Chapter 22
Mondays were the most difficult day of the week. And true to her name, Twilight was not a morning pony. Therefore, Monday morning was always a difficult trial. The worst part was that she had no one to blame but herself. She'd studied long into the night on Sunday, because something had caught her interest, and so she'd gotten very nearly four hours of sleep.
"Maybe I should set two alarms. One to make me go to sleep, and another to make me wake up." She groaned as she walked across a cold stone floor to the bathroom.
A hot shower would make her feel better. She slid under the water once it had warmed, letting it spray across her for a few minutes before grabbing her bottle of shampoo and working it into her hair.
It took almost a minute before she realized something was wrong. There was no smell of flowers or honey, her hair was getting sticky instead of clean, and, in fact, the only thing Twilight could smell was...
"Mayonnaise?!" Twilight hissed, looking at the bottle. She squeezed a little more out and looked at it, confirming what she'd sensed. "But why is there mayonnaise in my---"
She stopped, and her expression fixed into a scowl as she realized exactly what had happened. It wasn't like shampoo could turn itself into a condiment on its own, and the bottle couldn't spontaneously change. As her brother had taught her, sometimes the only sane answer was that you were the victim of enemy action.
"Midnight," Twilight growled. "She pranked me!"
Twilight threw the bottle across the room and started scrubbing, trying to get the disgusting stuff out of her mane. It wasn't the first time that she'd been pranked by Midnight, but it would be the last.
"I'll get my revenge on you," Twilight muttered. "Just wait!"
"Rather unusual weather we're having," Cadance commented, looking at the brown cloud that was hovering outside of the balcony. She'd gathered there with Sunset and Celestia after they'd seen it slowly circling the castle grounds.
"It's made of chocolate milk," Sunset said. "Cadance, you were a weather pony -- think it could be done with pegasus magic?"
"You'd need a hundred gallons of milk to even try," Cadance said. "And even then I don't know if it would work. Especially with the chocolate. When I made clouds from salt water, the salt didn't come with it. Only fresh water would come back out."
"It's unnatural," Celestia said. "I've seen something like this before. The cloud is only holding together through magic. Specifically chaos magic."
"Chaos magic?" Sunset blinked. "Who would be stupid enough to try playing around with that?"
Two sets of eyes stared at her. Sunset blushed.
"Well I didn't do it, so who else is stupid enough to try playing around with it?" Sunset huffed. "I swear. Spend a little while researching dark magic and you never live it down."
"Speaking of down, I think it's starting to rain." Cadance said. "The, um, chocolate milk cloud, I mean."
"Well that's good, at least," Sunset said. "Maybe it'll dissipate on its own."
"It's raining chocolate syrup," Cadance said.
"We should find Midnight," Celestia sighed. "It was either her or Twilight Sparkle." Celestia paused. "And if we find them together, and they're arguing over whose fault it is, it was both of them."
"Fifty bits on both of them," Sunset whispered.
"I don't take sucker bets," Cadance whispered back.
"It wasn't me!" Midnight yelled, annoyed. "I swear on... on things that matter when you swear on them!" She kicked her saddlebags across the room in frustration. Sunset closed the door behind them so they could talk, ignoring the oddly monochromatic maids outside for the moment.
"Somepony had to used chaos magic," Sunset said. "There are about three ponies in the world who know enough to actually try using it, two of us stupid enough to try, and only one of those doesn't have an alibi."
"Making out with Cadance shouldn't be an alibi," Midnight said. "Mom, I really didn't do it."
"If you didn't, we'll find out who did," Sunset assured her. "Until then, you're grounded. For putting mayo in Twilight's shampoo, if nothing else."
"That wasn't me either," Midnight muttered.
"See, that one I don't believe," Sunset said. "You two have been pranking each other for as long as you've both been in the castle. There's literally nopony else who would have done that."
"Well if I'd thought of it, I would have pranked her that way," Midnight admitted. "But I didn't. I'd take credit for it if it was me."
"That's fair," Sunset nodded. "But Twilight is looking for payback. Maybe you should think of this as protective custody. I'm pretty sure she'd love to get revenge on you."
