Another thought as to how Nightmare Moon was created and how the Princesses defeated Discord.
I decided to add a bit more flair to these familiar stories that we all know and love: Nightmare Moon's creation and Discord's initial defeat. I thought to myself, Why not combine the two? So I did, and I'm pretty happy with the result. I hope you will be too. If not, criticism is always welcomed. Enjoy.
In the beginning, before the sun and the moon, before the constellations and time, there was nothing. The emptiness we now know as space was a complete void, wallowing in its own darkness. But that would all change before too long, for a cosmic event that would soon bring about all things as we know it today was about to take place.
The birth of the Universe.
With a sudden outburst of heat and energy, the center of everything exploded in an exponential shock wave, burning through the emptiness, filling it with the stars and planets. Our story begins on one such planet, barely after its birth, when all who live there now were just beginning to evolve into their current forms.
All these beings who are alive today know that there is a balance that must be kept throughout the cosmos, a balance that, if shifted, could throw everything we know and love back into the void that was before time. The birthing of the universe began this honored tradition, bringing forth two of the universes most well-known balance keepers; Order and Chaos.
These two forces, the law-makers of all, decided to have a wager, whoever could tip the balance in their favor would win absolute control of everything. Order decided to do this by only gently nudging the patrons of the universe in its direction, while Chaos decided to try another path.
From the very core of its being, Chaos gave birth to another being, one who would go forth and work its powers of persuasion and bring glory to its name.
This being, was Discord.
And this is where our story begins,
===
Chapter One
The being named Discord chuckled to himself as he flew towards his destination, a land called Equestria. This was the final stop on his list of places to shift on this planet. He had visited all other lands on this forsaken spit of earth, bring chaos and ruin to all. Beautiful chaos and disarray were abounding. Only one left and he could leave this rock and move on to the next planet.
He began humming as he lazily flew amongst the clouds, flitting here and there as he neared his destination. His “maker”, if indeed it could be called that, had informed him that there were actually intelligent beings there. These beings called themselves ponies. Quadrupedal creatures that had no arms, only four legs that they walked on, and a head that could be lowered to obtain their nutrients from the grass.
Discord smirked. He much preferred his own beautiful, haphazard form, which included a dragon-like head and tail, a feathered body, one elk horn, one antelope horn, two wings, one that of a bat, the other like a birds, and four legs; a lions paw, an eagles talon, a horses hoof, and a dragon leg. On top of that, he was able to stand upon his rear two legs and use his front two limbs like the hands of another race he had overthrown. They had been called humans.
Oh yes, they had not taken long at all to bring into chaos.
His whole body shivered with pleasure. This was just too easy, everywhere he went, nature itself rearranged into a more chaotic form. Clouds would become stones, the birds and animals would transform into grotesque forms. And the sky even fell away in some chunks, leaving the original void of the universe.
But enough reminiscing. He broke himself out of his thoughts and peered through a cloud that had become cotton-candy and looked at the ground below. To his delight, he saw that he had made it to Equestria.
“Well, well, would you look at that?” He said to himself as he manifested a pocket-watch whose hands were running in opposite directions and at strange intervals, jumping back and forth between the numbers at varying speeds. “Time sure flies when you’re having fun. Hahaha!” As if the watch had heard, it then grew wings and fluttered away. ”Let’s go have some fun!” Rubbing his front two appendages together, he took off, spiraling down through the skies at breakneck speeds towards the land of Equestria.
===
Princess Celestia sighed as she peered over the land of Equestria from her tower atop Canterlot. Lately she and her sister, Luna, had been arguing more and more. Luna felt as if all the ponies in the land didn’t appreciate the night that she gave to them. Of course Celestia had tried explaining that the ponies were merely sleeping and couldn’t appreciate it at the time, and that there were even some ponies that did indeed stay up in the night and slept through the day, but Luna was hearing none of it. And as each day passed, she felt like she was losing more and more of her sister.
She turned away from her window and began walking towards her sister’s room to let her know that she was going to lower the sun so she could take over, when something caught her eye. She turned and looked back out the window and noticed something falling, no, it wasn’t falling. It was flying. And it was flying straight towards the small village of Ponyville. Celestia cocked her head to one side and called her guards to her.
“Yes Princess?” One asked.
“Go and inform my sister that it is time for her to take control of the skies. And also inform her that as soon as she is done to join me in Ponyville. There is something that I must attend to.” She waved her hoof in the direction of the door. “Go now.”
The two guards bowed out of the room, to go and do as they were told, while Princess Celestia looked back out the window at the strange being that was flying towards her and her sister’s kingdom. She had to meet it head-on, be it friend or foe.
Spreading her wings wide, she leaped from the balcony into the darkening skies.
===
Discord was laughing almost maniacally now as he drew ever nearer to the small village below him. He could now see the individual ponies below him; most were heading into their small dwellings, no doubt turning in for the coming night. He didn’t mind, soon there would be no distinguishing night from day anyway.
Pulling his wings back to slow his descent, he alighted on a tree branch just outside of town, instantly turning the whole tree into a gelatinous mess that still supported his weight. He stood on his hind limbs, raising his forelegs in a dramatic gesture, such as a conductor would gather the attention of the musicians about to play in a symphony. But before he could do anything further, a bright white pony appeared before him, but this one was different. It had two wings, both were the same he noticed with a sneer, and it had a single horn in the middle of its forehead and it looked as if its rainbow-colored mane and tail were flowing from the body.
“Oh ho!” Discord cried out, lowering his arms and staring at this new pony. ”And just what manner of creature are you?”
Princess Celestia raised her head in a regal manner as she addressed the strange looking creature. It looked like something that had just been thrown together out of spare parts, nothing seemed to match. “I am Princess Celestia; one of two rulers of the land of Equestria and the most powerful alicorn in existence. Who, or what, pray tell, are you?”
Discord grinned and popped a hat out of thin air, doffing it in a mocking bow to the Princess. “Oh, forgive me your Highness,” He tossed the hat to the ground where it dissolved into a swarm of flies. “Allow me formally introduce myself.” He threw his arms out once again, causing his name to appear in fire above his head. “My name is Discord. And I am the bringer of chaos, mayhem, and just about anything unpleasant you can think of.” He pointed a claw at the white alicorn. “But most importantly, I’m the one who will be ruling here in just a little while. But don’t worry; maybe I’ll keep you on as a pet.”
Celestia recoiled in horror as he performed his magic with ease and told her who, and more importantly what, he was and what he was capable of doing.
She faced him full on with a fierce gaze in her eyes. ”You will be doing no such thing creature!”
There was no way that she was going to stand by and let her ponies become slaves or worse to this... thing! With the fire in her heart burning bright, she let loose a lightning bolt towards Discord.
Discord only yawned and flicked his wrist at the bolt, changing it into bubbles that floated away.
“Oh come now, is that the best that you can do?” He snapped his claws as a human would, and had ropes of darkness come into existence, binding Celestia’s wings to her sides and causing her to fall to the earth.
Landing heavily on her side, she heard a few of her wing bones snap, and she felt her breath leave her in a sudden ‘whoof!’
A laugh broke out of Discord as he gently descended next to the fallen Princess.
“Do you see now my dear?” He drew one claw down the length of her horn and continued down her jawline, causing her to shiver. “I was old before you were even thought of, and there’s no way that you could beat me with such puny magic.”
He snapped his claws again, tightening the ropes around the Princess and driving out what little air she had left in her lungs. ”And again, that means that this land will. Be. Mine!” With heavy emphasis on the last word he kicked her hard in her ribs, and Celestia was sure that she heard a couple of her ribs crack as the blow landed.
Discord knelt next to her so that he could whisper in her ear.
“But I am a sporting fellow, so I’ll give you and your ponies a fighting chance. Let’s see, today is,” He manifested a calendar that no normal being could make heads or tails of and looked at it. “Ok, so today is Monday. How about this? I’ll give you until Friday to try and stop me. How’s that? Four days to see if you can find that impossible, minuscule chance that you might beat me. Hmm? If you win, you keep your kingdom. But when I win, I take everything. Deal? If you agree just make a noise, any one will do.”
The only sound Celestia was able to make was a small groaning sound. It was all she could manage due to the pain.
Discord stood and clapped his hands together, banishing the bindings around her wings.
“Excellent! Oh, but to make things even more fun,” He waved his talon theatrically and a twisted hourglass appeared.
“The sand in the glass will fall for the four days, and that entire time, this land will slowly become more and more chaotic. Just as a little incentive you understand. I’ll send you back to your castle with a duplicate. Well then Princess, this has been delightful, meeting you and all, but you really should be hurrying with a solution to this terrible situation that you’ve found yourself mixed up in. See you Friday!”
A horrible laugh echoed from his throat and all throughout the land as he sent her crashing back into the stones in front of the palace gates of her castle along with the hourglass.
Immediately, the palace guards were yelling and rushing towards her, even her sister was coming towards her, a worried expression on her face.
But Celestia only had eyes for the glass, the sand slowly trickling down, counting the hours till the end of Equestria.
Celestia let out a small groan of pain as the royal doctor set her bones back into place magically, and then healed them.
“That bastard!” She cried out, shocking some of the guards. Never have they heard such language come out of their Princess before. ”How DARE he think to lay his filthy hands on me. ME! Princess Celestia!”
She got up and huffed over to the window, where she could already see the effects of Discord’s magic taking hold of her land.
“And now this as well.” She turned to the hourglass that hung suspended in midair. The sand was still slowly trickling through the opening between the two halves, marking the hour of Equestria’s demise. She let out an angry huff and stomped out of her room, the doctor making small protests at her moving about so soon after she had been healed.
Celestia’s wanderings brought her to the throne room, and she went and sat on her throne, her brow furrowed as she tried to concentrate.
