> The Sun Queen
>  by NoMane
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Discord's Musings and the Rise of the Sun Queen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord smiled as he arose from bed after surviving his tea party with Fluttershy.  Never before had he actually been in danger of perishing, despite Celestia's best efforts.   It was at the same time absolutely terrifying and a huge rush.

He shouldn't be able to die.  After all, fading away was one of the ultimate forms of order.  Everything that had harmony came to an end.

And then his musings jumped three feet to the right of him, as another him showed up wearing curlers in his hair.  “You know, there's barely been enough chaos for one of us, let alone all of us.  One of us needs to get out and work, and support this family, and that slacker isn't going to do it...”

His worse half gestured around his home.  One copy of him held a rose under its chest, laying on his ceiling.

“Ugh, you're right, that layabout's been asleep for so long he might actually be dead!” Discord grimaced, but then he grinned.  “I have an idea, actually.  My favorite Pony Princess...wait...did we ever work out if Twilight became my new favorite?”

“We never did put it to a vote...so, all in favor of Celestia still being our favorite pony Princess?”

“Aye!” six eyes proclaimed, popping out of their heads.

“All opposed?”

Dead silence.

“The eyes have it!” Discord thrust his eyes back into his head.  “As I was saying, my favorite pony Princess, well, she deserves a little reward.  She did sponsor my redemption, and she's asked for so little in return.”

“Of course, she has also made things so difficult for us throughout the centuries.”

“Oh I know, but still, that's why she won't expect a boon, and 'tis better to give than receive, no?”

“She always was the more giving of the sisters.  Remember when Luna took the horns from our head?  She was quite a precocious child!”

“We'll have to reward Luna, too, if we see her.”

“The only reward Luna needs is some extra time to sleep,” the possum playing Discord murmured as he rolled over, “I know I wish I could get some more.”

“Hm...not a bad plan, me.  We best be off to Canterlot, then.”

Discord walked up the stairs to no where, and his duplicates melted into the floor and ceiling.

Celestia, in the mean time, was conducting what might be known as an important luncheon to the nobles of Canterlot.  Truth be told, though, it wasn't even a proper diplomatic affair.

Though the mares and stallions alike preened so wonderfully, they all had so much to learn from Twilight Sparkle.  They hid their intentions behind veils of deception, their bits were held in iron hooves of stinginess, and if they had kindness it had not been seen for ages!

It irked her so that things were so simple as they had used to be.  The Olden Ways, as brutish as they could be, were at least straightforward.

Punish those who break the rules.  If the punishment was vicious, it was only proof that the crime was heinous.  Ponies who submitted learned to stay in line.


Fight those who do not submit to punishment.  Most yielded once they saw her in action, or got a cut or two.  Those who watched learned to respect the Princesses as worthy fighters.


Slay those who get in the way.  That had been easy, when she was smaller and had less to account for.  Recently, she found that she could barely stomach such things.  Those who thought the Princesses too merciful would die.

Worse, such ways also led to the rift that ended with Luna on the moon...and more than a few rebellions.  Too many ponies were injured or killed not because they were bad in those revolutions, but because they had wanted a better life.

The soft-hoofed approaches, as roundabout as they were, at least made the rebellious souls more likely to try to work with or manipulate the system without resorting to force.

The real downside was having to perfect a fake smile for the benefit of so many arrogant souls.

She smiled, as if she was really pleased by the joke of the bore of a pegasus next to her.  A pity that the unicorns would neglect their (politely unspoken) prejudice against 'airheads' to allow such a windbag next to her.

If it weren't for the way the black pegasus with the jade green mane talked and acted, she'd fit in well anywhere.  Charity and innovation made friends of all kinds, after all.  However, snootiness meant one could only find willing company in the upper classes of Manehattan and the Canterlot.

Even magic, however, could not change the ruts these ponies had dug over centuries.   Ponyville had only done so well in defying that sort of tendency.  Perhaps if she was permitted to let Pinkie Pie run wild for a few weeks, Twilight could ensure these ponies were brought to heel.  Who could stand up to a weaponized Pinkie Pie for long?

You'd either be annoyed or amused into utter submission.

“Princess?” that hot air blowing pegasus just barely murmured.

Celestia smiled, fearing she had been caught daydreaming or, worse, had giggled aloud.  “I'm sorry, Lady Dandelion, you were saying?”

“B-b-behind you, Princess!” one of the Royal Guard called.

Giving a great beat of her wings, she leaped, spun, and landed on the table.

“Oh, it's just you.” Celestia fought the natural urge to scowl and the peculiar urge to smile, for she was allowed no emotion in this sort of scenario.  To show anger was to imply that the matter was worth being bothered by and to smile was to approve of his actions.

Discord wasn't welcome, and he would probably cause quite a stir that she'd have to deal with later.  However, these ponies feared him even though he was utterly bound to her service.  Yes, he had misbehaved a few times, but...these ponies' facades crumbled before something they feared so much.  It stirred feelings of jealousy in the dark part of her that still thought they should feel that way about her.

“Hello, Princess, nobles of Canterlot, and you, Lady Dandelion, I hear your cloud sharing proposal was a jolly good hit.” He smiled and doffed the top hat on his head.

“T-thank you?” Lady Dandelion managed to say.

“Oh no, thank you.  It's because of ponies like you that Princess Celestia's work gets easier.” He offered a bow, losing both his hat and his monocle.

“Discord.” Celestia mustered her stern voice. “You know it is rude to attend a banquet to which you did not receive an invitation.”

There was quiet murmuring of agreement behind her, but these spineless nobles would know nothing of solidarity with their monarch as soon as things got tough.

He frowned, so wounded, and gasped. “But I have it right here!”

A folded piece of pink construction paper spread out in front of him until it was large enough to read at the back of the room.   The purple crayon writing was framed with golden glitter.

You'we invited!

And then he opened it up.

To my best fwiend, Discowd:

You awe cowdiawwy invited to my banquet today in Cantewwot Castwe.

Youw best frwend,
Tia

For what it was worth, it was a rather good impression of a school filly's drawing of him and her having a tea party.  No one dared to even squeak as she took in the display in front of her.

Still, she rolled her eyes and stepped down from the table.  “If there's nothing you need to discuss, we need to get back to the business at hand.”

“We do, Princess.  You're working too hard.  Look at you, not even chuckling or smiling at the warm memories of the card you made for me.”  He snapped his fingers and the card burst into crimson flame.

“No duty is too hard or burden too heavy for the citizens of Equestria,” she said with conviction.

Even Discord, with his silver tongue, could not slip that kind of thought into her head.   He could do many things to her, truthfully, but she did not fear his normal japes and routines.  He could try to humiliate her and fail, so long as she did not rise to the bait.

Compared to the nobles who wanted things far more precious from her than to 'get her goat', he was toothless.

“And yet, my dear friend Fluttershy told me once that if one runs herself ragged for the things she cares for, she runs the risk of hurting the things she cares for and herself, and benefiting neither.”

“Which is why I always go to bed early, so I can rise early with the sun,” she said with such practice that he nearly gagged as the words rolled off of her tongue.

“Now now, Celestia, I know that's a lie; you rise before you raise the sun.” He grinned at his little victory, and said, “I remember you before you took over stewardship of the sun, and I dare say: you are  carrying a lot of stress in your face.”

She felt the flow of his magic, and was ever so glad that she was still facing away from the majority of her subjects.

Vanity was a terrible quality, and she had just enough to want her subjects to always see her at her best.

She lowered her voice and flared her horn.  “Discord...”

“Oh this is terrible!” he said, spawning a stethoscope and putting it to her forehead, “the stressoscope says it's gone straight to your brain!  This is terminal, I must operate!”

All too quickly, she was behind a hospital privacy screen and the magic in her horn had fizzled.

“What are you doing?!?” she screamed into the 'stressoscope', but the buds weren't even in his ears any more.

“Just something to help, Princess, don't worry, you won't feel a thing.”

Not a single pony was convinced of his good intentions, least of all Celestia, but she was the only one who could not even move as he descended upon her with such a friendly looking smile.

Of course, the doors did not budge when panicked unicorns tried to move them with magic, and the windows repelled Lady Dandelion with all of the power of a trampoline when she tried to take to the skies.

“No, my little ponies,” Discord said with a chuckle, “you'll all want to be here to see this!”

That was the last thing the ponies in the dining hall heard before the screaming began: first their Princess's and then their own.

Even the guards did not dare disturb what no doubt was the most vicious murder to occur in Equestria's history.

Of course, then somepony noticed that the Princess wasn't screaming any more.

Lady Dandelion was the first to notice, and she along with the others began to gawk.  One even took a few steps forward but chickened out.

Then the guards approached in formation, magic at the ready.

Then, one stripped one of the privacy screens by its mounting on the ceiling.

Everyone who dared to look gasped.

Their Princess wasn't murdered, but...

“Well, I've done all I could, but I think the patient will make a full recovery.” Discord strode out, in full scrubs, and took a bow, gesturing toward the short white filly standing where the Princess had been.  The Sun Crown slipped from her head, and she stepped out of her golden hoof guards.  Her long pink mane was formed of curls that hung simply from her head.

“Ponies of Canterlot!  Kneel before the Sun Queen!” she proclaimed in a squeaky voice.

Lady Dandelion bowed instantly.  The guards followed.  Most of the others stammered.  Some made the mistake of giggling.

With speed unnatural for one of her size, she flew forward into the faces of a few laughing mares and raised her voice until it rumbled the stones beneath her feet as she shouted, “ON YOUR KNEES, PONIES!”

And so everyone knelt.

Discord rose from his bow and clapped his hands.  “Well done, Sun Queen!  You have brought order to the dining hall.  What's next?”

And that made the alicorn filly pause.  “There's more to be done, of course.  But what first?”

