Idle Claws
Celestia stood on the balcony outside her room, watching as her sun completed it’s natural movement, and awaiting the moment it would need her guidance. As one of the rulers of Equestria, her life was hectic, to say the least. She established the bureaucracy to handle most day-to-day affairs, but many matters still required the hoof of a princess for the final decision. On top of that were emergencies that were brought to her attention immediately, matters involving Discord or the Elements of Harmony, and simple public appearances. All told, she had very little time to herself, or to share with her sister or Twilight.
That was why she valued this brief period during the changeover when nopony dared disturb her. Granted, at times her sister would join her and they would conclude the day together, and she always enjoyed her company. But on the whole, ponies simply assumed that the task of moving the sun must require monumental effort and concentration, and so they let her be, lest their interruption bring about disaster. However, the process was actually quite simple, and nearly effortless. It was only the Summer Sun Celebration, when she set her sun’s course for the year, that required any appreciable expenditure of her power.
The appointed moment came, and she flared her horn, giving the orb a slight nudge to further it along it’s course. She smiled at the sight of the sun crossing the horizon, that small joy she always felt at the task. It was actually quite a common thing, though few of her little ponies would guess they shared such a feeling with their princess—the simple satisfaction of a pony following their calling, of finding their place in the world as promised to them by their cutie mark. Whether something as small as raising a garden or as vast as guaranteeing the continuation of night and day, a job well done was a job well done.
All that was left was to wait for her sister to raise the moon and complete the transition from day to night.
It was just occurring to Celestia that she had been waiting a rather long time when she heard her chamber doors slam open in the room behind her.
“Sister!” Luna shouted as she ran towards her. “I cannot reach the moon!”
Celestia glanced over her shoulder before returning to watching the evening settle in, despite the absence of the moon. “Oh? I can’t imagine you’d want to go back, though.”
Luna stamped a hoof on the balcony’s stone. “Celestia, this is serious.”
“I know, sister, I know. But I couldn’t help myself, given your choice of words.” She smiled at Luna before standing and settling her face into a more serious expression. “We will reach out to it together. If something is obstructing your magic, perhaps mine will slip past, or else together we will be powerful enough to break through.”
Luna paused long enough to glare at her sister for the earlier joke, then stood beside her and closed her eyes. Luna’s horn shone with a deep blue light that was soon accompanied by her sister’s soft golden glow. The two stood in silence, the only motion on the balcony coming from their manes and tails drifting in the ethereal breeze, and the shifting shadows cast by their magic auras.
Finally, Celestia dropped her magic and sighed before turning to the door. “It appears you were right to be concerned, Luna. Come, I’ve had a magic circle woven into a rug in my reading room. It can enhance scrying magic, and I—”
“I feel it,” Luna said.
Celestia froze and turned back to her. “You do?”
Luna nodded, but kept her eyes shut and sustained her magic. “Yes, but it is terribly faint, as though it were so far out of place that my magic did not know where to seek it. As well, there seems to be some form of powerful magic between it and I, but I cannot discern what form it takes.”
“That is certainly troubling,” Celestia said with a frown. “What sort of…”
Celestia groaned and rubbed a hoof against her temple, prompting Luna to open one eye and glance towards her.
“Sister?” she asked.
“Luna, out of curiosity, have you seen Discord around the palace at any point today?”
“Well, no, why do you… Ah.” Luna dropped her magic and shook her head at the sensations produced by maintaining a long-reaching spell for so long.
“Yes. Let’s go; I think I feel chaos magic from the gardens.”
In the gardens behind the castle, Discord was lining up another shot at what was proving to be quite the difficult target. He had briefly considered warping space so that corners were actually straight, but decided that he preferred the challenge. After all, he was doing this to alleviate his boredom. And besides, he could always just save that ‘straight corners’ idea for the next time Celestia hosted a garden party. Producing nausea and confusion in the nobility was a hobby he’d had very little opportunity to indulge in, lately.
