To Be a Princess

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Prologue
Chapter 9

Chapter 1

Over a thousand years ago, so long ago that I can't even remember the exact date or time anymore, Luna and I waited in line for our turn to impress the most powerful alicorn in all the land, the Princess Aurora. She ruled over the land, in much of the same way that I do today. For as long as any pony could remember, she was in control. The Princess was a benevolent enough ruler, but ruling for so long on her own had come to exhaust her and caused her to focus less on the happiness of her subjects than on duty, order, and control. But she could no longer control all of Equestria on her own, so she sought an exceptional student or two to mentor.

Luna and I, while fairly skilled at spells and other kinds of magic, were different from the other ponies hoping for a chance to learn from the Princess. Most were Canterlot citizens or other ponies of minor royalty, ponies with personal connections to those that allegedly would be judging. We would have to really stand out if we even wanted a chance of being accepted, but we were probably too young to recognize how hopeless we truly were.

We first heard the announcement from one of the messenger ponies that traveled throughout the land of Equestria to spread the news far and wide. Luna and I at that time lived in a tiny village on the outskirts of Trottingham, a town so small that it didn't even have a proper name. Other ponies just referred to us as the ponies from Little Trottingham, if they called us anything at all. Luna and I were lucky enough to be visiting the bigger town for supplies when we happened to hear the announcement.

"Attention all citizens of Equestria," the messenger called out in his loudest Royal Canterlot Voice. "This is a message from the Princess. 'For too long I have ruled on my own that I now seek a student or two to train and mentor to rule at my side. In a fortnight, I will be holding a test in Canterlot for any talented unicorn foal eager to learn according to my rule. All will be accepted for the trials, but few will be accepted to be my students. Examine your skills set, and if you know unicorn foals more skilled than you, don't waste my examiners' time.' That is all."

With that final sentence, the messenger was on his way to the next town. Luna and I looked at each other, wearing a similar smile.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, sis?" I said with excitement. "This could be our big chance! Our chance to go out and learn magic beyond what we could learn in our tiny village!"

"That would be great!" Luna said, and then frowned. "But would they really want us? I mean, neither of us even has our cutie mark yet."

"Maybe through learning with the Princess we will earn our cutie marks! We've been here in the same city for all of our lives, and we haven't discovered our special talents. Maybe one of our special talent is, I don't know, something Canterlot-related?"

Luna thought about it for a minute, and then regained her smile. Then lost it again.

"But it sounds like so much work..." Luna complained.

I rolled my eyes, but kept my smile. "If we get accepted, we know that she knows we can handle the work. If we don't, then I'll take it as a sign that we are not ready. Happy?"

Luna nodded. "It's settled, then," I continued. "We will talk to mother tonight, and tomorrow we will be on our way to Canterlot and the rest of our lives!"

We clapped our hooves together and galloped as fast as we could to share this news with our mother.

~  ~

One thing we forgot to take in to account was what our mother's response would be. We hadn't considered the massive undertaking it would be to travel all the way to Canterlot simply for a test that our mother didn't think we would pass anyway. She might not have told us this directly, but the hesitance in her eyes gave her true emotions away.

She was a simple unicorn pony named Morning Glory, trying to make a living on her own after the passing of our father during the First Griffon War. His passing must have left her scarred, though, since she was never the same after that. Always reserved, always timid, not stepping out and doing more than what was expected of her. We suspected that she had higher hopes for Luna and I, but didn't want to see us crushed by the cold hoof of rejection.

Over the course of the night and into the morning, Luna and I begged and pleaded just for the opportunity to show what we could do. We made grandiose claims that we would never ask for anything ever again and we would always do what we were told, regardless of the test's outcome, and other excuses young ponies generally make. In the end, we wore her down and we packed up what little we needed to make the long journey to Canterlot.

The townsfolk waved goodbye to us, wished us good luck, and jokingly hoped that we wouldn't come back any time soon because we were too busy with royal business. Our mother smiled weakly, then ushered us to the path to Canterlot. We had a long road ahead of us.

~  ~

Canterlot was more beautiful than any of us could have ever imagined. After being used to the thatched roof cottages and dusty dirt roads of Little Trottingham, Canterlot was heaven in Equestria. It looked very similar to how it does today, as I have tried to preserve its former glory over the years with magic. But instead of having the more worn and aged feel that it does today, everything was all shiny and new. Princess Aurora had renovated everything to her own design, making pristine white, spiraling towers erupt out of the ground from every corner. The streets were paved with what must have been the clearest marble, and it was as sparkly and clean as everything else. Even the ponies themselves sparkled and glittered like we had never seen before, with their over-the-top fashion and expensive accessories. To most visiting Canterlot, they must have felt overwhelmed and out of their league, but to Luna and I, it felt like we were finally going home. While we might have looked like small-town ponies, now that we had seen the glory of Canterlot, we knew this is where we belonged.

Lucky for us, our mother had a distant aunt who lived in Canterlot and was more than happy to let us stay there while we took the test.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all, my dears! I've been waiting so long for another member of this family to aspire to the cultured life of Canterlot. There have been far too many simple farming ponies! Not that your husband was a simple farm pony! He was a warrior, that one, just like my cousin Lean Hoof! Do you remember him? Well, I remember one time -"

She continued to ramble on, so Luna and I quietly excused ourselves to unpack our few things upstairs. We felt slightly guilty leaving our mother all alone with that mare, but she could handle it. She was more of a listener than a talker anyway.

"I can't believe we've actually here! Canterlot, the capital of Equestria. It's even more amazing than I dreamed!" I said, dramatically falling back on to my bed. All of us were exhausted from the long journey, but the adrenaline of knowing that tomorrow we would have the opportunity of a lifetime kept us awake and strong.

"Nor can I! There are so many ponies, more than I have probably ever seen in my life! Yet somehow...I feel like I belong here," Luna remarked, lying back on her bed as well.

"I feel the same way," I said, deep in thought. "That has to be a sign, right? A sign that we are meant to be here?"

"I guess we'll find out soon," Luna said with a sigh. "Should we be practicing? Trying to remember everything we've learned?"

"I'm not sure," I wondered. "Do the judges want to see an exceptional unicorn with already well-established skills, or do they want one who may not be the most skilled now, but shows potential? I think our best course of action is just to go in fresh and show them what we can do unrehearsed. We'll give them an honest audition. That's all they can ask for."

Luna nodded. "At least now we have an excuse to do less work! I'm exhausted. How do you ever stay awake during the day?"

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "I could ask you the same about the night! You're always up, wandering around and basking in the moonlight, when all normal ponies like myself want to sleep."

"Then you're missing out! The real beauty of the moon can only be seen late in the night, so I have to stay up to truly admire it."

I chuckled. "That explains why you're always so tired during the day. Maybe if you actually got some sleep, then you would have energy for the day."

Luna dismissed my comment, replying, "If you say so."

The two of us laughed and talked until late in the night, when exhaustion finally overcame the nervous excitement. We had a big day ahead of us, one that I still have not forgotten to this day.

~  ~

The next morning, we woke up to the smell of freshly cooked hay pancakes. Luna and I galloped downstairs and were greeted by our great aunt.

"Good morning, you two! Ready for your big day of gaining honor for our family? I thought to myself last night, 'What can I do to show them how proud I am?' and, of course, I thought of making breakfast! What better way to start an important day than with a hearty breakfast? So then I thought to myself -"

"Thank you," Luna and I said in sync, interrupting her rambling as politely as we could. We took our plates and began eating as our mother made her way down the stairs as well.

"There you are, Glory! I was beginning to think you were going to sleep through the entire morning! But, obviously, you couldn't do that, and I decided -"

"Good morning, Mother!" I interrupted, disregarding whatever it was that our great aunt was saying.

"Good morning, dears," she said quietly, but with a smile that we hadn't seen in a long time. "I am proud of you both and know that you will do your absolute best."

Tears began to well up in my eyes, and I had to fight to hold them back. I couldn't remember the last time my mother told me she was proud. Luna and I just assumed she was thinking it based on the way she acted around us, but she hadn't expressed it out loud in a very long time.

"Thank you, Mother," I said, choking back tears. "I promise Luna and I won't let you down."

I heard a big snore, and Luna woke up abruptly. "What? Oh, I promise too!" I glared at her. "Sorry, it's just so early in the morning..."

"That may be true, but have you seen the sun? It's nearly time to get in line for the test! Some ponies might already be there, and we don't want to be at the back," I said, anxiously glancing out the window at the sun.

"How did you -? Never mind," Luna said.

Even then, it was clear that Luna and I had a connection with the moon and sun respectively. Luna showed her ability through her nightly walks and night-owl tendencies and I did through my uncanny ability to tell the time without a clock or sundial. Neither of us suspected that it would have something related to our cutie marks - that is, until later that day.

As we approached the line, however, Luna and I found ourselves unable to find our breath. The line was enormous, spanning over and under bridges, across town, and through buildings. We were supposed to show that we were special in a crowd such as this? The task seemed impossible, yet Luna and I were determined. We each had a similar feeling that we were meant to be here and weren't about to let that go on the basis of some giant line. But it sure was long...and crowded...and full of wealthy Canterlot ponies that must have had more education than either Luna or I.

We finally found the end of the line, near a small bistro on the other side of the castle. The line seemed to move pretty fast, but we had at least a few hours of waiting ahead of us. I had no doubt it would be almost dark before we finally entered the academy.

Still, ponies continued to line up behind us until we could not see the end of the line anymore. In a way, I had hoped that we might be the last. I knew that generally ponies remembered the first and last ones they saw, often forgetting those in the middle unless they were truly spectacular and unique. So, to stand out this time, we would have to amaze the judges.

"This line is so mind-numbingly boring, don't you agree?"

I shook my head to get out of my daze and looked around for the source of the voice to see if it was talking to me. My eyes stopped on a colt in front of us in line that was staring directly at me, as if waiting for a response.

"Oh, yes, I do agree. But it will be worth the wait in the end, I think," I said, finally registering what he said.

"If you get accepted, it will be worth it. Otherwise, what do you get out of it? Sore legs and maybe a sun tan, Miss Blindingly-White Coat," he responded. "But I have no doubt the Princess will be awed by my impressive display."

I looked at him skeptically. He seemed like a normal unicorn pony to me, with a dark brown coat and a snow-white mane and tail. It was pretty luscious, I had to admit, and he did have a peculiar cutie mark. It consisted mostly of a bunch of swirls and blobs of different colors that seemed to fade away inexplicably into the rest of his coat. Other than that, I supposed, he didn't look that special. Maybe I would go so far as to say he was handsome, but that didn't mean he was any more skilled at magic than Luna or I.

"Oh, really? And what makes you so confident?" I asked.

"Let's just say that I have a form of magic that I think the Princess will find unique, something she can't possibly turn down. And if she even considers it, I guess I'll have to win her over with my handsomeness," he said, smugly throwing back his mane. I was sure he felt confident in his magical ability, but the second part seemed more of a joke than actual narcissism. So I just laughed.

"What? You don't think the Princess will fall to her feet at the sight of my luscious, flowing mane? I'm shocked."

Luna began to laugh as well. "Well, if she doesn't fall for your lusciously flowing mane, then maybe she'll fall for mine," she said, throwing back her mane in a similar manner.

That broke the colt's stoic expression as he burst into a laugh. "I'd love to see the look on her face if you tried to do that! But who knows? Maybe she's one of those mares 'playing for the other team', if you catch my drift. She hasn't found a stallion to rule with yet!"

At that, I became more defensive. "That could be true, but the reason she rules on her own is because she doesn't need a stallion to make the crucial decisions. A mare is fully capable of ruling on her own, if she wishes."

The colt looked taken aback and dropped his goofy smile. "I didn't mean to imply anything like that. I was just joking, you know? It's what I do."

I sighed and returned to my normal composure. "I know, and I'm sorry. It's just something I feel very strongly about, so I tend to overreact when the subject is brought up."

"I can see that!" the colt laughed. "I thought any second you were going to explode into a fiery rage... But hey, it certainly would have gotten the Princess to notice you!"