As soon as she had been teleported back to the palace, she had told her guards to round up as many ponies as they could and bring them to the castle. As she was being moved into her room, she had asked the best spell casters in the land to try and find out if they could do anything to stop the being called Discord.
Her sister had volunteered to help, but Celestia had only shaken her head and reminded her that the younger Princess had other duties to perform.
Luna, being her normal, sullen self, had stalked off to perform said duties; mainly just looking over the night skies.
Her sister did not think that she was ready for any more responsibilities just yet. Princess Luna didn’t appreciate her sister looking down on her all the time, it made her feel like a child and that she wasn’t ready for anything.
Whenever Celestia would act like this towards, Luna would stomp of to her own room, only to raise and lower the moon and to wallow in her hatred and jealousy, just like she was doing now.
Her precious sister, so much more perfect, so much prettier, so much more... loved. Luna ground her teeth as she thought of her.
There were many conflicting emotions going on inside of her right now. On the one hoof, she loved her sister more than anything, and wanted to be just like her. But the other... she was spiteful, jealous, petty, and hateful. How could her sister get so much more attention than her? Her night had so much more beauty; instead of just one giant spot of light that nopony could look at, her sky had millions of them, and in the center was her pride and joy; the moon.
Big, bold, and glorious, it lit up the entire night sky, and you were able to gaze upon it without fear of going blind.
But no. Her sister was the one getting all of the ponies love. Nopony paid attention to her beautiful night. Sometimes, Luna would lay awake during the day, and wonder if maybe it would be better, if she would just take over all of Equestria.
“That is a marvelous idea!”
Luna’s head snapped around the room as the strange voice echoed around the room. “Who’s there? Show yourself!” She hopped off the bed and stood in the center of her room, ready to face the intruder.
Before her, a mist began to form out of thin air. Her horn glowed with magic and she spread her hooves into a fighting position.
The mist began taking a more solid shape, finally ending up as the being of Discord.
Luna’s head cocked to one side in confusing look. “Who are you?” She asked.
Discord grinned, his teeth bared in an evil fashion. “I am Discord.” He held out his paw to her. “It is an honor to meet you Princess.”
He jaw dropped. “You!” Her horn shot a small bolt of energy at Discord, who only had it turn into a small pool of goo.
He held a claw upright and shook it at her. ”Now, now Princess, there is no reason to be uncivil. I’m merely introducing myself and you’re trying to melt my face? That’s very unfriendly of you.”
He slowly slinked up to her and leaned his head in close to hers. “That’s not the way you were raised, now is it?”
“What are doing?” She backed away from Discord. “Why are you here?”
Discord slowly floated up to the ceiling, a trail of multicolored smoke following in his wake.
“I just couldn’t help but overhear you’re thinking about your sister in that awful tone.” He was grinning ear to ear as he stared at her, his talons and claws tracing strange symbols in ice in the air.
Luna’s face began turning red. “What are you talking about you freak?”
“Oh, just the thoughts about jealousy and your lack of love from your loyal subjects.” The symbols began turning into little ice ponies that began to prance around the Moon Princess’s head. “It’s just so sad the way they all look down on you, isn’t it?”
Princess Luna frowned, his words sounded pretty in her ears, teasing at her doubts and other nuances that she had come to think daily.
“Yes,” She slowly agreed. “You speak truth there demon. But why should I trust you? You hurt my sister!” Yet, in the back of her mind, a small part of her laughed at that, though she would never admit it.
A nod was her answer. “But I did it with good reason. After all,” he floated down next to her and caused the small ice ponies to melt. “She attacked me first. I for one abhor violence. It’s too... violent for my tastes.” He chuckled and began circling the room, looking at all the room had to offer.
“Whatever. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call the guards in here right now creature.” She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, keeping a close watch on him. While she didn’t trust him, she couldn’t deny that he did make good points.
He landed before her and tapped the point of her horn. “Easy. You see, your sister and I have a little wager, one that gives many spoils to the victor.”
Luna’s ears perked up. “Spoils? What spoils?”
Another bone-chilling laugh rolled from Discord’s mouth. “Why, the whole of Equestria!” He threw his arms out, causing a wind to blow through the room, making the candles go out all at once with a small burp.
Luna couldn’t help but let out a small giggle at the sound. But her mirth didn’t last long as she once again became serious. “What are you talking about?”
Discord shrugged. “I gave your sister four days to try and stop me from causing the land of Equestria to fall into chaos.” He looked at his wrist, at a small, vibrating watch whispering the time in a multitude of languages. “Well, three and a half days anyway.” He looked out the window, where the sun was just beginning to rise over the land, which was now pockmarked with fountains of soda and small unidentifiable creatures roaming about.
“See? Your sister went ahead and raised the sun all by herself without even asking you.” Discord tsked as he shook his head. “Such a shame that she doesn’t even trust you with the small things.”
He walked up to her, laying on arm across her shoulders as she began to shake in rage.
He’s right! Luna thought to herself, She didn’t even consult with me! She just went ahead and brought out her... SUN!
Discord had an evil grin plastered onto his face. Things were going perfectly. These ponies were no different than those other creatures. They were so easy to manipulate. “That’s why I came to you in the first place my dear Luna.”
Her head shot around and she glared at him. “What for?”
“I have a proposition for you.” He snapped his talons and a scroll of paper and a quill and ink appeared out of nowhere. The quill was giggling and twitching around in the ink pot.
“As you can see, I’m already practically guaranteed to win the bet, but I find myself a little short-handed in the help department. After all, your sister has all of the guards and the ponies in the kingdom and so forth. But me?” He gave a dramatic sigh and draped his arm over his eyes. “I have no one. Not a single friend or companion.”
He peeked at her. “And you, dear, dear Luna, you look like you could use a friend as well. I need some help, and I would be more than willing to compensate you however you would want.”
He gestured at the scroll. “I just need your signature, saying that you’ll help me, and you’ll be more powerful than your sister could even imagine, you’ll rule everything with me. And your absolutely gorgeous nighttime?” He leaned in and whispered softly in her ear. “I’ll make it last. Forever.”
A loud gasp ripped itself out of Luna’s throat. Her night, her beautiful night. Lasting forever? There was no way. It wasn’t possible. ...Or was it? She looked at him, at the kind, understanding smile, at the adoration in his eyes. Yes, he could do it, she knew he could. He had the power.
Little did the Princess know, that the whole time that Discord had been touching and speaking to her, he had slowly been weaving a web of dark magic about her, magic that, once completed, would cause her to fall into a false sense of love and adoration for him...
All she had to do now was sign the paper.
Giving him a nod, she walked up the scroll and lifted the quill with her magic, making it laugh even harder, in turn causing her to laugh as she signed her name on the length of parchment.
And right then, the magic Discord cast sealed itself around her, and Princess Luna fell head over hoofs in love with Discord.
Discord picked her up and spun her around, making her laugh even harder. “Oh princess, you’ve made me so happy! Thank you!”
Luna couldn’t stop laughing; this was just too much fun. In her mind, this seemed the most natural thing in the world.
With a satisfied sigh, Discord placed her back on her feet.
“To prove my appreciation for you helping me, I’m going to give you an extra special present.”
The light-blue pony’s eyes widened in joy. “Truly? What is it?”
“Uh-uh-uh, you have to close your eyes first Princess.”
She eagerly closed her eyes, waiting for her present. After a moment, she felt warmth spread over her face, and she shivered from the feeling of it. It was... pleasurable. Very pleasurable.
“Ok, open them.”
She did, to find Discord’s face inches from hers. She eagerly looked around for her present. “Where is it?”
Discord smiled and gestured towards the mirror. “Go and see.”
She ran over to the mirror to see what he did. And what she saw shocked her.
Her eyes... They were still blue... but a lighter, more turquoise color. And her pupils had become slits. They looked like dragon’s eyes. She also noticed, as she looked around the room, that everything was sharper, clearer than what it had been before. A fly was buzzing around the room, and she could actually see the individual hairs in its legs.
“Oh Discord,” She let out a breath. “I love them!” She ran up and gave him a hug, wrapping her forelegs around his neck.
Discord looked at himself in the mirror, at the satisfied, malevolent grin he was wearing.
“I knew you would.” He whispered. “I knew you would."
Celestia was roaming the hallways of the castle, different kinds of plans buzzing through her mind as she thought of the best way to get rid of the being known as Discord.
So focused was she on trying to come up with a way that she had lowered the moon and brought up the sun without even talking it over with her sister. She won’t mind, Was her argument. As long as it was just this once after all.
Speaking of her sister, Celestia was coming up on Luna’s room now. She slowly walked up to the door, hoping her sister would understand why she didn’t need her help at this moment.
Just as she was going to knock on the door, she heard a small noise from the inside. Frowning, she put her ear to the door to hear it better. Laughter. Her sister was laughing.
A smile broke out on the Sun princess’s face as she heard the noise. If Luna was laughing, then surely everything was forgiven and all would be better. She knocked on the door, before opening it with her magic.
“Luna? Luna dear, are you better?” Her muzzle poked into the room to a strange sight. Her sister was alone, dancing as if there were someone else with her.
“Luna?” Celestia stepped fully into the room.
Luna spun around at the sound of her sister’s voice. “Sister! When did you-?” She quickly spun in a circle, as if searching for something. A light blue flash caught Celestia’s eye as Luna finally stopped spinning with a puzzled look on her face.
“Luna, let me see your eyes.”
“What? Whatever for?” Luna quickly looked out the window. “There’s nothing wrong with my eyes. And besides, don’t you have other matters to attend to than a simple visit for your sister?” Her voice was dripping with scorn as she looked back over her shoulder to see Celestia walking towards her, her mane and tail flowing luxuriously behind her.
“Luna please, there’s no reason to be like this. And I only want to take a quick look at your eyes because I thought I saw something.”
Luna hesitated. What would Celestia think when she saw her dragon eyes? Then again, why should she care? Her sister would complain and put up some small argument before giving up, just as she did with everything else. “Fine.” Luna spun and faced her elder sister, fierce and proud.
