After being imprisoned in stone twice, Discord gets his second chance...
After being imprisoned in stone twice, Discord gets his second chance at living in Equestria, and to guide him are Princesses Luna and Celestia, who have to put up with the antics of their older brother as he tries to adjust back to his former life.
(Quick disclaimer n' all that: I do not own my little pony nor any of it's characters, and copyright goes to Hasbro and Lauren Faust. I do not hold any claim over the music used in this chapter, and this chapter is also just the introduction of the OC ponies that will be interacting with each other during this story, so feel free to skip this if desired, this is more or less just a way to introduce them.)
In Manehattan, the sun is setting, and ponies are going back to their homes, grateful to get some needed rest for the next busy day. Unfortunately, most of these ponies, unless they got piss drunk, wouldn't get more than a few hours sleep, Manehattan being the noisy, sleepless city it is, what with all the parties and traffic passing to and fro. A white unicorn mare with a pink mane was walking towards an apartment complex, wearing a rather scruffy backpack that looked as if it had seen better days, and a pair of headphones on her ears, playing music that was drowning out the noises that came with living in Manehattan. She entered the apartment complex, and she trotted up a few staircases to find the room she was looking for, 227. She disliked elevators, and often used the stairs instead. She murmured to herself as she finally reached the floor where room 227 should be.
"Alright...Let's see...224...225...226...227! Yeah, here we go!" The mare opened the backpack, and used magic to probe around for a key. She sighed as she rooted through her backpack, then, deciding that it was a waste of time to look for the key she desperately needed this way, upended the entire backpack for the world to see it's contents. If you could count the world as an elderly couple walking past the mare with disapproving looks on their faces. The mare ignored them, and continued to root through the items that were formerly in her backpack. Scattered bits, a few cans of Red Pegasus, an extra pair of headphones, and two daisy sandwiches that she bought from a nearby deli were all tossed around as the mare looked for the key. She let out a groan of frustration.
"Great! Now what do I do?!" She kicked her backpack, and it flew, right into the face of a light blue pegasus mare with a long, silvery mane that happened to be hovering slightly in the air. Not expecting an attack by an old and ragged backpack, the pegasus swore quietly as the backpack disturbed her balance in the air, and fell to the floor with a decently sounding crash, her head audibly smacking into a wall. The unicorn gasped, pulled her headphones off her ears, and ran over to a very dazed pegasus, apologizing to her rapidly.
"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, Viddy, I swear I didn't mean to do that! Please, please don't send me out there on the streets, I couldn't bear to live through it all over again!" The pegasus named 'Viddy' looked up, irritated at her friend. It wasn't the first time that she was assaulted in some manner, and she wondered why she didn't just tell her to leave her apartment. Then she remembered how pitiful the unicorn looked when she first saw her, and decided to take her in. Of course, that sweet memory sometimes wasn't enough to suppress the urges to strangle the unicorn that 'Viddy' got when things turned out badly for her. The pegasus got up, shaking her limbs out to make sure nothing felt broken. Thankfully, nothing was, although her head hurt from colliding with a wall. She glared at the unicorn, who smiled sheepishly at her.
"For the last time, my name is Vidhwansak, and you shouldn't be kicking backpacks in an apartment complex, Gydina, what if you hurt someone and we get evicted?!"
Gydina sighed, and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know. Sorry, Vidhwansak." The pegasus sighed, grabbed the key awkwardly from a side-pouch in the backpack (Gydina inwardly cursed at not checking the zipped up side pockets), and opened the door to the apartment room that they shared. Gydina was left behind to pick up the contents of her backpack and place them back inside again. The apartment room itself was a fairly standard room in Manehattan, which meant that by other cities standards, it was pretty bad. Then again, Vidhwansak didn't really have the bits to afford better housing, and with Gydina freeloading off her until she could find a job (In which she was supposedly still trying to find work), she hardly had the bits to maintain her most prized possession in the room, a sleek, if slightly dented computer in a corner of the room, sent away from any prying eyes that just happened to look through the apartment room's windows. Gydina, bored, replaced her headphones on her ears, and swapped to a song she particularly enjoyed. Vidhwansak sighed, and yanked Gydina's headphones off her ears, and a very agitated unicorn whined.
"What did I do this time, Vidhwansak?!" The pegasus placed the headphones carefully on a coffee table near a sofa, which was where Gydina slept. Vidhwansak rolled her eyes, and frowned.
"You've been listening to that kind of music all day. How about a change of pace?" Gydina groaned as calming music flowed through Vidhwansak's computer. While the unicorn was grate in being able to stay here with her, the pegasus' favorite music choices weren't Gydina's at all. The pegasus sat down on a chair in front of the computer, and began to type. Curious, Gydina looked over her shoulder, and saw that she was writing a story.
"What's it about, Viddy?" The pegasus rolled her eyes as the unicorn reverted back to using the nickname she had for her, but decided to let it pass. It wasn't worth trying to tell her more than once what she wanted from the unicorn, and if the pegasus was honest with herself, she thought it was kind of cute. Nevertheless, she sighed, and answered the prying unicorn.
"It's a story I'm writing, and I've just finished the first chapter. Excuse me, I'm going to get something to eat, I promise you won't do anything while I'm gone?" Gydina rolled her eyes. Sure, she had her faults, but it wasn't as if she was going to nuke the apartment! Although, that would be cool...Her thoughts were distracted as Vidhwansak coughed, glaring pointedly at her. Gydina nodded slowly. Satisfied, Vidhwansak walked out the door, closing it gently. Gydina then remembered that one of the two daisy sandwiches she had was for the pegasus that just left. Facehoofing, Gydina decided to eat them both, and gently pulled the wrapper off one of them. Looking over at what Vidhwansak wrote on the computer, Gydina flipped through it, and smiled. Vidhwansak had quite a story here. She took the saved chapter, and quickly typed in the url of a website she knew all too well. She made an account under Vidhwansak's name, and posted the chapter that Vidhwansak made. All she had to do now was wait for the story to be accepted, and hopefully, Vidhwansak wouldn't kill her for doing this.
Luna was walking down a hallway in the castle, completely and utterly bored, no questions asked. The pictures of long dead aristocrats hung along the hallway, and mentions of their achievements to deserve such an honor were engraved underneath the pictures. She rolled her eyes as she remembered that it was most likely the descendants of those aristocrats that she was just finished dealing with earlier over the ridiculous demands of the latest bill that they wanted to pass into law. There was just so much one could do and take in royal ‘company’, and she wanted the close comfort of an actual friend more than anything else right now, to shut out the annoying voices of the aristocracy and their demands in her head.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t likely to happen, mostly because she was a princess, partly because of the stuffy variety of ponies in Canterlot, which limited her already limited pool of potential friends, and last of all, she had to set an example to her and Celestia’s subjects. Oh, she’d give them quite an example, alright, and if they didn’t like it, they could kiss her flank! Shaking her head slightly, she began to think of the older days, with her sister, Celestia. Those were countless untold years ago, but they still felt like yesterday to Luna, having been used to the passage of time.
Eventually, her thoughts drifted off to when she was imprisoned in the cold, dark moon. No matter how much she was occupied with, her thoughts always came back to the moon, and with that, the regret that she could not restrain her jealousy and being sent to the moon, away from the sister she loved. Despite sleeping most of the time while she was there, it wasn’t a pleasant sleep filled with dreams. The nightmares inside her mind plagued her, and she doubted she’d ever be free of them. She always wondered if Celestia remembered that she was up there, and if anypony at all remembered who she was, or even cared.
Then, her thoughts took her to a completely different direction, one she didn’t particularly enjoy nor thought that they would take her. Discord, a draconequus, and formerly an Alicorn, now set in stone once again and placed in the palace gardens by the Elements of Harmony, roughly one thousand years ago. She missed them, but like all normal ponies, eventually they, too, would pass away. She could only wonder what it was like, being imprisoned in stone. Discord probably deserved it, being a fallen Alicorn. But not just any Alicorn, he was also Celestia’s and Luna’s older brother. Most ponies wouldn't be able to recognize him, however, nor be able to put together that he was once an Alicorn; much less that he was their brother.
His fall into a draconequus wasn’t a pleasant one. He had a terrible run-in with that one plant, poison joke, and the effect seemed to distort his personality, alter his appearance, and changed his powers, which were formerly the powers of neutrality, not the forces of chaos as thought previously by pony historians. Most of those same historians would have laughed at the thought of poison joke being that life-changing, especially when compared to the same plant today.
However, unlike the poison joke of today, the poison joke of then was much, much more potent and deadly. No pony laughed at the sickening results of being in contact with the plant. Ponies who came in contact with that awful plant usually died, and if they did not die, they were usually crippled beyond help, the most common of ailments being that unicorns lost their magic, earth ponies lost much of their strength, and pegasai either lost the use of their wings, or no longer had hollow bones, in which they could no longer walk on clouds. If they were truly cursed by bad luck, they would have both inflicted upon them. Those were only the common ailments, but they were so dreadful that any worse cases were immediately deemed too cruel for the afflicted pony to continue living, and so they were most often immediately burned at stake. It certainly was a cruel joke on ponies, and was often mentioned in threats and acts of torture, but thankfully, its actual use was very low, as it was very dangerous to handle and only reserved for the most extreme circumstances, or used in complete stupidity.
As he was unable to control his new powers of chaos due to always having something to offset them, as was the law of neutrality, he was sealed off in stone by Celestia and Luna many, many years ago, as a precaution, both unwanted and needed, when they were just fillies. Bitter in having this decision made for him, he swore that when he was out of his imprisonment that he would exact his revenge and reclaim himself as their older brother, changed or not, and rule over Equestria once again. His one attempt at making chaos seemed more like the attempt of a filly trying to make a picture of her family, and that’s what gave Luna a bit of interest in Discord.
Could it be that he was joking about obtaining revenge, simply played out one large (If very cruel) joke on Ponyville, and planned to apologize to his sisters later? She would have thought that he would’ve caused a lot more than pink cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate milk if he was actually out for revenge. Unfortunately, he had no such time for an apology, as he was placed back into his imprisonment in stone with the help of Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and the Elements of Harmony, just after he took complete control of Ponyville. He had been stuck in stone for as long as she could remember ever since his release and a thought suddenly came into her mind.
What if he changed as well? Surely he would have learned some sense of moderation in causing chaos and control over his powers, as well as knowing that some ponies don’t like jokes. Sure, there was that time where he made a mockery of Celestia and Ponyville, but she was sure that he changed, if her one thousand year exile to the moon changed her, she was sure that his exile, however long it was (As she forgot) would be more than enough for him to finally return to his senses and rule with his sisters together, as they should have been doing, all these years.
She sighed, and found herself walking by her sister’s room, with two pegasai and unicorn guards by the doors. Curious to see if she was in there, and if Celestia would agree with her, Luna shooed the guards away. “Leave me be,” she said in a commanding voice. “I wish to speak to my sister with full privacy of a most urgent matter.” She knew that her speech was a little odd at times, but that was only around any royal guards, it made her seem a little more commanding. The guards bowed, and quickly left no trace of them ever standing guard by Celestia’s door, just as a royal guard was trained to do. Luna smiled, opened the door slightly, as to not disturb Celestia with whatever she was doing, and took a peek inside Celestia’s room.
Her sister’s room was dark, and she couldn’t see her sister anywhere inside her bedroom, which worried Luna. Could she have gone on a night walk without somehow alerting the royal guard where she was going? Luna quickly dismissed the idea, for it was quickly nearing winter. Celestia wouldn’t purposefully be walking out in the cold. She entered the room slowly, cautious, in case Celestia had set up a trap for anypony that was going to disturb her, and that pony right now was Luna, assuming she was still in the room. She called out her sister’s name softly.
“Celly? Are you in here?” A quiet moan reached her ears from the bed at the far side of the room. Luna flinched, quickly realizing her mistake, and quickly tried to escape through the door. Unfortunately, the door closed with the familiar pink wave of magic she knew all too well. Sheepishly, she turned around to meet with the image of her sister, complete with an annoyed face and exasperation in her eyes.
“Luna, what is it this time? You know it’s time for me to sleep.” Celestia said grumpily, and Luna cursed herself. She had forgotten that Celestia slept during the night, ruled over Equestria over the day, and vice versa for Luna. Still, she thought, now would be as good a time as any other, and so with that in mind, Luna strolled into Celestia’s room, careful to close the door behind her. While most of the castle staff would be off on their rounds, and the guards by the door were gone, there was always still the chance of somepony passing by and just happening to listen into their conversations. Luna sat down near Celestia, not knowing where to start. Celestia waited as her sister drew her composure, and began speaking.
“Well, ‘Tia, it’s about Discord.” Celestia groaned, and sat up, giving her sister a glare. For the love of Equestria, was that all she woke her up for? Celestia had expected something actually pressing, if Luna had conveniently forgotten that this was her sleep cycle. Idle chatter about Discord could’ve waited for some other time, he certainly wasn’t going anywhere. Being turned into stone for the second time in a row does that to you. Then again, Celestia was slightly curious why Luna would bring him up now, of all times, which brought her a little more attention than the boring and pathetic bills that tried to pass on as laws around here, damned aristocracy. But only a little.
“What about him, Luna? Now, I know he’s our older brother, but there was never a need to bring him up in any of our discussions. Wait, don’t tell me, he’s free again and making more of those yummy pink, fluffy clouds similar to cotton candy that also happen to produce chocolate rain?” Luna rolled her eyes at the sarcastic sentence at the end, and decided to just get to get to the point, if she ever wanted to get somewhere with Celestia. Her sister had an annoying habit of downplaying certain things at times.
“I think it’s time Discord has his renascent back to Equestria, as a fellow monarch to Equestria.” Luna said softly. Celestia stared at Luna for awhile, and then her gaze hardened. Luna had to be joking. Then again, she wasn’t in Equestria when Discord was released, having been sent away to practice her negotiation skills with the Gryphons. The look Celestia was giving Luna made her more than a little worried now. Celestia probably wasn’t going to take this very well. She wasn’t sure if she should continue speaking, but she did so anyway, since she wasn’t about to back down. “Think about it, sister. I was trapped in the moon for a thousand years.” Celestia winced. Okay, Luna thought, she hit a rather sensitive nerve; it was time to trap Celestia and expand on it. “Discord has been trapped in stone for nearly twice that, if not more.
“I know he caused a lot of problems when he was first released back into Equestria, but don’t you think he’s learned his lesson about jokes and moderation of such things, ‘Tia? The ‘revenge’ that he had on us was nothing more then a few pranks and jokes, ‘Tia, he didn’t do anything terribly wrong, other than cause some discomfort to Ponyville. Surely all that time after he’s been in stone again has taught him a lesson in underestimating the power of the Elements, as well as not giving you a good time in Canterlot by the agitated aristocracy.” Celestia frowned. She was convinced that her sister’s train of thought had been derailed badly and heading straight towards the edge of a cliff. Release Discord, their older and more powerful brother from his otherwise eternal imprisonment in stone? Sure, Luna had her reasons, but they weren’t enough for her to seriously consider it.
“Luna, the last thing I want to see is Discord running rampant and causing more chaos. Now I know he’s been in stone for a long time (Celestia herself had forgotten just how long Discord was in stone this time), but I can’t take the chance. I highly doubt Discord has even heard of the word ‘moderation’, either that, or he’s conveniently forgotten the meaning of the word. Chaos doesn’t need nor want any kinds of moderation or limits, Luna.
“I admit that while what he did wasn’t exactly life threatening and I probably would have done just for the hay of it to get some revenge on the aristocracy, but this is Discord, and Discord would eventually get bored of doing such childish things. He’ll want to cause more chaos, Luna, and I can’t let that happen if it comes to harming other ponies for his own enjoyment. And don’t say that replacing the sugar with salt when you’re not looking causes harm to you, Luna.” Luna sighed. Her sister could be so dense at times! Discord, for all intents and purposes, was still once an Alicorn and was their older brother!
“Sister, listen to yourself! You’re suggesting that Discord stays trapped; imprisoned as a stone statue of himself for Equestria knows how long! Can you at least give him a second chance, like you gave me one?” Another low blow, but Luna decided that she was going to need every little bit of help to level the discussion in her favor. She paused for effect, which made Celestia bop Luna on the nose with a hoof, impatient with her.
“Is there anything else you’d like to add, Luna?” Celestia said quietly. Luna’s arguments about Discord were logical, and she did miss her older brother. Although she had her own opinion about the matter, she decided to wait and see if Luna had anything else to say about Discord before she shared her own opinion about their older brother. She waited as an indignant Luna rubbed her nose with a wing.
“And stop replacing the sugar when I’m not looking, Celly! It’s bad enough I have to make another cup of coffee, never mind actually trying to find where the sugar is!” Celestia rolled her eyes and got off her bed. She cast a look that read ‘you’re going to be in big trouble one day’, and walked outside her room. Luna followed, wondering what was going on in her sister’s head. Her answer came in the form of a sigh.
“Luna, it’s hard. Not seeing either of you for such a long time has been difficult for me, and now that you’re back with me, I feel so much better. But if Discord rejoins us, we risk having Equestria under chaos by our big brother. However…” She said, cutting Luna off. “I have been working on a spell that can revert a fallen Alicorn back to their former self, and it requires nothing more then the Elements of Harmony and a bit of our own power. I doubt that the timing of this was sheer coincidence. Luna, let’s reclaim our older brother, but only, and only, on one condition.” Luna was now terrified. Whenever her sister had a term or condition on something, it was either something very simple, or one that was extremely cruel. As much as she wanted to see Discord again, she did not want to spend another one thousand years on the moon, for his sake.
“And…What is that condition, Celesta?” She murmured softly. Celestia winked at Luna, and began to walk outside, towards the palace garden, stopping as she reached the pedestal where Discord’s statue formerly was one thousand years ago. Luna watched as Celestia took a few breaths of the crisp, cold air, and mentally prepared herself for Celestia’s decree.
“We give him the choice of accepting it or not.” Celestia said simply. Luna gave a quiet sigh of relief. At least it wasn’t something that was going to involve her being banished again. “However, Luna, bear in mind that if he refuses and decides to reclaim the throne for himself, we have a potential power struggle that will quite possibly rip Equestria apart, as well as open up a juicy opportunity for foreign lands to invade us, Luna, so I believe that would be punishment enough for you if this goes wrong. Also, ponies will question the appearance of a third Alicorn, so I’ll leave all the explaining to you.” Luna cringed, and nodded slowly.
That was going to be rather…Interesting, especially if Discord insisted on making jokes all the time and bending the laws of physics. Drinking a glass and leaving the beverage behind was going to creep more than a few ponies out, as well as randomly getting items for his own use, as was told by Twilight Sparkle when Discord somehow managed to make some items appear without apparently knowing he wanted or needed them at the time. Luna herself was researching into this, hoping to tap into a new kind of magic. Suddenly, she realized that something just wasn’t right. She looked around for the statue of her big brother, and couldn’t see anything resembling the hideous creature he now was.
“Where is he, ‘Tia? Didn’t you have him returned back to Canterlot after the chaos he caused in Ponyville?” Celestia pointed a hoof towards the labyrinth, smiling. Luna’s heart sank. She never bothered to go through the labyrinth and its twists and turns, tricks and surprises ever since she came back, and now she was greatly regretting the decision, which could have saved her having to ask her last question.
“I figured that it’d be safer if Discord’s statue was in the middle of the labyrinth, since nopony goes in there anyway. Clever, huh, Luna?” Luna facehoofed. She should have known that Celestia would have placed him in the labyrinth, although, now that she thought about it, the Everfree forest wasn’t that bad of a choice, either.
Celestia smiled, and began to casually trot down to the beginning of the labyrinth, thinking about Luna and her occasional loss of thought. Her sister could overlook so many things, but then again, she was younger than her, and happened to look at things in a different light while taking other things for granted. Celestia remembered that Discord would have often done the same for her, and the memory of one such event where he told her that butterflies weren’t evil incarnations of pegasai brought a sigh from her. How was Discord going to react at the possible chance of being his former self? She couldn’t even remember what he looked like, much less if he was going to accept the offer at all. After heading a few feet into the entrance, she looked behind her, and saw that Luna wasn’t joining her. Curious, Celestia walked back to Luna, who frowned slightly.
“Do we really need to walk through the maze to get to Discord, Luna? I mean, couldn’t we just fly above, or teleport directly into the middle of the maze? It’s almost winter, and I don’t want to be out in the cold for too long.” Celestia placed a wing over Luna, and guided her to the start of the labyrinth, shaking her head.
"No, Luna, I don’t enjoy the cold anymore than you do, but we can’t enter the middle of the maze by those means because I placed a few spells here that would…Discourage any unicorns or pegasai from attempting such a thing. There is a strong magic field that prevents direct teleportation into the labyrinth, and that same field prevents pegasai from entering from the air. I used enough magic to halt even Alicorn power level spells, so I didn’t need to worry much if somepony was going to free Discord from his imprisonment. Sure, there are the earth ponies who’d just walk through the thing, but, whatever.” Celestia walked into the maze, whistling a rather familiar tune. Luna sighed, and glumly entered the labyrinth after a bit of hesitation. The labyrinth was huge, and she didn’t want the aristocracy to start worrying where the princesses were. Despite having lots of misgivings, she couldn’t help but love her subjects…Or at least, pretend to.
“I suppose if it’s the only way, we’ll go through the maze.” Celestia smiled, and galloped off into the maze. Luna, not wanting to lose sight of her sister, galloped after her, realizing that she needed a good stretch of her legs after all that time arguing with the latest generation aristocracy on how breakfast was supposed to be served and what would be considered breakfast. Really, the potential banning of hay bacon strips because they were too fattening and unappealing, while having breakfast served by mares in skimpy maid dresses? Luna didn’t even know how she got talked into that, and she honestly didn’t want to remember why. Some things were just better off being forgotten. She called out after Celestia, who was slowly edging further and further away from her field of vision.
“Celly! Could you slow down a bit, Discord isn’t going anywhere!” Celestia sighed, and slowed down from the fast paced gallop to a more manageable trot. Luna caught up with her sister, gasping for breath. Celestia casted an amused look over at Luna, who glared breathlessly at her sister.
“Luna, you should really exercise more, it’s good for your health! Don’t tell me you’d actually prefer staying at the castle and listening to the aristocracy argue about pointless things. What was it this time, anyway?” Celestia inquired, turning a corner, stopped, and sat on her haunches at a three-way intersection, appearing to think about their next turn. Luna knew that this was just to help her catch her breath, but she was thankful for it anyway, sat down next to her sister, pressing her coat against Celestia’s in a vain attempt to keep warm, and responded to Celestia’s question with ill-disguised temper.
“The aristocracy wanted me to pass a law that Canterlot maids should be mares only, wear skimpy maid outfits, and ban hay bacon strips from breakfast due to them being ‘too fattening and unappealing, suitable for only common ponies’. Some of those ponies could use the fat!” Celestia stared at her sister disbelievingly, and then her face split into a wide grin.
“Hmm…I’ve always preferred my maids being mares, and I also wouldn’t mind seeing my maids in skimpy outfits…I’d have to cut out the hay bacon part, though, I like my strips in the morning. Other than that, I’ll pass the bill on!” Luna stared at her sister, and slowly shook her head in disbelief and pity for herself.
“No matter how long I’ve been with you, ‘Tia, you still manage to confuse me whether or not you’re joking, for all these years.” Celestia giggled, and draped a wing over her sister, guiding her back to her hooves. Luna slowly stretched her limbs out, smiling as she felt her muscles ripple underneath her coat. Celestia just watched her sister, waiting until she stretched herself out sufficiently, and then continued on into the maze. Luna followed at an even trot, feeling a little better after the short rest she just had. A thought crossed her mind, and she paled at the realization that they might have to return back to Canterlot, back to the idiotic aristocracy, just when they got so far into the labyrinth. She stopped, and Celestia turned her head around when she realized that Luna wasn’t keeping pace with her.
“Luna, is there something wrong? Do you need another rest?” Celestia walked back over to Luna, and draped a wing over on her back. Luna sighed, and asked her sister the thought that was troubling her.
“Sister…Aren’t the Elements of Harmony back at the castle…?” Celestia blinked, and then gave a look of horror at Luna, who groaned. Now they had to go back and get the Elements, then go back out in the cold again! Her new thoughts were pierced by a guffaw from her sister. Luna glared at her, and Celestia shook her head, her eyes filled with mirth.
“Oh, Luna, all these years, and you’re still just an easy tease!” Seeing the hurt look on Luna’s face, Celestia decided it was best to tell Luna where the elements really were, to lessen the blow. “I kept the Elements in the labyrinth as well. That vault in the castle that supposedly kept the Elements? They’re just well-made copies. Well, seeing as Discord was able to steal the Elements from the vault ever so easily last time, I decided that in the event that he ever gets released somehow again that I should hide them where he’d never look. So I put them right in front of him!” Luna frowned. Placing the Elements right in front of their older brother? She had to be joking; no pony does something crazy like that. Then again, her sister wasn’t like other ponies.