I smiled at the thought. "Then maybe you didn't make me angry enough."

Luna's eyes widened. "Please, please don't take Celestia up on that. You do not want to see her when she's really angry. It's not pretty." I glared at her again. "It's true! And he seems like just the colt to accept your challenge."

"An accurate analysis, my dear! And while I am bored out of my ears waiting in line here, even I don't want to experience something like that."

I rolled my eyes at them both but continued to smile.

"So what makes you two think you have what it takes? Other than having the ability to get into a seething rage. Neither of you even has your cutie mark!" the colt said, gesturing to our blank flanks.

Luna and I looked at each other. Why did we think we had a chance? We weren't overly talented or extraordinary, so why would the Princess choose us over so many potential others?

"I...don't really know. It's just...a feeling we both have, that we're supposed to be here. Like we were meant to be here all along," I explained and Luna nodded.

"Sisters?" he asked and we nodded. "I guess there is something in that. The unstoppable royal sisters! It has a good sound to it. And again, who knows? Maybe your cutie marks will turn out to be something royalty-related. Then they'll have to choose you! And then they'll just choose me for good measure, because they need some male representative in this overly female family."

"If you say so," Luna said with a laugh.

"That is kind of what we were thinking, though, regarding our cutie marks. Luna and I have spent all of our lives living in a small farming village and never received our cutie marks in anything farming-related. What if we find our special talent here?" I explained, although I wasn't sure why I was spilling out all of my thoughts to this random stranger. He was just so easy to talk to with his laid-back manner and quick banter. And did I mention he was handsome? With all of his talk of making the Princess fall to her feet in awe, I couldn't help but see that there was some truth to his words.

"You two certainly don't look like farming ponies - no offense. Although, personally, I think that's more of a compliment..." he trailed off.

"What is your super special talent anyway?" Luna asked. "Your cutie mark just looks like a bunch of blobs and squiggles."

He smiled widely, clearly proud of his indescribable cutie mark. "Oh, I can't tell you that - not yet, at least. It's all a part of my super secret brand of magic that I'm going to show to the Princess. But I do have a super special talent, if I do say so myself. And I do."

I chuckled at that, but still eyed him skeptically. "What could possibly be so special that you have to keep it a secret?"

"That's for me to decide," he said with a smirk. "But, I assure you, it's worth the secrecy! Oh, it is so worth it..."

I raised my eyebrows. He was oddly enamored of this talent of his, which made me even more curious to know what it could possibly be.

"Well, when we all get out of this, you have to promise to share this 'grand secret' of yours," I said.

"I would be happy to oblige!" he said, bowing overly far.

For the next few hours, we chatted and joked about everything from the state of politics to the meaning of cheese. We inched closer and closer to the front of the line until, finally, we could see the door to the building and the gruff unicorn shouting, "NEXT!"

Apparently the Princess had not been fully satisfied with the crop of ponies so far, as she had not sent to rest of us in line away yet. The more we inched closer, the more heartbroken unicorns we saw trudge away from the room. Some were in tears, some were nearly screaming with rage, but a surprising amount didn't seem bothered whatsoever. If anyone was bothered in place of those unicorns, it was their parents, clearly convinced that their son or daughter was the best of the best. The Princess did not agree.

Only ten more minutes, then five, and then it was time for the colt in front of us to take his turn.

"Arrivederci, Celestia and Luna! See you on the other side," he said, trotting confidently inside. When he said that, I realized that we had never learned his name.

"Wait! What is your name?" I called to him, and he turned around abruptly.

"They call me Discord, Master of Chaos!" he said with a smile as the doors closed behind him.

Chapter 2

"Wait...what?!" Twilight said, interrupting Celestia's story. "Discord was...and you...but...what?"

Celestia sighed. She knew this would be coming when she reached this part of her history. "Yes, I've known him for a long time. And yes, he was at one time a normal unicorn - well, comparatively normal, I suppose."

"But then...how...?" Twilight continued, unsure what question would even be the right one to ask.

"All in due time, my dear Twilight. Everything to the extent of my knowledge will be explained."

Twilight opened her mouth again, but closed it to hear the rest of the story. Celestia smiled. "Now then. Where was I?"

~  ~

Oh, yes. Luna and I were just about to go inside for our test while Discord was already inside, showing off his magic to the Princess. At the time, we weren't sure what he meant by the whole 'Master of Chaos' title but, just like you, we would find out in due time.

"Discord...that's a weird name," Luna said, thinking aloud.

"He's a weird pony. It's kind of fitting," I agreed.

"That's true. And he was funny."

"Yes, yes he was."

After that, Luna and I lapsed into silence, waiting in nervous anticipation for our test. Every few moments, we heard some kind of explosion or laugh come from inside the room, so Discord was clearly making a scene. Whether that was good or bad was up to interpretation, so I instead tried to focus on what would soon follow. Finally, after a time that seemed longer than the entire time waiting combined, the unicorn at the door opened it and yelled, "NEXT!"

"I guess that means me," I said, taking one final look at Luna. "Unless you would like to go first...?"

"No, you go," she insisted. "I want to make sure you come out alive before going in."

I gave her a dark glare. "That makes me feel better." Before she could respond, I was inside the dark room with the door closed.

I stepped inside and found the room to look like a classroom, with desks that stood on stairs instead of the floor. This didn't help my nerves because it made the five judges appear to be looking down from high above. My legs quaked with fear, but I somehow managed to make it to the center of the room.

The judges themselves appeared exhausted. The Princess was in the center of a row of tables while two unicorns sat on either side. A few appeared to be royal ponies, another possibly a professor at the school where this test was taking place. They had clearly seen far too many ponies throughout the day and were eager to be finished.

One of them yawned as I stood in the center of the room. I glanced out the window, hoping that the sun might give me the strength to carry on. It had not quite set yet, and it still hovered on the horizon. If the sun could make its long journey on its own, then I could take this test.

"What time is it, Professor?" one of the judges asked with a voice that reminded her of a lot of the Canterlot snobs. "It feels like we've been here forever."

"It's 5:37," I said automatically.

The judges raised their eyebrows at me. "How did you know that?" the judge asked.

"The sun told me," I said honestly. And it had. I could tell the time based on the sun's position. It was almost like it whispered the answer to me as I basked in it warmth.

"The sun told you?" the Princess asked, not with complete skepticism. I nodded. "I see. Now, what is your name?"

"My name is Celestia."

"Celestia. I suppose that is a proper name for a lover of the sun. But you have no cutie mark?" the Princess asked.

"No, my sister and I have lived our entire lives in a tiny farming village. We haven't really had the chance to discover our special talents."

The Princess frowned. "Then what do you have to show to me today, Celestia? I do hope you will not waste my time."

Why does everyone think that I am going to be a waste of time? I thought with a surprising amount of anger.

"No, I will not waste your time," I said with a frown and stomped my hoof down hard. Suddenly, the room became pitch black, all of the sunlight that had been lighting the room completely disappeared from the window.

"What just happened?" a judge asked frantically, then felt her way to the window. "The sun - it just disappeared! It's gone!"

"It's not gone," I replied. "It just dropped below the horizon. I can feel it."

The Princess' ear pricked up. "You can feel it?"

"Of course," I said. "Can't you?"

The Princess and the judges shook their heads. "No, I can't say that I do."

"Well, maybe I can -" I began, then attempted to lock on to the energy of the sun with my magic. Maybe, since I can feel it... Using all of my available magic, I attempted to coax the sun back to its original place in the sky. I couldn't see the judges' expressions or the sun itself, but I could feel the warmth of the sun returning to the room. When I was confident that the sun was where it was supposed to be, I let go of my magic and opened my eyes.

The judges stared at me in disbelief. "The sun...and you...but that means..."

At first I knelt down in embarrassment. Was I the cause for the sun dropping below the horizon? All because I had lost my temper... I knew that I had a tendency to get angry, but I had never caused anything like this to happen.

Just as I was about to quietly excuse myself out the back door and apologize for wasting their time, I heard the stomping of hooves. I looked up and saw the Princess looking at me with a big smile. "Thank you, Celestia. Thank you for finally showing me what I was looking for."

My eyes widened as I realized what she meant. "You mean..."

"Yes. I would be honored to take you in as one of my students. Your talent for controlling the sun on your own is clearly unique, and I would be a fool to turn down the opportunity to mentor a raw talent such as yourself. In fact, your talent is so special, I might go so far as to say that it is your special talent, if you catch my meaning."

She gestured to my blank flank, but instead of it being white like I expected, an artistic symbol of a sun replaced it. Finally, after waiting for so long, I had discovered my destiny, what I was meant to do that made me different from everyone else. I was destined to control the sun! Even now, it still amazes me how privileged I was to be granted such a cutie mark.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, would you wait in the next room? You won't be alone in there. We have chosen one other exceptional student so far along with you," the Princess explained, pointing to a door separate from the exit door that was guarded by another buff unicorn. I nodded and trotted over to the door.

Before I entered, I stopped to ask one more question. "You aren't done looking for students, right? Because my sister -"

"A sister?" she said curiously. "No, I am not finished. I'm hoping to find five exceptional unicorns, but will settle for slightly more or less if not enough or too many ponies meet my high standards."

I nodded, thanked them all again, and wandered through the door.

Inside was what I assumed to be another classroom, but it was so dark that it was difficult to tell what it contained. "Um...hello? Is anyone else here? The Princess said -"

I was interrupted by a bright flash of light that revealed an elaborate party set up around the desks and chairs in the classroom.

"Celestia. You son of a pegasus, you were right! You really did have a good feeling about being accepted," a familiar voice remarked.

I looked over to the other side of the party and recognized a newly familiar face. "Discord? What are you doing here?"

"I was accepted by the Princess, of course! Duh. I told you that there was no way she wouldn't be impressed by my controlled chaos," he said smugly.

Discord is the only other pony accepted so far out of all the ponies they saw today? I thought to myself. Those poor judges must have had a really long day if they didn't find anyone up to their standards until just now.

"So that's your special talent? Using chaos magic to your advantage?" I asked, unsure what it entailed.

"You got it!" he said as his horn lit up and made a giant pink cloud appear above my head. I reached up to touch it and found that it was sticky.

"Eww, what is this?" I asked, trying to scrape it off on a nearby tablecloth.

"It's cotton candy! It's a new trick I've been working on. Ooh, and watch! It gets even better!" he said, giving me a smile that kind of frightened me.

I glanced up at the cloud and immediately regretted it. The cloud instantly started raining out some kind of mysterious brown liquid all over my face and mane. I glared at Discord. "What is this?"

"Chocolate milk! A personal favorite of mine."

"But...why? It doesn't make sense!"

His horn lit up, and he made the cloud and the rain disappear. "My dear Celestia, sometimes you just have to ask yourself, where is the fun in making sense?"

I opened my mouth for a comeback, but wasn't sure how to respond. He did have a point. A lot of humorous things didn't make that much sense, but that was what made them funny in the first place. So I just shrugged and attempted to clean off my mane using the table cloth once again.

"For just this once, though, enough about me. What did you do that impressed the Princess so much?" He glanced down at my previously blank flank that now showed the picture of a sun made out of swirls. "I see that was not the only thing that went on in there, as well."

I bit my lip, remembering the manner in which I had received my cutie mark. Sure, raising the sun was no small feat and was something to be proud of, but I wouldn't have even thought to raise it had I not lost my temper.

"Well...I kind of caused the sun to disappear when I got angry at the Princess for underestimating me...so I had to raise the sun on my own to fix my mistake, which gave me my cutie mark," I explained sheepishly.

Discord stared at me blankly for a moment, then burst out laughing. "That. Is the best cutie mark story I have ever heard. Seriously. I wish I could say something like that! Mine just appeared one day when I had a strange urge to see what the streets of Canterlot would look like as a checkerboard. It looked wonderful, if you're at all curious, even if those unicorn guards didn't agree. They let me go with a warning...even if I had to manipulate their thoughts just a smidge. But losing your temper in front of the Princess so much that you caused the sun to completely disappear? Priceless!"

I couldn't help but return a little smile. "I guess it was kind of neat."