A careful adjustment to bounce the ball off of that statue of Sir Glitterhoof the Pretty (As Discord had dubbed it, having never read the inscription at the base), off the back of that patrolling Lunar Guardpony’s helmet, and then neatly around the corner, and Discord was prepared. He raised his club, took a steadying breath, waited for the guard to take another two paces, swung, and—
“DISCORD!” Luna shouted as she swept in to land behind him, with Celestia not far behind.
Startled by the sudden noise, Discord’s swing merely clipped the top of the ball, sending it bouncing and rolling a few feet across the grass.
Discord frowned at the poor shot and glanced at a miniature version of himself which sat on a nearby hedge. The mini-Discord was wearing plaid shorts and a flat cap to match Discord’s own outfit, but also carried a tiny notepad and even tinier pencil. The mini-Discord shook his head and gave his larger counterpart a helpless shrug, as if to say ‘them’s the breaks’, before dutifully noting another swing on Discord’s tally.
Discord groaned and turned to the princesses. “A good evening to you, too, Luna.” He swung the club up to rest on his shoulder and sniffed indignantly. “This game was going rather well until that rude interruption.”
Luna glowered at him and began to approach. “Discord, where did you put the—” She froze as she caught sight of the golf ball, eye twitching. “You didn’t.”
Luna darted over and gingerly lifted the ball with her magic and held it aloft, carefully inspecting it for damage.
“Discord…” Celestia glared at him.
“It’s a lovely night, isn’t it? I think you should come out and enjoy it with her more often. Have some nice sisterly bonding.” He frowned and looked up to the sky. “A bit dark tonight, though. It was getting hard to find the ball, sometimes.”
“Tia!” Luna cried from where she still sat cradling her miniaturized moon. “It’s all scuffed and dented now!”
“Put it back, Discord,” Celestia said, still glaring at him.
“Oh, calm down, Celly. It’s nothing a little chaos magic can’t fix.” Discord waved a claw, and the orb vanished from Luna’s magic. “It’s not like anypony had been using it for the past twelve hours, anyway.”
Celestia allowed her glare to linger on him a few minutes longer before turning her attention to her sister. “Luna? How is it?”
“It… It’s back,” she replied, with a sniff.
“That’s good.” Celestia went to her sister and nudged her to her hooves, draping a comforting wing over her as they walked back towards the castle. “Now come along, you need to raise it and put the night properly on course.”
“I can’t raise it like this! He made an absolute mess of it!”
“Couldn’t you just smooth it out?” Celestia asked.
“No, no, that would just disturb the regolith even more. I can’t possibly have it ready for tonight.”
“Shh, it’s going to be fine. I’m sure nopony will mind a few scuffs. Besides, you’ve been wanting to rearrange the craters for a while now, remember? This will be a good excuse.” Celestia paused from leading her sister away and shot Discord another glare over her shoulder. “We will have a long discussion about this come morning.”
Discord rolled his eyes and waved at the two alicorns as they left the gardens. Once they were out of sight, he glanced towards his miniature and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “Are they gone?”
The mini-Discord flew up above the hedges and pulled out a pair of binoculars. After a moment, he gave Discord a thumbs up and dropped back down to his seat.
“Wonderful! Now, let’s get back to what’s important.” Discord snapped his talons and held out a hand just in time to catch a brightly-shining yellow orb. “After all, they won’t be needing this for a few hours.”
The mini-Discord pulled his pencil and scorecard back out as Discord lined up a shot with his new ball. Rather than angling this one around corners, he simply aimed directly for the hole. One good swing sent the ball flying, and he let a satisfied smirk spread across his face at the thought of the conniptions he’d be sending the grounds crew into with the string of charred grass and hole-filled shrubberies he was producing.
A smirk that was soon replaced with a stricken look as the light vanished, accompanied by a splash and sizzle, as the ball landed in the pond.
“And that will take more than a little chaos magic to fix…”