Celestia Gambit

by mm1145

*Discord*

Luna, Princess of Equestria and goddess of the moon, walked down the corridor that separated the more public spaces of the palace of Canterlot from her suite of rooms. As she did so her thoughts idly wandered about her sisters talent for long term planning; there had not been a Canterlot royal palace a thousand years ago - there had not in fact been a city of Canterlot as it currently stood - and yet when the palace had been built there had been a complete suite of rooms for her built with it. Did her sister have them built out of sentiment? Or did she always expect Luna to return? From what Luna had read and heard from ponies like Sliver Scroll that had not always been a foregone conclusion by any means.

Luna let out a huge yawn as she walked. It was the middle of the morning and she was the Princess of the Moon; for her it was getting late. She had been attending a late breakfast/dinner with Celestia and some of the royal court. It had been a semi formal affair with most of the ponies who were there wanting something. A favour from the royal princess. A word about the future likelihood of this or that. A favourable decision about this matter or the other. Or sometimes just to be seen with important ponies. What had surprised Luna was how many of the ponies wanted to be seen with her. Apparently there had been quite a bit of surprise that she had not been present at the gala and this had started gossip about the reclusive princess of the moon. And so her company had acquired a sort of novelty value. She had been quite amused at this and had engaged some of the ponies in conversation, but when she had realized that they only cared about the latest fashions or the doings of “society ponies” she had quickly gotten bored of them.

She approached the door to her rooms. The two guard ponies saluted her as she approached and she waved them a salute in return as she reached for the door. How did Celestia cope, she wondered, most of the ponies she had met either seemed so self interested in their own wealth and power or were so vapid that they where virtually a cut-out of a pony. Oh there had been a few that weren't. That white unicorn stallion, Luna thought Celestia had introduced him as 'Fancy Pants', had seemed quite pleasant.

A shudder ran through the palace and through Luna. She stopped dead in her tracks, her fore hoof outstretched for the door. It came again, stronger, and her knees buckled.

“Your Highness?” She heard one of the guards ask in a concerned tone, but her mind was too busy to pay him any heed. She recognized that feeling. The taste was on the tip of her mind but she could not place it. The shaking came for a third time and this time as it shook through her she felt a rasp of pain like an all body tooth-ache.

“Your Highness, what’s wrong?” the guard asked, worry clear in his voice now. Luna looked up at him; he was standing over her with a concerned look on his face, his colleague standing behind him with wings out stretched, head turning this way and that looking for the threat that had struck their Princess. As she looked at the guards she was struck by a realization. They had not felt it. They were worried by what had happened to her but only that. They had not felt the shudder.

Her musing was interrupted by a sharp echoing crack that filled the corridor. Both the guard ponies’ heads snapped to face the direction it came from but Luna barely noticed it. The crack had come accompanied by another pain-filled shudder and then her blood went cold as she realized what the pain was.

No, she thought, no it could not be him. He was trapped, sealed away forever she knew that. She had been there. She had helped imprison him. But she knew she was not wrong; she recognized the pain and the sick feeling that went with it. Pushing through the pain she leapt to her hooves.

“Guards, with me,” she ordered sharply as she set off at a gallop down the passage that led to her sister's rooms.
There were no guards on the outside of the doors to Celestia’s rooms and the doors themselves where wide open as Luna thundered in.

“Sister I...” Luna started and then stopped as she saw her sisters face. Celestia was standing at the windows looking out over the palace gardens and the city of Canterlot. Half a dozen of her guards were standing round the room looking as agitated as Luna’s. As Luna came in Celestia turned to face her and Luna could clearly read the shock and horror on the white mare's face. “No,” she gasped.

Celestia merely nodded her head. “Yes,” she breathed, “Discord.”

Luna rushed over to the window. Looking out she could see into the statue garden; ponies were fleeing in terror. Near the centre of it she could see where the statue had stood. The ground was littered with fragments of stone and standing in the centre, arms raised in triumph, was the spirit of chaos and disharmony, Discord himself. Even from this distance she could hear his terrible laughter. As she watched dark ominous clouds boiled overhead and a peal of thunder echoed through the palace

She twisted round to face her sister who had walked back into the centre of the room. “Celestia we must stop him,” she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. “We must take up the Elements of Harmony and re-imprison him.”

Celestia merely shook her head. “We cannot sister. The Elements have new bearers now; they are no longer bound to us.”
With shock Luna realized that this was true. After all that had happened at the end of what pony historians called 'the war of the goddesses' and in the time since, the Elements of Harmony had been ‘disheartened’. In order to use them against the Nightmare, Celestia had been forced to find a special group of friends who’s love and commitment for each other could reawaken them - but that had meant that they were now bound to that group of friends, not to her and Celestia.

“Then the new Bearers must be summoned to Canterlot so that they can take up the Elements and again banish Discord.” Luna’s mind raced, running through all the things that needed to be done, trying to match them against what actually could be done. She came to a conclusion. “Celestia. You stay here and summon the Bearers of the Elements; I will go and confront the monster and attempt to limit the damage he can do before the Elements of Harmony can reseal him.” Luna had always been more forceful than her sister; as goddess of the sun Celestia might wield the greater power but Luna was the more determined, and perhaps, Luna thought with a wince, she had learnt something from the Nightmare as well as the other way round.

Celestia nodded her agreement and Luna turned back to the window, wings spread ready to take fight.

“Wait!” Celestia called out to her, causing Luna to turn back into the room. Her sister turned to face one of the pegasus guard ponies that stood in the doorway “Winged Sword, take your ponies and go with the Princess Luna.”

The pegasus looked worried. “Your Highness?” he started to question.

Celestia cut him off. “I will be safe enough in the palace, Shining Armour and the rest of the guard will keep it and me safe.”

“But Celestia...” he started again.

“GO Wing,” she said forcefully. “Keep my sister safe.”

Winged sword saluted and signalled to the other pegasi. They came swiftly over and formed up around Luna. Winged sword saluted her. “Princess Luna,” he said formally. “We are yours to command.”

Luna looked at the stern faced ponies and then back at her sister. “Then we go,” she said and took to the sky.

-------

The strange cloud exploded as Spitfire bucked at it, flinging her away head over hooves in a cola scented blast. With the experience born of years of stunt flying she steadied herself.

“So,” she muttered, “the pink ones are sticky and the green ones explode, good to know.”

She looked around. The strange clouds had been sighted on the edges of Cloudsdale a little while ago; at first the pegasi of the city had thought they were an oddity to be investigated and played with. But after the first few pegasi had gotten themselves stuck to the pink ones they had started to be more cautious. Then Spitfire had gotten the message from Celestia and the full scale of the problem had become apparent.

