a beam of golden magic with her horn. Wasting no time, he opened the door of the room and escaped hastily before the beam of celestial magic impacted with his tail. “DISCORD!!” Celestia yelled, before Discord closed the doors behind him. Just outside the door to the castle’s infirmary, two little alicorn fillies waited for their mother, troubled thoughts clouding their minds, and tear stains matting their fur. Suddenly, the infirmary door opened, and a yellow-coated unicorn stallion stepped out of the examination room to find the two worried young princesses waiting for him. “Is she going to be alright?” “She’s not dead, is she?” “Twilight! Why would you ask something like that?” Luna exclaimed, frowning at her sister, who leaned closer to the doctor in fear of what her fellow alicorn might do. “I had to!” Twilight retorted. Once again looking up to the doctor for an answer, Twilight asked, “Is my mom alright?” Slightly annoyed, the doctor raised his hoof and called out, “Girls!” Grabbing the fillies’ attention, he explained, “Your mother is going to be just fine. She just fainted.” Delivering a clipboard to the nearest nurse with his magic, he muttered under his breath, “Nothing interesting, I may add…” “But she was just talking to us when she suddenly fainted! That’s not normal! What if she has a brain tumor, or anemia, or—” “Princess Twilight!” the doctor shouted, his voice betraying how easily angered by the little princesses he could be. He took a deep breath; he had to wait until lunch to blow off some steam. He couldn’t just yell at Celestia’s daughters like that and come out of it alive. Luckily for him, his partner decided to intervene before he did something he might regret. “Umm, Doctor, may I?” a female, white-coated pegasus asked, approaching the children. “Sure, Doctor Cameron. They’re all yours— I’ll be with Wilson if you need me,” the stallion grumbled, walking towards the exit. “Okay, Doctor Horse!” she called. Turning to the expectant fillies, she said, “Now, what Doctor Horse meant to say, is that your mother is going to be just fine. She just needs to rest for a little while.” Doctor Cameron smiled sweetly as the fillies exhaled in relief. The midnight blue alicorn tugged at the doctor’s gown. “Can we go and see her?” Princess Luna asked with big, puppy-dog eyes. The defenseless doctor was about to deny the request, until the filly’s sister joined in the merciless attack. Doctor Cameron had to resist the urge to hug the little filly; she had to act professional, after all. “I don’t see why not, if she’s already awake,” she said, walking alongside the fillies to Celestia’s room. Suddenly, an angry yell shook the walls of the castle, startling both fillies and the doctor. “DISCORD!!” “Umm, I think she’s awake,” Twilight said, hiding behind her sister, who in turn was hiding behind Doctor’s Cameron hind legs. “And Uncle Discord is with her.” The cowering filly was proven correct, as a disturbed draconequus burst through the doors and slammed them shut behind him. Panting, he then looked at the couple of confused, slightly scared fillies and hovered beside them, ruffling their manes. “Hello, girls. I’m afraid your mother is a little indisposed at the moment, she…” He trailed off, looking at his burned tail. “…won’t be receiving anyone for the time being.” Twilight looked at him, a little shocked at the remark, but she managed to utter a few words. “I-Is she mad? With us?” she asked, approaching the floating draconequus. Discord chuckled, hugging the little alicorn tightly. “Of course she’s not mad— not with you two, at least. She’s just a little under the weather,” he replied, ruffling the fillies’ manes lightly. Twilight giggled at Discord’s antics. Sure, he was a little annoying, but her ‘uncle’ had changed a lot since he had been freed from stone. Even if he was a meanie the first time he broke out from his prison, he was good now, or so her mother said. Luna was still a little wary of him, and didn’t believe much of what he said. “Are you sure she doesn’t want to see us?” Luna asked, watching as the draconequus cast a simple healing spell on his tail. Discord smiled at the question. “I didn’t say anything about not wanting to see you. I think it’s okay if you two go alone and see how your mother is faring,” he responded. Luna beamed with excitement and pushed her sister towards the door. “See, she wants to see us!” she yelled, opening the door with her magic. “Mooom, are you there?” This is going to be FUN! Discord thought as he closed the doors behind the two siblings entering the room. Inside the room, a reluctantly calmer Celestia massaged her temples with her hooves, letting the words of the Spirit of Chaos sink in, before a high-pitched voice took her out of her trance. “Mooom, are you there?” The voice was certainly Luna’s. Celestia shivered at the words; she hadn’t heard Luna like this in a long, long