“Forgive me, sister, but…THAT’S COMPLETELY CRAZY. Why would you do such a thing?! You know that Discord thinks differently from us! You don’t trust some…Thing like him!” Celestia shook her head, smiled, and gave her explanation for her reasoning behind such a thing.
“Luna, weren’t you the one who told me earlier to trust him?” Luna sighed. That wasn’t the point! Why would her sister leave the most powerful relics of all ponykind right in front of Discord? Celestia continued on, her smile growing wider. “Discord would wonder why I just placed the Elements right in front of him, just within his grasp. Since there would be no rational reason for me to place our most powerful relics so close to him, he would assume that the moment he touches one of them, a trap will go off. It’s the perfect reasoning!”
Luna frowned. She didn’t at all agree with her sister’s judgment. “You’re assuming that Discord will think that you were thinking logically by placing a fake but not fake, trapped dummy version of the elements but really aren’t trapped and are the actual relics, right in front of him? Sister, he’s chaos, he doesn’t think nor do things rationally. He drinks glass, for Equestria’s sake! What if he decides to take the Elements anyway?” Celestia shrugged.
“Well, seeing as nopony has actually bothered to explore the labyrinth for centuries, much less want to revive Discord, I didn’t really think or plan that far ahead.” Luna facehoofed while trying to maintain what little patience she had left for her sister.
“’Tia…” She broke off as a chill wind swept over them, and she shuddered. Celestia, seeing this, pressed her warm coat against Luna’s, smiling.
“We’re almost there, Luna. In fact, he should be just around the corner…” Luna sighed. At the very least, they could go ahead and see if Discord was any the wiser after the last time he got released. She’d thought he’d be a fool to be separated and against her sisters for a second time, after seeing what happened to him the first time. As they rounded the corner, there he was, on top of a pedestal, and surrounding him, the Elements of Harmony. They found Discord, and slowly made their way over to him Luna whispered softly, so softly that Celestia almost didn’t catch it.
“It’s been a long time, brother.” They walked towards the statue.
Vidhwansak smiled as she tipped the waiter seven bits. It was a beautiful dusky evening, and she just had herself a rather pleasing hay salad. She got up from her table, allowing a young couple to take her place. She winked at the two, who blushed, and made her way towards her apartment complex. Her happy mood subsided slight at the thought that Gydina might have caused damage in some way to her apartment room. That unicorn was crazy and crude, and yet, Vidhwansak couldn't help but like the mare. She was the total opposite of her, and yet, she could connect to her in so many ways. It reminded her of that one couple...What were their names again? Oh, yes, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia!
Soon enough, however, her thinking was soon brought back to Gydina as Vidhwansak stood right outside her apartment room. What kind of crazy antics could she expect from her room mate this time? Hopefully, it wasn't going to involve a huge mess that would have to be cleaned up. She groaned, mentally prepared herself, and entered the room. Surprisingly, there was no mess, no disturbing odors that Vidhwansak could detect, and it was quiet. Cautious, Vidhwansak slowly walked around in her apartment room. Nothing. Gydina herself was asleep on the sofa, snoring rather loudly. Smiling, Vidhwansak left a few bits for Gydina, and her eyes flickered over to the computer. She could get on with writing more of her story now.
As she turned on the computer, she remembered that she left an application on that had the story she was writing. Oh well, as long as she didn't have to rewrite the story, she was fine with Gydina looking at it. Then, an email notification sounded out. Curious as to who would email her at this time, Vidhwansak opened the email. It was short, only a sentence. A sentence, however, was all that was needed. Vidhwansak turned around to Gydina, who yawned, and sat up. She noticed that Vidhwansak was back, and smiled.
"Hey Viddy! How was your meal?" Her smile was replaced by a look of concern as Vidhwansak slowly got up from the computer, and walked threateningly towards Gydina. The unicorn guessed that she knew, and nervously shrugged, hoping to get out of the predicament that she was currently in. Even though she had magic, Gydina didn't want to hurt the pegasus who begrudgingly let her live in this room.
"N-Now Viddy, I know that you probably don't like what you saw there, but it's good, isn't it? I mean, your story can be publicly criticized and rated by anypony who reads it, which will make you want to make it better! T-That's good, right?" At this point, Vidhwansak was just within reach of Gydina, and the unicorn covered her face with her hooves, not wanting to see what Vidhwansak was going to do to her.
So she was surprised when something warm sat next to her, and was wrapped around her neck. Gydina slowly let her hooves down to find Vidhwansak hugging Gydina tightly, and slowly, she hugged her back. The two stayed like that for awhile, rocking back and forth, and Vidhwansak pulled away slowly, giving Gydina a sheepish look.
"Thanks, Gydina...If you hadn't sent the first chapter out, I probably would've never shown it to anypony at all, and would've just kept it all to myself. Thank you." Gydina was surprised, and blushed slightly. She never knew that Vidhwansak would've never sent it out. It seemed to be a pretty good read, even if it wasn't her type of thing. However, she guiltily played with a thought in her head, and decided it was best to confess.
"Well, err...Not just the first chapter, but also the second one." Vidhwansak rolled her eyes.
"It's fine. I..." She broke off. The second chapter? The one she just finished today, without having time to edit it? She glared daggers at Gydina, who squeaked in fear.
"Gydina, I hate you so much..." Gydina blinked, and shrugged.
Luna and Celestia slowly made their way to their imprisoned brother, each with their own mixed feelings. Luna didn't know why she wanted to go through with this, and why she wasn't back at the castle, sipping some hot chocolate to warm herself on this cold night. She wondered if her sister would actually go through with this spell that she said she had for Discord. Celestia herself was wistfully thinking about the warm bed that she left behind, which was now most likely cold. Her sister concerned her, and she wondered why she would think about freeing Discord from his imprisonment now, after all these years.
Then, there was Discord himself. He was a good brother to them, once, but after the encounter with the poison joke plant, she didn't trust him. Sure, she still loved him as a family member, and that would always stay like that, but she would rather trust Nightmare Moon over Discord any day. At least she could understand how Nightmare Moon felt. Discord...Was entirely different. After thousands of years of having no contact with him other than their brief exchange of words in Canterlot, Celestia was going to have to be careful in case she accidently says the wrong thing. However, with their brother now the embodiment of chaos, just what exactly was the wrong thing? Everything Discord stood for, Celestia was against, so it was going to be a very awkward starting conversation indeed.
Luna sighed, which snapped up the attention of Celestia quickly. Perhaps her sister had second thoughts about this? She poked at Luna's side gently with a wing, curious to know what she was thinking about. "Luna, what's on your mind?" Her sister looked up at her, and hesitated slightly. Luna didn't know how to word her exact thoughts, since they were based on a rather sensitive subject, one that was never brought up by them since they were fillies. Looking at the statue of Discord, Luna decided that now would be the time to bring up their parents.
"Celly, do you think Mother Earth and Father Heaven would be proud of us, of the things we've done, of how we ruled Equestria, and how we've used our power? Would they...Approve of us?" Celestia blinked. This was a surprise, and Celestia didn't quite know how to respond. They never did talk about their parents, although the exact reason for not doing so escaped Celestia. She supposed it was an unwritten taboo that was between them, due to the painful memories that came with their parents. Finally, Celestia smiled, and nodded reassuringly at Luna, who wasn't reassured at all.
"Of course, dear sister, we may have fallen out at times, but we've ruled over Equestria in peace for uncounted millenia. We may not be ruling over the entire world, as was what they might have wanted from us, but we're happy, and I think that's what they'd want from us, Luna, to be happy, and remember them fondly. They do have to create new worlds and cross other dimensions, but sometimes, I wish they would come by to visit us." Luna smiled back at her sister, and surprised Celestia by wrapping her hooves around her neck in a tight embrace. Sighing contentedly, Celestia returned the hug, using her wings to stabilize herself. After the warm, heartfelt hug the two shared, they continued walking towards the statue of their brother.
The Elements, arranged in a circle around Discord, seemed to glow softly, as if recognizing their presence. Even after complete decades of studying them, Celestia could not fathom on what made them the powerful relics they were. As the royal princesses neared the statue, they wordlessly circled around it, checking to see if there was any tampering of the statue or the Elements. You should never be too sure of yourself. Finding nothing, Celestia beckoned Luna to her, and sat down in the middle of the circle, right in front of Discord. She began to explain what her spell was going to do to the both of them, and if Luna still wanted to go through with it.
"Luna, before we summon Discord back from his otherwise eternal cursed form to being an alicorn like us, I obviously need to tell you what it is you must do in order to revert Discord back into being an alicorn. It's simple, really, it's just that...Well, seeing as this spell has only one specific use, I've never been able to test it, so...It might backfire on us." Luna rolled her eyes. Great, they were using an untested spell that could possibly backfire on them, all for the sake of their misguided older brother.
Seriously, why was she doing this? She could call it off, saying that trying such a feat with an unstable spell would be foolhardy at best. In fact, Luna could think of quite a few excuses just to leave now, but something inside of her told her that she needed to do this, for him. Sighing, Luna accepted that the risk would be needed if she ever wanted to see her brother again, as she doubted that Celestia would ever find a way to make the spell safer. Besides, they were here now, and walking all the way through the labyrinth for nothing wouldn't sit well with her when it was her time to sleep.
"It's alright, 'Tia, I'm sure we can handle any magical whiplash that could occur while casting this spell. What is it that I need to do?" Celestia gave an inward sigh of relief. She was worried that Luna would refuse to go along with the spell, and Celestia did not like the idea of going through the labyrinth, getting rejected at the very spot where Discord was, and then having to go through the entire labyrinth again to get out, all to return to a cold bed a few hours of sleep lost for the negotiations of the aristocracy and diplomats tomorrow.
"We simply gather our magic, augmented by the Elements of Harmony, and let our two waves of magic flow into one large sphere, enveloping Discord, assuming he wants to return to his former self. Then I need you to let go of your memories of Discord." Luna was confused. Let go of her memories of her older brother? What did that even mean, and why was it important to bringing Discord back?
"Why do I need to let go of the memories of my brother? Is there any specific reason why?" Celestia nodded, and tapped the side of her head gently.
"You've retained the memories of your brother much, much easier and much more of them than I have. When you were exiled to the moon, you were dreaming the whole time, were you not?" Luna nodded slowly, although not saying the fact that most of her 'dreams' were nightmares, but her older sister didn't need to know about that. Celestia, satisfied, continued her explanation. "You were diving through your memories, sister, and relived them. I'm assuming that you lived through most, if not all your memories, and there are certain things I want to make sure are right."
Luna tilted her head. What could Celestia have possibly forgotten about her older brother that would have made it necessary for her to part with her memories? Surely it was something important, if her sister was asking her to give up a memory, but what could it be? "Celly, what's so important about my memories of Discord?" Her sister hesitated, then gave a few giggles of embarrassment.
"Well, Luna, I...Err...Forgot what Discord looked like as an alicorn. Countless aristocrats do that to you when they get in your mane. So if we want him back to his true former self, we'll take the version that you saw him as from your memories, and hope everything goes well!" Luna stared at her sister, then slowly shook her head in disbelief.
"Well...Okay then, Celestia. After I give up a memory of what Discord looked like, what do I have to do?" Celestia looked up at the statue of Discord, and Luna saw a spark of hesitation burn through her sister's eyes.
"That's when the Elements of Harmony combine powers to remove the curse...In theory. It depends, Luna. Discord has to want to become an alicorn again, and without a part of him that wants to cause malice to me, you, or anypony else. If the Elements detect disharmony inside of him, they will either turn him into stone again, or something worse. In theory, of course." Luna sighed. So even after all this, there was a chance that the spell might fail.
"Well, we'll get there when we get there. So how do we...Uh, unstone Discord?" Celestia thought for a brief minute, grinned, and bopped Luna on the nose again. Luna recoiled, and with a very inappropriate language selection that she learned from the royal guards, swore at Celestia. "'Tia, don't DO that!" Celestia got up, and playfully ran around in circles in Luna, calling her by the nickname she's always hated and made Celestia swear to never call her by again.
"Oh, what's wrong, loony Lunatic~? Are you mad~? Is little loony Lunatic gonna cry~?" Celestia sang in a mocking tone of voice, which both confused and angered Luna. She stood up, and hesitated. Was she really going to use it on her sister? Maybe this was all a ruse, taking her all the way here, so that nopony could see Celestia send Luna to the moon again. However, when Celestia bopped her on the nose again, Luna decided that her sister was going a little too far with this.
"CELESTIA, I COMMAND THEE TO STOP THOU TROLLING." She screamed in the Royal Canterlot Voice. While talking in the Voice was bad enough, if Luna was screaming with it, all ponies within a miles radius of the princess was usually sent to the floor, hooves covering their ears. The ponies near her when she screamed sometimes even had cases of permanent ear damage, but thankfully, Luna only screamed with the Voice twice, once at Prince Blueblood, who was acting quite the spoiled pony that particular day, and right now, at her sister. An unfazed Celestia simply smiled, and pointed behind Luna.
Despite the fact that Celestia had just upset her, Luna couldn't help but turn her head around. What greeted her sight was rather surprising. Chips and fissures started to appear on Discord, and Luna turned around to look at an apologetic Celestia, who smiled sheepishly.
"If I told you what I was going to do, it wouldn't have worked." Luna gave an exasperated sigh at her sister, and frowned. She supposed it was necessary for Celestia to have done that, but that was a little too much for her, and it upset Luna greatly. Celestia draped a wing on Luna's back, and watched as cracking was now audibly heard from the statue. Then, with an explosive ending, the last of the stone burst, leaving behind a very dazed Discord. He slowly got up, and looked around to check his bearings. He gave a wave at the two alicorns sitting there, and muttered a greeting to them.
"Hello, Celestia, Luna." With that, he continued to look around. Realizing what he just said, his gaze rapidly returned back to his sisters. "What, come to finish me off, once and for all, in the very labyrinth that I used for my own purposes? Very well, a fitting end for me." He then sat down in a chair that wasn't there recently, and started to chew on a fried cupcake. Discord was surprised when Celestia got up, walked towards him with a smile, and offered him her hoof.
"Discord, older brother of mine and Luna's, draconequus, former alicorn of neutrality...Would you like to hear my proposition out?"
Waking up with a large yawn, Gydina slowly got off the sofa, stretching her back out with a groan. While it was much, much less comfortable than Vidhwansak's bed, she wasn't about to go sleep in the same bed as the pegasus, mostly out of the fear that they would wake up in a rather compromising situation. She didn't want anything else to get in the way of their friendship.
Gydina sniffed the air, and noticed that Vidhwansak was awake, making some pancakes. She loved Vidhwansak's pancakes, they literally melted in your mouth, and their buttery flavor combined with syrup made for your own piece of delicious heaven. She quickly ran into the kitchen, grabbed a plate, a fork, and sat down at a small table in the room, waiting patiently for the pegasus to finish cooking.
Vidhwansak sighed. "Gydina, I just started making the pancakes. Can you wait for awhile?" Gydina groaned. Waiting, on those delicious, fluffy pancakes? That was cruel and unusual punishment in Gydina's book. Not having anything to do, she wandered over to Vidhwansak's computer, and powered it on. Apparently, she woke up in the middle of the night, for there was a new chapter that Gydina hadn't seen yet. Quickly, behind the pegasus' back, Gydina sent off the latest chapter off, and walked back to the table.
Vidhwansak soon flew slowly out of the kitchen, balancing a large plate of pancakes in her hooves. Gydina's mouth visibly watered, and the pegasus shot a glare to the unicorn, who quickly got the message, and closed her mouth. Placing the plate gently down on the table, Vidhwansak went back into the kitchen to grab the syrup. Before she was halfway back to the table, however, Gydina, tired of Vidhwansak flying so slowly towards her, wrenched the syrup bottle out of the pegasus' hooves. The pegasus, not expecting this, lost the careful balance she had while flying, and crashed down on the floor for the second time that week.
Vidhwansak slowly got up, and sighed. Well, that was the thanks she got for making breakfast, she supposed, seeing Gydina plow through the mass of pancakes. Still, she thought with a small smile, it was nice to see that somepony appreciated her, out in Manehattan. The pegasus sat herself down on another chair, and slowly began to eat two of her pancakes. Gydina, having finished her seventh pancake and still going strong, asked the pegasus a question that had nagged her throughout the night.
"Hey, Viddy, is your story real? Like, non-fiction?" The pegasus looked up, surprised. That was a question she hadn't expected the unicorn to ask. She got off her chair, and flew off without a word to the unicorn. Gydina wondered where she was going, shrugged, and got back to her pancakes. She was slowing down on her ninth pancake when Vidhwansak returned, a large, heavy looking book in her hooves. The title read 'The return of the third Alicorn'.
"I was inspired by this, it contains a prophecy that there would be a third Alicorn that will appear. After reading through the history of it, I decided to write my story, using Discord as the third Alicorn." Gydina nodded, yawning. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I read through it and sent it off for others to read. So, it's fiction, then?"
The clunk of a heavy book hitting the floor was quite audible. The pegasus stared death at the unicorn, who was smiling that sheepish grin Vidhwansak had grown to tolerate, for the most part.
"Gydina. Did you really...?" The pegasus trailed off, waiting for the unicorn to answer for herself. Gydina nodded slowly, which, surprisingly, instead of setting Vidhwansak off like a firecracker, made her slump down onto the floor, and curl up into a ball, muttering to herself. "Find a happy place, find a happy place, find...A...Happy...Place..."
Getting creeped out and not wanting to aggravate the pegasus anymore, Gydina slowly got off her chair, and quietly left the apartment room, leaving behind a muttering pegasus on the floor.
(Well, I suppose this is the chapter that makes or breaks this story, seeing as I really don't like this chapter, mainly for the reason that I don't think I can really write a good Discord, personality-wise. I probably should have checked myself for this, but, too late now! I guess I'll just have to wing it. Any advice would be welcome in shaping out his personality! I'm honestly thinking about rewriting this chapter at some point, but we'll see as this story goes on.)
Discord was surprised. He never expected his sisters to have prepared an offer for him. What could this mean for him? He continued chewing on his fried cupcake, thinking about the possibilities that his sisters could ask of him. Celestia called him the former Alicorn of neutrality. It was a title he hadn’t heard himself be named as since…Well, the beginning of this world, when ponykind had it’s first unsteady hoofsteps into the world. He didn't expect to ever be called that title again.
Hearing his sister call him by that name intrigued him; however, he knew he had to step carefully into this game, in which he didn’t know the rules to. No pony, or, in his case, draconequus, should ever break the rules to a game. (He purposefully pushed the memory of bending the rules with the six mares however long ago it was with them away) After all, he could just as easily be turned back into stone, looking with distaste at the Elements of Harmony scattered around him in a circle of sorts. Tossing away his half-eaten fried cupcake, which, as soon as it hit the floor, blossomed into a rose that when Luna leaned in to sniff, smelled like a muffin. Yawning, Discord stood up, placed on a pair of shades, and smiled at his sisters, giving them his utmost attention.
“Very well, my sisters, you have intrigued me with your words! However,” he said warningly, “Do not think you can fool me with your games, I’m onto you, sisters!” If things turned for the worst, Discord was not about to be turned back into stone again without a fight. With that, he finally shook Celestia’s outstretched hoof slowly and cautiously. Rolling her eyes, Celestia withdrew her hoof, and got rather quickly to the point, not wanting to be out in the cold any longer.
“Discord, brother, what I’m offering to you isn’t something I would just casually offer to somepo…Someone like you, especially after being set in stone twice. You would and should still be in stone, however, a recent discussion with Luna has shown me to look at you in a different light, and so, if you do decide to accept my offer, you have her to thank.”
Discord’s curiosity was very much peaked at this point. What could they have to offer to him? He could get anything he needed, wanted, or didn’t even know he wanted or needed, and he doubted that they could actually change him back into an Alicorn. There wasn’t much they could have offered him, and he guessed quite inaccurately at what he thought his sisters were offering. This was probably a joke that the two sisters thought out very badly of, and it was something he detested. A bad joke should never exist, and yet, they still did. He gave a dramatic sigh, and gave his swift denial in mocking tones.
“What, me, rule jointly with you in…Harmony, sister? Even I think such an idea is chaotic, and I’m its very embodiment! Whatever hit you on the head hard enough to make you consider it seriously? I must know!” Celestia frowned. She had hoped that Discord would’ve taken this a little more seriously, or at the very least, pretend to humor her, but one couldn’t wish for all the things in life. It still didn't make her job of convincing Discord any easier, though.
“In a way, yes, I’m offering joint rule between all of us, Discord, but that’s not the only offer I have for you. I’m also offering you a chance to become an Alicorn again.” She inwardly winced as she said the words. Was she seriously offering this to Discord? It was the epitome of madness, and she knew she was going to regret ever saying these words for years to come. Still, now that she already said the words, she couldn’t go back on them now, no matter how willingly she wanted time to turn back, and so, she waited for his reaction to such news.
As it was, Discord's reaction was being amused. Surely his sisters could’ve thought of a better joke to surprise him with, after such long years of planning? Oh, if only they had the proper training to such things! Making a joke wasn't all that easy, as his sister might have thought of. Shaking his head in disappointment, he sighed and gave a half-hearted smile at Celestia and Luna.
“My sisters, after all these years, could you not think of a good joke to play on me? Such news is disheartening to me! But, never fear, you have the master trickster as your brother here!” Discord then snapped his talons, and an anvil appeared on top of Luna’s head. Celestia yelled some very unroyal-like profanity as the anvil dropped on a confused Luna’s horn.
“Celly, what’s wrong?” Celestia, now as thoroughly confused as her sister, looked at Discord, who was in fits of laughter. He pointed a talon at the anvil, which, with a magical poof, turned into a feather. A very, very big feather. Noticing that Discord was pointing at something on her horn, Luna shook her head in an attempt to remove the offending object, which seemed to be stuck to the top of Luna’s horn. Celestia sighed as Luna tried in vain everything she could to get the feather off of her horn.
"The feather is still on your horn, Luna. And it's winning."
“Celly! Don't just sit there, get the feather off my horn!” Her sister shot a glare at Discord, who stared back at her innocently. Celestia moved back towards her sister, and tried to remove the feather from the tip of Luna’s horn. She couldn’t. Celestia swore once again, and got up in Discord’s face, mere inches away.
“Remove the feather from her horn. Now.” Discord rolled his eyes, and pointed again at the feather, which dropped onto the grass, where it happened to vanish in a cloud of smoke. Sighing, Celestia sat back down next to a now annoyed Luna, who blinked at her sister. Seeing as she failed, Luna may as well try to convince Discord that what they were saying was the truth. Celestia nodded, and Luna stepped up to Discord, wondering if she would have any success in where her sister failed. Probably not, but it was worth a try anyway, and she'd at least have the satisfaction of seeing him turned back into stone again if he refused.
“’Tia isn’t lying, Discord. We really will be able to turn you back into an Alicorn, but, the question is, do you want to?” Discord sighed. Were they still going at this terrible joke? It wasn't something that should be joked about, and it was bothering him somewhat. However terrible the joke was, though, he couldn't help but admire that they would still try and go through with it. Not many ponies would've continued a dead joke that was seen through.
"Ah, sisters...I know it must have sounded like a good joke between you two, but it simply isn't! Here, let me show you a much better joke. Now, this joke, while old, is always a classic..." He pointed a talon at Celestia, and a banana cream pie, previously conjured earlier by Discord (Of which he had no memory of) smashed into Celestia's face. Luna, upon hearing the sound, slowly turned around to look at her sister. She placed a hoof to her mouth, trying to force down her laughter as Celestia sat there with a dumbfounded look, pie having caked her face and mane. Discord gave a hearty chuckle at the results of the classic 'pie to the face'.
Celestia was fed up by now. With the aid of magic, she, for the most part, got the pie off her face and mane. She glared at Discord, and spoke in a dangerously quiet voice, the kind that signified that somepony was very close to doing something very, very bad. Luna wisely decided to shy away from Celestia, in the event that she snapped.
"Discord...I am asking for the third and final time. This is not a joke, and if you do not accept, I will not only imprison you back in stone, but so Equestria help me I will punt your cursed, stoned form to the farthest reaches of outer space and make your imprisonment permanent! So do not waste my time any longer, brother!" Discord paused, and decided that now wasn't the time to rile his sister up anymore, and start to think seriously about what she said. Drifting off in space forever wasn't something he wanted to happen to him, in the event that he failed at escaping his sisters.
A chance to revert himself back into an Alicorn? Such a thing would most likely prove disastrous. A spell like that also most likely didn't exist. However, he was so sure that they were joking that he didn't consider that maybe, just maybe, they were telling the truth. But, what motive did they have in doing so? There wasn't much to gain from him being an Alicorn again, aside from handling the aristocracy. It was amusing, really, watching those ponies swarming Celestia about the chaos that happened in Ponyville, wondering if it would arrive at Canterlot, and demanding her to put an end to him 'once and for all'. Seeing the look on his sister's face, however, Discord decided that now wasn't the time to remember things like that, and he shook his head to clear away the memory. He then spoke his question.
