When Celestia's rage breaks her younger sister is forced to use the elements of harmony, locking her within the sun.
After months of brooding and sulking, Celestia's rage finally breaks. Convinced her subjects no longer love her she resolves to turn the monarchy into a dictatorship ruled by fear. Luna is forced to seal her sister within the sun and rule on her own for a thousand years before her return.
Ummm for any of you guys who are interested I've just started up a tumblr. Its nothing special but I'll be making it an interactive part of this story and future stories. If you want to see your ideas here I'll be happy to hear them out http://flutteringashes.tumblr.com/
A sigh escaped the lips of the dark blue mare, sitting tucked away in her tower as the night sky started to lighten to the east. Her sister would be awake soon…usually she didn’t get to talk to her save for at twilight but over the past few months her sister seemed even more distant than usual. She was preoccupied with something and Luna was desperate to find out what, to ease her sister’s mind, after all the two had ruled side by side for nearly 2 centuries now, it was her duty to be there for Celestia. Her sister would be there for her after all. The two mares, or more accurately, the older of the two, was nearing her 247th birthday.
The two had not been born, in the normal sense, but instead created, Luna could still remember the story their nanny had told them. When the three tribes settled on these lands it soon became clear that not one of their own rulers was fit to rule over all three tribes, they struggled for a month until Chancellor Puddinghead came upon the idea of combining the three rulers into one….naturally while she was out of the room attempting to find a glue bottle the others began to discuss a different way to do such a thing.
They sent Clover the Clever to their new neighbors to the north, whose magical ability was known the world over. Clover explained the dilemma and promised the Crystal Empress that her citizens would be given full citizenship upon Equestrian soil, military support during times of war, and a lovely crown made by the finest of Equestrian craftsponies. The Empress agreed to the terms and after 2 years of solid research, spear headed by Clover, the spell was forged, and brought back to Equestria for the final ingredients, blood from the rulers of the three tribes. And just like that Celestria came into the world. Five years later, during one of her world famous royal tantrums the young princess demanded a baby sister to play with. A week later Luna was born and the two had been inseparable…until now.
The moon mare made her way down the spiral staircase, down from her tower and into the court yard of the castle she called home. She entered the throne room, acknowledging the guards bowing to her with a gentle nod. She glanced out the windows, which looked out at the eastern sky, her sister already seated in the throne at the other end, just sitting there…staring out at the coming dawn. Luna couldn't say that she liked the tired and grumpy look Celestia was giving the slowly lightening sky.
“Good morning dear sister.” She said as lightly as she could, trotting up to the side of her sister’s throne. Her sister said nothing. Frowning slightly Luna looked up at her elder sister. “Tia?” She mumbles, gently tapping the white mare’s shoulder. Her sister remained completely silent, her mane, the same color pink the sky turns during sunrise, moving as if touched by a phantom breeze. Luna let out a half exasperated sigh. “Sister, I can tell when something’s bothering you. I can understand if you don’t wish to talk about it…but just know that I’m always here if you need a pony to talk to…I’ll see you tomorrow” She began to walk away, towards the little set of doors behind the throne on either side that lead further into the castle. Her sister’s soft whisper stopped her however. “They hate us you know…” Whispered the ruling princess, almost too softly for her sister to hear. “What?” Answered Luna, turning back to Celestia, a tiny bit confused. “What are you talking about sister? No pony hates us! There’s been nothing but joy since we took the throne.” Celestia’s lip curled slightly, she turned to leer at her sister. “They hate us. They are simply too afraid! Think about it Luna dear, together we lead the war against Discord, slew many of his minions ourselves! We turned King Sombra into a shadow puppet and locked away him and the whole of the Crystal Empire with him, by ourselves! We have the Elements at our beck and call and the sun and moon on our horns! Oh they hate us, they fear us, they wish we had never been born, they’re just too scared to say it…” She returns her gaze to the window, going back to her brooding, a shadow falling over her white face.
“Not scared enough if you ask me…They don’t love us Luna, if they will not give us their love I say we should relish in their fear. Make an example…that’s what we should do” Her sister was scaring her the more and more she spoke. “We should burn a city to the ground, tell them that’s what happens to those who defy us…yes…that’d make them think wouldn’t it Luna?” She spared a glance for the two guards, standing at attention on either side of the doors to the court yard. They had not moved, had not stirred, had she not seen them breathing she would’ve thought they were statues. Of course they couldn’t hear her sister, if they could…..well they wouldn’t be as still as they were. She returns her gaze to her alabaster elder and hissed.
“Celestia you can’t possibly be serious! What you’re suggesting is murder! Not just murder but mass murder! Murder of innocent ponies just to prove a point! Sister…you’re not well…you need to lie down and-“
“No!” Cried Celestia, getting to her hooves, her gaze jerking from the windows for the first time, her voice loud enough to carry well over to the guards at the door.
“No! I’ve never felt better in my entire life sister! You’ll see! They’ll all see! Everypony will see!” Luna stares at her sister, slowly backing away down and away from the throne. Her sister’s coat was rolling, boiling like hot water, the magic beneath her skin working as her emotions reached a fever pitch.
“I will show everypony that I am not one to be toyed with! I am a princess, nay, a queen to them! A goddess made flesh! And if you’re not standing by my side little sister, you’re standing against me!” And with those final words the magic broke free from their bonds, ripping through her sister’s white coat.
The force from the magical release shattered the windows, the heat caused the solid gold throne behind her sister to warp, growing white hot. Luna barely had time to throw up a shield around herself as the second, much larger wave hit. The two galloping guards weren’t so lucky, immediately vaporized on the spot. The blazing hot light coming from her sister dimmed, the mare stepping forward slowly. The once snow white coat had turned a bright brilliant shade of gold, her mane, once pink and bright now blazing orange and yellow, leaving a flaming contrail in her wake.
“C-celestia” Luna squeaked, on the brink of tears.
“No, not Celestia” The alicorn said as she stepped towards her little sister her scarlet eyes with vertical black pupils, so like a dragon’s, staring down at her.
“Not any more…call me…Solar Flare” She smiles softly, more guards rushing into the throne room, whom she ignored.
“I’ll give you one last chance sister” Solar flare said as she trotted forward, Luna standing strong between her sister and the twenty or so guards behind her.
“Join me, or perish like the rest of the vermin who fail to show me the respect I deserve!” Luna felt her heart beating in her throat. Never had she been so scared in her life, never had she felt such dread…no matter who won this… she would lose everything.
“No Tia” She said in a carrying whisper, her voice solid despite her fear.
“I will not let you hurt them.”
Solar Flare rolled her eyes
“Of course you won’t, though I must say you surprise me dear sister. I didn’t think you’d have the spine to stand up to me like this. You were always happy to let me do all the work weren’t you? Always happy to watch while big sis made all those nasty big decisions for you while you prattled away with the ponies’ dreams and the constellations! You have done nothing but tag along your whole life! It’s time to cut you off!” The solar princess charged, Luna, tears running down her face, galloped towards her sister. The resulting magical battle blew the roof off the building, reducing most of the castle to rubble as the spells and energy flew every which way, neither side conceding and neither gaining an advantage over the other. It was all the guards could do to contain the damage to the castle alone and even so…such a cost; the forest was scorched for miles around, birds and animals were sent into a frenzy, a great gorge opened in the earth, the river to the west flowing into it, and still the two furiously fought.
Finally Solar Flare struck a lucky hit as the sun reached its peak. Luna fell, her chest smoking straight through ruined castle, crashing painfully to the ground in the hall of the elements, the 6 glowing orbs spinning on each of their respective pedestals. Luna was running out of options, her sister slowly lighting down in front of her as she struggled to stand.
“Well then” Said Solar Flare, grinning in her victory, stepping towards her sister, her horn a light to deliver the killing blow.
“It seems I’ve won, do make sure to send me a post card, I’ve always wondered what it was like in the afterlife” Luna’s eyes darted to the closest orb, the bright red element of loyalty. She had no choice. A single tear fell from Luna’s eye as she summoned up the last of her strength, focusing on the bond she had once had with her sister as she had only done on one other occasion. Celestia had been there with her then…never in a million years did she think she’d have to use it on her.
“I’m sorry Tia…” She whispered as the elements began to float from their pedestals, swirling with dizzying speed around the dark blue mare. She could see her sister’s eyes widening, her mouth opening to speak before the rainbow of colors engulfed her. Her body immediately sealed within the bands of color, the rainbow arcing straight upwards, straight into the sun. Using the elements alone she was not strong enough to rip her sister from her darker half, nor were the elements (or Luna herself for that matter) able to destroy her outright. The best she could do was to lock her away in the only place that could hold her fiery rage without fear of what it could mean for other ponies, within the sun itself. When the deed was done Luna slowly descended, resting her hooves back on the floor, six large concrete spheres falling to the floor around her with similar loud “Thuds”. With her only friend in this world gone, the elements held no more power than a common boulder.
“I’m sorry…I’m so so sorry Celestia…” She manages to say, before falling to the hard marble floor again, her legs suddenly unable to support her as the weight of what she had done crashed down upon her. As the remaining guards entered the room Luna began to sob.
“The first step is always the hardest one to take.” That’s what her nanny had always told her. It was certainly true now. The first few years of her rule were….troubled. Luna spent the majority of time in reclusion, sobbing over her sister. She wasn’t even able to bring herself to set hoof in her foalhood home. The place held too many memories, ghosts of the past that haunted her, and brought painful tears to her eyes. She grieved for a solid decade, as the new capital city was established, settled on the eastern side of the mountain near the center of her kingdom. The mountain had never had a name before, she and her sister had never been able to think of one that quite fit…but with the castle’s completion she thought the time was right and the name came easily. She named the city Canterlot, and the mountain below Mount Canter.
Luna tried her hoof at politics after Canterlot’s completion, tried to run things the way her sister would…but she found that she had been a bit more…secluded than she thought in her self-imposed decade of exile. The mares and stallions whom she had protected from her sister had turned on her. Everpony had loved Celestia, everypony thought their daytime princess could do no wrong! Not even a hundred ponies had witnessed Celestia’s rage firsthoof. Many in the kingdom thought Luna a schemer, taking her royal sister out of the picture so that she could have the seat of power all to herself. Luna was appalled! To think the ponies thought so little of her! To even consider that she had done this for her own personal gain! She ignored such allegations, and tried to keep status quo for a few years; she held open court, she passed judgment on criminals there in Canterlot, attended events, and all the things her more outgoing sister had done.
It still wasn’t enough however. Within ten years of ruling the kingdom alone she had had no less than 23 attempts made on her life! After the 23rd would-be assassin had been taking away, ranting, raving, and shouting obscenities at her she finally decided to make a change. This all stemmed from the ponies’ belief that she had banished her sister to gain the throne for herself. They saw her as the evil power hungry monster that hid in the shadows and struck down their beloved princess. She’d just have to change that image!
And so she sent a summons to the leaders of every village in her kingdom, at the time there were only 11, not counting Canterlot itself. Each pony was brought before her, and when each had been gathered she cleared her throat. A hush fell over the hall in an instant. She rose from the throne and quietly trotted down the stairs that lead to it.
“In my sister’s day” She began softly, walking around the assembled ponies, ignoring that stabbing sensation she felt deep in her heart at the mention of her beloved sibling.
“There were only two ponies on the throne; my sister and myself. I know these last few years have been troubled. I know a lot has gone wrong; the fires in Everfree, the flooding on the islands of Manehatten, the food shortage in Trottingham. I know I’ve made mistakes, I admit…my sister was better at this than I am, and I know had she been here…things would be a lot different.” The assembly muttered quietly as she paused; some were worried, some were simply curious, some simply had no idea how to feel. She trotted back to the stone steps leading up to the throne.
“But, sadly I am not my sister…and in light of that… the reason I called you all here” She turned her head and called.
