Convergence Side-story: Downtime.

by Doctor Fluffy

A Work In Progress

Despite the title, we're mostly sure this is finished. ~The Management

Chapter Four: A Work In Progress.

Written by: Doctor Fluffy, Jed R.

Editors RoyalPsycho, The Void, redskin122004, TheIdiot.

This chapter also contains direct segments used in the chapter Training Days: First Days, Part 1, from The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum. But it’s cool, some of us actually wrote that, so we gave ourselves permission. We had to talk to ourselves a lot..

***

“Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Ilúvatar, those things that ye have sung and played, lo! I will show them forth, that ye may see what ye have done. And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.”

Eru Ilúvatar, The Ainulindalë.

***

The Canterhorn, Year 2 Anno Harmonia - ‘Downtime’ Equestria..

DisQord stood alone on the top of the Canterhorn, looking down at a world that was at once familiar and not familiar, at once the world he had spent thousands of mortal years upon and nothing like it.

You interfered.

He sighed. And, right on cue, his superiors had come to tell him how wrong he was. He wasn’t surprised. Disappointed, yes, just a little, but not surprised.

“Yes. I interfered,” he replied. “Get on with what you’re going to do or leave me alone.”

You were not placed on that world. You are not authorised to interfere.

“I’ve got business here,” he said. “Business to do with my assigned world. It was unavoidable.”

Really?

“Yes. As far as I know, two intra-universal transport spells knotted together - and so much has changed, so much has butterflied that I couldn’t get this back on the rails even if I wanted to.”

We know what has happened.

“And?”

There was a long pause. DisQord frowned. They did not usually pause to think - usually, their minds were already made up when they decided to contact him.

We are divided.

DisQord raised an eyebrow. “Divided?”

The Children are involved, and we do not interfere in that business. Nonetheless, you are still within your remit - just. There was a pause. Stray again from your remit, and we will not be lenient.

“Duly noted,” DisQord said quietly.

There was silence, and he breathed out. For now, he would be allowed to continue doing his work.

For now. No way of knowing if they’ll stay that understanding about it all.

“What are you doing up here?” he heard a familiar voice ask. He turned, to see his other self - the young Discord of this world - staring at him, his arms folded.

“Thinking away from all the loud annoying people down there,” DisQord replied snarkily. “But since you’ve elected to follow me up here, I might as well come down.”

“Oh har de har,” the other Discord snorted, before disappearing.

DisQord sighed, took one last look at the landscape, and then followed.

***

Canterlot Medical Wing.

“Colonel Renee?”

His eyes slowly opened, grogginess still clinging to him. He felt… strange, as though something was off, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Colonel?” a voice asked again.

Marcus blinked, and found himself staring at Doctor Hooves, the old-looking one.

“Doc?” he asked.

The stallion scowled. “Don’t call me that, please.”

Marcus sighed. “Sorry. I…”

He trailed off, looking around the hospital room. It was a solitary room, quiet and empty, save for the two of them.

“You had quite an interesting time, Colonel,” the Doctor said dryly. “You're lucky to have come out of it all in one piece.”

“That - look, what’s happening?” Marcus asked, feeling impatient with the vagueness. “What happened to me?”

The stallion gave a wan smile. “That is… an interesting question. The answer is, a great deal in a short amount of time.”

Marcus growled, sitting himself up. “Alright, spill -”

There was a sound like metal wrenching, and Marcus glanced at the railings of the bed, before letting go, his eyes wide. He had managed to tear the metal, bending it into new shapes with his fists.

“I believe you have managed to succinctly explain to yourself,” the Doctor said dryly. “Your body has been altered.”

“H-how?” Marcus asked.

“Sombra was making changes to your body, presumably to make full use of the potential there present,” the Doctor said with a smile. “Your body has been infused with a kind of crystal, and your nervous system and brain are now both laced with alicornal tissue. A gentleman called Dr Isaac Dan Der Grimnebulin was studying the results earlier - I believe he is the PHL’s resident specialist in these matters.”

“I… my brain… WHAT?!” Marcus yelled, overwhelmed.

The Doctor sighed. “Alright. This will be difficult to explain, so pay attention. Your body has been infused with crystal - pure, thaumically conductive, and thus able to grant you improved magical capabilities. Your neural tissues are now infused with alicornal tissue - the exact cause of this is unclear, but what we do know is that you drained the ambient magic of the surrounding area for several days. It seems your body now runs on magic as much as more, shall we say, traditional means of powering it.”

Marcus slumped back in his bed. “I… don’t understand. I’m… like a battery?”

“Perhaps,” the Doctor said. “Or a lightning rod. I wouldn’t worry too much about the potential of running short - from what we can tell, while you’re currently holding the same amount of thaumic energy as Discord, Luna or Celestia, you only require a fraction of that amount to survive.”

Marcus blinked. “I… don’t even…”

“You should attempt to rest, Colonel,” the Doctor said quietly. “I believe that Princess Celestia wished to speak to you about beginning to control your newfound abilities, and learning to control your abilities more carefully. That being the case, rest will benefit you for now.”

“Yeah,” Marcus said quietly as Doctor Hooves left the room. “I can imagine.”

***

Canterlot Palace.

“So,” DisQord said, watching as a fleet of warships flew over Canterlot. “You really want to do this?”

“Tell them?” Celestia asked. “Of course. It is only fair. You know how dangerous your enemy is supposed to be. Should they not know, too, now that they are in the firing line?”

“Fair, but I don’t think they’ll like it,” DisQord said quietly. He frowned. “Why aren’t you down there, anyway?”

“Relaxing,” Celestia said quietly. “I think I’ve earned a little chance to let Luna deal with some official business.”

“Hmm,” DisQord said quietly. “You’ve been through quite a bit. I suspect you’ve never dealt with anything quite this insane before, have you?”

“No,” Celestia admitted. “To hear of a world where I have turned to evil is unthinkable. To hear of two is… I don’t even know where to begin. It’s...” she sighed. “I know I’ve done well for Equestria, I know that I’ve done my best. But it’s enough to make me wonder if they’d be better off without me.”

“Don’t say things like that!” DisQord said.

“I know. I know how it sounds, and I shouldn’t think so, but this is just incredibly depressing,” Celestia said.

“Yeah,” DisQord said tightly. He glanced at her. “If it helps… this may play hell with your sense of choice, but there’s an infinity of realities with you, and there’s maybe… three so far where you do this in your right mind.”