“Well, Canterlot could use a fair bit of assistance.  Ponies are playing the fool, and they're pretending to have fun while doing it.”

“What?  Buffoonery is not banned within our kingdom.”

“No, no, my Queen, not casual every day oaf behavior, but, they're...disrespecting your edicts!  They focus on frivolity rather than training or focusing on running the realm!”

Celestia's eyes widened.  Her magenta gaze briefly flashed red.  She shrieked.  “We'll slaughter them!”

Discord coiled lightly around her and gently waved a claw in her face.  “Now now, Sun Queen, a sound...thrashing is enough for the worst of offenses, no need to kill anypony.”

That red gaze met his and, for a moment, her horn glowed.  The golden light faded, however, and instead she nodded her head.  “Yes, they'll be needed for our efforts.  Discord, guards, hold these wasteful ponies here...except Lady Dandelion, bring her to us.”

When the guards remained still, Discord snapped his fingers as he uncurled from the Sun Queen.

The floor under her slid underneath her, dragging her prone form before her Queen.

“Your majesty?” she asked, trembling.

“Your service to our realm in a time where so many ponies forget themselves and their duty is admirable.  Return to Cloudsdale and never let other ponies forget that if they act at the expense of their fellow ponies, they will face our wrath.”

“Yes my queen!”  Lady Dandelion ran without thinking, but thankfully the door threw itself open for her.

A few others tried to flee, but the guards sprang into action.

“Let us go, you goons!” they squawked as they were herded back.

“No.” A guardsmare stomped her hoof and held her ground.  “I don't know what's going on, but her orders are still sacrosanct, agreed?”

The guards all nodded their assent.

As a single unlucky pony made a break for it, Discord lassoed him.  “Come now, did you think I would allow a pony to disobey an order from the Queen of Equestria?"

Though they cursed Discord and their luck, the nobles had no choice.  They were powerless in the face of trained guardsponies.  They could only hope rescue would come or that their captors would waver and allow them to escape.
> Reconnaissance and Regalia Gathering
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia plodded across the drawbridge and into Canterlot.  Her head bore a horrid ache that set her to wincing as she took in the city.  It was huge, too huge.

This castle had been built...

Pain raced from her horn down to her teeth, and she shook her head.

Regardless of what else was wrong, it was clear that Discord had been right.  Ponies were disobeying her edicts.  Perhaps they were not outright thumbing their snouts at her, but they certainly moving with far too much leisure to maintain a settlement of this size.

Lunch hour was nearing its end, but none of the ponies on the streets were moving as if they had anywhere to go.  Surely, they at least had some labor to be about!

What could possess them to be so lazy while such a large city would need many hooves and horns working to keep everything moving?

Pressing her eyes shut at the pain, she did her best to ride the wave of agony that ran from her teeth back up to her horn.

Their lackadaisical pace would be punished, she decided firmly.

Raising her horn skyward, she urged the sun closer.

The ponies seemed to have infected it with lethargy as it obeyed slowly, instead only granting the least of its true warmth to her.  Her mane smoldered pleasantly, though it failed to rise to flame.

The Sun Queen's true power, of course, was mastery of the sun beyond the ken of even unicorns.  Unlike so many others, it had simply been emblazoned upon her flank from birth.

These ponies would know her wrath, but it would come so slowly that it would embrace them and hold them tight.  She was content in this, of course.  A subtle reminder might be enough.  If it was not, they would have time to suffer her full displeasure as it would be allowed to grow from this small kernel of punishment.

They had better have the sense to not require more blatant reminders.

She decided, in all of her wisdom and mercy, that she would survey Canterlot in the mean time.  So much seemed to have changed, and she would correct her faulty knowledge.

Ponies paid her no mind as she strode along.  Perhaps that was best, though it was disgusting in its own way.  It allowed her to inventory them.

The rich ponies laughing at a dapper stallion's joke were the first to get her attention.  It was laughter that was fake, tainted with the nervousness all too common in those who had judged themselves powerless.  I will laugh at this joke even if I don't like it, or he'll send me away from my only chance at having any value, they would surely think.

Those who feared such things would eventually find them coming to pass.

Celestia smirked at that.  Negotiating, even with a more powerful creature, was done by projecting power.  A smaller creature could scare away a larger with ferocity, but such ponies could just as well be cattle!

She giggled as she looked past those insignificant souls.  They would die alone, insipid, ignorant, and unloved by the ponies who they only pretended to be friends with.

Another pony was howling at an earth pony servant, who was doing her best to ignore him and keep working.

Celestia's face fixed itself into a frown as she stepped over toward the stallion with her horn glowing gold.  Her magic lanced outward, and slapped the noble right on his ass.

He whirled around, looking utterly scandalized but also so weak as she raised her voice.

“Sir, if thou will continue behaving so within my sight, I'll see worse done than that.  Apologize to the mare!”

His eyes went wide as he looked at her.  He briefly and meekly nodded, before turning to the earth pony and muttering something.

“On thy knees!  Show us thy sincerity!  And do so loudly so our subjects will know that no pony is above being treated with respect!  That mare's cleaning job makes it possible for you to do your labor in peace!” Celestia spread her wings.

“Oh, forgive me, Spring Duster!”

Her voice softened as she turned her attention to the mare. “Do you accept his apology, fair mare?"

Spring Duster's head was bowed as she said, “I do...thank you, ma'am.”

The Sun Queen could only smile as she nodded and trotted along.  “Remember this lesson, unicorn, or the punishment will be more severe next time!”

The murmuring that followed her did not give her any pause as she found a rather extravagant store that was labeled 'Canterlot Carousel'.

The appearance, blending white roof and light purple walls, struck her as so fancy that it should not exist.  Though a little pain ran through her head, she assured herself that the other buildings too were too fancy.  There was too much here that just did not make sense.

She steeled herself and headed inside, sure that she would find more ponies in need of reminding of their place in obeying her edicts.

The front door rang as she stepped through it, and she was graced by the sight of far too many wondrous garments.  A purple dress that showed entirely too much flank, a pink one that sparkled, a rainbow colored one with a gap to show one's cutie mark, and-

“Oh hello, young filly, welcome to the Canterlot Carousel!”  A tall and slender blue unicorn mare with a fiery, straight mane.  “I am Sassy Saddles, how may I help you?”

Compared to the pony outside, this one was polite, so she pardoned the 'filly' comment.  “These are some of the finest garments I have seen,” she admitted as she paced around a little bit.  “Perhaps some of the designs are of ill taste, but I cannot complain about quality.  I assume these are quite popular?”

“But of course!” Her lit up as she trotted along beside her.  “Rarity's designs are all originals, so each pony gets something tailored for their desires.  She's a genius unlike any I've seen since I first entered the industry a decade and a half ago.”

She giggled, and added, “Sorry to toot her horn, but it is a delight to work for her.”

“No, it's wonderful to hear about any pony who can make such beautiful outfits.”  Celestia leaned over to stare at one that was certainly too tall for her.  She realized, a little late, that it was also too dark green for her.  It wouldn't fit with her mane.

She lightly rubbed the fabric with her face and fondly savored what could never be.

As she did, a terribly loud ripping noise could be heard and Discord smiled as he sprang forth from the dress.

Celestia leaped backwards and glared at the intrusion.

“Oh, excuse me, my Queen,” he said with so much faux politeness.

“Queen?” Sassy Saddles murmured.

A leather bag fell to the ground with the audibly clanking and clinking of enough bits to pay for a small estate.

“Discord!” she resisted the urge to shout at her full volume, though only barely, “we told you to guard the palace!”

“Just wanted to pop in and give you the money you'd need for any of Rarity's designs.  I'll be back before the guards know I'm gone!”  Discord leaped back into the dress and vanished, causing the tear to seal itself right back up.

As the manager stood there with her mouth agape, the Sun Queen took a breath for calm and smiled, proclaiming, “I would love a dress, for my finest royal moments.”

“Buh-ber...um...of course!” Sassy tried to smile, but it was that fearful smile those nobles had early.  “We do have a few suited to your...royal frame, and Rarity will...she...she will be able to make any changes you need, she will, I assure you, your Majesty!”

“Very good.  Now, I love red, orange, and similar colors.  I want something dazzling that says, the Sun Queen has arrived!”

“Oh, I think I have just the thing!”

Celestia followed, but she nearly fell all over herself when she saw it.

It was a gold dress that shimmered red as she approached, and she quickly stepped over to see how it fit.

Astoundingly, unlike so many others, it was suited just to her.  It slipped right onto her and as she glanced toward the nearby mirror, she was astounded.

“That looks p-p-perfect, my Queen, how does it feel?”

The silk was heavenly, and it did not grip her too tightly in any one spot.  It was a little short on the flank, but that just gave her room to show her tail without exposing herself.  For the Queen, who was to be above all ponies while being born of all three tribes, it was perfection.

“This dress was made for me before the designer had the glory of staring upon me,” she declared, using her magic to muster up the bag of bits, “this payment will be sufficient, yes?”

It was all Sassy Saddles could do to quietly look at the bag and bounce it up and down a few times with her magic.

“This is entirely too much!  That dress is priced for...oh I don't have a count, but probably only a fourth of this bag.”

The Sun Queen looked at her.  “I confess, I did not count it, but the treasury is unending.  Consider it a boon for your respect in the face of your Queen.”

The door opened in the distance.

She turned around to stare upon a white furred unicorn mare with a coiffed dark purple mane.

The pain that ran through her head nearly made her cry out, but she held her silence.

“Oh my!” Rarity exclaimed as she stepped in.  “You look marvelous, my dear!  I did not think that the Zenith Crimson Burst would find the pony it was meant for so soon.  I am Rarity, and I am the owner and designer.  Would you like to try anything else, or do you just need adjustments done to this wondrous piece?”

