Princess Celestia was dressed in an itchy, uncomfortable gown sewn of gold and silk. She hated it. She hated all of it- the boring, fancy party guests; the annoyingly slow whine of the cellos; everything about this party was so dull! She'd only come to the stupid Grand Galloping Gala because her tutor promised her mother, the queen, would be there. But, like always, she was too busy to pay any attention to her bored daughter; so Celestia sulked in the corner, imagining turning all of the guests into slimy frogs. She could do it, if she wanted, but her tutor would scold her. The princess wished she had realized her mother would ignore like this, and brought some form of entertainment. Sure, her tutor would scold her for being "unladylike" for neglecting her guests, but her sister Luna had gotten away with bringing a book. Although, it wasn't like the tutor cared if Lulu brought something to the party. He payed much more attention to Celestia and her advanced magic. In fact, most people did. Luna was just a quiet wallflower.
A commotion at the entrance broke her train of thought. A small crowd had gathered at the giant, elaborately decorated doorway. Wondering if some foreign hoity-toity prince had arrived, she raised her elegant ivory head to see the strangest sight. A young draconequus stood regally by a well- groomed stallion. This interested Celestia greatly, as she'd only heard about them during her studies. They were supposedly extinct, but had wielded great magic. As she observed the draconequus, she noticed the he had the head of a pony- but the physical resemblance stopped there. Two mismatched horns rose from his sleek head; one a deer's and the other- some sort of wobbly dragon horn? One of his hands was a lion's paw, and the other, a talon, was waving politely to the "sophisticated" ponies, who seemed in awe of his grace and posture. He strutted on a dragon foot and a deer foot, and his reptilian tail swept across the ballroom floor. Celestia was greatly intrigued by him, but didn't understand how he could be so charming with these incredibly empty-headed ponies. Perhaps he was nothing but another foolish sop like them. But even as he pulled a bouquet of roses for the nearest lady, who swooned, she caught the mischievous twinkle in his eye; and only Celestia realized that one of the petals had transformed a slug and slimed its way into her tea. The mare sipped at her tea daintily, not noticing the prank he’d pulled. Smiling inwardly, she turned around and accidentally bumped into her tutor, Silver Lining.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "I apologize, princess! Are you hurt?" Celestia rolled her eyes at the idea of a little thump causing her pain. But before she could reply, the same gentlecolt who had escorted the draconequus inside pushed his way through the crowd up to us and coughed gently.
"Lord Moneypenny!" the startled unicorn exclaimed, and bowed his head in acknowledgement.
"Ah, Sir Silver Lining," The Lord smiled and lowered his head as well, but not as low. "How nice to see you again! And this, I presume, is the royal princess herself?"
"Yes, of course! In fact, she is very skilled with magic- very much above anypony her age!"
"Is that so? My son is adept at such things as well- may I introduce my adopted son, Discord!" Moneypenny proudly motioned to the draconequus, who had appeared at the mention of his name. Celestia eyed him curiously. He seemed about her age, and up close was even more extraordinary. As the two adults chatted, she approached him.
"Princess!" he exclaimed charmingly, bowing deeply and handing her a single carnation flower. "How pleased I am to meet you at last." Determined not to be fooled, she turned flower into a pale pink butterfly that flapped away, landing on somepony’s wig and causing him or her to yelp in surprise.
"Well," Discord slipped her a smile, "Guess you aren't such a nit wit."
"I'm offended that you made such an assumption! I'm NOT a snooty stuck up like them," she gestured at everypony else.
"Glad someone here isn't prancing around like a snob, then," the strange creature replied.
"How do you even talk to them? I can't stand one second around those ponies. That's why I always coop myself up in the palace."
"Act like them. Then you can do more things without them suspecting you and trying to ruin the fun."
"Oh, sir Discord," Celestia mocked their silly accent, "How can I ever live? I have lost my most prized doily because I couldn't possibly lower my status by *gasp* kneeling onto the ground to reach it? WhatEVER shall I do?"
"Lady Celestia- that is such a tragedy! If ONLY there were some way to... levitate it? But that's impossible, as it might stress your horn the slightest! Such a horrible dilemma!" Discord smirked.