"'Kind of neat'? C'mon, Celestia, you gotta give yourself a little more credit than that. I know I would! You moved the sun! Now I have to learn how to do that! If I could control the sun according to my own whims, oh, that would be so great..."

"You think I would let you do that to my beautiful sun?" I challenged with a smirk. "Not a chance!"

He walked closer to me and looked me straight in the eye. "Well, I guess we will just have to see about that, Celestia."

Right as he said that, the door opened once more and in walked yet another friendly face. "Luna! She accepted you, too?"

Luna's smile was so big that she almost couldn't respond to my question. "She did! And look!" She turned to her side, revealing a shiny new cutie mark, a depiction of the moon and the stars. "I'm not sure why she asked me, but as soon as I came inside and stated my name and said I was your sister, she asked me to try to move the moon. At first it seemed like a strange request, and I didn't think I had the energy to even attempt something like that after the exhausting wait in line, but I managed to feel the aura of the moon and caused it to rise high in the sky! It was the most incredible feeling! But...how did you two get accepted?"

"I just gave her the experience of witnessing my patented 'Chaos Storm' I've been perfecting, and she had no choice but to accept me based on such amazing talent. But mine was nothing compared to Miss Sun Butt over here," Discord explained, pushing me forward.

Luna took a look at my new cutie mark. "You got yours, too? That's wonderful! Did you raise the sun or something?"

"I did," I replied, and then Discord nudged me in the side. "And I might have accidentally caused it to fall, which made it necessary for me to raise it in the first place."

"You were right, Luna," Discord said, forcing back a grin. "You really don't want to get Celestia angry."

"You mean...?" Luna asked. I nodded. "Oh, Celestia..."

"It was an accident! I didn't mean to...but enough of that. Whatever may have happened, it helped both of us get our cutie marks and a spot in Princess Aurora's mentor program."

We all clapped our hooves together, proud of what we had accomplished, and decided to finally take a look at the colorful celebration that had been set up for us. On a few tables, elaborate cakes of all different colors and flavors had been set up, ready for us all to take a slice. Brightly colored balloons covered the walls and banners with sayings like 'Congratulations!' and 'You did it!" were strung all over. We each decided to grab a slice from each of the cakes and sat down in a circle of benches.

I levitated a piece of cake to my mouth and instantly was transported to the delicious world of flavor and sugary goodness. Our mother used to make her version of a cake whenever some kind of special event came around, even during her darker days, but nothing in this world could have compared to the joy brought by this one bite. If all Canterlot food tasted this good, I didn't think I would ever stop eating. In fact, as you probably know, traditional Canterlot cake is still one of my favorite guilty pleasures since it reminds me of the pure bliss I experienced in this one moment.

"This cake...is the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world of Equestria," I said, delicately tasting another small bite so that I could savor the flavor.

Discord shrugged. "Eh, it's okay. It could use some cotton candy." His horn lit up, causing cotton candy to appear. "Much better!"

"Is that -" Luna began to ask, but I just shook my head.

"You don't want to know."

We continued to eat in silence for a few minutes, then Luna brought up a good question. "Do you think anyone else will be joining us?"

We all remained quiet as we considered the possibility. "I don't know," I finally replied. "The Princess said she hoped for five new protégés, if there are enough ponies up to her standards."

While we wondered what those standards could possibly be, I heard the door creak open once again. In walked a muscular, smokey-grey unicorn with a mane and tail even darker, and a shocking red, curved horn upon his head. He glanced around the room at the decorations, then his eyes narrowed as he spotted our little group.

With a frown and a gruff voice, he said, "I am Sombra."

Chapter 3

"No way," Twilight Sparkle said. "You can't be telling me that King Sombra was involved in this whole plot, too."

"Indeed he was. When did you think I met all of them before? But King Sombra had a very different role to play in my history, compared to the other two. Very different," Celestia explained with a grim look on her face.

"Alright... Continue on, then."

~  ~

Upon Sombra's initial arrival, all the three of us could do was stare blankly and blink in silence. We might not have known anything about this new unicorn, but based on his appearance, voice, and stoic expression, none of us thought he was good news. After an awkward silence of Sombra simply standing like a soldier in front of the door, Discord stepped forward to introduce himself.

"Good day to you, sir!" he said in a dramatically polite voice. "Mr...Sombrero, was it?" Discord held out his hoof for the newcomer to shake.

Sombra stared down at him with a glare so intense that it even caused Discord to shake a bit and back away. "Sombra," he corrected with a voice that suggested imminent death for whoever dared call him that again.

Discord continued to back up, returning to his original place with Luna and I. "Right...Sombra...silly me..."

The three of us all looked at each other. Now what were we supposed to do? None of us wanted to speak now that such a menacing figure had entered the room. What was he doing here, anyway? What could the Princess want with a unicorn such as him? I chanced a glance at his cutie mark and where usually some kind of colorful symbol glistened, there lay what appeared to be a shadowy cloud of dust. Anything that mysterious could not signify any useful special talent, could it?

We silently looked around the room for a few minutes, and then Discord cleared his throat. "So...Celestia, as I was saying before we were interrupted," he improvised, "what do you think the Princess will do with us now that we've been accepted?" He winked.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe she'll teach us some really advanced magic...?"

"Yeah..." Luna added. "And maybe we will get to stay in the castle."

Sombra continued his statuesque stare at the door.

"Of course we'll get to stay in the castle! Where did you think we'd be staying? The dungeons?" Discord said, rolling his eyes.

"Technically, the dungeons are a part of the castle, so it is not as far-fetched of an idea as it seems," I pointed out.

Discord nodded, noting this fact. But the discussion still brought up a valid point that we weren't entirely comfortable discussing in the midst of Sombra the stranger. I suppose Discord was technically a stranger to us at the moment, but after all the time we spent anxiously awaiting the Princess' judgement, there was no doubt that we had come out of the experience as makeshift friends. We all had the common interest of wanting to learn from the Princess and, for the time being, it was enough to draw us together.

During the silence that soon followed as we ran out of topics we were confident enough to discuss, the door opened once more. We all braced ourselves for the possibility of a strange new student, but were relieved to just see the smiling face of Princess Aurora.

"Congratulations, my new students! You all have proved yourselves to be especially well-qualified to learn the secrets to ruling Equestria. As luck would have it - for me - you all have delightfully unique talents to contribute so, in the end, you might all have the opportunity to rule alongside me on the throne," Princess Aurora explained.

"Excuse me, Your Highness," I interrupted. "What do you mean by 'we might all have the opportunity'? Will you not be accepting all of us?"

The Princess smiled and walked further into the room. "Well, Celestia, that is for you all to decide. If you work hard enough through my program and prove yourselves worthy through further examination, then I see no reason why not to give all four of you a position in my castle." The Princess stared down particularly at me. "Did you really think this would be the first and final test?"

I opened my mouth, but thought better of responding. I had already interrupted the Princess once, and I didn't want to annoy her with too many questions.

"That's a good girl," she continued. She rose up her foreleg. "This is only the beginning! That first test was just to weed out the clearly unworthy. But I think each of you has the chance to succeed, provided that you are prepared for what follows."

Discord rose up his hoof like a good student in class. "...And what exactly will that be?"

The Princess' smile shifted, but what should have been perceived as a sweet, friendly smile became even more frightening than Sombra's death glare. "You will see. Very soon, I promise you will understand." Her smile shifted back to normal. "But enough talk of work. You all should be celebrating! Eat some cake! Get to know each other!" A guard opened the door for her to leave. "But I wouldn't recommend getting too friendly. From this moment on, you are trying to stand out in a very talented crowd. See you all tomorrow morning bright and early for your first lesson."

With a final snap of the door, she was gone, leaving us on our own to think about the trials ahead of us.

~  ~

After a very short, lackluster celebration, due to the strange feeling of anticipation brought upon us by the Princess' words, two of the palace guards came to escort us to our rooms in the castle. The may have been the same guards as before, but at the time, I honestly could not tell the difference between them, especially since they all seemed to be unicorns. If I think back on it, I bet Princess Aurora chose them to be like this on purpose: all nameless drone ponies proud to serve the Princess' every whim. To young me, I only noticed their intimidating nature.

Our bedrooms were located up a tall flight of twisting stairs, leading us to a large tower separated from one of the main hallways. Luna and I would be sharing one bedroom while Discord and Sombra took the other.

"It looks like the two of us are going to be roomies!" Discord said, attempting to break Sombra's expressionless face. "We are going to have so much fun. We can stay up all night and have a pillow fight and tell scary stories..." Sombra just stared at him. "C'mon, you've got to be the master of scary stories!" Sombra grunted, and pushed past Discord into the room. Discord turned to Luna and I. "I'm telling you fillies that you will be missing out. Our room is going to be the party room, I can assure you of that!"

I just chuckled. "No need to assure us! Sombra looks like quite the party pony."

We peered into the room and noticed that Sombra was somehow already asleep. "Aw, I wanted the window bed..." Discord complained, then returned to his 'gloating'. "Just you wait. You'll be begging to join our party, and I might not hear the door over the sound of us having such a wonderful time..."

Luna just laughed and walked inside our own room, deciding he didn't require a response.

"I don't know if my mother would -" I began, and then stopped. Our mother! How could Luna and I have forgotten her? Surely she must have been worried not hearing from us all day!

Thankfully, one of the guards was still waiting at the bottom of the tower stairs. "Excuse me," I said. "Is there any way I could inform our mother where we are? She's bound to get worried now that it is so late."

The guard nodded, and said in a deep voice that he would send one of his men to inform her that the Princess had accepted us. I told the guard the location of my great aunt's home, to which he saluted and cantered off to inform the rest of the guard. I sighed out of relief and wandered back up the stairs. Discord was still waiting outside, looking up at the stars.

"Don't you want to let your parents know where you are?" I asked, joining him to look at the stars.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother them..." he said with a chuckle that didn't sound genuine.

"Why not?"

"Well..." He thought for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "I would hate to disturb the whole 'rest in peace' deal. If I was dead, I surely wouldn't want to be woken up for something as silly as this..." He chuckled softly again, but his former joyful self was fading.

"Oh, I see," I said, my voice becoming low. "My father passed away, too. He died fighting during the Griffon War, when Luna and I were very little. All we have is our mother, and even she doesn't seem to be here all of the time, mentally at least. I think a part of her died along with our father, so Luna and I have been on our own for a while. When did yours...?"

"Kick the bucket? Bite the dust? I never understood the point of those expressions, or most expressions, really -" he started, then stopped when he saw my solemn face. "It happened long before any time I can remember. For as long as I have experienced conscious memories, I've been on my own, traveling from city to city. That's when I discovered chaos magic. Everything in my life wasn't going harmoniously, but at least by harnessing the chaos in my life, I could have a laugh."

I smiled at him, and for a moment, we stood there silently gazing up at the stars. That night, I finally saw what Luna had been talking about all along, describing the stars as the most dazzling sight in the land, bringing light to the darkness.

Discord cleared his throat, and then stepped towards his room. "Well, I better check on ol' Sombrero. He won't want to miss what I have planend for this evening!"

"You go do that," I said, happy for this change in mood. He turned away and closed the door, leaving me alone outside with the clear night sky. "You really are quite beautiful," I said to the stars. "Just watch over us, will you? If my feelings are correct, we have a lot of work ahead of us."

~  ~

After a night of peaceful sleep, I woke abruptly to a cold shiver on the back of my neck. Something was wrong. Someone was here that shouldn't be. I slowly creaked my head over to the side to see behind me, and saw a shadowy black figure looming over me.

"Augghh!" I called out gracefully as I leapt out of bed. Fine, it wasn't that graceful, but I did manage to free myself from the path of the intruder. My horn lit up and I shot a blast of light so bright that it would surely blind the stranger for at least a few moments, long enough for me to reposition myself.

When the light dimmed, I continued to point my horn in front of me, but crept forward to observe the stranger. To my surprise, I heard a male voice laughing as he rolled on the floor while covering his eyes.

"Brilliant, Celestia! Absolutely brilliant!" the voice said through his laughter, but it was still not a voice I recognized.

