Endless Sky

by Algorhythm

Chapter 10

-10-

The doors to the throne room opened. From the hallway a short unicorn was ushered onto the red carpet, where the guards left her to walk on alone. She stared at them pleadingly, but they simply closed the doors behind her.

Born in the castle, the unicorn - Quick Wit - was currently employed in the royal archives. Her mane was a mess of fire-red curls. It clashed vividly with her light-brown coat which was dotted with darker spots.

She was about the same age as Celestia’s former student, Twilight Sparkle, having attended the same school for a short period of time. After magic kindergarten she was frequently the flank of the joke - Twilight had learned her first spell long before she did. Her talents in magic progressed slowly and while her cutie mark showed an aptitude for magic - a fireball chasing and chased by a ball of water - it was more specific to the chaotic nature in which she performed it. In laypony’s terms, she couldn’t do magic “by the book”.

Quick Wit did have a talent for speed, however. The spells she could just throw together were faster than any other pony. As an archive worker she could copy hundreds of pages an hour - very useful for those tomes that were falling apart and needing to be sealed away for their own good.

She was terrified. In all her years in the castle, she had never once been reprimanded for her work and she preferred not to be rewarded. But moments ago, Celestia’s personal guards grabbed her from the royal library on the princess’ orders. Knowing full well what the princess did to her private quarters last night, she could only pray that she would be fired instead of mangled.

The unicorn walked forward, keeping her head low, casting her eyes to the ground. When she thought she had approached close enough she bowed deeply.

“Rise, Quick Wit,” Celestia spoke.

Quick Wit did as she was told, keeping her gaze towards the floor. Her heart was pounding in her chest.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you.”

She nodded.

Celestia’s horn glowed, lifting something from beneath her chair, settling it in front of the terrified unicorn, “As you know, certain events have led me to summon leaders from all over Equestria to Canterlot.”

Quick Wit nodded. Late last evening, she had guards physically drag Headmaster Bright Light into the castle, just to have him summon all of his constituents, when she could have done the same thing herself. She had heard the princess shouting every time the throne room doors were open. Despite the now calmer atmosphere, she still had no clue what Celestia wanted from her.

“This is a problem Equestria cannot handle on its own,” Celestia continued. “Those who awoke last night and took my niece away once brought the world to its knees. The kingdoms of the world were lucky that someone was brave enough to make a stand. That won’t happen a second time.”

Celestia rose from her chair. She walked down to the trembling figure until they were only a foot from one another, “The world needs to unite against this evil. It is high time I invited them for a meeting. Which brings me to why you are here.”

Quick Wit looked up, daring to meet the princess’ gaze.

“I require someone that can write quickly and adapt to the fast-paced nature of diplomacy. There will be much work to be done.”

The unicorn could barely move, let alone form a response.

“I would like to appoint you as the Kingdom’s Head Diplomat.”

“I... I am honored, your majesty,” Quick Wit manged, bowing low. “Although, I lack experience in diplomatic matters. Moreover, I wouldn’t want that to project the wrong image-”

Celestia held up a hoof. “Experience comes with time, Quick Wit. I need someone with a fresh mind to work with the circumstances at hoof. Most of my diplomats are too stuck in the past five years to adapt quickly enough.”

Quick Wit nodded.

“Now, I believe the leaders from all over Equestria should arrive in a few days. In the meantime, we have much to discuss.”

--*--

“STUPID DAWN!”

Dusk hurled her sister’s practice orb across the room with her magic, smashing it right into the far wall. It dented the wall before landing with a soft thud on the floor.

“STUPID TRAINING!”

Her magic lashed out once more, grabbing hold of the pedestal that held her own practice orb. She hurled it a foot from her, before collapsing to the ground. She took deep breaths, gasping every time she tried to speak.

“Stupid... Discord...”

In her tantrum, she had used up almost all of her magic in a wild, uncontrolled frenzy. Books were scattered all over the room, some were even in pieces. Ink wells lay where they landed leaving pools of black ink all around the bottle.

Despite feeling superficially better from destroying the room, it rang hollow. Tears flowed freely from her eyes. She started sobbing into the floor, too tired to cover her face with her hooves. Nothing she did could fill the hole in her heart that her sister left behind.

It wasn’t just her either. Luna hadn’t stirred from her room to raise the moon in almost three days. The only reason she still ate any food was because Dusk brought it to her. Even then, she barely touched it.

Celestia was the complete opposite. Her court bustled with activity since the incident, leaving her completely isolated from her family members.

