> So, we're like...goddesses or something? > by CrossRedstone > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset's ear twitched. This in itself was a strange feeling. Human ears didn't move or twitch on their own, and Sunset snuffled sleepily as her brain registered the familiar feeling. She hadn't felt her ears move like that since- She sat bolt upright,staring down at hooves she knew like the back of her... hoof, but hadn't seen in years. "I'm a unicorn again," she stated, her mind barely registering this fact. Sunset looked around at the place she had just woken up in. It was somewhat beautiful, if a little disturbing. She was surrounded by empty space and stars, planets, perhaps entire galaxies. As she took in the view, her ears twitched again, reminding her of what had just woken her. She turned around, and she found the human Twilight Sparkle wandering in her general direction. She looked around with a mixture of fear, confusion and curiosity. "Twilight!" Sunset called out. "Ah!"- the girl started, knocking her glasses off her nose to the ground. "Oh sorry, here let me help." Sunset used her magic to levitate Twilight's glasses in front of her face, which only startled the girl again, landing rather harshly on her butt. Cringing, Sunset dropped the glasses onto her friend's lap. "Ow..." Twilight put her glasses back on,  adjusted, then focused on the owner of the voice she'd heard-and shrieked. "A talking horse!" the former Crystal Prep student exclaimed. Sunset's ears pressed themselves against her head, feeling slightly annoyed. "I'm a pony, Twilight." Sunset deadpanned. "And it knows my name!" Twilight exclaimed, before a suspicion crossed her mind. "Wait a minute...Sunset Shimmer, is that you?!" the human asked, coming face to face with the fiery maned pony. "Yes. You know, we kinda talked about this the other day. You know, magical talking ponies and what not?" "Oh right. Hey, wait a minute. What are you doing in my dream?" Twilight asked, before facepalming. "Oh, of course, you're part of my dream." Sunset's left ear flicked for a second. "A dream?" she asked. "What makes you say that? I feel wide awake." "Of course you would say this, but since you're the only company I have here, I might as well explain it. It's really simple. The last thing I remember is going to sleep, so this must be a dream." Twilight explained. "Oh. I guess that makes sense." Sunset put her hoof under her chin. "Now that I think about it, the last thing I remember is falling asleep as well." Sunset walked up to Twilight. "I have an idea. I'm sorry Twilight." "Sorry for-?"-Sunset punched Twilight-" OW! Why'd you hit me?!" "You experienced pain." The unicorn stated matter-of-factually. The human continued to glare down at the unicorn. Slowly the words her ponified friend had spoken began to sink in and Twilight's anger expression was replaced with that of horrifying realization. "I experienced pain! But that is impossible in a dream, meaning this is not a dream!" Sunset yelped as Twilight bent down and started hugging the unicorn like an over-sized plush doll. "Oh my gosh what do we do?! We're alone, lost in space. With no way to return, let alone communicate home! Oh, we're doomed, we're doomed, we're doomed!" she panicked, her intelligent mind immediately jumping to the worst possible scenario. "Twilight!" the unicorn gasped, stopping the girl's panic rant. Twilight dropped Sunset, and the unicorn caught her breath before continuing to voice her thoughts. "Calm down. Panic isn't going to help us in our situation. Let's just look around for now, and find out where we are to begin with. Maybe we'll find some clues." "Y-yes." Twilight's voice was a little shaky. She tried to get it under control by clearing her throat. "Let's go then...I suppose..." she looked around, uncertain. "Lead the way" The pair of friends wandered around in the seemingly endless space. "Uh, Sunset?" Twilight voice echoed, despite the plane seeming to have walls. Sunset ears perked, and she trotted over. "Whoa." Sunset looked at what seemed like two groups of colored balls. The groups or balls appeared to move in a predesignated way. "This looks pretty cool." Sunset commented, observing the one set. "Hey, wait a minute." Twilight adjusted her glasses, before bending down in front of one group. "This looks like the solar system." "Really?" "Yes look! Everything is here! From Mercury to Pluto, every planet and moon is accounted for!" Twilight pointed at each planet and its moons. "Now that you mention it, this looks like Equestria's solar system." Sunset realized. "Let's see...Equis is here, there is the mane stellar system, yup. Everything's accounted for." "Interesting." Twilight commented, going to the other solar system model. "The sun is actually moving around the planet. I guess it kinda makes sense, since there's actually someone raising the sun and the moon. The planet also rotates about its vertical axis instead of being angled like Earth." "That's interesting and all" Sunset looked between the models "but why are we seeing this?" As if to answer her question, the planets of the Earth Solar System Module started to move. Curiously the human and the pony watched, as the planets, the moons and the stars rearranged themselves, until they were flying in a similar fashion to Equis' solar system. The planets stopped rotating during this phase and even the sun's fire seemed to be stuck in where it was. After a bright flash of light erupted from both models, everything "became alive" again. "From a scale from 1 to 10, I give this the weirdness factor of 2." Sunset commented dryly. "Only 2? Imagine this would actually happening to our solar system. Can you imagine the panic it would cause?" Twilight asked, adjusting her glasses. "Not to mention the catastrophes happening all around the planet, while it rearranged itself. And even if we somehow got through all this, there's no one to actually raise the sun or the moon." Twilight finished. "Yeah, but that still leaves the question as to why we're seeing all of this. Or what this place actually is." Sunset waved with her foreleg. "Hmm, yes. Does weird dream ring any bells from Equestria?" Twilight asked. "Or random transformations?" "Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the story of Nightmare Moon, but Twilight, the other Twilight, and her friends already defeated her around a year and half ago or so. As for weird transformations, I can only guess it has something to do with this place." "So, we've figuratively hit a wall in our investigation." Twilight concluded. "Not much of an investigation, really." the unicorn shrugged. "But yeah, now what? This would look pretty cool in a science lab, but...hey, what's this?" Sunset pointed with her hoof at two lines of light on the "ground". Neither of the two moved, as the lights approached them and each line curved around one of them. The lines connected with their ends, creating two full circles. "Wh-what's going on?" stammered Twilight, too afraid to move, fearing something would happen if any of her body parts would step over the circle. "I don't know." Sunset said equally afraid, making herself as small as possible. Suddenly the two were encompassed in domes of light, both screaming on top of their lungs, until they realized it didn't hurt. "What is this?!" Twilight exclaimed. "Sunset I feel weird!" "Me too! Just-I-" Sunset suddenly lost her voice, as she had trouble breathing all of the sudden. She could only guess Twilight was going through the same struggle, as the girl didn't make any noise and because none of the two could see each other through the lights. Both struggled to break free, until they both feel something going inside their bodies, something familiar, something that scared the two more than anything else that happened to them. They knew there was nothing they could do about it and the last thought they both had was the wish to scream: "NO, NOT AGAIN!" Twilight sat up in her bed, breathing heavily, her pajamas soaked in sweat. "Phew." The girl fell back on her bed. "Just a dream." From the corner of her room, she could hear Spike snoring in his basket. She smiled to herself as she thought about how much had changed in one day and yet how some things still remain the same. Like Spike not even waking up even after Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs. Looking over to her nightstand, she found that it was 5 AM. She still had an hour before she needed to get up. "Not sure if I can fall asleep again after this." she mumbled, crawling out of her bed. "Might as well take a shower." > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "NOT AGAIN!" Sunset shouted at the top of her lungs, bullet sized sweat-drops running down her cheeks. "Urrgh..." she fell back down onto her pillow. She had thought she was over waking up from nightmares. Well, that wasn’t exactly a nightmare, not really. Still weird though. How real it felt… she shuddered. And at the end, when the magic poured into me… Suddenly Sunset didn’t feel hungry. That feeling had been close to how she had felt during her… episode. Groggily, Sunset turned her head and looked at her alarm clock on the night stand. It was 5 AM. Great, when I try to sleep now, it'll feel like I only slept a few minutes. Might as well get up early. She threw off the blankets, slowly pulling herself to her feet and reluctantly making her way to her bathroom. Wow, look at my hair! I look like I'm ready for Nightmare Night. Sunset chuckled, as she looked at herself in the mirror. I’d at least scare Rarity. A hilarious image popped into her mind, and she barely suppressed a bubble of laughter that formed in her chest. A giggle still escaped her as she straightened her back, taking a prim and proper pose she’d often seen her overdramatic friend use. "Darling, what ever has happened to your hair?!" Sunset gasped, in a fair imitation of Rarity's voice. "You look like you’ve been through a war zone! Oh no, this simply will not do!" She laughed as “Rarity’s” voice went from horrified, to determined, and she stripped, ducking into the now-warmed shower. After finishing her daily morning routine in the bathroom, Sunset stepped out into her hallway and began opening the curtains in every room. The girl was rewarded by a beautifully warm sunrise, which took her breath away as she basked in its glow. Wow… I should get up early more often. Whoever said mornings were evil never saw a sunrise as beautiful as this… She shook herself, remembering that she was on a time limit if she wanted to avoid being late to school. Yawning, Sunset walked into the kitchen, fuzzy thoughts about making breakfast swirling in her mind. She looked at the radio, considered turning it on, but decided against it. Instead, she reached up and opened the cupboard, revealing several potential breakfast options. What to eat? Sunset wondered to herself. Mmm, cornflakes, bread with butter, with jelly, with peanut butter...urgh, nothing seems right today. Screw it, I'm gonna grab myself donuts. Having made up her mind, Sunset closed the cupboard door, grabbed her school bag and headed outside. The cool morning air greeted her as she stepped outside the apartment building. Sunset shivered slightly. Is it just me, or is it a little colder than usual? I guess winter’s sinking her claws into us a little early… Sunset shrugged, before a thought came to the forefront of her mind. Winter is coming. Wow, how time flies when you're fighting dark magic from Equestria, the Equestrian thought to herself as she crossed the street. Not many people were walking around at this time of day, but she knew that would change in a matter of minutes. Sunset ducked into Sugarcube Corner, already hearing the dull rumble that was the morning rush approaching. She walked over to the counter, thankful she’d managed to get ahead of the rush. The Cakes still had mixed feelings about the girl, having heard from Maud Pie what she had done in the past. But on the other hand Pinkie Pie had told them how much she had changed, so as a result, they were neutral. Polite, but that's about it. As Rarity said sometimes: "You can't win them all." "Sunset!" Startled, the girl turned, smiled as she found Twilight and Spike running to catch up to her. Smiling, the Equestrian walked towards her two new friends. "Hey Twilight. You're up early." she noted. "I didn't sleep all too well. Besides, I needed to take Spike for a walk anyway." Sunset observed that the dog wasn't too pleased with this. The lazy dog would probably have stayed in his basket until lunch if he’d had his way. "You too? Whatever." Sunset waved it off. "Want a donut?" *NOM* "Spike!" Twilight scolded the