“Rarity?  Your second spoke well of you.” She smiled and tried to stretch her wings, only to be constrained by the fabric.  “Ah...I do need wing adjustments.”

“Wings?” Rarity looked at her.  “Oh my, I am so sorry, I didn't expect to see an alicorn today.  What is your name, dear?”

“You do not recognize your Queen, Rarity?  I have clearly been doing Canterlot some sort of disservice.  The bad ponies act as if I am not always watching, and the good ponies do not know of me.” Celestia shook her head.  “I am the Sun Queen, Celestia.  I ask you remember the name, and tell your friends, for Canterlot seems to have forgotten that every last building and pony here exists under my domain.”

Rarity's mouth made a few moves, but ultimately it fell open and she flopped over backwards.

Sassy Saddles was there in a flash, sliding a purple couch underneath her with her magic.

“Is she all right?”

Sassy leaned backwards, gave a great gasp, and sank onto the couch with the other mare.

“How odd these ponies are.” Celestia sighed.  “Perhaps such an elegant designer can be trusted with a spark of the sun, if only briefly.”

Angling her head skyward, she reached outward.  Perceptions expanded, she felt the sun's warmth even through the walls of this building.

It surged its energy into her, and she took just a dash of that before letting it back out.  Bending down, she prodded Rarity with her horn.  “Arise, designer.  This is not your time to rest, and I've need of your service.”

Rarity exploded out from under her employee, eyes flashing red a moment as her body shook even as she danced from hoof to hoof.   It took a moment for this to subside, but subside it did.

“Now, Rarity, I need the alterations done to my dress, and your payment for both the dress and your services is here.” She summoned the bag of bits again.

The mare moved, hurriedly, using magic to strip the dress from her body.  “Yo-you are really?”

“Yes, I am.  Now no questions.  I need holes cut for the wings.  You can keep all of the payment, regardless of how far in excess of the charge.” Celestia glared with a red eyed gaze.

“But I-” Rarity turned back toward her and stared her down for a moment.  Her mouth moved a few times, as if she might be saying something, but no sound came.  She tried again, and then once more.

At last, she sighed. “I'll need a few minutes.”

“I'll be waiting.”  She smirked as Rarity ran into the other room.

Seeing someone resist her orders was so amusing.  Rarity was clearly a powerful mare.  Pain seized her once more as if her horn might shear clear of her skull.

She let out the smallest whimper before gritting her teeth and powering through it.  Pain was not new to her, surely, but most often it was pain from being struck or strain from a powerful spell.

This new pain irked her endlessly, just as the lack of obedience from the ponies around.

Once she was properly dressed, she would bring order to this chaos.  Bringing the sun's gaze closer had not been enough.  She would need to make a point, even if some ponies might need a little bit more teaching than most.

“Thank you kindly, Rarity,” she said as she saw the dress returning through the door in front of the mare.

Taking it with her own magic, she donned it again and slipped her wings through the newly cut holes.

“This is absolutely perfect,” she declared.

“Prin-” Rarity stopped herself.  “Queen Celestia, what will you do now?”

Raising an eyebrow, the Sun Queen said, “I'm going to make sure the rest of this city shows as much respect as you just did.”

Spreading her wings, she shouted, “fare thee well!”

She trotted out of the front door and quickly ascended to the sky.

She perched on top of the Canterlot Carousel and called, “UNICORNS OF CANTERLOT!  YOUR QUEEN IS DISAPPOINTED!”

Celestia scanned around as ponies below gathered and pointed.  “YOU ARE LAZY AND COWARDLY, AND YOUR DISRESPECT TOWARD EARTH PONIES AND PEGASI WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!  KNOW THAT YOU DISRESPECT YOUR VERY QUEEN, WHO BEARS THE BLOOD OF THE THREE TRIBES, WHEN YOU LOOK AT ANOTHER PONY AND THINK THEM LESSER.”

Turning her back on them, she faced the sun and basked in its warmth before continuing, “IT WILL REMAIN RIGHT HERE UNTIL EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU HAS KNELT BEFORE ME AND RENEWED YOUR OATHS OF FEALTY TO THE QUEEN OF EQUESTRIA!”

And then she turned to survey the sights around her.  Around, some ponies did indeed kneel.  Others ran.  Some were screaming or even calling out in disapproval.

They would be punished, surely, until they all knelt.

Focusing her magic on the sun, she grasped it with all of her might and began to-

That was when a shout broke her concentration, “hey!”

She turned to see a cyan pegasus pony flying around her at a lazy clip.  Her rainbow mane was simultaneously fabulous and cut far more like a stallion than it really should have been.

With a snort, Celestia called out, “who are you?”

“I'm Rainbow Dash!” she answered, “what in the world are you doing, Princess Celestia?  Snap out of it!  Discord did this to you!”

As the pony's name crossed her ears, her head throbbed.   She shook it off and growled.  “Discord kneels before me, little pony, not the other way around.”

“I don't kneel for anypony, especially not a filly on a power trip!” Rainbow Dash called back.

Rage urged her to shout back, but she held back.  Her body trembled a little with excitement she hadn't felt in a while.

“Oh, so that's how it is?”  Celestia smirked.  Though she had to make an example of this pony, she regretted that they could only fight just once.  A pony with this much spirit would have to be a fearsome warrior.

Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at her.

“Then I'll make you kneel, as an example to any pony who would dare cross me.”  And she ascended, lowering her horn as she prepared to swoop in.  “ON GUARD, RAINBOW DASH!”
> The Disorder Has Been Doubled!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia dove in.  Rainbow Dash just barely flew aside.  The counterblow came quickly, but she rolled to the side and tried to buck the pony from the air.  Neither Queen nor challenger scoring a hit, they broke apart.

“You're pretty fast for someone who just sits on a throne all day, but I'm faster!” Rainbow called as she sped away.

She gave chase, but she quickly found it was futile with the dress holding her down.  The streak of rainbow light sped away from her faster than she could even hope to pursue.

Retreating, she headed for a nearby building and slipped her beautiful dress from her body.  If Rainbow Dash was coming back, she couldn't be fouled by even the most beautiful outfit.   She quietly swore she'd return to retrieve it shortly.

And then she heard it.

Turning, she ascended just in time for Rainbow to fly under her.

She turned to engage again, and caught Rainbow Dash as she was coming around.  Their hooves clashed against each other, and she ascended as her foe fell beneath her.  She savored the minor triumph, and rallied for the counterattack.

Altitude was on her side, but it didn't matter.  Rainbow Dash ascended as fast as she fell.  The blow that hit her horn left her starstruck.

Her wings managed to keep her aloft, but she lost track of Rainbow Dash as she stabilized.

“Rainbow Dash!  You can't just hit Queen Celestia!” Rarity shouted up at them.

“She can banish me when she gets me back to normal!” the pegasus answered from below her, “and she's a Princess!”

“Insulting me won't make me strike while your back is turned!” Celestia called out, ascending again.  A blow to the back would probably maim one of her wings, but that would be the end of the fun, wouldn't it?

“Let's go head to head, then!”

“So cocky!” She gasped at the boldness, but cleared her throat.  “We accept your challenge!  HAVE AT THEE!”

And so they charged.

They shared a grin a few moments before impact.  A moment before impact, Celestia dropped her head and Rainbow twisted in flight.

The next thing she knew, she crashed into the building below.

Getting back to her hooves spread agony through her.  A lesser pony might have been utterly broken, but then there were no lesser ponies in this battle.

Raising her horn high, she focused on the sun.  Its closeness alone invigorated her, but a spark of its radiance could even mend broken bones.

Unfortunately, as she winced at the ache in her horn, she reached out with all of her might.

The brief instant of ignition was enough to make her howl as her mane and tail burst into flame, but then the pain vanished all too quickly.

Resurrected, she took flight and met Rainbow Dash, who seemed to have fared far better than she did, save a cut on the cheek.

“Whoa!  You're on fire!”

“You may be powerful to push me this far, Rainbow Dash, but know this: the Sun burns eternal!”  Celestia grinned.  “And I am the Sun Queen, so too shall I outlast all who challenge me!”

“Rainbow Dash!  Just yield!” Rarity called up, “whatever's going on, we need to work with Celestia, not against her!”

“Rarity, go do something to solve this instead of nagging!  I'm not going to let this hothead push ponies around or burn Equestria to a crisp!”  The pegasus wiped sweat from her drenched brow.

“What can I even do?  It's not every day our monarch is terrorizing the capital!”

“Just go to the palace!  Discord's there, he did this, he can fix it!  No sweat!”

“I'm not so sure about Discord being any help, but perhaps I'll be able to get some help there anyway.  Don't get hurt, either of you!”

Celestia took a small breath in, and spat a small fireball at her foe.  It drifted off to the side past her.  “We're still doing battle!  I'll have you know that you'll be beaten before Discord returns, if he even hears your petition for aid.”

“Hey.  I thought you wouldn't attack a pony from behind.” Rainbow Dash dared to get nose to nose with her.

“Oh please!  If I meant to hit you, you'd be looking for a wig after this was over.”  She waved a hoof dismissively as she backed away slightly.  “Now, have at you!”

The battle began again.

At the palace, most of the guards were having a jolly old time.  The nobles who doing the conga around the dining hall, however, looked about as pleased with the situation as the guardsmare who was hoping to glare a hole through Discord.

“You three really could take this seriously,” she muttered.

“Nah.  It's not like we can really fight it,” one murmured, tipping his chair backwards as he put his back hooves up on the table.

“Hey, Discord, sir?”

“Yes?” he said from the front of the conga line, dressed in ill-fitting guard armor.

“Love what you're doing, temporary new commander, but you can only keep this up for like five more minutes, or it qualifies as a crime under the ECMJ.”