Even though he seemed to be comfortable, and somehow knew my name, I questioned him with a darker tone. "Who are you and what are you doing in my bedroom?" I demanded.

The stallion laughed a bit more, and then took a deep breath. "Who, me? My name's Stealth Spirit and I am here to assassinate you."

I jumped back even farther from him and began to charge up a spell. I don't even remember what I was planning on doing to him, but whatever it was, it wouldn't have been pleasant for him. "You what?"

He smiled and nodded. "That didn't come out right... I am here to pretend to assassinate you, to see how you would react. A little test from the Princess!"

I let the light fade from my horn. "Oh, I see. Did I pass?"

He nodded again.

"Good. Then get out of my room!"

He laughed hesitantly, gave me a small bow, and then dashed out of the room. I shook my head and lay back on my bed, unable to fall back asleep. That was quite the wake up call, I thought to myself.

The door opened once more, Stealth Spirit's face peaking in slightly. "Oh, and the Professor wants to see you and the others in the throne room in fifteen minutes. Toodles!" With that said, he disappeared once more.

Luna yawned in the background. "What's goin' on?" she said in the middle of a loud yawn.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You didn't see anything that just happened?"

She shook her head. "I was just sleepin'... I did dream about someone shouting though..."

"That was no dream! Some random pony stood over my bed this morning and pretended to kill me, just to see how I would react!"

"Great... Now I'm going back to sleep..."

"No, you're not," I said, magically levitating the sheets from her bed above her. "We have to go meet some professor in the throne room in fifteen minutes!"

Luna grumbled, but slowly rolled out of bed.

We didn't have much of a chance to look over our rooms last night since we were so exhausted, but I was pleased with the arrangement. Our bags that we had brought to our great aunt's loomed mysteriously in the corner, perhaps retrieved when the guards told our mother of our acceptance. Luna and I each had our own vanity mirror as well, stocked with various beauty supplies and brushes for our mane and tail. We would have more time to explore later, but for now, we had to get ready to leave.

While Luna stood in front of her mirror and lethargically pulled a comb through her mane with magic, I stepped outside and knocked on the other door. After waiting a few moments, the door flew open, probably by magic.

"Celestia?" Discord said, rubbing his eyes while still in bed. "What are you doing here so early? Couldn't miss the sunrise or something?"

"I'm not awake by choice, trust me. I'll explain later," I said. "We have a meeting with some professor in the throne room in about ten minutes."

"Ten minutes?? That's all the warning we get?" Discord said, then jumped out of bed. "Well, I'm ready. What's taking you all so long?" Sombra merely grunted, but was up and ready quickly as well.

I laughed, and then returned to my room to run a brush through my mane and tail a few times. Luna was still sitting in the same spot, possibly asleep, while her magic brush did the work for her.

After ten minutes of making my mane look presentable, pushing Luna down the flights of stairs while she complained about it being too early, and getting lost after misinterpreting directions from the guard outside our door, we all made it on time to meet this professor. I recognized him as one of the judges from the previous day, the one I assumed to be a professor at the Canterlot School of Magic. He was a thin unicorn pony with a light grey coat and almond brown mane. He wore thin spectacles and a plaid tie, and his cutie mark had a picture of a scroll and glasses.

"Good morning, students. I am Professor Witsworth, but most refer to me simply as the Professor. As I will be your only Professor, the term the Professor is appropriate. Do I make myself clear?" the Professor explained.

"Perfectly clear, Mr. The Professor," Discord said, nodding fervently.

The Professor frowned, but continued with his introduction. "Since the Princess is a very busy mare and has many important obligations to attend to inside and outside the castle, I will be leading most of your magical studies. If I am pleased with your work, I will refer you to the Princess with a glowing review of your character and abilities. If at any time I am not, you will be expelled immediately from the premises."

I gulped. I wondered if Luna and I had made the right decision. Were we really up to something like this? We were just average unicorns, not star magical students! But the Princess chose you, and you recognized it as a sign that you are ready, my conscience reminded me.

"Lovely," the Professor finished. "Now that we have all of that out of the way, we will begin our first practice session. There are many basic talents that any skilled unicorn should know, especially any royal unicorn, and among the most important is the ability to transport yourself quickly. None of you are pegasi or alicorns, so flight is not an option at the moment. Any ideas?"

Three of us looked around the room, not wanting to speak up first. We had been so preoccupied with finding the throne room, that we didn't really have an opportunity to examine it. I had a chance to glance at some colorful stained-glass windows when my mind's wandering was interrupted.

"Shadows," Sombra grumbled, the only one not looking around aimlessly with the rest of us.

"Yes, that is one option. If my judgements are correct, and they usually are, I believe you and Miss Luna will be the most prepared for such magic."

Luna's eyes shot open. She had been drifting back to sleep for a few moments before, but now that she heard her name, she had a reason to be interested.

"Me?" Luna asked. "What do you think I am prepared to travel by shadow? I don't even know how to even start something like that."

"That is why I am here to teach you," the Professor said. "And to answer your first question, I think that someone with such a connection to the moon and the darkness would have a natural affinity to traveling in such a manner."

Luna nodded, and even managed to stay awake. She didn't bother asking why Sombra could travel this way as well, for none of us knew what his talent was anyway.

"As for you two," the Professor said, turning to Discord and I, "I don't see the unicorn of the sun and the unicorn of...what is your talent again?"

"Chaos, my dear Professor. Laughter, fun, the list goes on and on..."

Ignoring the rest of Discord's comment, he continued, "So how else might one travel using magic?"

I thought for a moment, trying to remember the magic of some of the more talented unicorns in our village or unicorns from the stories Luna and I read when we were little. I recalled that one pony could use her magic to appear and disappear whenever she wanted, but her miscalculations caused problems for her along the way, forming the conflict of the story. "Could we use...teleportation?"

The Professor gave me a small smile, possibly the first we had seen on him, regardless of how small it was. "Yes, teleportation magic! For those of us not gifted with the knowledge of darkness or wings, teleportation is the ideal form of transport."

Discord scoffed. "Teleportation magic? That's all you meant? I've been doing that for years!" His horn lit up as he tapped his hoof on the ground, causing him to disappear. A second later, he appeared above me in the air, soon landing on top of me.

I stood up and pushed him to the side. "It looks like you need more practice."

His eyes gleamed mischievously. "Are you sure it was an accident, Celestia?"

"That's enough!" the Professor said, frowning at Discord once again. "Either way, there is always room for improvement. I'll begin with giving these two instruction on how to control their shadow magic."

He turned to Luna and Sombra and gave them instructions on how to fully make use of their shadow magic. Apparently it worked the best in the night or in a shadowy forest, places where shadows already existed. In these locations, one could tap in to the magic of the shadows themselves and use their forms as a reference for transforming their body into a shadow. The Professor assured them that it would be far more difficult to transform in a brightly lit throne room, and explained that their assignment for that night would be to practice using actual shadows. So, while Luna and Sombra focused on examining the smaller shadows cast by the furniture in the room, the Professor turned to Discord and I.

"Now, while your magic will not work as a way to conceal yourself while traveling, it is a far more efficient way of traveling," the Professor explained. "Using teleportation, as the chaotic one attempted to demonstrate, you can simply disappear and appear wherever you need to be, within reason. You cannot appear anywhere that you have not seen before, nor can you appear any farther than your magical power will allow. Therefore, some have the ability to travel farther than others whereas others can only travel a few feet in another direction.

"To teleport correctly, the most important idea to keep in mind is focusing specifically on where you wish to end up. If you have not fully pictured yourself landing where you hope to appear, then your aim will be off. Again, our chaotic friend showed you this."

"What do you mean 'the chaotic friend's aim was off'? I told you, it wasn't a mistake! I can teleport," Discord insisted.

The Professor raised an eyebrow. "Fine then, if you're so sure, why don't you teleport to the other side of the throne room then?"

"Easy and as delicious as pie," he said. He closed his eyes, lit up his horn, and stomped his hoof, causing him to disappear. Sure enough, he appeared on the other side of the room. Not nearly to the door, however, but close enough to fit with the Professor's challenge. "See?"

The Professor blinked in surprise. "It seems I underestimated you a bit. You still have a little while to go in terms of magical power, but that is accurate enough to teleport you most places."

Discord smiled smugly, and then turned to me. "Let's see you beat that, Celestia."

I grinned back, perhaps appearing more confident than I should have been. "You're on."

I closed my eyes in a similar manner, picturing the other side of the room, and then lit up my horn and stomped my foot. When I opened my eyes, everything had disappeared and I was back near the door in my bedroom. "How did I get here?" I asked myself aloud. The bedroom was nearly a five minute walk from the other room, so how could I have miscalculated so much? I closed my eyes again, and pictured the other side of the throne room once more.

This time when I opened my eyes, I was on the other side of the room with Discord and the Professor eyeing me suspiciously. "Uh...ta dah?"

"That was quite a long time for you to reappear, Miss Celestia," the Professor said, asking implicitly for an explanation.

"Yeah...well...I might have first ended up near my bedroom door..." I said, my face turning slightly red.

Discord burst out laughing, but the Professor shushed him immediately. "Well, you did manage to appear here eventually. And if you were able to appear that far away, you clearly have enough magical power at your disposal," the Professor said, causing me to smile. "But you still could use a lot of practice." My smile dropped.

For the next few hours, Discord and I disappeared and reappeared at various locations around the throne room and other surrounding free rooms while Luna and Sombra practiced turning various parts of themselves into shadow. Luna was only able to get a few legs at a time to change, but by the end, Sombra could turn into a full shadow. The Professor praised his ability, but all I could think of was how much scarier Sombra would be even without seeing him. What if he ends up being like my intruder this morning? I thought to myself.

Finally, after an exhausting practice session, the Professor told us to continue practicing when we had time and that at our next magical lesson the following week, he expected to see improvement.

As we left the throne room, I knew at least three of us were looking forward to laying down in our beds and resting for the remainder of the night, but the Princess had other ideas. Outside of the doors stood two unicorn guards with a message for us. "The Princess requests your presence at a feast tonight in the Dining Hall. You will accompany me to dinner immediately." He turned around and started walking in the direction of the Dining Hall.

I heard Discord and Luna groan beside me, but all of my exhaustion faded away in anticipation of trying more Canterlot delicacies. If any of it was as delicious as the cake from yesterday, then surely we had nothing to worry about.

Chapter 4

After hearing Celestia's anecdote regarding her teleportation training, Twilight burst out laughing.

"What is so funny about that, Twilight?" Celestia asked, genuinely confused.

Twilight composed herself and sighed. "Sorry, Princess. I was just remembering my own practicing for teleportation, and it definitely began as hopeless as yours!"

"It wasn't- Alright, maybe it was a bit hopeless at first! But, in time, we all came to perfect our skills, and the results were far less humorous," Celestia admitted.

Twilight smiled at her mentor. "I'm sure you did, I just thought it was interesting how similar things were for me."

Celestia returned the smile. "Oh, I am sure we are similar in far more ways, dear Twilight."

~  ~

As we approached the Dining Hall, I tried to take in every part of the castle that I had not seen yet, but there was just so much to see that I knew it would take many more times walking down the hall to fully appreciate and notice everything. The stained glass windows were exquisite, depicting scenes of Princess Aurora's great triumphs. One showed her standing triumphantly atop a tall mountain, bestowing a ceremonial medal to Commander Braveheart, the soldier who was said to have single-handedly won the final battle of the First Griffon War. Seeing that one made me a bit teary-eyed as I remembered my father's fate in the war. Still, the war was ultimately a victory for our side, so my father's death wasn't for nothing, I supposed.

Along with the stained glass windows, which were different from those we have today, were large vases full of colorful plants and flowers, spiral staircases that seemed to go on forever, and mysterious doors that could have held anything on the other side. I was determined that, during my time in the castle, I would explore every single one, assuming the Princess gave me permission, of course. Some of my fellow students, I knew, wouldn't hesitate to ask permission, but at the time I didn't want to invade on the Princess' privacy. Everyone was entitled to a little privacy, even the Princess, right?