dog, as he took off ahead with his pilfered pastry. Sunset laughed and took out another donut, this time handing it over to Twilight directly. The other girl took the treat gratefully and gave her pet/friend a glare. "Tell me Twilight. Are you excited about your first sleepover?" Sunset asked curiously. "You bet I am. I even got myself a book." She grabbed her backpack and pulled out a book. "Sleepover 101!" she proclaimed proudly. "Oh Twilight." Sunset facepalmed. You're such a dork sometimes. The first thing everyone had learned about their new friend was that she really loved books. Sunset thought back to an event two days ago where Rainbow had knocked a book out of her hands and into the mud. No one had known just how hard Twilight could kick until then. Sunset had to suppress a giggle at the memory of her rainbow-haired friend running like the guardian of Tartarus itself was after her, with Twilight hot on her tail. "You know, yesterday I saw this blue haired, yellow skinned guy trying to sneak into the portal.” Twilight said, scattering crumbs all over the place as she downed the final morsel. “When I called out to him, he just stammered some incomprehensible things and ran away." "Flash Sentry?" Sunset burst out laughing. "Yeah, I kinda expected that to happen sooner or later. The day you met the other Twilight, I saw him and her in the school parking lot, talking like, or rather stammering like two lovesick idiots. You should have heard it, they couldn't get a single sentence straight out!” She crowed. Twilight shuddered. "Thanks for the mental image, Sunset. How long have they been together anyways?" "Flash and Princess Twi? I don't think you can call what they have a relationship. It's not like she visits on a regular basis, but when I tell Rarity what I’ve just told you, we might be seeing her more often in the future." "Wait. That means I can both ask you and her about magic! Yes, thank you Rarity and Brian!" "Er, you mean Flash, right?" "Same thing." Twilight waved off. Sunset sweatdropped. “My Doppelgänger is going to visit? Oh hey, I can ask her about magic!” Nothing weird about that. I swear Twilight, you're something else. At the entrance of Canterlot High, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle found both Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna standing outside the school and watching the sky. Both high school girls (and dog) looked at each other before running over to the older women. "Principal Celestia and Luna!" Sunset shouted. Both women looked down at them, grim looks on both their faces. "Is something wrong?" Twilight asked. "Because, you two looked really serious just a second ago." Vice-Principal Luna was the one to take the initiative. "Haven't you two noticed?" "Noticed what?" Sunset inquired. "Just look." Luna pointed at the sky. "Don't tell me you actually overlooked it? It's been sunrise ever since 6:15. The sun hasn’t even moved an inch since then." "WHAT?!" Everyone looked at the sky. "Now that you mention it,"–Spike spoke for the first time of the day–"the sun really didn't move at all. It's like the earth just stopped rotating." Everyone looked down at him in surprise. "Hey, I may be a dog, but I live with Twilight. Am I not allowed to know these things?" he said defensively. "In any case, this is serious." Celestia brought them back on topic. "I'm afraid that if this is the work of another magical being, we won't be able to cover this up like we did the others. We’d better find a way to fix this quickly. It's already all over the news." "This is bad." Sunset rubbed her forehead. "If only I hadn't stolen Twilight's crown, then none of this would have happened." "No, I bet it's my fault." Twilight stated dejectedly. "My rampage must have somehow disturbed the planet and now it’s stopped moving." "Stop it, both of you!" Luna scolded them, "Why are you jumping to conclusions? It's too early to say who's at fault. Sunset, you may have started all this, but remember the sirens? This could have been because some being was banished to our planet a couple of thousand years ago or so." "And Twilight." Celestia took over. "I may not be knowledgeable in magic, but the damage you did was already restored by Sunset. Now stop blaming yourselves, this is hardly the time." "Yeah, you're right." Sunset breathed in and out. "Yeah, sorry." Twilight muttered. "Okay, solution." Sunset looked at the sky again. "I know of two ponies who can move the sun and the moon back at home, but it's questionable if they can do it here too, because of the random rules magic seems to follow here." "Doesn't matter, can you call them over?" Celestia asked. The fiery maned girl looked over to the woman and nodded. "Yeah, but it'll take time until they're here. More reason for me to start now." Sunset grabbed her bag and quickly took out a pen and the book. Twilight, we have an emergency. The sun isn't rising for some reason. Can you call Princesses Celestia and Luna ASAP, please? I'm afraid if we don't solve this quickly, there will be a mass panic all over the world. Sunset "Okay. And now we pray." "I never believed in any higher being, but whatever works." Twilight laughed half heartedly. Sunset threw Twilight a worried glance, before looking in the direction of the sun. Raising the sun. Even if I knew the spell, there's no way I could raise it, even with the help of my friends. Sunset thought to herself. ~~~~~~~~~ Maybe Twilight can do it? She is an alicorn after all. ~~~~ -stress~~~~ Or we- huh? "Huh?" Sunset blinked, startled. ~~~~Mistress~~~~ "Did you say something?" Sunset asked Twilight, who shook her head. ~~~~Mistress~I~~~ "What? Who's there?" "Sunset Shimmer?" Everyone looked at her, confused. "What is wrong?" Luna asked. "Don't you hear the voice?" "What voice?" Celestia asked. ~~~Mistress, I am ready. Lead me.~~ "Lead you? Aaah!" Sunset started to scream, as she lifted off the ground, panicking as an all-too-familiar feeling of power filled her. "What's happening to her?!" Celestia exclaimed. Sunset struggled as she felt the power build, as the ground drew further and further away beneath her feet. The magic reached a crescendo, and Sunset screwed her eyes shut as the world blinked away in a flash. Sunset blinked. The world had vanished, leaving only a dark, empty void. Where…? Where am I? Sunset asked, looking around wildly. ~~~Mistress~~~ What was that? Who are you? What are you? Sunset panicked. ~~~Over here~~~ Sunset turned, and gasped. A ball of fire floated nearby, nearly blinding her with its brilliance. She felt drawn to it, attracting her like a magnet draws iron filings. It came closer and closer, eventually coming to rest directly in front of her, and she touched it. It was warm to the touch, defying the part of Sunset’s brain that was screaming Fire! Hot! Burn! She cradled it gently, somehow knowing that this was something precious. I’m ready, it said, stunning Sunset. Raise me. Sunset just blinked, staring at the Sun–for it was the Sun–before her mind caught up and started wondering how exactly she was going to raise the Sun. Just lift me up, Mistress, the Sun asked. I can take care of the rest… Sunset looked down at the celestial body, memories of watching Princess Celestia raise the Sun as a filly filling her mind. She refocused, and slowly lifted her precious cargo. She started at chest height. As she reached shoulder height, beads of sweat began to dot her brow. As the celestial body cleared her forehead, her knees started shaking. She pushed it up as far as she could, straining with the strange weight which almost didn’t seem to be there. Unconsciously, she felt the Sun leave her hands, and they flopped down by her sides. Her knees buckled, and she fell, panting as if at the end of a hard race. ~~~Thank you~~~ And that was the last Sunset heard… (TBC) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset reluctantly woke up from her rather peaceful slumber. She desperately wanted to stay asleep, but it was just too bright and her eyelids weren't doing a good enough job of keeping the light out. Groggily, the girl slowly opened her eyes and tried to get up, but found herself being gently pushed back down onto the bed. "Save your strength, Sunset Shimmer." Principal Celestia soothed. "You're at the school nurse’s. Do you remember what happened?" the older woman asked, her fingers slowly stroking over Sunset's head. Instead of questioning what the principal was doing, the alien girl leaned into the touch, almost automatically. "I remember... Yes. The sun wasn't rising for some reason, Twilight and I approached your sister and you, and then... I heard a voice. And then-" Sunset breathed in and out a couple of times. "I...I don't recall much. Just that I heard a voice and my vision turned white." "I see." Celestia replied. It was then that the girl slowly opened her eyes and gazed directly at the face of the older woman. She looked more than a little worried about her student, but there was also relief. "What happened?" Sunset asked weakly. Celestia smiled. "Well, I wasn't here when it happened, but from what the others told me you...raised the sun." "I did WHAT?!" Sunset sat up before Celestia could react. However the fiery maned girl fell back soon afterwards, too exhausted from her incredible feat. She could barely wrap her head around what she had just heard. M-M-Me?! Raising the sun?! "But...how?" Sunset managed to get out. "Believe me, I have been pondering this for the past hour." Celestia sighed. "But as urgent as this is, the first thing I need to do is teach you how to control your new powers." The girl tilted her head in confusion. "You? Teach me? But you're....you're..." Sunset's eyes widened in shock as she realized what the "principal" had just said. "Princess...?" the girl meeped carefully. The now-identified princess of Equestria's sun, slowly wrapped her arms around her former student and carefully pulled the girl into a hug. "It's good to finally see you again, my faithful student." "Princess...I...I..." She was at a loss for words. It was just all so sudden. Here was the one person Sunset Shimmer feared ever meeting again, and the person was hugging her, while whispering soothing words into her ear. Overwhelmed by everything that happened today already, the former unicorn simply pressed her face into Celestia's chest and silently started to cry. Celestia herself resisted the urge to cry and nuzzled the poor girl's cheek. "It's alright. I'm simply happy that Twilight managed to help you, where I failed you." Sunset looked up a little confused. "Hmm?" Celestia wiped a tear away from Sunset's face. Seeing the question that was written on the girl’s face, the princess wiped a tear away and held her like a child. "I was the one who encouraged you to dedicate your life on your studies. I was the one who kept my distance from you, fearful of getting too attached to anypony. I was too blind to see that you needed my attention more than ever, and I let you fall. When I demanded you to make friends, I didn't realize where I had led you. I thought at the time I could push you to be the Element of Magic for my own selfish reasons." Sunset wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Celestia putting a finger on her lips. "I know what you want to say, but let's leave the past in the past and start over, shall we?" Sunset looked at her former mentor and thought about it. If she hadn't felt so exhausted, she would have had a ton of things to say, but at this stage she was just glad that she could feel her limbs again. So in the end, she just nodded and gave the princess one final hug. Except the princess didn't let her go. "Uh, princess? You can let go now." Celestia did as requested, though she looked a little confused. "I don't remember you being so hug shy." "Must come with being a human for too long. They aren't exactly herd creatures," the girl explained. "Ah, I see." There was a knock at the door and it opened slowly. Princess Twilight Sparkle was peeked into the room. Or at least, Sunset guessed it was the princess. Twilight Sparkle on this side of the mirror usually had her hair in a bun, and this was notably absent. "Sunset! I'm glad you're awake. Uh, I'm sorry Celestia, I know you wanted to be alone with her, but...how do I put this..." "It's okay Twilight. Just tell me what's going on." Twilight took in a deep breath, before speaking, "Discord is here." You could hear a pin drop to the ground. In one of the currently empty classes, a certain draconequus was laughing his ass off. Quite literally. He was having trouble keeping his tail attached to the rest of his body, as it kept falling off. This just added fuel to the fire, and the gales of laughter redoubled as the Spirit of Chaos floated in mid air. Down on the ground, the Equestria Girls and the school principals looked at the creature with a mixture of curiosity and a little fear. With the exception of Pinkie Pie, who looked excited at the prospect of making a new friend. Twilight and Princess Celestia entered the classroom, drawing everyone's attention. Princess Celestia's eye twitched as she beheld the lord of chaos in all his mismatched glory, seemingly unaffected by the mirrors strange transformative magic. Discord wiped a tear away from his eye, readjusting the lower part of his body again. "Oh Twilight,"-he teleported next to the princess of friendship, putting both his claw and paw on her shoulders. "Why didn't you tell me earlier that such a wonderful, chaotic place existed?" he waved with his paw in front of her eyes. "These humans are just wonderfully funny." Twilight took in a deep breath and asked the dreaded question. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here. Discord?" she asked, breathing out with each word. "Aw Twilight," he pinched her cheek and teleported in front of the group "I thought we were already past this whole “doubt your friends” thing. But I guess I could be responsible for giving Sunny and Twily here the power to the sun and moon," he summoned a tiny moon and a tiny sun in front of him, but got too close to the sun and burnt his beard. With a snap of his claws, the two balls were gone and his beard restored. "But I didn't." he grinned, summoning popcorn and a pair of 3D glasses. "I have been watching those amusing humans freaking out, because the sun wouldn't rise. In 5D! You don't get such good entertainment back in Equestria." He turned to Fluttershy, who tried to appear as small as possible. "Popcorn?" he offered, but his paw was smashed away by Rainbow’s fist. "Leave her alone, buster!" she shouted, glaring him in the eye. The lord of chaos shrugged her off and flew towards the ceiling, reclining just below the strip lights. "Wait a minute, Discord. What did you say?" Celestia asked. "Hmm? I said a lot of things, dear ‘Tia." He shrunk himself and appeared next to her ear. "Well no wonder, somepony seriously needs to clean up in here." He could be heard while looking into the sun princess' ear. "Oooh!" Pinkie Pie looked in behind Discord, but he came out from the other ear. "Did you really say, Twilight has the power over the moon on this world?" Celestia elaborated. This caused everyone, especially the two Twilights to freeze up. With all the magic on display, everyone was only half listening to his words. "Congratulations my dear!" "AIIIEE!" The draconequus appeared next to Sci-Twi, causing her to shriek. He also blew into a party flute, throwing confetti into the air. Twilight ran towards her counterpart and hid behind the purple princess, who scowled at her friend, until his words fully sunk in. "Wait. Not only has Sunset control over the sun, but she" pointing at Twilight with the glasses "has control over the moon? How does that make any sense!?!?" she questioned. "It doesn't and that's why it is so wonderful!" Discord laughed clapping his paw and claw, only for the claw to fall off and take off on its own. "Oh dullards. Please excuse me, everyhuman." Thus began the chase of Discord after his claw. Luckily the hallways were empty. Now that the main distraction was out of the room, everyone turned towards the Equestrians. Who turned towards Twilight. Who looked back at her counterpart. And then fainted. Sunset watched worriedly as her friends carried Sci-Twi into the nurse’s office. The principals and Princess Celestia had left. "What happened? Did Discord do something to her?" the fiery haired girl asked. Twilight shook her head. "No, she fainted, because...urgh." Twilight had a hard time keeping the headache at bay. "How 'bout ya tell us 'bout those Discord fella first." Applejack suggested. "What is he exactly?" "He looked like he was made out of all kinds of animals." Rarity said, shuddering. "He did look a little...odd." Fluttershy suggested "Weird is what I would go with." Rainbow said. "Discord is a draconequus." Twilight explained. "And the lord of chaos." "Evil. Called it." Rainbow Dash crossed her arms. "Not anymore." Twilight got everyone's attention with that line. "This is kind of a long story and I would rather wait for Twilight to wake up so I only have to explain it once. What I can say, Discord is a friend, but he can be a bit much." "I like him!" Pinkie Pie proclaimed. "Have you seen what he did? Like, how he snapped his fingers and the popcorn appeared out of nowhere? Or how he shrunk itself and then went through the princess' head?! Or-" "We get it, Pinkie. We were there, remember?" Rainbow Dash raised her voice, annoyed. Suddenly they heard a groan. Twilight was waking up, rubbing her forehead. "What happened?" she asked. "Easy there, Twilight." Fluttershy gently held the hand of the other girl. "You almost hit your head on the ground." "Oh, hey Fluttershy. I had a weird dream. There was this weird thing, which looked like it was made of multiple animals and said I could raise the moon." "Wait what?!" Sunset sat up. Before anyone could say anything else, the door was slammed open and Discord's claw ran into the room, freaking human Twi and Flutters out. They freaked even more out, when Discord ran inside, chasing his loose limb and making one gigantic mess of the room. Princess Twilight had enough of the chaos and kicked the claw against Discord's face. The lord of chaos blinked two times, before grabbing it with his paw and putting it back on his arm. "Keep it down, would you? Or I'll put a want-it-need-it spell on your horns!" she threatened him. Sunset hit her pillow again with her head. "This is too much." she moaned. "First I raise the sun, then Celestia appears and now my best friend turns out to be friends with the lord of chaos himself. Please end my life." "Oh." Discord scratched his face. "Looks like somepony is suffering from a little chaos overdose. Nurse!" He snapped his claws, causing Pinkie Pie's clothes to change into a nurse outfit, while he himself wore a doctors outfit, complete with name tag and a picture of himself. "This is an emergency. Get me three chocolate cupcakes, two of those with vanilla frosting," he said and put a thermometer in Sunset's mouth "four strawberry milkshakes and a dozen donuts. And quickly, this is a life and death situation!" "Okie, dokie, lokie!" Pinkie saluted and ran out of the room.          > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset did her best not to throw up, after Discord and "Nurse" Pinkie Pie forcefully stuffed her with all kinds of treats, using an oversized funnel. How her jaw was still intact, no one knows, but needless to say she had been traumatized for life. Princess Celestia and a few of the girls did attempt to stop them, only for Discord to snap his talons and bind them with licorice. "Oh come now, look! She's never been better!" Discord pointed at the quivering Sunset Shimmer. Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia were having a stern talk with the draconques, who brushed them off as usual. "Okay, maybe I overdid it a teeny, tiny, bit." He said, while shrinking with each word. Celestia, who was about to lose her composure for good, grabbed the tiny avatar of chaos and pulled him right in front of her face. She was about to shout at him and hold one of her usual "respecting others" speeches, when an idea came to her mind. "You know Discord, I could ask her to come over here and have her sing for you again." Discord's eyes shrunk to the size of pinpricks. "You wouldn't dare...not even I am that crazy!" "Then I suggest you behave yourself and help us to figure this situation out." The entire exchange, everyone was watching them, the local earthlings pretty wary of the chaos god. Said god teleported towards the ceiling, back to normal height and arms crossed. "As I already told you, I don't know why this is happening. I was simply drawn in by the sheer amount of chaos this world is leaking off." "Leaking?!" Princess Twilight exclaimed. "Oh, it's not affecting Equestria in any means. I just felt the energy coming through the portal and decided to investigate. And dear chimichanga, just look at this!" Discord snapped his talons, making a flat screen appearing where the blackboard was supposed to be. He took a remote out of his throat and pressed a button. The screen went static for a few seconds, until it showed a mass gathering of humans in a small town. On a podium stood someone, wearing some white robe. "Let me put the volume up." "-BELIEF IN THE GREAT GODDESS AND YOU WILL BE SAVED! SHE SEND US A SIGN TODAY-" *static* You could now see humans throwing themselves to the ground, bowing to...the sky? "THE APOCALYPSE IS UPON US!! ATTEND FOR YOUR SINS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS-" *static* "-the president has yet to make a statement about the late sunrise." It was the news. It showed a large city with tons of people in front of a government building. "Upon questioning, Senator Blueblood refused to give a statement as well." The scene on the news changed into a recording of a camera on a high building, showing the very fast sunrise. "Scientists are baffled about the phenomenon of the fast sunrise today. Some say it is the end of the world-" Discord turned off the TV. "And that is only the light version." the lord of chaos informed the rest. "If you see what is going for example-" "I think we get the gist of things." Celestia cut off Discord and took a deep breath in order to keep a calm demeanor. The other Celestia and Luna looked at each other, worried of how things were developing. After three incidents at their school, this one easily topped them all. Granted this time it didn't involve the school alone, but the entire world. "I'm going to address the elephant in the room." the principal walked to the other Celestia. "Is there any way to fix this?" Princess Celestia looked up to Discord who held up his claw and paw and shook his head. "Don't even get me started. Undoing something like this might lead to some rather...unexpected results. But if you insist..." "NO!" Twilight shouted and jumped in order to prevent Discord from snapping his claw. He did it anyway, using it to teleport away. In his stead appeared a flying cake, which Twilight headfirst jumped into. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, alongside Discord laughed really hard. Twilight slowly got up and gave the draconques a deadpan stare. It didn't really work, since her complete face was covered in cake and only added to the hilarity of the situation. Luna quickly brought some paper towels and helped Twilight wipe her face clean. "There's nothing you can do? Do you at least have an idea what could have caused this?!" Luna shouted. "It will only be a matter of time until astronomers find out what's happened and then they'll try to find out as to why the sun and moon are moving on their own! From there on out it will only be a matter of time until they find out, two of our students are responsible for raising the sun and moon." "Is that really a bad thing?" Princess Twilight asked. "Twi, humans tend to react badly, when exposed to new things." Sunset explained from her spot. "What I mean is, they put you on a table and cut your body open." Twilight and Celestia looked at each other and then towards the principal and the high-school girls. "Is this true?" "Totally." Rainbow replied with a serious expression on her face. "In the worst case scenario." Luna admitted. "We humans tend to fear the unknown. More often than not, we let our imagination run wild, which is not a good thing." Princess Celestia put a fist under her chin, thinking. Everyone was looking at her in anticipation. After a minute, the princess nodded to herself and began to speak. "Let's go through this step by step: first of all, from what you told me so far, we should let the general population in the dark about how the sun and moon are moving now. From personal experience I can tell that it will leave the humans in a nervous state, but prevents them from panicking, when everything still goes on in a routine fashion. Secondly, the issue about teaching you two" she pointed at Twilight and Sunset "how to control your powers. Sunset, you said you heard a voice talking to you, shortly before you raised the sun." The girl nodded in confirmation. "That was the sun talking to you." "W-WHAT?!" Everyone exclaimed. Without missing a beat, Celestia continued. "The sun and moon will help you during our learn process. However just to be sure, another teacher will be