“Get that cola out of the streets!” she shouted to one of the groups of weather ponies. “Buck holes in the clouds if you have, but to we have to get that corrosive stuff out of the city.” Cola was not good for cloudstruction, neither was chocolate milk for that matter but that was less immediate problem.

When they had realized that the new clouds were going to be a serious problem, she and the rest of the Wonderbolts had gathered as many of the weather ponies as they could and were fighting a battle to keep the streets of Cloudsdale free of confectionery.

Something hit her hard in the back of the head. She looked round and saw something else hit the cloud bank in front of her. There were several other impacts into the cloud, each one throwing up a puff of water vapour.

Curious, she flew closer and scooped up one of the things that had landed there.

“Oh great,” she muttered, “now it is hailing gumdrops.”

She was just considering what to do about this latest tribulation when she heard her name called. She looked round and spotted a young colt in the uniform of a junior speedster, one of the groups that they had pressed into service as messengers. He swooped over to her and landed on the cloud.

“Ms Spitfire!” he gasped out, “Ms Spitfire. Soarin says you need to get your f...” he stopped and Spitfire could see him mentally rephrasing Soarin’s message. “Soarin says that you are needed over at the weather factory as soon as you can get there.”

Spitfire looked across the city to where the weather factory was and then back at the groups of pegasi trying to clear out the clouds over this part of the city. Soarin would not have called for her if this was not a big problem. She turned trotted over to the edge of the cloud and stepped off into flight

-----

Spitfire sped past a group of pegasi that were using their wings to try to blow away some of the smaller pink clouds and alighted on the edge of one of the cloud towers where Soarin was standing.
“Got the message Soar. What’s up?”

Soarin just pointed with a hoof off towards the edge of the city. Spitfire followed the direction of his hoof and her blood went cold as she saw the problem.

“Are you sure they are coming this way?” she asked unnecessarily; these where not natural wild clouds that formed and then drifted randomly till a weather pegasus rounded them up. They were being directed against Cloudsdale.

“Sure as apple pie, Spit,” Soarin said. “I have had ponies trying to break them up but they are staying collected."

Spitfire nodded. What they were looking at was an entire storm front of the green cola clouds. She watched one of the groups Soarin had sent out attempted to separate one of the smaller straggling clouds from the main bunch, but as the ponies got closer the clouds moved as if directed by one mind driving the ponies back.

An idea came to her and she turned to Soarin. “Soarin, you know that trick we where practicing last week?”

Soarin looked back at her, shock in his eyes. “Spitfire, I nearly broke a wing trying that.”

Spitfire grinned. “Well get it right this time then.”

She spotted two more members of the Wonderbolts and waved them over.

“Fleetfoot, Misty.”

The two pegasi broke off from the groups of weather ponies they were leading and landed next to Spitfire and Soarin. Spitfire explained to them what she had planned. Both pegasi looked almost as nervous as Soarin did.

“Come on, we have done this manoeuvre lots of times in practice,” Spitfire said encouragingly.

“Yer and every time we have crashed,” Misty replied.

“Well then we have a good working knowledge of what not to do. Come on, we need to do this otherwise that cloud is going to dump a tonne of cola over the weather factory and not even Soran can drink that amount. Okay?” The other Wonderbolts nodded. “Good, then Fleetfoot with Soran and Misty with me. Misty and I will start, Soarin and Fleetfoot will spot the pattern and fill in.” There were more nods. “Right let’s do it.”

Spitfire stepped off the tower and opened her wings, letting the momentum of her fall pull her around; she felt as much as saw Misty pull into formation beside her and the two pegasi carefully spaced themselves apart.

“Okay Misty, let me take the lead. You concentrate on keeping our separation right and let Soarin and Fleet do the rest.”
The massive bank of green clouds loomed closer as Spitfire and Misty piled on speed.

“Closer, closer,” Spitfire muttered, “and now!”

She pulled up, twisting their path into a curve that sent them into a circular path around the clouds, Misty keeping the spacing between them constant all through the manoeuvre.

“Okay, now the real speed.” Misty and Spitfire piled on more speed as they orbited the cloud. Spitfire felt the strain as the tight circles got faster and faster but Misty was still managing to keep their formation nice and tight. They were not flying perfect circles; each one was slightly skewed so as they flew there circles precessed around the cloud.

As she sped past she saw Soarin and Fleetfoot standing on the edge of the cloud stack; on the next pass they were in the air and following a curving dive to take them towards the cloud.

“Get ready,” she called out to Misty over the slipstream, “they are coming.”

Soarin and Fleetfoot dived towards the clouds just as Spitfire and Misty had and pulled into tight loops but in the opposite direction. Spitfire had only a few brief seconds to judge whether they had got their formation spacing correct and then she snapped her wings closed as the two pairs of pegasus ponies passed between each other. Spitfire could swear that she felt the edges of Soarin's mane brush past hers as he passed between her and Misty at a speed frightening to even a trained aerobatic flyer. And then they where past and she snapped her wings open before she lost too much height, but it was only for a few beats as they passed again another half rotation later.

The interval between their passes got shorter and shorter as the pegasi continued to pick up speed and the strain started to tell on Spitfire. This was close formation work; with every pass they were mere hoof widths from disaster but amazingly they kept going.

Spitfire could see it was starting to have the desired effect; even without the smoke that they usually trailed she could see the eddies starting to form as their twin slipstreams tore at each other every time they passed. The two paired moving streams of air pulled in opposite directions, starting to tug at each other. As they got faster and faster the effect got more pronounced, even now she could see - and feel - mini tornados forming at the interfaces of the slipstreams.

It was working, she thought, as she saw the micro tornados stretching into the cloud mass and pulling it apart. She heard the first few popping explosions and realized what was happening. She saw Soarin and Fleetfoot approaching, the clouds tearing themselves apart behind them and she realized the same thing must be happening behind Misty and herself.

“Break!” she screamed out at her team mates as they passed and she pulled herself up just as the leading edges of the explosions reached her.

The exploding clouds buffeted the air round her as she fought to pull herself out of the loops. Cola scented shock waves threatened to tumble them both back into the detonating cloud mass, then all of a sudden Misty and herself pulled to the right and up and out of the turbulent air.

She let the tips of her wings drag in the air, slowing herself down and pulled round in a long spiral bleeding off the speed. As she came round she caught sight of the end of what happened to the cloud bank.