Celestia stared for a good ten seconds at least, and then turned away.
“I guess it was nothing. I had stopped by to see if you had wanted to share breakfast with me. If you so choose to do so, I’ll be in the dining hall.” With that, Celestia left, closing the door behind her.
Luna let out the breath she didn’t know she had been holding. But curious about her sisters’ reaction, she turned and faced her reflection. Yes, her eyes were still like those of a dragon, but her sister had acted like they were still normal.
“Your sister and all those loyal to her won’t be able to see the eyes I’ve given you. To them, they’ll just look normal.” Discord’s voice rang out through her mind, a welcoming thing after he had left her suddenly.
She chuckled. “You think of everything, don’t you Discord?”
His face appeared as a smoky image in the mirror. “Well, I have had some practice,” He said. “Anyway my dear, I have some other business to attend to in Equestria. But I shall return tonight. I promise.”
As he said those last two words, they wrote themselves on the mirror in what looked like ink made of starlight.
Luna touched her horn to the words and whispered, “I’ll be waiting Discord.” Then, turning on her heels, she walked out of her room and down to the dining hall to eat breakfast.
===
Discord laughed as he backed away from the mirror he had created to communicate with Luna, watching as it sprout three lags and wobbled off.
She had been very easy to manipulate. Especially since she had all of those negative thoughts already.
And his “gift”? Sure, those eyes were a present, but all they did for her really was just increase her eyesight. But they were really for him, they let him see whatever Luna was seeing whenever he wanted, basically his own set of eyes right inside the castle. He laughed again and waved his hand at the river running through the city, turning it into molasses. The ponies bathing in it trying to swim back towards the shore was a sight to see. He rolled over onto his back, holding his sides as he laughed harder than he had yet at the pure chaos that was breaking free across the land.
Sure it was moving slower than he would have liked, but after all, he had made a bet. And he was, if anything, a being of his word.
So just barely three days remained for Celestia to try and stop him. He gave a snort. Like was going to happen. He looked around him; the ground differed between swamp land, soapy water, quicksand and hot stones. All of the animals had already been mutated into more pleasing shapes, mangled and twisted.
But there was still one spot where he hadn’t touched yet, the actual village of Ponyville. His crown jewel, he was waiting to change that. It was going to be his last work of art, his piece de resistance. He already knew what he was going to do, but it was going to be the final pie in Celestia’s face when he changed it.
He was going to force her to watch as he turned everything she knew into a more beautiful, chaotic form.
His grin would’ve made any pony run away in fear as he thought of finally crushing the ponies’ hearts in one swift move.
Oh yes, he could hardly wait.
“Just you wait ponies!” His voice blew over the village, making the ponies quiver and shake. “Soon you will all belong to me! Soon your Princess Celestia will fall, your kingdom will fall, and I will rise!”
Discord then began laughing his head off, literally. His head actually popped off and he threw it up in the air a few times before screwing it back onto his shoulders.
“Oh this is just too much fun!” he scratched his chin with a single claw. “I wonder what the Princess is up to.”
He waved his paw in the air before him, causing a way circle of what looked like milk to appear. He then poked his claw into the center, the ripples spreading before they reached the edge, making the liquid flash once before an image of the castle was brought up. He was now looking through the eyes of Princess Luna.
“What’s going on my dear?” He brought down a single cloud, turning it into a lounge chair before he plopped down and manifested some popcorn for himself. “Let’s find out!”
===
Luna blinked as though something was stuck in her eye.
“Oh blast it!” Facing down, she blinked rapidly until the feeling dissipated. Sighing gratefully she resumed walking.
After breakfast, she had returned to her room and slept for most of the day. Then, in the afternoon, she had gotten a note saying her sister had invited her down to the royal library to help with some research. It was obvious that Celestia was trying to make up something to her, not that it would work. Luna was still angry with her sister, even if she didn’t know why.
But whatever. Making her way down to the library, her thoughts turned to Discord. Even thinking of him was enough to make her blush now. I guess I really AM in love with him. She thought to herself. Which was odd, seeing as he wasn’t even a pony. He wasn’t even... anything now that she thought about it. He was just a bunch of things put together. But still, she didn’t mind.
Lost in her thoughts of Discord, she didn’t realize she was at the royal library until she ran into the doors and bounced off of them.
“Ouch!” She rubbed her forehead with her hoof where she had hit it. Growling, she opened the door and stepped inside.
“You wanted me Celestia?”
Celestia was standing in front of one of the bookshelves on the wall, several books floating around her as she looked at the titles of each one. “Yes Luna, please sit down.”
Luna glared at the older pony. She had just been ordered! Huffing, she sat down and placed her hoofs on the table. “So what is it?”
“Well, I believe I may have found something that might help us in our fight with Discord. After all, we only have three days left.”
Luna stiffened in her seat. “What do you mean Celestia?”
Celestia turned around and walked over to the seat opposite Luna, plopping down several books on the desk. “Ask yourself this Luna. What’s the opposite of chaos?”
Luna cocked her head to the side as she thought. “Hmm, I wouldn’t know.” Nor did she really care.
“Order Luna, harmony.” Celestia opened one of the books and showed its contents to Luna.
“See here? In the ancient times of Equestria, there was another being much the same as Discord, though it was nameless and didn’t last long. Our ancestors, Moonburst and Lightswell, battled the evil with something called the ‘Elements of Harmony.’”
Luna scowled to herself. Luckily Celestia didn’t notice; she was too busy sticking her nose into her book.
“If we can find these ‘Elements of Harmony’, then we may have a chance of defeating Discord.” Celestia looked up at her sister. Her brow furrowed as she saw the look on her face.
“Luna? Are you ok?”
Luna shook her head. “Sorry, my mind was elsewhere.” Thinking of Discord. But she would never say that aloud. “But yes, I’m fine.” She stood up and began walking around the room.
“Do you even have any idea where these so called ‘elements’ are anyway sister?” She looked at the Sun Princess over her shoulder, waiting for her answer.
Celestia took her time in answering. “The last known records of the elements state that they are located somewhere in the Everfree Forest. In the old castle used by the Old Rulers.”
“Hmm,” Luna started walking towards the door. “And the plan is?”
“I am going with half of the Royal Guard into the forest to look for them in the morning.” Celestia used her magic and put the books back.
Luna marked the location of the Elements book; Discord might have use of the information in the future. “And what of the Sun?”
“You will take over for me Luna.” Celestia walked up to her and placed her fore hoof on her younger sisters’ shoulder. “You shall be in charge of both Moon and Sun while I am away.”
Luna was genuinely shocked, she didn’t even think that she had enough power to control both, let alone the stamina. And if she was going to be able to stay awake most times to raise both of the heavenly bodies.
The elder pony seemed to notice her hesitation. “You have the capabilities Luna, I know you do.” She looked out the window at the moon in the sky. “And I am sorry for raising the moon the moon twice now without your permission, but you have seemed... out of it the last couple of days.”
Luna nodded. “Very well Celestia. I will take the responsibility.” Plus, she thought to herself, it will give me more time with Discord.
Celestia sighed with relief. “Thank you Luna. I know that I can trust you.” She walked towards the door and looked back. “I trust that you will see me and my troop off in the morning, after you raise the Sun of course.” She walked out of the library.
Luna gave a grin, her turquoise dragon eyes flashing in the moonlight. “Of course, dear sister.”
Discord opened his jaws wide as he laughed maniacally, sending a shower of perisprites out of his throat at this recent turn of events.
“The Elements of Harmony? Oh, what a load of tosh!”
Discord picked an apple out of a nearby tree that had just been turned to stone, the apple seemed to be beating like a heart, and when he bit into it, strange purple goo leaked out and dribbled down his chin.
“If something like that could’ve stopped me, I’m sure one of the other several races would have used them, and I haven’t even heard of these so called ‘elements’ before.”
He threw the apple over his shoulder, where it exploded on the ground behind him.
Waving his hand through his makeshift scryer, he caused it to shatter, and then waved his hand again, turning the shards of frozen milk into half-butterfly half-bee creatures that buzzed off into the distance. He vaguely heard some unfortunate ponies scream in terror as they came across his newest creations.
“Now all that’s left is to make another visit to my beloved Luna.”
Another laugh bubbled out from somewhere deep inside of him as he turned into his smoke form once again and floated off towards the castle.
===
Luna sighed as she finally closed the door to her room. After she had ended the meeting with her sister, she had had to go through some more legal ponycrap about her new duties and what they entailed.
“Like it’s going to be that way for long anyway.” She muttered to herself as she approached her desk and prepared to remove her crown and makeup.
Before she could do much more than draw a bowl of water however, her window blew open and a red cloud of mist floated into the room. The mist began spinning rapidly in the center of her bedroom, giving of a pleasant aroma that reminded Luna of rain and seemed to be emitting a low hum.
In a sudden burst of red light, the mist dissipated and Discord stood where it once was, his arms spread wide in another of his dramatic gestures, a bouquet of black roses in one hand.
Looking at Luna, he held the flowers towards her and gave a slight bow. “For you, my dearest Princess.”
Luna giggled and took the flowers from him with her magic before placing them into an empty vase that stood next to her bed.
“Oh Discord, they’re so beautiful!” She sniffed at them, and noticed that the flowers had the same strange rain-like smell from earlier.
“I made them just for you, Luna.” Discord walked over and sat on the edge of her bed. “They’re made especially for the nighttime. They don’t need sunlight to grow as they drink in star and moonlight the same way normal plants draw in sunlight.”
He waved a hand and conjured a shadow image of the two of them walking side by side that made Luna smile.
“Why Discord! Who knew that you were such a romantic?” The moon princess blushed slightly and got into the bed next to him, lying down in a comfortable position.