“Only three?” Celestia asked.

“Well, maybe not three, but a small enough amount that it can actually be counted without a computer or without getting bored,” DisQord said. “Most of the rest, it’s possessions, or it isn’t actually a Celestia to start with, or there’s a few where it’s not you but me...” He trailed off. “On second thought, that last one might not help for the right reasons. Basically, don’t be upset over two out of infinity. You made the right choice. Maybe not what this world’s Discord would consider the best choices, but whoever does? You did admirably under the circumstances.”

“That’s an excellent way to look at it,” Celestia said, nodding contentedly.

They stood for a few moments more, watching the warships fly overhead. Celestia wondered to herself just how much they’d have to be changed. How many human advances would make them obsolete?

“Will you be alright, though?” DisQord asked.

Celestia frowned at him. “Why does it matter to you?”

“Nettling you is only funny when it isn’t going to result in you going postal or going catatonic, and I’m not sure if either is going to happen or both,” DisQord shrugged, “but I’m not going to get blamed for it.”

Celestia smirked. “And you’re not concerned for me, simply because?”

DisQord raised an eyebrow, before there was a sudden flash of light. Celestia found herself looking at DisQord in disbelief, for he was now clad in a green and red skintight jumpsuit, long red hair cascading down his back.

“It isn’t as though I like you or anything,” he said scathingly. “Baka.”

Celestia blinked. “W… what?”

And in a flash, DisQord was gone.

“Seriously,” Celestia said quietly. “What?!”

***

Canterlot.

“So,” Discord said, standing at the top of the tower overlooking the designated space as DisQord (sans wig and jumpsuit) appeared. “We sure about this?”

“Hello to you too.”

“They’re all waiting down there, pleasantries can wait,” Discord said testily. Then he grinned. “You should have kept the suit.”

DisQord snorted. “Perv.”

“Don’t go too Tsundere.”

“No such thing,” DisQord snorted. He sighed. “Anyway. They’re all here, right?”

“Trixie just finished telling Ironclaw how much of an ass he is,” Discord smirked. “He seems to think this business is going to be easy.”

“If only,” DisQord sighed. “And you -”

“Showed him what he was facing, yes,” Discord finished with a grin. “Think he’s thought twice about questioning what he’s up against.”

“Good,” DisQord said quietly. “Hate saying this, but taking things seriously might be our best bet.”

“And now I feel simultaneously boring and dirty,” Discord said cheerily.

DisQord sighed. “In any case, your little present would have been a little harder to do with just yourself, but the idea’s sound. It'll get the armies used to where they’ll be fighting, at least in principle.”

“Glad you agree,” Discord said, tapping a claw against his chin. “As for your other idea… I like the concept of training them to fight different figures, and Chaos knows I love a bit of dimensional tomfoolery -”

“Is that a word we use?”

“- but it won't be as fair as it could be,” Discord finished, glancing at DisQord. “I can just about create a simulacrum of what I know of Queenie, but I couldn't begin to copy the effect of the black squiggly.”

“Neither could I,” DisQord sighed, apparently resigned to his counterpart’s nicknaming. “Nor should we - attempts to copy It usually only end up summoning It.”

Discord frowned, glancing at him. “You don't think…”

“I don't think what?” DisQord asked, frowning at him.

“Never mind,” Discord said with a sigh. “Even she’s not that stupid.”

“Don't jinx it,” DisQord shrugged, before looking back out. “This is going to be something of a show-stopper, isn't it?”

“We can but hope,” Discord replied. “If nothing else, it should show these people what they're facing in the Newfoal horde.” He paused. “You're sure you don't want to add some of -”

“Not yet,” DisQord said with a shake of his head. “Remember, we’re keeping my world under wraps to a degree for the moment: the leaders might learn about it, but their troops won't yet, not for a long while.”

“Gotcha,” Discord said, before taking a breath. “Shall we?”

Discord summoned into his huge paw a ball of crackling energy. DisQord sighed, before snapping a talon, the ball taking on a golden tinge.

“There,” he said. “Should make things a little easier on you.”

“Cheers,” Discord said with a smirk. “And here… we… go…”

He snapped his talon, and the ball shot across the sky and came down in an empty river valley just to the north of the Canterhorn, landing just downstream of the Neighagra Falls. As soon as the ball hit the ground it expanded, lightning and thunder exploding from it as it swelled to fill the sky. Rain poured down in waves, drenching the land with torrential force. And then, like a tree sprouting after a drought, a giant metal beam erupted from the ground.

The beams grew higher and higher, stretching up into the sky. What came next looked like the unholy offspring of an earthquake and a tidal wave as the ground itself exploded into life, more beams bursting into bloom, even as the earth and rock caved in in oddly square spaces. Liquid concrete burst forth from cracks, (no, ‘crack’ wasn’t the right word, those were far too straight. They were seams...) filling in the holes to form something like foundations and cellars. Great canyons opened up between the checkerboard of scares, the concrete filtering into them, only for the canyons to close back up. Before their eyes, blocks of stone grew between the beams, until the shape of a familiar building could be seen - the Freedom Tower in New York city.

Another building shot up in similar fashion, and another. It was happening all over the area. An entire city was growing before their eyes, almost organically, bricks and stones assembling together like building blocks set down by a giant colt or filly. The metaphor seemed apt when involving Discord, though.

The Neighagra River spontaneously redirected itself, writhing and coiling to surround the growing city, large bridges blooming to span the water’s flow and connecting the banks to a growing island on which the bulk of the new growth rested.

As the town grew - no, the city, for what town had buildings so huge, comparable only to the soaring heights of Manehattan, but in much greater numbers, something about the styles of architecture became apparent. The hints of Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Arts Beaux, the brick tenements… the incredibly tall skyscrapers…

“An exact replica of New York city,” DisQord said appreciatively. “Ah, beautiful.”

“Thanks,” Discord said with a grin. “And hey, it actually feels pretty easy. I guess you gave it a boost, huh?”

“A little bit of one, yes,” DisQord said airily. “Let’s hope your new friends like it.”

“I’m sure they will,” Discord said, his grin widening. “New York’s a bit of a big deal for these guys.”

“Indeed,” DisQord said quietly. “Now then: what should our next order of business be?”

“Preparing for tomorrow,” Discord said. “If Celly’s really going to tell the leaders about Solly…”

“Don’t call her that.”