assigned to you." "You won't be the one teaching us?" Sunset asked, disappointed. "As much as I would, Equestria is in a slight state of disarray." "Disarray?" human Twilight asked. "What do you mean, princess?" "Remember when I told you about the time loop incident?" the other Twilight asked. "As it turns out, Starlight Glimmer did a lot of damage to time itself. Nothing universe threatening mind you, it's just that so called "time paradoxes" has been showing up all over Equestria." "Beg yer pardon, sugar, but what's a time paradox?" AJ asked. "A time paradox is something appearing out from another timeline or something causing a disturbance. It can be anything from a flower, which is supposed to bloom next week, to a small portal leading to another timeline. We have been busy getting rid of those and fixing everything, but they keep showing up. Come to think of it, they might be the reason this has happened. I need to check the portal again, when I'm back, but don't get your hopes up." "Why not? Sounds sci-fi enough for me to work." Rainbow said. "You don't understand." Celestia took over. "What happens on the Aesthral Plane, doesn't happen without a reason. On another hoof, the plane is a place of harmony. If you would end up there by a paradox, the magic on the plane would fix it immediately and send you two unharmed back home." ... "I just realized this situation is really messed up, that I don't know anymore where left and right is." Pinkie Pie said looking up, when she said left and left, when she said right. "Welcome to Ponyville Lifestyle." Twilight deadpanned. "Back on topic, all princesses are needed in Equestria to deal with those paradoxes. Until then and I can't belief I am saying this, Discord will supervise you and help you in any way possible." You could hear a needle hit the floor. "Please I'll do anything!" Sunset shouted, as she and Celestia were for some reason alone in another room, with the first kneeling on the floor. "I'll be your personal maid." Celestia shook her head. "I dust off the royal library! I'll get rid of every noble who bothers you!" Celestia pretended to consider, but shook her head. "I'll be your sex slave!" Celestia considered. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Princess Twilight whispered to Princess Celestia. "It is the only solution we have for now." Discord came out of the portal, with suitcases in his hand and paw. He also wore a Hawaiian shirt, complete with sunglasses and straw hat. "I'm sorry we cannot help you any more." Celestia now spoke to the two principals. "Once the situation in Equestria has calmed down, we'll be able to help you to the best of our capabilities." "We thank you, princess, but....I have some concerns about your special friend." Principal Celestia nudged towards the draconques, who summoned a cotton candy cloud, which rained chocolate rain over Pinkie Pie. "Don't worry. Discord may be a little off at times, but he knows when to stop with his shenanigans. He won't disturb your regular school life and will help Sunset and Twilight to keep a low profile. He himself said, you humans are amusing enough to watch with all the chaos that happens on a daily basis. Personally, after seeing it for myself, I don't understand how you can live like this." "Chaos belongs to the human nature." Luna shrugged. "We try to maintain some sort of balance between harmony and chaos, but tend to drift off towards chaos a bit often." "I...see." Celestia nodded carefully. "In any event , we really need to go now. Having two princesses outside of the public eye for too long will cause quite a stir. We wish you good luck and feel free to contact us, if the situation becomes too dire." Twilight quickly hugged all of her friends, before she needed to go through the portal with Celestia. Right then Discord appeared in the middle of the two principals. He swung both arms around them and took a picture with a camera. He held it with his tail. "Oh I can already tell, we will be the best of friends!" > Chapter 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discord was nowhere to be found. Sunset didn't know whether to be concerned about this or relieved. The God of Chaos said, he needed to "settle down" in his second home and had disappeared with his entire luggage. In any event, it didn't matter right now. What did matter was that Sunset found Twilight. The girls had missed the entire first and second period, so now it was lunch time. The thing was, Twilight was nowhere to be found. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, if the fate of this world wouldn't rest on her shoulders. The fact itself was mind blowing enough and the fiery haired girl herself had problems keeping herself together. The only thing that prevented herself from a panic attack was the fact that her newest friend desperately needed someone to talk to, before she would ultimately panic. Having ran out of options, the famous and at the same time infamous girl walked into the library. At this time of day barely a student was present, unless tests were coming. Sunset was lucky this time. She found Twilight at a hidden corner of the spacious library, hugging her dog Spike. Said dog looked up to Sunset, when he noticed her standing next to Twilight. The Equestrian placed herself next to the new student and wrapped an arm around her. "Wanna talk about it?" Twilight fiercely shook her head, accidentally hitting Spike with her bound up hair. Suppressing a giggle, Sunset nodded. "Alright, take your time. Do you want to be alone?" Again Twilight shook her head. She even leaned closer into the hug. Readjusting herself, the yellow skinned girl made it herself as comfortable as possible on the ground and just waited. She could feel Twilight's tense body slowly relaxing. The purple girl scratched Spike behind the ears subconsciously, while staring at the book case in front of her. "I'm scared, Sunset." Twilight eventually broke the silence. "I know Twi. I am too." "Then how are you so calm?" The girls faced each other. "Because I know my friends are with me." Sunset gave her friend a reassuring smile, which Twilight returned meekly. Spike decided it was a great opportunity to lick Twilight's face, causing both girls to laugh. "Spike!" Twilight complained, trying to push her dog down. Sunset actually stopped Twilight from defending herself, by holding both of her arms. "Aaah! Let go, Sunset Shimmer!" "Now's your chance, Spike!" Spike fully assaulted his mistress with his dog slobber and tongue. Twilight had no chance against the combined efforts of pony girl and dog. Eventually Sunset let go of her friend and the glasses wearing girl secured Spike with her arms. "Feeling better?" "Yeah, but this stuff is really icky. Can you watch over Spike, while I go to the restrooms?" "Sure thing." As soon as Twilight was out of sight, Sunset and Spike high fived. Twilight rubbed her face dry with one of the paper towels. She gazed upon her reflection in the mirror, thinking. Her new clothes were based on the clothes her counterpart had worn during their first meeting. She still wore glasses, but considered taking them off completely. Truth to be told, she had changed glasses shortly after the friendship games. Ever since Sunset had..."cured" her for the lack of better term, one side effect had been that Twilight's eyesight had been restored. Since there was no way she could logically explain this to her parents, she simply order a new pair of lenses. Though she had to admit, she looked way better completely without the glasses and with her hair loose. Still it would feel like she copied her counterpart, if she simply changed her hairstyle that way. ~May I suggest to ask the peasant Rarity? She seems to know a lot about the fashion and styling~ "AHH!" Twilight jumped, frantically looking around for the voice that appeared out of nowhere. "Who's there?!" ~Stay calm, my lady. It is me, your moon, speaking to you.~ "The...moon?" Twilight whispered, recalling what Princess Celestia had told them earlier this day. The girl had to support herself on the sink, in order to not collapse to the ground. She did it once, when she got an A-. Worst day of her life. And it hurt. ~I know you're confused and scared, my lady, but I can assure you I only have the best of wishes for you.~ "Y-yeah, sure. Except every time you talk I feel like I have lost it." Twilight replied, facing the mirror again. ~My apologies, my lady. I simply thought I should seize the opportunity and talk to you, since you're alone. You don't need to speak aloud if you wish to talk to me. You simply need to think "loud" and I will hear you.~ "Think loud?" You mean, like this? ~Yes, excellent.~ This would be really amazing, if it wouldn't be so disturbing at the same time. ~It may sound harsh, but you have to get used to it.~ So...uh...you're the moon. Er...nice to meet you, I guess. ~The pleasure is all mine, my lady. Forgive me, for listening in on your thoughts, but I do belief the peasant Rarity will be of great help in your predicament.~ Why are you calling her a peasant? Rarity is my friend. I know, we're just friends for a few days, but still. Why peasant? ~You are above them, my lady. You have been blessed with the power of the night and dreams. However, if it is your wish, I shall refrain from calling your friend peasant in the future.~ Thank you. Wait a minute! Blessed?! Do you actually know what happened to me and Sunset and the entire solar system for that matter?! ~Sadly, I do not. How should I put this? I simply know through instinct that you are the one to guide me, just as Lady Sunset Shimmer has been chosen to guide my sister through the endless void.~ "Chosen." But by whom? Or what? ~We do not know and perhaps we should focus on other things first. Like the humans who have already realized your status as a goddess.~ "G-GODDESS?!" Twilight exclaimed. I'm not a goddess or anything like that! I don't even belief in gods or the supernatural. Wait, scratch the last part. ~It may be a lot to take in, but the power you're wielding says so. You have become an essential part of human life, life on Earth in general. With a metaphorical simple snap of your fingers, you could abandon this entire planet and lead me to a new one.~ That's- I WOULD NEVER DO THAT!! THAT'S JUST WRONG! ~Forgive me, my lady. That was insensitive of me. Perhaps we should not talk any longer, until it is time for you to guide me through the void. I am sorry for all the distress I caused you.~ It's alright. I...yeah. I need some more time to think about this. And maybe talk to my friends. ~I shall leave you to your thoughts then, my lady. Have a pleasant day.~ In the meantime, in a basement, in the middle of the town, a woman sat at her computer, watching and rewatching the spectacle she had recorded today. Like most other people, she had been fascinated and a little frightened at the phenomenon of the sun not getting up, as if the earth had stopped rotating. In itself it would mean that the magnet field of the earth disappeared, thus meaning the sun would burn them to a crisp with the solar waves. Fun fact, so far everything indicated that this just happened, minus the loss of the magnetic field. And then it happened. The woman had been standing near Canterlot High school, coming from her night job, when all of the sudden one of the girls on the other side of the street started glowing. Acting more on instinct than any rational thought, she had grabbed into her pocket and started recording the entire spectacle. The girl literally transformed into an angel in front of everyone present. Next she raised her arm and the sun was seemingly following it! The woman herself knew how insane that sounded. She thought about posting this to the internet, but knew it would be just called a hoax or fake. That didn't mean she completely disregarded the idea, she simply hesitated. This girl was obviously an angel, no a goddess! Yet she was a goddess who had not made herself known to humans. Why? The woman didn't know and that bothered her. She wanted to serve the goddess to the best of her efforts, but just starting a new religion and coming up with random interpretations from a wonder she had witnessed (and recorded!) would be mostly shrugged off as just another sect. No she would need to talk to her goddess, as terrifying as the experience probably would be. She would offer herself to spread the word, do anything she says and win her trust through this, in order to not look like the woman simply wanted to stand in a good light or have great amounts of power. No, she wasn't like that. Starlight Glimmer was a completely selfless human. Luna turned off the news video on her PC and