No Elements, No Harmony

by Fret

Knowing the Unreal

The three alicorns tip-toed through the hallways, praying silently they wouldn't be discovered, whether it was an ally or not. They knew nothing of this world, and history lessons was the only answer they had right now.

"Okay... here's the library," Celestia breathed out. She'd been holding her breath ever since the entered the castle. "Now, me and Twilight will research anything about this place. Luna, I want you to keep watch."

"Alright," her sister nodded, putting on a serious face to listen out for hoof steps.

"I get to study with my old mentor! This is great!" Twilight exclaimed, only to be hushed by Luna.

"Unless we get caught," she muttered.

"Come on Twilight, we have to be quick," Celestia prompted her into the library. The lavender alicorn trotted in there, and she followed, leaving Luna outside.

"This library looks in the same condition as it does now in our world..." Twilight said, surprised. "Don't they have any respect for these books? Mine got blown up!"

"Well, they're readable, that's all that matters." But you're right, they should respect my books... Celestia thought to herself.

--

Luna was starting to think this was pointless. There were no sounds but her own breathing in this hallway. Maybe nopony even lived here...

"Queen Solar Flare!" A voice called out. It made Luna jump out of surprise, and her first instincts were to hide. She crouched behind a nearby pillar, listening as the hoof steps came closer. She could make out a bat pony guard walking through the hall, unassumingly looking for that pony he had called earlier.

Wait.

Queen Solar Flare? One, why was an unknown Queen in her and Celestia's old castle, and two, who is this Queen?

"Queen! Your sister is waiting for thou in the throne room!" The pony seemed to be speaking to somepony she couldn't see. Luna looked to her right, and saw an orange glow coming from around the corner. She kept staring as the glow got brighter, until he pony causing stepped into vision. Luna's jaw dropped. A luminous white alicorn, bigger than herself, surrounded by a flame-illusion for a mane and tail, and a white flare escaping her eyes.

But that's not what shocked her.

"Well my sister needs to learn a thing or two about patience."

That was Celestia's voice.

---

"You want me to do what now?" Discord raised as brow.

"Well... Princess Celestia and Princess Luna tested a spell and now they've disappeared. We need you to raise the sun and moon," Spike explained.

"Where did they go exactly?" the draconequus smirked.

"We don't know!" Rainbow Dash yelled, loosing her patience.

"Will you do it? Please?" Fluttershy smiled.

"I didn't say I wasn't going to," Discord laughed, "but what exactly were those three doing?"

"Celestia wanted to complete a spell Starswirl gave to her long ago, and got help from Luna and Twilight," Applejack explained fully.

"Will that sunbutt ever learn..." Discord muttered to himself.

"Oh, and, Discord?" Rainbow asked, "Why are you upside down?" She stared at the draconequus as he hung from a branch with his tail wrapped around it several times.

"Why are you rightside-up?" he retorted.

---

"Everything here is the same!" Celestia grunted, "Is there any difference whatsoever to my library?"

"Well, I haven't found the Elements of Harmony guide. That's all though." Twilight shrugged, still looking through the shelves.

"Wait... you haven't?" the sun princess' interest perked, "Have you looked in mine and Luna's old reading room?"

"No... Oh! That gives me an idea. Maybe your journal tells something about this Equestria's history."

"Oh yea- wait. You read mine and Luna's journal...?"

"Err... maybe?" Twilight gave an innocent grin.

"I didn't write anything personal in there, did I?"

"Not that I remember."

"...Good," she sighed with relief. Twilight watched her as she activated the doorway to her room, and they both walked in to look for the journal.

"Weird. I found it on here," she commented as she put her hooves on the stand where the journal had been set for goodness knows how long back at home.

"It's alright, I found it," Celestia told her, as she levitated the book from the shelf. "I think I know why you didn't find it there. After I banished my sister, I read the journal to help myself get over the depression. It helped a little, but I decided that maybe it would be best to leave it where I found it."

"Oh. Wait... you went through depression?" Twilight's eyes widened.

Her former mentor nodded. "I went through the five stages of grief, to be honest. It took probably years to get through them," she shook her head, as if erasing a memory. "but, that's the past. Luna's here with me, that's all that matters," she said, as she opened the book and began reading.

"Princess... if it's alright with you, can I ask you a question?"