“Then we’ll probably need to be there,” Discord finished.

DisQord sighed. “You’re probably right. I just really hate politicians.”

***

Canterlot meeting room. The next day.

Discord’s feat of creating an entire replica of the island of Manhattan was the talk of the Alliance’s troopers for the next day, and beyond. Whispers of it even reached beyond, reaching Celestia’s ears as she stood overlooking Canterlot.

“Sister?” Luna asked from behind her.

“Luna,” Celestia greeted, turning to speak with her sister. “How goes it?”

“Well,” Luna said. “The new arrivals have settled into their posts for the moment. I believe all goes well with that - or at least, I have not heard reports to the contrary as of yet.”

“I’m glad,” Celestia said with a soft smile. “Though I fear now we must attend to the proverbial elephant in the room.”

There was a pause as Luna let this sink in.

“So you’re going to tell them,” she said at last.

“I am,” Celestia said quietly.

“Are you sure that is a good idea?” Luna asked.

Celestia sighed, rolling her shoulders slightly. “I believe it is best that we are honest about the new dangers we are about to face. We may know little about this new world and this new Tyrant, but we know enough to tell our allies that they exist.”

“I understand,” Luna said quietly. “All the same, I do not believe they will take it entirely well.”

“No, they probably won’t,” Celestia replied, smirking. “But then again, neither did I. Neither should we - this is not good news.”

With that she entered the little meeting room, where the rest of the leaders of the Alliance were waiting. Celestia noted the regal Hedwig, the stern General Ironclaw, Shaman Quagga, Darkhoof and Spykoran, dear and regal Sint Erklass.

“Celestia,” Sint greeted. “My dear. Are you well?”

“As well as can be expected, Sint,” she greeted in return.

“And Luna,” the old reindeer added. “It is so good to see you again, freed from the darkness and your imprisonment on the moon.”

Luna merely bowed, a smile on her face.

“Welcome, all,” Celestia said softly to the rest of the room. “Colonel Renee sends his apologies. A recent endeavour has left him… requiring some recovery time. With any luck, he should be able to rejoin our discussions shortly.”

“Good to know,” Chrysalis said, smirking slightly. “I hate to think what you’ve been doing while we’ve been away, Celestia. It all sounds far too exciting.”

Next to Celestia, Luna bristled slightly, clearly aggravated by Chrysalis’ sarcastic tone. Celestia merely smiled.

“Nothing you would do, I assure you, Chrysalis,” she said politely. Chrysalis let out a short laugh.

“Well, it’s good to see you gained a sense of humour,” she said, a slightly feral grin on her face. “I was beginning to think you’d have a stick rammed somewhere unfortunate for the rest of your life. Maybe this conflict business will let you loosen up a bit.”

“Enough,” Queen Hedwig said imperiously. “We’re not here for… pleasant conversation.”

“Aw, but the pleasant conversation can be so much fun,” Chrysalis said with a mock-pout. “Certainly you’re no fun, dear old bird.”

“We’re not here to have fun,” Hedwig said with a scowl.

“No, we’re not,” Spykoran added grimly. “There’s something else, isn’t there? A change is on the air.”

“I felt it as well,” Sint said quietly. “The feeling of some power other than that which we know, of a new change.” He paused, before fixing the Alicorns with an even stare. “Who else is here, Celestia?”

Celestia glanced at Luna, who sighed.

“You may show yourselves, Discords,” she said quietly.

There was a flash of light, and suddenly, there stood not one, but two Discords, one differentiated by a bright red ‘Q’ on his chest.

“WHAT?!” Darkhoof bellowed.

“What is this?!” Chrysalis asked. “How can there be two of you? I thought the one from the Tyrant’s world was dead?”

“I’m not from the Tyrant’s world, at least not the one you’re thinking of,” the Discord with the red Q said, a wry little smile on his face. “I’m from somewhere else. Which is just one of several things we’re needing to tell you in very short succession.”

“Several?” Sint repeated. “Celestia? What has happened?”

Celestia sighed, looking downcast for a moment. She exchanged a look with Luna, who nodded slowly, and then looked out at the various leaders of Equus.

“When we made contact with Earth, we discovered something disquieting,” she said quietly. “A human from another world had somehow made his way to Colonel Renee’s. His world faces… shall we say, a similar problem.”

“‘A similar problem’?” Hedwig asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What Celly is trying to say, in as diplomatic and tactful a manner as she can, is that there's another Celestia who went mad on that world,” Discord put in, rolling his eyes at her pussyfooting. “She's taken to calling herself something horribly tortured, along with a whole load of familiar bits of craziness - my personal favourite being her black squiggly.”

There was a pause as this sank in.

“Black… squiggly,” Sint Erklass repeated, blinking slowly.

“Black squiggly,” Discord said with a nod, his face uncharacteristically serious.

“I see,” Sint said, noting the Draconequus’ expression. “I suppose I should assume that your turn of phrase is meant to be a metaphor for something more unpleasant.”

“Got it in one, Sint old bean,” Discord said, still smiling, though it was tinged with something none of them could identify. “She's also - presumably because it's in vogue right about now - rocking an empire of converted humans, and wanting to conquer All Of Space And Time.”

“You’re being very glib,” General Ironclaw growled. “Which I don’t appreciate - is this other Celestia and whatever this ‘black squiggly’ is a threat, then?”

“Well duh,” Discord said. “She’s Celestia, with all the power that implies. At least.”

“Her name,” the Discord with the red Q said, “is Astra Solamina Maxima. Apart from anything else, you may be assured that she is fully committed to the same goals of conquest that Queen Celestia is, and she has the tactical wherewithal to pull it off.”

“And you are from her world,” Sint guessed.

“Well, she can’t be that dangerous,” Chrysalis commented. “Since the Tyrant we already knew about killed Discord, and yet you’re still here.”

“Big assumption,” the red-Q marked Discord said. “And mistaken. If I had decided to fight her, or been unlucky enough to be caught off guard, I would be gone too. With pain.”

Chysalis frowned. “So, what? We’re supposed to help fight this one too? Is every version of Celestia who’s gone bad suddenly our problem?”

“This Solamina is supposedly a threat to us, as the Tyrant is,” Celestia said quietly. “A threat that we will need to face. She knows of the human world, and of the Tyrant you know of already. With our involvement, she will likely become aware of us as well. We must prepare to stand against her.”