"Assuming...What you say is true, sister, what's in your benefit? I see nothing that would benefit you in any way, shape or form." Celestia narrowed her eyes slightly, and Luna coughed. They exchanged a short glance, one that Discord easily saw. That was something they hadn't prepared themselves on answering. What benefit would they have in returning Discord back to his former self? Little wonder he considered it a complete joke. Luna spoke up, hesitantly, after mulling the question over a bit.
"We...Miss you, Neutrality?" Discord stiffened slightly. Neutrality. His...Former name, at least when he was an Alicorn. Being named after the very thing you were known for was laughable, but at least he had a name at the time. Sighing, he supposed that they weren't lying to him as a joke. They really did have a spell to return him back to his former self, and they were asking him his permission to use this spell. They wouldn't have used his former name if they weren't sure that they could change him back into an Alicorn.
It was something he long awaited for, but did he truly want to become an Alicorn again? Nagging doubts filled his head. They were telling him that it was a lie, that Celestia and Luna played this out as a cruel joke on him. Would his sisters do that? Would they, really, his sisters? Time seemed to crawl as Celestia and Luna impatiently waited for Discord to answer. Finally, sighing, Discord looked them both in their eyes, and spoke softly.
"You have my permission to turn me back into an Alicorn, sisters."
(As you may have noticed, this is the first non-dual chapter release. This was mainly due to the fact that I have writers block on the next segment, namely, the spell that's going to be used on Discord. It just feels like it's rather empty, so it'll be awhile until I add enough detail to feel satisfied enough to release it. As a lame apology, here's a filler chapter that should tide you over until I can send out the next dual chapter release. Sorry!)
In a small apartment room in Manehattan, there was a female pegasus on the floor, muttering softly to herself. Upon closer inspection, one can hear the words that she spoke, and they were not the words that one would have liked to hear, as they were words that many a pony would have blushed from the intensity and creativeness of stringing such words together. Eventually, after a long period of muttering death threats and other unsavory words and phrases, the pegasus slowly got off from the floor, walked over to her computer, and with a shaking hoof over the mouse, decided to see how badly her story was butchered by the ponies that happened to read it. She would have barely a day to write a chapter before Gydina went and posted it on that silly site! Vidhwansak knew for a fact that her previous chapter wasn't written out exactly the way she intended, and now she was distraught at the idea that lots of ponies over the internet saw all the mistakes she made in that chapter, and decide to assume her as an 'amateur writer'. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.
"It's alright, Vidhwansak, surely they wouldn't have attacked you that badly...After all, it's just a story, right? There have got to be more than a few bad stories here, and mine isn't that bad...Is it?" At the end of her sentence, she winced. So much for bolstering up her confidence. With a soft application of pressing her hoof down on the mouse to click on the story, she braced herself for what was undoubtedly going to be the worst possible thing she was going to see in her life, and how she'd forever be shamed for even thinking about writing it down.
Surprisingly enough, the story wasn't rated very low. It even had a few encouraging comments! A good sign, the pegasus thought, and she slowly scrolled down the comments, taking the time to read each one. She even took the time to answer a few of them, and she was so relieved that her story wasn't all that bad as she thought of it to be. Finally, she smiled. It wasn't bad! Sure, it wasn't good, either, but that was alright with her. At least her story wasn't butchered by thousands of ponies demanding her head for writing complete and utter garbage.
However, she still wasn't happy with Gydina. Now she had to add writing the story to her schedule, and between working in the weather patrol and having to look after Gydina, she wasn't exactly going to have a lot of free time on her hooves. Then again, she mused, she wrote the story in her free time, so it wasn't a total loss. With that, the pegasus logged herself off the site, taking the time to commit the name of the website to memory so that she wouldn't have to rely on Gydina logging in for her in the future.
Afterwards, she walked over to where the book "The return of the third Alicorn" was, and picked it up from the floor. Unfortunately, the book slipped from her grasp, and it hit the creaky floor with an audible thud, which made the pegasus wince. She didn't like loud noises, and unfortunately for her, she was living with a unicorn that was anything but quiet. Shaking the thought of what she'd do to Gydina later, she picked up the book again with firmer hooves this time around, and walked over to the sofa. The pegasus opened the book up, and flipped through the pages. It wouldn't hurt reading a little bit more for some more inspiration to her story. As she turned a page, however, a thought crossed her mind.
Perhaps she could find some inspiration from other writers? Perhaps an idea she could work into her story? She flew over to her computer, excited, leaving the book unattended for now. She could always return to it, she had another week before she had to return it to Manehattan's library. Logging back into the website, she searched through a few stories, not sure what to expect of them. Not really going anywhere by simply reading their descriptions, she decided to narrow her search a little. She placed the tags 'alternate universe' in, and after some consideration, added 'dark' to her search. It wasn't as if she wasn't going to find anything too scary right?
Her gaze was drawn to a story labeled 'Cupcakes'. Interesting. From the description, it looked as if the author was deliberately encouraging ponies to NOT read the story. What really caught her attention, though, was the name of the author. She couldn't help but giggle at it. Sergeant Sprinkles? How cute! It must have been made by a little colt that dreamed of enlisting in the royal guard! There was no possible way this could be as scary as the description read! Clapping her hooves together, the pegasus accepted the challenge of reading this so called 'Grimdark as buck' story. It couldn't be too bad, could it? She smiled, applied pressure to her mouse, clicked on the first chapter of the story, and started to read, declaring a challenge.
"What, scare me? Give me everything you got!"
-While this is happening-
Gydina walked throughout the streets of Manehattan, she wondered if she should buy something for the pegasus that she broke earlier that morning. The problem was, the unicorn didn't want to be caught dead in the type of stores buying the type of stuff that the pegasus would remotely want. She didn't have a clue to the pegasus' tastes, despite living with her for...What was it, a few months, now? Sighing, she turned up the volume on her headphones, the music quickly drowning out any background noise she could still hear from Manehattan. She liked her music, it was easy to get lost inside it and have thought drift around hazily...
That's it! She could've jumped up with joy and scream at having a solution that avoided having the pegasus killing her when she got back to the apartment, but in Manehattan, not only was doing such an outburst of emotion like that was unwelcomed, it also made for a lot of misunderstanding between you and any police ponies that were just happening to blend into the crowds. Still, it didn't stop her from smiling inwardly to herself.
Music, and the kind that she couldn't resist! Sure, while Vidhwansak detested having to listen to the 'garbage' Gydina listened too (Although in her defense, Gydina argued that the pegasus' music tastes were too bland), the unicorn was certain she could find at least one CD album that she could buy for the pegasus that would calm her down. She walked down to a store she frequented regularly, with a bright neon sign that, if one could see clearly at for more than five seconds, would've seen that it read 'Scratchy Records'. This was the store that Gydina visited for all her music related needs, so surely she would find some section dedicated to...That gross classical stuff that Vidhwansak listened too. Seriously, did that pegasus ever go out and listen to the good stuff?
After searching through the few classical CD track albums the store had, she finally found a track that she thought wouldn't make her ears bleed and yet would agree with the picky pegasus back at the apartment. It was a bit pricey, but it wasn't that bad, compared to other tracks available in the store. She paid twenty-five bits for the CD album, and stored it in her backpack carefully. After looking at how many bits she had left (Ten of them), she decided to spend her day walking around Manehattan, after all, by the time the evening rolled by, Vidhwansak was sure to have calmed down enough to be in an agreeable attitude. She hoped, anyway.
-A few hours later-
Back at the same apartment room in Manehattan, a pegasus was once again on the floor, although this time, instead of muttering words and death threats that were meant for a certain unicorn, she was now whispering words that expressed her terror and confusion at reading the horror that one could call a story. How does somepony write such a vile thing and live with themselves? The pegasus would never again be able to look a cupcake without remembering the horror that came with the story.
The pegasus whined as she attempted to press herself further into the floor, wanting something to distract her from the story. Vidhwansak screamed and jumped up in the air as she heard creaking from the floor, which, as she would later realize, came from the attempt to become one with the floor. She immediately fled into the kitchen, pressed herself into a corner, and stared with wide eyes everywhere, at everything. Other than her screaming earlier, it was completely quiet. Deciding that the coast was clear, she thought that some comfort food would be nice, and would hopefully take her mind off the story she just read. She slowly got up from her corner, walked over to the refrigerator, and opened it up. Sadly, her gaze immediately snapped over to the last thing she wanted to see, a clear plastic carton that contained cupcakes.
Quite a few ponies were startled by the sudden scream.
-A few more hours pass by, and the evening comes down upon Manehattan-
Gydina whistled happily to herself as she walked back towards the apartment room she grew so fond of now. With the CD album that she had in her backpack, there was no way Viddy was going to kill her now! At least, she hoped. There was always the possibility that the pegasus would kill her on sight without giving her any time to show her the gift the unicorn had bought for her, but Gydina dismissed the likelihood of that happening. After all, Vidhwansak didn't seem like the type of pony that would immediately attack on sight, no matter how angry she was. Gydina also had suspicions that the pegasus liked her a little more than as a friend, but Gydina didn't want to press her on that. She'd eventually come out with it, and Gydina was more than happy to watch the subtle signs of the pegasus trying to make Gydina notice her a little more.
As she reached the door, and knocked, she had this odd feeling that the pegasus didn't have a nice, relaxing time by herself. Gydina shrugged the feeling off, and knocked again. She was just being paranoid, nothing scared the pegasus. After waiting at the door for three minutes, an impatient unicorn decided to pick the lock with magic. Although what she was doing was considered illegal to any pony passing by, she wasn't about to wait for Vidhwansak to return from wherever the hell she was. She grinned as she heard the magical click she was waiting for, which signified that the lock was open.
"Finally, I'm in!" Gydina opened the door, and walked into the living room, gently laying her backpack on the sofa. She yawned, and decided that she had a bit of a craving for something sweet. She then remembered the cupcakes she bought a few days ago, and smiled at the thought of having one right now. It wasn't meant to be, however, as she walked into the kitchen to reveal a rather disturbing scene. Vidhwansak was passed out on the floor, with cupcakes smashed everywhere. Gydina took the scene in with horror, and then stifled a giggle. It just looked so silly, especially with bits of cupcake stuck to the pegasus' coat. Gydina nudged the pegasus gently, wondering how much alcohol the pegasus drunk to have assaulted a bunch of cupcakes.
"Viddy? Viddy, you awake?" The pegasus immediately looked up, fear clearly evident in her eyes. Upon seeing Gydina, Vidhwansak immediately backed off away from the unicorn, her wings fully extended in a protective measure. Confused, Gydina wondered what happened during the time that she was away to have scared the pegasus like this, and why her cupcakes were all smashed on the floor.
"Viddy...It's alright, it's just me, Gydina. You know, the unicorn that drives you crazy? C'mere, I won't hurt you." The unicorn slowly approached the pegasus, and just managed to wrap her hooves around Vidhwansak's neck before the scared pegasus attempted to fly off. Vidhwansak tried to break free of the hug, but slowly, with Gydina muttering reassuring words, the pegasus hesitantly returned the hug, softly at first, and then with a fierce grip that surprised the unicorn.
Gydina awkwardly held Vidhwansak in a hug, and waited until the pegasus finally loosened her grip, complete with an awkward silence between the two. She wondered what scared the pegasus so much, there usually wasn't anything that actually fazed her. After the silence extended to a few more minutes, during which the pegasus began to clean up the smashed cupcakes, Gydina spoke up softly.
"Viddy, what happened while I was gone? And why do my cupcakes look like they've been homicide victims?" The pegasus flinched, and pointed at her computer.
"I...Was reading a story off that site you posted my story on, and the cupcakes reminded me of that story..." It didn't take Gydina long to realize just what the pegasus had read, and rolled her eyes, shaking her head slightly in despair.
"I could have warned you about that, not all stories here are nice and warm, Viddy. But my cupcakes, seriously?!" The pegasus disdainfully pushed past the unicorn, not wanting to argue with Gydina.
"Whatever. I'm going to go take a shower...Also, Gydina, don't buy anymore cupcakes. I don't want to see one for at least a month." Gydina's heart dropped. No cupcakes for a month? More unusual and cruel punishment from the pegasus! She seriously considered returning the album she bought for her, but eventually decided against it. If anything, Vidhwansak needed something reassuring more than ever, she remembered the first time she herself read cupcakes.
So, the unicorn waited for the pegasus to return from the shower. As she waited, she pulled out the CD album that she bought. It was a nice mix of classical music and the 'trash' that she herself liked. At least, if the pegasus didn't like the music, it was the thought that counted, right? She placed the CD inside one of the computer's disc drives, and started to play the first song. Gydina adjusted the volume just enough that the music would travel far enough to the bathroom, where Vidhwansak was taking her shower. Gydina then just realized how tired she was. Walking around Manehattan did that to you. Knowing she couldn't fight it, the unicorn hastily scribbled a note, and placed it on the computer's keyboard. Satisfied, Gydina walked over to the living room, her steps sluggish. Yawning, Gydina laid down on her sofa, and soon enough, she fell asleep.
Vidhwansak, upon hearing some decent music play while she was in the shower, wondered if the unicorn had finally appreciated the more classy side of music. Those horrid songs Gydina listened to were nothing but loud, senseless noise. As she came out of the shower, however, with her mane still damp, she noticed that the unicorn was sleeping. She must've gotten tired from walking around Manehattan all day, the pegasus mused. She knew she would be.
Turning her attention around towards her computer, she noticed a CD album she'd never seen before, as well as a note. As the next song played, the pegasus took a closer look at the album. It was an album she'd always wanted to buy, but never actually considered saving the bits for it. She then looked at the note, and smiled. With messy writing, it read 'Please forgive me, Viddy?'
Looking back at the unicorn sprawled on the sofa, the pegasus walked over, and whispered softly to Gydina.
"I forgive you."
She kissed her horn, and then walked back to her computer, where, with the company of a new track full of music to listen to, started to write the next chapter of her story.
As her internal alarm clock went off, Gydina yawned, and stretched herself out. Her horn felt a bit tingly, but she quickly wrote that off as the anticipation of wondering what the pegasus thought of her gift. She smiled as she walked into Vidhwansak's bedroom, about to surprise the mare by jumping into her bed...When she saw that the pegasus wasn't in her bed, and showed no signs of being slept in last night. Confused, Gydina looked around for the mare, and she sighed when her gazed snapped up to Vidhwansak's computer.
The pegasus was snoring on top of her keyboard rather ungracefully, complete with a line of drool trailing down from her mouth and onto the keyboard. Wondering why she was up all night on the computer, Gydina gently and carefully lifted up Vidhwansak with her magic, and set her down on the sofa. It was rather unusual for the pegasus to be up late at night, and if she was, it wasn't for very long. But by the looks of it, the pegasus must have barely gotten a few hours of sleep. Looking up at the computer screen, Gydina saw yet another chapter of her story completed and waiting to be submitted.
Was she really up all night making another chapter? Gydina rolled her eyes. She didn't have to make a new chapter every single day. Her stomach growled, eliminating all other thoughts about the pegasus. Food first, then worry about her. Gydina walked over to the refrigerator, and pulled out a plate of cold pizza. It was about a week old, but it'll have to do. At least she wouldn't get hungry. She placed the plate of pizza in a nearby microwave, and turned it on. Satisfied that she would have some food soon, she returned her gaze over to the pegasus sleeping on her sofa.
After poking her wings a few times, Gydina gave up. The pegasus was out cold. At least she wouldn't have to put up with her nagging for awhile. Walking back to the microwave, she watched as the seconds continued to tick down, and she slowly and softly muttered under her breath, her eyes twitching slightly.
"Five...Four...Three...Two...One..." Before the microwave rang out, Gydina pressed 'cancel', and raised a hoof in the air triumphantly. "Hell yeah, bomb defused! Take that, terrorist scum!" Carefully, the unicorn took the plate of now-hot pizza out onto the small table just outside the kitchen, where she waited for the pizza to cool down. The smell of greasy pizza wafted out towards the pegasus, who sneezed, and looked up with bleary eyes.
"Uh...Hello, Gydina." The unicorn smiled. When the pegasus had bed-mane, she looked pretty good, the unicorn admitted. Unfortunately, there was no way she was going to be able to convince Vidhwansak to not brush her mane and leave it at that. She could be such a bore, trying to remain a proper mare in a city like Manehattan. Gydina waved back at the pegasus, and held up a slice of pizza, offering it to her. Groaning, Vidhwansak got off the sofa, and had her customary frown on her face. 'Just like always', thought Gydina.
"Is there anything else in refrigerator? Even though I like pizza as much as the next pony, Gydina, I don't think it's breakfast food for me...Especially if that pizza is a week old and smells funny." Gydina rolled her eyes, and still held up the offered slice to the pegasus. She needed to stop being picky. Lifting a hoof up to her face in despair, Vidhwansak walked over to Gydina, accepted the slice of pizza, and began to eat with the unicorn. There was a silence between them as they ate, and Vidhwansak looked over towards the sky.
"I got the weather patrol today." It was a weak attempt at starting a conversation, but the pegasus didn't like how the silence stretched out. It felt normal, just sitting here, sharing a slice of rather greasy pizza with her roommate. Which was why she was worried. Gydina didn't exactly keep things normal around here. The unicorn blinked, slightly confused, then nodded slowly.
"Oh? Well, don't be home late, Viddy."
"I don't intend to be late, Gydina. I'll be back for lunch, I can't stand the food they serve in the cafe."
"Well, too bad, I was thinking about clearing out the fridge of food today, so you might as well buy some more food."
The pegasus sighed. So much for coming home for lunch. "I don't have that many bits left, Gydina, until my next paycheck, and that's not for another four days after today. Please don't eat everything, I don't want to starve before my next check." The unicorn lazily waved her hoof, showing that she heard the pegasus. Vidhwansak walked out of the apartment room, and shut the door behind her softly. Gydina, bored, walked over into the pegasus' bedroom, and jumped onto it. She looked up at the ceiling, wondering what to do. She began to point her hooves in the air, and mimicking gunshots.
"...Pew, pew! Tango down! Proceed to the bomb site!"
After roughing up the imaginary terrorists, Gydina decided that, since there was nothing to do here, she may as well go read a few stories. Although, if the pegasus ever found out how much she liked reading, she'd never hear the end of it. Logging into the same website where Gydina had jumped the gun and sent Vidhwansak's story to, she began browsing stories to read.
(Alright, and now we're back on to the dual chapter release, again, I'm sorry for the filler chapter last time! I still feel like this chapter is unfinished and could use quite a bit of work, so I may chose to redo this chapter as well sometime in the future.)
After having receiving his permission, Celestia went about preparing the spell. She went about, making sure the Elements of Harmony were in the right places for the spell they were going to cast on their older brother. Discord and Luna simply watched her move about, giving slight nudges to the Elements in various places. Celestia then motioned with a hoof for Discord to come over and stand in the middle of the circle of Elements. Giving her sister the benefit of the doubt, Discord walked over lazily, and sat down inside the circle. After doing so, Celestia walked over to Luna, and gently nudged her over towards the circle.
"Luna, stand near, but not inside the 'circle' of Elements on that side, at least until you're ready to give up your memory. I shall be on the other side, watching. The important thing is to not step inside the circle until we've gathered up enough energy. Doing so might cast a premature spell, and I really don't want to see what would happen. Discord, please don't distract us while we're doing this, I'd rather you not let us get killed from losing control of our magic. In order to return you back into an Alicorn, you'll be put into a sphere of magic, and yes, this is needed for the spell, so don't panic and fire off a spell of your own." Discord rolled his eyes, but nodded silently, giving into his sister. As much as he would've liked to mess them up, now that he thought about it, it probably wouldn't end well in a spell like this, especially for him. So he wouldn't, for all their sakes, but mostly his.
Sighing, Luna nodded over at her sister, signifying that she was ready. As ready as she was ever going to be, she thought dryly. "Alright, Celly, let's cast the spell." Celestia wordlessly nodded back at her, and together, the two sisters began to gather their magic, letting it flow around them. Soon, the two royal sisters had their own individual spheres of magic encasing them. Then, by an unspoken word between them, the spheres drifted off towards each other, seemingly melting into one another to form one sphere. Discord watched, impressed with his sisters and their magic. They've certainly come along a long way since being those tiny fillies he looked after, once upon a time. The thought made him smile.
As the spheres combined with each other, the Elements of Harmony start to glow and resonate with their own magic, adding it to that of the sphere. Interesting, the combined magical energy of his sisters and the Elements would be more than enough to power many high-level spells...All this was required for one spell, for him? The amount of sheer power here was overwhelming, and he could feel panic rising up in his chest.
This could go wrong, so very wrong. His thoughts soon turned to other...Possibilities. He could end this, with one simple spell, just enough to distract them. He could rule over Equestria, and eventually, the world, if he got rid of his sisters. With great exertion, he managed to drive away such thoughts. What was he thinking? Firing off a random spell now of all times would be disastrous, and in no way whatsoever was he going to kill his sisters. The chaos was getting too close to his mind and affecting his thoughts. Instead of blasting his sisters with some form of his magic, he watched as their magic continued to flow from the Elements to the sphere, then winced as the gigantic ball of energy started to float towards him.
This could get very, very bad for him. The sphere was easily three times his size, and was continuing on it's path towards him. As the sphere drew closer, Discord saw his own reflection, and he made a few goofy faces at it to hide his discomfort of having to be enveloped in the sphere. Hopefully this wouldn't hurt him too badly. Any other thoughts he had were lost as the sphere enveloped the draconequus completely.
Opening his eyes, he realized that he was still alive and well. Discord looked around with interest inside the sphere. It was a dull grey in color, and seemed to stretch out as far as he could see, without anything else worth nothing. Just a giant grey void, with nothing besides himself in it. At least he wasn't dead yet. Not yet, anyway. There was a chance Celestia had made another mistake and he would be turned into something far worse, but he refused to think such thoughts for long, and instead, examined the sphere, moving around experimentally. While it encased him, he didn't feel trapped at all inside the sphere. The magic sphere seemed to adjust to any movements he made, and it felt like being submerged in water.
Outside of the sphere, meanwhile, Celestia held her breath. Luna was preparing a memory to use for Discord's renascent. Which memory Luna was going to give up would determine if Discord would come back as a full Alicorn. It had to be a particularly strong memory, otherwise, Discord could end up as a fragment of himself. While that would be amusing to see, she didn't particularly think he would appreciate being half of what he once was, if not less. Celestia continued to watch her sister think back to her memories, until, finally, Luna looked up at her older sister, and nodded at her.
Luna sighed. Although she had her chosen memory, she was worried about what she was about to do. Her sister and brother were expecting so much from her. What if she messed up? Celestia never told her anything about doing something after 'letting go' of her memory. Shaking herself vigorously, she erased these thoughts out of her mind. 'No matter,' she thought, 'I have a duty to fulfill, and I shall undertake it! But...It'd be nice if this worked out, please?' Slowly, but surely, she stepped into the circle of Elements, and released her chosen memory of Discord. Luna gasped in pain; she swore she could feel the memory being ripped from her mind with an amazing, brutal force.
What happened next was nothing short of an explosion of violent light skyrocketing towards the heavens, so bright, that even the princesses themselves had to look away from it. Luna immediately backed up, careful not to trip over any one of the Elements, lest she break the spell and cause a massive magical whiplash that could potentially kill all three of the royal family.
The Elements themselves, once Luna had left the circle, started to vibrate and levitate at roughly the height of the draconequus. A rainbow colored beam of light, coming directly from all six Elements, started to swirl slowly around the sphere, as if Element bearers were using them. This colorful beam of light started to grow bigger and go faster around and around the sphere, making a loud humming noise. Then, the colored beam of light shot up into the skies...And came crashing down on the sphere with a terrifying explosion not a moment later, kicking up quite a bit of dust between the princesses and the sphere.
Celestia coughed as she tried in vain to see through the dust clouds. Although the rainbow beam of light was expected to happen, the explosion and massive dust clouds weren't an expected part of what was going to happen. Did things go wrong, or was everything alright? She honestly didn't know if what she was going to see was going to be in her favor. If Discord was an Alicorn once again, all would be well and good, but if it failed...She shook her head. The Elements haven't failed yet! She doubted they would fail her this time.
Observing what she could through the dust clouds, she realized that she couldn't see the sphere anymore. Was that a good thing? She was about to walk towards the general area of where the sphere once was when she noticed a shadow coming near her. Could it be Discord, or Luna? Celestia waited until the shadow presented itself, and sighed in disappointment as she saw Luna emerge from the clouds of dust. Well, so much for Discord.
Luna, upon hearing her older sister cough, started walking towards the sound. Of all things, she didn't expect an explosion, never mind two of them. The spell had disoriented her, ripped a memory from her mind, and this dust cloud wasn't helping her either. As Luna approached her sister, she noticed that she couldn't see the silhouette of the sphere through the dust. That could either be a good or bad thing, although Celestia would probably know which of them it was. As she approached Celestia, she stood right next to her, and just barely heard a sigh escape from her sister. Luna's heart sank. So it didn't work, and Discord was still a draconequus...Or worse.