“The ECMJ?” Discord stopped the line, shrugged, and snapped his fingers.  Every pony in the conga line teleported to the empty chairs and were conveniently strapped in so they could not escape.  “I don't know what that is, but probably better safe than sorry.  How about a tea party?”

“Love it,” the rule minding guard said.

The guardsmare let out a little squeal. “You don't happen to have an Earl Neigh blend, do you?”

“Oh I knew I'd win you over, Bronze Medal.  Of course I do. And it even really neighs!”  Another snap of his fingers produced cups and kettles, as well as tea bags that neighed loudly enough to echo all across the hall.

With a roll of her eyes, she sighed and settled in at one of the empty chairs.  Hopefully, he would at least get the taste right.

There came a terrible knocking at the door, and every pony froze.

It was Discord who slid up beside it and said, “who is there?”

“Discord, you had better open this door this instant!”

“It's Rarity!” the reclining guard cried, nearly tumbling over backwards.

“Oh thank Celestia, someone who can help us!” one of the nobles shrieked.

“Discordyouhadbetteropenthisdoorthisinstant?  Never heard of you.  Do you know the password?”

The guardsmare shouted, “he's got ponies hostage in here!  Please get help!”

“Oh for goodness sake, Discord!  Princess Celestia's started a heatwave outside, and she's halfway on fire!  Come outside and undo this before any pony gets hurt!”

“On fire?” His eyes widened briefly, but he found his composure as he snapped his fingers again.  A window just big enough for him to shove his head through appeared in the door.  “She's never done that before.  Are you sure she's just not breathing fire?  She used to do that when she was young and more fun.”

“No, she did that too.” Rarity glared at him.  “And she paid me a small fortune for a dress that's not going to fit when you change her back to normal, and when Flut-”

“Let me just cut your little tirade off there.  I conjured the bits up myself, so no pony's going to go hungry, and I'll undo it if you're so worried, you don't need to pull the 'tell my bestie' card on me.” He gave a dramatic sigh, slid through the opening, and turned to address his prisoners.  “Bronze Medal, Gold Card, Silver Strings, you're in charge until I come back!”

“Discord, let us o-!”

He slammed the opening shut, and winced as a shriek pierced through even the heavy doors.

“Now, lead the way, and I will resolve this whole issue.”

Not too far away, Celestia raced across the sky, trailing in Rainbow Dash's wake.  At last, she finally appeared to make a mistake, flying straight up.

She circled and angled to strike the cocky pegasus in the back.

That was around the point everything went wrong.  A treasonous snap drew her attention downward, and she noticed the gum rope tied around her wings a second later.

“Discord!” she howled as she began to plummet.  Fire began to eat through the rope binding her, but only fast enough that she could arrest her descent before she crashed.

Of course, she landed in front of the treacherous chimera all too quickly.

Stomping her hoof, she did her best not to set him aflame.  “You had better have a good reason for interrupting me at my moment of triumph!”

“I do, my Queen.” He bowed.  “Unfortunately, I need to talk to your successor.”

“What?” Inside, she realized that she had been betrayed, truly, but her body moved too slowly.

By that moment, of course, he had laid a claw on her and it was too late.

A wicked chill ran through her.  Her mane and tail snuffed out instantly, and so too did her confidence.  Rainbow Dash was surely descending from above to smash her, and her body would not move despite her best efforts.  Though she fought to glare, she found her eyes growing wide with fear as her viewpoint began seemed to slip downward.

This was how her reign would end, either Discord would drain the warmth from her body until she froze solid or she would be smashed under the hooves of a worthy foe.  Her eyes fell shut, and she saw what was waiting for her: the same ignoble emptiness that all mortals would eventually meet.

“No!” she screamed, forcing herself to move.  Through sluggish motions, she was able to raise her horn.  “Don't hurt me!”

“Oh really.” Discord sighed.  “There's no need to overreact, just hold still a few seconds longer-”

And she teleported.

“Well, that's bothersome,” he murmured as he heard more than a few ponies stepping up from behind.

He turned to face Rainbow Dash and Rarity, who were leading the mob.

“Discord, you said you could fix this!”  Rarity did not need to shout, because the crowd behind her started to clamor loudly.  Some of the things they said were rather hurtful and not worthy of printing.

When he turned to make a hasty escape, he ran right into Rainbow Dash, who gave him the stink eye.  “What were you doing to Princess Celestia, anyway?  Why did her mane turn blue?”

“I had to seal some of her power away so she wouldn't pull what her sister pulled oh...about a thousand and one years ago while I was fixing her.  It's hard to work on a Godlike pony whose power source is really, really close to her without a dampener or two on her abilities.” He tried to sound casual, but he felt more than a little dread.  “Now, let's calm down.  I need to find out where she went, and then I can finish the process.”

“And if you can't?” a rather dapper unicorn stallion wearing a tuxedo and a monocle queried, with a rather civil level of scorn.  It was a little refreshing that one or two members of the crowd didn't seem to want his head on a platter.

“Oh...well, she should grow back up in a decade or so?  I mean, she's still the same pony, underneath it all.” He chuckled.  “I just took away silly things like the restraint that made her so boring.”

That brought an eerie silence to the crowd, which seemed to alternate in expression between utter shock and righteous indignation.

“Right!  It seems that we're all in agreement!” Discord summoned a detective's hat and magnifying glass.  “I'll take the case!  One missing pony Princess, coming up!”

“Don't worry, every pony!  I'll keep an eye on this...miscreant!” Rarity trotted after him.  The crowd shouted encouragement (and some threats).

Discord only smiled now that no pony was looking at his face.

“And I'll look for her from above!  We'll find her!  Every pony else, check your homes and businesses and anywhere else you can think to look!” With that, she soared.

Canterlot would be busier than ever.

Miles away, a young alicorn filly appeared in the middle of an empty classroom.

She had had a few seconds to look around when she heard a shout, “all right, every pony, recess is over!”

The filly's eyes went wide as she thought quickly.  There were ponies out there, and if they came in and found her they might tell Discord.  The desks around her were too small and the windows shut, but surely the large desk at front would be good enough.

She scrambled to get around it, tripped over entirely too long legs, and hit the floor with a thump.  Her aching horn screamed out in agony, and she squealed in pain.

That squeal quickly gave way to a sob, and then full on bawling.  Her body shook as she buried her face in her hooves and tried to forget.

It was only when another pony came over and put a hoof on her shoulder that she looked up through teary eyes.

“Oh dear, my little pony, are you all right?”  A magenta mare with a bright pink mane smiled down at her.

Though she made a valiant attempt to quiet herself well enough to respond coherently, she ended up nodding her head instead as she tried to stop the tears.

“It's okay, dry those tears, you're safe here.  I'm Miss Cheerilee.”

Spreading her wings, she focused on sounding normal.  That hit a roadblock quickly enough, though, as she realized that she had no idea if 'Miss Cheerilee' was not one of Discord's allies.  Truly, acting nice and then stinging you while your back was turned was one of his favorite tricks.

“I'm...Flary.” The name felt wrong on her lips, but it was too late to take it back.

She smiled. “Well, Flary, I don't recognize you from around town, but you're certainly welcome to stay and hear the rest of today's lessons, and then I'll help you get back home.”

The idea seemed sound, so she gave a brief bow of her head.  If nothing else, the ponies around her seemed to be staring more so than anything.  Two earth fillies, one pink and one grey, were paying special attention, but they smiled in a friendly fashion when they caught her looking.

“All right, everypony, take your seats.  This is Flary, and she'll be joining us today, so every pony should be on their best behavior.”

Slinking over to the only empty seat to the left of the gray filly, Celestia settled in and did her best to relax.  Most of the students were a little bigger than her, but they seemed nice so far.

She couldn't really forget what had happened to her or that she really shouldn't be here, but it was easy to pretend that she most certainly and definitely belonged here...
> Retreat and Reorganization
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash groaned hopelessly.  It had only been a few minutes, but it felt like the sun should be setting already.  Descending again, she called out to Fancy Pants, “any pony down here have any luck?”

“No, my dear.  I split the search parties up into groups with at least one unicorn who knows how to shoot up a signal.  If she is in Canterlot, we will find her.  There are also unicorns in the palace working on a tracking spell, but that could take the remainder of the day and even part of tomorrow.  If we don't find her, they will, but with how the sun is...” He finally gave in and stripped the suit coat from his shoulders.  “I don't envy us if we can't find her soon.”

“Right, I'll scan around Canterlot.  You guys, just find her here, okay?”

He gave her a tired grin as she ascended.  “Good luck!”

Meanwhile, Discord had already covered the considerable distance between Canterlot and the Everfree Forest.  Rarity plodded along beside him.

“And why are we headed this way?”

“You know of the Castle of the Two Sisters, surely?” he queried, not looking back as he whipped his tail to smack a beast hiding in the shade on the snout before it could lunge.

Rarity took a defensive stance, but relaxed as the monster dashed away.  “I do...and I'm under the impression that she wouldn't have come to such a fearsome place of her own will.”

“If she teleported instinctively, she might have went there to get away from what she thought was danger.  They founded the site while Luna was still growing, and it was a terribly good hideout even from me.”

“So she didn't head back to Canterlot Castle?”

“If she did, just about any pony would find her.  Really, she might have teleported right to her sister and that would make this whole trip unnecessary, but you haven't seen Luna right after she gets woken up in the middle of the day, have you?”

Rarity shook her head.

“I assure you, if Celestia went to Luna, we'll find out when Luna teleports here and attempts to bite my marvelous head from my handsome shoulders.”

“After today, I think I'd like to see that.” She giggled in spite of herself and the grim situation.

“Yes, well, it's less fatal for me than you might think, so I think I might let it happen before the real punishment starts.”