We finally arrived at the large, intricately decorated doors to the Dining Hall and were escorted inside. The Princess was already seated, sitting at the end of a long table, and she gestured for us to sit at the four already set spots opposite her. No food had been placed on the table yet, but there were various utensils and other objects for dining ready for use. Sombra sat down looking as expressionless as ever, but Luna and Discord had looks of confusion upon their faces as they poked at the different utensils.

"Why do we have so many forks?" Luna whispered to me. "Do we have to use them all at once?"

I tried to hold in a chuckle, but a little snort came out instead.

"Is there something funny, Celestia?" the Princess called from across the room.

I quickly returned my expression to normal. I was tempted to just say it was nothing, but I was eager to hear the Princess explain the reason for such a set-up. I knew that rich ponies ate differently, but why did they need so many forks? "Sorry, Your Highness. My sister and I were just wondering what the purpose is for having three forks," I explained.

The Princess' frown turned into a small smile. "Oh, I understand. A common dilemma, I assure you. This is why I invited you all to dinner this evening: to teach you some manners. If you are all going to be the hosts at the upcoming Gala -"

"We get to go to the Gala?" Discord interrupted.

The Princess glared at him, and then continued on. "If your manners prove to be up to par, then yes, you will have the privilege of attending and hosting this year's Gala. It will be the perfect way to introduce you all to the world of royalty and to show off what you have learned. And after the complete disaster that was last year's Gala, I am hoping that with four ponies to help me, we can make sure it does not happen again."

"What happened last year?" I asked.

"A giant tornado of candy corn flew through and ravaged the party, creating pure and utter chaos!" Discord said, grinning widely as the Princess raised her eyebrow at him. "Uh, so I heard..."

The Princess decided to let this one go and went on to explain tonight's goals. "Tonight I will show you all the proper way to behave yourself when dining with guests. By next time we meet, I will expect to see your manners improved so that I you act properly without my assistance. Understood?"

"Understood," three of us said, nodding. Sombra just stared blankly, but we assumed that meant 'Yes'.

"Wonderful," the Princess said, underwhelmed. "We shall bring out the first course then."

Two of the unicorn pony chefs bowed to the Princess and exited into the adjacent kitchen. I heard stomachs rumble around me in anticipation of food, but hoped to myself that the others wouldn't act foolishly. I'd seen how Luna acted when she was particularly hungry, and it was not a scene I wanted repeated in front of the Princess. The chefs levitated bowls of carrot soup in front of us, then bowed once again as they took their places to wait for us to finish.

The aroma from my bowl smelled delicious. Our mother used to make the soup back at home, but as good as that always tasted, this smelled even better. It must have contained such expensive, exotic spices, mixed together in such a way as to create the perfect dish. Perhaps I will have some after I finish this story of mine...

Anyway, I waited for the Princess' orders, but the others dove in right away, even Sombra. Sombra, however, was eating his properly, using the soup spoon specifically for such a course. Luna was attempting to use all of the utensils at once, probably convinced that this was the way 'fancy' ponies ate. Discord had neglected the use of utensils completely and was levitating little blobs of soup for him to eat. To me, it was a horrifying sight.

The Princess cleared her throat loudly, causing everyone else to stop what they had been doing. She was surprisingly calm, but it looked like it was taking most of her effort to appear this way.

"I do not believe I gave you all permission to eat, hmm?" We all remained silent, but I believe I saw Discord rolling his eyes. "Now then. As Sombra here has correctly demonstrated, the proper utensil for this course is the soup spoon. You work from the outside-in when it comes to utensils, and you certainly do not use all of them at once." The Princess didn't even glance at her, but Luna smiled sheepishly. "Also, you wait for me to eat first, then follow accordingly along with your guests. Let's try this again, shall we?"

We all watched as the Princess took the first delicate sip of her spoon, and then we copied her action. For the rest of this course, we sipped silently, none of us wanting to start any conversation that would irritate the Princess.

During the next three courses, we followed her actions exactly as she had performed them, but the room retained an awkward silence. I was impressed at how Luna was able to follow along, how Sombra somehow already knew the correct rules for polite dining, and how Discord hadn't made it start snowing over our heads out of boredom yet. By the final course, however, he finally cracked. Thankfully, it was in a way that was amusing, yet nearly undetectable as being caused by him.

The chefs brought out the dessert course, a slice from the delectable Canterlot cake that I adore so much, and set it down in front of us once again. The Princess lifted a utensil to eat her cake with, but instead of finding a dessert fork, she found a utensil that at the same time looked like a spoon and a fork. As she dug into her slice, she noticed this peculiar item and her eyes widened.

"What...is...this? This...horrifying creation! And how did it get on to my table?!" She searched through her other utensils, hoping to find the dessert fork hidden underneath her napkin or some other location, but it seemed to have disappeared. Or perhaps it simply morphed...

"This is unacceptable!" she said, forgetting we were sitting across from her and seemingly speaking to herself. "What if a guest had found this? And what is it made out of? Certainly this flimsy material is not of any metal! Such negligence on the part of the servants! I must speak with them immediately!" With that said, she stomped out of the room, followed by her guards. I certainly didn't want to be any member of her staff at that moment.

After she was fully gone, Discord burst out laughing. "Wow, I did not expect her to react that intensely! I thought it would make her slightly irritated, but that was ridiculous!"

"While I do admit that she seems to have taken this whole 'manners' thing a bit too seriously, you shouldn't have upset the Princess that way. And think of what she'll do to the servants now that she believes it's their fault! They're completely innocent," I said with a frown.

Discord thought about this for a moment, then frowned as well. "I guess I hadn't thought about that. I just wanted to get back at Miss 'Understood'? Or is it 'misunderstood'? Ooh, aren't I witty?" He said, with a grin anticipating our reaction to his 'wit'.

Luna and I just stared at him while Sombra returned to eating his cake, with the correct utensil, of course.

"What was that utensil, anyway?" Luna asked. "I don't know why it made her so upset...it looked like a really useful tool! You could use it to eat anything!"

"I call it 'The Spork'. Spoon plus fork? Get it? Whew, I am on fire tonight!" he said, literally patting himself on the back.

As he did so, a different guard entered through the door. "The Princess will not be returning tonight. I will escort you all back to your rooms."

We stood up to leave as I asked a question. "What happened to the other guard? The one who led us in here?"

"That's none of your business. Now let's move along."

I was prepared to let the subject drop, but Discord was not as content. "What do you mean 'it's none of our business'? We're the Princess' royal students! Besides, how secret could the answer be, anyway?"

The guard simply turned around, ignoring Discord's question entirely. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" he demanded. Discord teleported in front of where the guard was walking and asked the same question. The guard continued to walk around him and Discord continued to teleport in front of him.

Finally, the guard stopped and sighed. "Look, I don't know what happened to him, okay? One minute I was talking to him about hitting the pub later and the next he went off somewhere with the Princess. I haven't seen him since. Now, let's move along."

The guard stepped in front of Discord one more time, and this time Discord held back to speak with Luna and I. "Now that is suspicious. I mean, I may be a proponent of many conspiracy theories, but this actually seems like a problem. What would the Princess do to one of her guards?"

"Don't you mean 'what happened' to one of her guards?" Luna asked.

"No, I mean what I said," he whispered. "I'd bet my good ear that the Princess had something to do with his disappearance and I don't think it could be anything good."

Luna's eyes widened. "Do you mean...she could be torturing him? Like making him eat asparagus dipped in ketchup while wearing a dress and singing the Equestrian national anthem?"

Luna seemed genuinely horrified at such an idea, but Discord just seemed impressed that Luna could think of something so wonderful. "Now that I would pay money to see! No, I don't think that is what's happening, but it could be anything, right?"

I thought this over, but at the time, I didn't think it seemed like something the Princess would do. "She probably just sent him off somewhere else in the castle. Just because this guard hasn't seen him doesn't mean he's gone forever."

"If you say so, but I won't be convinced until I see the guard walking around and acting normally again," Discord said.

Luna just shrugged, unsure what to think, but happy at least that Discord had convinced her that he wasn't being tortured in such a 'horrible' manner.

The guard led us up to our rooms, bowed, and then walked down to his position at the foot of the staircase. Sombra and Luna immediately headed inside, but Discord lingered for another minute.

"You may not be convinced, but I think something weird is going on in this castle. For starters, why would the Princess want to look for students like us to help if she wasn't nervous that something might happen to her? It seems to me that she's looking for successors, so what is her problem?" Discord asked.

"Maybe she's just looking for some apprentices or someone to help her out. That doesn't necessarily mean she's seeking a replacement. And what does that have to do with the missing guard, anyway?" I said.

"Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that, but it highly suggests it. There's definitely something chaotic happening around here, and this time, I am not the cause of it."

He went in to his room without another word and I followed suit. He can't be right, can he? I thought to myself. There has to be a logical explanation for this, something that isn't as dire as Discord is making it out to be. I desperately hoped this to be true, but as I would find out later, I could not be farther from the truth.

Chapter 5

"Missing guards? Princess going crazy over silverware? Sombra actually having decent table manners?? I'm with Discord on this one! Something weird is going on," Twilight said, flailing her hooves in the air.

"You're right, Twilight. Something strange was going on, but for a long time, I was in denial. Surely the Princess, someone I looked up to and respected, couldn't be hiding something from her students..."

~  ~

The morning after the disastrous dinner lesson marked the start of our first weekend at the castle. During such a time, we were given a break from our lessons to relax and practice what we had learned so far in the week. Having only attended one lesson, it didn't give us much to practice, and personally, I was convinced that the Professor was insistant on taking his usual days off like he would while teaching at his school. I would definitely spend some time practicing teleportation magic so as not to embarrass myself at the next lesson, but I also hoped that the others might be interested in taking a tour of the Castle grounds. I had heard tales of these magnificent gardens, specifically that they contained some flowers so rare that they only grew here in Canterlot. If this was the case, then I was eager to meet the unicorn responsible for the upkeep of such delicate plants, since it must take a great deal of magic to ensure they grew healthy and happy.

I shared my plans with Luna, and she was just as interested as I in perusing the gardens. She remembered hearing stories about a particular kind of flower that blossomed only in the moonlight and was supposed to hold special magical properties of some kind when viewed under the full moon. The two of us prepared ourselves quickly and then went to see if Discord or Sombra was interested in joining us.

Discord was already outside, staring with deep concentration at one of the castle towers in the distance.

"Good morning," I said pleasantly. "What are you looking at...?"

"Huh?" he said, breaking concentration and noticing our arrival. "Oh, I was just trying to see if I could magically enhance my vision to see across large distances. I keep spying a figure that kind of looks like the Princess walking around that tower over there, so if I could see that far away, then maybe I could see what trickery she has been up to..."

"Still convinced that the Princess is up to something nefarious?"

"Of course, I'm convinced! What still eludes me is the reason why you aren't convinced," he said, squinting his eyes to see farther. "But that is another matter, I suppose. Where are you two going?"

"We're going to walk around the gardens!" Luna said with a smile, ignoring what had been said about the Princess. "Would you like to come? Oh, and we should probably invite Sombra too..."

"He's gone already," Discord said. "I didn't even hear him leave! I just woke up this morning and poof! No Sombra. He's probably just off practicing his shadow magic or going to nearby playgrounds to bully little fillies. But I'll come! I've always wanted to see the new sculpture garden, but I haven't had a chance to sneak past the guards since it has been created. Don't have to worry about that anymore!"

With these plans in mind, we headed off in search of the gardens. We asked the guard at the bottom of our tower - the guard from the night before, not the missing one - for directions, and proceeded in the correct direction.

"So the old guard still hasn't returned..." Discord said quietly, but still loud enough so Luna and I could hear. He didn't press the subject further, however.

After a little while of walking through the nearly deserted castle halls, we arrived outside at the gardens. It was the perfect day for exploring the gardens and just a beautiful day in general. The sun was high in the sky, the pegasi had cleared away the clouds so the sun's rays shone brightly, and a light breeze passed through the air. The garden itself was astounding, filled to the edge with flowers of all colors and sizes. Some grow uncontrollably like jungle vines and others were perfectly preened to the last petal according to what was most aesthetically pleasing.