The dust had begun to clear, and Luna sighed deeply. "Well, once the dust clears, we'll know just what happened to him, 'Tia..." Her older sister simply nodded, and both waited for the dust clouds to clear away to reveal...Whatever happened to Discord.
His vision wasn't straight and his eyes hurt. He winced as his eyes tried to adjust from seeing the dull grey interior of a sphere to an explosion of rainbow light, and back to the dark center of the labyrinth that he had been in for the past few thousand years. Discord didn't know what happened outside while he was moving around in the sphere. One moment, he was trying various things inside it, the next, the sphere started to shake and rumble, disorienting him. If that wasn't bad enough, just as he regained his sense of direction, a second explosion, infinitely more powerful than the first, happened to break through the sphere and directly impacted him.
He sighed. He didn't feel any different, and he was upset that he had to get hit by another beam of rainbow light, all for nothing. Every single time, he just had to get hit by a rainbow colored beam of light, when his sisters first encased him in stone, then the second time, and now by this spell that was supposed to bring him back into his former self. He swore that if he never saw a rainbow again, he'd be the happiest draconequus around.
He groaned as he tried to rise back up. That was a mistake, as his first attempt at balancing on the hooves he missed after thousands of years was very, very bad. He fell down with an audible thud, and sighed. He tried again, and managed to unsteadily balance himself. Smiling, he was about to take his first shaky step when he looked down in shock. He had hooves?! He fell down in an ungraceful heap as he tried to process the fact that he was an An Alicorn once more while taking a step. Needless to say, he failed at doing both things at the same time. Ignoring the pain that came from his fall, he quickly made sure that all of him was with him. Turning his neck around, he looked at the two majestic wings on his back, and he sighed, seeing how bad his wings looked. He'd have to preen them later. Ignoring his wings for now, he jerked his gaze upwards, and he could make out the tip of his horn. It was true, he realized, he was an Alicorn once more.
Celestia rolled her eyes as the dust finally cleared away. "Finally. Luna, let's look for..." She trailed off as her eyes took in the dazed looking Alicorn that was in an unceremonious heap inside the circle of the Elements of Harmony, looking up at his horn. His coat was of pure white, and his messy mane was of the darkest black. He was about as tall as Celestia was, but his wings were more powerfully built, his horn sharper at the tip. She felt herself grow a little weak as she saw her brother's true form after thousands of years. The spell worked, and her brother was back. Discord...No, Neutrality, the Alicorn of Neutrality (At this, Celestia took a moment to think about how dumb it was to name yourself after what you represented. Sure, there was her sister, Luna, but that was an entirely different matter.) was back.
"He's back, Luna...Our older brother." Luna smiled, and walked forward towards the Alicorn. Celestia followed after her, and waited as Neutrality was reoriented with who he was now.
Discord...No, he thought. He wasn't what he was before. He was himself again, before the poison joke incident so long ago. The thought of him finally becoming an Alicorn once more brought tears to his eyes, and he wiped them away shakily with a hoof. He noticed his sisters standing a few feet away from him, and he made a valiant effort to stand up, which succeeded. He looked both his sisters in the eyes, and spoke softly, as he did so long ago.
"I, Neutrality, Alicorn of...Uh, Neutrality, am back in Equestria."
Vidhwansak sighed as she went about her work as a member of the weather patrol team today. Being the large, industrial city that Manehattan was, there were a lot of clouds needed to be made, gathered, injected with lots and lots of rain, and then finally placed into position, just to make some rain in this city. She groaned as she pushed a particularly large cloud by herself. As a filly, she always thought of clouds as little soft puffy marshmallows that one could eat. After finding out the reality behind a cloud, though, she knew them to be heavy (Especially when they were full of rain like this one) and not at all tasting like marshmallows. She remembered when she first licked one, curious to satisfy her mind and tongue. Said tongue tasted foul for a week before the taste went away, and she was not eager to do the same thing again, ever.
Suddenly, she heard the voice of another call out her name. She sighed, and turned around to meet another pegasus, female, with a long mane and equally long tail. Her coat was a warm, inviting orange while her mane was a wild pink, streaked with lines of purple every so often. Her cutie mark was that of a juice box, although what it was supposed to stand for, Vidhwansak never asked. She didn't really want to know, either. This pegasus got close, just a little too close for comfort to her. Unfortunately, this pony liked to be rather up close and personal during conversations, and had the same excitable personality as Gydina, with her own special...'Flare'. Backed up against a cloud, she gently pushed her back slightly, an action that caused the other pegasus to squeak. Frowning, Vidhwansak decided it was best just to get whatever the pegasus wanted from her over and done with. Dragging it out would only make the skittish pegasus in front of her even more annoying.
"What is it that you want, Cyper? You of all ponies should know that I'm on the weather patrol today. You are my supervisor, after all." Secretly, Vidhwansak wondered just how Cyper managed to get into such a position when the pegasus' thought process was clearly scrambled. The pegasus in question tilted her head slightly, smiled, and held out her hooves, which were holding out a box of doughnuts.
"I was feeling SO good today, so I went ahead and bought a WHOLE LOT of doughnuts in boxes! I got five more boxes for the rest of the weather patrol today, just in case they didn't have such a good nummy breakfast and were super SUPER hungry today and couldn't survive until lunch! Want one?!" Vidhwansak stared at Cyper for a good sixteen seconds, while the other pegasus was simply beaming happily at her. Slowly, Vidhwansak reached into the box, and took out one of the pastries, so not to offend Cyper. Cyper giggled joyfully for no reason, and started flying upside-down over to another cloud being pushed by other pegasai, probably with the intention of getting close and offering them doughnuts.
"Bye bye Viddy, enjoy your doughnut!"
Shaking her head, Vidhwansak looked down at the doughnut she had been given. The 'breakfast' she had earlier with Gydina wasn't really that great of one, so why not eat the doughnut? Although it was full of sugar and calories as well as having been offered by a borderline insane supervisor, the pegasus knew she could fly off the fat and calories, and while Cyper wasn't the brightest pony around, she was genuinely kind in her offer, and wouldn't give her a poisoned doughnut. At least, Vidhwansak hoped it wasn't. So she took one tiny bite of the doughnut.
Immediately, the pegasus spat out the pieces of the doughnut she had just bit down on, and began rubbing her tongue rapidly with her left hoof. She breathed heavily as she looked down at the sugary demon in her right hoof, just begging to be eaten. This thing wasn't sugary...This doughnut was made entirely of sugar. How, Vidhwansak didn't know, but it was way too sweet for her to eat, not to mention the cavities she'd get if she took another bite. With regret, the pegasus let the 'doughnut' drop down from the sky, and saw parts of it flaking off. At least the 'doughnut' killed whatever appetite she had for food. Scowling up at the cloud she needed to move into position for the storm later tonight, she went back at the cloud with renewed energy, determined to get this cloud in before lunch, where, hopefully, Gydina didn't eat everything.
Gydina sighed happily as she read through the last of her tracked 'shipping' fiction stories. Oh, how she'd like to be swept off her hooves and be romantically taken away like a dream...Unfortunately, the only pony capable of doing that was the pegasus she lived with, and she doubted that Vidhwansak was going to do so. Rolling her eyes as she thought of her name, Gydina shut down the computer, and pulled her headphones over her ears, listening to a nice, long trance mix as she wondered what her next plan for today was. Looking up at the battered clock above her, she realized that the pegasus would be coming back home soon. Perhaps she'd appreciate a nice, warm meal. Looking through the refrigerator, the unicorn quickly got out what she needed, and began to make lunch, something that Vidhwansak told her time and again to never do unless she wanted food poisoning to end her life quickly. Gydina huffed. Her cooking wasn't that bad! The only reason she burned the last salad she made was because she tried to deep fry a cabbage. Unfortunately, for a full week, the apartment smelled like burnt cabbage, and to top it all off, the pegasus absolutely refused to eat what she made, instead, she threw it out and took Gydina out for dinner, where, as she remembered, was the 'proper way to make salad'. She huffed. 'C'mon, Viddy, Y'know I'm tryin'.' She thought idly to herself as she prepared a salad.
(Discord will now be referred to as Neutrality from this chapter on, at least for the next few chapters.)
Neutrality was still disoriented with what just happened, but at least he was back to his old self once more. He no longer had those random, chaotic thoughts clouding his mind, and for that, he was grateful for. He smiled uneasily at his sisters, who smiled back just as, if not more, uneasily. He shuffled his hooves awkwardly, and Luna coughed, while Celestia started to whistle softly. Apparently even though they had been separated and haven't talked to each other for thousands of years, and with the fact that he was no longer a draconequus, there was still the awkward tension that was holding them back from having a happy reunion as a family. Sighing, Neutrality decided to start making some small-talk, just to ease the situation a bit for himself.
"So...How are things in Canterlot, and Equestria, for that matter, sisters?"
Celestia blinked, and sighed at the same time Luna did. Neutrality smiled slightly. At least he was getting somewhere, even if the answer to his question wasn't going to be one that favored his sisters. Luna spoke up first, with an annoyed look on her face, which concerned him slightly.
"Everything's been fine, at least, would be, if it weren't for the aristocracy! They're always trying to pass on the most ridiculously outrageous and most idiotic bills, and are just so...So...Uncouth! You would think after thousands of years of changes and tweaks to the education system that ponies would've gotten smarter here, but NO! We still have those ponies that go and suggest things that no pony in their right mind would vote on or live by! What's worse is that I have to go and listen or read through every single request, EVERY, SINGLE, REQUEST, and it doesn't help when 'Tia purposefully leaves behind some of them for me to go over!" Celestia snickered a bit, just loud enough for Luna to hear. Luna glared at her older sister, who managed to stifle her giggling. She then nodded at Neutrality, and gave a slightly more optimistic response to Luna's rant.
"Yes, well, everything has been going swimmingly, and we've had a very prosperous rein over Equestria. Other than having a few problems with the aristocracy trying to pass on bills that will have no actual beneficial effect in Equestria quite recently, as Luna has mentioned, there is nothing else worth saying during our rule that has happened after you've been set in stone for the second time, brother, other than a few more treaties to improve relations with other nations."
Neutrality nodded slowly, accepting this answer more than Luna's, and then started to shiver slightly. It was getting colder, and although he was happy to be back in his own body, that wouldn't matter if he froze to death out here in the cold. He spoke up, another question on his mind, and one he hoped would be answered just as quickly as his feathers were freezing.
"Sisters, as much as I would want to continue talking, can we do it while we're walking back to the castle? I don't want my first night of being an Alicorn again be ruined by a cold." Luna nodded, and then the fact hit her that they now had to walk all the way back to the castle, and while weakened after performing a rather draining spell. To top that all off, it started to rain down.
"Ugh, Celestia, you just had to place an anti-magic and flight spell over this entire labyrinth, did you?!" Celestia looked confused. Neutrality, too, was confused by this. He couldn't detect the slightest hint of a magic spell, but his sister's magic had grown over the years. She could very well be more powerful than he was, he mused, and the thought scared him slightly.
"What anti-magic and flight spell?" Unfortunately for Celestia, busy as she was thinking about how the aristocracy would respond to the existence of a third Alicorn, and as such wasn't paying attention to what her sister said, managed to upset her younger set greatly. Luna, in complete and utter despair, assumed that her older sister lied about such a spell existing as a cruel excuse to walk through the labyrinth to the Alicorn that was once Discord.
"I...'Tia, you said that there was a magic spell that you placed on this entire labyrinth that made it impossible to gain access to the center of the labyrinth in an instant, by either magic or flight! Are you now telling me that you were lying the whole time?!" Celestia still looked confused; then, she smiled sheepishly as she remembered what she said earlier to her sister. She had told the truth to her, but not the whole truth, something that Celestia found to be very useful very quickly when she had to rule Equestria when Neutrality was turned into stone.
"Calm yourself, sister. I did say there was a spell that prevented unicorns and pegasai from teleporting in and flying inside the labyrinth. I did not say, however, that the spell is only one-way. I figured that if somepony actually went through the trouble of going through this massive labyrinth for Neutrality, then they should probably get some slack for having the patience and dedication to wander through this place for him."
Luna's mouth gaped. She tried to form words, but nothing would come out. She simply stared at a now awkward looking Celestia. Neutrality watched for awhile, then coughed, snapping the gazes of his sisters towards him. He sighed. They still hadn't changed over the years, Celestia pulling out joke after joke on Luna, and Luna seething in anger at the things Celestia just happened to do casually. Yep, this was normal.
"Luna, please, close your mouth before you attract flies. Celestia, don't rile up your sister like this, seriously, its been a few thousand years, don't you get tired of thinking up new pranks to play on her?" Celestia rolled her eyes, and with a mighty jump, leapt up into the sky, and opened up her wings. Luna snorted, clearly unimpressed and annoyed with her older sister.
"She is such a troll." Neutrality smirked, and let out a parting shot.
"Oh, like you were any better back then, Luna. I seem to remember one little Alicorn that accidently got stuck in a tree because she wanted to collect pine cones to throw at her brother." His younger sister casted an annoyed look at her brother, then followed Celestia, making a leap that was just as impressive as her sister's. Neutrality smiled, and was planning to follow up his sisters with a massive leap, when he realized that he should probably check the condition of his wings a little more carefully before flying. If he didn't, landing would be particularly painful, and he didn't think he had enough magic to teleport himself to the castle, thus forcing him to walk the whole length of the labyrinth. With that in mind, Neutrality opened up his wings, and other than dust caking his wings, they were just fine for flying. Just in case, however, he gave them a few test flaps, and they seemed to work perfectly, without any pain or discomfort. How he had missed flying around with his old wings, even if they were now all dusty and were in immediate need of preening.
Finally, gathering up the energy in his legs, he leapt up into the air, and sped forward towards his sisters like a torpedo, laughing as Celestia and Luna quickly rolled out of the way to avoid the Alicorn-missile. Celestia huffed, and she smiled nastily at him.
"Oh. It. Is. On. RACE YOU TO THE CASTLE!" She shouted out in the Royal Canterlot voice. Not one to back down from a challenge, Luna quickly sped off after her sister, and after making sure his ears weren't bleeding (As this was the first time Neutrality experienced the Voice in a few thousand years), he quickly catched up with his sisters and started to slowly pull ahead of them, trying to get to the castle first. He felt the air resistance try to hold him back from going any faster, but he keep on going, going, trying to break the legend that he swore he'd break for himself after seeing her sister pull one off...
"Neutrality, stop!"
Celestia's sudden usage of his name caused him to slow down; unfortunately, the air took this opportunity to rebound him back violently at his sisters. Celestia managed to evade the speeding Alicorn, but Luna, having her view being slightly blocked by Celestia's flank (In which she constantly proceeded to joke about her sister's weight years afterward the incident, much to Celestia's dismay) panicked at the sight of her brother hurtling towards him, and quickly put up a magic shield between her brother and herself. Neutrality pinged off the shield like a ping pong ball and started to tumble around uncontrollably in the air, but he managed to right himself up and prevent himself from taking a hard impact into the ground below. He scowled at Celestia, wondering why she just prevented him from performing a sonic rainboom, something he always wanted to try after seeing Celestia pull one off, so many years ago.
"Celestia, why would you stop be from performing the one thing you can do that I can't, or at least haven't tried to yet?! Are you really that concerned about me breaking your feat when..." He trailed off as Celestia glared daggers at him. Even though he was the older sibling and probably far more powerful than his sister, his control over his magic was rudimentary at best due to not channeling magic for a long time out of his horn (When he was a draconequus, the magic just seemed to happen randomly and thus he never noticed himself using magic), and he also didn't want to get back on bad terms with his sisters again. Celestia sighed, and pointed downwards towards her right.
The castle was in sight, and Neutrality winced. If he had kept going, trying to perform his own version of the the sonic rainboom, he'd have impacted directly into a castle tower, becoming grade-A Alicorn paste; not to mention the sudden sound of a boom would quickly draw unwanted attention by the aristocracy sleeping nearby. He looked up sheepishly at Celestia.
"Sorry, Celestia."
"Actually, I think I'd have been the one that'd be sorry for you if you had smashed into that tower and raised hell from the aristocracy for us by becoming a living missile and smashing into our castle, but seeing as you didn't, I forgive you, brother. Now, since you don't exactly have your own room, you're going to be taking one of the guest rooms. What I don't know, though, is how we're going to get you inside without the royal guards raising the alarm. You're much bigger than any normal pony, so disguising your wings or horn won't really work, and I don't think I want to explain who you are, at least, not yet."
Neutrality rolled his eyes. "Sister, I'm going to be found out about anyway, why not just tell everypony in the castle right now? I'm sure there's no reason to hide this from anypony for very long. It's not like anypony knows I'm Discord the draconequus anyway." Celestia looked uneasily at her younger sister, who shrugged. It wasn't as if they had a way to hide him, short of a light-bending spell, and in their weakened state, it was very unlikely that they could pull such a complex spell successfully or for very long. Sighing, Celestia nodded slowly, reluctantly accepting the decision that this couldn't wait until her morning. The rumors were going to make her head spin when she woke up in the morning.
"Alright, then. But it's best if we land in the courtyard of the castle, then, so that whatever aristocracy and guards that are around the area knows that you're with us, since that's where the highest concentration of ponies should be around this hour." Thankful that he wouldn't have to skulk around like a rat until his sisters officially claim him as their brother, the three Alicorns landed in the courtyard, surprising a fair number of guards and aristocrats who happened to either not be able to sleep that night and were taking a nightly stroll, or walking around, waiting for Luna to hold court again after storming off last time. All eyes were on the third Alicorn that came with the princesses. Luna smiled, and taking a deep breath, prepared to use the Royal Canterlot Voice. A few aristocrats that knew what she was going to do quickly raised their hooves to their ears.
"PONIES OF CANTERLOT, I BRING NEWS TO YOU!" The rest of the slower aristocrats groaned and covered their ears in a vain attempt to lower the amount of volume that they were getting from Luna's voice. The Royal Guards, unfortunately, had to bear the full brunt of her voice without so much a flicker of their ears. "WE HAVE FOUND AND...REUNITED, WITH A BROTHER OF MINE AND CELESTIA'S. GIVE WARM GREETINGS AND TIDINGS TO OUR BROTHER, NEUTRALITY, ALICORN OF ALL THINGS NEUTRAL."
Immediately, Royal Guards and nearby aristocrats bowed down to the brother of the Royal Sisters. Celestia smiled, and started nodding at everypony. "That's enough, now. We need to get our sleep and rest for tomorrow, as the spell required to bring him back took quite a toll on me and Luna. Unfortunately, Luna, it's still your shift." Luna pouted.
"But you just said...Oh, never mind."
"I'm sorry, Luna, but there are still ponies that are requesting an audience. Come, Neutrality, my brother, let me show you the room you'll be sleeping in, at least until we formally recognize you as an Alicorn prince."
At this, the aristocrats in the courtyard began to talk quietly among themselves, and even the Royal Guards raised a few eyes at each other. Celestia couldn't blame them. After all, she would've questioned a long lost Alicorn that was the brother of the Royal Sisters appearing out of no where in the dead of the night. Speaking of which, she should get some sleep. Yawning, Celestia made her way to her quarters, followed by Neutrality. Luna, while equally as tired as Celestia, could not go to sleep, and she walked away, determined to play a prank on her sister later. Pointing at a room on the far right, Celestia smiled tiredly as she showed Neutrality the guest room he was to sleep in.
"You'll be sleeping here, until we can get a more permanent room for you." Neutrality looked around the room. It was like a little library, complete with selves of books. He noticed all the dust that was settling in the room.
"It doesn't look like it's been lived in for quite awhile, sister."
"Yes, that's quite right. The last pony to have this room was...Twilight Sparkle."
Neutrality paused. One of the former bearers of the Elements themselves that sealed him away in stone for the second time slept in this room? He wondered just what kind of connection she had with his sister.
"The Element of magic herself? What was she doing here, Celestia?"
"She was my personal protégé, Neutrality. No other pony has used this room in a long time since her."
Neutrality was silent, as he couldn't find any words to speak of. He was faintly aware of his sister leaving the room. Sighing, he decided to go to sleep for tomorrow. Pulling up the covers, he immediately started to hack and cough as the dust overwhelmed him. Not lived in for a long time? Might as well been a crypt. After the dust was down to manageable levels, he climbed into the bed, and soon fell into a dreamless sleep.
(This is where the OC chapters and the story combine into one! So, unfortunately, if you enjoyed the OC chapters as a standalone from the main story, then I'm sorry, but on the plus side, they're interacting within the 'story' itself! Also, this is most likely the last of the dual-chapter releases. Don't worry, I might be able to pull them off a few more times, but I no longer want to spend the time making up two chapters at the same time.)
Luna sighed as she held court once again for the aristocrats she had abandoned earlier. These ponies really didn't know just how hard it was to listen to senseless requests and appeals night in and night out without a break. Heck, some of them were even worse than Prince BlueBlood, and anypony that was even MORE so insolent and whiny than him almost deserved an award for sheer ability to annoy her. Combine that with the recent spell that freed Neutrality from his otherwise eternal cursed form that just so happened to weaken her greatly, and she was in no mood to deal with the aristocracy. Oh well, at least, with the invention of new flashy technology such as the internet, she could find some entertainment even while holding court, unlikely as that sounds. She pulled out her laptop, which was of a sleek, new design that was personally made for her, and started to browse a few stories, pretending to listen to the aristocrats complain and whine.
She loved reading more than anything else, which, some ponies might say, was her weakness. It mattered not, however, and she loved reading what other ponies wrote down about, sometimes they were of herself and Celestia (Truthfully, she had read quite a few of the stories that were some of the more inappropriate stories about them (And liking them)), of the former Elements of Harmony (She especially liked the ones where she was 'shipped' with Twilight Sparkle), and if not those, were either stories of a few things called 'humans' entering this world (Even after searching on hoofle, she still didn't know exactly what a 'human' was, as it was open to debate among the pony community) and living with ponies.
However, on this particular night, she wasn't in the mood for any of those stories. They were common, and she wanted something new, something that didn't involve any of those things. Realizing she had yet to find and read a story under the tag 'alternate dimension', she typed that in her search query, and began browsing various stories. She continued looking through a list of stories until, finally, one of them caught her eyes. It was labeled 'Discords renascent', made by an author named 'Vidhwansak', and after reading the short line of text that briefly described it, she clicked on it, curious, as it seemed similar to what had happened earlier in the labyrinth earlier. Not that it would be the same exact accounting of what had happened earlier, of course, that was impossible. A story like this that wasn't about shipping, humans, or the former Elements of Harmony was rare (Not counting those who wrote with their own made up pony characters), so she was extremely eager to go ahead and start reading this, even going so far as to shush the latest aristocrat in front of her.
After reading through all of the chapters (Twice over), she simply stared at the screen, much to another frustrated aristocrats displeasure. She paid him no heed, however, as this was much more important than whatever it was he wanted. Somepony was writing what had happened earlier tonight? She quickly looked over at the dates of the chapters. It was impossible, the timing was all out of sync! And yet, somehow, this writer, this 'Vidhwansak' was writing down exactly what happened during this night alone. She had to know who this mysterious author was! Fortunately, there was an address next to the author's name. She immediately started to write down a message, then waited as her written message ran off the printer in her room upstairs. Waiting impatiently for the Royal Guard upstairs to deliver the letter to her, she went and closed court for the night, too giddy with excitement and fear to listen to anypony complain. Although many an aristocrat would be fuming at this, it was just as well; she was in no state to listen to these ponies, and they could always go visit Celestia later. Finally, a guard appeared, bowed respectfully to her, and left a letter at her hooves. She waved over another Royal Guard, a pegasus, one of the newer ones that had just finished his training, and he stood in front of her, snapping at attention.
"Guard, what is your name?"
"Princess, it's Roko."
"Well, Roko, can you deliver this letter to Manehattan, apartment block five, room 227? It's a summon for this pony, and I will not take no for an answer from them. You may take a few fellow guards with you in the case they resist, and have my permission to take them by force to me. It is of utmost importance that I speak to this pony. Any questions?" The guard shook his head, and Luna smiled at him. "Good! You may go, Roko, and any guards you pick will be excused from other duties until they return." Bowing, the Royal Guard left her, and Luna was confident in the guard and whoever he would bring with him would bring back the author.
It was troubling, really. An author of a simple story, writing an exact version of the events that happened? It was impossible. There was no way this could be happening. And yet, it was happening. Luna sighed. Although it had been a long time since she or Celestia needed his services, perhaps he would be able to explain this strange bending of time. While she would loathe having to sit through one of his lectures, she had no doubt that they would help her understand how this came to be. Stretching herself out, she prepared to go and retrieve Doctor Whooves to explain this phenomenon to her.
A pegasus whistled softly to herself as she glided down from the sky, going home for her lunch break. They had managed to roughly put up half of the required amount of clouds in the sky, and were going to push the other clouds into position after lunch. Hopefully, Gydina didn't eat everything while she was gone. Landing gracefully in front of the apartment, she was about to go up past the lobby and into the her apartment room when the receptionist beckoned her over. Curious, the pegasus stepped up, wondering just what was the problem. She then groaned. If it was Gydina...