“A beating from the Princess of the Night isn't a real punishment?”

“No, my dear pony, a fight with Luna is fun, even if I'm not allowed to hit back....ah, we're here.”

The aged Castle of the Two Sisters loomed before them.  He took a bow and gestured toward it.  “Shall we?”

Remembering the terrifying, but ultimately funny, attempt to salvage tapestries from within this wizened keep, Rarity took a moment to steel herself. “Yes, let's search this place and get this done.”

“Now, there are only a few places she should be, and I'd much prefer to find her there than search through this entire castle.”  He offered his claw.  “Hold tightly.”

He rolled his eyes when she glared at him.  “Please.”

When she complied, he snapped and away they went.

Rarity was sickened by the brief and glorious sensation of teleportation, and her stomach did a flip when her world lurched as she came to a stop, and she scarcely had a second to enjoy the respite before Discord said, “no.”

Another snap.  Another lunge.  Another attempt by her lunch to come back up.

“No.”

“Wait a-”

Once more unto the breach between space and time.

Another pause just long enough for her to realize that she was losing the fight with her digestive system.

“No.”

“P-”

And one last time, only to appear at the top of a broken tower filled with books.

It was all Rarity could do to rush to the side and retch.

Discord only looked on at the empty surroundings with no amusement whatsoever.  “She really should have retreated somewhere here.  This was her home, even if I think it was really her home after her and that night owl sister of hers stoned me.”

As she wiped her lips with a handkerchief and shuddered, Rarity tried her best to focus on the mission.  “She lived here with Luna, though, and Luna...is, her younger sister, correct?”

“I believe she may very well be.  She is shorter, at least.”

She did her best to spit discretely as sickening saliva tried to fill her mouth again.  “Well, how much older than Luna is she?”

“I don't know.  Celestia and Luna only really came up on my radar when they tried to fight me.  They weren't always in charge of an entire kingdom.”

“Well, let's hope that Celestia left a journal or something around here that might tell us about where she came from...and that Twilight didn't confiscate it when she was here.”  Her friend's penchant for knowledge might be their undoing.  If it was in her library (which was late for its biweekly sorting), it could take longer to find it than it would to turn the Castle of the Two Sisters upside down.

“Of course.  If she did, I imagine she wouldn't have been able to resist telling you five fillies at some point, so if there really is such a book it will probably be here.” He put his claw around her and snapped once more, depositing them in a room filled with books.  “It might take some digging, but it really could be the best course.  A pony as powerful as Princess Celestia could have teleported anywhere in Equestria, so another lead would really speed things up for us!”

“Then we best be about it.  You start over there, and I'll start over here.” She quickly hurried away, and gagged without result.

Of course, it was only when her back was turned that Discord smirked.  Things were definitely not going according to plan, but they oh so rarely did.  He really did have no idea where she had gone, but some pony would figure it out.

After all, there were only five alicorns in circulation, and a new (looking) one showing up out of no where would turn into an absolute circus.  She'd probably end up admitting that she was who she was after she had a few minutes to calm down, and someone would send the message along with magic.

Celestia would be back to normal by sunset, regardless of his efforts here.

Now he just had to work out how he could do some damage control on the punishment that was coming his way.

Maybe reading over some of these books would help...

It was in Ponyville's school house, of course, that the real stir was happening.

Though Cheerilee tried to keep order in her class, she stood no chance against an alicorn filly who no pony had never heard of.

It wasn't that her lessons were droll, really, but alicorn-mania was a phenomenon she could do little to fight.  Flary would be the sixth one that she knew of.

'Flary', of course, had little appreciation for the fact that she was a celebrity.

“Oh, um...I can't fly yet, so I don't really know what it's like,” she said with an uneasy smile as she turned to chatter with her seat mate.

“But can you do magic?” the gray filly asked from beside her.

“A little bit.  I mean, it's way easier than flying.  These wings just don't listen,” she said, her wings spreading wide behind her.

A filly off to the side sneezed, and she blushed as she tried to fold her wings up.

“Sorry.”

“No, your wings are pretty, Flary.  They'll be just the right size when you grow up,” the squeaky white unicorn said, wiping her nose with a purple handkerchief, “I'm Sweetie Belle, by the way.  It's a pleasure to meet you!”

“It's nice to meet you, too.”

Introductions went around like a whirlwind after that.  The pink and grey fillies were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.  Sweetie Belle had two friends named Applebloom and Scootaloo, a yellow earth pony and orange.  A unicorn colt duo, one stout and one tall, made up most of the male members of the classroom, and they were joined by Pip Squeak.  A few other names were thrown around, but she found it hard to keep that many names straight in her head with everything else that was bouncing around in there.

Their attention made her blush a little, but thankfully they didn't say anything she'd actually have to answer.  Giggling a little, she noticed one pony was silent.

Miss Cheerilee, the teacher who would be helping her.  To betray a potential benefactor was unforgiveable, and she bowed her head in shame before the reproach could come.

“I'm sorry, Miss Cheerilee, I didn't mean to disrupt your class.”

“I'll forgive you, Flary, if you can come up here and help me with a demonstration.”

With a little bob of her head, she did so.  The others quickly straightened their desks as she stepped up.

“Long division, can you explain some of the uses it might have?  After all, some of the students in this class have said things like 'you don't need long division because you can't divide whole things into parts'.  Do you agree with them?”

There was no accusation in her tone, though Flary suspected her teacher had an angle nonetheless.

“Well, it's really useful for...say you need to figure out...um.” She paused, searching for an example.

The memory that came up made her beam, though it was a confusing one.  In what world was she bigger than another pony, let alone teaching them?  “How many cookie recipes I can make with one bag of sugar.”

“And how might you do that?” The smile that came in response told her she was on the right track.

“Well, you have to know how much sugar is in the bag, and make that match whatever measurement you're using.” She thought it over.  “If you know you have ten cups, and you need one and three quarter cups per batch...um...you can make five, with...about half of one left over?”

“Thank you, Flary, you may sit.”  Miss Cheerilee went to the board and began writing.  “Now, Flary could only guess without writing it out, but she seems to understand the process rather well.  Mental math is a handy skill, but writing everything down saves us a lot of trouble, especially when we have to do multiple math problems in the course of solving one problem.”

Lesson rerailed, Flary felt a little pride as she pranced back to her unofficial seat.

And, for what little it was worth, that lesson went peacefully.  However, she did notice more ponies were whispering or looking at her than actually following along.

Cheerilee, too, noticed the lack of full focus, but she knew that she was lucky to have gotten this far without a mini-riot.

Truth be told, she had a feeling that even if her students were staying quiet that no pony was really working on anything except questions for Flary, and she really needed to find some pony who was looking for her.

Hopefully, this wouldn't be a part of some Equestria-shaking danger or chaos.  Alicorns often seemed to be at the core of Equestria's problems, and Flary was a little young for such things.

“All right, my little ponies, class is dismissed early today.  Flary, you come with me and we'll be able to get you back to where you're supposed to be.”

Flary nodded slowly and managed a quiet, “yes.”

“Wait a second, Miss Cheerilee.”

“Yes, Applebloom?”

“Why not let her stay here and play with us until you find out where she needs to go?  We didn't really get an opportunity to get to know her or anything.”

Though the correct answer to this inquiry was a definite no, the fillies and colts assembled into a powerful chorus.

So motivated, she could do little to really argue with them.  Though she could fall back on her authority, her students weren't necessarily untrustworthy...

The fact that they weren't grown up enough to really consider the consequences of their actions, however, gave her enough pause.

“Okay, but every pony stay around the school until I come back.  Pinkie Promise,” she said with such a solemn tone that everyone in class snapped to attention.

Even Flary tried to follow along with the oath, but at best she managed to approximate the motions (save actually putting her hoof near her eye) and mumble along.

The other students, at least, would try to follow it and it's not like an alicorn could actually get lost in sleepy old Ponyville.

“Okay, I'll be back as quickly as I can.  Remember your promises!”  With that, she dashed away.

Flary felt an odd mixture of utter anxiety and happiness.  These fillies and colts really weren't so bad.  They were a little too interested in her, but a proper servant of Discord would have turned her in already.

“How do you know so much about long division?” Sweetie Belle asked with naked awe as they funneled out of the school.

“Ah, well, I...I think mommy taught me once.” It was an easy lie.  Really, lies were far too easy for how terrible they were.  A good filly ought to be honest.

She remembered doing math in much grander places than this schoolhouse, but those memories didn't make much sense.   In most of them, she was towering over ponies who were Miss Cheerilee's size!

“Well, I know you're a little young, but I think your cutie mark's gonna be for math.  I didn't get any of that long division stuff until you and Miss Cheerilee talked it out,” Scootaloo commented as they stepped over to the playground, “and you did some of it in your head!”

“Well, I mean...” Her flank shouldn't be blank.  “Thanks, Scootaloo.”

“No problem!”

As long as she could remember, there had been a sun back there.  But that couldn't be true, of course, because she was a little pony.

She twisted backward to glance and tried not to gasp in surprise.  It really was blank.  The revelation that she was a blank flank (again?) did nothing to calm the thoughts swirling around her head.

In fact, it just made her head hurt.  And that was when she noticed the sun hanging low over Canterlot, and felt a horrid sense of dread to go with the thankfully fading pain.

Some pony with a sun for a cutie mark was supposed to be keeping the sun where it belonged.  No, she reasoned, it was a group of unicorns who worked together to move the sun or moon.  One pony alone could not do it.

A helpless filly like her could not do it.

When Diamond Tiara invited her over to the swings, she let the thoughts drain out of her head.  Fillies didn't worry about things grown ponies should be handling.

What she did worry about was how swinging was really fun, and it gave her an excuse to not be asked a hundred questions by every pony.

