Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 0:9 - And Then There Were Two

Chapter 0:9 – And Then There Were Two

Year ¿1224? of the 2^nd Age

Celestia waited unhappily outside of the cottage, not comprehending why she’d been forced to leave. For the past ten years (or thereabouts, since nopony had been accurately able to measure or perceive time for the last … well, nopony knew how long) Celestia had been the only daughter of Laura and Tiberius, denizens of the tiny village of Pasturknack. Now, she’d been told that a younger brother or sister would join her soon, yet she wasn’t permitted to be there when they were born. Instead, she had to wait outside alone. At least there was always something to look at. The town guards let loose with their bows as a seagull the size of an elephant landed near the town hall, intent on picking at the massive slices of bread that had been used for the roof. A gurgle from above warned Celestia to duck beneath the overhang of a nearby roof before nails rained down from the sky. She yelped as a couple sprug upward from the ground as well and one pricked the underside of her hoof. She yanked it out with her teeth and tossed it away, where it wriggled its way down into the mud.

Discord’s world had become normal to the ponies of Equestria, though none of them would ever fully understand what happened or what might happen in the next moment. They had to live in a constant state of uncertainty, but at least they could be sure of the world’s unsurety, its constant inconstancy, and its expected unexpectedness. Nopony in Pasturknack had ever seen the Lord of Chaos, who held his court somewhere and nowhere in particular, but all knew of him. Sometimes, ponies would whisper about the time before Discord with mythical awe. Equestria had been a grand kingdom once, but that was long ago; there was no reason for anypony to suspect those days would ever return, not when the Mad God ruled over their lives.

“Tia, you can come inside now,” Uncle Grogar said from the door of the cottage, and Celestia hurried over, the ground undulating beneath her hooves as she did.

Uncle Grogar was an oddity, if not any odder than most ponies in Discord’s Equestria. He’d come to Pasturknack only a year back, claiming to be related to Tiberius, though he couldn’t recall exactly how. He knew enough that he had to be a member of the family somehow, though, so he’d been accepted in with a shrug. Celestia treated him as her uncle, though everypony called him Uncle Grogar whether they were supposedly related to him or not, because he professed it to be his full name.

Celestia entered the cottage, making her way around the scattered pieces of furniture, dizzily finding herself standing on the wall for a moment, before pressing through the crowd of ponies clustered around her parents. Her mother was abed and holding a tiny foal with a dark blue coat and light azure mane. Celestia had a baby sister.

“Celestia, this is Luna,” her father told her.

Luna. My little sister. Are you normal, or will you be like me—cursed?

Comments

[TasermonsPartner]

Nice! Loved the descriptions! And Uncle Grogar? That'll be interesting in later chapters, I'm sure!