Sint frowned. “Has she, too, been responsible for pain and suffering in her world and the human world she has attacked?”

“She’s done a lot,” the red-Q marked Discord said. “Billions killed or converted on that Earth, general totalitarianism on her Equestria… the only reason she hasn’t gone to war with her Equus is that she doesn’t need to yet. The entire political scene on that world is very… fractious.”

“There’s no Concordia Maxima?” Hedwig asked.

The red-Q marked Discord snorted. “Lady, there’s no you. Apart from Celly, Luna, Chryssie and my learned other self, none of you people exist in my universe.”

“None of us?” Darkhoof repeated. “That seems absurd.”

“Believe it,” the red-Q marked Discord said with a snort. “No Queen Hedwig, no Spykoran, no Darkhoof, no Sint Erklass - there might be a reindeer population, but it’s got no big Father Christmas with hooves guiding it. With my world, you’re playing by an entirely different rulebook. Hell, my Celestia is older than you, Sint old boy. She hit the eleven thou mark a while back - you’re still languishing in your fifth or sixth millennium, right?”

Sint blinked. “Tenth, actually. Quite a change. And yet she is still Celestia?”

“Timeline Convergence,” Discord shrugged.

Hedwig scowled. “What does that mean?”

“Laybird’s terms - at least if I’ve got my temporal theories right,” Discord said, folding his mismatched arms. “Certain patterns always emerge. The details might be massively different - no Faust in one world, or no Sint Erklass, or Doctor Whooves isn’t married and he lost his W…”

“Always a terrible pun anyway,” the red-Q marked Discord muttered.

Discord ignored him. “But there’s still Celestia, Luna, Nightmare Moon…” Luna grimaced. “There’s still Elements of Harmony and certain ponies still exist. That’s a quirk of time and space.”

“A strange quirk,” Spykoran said softly. “And yet one that seems irrelevant next to the knowledge that our enemies have only doubled.”

“Indeed,” General Ironclaw said grimly. “Not news our soldiers will take well. Heck, I’m not taking it all that well.”

“There is one bit of potential good news,” Discord said cheerfully. “From what Solamina said to me while she was beating the snot out of me -”

“While she was what?” Chrysalis put in, raising an eyebrow.

Discord ignored her. “I get the feeling the two Tyrants will be coming to blows soon.” He grinned maliciously. “Solamina mentioned a coming conflict with ‘the Apostate’. At a guess, that means Queenie.”

“The ‘Apostate’?” Sint asked, raising an eyebrow. “Does she consider herself -”

“A goddess? Yes,” the red-Q marked Discord said with a sigh. “And unfortunately she’s got enough power - personal and political - that disputing that claim is going to be pretty difficult.”

“Killing a God,” Darkhoof said, an odd expression on his face. Then he grinned. “Now, that is a challenge I will accept with great enthusiasm!”

The red-Q marked Discord sighed. “And Minotaurs never change.”

Darkhoof bristled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Just remind me to introduce you to Bucephalus if we ever get the chance,” the Draconequus said with a sarcastic smile. “You can headbutt each other, show your testosterone off.”

“DisQord, do not antagonise people,” Celestia said evenly.

“He does it all the time,” the red-Q marked Discord - DisQord - said, motioning to his other self.

“You’re older than him,” Celestia pointed out. “Act like it.”

DisQord sighed melodramatically.

“Alright, Glor- - Celly. You win.” He crossed his arms and said nothing more.

“In any case,” Celestia said quietly. “Now you know that we are facing another threat. For now, let us agree that we will keep this an open secret - we will not deliberately spread the information around, but we will not lie. It seems the best way.”

“Especially since the PHL’s troops are gonna be talking about the guy who punched an Alicorn Clone’s head off,” Discord added with a smirk.

The leaders of Equus paused.

“The what?!” Darkhoof bellowed.

Celestia sighed. “How best to explain…”

***

The next few days were somewhat uneventful, if that was the right word. The Alliance’s troops slowly acclimatised to the city they had been bunked in, and the PHL’s designated trainers quickly began introducing them to the tactics and concepts that would be thrown at them by the Solar Empire.

Rumours did begin to pass down quickly, however, of another enemy. An enemy led by another Tyrant, from yet another world. No one confirmed or denied these rumours, which only led to them spreading further.

***

The Element Bearers and Lyra were sat in a makeshift briefing room in Canterlot Palace, as was Stephan Bauer, the PHL’s Trixie, and Marcus Renee. The room had a few chairs arranged round a table, and a whiteboard at one end.

Marcus was still getting used to his new state, but he was at least past the stage of breaking everything because he didn’t know his own strength. He had given temporary command of the PHL’s training group to Stephan while he worked through his issues, a move that had not gone down brilliantly, but had been necessary.

As the group settled in place, Celestia, Luna and the Discords entered, all walking in (though DisQord looked bored with doing so). Celestia took a seat, Luna next to her. The two Discords, however, stood by the whiteboard. Discord looked at DisQord, who didn’t bother looking at him.

“Alright,” Celestia said after a moment. “Discord?”

He threw her a sarcastic, two-digit salute, before turning to address the rest of the room.

“Ok, ladies and Germans,” he said, winking at Stephan, who raised an eyebrow. “Myself and my learned other have been discussing a serious lack in team intel concerning a certain somepony. Namely, one Astra Solamina Maxima.”

He snapped his claw, and an image appeared on the whiteboard as though it had been projected. It was Celestia, but her face seemed slightly narrower, gaunter. Her mane was tied back in a ponytail, and her expression was cold. She was clad in golden battle-armour, scuffed in places, and a glaive was held in her horn TK.

“Formerly Gloriana Regalia Celestia,” DisQord said quietly. “Eleven thousand plus, though she doesn’t look a day over nine thou. Ruled her Equestria through some of the biggest crises of recent times. Without boring you - the last thousand years have seen two hundred and sixty minor conflicts and wars, last major one being the Griffon war of twenty years ago.”

“That recent?” Celestia said quietly, a frown on her face. “Has she not tried to keep the peace?”

Discord threw DisQord a glance, and the latter sighed.

“You’ve had it comparatively simple,” he said quietly. “She hasn’t. That’s the only thing you need to know that’s relevant to this conversation.”