“Saga, could you come here please?” Quiet footsteps quickly followed. As Saga entered the room most of the assembly gasped. Very few had seen a dragon before, and usually when they did it was a fully grown monster of a dragon, none the size of the baby dragon that quietly made her way to Luna, her magenta scales shinning in the candle light, her cyan spines matching her eyes beautifully. The dragon was the sole reason Luna had recovered so quickly; she had found Saga’s egg while out walking one night, and had hatched it no more than 6 years after her fight with her sister, making little Saga about 14, barely a toddler in dragon years! And in truth Saga had been the closest thing Luna had ever had to a child.
“You called your highness?” The little dragon asked, a scroll tucked under one arm, an ink pot held firmly in her clawed hand, and a feather quill tucked behind one ear spine.
“Take this down” she said primly, gathering herself. Saga quickly sat in front of Luna, unfurling the scroll, dipping her quill in the ink, poising the pen at the top of the scroll.
“I, Princess Luna, hereby decree any settlement of 500 ponies or more will henceforth be considered a township, must register with the royal house, and must provide a minimum of one representative and a maximum of two to the Equestrian Council. Furthermore I, Princess Luna, hereby decree that the Equestrian Council members must be elected by a majority vote within their respective townships every 10 years and that the Council shall be given full proxy power in the way of law making and decisions of the country, second only to the Princess herself, whom reserves the right to overturn the council’s decision, an act that here after will be referred to as a veto. Laws, royal requests, and matters of national importance brought before the council will be voted upon, in the event of a tie the princess will be notified and she shall make the final decision. A royal scribe shall be assigned to the Equestrian Council who shall document the events within council meets which the acting princess shall review at the end of every lunar cycle, and the princess will withhold the right to dismiss any council members from active duty.” Drawing breath she looked at the assembled ponies, all of who were silently staring at her, as if she had just sprouted a second head, or had just been speaking Prench. She looked at Saga, who was still silently scribbling, attempting to catch up with the lunar princess. This was for the best, she decided, perhaps her sister could have kept the power to rule within the royal house, but she was not her sister. This had to be done
“Now then” She said, quickly taking the quill from Saga as she finished, giving the scroll her signature and stamping it with the royal seal.
“I suggest you all head back to your homes, pick out your representatives wisely and have them pack, they, and their families will be staying within the castle walls while they sit on the council. Good day to you all.”
The assembly dispersed, Luna returned to her throne with a sigh, Saga joining her, sitting on the floor next to the golden throne.
“That was….” Saga started, letting the sentence hang in the air. Luna sighs and looks down at the floor.
“Saga, do you think I did the right thing? I mean….do you think she’d understand?” Saga paused quietly, collecting her thoughts. She only ever heard of the warm, loving sister from Luna, the times they had played, the times they fought, even Celestia’s quirks which Luna really seemed to miss. She was the only thing alive right now who could say she knew how Celestia had been without actually meeting the mare herself.
“Well Princess, it’s clear to me that your sister liked to take the reins, liked to be in the lime light. If she were here now I doubt she’d do what you just did.” Luna flinched a bit, and started to speak, but Saga interrupted her before she even got started
“But I also know that she loved her sister, and she’d understand, if things can’t be done a certain way, then change has to happen, and she’d love her little sister doing things her own way.” Luna let out a sigh again, looking down at her hooves. Saga watched her for a moment before asking
“Didn’t you tell me that when you had first tried to move the stars around everypony thought it looked all wrong? You told me your sister was the only pony who stuck by you as you made new constellations.” Luna couldn’t help but smile shakily.
“Yes…she even kept the sun down an extra hour so that everpony could see the arrangement I had settled on.”
“Well there you go, she’d be proud to see you doing things your own way, and she’d support you the whole way! I know it!” Luna smiles and gently hugs Saga.
“Thanks”
That night Luna settled into bed, sighing softly as sleep overtook her. In an irony of ironies the princess of dreams had none of her own. Instead of falling into a world of fears and flights of fancy as many did, she fell into a world of swirling stars, each star representing a dream somepony was having somewhere, a little window into the mind of every sleeping subject in her kingdom. In the old days she used to help her subjects as best she could with their problems, one dream at a time, seeking out the nightmares and doing a bit of counseling. But lately one star in particular occupied her attention. The largest one that sat directly overhead unmoving, unchanging, and always there; her sister’s dream star.
Over the past 20 years she tirelessly entered her sisters dreams, night after night, trying to help her with the anger, and hatred in her heart. Every night she got a little closer, chipping away the armor around her sister’s mind. Tonight, was different, tonight was the night she finally broke through. Diving into her sister’s dream she found it, once again, nothing but a deep black pit, heat, and smoke surrounding on all sides, shadowy things snapping and snarling from all sides, and through it all the never ending feeling of panic. It was a simple dream, but in her state, woven into the sun, Luna couldn’t expect much more from her sister.
She began to walk through the smoke, weaving in and out of the dream’s fabric. A dream was like a piece of cloth to her, it was woven into a flat piece, a picture that everpony else saw, but she saw the individual threads, woven together to create it. She knew her sister’s rage and resentment had created the dream, but what she didn’t know was what had sparked the fire in the first place. She had been working for 20 tiring years, just trying to find that answer, always blocked by her sister’s mind, only conscious enough to bat her away when she got too close.
She followed the path she had trotted down over the past few weeks, allowing the little thread of dream material to lead her. After twenty long years of labor, her journey finally bared fruit; a memory, or at least a fraction of one, determination, and fear, flashing lights and dark shadows flickering across her mind’s eye as she examined it. A flash of color, bright green, and her sister’s voice, filled with fear and shock.
“Luna!” Before she could examine it further a wall shot up and expanded outwards, sending her flying downwards and away from her sister’s dream. She shot back up, pounding on the shielding that had covered the star, but it would not give. Sighing, she settled her spectral-self back down. That day was connected somehow…she had to find what had happened.
“…But legend says on the shortest day of the thousandth year of younger’s reign, the moon and the sun shall join as one, and the older sister shall trot in Equestria once more.” Saga read back, the tiny scroll clutched in her massive paw. The princess’s little dragon had grown quite a bit in the years that had passed after her hatching, no longer was she Luna’s little baby dragon, she was closing in on her adult size (though dragons never truly stopped, their growth patterns did tend to take a dip once they grew to adult hood). It almost made Luna sad in a way…but she supposed every parent felt like that when their baby grows up…though not everypony’s baby grows up to be nearly 4 times their height. Saga frowned quietly, looking down at Luna, who sat quietly in the castle court yard, waiting for the dragoness’s opinion. Finally Saga sighed.
“Princess, you do realize that only leaves you roughly eight hundred and fifty years to prepare for this right?” She says, laying her head down next to Luna, blinking one electric blue eye at her.
“Are you sure she’ll be….rehabilitated in that time?”
“Oh of course she will Saga! 1000 years is a very long time to be away from home, I’m sure she’ll be longing to get back! Besides, I’ve been making progress with her; she’ll be back to her old self in no time!” Saga seemed to sense that Luna was lying to her, but Luna hid it very well behind a mask of confidence. Oh she was so glad the element of Honesty had picked her sister all those years ago, otherwise this would be insanely difficult to pull off. Saga let out a heavy sigh, smoke puffing from her nostrils in a tiny cloud.
“Alright princess…I trust you” Luna sighs softly, and changes the subject at a frightening speed.
“So how goes the construction project?” She asks, smiling up at the dragoness. Saga had, of course, been ‘promoted’ to Royal Overseer of the Princess’s personal projects. The dragoness had seemed a bit sad when she had been given the new job, but she couldn’t exactly stay a scribe forever, heck she couldn’t even hold a quill properly anymore!
“Oh very well, the builders say it’ll be finished and ready to move in by the end of the week.”
“Wonderful!” She smiles, lying down silently in the crook beneath Saga’s wing.
The two were quiet for a long time, just listening to the crickets chirp, the gentle breeze brushing across their skin, the sun starting to dip beyond the castle walls. Luna smiles slightly and gently pats Saga. This had been the best part of forming the Equestrian council, just having a little free time was wonderful and everpony seemed to love the idea of having a say, no matter how small, in the way the royal house ran things. Everypony was happy and things were right with the world…well almost everypony was happy, Luna could think of one in particular who wasn’t. Letting out a sigh Luna got to her hooves, giving Saga a soft peck on the cheek.
“I think I’m going to turn in early for the night.” She said, heading back towards the palace, her mane twinkling, her horn glowing slightly as she sends the crescent moon on its journey upwards into the sky.
“Alright” Saga said yawning a bit herself.
“See ya in the morning your highness” With a soft swoosh Saga had taken off, heading higher to the mountain summit where Luna had carved out a little cave for her. Luna smirked to herself as she watched, it was always a little hard for her to see her go; she always felt a little feeling of dread as a voice whispered in her ear ‘What if she never comes back?’
“Oh well it could be worse” She mused, turning back to the castle halls.
“At least she doesn’t snore”
Up to the towers, the guards either saluting or bowing to her as she passed. She smiles softly, two or three generations and still such respect. Sometimes it was wonderful to be a princess.
She paused quietly as a young filly ran out from one of the castle’s bedchambers, a little wooden carriage clutched between her teeth. Luna slipped into the shadows to watch as a colt, roughly the same age, ran right out after her. Both ponies were earth ponies, the little girl a soft midnight blue with a mane of bright orange and red, the colt, a light yellow with just a hint of brown in his coat and a mane a darker mix of red and orange. One of the councilpony’s children no doubt. The princess continued to watch, smiling in a slightly nostalgic fashion from the shadows as the colt whined.
“Star Whistle, give it back! That’s mine!” Star naturally spit it out into her forehooves, skidding to a stop and clutching the wagon to her chest.
“No way! You’ve been hogging it all day! I wanna play with it!”
“Daddy gave it to me for getting my cutie mark and you know it! Now give it back!” Luna glances at the colt’s flank, a little brown wheel set into his coat just below his tail.
“So? It’s not fair that you should get everything just because you got some silly little mark on your flank!” Her brother snickers.
“You’re just saying that because you don’t have one” He said snidely, tilting his hindquarters towards his sister so that the candle light caught his cutie mark. Star glared at the colt.
“Why would I want some stupid wagon wheel on my butt anyways? You think you’re so cool just cause you got your cutie mark, Axel, but I still got potential! You have no idea what my cutie mark’s gonna be! It could be something so much cooler than yours that….that…” Star faltered, and Axel seized on the moment of weakness
“Please! You probably won’t even get yours! Can you just imagine what it’d be like, being mom’s age and not even having your cutie mark?” This had the desired effect, of course, Star’s eyes immediately filled with tears.
“I-I will too get one! No pony ever j-just m-misses getting their c-cutie mark!” She said, though fear clearly flitted across her face. What if she didn’t get her cutie mark? What if she were just a blank flank forever? Luna could see the thoughts and fears swirling in Star Whistle’s mind as if her face were made of glass, and it was for that exact reason that Luna felt the need to put her hoof down. She stepped out from the shadows, walking right up to the pair. She cleared her throat rather loudly.
“Ahem. Sorry to intrude” “P-princess!” Both youngsters squeaked in response. Standing so still you might’ve thought the mere sight of Luna had turned them to stone. Luna sighs and gently reaches out with her magic, levitating the wagon up and out of Star’s forelegs and over to her brother. She then turned her attention back to Star Whistle, quietly squatting down next to her.
“Do you know how old I was when I got my cutie mark?” She asks the filly gently. Star slowly shook her head, her eyes wide.
“I was 14 years old” Star’s eyes widened, most fillies got their cutie marks when they were 7 or 8, 11 at the latest.
“That’s right. Now I want you to think about this my little pony. When I was your age, you know what I always wanted to be?” Again the filly shook her head. Luna smiled gently
“I wanted to be just like you. Every day I was told exactly what I was going to do, taught how to act, and made to focus on what they hoped would be my special talent, I never got the chance to experiment, that’s why you got to enjoy it while you can. Princesses are nothing special. Princesses are the same day in and day out, I’ve come to accept that, but you little filly, you have all the potential in the world, and you should be out enjoying that gift instead of putting so much importance on a silly little mark or somepony else’s toy.”