When she worked herself up to as high as she could swing, she leaped off and glided downward.

The cries of surprise from every pony who was witnessing her flight made her giggle as she clumsily turned herself around to come in for an easy landing.

“What?  Gliding's easy with wings like these,” she said with confidence as she spread them to their full width.

“Flary's awesome!” cried Snips.  Or was it Snails?  The other one of the duo quickly cried his agreement.  The rest of the class quickly joined in chattering about her.

No matter who was praising her, she decided that the play castle and its slides would be her next conquest!

Turning away from the sun with utter confidence that some pony else would solve the problem, she threw herself full force into playing.
> Disaster Strikes Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord felt a strange sensation as his search grew increasingly fruitless.  He had hoped to be saved by now, preferably by a relatively furious Princess of the Night.  But for the second time in two days, he felt dread.  Celestia was normally a bright glare on his senses of the world, and he could as easily find her as he could find his own tail.

Now, though, his senses could not spot her.  She had hid herself from him before, which apparently had been part of how Twilight had beaten him the last time, but he had never really sought her out and not been able to feel her at all.

It was the horrid sort of orderly sensation that made him turn the insect book he was reading into an actual insect that used book wings to fly just to get the chaos flowing.

“Discord, enough fooling around, I've found something!”

Sighing, he turned around.  “Is it a map that points right toward Celestia?”

“If only.” Rarity sighed, glaring at him.  “It's...well, let me show you.  I think this was...a drawing book, once.”

“Oh, art of the Princess?” He elongated himself and curled around her to have a look.

“It used to be just a book with drawings, but...I think she used magic to attach older paper to newer paper, so she could annotate her work.  See how it goes from charcoal to pen?”

He sniffed the paper.  “And this paper is...goodness, I'm surprised this book is still intact.  This is older than the Princess herself.”

“Why didn't Celestia write anything next to the pictures, though?”

“Oh, come now, Rarity, organized education wasn't a thing back in the era of chaos.” He smiled and poked her muzzle.  “She was the pony who brought all of this school stuff about, you know.  I'm not sure if she invented the writing system you ponies use now or if she just stole it, but she made sure every pony started using it.”

“I didn't know that.  I thought it was-”

“Oh come now, even though she sits on a golden throne and wears a crown, Celestia doesn't like taking credit for things she can pin on other ponies.”

“Humility is a fitting quality for nobility,” Rarity said, turning her nose down toward the book.

Together, they read.

This was my home.  Not this Castle or any of the other towns that sprang up afterward, but a spot near Everfree.

My father was of the strong belief that our kind needed to be strong despite the fact that we were born Pegasi, so he rather enjoyed fighting monsters to keep himself strong and canny.  He made sure that as soon as I was old enough, I trained to fight as much as I helped mother with the farm.

“That home looks rather small, and there's only three ponies there instead of four?  Where's Luna?”

“Ah...she was born a normal pony?  How queer.”

Rarity cleared her throat and fixed him with her most furious glare yet.

“That word used to mean 'odd', dear.  Whichever way your horn points, you're still a friend of mine.”

“Not that!” she cried, but then cleared her throat.

“I'm more worried about where she lived, not what she was before she was a princess...” She developed a small smile as the blush started to fade from her face. “It is a little encouraging to know a pony can come from nothing and become so much.”

“Oh come now, you're proof of that.  Even with your charity addiction, you haven't run yourself out of business.”

She flushed and looked away, trying to sound angry.  “Don't try to flatter me.  I'm still supposed to be mad at you on behalf of the Princess.”

“Oh it's working, I see that blush.”  He grinned.  “Besides, I'll have two princesses, really three, probably, mad at me before today's end.  Now shall we read on?”

My mother, a unicorn of practical aims, was content to indulge my father.  She ensured that our home was defensible and safe, so that my father could keep it safe.  Despite being a unicorn, she worked hard to keep the fields growing.  I'm not embarrassed to admit that New Dawn was the finest farm unicorn I'll ever know, and I know I'll never live up to how wonderful a mother she was.

That spot is not far from this castle, at a place that would be rather ideal to use for farming if it were not so in danger of monsters from Everfree.  Perhaps one day, ponies brave and strong will be able to use the territory and protect it without concern as my father did, but even with Discord gone things are not so simple.

Luna is nearly as fearsome in battle as father was, and I know she would fight any enemy we had until her very last breath, but the pressure is too much.  She has grown up too fast.  I want to show her our home, our real home, but...with our parents gone, it isn't a home, is it?

One day, it will be a home for somepony, but not for us.  I swear this, not only on my late mother and father, but upon the Kingdom of Equestria.  

Rarity sniffed.  “I knew the Princess's life wasn't all sunshine and daisies, but...”

“Oh what one never tells those who she keeps closest.  Of course, I'm not sure such things pain her any more, my dear.”  He rubbed her shoulder softly with his paw as he found himself wondering how young he had made her.

“Well, it doesn't make it less tragic for me.” She wiped her eyes.  “Now, I think the area she mentioned might have been near Ponyville, and if she teleported there...”

“Somepony would have found her.  Maybe Twilight would have sensed it and found her already,” he said with hope.

“One more Princess to be mad at you.”  Rarity smirked, hoping he was right.

He wrapped an arm around her and smiled right back.  “At this point, Mi Amore Cadenza will be mad at me as well, and I bet her foal will have a few cross babbles for me as well.”

She was about to scold him for his attitude, but he snapped his fingers, and away they went.

Not far away, Rainbow Dash had been having a relatively fruitless search.  The areas around Canterlot were largely bare save for some farms.  The field ponies eagerly joined the search effort, and she was able to expand her efforts even further.  Even being able to exclude some areas from the search didn't ease her effort.

Still, she was losing altitude by the time her search radius included Ponyville.  She descended to roost at her cloud house.  A brief nap wouldn't be all that bad, right?

She was asleep before she could dispute her own idea.

Not far beneath her, Rarity and Discord appeared.  As they looked around, it was the unicorn that glanced at Discord.  “Do...you have any chaotic tricks that can tell us where she is?”

“I wish.  I would have done them and saved us that search in the library.” Discord sighed.

The loud snoring that came from above was a huge wake up call for them.

“Oh my, that's Rainbow Dash!” She'd recognize that snoring anywhere.

“Well, if she's gotten this far, best wake her up and see if she's found our Princessy friend!”  Discord snapped his fingers and ascended to the skies.

Rainbow Dash would snap awake to a pair of cymbals being smashed together in her face.

“Discord!” she cried out in shock, before glaring as she came back to reality.  “Discord!”

“What?  You've found your way to Ponyville too, that's good.  I just wanted to make sure you were awake for the part where we find Princess Celestia.”

“She's here?!?”

“She might be here.”

Rarity shouted up from the ground, “we found a journal!  She used to live around here, long before Ponyville was founded!”

“Rarity's here too?” She began to descend toward the ground, smiling a little at the sight of her friend.

“Of course!  Somepony has to make sure I don't get up to mischief.”

“That's right, Rainbow Dash!  Come with us.  We're going to find Princess Celestia and fix what Discord did.”

“Actually, ladies, you two should go without me.  She's afraid of me, and if I am stalking around every pony will be talking about me.”  He sighed sadly.  “Of course, I'll be nearby, but I'll have to hide my magnificent face.”

“But we need you to fix this,” Rarity said, resisting the urge to whine only barely.

“Now, when you need me, I'll know.” Discord shrugged, before beginning to melt into the side of a nearby building.  “Until then, I'm gone.”

“Well, somepony will know about an alicorn filly running around.  It's not like you can hide when you have wings and a horn.”

“That's right!” Rarity proclaimed.  “Now, let's go!  We can't relent, even for a moment!”

And so she charged off.  Rainbow Dash was about to warn her, really, but it was too late by the time she opened her mouth.

She ran headlong into Cheerilee, who sprang back to her hooves as if on fire.  “Rarity, good, is Twilight home?  I need to talk to her!”

“What's wrong, Cheerilee?  We're in a bit of a hurry, we haven't had time to check on Twilight, but I'm sure she's still there.”

“A new alicorn filly has shown up, and...I have no idea where she's from!  And she doesn't have parents with her or anything.  It's as if she just showed up out of no where!”

“Wait a second?  An alicorn filly?” Rarity asked, hopes rising.

“Yes!  I didn't believe it either, but she was in the  schoolhouse after recess.  She must be having problems controlling her magic and have teleported there, but her parents haven't come to get her.”

“Would that filly happen to have white fur and a blue mane?” Rainbow Dash flew down to look her in the eye.

“Light blue, really, but...yes?” Cheerilee looked so unsure of herself in that moment.

“That's Princess Celestia!” the friends cried in unison.

“Wait!” Cheerilee shouted, and then shook her head a little bit in hopes of steadying herself. “Sha...she...she said she was Flary.  Princess Celestia wouldn't lie to us...or be a filly.  What's going on?”

“This is something Discord did.  And Discord is going to fix it, but we have to find Flary and bring her to him,” Rarity said with steel in her voice.

“Oh dear.  I...I called her up in front of class to help teach a lesson.”  The school teacher sank down onto her flanks and covered her eyes with her hooves.  “I hope she doesn't take that personally.”

“Right now, we have to fix her before the sun gets any lower, let's go!” Rainbow Dash sped off ahead of them.

“Cheerilee, she'll forgive you.  Believe you me, if she doesn't forgive you, she'll be too busy apologizing to every pony she caused trouble for in Canterlot to be mad.”

“What could a pony like Flary...ah, I mean, Princess Celestia, do that could make ponies mad?”  She got all four legs back underneath her.

“I'll have to tell you over drinks tonight, for now...we run!”  Rarity took off, and the school teacher followed quickly.