Discord shrugged. “I guess it’s only with you.” He reached over and ran his paw up the side of her face before he plucked her crown off of her head and tossed it onto her desk. “Normally I’m much more macho.”
Luna laughed again, gazing at her oddly-shaped love with even more affection. “Well, I suppose that’s a good thing.”
Her eyes popped open suddenly, the black slit of her turquoise eyes narrowing. “Oh! I almost forgot! Celestia is going off on some kind of mission or some such. She said she’s going to find something called the ‘Elements of Harmony.’”
She looked at him, worried. “Supposedly they were used to beat something else a long time ago and she thinks that they can be used against you.”
Discord gasped and widened his eyes at all the right moments. His acting skills were superb, never missing a beat, as if this were the first time he was hearing this information.
Luna went on. “There’s a book in the library explaining what the Elements are, and where they might be found. Did you want to look at it? I thought this was important and that you might want to see it.”
Discord scratched at his chin, giving the appearance of deep thought. When in fact the only thing he was thinking of was how easy it was to get this pony to do what he wanted, and all he had to do was spout some pretty words and give her some useless “gifts”.
“No, I don’t think it’s that much after a threat. After all, once you raise the sun in the morning, Celestia will only have two days left to try and stop me, and I’ve already turned much of Equestria to my liking anyway.” He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the tip of her nose. “Why don’t you go ahead and rest up while I go wreak some more chaos? You’re going to need your strength tomorrow!”
He chuckled again and took off into the night, leaving Luna smiling on her bed.
The princess sighed again, this time in contentment as she lay down fully to go to sleep. Just as she was about to drift off into her dreams, a thought popped into her head.
How did Discord know she was going to raise the sun?
===
Luna stood outside the front doors of the palace, facing the eastern horizon with a look of determination on her face.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her sister and her guards looking at her with anticipation, and that made her nervous. Was she really ready for this? Could she really even do this?
Her anxiety must have shown because she heard her sister say, “You can do it Luna. It’s just like raising the moon.”
Luna nodded, then took a deep breath and began the process of lifting the sun.
Using her magic, she reached out and urged the moon to move on into the western skies. Then, cautiously she encouraged the sun to rise, helping it along its path by lifting it slightly until it finally took its place in the heavens, lighting the lands below.
Celestia nodded proudly and walked up to her younger sister. “Very good Luna, now don’t you worry, I should be back by tomorrow, and then we’ll finally be able to defeat Discord, together.”
Luna nodded and stood back as her sister spread her wings and took off into the sky, towards the Everfree Forest with her pegasus entourage en tow. Luna scoffed, tossing her mane back behind her ear. “Defeat Discord?” She began to mutter as she made her way back to the castle. “I hardly think that that is going to happen Celestia.” She paused to look at the sun. “And that... Ugh!”
The Moon Princess was shaking her head in disgust as she made her way to the throne room to begin the daily regimen of hearing the ponies’ problems and complaints. Oh, my neighbor has been stealing my crops! And I’ve lost my best hat somewhere in the alleyways!
Pathetic, the whole lot of them.
But she had to play the part, and play it she did. The façade she was putting on of actually caring for these ponies’ problems was, all-in-all, fairly good. She kept asking herself, What would Discord do?
Afterwards, when she had seen all of the ponies she could, she had do to yet even more political nonsense. And even though she was forced to do these things, her thoughts were always on him, Discord.
===
Discord, on the other hand, or paw rather, had hardly a thought for the young Princess. Too busy was he playing with the ponies of Equestria.
Currently, he had somehow attached strings to an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn, and was using them all like puppets. The pegasus in his left hand, the earth pony in his right, and the unicorn was being controlled by his tail.
“Hahaha! This is so much fun!” Discord pulled at the strings, making the ponies dance and to his fancy.
And his fancy was quite, shall we say, crude. The way he was moving the three was not in ways that good ponies did in public. Or barely even in privacy.
“Oh come now my little ponies! Isn’t this fun? You all need to get out more!” Discord sighed. “But I guess it’s to be expected. I mean, look at who rules you! Princess Celestia... HA! What a joke she is, am I right?”
He began spinning the unicorn, twirling his tail faster and faster until her face began turning green. “Heehee! Hahaha! Oh I love you guys!” He swung them up and around, before finally setting them back on the ground and letting them go.
“Come and play again sometime soon!” He cried after them as they galloped away at top speed.
Discord pointed at the sky, making the clouds rain a variety of different drinks; orange and apple juice, flavored waters, and his personal favorite; chocolate milk.
“Yum yum!”
He manifested a glass and held it under the chocolate rain cloud. Then, he turned in the direction of the Everfree forest. And, raising his glass in a mock salute said, “Good luck on your hunt Princess! Just over 40 hours left! And then all of this will be mine!”
He quickly downed his drink, and ate the glass.
He waved one arm across the land scape, and huge cracks began breaking out all around the village of Ponyville, creeping closer as they spewed out dancing trees and songbirds that flew backwards and screamed their little heads off.
Discord face twisted up in cruel delight. “Chaos is the order of the universe, and I am the Harbinger.”
Laughing, he turned a small pond into frozen pudding and began skating across it with ease, giggling to himself the entire time, while the citizens of Ponyville began to wonder why their beloved princess hadn’t saved them from this monstrosity yet.
Princess Luna sighed tiredly as she reached out with her magic to lower the sun. Her entire day had been hectic; mornings filled with whiny ponies complaining over every little thing, a brief break for lunch, her afternoon had been occupied by the council members explaining how the lands were coming along since Discord had come along. This had made her secretly grin in pleasure as she heard of her loves’ exploits; and in only two and a half days no less!
And now, as she had promised her sister, she was lowering the sun and raising her gorgeous moon.
She was half-tempted to just leave her moon up all the time from now on and not lower it tomorrow, but she thought that might raise suspicions. Better to play along just a bit more and make sure hers and Discords victory was secured.
“Just over thirty hours remain my dear.” She whispered as she raised the moon to its rightful place in the heavens.
“Yes. Thirty hours and forty-two minutes to be exact.”
Luna jumped and spun as the voice came out of nowhere from behind her.
She instantly relaxed, however, as soon as she saw that it was Discord who had spoken. She threw her fore-legs around him and kissed him deeply.
She sat there for a second or two, letting their lips stay locked, before she suddenly pulled back. “Oh! I’m sorry! That was so... I mean, I shouldn’t have been so forward.”
Discord grinned. If only she knew that the roses he had given her actually had an aphrodisiacal smell of a kind that they gave off, hence her more forwardness and intense feelings even though they had only met a couple days ago. Just to make sure she was his.
“No, not at all, I understand completely.” He hugged her to him in a “warm” embrace.
“You do?” Luna practically melted in his arms and sighed happily. He was too good for her, how could she even have found someone this amazing?
Discord pulled away and looked at her, at the dragon eyes he had given her, and at her light blue mane. That actually puzzled him a bit.
“Luna,” He started, “Forgive me if I’m wrong but, you and Celestia are sisters, correct?”
Luna looked at him. “Yes.”
“And you are both alicorns?”
Luna nodded.
“Then how is it, that your sisters’ mane seems to flow, and yours is just, well, normal hair?” He curled a lock around a talon to emphasize his point.
“Oh, that.” Luna giggled. “There are actually two reasons. One is that I am too young to have an alicorn mane, and two is that I actually have less magic than my sister. Her mane is actually a physical representation of her magic.” She turned and walked into her room, jumping onto her bed before she continued explaining.
“You see,” She used her magic to take off her crown as Discord sat down next to her. “When an alicorn comes to a certain age, there is actually more magic in their bodies than they can deal with, and so the body actually starts to release it by itself, hence the flowing mane. I’m actually about twenty percent short of that mark.”
Discord nodded. This was an interesting new development in the story.
“Really?” He pondered this for a moment. ”Any idea of when you’ll come of this age?”
He was already planning on stealing Celestia’s magic, but having an extra reserve never hurt, now did it?
The princess shook her head. “No. Celestia came of age rather early. A few years before my current age actually. But it’s different for every alicorn.”
Discord nodded. “I see. Well then,” He stood up and held out his paw to her. “Care to go for a little moonlit fly with me my Princess?” Luna placed her hoof into his paw and nodded before jumping down from her bed. “Yes Discord. I would very much like that.”
With a simultaneous sweep of their wings, they both launched themselves into the cold night air.
Below, the mayhem that had become most of Equestria was laid out before them like a preschoolers drawing; you really couldn’t tell what was what or where anything began or ended.
Until that is, you flew over Ponyville.
“Discord,” Luna wondered, “Why haven’t you touched that village yet?”
Discord looked over at her. “Hmm? Oh, the village.” He slowed to a stop and turned one of the clouds into a plate of glass that they could stand on and see Ponyville through.
“You’ll like this. I’m actually saving this tiny village you see. It’s going to be my crowning achievement, the icing on the cake, my piece de resistance, and the final jewel in my crown. I’m going to wait until your sister returns, and, get this, right when the final drop of sand falls through the hour glass; I’m going to change it right in front of her eyes! The look on her face is going to be priceless! The dread, the final blow of her defeat, the knowing that she will be absolutely powerless to save her ponies as I turn her village into my capital and the ponies into slaves! What fun it will be!”
His laughter rang throughout the night like the howl of a jackal; taunting and wicked.
Luna’s eyes widened as she heard him describe his final act of chaos to her. At first, she did feel a twinge of regret, but that was quickly stamped out by the sense of how right this all felt.
But then she noticed something that he had said.
“You mean our capital, of course.”
He turned and looked at her, a look of pure affection in his eyes, while he cringed inwardly at the slip of his tongue. “Of course dear! I’m sorry, yes I mean our capital.”
Luna smiled and nodded, content that he was telling the truth. Besides, why would he lie to her?
Discord stretched his arms wide and yawned, “Well, we should probably get you home eh? I’m sure your sister is returning tomorrow and you and I both need our rest for the final twenty-four hours.”