“But…” Star squeaked, glancing at her brother, still standing in the doorway
“But” Luna continues
“If you really want something that’s all yours, something you can play with whenever you like so you won’t have to take that little wagon of your brother’s…” Luna’s face broke into a wide grin, she pulled a small lock of her own mane free, the little wispy star filled lock moving within her hoof, trying to rejoin the rest on her head. The filly watched with awe as Luna’s horn began to glow, the bit of mane freezing suddenly, glowing softly as it twists into something new in Luna’s hoof.
Within seconds the bit of mane had changed into a single cylindrical shape, silver now but it still somehow managed to glitter and sparkle, as if the stars were still inside of it. Luna brought the newly made flute to her lips and gave a gentle blow, playing one long sweet note before handing it over to the filly. Luna fondly tosses the filly’s mane before getting back up.
She left the two in the hall way. She couldn’t see, but she could practically feel Star grinning at Axel as the two went back into their family’s bed chambers.
Luna continued to climb the stair case, reaching her own bedchambers just as the moon managed to peek over the castle walls. She glances out her windows at it, just once, before silently walking over to her bookshelf, gently tugging on the spine of a book simply titled “Harmony”. Within the room there was a soft ‘click’ before her bed slowly rose up, just enough to reveal a spiral staircase heading back down, down into the seemingly solid tower. Descending the stairs, torches springing to life ahead of her as she walks, the princess leaves her bed chambers behind and enters a large circular room, dominated by a stone column with 5 arms branching from it, each holding a perfectly smooth stone orb.
Although it had caused her nothing but pain to do so, Luna had gone back to her foal hood home about 30 years ago to retrieve the elements. Though they were no more than paper weights at the moment she felt rather…rude for leaving the things in the ruins of the castle, the 6 and she had been through a lot together.
The princess let out a sigh and gently rubs the closest of the orbs. So many times she wished they’d return to life, so many times she wished she’d come down to see the stone flaking away and see the magic once again coursing through them, but every time she returned here she was only met with disappointment and worry.
“We’ll be moving soon” she tells the orbs.
“And you all will be right in the middle of the whole place, dead center, perfect for seeing and being seen. You’ll find somepony else you like…I just know it.” As always the stone orbs stayed completely silent, impassive. Luna mentally shook herself.
“Come on Luna….you gotta stop doing this….one of these days you’re going to name one of these things and take it out on a date…” She smiles a bit to herself and heads back up the stairs, the torches extinguishing themselves as she passes each. Back up into her bed chambers, lowering her bed back to the floor with a soft glowing of her horn. She removes her tiara, necklace, and shoes, silently placing them on the floor next to her bed before dropping back into the space between dreams.
Luna looks up at her sister’s dream star, still incased in an icy shell. She had not entered her sister’s dreams in a century and she was really starting to worry….with this strong of a shield against her who knows what was going on inside her sister’s mind. The anger had to be festering, and taking root…she had to help her sister, despite the consequences. So with that in mind for the first time in well over a hundred years she turns from her sister’s star and begins to walk through the swirling blizzard of dreams.
“Sister…forgive me for what I’m about to do.” She mutters as she reaches the star she was looking for, another one that, like her sisters, was perfectly still, though that’s where the similarities ended. This star looked…odd…it was constantly shifting, as if trying to make up its mind on whether or not it wanted to explode or not. Occasionally a bit of star stuff would burst from the star, sending tiny snowflakes into the other ponies’ dreams beyond. Luna steadied herself with a shake breath before taking the leap.
The dream’s interior was pretty much as she expected; fields of blue grass, long legged jackalopes galloping past, violet skies, birds swimming through a nearby lake of pudding, fishing singing in a celery tree, and a pink maned pony in red and black spandex playing whack-a-mole with an oversized mallet and actual moles. She waited silently in the middle of the azure field; waiting for the dreamer to make his appearance… she didn’t have to wait long.
She was barely there for 5 minutes before an eagle’s claw, wearing a glove with knives sewn on the fingers, rested on her left shoulder, someone’s beard tickling her right shoulder.
“How sweet…dark meat” the voice whispered. Luna let out an exasperated sigh.
“Hello Discord” The Draconequus snapped his fingers disappearing and reappearing in front of Luna.
“Well isn’t this a surprise? The almighty ruler of Equestria has seen fit to grace my humble dreams” He bows low
“To what do I owe this extreme pleasure? Gardening tips? Want to discuss the weather? Do you want to see my chili recipe?” He was mocking Luna, that much was obvious, but Luna just indulged him for a little while until he finally fell silent.
“Discord listen-“ She began, only to be interrupted by a click of his fingers, several pairs of ears popping up all over him.
“I’m all ears!” Luna frowned at the pun.
“Oh come now moon butt, you used to be such fun! What’s gotten into you?” With another snap of his fingers the scene shifted, they were standing on a roof top in the middle of a dark and very gloomy looking city, all made of steel, brick, and glass. Discord disappeared from her view for the briefest of moments so she could look out at the smoggy world before he reappeared, inches from her face, his mane green, his face white, with a crooked red smile painted over his snaggletoothed mouth, his new appearance dominating her field of vision.
“Come on now! Why so serious!” From a few feet away Luna heard a female voice with a distinct manehatten accent say
“You tell ‘er Mistah D! Ya need to lighten up red!” Luna sighs
“Discord, seriously, we need to talk!” “Ugh! Fine!” He snaps his fingers again, the scene shifted again, the two of them were sitting on a table, floating high in the air without any sort of support. He waves his hand slowly in front of his face, his skin returned to its normal color, and a monocle appeared in front of his left eye, a curly mustache appeared on his face and a top hat popped into existence on his head. He quietly sipped some tea in front of him, the china disappearing with every tiny sip.
“I’m listening” Discord said in a very proper manner. Luna just sighed, recognizing this situation to be as close as she could possibly get, she began to speak.
“Discord…look…you know how I feel about you-“ She began, only to be interrupted
“Careful with that wording, we don’t want people to mistake this for a shipping fic.”
“…shipping fic…Never mind I don’t want to know. Look, Discord, it’s no secret that I don’t exactly like you” Discord interrupted her once more.
“Well let’s see, you and your sister turned me into a statue in the middle of my recital, let a bird nest in my mouth for a week, and then your sister used me as a bat when she was attempting to murder you so I did sense a tiny bit of dislike.”
“To be fair you did use a nine iron to send me halfway across the continent so, the first two were warranted to a point…But anyway… I need your help”
Discord raised one large bushy eyebrow
“Oh dear, my help? Allow me to answer you in the best way I possibly can!” He then took a piece of paper, began to write on it, scribbling a megaphone, which then let out a “NO!” with such force it nearly sent her flying. Luna, rubbing her ear with a hoof was quick to respond.
“Look! I’m not asking you to do it for nothing! I’m willing to pay for it.”
“Pay? I’m a piece of granite; you’re going to have to offer quite a hefty sum.”
“I’m willing to offer my hoof-“she began
“Okay now you’re going into cupcakes territory and that’s a big nono!”
“in friendship!” She finished, a vein pulsing in her forehead.
“Hmm…friendship you say…nah what else you got?”
Luna rolls her eyes.
“You think that’s the only thing I would offer? I’m willing to commute your sentence to time served, and offer you a job outside of the little task I want you to help me with” Discord rubbed his chin.
“Hmm…” He muttered softly
“Okay you have my attention”
“I’m building a school” Luna said softly
“And I’d like you to teach; both in the drama department, and the study of chaos based magic.” Luna pauses to let the spirit speak.
“And what makes you think I’d like to teach a bunch of snot nosed foals what I know?”
“Well for starters you’d be given a very legitimate chance to show off without anypony, myself included, telling you not to. Not only that but you’d also be meeting likeminded ponies who want to learn your ways and, make all of Equestria that tiny bit more…chaotic.” Luna paused, letting this sink in a little bit before she continued.
"I’m also willing to throw in a holiday celebrating you… I was thinking something in the spring, something like ponies playing pranks on each other all day, culminating in a big feast at the end of the day on candied treats, what do you think?” Discord continued to contemplate all this for a few long seconds before he shrugs
“Okay, I’ll bite, what’s the catch?”
"Well I do have a few ground rules”
“Not so big on those”
Luna sighs and nods.
“I didn’t think you would be…regardless, you agree to them, or I’m not letting you out.”
“Fine…lemme hear them.”
"First, no warping reality, at least outside the confines of your classes, the only time you’re allowed to do that is on your holiday, I’ll give you a little bit of leeway on the school grounds, but that’s as far as you get. Second, if you have a problem with a student you send them to me, you don’t rectify it by making them act like a dog or by turning them into a desk. And third…if you do this for me I’ll owe you one, I’d consider you my friend, and you have to honor our friendship…I’m willing to try if you are, Discord.” She reached her hoof across the table
“Do we have a deal then?”
Discord taps his chin and after a moment beams. He grabs her hoof, just as her horn flashes lightly. Discord let out a loud yelp as the joybuzzer that Luna had just created zaps him. Luna gave him a cheeky grin that to be perfectly honest stunned him.
“Moon-butt, I think this is gonna be the start of a beautiful friendship!” He said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
~~One week later~~
“And it is with great honor” Luna said, standing in front of the gates to her school, her staff standing tall next to her, a line of press ponies gathered taking down her every word.
“That I officially open the doors to the Lunar University for National Academics!” She cuts the ribbon in front of the giant wrought iron gates to a smattering of polite applause.
“Enrollment will start tomorrow.” Luna said nodding gently, silently trotting into the school. The mare walking up towards the castle steps looked very different than the princess everypony knew. Her mane had been tamed and pulled back into a neat little bun, a pair of red rimmed glasses were perched on the end of her nose. This had been Discord’s idea naturally, he thought she ought to look the part of a head mistress…Speaking of Discord, the Draconequus skated backwards on the dirt path, moving past her just so he could speak.
“L.U.N.A is the name of this place? You cannot be serious!” Luna simple smirks at him
“Who says I can’t have a little vanity?” She said cheekily, before her tone turned a bit more serious
“Thanks again for helping me with her…you have no idea what that means to me.”
Discord simply shrugged.
“Well when you have a friend who needs help breaking up some crystal who are ya to say no?” Luna almost stopped dead in her tracks, a memory fragment floating to the forefront of her mind at the word ‘crystals’. A flash of green, her sister’s scream…crystals…She regained her composure and nods slowly.
“But still…thanks”
“Don’t mention it”
Hours later, when Luna finally turned in for the night and peeked into her sister’s mind again she found it just as she had when she last saw it; Dark, hot, and full of snappy biting things in the darkness. With a new idea in mind Luna began to take off, searching for a specific strand of memory. She plucked it free from the dream’s fabric, following it until she found its source.
Almost two hundred and seventy years prior…Her sister and she had been visiting the crystal empire. Their neighbors were enjoying a year of unexpected prosperity; it was as if they had struck a crystal geyser! Luna had thought the whole thing was completely normal at the time; all kingdoms had their economic highs and lows, particularly when a new pony sits on the seat of power (as was the case with the crystal ponies, after the untimely death of their previous ruler Queen Safira). Celestia on the other hoof was a bit more…suspicious. She had made an excuse for Luna, telling the new king, Sombra, that she had to stay behind in Equestria, so that Luna could do some undercover work while Celestia held the Emperor’s attention. The shadow princess had easily slipped passed Sombra’s guards, and had found her way to the mines.
The crystal ponies….hundreds of them…chained and forced to work until exhaustion took them, until they no longer felt the whips Sombra’s guards flogged them with. Luna had raced back to her sister, bursting into the dining hall in the middle of dinner. She accused Sombra of building the work camp and forcing his citizens into slavery, a practice that had been outlawed in every civilized country nearly 700 hundred years prior. Sombra, dropping all facades said
“So what if I did? They are bound to me as their king! If I want them to service me in the mines that is exactly what they are to do! I am going to build the crystal empire, greater and more powerful than it ever was before!”
“There is more to ruling than power and money” Celestia had said, making her way to her sister’s side.
“A good ruler is compassionate; a good ruler loves his citizens, a good ruler-“ Sombra had grown tired of the solar princess’s speech, his horn had flashed a bright green color, his eyes hidden behind a magical glow. He shot a single bolt of bright green energy, straight at Luna.