With the other two close behind me, I strode forward to examine a small bush covered in tiny white flowers. I lit up my horn with the intention of breaking off a single flower for my mane, but was interrupted by a loud "STOP!"

Almost picking the flower anyway out of surprise, I managed to stop the spell as I turned around abruptly. I found myself face to face with a mint green pegasus with a yellow mane and a cutie mark with the image of a flower.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" she demanded, raising her eyebrow at me.

"I - I was just hoping to pick a flower to put in my mane. They were just so beautiful and -"

"Yes, they are beautiful," she interrupted, "right where they are! You didn't think that each flower might have been especially selected to bloom right where it was? And did it not even cross your mind that if you had picked the flower, it would completely mess up the presentation?!"

"No, I honestly had not considered that... I didn't mean any harm. It's our first time visiting the gardens, you see," I said quietly, hoping to not upset this mare further.

Apparently whatever I said worked. In an instant, her expression of utter rage turned to one of genuine happiness. "Well, why didn't you say so? I'm happy to show you around!" she said, adding, "but if you don't follow my rules, I will make sure you never set another hoof in this garden again. You follow me?"

We all nodded.

Her smile returned. "Good! Now, why don't we introduce ourselves? The name's Tulip Petal - although most ponies just call me 'Tully' - and I am the gardener of this here establishment!"

"The gardener? Are you the only pony working here?" Luna asked.

"I am proud to say that I am! Sometimes it's a difficult task dealing with all of these flowers on my own, but I know that nopony knows flowers better than me! In fact, I impressed the Princess with my gardening abilities so much that she hired me even though I'm not a unicorn!" she explained.

Discord's ear perked up as he heard a reason to be interested in this conversation. "What do you mean by 'even though you're not a unicorn'? Surely there must be other pegasi working here!"

Tully shook her head, but retained her same proud smile. "Nope! Just me! You aren't going to find any earth ponies either. The Princess generally doesn't like to be surrounded by ponies that can't do magic, but the way I take care of the ponies, it almost is like magic."

"That's great! You really must have showed her something special," I said, congratulating her. Discord, however, was still fixed on the lack of pegasus ponies and the complete absence of earth ponies.

"None at all? Ever? Don't you think that is suspicious?" Discord asked.

"I guess I never really thought about it much. As long as the Princess wanted me here, that's all that mattered! But it is a little odd now that I think about it," Tully said. She appeared deep in thought for a quick second, then returned to her pleasant demeanor. "So who are you all supposed to be, then?"

We each introduced ourselves and mentioned that we were the new students of the Princess.

"Herstudents? How fascinating! She must be an interesting pony to learn from," Tully said with a smile.

"'Interesting' is right..." Discord said under his breath. I ignored his comment and expressed my thoughts instead. "Yes, it is wonderful! We haven't learned much from her yet, but just being here at the castle is inspiring!"

"That's for sure!" Tully said. "Now is there anything in particular you were hoping to see here? We got lots of exotic flowers and vines and such..."

"Do you have the moon flower?" Luna asked. "The one that only blooms at night?"

"Oh, you mean 'The Lunatic'?" Tully laughed at some private joke. "Actually, it's just called 'La Luna', like your name! Except without the la... But yupp, we've got it! It's such a pretty flower on a normal night, but don't go near it during the full moon. Crazy stuff happens, I promise you. Crazy eeeevil stuff, if you ask me! But I'll show you it anyway."

Tully walked Luna over to the flower while I stayed behind to look at some of the flowers nearby. I leaned down to sniff one of the more appealing blue flowers and instantly started to feel drowsy.

"Oh, and by the way," Tully called back, "don't smell any of the flowers without asking me first! Some of them mess with your mind! I think we've got one that makes you sleepy somewhere nearby here..."

Now she tells me... I thought as I lost consciousness.

~  ~

When I finally woke up, the light was much dimmer, so clearly it was almost nighttime. I was laying sprawled out on my bed, as if someone had tried to lift me on to the bed with magic unsuccessfully.

My head felt heavy as I lifted it, and it didn't help that a loud voice said, "Well, look who finally decided to wake up!"

I blinked my eyes a few times to adjust to the light and noticed Discord standing in the corner surrounded on the floor by pillows and various other random objects.

"What happened? I smelled the flower..."

"...And you fell asleep. For eight hours. That flower sure was a doozy! Luna freaked out at first when she saw you, but when Tully explained that you were only sleeping, we decided to finish our garden tour. Then we brought you up here!" he said, proud of what he had accomplished.

I could have gotten angry at him for just leaving me on the ground while they toured the garden, but I was still feeling a bit drowsy and not in the mood for arguing.

"Sorry that you were in a bit of an odd position... I guess it just shows that I have to practice my levitation. But not to worry! That's what I've been doing while you slept. I can lift multiple objects at once now!"

That explains the mess... "Where is Luna?"

"Huh?" he said, caught off guard at the subject changing from something about him to someone else. "Oh, she went off with Sombra to practice her shadow magic."

That woke me up. "WHAT?!" I stood up abruptly. "You let her go off by herself with him?"

Discord shrugged. "I didn't let her do anything. When we came back, Sombra was in my room and asked if Luna was interested in a bit of practice. She felt that she needed it, so she decided on her own to join him. I had no part in it."

"But you didn't do anything to stop her! Who knows where they could have gone..." I said, looking frantically at the grounds through the window.

"Luna's a big pony; she can make her own decisions. Besides, she'll be fine. Sombra's a dark guy, but he doesn't strike me as evil. Just...quiet and sulking. And uninterested in late night confetti parties, apparently!" he said as if that last part truly offended him.

I sighed and calmed myself down. "You're probably right. But if she's not back by morning, then we're going out as a search party! Deal?"

He strode forward and stuck out his hoof. "You have yourself a deal, Celest."

"Celest?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that doesn't work, does it? Ever since meeting Tully, I've been trying to think of nicknames for us! Nothing seems right though... Ah, well."

He turned away and looked like he was going to return to his own room.

"Oh, Discord?" I asked.

He turned back around with a smile. "Yes?"

"Pick up my stuff in the corner before you leave, please."

His smile dropped. "Right..."

He started to pick up his mess when I noticed something on the edge of the pile.

"One more thing."

"What?" he said, sounding irritated this time.

"Take that telescope on the floor with you. You can spy on the Princess that way," I said with a tiny smile.

His smile returned and he dropped into a low bow. "If you insist, dear Celestia."

~  ~

That night I could hardly sleep since I was preoccupied with the thought of what Luna might be up to. To the same extent Discord was skeptical about the Princess, I was concerned about the intentions of Sombra. While it was true that we didn't know anything bad about the guy as of that point, we certainly didn't know anything good about him either. Sure, we knew that he didn't like the nickname 'Sombrero', and that he tended to be a bit on the quiet side, and that he had an uncanny ability to understand the correct rules of etiquette, but other than that, he was a complete mystery. He was a mystery wrapped up in an enigma with a side helping of confusion, and I did not want him spending time, any time at all, with my dear sister!

About an hour or so before the sun was set to rise, however, I heard a creak at the door. Luna tiptoed inside, probably hoping not to disturb me who she presumed to be sleeping. The moment I heard the creak sound, I woke up instantly.

I opened my eyes, not even bothering to get up, and calmly asked the sneaky Luna, "So, how was practice?"

She flinched and jumped around to face me upon hearing my voice. "You're awake! I thought you would still be asleep at this hour..."

"I would have been asleep if you had not worried me so much with your absence," I said sternly.

She glanced at the floor. "Oh, right. I just - I didn't think it would be a problem."

"Not a problem? You sneak off while I'm unconscious to practice with a shady pony and think that when I wake up everything will be just peachy? We hardly know Sombra! And he seems so...I don't know. Mysterious, I suppose."

Luna lifted her head high. "Yeah, but we hardly know Discord either, and yet you seem to trust him just fine."

I had never heard her speak with a tone like that. In fact, the two of us had rarely fought at all, so the mere existence of this conversation was foreign to us both.

"Well - that's a different matter entirely! We've spent more time with him, and he's told us about himself. Sombra just creepily lurks in the shadows, not saying much, but always watching..." I said.

"Then maybe me spending time practicing is a chance to get to know him so he's not so mysterious! I can handle myself, Celestia."

I sighed deeply, not wanting to fight anymore, but still upset with Luna's actions.

"So...did your shadow magic improve?" I said quietly, locking eyes with my sister. We both came to a silent understanding to drop the fighting for now, since neither of us wanted this to get any uglier. She simply nodded at my question, and then got into her bed.

I glanced up at the ceiling, still lost in thought about what was the proper course of action. Perhaps Luna could handle herself, and it truly would be a good way to learn more about him, but I didn't want my sister to be hurt. After all we'd been through, I couldn't lose her over something like this.

Chapter 6

"Well, at least you were right on that one. Sombra is shady! You were completely justified in your anger, I think," Twilight said, nodding her head.

"Maybe I was in hindsight, but at the time, I hated to disagree with my sister. And while I didn't like the idea of her sneaking out on her own, that wasn't the whole reason why I was upset with her. I guess...it just made me angry that she was practicing a kind of magic that I was not capable of with someone that wasn't me," Celestia said with a sigh. "But of course I handled the situation with the maturity and grace of a future princess..."

~  ~

"If Luna can sneak out with strangers to practice magic, then so can I!" I said to myself that morning with a grumble as I rose out of bed. Naturally, Luna was still asleep since she wouldn't dare be awake that early in the morning, so it was the perfect time for me to leave without her knowing, just as she had the day before.

I defiantly walked out of the room, not bothering to sneak because there was no way I could wake up my sleeping sister even if I tried. I stomped over to the door next to ours and loudly knocked, just in case its inhabitants were still sleeping.

"Gah, could you knock any louder, Celestia?!" Discord complained as he slowly opened the door. "Actually, don't answer that. Seriously, this is why I need to learn how to control the sun and the moon like you and Luna...then I will make my own schedule, or lack thereof... What do you want?"

"I just wanted to see if you wanted to go practice our teleportation techniques. And it's not that early...the sun is up!" I said with an innocent smile.

Discord raised an eyebrow. "So is Luna coming to practice?"

I glanced down at my hooves. "No..not exactly... She's, you know, sleeping...and she's even less of a morning person than you are so..."

Discord kept his eyebrow raised, but shrugged. "Alright. I guess I could use some more practice if I am to become the most powerful stallion before Ol' Sombrero passes me. Just allow me a moment to get ready."

I nodded and watched as he trotted over to a bowl of peppermint candies on his bedside table and stuck his head face-first into the bowl. He took a mouthful of candies and then returned to where I was standing. "Phready," he announced with a pepperminty smile. I shook my head with a smile as well and then led the two of us down to a large open field near the palace gardens.

Right as I was about to begin concentrating for my first attempt at teleporting that day, I was interrupted by a loud, "Celestia! You're alive!"

Tully, the earth pony gardener, waved a hoof in the air as she quickly galloped towards where Discord and I were standing. "Most people don't die from smelling that flower, but there have been a few isolated cases where people haven't been so lucky. Granted, one of them passed out on the side of a mountain during an avalanche, so it probably wasn't entirely the flower's doing...but it's good to see you in the world of the living anyway!"

I chuckled hesitantly. "Yes, I suppose that is a good thing... Are many of the flowers in the garden deadly?"

"Oh no, they definitely aren't!" she replied with a laugh. "And I should know! I've checked nearly all of them myself."

My eyes widened. "You sniffed the flowers without knowing whether you would live or die...?"

"I had a bit of an idea, mostly inherited instincts about what makes a flower truly deadly, but now the Princess allows me to use the royal archives as a reference. She doesn't want her one and only gardener to die during a tragic flower accident! I have my own key and everything now!" Tully explained with a proud smile.

"Wow, I would love to take a look at that someday! Hopefully the Princess gives us access eventually," I said, imagining how extensive the rows and columns of books must be.