The mass of cloud had not really been just one cloud but a collection of little ones. As the tornados that their flight had formed swirled up the clouds, some of them had popped like the one she had bucked before. Once enough of them had started to explode it had sent a chain reaction through the mass. She watched as cloud after cloud popped, it was a bit like watching popcorn going off, she thought as she flew a lazy circle. A rippling wave of explosions all along the line of their flight spread out through the clouds tearing the mass apart. It was, in its way, kind of beautiful.

Soarin, Fleetfoot and Misty glided over to her.

“Well that was more interesting than I expected,” Soarin said.

“Yer,” Misty added, “and you did not screw up this time.”

“Hay, I never screwed up in the past.”

“Yer sure Soar, it was never your fault.”

“Anyway,” Fleetfoot interrupted, “you think we will be able to do that trick at next year’s gala?”

Spitfire saw another young pegasus in the uniform of the junior speedsters dashing over to where they were hovering.
“Let’s just get to the gala first before we start planning the routine,” she advised as she turned to find out what the next potential disaster was.

----

Trix slammed the door to her trailer behind her and panted heavily. What the horse apples was going on out there?

The Great and Powerful Trixie’s traveling magic show had brought her far south to the settlement of Cloptown; Trix always thought it was a rather unfortunate name. In the local tongue it just meant “town a good day's trot from anywhere else.” It was just rather unfortunate what it sounded like in standard pony. The Great and Powerful Trixie had set up her wagon and stage in one of the large parks in the town and started her standard show; the fireworks, the boasts on how powerful she was, the ursa major, the dragon and then finally the boast that she could do anything that they could do only better. All carefully designed to draw out any magic user with any sort of an ego and get them out in the open where they would, of course, show off their most powerful magic. The Great and Powerful Trixie could then challenge them and push them to their limits. And Trix would see how they handled the challenge and gauge their personality.

This had all been going according to the script and The Great and Powerful Trixie had already had a couple of challengers when there was a commotion at the back of the crowd of ponies, zebra and impala that had gathered to watch. Looking up they had noticed several strange pink clouds moving in. The Great and Powerful Trixie had blustered onwards. Several times in the past pegasi had tried to claim that their feeble abilities to control clouds and other weather was a match for her great power. True she had never seen pink clouds before and she could not see any pegasus pushing these but she was certain that she could deal with them the same way she had dealt with ponies before.

Trix was less certain. Something strange was going on here. But The Great and Powerful Trixie's ego carried her onwards, mocking the pony who thought that mere pink clouds would defeat The Great and Powerful Trixie! Her horn lit up as she reached out her magic to turn the fluffy clouds into shapes of elephants... but her magic would not connect with the clouds, it slipped off them as though they were slippery in some way. She tried again but again the same thing happened. Trixie blustered and ranted about the silly ponies that thought they could best her while Trix scanned the crowd looking for the pony responsible for this. This was something she had not seen before and she needed to know what it was.

Trixie was just about to try a different sort of attack on the tormenting clouds when another commotion broke out at the back of the crowd. The edge of the park was ringed with the strange local trees - long and thin with wide branches at the top and a hard shelled fruit. As they watched the trees started to move, not the back and forth swaying of trees in the wind but an up and down motion. Then with astonishment Trix realized that they were getting closer. They had uprooted themselves and were walking forwards on their stumpy roots. The nearest group flexed back then shot forward, showering the watching crowd with their hard shelled fruit. Where the fruit hit it exploded, white fluff showering out and tangling up several ponies and impalas. The crowd panicked and scattered. At that point The Great and Powerful Trixie’s nerve broke and she bolted for her trailer.

Trix looked out of the window of her trailer. The town outside was in chaos, the walking trees were chasing groups of people everywhere throwing the explosive fruit at them. As she watched a group of pegasi flew past and attempted to buck one of the pink clouds to pieces but as they struck they seemed to become stuck to the cloud and they fell dangling by their rear hooves from them.

Trix turned back and paced her wagon. “Think filly, think,” she muttered to herself. “What could this be, it is not pony magic.
No pony you know of could achieve this effect - even Twilight - and it is somehow resistant to pony magic. Dragon sorcery? No there are no dragons for miles of here and anyway this is not their style. Zebra enchantment? No, stop being silly and think.”

Her self discussion was interrupted by a high pitched whistling sound and she twisted round. In the corner of the wagon there was a puff of green fire that coalesced into a scroll that dropped into the basket setup for it. Trix grabbed it up with her magic and unfurled it in front of her face, noting briefly as she did so that it was marked with Princess Celestia’s seal. Her blood froze as she read the message.

“Discord,” she breathed as she let the scroll drop. She had heard the story of the spirit of chaos and disharmony when she was a filly but she had also heard that he had been permanently dealt with by Celestia and Luna. Obviously the recent changes had meant he had broken free. She quickly scanned the rest of the message. Celestia said she would try to deal with him directly but she wanted all her friends try to help keep a lid on the manifestations of chaos where ever they were. Trix let the scroll fall to the floor and looked out of the window again. Yes, the towns folk of Cloptown needed help, but what could she do?

She strode over to the rack where she kept her outfits and started to shuffle through them. The Great and Powerful Trixie could not help. Trixie had power but under her ego she was a coward - look how she had bolted for her wagon at the first sign of trouble. Neither could Trix herself help, she was a watcher, an analyst not a doer. The outfits on the hanger flicked past. She needed somepony else, somepony who cared for ponies. Somepony who would risk their hide for complete strangers. The clothes on the rack moved faster and faster. No that would not do. No. No. Definitely no. She still even had that one? A flash of sparkles caught her eye and she stopped. Her? She looked out of the window and then back at the outfit on the hanger. Yes, her.

----

The group of Cloptown citizens fled down the streets, chased by a glade of the walking trees. Hard shelled fruit thudded into the walls of the buildings on either side, showering them with bricks and pieces of fluffy fruit. One of the galloping ponies spared a glance to the roof.

“What is that up on the roof?” he cried out. “Is it a griffin?”

“Is it a pegasus?” one of his companions echoed.

“No it’s...” His words where cut off by a fresh barrage of fruit. “RUN,” he screamed and the small group skidded round the corner of the street and into an alley.

Or more to the point a dead end. The small group skidded to a halt amidst the rubbish at the end and twisted round but the way back was blocked as two of the walking trees blocked out the light.

Ponies, zebras and impalas tried to hide in the junk, but the trees bent backwards and sent a barrage of explosive fruit towards them anyway.

Two boards floated out of the piles of rubbish surrounded by the blue glow of unicorn telekinesis. The boards swiftly floated in front of the group and with a thwack struck the fruit, sending them back over the trees.