“Luna!” Celestia cried, slamming her sister sideways, and taking the bolt herself. Luna was stunned, and in that moment she had thought her sister was dead. In that moment she had lost herself. She flung herself at Sombra with the fury of a mare possessed. He was very lucky she didn’t kill him before her sister got back to her hooves, singed but otherwise unharmed. The two had used their combined magic to banish the shadow king, turning him into living shadow himself and sealing him beneath the northern ice. What they didn’t realize at the time was Sombra had taken precaution against such an event. He had linked the Crystal Empire and its citizens to himself, when he disappeared beneath the ice and snow, so too did they.
Back in the present Luna sat bolt upright in bed, the sun just peeking over the horizon, making the tears on her cheeks glisten and twinkle. Something had happened that day that caused her sister to change…she didn’t know what but she knew why…and it was her fault. It was all her fault. Luna sobbed softly, laying back down on her side.
It had been a rather normal morning for Luna, she had finished with her advanced music class, dismissed her students, and had found herself walking through the school’s gardens, a certain spirit by her side. Discord always had a way of reading ponies, back in the old days that had been quite dangerous, but now…well…it just made him a better friend, able to tell when and how a pony was feeling down. He looked sideways at Luna, his yellow eyes studying her, as if looking right through her skull and peering into her mind.
“You’re thinkin’ about her again aren’t you?” he asks, to which she nodded.
“I’ve done all I can…but I don’t know whether it’ll be enough” She said with a sigh
“Whatever is doing this…it’s strong, very strong. I don’t think I can separate it on my own…” Her thoughts turned to the 6 orbs, currently acting as a center piece within the main hall of her castle. She had told nopony what they really were; they just assumed it was sculpture that the lunar princess had taken a liking to.
“You know you could always tell them. If they knew they’d work towards bringing someone up to bond with the elements.” Discord said, looking down at her, raising an eyebrow slightly, wondering why she hadn’t done that before. Luna, sadly, shook her head.
“You know very well what kind of ponies live in the capital. Had I been so blatant about it they would’ve raised somepony self-righteous and egotistical to bare the title and they would have completely missed the point.”
I could pick out someponies you know. It’d be easy.” Discord offered. Luna began to giggle.
“What?” Discord asked, sounding offended.
“You don’t see the irony of the Lord of Chaos hand picking the bearers the Elements of Harmony?”
Discord paused, fiddling with his beard a little bit as he thought
“Okay point taken…” He finally relented. The two of them continued to move through the garden, Discord distractedly snapping his fingers, each snap turning the flowers around them a different combination of colors; turquoise, rainbow, bright yellow with pink polka dots, black with purple zigzags.
Just as he stopped Luna felt a rumbling in her hooves, turning she saw a giant pillar shooting into the sky, air displaced and sent outward, before it crashed back in on itself in the center.
“What in the-“She began, before the shockwave hit her full force, knocking her off her hooves accompanied by the most bizarre musical score she had ever heard. It seemed random and chaotic and yet at the same time such order, a steady beat, an infectious rhythm, and the constant and hypnotic “Wub wub wub”. It was like order and chaos decided to go dancing. Luna shot a sideways glare at Discord, who shrugged.
“Wasn’t me.” Just as the words left his mouth there was another explosion from directly behind them.
“That’s the testing building!” Luna gasped, quickly getting to her hooves, Discord snapped his fingers before she could take a step, the two disappearing from the spot and reappearing in front of the door to the testing halls. L.U.N.A. was a finishing school by nature, anypony who wanted to study up on whatever field they were heading into could ask for no better place than L.U.N.A. to study from, but there were certain tests required for entering certain fields of study. It seemed today that explosion, whatever it was, had caused somepony to have an accident during a test.
“You go find out what in Tartrus caused that boom! I’ll get things under control here!” Discord nodded once, gave a little salute that knocked his head off his shoulders sending it rolling down his back before he snapped his fingers once again and was gone.
Luna barged into the testing chambers, to find…well to put it bluntly, what looked like one of Discord’s final exams. The place was a mess of papers caught up in a whirlwind of magic, two of the teachers running the test, both unicorns, were dangling from the vaulted ceiling, their horns fused to the stone. The third, a peagsus, had been turned into a stone statue.
Desks were growing feet and starting to wander around and in the middle of the swirling energy was a little filly, no older than 10, her eyes a glow and her horn crackling with the magical output. Luna couldn’t help but stare, for a second. Such powers from somepony so…no, focus Luna!
The Princess marched into the cyclone, ignoring the papers folding themselves into paper cranes, dragons, stars, and origami instruments which played as she passed. The Lunar princess lowered her head down to the unicorn’s level and gently put a hoof on her head
“You may stop now” She whispers softly. The unicorn turns her eyes towards Luna, twitching slightly as she struggles contain the raw power…but the storm slowly began to fade, the unicorn returned to the floor, looking dazed and a bit confused. Within a few moments Luna had righted the room, releasing her staff from the various enchantments and returning the filly’s parents (Who had been in a corner, turned into a set of potted plants) back to normal before turning her attention to the unicorn shyly scuffing her hooves on the floor, refusing to meet Luna’s gaze. Slowly Luna lowered herself own to the child’s height.
“What’s your name?” She asks softly, the mint colored pony jumping slightly as the princess spoke to her.
“L-lyra, Lyra H-heartstrings” She mumbles, still on the verge of tears.
“Well Lyra Heartstrings, you seem to have quite the impressive gift. Tell me, what were you applying for here?” Lyra glanced away
“En-enchanted music and Anthropology” Luna raised an eyebrow at that, not many ponies took anthropology…then again not many knew what anthropology is. The species it studied were so hard to come by that Luna had never seen one before, the subject had been squeezed in with mythological studies and currently only had 3 students taking it.
“Well…a gift like yours shouldn’t be squandered” She said with a soft smile.
“How would you like to be my personal student?” Lyra’s eyes widened slightly
“I-I don’t understand don’t y-you already-?” Luna patted her gently
“Those are classes with many other ponies, I’m only one of three teachers in that class. What I’m asking is would you like to be the pony taught directly by me.” Lyra couldn’t contain herself any more, she began to bounce around the princess, squealing
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” Luna couldn’t help but smile feeling that little tug in the back of her mind, one she had last felt over 900 years ago, though much weaker than it had been before.
“Well” She thought, “One down, 5 to go”
Discord appeared about a mile outside Ponyville, where he estimated the blast originated, quickly clicking his fingers once again the moment he landed. He didn’t like taking on disguises when he left the school, but after a rather eventful trip to Las Pegasus that ended with a rather moody Luna, a hung over Discord and a city covered in snozberry jam Luna had insisted he not draw attention to himself if he could help it.
The form he took today was one of his favorites; a brown unicorn, with light gray eyes, a short black mane, tail, and beard all striped lightly with gray, dressed in a suit with a little green bow tie. He fussed with his tie for a moment, glancing around, nopony had seen him…coast was clear it seemed. He began to trot quietly into town. Nopony would suspect this young smart looking unicorn with the scroll cutie mark was really a near omnipotent spirit of chaos and disharmony.
He made his way through town, his eyes scanning the place, finding almost nopony in the street, they were all gathered, it seemed in the park in the middle of town. Weaving his way through the crowd Discord found the source of the trouble next to the town’s baseball diamond; a scorched and twitching white unicorn with bright electric blue hair, currently missing her eyebrows and grinning as she twitched on the grass next to the remains of a large destroyed contraption. A pair of nurse ponies lifted the unicorn up on a stretcher while a purple pony in a baseball uniform quickly followed them, tearfully muttering her apologies over and over again.
Discord began to ask around to see what the ponies in the crowd knew. From what he could gather, the pitcher, the purple pony, had been throwing wild pitches all day. After one was hit way foul, it bounced off a sign and hit the unicorn’s giant speaker thing, which then kind of…blew up. Discord shrugged, he had seen weirder things happen. He trotted off to the hospital to see if the pony was alright. He found the pitcher pony sitting outside a room, sobbing softly her helmet on her lap, a beanie with a propeller on it perched on her white and purple curls. He sat down next to her
“Whats wrong?” He asks softly , though of course he knew the answer already.
“I H-h-hurt V-v-v-“ she breaks down into tears again, he gentle pats her shoulder.
“Oh I’m sure she knows you didn’t mean to do it…you didn’t mean to do it right?” She gave him a furious look through her tears.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no I didn’t mean to do it!’ and a ‘this isn’t making me feel better’. But I’ll tell you what I do when I upset my friends” She sniffles and wipes her nose on the back of her foreleg, her slightly crossed purple eyes focusing on him. “ W-what?” She asks miserably.
“I think of all the good things that came out of bad situations. Now, what can you take from this that you didn’t have before?”
“A ringing in my ears?”
“Besides that.”
“W-well…I got my cutie mark…and I guess m-maybe if I apologize to her she’ll be friends with me..?” She smiles shakily, Discord smiled back.
“There ya go, that’s something you can take from this, just remember to turn that frown upside down when things like this happen, and it’s always helps to have a good chuckle at yourself once in a while too. Nothing is better for the soul than a good laugh!” Suddenly from within the room they heard a loud, excited cry.
“Holy cud! Best way to get a cutie mark ever! That was so awesome!” The disguised Discord smiled and shook his head.
“She also might be a little hard of hearing for a while, don’t be afraid to bust out the megaphone.” The purple earth pony giggled, an act which caused the propeller on her hat to spin.
“Thanks mister” Discord patted her beanied head and quietly turned, walking through a door across the hall.
“Hey mister…You know that’s a janitor’s closet right?” She asks as he closes the door. The only response she got was a soft ‘click’. A pony with a mop bucket trotted over to the closet a moment or two later, opening the door to reveal it was completely empty.
~~~
Discord appeared in the middle of Luna’s quarters not a half second later.
“Luna I-“ He was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight he found. The dark blue alicorn was laying in her bed, a book propped open on her fore legs, her left wing extended over a little mint colored unicorn. Thousands of responses to this fought for dominance in his brain; jabs at Luna for finally coming out, materializing a flannel shirt, references to a tumblr blog that involve a princess and her faithful student being in a very open relationship. But all the ideas withered and died the moment Luna fixed him with a look. She hoofs the book over to her student.
“Keep studying dear, I’ll be back in a moment” She got to her hooves, leading Discord from the room.
She went down a few floors, into a vacant classroom, casting a quick spell to muffle the sounds from getting outside before she turned her attention to the draconequus standing in front of her.
“So what did you find out?” she asks quietly, her heart pounding.
“There was a large explosion in Ponyville, some kind of musical device that went haywire. A few of the ponies told me she called it her bass cannon. The pony caught in the middle of it is in the hospital, nothing too serious, singe marks and a few bruises, she might have to wear a hearing aid for a while, but other than that no pony was hurt.”
“Good” Luna said with a smile, looking out at the sunset, lost in thought.
“What are you thinking?” Discord asks, watching her.
“I’m thinking…we have the best chance we’ll ever have to set this right again, and we have ten years to prepare for it.”
Luna sighs as she stares out at her kingdom, watching the black dot that was her dragon disappearing over the horizon. She had given Saga very specific orders, pick up Cadence (and her colt friend if need be) provide transport to Prance for an all- expenses paid vacation, and wait there for the all clear signal from either her or Discord. If that signal didn’t come well…she left that to Saga to figure out. There was a soft click from behind her as a new presence entered the room. She didn’t have to turn to know it was Discord.
“Discord…you know you’re not supposed to be here.”
“How can I not be? My best friend is about to-“
Luna turns on him, the smallest of frowns creasing her face.
“Discord you’re not supposed to be here. You’re supposed to be in Atlantia, warning Aquamarie about this. If you’re here, and you get captured with me, who’ll be there to save Equestria if the elements fail?”
Discord frowned, clearly biting his tongue. He hated when ponies made sense, where was the fun in making sense? Luna knew what was bothering him, so before he could speak she spoke up, turning back towards the window.