"Yeah, an entire room filled with orderly old books...must be such a thrilling sight," Discord said, face devoid of emotion.

"Not just orderly old books! Orderly old books about magic!" I pointed out, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer enormous amount of knowledge that this one place likely held. "And magic flowers, apparently."

"Eh, I guess. But don't you think it's more fun to learn the magic by actually doing it instead of reading about it? Most of the tricks I can do I never learned about from any book. I just...do it," Discord argued, making a wad of cotton candy appear for him to snack on. I just let this one go, figuring this was a topic on which we weren't going to see eye to eye.

"Anyway, I gotta get back to the plants. Duty calls and all that!" Tully said, galloping back over to the gardens. "Glad that you survived, though! Ask me next time!"

I waved a hoof in her direction and promised I would. After she vanished in the distance, I readied myself once again to practice my new technique. For just a moment, I wondered whether Luna was awake yet, then decided that it didn't matter. I was the older sister and was practicing with a friend, so she had no reason to be angry with me. Besides, this would make us even on the whole 'not telling you about my secret practice sessions' deal. I took a deep breath, focused intently on my desired destination on the other side of the field, and...

"Hey, Celestia?" Discord asked.

There was no way I was ever getting a chance to practice, was I?

"Yes?"

"I know that practice is important and all but...there is something else important that we could do instead. Something that might be easier to accomplish with a smaller group and with Sombra busy sleeping."

I had absolutely no clue what he was going to suggest. "What's that?"

"That tower - you know, the one across from our tower where we saw the Princess pacing - we could go do some snooping of our own and maybe see if there is any truth to the weird events that have been going on around here! I can be pretty stealthy when I need to be, and once we have seen what the place looks like, we should be able to teleport there later on if necessary, right?"

I responded with a sigh. "Discord, you know that I don't think anything overly suspicious is going on. The Princess is allowed to have some secrets of her own and we should respect that right. Besides, I doubt we would find anything anyway."

At that last statement, Discord smiled mischievously. "Are you willing to bet on that? Because if she really isn't hiding anything evil, then what's the problem with a bit of snooping around?"

He had me there. I still didn't want to go looking through the Princess' private things, but maybe this would be an opportunity to finally stop Discord from worrying about any of his crazy "conspiracies." If I could prove definitively that there was nothing wrong with that tower, then maybe he would just let the whole thing go.

"Fine. We will take a quick look around. But first we should make sure the Princess is busy elsewhere; I don't want her dropping in on us while we are poking around the place where her diary is hidden or something."

Discord raised his head triumphantly. He took the lead in front and began his "stealthy" approach to the castle which mostly consisted of him making giant leaps to hide in nearby bushes or crouching down low to the ground. I followed behind him normally, taking in a bit of the sun's warmth before entering the castle.

"Let's go see what Her Highness is up to now..."

~  ~

It didn't take long to locate the Princess. The throne room was closed and two of her guards were standing outside. They stopped us when we tried to get any closer.

"Sorry, kids," one guard said with the same gruff voice that all of the guards seemed to have. "The Princess is busy in a diplomatic meeting."

"With whom?" Discord asked in his attempt at an innocent voice.

The guard glared at him. "It is no business of yours who the Princess meets with. Move along."

Discord mock-saluted him and then marched away. I tried to give the guards an apologetic look, but as soon as he marched away, the guards resumed staring at the wall, not paying us any mind. I shrugged and followed after Discord.

"This is perfect! I've never been in a 'diplomatic meeting', obviously, but I can assume that they must take a long time. And must be ridiculously boring unless they are discussing plans to paint the city with polka dots. But now's our chance!" he said, resuming his stealthy stance.

"I sure hope you're right," I said, then realized one crucial part of this whole mission. "Wait - do you even know how to get to this tower?"

Discord laughed. "Psh, of course I do! I have an excellent sense of direction."

An hour of twists and turns later, we finally made it to the tower in question. "See?" he said. "I told you I knew how to get here."

I nearly fell down from exhaustion. We hadn't just walked through corridors, oh no. We walked up and down various flights of stairs, some completely straight, others twisty and spiraled. Some ended in random dead ends while others were almost at a completely vertical incline. "You didn't know how to get here! You just got lucky."

"No, I just took us on the scenic route! It wouldn't have been as fun if we had just walked straight here, right? And that wouldn't have been stealthy in the slightest..."

I took a deep breath. "Fun. Right. Well, I've had about enough fun, so let's just go check out this tower."

Discord nodded, then somehow managed to run up the entire flight of stairs without stopping. I stumbled behind him, regretting my decision to follow him on this crazy mission. Soon, however, we reached the door. I really hoped it was unlocked because Discord, on the way while walking here, had threatened to turn the door into swiss cheese and eat his way through if he couldn't get it open. While that was something effective to remember if we ever got trapped someday, I didn't want to have to explain to the Princess why we were going around turning her doors into cheese.

I tried the lock with my magic and, thankfully, it opened. The two of us stepped inside to see...a nearly empty room.

"What...?" Discord said, seeming disappointed.

Two bookshelves with hardly any books remaining and a single empty desk were all that remained in the room. I glanced at the titles of the books and they weren't even anything very interesting. "Magical Mane Care," I read. "How to Hatch Your Phoenix: A Beginner's Guide."

"Hey, one of the books over here is about something called 'Chaos Theory'! I like the sound of that... Find anything?" Discord asked, flipping through the Chaos book. "Aw, it's just lots of math...I think."

"I didn't find anything useful. Convinced, yet?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"I think the fact that there isn't anything is almost more convincing than if there had been something! This must mean she's hiding something! What else would she have been doing here a few nights ago?"

"Maybe brushing her mane?" I said, holding up the book. "Maybe she doesn't want people to know that her mane isn't naturally golden or something."

"It has to be more than that! It just... What about the guard disappearing? And the unicorn-only rule? There has to be something going on behind the scenes," Discord insisted.

I put the book down and approached him with an idea he probably didn't want to hear. "What if...well, you know how you are the chaos-pony? How you like to find the chaotic nature of things? What if...you are just seeing what you want to see? Maybe everything is just completely normal, but you want to make things more interesting by injecting some chaos into the story?"

"That can't be it! I mean, it is true that I prefer things to be chaotic, but that also means I am better at sensing when something chaotic is occurring. I just know this isn't the whole story," he said. "I - "

"What are you two doing in here?" an angry, gruff voice said from behind us. Judging from the gruff nature of his voice, it had to be one of the guards.

We turned around cautiously and, sure enough, a guard was standing at the door with an angry frown on his face.

"We...um..." I began, but Discord interrupted. "We were just looking for a book to read!" He grabbed a random book from the shelves with magic and held it up to the guard. "I heard that this one was one you simply have to read."

The guard squinted at the title. "The Attack of the Everfree Forest? Huh, I actually have heard of that one. I think I read it a while ago...it is a good one!"

Discord reclaimed his usual charismatic smile. "I've heard nothing but good things about it, so I dragged Celestia up here to find it. That's all!"

The guard nodded. "Alright then. Now that you have the book, I must ask you to be on your way. The Princess does not take kindly to ponies wandering around her towers without her approval."

"Of course. We wouldn't dare do anything to the upset the Princess, would we, Celestia?"

"Uh, nope. Definitely not," I responded, amazed that he managed to worm his way out of this.

"Good. Move along then, you two."

We began to exit the room, but Discord suddenly turned around with a gasp. "You! I didn't recognize you at first since all of you guard ponies look the same - no offense - but you are our guard that disappeared! I know it!"

I gasped as well. I didn't notice it at first either - the guard ponies really did look exactly the same - but there was no denying that this was our original guard.

The guard stared at us skeptically. "Disappeared? Well, I did go on vacation for a few days, so I guess that is a disappearance, but - "

"Where did you go on vacation? With whom? When did you leave?" Discord interrogated.

The guard pony was taken aback. "I - well - that is none of your business! Just move along."

"But that means - " he began, but I dragged him away, apologizing to the guard.

As soon as we were out of his sight at the bottom of the tower, I stopped Discord. "What were you thinking? Asking him all of those questions like that... We were nearly away from that situation without rousing suspicion!"

"But his arrival in of itself is suspicious! Who just leaves without any notice, then returns all of a sudden, claiming to have been on 'vacation'? Wouldn't he at least have told us something about his trip? I thought ponies delighted in telling people about their vacations."

"So, what, do you think he was kidnapped and brainwashed or something?" I said with a sarcastic laugh.

Discord's eyes widened. "Yes! That is exactly what must have happened! The Princess must have done something to him to...I don't know, maybe change his behavior? That would do it...I'll have to watch him carefully over the next few days to observe how he acts..."

Discord began to walk forward, returning to the direction of our tower. "There is nothing going on!" I called after him, but he didn't seem to be listening. So much for making him forget his conspiracies... I sighed, then stopped when I realized how much I had been sighing that day, and followed after him back to our tower.

Chapter 7

"Hmm... While it doesn't seem like there is obviously anything wrong with the Princess, she does seem to be busy pretty often," Twilight said as Celestia raised an eyebrow. "I mean, well, I know that there are a lot of things for any Princess to do, of course! It just seemed to me like she would be more involved in your training, that's all."

"No, I agree with you. I should have been a little bit more suspicious considering her lack of appearances, but I just supposed that maybe she wanted us to have a bit of freedom to learn things on our own or with the Professor. And, to be fair to young me, there wasn't overwhelming evidence that anything was wrong..."

~  ~

After a much smoother return back to our tower with fewer detours - thanks to me leading the way rather than Discord - we came back to find Sombra gone, but Luna still sleeping in our room. The day was nearly half over, so I decided that it was time to wake her up anyway so that she wouldn't be stuck on a strange sleeping schedule.

"Luna! Luna, we're back!" I yelled right in front of her ear. No response.

"Don't worry, Celestia; I got this," Discord said with a mischievous grin. "Hey, Celestia! Hurry up, we're going to be late for dinner!"

That got Luna up instantly. "Wait, what? What'd I miss?"

She looked straight at me, her eyes wide awake. Since she hadn't been awake to notice me going off to practice without her, I figured this would be the time to tell her and await her reaction. "Oh, nothing much. Discord and I just went off to practice our technique. You wouldn't have had any fun anyway."

Luna smiled and exhaled loudly. "Phew! Glad I missed out on that... So it's not dinner time yet?"

I looked at her in disbelief. No reaction at all? No, 'Oh, so you can go out and practice but I can't?' or 'How could you do such a thing?' I guess I was asking for a fight, but I still wasn't pleased with how that conversation had ended. Apparently Luna had already completely moved on, though.

"No... That was just to wake you up. It's past noon already!" I said, slightly annoyed that she didn't care whatsoever that I practiced without her.

"Really? Aww, I could have slept a while longer..."

"Maybe you could have," Discord intervened, "but then you wouldn't get to hear about our trip to the tower!"

Ooh, now this will make her upset!, I thought to myself.

"You guys checked out the tower? That's great! What did you find? Torture devices? Leftover hay sandwiches?" Luna asked eagerly. Still, nothing? I guess I should just forget it...

Discord frowned. "Neither, unfortunately. Just some nearly empty bookshelves with a few random books on them. Nothing very exciting. At least, it wasn't exciting until we saw our guard who had disappeared!"

Luna gasped. "He's back?! Where did he go?"

"He was on vacation! Nothing more than that. Guards are allowed to take vacations too, you know," I pointed out.

"Are they? Huh. I wasn't sure if there are enough of them for that..." Discord thought out loud.

"Well, I don't know for sure that they are allowed, but it would be strange if they weren't."

Discord's mischievous smile returned. "Exactly. It would be strange. So, Celestia, if we talk to some other guards and find out more about whether they are allowed to take 'vacations', could this convince you that something is going on?"

I didn't want to encourage this behavior, but I replied, "It depends on what they have to say, I suppose."

"Excellent. Then this will be our next mission!" Discord said triumphantly.

"What's this about a mission?" a different voice asked.

We all jumped back and let out a quick yell at the sound of this voice. It sounded vaguely familiar to me, but it had appeared out of nowhere! After we managed to regain our stances, I took a closer look at the intruder and recognized it to be Stealth Spirit, the stallion who had attempted to 'assassinate' me from before.

