Luna rubbed her eyes, and sighed. She didn’t know how long ago she had recovered from the stars exploding, a few hours at least. She had spent all the time since then in the library. Hundreds of books and tomes surrounded her, forming a sort of fortress around her. Some were open, others had had anything that could serve as a bookmark shoved in them. Paper covered in scribbles that barely made any sense were strewn about, most waded up and thrown in frustration.
She was tired. Exhausted, actually. But she couldn’t stop. She had to find some monster, some spell, some thing, able to cause the horrific event she witnessed. The stars had literally exploded. Only something of immense power could achieve this, and it was still out there. And if they would destroy something as beautiful as the stars, she had no doubt that whatever it was had ill intent.
The most she had found was a biography of a biologist by the name of Wild Plains. Apparently, he had left the known regions to find new species on countries previously unknown. He was unheard of for years, and presumed dead until he wandered into a remote village, completely raving mad. The rest of his days were spent in an insane asylum, spouting gibberish. What had made this interesting was the last thing he wrote. A mess of scribbles, all repeating the same words: ‘Chaos,’ ‘Disorder,’ and something he called a ‘Draconequus.”
Upon further investigation, she had found that the village he had wandered into and spent the rest of his life in was the very village that was closest to the Everfree Forest.
Could that village have some connection to this catastrophe? But, the ponies there loved nature, and the skies, day or night…Didn’t they? Why would they do this? How could they this? The village was mostly Earth Ponies, with only a few Unicorns and Pegasi. There was no way they could do this…Perhaps they had joined with a dragon? They did have mighty magic indeed, and that could possibly be the reason for such an outlandish name as ‘draconequus.’ A rambling madman mixing the names of those responsible for his madness, perhaps?
Luna groaned, and tried in vain to rub away the pain in her head. It was still throbbing from earlier, and the added frustration of her failure to find the answer did not help. She had always been more of a ‘hooves on’ kind of pony. Celestia had always been more into books than her, and was better at research. Where in Tartarus was she!?
The sound of clicking of hooves echoing throughout the halls of the castle snapped her out of her internal rant. She jumped from her place at the table, sending a few books and papers scattering around the area, and rushed out of the library.
Knowing the castle as well as she did, she quickly found the source of the sound.
There Celestia was, skipping merrily through the castle halls, wearing a silly grin, as if there was nothing wrong in the world.
“TIA! TIA! I MUST DISCUSS SOMETHING WITH-” Luna yelled as she rushed towards her sister, almost in a frenzy.
The white alicorn cut her off with a pleasant smile.
“Oh, hello Luna! I have something I must tell you as well. Tonight I found-“
“THERE’S NO TIME FOR THAT!!” screamed Luna, reaching the end of her already shortened patience, and almost ready to strangle her sister for her apparent lack of concern for the current crisis.
“Alright, alright Luna, if it’s that important to you, you can go first. Goodness, you have no patience.”
This comment made Luna pause out of shock. Usually Celestia was so good at picking up on her mood. But, the pause only lasted a moment.
“Tia, the stars literally exploded! ALL OF THEM!” Luna exclaimed, and waited for her sister to spring into action, and help solve this calamity.
Only she didn’t. She merely glanced out the window out at the sky.
“Oh dear, so they have. I must not have noticed earlier. What a shame.”
This time, the pause lasted a little longer than a moment.
“W-what? That’s it? ‘What a shame?’ And how could you not notice?” Luna managed to squeeze out. “And how can you be so DAMNABLY CALM ABOUT THIS!?”
“Actually Luna, I believe you are overreacting. You can simply make them again, can you not?”
“W-well, yes I can but that isn’t-“
“Then there isn’t a problem, is there?”
“B-but something made them explode! We have to find the cause and end it immediately!”
Celesia gave an exasperated sigh.
“Very well, I shall cast a spell to locate the cause.”
Luna felt a wave of relief wash over her as Celestia ignited her horn. Surely, she would find the cause of this. Luna’s magic was nothing compared to her sister’s and nowhere near as elegant. Waves of golden light flowed from her horn like liquid fire, cascading around her, causing her rose mane to flow in a wind all its own. As the light grew in intensity, Luna suddenly felt a twinge of doubt enter her mind. Tia hadn’t done any research on this, and had apparently only learned about this whole situation a minute ago. How could she possibly know what to look for?
These doubts were forced out of her mind as the light became blinding, and a slight ringing started in her ears. The light grew brighter and brighter, until suddenly, it suddenly vanished. And Celestia stood pointing a hoof-
-directly at her.
“T-tia? I don’t understand…” Luna stammered, unable to comprehend her sister’s meaning of this display.
Celestia raised her brow, and gave Luna an accusatory look.
“Did not cross your mind that, perhaps, you were the cause? Perhaps when you were trying too hard to make the night sky your personal art project, and inadvertently caused the very thing that had worried you so?”
She lowered her hoof, and leaned down towards they were at eye level.
“You. You are the cause. Nothing more, nothing less. Now-” her face shifted to the same silly expression that she had held when she had arrived. “-I will tell about my night.”
A flurry of emotions rushed through Luna’s mind at her sister’s accusation. Shock, Sadness, Denial, Betrayal, Self-Doubt. But mostly Rage. Innumerable responses clamored for her favor, and she attempted to choose one that would make a suitable retort, but none could match how insulted she felt. After a few moments of incoherently sputtering out of anger, she finally let out a sigh, suddenly feeling too weary to argue. Obviously, she wasn’t going to be helpful in this endeavor, but she might as well extend the courtesy of hearing what she had to say.