“Speaking of relevant to this conversation,” Discord continued. He snapped a claw and a new picture came up. It was Solamina, a cut on her cheek and a grin twisting her lips, her eyes blazing with anger and what might have been a twisted mirth.

“I've made a point of fighting our new friend,” Discord said quietly. “Entirely accidental, but all the same.”

“You fought her?” Twilight asked. “Why? How?”

“I was trying to find the universe that David Elliot came from,” Discord explained. “As it happens, the spell residue I was using to trace back to his world took me to hers instead.”

“Then you're in a unique position,” Celestia said quietly. “You've fought both Queen Celestia and this Solamina - you can tell us how they fight, what to expect, what the difference is.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie put in. “Like the cliche mystic guy said, you do not truly know someone until you fight them!”

Discord blinked. “Alright, I can see the logic.” He paused. “Luna will back me up that Queenie runs on power attacks.”

“Essentially accurate,” Luna said quietly. “She uses her power like a flail or a mace: no finesse, only brute force. One might even say she relies upon it excessively. I do not believe she used more than one or two physical attacks as we fought. She seemed content with a barrage of spells.”

Twilight frowned. “But Solamina doesn't?”

“Correct,” Discord said. “When I fought her, she seemed to rely on her glaive - she's certainly skilled with it. I wouldn't want to be the poor schmuck who fights her hand-to-hoof.”

“She'd be pretty good,” Trixie commented quietly. “Imagine having eleven thousand years practice.”

“I don't want to imagine,” Stephan commented with a frown. “Fighting the clone up close was hard enough.”

“I couldn't entirely gauge her regular magical attacks,” Discord continued. “I can assume she's reasonably capable, but she seemed to use as little effort as possible when fighting.”

“Not wasting energy,” Twilight suggested. “If she's trained as a fighter she might have learned a technique of maximum impact and minimum expenditure.”

“I know such techniques,” Celestia said with a nod. “And while the Queen is overconfident, this Solamina -”

“Oh trust me,” Discord said, “she's definitely just as overconfident. I'm guessing her style is habitual by now.”

He glanced at DisQord for confirmation, and the other Draconequus merely nodded.

“She's been using the same technique for millennia,” the Draconequus commented. “Trained in the old Adamantine style, but also in Pegasi Junta control techniques.”

“That could work to our advantage,” Marcus suggested. “If she's trained so much, if her style has become so habitual, she's likely to be pretty inflexible. Using moves she's never seen -”

“It's a good thought,” DisQord cut him off. “But she's fought members of every race on Equus. She's duelled ponies, Griffons, Qilin, Minotaurs… there’s likely not a combat technique or style choice she's not seen in that time.”

“Nobody knows everything,” Stephan commented. “There's always going to be some trick she doesn't know.”

DisQord folded his arms. “Don't assume you'll be the one who knows it, Major. We might be able to find a gap in her training, but I don’t think we can rely on it. Your own skills are in your modern hand-to-hand techniques, techniques she’d likely consider similar to - well, charitably, let’s say Primatian Martial Art.”

“And uncharitably?”

“Drunken Minotaur boxing.”

Discord held up a claw. “Having fought her, I can tell you my usual tricks didn't seem to faze her. Amuse her, maybe. And I tried a lot. We’re talking spandex suits, Cogs, Count Dooku…”

“His usual cartoonishness,” DisQord clarified. “Which, to be fair, was the only thing I can think of that might have stood a chance of fazing her.”

“So…” Marcus said running a hand over his short hair. “Basically, she’s a brilliant fighter, and it’ll be tough to take her down in hand to hand. Gotcha. What do we know about whether anti-Alicorn ammo will work?”

Discord smirked. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t.”

DisQord, however, looked less certain. Celestia frowned at him.

“DisQord?” she asked. “What is it?”

He waved a claw, dismissing her concern, and silence fell for a moment.

“What about her Empire?” Luna asked quietly, looking to Discord. “Are we to expect the same sort of Newfoal rush that you demonstrated to General Ironclaw?”

DisQord laughed. Actually, he started chuckling, before it graduated into a full blown giggle, then finally a laughing fit the likes of which made everyone in the room stare at him.

“Yeah,” he said quietly, “no.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Care to elaborate?”

DisQord, still smirking, snapped a claw. A new image appeared on the whiteboard - this one a moving image. Ponies in Royal Guard armour marched in formation, many bearing large shields. As the assembled group watched, they planted these shields down to form a wall, with Unicorn marksponies behind it charging their horns. The view cut to a formation of what might have been Unicorns, save that every single one of them had scales covering the bridges of their noses and a bisected horn that looked similar to a single deer’s antler. Their bodies were covered in ornate, segmented armour, not unlike dragon scales, and conical helmets with horse-hair plumes fixed to the top were on their heads. They wielded fierce-looking halberds and bows, wrapped in magical fields that looked very much like Unicorn TK.

“What are they?” Rarity asked, her eyes narrowing. “Some sort of other kind of pony?”

“They… they look like Kirin,” Lyra said quietly. “Theoretically, a kind of mix of dragons and horses that were supposed to live in the far east - but everypony knows they were -”

“Ahem,” DisQord said, frowning. “Pay attention. And it’s pronounced ‘Qilin’.”

Everypony dutifully shut up. As the group watched, the archers among these ‘Qilin’ nocked their bows, before loosing a hail of arrows at the ponies. However, the Unicorns responded with their shields, and any arrows that didn’t hit the Unicorns’ magic barriers hit the metal shields instead. Several of the group noticed ponies and Qilin holding flags or sounding horns, every movement from them leading to a sudden shift in stance or formation for their respective sides. The Qilin with halberds lowered them, before advancing, but the metal shields prevented any access.

“Ok, so what does this prove?” Marcus asked, frowning as the battle continued on the screen. “They can fight medieval style, but that doesn’t mean they’re any more of a threat. Hell, doesn’t it mean they’re less of a threat?”

DisQord frowned. “Less of a threat, Colonel?”

“Well, yeah,” Stephan put in. “Newfoal rushes are dangerous because they don’t care about casualties, because they attack in massive numbers. These guys might fight with more regimented tactics, but that means they’re easier to pick off.”

DisQord snapped a talon, and the image on the screen changed to a group of human soldiers - pre-war, Marcus noted, looks like a mix of Brit and American military - fighting Royal Guards: the Guards were advancing under fire, Unicorns in the advancing group reinforcing a translucent grey shield as the human bullets slammed into it. Cracks were showing in the shield, but the Guards were advancing steadily. Suddenly, the shield dropped and a hail of spells shot out, smashing into the humans. At the same time, a group of Guard Pegasi suddenly dive-bombed the group, before engaging in hand-to-hoof combat, their spears quickly eviscerating the human troops.