“Discord, we can’t have the ponies of Equestria relying too heavily on one pony; not me, not you, not anypony. If you teach them to put their faith in one pony above all others, you’re teaching them to be betrayed, even if that pony is yourself.”
Discord gave a roll of his eyes. He prepared to speak again but this time he was interrupted by a scroll popping into existence before Luna’s face. Luna raised an eyebrow and broke the seal, scanning through it. She smiled a little.
“Oh Lyra…you never cease to amaze” She picked up a scroll she had written ahead of time and sent it off without another word about it.
“Discord…this may very well be the last time you ever see me. Don’t interrupt” She added quickly, seeing the spirit of chaos start to reply
“It’s not likely, but it’s possible Solar Flare is too much for Celestia to break free from, and it’s possible that she’ll end my life if she’s given the opportunity…if this happens and if the elements succeed in removing her from my sister…I don’t want you to hold any ill will towards her. She wasn’t in control of her actions, you know that. Her grief in such an event would be enough punishment…I’m sure…But should the elements fail, and the worst should happen…if you need to step in yourself…I want you to do everything you have to do to keep Equestria safe.” At this she turned to the window, smiling bitterly.
“It’s kind of funny, isn’t it? If things go the right way today, you’ll get your kingdom back after all these years.”
Discord frowned down at her.
“…I don’t think I’d want to rule if that was how I got back on the throne…” Discord muttered finally, putting one claw on Luna’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze before disappearing with a snap of his fingers.
~~~Meanwhile~~
Lyra sulked silently in the storm powered cart, currently puttering its way away from the L.U.N.A. and towards Ponyville. Her assistant, a young flutter pony by the name of Gossamer reread the princess’s letter to her. “My Dearest Lyra, There is more to a young pony’s life than just studying. I am sending you to supervise the preparations for the Solar Eclipse celebration in this year’s location; Ponyville. And I have an even more essential task for you to complete; make some friends!” Lyra let out a groan, her hoof going to her face
“Friends? Seriously? “
“Oh come on Ly, lighten up! The princess arranged for ya to stay in a library? Doesn’t that make you happy?”
Lyra raised an eyebrow at the flutter pony, her semi-transparent butterfly wings sparkling in the light streaming in through the window .
“Not really….if L.U.N.A didn’t have the proper books for proving Solar Flare’s return I doubt a smaller library will…still. I’m going to get done with these stupid preparations as fast as I can so I can research!”
Gossamer frowned at this “But…when are you going to make friends like the Princess said?”
“Gossy, I am the princess’s personal student! I will do my duty and I will see to the preparations, but the fate of Equestria does not depend on me making friends!” Gossamer broke into a fit of giggles, causing Lyra to sigh.
“What?” She asked, staring down the powder blue pony.
“You said doody!”
“Ugh!”
Lyra and the still giggling flutterpony exited the car as it pulled to a stop, Lyra made sure to thank the driver before following Gossamer into town. They passed a purple pony with a yellow propeller hat on her head. The pony frowned slightly as they passed, her propeller whirring to life. She began to follow them, floating a few inches above the road. Lyra didn’t seem to notice until the beanie wearing pony was nearly upon them, hovering inches from her tail. Finally, Lyra turned to confront their not so subtle stalker.
“Can I help you?” The unicorn asked the earth pony tersely. The purple pony’s response to this was to let out a loud gasp.
“I have been discovered!” She squealed, her flight path tilting sideways.
“May day! May day! I’m going down!” The pony crashed into a shrub, her back legs and curly white and purple tail the only things visible before her head popped out again, giggling “I’m okay!”
Lyra continued to stare for a few moments before promptly turning on her hoof and walking away “This never happened” She muttered under her breath.
As she and Gossamer walked Gossamer took out a check list she had written up that morning. “Okay, first stop, the catering. The head caterer is a pony by the name of Bon Bon.”
The two pushed into a little shop on the corner of one street, a sign with a large wrapped piece of candy hanging above the door. What they found were a group of about four earth ponies, running to and fro with ingredients like bags of chocolate, cream, sugar, gummy grass, and all manner of cavity inducing things. What really struck her as odd, however, was the fact that all four ponies looked exactly alike; beige colored coat, dark blue and pink swirled mane, neatly styled into little curls that Lyra wished she could put her own into.
She tapped one on the shoulder as she passed “Excuse me, I’m looking for a pony named Bon bon.”
“She’s in the back” The pony answered, quickly jabbing her hoof at a little door before darting off. Lyra quietly made her way to the backroom, followed by Gossamer. The two found their way into a little kitchen, every flat surface decorated by some sort of candy creation. A pony identical to the four from earlier, was quietly making a chocolate sculpture; a life size statue of Princess Luna all made of dark chocolate. Lyra stared for a moment before she cleared her throat. The pony jumped, staring down at Lyra from her ladder before quickly climbing down.
“Sorry to interrupt. I’m Lyra and I’m here to check on the preparations for the Solar Eclipse celebration.”
“Oh you’re not interrupting at all! You’re just in time to sample a few things!” Said the earth pony, shaking Lyra’s hoof with such enthusiasm that the unicorn felt as if her foreleg was going to fall off.
“I’m Bon Bon, and I think you passed my sisters on the way in here; Bon Voyage, Bon Appétit, Bon Marché, and Sweetie Drop!” She beams at her, still shaking her whole foreleg rather forcefully as she spoke before she finally let go. Lyra’s foreleg continued to shake up and down, causing Gossamer to snicker.
“Y-yes we met them…But I was actually more curious as to what you were planning for the celebration…”
“Oh of course! Come on I’ll show you, I just know you’ll love these! We’ll be the best of friends in no time!”
“Ugh…friends don’t give each other diabetes” She mutters softly as she and Gossamer exited the sweet shop, both with considerably heavier stomachs. Lyra’s stomach ached, she just wanted to lay down, vomit, and sleep, in that order. But there was work to be done….
“The music for the event are being handled by the town DJ Vinyl scratch and…” Gossamer paused, blinking down at the scroll, then glancing at Lyra, then quickly scrolling up the parchment.
“Vinyl Scratch and who?” Lyra asked suspiciously
“Technically that’s whom” Gossamer said, avoiding the unicorn’s eyes.
“Gossy….”
The flutterpony gave a soft sigh. “Vinyl Scratch and Octavia” Lyra’s left eye began to twitch.
“Octavia..? Octavia as in ‘Musical theory 101’ Octavia? Octavia as in talent show fifth year, Octavia? That Octavia? What the hay is she doing here?”
Before the flutterpony could even answer Lyra was off to the town hall where the musical equipment was being set up. A white unicorn with a neon blue mane and dark purple shades was already there, pushing a massive speaker into place.
“Yo, whats up?” The unicorn asked, taking notice of her as she slid to a stop.
Lyra glanced around as Gossamer caught up with her, then returned her attention to the other unicorn.
“Princess Luna sent me to oversee the preparations for the Solar Eclipse celebration?” Vinyl smirked and turned towards a door way .
“Yo Octy! The pencil pusher’s here!”
“Vinyl! Don’t call them that!” Said a voice from behind the little curtained off stage area, a very familiar, heavily accented voice. Within seconds the gray earth pony appeared, fixing her little pink bow tie.
“I mean really Vinyl they’re standing right there! Could it ki-….Lyra?”The earth pony had finally noticed who was standing there, at first she seemed stunned then she quickly hopped over and wrapped her fore legs around Lyra.
“Oh Lyra it’s great to see you! It’s been too long! How are you!”
“Fine” Lyra muttered through gritted teeth, trying to squirm away. Why was everypony in this town so touchy-feely?
“Oh dear me where are my manners? Lyra, this is Vinyl Scratch my roommate. Vinyl, this is Lyra Heart strings, we went to L.U.N.A together.”
“Oh yeah! I think she told me about you once, weren’t you the chick who was obsessed with humans?” Lyra gave Octavia a pointed glare at this, and Octavia had the good grace to look a little bit embarrassed.
“I didn’t say obsessed Vinyl…I said she found them intriguing ”
“Tomato, Tomahto.” Vinyl replied with a simple shrug.
“Back to business” Lyra said pointedly .
“Business, smishness ! Come on you two haven’t seen each other in years and you don’t even wanna catch up?” Vinyl asked with a huge smile on her face
“Oh dear please just tell me you’re not still upset over that silly talent show are you?” Octavia asked giving Lyra’s hoof a little pat. Before the unicorn could answer she began to dive into the story
“We were both in this talent show, it was my seventh year and Lyra’s fifth if remember correctly. We were both playing classical music. I played something I wrote myself and the judges gave me a 9.9 and Lyra played….what was it? It was some human religious thing you found wasn’t it?”
“Stairway to Heaven” Lyra muttered bitterly.
“Ah yes that’s right! Well the Judges gave Lyra a 9.9 as well so the whole thing ended in a tie.” Vinyl began to snicker
“Lemme guess, you’re upset that they didn’t give ya a perfect score?”
And that was when Gossamer chose this moment to speak up
“Lyra always gets upset when she gets anything lower than a hundred percent! I remember this one time when she got an A minus on an exam she-“
“Thank you Gossamer” Lyra said with such a tone of finality in her voice that the flutter pony shut her mouth almost immediately. Vinyl Scratch was still grinning.
“Anyway…” Octavia muttered with a cough, trying to return to a more dignified and professional demeanor.
“We have everything all ready to go we just have to move the speakers into place and do one quick rehearsal and we should be done.”
“Good, now all that leaves is…?” Lyra turned to Gossamer who was pulling out the check list and quietly marking the box next to the music with a swish of a quill.
“That just leaves the décor being set up by a miss Ditzy Doo Hooves and A Miss Screw Ball” Just as she said this a buzzing noise reached the groups ears, as if somepony were fiddling with one of those tiny electric fans. The noise grew to near deafening over the course of a few seconds, Lyra heard a soft
“Woah!” From behind and before she could turn around something large and heavy slammed into the back of her head. She fell over as she heard somepony mutter “Oops….my bad….” And everything went black.
~~~Several hours later, 5 minutes before the ceremony~~
Luna stood, behind the curtained balcony of Ponyville’s town hall. Far above her, she knew the moon was inching ever closer towards the sun, a black disk covering the larger yellow one. Luna sighed and set her horn alight. It was time. The counter spell was cast, the key fitting into the lock of a powerful spell cast 1000 years prior. It took only a second or two for the prisoner to realize she was awake for the first time in a millennium. Luna felt the heat increase a degree or two as the solar pony escaped, her body reforming mere inches away.
“Hello Tia….” She said softly, watching the golden mare who stared her down with such hatred in her eyes.
“My name is-!”
“I know what you are called monster, but I am not speaking to you. I am speaking to the pony who’s body you have taken.” Luna said calmly, actually enjoying the stunned look on the creature’s face.
“Tia, I know you’re in there somewhere, and if you can hear me…I just want to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry I let this happen, I’m sorry I didn’t act sooner, I’m sorry I let you become…this thing. No matter what it does today I want you to know, I’m always going to be your sister.”
Solar Flare snorts
“How very touching. You know, I could kill you right now. Turn you into a little smoldering pile of ash on the floor” Solar flare smirked at her, gently tracing a hoof down the side of her face.
“I know you could” Luna said softly
“Tia was always the strong one.”
“Exactly I always was stronger than you. So let’s see what happens when you get a taste of your own medicine. I’m going to let you live, and you’re going to watch what happens down here. Tata!” Before Luna could say another word Solar Flare’s horn flashed, just once. Ponyville disappeared and she found herself on a blank white landscape, the sun at her back, a great blue orb in front of her with Equestria resting on it. She sighed…it was out of her hooves now…
~~~meanwhile~~~
“Wakey wakey!” said a voice Lyra didn’t recognize.
“Oww…” Lyra’s eyes cracked open, she found herself in a little room surrounded by books.
“Oh good your up” Said a gray pegasus pony, smiling brightly.
“What happened….” Lyra muttered, rubbing her aching head. The Pegasus blushed slightly, her eye drooping down towards her left hoof while the other slowly went upwards towards her right ear.