Luna grinned at her love and took off towards the castle.
A dark grimace appeared on Discords face as he watched her before taking off himself.
“Oh Luna, I can’t wait till tomorrow, and I get to shove everything back into that pretty face of yours.”
He finally caught up with her a little ways up; the castle was just coming into sight on the horizon.
“What took you?” Luna turned and asked him.
The dark being only smiled at her. “Oh, nothing. Just going over some last minute details.”
They reached the castle shortly after that, landing softly on the balcony so as not to alert her guards, which had been doubled since she took on the responsibilities of her sister along with her own.
As Luna walked into her room, she looked back at Discord, and a wave of passion ripped through her body with such intensity, that it stopped her in her tracks, almost tripping herself in the process.
The young alicorn blushed furiously at the strange and sudden images of her Discord, united in more than one way shot through her mind. What had brought on such thoughts?
Discord smiled slightly to himself as he spotted the moon princesses sudden changes; the shortness of breath, dilated pupils, flushed cheeks and quivering body were all signs of one thing.
He glanced over at the flowers he had given her. Well, he thought smugly, they certainly seem to work. And quickly too.
Putting in a false face of concern, he walked over to her side.
“Luna dear? Are you alright love?”
She nodded, unable of speech as she tried to get her thoughts back into some form of working order.
Discord, holding in his laughter at what was going on, placed his paw on her shoulder. “Are you sure?”
That gentle touch, which Discord did on purpose of course, was enough to send Luna over the edge. She looked over at him, her turquoise eyes boring into his yellow ones.
“Discord,” Her breath was heavy now, and she was panting slightly as a warmth she had never known before spread throughout her entire body. “I want you to spend the night. Here. With me.” She walked closer to him until his paw was centered square on her chest.
So easy! Discords face was one of pure shock. “Luna! What are you- Are you sure? We’ve not known each other for very long...”
The pony nodded. “I realize this. But I am certain of my feelings for you. And I want to be with you. In every way possible.”
She backed away slowly, flapping her wings a few times as she neared her bed to hop onto it.
Once there, she used her magic to remove her necklace, taking a seductive pose on top of the sheets.
Discord was playing the part of the perfect gentleman though. At least for now.
“Luna, I couldn’t possibly do that to you. Not right now. It wouldn’t be right.”
Luna shook her head slowly and tilted her chin down, looking at Discord from underneath her lashes, giving Discord an all-too real pang of want through his own body. “No Discord. It is right. And I want you, right now.”
Inside, Discord was laughing so hard it hurt at how perfect his plan was working, and all of the perks he was getting out of it in the process.
Feigning hesitance still, Discord slowly walked over to the bed and crawled into the bed next to her.
“If you’re sure Luna, then I’ll do this for you.”
Luna’s eyes glistened with happiness and lust as she locked her lips with his.
They went on together, as one, well into the night.
Discord was the first one awake, his forelimbs and wings stretching out to their maximum as he slowly righted himself. With a yawn, he glanced down at the still sleeping form of Princess Luna, her soft snoring letting him know that she was still deep asleep.
Last night had gone much better than he could’ve imagined it; he actually had to cast a silence spell in order to keep Luna’s cries from being heard by any unwanted passersby.
Grinning to himself, he reached down and gently ran his talon down her cheek, causing her to stir. “Time to wake my dearest. The moment of triumph for us is soon.”
Luna mumbled something incoherent as she rolled over and continued to snore, causing Discord to pull a face of disapproval and get out of bed. “Ponies, I can’t wait to be rid of them.”
Walking around to the other side of the bed, he stared intently at her.
“Wake up Princess. The sun needs to be risen before any attention is drawn to its absence.”
He waved his paw in front of her face, bringing her awake.
The princess stirred again, her eyelids gently fluttering open into full wakefulness.
“Discord? Is it morning already?” She asked as she slowly sat up, rubbing her hoof across her eyes.
“Yes my dear. You almost slept through when you need to raise the sun.” His false smile was again plastered on his face as his insides roiled with annoyance at her.
“Come my love.” He took a step back, allowing her enough room to climb out of the bed.
Luna yawned loudly as she made her way over to her desk and mirror to get ready.
She applied her eyeliner and placed her hoof-caps on, followed by her necklace and crown before turning and walking out to the balcony to raise the sun and start the day.
“I cannot wait until we can be rid of this accursed thing,” she remarked to Discord. "It is far too bright for this world. Everything shall be much more beautiful when my moon takes its rightful place in the sky.” She finished raising the sun and turned to Discord, smiling. “Don’t you agree love?”
Discord only smiled back, if it could be called a smile.
A knock on the moon princess’s door caused them both to start and look towards the source of the sound.
“Princess Luna! A pegasus has just arrived bearing a message from your sister! She has found the Elements and is on her way back as we speak. She will be here within the hour!”
Luna turned to Discord, her eyes wide with shock and concern, only to find him gone.
She quickly turned around, scanning the room, her expression now one of confusion.
As she looked towards her vanity, she noticed another message on her mirror. She read it, and another smile, one of perverse pleasure, took its place on her visage.
Continue with the act, we don’t want to arouse any suspicion. I have gone out to the land to wreak more havoc. Go and meet with your sister, learn what you can and see if you can stop her. If not, make sure she is at Ponyvilles’ borders at sundown. There we shall end her tyrannous reign. Together.
Still smiling, Luna slowly turned and opened the door, walking out to meet the guard.
“Thank you. Make sure the pegasus gets a hot meal and warm bed. I need to go and make sure we are ready to receive my sister.”
As the door closed behind her, the message faded away, melting into nothingness.
===
Discord’s laughter rang out yet again across the land of Equestria, making its inhabitants quake and tremble with fear. He was currently soaring over the entirety of the land, making sure that he had gotten every last corner but the village, not wanting to miss a single spot before his final moment.
He wasn’t disappointed.
Everywhere one looked, all that was supposed to be right and good in the world of the ponies had been turned into a cruel, twisted, perverted shell of what it had once been. Nothing looked or even acted like it was supposed to, save the village and residents of Ponyville of course.
Not a single pony had even set hoof outside of the city walls in almost two whole days.
The orchards and farms were either overgrown with mutant plants or had withered away to practically nothing, so the only food the ponies had was what they had managed to save and stock in the little time they had had.
And that was quickly running out.
“Not to worry my little ponies,” Discord called down to them, “Soon everything will be as it should. And you will all be in your proper places: underneath my feet as my slaves! Ahahahahaha!” Discord threw his head back, cackling at the skies above.
His laughing fit finally subsiding, he looked down at the village and drew a circle around it with a fore claw.
As he drew his imaginary circle, a host of manticores, hydras, and dragons; some ball-room dancing, some fencing and some playing chess, took up residence along the villages borders, making sure the ponies didn’t leave.
“Don’t go away! We’ll be back after a message from our sponsors!”
Discord chuckled to himself. With another wave of his hand, he created a mirror with bat-wings to appear, another magic looking glass that permitted him to view whatever Luna saw.
“Now then my princess, let’s see what news your sister has brought us.”
===
Luna sat in her throne in the grand hall, awaiting Celestia’s return. Lined up on either side were the nobles and guards, all of them eager to hear of the older sisters’ success. As she glanced about the room, taking in all of their excited faces and hushed tones, Luna’s heart again filled with jealousy and anger, and she felt her face begin to turn into a scowl.
Shaking her head, she tried to make herself look excited as well, best to keep up the farce as long as she could.
Not five minutes later, the herald sounded the castles calling horn, signifying the Sun Princess’ return. The entire hall became deathly silent as the doors slowly opened and the first few guards entered. And behind them, regal as ever, came Celestia, her royal head held high, with a small saddle bag slung over her back.
The hall erupted into a cacophonous frenzy at the sight of her. Tears, hugs and an overall sense of victory and joy filled the hall and everypony’s soul.
All but one, that is.
Celestia smiled warmly at her ponies as she walked up the aisle to her throne. The smile didn’t reach her eyes however. Her eyes were tired, slightly sunken in with dark circles beneath them.
When she finally reached where Luna sat waiting, a false smile on her face, Celestia sighed with relief and exhaustion.
“It is good to see you again sister. Gathering the Elements of Harmony was not as easy as I had anticipated.”
She lifted the saddle bags off of her back and laid them in between the two thrones, the sounds of heavy stones clinking together and on the marble floor.
Luna raised an eyebrow. “So they do exist?”
“Indeed. Look here.”
Celestia opened the bags and levitated six circular stones out of them. “Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic. The six Elements of Harmony!” As she listed them off, Celestia raised them above her head and presented them to the entire audience. “These are the tools that my sister and I will use to defeat Discord!”
The hall erupted with cheers and roars of agreement. Luna was shocked though. Had her sister just said that they would both use them against Discord? No. There was no way that she had meant that. Surely Celestia was planning on doing it by herself, as with everything she did. Besides, even if the elder sibling had meant it, there wasn’t a chance in the world that Luna would even consider going against her love.
But still...
“Sister,” She asked, her tone hushed so only Celestia would hear. “You really don’t mean to include me in this fight? Surely you are able to do this alone?”
Celestia shook her head, her mane flowing softly from an unfelt breeze.
“No Luna.” She answered. “While I gathered the Elements, I learned that no single pony is meant to use them. The more ponies using them, the greater the magic. And while it is possible for an alicorn, originally they were meant to be used by six different ponies, each chosen by a single Element for a certain trait, the six I mentioned earlier. But since there are only the two of us at the moment, it shall have to be us. ”
Celestia then turned to the rest of the hall.
“In just a few hours, my sister and I shall fly out, each holding three Elements each. And with them, overthrow the demon Discord, and restore peace and order to all of Equestria!”
The grand hall again erupted into a din of joyous shouts and cheers. All the while, Princess Luna worried more and more for her beloved Discord and his apparently doomed fate.