"Yes, sir? Is there a problem?" The receptionist looked around the lobby for awhile, a fearful spark in his eyes, then dropped his voice to a whisper.
"A few Royal Guards came by, bearing a letter. They asked me if I knew of some author named 'Vidhwansak'. Now, while I told them I don't know an author by that name, I did tell them that there was a pegasus living her under that name, well, you, of course. They nodded, seeming to be satisfied, and walked upstairs. No doubt they're up there, waiting for you to open the door. I just thought I'd..."
The receptionist cut off as there was panicked screaming coming from upstairs, and Vidhwansak sighed. Only one pony she knew screamed in that voice, and unfortunately, it was Gydina. "Well, sir, thanks for the warning, but I'd best go upstairs and make sure that Gydina doesn't get hurt." The receptionist nodded, and shooed her away. The screaming stopped, and Vidhwansak double-timed it up the stairs. 'This is too slow', the pegasus thought, and started flying inside the narrow stair wall, which wasn't the safest of choices a pegasus could make inside an enclosed space. However, speed was going to be everything, and she didn't want to see Gydina get arrested right in front of her eyes when she could've been faster.
'Damn it, Gydina...' The pegasus thought, quickly flying up the stairs, ignoring the shouts and curses that came from ponies passing by. They could've used the elevator. When she arrived, slightly out of breath, she noticed that her apartment door was open. Bounding forward, she burst through the door, and checked her surroundings. There were four Royal Guards, all pegasai, and a sulky unicorn, bound and with a gag in her mouth, as well as an anti-magic device on her horn. There were signs of a rather mighty looking scuffle (In the pegasus' eyes) everywhere, ranging from burn marks on the walls to what looked like salad strewn across the floor. One of the guards, noticing the sudden arrival, raised a rifle at the pegasus, but another waved a hoof, and the one with the rifle stood down. The pegasus looked at the guard that was obviously the leader of the group, and smiled politely at him.
"Hello...Mr...?"
"Roko, mam. The other pegasai in my squad do not need to be named, as you only need to talk to me."
"Well, uh, okay then. Hello, Roko. May I ask why you are in my suite and have my roommate bound, gagged, and with that...Implement on her horn?"
"Mam, are you, by any chance, Vidhwansak, the author? I am not asking if that is your name, but rather your pen name, and if so, have you written a story labeled as 'Discords renascent', posted on 'fimfiction.com' quite recently?"
Deciding that it was much easier to tell the truth than make up a lie on the spot, the pegasus nodded. "Yes, I am Vidhwansak the pony and Vidhwansak the writer. Has my story offended the princesses? I can remove it if it has."
To her surprise, the Royal Guard shook his head. "No, mam. We are here to escort you to Luna herself, as she wants to...Question you, most likely about your story. We have been told to bring you to her, and we are authorized to use as much force necessary to bring you back to her. " Vidhwansak gulped as the guard said the last few words. Something felt wrong here, something very, very wrong. However, the pegasus couldn't just ignore the summons, and she reluctantly nodded in agreement. However, there was the question of her roommate, Gydina. She paused. Leaving Gydina for awhile would help her think straight...But she doubted that by the time she got back here that the place would still be intact and whole. Sighing, she pointed at the unicorn with a hoof, wondering if she was going to regret this greatly later.
"Very well, then. However, may my roommate come with me? I assure you, she won't attempt to fight back. Isn't that right, Gydina?" The unicorn rolled her eyes, but nodded in agreement. The pegasus nodded, then asked another question. "What of my work in the weather patrol? They'll be expecting me back."
Roko nodded at a few of his companions. "Ungag and unbound her, and remove the magic-dispelling horn lock. Don't worry, Vidhwansak, we have already dealt with that matter. You need not worry about it." The two Royal Guards nearest to the unicorn complied with their leaders orders, and soon enough, a very irritated unicorn was looking at the pegasus.
"Right...So, uh, when do we go?" Gydina asked. She swore that she saw Roko give the faintest smirk ever given in ponykind.
"Now. Come on, let's show you to your cloud carriage."
Vidhwansak looked out the window of the cloud carriage. She had never been outside of Manehattan, so it was interesting to have a look out in the countryside. They had just passed Ponyville, and as Vidhwansak leaned over, she faintly saw what looked like an earth pony knocking out a unicorn before fading out of sight. Looking up, she saw the castle in sight. She suddenly had a sick feeling in her stomach. Canterlot, and it's castle where the princesses lived in were just up next. Trying to ignore the looming sense of doom that was trying to overtake her, she switched her gaze over from the castle to the front of the carriage, where the Royal guards were, pulling the cloud carriage to it's final destination in the castle. Although they all looked the same, she had to admit, they were really fast, fit, and had plenty of endurance. She looked to her side at Gydina, who was cringing in terror. Earlier, she had admitted to a fear of heights, and the pegasus couldn't help but laugh at her. "Don't worry, Gydina, this is perfectly safe. We're almost there to the castle, so you don't have to be scared anymore." The unicorn glared at her.
"I'm not scared, Viddy! You of all ponies should know I'm not scared of anything!"
The pegasus rolled her eyes in despair, and looked out the window again. The castle was in sight, and Vidhwansak gulped. 'This was it', she thought, 'This is where I get banished to the moon...' Her thoughts were interrupted as a Royal Guard called out, loudly, and she recognized it as Roko's voice.
"We have arrived in Canterlot! Please, ladies, step out of the carriage, and we shall escort you to the castle!"
Luna groaned and gently rubbed her head as Doctor Whooves left her after his lecture on time, muttering something about a 'TARDIS', whatever the hay that was. She was trying to process the information he had given her, and it wasn't working out so well for her. Time, apparently, can bend itself to make certain events happen. Why, the Doctor himself didn't know, and him trying to explain it left the princess even more confused then she was earlier. She needed something to distract her from thinking too hard about this, so it was a pleasant and very welcome surprise when she heard a Royal Guard approach her, and said guard pointed at the general direction of Canterlot.
"Princess Luna, Royal Guard Roko and his comrades have touched down in the Canterlot landing area. They shall be with us shortly." Luna nodded, and smiled slightly. At least she'd be able to talk with the pony that was writing the story of the events that were happening here. It was no mere coincidence that this story was being written about the events happening right now. She then yawned, and raised her left hoof to look at the custom-made watch she had there. She was surprised and confused by what time she saw.
"What is this? It cannot be! It's only been two hours since we've casted the spell?! But Whoove's confusing lecture was at least an hour, and while the labyrinth isn't that far away from the castle, it still should've taken us awhile to get back here, and I did hold audience for those damn aristocrats a little while..." Her thoughts were interrupted as Roko and his chosen squad arrived with two mares, presumably the writer and a friend of hers.
She looked at them curiously, wanting to discern any little detail she could obtain on a quick glance. One was a unicorn, with a white coat (Although it took awhile for her to accurately confirm it as white because it was a bit difficult to tell since it was stained with what looked like salad dressing and various bits of organic matter) and vibrant pink mane, complete with a pair of headphones around her neck and a music player on her back. Her cutie mark was of a pair of headphones, fittingly enough. The other pony was a pegasus, her coat was a light blue and her mane was long and silvery. 'Looks like Trixie, if she was a pegasus' Luna thought absently. Her wings were covering up her cutie mark partially, but Luna could just barely make it out as a quill being dipped in ink. She was also visibly shaking, probably from the fear that she would be sent to the moon. 'She's probably the one named Vidhwansak' who's writing the story, Luna thought, 'But who is the unicorn, and what to what purpose does she serve in her story?' The Royal Guards bowed, and quickly, the pegasus followed suit. The unicorn was slower, watching the Guards and the pegasus for a full five seconds at each of them before realizing that she should do the same.
"Rise. Roko, you and your comrades may go and have a much needed rest, and I thank you for your services. I wish to speak with these two alo-"
"Sister, where is the kitchen? My stomach wails for the beautiful and wonderful sight of food!"
Luna turned around, annoyed. Neutrality was standing inside her court, rubbing his eyes with a hoof, taking the scene in with a relaxed air. Unfortunately, the other ponies in Luna's court weren't as relaxed. The Royal guards tensed slightly, Luna glared at her brother, the unicorn looked on in confusion while the pegasus literally fainted on the spot. Luna sighed as she looked in dismay at the pegasus. Her talk with the writer wasn't going to happen now, apparently, thanks to Neutrality and his stomach. She motioned over at the pegasus guards, and, nodding, Roko and his comrades took the feather-light pegasus away to the infirmary. The unicorn raised a hoof, presumably to stop the guards from taking her friend, but stopped, flinching, as the unknown Alicorn stomped a hoof none-too-gently on the floor.
"Seriously, Luna, it's been thousands of years, I'm starving! Where the hay does an Alicorn go to get some food around here?!" Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get his directions to the kitchen anytime soon, as an irritated Luna began to let off steam.
"You just had to come by NOW, you just made the pony I wanted to talk to faint! This is an important matter!"
"What about her marefriend?! I'm sure she can answer your questions, whatever the hay they are! Now tell me where the kitchen is, I'm not about to starve to death!"
Gydina blushed, and shook her head quickly. "N-No, I'm not her marefriend..." 'At least, not yet', the Unicorn added in her head as an afterthought. Her voice was gone unheard as Luna began shouting in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Fortunately for the unicorn, having been listening to loud music for most of her life, she wasn't as affected by the Voice as a pony should've been. However, the moment the other Alicorn started yelling as well, she gritted her teeth and covered her ears with her hooves, as two Alicorns yelling at each other were much worse than one and strained the ears of everypony within earshot of Luna's court.
"NEUTRALITY, JUST GO FOLLOW A DAMN SERVANT AROUND OR ASK THEM WHERE THE KITCHEN IS!"
"DON'T YOU USE THAT TONE OF VOICE ON ME, SISTER! MATTER OF FACT, DON'T USE THAT VOICE AT ALL, MY EARS ARE RINGING. BESIDES, THE SERVANTS EITHER STARE AT ME WITHOUT ANSWERING MY QUESTION OR RUN AWAY SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER!"
"IS THAT MY FAULT? HUH? MY EARS ARE RINGING TOO FROM HEARING YOUR VOICE, BUT YOU DON'T SEE ME COMPLAINING ABOUT YOUR VOICE!"
"CONSIDERING YOU HAD THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF PRACTICE, I'M PRETTY SURE I'M MAKING THE BEST ATTEMPT I CAN AT SOUNDING LOUD AND ANNOYING LIKE YOU, SISTER!"
"I WAS TRAPPED FOR A THOUSAND YEARS TOO, NEUTRALITY!"
"YOUR ONE THOUSAND YEARS STUCK IN THE MOON COMPARED TO MY...Erm...HOWEVER MANY YEARS I WAS STUCK IN STONE TWICE IS NOTHING, I JUST KNOW I'VE HAD MUCH LESS PRACTICE THAN YOU, SISTER! DON'T USE THAT AS AN EXCUSE!"
"THIS IS COMING FROM THE ALICORN THAT'S NAMED EXACTLY AFTER WHAT HE IS, TALK ABOUT UNORIGINAL!"
"THEN WHAT THE HAY IS 'LUNA' THEN?! I'M SURE THAT STANDS FOR 'MOON' AS WELL!"
"AT LEAST IT'S A DIFFERENT WORD FOR MOON!"
At this, Neutrality had no counter argument. He did, however, have an insult he'd been wanting to fire off forever. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that Celestia already used this insult time and time again, and it's most recent use just before he was freed from his imprisonment in stone.
"Oh, alright then, you win. Little loony Luna~"
Immediately, Luna flared up at the use of that insult, and Neutrality shrank back slightly. Luna stepped forwards towards him, her mane and tail burning like an ethereal dark flame. "WHY YOU-" She was cut off from going any further.
"ENOUGH OF THIS FOOLISH ARGUING!!"
Both Alicorns flinched, and the unicorn trembled as a third voice entered the vocal fray.Fortunately, her joining of the fight also just so happened to end it as well. Looking up, she gaped slightly as she saw Princess Celestia, in her Royal pajamas, casting an annoyed look at both of the Alicorns for the yelling match they just had and she interrupted.
"Neutrality, the kitchen is past these doors, down a right, then keep going until you smell something cooking." Nodding silently, Neutrality brushed past the unicorn, giving her a sheepish smile. After making sure he left, Celestia sighed, and turned to face Luna, who had an exasperated look on her face. "Is there something wrong, Luna? I mean, I know something's wrong if my older brother and younger sister are yelling loud enough to wake me up, but that's beside the point. You seem like you really wanted to do something, Luna, and if I had to guess, you were probably interrupted by Neutrality. What was it?" Luna sighed, and looked over at the unicorn.
"Tell me, did you expect this to happen? And, no, not the yelling match, I mean being summoned here into Canterlot. I suppose you don't know why you're here?" The unicorn looked surprised at being addressed directly.
"Huh? Oh...Well, no. Actually, I don't know why I'm here at all, I'm just taggin' along with Viddy. I don't think she trusts me to keep her apartment intact while she was gone, huh, makes you wonder why she lets me live with her, then. Oh, and, why is dark out here? It was, like, just a bit past lunch time when we left Manehattan, so the sun should still be up, Y'know, all shinin' and stuff? Name's Gydina, by the way!" Luna smacked herself gently with her right hoof. So she was just talking to the pegasus' friend who didn't know anything at all about the story. Wonderful. She looked up as the unicorn sighed.
"She's been really mad at me lately. I just wanted her to show her story to the world, so I went to fimfiction.com, made an account under her name, and submitted her story for her. Somethin' about Discord being resurrected by some spell that the two of you cast, and some other spell after that one that turned him into an Alicorn again. Didn't really read that much into it, really. Speaking of which..." She looked behind her, a look of confusion just now washing over her. "Who was that Alicorn, anyway? Is he, like, a nephew or somethin'?" The unicorn didn't notice the look the two Alicorns in the room shot each other. Celestia sighed softly.
"Luna, what exactly did you do?"
"Me? I did nothing! I was simply reading some fanfiction..." The unicorn gasped loudly, and quickly shot forward in front of the princesses, and Luna swore that she heard Gydina's voice go higher by a full octave.
"Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh, OMIGOSH, you read fanfiction?! Did you read Viddy's story? What're your favorite stories?! Do you like..." Gydina trailed off as Luna glared down at her, and sighed. "Alright..." Luna rolled her eyes, and looked back at her older sister.
"As I was saying...I was looking around for some fanfiction to read when I stumbled across a story titled 'Discords Renascent' created by an author named 'Vidhwansak', who I assume is the pegasus. She's been writing everything that happened this night, but what I don't understand is the timeline. It took her three days to write about the events that happened tonight, so I asked Doctor Hooves about this, but even he doesn't know, 'Tia. He gave me some one hour lecture that made me even more confused."
Celestia was silent for a fair while, digesting this information. Then, looking over at the unicorn, she frowned at a detail she heard earlier. It was just after lunch time in Manehattan? That was impossible. And yet...She sighed, finally coming to understand what was happening right now. "Luna, what we have is one of those 'tale-travelers'. Although why this happens, even I don't know, what I do know is that somepony...Or ponies decide to write a story. Unfortunately for the pony or ponies, they somehow end up warping time and space, eventually ending up inside the story itself and with its characters. They'll be stuck inside the story, namely, these two, until it finishes." Luna rubbed her eyes gently with her hooves. That made absolutely no sense at all, yet made perfect sense at the same time.
"So...We're just a story, then, Celestia, made up by ponies?"
"Oh, no, we're quite real and we still have control over ourselves, it's just that, in the end, instead of choosing where our lives lead to in the future, we'll be drawn to the story's conclusion instead."
Gydina blinked, confusion on her face. Eventually, she, too, knew what was going on, and the implications of it caused her to faint on the spot, just like Vidhwansak earlier. Rolling her eyes, Luna ordered a nearby guard to carry her off to the infirmary again, and looked up as Neutrality walked past them, stifling a burp. It oddly smelled of onions and chocolate.
"Excuse me, sisters! And now, I, Neutrality, must be getting to sleep." He walked off, and Celestia almost gagged. She looked over at Luna, who had gone through a similar experience.
"I swear his breath was sweeter when he was a draconequus."
"Yeah...A lot sweeter. Uh, Celly...Will we tell Neu...Discord that this...This is just a story? That he never does get changed back into an Alicorn?"
"No, Luna, and here's why, because of the interference of the tale-travelers, a completely new dimension opens up because of them. Once the story is completed, things in one dimension will return to 'normal', whatever THAT is, and the new dimension picks up where the story left off. So there's no need to tell Neutrality this, because I have no clue which dimension this one is." Luna nodded slowly, and sighed.
"Erm...How do things turn back to 'normal', 'Tia?"
"I honestly do not want to find out, Luna."
"How do you know about 'tale-travelers' anyway?"
"Some theory that some pony I long ago dubbed insane made up, however, looking at the events that seem to be happening right now, it looks like it doesn't seem that far fetched a theory in reality."
Luna nodded, and looked down at her watch again. Five hours until it was her sister's time to raise the sun. She sighed.
"Well, 'Tia, you should probably go back to sleep."
"Yes, I should, I have five hours until it's good morning, Equestria! Good night, Luna, I hope the aristocracy doesn't drive you insane."
"Good night, sister. Hopefully they won't." Luna didn't have the heart to tell her sister that she blew off the rest of the aristocrats, but hopefully, her sister wouldn't realize that she had more than her usual number when she held court. Celestia smiled unknowingly, and walked away to her bedroom. Luna watched her for awhile, then checked to make sure all the doors were locked and that there weren't anymore appointments tonight. Finally, checking off her mental list, she walked up to her throne, opened up her laptop, logged into fimfiction.com, and made her way through the site, looking for a quality clop fiction to help her vent away her frustration.
(Just a minor detail, but I changed the content rating to 'Teen' for the swearing and reference to clop as well as other future swear words and references, nothing really major otherwise has been changed.)
Celestia woke up, and groaned as she felt the energy return to her tired limbs slowly like water. After the massively power-draining spell casted earlier last night and having her sleep disrupted twice that night, it wasn't that hard to see that she was rather annoyed and tired. Being a princess to the entire nation of ponies, however, meant that she had to keep a smile on and handle such affairs with dignity and grace. She wondered how Luna managed to cope; she usually seemed relaxed, and only got annoyed if something especially annoying happened. Then again, she did go and turned into Nightmare Moon once, so perhaps she didn't deal with stress that much better. After pulling herself away from her bed regretfully and heating up some coffee, she began to walk up the stairwell to the top balcony of the castle. Along the way, she passed by Luna, who smiled at her sister. Her laptop was being carried in a little saddlebag on her right flank.
"Hello, 'Tia."
"Hello, Luna. Was all well last night?"
"Oh, fine! Just fine. In fact, no pony showed up in my court, so I was alone and had time to...Look up stuff on my laptop during the night without interruption."
Celestia rolled her eyes in annoyance. As if she didn't know what she knew for quite awhile what Luna was doing in her court at night. Celestia, afraid that Luna might have resurfaced as Nightmare Moon, decided to 'bug' her sister's rooms and court. Was it a betrayal of sisterly trust? Maybe, but she wasn't taking any chances, and wanted to have enough of a warning if it was going to happen again. She was overly paranoid, yes, but she was paranoid for a very good reason. At first, owing to the lack of technological marvels that this day and age had, she had used various unicorns that were especially talented in invisibility spells to watch her sister and report back to her, but as time went on, she eventually replaced ponies with little electronic bugs scattered throughout the court. At the time, she thought that it was great that she no longer had to overpay unicorns for their services. Unfortunately, this also meant that she had to listen to the sounds and noises that Luna made during the night that usually went unsaid by former unicorn spies. Luna really did like her stories.
"Well, I do hope you enjoyed yourself during the night, sister."
"Always, 'Tia! It always relaxes me."
'And for more reasons that are better off unsaid', thought Celestia as her sister walked away. Her sister was...Quite vocal in those activities at night. Shuddering slightly, she shook off those thoughts, and continued onto the balcony, where ponies everywhere were waiting for her to raise the sun. However, she stopped just at the balcony, sipping her cup of coffee. She took a moment to bask in self-pride. Here she was, one of the princesses of Equestria, about to raise the very sun for all of her ponies to bask in and enjoy. Crops would grow, ponies would wake up to her morning glory, and another day would begin here in Equestria. The thoughts made her smile, and almost made her forget about Luna's night-time activities. Almost. Finally, after indulging in her thoughts, she placed her now-empty coffee mug on a nearby table, and she began to step out onto the balcony. Gently, slowly, her wings spread out, and, hovering about half a foot above the ground, began her task of raising the sun. Her horn glowed with an ethereal glow, and slowly, ever so slowly, the sun rose, signifying a new day. Celestia smiled as the sun's rays washed over her; empowering her once again.
As Celestia's rays of light beamed down upon Equestria, one particular pegasus groaned as the sun's rays came down upon her. A light blue pegasus groaned as she looked around the area, wondering why she couldn't see anything before realizing that her mane was messily covering her eyes. She gently moved her mane so that her eyesight was clear, and looked around in the room she was in. Confusion was worn on her face well. 'Where am I?' She thought. 'Last thing I remember is hitting the floor...' She looked towards her right, and saw an empty row of beds. Turning to her left, however, brought up the view of Gydina, still sleeping even through the insistent rays of sunlight were doing their best to wake her up. She smiled at the sight. The sudden sound of hoofsteps made her look up, and she was graced with Celestia's smiling appearance, complete with a coffee mug. Immediately, the pegasus stumbled up from her bed and got down in front of the princess, bowing.
"C-Celestia, my princess!"
"Hello, my little pony. Did you have a good nights rest from Luna, I hope?"
"Y-Yes, I suppose I d-did. I don't r-remember falling asleep though..."
"Oh? Well, I suppose you should ask Luna about that, she'll know why. What is your name?"
"V-Vidhwansak, your majesty."
"Oh, you must be the author that my sister is so interested in! I welcome you to Canterlot!"
The pegasus fidgeted, uncomfortable with the sun princess' words. She knew that the lunar princess was interested in her story, but why? She turned her head around as Gydina yawned massively, smacking her mouth in distaste. 'Well, this can't go well,' Vidhwansak thought to herself.
"Ugh...Damn sun, I wanted to sleep in..."
"Oh? Is it too bright, Gydina? Shall I ask Celestia here to lower the sun for you?"
"Ha ha, very funny. Shut up, Viddy, and go make me those delicous pancakes..."
Almost as sudden as she woke up, Gydina flopped down on the bed again. Vidhwansak rolled her eyes.
"Sorry...Gydina can be a bit..."
"Rude?"
"Why, yes, yes indeed."
Celestia motioned over with a wing to a door, and started to walk out of the infirmary. The pegasus followed, wondering where they were going. While they were walking, Celestia attempted some small talk about some things she was curious about, but she'd leave the bombshell she was going to drop on her until after breakfast.
"So, Vidhwansak, you're a writer for a living, I assume?"
"Oh, no, princess, I'm part of the weather patrol in Manehattan, I haven't really made any books. I just happen to like writing a lot. I got my cutie mark just after writing a story that I shared with a few friends."
"I see. Well, who's the unicorn that was next to you in the infirmary?"
"We were in the infirmary? I thought that was a large public bedroom that just so happened to be deserted. Did something happen last night?"
"Nothing fatal, I'm sure, Vidhwansak."
"I see." The pegasus wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. She hesitated slightly before talking about the unicorn. "Well, the unicorn is my roommate, Gydina. She didn't have anywhere to go when I found her, so I let her live with me. It's been a bit...Rough...It's hard to balance the needs of two ponies on one paycheck. I had to make a few changes to how I lived before without her. She's a good friend, though, even if she does annoy me at times."
Celestia nodded slowly, and smiled appreciatively as the smell of something wonderfully enticing wafted by. "Although I want to talk with you some more, I'm sure you're hungry, Vidhwansak. Would you care for some breakfast first?" The pegasus smiled for the first time since waking up and meeting the sun princess.
"That would be wonderful, Celestia, thank you."
"Then why are we standing here next to the kitchen, just smelling what's for us? This way, to the dining room!" Celestia walked at a rapid pace to a nearby room, and the pegasus had to run for what was considered a power-walk for the princess. As they entered the dining room, the pegasus couldn't help but be amazed at how spacious it was. It was nearly four times the size of her entire apartment, and had dozens of ponies seated at tables, most likely aristocrats and high-ranking Royal Guards. Upon entering the dining room, all the ponies looked up, realized that it was Celestia herself, and they got up from their tables and bowed down to Celestia, who smiled.
"Hello, my little ponies. Please, do continue on with breakfast." The ponies quickly went back at their food, and Vidhwansak couldn't help but watch in amazement. These aristocrats that were passing on the laws of Equestria ate like pigs and worse? Unthinkable. She continued to stare until Celestia nudged her slightly with a wing. Embarrassed, the pegasus followed the sun princess through a side door, and in that room was Luna, sitting over at a table that was more regal than the others in the main dining hall. Luna smiled as she saw Celestia, and her smile grew even wider as she saw the pegasus.