“Umm….somepony…who I won’t mention might’ve dropped a very heavy disco ball on your head and you…might’ve been out for a while?” Lyra sighs and continues to rub the sore spot, it felt like a second horn was growing in!
“How long is a while?” Before the gray Pegasus could answer a purple blur shot into the room.
“Come on you guys! You’re going to miss it!” somepony grabbed her by the shoulders and the next thing she knew she was heading down the stairs, carried by the purple beanie wearing pony from yesterday, the walleyed Pegasus flying to keep up with them.
“I’m Ditzy Doo by the way.” The Pegasus said, narrowly avoiding a light post as they flew.
“Yeah and I’m Screwball!” Said the purple flying earth pony.
“You don’t say…So what are we about to miss?”
“The Solar Eclipse Ceremony!”
“What!” Lyra was out of Screwballs forelegs like a bullet from a gun. Screwball looked at Ditzy, both hovering in the air. Screwball shrugged and they both zoomed after her.
“Oh no…oh no!” Lyra muttered as the music started, the mayor finished her little speech, a pony opened the curtains to reveal….nothing.
“T-this can’t be happening” Lyra whimpered.
“Remain calm everypony! I’m sure theres a reasonable explanation for this!”
“Oh oh I know! She’s going to pop out any minute with a cool fog effect!” Screwball cried. A flame appeared on the stage, several ponies screamed, scurrying backwards, away from the spot.
“Pyro Technics! Even better!” Screwball squealed, clapping her hooves. The fire swirled into a miniature tornado, spinning violently and burning down every banner they had put up of Luna before the whole thing disappeared as the winged unicorn within spread its wings. The pony’s body sparkled in the little light, as if her skin had been weaved out of pure gold, her mane crackled and hissed, dancing like fire.
“Good afternoon my beloved subjects, it’s been so long since I’ve seen your pwecious wittle faces” Solar Flare crooned.
“What did you do with our princess!” Vinyl shouted about to leap into action only to be held back by Bon Bon. Solar Flare laughed
“Why am I not royal enough for you? Does my crown no longer count after being imprisoned for a thousand years? Do you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?”
Lyra steps forward
“I did! And I know who you are! You’re the Solar Mare. Solar Flare!” The crowd behind her gasped, Solar Flare rolled her eyes, it wasn’t that hard to figure out.
“Well well well, somepony remembers me. Then I suppose you also know what I’m here to do.”
“Remember this day my little ponies. For it is the day your queen returns! I expect nothing short of your undying obedience when I return, or else” She smirks coldly down at the ponies
“Well let’s not make things too messy now. You’ll be my faithful little ponies or my faithful little kindling. The choice is yours” And with that the mare disappeared with a cackle and a tower of flame.
Lyra weaved her way through the scrambling crowd of ponies with an unconscious Gossamer on her back, the poor flutter pony had fainted during the excitement in town hall. Ponies everywhere were in a panic; many running to and fro, from house to house to grab their friends and belongings, planning to flee under the black sun. Lyra passed a brown stallion as she made her way to the library. Heading upstairs she deposited Gossamer on the bed before she returned to the books downstairs, only to find 5 ponies waiting for her.
Vinyl started on her the moment she came down the stairs. “Out with it! How did you know all that stuff about Solar flare! And how come you were panicking before she even showed up! Huh? Are you a spy?” Vinyl Scratch jabbed her hoof against Lyra’s chest once before she was tugged backwards by the confectioner, Bon Bon(at least she thought it was Bon Bon, it could be one of her sisters).
“Calm down. If she was a spy she wouldn’t have been freaking out like that. “ Bon Bon muttered in her calm, honey coated voice. She turned her gaze to Lyra.
“But you do know what’s going on…don’t you Lyra?”Lyra let out a sigh and explained to them what she had found out. Now that it had actually happened it didn’t seem quite as foalish to tell them she had read the prediction in a collection of old pony’s tales. What was a little bit more embarrassing though was admitting that she had no idea what, or where they were.
“The Elements of Harmony, a reference guide” Said a voice. Lyra blinked, her eyes turning to the purple pony, Screwball, who was currently floating, upside down, in front of a book left on the pedestal, almost waiting for her to find it.
“Where did you find that!” Lyra gasped, rushing to the earth pony’s side. Screwball simply shrugged and pointed to the pedestal.
“It was right here” She said. Lyra looked and sighed. She’d worry about how she could overlook it later.
“The Elements of Harmony” Lyra read, flipping the book open.
“There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known; The Elements of Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, and Kindness. The sixth is a complete mystery. The last known location of the six elements was in the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. The palace resides in what is now the…” She paused “In where! In where!” Screwball squealed “I can’t take the suspense!”
“Unbelievable! Someone ripped off the rest of the page!”
“Solar Flare must’ve been here before we were!” Vinyl muttered.
Ditzy doo, who had been reading over Lyra’s shoulder, gently tapped her and pointed near the bottom of the page. Near where the rip started there was an untidy scrawl that read “Cover”. The vandals had written in a library book!? Lyra felt faint and short of breath.
“Woah. Easy. Breath girl.” Bon Bon muttered, holding Lyra up as her legs began to wobble.
“You can over react to this later. We have a princess to save”
Bon Bon was right of course. She shook herself a bit and quietly flipped the book to the back cover. Written there, in the same untidy scrawl, were the following words: ‘Danger lies before you, but the path is not clear. The harmony you seek is far from near. In the hallowed halls of learned mares the answer lies, But so too does a fire that once burned in the skies. Fear not of what may come in the end For whatever happens after, you’ll always be with your friends. Six challenges are yours to face Do them quick, before the moon’s heart breaks.’
“What does it mean?” The gray Pegasus half whispered, after Lyra had read them the note.
“Hall of Learned mares….Learned mares..” Lyra mutters under her breath, pacing back and forth.
“So the Elements are somewhere right here?” Bon bon asked quizzically, to which Screwball rushed out and returned seconds later with a shovel, a pickaxe and a manic grin.
“No” Lyra muttered softly, her pacing continuing as she tried to work out the poem “No it said it was far from near, I doubt it’d say that if it were right under our hooves”
Vinyl scratch rolled her eyes however “What are you talkin’ about! It could just be something to throw us off the trail! How do we know Queen Scorch mark didn’t just leave that there to send us off in a whole different direction! “As much as Lyra wanted to argue, and indeed she had opened her mouth to offer a rebuttal, she really couldn’t find any flaw with what the DJ had said. They had no idea what Solar Flare was planning, she could be lurking in the shadows, watching, waiting for them to slip up, waiting for the right moment to turn them against each other. Lyra let out a sigh of frustration.
“I wish Princess Luna was here…she’d know what to do…” Luna….for some reason that name caught something in her mind. Luna….Luna….L.U.N.A!
“L.U.N.A! Hall of Learned mares! L.U.N.A! That’s it! The elements are at L.U.N.A!” Lyra jumped to her hooves, the other five simply staring at her as she rushed out the door. The other five looked at one another, exchanged shrugs, and galloped after her. Unbeknownst to them, a brown unicorn watched their disappearance, he smiled softly.
“Ah ponies, so eager to follow the trail of bread crumbs left out for them” He mutters as he steps into an alley way between the Quill and Sofa Emporium and the Lady Spot’s Ink pots.
“I almost forgot how good this feels” He mumbles before disappearing with a soft click. ~~~
Often Luna wondered what would life had been like if Celestia had not stepped between her and Sombra on that faithful day. How would life had turned out for her had the crystal king’s horn been pointed in her sister’s direction, and she, Luna, having to pay for her sister’s safety with her sanity. Would she be doing what her sister was now, so many miles below? Would she threaten to burn the world in holy fire…? No…no she didn’t think so. Not really….if she was really true with herself she thinks whatever this parasite was that was latched onto her sister, it would go for the most petty of feelings inside her. And truly she had been more than a little jealous of her sister time and again.
There was some truth in what ponies said…Celestia did belong in the limelight, and she in the shadow. But oh, how the understudy wishes to be the star of the show sometimes. Would it be such a bad thing for the lead to trip, sprain something, and give her time to shine? If Luna was true with herself, she’d say that the parasite within her sister’s heart of hearts would have made her jealousy far worse than her sister’s paranoia. She’d want ponies to appreciate her work….maybe even for the rest of their lives as their poor little bodies grew cold under a sky of diamonds.
Yes, Luna thought, but which would be better? A swift death under a paranoid tyrant? Or a slow and painful one beneath the eye of an egotist?
~~~
The girls had been surprised when Screwball announced she knew how to hot wire a storm powered car, but their surprise dimmed slightly when she simply kicked the cloud out of its spot in the engine, set the car in neutral and tied herself to it. One large bag of sugar later and their awe was renewed; Screwballs beanie propelled them up the northern most road towards Mount Canter, and L.U.N.A at lightning speeds. Vinyl half way through their trip decided to climb up onto the roof and holler at the top of her lungs.
“Woohoo! Go Screwy go!”Lyra sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
“Is she normally like this?” she finally asks, a little surprised to find herself talking to Octavia. The cellist shrugged a bit.
“She can be a bit….wild sometimes but she does have her quiet and subtle moments…though admittedly they are few and far between…”
“Aww dude!” They heard from outside “Pick up speed! Come on really hit that hi-ack!” Vinyl began to cough and hack as a bug flew right down her wind pipe.
“You two seem really close…are you….?” Lyra began to ask, pleased to see Octavia’s face turning a shade of pink.
“Oh no no no dear, nothing of that sort…we’re just friends.” Lyra smirked a bit at Octavia’s quick brush off, about to pounce on the topic, before a loud pop hit their ears and their car skidded. A panting Screwball pulled over to the side of the road. The other girls got out of the car, Vinyl climbing off the roof…their car had gotten a flat. The girls all groaned. Vinyl however shushed them.
“Do you girls hear that?” She mumbles, her ears pricked. It took a while for the others to hear what Vinyl was talking about…music. More specifically rock music, coming from further up the road. It paused, faltering before it started up again, then faltered again, a longer pause. The girls began to head north, further up the tree lined road, coming into a clearing in a small bend, where a stage had been set up.
Three ponies were on stage, one behind a set of drums, one with a string instrument in his hooves, and one at a microphone, all with dull gray coats and bright neon manes of different colors. The lead singer, growled under her breath. “How do you expect us to be ready for the concert if you can’t even get this one song right! Come on! Again from the top!” They started again, the drummer looking a fair bit annoyed as he began the song.
The singer’s voice shifted into a more guttural and robotic tone as she belted into the microphone “I am ironmare” Just as the bassist was about to start in with the melody the ponies noticed they had company, the song stopped abruptly, the vocalist glanced over the crowd, her eyes widening slightly. In a flash she shot down from the stage, sending Ditzy flying as she ran up to greet Vinyl. “Ohmigosh Ohmigosh!” Squeaked the mare. “You’re DJ-pon3!” Before Vinyl could answer she grabbed her hoof and began shaking it vigorously, reminding Lyra a little bit of her first meeting with Bon Bon.
“I’m you’re biggest fan! You have no idea how awesome it is to meet you! I’ve been to like, every one of your concerts!”
Every little word the mare said was making Vinyl swell up like a peacock.
“I-it be totally cool if you could play with us! We have a concert tonight!”
Vinyl deflated slightly, she glanced back at the group, Screwball busy trying to free Ditzy from the log her head had become wedged in. “Well…”Vinyl muttered, rubbing the back of her head
“I kinda got a thing…and you already got a full band anyway…”
“Oh that’s no big deal!” The mare said earnestly, taking a tiny step closer, getting into that awkward zone of closeness.
“You can just hang with us and catch up with them later! We can even give you Half Step’s spot!”
Half step, the bassist shouted at this “Hey!”
“Beat it Half!” Screamed the mare, not taking her eyes off Vinyl.
Vinyl’s whole attitude shifted in an instant. “You have some nerve kid.” She said softly, turning on her hoof and trotting away from her.
“Wait!” Cried the singer, but Vinyl didn’t look back, she helped Screwball retrieve Ditzy, and walked with the group, northward. As soon as they were far enough away all three faces split into identical grins, and disappeared with a click.