"Revenge for what?" Midnight pouted and fell back on her bed. "I'm innocent! She probably made up the whole thing to get me in trouble! She pranks herself, then she's free to do anything to me!"
"Midnight, she was very upset," Sunset said. "Who else would even want to prank her?"
"Cadance," Midnight said, instantly. "Maybe Celestia. She always teases ponies when she knows they can't prove anything. Some of the castle staff. Lemon Hearts-"
"Who?"
"The one who got her head stuck in the flask."
"Oh, her," Sunset frowned. "How did she even do that?"
"Long story," Midnight shrugged. "But she'd totally be up for a prank war."
"Well don't let it turn into one," Sunset said, firmly. "I just know things would get out of hand and one of you would end up blowing up Canterlot and screaming something like 'they called me mad! Now who's insane?!'"
"That wouldn't happen," Midnight said.
"It totally would. I bet you'd even do an evil laugh."
"Ugh. Just go away and let me be grounded in peace," Midnight said. "I might as well do the homework Celestia assigned me since I can't do anything fun."
"Just remember to ask if you need anything," Sunset said.
"Yeah, yeah," Midnight sighed, opening a book and instantly becoming bored with it.
She held the pose, turning pages blankly, until Sunset had left. She gave it a few more minutes to be sure she was alone, then locked the door and started making preparations. She only had one chance to get this right without setting off all sorts of alarms in the castle, and she intended to make it worth the effort.
Twilight hummed happily to herself as she brought another stack of books back to her room. Half were borrowed, half would have permanent spots in her library thanks to the generous educational stipend she got every month (and promptly spent within days on new texts).
"First I'll shelve the new books, then I'll read the library books," she said to herself. After all, the library books had a time limit on them. She sorted her burden into two piles, then picked up her new copy of De Historia Piscium Equuis - which she had largely gotten for its historical value as everypony knew that 'Piscium Equuis', commonly translated as Sea Ponies, did not in fact exist (everypony was wrong about that, but it had not saved the publishing house that had gone out of business after the book failed).
Her eyes went to the third shelf on her bookcase, where she had all of her books about mythological creatures, and found that she was in fact looking at a copy of Principa Magika.
"How did you get there?" Twilight asked, tilting her head and taking the book off of the shelf.. "I must have been really tired when I shelved you-" she noticed the book next to it. Daring Do and the Space Reptoids.
"But that should be on the bottom shelf!" Twilight said, annoyed. She took that off of the shelf as well. Then the one next to it. And the one next to that. Every single book was misshelved!
"Midnight!" Twilight yelled, shaking her hoof at the sky.
"...and that's why you should never, ever, use chaos magic," Celestia finished, as she drew a rough diagram. "Because no runes or mystic circles are used, the magic takes its own path in the aether. It's fast, messy, and even tiny changes to initial conditions can have huge differences in the outcome."
"Doesn't it still roughly follow intent?" Midnight asked, as she took notes. The pot of ink seemed a little odd today, somewhat too runny. She'd have to get a new one soon -- this was either poorly mixed or just too old.
"Yes, but think of it this way," Celestia said. "Here I have my tea, and it's gone cold. If I use chaos magic with the intent of making it better to drink, it might warm it, change the flavor, or just turn it into something else entirely, and I'd have no idea which until it was over."
"Then why would anypony use chaos magic?" Twilight asked, sitting back. "Something with that many hidden variables is just worthless if you want to be able to repeat results."
"The main attraction is that you can get results that do not correspond to a spell you know," Celestia explained. "A pony who doesn't know how to cast a spell to warm their tea might find themselves tempted to use chaos magic to accomplish the feat."
"But they'd be rolling the dice with the actual results," Midnight said.
"It tends to cause a considerable amount of collateral damage," Celestia added. "The effects of chaos magic are often subtle or hidden until the worst possible moment, and then the ill-informed caster attempts it again and again, compounding the damage."
"Hmm..." Midnight sketched out the diagram in her notes, then flipped back to the first page she'd jotted down, only to find it blank. She frowned and looked through her papers, trying to figure out where she'd misplaced it.