sighed. Why on earth was this happening? Covering up a raging she-demon who destroyed the front gate? Gas leak. Covering up three fish girls, enslaving almost the entire school, who then were blasted by a giant, winged unicorn? Special effects/video editing. Blowing up the statue, magical portals destroying a bit of the school ground? Accidents while cleaning up the field. Having the two girls in your school, who could kill the entirety of humanity if they felt like it? Luna wanted to jump through the portal and run very far away. Perhaps they needed a principal somewhere in Ponyland? It wasn't a job people normally did after all. "I want to go home." she whined and got up, walking towards the window. Looking outside, she could see a few students enjoying the lunch they brought with them or simply talk with each other. Well, not really "simply talk with each other". They were more huddled together, no doubt talking about the happenings today. Some of them were even looking at their smart phones, probably too watching either the life news or some youtube videos. A sudden sound emitting from her computer, got her attention. She got an e-mail from drocsid.soahc@fluttercord.eq. Raising an eyebrow, she scanned the e-mail for any viruses, but the result came up negative. Still apprehensive, she opened the mail. Hey Lulu, I must say the Internet has to be the greatest achievement in human history. I mean look at this place! It's almost exactly what I did to Equestria 1000 years ago, minus the porn. Seriously, that gets old really fast. I mean what's the point in watching those things? Eh, whatever. The rest is still great. Anyways, since princess Celly-Sun-Butt gave me the opportunity to watch pure chaos going all out, I thought I might as well be a little nice to you . Maybe Celly will let me stay here even longer then ? Urrgh, thinking too logical. Where was I? Oh yeah, help. So, I set up a little e-mail account for myself, if I'm not available, you can just send me a quick message at the address you see. I hope you don't mind that I have taken residence in one of the broom closets in your school. Yes there is enough space. Chaos magic. I ain't have to explain shit to you! I'll be a little busy for a few more hours. I hope you and your sister come to the housewarming party Pinkie Pie wants to throw me.It will be a blast. Hope to see you soon, moon cheeks! Discord P.S.: Celly hides her cake in a safe, in the school kitchen. It acts as a refrigerator as well. The code is 89356207 > Chapter 6 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "How the heck did you manage that?!" Sunset shouted upwards towards the cloud. Specifically the cloud where Rainbow Dash was stuck in, hanging upside down. "Does that really matter? Help me get out of here!" Rainbow shouted down. The students watching the scenery weren't sure whether to be worried or laugh their asses off. Sunset facepalmed. There were only two ways to get Rainbow Dash down to not cause a scene to the entire world. She could either transform into her Daydream Shimmer form again or they somehow managed to produce a huge-ass ladder. However, none of those were to her liking. For one, if she transformed in front of the student body without any help, they'd know she was basically a powerhouse, who could make their lives really good or really miserable. And huge-ass ladders just are not stable and hard to handle. She was just about to go with the safer option, when she heard a tambourine playing. A few more students turned their heads just in time to see Fluttershy pony-up. Sunset almost slapped herself again. "Are you sure, you want to do this Fluttershy?" Rarity asked. "We all know about your fear of heights..." "I-I....I'll manage." she smiled weakly, sweating bullets. "Just don't look down." Sunset advised. "Or think of your birds!" "I'll do that. Thank you." With that Fluttershy took off towards Rainbow Dash. Everybody watched with fascination, as the shy girl fluttered her way too small wings and still somehow managed to get airborne. She easily reached Rainbow Dash. "Wow Shy, I'm impressed. So uh...are you going to pull me out?" "I...but what if I can't hold you and drop you to the ground? I am not as strong as you or Applejack." "Oh right. Gimme a second." the blue girl bit her tongue, thinking. "I got it. Just push me through! That way, I'll land on the cloud." "But, how will you get down?" Fluttershy asked. "I'd still need to carry you and...you know me..." "Nah, don't worry. You see, uh...Discord told me, how pegasi slept on clouds and how clouds are the most comfortable thing in the world, so I thought I should give it a shot. I pony-up-ed and...I guess I enjoyed flying a little bit too much." she admitted sheepishly. Fluttershy giggled a little, before she started pushing Rainbow Dash. It turned out to be easier than any of them expected. As if someone had rubbed butter on the walls of the cloud, Rainbow's slim body easily slipped through, with her ending up on top of the cloud. "Few, my wings are stiff. Thanks shy." Rainbow Dash stretched herself, before she just leaped off and caught herself in mid-air. Fluttershy let out an "eep", when her longtime friend appeared in front of her in the air. "Come on, Shy. Let's get down there. We got PE next and that's one subject I don't want to miss." Celestia closed the curtains to her office and slumped down onto her chair. In front of her sat a man, who wore a brown sweater, darker brown pants and dirty, white sport shoes. A few minutes earlier he had placed an application, complete with curriculum vitae on her desk. "See Celly? I told you, there was no need for those firemen. Why do you call them firemen anyway? Not that I'm complaining about contradictions, but it would be way funnier if they actually were lit on fire or their tubes actually spit fire. No their firetrucks should be fire-breathing dragons! ... No, on second thought, that's not original enough. That sounds wayyyyy too common. Fire breathing dragons, got enough of them in Equestria already. Don't even understand the simplest of jokes." "Urgh..." Celestia didn't even try to hold back the sigh. "Mr. Discord...why do you even want to become our janitor? I understand that your presence is needed in order to keep an eye on Sunset and Twilight, but that doesn't necessarily requires you to actually get a job, does it?" Discord in return shrugged. "Why not? Just imagine it! Every damage that ever happened in school, every little explosive crater that's going to appear in the future...just disappear with a snap of my finger. Like that coffee stain on your table." Discord snapped his fingers and in the blink of an eye, the coffee stain that Luna accidentally made a couple of weeks ago was gone. "Every little explosive crater?" the principal quoted. "I have faith that neither Sunset nor Twilight will turn into demons ever again." "Oh, I'm not talking about that." Discord smirked. "I'm talking about their current powers." "Current powers? Control of the sun and moon?" "Oh what, you think that is everything?" Celestia tensed. She had a very, very bad feeling about this. "Sunset may have a little more control, after all, she was Sunbutt's student after all. Sunbutt even planned Sunset taking on the Element of Magic at first. Well, THAT went well as we all know. Ah, wish I had been there. Alas, I had to buy the DVD." "What was that?" "Oh, nothing to bother your poor little head about. In any event, aside from raising the sun and moon, which is quite easy might I add, the two ladies have been blessed with for humans unimaginable power. Their magic is so great, it can be accessed as easily as if they were in Equestria. However, it's like someone just gave an AK-47, a bazooka, a 50 caliber sniper rifle and a party canon to someone who's not quite right in the head. What do you think would happen?" Celestia swallowed. "Luckily, as I said, our dear Sunset has a lot of experience in controlling magic and she was quite the power house as a unicorn, from what I heard. As for our dear Twilight..." "...She doesn't have any kind of experience." Celestia breathed out. "I'll be honest, Princess Twilight is anything BUT a stable pony. She panics quite easily and tends to do really stupid things, when she panics. Did you know, she brainwashed an entire town, because she was late for an assignment? That was before she had the power Sunset and this here Twilight have." "She what?! Y-you're joking, right?" "Eeenope." For some reason, Discord turned his head in that of a red horse, with yellow mane and green eyes, causing Celestia to jump a little. "Just like that. Sunbutt herself needed to get down and clean up her mess. She hadn't had an episode ever since, but they built a bunker, just in case Twi-Twi goes coo-coo again." He's pulling my leg. He must be. Princess Twilight seemed so...well not completely mature, but more than the students. She also always seemed to know what she was doing. Except the time we first met. But then again, I haven't seen her that often... "Whatever, my point is, if Princess Twilight is unstable, then Twilight Sparkle is a ticking time bomb. Don't get scared just now, as long as she doesn't tap into her magic reserves, she'll be fine. But once she does, which will be, when it's time to raise the moon...ooh boy, maybe I should build a fallout shelter. Then again, it won't do us any good, when she crashes the moon on the planet. Or the magic will consume her again and she'll go mad with her studies again. Maybe this time she won't destroy one reality, only to get to Equestria, but dissect our atoms, in order to understand the meaning of the universe?" ... Celestia trembled, as she drank from her tea. "Hahahaha, you should see your face. Don't worry, that's why I'm here after all. I'm stronger than any prissy alicorn. Sunny and I will assist little Twily. So, back to that job." ... "I'll consider it." As well, as considering retiring early. Or change jobs. Maybe I should become a teacher at an elementary school. "Good!" Discord clapped his hands. He then snapped his fingers, after which he and Celestia were standing in front of a mirror, which suddenly appeared in Celestia's room. Discord wore now and expensive tuxedo, the same one he wore at the gala, complete with hat, pants and shoes this time around. As for Celestia, she was sure she belonged in the asylum now. She wore a beautiful white dress, a white flower was stuck in her hair, glass shoes, golden lipstick, a little bit more makeup overall, her nails were polished, she also wore golden bracelets on the upper half of her arms and an expensive amethyst was hanging down a golden necklace. "A little too white? Don't worry, we still got time before my housewarming party starts. How about..." > Chapter 7 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- English class could not get any more boring, especially for someone who already did their final exams there. As such both Sunset and Twilight were bored shitless out of their minds, as Miss Harshwhinny tried (and pretty much failed) to get the class to listen to her. The teacher didn't really mind that the best in the class zoned out, since she knew even if she asked Sunset or Twilight a question, she would never really caught them off guard. Both could catch up in a matter of moments, either using what was written on the blackboard or simply from the topic they were discussing, using their own notes sometimes. If only the rest of the class was half as smart as these two. "Rainbow Dash!" she shouted, causing the athlete to fall of the chair, from being forcefully woken up. Neither Sunset nor Twilight joined the laughter, as Twilight was internally theorizing about magic and Sunset was talking to the sun. "So, your sister is basically pissed off, because the American flag is still stuck on her." "Indeed mistress." "And now she demands from us to punish the NASA for doing that?" "Correct mistress." "Your sister has issues." Sunset concluded, silently shaking her head. "Mistress, shouldn't you be paying attention? Not that I mind our conversation or anything!" "You sound like Fluttershy, you know?" "I'm terribly sorry, mistress! I didn't intend to impersonate one of your friends!" "Urrgh." Sunset resisted the urge to facepalm. "Look. I'm not angry with you, I was just making a statement." "I'm so sorry!" The high schooler was almost sure the cry could be heard on the entire globe. "ANYWAYS, short answer: I'm smart enough that my teacher gives me a lot of leeway and that gives us the time to actually talk to each other, while not being interrupted. So, how is it, being the sun? I mean, just floating in space 24 hours a day sounds pretty boring to