"Hello, Celestia!" She looked over at Vidhwansak. "What's your name? I'm afraid I didn't get it because of our brother walking in unannounced last night."
"My name's Vidhwansak...You two have a brother? Oh, and, before I forget, how did I manage to end up in the infirmary?" Celestia sighed. She was hoping to get the pegasus relaxed and with a full stomach before asking her anything relating to her story.
"Luna, it would be best if Vidhwansak eats a bit, first." Luna nodded, her smile attaining a sheepish quality to it.
"Ah, yes, pardon me! It's just that I must be going to sleep soon, and I'm very curious. To be blunt, you fainted in my court upon seeing him, so I sent you to the infirmary. Your unicorn friend followed you much later." Vidhwansak finally sat down at the table, across from Luna. She smiled politely, grateful for what Luna did for her.
"Thank you for sending me to the infirmary. It's also no trouble at all, I can answer any questions you have about my story, Luna, while I'm waiting for breakfast." Celestia rolled her eyes, and sat down next to Luna. She whispered softly in her ear, giving her a warning.
"Don't tell her about Neutrality until she's had a full stomach, Luna." Her sister rolled her eyes, but nodded slowly. It was best not to ask too many questions for now. The pegasus tilted her head slightly in a questioningly manner, and Luna began her veiled interrogation.
"What made you think up the theme of the story? I must admit, it's not something one finds everyday in a story, and it is a rather curious theme to chose."
"Oh, well, I got the general idea from the book "The return of the third Alicorn", a prophecy that states that a third Alicorn would appear. I was interested in the idea, and then my thoughts drifted to Discord. I thought, 'What if Discord was once the Royal Sister's brother, once upon a time?' So, with that idea in mind, I created the story that you've been reading!" Luna nodded slowly, having quite a few of her questions answered from her first question.
"Why is this story set thousands of years after Twlight Sparkle and her friends, or, as some of the writing community has taken to call them, the 'mane six' imprisoning Discord for the second time?"
"It just felt right, setting the story sometime near this time period. I don't think I'd quite get Twilight Sparkle and her friend's personalities well, so I'd rather not attempt at writing them, for now!"
"Practice comes a long way, Vidhwansak, and this is especially true in writing. What made you finally decide to publish the story for other ponies to read it?"
At this question, the pegasus sighed explosively. "I didn't. In fact, I never intended to publish it, but then Gydina read it, and sent it off to fimfiction.com. I suppose I should be grateful to her, but all the same, I wonder what would've happened if she never did send it." Luna nodded slowly. 'What indeed would've happened in this dimension?' She thought.
"So, why Discord? Why not, say, an Alicorn that was imprisoned by me and my sister countless years ago?"
"I toyed around with that idea, but I discarded it, since I didn't want to make a Mary Sue type of story."
"I see. Well, are you hungry?"
"I...Yes, I'm famished!"
"Well, breakfast is here!"
Indeed, breakfast was here, and it was being pushed on a cart by a brown stallion with a dirty yellow mane, who winked at the pegasus. Vidhwansak, however, was distracted and enticed by the smells and sights of the food being pushed around to pay attention to the stallion. There was everything she wanted in a breakfast! Deciding to keep it simple for this morning, she quickly reached over and grabbed a bowl of oatmeal, and sprinkled some raisins and hay over it before digging in quickly. Celestia watched for awhile, amused, before levitating a plate of pancakes and syrup over to herself. Luna herself politely declined the food, having eaten earlier. The stallion bowed, and left them alone. She waited for her sister and the pegasus to finish eating, when she realized that the dining room outside was surprisingly quiet. Normally, it would be full of aristocrats screaming at each other to pass the butter or whatnot, and Royal Guards trying to break them up, but all was silent. The reason why was easily made apparent as another Alicorn and a unicorn walked through into the side room, and the awkward quietness that was in the main dining hall quickly infected the little side-room. The pegasus looked at the new Alicorn, and dropped the spoon that she was holding awkwardly in her hooves. Gydina rolled her eyes, and levitated the spoon back up on the table.
"Seriously, Viddy, how do you eat with your hooves? I can't imagine eating without magic." Her question was gone unanswered as the pegasus gulped. She then pointed a shaky hoof at the white coated, black maned Alicorn, who seemed surprised at being singled out. The pegasus spoke quietly, not believing her eyes.
"Y-You...You're Discord, aren't you?" The Alicorn snorted, annoyed.
"Well, I suppose I was Discord, but once upon a time, I was the Alicorn named 'Neutrality'."
Vidhwansak nodded, her throat suddenly becoming dry. She didn't know how, but she was inside her story. Interacting with the characters. Luna coughed, and Celestia decided that something should be done before it got anymore awkward.
"Neutrality, dear brother, can you leave us? There's something I want to discuss with Vidhwansak and Gydina." Neutrality nodded slowly, respecting Celestia's wishes, and left the room. Celestia then locked the room and placed an anti-listening spell on the door. She then turned around to look at the pegasus.
"By now, Vidhwansak, I suppose you realize that you're inside your own story now."
"I...I...But...How?!" The pegasus, convinced this was a dream, smashed her head onto the table. She immediately regretted the course of action as a large pang of pain shot through her head. Luna coughed, and began the explanation.
"We believe that you two are tale-travelers, those who somehow manage to 'self insert' themselves into a story. This, fortunately, only lasts until you finish writing the story, so when you return back to your own dimension, this one will either go on normally, without your contributions, or continue living on the stories conclusion and past that." Although she was confused by this answer, Vidhwansak simply nodded, knowing that it involved her story. "For now, Vidhwansak, I believe it is best that you continue writing the story normally, and the way you intended it to be written." Celestia was then struck by a sudden realization. If things in the story happened...She looked at Luna.
"Do you have your laptop with you, Luna?"
"But of course, you know I like eating a light snack before I go to sleep for the day. Why?"
"Let Vidhwansak write something down in your laptop, I wish to see something that only Vidhwansak can do, and want to know if it'll work."
Confused, Luna hooved over the laptop over to the pegasus, who booted it up. After waiting a few minutes,Vidhwansak was finally logged into her account. Celestia motioned for her to write a new chapter. "Write down something that you wouldn't normally type. Something safe, however. I want to know how this works." Hesitating, the pegasus tapped down a few words.
Gydina makes a rude and uncouth insult at somepony in the room.
Suddenly, Gydina snorted,reared back on her hind-legs, and yelled out. "Celestia, dammit, you suck for raising the sun so early every damn day, go suck my horn and take it from the back!" She then clamped her hooves over her mouth, looking around in horror. Celestia looked on with surprise, and Luna, likewise, had her hooves over her mouth, although they were meant to stop herself from laughing out loud. Vidhwansak looked at Gydina in confusion and horror, not really knowing what happened or why Gydina had her sudden vulgar outburst. She was convinced that the unicorn was being sent to the moon now.
"Gydina, that was rude! You didn't have to do exactly what I just typed!"
"I can't see the computer screen from here and I don't know what made me say it, honest!"
Celestia, although surprised by the immediate response, wasn't satisfied. "Again, Vidhwansak, and this time, maybe something...A little less vulgar?" The pegasus nodded, her head bowed in shame, and thought of something that surely couldn't be bad. She always wanted to write a story around this, but could never find a solid idea to revolve it around.
Luna gets a sudden craving for moon pies, so she bolts out the door and screams at nearby servants.
Luna bolted up, her stomach growling. "I. Need. MOON PIES." She quickly flung open the door and ran out, screaming at servants to bring her moon pies. The pegasus looked out the door, her mouth open. Celestia craned her neck to look at what the pegasus wrote, and blinked, wondering if this was a good or bad thing. On one hoof, Vidhwansak didn't seem to be the type of pony to wreck her kingdom with a few words. On the other hoof, this could get very bad for all of them.
"Vidhwansak, I trust you won't abuse these near-limitless powers?"
"No, your majesty, I won't. I just want to write my story, and since my duties from the weather patrol have been excused, I now have plenty of time to write." Gydina spoke up, whining and with a begging look in her eyes, as well as greed.
"Can't you give write something to give me something cool? Like 'Gydina wins the lottery' or something? Oh, and, 'Gydina beats up an army of ninjas'?!" The pegasus sighed, and smacked her right hoof over her head. She winced as it hit a tender part of her head.
"No, Gydina, I'm not going to do anything of the sort, I just want to write my story." The unicorn pouted, and walked away, taking a few bagels with her. Vidhwansak rolled her eyes, and look at Celestia, who shrugged.
"As much as I would like to stay and explore this with you, Luna will want her laptop back, and I do need to reintroduce Neutrality to society and how much things have changed since then. Can you make it easy for us and not a nightmare, please?" The pegasus frowned slightly. She wanted to make it somewhat a challenge, and not even the princesses were going to change her decision.
"I'll try, but for the most part, it'll be pretty challenging to reintroduce him back to everything that he missed." The sun princess sighed, exasperated. 'Well, Celestia, it looks like you're in for one hay of a ride. Mother Earth, Father Heaven, help me!' She thought.
"I expected as much, really, it'd be weird having Neutrality agree to everything, though I understand your viewpoint, this is your story, after all. Oh, and, speaking of that, surprise us with the ending, that, I'm especially interested in." Celestia then walked away, leaving behind a thought-absorbed pegasus with Luna's laptop. Vidhwansak looked over at the laptop, and began writing, fresh, new ideas sprouting in her head. 'Hmm,' she thought, 'This story has just gotten a lot more interesting.'
(I haven't decided on a total number of 'Neutrality VS -Insert theme here-', so I'll be taking a guess and say seven.)
Vidhwansak smiled as she continued to write her latest chapter to her story in the Royal Library. Although Luna did indeed ask for her laptop back, she didn't need to worry about it, as the library had a full bank of computers that she could use at her leisure at anytime she wished. So intense she was at concentrating at typing away at the keyboard and working away feverishly for the newest chapter that she skipped lunch and didn't notice Neutrality walking up next to her. She wasn't surprised, though, when he nudged her gently with a wing, as she wrote that down in her story. It felt a little weird, at least, to her, that whatever she wrote would happen in the world as well. It felt like being in control of everything that happens, kind of like playing god. It was a new experience for her that felt extremely frightening and yet gave her a sense of immense pleasure. Remembering that Neutrality was waiting for her, she turned around, and blinked at him.
"Is there something you want, Neutrality, perhaps something I could help you with?" Although she wrote this part in, too, it felt like she was repeating words to herself, but only she knew how the story was going to come about, and it was important that she act out the story exactly as she wrote it, or else her story might spiral into an uncontrollable tumble that no written words would save from.
"I'm curious; what are these machines? Celestia said that the two most important things I should worry about getting used to and learning about is history and technology, both of which have advanced steadily throughout the years. I'd rather very much learn about technology, as history is so boring, and I don't want to cringe at all the stuff I've missed over the years. So, what is this machine?" Vidhwansak quickly changed tabs on her screen; it was best if Neutrality didn't see that this was just some story, Celestia warned her. The pegasus had agreed, as Neutrality might not take it well, and she really didn't want to face the wrath of an Alicorn.
"These are computers, Neutrality. They are quite a recent invention and are very useful if not impossible to work without in certain jobs today. You can do lots of things with them, such as..."
"Hey, Viddy, Neutrality! What're doin', is it fun, and can I join if it is?" The pegasus sighed. She forget complete to write at all about Gydina, but it was too late now to make any changes. She'd probably just interrupted the perfect scene Vidhwansak had written earlier, and now she couldn't simply act out her part in the story and would now have to wing it from here on it. She shot the unicorn a glare of death, which went unnoticed by Gydina.
"Neutrality here wants to learn about tech-"
"Actually, no, I'd rather just go out and have fun, but Celestia said she'd fry me if I went and had fun without learning what I've been missing these years." His voice took on an indignant tone. "You'd think my sister would respect me a bit more, I am her older brother, after all!" The pegasus rolled her eyes and inwardly groaned, her chapter ruined.
"I'm sure she just wants you to get used to the new things you've missed out on, Neutrality. After all, you're quite out of the loop." The Alicorn snorted, unimpressed with the pegasus.
"Whatever, I'll learn all about technology from using it rather than learning what it can do. C'mon, Gydina, let's go have some fun!" Gydina mocked Vidhwansak with a hoof-gesture, and just as quickly as Gydina appeared, they left. The pegasus smacked herself with her left hoof, fighting the urge to scream. Well, so much for writing everything that happens. She looked up at the computer screen, and sighed. She wasn't about to abuse her 'powers' to go and bring Neutrality back or to punish Gydina; that was just morally wrong. 'Not like they have any morals', the pegasus thought darkly to herself. Sighing, she saved what work she did for the day, and signed off the computer. She might as well enjoy the day, seeing as she didn't have any work to do. She walked out of the library, and had an untimely collision with Celestia's flanks. The pegasus groaned as she fell back on her rump, and an amused Celestia waited for her to regain her senses.
"Was bumping into my royal flanks part of the story, Vidhwansak?"
"W-What? No, Celestia, of course not!" The pegasus quickly got back up on her hooves, a light blush on her face.
"It's alright, I'm joking! Well, you should probably look where you're stomping off to. You look a bit peeved; what's the matter?" Vidhwansak sighed in frustration before telling her princess.
"I tried to go and teach Neutrality about technology, as I've written in the newest chapter, but Gydina showed up and ruined everything I wrote by going out and having 'fun' with Neutrality, who then said it would be easier if he went out and used technology rather than just learning about it, which, I may add, did not write in the story. So I figured I might as well enjoy the day, seeing as the chapter I wrote today isn't going to work out." Celestia sighed. 'And here I thought everything would go just fine', she thought to herself.
"Well, hopefully, things will all go well with them." Celestia sure hoped her words were true to form, because if Vidhwansak's stories about Gydina were true, those two were a perfect match indeed for causing trouble.
"I do hope that nothing wrong happens because of them, but, unfortunately, knowing Gydina and somewhat knowing Neutrality, I highly doubt that's possible. They'll probably end up doing something idiotic, like pulling a fire alarm."
"That's what I'm afraid of. Oh, my throat is parched. We can discuss this over a cup of tea, would you care to join me?"
"Oh, gladly, Celestia!"
Neutrality and Gydina quickly ran out of the kitchen, trying not to get hit by various sharp kitchen implements flying at them from a chef that unfortunately got his tail in the blender they were playing around with. Gydina winced as a knife managed to cut through a few strands of her tail. He could kill somepony like that, chucking knifes around! It was all his fault, anyway, he wasn't looking where he put his tail when she and Neutrality were playing with a blender! It wasn't as if blenders were quiet, anyway! When a cleaver came by, too close for comfort, she put on an extra burst of speed in an attempt to get away from the chef. After a few minutes of this forced running, they stopped in front of what looked like the entrance to the Royal pool, gasping for breath. Neutrality managed to catch his breath first, and started snorting in laughter.
"Oh...Ha...HAHAH...Did you see his tail when he removed it from the blender?!"
"Ha ha, yeah, all twisted up and mangled!"
They continued to laugh for quite awhile afterwards, then they started gasping for air, again. Gydina was breathing heavily, and looked over at Neutrality. He was looking at a little red box with a latch on it that said 'Alarm'. It was mounted on the wall, and just seemed out of place within in castle. The Alicorn was curious by this device, and looked it over. It didn't seem like it would do anything. Perhaps it was a prank that Celestia or Luna left for him? Admittedly, this wasn't the most stealthy attempt at a prank, but he was curious about what would happen if he pulled it. He reached for the latch, and Gydina, slow as she was, called out a warning the moment he pulled down the latch.
"NEUTRALITY, N-"
Immediately, all heck broke loose in the entire castle, and Neutrality cringed as a loud, whining alarm began blaring, complete with flashing red lights. Moments later, a sprinkler system started running and soon drenched the two. Neutrality was amazed. This was some bizarre prank! Just a second later, ponies from all parts of the castle began to run haphazardly, and Neutrality was asking various ponies why they were running. It seemed fairly unlikely that everypony in the castle was in on the prank, but that wasn't going to stop him from asking!
"Excuse m-"
"Why are y-"
"Uh, sir...Mam?"
Finally, after the third pony ran out on him, he looked at Gydina, who was repeatedly bashing her head against a wall.
"Uh, Gydina?"
"Ugh, Neutrality, didn't you know you just pulled the fire alarm?!"
"A what? I thought it was a prank "
"It...Never mind, let's just get out of here and pretend to look scared!"
In another part of the castle, Vidhwansak was just sharing a nice cup of tea and biscuits with Celestia when the fire alarm sounded. Soon after, the sprinkler system activated, giving both of them wet coats and manes that plastered to their faces. As if they were one pony, both ponies looked at each other, sighed, and stood up. The pegasus calmly got out, and the princess followed her.
"Neutrality, Celestia?"
"Gydina, Vidhwansak?"
Both ponies allowed themselves a small chuckle before exiting the room they were just sharing tea in, and being escorted out of the castle by a few Royal Guards. They ran into Luna, who was obviously awakened by the alarm from her sleep, and still in her now soaked pajamas. Luna sighed at the pegasus.
"Please tell me you didn't write this in your story, and don't make me ever crave moon pies like that again."
The pegasus smiled sheepishly under her gaze. "No, Luna, I didn't write this in at all, and I won't make you crave moon pies like that again."
"You didn't write this in your story? But then why would this happen?" Celestia coughed, not wanting to hear her suspicions as the truth.
"Neutrality and Gydina make one bad tag team duo, sister." Luna groaned, and hoofed herself in the face with her left hoof. A Royal Guard coughed, getting their attention. He frowned slightly, and nodded towards a nearby exit.
"Forgive me, princesses, esteemed guest, but would it not be wise to exit the castle so the fireponies can do their job?"
All three of them apologized to the guard, and they all started traveling out of the castle and into the gardens. Upon reaching a safe distance from the castle, Vidhwansak, Luna and Celestia saw both Neutrality and Gydina in the gardens as well, both looking guilty. Sighing, Celestia started off towards them, and after exchanging a look at each other, both Vidhwansak and Luna followed, wondering what Celestia would say to them.
The two in question ran off, and Gydina started to swerve around crowds and guards in an attempt to get out of the castle quickly. Neutrality followed, and soon enough, they were out of the castle and at a reasonably safe distance in the castle gardens. While there wasn't actually a fire, as they knew, it was best that anypony that saw them saw that they looked like they were panicking like everypony else. Gydina flopped over on her side, panting from having to run so much in a short interval of time. Neutrality looked around, and his heart sank as Celestia,Vidhwansak, and Luna with a couple of Royal Guards approached them. He made no attempt to move away, however, and sighed as Celestia stood in front of him, a few feet apart from each other. There was an awkward silence as both parties looked at each other. Gydina broke the silence by looking up, and smiling at the pegasus.
"Your mane looks good when it's wet, Viddy."
"Quiet." Celestia's voice was spoken in a low tone, the kind of tone that told anypony that was going to argue with her immediately reconsider their ideas. "Gydina, I know not of how you act normally such as you may have in Manehattan, and Vidhwansak is important here right now, so that lessens the punishment I will place on you, but I still have a punishment in mind for you. Neutrality, I expected better of you. Did I not say for Vidhwansak to teach you about technology?"
"Sister, she would've only explained what technology is, not what it can do."
"I suppose pulling the fire alarm showed you just what technology can do?"
At this, Neutrality had no answer. Luna rolled her eyes, and sighed as the 'all clear' was heard from fireponies.
"Well, 'Tia, Neutrality...We should probably go back inside.
Later, as she watched the sun go down, a light blue pegasus commented dryly on their current situation.
"Well, Celestia, this was only day one, and we have plenty more days to go through."
"Don't remind me, Vidhwansak. Try to make sure no fire alarms are pulled again."
Both ponies then went to their respective quarters, and both feared what tomorrow would bring for them.
(I feel as if this chapter feels like it's missing something for some odd reason...I just can't place my thoughts on it, though. Maybe you can? And no, not the fact that it's been divided up into two parts, that's just silly!)
Neutrality yawned in annoyance as he woke up, the morning sun's rays seemingly brighter than usual, as if angry. He wasn't surprised, though, after the telling off he got yesterday night by both his sisters, as his ears unfortunately remembered. It wasn't really his fault, though, Gydina was too slow in telling him what the alarm was going to do, and frankly, who wouldn't want to pull the latch on that red box? It simply begged to be pulled. 'I mean...It was so shiny and out of place.' He thought. Groaning, he got off his bed and started to shake his numb limbs, which slowly began to warm up. Celestia and Luna had decided not to punish him, which was a good thing, since hearing them yap on and on about the mistake he made was tiring enough. He sighed irritatingly, and walked out of the guest room. He still didn't have his own personal quarters, but that was the least of his worries now. Today, he was to meet with the aristocracy, and judging by the distasteful ways that his sisters spoke of them, he was sure that he wasn't going to enjoy this very much.
He walked down the hallways of the castle, intending on getting to the dining room when he stumbled across a statue. Normally, statues wouldn't have interested him; they were, after all, mostly about ponies who did some great service to ponykind and then left in the history books to collect dust. However, this statue seemed to reach out to him, for some odd reason. He didn't register who the pony was, however, until his eyes wandered down to the cutie mark of the pony, and then, memories of this pony flashed back to him like a torrent of water. 'What was...Ah, Twilight Sparkle, I presume? I'm not surprised you got your own statue, and in your own likeness, as well. I wonder how you felt when you turned me back to stone?' The statue gave him no answers, and he doubted he ever would get any answers from a motionless statue. Still, he watched the statue in it's eternal pose, looking for any sign of an answer. He pulled away when the statue offered none.
Continuing on his way to the dining room, he wasn't surprised when he saw more statues of the Elements of Harmony; there was even one of the pet dragon that Twilight Sparkle had for an assistant. 'The carver who made these statues must have very good taste and eye at detail' thought the Alicorn. Eventually, however, he stumbled across a statue of himself being turned back into a statue. 'Oh, the irony', he thought dryly, looking at the statue with interest. 'Did I really look like that when I was turned back into stone? Curse this stone carver, whoever they were, they made me look bad!' He wasn't kidding, either, as his features were far too exaggerated on the statue. The stone carver who made this statue of him must've had a particular dislike for him. Finally, he moved on from his statue to look at others not related to the former bearers of the Elements or of him that were along the way to the dining room.
One can only be interested in cold, lifeless stone statues for so long, and he was reaching his limit. In his lament of the seemingly endless statues littered throughout this hallway, however, soon enough, he gave a sigh of relief as he paused at the entrance to the massive dining room. Celestia and Luna gathered too many statues in their spare time. Rolling his eyes as he remembered the last time he entered the dining room, he supposed he should expect the same silence from last time by the ponies eating breakfast. However, upon striding into the dining room this time, it was only the aristocracy and guards that didn't see him yesterday that cringed at seeing him, which was a relief, because quiet places full of normally loud ponies unnerved him. He made his way to the little private dining room off to the side, and nodded slowly at the two ponies already inside, the pegasus Vidhwansak and his sister, Luna. His sister waved a hoof at his direction lazily while the pegasus glared at him. Ignoring the pegasus, he sat down next to his sister, who was chewing on the last remnants of what appeared to be a waffle. Vidhwansak cleared her throat, and sighed.
"Neutrality, are you planning on doing anything else that'll cause panic and damage? I mean, the floors are still damp from the sprinkler systems yesterday, and you ruined the pajamas I was wearing." The Alicorn rolled his eyes. He should've figured that somepony would've brought up yesterday eventually.
"I assure you that there will be no more incidents like that for today, at the very least. Celestia and Luna here have told me to go and visit the aristocracy today and get used to their bickering. I'm not looking forward to meeting them, but I suppose it's necessary."
Luna rolled her eyes, and gulped down the rest of her waffle. "Oh, trust me, you'll be screaming in rage soon, Neutrality, once you meet them. They're worse than spoiled stallions like Prince BlueBlood."
"Sister, the way you keep talking about them makes me feel like I should prepare for the most annoying ponies ever, since you." It was a very cheap shot, but also a very satisfying one, as the look on Luna's face was more than enough to prove. Vidhwansak choked on whatever she was eating, and quickly began downing a glass of water to hide her slip-up. Neutrality smiled. That was one win for him, if the pegasus 'agreeing' with him proved that much.
"Fine. Be that way!" Luna stormed off, leaving behind a spluttering pegasus and a smug looking Alicorn. Said Alicorn looked at the pegasus, curious as to why she was here. She and Gydina seemed to be your average unicorn and pegasus, and there was no reason off the top of his head why they would ever be here. 'There must be a secret reason', he silently thought.
"Vidhwansak, tell me, I'm rather curious as to why you're here in the castle, and, forgive me for saying this, but you don't seem to be an important pony or with an important duty." The pegasus looked up in surprise, and quickly composed herself for an answer.
"I'm here on behalf of Luna as a guest, Neutrality, Gydina, on the other hoof, is just a friend that's 'tagging along' while I'm here at the castle."