“You know” Lyra said softly “That was really cool…what you did back there”
Vinyl shrugged “I wouldn’t ditch you guys, not on something this important….besides…did you SEE her? She was nuts! Throwing her friend under the cart like that!” The five continued to walk in silence deeper and deeper into the shadow of Mount Canter, the black sun still right where it had been for the past few hours.
After a few moments of trotting in silence a new sound reached the group’s ears, crying. Another turning point, another bend in the road and another pony musician. He was a young stallion, an earth pony by the look of him, butter colored fur, chestnut mane, clutching a burnt chunk of wood in his hooves. The group approached, but he didn’t seem to notice. Lyra hoped they could get passed without any sort of distractions, but Octavia had to pause, looking down at the pile in his hooves.
“Dear…if you don’t mind me prying…what..was that?” She asks, nodding down at wood. He didn’t answer for the longest time but when he did, It was clear he was trying very hard to hold himself together.
“I…..it was my mandolin he….daddy made it for me when I was just a little thing….then…some crazy witch…all gold, just shot it! It saved my life but…” He broke down, Octavia gently patting his shoulder, the other five exchanging looks. Solar flare had been there…this stallion was lucky to be alive at all.
“I’m so sorry” Whispers Octavia. She stole herself to do something, hesitating for a moment before she took her cello off her back and slowly offered it to him.
“I know it’s not exactly the same….” She mumbles, apologetically
“But I’m afraid it’s the closest thing to a mandolin that I have right now…and…well it means a lot to me too…” Pain etched Octavia’s face as she struggled not to snatch the instrument back from the stallion as he slowly took it from her grasp
“I had to save up for months, doing a whole bunch of chores to buy that…you have no idea how much it means to me….” The stallion stared at her, eyes wide as saucers “You had better take care of it” He nodded slowly. She got to her hooves and walked away, vinyl gently wrapping a foreleg over her shoulders as they left the stallion…who had disappeared the moment their backs were turned.
They had begun to climb the mountain now, traveling up its slopes and criss crossing paths, every so often a new road coming in to merge with theirs. Every now and then somepony tried to make an attempt at idle conversation, but they were usually too tired to really keep it going very long.
The sounds of a waterfall met their ears, they all agreed it’d be the best place to stop for a break. They turned a corner, reaching a nice big pond with water flowing into it from a higher cliff. Lyra was the first to make her way over….but what she saw reflected in the waterfall wasn’t her own face. It was a human, tall and slender, with teal skin and a mind and white colored cropping of hair. The Human grinned at her, stuck its tongue out, wiggling its fingers at her.
“You’re obsessed!” It hissed grinning wickedly at her. She glanced around at the others, each of them were staring dumbfounded at the waterfall, whether they saw her human or if everypony saw something different she couldn’t say. “
You’re obsessed just admit it! You have dreams about us at night, you think up fan theories! You go to conventions! You-“ the human her was interrupted by a shriek and a splash. Every pony in the group turned to look at Screwball, who was having a laughing fit in the little pool. “You’re right! My eyes are weird!” giggled the earth pony “And my hat IS goofy! That’s why I like it!”
“I…what?” was the collective response of their group.
“Oh girls don’t you see?” She walks up to the waterfall and gently splashes it at them, smiling “Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself!” They all blinked, staring at the waterfall. The first one to respond was Ditzy.
“My eyes are all googily and my voice goes all funny sometimes. I AM Derpy!” She began to laugh. One by one the group began to admit things to the body of water, laughing all the while; Bon Bon admitted she and her siblings actually tried to look alike, Octavia admitted she had absolutely no idea how to tie a bowtie on her own, Vinyl crowed that she sometimes gave herself a headache, and finally Lyra shouted “I’m obsessed with hairless, gangly, goofy lookin’ creatures!” to which they all began to laugh.
Their spirits lightened and their bodies rested they moved on, none noticing the waterfall itself chuckling quietly. They had made it halfway up the mountain, happily laughing and joking before they were forced to stop again, this time by a procession of animals, are marching single file, almost all of them covered in soot. That killed their mood quite a bit…but at least they knew they were heading in the right direction.
“Aww…” Ditzy mumbles as she watches the mice and raccoons walk down the slope “You guys’ll be hungry before you get to a new home…” She reached into her pack and retrieved three muffins, putting them one after the other on the ground in front of the group of rodents. She smiled kindly at them before rejoining the group heading in the other direction.
The school’s gates loomed before them, the eclipsed sun seemingly perched ontop of its tallest spire. Lyra gulped…now that she was here….she really didn’t know if she could stand up and do this…her legs got all rubbery again. A second before she could fall she once again found the same pony supporting her as she had in the library. “Woah now” Bon Bon whispered
“Hey, no matter what happens in there, I’m not going to leave you alone with her…okay?” Lyra smiled gratefully and nodded, the other girls silently nodded their agreement and together the six made their way inside.
The second they passed the gates they slammed shut, the high, cold voice carried across the court yard as the fire headed alicorn stepped from the entrance hall.
“Well, well, well” She crooned “It seems some of my subjects are well behaved! Are you here to bow before me like good little ponies?” She began to walk, sideways, her voice shifting an octave lower as she growled “or should I break out the dust pan right now?”
Lyra flinched slightly, but stood up straighter. “We’re here to stop you! You’re not going to burn anypony anymore!” Solar flare yawned, pointedly “Oh spare me the mellow dramatic speeches, why don’t you put your bits where your mouth is? Go on, I’ll give you one free one!”
Lyra gulped, this was it….she tried…oh Luna how she tried, but the only thing she could see was that stupid new art statue, with the concrete balls, no signs of any elements anywhere!
“Oh all tapped out? What a shame…well my turn then!” Lyra barely had time to throw a shield up around the six, as the statue exploded, sending concrete fragments and chunks of molten rocks everywhere. Her barrier shattered. Solar flare began her approach, tutting quietly.
“You know, I’d expect a resistance to be a bit more….of a threat. What a pity”
Lyra groaned, her eyes cracking open. She saw her five friends…and indeed that’s what they were, her friends, laying there on the ground covered in dust and dirt. She felt her eyes widen, a fire sparking to life in her gut. She slowly rose to her hooves.
“No…I won’t let you hurt them”
Solar Flare smirked, her horn beginning to glow. The blast shot forward…only to be stopped by a bubble starting at Lyra’s hooves. “What?!”
“You see Solar flare, I learned something today. Your friends might not always be perfect” Slowly her friends started to get up around her, the rubble at their hooves starting to sparkle and glow “They might not always be smart, or tactful, but they’re still your friends. And when friendship unites the five elements of harmony, they create the sixth element! The Element of Magic!” the five different glowing pieces of concrete turned into solid gem stones, each one becoming a necklace around her friend’s necks. A Tiara appeared on her head as the six ponies began to float in the air, their elements starting to glow brightly. Solar Flare’s eyes widened.
“No!” She cried, her horn zapping their force field as the energy built up. Lyra’s eyes opened, the six minds linked for the briefest of moments…she heard Vinyl and Screwy in the back of her mind, saying as one “Aww yeah! Rainbow death ray go!” A rainbow arced high above their heads, snapping forward like a snake and wrapping itself in a twist of colors around the solar mare. Her scream echoed in the school’s court yard.
Luna, high above them, had not heard the scream, but she had felt the after effects…her orb began to move, her imprisonment on it broken. In a second she had walked into the court yard on a beam of moonlight, ready to face what may be.
“Princess!” Was the first word she heard, she opened her eyes to find a minty blur rushing to her side. She smiled and quietly bowed her head, lifting her wing to wrap her student in a hug.
“Congratulations Lyra, I knew you could do it!”
“You knew all along this would happen?” She asks, nodding her head at the slightly horseshoe shaped bobble on her big crowny thing. Luna simply shrugged in response.
“I had my hopes. I just told you to make friends, nothing more, and you far exceeded my expectations once again.” Lyra beams at the praise, puffing up just as Vinyl had done earlier.
But if you excuse me…there’s somepony else that needs my attention right now” Heads turned to the groaning figure, all white with a soft pink mane, a little smaller than she had been before. Luna silently marched over to the figure “Celestia” She said softly, the pony on the ground before her flinched, and looked away, not daring to look up at her. Luna’s lip quivered, she heard Lyra gasp as she fell down next to her, wrapping her forelegs around her neck as the first wave of tears fell down her cheeks. Celestia seemed just as surprised as Lyra was. “I missed you so much big sister!”
Once again the group of six little ponies gasped. Celestia sniffled a bit, Luna regaining her composure a little. “We were meant to rule together sister, years without you have taught me that.”
“
How can you forgive me just like that?” Celestia squeaks, staring up at her…not-quite-so-little-anymore-sister.
Luna blinks at that, a small smile curling over her muzzle. She gently nuzzled her sister “Would you if it were me?” “Aww I love a happy ending!” Called a voice as Discord waltzed into view, letting Octavia’s cello bounce its way over to her, it barked like a dog, wagging its bow like a tail before hopping onto her back, causing her to let out an “oof!” Celestia’s mouth fell open, as she stared at him, her eyes slowly shifting over to Luna.
Luna, for the first time since Lyra knew her, looked a little sheepish “Oh yeah….I have a bit of explaining to do”
A lone unicorn walked through the foggy city streets at night, a slight tingle running up his spine alerting him that he was being watched. He paused, a gentle clip clop of hooves stopping just a second too late to be his. He turned around, and found...just a tin can. Letting out a sigh he turned back towards his path, only to bump into somepony else, wearing a hooded cloak.The other pony was breathing hard, his breath coming out in soft little puffs in the cool air. The unicorn let out a nervous chuckle. “Very sorry, heh...you came out of no where!”
The other figure didn’t speak at first, letting the silence drag ever so slightly before he spoke “Is he friend or is he foe, the pony wonders. I can assure you...I am no friend.” With a hiss and a strangled cry the pony was left on the cobblestone path, his eyes grayed, his cutie mark completely gone.
“Ah!” Luna cried, sitting bolt upright in bed at precisely the same moment as Celestia. The two, upon Luna’s insistence, had shared one of the royal suites within the Crystal Palace during the proceedings after the Equestria games. Discord had taken the opportunity to invite himself and make the whole thing the most stereotypical sleepover ever. Discord glanced up from his magazine, a green mudmask still spread across his face, a cucumber slice over one eye. “You both felt that too huh?” He asks, his voice oddly...bored. “W-what was that? I had the most awful d-dream” Squeaked Celestia, quickly ripping the curler out of her mane “It was no mere dream, sister...you know that as well as I.” Said the younger, gently placing her hoof on her sister’s shoulder. The two were almost equal in height now, Celestia’s recent growth spurts making her quite a bit taller than she had been when the Elements had ripped her free from her corrupted state. “We must act quickly” Luna continued gravely. “The longer we wait...the stronger he gets.”
A meeting was called between the four princesses to discuss the newest threat to Equestria. Lyra, for her part, was torn between excitement and irritation. True this could be her big chance to prove herself as a princess, but at the same time it wasn’t exactly something she hadn’t done before. Luna and Celestia explained the situation, explained how Tirek had been banished to Tartarus, and his escape. “Well.” Cadence began “I seem to know of one pony who would be more than happy to track do-”
“No, Dearest Niece” Luna said gently, Lyra’s heart sinking as she heard this. “We have someone else in mind to take on this mission”
“Oh oh that’s my cue isn’t it?” Discord’s voice echoed through the room before he appeared next to Luna, wearing a military style plinth helmet, a rubber chicken strapped to hip. “Captain Discord reporting for duty ma’am!” He saluted, his claw sinking into whatever doughy substance his helmet was made out of. “Sister...you cannot be serious” Celestia gasped “Trust him? With an important mission? We’ll be lucky if we survive!” Lyra added “Ladies...may I remind you that as the spirit of chaos Discord can sense any sort of magical imbalance?” Luna asked flatly. The other princesses shifted a little uneasily in their seats. “And may I also remind you that Discord has been my friend for over eighty five decades and has kept me from killing stuck up council ponies and idiotic parents more times that I can count?” “Eight thousand, nine hundred, and seventy nine times” Discord added brightly. “Yes quite...He’s proven his loyalty, and he’s more than capable. The matter is closed.” She turned to Discord, who was busy turning his helmet into a fez. “Discord, we’re going to need you to find Tirek the moment he saps another pony of their magic, and bring him back here” Discord quietly put the fez back atop his head “Are you quite sure that’s a good idea? I mean there’s nothing to stop him-” Discord began, only for the lunar princess to cut him off. “Discord this is important, we need to keep the destruction he’d cause to a minimum! We can’t have him destroying anything or killing anypony! Do you understand?”