me, if I am honest." "Oh, I wouldn't call it boring, mistress. It always has been my life and I find the emptiness of space calming and I enjoy watching the earth change over the millennial. Moon though...she doesn't like how humanity has developed over the years." "Well, I can't blame her. Though, in my world, there have been worse guys." Sunset looked up for a short time, to look if the topic changed or they had gotten an assignment. Neither was the case. Harshwhinny was throwing one of her fits once again, as the class struggled to grasp what she had been talking about the past 20 minutes. "Mistress, if I may say something..." "Yes?" "I am worried about the person who came through the portal. That...other Celestia." the sun admitted. "The other Celestia?" Sunset asked, confused. "What about her?" "She scares me." It almost sounded like a whisper. "Scares you?! Why? She pretty much forgave me for trying to take over Equestria and helped me from my initial use of my new powers. That reminds me, we need to keep a close eye on Twilight. Faust knows what the girl is going through right now." "Don't worry. My sister is watching over her as we speak, mistress. Back to my concerns, if you don't mind..." .... "Go on." Sunset finally said. "Thank you. The moment the other Celestia came through the portal, I...I could feel her power. It would have send shivers down my spine, if I had one. I...I was afraid she would take control over me." "You could feel her? Interesting." Sunset commented. "But don't worry. She won't do anything like this, unless she has to." Sunset could feel that the sun was not completely comfortable with that statement, but it was better than nothing. Looking out of the window, the girl wondered how it was, being a burning ball of fire and just be there in space. School ended finally and the students were more than ready to head home, especially after how the day started. Many had a feeling there was gonna be another earth shattering battle at their school. They kinda misinterpreted their gut feelings. At the same time, around 30 seconds after the bell rang, each and every cell phone rang or vibrated. Everyone got the same message: Sorry, but I'm doing this on purpose. Before anyone could question the contents of the text, every door at CHS opened, sucking every student inside with the loud sound of a vacuum. Students screamed as they were quickly sucked back into the building, crashing into each other mid-air and finally being sucked into the school's closet. A couple of students tried to hold onto the corners of the wall or the lockers, sometimes even the locker doors. It was of no use. One after another, oftentimes in groups the students were sucked into the black hole the school closet seemed to have become. Finally as the last student was inside, the door let out a burp, before closing. Inside, the students slowly recovered from their unwanted flying trip. Everyone helped each other up and looked around. They were in some kind of huge room. There weren't many light sources in there, but some people could make out what looked like tables and chairs. Some recovered from the shock faster than others and started whispering among each other. The few who stood close to the Rainbooms looked over to them. "Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked, helping Sunset up. The fiery haired girl rubbed her head in pain. "More or less." she responded, graciously taking her friends hand. Looking around, she found her friends were all up already, some of them still a little shaken. She looked around a little, before addressing her friends. "Are you guys okay?" Everyone responded positive. "D-do you think this was his work?" Twilight asked, looking around a little scared. "I don't know anyone else who's capable of pulling a stunt like this off." Sunset stated as a matter of fact. "Who are you girls talking about?" Flash Sentry just so happened to stand nearby them along with Trixie and Derpy. "Don't tell me, there's another thing trying to take over the world." The girl's smiled sheepishly. "Well, he's not trying to take over the world or something like that." "No silly, he's just throwing a party!" Pinkie jumped in front of Sunset. "Er what?" Suddenly a spotlight went on, revealing a stage that had previously been hidden. There was a curtain behind the stage. The light was bright enough to reveal a mismatched shadow behind the curtain. It could be seen holding a microphone and tapping at it with a claw. *tap* *tap* *tap* "Is this thing working? Test, test..." Discords voice could be heard through speakers, which were probably hidden in the shadows. Pinkie bounced small rapidly jumps, while everyone else looked nervously towards the stage. A drum roll started to play. "Ladies and gentlemen! We thank you all for coming today, to welcome our new resident of this world and also Canterlot High's newest and most chaotic janitor of all time. Here issssss DISCORD!!" On cue, Discord appeared from behind the curtain and onstage. Of course, no one was applauding, but that didn't stop him from flying into mid-air, bowing, while at the same time shouting: "Thank you, thank you! I'm so glad you all could make it today! It just makes me so happy!" Everyone could just stare at the...weird thing there. Was it a dragon? A lion? A snake like thingy?! "Now then, please let me introduce myself. My name is Discord, the one and only Lord of Chaos! It's very nice to meet you humans! Your species is so wonderfully chaotic, I'm sure we'll get along just fine. Oh and a big applause to Pinkie Pie, for helping me set up this little party." The spotlight went over to the Rainbooms and stopped right over Pinkie Pie, who excitedly waved with her arm to the crowd, an impossible big grin on her face. The other girls at least tried to look not important, right at that moment. "You might think I'm simply here to take over this world and spread chaos, but no. I'm not responsible for today's unusual morning. Actually, I was send by my dear friend Princess Twilight to look into things. And if you still don't belief me, some new friends I made today can vouch for me!" The spotlight enveloped the Rainbooms again. There was an additional spotlight revealing Luna and Celestia on the other side of the room, both wearing gorgeous dresses. Celestia's was a green dress, which flickered in a purple and pink color, similar to her hairstyle. She also wore golden accessories, which reminded Sunset a lot of the regalia Princess Celestia normally wore. Luna on the other hand, wore a blueish, almost completely black dress, with bright white stars sparkling every time she made the faintest of moves. She also wore sparkling gloves and blue lipstick. The students (mostly the male population) couldn't help but gawk at their principals. "So without further ado, let's get this party started!" > Chapter 8 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset did not know what was wrong with everyone. She had expected everyone to confront her and her friends, try to sneak out of the room or heck, pitchforks and torches! She didn’t expect the party to get into full swing in a matter of minutes, especially when a mismatched creature like Discord was the host! Granted there were a few who seemed to be still reluctant about everything, but those were quickly dragged in by their friends. “Come on, girls!” Pinkie shouted. “It’s a party! Don’t just stand there!” The party girl ran off to a random direction. The other girls looked after their friend running to the dance floor and like always, she immediately took the center of the attention. “Ah swear, that gal…” AJ rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. “Uh...girls?” The six Rainbooms left to see Flash Sentry, Trixie, Snips and Snails approaching them. “Would you be so kind to tell us what is going on?” Trixie asked through gritted teeth, clearly distressed. “And why is everyone so happy? It’s almost the sirens all over again.” She complained. “Yeah.” “Totally.” Snips and Snails agreed. Flash didn’t say anything, just nodded in agreement. “Well, it’s a little bit complicated.” Rarity played with her hair, nervously. “Uh huh.” Fluttershy nodded. “Well, tell us already!” Yelled a very impatient Trixie, causing the others to flinch. “Alright, alright.” Sunset held her arms up. “No need to make a scene.” “We’ll see about that, Shimmer.” “Hey, let her explain first.” Flash said, looking over to the blue girl, who muttered something under her breath in return. “Okay, look. You have heard what happened today with the sun going up late and everything.” “Yes?” The four people said at the same time. “Basically Twilight, I mean Princess Twilight” she corrected herself “send Discord over to us, to see if things he could fix things over here.” The others raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t she come herself?” Asked Flash. “Well, apparently someone messed up on the other side of the portal. She did some time travel Doctor Who Style...what? I like the show, give me a break. AHEM, anyways she did all this time traveling, I don’t have all the details and then...are you guys familiar with the term time paradox?” The boys looked a little lost, however Trixie seemed to understand. “You mean when something appears seemingly out of nowhere, although it is not supposed to be there? Like someone died in the past, but then he appears out of nowhere, because someone changed it?” “That was a little morbid, darling.” Rarity commented. “But pretty accurate.” Sunset stated. “They have a big problem on the other side of the portal. Time paradoxes show up everywhere. They even suspect this here to be another paradox.” “Oh.” the others looked at each other uncomfortably. “Hey still. What exactly is that guy?” Flash pointed at Discord, who was cut himself in half, horizontally and was now dancing with it. Sunset thought for a moment before answering. “He’s what’s called a dragonques. The only one of his kind as far as I know.” She scratched her head. “That’s a mouthful.” Flash commented. “But if he’s a friend of Twilight...uh the princess I mean.” “We should think of a nickname for her, ya know.” Dash commented. “Trixie’s still not comfortable with...him.” She pointed at Discord, who was arm wrestling...with himself and a crowd cheering...well it wasn’t clear whether they were cheering for Discord or his amputated arm. “This is...ah don’t have words for this…” AJ tipped her head, hiding her eyes. “This is…” Snip was at a loss for words. “...awesome!” Unlike snails, who ran towards the crowd.”Five bucks on the arm!” He shouted. “Oh dear.” Rarity facepalmed. “Couldn’t have princess Twilight send someone else?” “Sunset” AJ spoke up. “Mind if we talk fer a sec?” “Er sure. We’ll be right back?“ AJ nodded and motioned for Sunset to go into a corner. In the meantime the other girls slowly disbanded and walked into different directions. AJ and Sunset in the meantime talked to each other: “Why didn’t ya tell them the whole truth?” The farmer asked. “The whole truth?” Sunset titled her head. “Ya know! You and Twi raising the sun and moon, Discord being some chaos thing-” “Shh!” Sunset cut her off. She looked to her left and right, before speaking up. “I don’t want everyone to panic about that. It’s bad enough that Discord is showing off...what in the name of Celestia is he doing now?” There was a timer above him running, as he, Pinkie Pie and two others were drinking as much chocolate milk as possible from a row of glasses. The glasses then were thrown backwards, where they detonated on the ground. “Oh mare…” “But still. Ah’m not exactly comfortable with that.” The other girl said. “Lying to the rest like that…” “It’s not exactly lying, more like withholding information.” Sunset couldn’t help but comment. “Same thing.” AJ said, causing Sunset to flinch. “Look, maybe we can tell them sometime else, but now is not a good time. Let’s just try to enjoy the party, all right? Me and Twilight will have enough stress this evening.” “Ah. Sorry. Ah kinda forgot…” “Hehe, no problem. Now come on. That cake over there looks really delicious.” Twilight carefully moved through the crowd of people, trying to avoid bumping into anyone by accident. She soon found herself near a table with a selection of non-alcoholic drinks. A few students were standing on the other side of the table, drinking, joking and generally having a good time. “Why don’t you join them?” “Ah!” Twilight jumped, when a voice came from behind her. She found Discord floating behind her with a cocktail in his hand. He took a sip from it, only for the glass to be filled. Twilight had to blink at this. “Wha-?” Was all the girl could get out. “Oh, you know. Have a