“They’re adaptable,” DisQord said quietly. He snapped a claw again, and Royal Guards stood behind cannons that fired bright, glowing bolts of magic that smashed through people and masonry alike. “They’ve been fighting humanity for years, and despite taking casualties -”

“Billions, Elliot said,” Stephan commented.

“Yeah, not that many,” DisQord snorted. “Census information from Equestria is shot to hell these days. That estimate is skewed. But they take a lot - I’d estimate quite a few million Guards and Converted, though they’ve done a lot to humanity in turn. It’s become a brutal, bloody slog in streets. The Solaminan Guard is an elite, deadly fighting force. Anyone fighting them expecting a ‘zerg rush’ might as well drink her potion now and get it over with.”

“So she does do that,” Celestia said quietly, closing her eyes with a pained expression.

“Yep,” DisQord said. “Worst bit? They’re not quite as brainless as the Newfoals. Plus side for them is there’s less… y’know, the disturbing crap that the Newfoals have going on…”

“And there’s a lot,” Discord said quietly.

“...but that just means that they’re clever,” DisQord said quietly. “They can learn. They retain the use of everything they had before - skills, training, experience. They can adapt quickly to new situations.”

“So it’s like fighting Guards, early days when they actually had to lead to take points before using the zombie rush,” Marcus put in. “Going to need to get Veterans and military trained soldiers rather than volunteers.”

“I suppose it is,” DisQord replied. “And that would definitely be a sound way to start.”

“Alright,” Marcus said quietly. “We can deal with that…”

“There is just one more thing to consider,” Discord said. “The black squiggly.”

The reaction to this was mixed. Celestia and Luna frowned. Pinkie snorted, looking amused. Rarity raised an eyebrow and Applejack blinked, surprised at the term. Lyra and Twilight exchanged glances.

“Black squiggly?” Lyra repeated. “What’s that when it’s at home?”

DisQord grimaced. “A stupid nickname for something you’d have a great deal of difficulty understanding.”

“Then try explaining,” Rainbow Dash said irritably. “We’re not all idiots, ya know.”

“Says the mare that tried to rush me,” DisQord snorted. “If I told you that ‘the black squiggly’ is the most primal force of darkness in creation, the very source of the concept of evil given form and sentience, you’d probably think you could punch it.”

Rainbow Dash snarled, but Applejack held up a limb.

“Hold up,” she said, frowning. “Was that yarn just ya’ll bein’ lyrical like, or is that actually what this here ‘black squig’ly’ thing is?”

DisQord sighed. “Honestly? I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Marcus asked. “That’s not particularly helpful.”

“Well, to be frank, no one knows,” DisQord retorted. “In layman’s terms, it’s considered a second child. Infinite shadow cast by eternal light, both created by…”

He shrugged.

“By what?” Stephan asked.

“If I said ‘God’, that wouldn’t cover it,” DisQord said quietly. “The big beardy one. The creator. ‘He who is called I Am’. We - my colleagues and I - don’t know for certain because He doesn’t talk to us. But these things, absolute light, absolute darkness, were the first sentiences created by him.”

Celestia’s eyes had widened into saucers. “The creator? These things… they are that old?”

“So old that ‘old’ is insulting because you’d be applying time to them,” DisQord said with a shrug. “The story goes that He only meant to make light, but darkness followed. He let both live. This was before He made other spirits, other beings that exist within the void, but those two are the most ubiquitous, the most powerful. Now, both act through Avatars.”

“They can’t act directly?”

“They’re concepts,” DisQord said. “Even the other spirits of concept have to create bodies in order to act on the mortal plane, and those two are the oldest and biggest. Solamina only wields a fraction of the whole’s power, and she’s impossibly powerful.”

“And yet, Elliot’s Earth still fights her,” Stephan pointed out.

“Well, yeah,” DisQord said. “Just because she’s rocking the power doesn’t mean she breaks it out every time. She doesn’t need to.”

“True,” Discord added quietly. “And the black squiggly was…”

He didn’t finish. Luna and Celestia frowned.

“Discord?” Luna asked. “What is it?”

“It wasn’t nice,” Discord replied after a moment. “It was wrong, by every conceivable measurement of wrong. It felt it. It felt like… like…”

He trailed off again.

“To give you a hint of how powerful it is,” DisQord said quietly. “Queen Celestia was considered the anchor for the Barrier for a while, but you disproved that theory, correct?”

“Correct,” Celestia said. “There is no way a single being has the power to sustain such a spell.”

“She does,” DisQord said quietly.

There was a pause as that sank in.

“She… she is sustaining the spell herself?” Luna asked, eyes wide.

“She's the anchor for it and the brainwashing of the Guard and Converted,” DisQord said with a nod. “All of it. The Darkness within her is powerful enough to sustain that and more, and so unobtrusive that she doesn't even need to concentrate on it. Hell, I don't even know if she knows it’s her.”

Marcus sat back in his chair, whistling softly. Stephan glanced at Trixie, who blinked.

“Fuck,” she said after a moment.

“You're starting to get an idea,” DisQord said with a smirk. “Hence why I’m not sure your anti-Alicorn stuff will work. There's simply no way to gauge what It will be able to do, whether It can bring her back from the brink of death. Only its opposite can cause it permanent harm.”

“I’ll have to disagree with my learned self,” Discord said quietly. DisQord frowned at him, but the other Draconequus pressed on. “I made her bleed. I'm convinced that if you laid down enough hurt, she’d drop, black squiggly or no black squiggly.”

“We have to try in any case, it may not kill her in one shot, but if plenty are put down range, well…” Marcus nodded slowly. “Then I guess it’s our job to lay down enough hurt.”

DisQord shrugged. “I’ve told you what I know. It’s up to you to believe it or not.”

He disappeared in a flash.

***

The Element Bearers and Lyra were discussing Discord and DisQord’s presentation afterward.

“Ok, gonna throw a wrench in this one - literal God?” Rainbow said with a snort. “Yeah, come on.”

Twilight sighed. “I don’t know. There’s a lot we don’t understand yet.”