Flary, meanwhile, was on top of the world.  How could you beat a world where every pony adored her and didn't want anything but to play with her?

Tag was a little hard because her legs were so short, but she suspected that they took it easy on her.  That just made it easier for her to tag someone and get back to running away.  Truth be told, she didn't mind getting 'it' again, even if it seemed to happen a lot.

“Miss Cheerilee is taking a while to get back,” Applebloom said after a little while.

It felt like it had been an age, so Flary nodded.

“Do you think everything is all right?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Oh, it's probably just part of a bit of local excitement.  I mean, Twilight's often a bit busy, and so is the Mayor.”  Silver Spoon waved a hoof.  “It's not like the world revolves around our convenience, after all.”

“Yeah, well, I kind of wish we hadn't promised to stay at the schoolhouse.” Scootaloo huffed.

“I can understand why she would be worried.  A new alicorn showing up and all,” Diamond Tiara interjected, “er, not that you're new, new, like Princess Flurry Heart.  No offense, Flary.”

“Uh, none taken.”  She resisted the urge to ask about Flurry Heart, despite warm memories about the little foal.  She shook her head.  How could she think a foal was cute, anyway?  Foals were icky and stole all of the attention from good little fillies.

“She is newer, to us, even if she is older than Flurry,” Applebloom said.

“Oh look, there comes Rainbow Dash!”

“Rainbow...Dash?” Flary said, feeling a familiar pain bouncing around in her skull.

“Princess!” Rainbow Dash called out as she descended, looking Flary right in the eye.  “Are you all right?"

“Flary's a princess?” one pony murmured.

And then one murmur became infinite chattering.

“Why wouldn't she tell us?”

I'm not a princess.

“Why didn't Miss Cheerilee know?”

I'm just a little pony.

“Can we go now?”

I don't want to do this.  I want to go home.  I want to see mommy and daddy.

You'll not find them.  A voice with so little care in it said to her.

“I...who are you?” Flary asked, trying to quiet the thoughts in her head.  Unfortunately, she could barely raise her voice.  Was she talking to the pony across from her or the pony inside her?

“I'm Rainbow Dash.” The pegasus panted softly. “I'm here to help you.”

“It's okay, Flary,” Miss Cheerilee called, “Rainbow Dash is with me.”

“Oh...okay, but...I'm not a princess.  I just live on a farm.”

“I know you think that, darling,” a white unicorn said, “but...that's not who you are.”

She's with Discord!  Don't trust her!

Was that pony one of the ponies with Discord in Canterlot?  Nothing seemed true any more.

She sounds a little like Luna.  Luna's just a little filly, though, not a grown mare...right?

A worthless pony.  She's done nothing for you, and she's taken your happiness.

Canterlot?  The place that shouldn't exist?  That didn't exist?  Luna didn't even exist, and yet her mind insisted she was real.  But she couldn't be real!

Flary found her voice and yelled, “you're lying!”

And that quieted the ponies around, even if the voices inside of her would not be silenced.

“Flary, that's...that's my sister,” Sweetie Belle spoke shakily, shattering the silence, “she's not a liar.”

Sweetie Belle had been so nice, along with every other filly and colt here, but...they didn't know everything that was happening.  Even Flary didn't, really, and she was there!

She doesn't know the truth, then.  Even if she's not lying, Rarity is!

Spreading her wings wide and summoning her magic, she said, “you're not taking me to Discord!”

In a flash, she vanished, but in the end she was only on the other side of the crowd.  Turning tail, she ran as fast as she could.  The cries for her to come back fell on deaf ears.

If she stopped now, Discord would get her for sure.

“I just want to go home!” she screamed as she ran for her life.

Mommy and Daddy had to be somewhere.  Maybe if she ran long enough, she'd get back to them.

But you won't. You don't need any pony, least of all two rotten corpses!

That treasonous voices taunted her as she tripped and just barely kept herself on her hooves.

Turning into an alley when Miss Cheerilee appeared in front of her, she was shocked when Rainbow Dash landed at the far end.  Turning to flee, Rarity and Cheerilee blocked the other way out.  So cornered, she felt despair overwhelm her as she tried to flap her wings but the clumsy things didn't get her more than a few inches off of the ground.

There could be little hope here in this world without honesty.

But without knowing what the truth really was, there would be no hope at all.

No pony could help her.

She was alone.

And so you need me.  I'll burn that chimera to ash, along with any pony dumb enough to follow him.

Don't listen to her!

The pony promising aid, however, was the only one to receive her favor.

Flary bowed her head and felt the power surge into her.

When the ponies around her gasped, she looked up, and she knew that she would run no more.

Daybreaker ran from no pony.

Still, Daybreaker was confused for a moment.  Her perspective was all wrong.  Those ponies seemed like giants, and no pony was larger than her.  However, unlike the filly before her, she had memory enough to sift through the lies.

“Discord had a hoof in this.  First manipulating me and then trying to destroy me when I was weak...before this is over, I'll buck him right in the ass.”

“Flary!  That is not appropriate language for a filly.”

Daybreaker whirled around and glared as hard as she could.  Cheerilee immediately dropped to the ground and cowered.

She smiled.  “You're such a dedicated school teacher that I'll forgive that remark, Miss Cheerilee.  The correct unwanted interjection was 'My Queen, that is not appropriate language for one of your stature!'  Go to the schoolhouse and write that a hundred times on the chalkboard, and you'll be back in my good graces.”

Daybreaker only grinned wider upon seeing the mare scurry to carry out her orders.  A stunted form couldn't stop her.

“And you two...what to do with you two?” she said as she glanced back and forth, “I do believe you were collaborating with Discord, who did this to me, and you...you're the one who tried to fight me back in Canterlot!”

“You started it!” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Oh that I did.  How else would you learn?  And if Discord hadn't interfered, likely at your behest...” Daybreaker glanced at Rarity.  “I would have vanquished this upstart of a pegasus.  You know, that fight was pretty fun...ready for round two?  Between the two of you, it might almost be exciting.”

She grinned at the look of dread on the unicorn's face, before charging her.

However, instead of running, Rarity held her ground.  Their horns clashed together as Daybreaker leaped to attack.

As she landed and turned around to face her, she winced.  Her body trembled as magic ran down her frame.

“Hoping for an easy target?  Well look elsewhere. I learned to fence from one of your own Royal Guard, Princess!”

“All the better!  Let's be about this!”

Rainbow Dash lazily took wing over her, and Daybreaker jumped up to meet her.

The pegasus, however, just didn't have the agility any more.  A quick headbutt sent her plummeting to the dirt.

“Your turn,” she said as she swooped down upon Rarity.  This time, however, she cast aside the pretense.  She stomped her hooves as she landed, just missing, before throwing her full weight into a tackle.  Her foe caught her and shoved her back easily, but it only took a quick whip of her mane to regain her momentum.  Still, she held back from actually finishing it even as the unicorn's eyes went shut as she tried to avoid the flame.

It only made her smile when Rarity rallied to defend herself again.  A worthy foe should stand fast.

“I loved the dress you made me, by the way.  It is a pity that you chose to go against me!” She feinted a thrust with her horn, and turned around to buck.

She felt her hooves strike home, and the scream of pain was somewhat satisfying.  Disappointment, however, quickly filled the void.

“Two of Equestria's greatest heroines vanquished so quickly?  What a pity that I need to count on these ponies!”

“Oh come now, Princess.  You have a wealth of infinite energy from the sun.  You can't tell me you are surprised that the fight is over too quickly because normal ponies can't match your vitality...” Discord murmured in her ear.

She whirled around, and there was nothing.

“I tire of your japes, Discord!  You won't be going back to just being a statue when I finish with you!” she shouted.

“Oh you think that's a jape?  How about this?” He snapped, and suddenly the world was thrust into darkness.

She screamed in that instant as she felt the sun's absence.  The chill that ran over her made a horrid little voice squeak in her head.  Now, the world was only lit by her mane and tail, and then only barely.

I want my mommy!

“It might be a bit more of a fair fight now,” he said from where near Rainbow Dash fell, as he tilted her head back and poured some hot cocoa into her maw.

Suddenly, the pegasus sprang to her feet.  The smile on her face was downright unnerving. “Oh, what's in that stuff?”

“Oh it's Pinkie Pie's three day party mix.  You're going to be up for a while, Dashie.”

“Don't call me that,” she said, before turning away from him, “ready for round three?”

Daybreaker trotted forward to begin the fight even as she felt the heat begin to drain from her mane and tail.  She spread her wings to leap in.  If she could defeat their champion, she could fix this!

“Discord, can't you just-” Rarity asked as the two passed without incident.

“Oh no, not quite yet.  Let Rainbow Dash work off some of that excess energy,” Discord muttered with a nonchalant wave, summoning a cold flame to keep them lit even as the alicorn's light began to fade.

“She's not in danger, is she?”

Rainbow Dash began flying circles around her smaller opponent.

“Probably not.”

“...I have a feeling you're not basing this on any sort of logic.”

“Maybe.  Why are you so worried?  Rainbow Dash can take a powered down princess.”

“I'm worried because it seems like another curve ball comes out of no where the moment I'm starting to get used to this.”

“Well, it is chaos magic.  You know, even I didn't know all of this would happen.”

“It amazes me that you managed.” She winced as Daybreaker flew by over head and smashed into a building. “To be a threat to Equestria.”

“Now, you see, the trick is that if I don't know what exactly is going to happen, no pony else can figure out what I'm planning either.” Discord smirked.  “All right, Rainbow Dash, that's quite enough.  I should be able to fix things now.”

He snapped his fingers and appeared near the fallen tyrant.

“All right, should be easy to fix now!”  He seized her and snapped once more.

Rarity's stomach turned as the Princess's form rippled.  And she had to look away as the pony grew.