"Is something wrong?" Celestia asked, as she watched Midnight.
"No, I just---" She looked back at the page of notes she'd just taken and watched as the ink faded into invisibility right before her eyes. "What? Where are my notes?!"
Celestia stepped over and picked up the ink pot, sniffing gently.
"Ah. An old classic. Disappearing ink." Celestia looked at Twilight, who was doing her best to look surprised and innocent. "I believe if you expose it to direct heat, like a candle flame, the writing reappears. I'll get you another pot of ink."
"Right," Midnight sighed. "Thank you, Princess."
Celestia left the room, and Midnight turned to look at Twilight.
"What?" Twilight asked. Midnight's glare didn't abate. "Fine. Yes, it was me. Consider it justifiable revenge for rearranging my bookcase!"
"Well maybe I wouldn't rearrange it if somepony hadn't framed me by pranking herself!" Midnight snapped.
"I didn't prank myself!" Twilight hissed. "Do you know what hot mayonnaise smells like?! It took an hour to wash the smell out!"
"Well it wasn't me," Midnight said. "I'd probably use mane dye instead. Harmony knows I've got a bunch that I've tried using. Every other color makes me look stupid."
"Why would you want to dye your mane?"
"Why would I-" Midnight huffed. "Because I don't want to look like you! Half of the maids can't even tell us apart even when I'm wearing glasses and have my mane grown out. Watch." She stood up and motioned for Twilight to follow her.
They stepped into the hallway. As usual, there were a few ponies milling around. Midnight walked up to one of the maids.
"Excuse me, Miss..." Midnight didn't recognize her. She looked almost like Feather Duster, if Feather Duster was covered in enough dust to turn her coat grey.
The maid turned and looked down at them, not saying anything. Her expression was oddly blank.
"Which one of us is Twilight Sparkle?" Midnight asked. Motioning between herself and Twilight.
The maid tilted her head.
"It's one of us," Midnight specified, waiting for an answer. "Only two ponies here. Fifty-fifty shot even if you don't have a clue."
The odd maid turned around and went back to what she was doing. Which was, apparently, slowly shredding papers and dropping the mess onto the floor.
"Okay, never mind," Midnight said, backing away. She leaned closer to Twilight. "I think she might be sick."
"Let's just wait for Celestia," Twilight sighed. "She should be back soon."
"I've got a better idea," Midnight smiled.
"Does something seem off to you?" Cadance asked, as she sat on her pillow. She'd been watching Sunset go over the usual pile of missives to the crown -- apparently doing Celestia's paperwork was her job when she wasn't doing the rest of the Princess' work for her -- and she'd gotten distracted by a raw feeling, like a distant toothache.
"Yes," Sunset said. She signed another scroll and set it aside into one of the piles in front of her.
"Really?" Cadance asked, looking up.
"I've been struggling to remember when I agreed to do this as a full-time job," Sunset said. "I'd almost rather be trying to find Bighoof and the Abominable Snowpony."
"Only almost?" Cadance smiled a little.
"Well, I wouldn't get to spend as much time with you, and the food's better than Guard rations," Sunset smirked. "So, mostly the food."
"I'm wounded," Cadance giggled. "But really, it feels like something's wrong. Have you ever seen a wild storm?"
"Sure," Sunset nodded. "Lots of them. My work took me to the edges of Equestria. There are a lot of places were where just aren't enough pegasi to run a weather team, and they end up with crazy storms. There was this one island I was at when I was hunting sirens -- apparently, every year it got hit with typhoons, and I had no idea one was coming until I was stuck there with no shelter or ride back home."
"You remember what it felt like before the storm came?" Cadance asked. "There's this... calm. Not a restful one. Like a sense of anticipation, and you can smell the rain in the air."
"I remember." Sunset stopped writing, looking at Cadance for the first time. "You feel that now?"
"No, it's just... something similar. There's something wrong. I don't know." Cadance bit her lip. "I can feel love, and it feels... muted today. Like grey clouds pulled over a blue sky."
"So... there's less love around?"
"Yes!" Cadance said, standing up. "And it can't be natural. It doesn't feel like Prisma, or her magic, but there's that same feeling of..."