“Still, the notion does seem faintly ridiculous,” Rarity said quietly.

“Yeah, I mean - God? God’s child? The whole ‘eternal darkness’ thing?” Rainbow asked scathingly. “Tirek I could believe - that’s just some big bad monster dude.”

“Albeit the biggest ‘bad monster dude’ ever,” Rarity put in, raising an eyebrow.

“But God? God’s second child? ‘Infinite shadow cast by eternal light’?”

“I’m half impressed you remembered the wording,” Twilight commented dryly. Rainbow just shrugged.

“DisQord seemed to take it seriously,” Lyra pointed out.

“Well of course that plot-hole did,” Rainbow scowled. “He’s probably scared of it. Big baby.” She perked up slightly. “Hey, this could be totally awesome!”

“What do you mean?” Lyra asked.

“Think about it!” Rainbow said eagerly. “When we win, we can say we literally beat the creator's bastard kid! We literally beat The Embodiment of Evil!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie added. “No one will want to mess with us! They’d be all like, 'hey, let’s go mess with those mares,' and the other would say, 'no way dude! Didn't you hear, they beat God’s second kid, without the first one's help!' And we will be feared throughout the entire multiverse as Dark-kickers!”

“And if we die like gosh darn fools?” Applejack asked, looking irritated.

“Then we die fighting against god-like beings,” Rainbow shrugged. “We’ll still get a cozy afterlife.”

Applejack sighed. “Dash, Ah dont think thats how it works.”

“Sure it does,” Dash replied. “We’re fighting gods, right? Shouldn't we have some sort of reward for our hard work if we die?”

Twilight sighed again. “We don’t know enough about any of this for my liking. There’s too many variables. Too much going on that we don’t understand.”

“What’s there to understand?” Rainbow asked. “Instead of there being one evil Celestia to beat up, there’s two. They’re both being controlled by evil monsters. One has a sillier name.”

“One is possessed by a monster that destroyed an Alicorn civilisation and one is being controlled by what may be a literal god,” Rarity countered. She sighed. “I’m starting to think this is all very far above our heads.”

***

DisQord was once more up on his mountain vigil, thinking over everything. He had the horrible feeling that he had entirely failed to convince his newfound allies of what they were up against, of how threatening it was to them.

It’s tricky, he thought to himself. Trying to tell them a giant centaur with an ugly mug is scary is easy, you get a pretty picture. Try to explain that there’s an entity more powerful than anything that is literally the concept of evil itself, and that’s too big for people to really grasp. He sighed. But if they don’t grasp it, we’re dead.

He paused, frowning, before turning around to face… himself.

“So,” his other self said, arms folded. “Have we perhaps forgotten to keep ourselves in the loop?”

The two of them - this other him from a world where Gloriana Regalia Celestia had not turned evil - had made a plan to send David Elliot to the other’s world for help. Unfortunately, things had not turned out that way.

“Don't ask,” DisQord muttered, sighing. “I have no idea how the Avatar got sent to that Earth, all I know is he's made a pig's ear of it.”

“Pissing off a puppet of Tirek is almost as risky in its own way as pissing off it,” his counterpart sighed. “Couldn't you have fixed this?”

“Too big an interference,” DisQord sighed. “Too… ostentatious. I don't want to get her attention, and I don’t want to piss Them off any more than I already have, and messing too much would guarantee both.”

“So,” his counterpart said. “No joy on our original plan.”

“So it would seem,” DisQord said. He paused, frowning. “It might be an idea for you to warn your Celestia that events are moving. These worlds are still all interconnected by thin threads of destiny, and it would take only the smallest of nudges to drag your world into this mess.”

His counterpart frowned. “That would be… bad. They're not remotely prepared yet - there’s no alliances, nothing in place to -”

“No,” DisQord said, cutting him off, “which is why I'm telling you to make them all prepared. Do whatever you have to in order to convince your Celestia. I mean whatever you have to.”

His counterpart raised an eyebrow. “Even…?”

“Whatever you have to,” DisQord said again. “Ask politely if need be, but you have a blank check to get her there by any means you deem necessary. This is imperative. Super important. Top of the pops. Whatever term you wanna throw out. If we're not careful, we'll get his attention, and none of us want that!”

“Oh, no,” his counterpart agreed, his face blanching. “No, you're right. We don't want his attention, not at all.”

“Good,” DisQord said. “Now get going.”

“Right,” his counterpart said weakly, the thought of whoever ‘he’ was becoming involved clearly too terrible to contemplate. In a flash, he had disappeared, leaving DisQord alone again on his mountain.

Oh, for the good old days, he thought quietly, closing his eyes. I miss Jean Luc.

***

Celestia looked up at the sound of a soft knock to her private office door. She had been going over paperwork, her mind focused less on the documents in front of her than it was on what she had seen in DisQord’s. Ponies at war with other beings in another world: a world where the peace she had made simply did not exist.

“Come in,” she said quietly.

The older stallion called Doctor Hooves entered her room, his expression neutral - which for him translated as a permanent frown of what might have been vague consternation.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted. “Is this a decent time to talk?”

“Of course,” Celestia said quietly. “I’m actually in need of a distraction.”

“I had heard about the Discords’ briefing,” the Doctor said dryly. “An interesting event, no doubt.”

Celestia chuckled. “You might say that. I’m trying to decide what to make of a world where ponies fight wars on a regular basis. My little ponies have fought one, a millennia ago.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “A very significant difference - and a very impressive achievement.”

“Hardly,” Celestia demurred. “Some would say I coddled them.”

“And some would say it is better to be coddled,” the Doctor replied with a smile. “Having lived through my share of conflicts, I can tell you I would much prefer to have avoided them.”

“Perhaps,” Celestia acquiesced. “What may I do for you, Doctor?”

He smiled tiredly. “I have been in contact with the representatives of my world. They wish to send a delegation to this world in order to facilitate diplomatic relations.”

“More humans?” Celestia asked.

“And ponies,” the Doctor said with a nod, “and I suspect the diplomatic representative they send will be a pony. Representative Cheerilee is extremely competent in that regard.”

Celestia smiled. “Cheerilee in politics?”

“She is surprisingly adept,” the Doctor said with a smile, “though really, if one has to deal with little foals and their idiosyncrasies, children are little different.”

Celestia laughed, a warm, friendly sound. The Doctor smiled.