When she dared to look back, Celestia stood up to her full majestic height.

And Celestia felt great in that instant.  Summoning some light to her horn, she looked around.  Rainbow Dash looked abashed.  Rarity rushed to her and called, “Princess, are you all right?”

She turned her gaze toward Discord, who was looking elsewhere.

And so she smirked.  “Master Discord, your plan is working perfectly!”

“What?!?” Rainbow Dash and Rarity matched each other in fury.

“You were brilliant, feigning ignorance and distracting these ponies!” she cheered, “now that the only pony who can resist me is Rainbow Dash, I'll trounce her, go to Princess Twilight, defeat her, and then you can be the ruler of all of Equestria!”

“Uh, I mean, wait a second, there's no reason to get violent, ladies.”

Celestia gripped Rainbow Dash with her magic and pulled her closer.  “Oh no, you won't be hurting Master today.  You have to fight me, Rainbow Dash!”

“Princess, snap out of it!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she took to the skies.

Celestia matched her in altitude.  “Come now, Rainbow Dash.  If you won't fight me, I'll help Discord take over Equestria!”

“Fine, you asked for it!” She rushed forward.

It was all she could do to ascend out of the way of the strike.  Ascending, she prepared for the next attack.

Rainbow Dash came up at her with incredible speed, and she plunged downwards to meet her.  At the last second, she rolled aside and the collision was averted.

As Rainbow Dash turned to recover, however, Celestia used her magic to end her descent, teleporting upwards and beginning to flap her wings.

She grinned as she focused on the sun and brought it back into the sky.  Turning away, she called, “if you're not going to take this seriously, Rainbow Dash, I'll just have to go complete my objective!”

With the sun backing her, she could easily muster her full power.  It wasn't long before she was being tailed, however, and she knew that this would not go simply.  At least the library wasn't far.  It had been a fun run, but some pony would be hurt if she did not resolve this.

Turning to face her head on, she waited.   A quick teleport away put her out of the way of the rainbow streak.

“Hold, Rainbow Dash, I yield!” she said, giggling.

“What?” She screeched to a halt, stopping just in front of her monarch.

“There is no trickery at play, save for a little joke on my part.  Discord did restore me to my true form, and to my own mind.” Celestia smiled.  “It was a fun fight, but it's been centuries since I've flown.  I can't pose a threat to you, even if I try.”

“Wait a minute, you were-” Rainbow Dash looked aghast for an instant, but then she smiled.  “Th-that's awesome!  Do you remember how cool you were as the Sun Queen?”

“I wouldn't call it 'cool', but I dare say that I was channeling a lot of the hot stuff I was when I was more than a millennium younger.”

“If you want to practice your moves, we can do it any time you want.  I am a Wonderbolt now, so I do serve at your pleasure.”

She did her best to ignore the low hanging fruit, if only to avoid giving one of her subjects a heart attack.

“I'll have to consider it, once this mess is sorted out.  This was not even one day's worth of chaos, and every pony is going to be in a tizzy.” She sighed.  How many banquets would it take to sort this out?

“Now, we best save Discord from Rarity.  Luna and Twilight will already give him enough trouble, and he did, at least, spice up the day.”

“Oh Rarity will be giving him heck too.  She's losing business in Canterlot over him.”

They descended back toward Discord, who was floating high above as Rarity threw things up at him.

“Ah, Princess, Rainbow Dash, I see...uh...you worked out your differences?” Discord lunged to the right as an anvil came by.

“Well, I decided a little prank wouldn't hurt things, after how much you've disrupted my day.”

Discord's eyes went wide, and then he covered his mouth to avoid laughing.  "That's...actually pretty funny."

She smiled in spite of the fact that she should want to put him back in the statue garden.

“Hey, Rarity, you can stop throwing stuff, it's fine!” Rainbow Dash shouted down.

“She's fine?”

“Yeah, long story, I'll catch you up on it later!”

Then, the chimera broke into full blown guffawing.

Just because she didn't want to actually harm him didn't mean she couldn't scold a little, however. “Laugh while you can, Discord.  You've got to fix anything that might have been broken during this whole mess you caused.”

That killed his joy.  “Oh come now, no reduction of sanctions since I helped you have fun?”

Celestia was still able to muster up a glare.  “Discord, I sat through a class on long division, do I look like I had fun- oh no, I have to go tell Cheerilee she can stop writing those lines!  You two, you're in charge.  Make sure Discord fixes anything that got destroyed until I return to supervise.”

Focusing her magic, she teleported right back to the schoolhouse.

It was a little embarrassing to see the teacher working feverishly at the chalkboard.  She seemed to have gotten through a fair amount of the lines.

“That's enough, Miss Cheerilee." She decided to not correct her verbal misstep.  "By Royal Decree, I pardon you.”

The mare turned around slowly and then her eyes went wide.  The chalk clattered to the floor  “Princess Celestia, it's you!  You're back!”

“I am.  Sorry, it seems that Discord's...mischief has run its course, but I should still apologize for all the trouble.”

“Oh, it's no trouble.  You got ponies to listen to my long division lesson, though I think they were only doing so because you were helping.”

“Alicorn-mania is a hard trend to contend with.”  Celestia smiled, glad for the olive branch.  “Nonetheless, if you need somepony to cover for a lesson or any other sort of favor, you need only send word to me and I will accommodate you any way I can.”

“I couldn't-”

She raised a hoof and instantly cut off the polite refusal.  “I assure you, this is near the least of what I need to do to make the events of this day right.”

“I suppose I shall keep it in mind.  Forgive me, Princess, but...I think I need to head home and pass out.”

“I'll be so exhausted at the end of my day, as well.  Thank you for being an excellent teacher while I was in...such a vulnerable condition.”

“It's nothing.  I have the same duty to any filly or colt, no matter whether they're that way naturally or by...magical misadventure.”

“Magical misadventure.”  She giggled.  “That's the polite way to describe it, I suppose.  I'll be about my business.  Please excuse me.”

“Of course, Princess, have a good day.”

Celestia stepped out of the schoolhouse and saw...probably about half of the fillies and colts gathered around.  The way they looked at her some smiling and others with mouths agape, gave her a feeling that even the dimmest pony here could work out that Flary and Princess Celestia were the same pony.

“I apologize for the disruption to your classes, fillies and colts,” she said as formally as possible, bowing her head.

“You can come back any time, Princess Celestia!” Sweetie Belle called out.

“We love you!” Diamond Tiara shouted.

With those two clear statements, the others broke into cheering.

"I must go now, my little ponies.  Have a wonderful day!" She called.

It was only when she was a while away that she said, "I might come back and visit, even if I'm not needed.  They were a rather nice class."

There was so much work to do...
> Really, Just an Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It felt like a week had passed sleeplessly when she woke up the next morning.

The damage reports, thankfully, were mild.  No pony had been permanently injured, though a few had gone to Canterlot General for heat related problems.  Discord was suitably chastised by Twilight Sparkle (and Luna bucked him a few times when she woke up), so Celestia decided it was punishment enough for him to be on 'helper duty' in Canterlot in case a job needed done that some pony would be too tired or ill to do.

Guilt was a far heavier burden on her shoulders than the costs dealt to the kingdom and its treasury.  It was not as if Discord reached into her and made up things that were not there.  No, the pony that solved problems by fighting and hurting ponies lived under her skin.  The pony that desperately wanted to go home and forget all about her problems was there to.  And Daybreaker was in there, too.

She sighed heavily.

It had been somewhat cathartic, looking back, to be free for the amount of time she had been.  Even the terrifying moments felt better than the worst moments on the throne.

Now, of course, as her rational mind took over, she knew there was nothing she enjoyed more than helping ponies.

But that came with the unfortunate side effect of feeling bad for everything she did that didn't help some pony.

Still, as she checked herself in her mirror and practiced a few smiles, she knew that she could handle it.

In one thousand years, it was only a Discord and world changing disasters that could make her betray her obligations for even the shortest of times.

Through famine, drought, pegasi rebellions, and griffon stinginess, she had shepherded Equestria along without concern.  She supposed that even hungry ponies could take some solace in the fact that the sun would yet rise.

So, as she descended toward the throne room to greet her staff and begin the day, she was surprised to see that no pony, not even the guards, were waiting her.  Briefly, she wondered if she had come down early.  Yesterday might have had some lingering effects, but-

“Ah, Princess, it's good to see you,” Rarity said, stepping into the throne room.

And she smelled a white furred, horned rat.  She did her best to keep her tone even rather than scolding.  The Elements of Harmony, after all, had earned more patience than the average pony warranted. “Where are my staff, Rarity?”

“Oh, they're handling things.  Your daily schedule is actually rather clear as far as your personal affairs go, and the girls and I thought you could just use a day of being utterly pampered, after what Discord did yesterday.”  The look Rarity's face was one that she had not seen in quite some time, but it was easy to recognize.  It was the look of a pony who felt pity, and it was rare to see someone feel so sad for her.

The unicorn must have found out something.  Perhaps Discord had told her, perhaps not.  Either way, it made her feel so small that she wanted to retreat.

Even though she really should have insisted otherwise, she smiled and nodded. “Okay, Rarity, what did you have in mind?”

It took the little mare a few seconds to speak up after that.

“I think I could take your measurements for a dress, first.  You left your last one on a roof somewhere, and it was a bit too...small for your current frame.”

Before the other pony could begin to doubt her 'boldness', she laughed heartily.  “I did gain quite a lot of weight yesterday.  I fear I might owe you a little more for your work to outfit me today than I paid you yesterday.”

“Oh it's no trouble at all, Princess.  I know the crown will pay its tab.”  They giggled all the way out into the main hall and out of the castle.

It was a brand new day, and Celestia was about to enjoy it as much as she could while others were taking care of things for her.