"Disharmony," Celestia said, as the doors parted to admit her. "Chaos."
"I guess that's right," Cadance said. "I might have gone with 'unhappiness' or 'depression' but Disharmony really has a ring to it."
"What?" Celestia blinked. "I'm sorry, was I interrupting a conversation? I was trying to burst into the room dramatically."
"So what's all this about disharmony and chaos?" Sunset asked. "Unless- you left Midnight and Twilight alone. What did they do?"
"They've been following me, and they think I haven't noticed," Celestia said. "But this is more important than that."
"Why were you trying to burst into the room dramatically?" Cadance asked.
"I just thought..." Celestia looked embarrassed. "I very rarely get to make dramatic proclamations. We haven't had a proper national crisis in decades."
"And we're having one now?" Sunset asked, looking at her paperwork and wondering just how much paperwork she was about to have dropped in her lap.
"I fear so. Come with me," Celestia said. She paused. "And grab Twilight and Midnight from where they're hiding behind the curtains. They should come as well."
"It's a statue garden," Sunset said.
"I remember this," Twilight said. "We had to clean all the statues after we accidentally brought some of them to life. The groundskeeper was so mad."
"Well, 'a Pony descending the stairs' was his favorite statue," Celestia noted, absent-mindedly. "And it never was in quite the same pose after coming to life, even after the spell wore off."
"My bad," Midnight muttered.
"When you brought the statues to life all those years ago, there was only one thing that I was worried about," Celestia said. "You see, not all of these statues are merely pieces of art."
"Are they golems that are designed to protect Equestria?" Twilight asked.
"Nothing so fanciful," Celestia said. "No, some of them are criminals."
"Criminal statutes?" Cadance asked.
"I guess they're not subject to the statute of limitations," Sunset quipped.
"There have been, over the years, a few foes that could not be safely banished, or imprisoned in any normal way. For those beings... I was forced to use petrification," Celestia said. "Most of them are of relatively little threat even if revived now, but one of them was so dangerous that I fear I may no longer have the means to stop him."
"Who could be that dangerous?" Midnight asked. "Nightmare Moon?"
"Nightmare Moon isn't even real." Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Nightmare Moon is imprisoned on the moon," Celestia said, ignoring Twilight's gasp of surprise. "She will be released someday. Perhaps even someday soon. But no, I do not fear her. She is my equal." Celestia looked down. "The enemy I am concerned about was able to defeat all of my magic without even trying."
"Who was it?" Midnight asked.
"Discord," Celestia whispered, as she turned the corner and found an empty plinth. "It's worse than I feared. I thought the wards might merely be weak, but he has escaped entirely."
"On a scale of one to ten, how bad is this?" Sunset asked.
"Ah, I'm sorry, Sunset, I'm a bit distracted by feelings of existential terror," Celestia said. "I'm hoping he isn't so upset by his imprisonment that he decides to simply unmake the world."
"Ten it is," Sunset said. "But you beat him once before, so we'll just so that again. Beating him. However you did it. Can't be that hard, you're still here and so is the world."
"It's not that simple," Celestia said, quietly. "It isn't even in history books now. I don't know where he came from - I was just a filly at the time he showed up, and back then news and information traveled only as quickly as a pony could walk."
Celestia walked up to the empty pedestal and picked up a fragment of stone with her magic.
"I met him in the forest, when I was practicing my magic..."
Tia tried to focus, crossing her eyes and sticking out her tongue as the boulder in front of her stubbornly refused to move.
"Come on, you stupid thing!" Tia muttered. "If I can move you, then Dad will have to let me help out on the rock farm!" She strained, her horn sputtering as the rock started to shift. The moment her concentration faltered, it settled back into place.
Frustrated, Tia spun and kicked it.
"Ow!" Tia yelped. "Ow ow ow! Stupid rock! Dad will never let me help if I can't work the fields! At least Luna can move rainclouds and stuff. All I can do is help mom in the kitchen."
"Why are you having so much trouble with it?" Asked a voice from all around her. Tia backed up into a tree, scared. "It's just a rock."