conversation, maybe make some more friends, the usual stuff.” He waved off, finishing his drink, which changed colors from orange to red. “Er...how-” “Oh, you want one yourself?” Discord snapped his paw, causing a glass filled with something purple. The glass slowly descended into Twilight’s hand who caught it dumbfounded. “Uh...thank you?” “You’re welcome.” The Chaos God smiled, before disappearing under the table. Twilight quickly looked under the table, but the only thing she found was a dust bunny in shape of a bunny. Feeling a headache incoming, she stood up and tried to ignore the past 30 seconds of her life. She didn’t know why she did it, but she took a straw from the table, put it into her drink and took a sip. “...Not bad.” She had to admit. Then she blinked again. “Wait. Did I really just drink something from a being of chaos, who can do whatever he wants and thus put whatever he wants inside it, while at the same time I cannot detect it by smell or taste?!” She shouted. Luckily the loud music was practically drowning out her voice, so no one close to her heard her panicked voice. “Pretty much!” “AH!” Twilight jumped again. This time Discord had appeared on her shoulder, albeit in a smaller size. “Stop that!” The girl shouted, only for the draconequus to float in mid-air and laughed. “Oh, come on Twilight. At least try to have a little fun, will you?” The god asked in a mocking tone of his voice. “Well, excuse me if I’m not comfortable with social gatherings of such a massive scale!” The girl said through gritted teeth. “Plus your antics aren’t exactly helping.” “Oh dear.” He smiled wryly. “I am sorry Twilight. Sometimes I just forget myself.” He shrugged. “But in all seriousness, do try to relax a little.” “Relax?” She asked in a deadpan tone. “I am barely keeping it together as it is. What made you think a party was a good idea in the first place?!” Discord simple shrugged again. “Eh, it’s working, as you can see.” He waved around with his claws. Indeed, as the girl looked around, all she saw was a bunch of students having fun. Her eyes fixated on Principal Celestia who had a few female students gushing over her dress. Discord noticed this as well. “I may be no Rarity, but I would rather say I did a fabulous job, if I do say so myself.” He said the last words with Rarity’s voice. Twilight couldn’t help herself, but giggle. “Finally, a genuine smile!” Discord cheered, small fireworks going off behind him. “Do keep them, they really look good on you.” “Thank you? Uh, by the way. What is this?” Twilight asked. “Oh, you know...stuff.” Discord waved off and disappeared from sight. > Chapter 9 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hey, Twilight." "Huh?" The girl turned around and found Sunset approaching her. "I saw Discord talking to you earlier. He didn't bother you too much, did he?" "Oh no, no." Twilight shook her head. She then looked down at her drink for a second, before throwing it away. "Not really." "Mhm." Sunset didn't look convinced but didn't press on the subject either. "Else, are you enjoying yourself so far?" "Oh, yes, yes of course." Twilight nodded eagerly, a happy grin on her face. "I'm just...taking a break from all of this. You know, I'm not used to this whole partying and socializing and-" "You've been standing here ever since the party started, right?" the fiery haired girl asked rhetorically, a small smile on her face. The purple girl in return sighed, letting her head hung. "Am I that transparent?" she asked. "It's not that." Sunset walked next to her newest friend and put a hand on her shoulder. "But I know where you have been and I understand fully if you're not ready to talk with anyone right now. Though I must say, you're behaving better than I did on my first party." "Really?" Twilight blinked. "How so? If you don't mind me asking." she hastily added the second part, hoping that she didn't accidentally offend the other girl. Said girl in return chuckled, before answering: "I didn't even show up. An hour and fifteen minutes later, Pinkie Pie climbed through an open window, wrestled me to the ground, tied me up with a rope I didn't know I had in my closet and then carried me all the way to her house." Twilight blinked once. Then twice. "You're kidding. You're kidding, right?" Sunset just took a drink from the nearby table and shrugged. "If you don't believe me, ask the others. I think Rainbow Dash even took a video on her phone." "Uh...I think I'll take your word for it." "Really?" It was Sunset's turn to be blinking in surprise. "I thought a scientifically driven girl like you always needed some kind of proof." In return, Twilight let out another sigh and looked over to Discord, who was, along with Pinkie Pie, commenting, while four students were sitting on flying pigs and racing against each other. "As of late, science and logic seem to have turned their backs on me." the girl muttered. Sunset frowned. This was not where she wanted this conversation to be going. "You know, magic is a science of itself. Once everything has calmed down, I can teach you the basics, if you're interested. I'm sure the Princess can lend us some books too." "You already mentioned that." the other girl pointed out. "Did I? Man, this day is messing with my head." she chuckled a little. "Aren't you at least a little bit nervous?" the newest Wondercolt asked. "Haha, I'm a wreck Twilight. The only reason I'm not constantly looking at my watch...crap, I'm doing it again" Sunset quickly lowered her arm "the reason I'm MOSTLY avoiding glancing at my watch, is because I know have friends who will support me through all of this." She approached Twilight, putting a hand on her shoulder. "And you have those same friends, Twilight. We're going to stand through this together. Now come on! Let's actually enjoy the party." "Wait, but I-" "No "buts", Twilight. You're going to have fun now and I'll make sure you have." While Sunset was dragging Twilight into the crowd, another person used the opportunity to get away from it. Fluttershy sighed in relief when she finally found a more or less silent spot at the far end of the room. Not that she didn't like parties, she just couldn't stand the noise for too long. The girl sat down in a chair in order to relax her feet a little. From her spot, she could see the masses of students cheering on the racers. Normally Fluttershy was against such use of animals, but the pigs appeared to be happy with the situation they were in, so it was okay. As she enjoyed the relative quiet of her lonesome self, a person stepped next to her. Looking up, she couldn't help but let out a small, high pitched screech, when she recognized Discord standing next to her. "Why hello there my dear. Taking a break I assume?" "Oh...um...yes. Not that I don't appreciate your party, it's just..." "Oh don't worry, don't worry my dear." Discord summoned a chair and took a seat himself. "The Fluttershy from back at home is very much similar to you. She also doesn't like to be in the center of the action for too long, especially on parties. You know" Discord snapped his fingers, making a tray with a variety of snacks appear in his claw "since we're here, how about we have a little chat and get to know each other?" the lord of chaos asked smiling, offering the snacks to Fluttershy. Smiling shyly, she picked up one of the treats and started talking. "Well um... I like to take care of animals, you know." "Oh really? Tell me more." As the party went on, slowly but surely some of the students needed to go home. Luckily they found out that the door from which they originally got sucked in, didn't repeat the process and so they could leave the school grounds with no problem whatsoever. Still, the appearance of that snake-dragon whatever it was thingie was the main topic of their conversations. Add to it the strange phenomena happening this morning and you could easily guess that more than one person was worried about their current situation. "Man, ever since Shimmer came to our school, things have been a rollercoaster." "Honestly? I still think this is better than normal school life." "Better? Do you have some screws loose or something?" "Just ignore him. I'm just glad that we aren't hypnotized again or that some evil demoness is trying to destroy our world." "Though you gotta admit, Twilight was hot as hell." "Oh yeah..." Starlight Glimmer listened in to those conversations, seemingly just sitting on a nearby bench and checking her cell phone. In reality, she was making mental notes about the details she picked up from the small conversations the students had with each other. Specifically, the appearance of some snake thing that could make things appear out of nowhere. Then there was another topic being mentioned, namely magical incidence happening before today. Could this possibly mean that the Goddesses have been on earth for far longer than Starlight thought at first? She shook her head. There was just not enough information to go on as of now. She needed to supervise the situation for at least a week, maybe even a month, before gathering any followers. Or maybe she should go for a more directly approach? > Normal is officially extinct > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eventually, the party had to end and when it did, almost everyone was exhausted. Celestia and Luna were sitting in the older sister's office, trying to digest of what happened just recently. The two were still wearing the gowns Discord specifically made for them. "Luna, do you remember when things used to be normal?" "Normal, sis?" the darker woman drawled. "I don't know what that word means anymore." "Let's remain at least partially serious." "Serious? After seeing a flying pig race, dancing silverware, disco in space and the cake golem?!" "Come now Luna. The cake golem was nothing less than a truly an achievement in the art of sculpting." "Right. And you achieved nothing less than to devour at least half of it in less than thirty minutes." "That's-!" Before the sisterly squabble was stopped by the sudden sound of an explosion echoing through the halls of Canterlot High. The sisters gave each other a look before they ran out of the room into the general direction of the explosion. They didn't have to go far. One of the classroom doors was opened in the upper hallways. The room itself was darkened by black smoke coming out of it. Before Luna or Celestia could do as much as gasp in surprise, Discord came walking out of the room, wearing a bio-hazard suit. The Lord of Chaos slowly closed the creaking door, before snapping his fingers, perfectly getting rid of the suit. "Phew, now that's what I call a close call." the lord of chaos chuckled, but stopped, when he found the principal and vice-principal standing right in front of him. "Why hello you two. Came for some leftover cake? If not, I still have cupcakes in the fridge." Before Celestia got too distracted, Luna stepped between Discord and her sister in order to prevent another cake golem incident. "What exactly happened here?!" "Oh, you know, Twilight had a mental breakdown and almost destroyed the known universe. It happens every other week in Equestria." It took a couple of seconds for the message to settle in. "Twilight had a mental breakdown?" Celestia asked, aghast. "Mhm." Discord nodded. "Her friends are with her now, so no worries." "No worries?!" Luna exclaimed. "You just talk about one of our students being in emotional disarray, like you're describing yesterday's weather." "Because quite frankly Lulu, there's not much we can do." Discord started floating in mid-air, making it appear like he was lying in a hammock. "Twilight has a big responsibility now and given that she has almost the same personality as the Twilight I know, I say it's a miracle the earth is still in one piece." "What do you mean by that?" Celestia asked. "Mmm, that will take a little while to explain, so listen closely my dears. You see, there are two ways of using magic. Letting it flow unchained, like I love to do." To demonstrate what he meant, he snapped his fingers. In a flash of magic, Celestia and Luna found themselves sitting on a rock, surrounded by ocean water. Most of their clothing was gone, except for their bras. Luckily or unluckily (depending on how you see things) instead of legs, the two now sprouted fish legs. The two woman did a pretty good job mimicking fish too, by opening and closing their mouths, too stunned to scream or make any kind of noise for that matter. That is until a shark came out of the water and ate the two mermaids, before diving back into the water. The Lord of Chaos smiled wickedly, snapping his fingers and returning the women and the hall to normal. Said women were holding each other in their arms and were shaking like leaves. Once they realized that they weren't in the shark's stomach anymore, they directly glared at Discord. Though they didn't stop shaking. "Strange" Discord stroked his little beard "I was actually thinking about Beauty and the Beast." "What in Tartarus was that?!" Both sisters exclaimed at the same time. "A demonstration" Discord replied cooly "of what happens when someone with a vast amount of magic like yours truly." He gestured at himself. "Absolutely anything can happen. Even a master at the art of magic, such as myself can sometimes not fully predict what the results will be. The other way of how to use magic is to simply control it, which is pretty much self-explanatory, so let's skip that and finally get to the good part. What actually happened to Twilight?" he clapped his claw and paw together and bore now a sleek grin. The principal and vice-principal fumed on the inside. The weird creature ignored their obvious distress and just kept blabbering on and on about magic this and magic that, completely ignoring the fact that they were still soaked. "And what did happen?" Celestia asked through gritted teeth, though she now tried to suppress her rage. Her students came first after all. "Nothing too special, actually. I just made a joke about how Twilight would probably raise the moon in tandem, then she thought about what it would do to the tides of this planet, then she began writing sciencey stuff down on the blackboard, one thing lead to another and then she began tearing the universe apart. Luckily I managed to calm her down with her friends...after taking some drastic measurements. Oh boy, I wouldn't go in there if I were you." He pointed with his thumb towards the door. "And pray tell what exactly have you done?" Luna asked, trying not to think that she was soaked with shark stomach acid. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" Discord shook his arms. "I'm not even going to talk about what I had to do!" He shivered. "GAH! Now you have me thinking about it! I need a drink!" And he disappeared, leaving only a few sparkles of magic behind. Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a long time, before simultaneously sighing. "When we get home, I'll start writing on my campaign speech." "Yeah, right. I think I'll start a Mafia to fund your campaign." "And pull the strings from behind?" The only answer Celestia got was a sly smile from her sister. Without further ado, the two opened the door and stepped into the classroom. After only two steps inside, they stopped. The classroom was an utter mess. Desks and chairs were thrown to the sides, posters made by students were either burned or torn to shreds, the blackboard had been dropped to the ground, the projector and tv were destroyed, there were holes in the walls, exposing pipes and electrical cables, yet somehow the windows were still intact. None of this, however, caused the two sisters to be stunned once again on that day. What got them stumped was what was in the middle of the classroom. There, on her knees sat Midnight Sparkle, along with six candy colored ponies snuggling her. One was being held in both her arms. It was yellow with wings and a horn and had red, yellow mane. This one had also it's mane being stroked by Midnight. The pony seemingly enjoyed the treatment, if it's half lidded eyes meant anything. Then there was the orange pony with the stetson. It was leaning against Midnight's side and rubbed it's head against her, though she didn't look all too happy about this. Then there was the marshmallow white unicorn, with the purple, curly mane and tail. It was positioned on the opposite side to the orange pony, though it was more occupied admiring said mane and tail. Meanwhile, there was a completely pink pony lying on the ground in front of Midnight, receiving belly rubs from an absent-minded yellow pony. Finally, there were two ponies that looked like the pegasus from Greek mythology. One was cyan blue, with rainbow colored mane and tail and currently squirming in the bone crushing hug of the other pegasus. It had butter colored fur, with pink mane and tail and snuggled its face against the cheek of the cyan-colored pony. On top of all that hung a banner, saying: "Snuggle therapy. Careful! Addiction warning!" But of course, Luna and Celestia had already joined. > Chapter 11 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunset was currently lying on the rooftop, her arms crossed behind her head like Rainbow Dash liked to do. The girl had separated herself from her friends temporarily, as she was contemplating the situation she and Twilight were in, something she had already done at least a dozen of times today. A sigh escaped her lips as she was checking the time with her phone, something she had also done at least a dozen of times today. The reason she did the latter was obviously that since it was her duty to lower the sun now, she had to constantly keep track of the time of the day in order to prevent the stunt she did this morning. Sunsets and sunrises for that matter where not instantaneous. That was a fact she had completely forgotten this morning and the results were all over the news. Even now the news outlets were showing repeated camera footage of the sun, not the earth, moving at high speeds into just the right position for the next day to fully begin. One has to remember that both the sun and the moon were gigantic. From the perspective of a human on earth, it would have looked like the sun had been moving about as fast as a human who casually took a stroll in the park. This couldn't be further from the truth. Sunset had never really considered this, but given how fast the gigantic fireball had moved, she must have used a lot of power in order to accomplish this feat. That is not to mention the sheer distance from earth to the sun. Just thinking about sent shiver's down Sunset's spine. There was a quote from a comic that came to mind when she thought about all of this: "With great power comes great responsibility." This was something she would have scoffed at in the past, but it was pretty much something she had to consider now more than ever. Another sigh escaped her lips. She wondered how Princess Celestia and Princess Luna handled this responsibility each and every day. Then again, they had been doing this for ages, so it was probably routine for them by now. There was a good chance the two didn't even remember how it was raising the sun and moon respectively for the first time. Another look at her phone revealed to Sunset that it was almost time for her to start the thing she was named after. She had done some research previously, namely checking out records of the exact times each and every day the sunset and sunrise would start. Obviously, she had some leeway, as there was no telling how those people had decided that this was the exact minute the sun started setting. Still, it was good to have some kind of set time to start the process of setting set sun. Which she would do now. The Equestrian stretched her arms before she got off the ground with her phone in her hand. She sent a quick text in the chat group she and her friends used, telling them where she was and what she was about to do. After having done that, she pocketed her phone, took in a deep breath with her mouth and let it out slowly through her nose. "Hey Sun, are you there?" she asked into the air. ~I am here, mistress. Have you finished your preparations?~ "More or less," Sunset now thought in the direction of the sun. It was still kind of alienating to her that the sun had an actual conscious now. "I think I'm going to need your help again. Just like you helped me this morning." ~Of course, Mistress. I will do my utmost to ensure we will be successful today.~ "Alright," Sunset said out loud and nodded, more to herself than the sun. "Let's see if I got this." With those words being said, Sunset began channeling the magic through her body. It was different from her pony form, as with that she just needed to channel it through her horn. But in the human world magic worked completely differently, to the point where she had to improvise or just let the magic do its own stuff. Like right now. Once the magic started flowing through her body, it continued to do so without her doing anything. As the magic flowed, it also changed Sunset. From seemingly one moment to the other, in a flash of light, Sunset changed into her angelic form, complete with the outfit and the wings. The girl also found herself hovering in mid-air, without even flapping her wings. Though the laws of physics were the least of her concerns right now. She looked up into the sky, in the direction of the one star that allowed life to flourish on this planet. Time to get that very same star moving. Sunset was about to "outstretch" her mind, so to speak and "get a grip on the sun", again so to speak when she found herself to be interrupted by the sound of the doors to the rooftop opening. "Hey Sun, wait for- whoa!" Rainbow Dash interrupted herself when she saw that Sunset had already transformed into Daydream Shimmer, no one knew who came up with that name. Sunset or Daydream for her part turned around in mid-air and smiled softly, as she saw not only Rainbow Dash, but also the rest of the Rainbooms entering the rooftop. "Hey Sunny, isn't it a bit early for sunset?" Pinkie Pie asked, pointing a finger at the side of her head. "I have to agree with Pinkie Pie dear, it's a tad early, wouldn't you agree?" Rarity followed up the question with one of her own. "Easy there, girls," Daydream held up her hands in a pacifying matter. She then went on to explain that she was not actually setting the sun in the way her friends expected her to do, but rather that she only planned on getting the sun moving very slowly. "Er... so why are ya doing that?" Applejack asked. "No offense, but it kinda sounds like a wasted effort to mah." "Yeah, see here's the thing. Usually, the earth moves on its own, making it for its inhabitants appear like the sun is slowly moving on the horizon," Daydream explained. "Since that isn't happening anymore, I have to initiate this on my own." "Do you really need to do this?" Rainbow Dash asked with crossed arms. "Like AJ said, it still sounds like a wasted effort to me." It was Twilight who decided to answer this one. "Rainbow Dash, we can't skip anything in the day and night cycle. Do you not remember how everyone reacted when the sun and the moon were stuck in one place?" The girl felt the need to rub her forehead. "Which is so illogical in of itself, it's still giving me a headache," she muttered more to herself, than anyone else. "In any event, what I mean is that people panicked, actually if you look into the news, you will see that they're still panicking." Daydream nodded in agreement. "It will take a lot of time for the people to get used to all of this. And if I just skip something, even if it seems mundane, it will only cause more distress around the world. Heck, you should have seen how heated the discussions I have seen on lifestream." "Er... no thanks. I let you handle the egghead stuff." Both Twilight and Daydream rolled their eyes at the unnecessary comment Rainbow made. "Right. Anyways, I better get to it, before someone not from Canterlot High sees me in this outfit." Daydream gestured down on herself." "I think she looks beautiful," Fluttershy whispered to Rarity, who wholeheartedly agreed. Sunset in the meantime had returned her attention to the sun and was once again attempting to get a grip on it. It wasn't exactly like putting your fingers around a ball, but it was an adequate way to describe what Sunset did at this very moment. Once she managed to put her invisible hand around the sun, she started to pull or rather push it in the direction it needed to go. The angel-girl could feel the sun contributing to the effort, not by moving by herself, but rather supplying her with a seemingly endless amount of magic. It not only made the task that much easier but for the couple of seconds she and the sun had this kind of connection, Daydream felt like she could just incinerate the world with a mere snap of her fingers. Luckily this time she managed to resist the temptation and managed to get the sun moving. Of course, it wasn't visible to the naked eye, but Sunset had managed what could be considered to be the easy part of her job. She immediately transformed back in front of her friends, gently landing on her feet. "Alright," she nodded satisfied. "easy part done, now we gotta wait, 'till Sunday." Twilight audibly gulped. In only a couple of hours, it would be her turn.