time. She sighed. Trying to run away from this was pointless, so she decided to call her ‘daughter’s’ attention. “Yes, Luna— I’m here,” she said, hearing the hoofsteps approaching. As soon as Luna showed up on the threshold, she jumped in excitement and buzzed her little wings towards her mother, with Twilight following behind. Celestia soon found herself being hugged to death by two alicorn fillies; against such an attack, she had no choice but to hug back, old memories resurfacing in her mind. After a few minutes, the fillies broke the embrace and sat beside their mother in the bed, looking up at her with worried and somewhat confused expressions. Celestia, deciding to break the silence, thought carefully about her next words. Unfortunately for her, little Twilight had other ideas. “We were so worried! I thought you were sick or-or…” Twilight sniffed a little and leaned into her mother’s soft fur, trying to calm herself. Celestia couldn’t help but lean down to nuzzle Twilight affectionately. Twilight looked up at her with those big, watery eyes that melted Celestia’s heart. “Oh Twilight, don’t be sad. I was a little under the weather this morning, but I’m okay now— see? Mommy is fine.” Those last words felt very strange coming off her tongue. Twilight sniffed quietly as she rejoiced in her mother’s embrace. When Luna breathed a deep sigh, Celestia looked over at her and pulled her close with a wing. “What’s wrong Lulu?” she asked, using the nickname she had given Luna all those years ago. Luna always got mad when she used it, but Celestia hoped that in this new form, the results may be different. “I just thought that since you’re kinda sick, we weren’t going to Ponyville anymore…” Luna trailed off, looking at her mother with big, sad eyes that Celestia simply couldn’t refuse. “Who said that we weren’t going?” Celestia asked in a mock-angry tone, while her daughters looked at her in confusion. “Bu-but you—” Twilight started. “But nothing, I’m fine. Why don’t you two go and call Miss Ivory for a carriage, while I prepare some things that I have to bring,” she said, giggling as the two fillies jumped off the bed in excitement. “Really, Mom?” Luna asked, bouncing along with her sister in glee, then shooting out of the door as soon as her mother nodded. Twilight stayed behind for a moment, walking towards Celestia and hugging her leg affectionately. “Thanks, Mommy,” she said, before running after her sister. Celestia laid in the bed for a moment, thinking on how would she manage the situation. Discord had said that he knew who was responsible for the spell; maybe Fluttershy could help her with the elusive draconequus in Ponyville. Fluttershy always has an effect on him— perhaps she would help me… In order to do that, though, I must first explain this crazy situation— she might not believe me. And what about Sunset? If I go and tell her that she isn’t really my student, and that she is trapped in another world, she will think that I’m just messing with her… Oh, what to do! Her thoughts were interrupted by someone entering her room, a white pegasus that she recognized as her assistant, Ivory Note. “Your Highness, how are you feeling? Your daughters told me that you were planning to go to Ponyville. Are you sure you’re alright? The doctors could do more tests to deter—” “Please, Ivory. I’m feeling quite alright, and I think that my daughters and I really need some time away from the castle,” Celestia explained, rising from her bed. The pegasus nodded in understanding. “Of course, Princess. We are just worried about your well-being.” “I appreciate the concern, Ivory. Now if you could do me a favor, Twilight and Luna have already told you about the carriage, haven’t they?” she asked, walking alongside her assistant. Ivory chuckled at the mention of the little princesses. “Yes, they were pretty excited about going to Ponyville. I almost crashed with them when they found me,” she said, stepping into a big, ornate hallway. “The carriage is outside, and judging by your daughters’ excitement, they’re likely already inside.” Celestia laughed at her assistant’s remark, walking towards the door that led to the gardens. “Thank you for your help, Miss Note. Please be sure to cancel all my appointments for today,” she said, as Ivory nodded. “I’ll be back before dusk.” As she stepped into the golden carriage beside her daughters, Celestia’s mind was still clouded with various thoughts, most of them about Sunset Shimmer. My Student… she thought sadly. She hoped she could maintain a straight face during her visit. It had really been a while since she had last seen Sunset. “Do you think Sunset will be surprised?” Twilight asked Luna. The midnight blue filly nodded excitedly as she approached the edge of the carriage, before being stopped by her mother’s golden magic. She won’t be the only one… Celestia thought, sighing heavily. It was going to be a tough day.