"I--it's heavy," she said, trying to find the source of the voice. "Where are you? Who are you?"
"So make it lighter," suggested the voice.
"I'm already trying to levitate it!" Tia yelled.
"Yes, you're trying to lift it," the voice agreed. "But lifting something doesn't make it weigh less, it just gets it off the ground. It would be a lot easier to move it if it wasn't so heavy."
There was a flash and the boulder started glowing.
"Whoops," said the voice, annoyed. "That just made it better lighted."
Another flash, and the boulder's color shifted to a pale grey.
"And that's the wrong type of lighter. Getting closer."
A third flash, and it rose up into the air slowly, like a half-deflated balloon.
"Aha! Did it!" The voice sounded pleased with itself.
"How are you doing that?" Tia asked, approaching the boulder and gently touching it with a hoof. It was still as solid as ever.
"Magic, of course."
"Can I see you? Where are you? I've never met another unicorn." Tia circled the floating rock.
"I'm not a unicorn," the voice said.
"Oh. Well, what's your name?" Tia asked.
"I'm not sure I have one. How do you get a name?"
"Your parents give it to you."
"Oh. I don't have parents."
There was a flash of light on top of the boulder, a tiny patchwork creature only as big as her little sister uncurling like a cat. He was all mismatched parts and bits of things that didn't go together, like a rag doll.
"You're funny looking," Tia smiled. "Do you wanna be my friend?"
"...For a while, we were almost inseparable. Occasionally literally, when taffy or tree sap was involved." She smiled a little. "But things changed."
"Things don't just change," Sunset said. "What happened?"
"I grew up. So did he."
"You can't just play with them like puppets," Tia said, annoyed. "They're ponies. Do you know how much it scares them?"
"I didn't hurt them," Discord said, grumpily. He had grown far faster than Tia, big enough now that he was more like a dragon than the cute thing she'd found in the woods. "I was just having fun."
"Giving Mister Green's barn giant chicken legs and making it run away wasn't fun for him," Tia sighed.
"I fixed it," Discord retorted.
"You just removed the legs and left it in the Pears' orchard," Tia corrected. "That's not fixing it, that just creates more problems."
"A walking barn was a great idea. He could have trained it to follow him so he could avoid all that tedious walking to and from it," Discord said, angry. "It's not my fault that he doesn't understand my genius."
"His powers kept growing, and his self-control kept shrinking," Tia said. "When things came to a head he... did some things that I don't want to speak of. Suffice it to say that when it was over, the entire world paid the price. He was the ruler of Equestria, and he played with it like a bored child. Ponies learned not to stay in large groups, because they interested him more than lone ponies. Civilization crumbled."
"That bad?" Cadance whispered.
"That bad," Celestia said. "In the end, after everypony else had failed, my sister and I were able to seal him in stone with the Elements of Harmony, powerful magical artifacts."
"Well, that's great, then," Sunset said. "We just need to grab the Elements of whatever, then blast him with them again."
"It's not that easy," Celestia said.
"Sure it is," Sunset said, smiling. "We've got two alicorns and three of the strongest unicorns on the planet. If we work together, we can do anything."
"No, Sunset," Celestia said. She tugged the group closer with her magic and wrapped her wings around them in a tight hug. "I won't let you risk yourselves. I love you all too much to send you into battle against a foe you cannot defeat."
"Do you really have to do this in public?" Sunset blushed. "Ponies are watching."
"This section of the gardens is---" Celestia was about to say restricted until she actually looked around. There were dozens of eyes staring at them from grey ponies with dull expressions that ranged from unfocused anger to abject depression.
"I think we should leave," Cadance said. Celestia nodded and stepped between them and the crowd, ushering them towards the nearest doors back into the castle.
"What's happening to them?" Midnight asked, looking back at the mob.
"They look all... drained," Twilight added.
"It's Discord's influence," Celestia said. "He twists ponies to make them more... interesting to him." She pulled the door open and ushered them inside before closing it tightly and locking it. "Unfortunately, his idea of interesting is anarchy and unhappiness."
She walked past them, opening a hidden door in the wall.