“Look up there!” an impala shouted. All eyes turned to look at the roof line.

Standing on the edge of the roof, her horn still glowing, there was the unmistakable shape of a unicorn pony mare. Apart from her light blue coat and light blue mane the group could not make much of her out. She was standing in a cloud of sparkly smoke and was wearing a sparkly costume that covered both her face and her cutie mark.

Suddenly there was a pop and she disappeared only to reappear in an identical explosion of glittery smoke in front of the group. At the end of the alleyway the trees shook and launched another barrage at the new pony, but her horn glowed again and walls of magic swept the fruit away. The pony stamped her fore-hooves on the ground and two ropes flashed into existence on either side of her. She pawed her hoof on the ground, the ropes flexing and waving at her side, then she charged the trees.

The trees hurled more of their explosive fruit at her but her magic flicked out and almost contemptuously sent it flying. When she got close enough she leapt at them. They swiped at her with their branches and just as they were about to swat her out of the air she again disappeared in a cloud of sparkles only to reappear in the air above them.

For the next few seconds the crowd of Cloptown citizens watched stunned as the mare flickered in and out of a cloud of glittery smoke, dancing around the trees, her ropes following and trailing after her. Eventually she reappeared in front of them. Looking past her they saw that the trees were wrapped up in the rope and totally immobilized.

One of the group approached the pony.

“You saved our lives,” he said. “How can we ever thank you?”

Her dark violet eyes looked straight into his. “Your thanks are unnecessary,” she said. “To help those in need is its own reward.”

“Well, at least tell us your name!”

“My name is unimportant, but you can call me...” The mare paused for a few moments. “You may call me Lulamoon

There was another flash of glittery smoke and the mare vanished.

“Who was that mysterious mare?” one of the zebra’s asked. “Who saved us from our trouble there?”

Everybody in the group looked at each other but nobody knew the answer.

Lulamoon galloped across the flat roofs of Cloptown; in the distance she could hear the screaming of ponies, she galloped faster and jumped over a street wide gap. She would save them, she thought. The manifestations of chaos where dangerous but Lulamoon would save the ponies. It was her gift. Behind her eyes Trix watched, worried and hoped that Celestia would be able to deal with Discord before this got any worse.

-----

Celestia screamed in agony as pain and chaos tore at her bond with the sun. Her legs gave way and she fell to the floor of her chambers. There was another surge of pain and the bond with the sun shattered and tore, ripping away from her.

“How does it feel?” The voice reached her through the red mists of agony. “Does it hurt when all that you are is torn away?”
With a titanic effort of will Celestia opened her eyes and focused on her tormenter.

“Discord,” she spat through gritted teeth.

The spirit of chaos and disharmony clapped his paws together. “Well done Celestia. Now what colour is the sky?”

Celestia summoned all her remaining strength and pushed herself to her hooves. White hot streaks of pain shot through her body as she did so but she persevered and stood erect. “You will never get away with this,” she gasped out.

“Oh Celestia you are sooo boring,” the draconequus said as he floated over to the window, “and the correct answer is ‘whatever colour I want it to be,' you see I have won. Chaos rules.”

“Never!” Celestia spat but she could feel it for herself; her bond with the sun was in tatters and she could feel the taint of chaos on it. “Luna,” she gasped.

“Oh she was fun.” Discord laughed. “Much less stuffy than you are. But even she was not really a match for me; she was so earnest, so forthright but in the end it was just too easy. Without those little baubles it was not really much of a challenge. I am ashamed that it took me so long to break out of that stone prison of yours."

Celestia had managed by supreme effort to pull herself over to the windows, these had a view out over the place gardens and out into the city of Canterlot proper.

The scene was a mess; the buildings of the city were floating randomly in the air, while in the foreground the gardens were a checker of different patterns of grass. The trees were walking round terrorizing the ponies Celestia could see or were growing upside down. The animals of the gardens where running amok, most of them looking strangely malformed. But it was the sculpture garden that shocked her the most. It looked mostly untouched apart from its new centre statue. Standing proudly in the centre was the statue of an alicorn; she was wearing full battle armour and was posed with her hooves upraised poised to strike down a helpless pony that stood in front of her. Even at this range Celestia could read the inscription on its base.

“Nightmare Moon.”

Anger rushed through her driving the pain back before it. She spun on her hooves and confronted the spirit of chaos and disharmony.

“YOU FIEND,” she screamed at him. She picked up a vase form the table next to her with her magic and flung it at Discord; before it hit him it disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced with a teapot and teacup of a frilly design with matching wings which flew out of the window.

“Temper now,” Discord chided and he held up his lions paw and closed it into a fist.

Fresh agony shot through Celestia and she again fell to the floor.

“You fiend,” she repeated in a hoarse whisper when the pain had subsided. “You said you did not turn ponies to stone.”

“Oh Celestia,” Discord said in a singsong voice as he lounged in the air above her. “I am the spirit of chaos and disharmony.” He leaned down. “I lie,” he whispered in her ear.

Again Celestia tried to push herself to her hooves. “They will stop you, you know,” she gasped out. “Twilight and her friends, they will find the Elements of Harmony and they will stop you.”

Discord clapped his paws together and spun around. “Oh Celestia,” he said with glee. “I take it all back, you do have a sense of humour. That was the funniest thing you could have said.” He leaned close to her. “You see I have already defeated them.”

“No!” Celestia gasped.

“But yes.” Discord replied pulling back to the centre of the room. “The honest Applejack, the kind Fluttershy, the loyal Rainbow Dash, the generous Rarity, even the laughing Pinkie Pie. I felt a bit bad about that last one to tell you the truth but you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.”

As he said this a dozen eggs and a frying pan appeared by him; the eggs lined up and one at a time flung themselves into the frying pan, smashing themselves on the side before reappearing whole again at the far edge and rejoining the back of the line.

“And without her friends,” Discord continued, ignoring his flying circus. “Twilight... Well let me show you.

A column of gray smoke billowed up out of the centre of the room, then expanded out until it was about half a pony in diameter and stretched from floor to ceiling then just hung there. Gradually it shifted and Celestia suddenly realized she could make out shapes in it. The shape refined until she was looking at a clear image of some ponies standing in front of a tree. She realized that she was looking at. Ponyville, although it was hard to recognize it. The tree in the background was Twilight's library, that was clear, but the rest of the town in the background seemed to be jumbled up - it might have been the smoky effects but she could have sworn that some of the building where floating. Her attention shifted to the ponies in the foreground, five of them she thought, looking like Twilight and her friends, but with the lack of colour and the size of the figures she could not make out who was who. She picked herself up and walked closer, trying to work out which of the Bearers of the Elements was missing

“Hay! Down in front.”