"Oh, shut up! I was pretending to be an earth pony!"
"I'm sure," he snickered. Celestia slammed into him playfully. Unfortunately, her tutor realized she was missing from the conversation and dragged her away to meet some dignitary of someplace she didn’t care about and the mayor of Manehattan, who continued endlessly on about a new style of lampshades and whether it was 'in' or not. Trying Discord's tactic, she flashed a winning smile at the dull ponies and murmured politely,
"Excuse me for a moment, I am ever so thirsty. I should like to grab- um, obtain some refreshments for my parched throat." To her surprise, it worked, and the trio went back to discussing lampshades. Scouring the large ballroom for Discord, but failing, led her to the conclusion that he must have left already with his adopted father. The rest of the gala was extremely boring, and all Celestia could think about was the extremely interesting draconequus.
"Princesses, your mother has requested you be tested on your magic so far." Silver Lining bowed. Seeing the excited their faces became, he hurriedly explained, "But, unfortunately, she was detained by her royal duties, so the queen will not be attending." The girls' faces fell. “However, I shall write a report on how both of you perform and send it to her shortly afterward.”
“Can I go first?” Luna stepped forward. Silver Lining looked uncertain. He had obviously been hoping to see Celestia first, and astound him once again.
“W-wouldn’t Celestia rather begin it?” he imploringly glanced at the pink-maned mare.
“Whatever. Lulu can go before me,” she shrugged.
“All right then,” the grey pony adjusted his glasses. “The task is simple. Start by conjuring a pumpkin. Then transform it into a carriage. The more detail, the more points awarded.” Hearing this, Luna gulped. She could summon a pumpkin well enough. But every time she’d tried to create a carriage, it still had leaves and a stem. But the little princess was determined to please her tutor, and, more importantly, her mother. Breathing in deeply, she focused on materializing a pumpkin. With a satisfying POP!, it appeared, and despite it being small and wrinkled, Luna was proud. But now she faced a greater challenge.
Mustering all her energy, the alicorn began to work her spell. It had taken her week of studying. The pumpkin grew slowly and the vines were twisting into wheels and window frames. Soft pumpkin flesh hardened. The stem shrank away. Sighing from the humongous magic drain, Luna sank to the ground. But when she surveyed her work, a smile of relief burst onto her face. She did it! The carriage was still orange and green, but she had passed! While Princess Luna reveled in her success, Silver Lining jotted down some notes- and started clapping, much to her surprise.
“Wonderful! How exquisite! Marvelously done, princess!”
“Thank y-” the younger sister stopped as she raised her head. He wasn’t complimenting her. In the time that Luna had sat down, Celestia had simply raised her horn, and a large, plump pumpkin appeared in midair. Before it had even touched the ground, the whole orange vegetable had been transformed into a magnificent silver ride, so well designed that it would make a master builder jealous. And what really irked Luna was that her sister had hardly given any effort. She hadn’t studied, or practiced. Luna’s raised hopes that the queen would be proud smashed into pieces. Silver Lining hadn’t even so much as nodded his head in her direction. As the stallion dismissed Celestia, Luna stomped up to him.
“How did I do?” she tried not to sound too infuriated.
“You passed,” her tutor tried to walk around the princess.
“May I see the letter?”
“W-well,” he stuttered. His younger student had always made him nervous, although he didn’t know why. “I suppose...”
She snatched it, and quickly flipped through the three lengthy pages.
“There’s only one paragraph about me!” she seethed. “The rest is about how WONDERFUL my sister is!” Throwing it onto the ground, she strode away angrily.
Meanwhile, her wonderful sister was out in the royal gardens, strolling through the tall rose bushes. Celestia bent to sniff a particularly aromatic one, when it sprayed a foul substance on her face.
“Bleugh!” she spluttered, trying to wipe it out of her purplish-pink eyes.
“Need a towel?” a familiar voice observed.
“Discord!” Celestia whirled around, annoyed. “Why’d you do that? This sticky stuff will take FOREVER to wash out!”
“Lighten up,” the draconequus smirked. “I can get it out.”
“Then do it!”
“Tsk, tsk, princess. You have to be more polite than that.”