"This way. I might not have quite as many hidden secrets as in my old castle, but a few shortcuts prove useful from time to time."
Twilight and Midnight looked around the revealed, windowless corridor. It was granite and stone, with a fine layer of dust that maids would never have allowed. Only a few lights here and there provided any illumination.
"Where are we?" Twilight asked.
"I think this is actually inside the outer wall." Sunset pointed to the next light. "See where it kind of bends inward there? That must be following the line of the tower."
"This space is slightly compressed," Celestia said. "It wouldn't fit otherwise. It's a bit of a cheat. There are a few rooms in the castle that do the same thing, and a loose spatial flexure that pops up from time to time in the east hallways."
"Wait, is that why I keep getting lost when I'm trying to find the sitting room?" Twilight frowned.
"No, that's because you try to read and walk at the same time," Midnight retorted.
"Here we are," Celestia said, opening another hidden door and leading the group out into a hallway. "This part of the castle should be relatively secure. It's near the heart of the wardings."
They trotted out into a hallway lit on both sides by light streaming through stained glass.
"Hey, this one has Princess Celestia," Midnight said, stopping in front of one of the windows.
"Is the other pony Nightmare Moon?" Twilight asked, looking at her mentor.
"Yes," Celestia said, her voice strained. She didn't look at the window. "It's a monument to better times."
"Speaking as a monument to better times, Luna was always a bit dull compared to Tia," chuckled a voice that seemed to resonate from the walls around them.
"Discord!" Celestia hissed.
A shape snaked through the stained glass, the frame warping like water to let the image move.
"In the flesh," Discord said. He looked at himself. "Or not, I suppose."
Sunset Shimmer had trained herself to react instantly to any threat. The moment Discord seemed distracted, she blasted the stained glass with a Shatter spell, the window turning into a rain of rainbow-colored glass shards.
"That wasn't very nice," Discord said, his voice coming from nowhere. There was a flash of light, Sunset vanished from where she'd been standing, and the window showed an animated Sunset Shimmer instead of Discord.
"Sunset!" Cadance yelled. She ran over to the window. Sunset looked down at her, confused.
Discord appeared on the ceiling, wearing a beret and paining random lines on a canvas, no two the same color. "Now, maybe we can have a nice chat, or perhaps I need to get creative. I could turn one of you into a painting or a book. Then again the little nerd here might like it." He held up a claw and a purple book with a star cutie mark appeared on it. "Of course, I might need to make a volume one and two." He turned his head upside-down and looked between Twilight and Midnight. "Very interesting. And here I thought you swore off the mirror pool after you tried ruling alongside yourself when Lulu tragically left us."
"I- how did you know about that?" Celestia hissed.
"Oh please," Discord snorted. "It wasn't like I couldn't tell what was going on around me." He snapped his talons and reappeared on the floor.
"Discord, I warn you, you'll stop hurting my little ponies or else---"
"Or else what?" Discord asked, curious. It didn't even sound a little bit like a threat. "No, really. What will you do? You can't use the Elements of Harmony. Your sister isn't here to save you -- and she'd probably try and stab you in the back before she'd ever help you. Are you going to act like your wannabe-daughter and level half of Equestria trying to hit me hard enough to make me say uncle?"
There was a flash, and a ring appeared around Discord and Celestia, boxing gloves popping up on his talons and Tia's horn. He bounced from side to side, smirking.
"Come on, give it your best shot! It went so well last time."
Celestia was quiet for a moment, closing her eyes and thinking.
"Tia, please, we've done that song and dance!" Discord laughed, the boxing ring vanishing. "Look, I promise, it'll be fun this time! I have plenty of ideas and if you ask me really, really nicely, I'll give you a front-row seat." He looked around, then spotted Sunset glaring at him. "I'll even give you a show of goodwill." He snapped his talons, and Sunset reappeared next to Celestia, flesh and blood again.
"Are you okay?" Cadance whispered.
"That felt awful," Sunset groaned. "It was like being in a nightclub where all the lights are constantly flashing in your eyes."
"Discord," Celestia said. "Those options you mentioned?"