Discord frowns but nods “I understand…” He was about to say more when Cadence took notice of his headwear.
“...What in the name of sanity is that on your head?”
“It’s a fez, I wear a fez now. Fezes are cool” The fez was immediately tossed into the air by Lyra and vaporized by Cadence.
Another dark alleyway, and another unicorn falling to the ground. Tirek grinned and flexed his clawed fingers. Oh the power...it felt amazing. His eyes fell on another unicorn, it’s back to him. Wonderful, at this rate Equestria would be his in- “Tirek, I presume” The unicorn had turned to face him, his head morphing into that of the snaggle toothed, mish mashed face of the Spirit of Chaos. Tirek frowned, squinting ever so slightly “Discord...you are free?”
Discord’s body changed in a flash, becoming a large beaked bird standing on a stand. “As a bird!”
“I commend you on your escape” Tirek responds, bowing low as Discord scratched his beak. “I’m afraid the feeling isn’t mutual.” He responded, snapping his fingers as he changed back, a set of manacles snapping into place around Tirek’s wrists. The centaur growled and tried to blast Discord with the little magic he had accumulated, only for Discord to dodge it. “I should’ve known you’d want to have Equestria all to yourself” Tirek grumbled “Oh I’m not doing this for me!” Discord responded happily “I’m doing this for my friends!” He then got really close to Tirek “Just between you and me, it’s mostly for Luna!” “Luna? You’re not saying you’re friends with the Princess that imprisoned you, are you?”
“I know!” Discord snickered “Life’s funny that way, right? One day it’s ‘Discord stop making Equestria all Crazy!’ next it’s ‘Discord, did you at least take pictures when you turned my sister’s coat pink?’” “Hmmm…” Tirek mused “I’m just surprised someone with your intellect doesn’t see the facts here. You just don’t seem to see that this...friendship is just another form of imprisonment. You clearly have to abandon your true nature just to stay in your princess’s good graces”
Discord pouted childishly “Nu uh! I’ve done nothing of the sort!” “Oh please, I’ve seen this before!” Tirek responded as Discord’s lip began to quiver. “But he was always weak minded. You are Discord, you are legend! You cannot fall into the same trap as my poor brother. Join me Discord! Help me to grow strong and be rewarded!”
“And what could you possibly offer me that Luna can’t!” Discord asked with a quirked brow.
“Freedom” Tirek responds, a grin slowly spreading across his face “When I have stripped these ponies of their magic, nothing would make me happier than to see their precious little world turned upside down. Who better to do so than the Lord of Chaos himself? Unless of course...Princess’s lapdog is the role you always aspired to in this life” Discord frowned, glancing at a picture of himself and Luna at the April Foal’s day carnival about half a century earlier. Slowly Discord raised his claw. He snapped his talons once...and the chains fell away from Tirek’s arms. A grin spread over his face. “That was almost too easy” He thought.
“No! He couldn’t have!” Luna cried as the report came in. Discord wearing a magician’s outfit, helping Tirek steal a whole blessing’s magic, Tirek himself growing monstrous on a diet of pure magic. His form restored, and his powers starting to regain their former nightmarish qualities. He had begun to steal earth pony strength and pegasus flight. But the worst, for Luna at least, was the betrayal of the Draceques that she had counted as her friend for almost a thousand years. Celestia comforted her as best she could “Sister…” Whispered Celestia to the sniffling alicorn. “We have to give Lyra a fighting chance…” Luna blew her nose loudly into a hoofkerchief sucked down a shuttering breath, and nodded. “Send...send her the summons”
Hours later Discord felt the most tremendous of shudders going down his spine, cutting like daggers right into his heart. “T-that can’t be right” He mutters as Tirek lets the earth pony he was draining fall to the ground. “What can’t be right?” Growled the centaur.
“N-nothing...that was the last one right? All that’s left is Ponyville and Canterlot?”
Tirek smirked “Ah, yes. What say you we pay your precious pony princess a visit”
Discord nodded, snapping his fingers, the two disappearing and reappearing just outside Canterlot’s gates. “I’ll leave this to you, and I’ll go secure the throne room.” Discord said brightly, leaving Tirek to feed and heading for the castle proper, dreading what he might find in there. “Oh please don’t be dead...please, oh please, don’t be dead!” He whispered as he made his way inside. The three princesses were sitting stoically in their thrones. Luna set her eyes down on Discord, her glare hot enough to melt stone. “You were my best friend… I hope you’re proud of yourself.” Before Discord could reply the doors were thrown open and Tirek marched in.
“Hmm...you made them sit and behave. I have to admit I expected more fighting and screaming.” Discord bowed low, backing away from the three thrones as Tirek grabbed Luna by the throat. He opened his mouth, attempting to rip her magic from her...only to find nothing. He blinks, and tries with Celestia, then Cadence. “What have you done? Where is your magic!” Luna simply grinned before being tossed back across the throne room, landing in a heap with her sister and niece. “Hmph...Discord, you know the Princesses...where would she store her magic?” “If I would have to hazard a guess...” Discord said slyly, twirling a finger through his beard “Discord no!” Luna cried.
“I’d have to say it’d be with her dear student, Princess Heartstrings. She lives in a library in Ponyville” Tirek’s grin widened as Luna’s face fell.
“Discord, in honor of our partnership and as a sign of my loyalty, I want you to have something.” Tirek removed his necklace and held it out to Discord “This was given to me by someone very close to me, I want you to have it.” Discord beams and accepts the necklace. “Give my regards” Tirek said, turning to face Luna and the other princesses “To Cerberus” The three suddenly found their bodies wrapped in chains, they were thrown into a portal one after another, Luna the last to go, tears starting to form in her eyes as she stares at her former friend. Discord swallowed a lump in his throat as the portal closed. He shook himself and sighed. “Ponyville?” He asked Tirek. “Ponyville”
The village was quiet, nopony had dared to leave their house save for five very familiar little ponies. “Discord!” Screwball squealed, running over to the Chaotic trickster. “Are you here for our end of the world party?”
“Of course Screwy! I brought sandwiches!...I suspect they’ll be the last meal good meal you’ll be eating for a long time.” She and the other element bearers suddenly found themselves in a cage as Tirek approached. “This is all of them?” He asked with a growl.
‘Yup! Even got her lil Flutterpony too!” Gossamer buzzed indignantly inside the large glass jar Discord had placed her in. “Why?” Derpy whimpered, clutching onto Bon Bon. “Why? Because Tirek offered me so much more than just one day of fun a year! Surely you saw this coming?”
“I didn’t” Screwball said slowly, her mane starting to straighten out “I really didn’t” The cage slowly lifted as a ball formed between Tirek’s horns. Discord sighed and politely looked away as Tirek drained each pony of their magic, flight, and strength respectively, the new found strength causing Tirek to grow an additional 5 feet. “You really think she’d do anything for them?” Tirek asked. “But of course! If Lyra’s friends are in danger she’d do just about anything to get them back! And once you defeat her the world will be ours!”
“Who said anything about, ours?” Tirek asked suddenly, his eyes glinting.
“You did…” Discord responded in barely a squeak as an orange glow surrounded him, preventing his escape and lifting him from the ground. “You helped me grow stronger, and you provided the means from which I can take Princess Lyra’s magic...and now you are no longer of any use to me” Discord screamed as his own brand of magic, his very essence was sucked from his body, his eyes rolling back as the pain of it all dragged on for what seemed like days...then his body fell into the dirt. “But...but you said...you gave me this” He held the necklace up “You said it was given to you by...by someone-” “My brother.” Tirek responded coldly “It’s as worthless as he is!”
Tirek began to stomp away, draining the towns ponies of magic as he passed every house. “Surely you saw this coming” Bon bon responded with cold snark from within the cage.
Discord moped for a moment before suddenly brightening “As a matter of fact” He said, reaching into the little tuft on the tip of his tail, and pulling out a tiny purple crystal. “I was counting on it.” He said mischievously.He popped the crystal into his mouth, cracked it open, and sighed. “Oh thank goodness, just enough.” “Hey!” Screw ball shouted “What the heck’s goin’ on here!”
“Screwy, Screwy” Discord chidded gently as he raised his talon “Haven’t you ever heard of an inside job?” He snapped his claws just as a shout rang out “Princess Lyra!” The owner of the voice suddenly appeared floating in mid air, suspended by the glow in Discord’s claw.
“You have...wait..” Tirek suddenly became aware that he had left the slight cliff he had been standing on. “I drained your magic! How is this possible!”
“Well Tirek, as much of a wonderful friend as Luna is, I never ever let her forget that she can be completely wrong about some things, and apart from her approach to chocolate milk, you are the biggest thing she’s ever been wrong about.” Discord grinned. “See I knew as long as you had your powers, you’d be able to come back eventually, maybe a few centuries from now, but you’d return and make a mess of things again. There would’ve been nothing that could stop you from taking ponies’ magic. That’s where I come in! See thanks to a bit of squirreling away some magic, I now have just a tiny bit of my magic, and a great big window into yours!” Discord’s eyes glinted wickedly as he drills his fist deep into Tirek’s chest. “Now lets see what we can change.”
Tirek began to scream, both out of pain and rage as the newly crowned princess settled down next to the cage her friends were in.
Discord continued to play doctor for a few moments before pulling away. “There, now any ponies you hurt and all their descendents will have my blessing laced into their own magic, you won’t be able to touch them any more.” Discord ripped his own magic out of Tirek’s chest, placing it back within himself, before giving the five ponies inside the cage their own abilities back along with six very familiar sets of jewliery. “Princess, would you care to do the honors?” He asked. Lyra blinked, a grin slowly forming on her face. “With pleasure!” “Pull!” Discord shot a screaming centaur into the air as the rainbow death beam hit it from the ground. The withered husk of the centaur fell back into tartarus, still writhing and mumbling “Too sweet...need hatred!” The magic that escaped from him flew like tiny ghosts back to their respective ponies.
“Ah there we go. Good riddance to bad rubbish” Discord said, dusting off his hands. “Now..Princess, there’s one more thing we have to do...do you think you can work a miracles?” “I don’t think so Discord...why?” Lyra asked, a tiny bit curious, and a tiny bit afraid. “Oh because the place we’re going is no where near as scary as the very ticked off princess we gotta save from it”
A few minutes and a very large chew toy later Discord and Lyra had made their way into Tartarus and had little trouble locating the bound princesses. Discord set about freeing them as Lyra briefly summarized what had transpired in their absence.
“So what you’re saying is...you knew from the start that he’d attempt to take your magic, after completely draining every pony in all of equestria of theirs, then you’d use that as a way to keep him from ever ripping anypony else’s magic out ever again?” Luna asked, with a quirked brow.
“Well..Duh! Isn’t it obvious? I mean anypony could see that betrayal coming from a mile away!” He scoffed, folding his arms as the five began to make their way out past cerberus and towards the world of the living again.
“I don’t know…” Lyra chimed in “I kind of thought we’d have this big epic battle and I’d have to save your betraying behind along with the rest of my friends when he used you for leverage” “Yeah!” Cadence shouted “And he’d destroy her library too!” “Why?” Lyra asked, rounding on Cadence, who simply shrugged and said “Bad guy” “And then she and her friends would get really weird looking makeover powers, defeat him in a infinitely less amazing battle, and get this weird tree castle house thing out of it!” “Oh puh-lease!” Discord groaned as they got out into the sunlight “Now you sound like you’re trying to sell toys or something!”