"I see. Well, why did Luna invite you here to the castle? There must have been something that you've done to make her notice you, after all, it just must have been quite an attention-gathering event for that to happen."
"Well..."
"HOORAH, BOW DOWN AND LICK THE HOOVES OF THE EVERLASTING GLORY THAT IS THE ONE AND ONLY ME!"
"...And that would be Gydina." The pegasus sighed.
True to her word, Gydina appeared, smiling as if she had won the lottery. Vidhwansak sighed, and flatly expressed her discomfort.
"What the hay did you do NOW, Gydina?"
"You know how you said that whatever you write down in your-"
Neutrality was then entertained by a completely random, amusing and slightly arousing spectacle of two mares wrestling on the dining room table, the first move surprisingly made by the pegasus, who launched herself forward at the unicorn and forced Gydina's head down on the table, telling her to 'Shut the buck up!'. The pegasus kept screaming in the unicorn's ears, something about a story. There was something that the pegasus wasn't telling him, and stopping Gydina from talking about it was proof enough to confirm his suspicions. He opened his mouth in what would most likely have been a vain attempt to stop the fighting had not a voice beat him to it.
"Cease this fighting, Vidhwansak, Gydina."
Both ponies and Neutrality looked up to see the unamused and unsmiling Celestia. Both ponies sprang apart from one another like a spring, quickly compiling with her orders while shooting each other one last glare. Celestia sighed, and over at Neutrality.
"Forgive me, brother, but I wish to discuss something with them." Knowing it was useless to argue with his sister no matter how much he wanted to, Neutrality gave a rude hoof-gesture at his sister before leaving. Casting a disappointed look over at both of the ponies left in the dining room, she sat down at the table, levitated a bagel over to herself, and started to chew slowly on it. Vidhwansak and Gydina exchanged a confused glance at each other, then looked back at the princess, who looked at them with irritation.
"What? Can't I eat breakfast without ponies wondering if they'll be sent to the moon?" Celestia sighed, and placed down her bagel on a plate. She magically shut the door leading into the little side room, and placed an anti-listening spell on it, much like last time. "I'm not going to send either of you to the moon. However, Gydina, be careful about what you say, Neutrality must not know anything about the story that Vidhwansak is writing."
"Huh? Why's that? It ain't a clopfiction, if that's what-"
"Gydina, I don't want Neutrality to read the story and then think that everything that's happened so far is some kind of sick joke. Why did you two start fighting, anyway?"
"Because, I was going to tell Viddy that I typed that I won the lottery, then, I checked my bank account, and-"
"YOU DID NOT JUST PERVERT MY STORY FOR YOUR OWN GAINS-"
"LET ME FINISH!" A few tense seconds passed between the two, and Gydina sighed. "It didn't work." Vidhwansak gave a sigh of relief while Celestia rolled her eyes. Gydina then spoke up again, all giddy.
"I did, however, get a new pair of headphones! I guess this magical story has its limits, huh, Viddy? That doesn't really matter, though! Imagine all the free stuff we could get by using this!"
The pegasus in question facehoofed hard into both hooves, while Celestia muttered something unintelligible. She then spoke up.
"Well then, now that I know what's going on...Gydina, this isn't something to abuse, and I'm glad that extreme life-changing events can't occur just like that. Vidhwansak, I want you to change your password on that account. As for me...Well, I suppose I should get started on introducing Neutrality to the aristocracy...What fun that'll be. Good day." The Alicorn got up, and took her half-eaten bagel with her. Gydina stared after her, and rolled her eyes.
"Least we didn't get sent to the moon, Viddy."
"Yes, but maybe the aristocrats will."
"Why do you say that, Viddy?"
"I wrote down in my story that the aristocrats were more annoying than usual."
"Oh, that. Don't worry about it, I edited your story a bit to make it more interesting, really, it looked like a really dull argument, so I spiced it up a little. You know, looked around, made a few connections, made up a few ponies on the spot. I'm not sure if my editing will take place, but, why not? I didn't add anything new, just expanded on your writing!" The pegasus slapped a hoof over her face.
"You have a five second head-start to run before I come after you with this butter knife."
Neutrality rolled his eyes as Celestia explained to him patiently that the aristocrats were more than likely to annoy him greatly, and how he should simply try to listen to them with a calm face and demeanor. "Listen, Celestia, sister, I already know how annoying the aristocracy can be by your words alone, it's all you and Luna have been talking about to me lately. I KNOW they're going to be annoying. The fact is, however, is that they'll never be as annoying as you two were when you were foals." Celestia sighed. Neutrality was obviously underestimating the aristocracy.
"Neutrality, you're going to have fully-grown stallions and mares say the most idiotic things with the intelligence of a foal and then some. I will admit there are a few redeeming aristocrats, but not enough to stem the tide of stupidity that occurs. This happens everyday, I would know."
"I'm sure they have had some form of education."
"Most of them were home schooled. And by that, I mean 'Go and spend your allowance and run wild while I'm at parties, son or daughter.' I honestly don't know why you aren't worried."
"I'm not worried because I know they can't be THAT annoying compared to you two."
Celestia sighed. Neutrality was going to be in for a rough time.
"Let's introduce you to the aristocracy, then."
Gydina sighed as she was walking in the gardens, recovering from the recent telling-off from Vidhwansak. Seriously, the pegasus should get a job as a drill sergeant, she'd be perfect for the job. Luckily, she avoided getting attacked by a butter knife, but knowing the pegasus, she'd have rather have been attacked physically. She looked weak as a marshmallow, anyway. Gydina smiled at the insulting thought while placing her headphones on, and turned up the volume as the song began to play.
Unfortunately, while she was busy looking down at her playlist, she accidently bumped into Luna, who was unable to go to sleep after the incident in the little dining room earlier. Startled, Luna instinctively backhoofed Gydina, hard. Said unicorn was knocked out cold and was sent tumbling away a few feet from the amazingly quick and forceful backhoof Luna threw out. Luna looked around wildly, wondering what happened, when her gaze looked down upon the unicorn. Blushing in embarrassment, Luna set Gydina on her back, and started walking to the infirmary. 'Well, Luna', she thought, 'At least you know you still got it'.
Neutrality gritted his teeth and swore inwardly as the next group of aristocrats came by. Although he didn't think it was possible, what Celestia said was true, these aristocrats were the most annoying ponies he ever met. He groaned as they demanded for changes to be made to the economy that were apparently already rejected for umpteenth time. The last group was even worse, demanding tax cuts on everything. He didn't even want to think about the other ponies, which caused him to shudder slightly. Not all of them, however, were that bad. Admittedly, as Celestia said, there were some redeeming ponies with actual ideas that could be considered to be put in place, but they were a mere trickle compared to the flooding of senselessness. He looked at the thing on his right hoof; he remembered it being called a 'watch'. It was to keep track of time, but Neutrality swore that the time he saw on the 'watch' wasn't right. He leaned over, and whispered to her sister, who was levitating a cup of tea to her lips. She took a short draught of the liquid before turning to him, a smug look on her face.
"Well, Neutrality? Is the aristocracy too much for even one like you to take?"
"Sister, I don't remind me. Tell me, however, about this 'watch'. I don't think it's correct, it says it's past lunch time."
"Actually, Neutrality, it is past lunch time, unfortunately."
"...You're kidding, 'Tia."
"Not at all."
Neutrality was about to say something when the next group of ponies entered. Upon seeing them, he was surprised that Celestia suddenly looked a bit pale, as if she'd seen a ghost.
"Are you quite alright, sister?"
"Not these ponies..."
"You've already established that most of the ponies are annoying, how much worse could they possibly be?"
"Neutrality, these are..." She broke her voice into a low whisper, as to not offend the rapidly approaching ponies. "The descendants of Prince Blueblood, perhaps the most annoying pony ever to 'grace' my court. They, unfortunately, have the bad parts of his genes, so expect this to be much, much worse."
Neutrality rolled his eyes. "How much worse can this day get?"
(I apologize for this chapter taking much longer than the others and probably being of an unsatisfying length, but I have no one but myself to blame for being lazy and having been writing a one-shot fiction instead of this during that time. Sorry, I'll try to get back into my regular four-days-ish-a-chapter schedule!)
A groan escaped her mouth as she came to. What happened? The last thing she remembered was changing the songs on her music player, and then bumping into somepony...The sound of somepony coughing, not her, caused her to look around in the direction of the sound. Princess Luna smiled sheepishly at the unicorn, who was confused; why would Luna be here? She then realized that the sun was setting and casting its final glow before the night in the infirmary, where she was in, once again, for some strange reason, although she could guess at why she was here again. Her face stung a bit, so she was probably knocked out with a swift hoof to the face, or something like that. These ponies were crazy. The unicorn sighed, and frowned at the princess of the night.
"Hey, Luna, why the hay is it so dark out? Last thing I 'member is bumpin' into some pony while I was lookin' around for a song to play; maybe you saw whoever knocked me out, and for whatever the hay of a reason they have for doing so?"
"That would be me, Gydina, you startled me and I back-hoofed you quite hard. I regret doing so and I'm terribly sorry."
"I'm also terribly sorry that you wrote my story to be the disaster that it is now."
Gydina turned her gaze over from Luna to an angry looking light-blue pegasus with a silver mane walking towards them. And, damn, Vidhwansak could have been the Element of Anger if there was one. The unicorn sighed. Well, if she was in for a telling off, she probably deserved it. Probably. The pegasus, within hoof-striking distance (A fact that Gydina noted quickly), looked down at her with an glare, and raised a hoof up. Gydina instinctively closed her eyes, but instead of immediately smacking her, the pegasus rolled her eyes, sighed deeply, and sat down next to her, apparently distressed. Gydina, upon reopening her eyes, saw an extremely sad pegasus, with her wings drooping towards the ground.
"I have every reason to and should be yelling at you, Gydina, but right now, I'm just tired and can't bring myself to. What you edited in my story just happened to annoy Celestia greatly, and I was the one who got the blame for it, despite me trying to tell Celestia that you edited my story earlier this morning, which she so conveniently forgot about."
Luna rolled her eyes. "You should have changed the password to your account when you had the chance, Vidhwansak."
"Yes, Luna, I'm well aware of that, and I have taken the precautions of doing so."
The princess looked unconvinced. "I trust that it's been changed by now?"
"Yes, Luna, it has, and Gydina will not be able to log in through my account."
There was silence for awhile, and then Luna spoke up. Although she probably shouldn't be asking, she couldn't help but be curious about whatever happened.
"So, what happened?"
The response was immediate but not one that was expected, at least by the princess; Vidhwansak reached over and smacked Gydina quite hard, if the audible sound she made was any indication. Gydina winced, but said nothing; this type of thing must have been common with them both. The pegasus sighed, and looked up at Luna.
"Sorry about that. Now, here's what happened, at least, coming from Neutrality's viewpoint, and mine..."
As the small group of five ponies came over, Neutrality noticed that the ponies refused to gaze at him directly; while it didn't really bother him, it did make him a bit curious. After all, most ponies had gotten used to the idea of another Alicorn being around other than the princesses; although that was probably only for the fact that there was now another Alicorn around that could listen to them argue over about the tax over tea. There were some ponies who tried to manipulate him, thinking him untrained in politics, but with Celestia teaching him about current politic tricks and turns as well as him being cautious around anypony even mentioning a bill, he shut down the idea of him being easy to manipulate to make laws for them.
These ponies, however, seemed to...Disdain his presence. He could feel the contempt they had for him, and while many another pony would have been disturbed, Neutrality was...Interested. After all, this was something he didn't expect from the aristocracy. He would've expected them to try and get on his good side (He stopped trying to count how many gifts he had gotten from various ponies, ranging from letters to full blown diamond jewelry and even marriage proposals), so this was very interesting to him.
His curiosity was satisfied in an extremely rude way when one pony with a snow white coat (Not unlike Celestia's) with a blond mane and a broadsword on his back suddenly pointed at him with a trembling hoof. "I, Prince Radcliffe, demand that this...This abomination of nature be sent back to the depths of wherever you two summoned him, Princess Celestia, or mark my words, there will be blood shed over this matter to send this demon monster back to wherever he came from!" The group of ponies then turned to look at Neutrality and glare at him, save for one unicorn mare that awkwardly shuffled her hooves, with her eyes casted down on the floor.
Neutrality couldn't help but glance at his sister, easily disturbed by this prince at having called him an abomination; although outwardly she appeared to look unchanged, he could clearly see the shock in her eyes of having her brother being called an monster. Celestia shot him an apologetic look, and cleared her throat before speaking with the prince. Her tone of voice suggested that she clearly disliked talking with the prince, and Neutrality could completely understand her, even though it was his first encounter with the prince. Sometimes it took just one moment to dislike somepony, though.
"Prince Radcliffe, why do you think Neutrality, my own brother, no less, is a monster that we, that is to say, Luna and I, apparently, summoned from 'wherever he came from'? He's an Alicorn like Luna and me, so what reason could you possibly have for saying that Neutrality is a monster?"
The prince shook his head in pity, and drew the broadsword out with magic, causing nearby Royal Guards to quickly surround the group of ponies. The prince, however, made no offensive move; he instead pointed it at Neutrality, the intent clear in his drawn sword and eyes. He spoke with the drive of somepony thinking that he and only he knew the truth.
"I have every reason to think you summoned a demon like him from the underworld; why, everypony knows there is no such thing as a male Alicorn! However, you two, with your combined magical powers must have opened a portal to a sick, demented alternate universe and brought this...This...Thing from it, for whatever sick reasons you must have, and are now trying to pass him off as a 'brother' of yours! Why, it all makes such perfect, clear sense! I shall not have such an abomination ruin the image of us and Canterlot; we shall not stand and be led by this...This...Neutrality!" Prince Radcliffe all but spat out Neutrality's name, and the other aristocrats immediately agreed with him, adding their own little comments and such, making it impossible for Celestia to begin saying something, and this irritated Neutrality. How much he wanted to go up to that Prince and show him just how much of a monster he could be, but, unfortunately, countless years had dulled his fighting abilities, and he was still weak from the recent ritual that brought him back as an Alicorn. So he settled on glaring at the prince, who glared defiantly back.
Eventually, however, Celestia had enough of the bickering nonsense that was right in front of her; Neutrality was impressed by her restraint; there weren't many ponies who could handle such annoying ponies on a daily basis, and even he was about to do something he might have regretted later had not Celestia spoke up, loud and clear over the aristocrats with the Royal Canterlot Voice. The only thing he wished was that she could've told him she was going to use it, and sitting next to her didn't improve things.
"ENOUGH. PRINCE RADCLIFFE, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, THINGS CHANGE, AND NEUTRALITY IS THE BEGINNING OF SUCH A CHANGE IN HOW CANTERLOT AND ALL OF EQUESTRIA SHALL BE GOVERNED. LEAVE US NOW, I HAVE MUCH TO PONDER ABOUT, AND TELL THE PONIES WAITING OUTSIDE THAT I SHALL NOT BE HOLDING COURT FOR THE REST OF THE DAY."
Celestia took a deep breath, then spoke in a quiet, restrained voice, which Neutrality was thankful for.
"Now, Lady Hayley, I want to talk with you for a bit, over a nice cup of tea, once a guard goes to the kitchen to bring back another cup and some more tea." One of the Royal Guards in the audience chamber snapped a salute to Celestia, and went off to the kitchen to fulfill Celestia's desire. The princess herself looked at the rest of the ponies, who had just unplugged their ears after being unable to her Celestia's voice through covered up ears. She continued to speak in a visibly restrained and polite voice. "As for the rest of you, please leave, and remember to tell the other ponies that the audience chamber is closed for the remainder of the day!"
The group of ponies looked at each other uneasily; things probably didn't go well for them, Neutrality thought in satisfaction. Prince Radcliffe whispered to Hayley quietly, too quiet for either Neutrality or Celestia to hear him; he then shot Neutrality a dirty look, then huffed and walked out towards the door, his voice audibly heard. "This is not over yet, Celestia, mark my words. The demon will not be around for much longer, I have thrown down the challenge, and I expect you to complete it, or I shall complete it for you!"
He walked out of the audience chamber, where ponies were waiting outside for a chance for Celestia and Neutrality to listen to their requests. "If you are as to be so deaf that you could not hear the princess like the swine you are, she will not be holding anymore audiences in her chambers for the remainder of the day." The angry voices outside gave Neutrality the hint that this sort of thing was common whenever this Prince Radcliffe spoke with Celestia. Celestia sighed, and looked over at Hayley, who was seated in front of his sister. Hayley looked around nervously, and there was a quiet tension between the three ponies, only broken when the guard came back with some more tea and a few cakes, as Celestia had wanted. After thanking the guard, Celestia began pouring tea for Hayley.
"Hayley, did you know what your husband was going to do before entering the audience chamber?"
"No, your highness, I did not expect anything like this to happen, and I'm terribly sorry that this happened."
"No need to be sorry for his behavior, after all, you aren't responsible for it. By know, I expect things to happen whenever your husband enters my audience chamber...Although, I was surprised by how...Venomous he was just now."
Neutrality, unable to hold in his hunger, grabbed a few cakes with telekinesis and started to munch down ravenously on them. Hayley giggled at the sight, then coughed and began drinking her tea after a disapproving glance from Celestia.
"Neutrality, I have some matters to discuss with Lady Hayley that would most likely bore you to death, not that you already are, so you can leave this place if you wish."
Those were the words he'd been wanting to hear all along. He nodded his thanks at his sister, and quickly made a hasty departure from the audience chamber. A few ponies casted him odd looks, but he did not think about any of that. Free, away from ponies wanting to annoy him with the evil, torturous bills that made no sense! He gave a sigh of relief, and made his way towards the dining room, where he could hopefully catch up from missing lunch and make this dinner suffer the strain of his hunger when he was intercepted by a worried looking pegasus, who both looked relieved and yet slightly even more worried at finding him. Well, at least this day was rather...Unique. The pegasus spoke up softly, as if worried of what she'd find out.
"Neutrality, have...Erm, that is to say, is this day going well for you? I mean, is it, in any way, unusual...?"
"Well, Vidhwansak, I suppose if getting told that I was a monster and that I should be sent back to wherever I came from is normal, then I honestly don't know what's unusual anymore."
The pegasus cursed under her breath, then fluttered next to his right side. "I see. Well, you should probably hurry on over to the dining room, if you've been in the audience chamber all day. You were there the whole day, right?"
Neutrality nodded. "That is correct, I've been there for about six hours, and they were the most uncomfortable six hours of my life. I find it hard to believe that my sister can sit through all of that, but enough of that, my stomach wails to me!" The Alicorn sped off towards the dining room, and the pegasus couldn't help but smile. Her smile soured, however, when a Royal Guard came up to her.
"Are you miss Vidhwansak?"
"Yes, that would be me."
"You are to report to the audience chamber, as ordered by Celestia."
Vidhwansak sighed explosively. Was she going to be in for a treat. She walked off towards the audience chamber, accompanied by the guard. She considered making small talk, but after a few attempts of light conversation, to which the guard ignored, she gave up. Apparently, the rumor that Royal Guards were exactly like stone statues was true. Upon reaching the steps up to the audience chamber, she took a moment to compose herself and make sure she didn't look as distressed as she did now; but before she could open the door, a light green unicorn with a blue mane opened it for her, and her eyes registered some surprise.
"Hello. My name is Hayley. The audience chamber is closed for the day, I'm afraid, if you didn't hear about it earlier."
"My name is Vidhwansak; I was told by a Royal Guard to meet Celestia here, as per her orders."
"Oh. Well, in that case, go right on ahead. I must say, you're the first pegasus I've seen in awhile."
The pegasus gave the unicorn a smile, which was hesitantly returned.
"Well, Hayley, it is true, there aren't many pegasai in Canterlot. But, please, forgive me, I must see the princess."
"Oh, but of course! I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
The unicorn curtsied to the pegasus, and walked away. The pegasus stared after her for awhile, and shook her head, wondering why Gydina couldn't be like her. Sighing, Vidhwansak walked on through the doors to the audience chamber, her stomach churning at the various thoughts of what Celestia would do to her. She was thinking of some rather creative sentences indeed when she finally caught sight of Celestia, patiently waiting for the pegasus. Vidhwansak gulped; her throat was suddenly extremely dry. She approached the princess, who nodded in her direction, but no more than that. The pegasus sat down in a chair facing the princess, and wondered what was going to happen next. Seconds, then minutes ticked on by, making the pegasus growing evermore uncomfortable. Finally, Celestia spoke.
"So. Prince Radcliffe has more or less declared that Neutrality is a monster that Luna and I have apparently summoned; he told me that if I did not banish Neutrality back to 'where he came from', then Radcliffe would personally take matters into his own hooves...And that's not a good thing. This is all because he doesn't believe there are male alicorns. That's the only discernible reason I've gotten from him, and frankly, I find that sexist. Prince Radcliffe is...Dangerous. Not only does he carry a broadsword, he knows how to use it, and he does have financial backing and many supporters. I do not wish to make an enemy of him, and I hope you're writing a peaceful end to this matter."
"W-Well, you see, princess..."
"No, Vidhwansak, I don't want anything else other than peace. I'm extremely disappointed in you; I would've thought that you would have more consideration and rationality in writing this. While I want you to write to your heart's content, I simply cannot allow it if such writing leads to a bloody ending, and since this story is attuned to your writing, I must keep your writing in check now, as it seems. Now I-" Princess Celestia was interrupted by one of Luna's guards; the pegasus knew this from the armor that he was wearing, and he came bearing a message.
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna wishes to have a word with a pegasus named Vidhwansak."
"Very well then. Vidhwansak, you may go, but remember, you are to keep your writing in check."
"Yes, princess Celestia, I won't forget."
The unicorn whistled slowly. "So it all came true, then?! Awesome, how'd you think of my writing?!"
The pegasus looked at her irritatedly. "Yes, Gydina, it's true, I will admit, your writing isn't all that bad, but, I swear, if I EVER catch you writing in my story again..."
"Hey, you have to admit, things were getting tense and ready for a kick-plot action scene, made by yours truly!"
"Gydina, I wanted this to be a simple fiction, and now it's a near disaster of what it originally was!"
"Oh, sure, blame me for the boring path you were taking the story on, I just wanted to spice things up!"
Princess Luna coughed, and both ponies turned around to glare at her. Luna pointedly glared back, staring them down. She then rolled her eyes, and began to make her way out of the infirmary.
"Well, I just wanted you to know that Gydina's in here because I accidently back-hoofed her too hard, Vidhwansak; you can settle your differences between each other, I must make my way to the audience chamber now. Good night."
The princess of the moon left, and the pegasus frowned.
"This can't get any worse, it just can't."
"Don't count your feathers 'till you've preened them all, Viddy."
(I apologize...It seems that I have fallen into writers block during the writing of this chapter and my general laziness has prevented me from releasing this on time; I also don't really have all the content I wanted to squeeze into it, although I have yet to find the reason why. I decided not to split this chapter up in two parts, since it didn't honestly feel right. This will be another chapter I'm noting for a rewrite if necessary.)
There was the mechanical sound of somepony frantically typing away in a deserted library in Canterlot, accompanied only by a few reference and dictionary books that the pegasus needed in her writing. It was just after breakfast, and the pegasus had been at the computer ever since then. As her hooves danced across the keyboard, she sighed as she completed yet another paragraph, then erased the whole thing. The poor pegasus couldn't think of a suitable way to end the chaos that a certain unicorn started, at least, in a suitable way that actually made sense on all sides of the story. Frowning, the pegasus looked at the pitiful start that she made on her most current chapter. It wasn't much, just a short little author's note apologizing for the last chapter (That she said was edited poorly by one of her friends), and a paragraph that started Neutrality's day, up to breakfast.
However, after that, she just couldn't think of anything to write. Nothing seemed to pop into her mind that would be acceptable in her story. She began typing once again, only to backspace it all. She very nearly slammed her hooves on the keyboard had not a certain unicorn bearing books entered the library. The pegasus looked behind her, and paused in her writing as she saw Hayley, the unicorn she met yesterday. The unicorn smiled at the pegasus, and spoke softly.
"Hello, Vidhwansak, I must say, I didn't expect to see you here."
"Why, hello, Hayley. What brings you to the library?"
"Oh, I just wanted to turn in a few of these books that I checked out. Do you know where the librarian is?"
"He told me he was going to get a light snack of coffee and some pastries; he told me that the library was probably safe in my hooves, so he let me stay here while he went to get refreshments. Hm, I thought he locked the doors behind him before he left; how did you get in here, Hayley?"
The unicorn looked surprised, and she placed her bags down. She used her magic to root through them, and Vidhwansak watched, slightly curious as to why she was looking through her bags instead of telling her. Finally, the unicorn smiled as she brought out a key.
"I'm an assistant librarian here; I love books, so why not surround myself with them as my job? Although," she added, rather sheepishly, "It is quite hard to stay focused on your job when you have so much knowledge surrounding you. If you've been here for a few days already and haven't seen me since yesterday, it's because my work hours are very flexible, and I really only come by here whenever I want to turn in a few books or check some more out. Anyway, is there anything I could help you with? You seem a little strained over there, any particular thing that's bothering you right now, Vidhwansak?"
