The sound of a single set of hooves reverberated through the empty castle halls as the lone Alicorn walked aimlessly through them. Her eyes were lidded, head hung slightly and her every breath was almost a sigh.
In the letter her sister had left her before she had left she said that Luna would have to raise the sun and the moon by herself but the youngest found every morning the sun had risen without her aid. She surmised Celestia had changed her mind and was thankful for that.
Luna’s brow became furrowed as her thoughts turned to her sister. No way in a million years did she think she’d run away with that beast and yet here she was roaming the halls of her castle in the dead of night. Instinctively she had sent guards out to look for her sister but none returned successful. Even though he was only part snake Discord was still as slippery as one and twice as poisonous. In a last ditched attempt she had asked her sisters former student Twilight and her new girlfriend Rarity if they knew of her sisters’ whereabouts but both of them said profusely that they knew nothing about what had happened.
She missed her. Taking over her place wasn’t as hard as she thought and so far no complaints had been made against her ruling so at least she was getting the attention she had craved ever since before the ‘Nightmare’ incident but still part of her, strike that, most of her yearned for her sisters guidance.
Luna sighed deeply and gazed out the window at her beloved moon. In a fleeting second, almost as if it was meant just for her, she saw the silhouette of two ponies flying across it before they faded into the black sky. Her fallen face flickered to a hint of a smile, her night was not as empty as she had once thought.
She wondered if her sister was happy wherever she was. If she regretted her actions. Pain pierced her momentarily as she thought of her sister unhappy and her flicker of a smile faded, she couldn’t bear the thought of her beloved sister in some forsaken jungle trapped with a childish monster.
Distant hoof-steps caught her attention and she turned to the source, a castle guard approached her.
“Princess Luna! I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” The guard didn’t seem concerned but had an urgent tone. Luna wondered what could be happening this late at night.
“What is the matter?” She tried to dispel any aura of sadness that she was carrying away as she looked at her guard.
“There is a unicorn that claims to know the whereabouts of Princess Celestia, she says she’ll only talk to you.” Luna’s eyes widened at that, she hoped to the heavens above that this somepony wasn’t lying. She desperately needed information about her sister.
Luna followed the guard hastily until they were at the front doors to the grand palace. There was a pony in-between two other guards standing in the middle of the doors archway, a cloaked unicorn with dull olive skin.
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Indeed, Luna’s night was more alive than she had thought. Discord was pacing in her moonlight after giving up on sleeping. Celestia kept tossing in her sleep no matter what he did, granted he only tried pulling the covers over her head and stroking her mane a little but he still tried.
Celestia was going to be a tough nut to break, he was sure of it. She was trying, bless her, but Discord still wanted more improvement quicker.
“I’m so impatient.” He muttered to himself. It was true though so he didn’t ponder that further and focused his thoughts on how he could possibly get former royalty to be like him. As Discord tried to brainstorm he absentmindedly formed a ball in his hands tossing it from claw to paw, his thoughts became sidetracked as the ball veered mid toss and rolled across the grass away from him.
With a playful swish of his tail Discord grinned and lowered himself ready to sneak up on the ball which was slowing down but still rolling away, he pounced on it like a cat only to have it shoot away from him and levitate above his head, if he didn’t know any better he would say something of his own creation was taunting him.
Using this as a distraction from the serious topic he was trying to delve into he chased the ball around the campsite like a predator chasing it’s small rubber prey, a good five minutes of ball-chasing had passed before Celestia was woken up by the noise of him running around grunting and muttering. She stood in the tent doorway and looked sleepily at Discord as he batted the ball around on the ground.
“What are you doing?” The tired alicorn gave a small smile as wide diluted eyes looked her way. Discord coughed and stood up straight, returning to his usual manner.
“I had a cat moment. It happens to the best of us.” Before Celestia could argue against that he had passed her and went to their bed. Giving up she crawled in beside him still smiling slightly.
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The next day they had agreed throwing Celestia into the deep end of the pool put way too much pressure on her so Discord set up a few things that he thought could help, even slightly, to them living a perfect chaotic life like he wanted.
“Ok, I’ll say one thing and you say the first thing that pops into your head, got it?” He was sitting opposite Celestia, bending over slightly so he was eye level with the sitting alicorn.
“Yes I think I understand.” Celestia said sarcastically and smiled at him.
“Mirror.”
“Reflection.”
“Table.”
“Chair.”
“Marshmallow.”
“Sweets.”
“Wrong.”
“Right.”
“No, I meant you’re wrong.” The draconequus sighed deeply and rolled his eyes, flapping his wings to help him stand up before walking away. Celestia paused for a second before following.