She spun round to see Discord lounging in a high backed chair wearing a silly pair of glasses and holding a bucket of popcorn in his paws.

“Some of us are trying to watch the movie.”

She twisted back to the column of smoke. The ponies had formed themselves into a semicircle. They started to glow and float into the air, then the glow stuttered and the ponies fell back to the ground

“Such a great story,” Discord said from behind Celestia. “The different personalities. The passion. The conflict. The hope and then, just as it all looks as if it is going to be ok... Slam, it all falls apart.”

The ponies in the smoke had all gathered round and looked to be arguing with each other.

“This is my favourite part.” Discord's sneering voice said.

Suddenly the ponies broke away, all but one of them running off in a different direction. The view point from the smoke moved closer revealing that Twilight had been left standing all alone. She stood defiantly for a bit as her lips moved and then her head dropped. Celestia gasped. Twilights face was so expressive and she could almost see the hope fade from her student’s eyes. Then her face scrunched up and a single tear fell off her cheek; as it hit the ground the splash momentarily formed the shape of a broken heart.

“And there it is!” Discord screamed as he danced into Celestia’s view. “That is it, that is the shot. Alone, broken, abandoned by her friends the last hope for Equestria gives up, a master piece of manipulation and I did it all without ever touching her. A master piece even if I did say so myself, but let’s see what the critics think.”

There was a flash of light and Discord vanished. In his place appeared two smaller versions of him, sitting in high back chairs with strange swivels instead of legs, on either side of a low table.

“Sensational, just sensational," one of them exclaimed. "A masterpiece if ever I saw it, the way he worked on the fears and anxieties of each pony to break them one at a time and then to work all that to the end where he breaks their friendship without ever letting on that is what he is doing. Just fantastic - and that tear at the end... this guy is a genius.”

“Well let’s not go over the top,” the second Discord interrupted. “Yes he is good and you cannot dispute the quality of his work with pinkie pie and applejack but come on. That bit with the rainbow maned pegasus, that was just far to over dramatic. ...and that bit with Fluttershy. It is as if he just gave up, phoned the whole scene in and don’t get me started on that tear at the end! I mean can you say overly dramatic.”

“Well I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on that one, but what do you think - does he deserve the award?”

“Well as I said he is good, but award worthy? I think not.”

The miniature Discords vanished to be replaced with the full size version dressed in a black suit with a silly bow tie and clutching a gold stature of himself.

“Critics,” he said throwing the statue over his shoulder; when it hit the wall it splashed. “What do they know about anything.”
Celestia looked up at him. “Fine, you have won. Go ahead turn me into a statue as well.”

“Oh Tia, I have a much more elegant fate for you.” The draconequus floated up next to the doorway. “Celestia, Princess of Equestria I am going to do... nothing.”

“What?” Celestia exclaimed.

“Nothing.” Discord repeated with a casual shrug. “I do not need to do anything. You have no armies, no Elements, no power, no hope.” He turned to the door. “Goodbye Celestia. I hate to run but I have got chaos to spread. Hope you enjoy the rest of the show.” And with a backwards wave he disappeared through the door.

“Discord!” Celestia screamed after him, grabbing a chest of a shelf and throwing it at him. It flew through the smoke column and thudded into the wall by the door.

The sun dropped and the moon flew into the sky. Pain shot through Celestia as the magic of the sun scraped against the ragged edges of the bond.

“Come back here!” Celestia pushed herself to her hooves and chased through the door after the spirit of disharmony.

...and out of the wardrobe.

She looked round in confusion. Yes, this was her room. She turned around and examined the wardrobe back. It was solid. She turned to the window, spread her wings and leapt out.

And back through her mirror.

For the next few minutes she tried everything she could think of, but no matter what she tried she kept ending up back in the same room with the column of smoke in the middle still showing the image of a disheartened Twilight.

Curse you Discord, she thought as the sun and the moon again switched places and pain shot through her. Curse you for what you did to her. Celestia walked round the column of smoke looking at her prize pupil. She still seemed to be trudging disheartened through a distorted Ponyville. Celesta’s hooves brushed against something and she looked down curiously. The chest she had flung earlier had burst open and spilled scrolls all over the floor.

She picked one of them up and unfurled it. She read it and remembered what she had been keeping in that chest; these were all of Twilight's letters from Ponyville, her reports on the Magic of Friendship. She let the scroll fall to the floor and looked at the gray image of Twilight.

“Oh Twilight my prize student, if only you had remembered your own lessons.”

A sudden idea struck Celestia and she quickly re-rolled the scroll. Her friends may have abandoned Twilight but surely Spike would not. Spike was not just Twilight's friend, he was her assistant and he thought of the pony as an older sister. He would have stuck by her no matter what.

She held the scroll in front of her face, took a deep breath and pulled magic through the remains of her bond with the sun. Pain rasped at her as her magic scraped the edges of the chaos that had torn the bond off her and the resultant trickle of power was minuscule compared to what she had wielded before but maybe it would be enough. Quickly she teased out the magic into a thin line and wrapped it round the scroll. Would it be enough?

She gritted her teeth and ‘squeezed’ the message spell. The scroll rocked and twisted as Celestia twisted the magic harder. Sparks of green fire flared along the path of the magic as it tried to force the scroll out of existence; for one moment Celestia thought it was going to work as fire blossomed but then the spell snapped and the lines of magic fell apart.

Celestia collapsed to the floor. Curse you Discord, she thought again, curse you for not even leaving me enough power to send a message. Pain wracked her again as the sun abruptly set and the moon rose.

The moon.

She looked out of the window in sudden realization. With Luna not present the bond with the moon would again be lose like it was at a millennium ago. She reached out and grabbed the moon. For a thousand years she had been goddess of both the sun and the moon; she could be so again for a few hours. More pain reached her as she felt the jagged chaos on the moon's link but it the moon itself was blessedly clean. Last time she had held this bond there had been the taint of the
Nightmare on everything but not now.

Again she drew power, this time from both heavenly bodies, wrapping the twin lines of magic round the scroll. She squeezed the spell and the magic flared along the length of the spells. The scroll rocked and twisted and Celestia feared the even now she would not have the power but suddenly the spell caught and green fire engulfed the scroll. Celestia let out a sigh of relief as for an instant she caught a glimpse of the scroll’s essence as the magic whisked it away to its recipient.