The pegasus rolled her eyes, and looked glumly at what she had for a start to her newest chapter, which was still merely about Neutrality's breakfast.
"Well, you see, I'm writing this story...And one of my friends currently residing with me in Canterlot here, Gydina, a unicorn such as yourself, happened to edit the story in a way that completely messes up the path I was taking the story along originally. Now, I can't think of anything that would continue on the story without making it look bad."
Hayley smiled reassuringly, and began to unpack her books and other belongings onto a nearby table. "Couldn't you just edit the chapter that this Gydina edited for you? Surely such damage isn't permanent, especially on a computer."
"The problem with that is that this story I'm writing is on the internet, and a few ponies have already read through it. They've sent me comments about how they're either liking or disliking the sudden new direction I'm taking the story in, but it wasn't what I had in mind of writing..."
"Well, Vidhwansak, if all else fails and you're running close to a deadline, you could take the story along in the direction that Gydina more or less has now forced you to take. You may not like it, but it's a possibility you could take. You could also twist the story around, like how some authors have their characters in a life and death situation, only to be saved in the most unlikely circumstances. It's overused and tacky, yes, but it works. You're the writer, you're the one who has the power over the story!"
The pegasus winced; the unicorn didn't know just how much those words actually applied to her. The thought of continuing the story the way it was also didn't help her. She might end up upsetting Princess Celestia even more, and that was one thing she didn't want to do. However, seeing as she didn't really have a choice, she may as well go along with Hayley's suggestion.
"I...Suppose going along with Gydina's editing could work, but I don't want her to feel like she completely influenced the 'new' direction the story is about to be taken along to," Vidhwansak commented, her hooves typing away. She had to admit, it was a whole lot easier going along with Gydina's path then it was making another path that completely made sense with Gydina's path while still staying true to the story's original path. "However, I suppose it's unavoidable, but I'm never going to hear the end of it from her."
Hayley paused, in the middle of unpacking a rather large tome. "Is this Gydina your marefriend? Is this why you're taking her editing so seriously without rewriting the chapter you released?"
The pegasus sighed explosively, and stopped typing. "No, she just lives with me in my apartment in Manehattan, after I found her wandering the streets alone and with no place to go. Eventually, she became a permanent resident living under my roof, although I wonder if that was such a good idea."
"Wait, I'm confused. Did you not just say that you were residing in Canterlot?"
"Only by order of Princess Luna, and I'd very much rather keep the reason why I'm here only for those who need to know. I'm sure this is just a temporary place for us to stay in; we don't have the bits to live in any of Canterlot's hotels, so we've been staying at the castle in our own guest rooms."
"I see." The pegasus noted the curiosity in the unicorn's voice, but Hayley didn't pursue the subject further. "Does she really annoy you that much? After all, you do have the option of kicking her out of your home, she's living with you, not the other way around."
"I don't have the heart to kick her out, I'd feel heartless after letting her stay in my little apartment room."
There was a long silence stretched between the two for awhile, with the pegasus typing and the unicorn continuing to unpack books from her bags. Both ponies were uncomfortable with the silence, but neither had anything to break it with. Eventually, however, it was broken when the head librarian entered the library, levitating a mug of coffee and a pastry box. He yawned, and smiled warmly at Hayley.
"Hello, Hayley, you're here early."
"Quite. I was having a rather enlightening conversation with Vidhwansak here."
"Oh?" He looked over at the pegasus, who was suddenly very interested with her keyboard. "That's strange, she usually doesn't hold up a conversation very well."
"Oh, well, if that's what you meant, we did reach an uncomfortable silence after a fair while."
The pegasus that whom the two unicorns were talking about sighed, saved what she had, and uploaded it to the website upon which it was published on.
"I suppose that'll be it for my story. Now, we see what happens..."
Neutrality whistled softly to himself; it was just after breakfast, and he was feeling quite content with himself. Sure, there was that threat from that one pony, Prince Radcliffe, but, honestly, there was no way he could ever hope to match the power of an Alicorn, much less even come halfway to it. He continued walking around in the castle when a thought suddenly struck him. Why hadn't he presented himself to Canterlot yet? Sure, there were the ponies who came yesterday among Celestia's audience to hold court and discuss things, but those were a select few ponies who were able to visit the castle. Word of him hadn't spread very far about him (If at all), so he may as well present himself before any rumors of him alienated the population of Canterlot before he even had a chance to speak with them. He came across Celestia, nodding her head in a welcome to him, who was making her way towards the training grounds to oversee the training of new Royal Guards before presenting herself at her audience chamber. He stopped her by making a quick makeshift barrier between Celestia and the hallway ahead by spreading out his wings; Celestia looked at him with a curious glance, and Neutrality folded his wings back into place before speaking, satisfied that he got her attention.
"Celestia, dear sister. I was thinking of presenting myself to the populace of Canterlot, and thereby squashing any rumors that may be circulating as we speak about me. Do you mind?"
Celestia looked at him with a half-amused look. "Are you sure you're not just making up some excuse just because you don't want to stay in my audience chamber later today this time around?" Neutrality glared at her.
"Blow it out of your plot. Admittedly, yes, sister, part of the reason is to escape the boring hours stuck inside, but I also genuinely want to present myself to the whole of Canterlot."
Celestia narrowed her eyes at the insult. "That was uncalled for. The insult, I mean. To answer your request, Neutrality, I'm not so sure that this is such a wise idea. We can do a public announcement to all of Canterlot for you, but if you did it yourself, ponies would most likely panic and assume that you're here to overthrow us and become the next, sole ruler of Equestria. It's better if you can wait for awhile so that Luna and I can arrange a date to make a public announcement."
Neutrality sighed. What his sister said was reasonable, true, but he didn't want to be cooped up in the castle until they made their decision on when to present him. "Celestia, there are probably rumors being spread out right now about me by the ponies who have seen me in your audience chamber yesterday, and I have no doubt that Prince Radcliffe is spouting out the most vulgar and untrue ones. It's best if this is taken care of, now."
Celestia sighed, and frowned. "Alright, then. Let's go, we may as well get this over with. I want you to stay out of sight until I announce your name, then you can step up and present yourself to all of Canterlot. After that, I suppose you can do whatever you want."
Neutrality smiled. "Thank you sister. After all, what could-"
He stopped talking as Celestia shot him a glare.
"If you say anything about it being unable to be any worse and happen to jinx this event, I will personally make sure it does get worse when I get my hooves on you."
Neutrality rolled his eyes, and once he was sure that his sister was out of earshot, muttered underneath his breath, "At least it can't get any worse for you."
A unicorn sighed as she followed a pegasus out towards Canterlot. "Why are we out here,Viddy? I mean, it's a nice day and all, but I really should be sleeping, you know how cranky I get when I don't get my three naps a day."
An irritated looking pegasus shot her a quick, exasperated look as she picked her way through an ever-growing crowd of ponies. There was to be an announcement made about something very big by the princesses, and although the pegasus didn't know for sure if it was about Neutrality, she figured that there wasn't much else as important that the princesses felt that needed a public announcement, and was going to 'forever change the history books'. She maneuvered quickly to an uncrowded spot, and sighed quietly.
"Well, Gydina, this is a public announcement..."
"Yeah, yeah, big deal, the both of us already know what it is, if you wanted to go, why did you hav'ta bring me along too,Viddy?"
"Because you live with me and therefore you will listen to me since you live under my roof."
"Psh, whatever, Viddy, I'm a free spirit! Oh, damn, that's a lot of guards..."
The pegasus gave up on arguing with the unicorn, knowing full well that Gydina wouldn't stop arguing with her. She looked up at a nearby clock-tower, and frowned. The princesses were just about to announce Neutrality to the thousands of ponies gathering here. This would go exceedingly bad; she knew, of course, because she wrote what was going to happen next. She just hoped that she wouldn't be living on the moon afterwards.
Luna frowned as she prepared to go up with her sister to announce the 'official' arrival of their brother. She managed a few hours of sleep before being awakened for this event, and was just now told about what she was to do. Needless to say, having her sleep interrupted just to say a few words to a bunch of stuck up ponies was not something she was excited to do, nor would the comments, complaints, and completely insane outbursts that were sure to happen in a few moments make it any easier.
Beside Luna, Celestia and Neutrality were quietly discussing what they would say to the crowd of ponies out there. Other than a few words being added and removed, both deemed each others small speeches to be adequate enough. Neutrality yawned, and stretched his wings out; it was almost time for his sisters to make the announcement. He noted the Royal Guards stationed around the crowd, in addition to a new kind of Guard outfit he had never seen before being present, right in front of the stage where the princesses were to stand and announce him. Although he couldn't accurately tell, he guessed that there was roughly a company of them; all of them were unicorns, encased in black armor and with a rather flimsy looking shield attached to the left side of their armor, with something that looked like an advanced crossbow on their right, although some carried short metal rods and other crossbows that were much, much larger. He snorted in disdain. Celestia was worrying over this excessively if she needed this many guards here.
"Celestia, sister, don't you think that all these guards a little too...Much? Honestly, why are all these guards needed? And what outfit do they belong in? I don't remember seeing these kinds of guards before."
"Well, Neutrality, I just have this feeling that things will go very, very badly here, and I have simply called upon the appropriate number of guards. To answer your question on the guards themselves, they are a rather recent addition to our roster; they're called Riot Control, and keep ponies in line at large gatherings such as this one with advanced technology and different training than other Royal Guards. In theory, that is, I've never had to use them since ponies are usually peaceful. However, since I have no information on what Prince Radcliffe has done or will do here, I have called upon the Riot Control to keep the peace should there be any uprisings that are likely to happen. There are also guards that are not visible that are in the background, looking for potential danger while keeping to themselves."
While Celestia was explaining this to Neutrality, Luna kept her eyes on the clock-tower stationed in the middle of Canterlot, unaware that a nervous pegasus in the crowd was doing the same. She sighed as the clock struck home, and looked back irritatedly at Celestia and Neutrality.
"Let's get this over with, I wanna sleep."
Both sisters stepped out onto the open stage, where the crowd of ponies cheered. Celestia and Luna smiled at their subjects, and waved their hooves back at the crowd. Celestia took a step back, leaving Luna to stand and speak through the lone microphone that was set on the stage. Luna cleared her voice audibly, which caused a minor panic among the crowd as they tried to back up, causing riot control to tense slightly. It subsided, however, as Luna began speaking in a normal tone of voice.
"Citizens of Canterlot, my beloved sister Celestia and I have an important announcement to make of a very important matter, one that may shock and terrify you, and as stated earlier, change the history books, forever! Fear not, however, as this change brings along a new era of prosperity for us! May I welcome Princess Celestia, my beloved sister, to speak of this great change!"
Cheering could be heard throughout the crowd as Princess Celestia stepped up to the microphone, smiling at the ponies she was proud to call her subjects. Most of them, anyway. She opened her mouth to speak when she saw a pony in ragged clothes that covered their entire body enter the crowd. That was highly unusual, and more than a bit suspicious, as most ponies here either went naked or wore only the finest clothes. A pony dressed in rags was unheard of and was more than a disgrace when seen under most ponies in Canterlot. She stepped away from the microphone, and motioned Luna towards her. She frowned, and tilted her head slightly towards the crowd.
"I saw a pony in ragged clothing enter the crowd before I was going to speak of Neutrality. Contact the captain of Riot Control and tell them to sweep the area for that pony, discreetly, if possible. The pony may just be a poor hobo trying to pickpocket some of the ponies here, but he may be a threat to the crowd. I'll attempt to stall the crowd with a short little speech; that's all I can spare on a short notice, Luna."
The princess of the moon nodded, and walked over to talk with the captain of Riot Control. He nodded, and calmly spoke into his mouth piece. Within seconds, Celestia saw five average, normal looking ponies that were undercover members of Riot Control quickly walk up into the crowd and blend in almost immediately, with a clear intent in their eyes as they searched for their target. They were trained well, but even they could not search for one ragged pony in a crowd this large. She was just going to have to buy as much time for them as she possibly could. She swore that she would find Vidhwansak after this and scold her over a cup of tea.
"Aw, damn, is somethin' goin' down here in Pantylot, here, of all places? Sweet!"
"It's Canterlot, Gydina, not...What you just called it. And whatever do you mean, Gydina?"
"C'mon, Viddy, ya can't be blind, didn't ya see Celestia back off from the mic and speak with Luna, who then spoke to one of those creepy guards in awesome suits of armor and rifles? Somethin's goin' down, I just know it. Oh, 'scuse me, Viddy, I'm goin' to get somethin' to eat."
The pegasus sighed as Gydina left her, and Celestia walked up to the mic again on the stage. This was coming along all too well, and she knew that a one way trip to the moon was inevitable. Suddenly, a pony dressed in what could only be appropriately described as rags came up to them, his eyes shifting everywhere. He quickly took off what he was wearing, revealing a surprisingly well-groomed coat, and stuffed it into a bag, upon which he promptly kept at his side and looked as if he had been there the whole time. Just in time, too, thought the pegasus, as another pony walked up to them, seeming to appear normal, but her ice cold eyes scanning for the target she thought she had betrayed all normality. Finding no trace of the pony she was stalking, she walked off, desperate to find the pony before any supposed damage from the target did happen. The unicorn sitting beside the pegasus sighed in relief. The pegasus looked up at a sudden cough to see Gydina, who came back with an apple, and raised an eye at the stallion sitting next to the pegasus.
"Wow, Viddy. I leave for a little while and I see you already anchored a stallion, you gotta teach me how to do that!"
The stallion looked at Gydina, and nodded at her direction while the pegasus groaned. Once again, she didn't write at all in her story about Gydina and her erratic personality, which would make the next few moments quite interesting indeed. Gydina sat down next to the stallion, smiling.
"So, what's your name, sweetie?"
The pegasus wished that Celestia would get on with her speech, she didn't want to hear Gydina's flirting.
Celestia walked up to the microphone, fully intending to stall her announcement for as long as possible. However, with this sudden change of events, she could only think of an improvised short speech before delaying the revealing of Neutrality to the public without making it seem like she was delaying something on purpose. Cursing inwardly, she smiled at the crowd before speaking.
"Ponies of Canterlot, I welcome you to the announcement I will shortly be making! As you know, Luna and I have ruled Equestria for countless years, and have been peacefully ruling over all of ponykind throughout those years. Over those years, there have been brave, smart, and loyal ponies that have done wondrous things that have either made our life easier, or have prevented it from being consumed from chaos. (She swore she could hear Neutrality wince) I would like a moment of silence for those ponies of the past who have made it possible for us to live the way we do today."
Although it was a rather odd request, nopony dared to voice their opinions on the matter, and the crowd fell silent. Celestia, during this time, looked back at Luna, who shook her head. So the pony was still missing. She sighed, and decided that it was no use in delaying any further.
"However, there are rumors that have been spreading, rumors that state that we are about to be overruled, and cast away the peace that has been upheld for untold years. You may have heard these rumors from members of the aristocracy, stating that there is a new Alicorn right here in Canterlot. Part of that is true."
There were large gasps among the crowd, and Celestia allowed the ponies to barrage her with questions. She raised up a hoof in the air, which caused the voices in the crowd to die out slowly. Celestia frowned, and looked sternly at the ponies in the crowd.
"It is true that there is another Alicorn, and indeed, as impossible as it seems, this Alicorn is a male. After a complex spell not relating to necromancy in any way, shape or form, we were able to revive him back to his true form, and he has been trying to adjust back to the way life is today. Please, I welcome...NEUTRALITY!"
As Celestia yelled out in The Voice on the Alicorn's name (Causing many ponies to stagger at the sudden usage of The Voice), Neutrality stepped out in full view of Canterlot. There were mixed reactions, from mares swaying and making pretty eyes at Neutrality, to stallions cursing and glaring at him, from minor (And major) panic attacks to ponies yawning, as if this were a normal occurring thing in Canterlot. Then, a stallion spoke up, and began the chaos.
A pegasus watched silently as the crowd's mixed reactions threatened to tear it apart; riot control looked just about ready to spray the area with gas on the more aggressive ponies, when the stallion sitting next to her cleared his throat, and spoke out in a clear, forceful tone.
"No."
Ponies, upon hearing his loud, clear voice, quieted down and looked at the stallion. Riot Control instinctively tried to reach him, but the crowd of ponies happened to block their way, and they could not get past them without using force, something Celestia told them to not use until the crowd was about to cause a riot. Gydina shuffled over to Vidhwansak, and whispered into her ears.
"Damn, Viddy, you sure know how to pick stallions! Nice, big, sexy, a strong voice, and can cause one hell of a racket!"
Vidhwansak rolled her eyes, and looked at the stallion, who continued on with what he was going to say after making sure everypony in the crowd was paying attention to him.
"I, Prince Radcliffe, will not welcome this 'Neutrality' into Canterlot. Do you not see what Celestia and Luna are doing? They, with the blackest of all black magic, resurrected a demon, aye, or pulled one from an alternate dimension! How can I say this in confidence, you ask? Think back! Think back to when Celestia spoke of her 'complex spell'. Does anypony know of a spell that's complex enough to somehow pull a pony, an Alicorn, no less, from a spell out? If so, I demand that such a pony show us, right here, right now!"
He waited for anypony to dare try and challenge him. When none dared, he continued.
"She tells of reverting him to his 'true form', does that mean that the Alicorn we see now was once a monster, or something far, far worse? One does not simply change the form of another through a spell! This Neutrality is an Alicorn; I can accept that, begrudgingly, as I sadly have no proof if he does have another demonic form. What I cannot accept is that he's going to be a ruler of Equestria! We know nothing of him, nay, nothing of what he's done! He has no past; and if he has no past, he shall not have a future here in Equestria!"
Celestia cursed as the crowd began to agree with Prince Radcliffe, and was about to say something when one of the Riot Control guards panicked and began spraying gas. The other guards, following their comrades actions, began doing the same, trying to break apart the rioting crowd. Explosions ran out; somepony apparently had bombs, and fires began to start. Celestia looked at the scene in sadness; this wasn't supposed to happen, but it did, and she knew just who to blame for this. She turned around and spoke quietly to Luna and Neutrality.
"We must go and fly back to the castle. We need to formulate a plan against Prince Radcliffe and I have words for a certain pegasus if I manage to find her. Go! I will not have my brother and sister harmed here!"
The other two Alicorns wanted to argue with her, but seeing the desperation and love in her eyes, they nodded slowly, and they took up flight, away from the chaos. Suddenly, shots rang out, and Neutrality flinched as a bullet flew close by, very nearly entering his skull had not the sharp report of the bullet and his reflexes saved him. He looked towards the general area of where the bullet went, and looked at Luna, bewilderment evident on his face.
"What was that?! Is it from one of those weird crossbow looking things I saw earlier?"
Luna answered for him, quickly speeding up her flying speed while looking down at the disorganized crowd below. "The ponies have guns, yes, and they're aiming for you! They want to kill you, brother! Fly quickly, Neutrality, they want you, not me!"
Neutrality was about to refuse since he didn't want to leave Luna and Celestia behind, when more bullets whizzed past him. Thinking better of it, he quickly flew off towards the castle, with Luna following him, placing up a magical field of energy to reflect any bullets that could chance upon her. Celestia herself still stood on the stage, trying to calm down the crowd, to no avail. It was too far gone to recover from Prince Radcliffe's speech. Ponies were running away from the scene, but many more fought back Riot Control, who was hard-pressed into keeping the crowd under control, to no avail, as they never had an actual riot on their hooves before and were starting to get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of ponies gathered. Finally deeming the situation near hopelessness, Celestia screamed with the fury of a thousand suns in a desperate attempt for the ponies to listen to her.
"PONIES OF CANTERLOT, CEASE FIGHTING MY GUARDS, AND LOOK AT YOURSELVES! WHAT WOULD THE PONIES OF THE PAST SAY OF THE VIOLENCE YOU ARE SPREADING OUT HERE? WOULD THEY ACCEPT IT AS A NECESSARY THING TO HOLD PEACE? I SEE NO PEACE HERE."
She took one, heaving breath, and continued, to the stunned and downcasted looks of the once fighting ponies.
"YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE NAME OF PEACE. NEUTRALITY IS NO MONSTER, AND HE NEVER WILL BE! YOU WILL ACCEPT HIM! DID YOU NOT ACCEPT LUNA, COUNTLESS YEARS AGO?! WHY CAN'T YOU ACCEPT HIM, WHY?!"
Ponies everywhere looked up at each other, and some openly wept as they saw the carnage and chaos that they brought. Fires were being fought by fire ponies, trying to contain the raging blaze before it spread too far. Some ponies died; their bodies being wept over by their family and friends. Riot Control, having been backed up into a corner, watched silently, most with tears slowly going down their face as they saw the bitter results of failing to contain the chaos the crowd caused.
Celestia looked on with bitter sadness at the work that one pony had done; one pony caused all of this. She would see to it that the pegasus knew just what she had done to all these ponies.
"My little ponies. Weep for the destruction you caused."
And then, Celestia flew off slowly to the castle, leaving being a saddened and distraught crowd.
(Earlier)
"Whoa, this 'corn you picked out is a prince? Way to go!"
"Gydina, it's not what you..."
Vidhwansak had no chance to speak as the stallion went off on his speech, causing the crowd to become unruly. Gydina was smiling, urging him on with little winks. The pegasus had enough of this eventually, and pulled her away. Things were about to get bad, very bad; she wasn't about to die due to her own writing.
"Hey! Lemme go, Viddy!"
"Gydina, this will become very ugly, very soon. Unless you want to be under fire from Riot Control, we'll leave. Now."
Normally, Gydina would have argued with the pegasus dragging her away. It was, after all, their favorite past time. The tone of voice that she had, however, as well as the realization that this was probably something that Vidhwansak wrote down in her story and knew what was going to happen made her frown. She had to admit, there was plenty of action, but violence...? Her thoughts were cut off as the crowd started to get sprayed by tear gas.
"Viddy, let's go, I don't wanna get gassed!"
"Then follow me!"
The two mares dodged ponies as they escaped the crowd; bullets whizzed past them and they very nearly trampled over a few ponies unlucky enough to fall down in front of their path. The two mares ran together, side by side, towards the castle. In another world, Gydina would have considered this rather romantic, two ponies running away from chaos together. As they entered the castle grounds, however, all romantic thoughts and interests shattered as a Royal Guard came down upon them, emotionless as always. Gydina looked away fearfully, but Vidhwansak stared straight up at the guard.
"You are to report to Princess Celestia immediately."
"Take us. I will not face Princess Celestia alone."
The Guard nodded, and led them off inside the castle. What was once a warm, inviting structure was now suddenly a fearful, cold place, with ponies running around, as if preparing for war. Without a doubt, it certainly looked like a war back at the staging area. Gydina sighed, and was wondering where they were going when the guard took a right turn, and she saw the brilliant golden doors that signified Celestia's war room, a room that legend has it was never touched the day it was made. To use it now meant something huge was happening, and Gydina didn't need a pony to tell her that it was Vidhwansak's story. To her, it seemed to have gotten out of control; she certainly didn't expect the pegasus to write about a riot happening today. She looked at the pegasus; she seemed calm, which was amazing considering the circumstances. They were admitted inside the room, where Celestia was waiting with some tea and cakes. She pointed at the two chairs in front of her. Not a request; an order. They immediately sat down. Celestia poured them some tea and placed a few slices of cake on their plates. Neither pony touched the refreshments in front of them; eating was the last thing they could do. All was quiet for awhile, then Celestia spoke, after sipping her tea.
"This is crossing the line of what is acceptable, Vidhwansak."
"The calm before the storm. I'm sure you've heard that before, and now, the storm is gone."
"This...This does not excuse the violence that you've caused. Ponies, dead. DEAD, VIDHWANSAK. The staging area of Canterlot, in ruins! I can stop you right now, prevent you from writing anymore. WHAT'S STOPPING ME, VIDHWANSAK, FROM ENDING THIS STORY FROM COMPLETION?"
The pegasus had the faintest corners of a smile on her lips, and Gydina swore that Vidhwansak was enjoying this.
"You want to know the ending as much as I do."
Celestia paused; she certainly wasn't expecting that as an answer. Admittedly, she wanted to know the ending, and, in her disgust, she wanted to know even though there were ponies dead because of it. She sighed, and pointed out towards the door.
"Go to your rooms. I will talk with you later after I've calmed down. We have much to...Discuss on your story, and I hope that you'll be less vague in your answers."
Both ponies left the war room, leaving behind Celestia. Gydina looked at Vidhwansak, who was looking right back at her. Both ponies sighed, and nudged each other playfully; after all, if they were going to be punished, they may as well make up things with each other right now.
"I'm sorry for nagging at you constantly, Gydina. Some of the blame is on you; after all you did edit my story to be like this."
"I'm also sorry for arguing with you a lot, Vidd...Vidhwansak. And, well, I just hope that went I get sent to the moon, you get sent first, Viddy."
Both ponies laughed softly, and walked towards their bedrooms, aiming to get a good night's rest for tomorrow.