Celestia looked down at her and smiled. She walked over to one of the beds and summoned Twilight to sit next to her. The younger princess trotted to her side.

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to face anything half as hard that you did... what if something like that came up in my life?" Twilight sighed, opening the journal to re-read the adventures the two sisters had went through.

Celestia paused for a moment. "I'm sure you could handle it." She gave Twilight a motherly nuzzle.

"You think so?" Twilight still sounded uncertain, and kept looking through the journal.

"You handled Discord, despite him having corrupted your friends," she pointed out.

"That's another thing I've wanted to ask you for a while. How did you know to send me back those friendship letters? If you hadn't... I would've given up."

"I didn't. Discord managed to corrupt me-"

"He what?" Twilight's jaw dropped. "But how did he..."

"I have my weaknesses Twilight, just as you, your friends, anypony."

"How did he corrupt you though?"

The sun princess blinked. "He showed me what he had done to you all, and told me that whenever I used the elements it broke my heart. Which is... not entirely false."

They were both interrupted by Luna stumbling in the reading room, panting.

"Luna? What's wrong?" Celestia got up and ran over to her. Luna didn't reply, just buried her muzzle into her older sister's chest.

"I want to get out of here! We have to get out of here!" she cried, tears possibly falling down her face. Twilight couldn't tell from her angle.

"Wha- why?" the younger princess asked, coming to stand next to her.

"I just want to leave!"

"Luna..." Celestia held her head up with her hoof. "You've seen something. What was it?"

---

"You want me to do what now?" Princess Cadance put her hoof on her mouth.

"WE JUST EXPLAINED IT!" Rainbow Dash yelled, but covered her mouth straight afterwards. "I mean... yeah. Just rule Equestria until they get back."

"Please excuse Rainbow. She's stressed about one of our best friends disappearing, she just won't admit it," Rarity smirked.

"It's fine. And I'd be fine doing that, but I'm afraid I can't raise the sun or moon for you..."

"That okay. We've got Discord on that," Applejack grinned.

"Oh. So the Princesses weren't drunk this morning? Or high on caffeine?" Cadance raised a brow.

Pinkie giggled, "Nope! That was all Dis- wait, drunk?"

---

Maybe it was just a coincidence that she sounded like her sister. Or two coincidences she supposedly lived here. Or three coincidences that she was a princess - no, queen.

Or they really where in another dimension.

Luna followed her 'sister', doing her best to stay in the shadows. And... what was this other 'sister' that Celes- Queen Solar Flare was talking about. Why would she ever decide to rule with this?

Well, keep following her and she may find the answer. She watched as the bat pony guard stood by the entrance, along with another whom looked very similar that was already there. Solar Flare walked in the thrown room with her head high, probably looking at who would be Luna's counterpart. How would she find out though? There were two guards at the entrance, and she couldn't risk teleporting in just in case she appeared right in front of their faces. All she could do now is listen.

"What took you so long?" That sounded a lot like her voice. Just... slightly deeper.

"Nothing. I'm on time if you recall when we timed this meeting?" Solar Flare retorted.

Then it came to her. That was her voice, she could trick these two guards to leave. She'd just have to make her voice sound slightly deeper.

"My two guards, this is a private matter. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Surprisingly, she didn't have to strain her voice to deepen it.

"That was nicer than usual," one of the guards whispered.

"Don't question the Queen... remember last time?" the other one answered.

"Good point. Let's go."

Luna waited until they had passed her, and went to peek through the door. She didn't open it much further so she didn't attract unwanted attention. She had to strain her eyes to see the two ponies clearly. At first, she could only see Solar Flare. But then...

"No... it can't be true..." Luna rasped. It wasn't clear, but she could see the familiar silhouette of whom she'd though she would never have to face again.

"So Nightmare Moon, what did you want to discuss?" Luna's sister asked.

Comments

[Europa]

I knew it! Funny thing is, my next story after my current one is based largely around this premise.

You're a mind reader!

[Fret]

4709469

I'm psychic, didn't you know? C:

[Fourpony]

I like the premise so far, reminds me of Sunshine and Fire. But I feel that everything just happens a little too fast. It feels very jumpy to me. The dialog also feels a bit OOC for some characters as well, I just can't really put my finger on it though.

[iloveportalz0r]

where != were
peak != peek