She reached out a hoof and picked up a second scroll. This was not time for subtlety; Twilight needed to remember, needed to understand the Magic of Friendship. Again Celestia teased out the magic and sent the message.

She did not know how long she lay there. Pickup a scroll, tease out the magic of the message spell, scream as the magic tore at the jagged edges of the bond. Send the message. Repeat.

Eventually there were no more scrolls left to send and Celestia relaxed.

Well Twilight my best pupil, she thought, looking into the image in the smoke. I know how much you hate to fail a test, pass this one for me, show me how well you have been studying.

------

The white light faded. Silver Scroll opened her eyes and cautiously looked round her office. Everything seemed to be back to normal. She put down the letter opener she had been using to defend herself from the aggressive piles of paper work, yes even the carpet was back where it belonged on the floor.

She breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Miss Sparkle and her friends must have succeeded. She walked over to the big French windows and pushed them open.

The air outside smelled fresh and clear and looking around it seemed that the rest of the town was returned to normality as well. The buildings where all the right way round and returned to the ground, the ground itself was the correct colour and the sky was mercifully empty of cotton candy clouds full of chocolate rain. She walked carefully to the balcony and looked around.

In the streets, streets mercifully empty of tutued dancing buffalo or bunnies with three meter legs she noted, ponies were standing round with dazed expressions on their faces. Yes, the town had indeed seemed to be returned to normal. She was scanning the view when she heard a shouting drifting in form the other side

“Ah, yeah, take that. And this. Take my wings would you! I will show you who is the awesome one round here. Ha!”

With trepidation infringing on her curiosity Sliver Scroll made her way around the balcony to the south side of the building. Looking out over to the edge of the town she saw the little group assembled in the meadow.

Twilight was at the centre of a group of four of her friends, standing at one edge of the meadow. In the middle the last of her friends, Rainbow Dash, was making dive bombing attacks at what seemed to be a fallen over statue. It was the pale blue pegasus mare who'd been doing the shouting that Silver Scroll had heard.

She sighed heavily and bustled back into her office. It may be over for everypony else but it seemed she still had work to do.

“Cortnay,” she shouted as she came back inside. The door opened and her assistant's ginger maned head popped through.

“Oh Mayor,” she exclaimed “I am so glad to see you are okay.” The Mayor waved her silent.

“Yes Cortnay, I am glad to see you made it through in one piece as well. Can we put a hold on the congratulatory hug
please there are a few things that I need you to do urgently."

Cortnay nodded and her head disappeared.

Her assistant was a good pony, Silver Scroll thought, and in a few years when she had gotten a lot more experience and maturity Silver Scroll knew that she would make as good an administrator as that cutie mark of hers told the world she would.

Cortnay returned in a few seconds with a pad and a pencil.

“Right, first find Dark Lantern and get him and some other members of the watch over to the south meadow and put a guard on the statue they will find there. I want everypony kept a good distance from it - at last as far as the edge of the field. Especially the “cutie mark crusaders.” If we could keep them on the other side of town for my preference but the edge of the field will do. While he is at it tell him to see if he can subtly keep Miss Sparkle and her friends form wandering off. I would like them to be on hoof if necessary; she should be smart enough to work this out for herself but sometimes she can be a bit unpredictable.”

Cortnay nodded.

“Second, find me a fast message pegasus - preferably one who is known to the guards at the palace. I have an urgent message for Princess Celestia.”

Cortnay nodded again.

“Third, find Miss Minuette and Miss Heartstrings and tell them to get here. They should be on their way here anyway if they have any sense, but if not I need to see them. You got all that?”

Cortnay nodded for a final time and disappeared back out of the mayor’s office.

Silver Scroll sat down behind her desk and hunted out a piece of parchment, picked up her pen in her mouth and started to write her message to Celestia. Presumably she already knew that Twilight and her friends had succeed in stuffing Discord back in his statue, but it never hurt to be safe and even if she did know she might not know where to find the statue and she needed to come and get it.

Just as she finished writing there was a knock on her door and a gray coated pegasus with straw colored mane and the saddle bags of a message pony came in. Silver Scroll hid a wince. Well yes, she was a message pegasus and yes she was known to the guards at the palace but she wished her assistant had found a different pegasus. Still this one did always seem to have a habit of being everywhere in town; she was probably just hanging around in front outside the town hall. She carefully rolled up her message, sealed it and give it to the message pony.

“Now Derpy listen carefully. You are to take this to Canterlot and give it to Princess Celestia or to Winged Sword only. You understand?”

The straw maned pegasus repeated her instructions back to her.

“Good. Get going then.”

Derpy walked over to the large French windows, opened them and leapt into the sky. Silver Scroll followed her out on to the balcony. Well, she had at least started off in the right direction, there was hope for her message yet. She again looked down into the town square. A fairly large group of curious ponies was already gathering near the south meadow and she felt a stab of worry when she saw three small shapes pushing their way excitedly through the crowd; but then she saw with relief that Dark Lantern and the watch had already setup a guard and were keeping the ponies back from the statue.
She was probably worrying over nothing. The spell that held the spirit of chaos and disharmony encased in stone could not be that weak; he had been on display in the royal statue garden for pony knew how long after all and even if he did by some horrible coincidence get lose then presumably Miss Sparkle and the rest could just stuff him straight back in again. But better safe than sorry. She spotted two ponies making their way casually but definitely towards the town hall. Anyway, she thought as she went back inside, that statue was covered in sharp points; it was almost certainly a health and safety hazard.

A few minutes later there was a knock on her door and her assistant showed in the two ponies, who took seats in front of the Mayor's desk.

“Lyra, Colgate,” Silver scroll started, “everything okay?” Both the mint green Lyra Heartstrings and the light blue Colgate Minuette were agents of hers and kept a close eye on the goings on round the town for her when they were not busy doing their other jobs.

“We had a little look round as we were heading over here,” Colgate answered. “Everything seems to be back the way it was, we could not see anything out of place.”

“Apart from the new art installation in the south meadow,” Lyra chipped in.

“Well yes, apart from that we seem to be back to normal.”

“Yes, that is what I thought from what I could see up here. How where the townsfolk?”

Colgate rocked her head from side to side. “They seemed to be managing quite well considering what happened. Most of them are putting it down to some sort of mass dream or hallucination. And completely ignoring the little physical evidence to the contrary.”

Silver scroll gave this some thought. “Okay,” she said eventually. “This is what I want you two to do. First Colgate, head out to the edge of town - you know those new rock farmers?” Colgate nodded “They are in fact not rock farmers but members of the royal guard sent here incognito by Celestia to keep an eye on the local diamond dogs.”