===
Discord scoffed and dismissed the mirror with a wave of his hand.
“She sure is full of herself isn’t she?” He asked no one in particular.
With a flap of his wings, he took off and settled into a cloud. “I mean, they’re nothing but rocks! What could she possibly hope to accomplish with them. The best that she could do with them is to fling them at me. HA!” His short bark of laughter echoed across the valley floor. “How simple. Well... no matter.” He summoned his hourglass. “Only a few more hours left until it’s all mine.”
A giant dragonfly flew past, a loud humming emanating from its wings. Discord caught it by its tail, chuckling evilly as the insect tried futilely to get away.
“What’s the hurry my friend?” Discords smile could have chilled the bones of an ice giant. “Don’t you want to play with me?”
Deep red lines springing up from under Discords’ hand began crawling up the body of the dragonfly, twisting and turning as they crept closer and closer to its wings and head.
“It’s awfully rude to just fly past someone and not even have the decency to say hello.”
His grip tightened on the bugs tail, which, coupled with the fiery lines inching up its body, caused the creature to writhe in agony.
The lines finally covered the dragonflies’ body, and it seemed to glow red for a moment before it turned black, and crumbled into ash beneath Discords hold.
“That’s what you get,” he said, watching the remains fall to the ground below.
“And now,” Discord wrapped his fingers behind his head, leaning back on the cloud and throwing one leg over the other. “I think I’ll take a nap, seeing as how I have some time to spare before utterly defeating Miss Primpy Princess.”
Giving another chuckle, Discord closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, confident that his time was near.
The hours seemed a blur to the two Princesses as they sat by themselves in the castles library.
After she had returned, Celestia had taken Luna and the Elements, saying to the general populace that more preparations needed to be made. And, after making sure there were guards posted at every possible entrance, with pegasi flying around the castle on a constant lookout, only then did Celestia finally turn to her younger sister.
“Luna,” She started, placing the Elements in a circle on the large table in the middle of the room. “I must be honest with you. I am not entirely sure how to use the Elements of Harmony, or even if they work at all.”
Luna stared at her sister.
“What?” She walked up to Celestia. “Are you serious? You don’t know how to work them?”
The sun princess shuffled her hooves nervously. “Well, I know the basics; how to work their magics into a conceivable form and what not. It’s just how to get them started that has me stumped, and after that, how to end the flow of magic. Or even if those two things happen on their own or not.”
Disgust and disapproval rolled through Luna’s mind, and, for a brief second, flashed across her features, making her eyes flash their true turquoise color for a split second.
Celestia did a double-take, but Luna’s face returned to normal so quickly, she doubted if she had really even seen anything at all.
“So how do you think you’re going to defeat Discord?”
A deep sigh came from Celestia. “Well, I was planning on doing more research; see if I could find any more useful information. However,” She summoned the hourglass that Discord had left her, a frown marring her face as she noted the scant amount of sand. “I don’t think that there is enough time for that. So we will more than likely have to just trust our instincts.”
Luna chuckled. “We should just, wing it!” Her mirth doubled and her laughter bounced off the walls of the library.
Celestia frowned again, deeper this time as she noted an almost maniacal side to her sisters’ twisted merriment.
“I would ask of you to please take this a little more seriously Luna.”
Luna only answered by shaking a hoof at her older sister and tried to keep her laughter in check. In the back of her mind, she noted how her sense of humor had become more like Discords’, which made her smile to herself in pleasure.
After a few more tense moments, Celestia returned her attention to the orbs on the table.
“Well,” she thought out loud. “I suppose it would make more sense to turn the Elements into a more controllable form.”
Closing her eyes in deep concentration and with her horn glowing brilliantly, Celestia picked up the Elements, twisting and shaping them into a form that pleased her better.
Luna’s eyes were bright with curiosity as she watched her sister at work. Even if she did resent her, Luna had to admit that Celestia was indeed an incredibly powerful alicorn.
She only hoped that one day, she would be as, if not more, powerful than her sister was.
She scoffed again.
In little more than eight hours, she and Discord would be the rulers of everything; of course she would become more powerful.
Discord had promised.
Returning her attention to what Celestia was doing she saw that instead of six stone orbs on the table, there were now two crowns, each bearing three of the Elements. The one on the right was a shining gold and held the Elements of Magic, Kindness, and Generosity. The one on the left was a lustrous silver and housed the Elements of Laughter, Honesty and Loyalty.
Luna chuckled softly at the irony.
“Phew.” Celestia sighed and her horn stopped glowing, the spell ended. “There, that should do it.”
Using her magic again, she removed her crown and placed the golden one with the Elements on her head. “Here Luna, your own crown is ready.”
Luna silently exchanged her crown for the one on the table.
“In addition to the power of the Elements embedded in these new crowns, I have also taken a portion of the magic from every unicorn in the palace, like Starswirl the Bearded, and added it to the crowns,” Celestia explained to her sister. “This shall increase our own magical abilities and give a little more of a chance of defeating Discord.”
Luna nodded, her eyes locked on Celestia’s crown. She was wondering if there was a way to combine the two into one, and so increase her own magic even more.
Then a thought struck her. Spinning around quickly, she turned and looked at her tail, seeing if she had gotten an alicorns hair. If what Celestia was true, then she should have it. Right?
Wrong. Her tail was the same light blue normal hair.
Celestia smiled sadly, knowing what troubled her sister. “I’m sorry Luna. Since the magic I borrowed from the other unicorns isn’t ours to take for ourselves, I only put it into the crowns, to act like an amplifier that increases the power of it. Not giving us more.”
Unbridled rage shot through Luna. And she could feel her eyes positively glowing, and she knew that if she turned and looked at her sister right now, then Celestia would see the dragon-slits and turquoise coloring that Discord had given to her. Not wanting to ruin the plan, Luna forced her anger down, breathing deeply to calm herself.
Now was not the time.
After she was sure she was calmed down enough that her eyes were normal, she turned back to her sister. “I understand.” She said. I understand that you are selfish and afraid of me!
The sun princess nodded again. “Don’t worry sister. I think your time is coming soon. I can feel it.” She wrapped her wings around Luna in a warm embrace. Luna awkwardly returned the hug.
After another couple of tense moments, Celestia pulled away and looked back at the hourglass.
“Exactly eight hours left until sunset.” She glanced at Luna. “Let’s go inform the rest of the castle.” Without another word, she turned and walked out the library doors.
Letting her breath out in an annoyed huff, Luna followed.
Patience, she told herself, Soon it will all be over.
===
The alarm popped into existence on spindly legs, with a pair of matching arms and wide-set eyes. After it looked at the sleeping Discord, it started a high-pitched ringing to wake him up.
Discord jerked awake, his yellow, blood-shot eyes popping open and glancing around him to locate the source of the noise. “What the-“ Then he noticed the alarm. “Oh right.” He poked the center of the alarm and it popped like a bubble.
Yawning, he stretched his arms and wings wide, hearing a faint popping from his elbows and wing joints.
“It’s almost time to finish my creation.” He looked at the hourglass, floating softly to his right.
Only one hour remained until he dispatched of all of these wretched ponies.
He stepped off of the cloud and slowly dropped to the earth below, landing gently onto the charred and broken earth.
Looking over at the village, he noticed a small gathering of ponies at the village entrance. “Hello, what have we here?”
Frowning, he cast a spell of invisibility over himself and made his way over to them.
“No, really!” One of the ponies was saying to the others. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have mastered the Elements of Harmony and are on their way here right now to finish off that beast!”
“Oh yeah right!” Another spoke up. “First, where’d you hear this? And second that, thing is way too powerful for even the Princesses to beat.”
She shook her head sadly.
“Even if they did master these so called ‘Harmony Elements.’”
The first pony gasped in shock. “How could you say such a thing about our beloved rulers? They’ve protected and kept us from harm for who knows how many years! Remember when-“
Discord had heard enough.
Scoffing at the ponies he walked over to the path that connected the village and the capital of Canterlot.
“Here,” he said, dropping his invisibility and leaning against the entrance archway. “This is where the sun and the moon will fall. And chaos will reign supreme for all time!”
His laughter was terrifying, a taunt to the sisters who thought to try and end him.
===
The sound of evil’s laughter indeed reached the sisters and their troops, eliciting different feelings for all. For the soldiers, it was fear and apprehension. For Celestia, it was worry. And for Luna, it was sick and twisted joy.
“Fear not my little ponies!” Celestia turned and spoke to her loyal soldiers. “Yes, the enemy is mighty, but we have right on our side! We have goodness! And we have Harmony! Today, we shall stand against evil, and we will prevail!” Turning back around, she looked at Luna. “Are you ready sister?”
Luna nodded. “I am ready Celestia.” For your downfall, and mine and Discords rise to power!
Celestia returned the nod and, with a flap of her giant wings, took to the skies. “All units, forward!”
As one, the pegasus flew off after Celestia while Luna, the unicorns, and earth ponies marched in step along the path.
“And so it begins.” Celestia muttered, flying into the setting sun as, for the first time in over a thousand years, the entire Canterlot army went to war.
===
Discord smiled widely as he saw the princesses and their entourage of ponies coming down the path.
Clapping his hands and laughing loudly, he made some balloons and streamers to come into being and hung them from the nearby trees.
“Oh hurrah! You made it to my little party! I’m so glad that you decided to accept my invitation Celestia, otherwise it’d hardly be a party!”
Several picnic tables laden with food appeared before everyone and Discord gestured to the grand feast. “Would anypony care for some cake? Or maybe some punch? There’s plenty to go around!”
“Enough Discord!” Celestia landed and stomped her hoof on the cracked ground. “We have all had enough of your chaotic ways, and my sister and I are here to end it!”
Discord glanced at Luna and raised an eyebrow. “So... you’re not here for the party?”