But she wasn’t alone. Guards stood at the entrance to every room she was in, even posting themselves outside each window to cover the entrance. Bright Light’s colleagues at the school came in and cast spells to protect her room and several others. It was like she was living in a fortress.

The door to the practice room opened. Her teacher, poked his head around the corner, finding it relatively darker than the last time he had entered.

“Dusk?” Bright Light closed the door behind him. He used his magic to pick up one of the lamps from the ground and turning it back on. The mess in the room was much clearer now, stopping him from entering any further. Bright Light closed his eyes. Cunning expected a reaction like this from Dusk much earlier, but he brushed the concern aside, returning into his assumed persona, “Are you alright?”

Dusk shook her head, still unable to stop from crying.

The papers floated up into the air combining into a neat pile. Bright Light willed them over to the desk in the back, turning his attention to the ink spills, “Do you want to tell me why the room is such a mess?”

The filly shook her head once more.

Her teacher sighed, “It was about Dawn, wasn’t it?”

She hesitated for a moment before nodding her head.

“I... I wish I was there to help.” Bright Light frowned, “But I wasn’t. What matters now is that I’m helping to get her back.”

Dusk’s initial rage returned. She started yelling again, “ITS NOT FAIR!” Her voice was hoarse with emotion, slowly quieting, “Why did he take my sister?”

Bright Light lifted Dusk onto his back, hovering the books back to the shelves one by one. It wasn’t going to be easy to explain something so complicated to the young filly. But he had to try.

“There are many different kinds of ponies in this world. Most of them are good ponies - ponies who don’t want any harm to come to anypony else. But-” He paused for a moment, “there are some ponies who only want people to be sad. They might even want to see ponies get hurt. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “Does he want to hurt Dawn?”

He closed his eyes, “I don’t know. Out of all of the bad ponies, Discord is one of the worst. He wants nothing more than to see ponies hurt and confused, even convincing friends to hurt one another.

“But more than anything else, he wants to hurt Princess Celestia in any way he can. I know losing Dawn caused you and your mother so much pain. But it hurts Princess Celestia far more to see you both heartbroken and that she could have been awake to protect all of you.”

Dusk nodded wiping the remaining tears from her eyes.

“He hurt you by taking your sister away. Crying just shows him how hurt you are. Do you want him to be happy from taking Dawn away?” Bright Light set the filly down on the ground.

Her face hardened. A look of determination came over her features. “No,” she growled.

“Are you going to be tough?” Her teacher asked.

“Better than that,” she walked to the center of the room, lifting her practice orb with whatever magic she had recovered and smashing it onto the ground, “I’m going to get her back.”

Bright Light beamed at her student, “How can you do that if you spend all of your magic throwing books all over the room?”

“Discord made me sad, but he’ll never do it again. I’ll study and study until I can bring her back!”

“Then I guess we have some work to do.” Bright Light hovered Dawn’s orb over to the desk, “Are you ready to start learning?”

“Yes. For Dawn.”

--*--

“Fillies, Gentlecolts, I’m quite pleased you were all able to make it in such short time,” Celestia spoke. She sat at the end of a long table lined with unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, as well as Zebras and Gryphons. In just three days, nearly every leader - Equestrian or not - on this side of the ocean had gathered. Those leaders that could not be present made their appearance known through diplomats in the city.

“We came as quickly as we could, your majesty,” a unicorn spoke. His mane was a deep gray, falling loosely over his tan coat. There was a deep wisdom behind his twinkling green eyest, “The Royal Province of the Southern Reaches has always been loyal to the crown. I, Duke Desert Wind, am honored to be of service.”

Celestia smiled politely. Desert Wind was always overly formal, even when she paid a strictly non-royal visit to their beautiful beaches, “I trust the journey didn’t tire you too greatly?”

The unicorn shook his head, “The magics of the wind are as effortless for myself as they have always been. It was not a problem.”

The princess nodded. Desert Wind had been a magic teacher many years ago. His special talent was the uncanny knack for wind and teleportation spells. He once traversed the entire Equestrian coast in a little over a week, without perishing from overuse of magic. A feat unrivaled by anypony in the last 30 years.

She turned her head to the pegasus mare, neatly re-adjusting her papers on the desk, “And Peace Bloom.” The pegasus looked up and smiled, leaving her hooves together, “It has been a long time since we last spoke. How was your journey?”

The diplomat readjusted her seating, shifting into a more comfortable position, “Short.” The lavender pegasus moved a strand of her deep blue mane out of her eye, “I happened to be bringing a report from Skymount when your messenger caught me in midflight.”