“What? But you can’t be wrong on those things, you just say what you think.” She thought over her answers one more time.
“No. Those things you said made sense. Hello!” He gestured to nothing in particular. “We’re not here to make sense, my dear! We’re here to do the opposite!” With another eye roll he produced a clipboard and wrote something down, Celestia guessed it was about her and groaned.
Practise number two involved magic.
Discord had given Celestia a generous two minutes to turn three ordinary objects into chaotic counterparts; a rock, a tree and another but slightly different rock.
Celestia stared at the objects trying to think of something random or fun that she could turn them into, the more she thought about them the more she was confused.
Was there really a right answer?
What was considered ‘random’ or ‘chaotic?’ What was the cut off point?
Well I guess I wouldn’t know straight out. Celestia thought to herself. I don’t know this kind of thing. What exactly is ‘random’ in that sense? I suppose if I turned something into something completely unrelated then it’d be random but would it really work? I know that this’ll come to me in time but really even chaos has defined rules on what is right and what is not, should I ask about them? I’m sure it’d be along the lines off ‘it can’t be anything that looks like the original object or is like the original object in anyway.’. It’s odd how rules for chaos don’t really make sense but really it can-
“Times up.” Discord pressed on the stopwatch he was holding and shook his head disapprovingly. “You do realise you just stared at a rock for two minutes?” Celestia winced a little apologetically.
“I’m sorry. I had a little argument with myself over what is and isn’t ‘random’ and couldn’t decide.” She partially lied. Having a philosophical debate out of nowhere was one of the reasons she was a good monarch but as a chaotic partner it wasn’t really a good feature. Discord, obviously bored and annoyed, groaned and fell back landing on a plush armchair that wasn’t there before.
“I give up for now.” He sunk into his chair more. “Take five. Or ten, I don’t care... I’m...” He stood up lethargically. “Going to frighten some squirrels or something.” With that he disappeared in a flash of light. Celestia stood looking at where he used to be and sighed.
She really wasn’t the best student. Something about him though made her want to please him so no matter how long this took she would keep trying.
“My sister.” Celestia’s mouth hung open as she heard her sisters voice. That was the thing about darkness. It was silent, hidden. You never noticed it until you really open your eyes. The only think keeping her from blending into the shadows of the trees was the whites of her eyes. “I need to speak to you.” Her voice was soft and worried as she walked out of the shadows, the voice that Celestia used when they were younger and Luna was beginning to get envious. A voice of true concern, not anger.
“Luna...” Celestia couldn’t think of anything at this point so she simply lowered her head, letting Luna say whatever she had to say.
“I spoke with this unicorn. She said she met you yesterday.” Celestia nodded in confirmation. “Did she tell you what she felt?”
“She said his magic MIGHT be having an influence on me, Luna!” Celestia knew where she was going with this. “I am more powerful than him, I know my own mind and I don’t let anyone else choose my choices for me.”
“Celestia, that’s not what-”
“Please Luna, I know what I’m doing. I’m happy. I know what’s happening and what’s going to happen in the future isn’t what you thought our future would be like but my destiny has led me on this path and I’m going to see it through.” Celestia stood up straight, towering over her. “Don’t pity me for I am an adult and I make my own choices, even though they may not make sense to you.”
Luna looked her straight in the eyes, trying to read her.
“Whatever you say, my sister.” Luna broke the gaze, flaring her wings out. “As long as you know about it and you’re ok with it... That was my real concern.” Celestia couldn’t stand Luna’s patronising tone and turned away from her. She was speaking like Celestia was the younger one here, the less mature and unable to choose her life for herself. “Just, promise me you’ll contact me more often... Tell me you’re healthy.” Celestia’s face softened at that.
“I shall.”
Luna paused for a second to see if her sister would say more then took off and was soon out of sight. Celestia watched as she faded into the distance and sighed wearily, lowering herself to the ground and laying on the soft grass.
Her sadness was broken by a rustling, she looked to see Discord peeking out of the bushes.
“Is she gone?” He whispered. Celestia smiled and nodded, the draconequus slithered out and lay beside her. “Well that was odd. I could of sworn she was here to beat me up or something.” He nuzzles Celestia’s mane absentmindedly.
“She was just worried...” Celestia said quietly, finding herself too upset to speak any louder. Discord noticed this and stood up, clapping his hands together and smiling wide.
“Well! We need to keep working. We really should take out minds off the failures of today and start working on some winning.” He walked around their campsite and set a few things up.
“Good idea... We have a lot ahead of us.”
How true those words were.