“Very well, whatever.”
Celestia’s grin grew even wider, and she leaned in close to Luna’s ear, as if there was someone to overhear their conversation.
“I met someone.” She whispered, “On my hill.”
Luna’s jaw dropped, and her and her eyes widened.
“WHAT!? Have you lost your mind!? Did you forget what Mother and Father told us!? We gave our word that we would never let anypony-“
Celestia cut her off.
“Ah, but he is not a pony. His name is Discord. And he is so sweet and thoughtful, and he understands how I feel about not being able to talk to anyone…Well, except for you, but we always share everything. With him, everything is just so new!” She gave a wistful sigh. “He’s just…perfect.”
Luna opened her mouth to argue, but Celestia continued prattling on about this ‘Discord,’ and began regaling her with the story of how they had met. She seemed ecstatic about the whole thing, and so much more animated than she had been in recent memory. She felt as though she should feel happy for her sister, but she couldn’t shake a feeling of dread hanging over her, like a dark, unseen predator, ready to strike; she just didn’t like the sound of any of her sister’s tale.
“And he’s so intelligent! He even knows a lot about alicorns, and things even we didn’t know about ourselves! Here, let try something he showed me. It’ll feel really good, I swear.” Before Luna could object, she was buried under a white blur. As she recovered from the attack, Celestia touched the tip of her horn with a hoof, and then proceeded to drag it slowly down its length, to finally come to rest in her forehead.
While it did feel slightly odd (as most ponies’ horns tended to be a bit sensitive), she could not describe the feeling as ‘pleasurable.’ Seeing that the strange act did not produce the desired effect, the elder sister (while still resting on the younger’s barrel) tried again. And again. And again. Each failed attempt brought about another, each one faster and harder than the last. With each repetition, Luna’s head began to feel more and more like a blacksmith’s anvil, with Celestia’s sledgehammer of a hoof continuing its merciless onslaught.
Just as it seemed Celestia was about to dent her sister’s skull, she gave up.
“Shoot. I don’t think I can do it right.” She said dejectedly, her face falling into a rather childish pout. “And it’s so wonderful, I wanted you to feel it too…” She gazed mournfully at her hooves. “I suppose pony hooves simply are not up for the job. I guess you would need talons to do it…”
Then, her face lit up.
“I know! I’ll invite him here! I know he’ll love it here, and I know you’ll love him too! I’m going to meet back at the hill tomorrow, he said he had a surprise for me, and I’ll ask him then!”
She let out a high-pitched squeal, and began bouncing down the hall. “Oh there is so much to do! We have to make this run-down old castle presentable! Maybe when he gets here, he could help with fixing some of the holes in the roof! Did I mention that he is a powerful mage as well? Because he is! He make anything you can dream of out of thin air! Oh yeah!” She stopped and rushed back to where Luna was sitting, still stunned at her usually sensible sister make a fool of herself. Celestia reached into her make, and seemed to pull out a rather large chunk. However, it seemed to have been simply stuck to it, as she winced in pain slightly, and a few strands of mane were stuck to it.
“It’s called ‘Cotton Candy,’ and look!” she tapped like a raincloud, and a brown liquid began pouring out onto the floor. “It rains milk, only it tastes like chocolate! This is proof that he is powerful indeed!”
Luna had admit, however begrudgingly, that Tia was right about that. Although she didn’t dare to taste whatever this…thing produced, she could tell by the scent that this wasn’t simply on odd-colored cloud and rain. It seemed to be as her sister had claimed. But something like that shouldn’t be possible. Creating things out of nothing? Unheard of. For any kind of transmutation spell, one had to start with something. Summoning spells required sigils, and often offerings, to call even the smallest of targets fourth. The fundamental principles of magic, science and order stated that these sort of feats were impossible.
Hmm…Order…
Suddenly realization struck her. Order could not allow this, but what about chaos? Wasn’t that one of the words that poor Wild Plains had fixated on in his last days? Along with ‘Disorder’ and…some kind of odd creature as well? It was a longshot, she knew, but she felt this may be what she was looking for.
“Um, Tia? Can I ask you something?”
Celestia, who had continued rambling on about Discord despite only having known him for a single evening, stopped and gave Luna a pleasant smile. “Of course Lulu, what is it?’
Luna scratched the back of her head, trying to think of how to phrase her question.
“You mentioned that this ‘Discord’ wasn’t a pony, correct?”
Celestia cocked her head to the side, with a puzzled and slightly suspicious look on her face. “Yes, he is not a pony. Is that a problem?”
Luna quickly shook her head. “Nono! Not at all! I was just wondering, what is he? Griffons don’t travel this far west often, and zebras are rarely so forthcoming with their magic. If he is to visit, I would at least like to know what kind creature to allow past the castle’s defenses.”
Celestia relaxed, her warm smile returning. “Oh yes of course! How silly of me to forget that!”
As she looked Luna dead in the eyes, she noticed for the first time that her sister’s violet eye’s look rather dull, as well as her coat and mane. And to add to that, her expressions, while exuberant, seemed almost...false, even forced. Luna’s unease continued to grow, dreading the answer Celestia would give.
“He’s a Draconequus.”
As soon as Celestia hopped off to prepare for their visitor, Luna hurriedly returned to the library.
She had a lot of work to do.