“Very well,” Celestia said. “I have no doubt that the representatives from your world will be of vital importance in fostering an understanding of what we are about to face in Solamina.”

“Very true,” the Doctor said grimly, his smile fading. “An understanding that is desperately needed, I fear. Neither your world nor the good Colonel Renee’s PHL have yet to encounter the Solaminan Empire. I fear until you do, you will not understand what it is you are facing.”

“The same could be said of the Queen’s forces,” Celestia pointed out, but the Doctor shook his head.

“You’ve already seen them in action,” he told her. “Remember - your sister and Discord have fought against the Queen’s clone. Your people have been shown hordes of Newfoals. You have seen Marcus Renee’s memories. You have had no such fortune with the forces of Astra Solamina.” He paused. “I hope, for your world’s sake, that you do not see the worst she can unleash.”

“You have?” Celestia asked.

“I have seen the last island of humanity devastated by what has happened to it,” the Doctor replied quietly. “Fire above the city of Manchester, the battle of London… it has been a long war, and it is not over yet.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “I swear to you. We will not allow the last humans to die on your world.”

The Doctor inclined his head. “A welcome sentiment. I only hope that we are able to prevent it. There are many powerful forces arrayed against us.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “I know. That’s what’s worrying me.”

***

Canterlot Palace Courtyard, Canterlot.

DisQord had proven surprisingly amenable to the idea of helping create a portal for the ‘Avatar’ Earth’s diplomatic contingent.

“Although,” he had said with a frown, “I still don’t get why you called it the ‘Avatar’ Earth.”

“Because it’s where the Avatar came from?” Stephan had suggested with a raised eyebrow. “That’s not too complicated, is it?”

“And yet your world is called the ‘Spectrum’ Earth,” DisQord pointed out.

“Yeah, that one, I don’t get.”

In any case, DisQord had immediately gotten to work making a portal for the ‘Avatar’ Earth’s contingent to use: the portal was, according to Doctor Hooves, ‘an interdimensional wormhole - no thaums, no magia, purely tachyons and chronitons’. He’d looked surprisingly cheerful as he’d said it.

“Alright,” DisQord said, dusting his mismatched hands off. “That’ll do it.”

“It should prove stable,” the Doctor said from nearby, looking at his sonic screwdriver. “At least, we can hope so.”

DisQord looked down at him with a confident little smirk. “It’ll be stable enough for you, old fella. Trust me. I do this sort of thing on a whim.”

“That would be why I am being as extra-cautious as I am being,” the Doctor replied.

Celestia and Luna were both stood nearby, as well as Marcus and Stephan. There wasn’t a particularly large welcoming committee - Twilight and the other Element Bearers, Lyra, Discord - but in some ways that was best. Though the open secret was precisely that, it was still not common knowledge that an entirely different world, with an entirely different tyrant and entirely different humans, was involved now in this business.

The portal flashed a few times.

“Alright!” DisQord said. “That’ll be it!”

And then they stepped through the portal.

A group of ponies dressed in dark purple armour passed out of the shimmering passageway and formed up in front of it. Every one of them was dressed in banded barding with bat-wing bracing over the top. They nearly all had the same wary expression as they eyed the surrounding area and held themselves in a position of almost predatory readiness, as if they were prepared to attack at a moment’s notice.

It was quite obvious to any who were familiar with Canterlot after dark that they were Night Guard, the personal soldiers of Princess Luna. Though some of them were normal ponies dressed in the traditional garb of the Night Guard, most of the unit were the more fearsome Thestrals, the infamous bat-ponies.

Forming into two lines, one on either side of the portal, the Night Guard immediately stood to attention, their wary looks replaced by stoic masks of professionalism.

Behind them came a dozen tall figures covered in massive silver armour. Their suits were covered in glowing runic symbols and they carried what were likely fearsome firearms in their hands. Twilight’s current experience with humans had taught her the surprising power of the somewhat strange weapons that humanity possessed. As she understood it, they were like Griffon weapons but they could fire and reload exponentially faster - it was the difference between a unicorn foal’s basic light spell and a unicorn archmage’s complex ritual spell.

The armoured men first seemed to glance at the Night Guard ponies that were still arrayed around them and then surveyed the surrounding area. Twilight could practically feel their gaze as it passed over them, the enclosed helmets giving them a cold and mechanical aura.

Finally the one in the lead turned to another and nodded to his comrade. The other armoured figure turned back to the portal and stepped through it. For a short time his body was obscured by the shimmering hole in the world, then he returned.

Finally another three Night Guard stepped through the portal and another followed after them.

“I… is that?” Twilight began to mumble incredulously, struggling not to let her jaw hang slack in surprise as the figure at the back came into focus.

The stallion in front of them was dressed in ceremonial armour not that different to the Night Guard. However, unlike the dark coloured plate of his guards, this armour was shined to an astral lustre, as if it were one of the nebula in Princess Luna’s mane. His face, though it had a couple of noticeable wear lines, bore the usual regal smirk he gave to ponies that was both dignified and unbelievably arrogant at the same time.

In front of them, surrounded by the armed guards, was the almost unmistakeable figure of Prince Blueblood. Though there were some minor differences in the colour of his coat, nopony who had visited the palace could mistake the large build and perfectly coiffed mane of the prince of Equestria.

Behind him came a mare in Night Guard armour, though she herself was a Unicorn rather than a Thestral, lilac with a blonde mane. She glanced at Blueblood, whose smirk turned into a genuine smile as he nodded. The mare stepped forward.

“I present,” she said, her tone sonorous and commanding, “his Royal Highness, Master of the Night and its Guard, rightful Commander of all Equestrian Armed Forces, Lord Admiral of the Fleet, Heir to the Line of Militum di Sanguinius, Protector of the Exodites, and heir to the throne of Equestria - Blueblood the Fifty Second, son of Steelblood the Twelfth!”

Blueblood stepped up, and bowed low.

“I come to represent the Exodites and the people of Earth in their darkest hour,” he said formally. He raised up, looking at Celestia and Luna with a solemn expression. “And if I may - it's good to see you both in better standing.”

Celestia and Luna were both silent, neither of them knowing quite what to say. In particular, Celestia’s face was a mask of bemusement - surprise, shock, a smile, confusion.

Blueblood frowned slightly, looking between them, before glancing back at his adjutant.

“Did I say something wrong?” he wondered.

“If anything,” Celestia said, smiling slightly, “You said something right.”