Colgate smiled. “I did wonder why they were no good at rock farming.”

The Mayor smiled. “Yes, next time I am going to suggest to Celestia that perhaps she includes some real rock farmers in any group she sends out. Anyway, find the one calling himself Rock Pick and tell them to do a brief scout round the edge of the town and make sure all our 'neighbours' are undisturbed. After that head over to the Everfree Forest and get Zecora to do the same there.”

She turned to the other pony. “Lyra, hang around the crowd and just make sure that nopony is going to do anything stupid. I do not want to hear about 'cutie mark crusaders statue removers' or similar anytime soon.”
Lyra nodded as well.

“Right, get going and report back in a couple of hours.”

Silvers scroll slumped on her seat as her two friends left the office. Everything seemed to be going okay... now what had she forgotten?

-------

Celestia could hear the voices drift through the door as she made her way up to the entrance to the Sunrise room. Hesitating at the door she listened carefully. It was not eavesdropping, she told herself, she was merely being very slow in actually opening the door. To put the lie to her words she then bent low and pressed her ear to the door to make the speech clearer.

“The mysterious Lulamoon ? Really Trix, could you not have been more subtle about it?” That was the voice of Spitfire, leader of the Wonderbolts and also Celestia’s first response team for a crisis.

“Lulamoon IS subtle.” That voice was Trix, pony of a thousand disguises and Celestia's number one source of information on the goings on around the larger world. “She is much more subtle than The Great and Powerful Trixie.” There was a few seconds of sniggering at Trix’s exaggerated pronouncement of her main alter ego’s name.

“Yes but Lulamoon? Why not just be the Mysterious MareDoWell and blow all the subtly.”

“Well largely because I do not have her outfit. I am surprised I still have Lulamoon's and I am just glad that that comic never made it to that part of the world. Anyway Spit, you miss the point entirely. Lulamoon was just the pony that was needed in that crises, nopony else would have done. Those trees where a nightmare to deal with - and those cotton candy clouds gave the local pegasi a fright - not to mention nearly scaring the Great and Powerful Trixie half to death. Did you have them in Cloudsdale?”

“Them and more. We nearly lost the weather factory to a cola flood and the thunderhead district was half buried in icing sugar. How about you Mayor?”

“Bunnies with three meter long legs, ballet dancing buffaloes in tutus.” That voice was Silver Scroll, Mayor of Ponyville and Celestia's guide to the paths of the future. “And I was attacked in my office by aggressive piles of paper work.” There was a general sound of laughter at this revelation. “...a bureaucrats worst nightmare I am telling you. I still see them even now looming over me chanting ‘sign me, sign me’ in a crackling voice.”

“Tia what are you doing?”

Celestia jumped at the unexpected voice.

“I was not eavesdropping!” she blurted out before she recognized where the voice came from and turned round. “Lun, what are you doing up?”

Luna was standing in the corridor behind her. She looked almost as bad as she had when Celestia had first rescued her from the grip of the Nightmare. Celesta looked at Winged Sword who stood a little sheepishly behind and to one side of her sister.

“She insisted,” he said defensively in response to Celestia’s inquisitive glare. “She insisted quite forcefully as a matter of fact.”

“Yes I did,” Luna replied, showing quite a bit of the forcefulness in her tone. “Come on Tia, you where the one that said that I needed to get out and get involved in things and so I am, I am getting involved with the running of this kingdom starting with these secret meetings of yours.”

Celestia gave Winged Sword another glare.

“Don’t look at me,” he said backing away. “I did not tell her.”

“He did not have to,” Luna said. “Come on Tia, I have met most of these ponies in the past year and I know how you work. You like to work with ponies you know and like to keep a personal eye on things. It did not take me long to work out. Now I want to be involved, so no more arguments.”

Celestia looked at her sister. Her mane was again washed out and her colour was faded. “Lun, I am not sure that you are really well enough to be out of bed,” she said with feeling.

“Nonsense,” Luna replied forcefully. “I am fine.”

Celesta put all her force of personality into her disbelieving stare.

“Okay, I feel lousily,” her sister admitted. “But I want to be involved. Come on Tia.”

Celestia held up her hooves in surrender “Okay Luna, fine. If you insist. Shall we go in and I can officially introduce you to everypony?”

Luna nodded. “If, that is, you have finished eavesdropping,” she added with a mischievous grin.

Celestia smiled in return and swung the double doors open.

The room beyond contained about a dozen ponies, most of them clustered in casual groups. As she entered some of them bowed formally but not all of them. Celesta did not mind. These ponies where her personal friends and most trusted of agents.

“Relax my little ponies,” she said casually. “As always these meetings are informal and mostly never happened.”
The ponies in the room sat down on the chairs and couches as Winged Sword closed the door behind the princesses and took position in front of it.

Celestia sat down on a couch and Luna took the one beside her. Cups of tea levitated in front of her and Luna. “Thank you Trix,” she said without even looking up. She took a sip, as always Trix over sweetened it, and put it down on the table beside her. “Now before we begin,” she announced, “I think most of you have already met the Princess Luna but even those of you who have not been personally introduced will know who she is.” There was a general mutter of greeting. “Luna, I will introduce you to the ponies you have not met before afterwards.” Celestia took another sip of her tea. “Right, well I guess the first topic of discussion really needs no further introduction. Discord.”

------

Celestia looked at her sister lying asleep on the couch, gently snoring.

“She looks so cute when she is asleep, does she not?” she said to Winged Sword who stood beside her. =

“All ponies look cute when they are asleep,” he replied, “even you Tia.”

Celesta put on a shocked expression. “I will have you know that as a Royal Princess I always look regal even when I am asleep.”

“Of course your Highness,” Winged Sword said with mock seriousness, “and the collection of royal stuffed toys only enhances the majesty of the royal bedchamber.”

“Well of course. Most of those toys are older than a lot of towns and cities and by now they have learnt how to behave with dignity.” Celesta looked back at Luna and used her magic to pull a blanket over her sister.

“I think it is best if we let her sleep. Could you inform Bluebell where she is and have her here so she is not alone when she wakes up?” This last was to one of the other guards. She turned back to Winged Sword. “We have to go and get ready for the official dedication ceremony.”

“Should we not wake Luna? She should be there, I am sure that there will be a lot of ponies who will be upset that she is absent.”

Celesta shook her head. “I do not think so. Red Star was right, she is worn out and she needs her rest. I am sure the ponies will not be too upset without her. This is after all supposed to be about Twilight and her friends not me or Luna.”