"There's only really one option," Discord muttered. "The one where you give up and get to watch things from box seats."
"I was thinking of taking the latter option, actually," Celestia said. Her horn blazed with light. "I'm sorry, everypony," she said, as she quickly cast Any Tele-port in a Storm, teleporting everypony out of the room except for her and Discord.
"The latter option?" Discord raised an eyebrow.
"The one where I hit you until you cry uncle," Celestia specified. Her horn lit up again, and a blast of force slammed into Discord, the wall behind him, and then out into Canterlot airspace to impact a very unfortunate cloud that immediately evaporated.
"You're out of practice," Discord noted, from behind Celestia.
"I am," Celestia admitted. "But I did teach Sunset Shimmer everything she knows." She braced herself, the air around her crackling with tiny balls of light and heat.
"Is that supposed to scare me?" Discord snorted, rolling his eyes. A bolt of fire slammed down from the sky, right through the ceiling and into Discord. The floor gave out and turned into molten slag, Discord falling down into the pit below.
"No, but it's a start," Celestia said.
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ow. welp, looks like twilight and midnight caused discord to escape early.
Does this mean the trio (Sunset, Midnight, Twilight) are actually Celestia's Angels?
Excellent question!
I’ve slowly started to think that Discord’s problem is that Celestia never beat him enough.
Take that in whatever way you like.
Oh dear. Someone's ahead of schedule. The twins' ongoing animosity might have contributed to his escape, but I have to think that it'd take more than two feuding fillies to make the wards decay that much more quickly. What else has changed? (I suppose all those impromptu high-magic experiments might have worsened matters...)
Also, Celestia casually acknowledging Nightmare Moon's existence. That's sure to have some ripples down the line. (And apparently their parents were earth ponies. Rock farmers, no less. Must have been some very interesting discussions at the time.)
Eagerly looking forward to more. I have no idea how or even if this situation will get resolved.
9008811
The old "You hit me! Picard never hit me!" "I'm not Picard." routine.
Ah, the one, true, Princess Snarkle. Wait, that doesn't work. Um... Princess Sarcastia? No...
That is to say, 26.2597.
Really should have seen this one coming. With Sunset sticking around, and two Twi's this was bound to happen.
Now, the question is, can they talk him down, a random filly Fluttershy going to fall out of the sky, or are we off to the everfree hoping we pick up at lest two more (Applejack and Rarity should be in Ponyville already if not the rest).
Or is Sunset going to pull off something crazy and finally get her wings?
Nice! First time I've ever seen precocious craziness made so routine that Discord's actions are getting misattributed. :)
I also love me a good Discord backstory. I think the only one more novel than this that I've encountered is the Petriculture cycle. (For some reason, everyone seems to either go with "Discord is the last of a species", "Discord is Q", or "Discord was adopted by Celestia and Luna's mysterious alicorn parents".)
I suspect that wouldn't work for Twilight. I'm similarly book-obsessive and I've tried everything short of unavoidably locking myself out of my computer at bedtime and all I wound up doing was building a habit of reading through a giant, blinking "go to bed" message filling most of the screen.
Currently, my solution has been to be very careful to only read new fanfics when I can be sure I'll have completed them before bedtime rolls around. (Once my sleep cycle has recovered and I've rebuilt the willpower that sleep-deprivation has sapped, then I'll explore other options. Having a "sign-in sheet" that required me to budget out time and calculate how many chapters to read beforehand showed promise.)
*grin*
Aaaannd here come's the shit-kicking...
Well, that was quite a surprise. Discord showing up early before we have the Elements of Harmony ready certainly does spell trouble and a need to find another solution if they can't gather the necessary ponies. Still, I wonder what led to his reawakening. Was it simply Midnight and Twilight pranking one another, or was he awake before that and responsible for the mayonnaise? Also, very well done on the bit of history between Celestia and Discord. It'll be interesting to see how this is resolved.
Huh... So he's early. I'm now imagining Twilight and Midnight performing epic spells of chaotic proportions that draws Discord's attention so much that he wants to adopt both of them. After giving them both the same wellspring of Chaos energy to tap into. Because he's like that.