Luna stifled a giggle, which caused Celestia to toss her a suspicious glare.
Shaking his head, he waved an arm, making the party decorations disappear. “Well then, if that is indeed the case, then I’m afraid that your army is not allowed to interfere. You and I made that bet Celestia, so the fight will be between the two of us.”
“And my sister as well Discord.”
His smile widening, Discord formed a bubble to encase the Canterlot army, several of the ponies tried to break through it, but to no avail.
“Why not? Let’s let little Luna in on the fight.”
Celestia stiffened and even Luna cringed a bit as Discord mentioned her name. “How do you know her name? Speak demon!”
Discord put his finger to his lips, realizing another of his “slips”.
“I know many things,” he explained. “More than you could ever imagine princess.”
Scowling, Celestia turned to her sister. “What is going on Luna?”
The younger sister didn’t blink. “Whatever do you mean sister?” Her eyes flashing turquoise, she glared back at Celestia.
The sun princess stepped back, the truth hitting her like a ton of bricks.
How could she have not seen it? Her sisters changed attitude, the way she seemed to snap at her and wasn’t as thrilled when she returned as she should’ve been. And those eyes; turquoise dragon eyes.
They chilled her to the bone.
Slowly, she turned back to Discord, disgusted by the satisfied grin plastered on his face.
“What did you do to her?” Her voice was quiet, but it traveled well across the distance between them. Her horn was shimmering with pent up magic, and her mane and tail, usually softer rainbow hues, were turning red and began to thrash out behind her.
“I? I showed her the truth. I sympathized with her. I promised to give her what she deserved.”
Discord slowly began circling Celestia, making his way towards Luna.
“And what did you give her? Nothing, nothing but distrust and your scorn.”
He wrapped his arm around the younger sister, and she gazed at him with near worship in her eyes.
Right then, Celestia knew she had lost her sister.
“Luna, how could you?”
Luna’s eyes narrowed dangerously as she stared at the older pony.
“How? You have the nerve to ask me how? How could you hog all the glory and love from the ponies to yourself? How come my night is never appreciated?”
Luna had also stepped forward, standing in front of Celestia. A grin began spreading across her face.
“But at least that’s all over now, Discord and I are in charge now. You’re dethroned, sister!”
With an enraged yell, Luna loosed a fiery bolt of black lightning at Celestia, who only just barely managed to dodge it.
The older Princess answered with a ray of white light shot directly into Luna’s face.
“Remember who I am Luna! I am the oldest living alicorn, you can’t harm me!”
Blinded from the light, Luna stumbled backwards, firing off random bolts of lightning in every direction, taking out trees and chunks of earth, and narrowly missing some of the village ponies.
Discord floated above the battling alicorns, gasping for breath and holding his sides from laughter.
When he had finally caught his breath, he called down to the princesses. “Hey now! What about poor little me?”
He flashed another grin at Celestia as he flew lower, finally landing next to Luna.
“Calm down Luna,” He ran his claws through her hair as she rubbed at her eyes, trying to regain her sight.
“Discord,” She breathed gratefully, then frowned. “She’s right. I still can’t beat her, even with the Elements I have. What should I do?”
The mis-matched being only smiled again.
“Just go and stand over there for the moment my dear. I’ll take care of her.”
Luna grinned first at Discord before turning to Celestia, giving her the evil eye and walking over to the designated spot. “Enjoy your last moments dear sister; I’ll enjoy watching you get destroyed and taking your rule with Discord.”
“Oh Luna...”
Celestia was crying openly now, tears flowing down her pristine face as she looked back and forth between her sister and the creature that had corrupted her.
“Why Discord? Why twist her mind against me? Why come here in the first place?”
Discord drummed his fingers along his chin. “Hmm, well, A; I have my reasons, mostly just for the fun of it. And B; I didn’t twist her mind. Those thoughts of overthrowing you were already in her mind before I came along. I just... nudged them in the proper direction and gave her more purpose.”
He chuckled again. “Now then, shall we?”
The two faced each other, the beautiful and proud Princess of Day; abound with pure magic; and the malicious and warped Chaos personified; over-flowing with wicked energies.
They both stood for a moment, taking stock of the other. Celestia had not forgotten the last time she had stood up to this creature, nor did she forget how that encounter had ended. She had underestimated him, and it very nearly cost her her life. She was going to be very careful this time around.
Discord was the first to move. With a twist of his wrist, he summoned a cloud of parasprites that moved to engulf Celestia.
She countered by creating a tornado that gathered up all the bugs and carried them away to the forest. This was followed by a small stream of white bindings, similar to the ones Discord had used on her, to reach out to her opponent.
He only laughed and turned them into balloon animals.
“Really Celestia? Using my own magic against me? Childish, to say the least.”
He made another gesture, and formed a block of energy to appear above the Sun Princess and drop down towards her.
With a curse, Celestia sent a spike of magic into the block, shattering it. She quickly turned to the nearest tree, or rather, the bouquet of bacon and eggs that had once been a tree, and ripped it out of the ground before hurling it at Discord.
Scoffing, he sent it flying upwards, where it was swallowed whole by a passing dragon.
“Is this really the extent of your abilities Celestia? Fine then... If you aren’t going to fight for real...” He reached out both hands; claws and talons extended, and seemed to grab at something. He began to move them apart, as if he meant to tear open the very air.
Celestia noted, with shock, that that was exactly what he was doing.
A hole started to form in the air before her; a strange, star-like blackness visible where Discord was tearing open the space between them.
“Ah, there we go.” Discord gave a satisfied grunt as he dropped his hands and stepped to the side.
“Now, Princess, I’m sure you’ve heard of the beasts called Ursa Minor, no? Maybe you’ve even heard of the even more terrible Ursa Major, and perhaps even Canis Minor and Canis Major.”
Celestia’s, the other ponies’, and even Luna’s eyes widened with shock and dread as they heard what he was implying.
Discord’s smile grew as he watched their reactions. “Yes, well, I’ve actually summoned up something much, much worse.”
Celestia took a step back and shook her head, eyes white with fear. He couldn’t mean... “Y-you can’t be saying... No...It’s not possible...”
“Oh, but it is,” Discord shook a finger at her. “It is entirely possible.”
RRRRRAAAARRRRGGHHH!!!!!!!!!
The earth shuddered under them as a roar sounded from the hole in front of them, drawing their attention to it.
“Oh goody!” Discord was clapping his hands and jumping up and down merrily. “I was hoping he’d be awake!”
“You fool! Discord you’re an absolute fool! You’ve doomed us all!”
Celestia’s horn was vibrating with power as she sent wave after wave of magic towards the rift, trying to close it. But to no effect.
“YES!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! Come Cetus! Come you beautiful Sea Monster!!”
Discord was hysterical as the earth shook beneath them; the summoned creature slowly making its way towards the rift in space.
Then they saw it.
At first it was just a fore-fin, poking its way through the hole into their world. The size alone made all ponies gasp anew with horror; that fin alone was nearly as big as an Ursa Minor. And if that was anything to go off of, they could only guess as to the true size of this new monstrosity.
The whole leg soon followed, its length easily that of two the castles stacked on top of one another. It was trailed by the other leg, and soon the ponies could see the monster’s head through the whole. It had the general shape of a ponies head, but its mouth was filled with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth, eyes half the size of Ponyville, a crest on top of its head, and a serpentine neck connected to the rest of its body, which looked like a fish’s.
The monster let loose another ear-shattering roar as it finally pulled the remainder of its body into the earthen realm.
It was even bigger than they had previously thought. This monster, this abomination called Cetus, could easily swallow whole the entire Equestrian pony population.
The ponies of the village began screaming and ran off in panic.
The royal guards; earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns all redoubled their efforts to break free of the sphere they were trapped in.
Celestia cursed and immediately jumped into action, soaring high into the clouds to battle this new threat.
She would have to deal with Discord later. Her horn flashed brilliantly as she sent bolt after bolt of pure magic into the sea monsters face.
Cetus let out yet another roar and swatted at the white princess like she was nothing more than a bothersome fly. All the while, Discord was laughing hysterically, dancing around as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
“Discord! What are you doing?” Luna was frantic as she ran up to him, her whole body shivering with terror. “You shouldn’t have brought this thing here! It’ll destroy everything!”
He turned to her and guffawed. “And? That is exactly why I brought him here! Don’t you get it yet?” He sneered at her. “This had nothing to do with you! You were nothing more than a pawn I used to get what I wanted.” He leaned in close to her and grinned evilly as tears started to form in her eyes. “You mean nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing to me!”
Those words hit Luna like blow to the chest. She couldn’t breathe as she tried to process what he had just said to her. Nothing? That’s all she was? Their relationship, his feelings towards her... They meant nothing.
Tears poured like rain from her eyes as she looked up at her so-called lover, her breath was coming in gasps, she couldn’t think straight. He had pretended to love her just to get what he needed, and then tossed her aside once he was done with her.
Not only had her sister betrayed her, but so had Discord.
Fire ripped through her soul as that realization hit her. She doubled over, crying out in pain. It felt like her heart had burst.
Her eyes flashed black once before turning back to turquoise, her pupils narrowing harshly as waves of uncontrolled emotions roiled throughout her body.
Her mane and tail began to whip about, as if by an unseen wind, before turning from its usual light blue color, to an ethereal smoke-like substance that resembled the night sky and started to flow magically from her body. At the same time, her coat turned from light blue to pitch black.
Her body shifted and started spasming, bones began to pop and creak as she grew rapidly before everyponies eyes until she was the same size as her sister.
The changes finally stopped with a flash of black light, causing everypony, including Celestia and the monster Cetus, to stop and stare at the newly transformed Princess Luna.
Slowly, she raised herself until she was staring Discord head on, her dragon-like eyes narrowed dangerously at him.
“My, my, my, Luna” Discord was grinning again as he brought his hands together in a thoughtful motion. “So, this is what you look like as an alicorn eh? I must say, it is quite impressive.”