“Of course your Highness.”

Celestia gave her sleeping sister one final look. “Come on then Wing,” she said turning to the door. “We have a formal occasion to attend.”

-----

Celestia stood in all her finery on the raised platform at the end of the hall. In the distance, at the end past the immense crowd of ponies, she saw Winged Sword in heated debate with a couple of other guard ponies. Finally they hurried off and as he looked up she caught his eye. He shook his head and disappeared of to one side and she lost him behind the crowd. Obviously there was still some delay.

The crowd of ponies was gathered here in this special chamber for a celebration and dedication. This hall was the place where all the memories of the history of Equestria where celebrated and they were gathered here to dedicate a new one. One in celebration of the victory of Twilight Sparkle and her friends over Discord.

She looked over at the wall where a hanging curtain covered the latest monument. A stained glass window that Celestia had had made in record time. And then back along all the others. They represented her greatest triumphs and sometimes bitterest failures she thought; as was her habit when she was standing here her mind ran over them.

At the far end right by the door was a triptych painting showing two winged ponies in battle; one brilliant white the other midnight black - this was her fight with Nightmare Moon. The final panel of the three showed her imprisoning her sister in the moon. This painting was always painful, but much less so now that her sister was back with her.

Next up was a rather over-done marquetry panel inlayed with gold and precious gems showing her emerging from a cloud with the sun's golden rays behind her. It was supposed to represent her return to Equestria from her self-imposed exile. On the clouds in front of her pegasus ponies were bowing down to her. If only it had been that easy.

The next was a statue showing a pony standing on its rear legs, front legs up and wide apart, the chains that had held it snapped and falling lose. This was a more generic monument to one of her efforts to rid Equestria of the vile slave trade. It was more optimistic than she had been at the time.

The next was one of the biggest; a massive painting in canvases and oils done in the overly realistic classical style. It was nearly the length of three ponies and showed a full spread of the battle for the smoky mountain. It was a very famous work and was incredibly detailed having taken its creator years to paint according to one of the studies she had read over four hundred individual ponies could be made out by either their colouring or cutie marks but she had never gotten past the ones important to her. Sheet Lighting in the sky leading a wing against a dragon. Her six brave foals by Celestia’s side and in the far corner and Sunrise leading a charge of very young ponies indeed.

Celestia moved on and as it always did her heart stopped at the next painting; a much more stylized work. It showed the city of Canterlot being rebuilt in the background, while in the foreground a group of ponies were dragging a litter towards her. On the litter was the body of dark coated pony with a white stripe in his mane; the way he was painted you could not make out his cutie mark but there was no mistaking who it was. Sheet Lighting. In the clouds above the scene ponies and griffins stood side by side heads bowed, supposedly representing how his death had been pivotal in bringing ponies and griffins back together. She moved swiftly on but the next painting was almost more painful than the one of Sheet Lighting.

It showed her lying on the ground in the remains of a courtyard, a large, brilliant yellow pony poised over her with hooves and strange wings up and ready to strike. Between the two a small filly stood; Sun Dancer and Sunset.

She moved on before her mood became too dark. The next was another statue. Three ponies; one of each type dressed for battle. The earth pony lead the way dressed in heavy plate armour with head down and charging. Behind him came the unicorn; lighter quilted amour and a spell enhancing jewelled crown clearly visible. His head was up as if he was casting a spell. Above them a pegasus dived down, scale amour and sharpened wing blades gleaming. The trio always looked to her as if they were about to charge right of the pedestal. She could never remember if this had been made to commemorate the first or second diamond dog war and it kept moving round the room as she changed her mind.

Next was a formal group painting with ponies sitting stiffly in two rows. She sat in the middle front row, ponies dressed in their finery on either side. On her left sat a rather finely dressed and prim looking mare and on her right a scruffier orange stallion. This was the first group of students from the school for gifted unicorns, with Book Dancer and Astonish. She always checked this picture carefully as Astonish had a habit of pulling faces if she did not stay on top of him.

She was distracted from her trip down memory lane by a flutter of activity from the back of the room, but it seemed like they were still not ready. She looked round at the crowd of ponies but it seemed they were not getting to restless yet. The crowd was mainly made up of ponies from Ponyville. In the front was Silver Scroll, chatting to a light blue mare on her left. On the Mayor's right Celestia recognized Lyra talking to a cream earth pony. Celesta thought it important that the ponies of Ponyville were here for this event; it was their friends that were going to be honoured and it would mean a lot to them.
Winged Sword stood in front of the large double doors at the end of the hall and waved a hoof to Celestia before disappearing back to his official place; at last it seemed they were ready to begin.

The big double doors at the end of the room opened to reveal the heroes of the hour, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. The band struck up and they started to walk down the middle of the crowd of ponies. Celestia felt the pride of the assembled ponies as their friends walked forward to receive their reward. They deserved it she thought, they had defeated Discord and kept Equestria safe. Celesta felt a spark of pride at the thought.
She looked at around the room at the paintings and statues, It had been with the help of those ponies that she had rebuilt Equestria after the devastation caused by the fight with Nightmare Moon. It was with the help of those ponies that she had protected Equestria in the long years since her return and kept her ponies safe. She looked down at the assembled ponies and the heroes of the hour as they made their way towards her; it would be with the help of these ponies and ponies like them that she and her sister would keep Equestria safe from whatever would come to assail it, just as they had stopped Discord.

Well done my little ponies, she thought as they stopped in front of her. Very well done indeed.

END

Authors notes

And so I've finished my first pony story and in fact the first piece of fantasy writing I have actually completed. Please leave comments; I really would appreciate everypony's thoughts on what I have written.

First of my deep thanks to Luna-tic Scientist who did amazing work translating the gibberish I pretend is English into readable text; you can find his work here:

http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&user=8115

I am sure you will like it.

I decided to write this story after reading a few captioned images I found on the internet basically accusing Celestia of being lazy or tyrannical and so I put together a story showing some of the behind the scenes work that might have gone on. Showing what people who only see Twilight's side of the plan might not see and that they might not notice the complexities of what is happening, particularly in episodes like Dragonshy, Sonic Rainboom and Bird in the Hoof.

I decided to finish it here because I always planned to fit it in round the series without infringing on it. It is a behind the scenes story and I do not want to continue it over season 2 so I am using the defeat of Discord as a nice ending point. I might do some follow up short stories to this series so watch this space.

BTW the title comes from the fact that I found the plot from the pilot episode on the “batman gambit” section of tvtropes.

Comments

[reader238]

this is a very awesome story and I am glad that I found it to read

oh and first