Skymount was rather far west, on the far reaches of the mountains before the Buffalo Plains. The combination of lakes, rivers, and mountains in that area made the hills plush and green. It was an ideal location for weather production and was far away from what most pegasi now considered ‘tainted skies’. Instead of rebuilding Cloudsdale after the war, the remaining survivors, their families, and many pegasi living abroad made an exodus for the great mountain. There were numerous reasons for rebuilding in that particular location, but most were not important to the rest of the inhabitants of Equestria.

Their participation was crucial - especially since many pegasi had been killed in the short civil war.

“I appreciate you staying longer, despite the missions your city set for you.”

The guards at the front of the room closed the doors. Any of the ponies who had been mingling with other diplomats made their way back to their seats.

“Thank you all for coming. It is of utmost importance that you understand the peril this world is in.” She stood up, looking down each of the leaders before continuing, “Three nights ago, one of the world’s oldest evils - Discord, Prince of Chaos - awoke and foalnapped my niece, Dawn.”

The ponies in the room froze in place. Several of the other races diplomats spoke quietly with one another.

Celestia held up a hoof to quiet them, “I know that for some of you, this doesn’t seem especially concerning. Historically, he has only been concerned with Equestria. I suspect this is no longer the case. His advisors have joined him in his awakening. No doubt, he will start influencing uprisings across the world to fit his need for utter chaos.”

“Princess Celestia, I hardly see how this should be a concern for the Ryalik Empire. We are quite capable of defending our lands from bandits, thugs, and even armed invasions - not to say our relationship has or will ever fall to that point,” one of the gryphon diplomats spoke. He crossed his arms.

“We are in a similar quandry,” spoke the Zebra diplomat. “Our people are scattered across our lands and there is little food and water beyond what it used to feed us.”

“At the moment, your kingdoms are safe. But if he is not stopped as quickly as possible, Discord will expand his efforts to encompass your homes.” Celestia’s gaze softened, “I have no doubt he is enlisting Starfall’s former followers to promote his violent agenda. Unlike a disciplined army, they will not care about who or where they attack. They are also not concerned with resources - just control through chaos.”

“You have my condolences for your loss, Princess. We will speak to the leaders of the Empire, but I expect these warnings will be unnecessary, as we are already well prepared. Expect contact in the upcoming days,” the gryphon bowed. Celestia nodded in return. The gryphon ambassadors left the room, leaving an awkward silence to linger in the air.

“We will assist you as we are able. Although we may not fully understand the threat you speak of, we still have a duty to protect ourselves and our friends. We will send word when we reach the Elder Council. May you find what you seek, Princess Celestia.” The zebras also stepped out of the room, speaking in an unintelligible tongue.

When the doors closed again, the Princess let out a sigh, “I truly hope that you are all ready for the unexpected. You may garner a militia if absolutely necessary, but I pray it won’t come to more violence.” She looked around the table at the extra space on the other end. After the civil war, three of the provinces split away from Equestria, claiming a need to self govern. Each province had its own personal reasoning, which was just a cover for their complicated political situations.

“Princess?” Peace Bloom offered.

“How ready are we overseas?” Celestia asked one of the other pegasi.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, “We’re used to fighting monsters in the mountains, but nothing more than that. Starfall was too far away to affect us, so we don’t see any of his followers in the towns and cities.”

“That just leaves the former provinces,” Peace Bloom said. “They were hit hard by the Civil War in terms of casualties. There is still a lot of discontent over some of the decisions made then. Which is why they left the kingdom. No doubt, there are plenty of ponies who are willing to fight with Discord.”

“I agree. However, our first priority is to find Dawn. Destroying Discord is secondary,” Desert Wind hovered a glass of water to his lips.

Nods of agreement passed around the table. Celestia closed her eyes, “Quick Wit, take a letter.”

The unicorn stepped in front of

“I, Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria, issue the following decree:

“Equestria’s greatest evil, Discord, Prince of Chaos, has been released, along with his advisors Cunning, Victory, Vengeance, and Darkest Hour. Each are wanted for high crimes against the Kingdom of Equestria, including murder, treason, and kidnapping.

“Any pony who sees these criminals must report them to the nearest guard or royal barracks. Any pony found to be assisting any of the aforementioned criminals are to be regarded with the same caution and held under the same accusations.

“If deemed necessary, guards and authorized individuals in all cities have permission to use lethal force against hostile individuals fitting this description. However, use extreme caution, as Discord and his compatriots may attempt to use hostages.

“The fate of Equestria hangs in the balance once more. I know you will do what is necessary to protect the Kingdom, and the world, from this looming darkness.”

Comments

[Sgt. Brony]

And now the plot thickens, can't wait for the next chapter.