“No Discord.” The princess shook her head slowly. Her voice had changed, the pitch dropped and carrying a regal tone with it. “I am not the Luna you knew. You killed her when you told her the truth of how you felt. I am the Princess of the Moon and the Stars. And I will be your end!”
She stamped a hoof, black sparks flaring from where it struck the ground.
Discord stood for a moment, chin in one hand as he studied the younger princess. He seemed to take her seriously for a moment, before he burst into laughter.
“Hahahaha! Oh, that’s clever!” Tears formed at the corners of his eyes as he bent over with his mirth. “Ahahahaha, it hurts!” He fell over on the ground, rolling from side to side as he held his ribs.
The now-transformed Princess of the Night glared daggers at the sickening creature in front of her. How she had ever fallen in love with this... thing in the first place was beyond her.
But she was going to make up for it.
Without warning, she loosed of bolt of black lightning at Discord, catching him full in the face and hurling him backwards into a nearby house.
A pained grunt tore itself from Discord’s lips as he hit the wall and fell to the ground. Groaning, he slowly pushed himself up and brushed off the dirt and rocks.
“Well, that was unexpected.” He cast a studying gaze in her direction. “And quite powerful, I must admit.”
He began walking back towards her. “Who would have thought that you would become this strong?”
Her horn shimmered in the light of the almost set sun. “Who cares? All that matters now is how I’m going to destroy you!”
Discord chuckled darkly as he turned sideways to the princess and gave her a “come on” gesture. “Well then, princess. Let’s see what you’ve got.” With another yell, she spread her wings wide before taking off. Higher and higher she flew, it seemed she would fly right through the roof of the world.
She finally leveled out, floating softly thousands of feet above the earth. As she looked down upon the ponies and her former love, she felt her anger rise to a whole new level.
This is how it should be, she thought. With me at the peak of everything, with all of creation looking up at me.
She snarled down at Discord. “Let’s see you try and hold this back, you slime.”
The Moon Princess raised her horn high, the last rays of the sun glinting off of it as she began casting a powerful magic.
She started off with gathering the clouds; all of the collection of atmospheric water within a five mile radius was suddenly drawn to her as if caught in a whirlwind.
The skies turned black as the sun finally set and the clouds above blocked out any other sources of light.
Discord whistled. “Impressive.”
As soon as she had gathered the clouds, she began the second portion of her magic.
Slowly at first, the clouds began swirling around her, shifting and twisting as the magic shaped them.
Sweat began to form on her brow as she began transforming the clouds, hardening them, turning them into what she expected to be Discord’s end.
Little by little, the clouds turned into space rock, condensing in on itself as it changed into its final form, a gigantic meteor, a quarter of a mile in length and weighing several dozen tons.
With a final grunt of exertion, she finished her creation and held it for all of ponykind to behold, before she swung her horn downward, sending the meteor plummeting towards earth, enveloped in a ball of flame.
“Nothing, am I?” She panted as she began to descend. “We’ll see.” A plan was starting to form in her mind if this didn’t work, one that, unfortunately, included her sister.
Discord was grinning ear to ear as he watched the approaching space boulder. “Yes, yes!” His joy seemed boundless as he prepared himself for what was coming. “This is going to be so much more fun than I expected!”
He laughed and thrust his hands into the air at the oncoming missile, fire poured from his empty hands as he attempted to slow the meteor. It seemed to work, the asteroid was, gradually, starting to slow down.
While Discord was distracted with the meteor, the Night Princess quickly flew to where Celestia and Cetus were battling.
The Sea Monster had scorch marks covering its body, and Celestia had gouges along her left flank and other various wounds across her flesh.
Baring her teeth at what she was doing, the young alicorn sped towards the creature, shooting her black lightning into its eyes, blinding it and causing it to stumble away towards the forest.
Celestia quickly backed away and flew to her sister, her horn still alight with offensive magic and her eyes burning dangerously. “Luna! What are you doing here?”
“Calm yourself Celestia! I am not here to fight you right now. For we have a common enemy.”
She spared a quick glance at Discord, who, amazingly was still struggling slightly with the space rock.
She smiled in satisfaction and turned back to her sister. “I will help you defeat Discord, but we must be swift and do it while he is busy!”
The Sun Princess eyed her suspiciously, but lowered her magical defenses, if only by a fraction. “Why would you help me Luna? I thought you and Discord were working together?”
“’Were’ being the key word there. He’s a nothing but a lying bastard!” She quickly turned her head, but Celestia still saw the glitter of tears in her sisters’ eyes.
“Well then,” Celestia’s face softened, “What’s your plan?”
The Princess of Night shook her mane and sniffed softly. “The old plan of course. We’ll use the Elements.”
A nod of the head was her answer, and her older sister started flying downwards.
The younger princess hesitated and followed, before calling out to her sister, “This doesn’t change anything between us Celestia!”
Celestia didn’t even turn around.
Within seconds of each other, they landed, solidly, on either side of Discord, who had almost completely destroyed the meteor.
“Well well, if it isn’t my two favorite princesses!” He turned and grinned toothily at each of them in turn. “How the devil are you? Luna, I must give you my utmost respect with this.”
He nodded at the giant rock, almost nothing more than a memory, though it was dangerously close by now.
“It’s very well put together, and look, it’s taken me this long to destroy it. Very, very good!”
He chuckled as she bared her teeth at him.
“Enough deceiver! This ends now!” The Moon Princesses’ horn and tiara started glowing, pulsating in time with her heart.
Celestia took the hint and fired up her powers and discovered, to her shock, that the magic felt different, more... whole, and unbelievably soothing.
The Elements... She thought triumphantly. They’re working!
Discord only sighed as he stared up at the empty skies. “You know, once this rock is destroyed, I’m going to take a lot of pleasure in doing the same thing to you two.”
He glanced at Celestia. “This would have been a lot simpler if you had just not even shown up the first day I got here. And as for you,” He turned to the black mare. “I just wish I had never even bothered with you!”
Tears formed anew in her eyes as, enraged and humiliated, she unwillingly thought back on the whole previous week, and how happy she had been. She would never feel that way again.
The Princess of Night cried out in anguish and shot a beam of Harmonizing magic at him, yelling at him all of her hurt and anger. Celestia, on the opposite side, with sympathetic tears of her own, let loose her own magical ray of peace and love at the dark being. Both streams collided in the center of Discord’s chest with a burst of light.
Discord gasped, letting loose a giant fireball at the last of the meteor and destroyed it before taking a step backwards.
He cried out in pain as the Magic of Harmony began eating at him, slowly creeping across his body.
“What- ungh- what is this!?”
Celestia opened an eye and cast a vicious glare at him. “Harmony, dear Discord. You are beaten.”
Another short bark of agony tore from his throat as he threw his arms upwards; trying to cast a last spell that would teleport him to safety, but unsuccessfully as the good magic began turning him to stone.
“No... NO!!”
He threw his head back and screamed at the heavens.
“This is impossible! I can’t lose!!”
He squirmed and twisted as the stone skulked up the remainder of his body, his neck and arms, gradually turning him into a statue.
“This isn’t the end Celestia! Luna! I will be back! AND I WILL TAKE THIS LAND!! IT WILL HAPPEN!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”
The magic slowly engulfed his head as he laughed, before finally he was turned completely to stone, a living statue, locked in endless laughter.
As soon as the last of Discords living form was encased in rock, everything began to vibrate violently. The two alicorn princesses abruptly ended their steady streams of magic, both panting heavily, as they felt the earth and air tremble.
The Moon Princess was the first to speak. “W-what is happening?”
“I don’t know!” Celestia looked about wildly, looking for the source of the shaking.
The two looked at each other, and then turned abruptly to the statue they had just made. As soon as they did, the statue shook once before a shock wave burst forth from it, spreading across the land faster than any of them could blink.
The wave scattered across Equestria, affecting all that Discord had touched. Within seconds, everything flashed and turned back to its original form. Trees, animals, and every other thing that Discord had diseased with his magic were returned to normal. The things he had brought from elsewhere; monsters, extra-dimensional beings, even the great constellation Cetus were instantly transported to where they came from.
Celestia gasped and turned towards her army. “The ponies!”
She had no reason to worry, the bubble popped as soon as the reversal magic touched it, freeing all of the ponies inside. They all immediately rushed to their princesses, tending to wounds and checking if they were alright.
Celestia laughed gratefully and waved them off.
“I’m fine! Really, no need to worry about me. Go and tend to the village ponies!”
She grinned warmly and turned to her sister. “Luna! Luna, are you-“
She was nowhere to be seen.
“Luna? Luna! Where are you?” Celestia took flight, casting about for her sister in almost a panic. Was she alright? Where had she run off to?
She flew off, easily outdistancing her pegasus guards, much to their displeasure. She didn’t need to look very long, luckily. She found the Moon Princess standing just outside of the Everfree Forest.
“There you are!” She dropped down and landed next to her. “I was worried about you Luna. Are you alright?”
The younger sister slowly turned and looked at Celestia, her dragon eyes glinting in the light of the now slowly rising moon.
“No sister. I am not alright. And I told you, that didn’t change anything between us. You and the rest of your beloved ponies wasted and squandered my love just as much as Discord did. I will make you pay for it. Maybe not today, or anytime soon, but I will see you ended.”
She glowered at her older sister and, with a flick of her now magical mane, tore the tiara from her brow and threw it at Celestia’s hooves.
“Mark my words.”
With that, she turned and began walking into the forest.
Celestia was stunned. “W-what? Luna! Wait, Luna! Please, I can fix it!”
“No Celestia! You can’t.” The younger alicorn stopped and looked over her shoulder. “But I can, and I will.”
She turned back around and resumed walking before calling back one last time.
“And it isn’t ‘Luna’ anymore. My name is Nightmare Moon.”