With that, Celestia tackled Discord, using her magic to tickle him with a giant feather.
“Surrender! Wash it off now!”
“N-never!” he giggled uncontrollably.
“I can do this all day!”
“Aah! Hahaha! Okay! Okay! I give up! I’ll clean you up!”
“Promise?”
“Ha- yes! Hahah! Get off me now, you mad mare!”
Celestia stood up and brushed herself off. Wiggling the feather in a threatening manner, she warned him not to try and trick her again. But rather than wiping the stinky, black ooze off with a towel, he used... a rabbit? The surprised bunny sprang to the ground and raced off, obviously not wanting to be smooshed into somepony’s face again.
“Now you’re gonna get it!” the pink and white pony levitated her feather with her horn, which, to her shock, was not a feather anymore. It was a towel.
“Yeah right,” Celestia scoffed. “As soon as I use this, it will turn into... a cat, or something!” Discord just shrugged his shoulders and grinned. She squinted hard at the draconequus, as if trying to read his mind.
“Or maybe... it’s reverse psychology,” the mare mused. The mischievous character stayed infuriatingly silent.
“I’m going to use this...” she decided slowly. As Celestia brought it to her stained white coat, it became a plush doll. Realizing this, she slammed it down on his head.
“If you are going to be that way,” Discord sniffed, turning around as if to leave. Suddenly, he whirled around with a pillow, knocking the princess clean off her hooves. Getting up again, she transformed her doll into the biggest, cushiest pillow she could imagine. This was war.
Luna, back in her chambers, was reading about magic techniques when her sister came in and threw herself onto her bed. Luna raised her head out of the book to look across the room, toward her sibling’s half of the room. Her eyebrows lifted at the sight of Celestia’s muddy hooves and feather plastered coat. They elevated even higher at her splattered face.
“What have you been up to, Tia?” the bewildered mare inquired.
“Just the best day ever,” Celestia grinned. Luna couldn’t get any more out of her, even after she washed up, for the rest of the night.
The rest of the week flew by in a blur for Celestia. Every day, after hurriedly finishing her lessons with ease, she escaped to the rose garden. There, she would spend the rest of the day with Discord. Celestia found him so intriguing- his magic, his mischief, and his cleverness. Luna became increasingly frustrated by her sister’s secrecy. It wasn’t as if Celestia always trusted her with secrets, and she usually would have let it slide. But it angered Luna that Celestia rushed through her lessons, not even trying, and STILL did better than her. Furiously, she buried herself in knowledge, forcing herself to stay up late into the night, learning advanced magic. If other ponies had seen her less than often before, now she was practically never seen now. Since Celestia had prevented her from entering the royal gardens with simple spell, Luna cooped herself up in the library until she learned the counterspell. Finally, she was able to follow her sister. Hiding behind the thick bushes, Luna listened in.
“Good afternoon, princess,” a male voice greeted Celestia cordially.
“Discord, you don’t have to sound so stiff! We’re alone.”
Luna recognized Tia’s voice. But who was this Discord? He sounded awfully familiar. Where had she heard of him...?
“Pffsshgwwwrrk...!”
“What was that?”
“I’m just un-stiffening my sound,” The voice belonging to Discord explained casually, as if this was perfectly normal.
“You are so strange. I can’t figure you out!” Celestia giggled.
“Why would you need to, Tia?”
The eavesdropper flinched. Only she was allowed to call her sister that.
“I don’t need to. I like you just the way you are.”
“Unpredictable?”
“Yes-”
At this moment, Luna decided to sneak a peek. It was probably the worst thing she could have done. There, framed by the blooming roses, was her sister. Her sister, locked deep in a passionate kiss with Discord. The horrified mare gasped quietly. Tia was supposed to be married off to Prince Blueblood, from the long royal line of Bluebloods. Although Luna knew that Tia hated him, it was an arranged marriage, and there was no getting out of it. And now she had gone off and fallen in love with a lowly lord’s adopted son- because now the scene that she had been watching from the sidelines, unnoticed, rushed back- and Celestia would hate Luna forever if she tattle-tailed. The upset filly galloped away from the hedge, only hearing one last soft word from her sister’s mouth.
“Unpredictable...”