Also waiting for the half fireballs slamming into him because that's now my secret epic fantasy here.
Round 1, fight!
I think Discord might be confused, and Celestia might not be giving herself enough credit. It's entirely possible that the reason"Tia" never beT him before was because she was subconsciously holding herself back... But now? Now she's not only had over a thousand years to grow into her full power, but he's also threatened what little family she has left.
It time the gloves come off...
well discord is gonna be pissed when he comes back you might even say he's melting with rage
it's too early for Discord
Like mother, like daughter
Reading while walking is a skill. With enough practice, you can master it. Just make sure you can do it safely.
Discord before NMM? SWEET!
9009194
The original never had Sunset or Midnight either. Discord being early is interesting, rather than a flaw.
I dislike when a fanfiction expects the events to happen just like in canon, despite the multi-ton magic-wielding mecha piloted by the red-and-black alicorn MC.
There is such a light heartedness to this story, yet I can't shake the underpinnings of the very dark beginning. While Midnight grows and learns on this side, the other side of the mirror is a different story.
9011970
Yeah, not going to lie, while I enjoy this story, I expected something far different.
I disagree with what happens to Celestia in your assessment (As she is almost as strong mentally as the Pony Celestia, so while it would seriously hurt, she wouldn't likely go overboard.....and if she DID the school board or the parents and friends group would step her in and force her to back down.), but otherwise, its an interesting start and has some potential.
I actually thought that was where this story was going to go in the first place till I read the second Chapter.
Also, Luna got off SUPER lightly in your version of events. The fact the camera's showed Midnight just 'vanish' in a flash of light protects her A BIT, but the odds on a camera being pointed at the base of a statue like that is low, and the odds that people suspect her editing the footage to protect herself is high.
Luna is going to get charged with criminal neglect at the very least, just so the police can placate the public and Media demanding Luna's Head. She SHOULD get ruled Not Guilty, (after all, leaving a child somewhere like that is legal), but it will depend on her defense council and the Jury will certainly be against her. If the police finds any evidence of debt, criminal connections, or the like, they may suspect she sold Midnight, then edited the tapes to protect herself, leading to child trafficking charges.
Regardless, she is going to be in the news for months, and possibly hated by certain people for the rest of her life. Even if she is found completely innocent, a segment of the community will still believe that she sold Midnight, and harass her for years to come.
9008827
A case could be made that the passive existence of Midnight is a source of chaos. If you could see the 'code' of the universe (think the Matrix) Twilight is in two places at once.
This is an ongoing glitch in spacetime, an impossibility, a tiny bit of chaos. I don't think it TECHNICALLY classes as a paradox in the literal definition, but many people would call it one.
Give it 5-10 years (At a guess) and the CMCs arguing can break Discord from his prison. A ripple in spacetime caused by caused by a regular pony being in two places at once, and ongoing, permanent glitch in reality would be chaotic enough. And Twilight/Midnight are notregular. Their are now two ponies predicted to be the Element of Magic by the Tree of Harmony.
Two people destined to do who knows how many amazing deeds, living two lives, and Celestia knows what other prophecies refer to the Alicorn of Friendship that somehow two people fit the conditions of through two different life paths.
Thats disharmony, even if its not true Chaos.
9012171
Luna would feel responsible. I don't think she'd accept being found not guilty.
Discord? THIS early? But... the link to the Elements hasn't been broken yet. How...?
d'aww
Don't take it for granite, Sunset. That's not gneiss.
9069873
It could be argued said link was broken and the twins were causing lots of chaos.
Oh there is not enough ponies to use the Elements...
Apparently the entire castle staff are acceptable casualties to Celestia. Unless her spell included them as well but even if it did, based on the residual effects (or lack there of) that spell didn't displace anyone very far. The next thing about emergency random coordinate jumps like that is that the objective is distance and to avoid being followed so there is travel time (sometimes days) and a catastrophic matrix disruption pulse (or just EMP) which scrambles and buries all magical signatures in the emediat area.
10355796
Said link was broken when Celestia betrayed the oath and turned them against one of their own bearers. That's why they petrified in the first place.