"It's you! What are you doing here?" I asked, wondering how much he had heard of our previous conversation.

"You know this guy?" Discord asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Oh yeah, we go way back, Celestia and I. I tried to assassinate her and the rest is history!" Stealth Spirit said, gazing into the distance as he reminisced.

"He tried to assassinate you?!" Discord said, actually forming an expression of horror on his face.

Luna, on the other side, smiled. "That's right! You told me about this guy, how he pretended to assassinate you and you passed. Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, sir!"

Stealth Spirit dropped into a bow. "The pleasure is all mine, m'lady."

"Hmm... I guess if you know him... Then it is nice to meet you, Mr. Fake Assassin! How did you get here?" Discord said, still not completely relieved of his suspicion.

"That isn't important. Besides, I never reveal my secrets," Stealth Spirit replied with a serious expression. It quickly faded and was replaced with his previous confident smile. "As to why I am here, I wanted to remind you that danger can pop up at any time! And tell you that you have a lesson tomorrow with the Professor. Now that I have done that, I will be on my way! So long..."

As he said those last words, he jumped backwards out the window. The three of us rushed over to look where he landed, but even though he wasn't a pegasus, he was gone.

"Eh, he probably just teleported or something. We can do that," Discord replied with a frown.

Luna, however, was more impressed than Discord with the assassin's display. "But he was so fast! One second he was here, the next he was gone out the window! Spooky..."

~  ~

The next day, the four of us quickly readied ourselves in anticipation of another lesson. The night before, Luna, Discord, and I had wondered what kind of magic the Professor would teach us now that we were improving with our teleporting skills.

"I hope we learn something really advanced, something that very few unicorns know how to do! Something that will help us become better rulers..." I said dreamily.

"I hope we learn how to make food appear out of nowhere!" Luna said, still feeling hungry even after a full breakfast.

"Psh, I can teach you how to do that," Discord said. "I do it all of the time!"

"That's just candy... Which is good, but you can't have candy all of the time..."

Discord's eyes widened. "Where did you get such a horrible idea? I think - "

But whatever Discord thought, we wouldn't hear since at that moment, we arrived in one of the many palace rooms and were silenced by the Professor.

"I see you all have made it here in one piece! I guess this means you have been successfully practicing your teleportation techniques. Or that you haven't been practicing at all..." he said, glaring at us. "But we will have time to test you on this later. For now, the Princess requested that you all be given a specific test before we continue any further."

Luna and I widened our eyes. A test? Already? None of the four of us seemed to have any clue what he meant, or maybe Sombra did, but he was keeping it to himself like usual.

"Yes, you all have reason to fear because this test will see how you deal with just that - fear. One at a time, you will enter this room next to me. Now, the task is simple enough - reach the door at the end of the hall. But, on your way there, you may just find a surprise or two that will make the task a bit more challenging..." The Professor glanced at each of us, his eyes looming with the awaiting doom. "Who would like to go first?"

None of us stepped forward or raised a hoof.

"No volunteers? Pity. In that case...Luna, why don't you start us off?"

"M-m-me?" Luna stammered, shaking with fear.

"Your name is Luna, yes? Enter through this door then. You will not be timed, per say, but I will be taking account of how you...respond."

Luna nodded and stumbled to the door. She took one final glance at me and then closed the door behind her.

While she was inside, I was unable to hear anything going on or sense anything that might be happening to her. Not only was this test frightening because it had to do with fear, but also because we were faced with an unknown fear. Presumably the magic of the room would present to us whatever it sensed we feared most of all, but...what did I fear most of all? I was also curious to know what my fellow students feared, but what about me? I feared all of the normal things - creepy spiders, dark forests, clown ponies - but those I could deal with. Could one of those things actually be what I feared most of all?

After an unmeasurable amount of time, Luna finally came trudging around the edge of the corridor, having exited through the other door. I will never forget the look of absolute horror that appeared on her face and the slight remnants of tears that hung from the corners of her eyes. Whatever she had faced in there, it certainly was nothing to joke about. I hoped that Discord would refrain from saying anything.

Thankfully, he did, and Luna returned to her place next to me.

"Well done, Luna. I see you have passed," the Professor said. "Now, how about you go next." He stared at Discord with a frown.

"Uh, sure, Prof. Whatever you say," Discord said, trying to lighten the mood, but even he seemed more reserved than usual.

I gave a warm smile to Luna. "Do you...want to talk about it?"

Without even looking at me, she shook her head. Looking at her now, it made me feel bad about all of my focus on that petty fight from yesterday. I shouldn't be looking for a fight with her - she's my little sister! I could feel her pain from this experience and so I simply remained close to her so she would know I was there.

Once again, after some time had passed, Discord turned the corner as well. He seemed to be trying to form a smile, but it returned to a frown after he gave up the effort. He stood by my side as well.

"So...how was it?" I asked, figuring he would want to talk about it since he loved talking about himself.

"I - don't really want to talk about it, actually. I'd rather just forget."

"Alright then..." I said, surprised to see him reduced to such a state. What could they possibly have seen to be acting in this way?

"Another pass. Great..." the Professor said, less pleased to see Discord succeeding. "That means you're up next, Celestia."

My stomach dropped. Finally, it was my turn to face whatever fears the room had waiting for me. Motivated by the horrified looks of my two friends, I stepped forward to conquer this room for them and to prove I was stronger than my fears.

"I'm ready, Professor."

Chapter 8

"Wait, are you really going to tell me about this next part? About what you fear the most?" Twilight asked, her eyes widening in anticipation. "Because I would completely understand if you skipped over this part since it's so...private."

Celestia smiled reassuringly. "I appreciate your concern, dear Twilight, but if I am being completely honest, I feel like this is a story about myself that I should have shared a long time ago. For so long, the memory was just too painful to look back on. So...real. But if I am to fully reveal my history to you in the hopes that you might learn something, then this memory, a memory of what I feared most of all, I cannot simply gloss over."

~  ~

As I took my first few steps through the unnerving door in front of me, I was blinded by an unnaturally bright light and was unable to detect anything in front of or behind me. For what seemed like an eternity, my eyes would not adjust to my surroundings...or so I thought. Eventually I realized that the whiteness that surrounded me was not a light at all, but was instead the room itself. The door from which I had entered completely vanished and there was no clear distinction between the walls and the floor. Everything was just white.

For a moment, I almost laughed. Was this really what I feared the most? Being trapped and lost in a white universe of some kind? It seemed like an oddly specific fear and, as I soon figured it out, was not something that I particularly feared. It was surprisingly peaceful walking around this room. Since there was no clear floor, I could walk wherever I pleased without any effort or having to fight against the forces that kept me grounded. It was like being in a dream, one where you can control everything around you. So, for a while I continued to wander around and explore the nothingness that surrounded me.

After some time, I began to question why I was still here. If my original thought really was my fear, then hadn't I overcome what I feared already? Shouldn't I be free to go? While I hoped I would soon be released, a small part in the back of my mind reminded me of how traumatized my friends had been after they had passed. I wasn't through yet.

I attempted to call out to see if anyone else was in here, not caring enough at this point to distinguish between real and imaginary. "Hello? Is anyone else in here? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing."

As soon as I said something, the room fogged up around me, and I found myself in the streets of Canterlot. At first glance, I didn't see anyone nearby, but it clearly had the feel of being in Canterlot. "Huh," I muttered to myself. "I guess I must have passed."

I had just started a path towards the castle when I heard a familiar voice behind me. "Celestia? Oh, how glad I am to have found you!"

I spun around quickly, instantly recognizing the voice as my mother's. "Mom? Is it really you?" I called out as tears welled up in my eyes.

My mother smiled widely, a smile that I saw so rarely, especially now that I was a student of the Princess. I galloped up to her, and she immediately pulled me in to a warm embrace as she held me close to her. "Mom, I have missed you so much! Everything has been so crazy, what with my cutie mark and the Princess and the tests and -"

"Oh, Celestia, I am so proud of you," she responded as she hugged me closer. "You have gone through so much, and look at what you have accomplished! Not only do I love you, but all of Canterlot does too. Look around you!"

"All of...Canterlot?"

I reluctantly broke out of my mother's hug so that I could see what she was gesturing to and saw that the streets of Canterlot were filled to the max with ponies chanting and cheering my name. They praised all of the wonderful things I could do, the kind heart I had for all of my citizens, and my everlasting beauty. My smile was so wide that I was amazed that my head was still intact. All of these ponies cheering for me, loving me...it was the greatest feeling.

"I think you're ready, Celestia," the Princess said as she suddenly appeared beside me.

"Ready for what?" I asked, turning to face her.

"Ready for the position that I have been guiding you and training you for. Ready to be my replacement as Ruler of Equestria," she said, bowing down before me, setting the example for all of the others around me.

"Me?! I...I'm so honored. This is...amazing!" I said, attempting to contain my excitement so I would appear dignified in front of my future subjects.

"Indeed it is, my wonderfully talented student."

I stepped forward to receive my crown, but there was one thought still lingering in my mind. "But what about Luna? And Discord? And even Sombra, I guess... What happened to them?"

The Princess laughed, but it wasn't as upbeat as everything else she had said. If anything, I detected a hint of malice.

"Oh, Celestia, you and I both know that none of them are up to the task of being ruler over this land! Do you think Luna's embarrassing, blundering antics and her disconcerting attraction to the darkness make her a true ruler? And what of Discord, with his childish pranks and inability to take anything seriously? Do you really think he would be a better ruler than you?"

"Well, I - I don't know... I just thought..." I began, but suddenly, I couldn't remember what it was that I thought. All I could see were my smiling, adoring subjects, praising everything about me. There was no way they would be cheering like this if any of the others were ruling alongside me! Or so I convinced myself, at least. "Nevermind. You're right. They never really were as smart as me anyway, always focused on those crazy conspiracies... I am ready to be a Princess."

With a grin of victory, the Princess strode forward to anoint me as the rightful ruler of Equestria. "By the power vested in me -"

But before she could finish, everything went black.

~  ~

Out of the darkness that surrounded me, I only made out two glowing lights in the distance. I tried to step backwards away from them, but no matter how much I moved, the lights only grew larger and larger. Soon they were close enough that I could make out what they were: two glowing eyes.

"How could you, Celestia?" said a voice so warped that I almost could not understand what it said.

"I - I'm sorry? What what was that?"

"You were supposed to be there for me. You were supposed to stand up for me. You were supposed to fight for me."

The voice remained just as warped, but its intensity increased with every word. I turned to the side, hoping to escape, but it was as if the eyes and the voice had completely engulfed me.

"How could you just betray me? I would never have left you! Oh, but that was then. But now? Now that I know what you really think of me? Well, I guess if I'm not good enough to be the sister of the 'Great and Powerful Celestia', then maybe she shouldn't be my sister at all!"

My heart sunk as it finally dawned on me who the voice belonged to. "Luna? Wh - what is going on? Why would you say that?"

"Ha! That's the real question, isn't it? Why would you say that, Celestia?" said another voice behind me. This one was just as loud as the other, but it had a horribly disturbing mocking tone that not only reminded me of Discord, but also made me want to run away to anywhere but here. Wherever I ran, however, a hideous grin followed me on one side with the glowing eyes on the other. "Do you think that you are better than us?"

"No! I never meant that! I just -"

"Completely sold us out so that you could have all of the power to yourself. Plot twist! I mean, I'm no expert on friendship or anything, but..." said the voice of Discord, completely filling my ears to the point of pain.

"It has always been you!" the warped voice of Luna shouted into my other ear. "You have always been the one Mom loved the most, the one that the Princess respected the most, the one with everything! But above all, you were my sister! Well, you know what? Now I know you aren't perfect. Because when it comes to being a sister, you are the worst!"

By now, I could no longer hold back my tears. "How- how can you guys say such things? You are my friends! Truly! I didn't mean -"

Discord's malicious laugh rung through my head. "Oh, so this is how you are supposed to treat friends? Well then, let's start over! Celestia, you are truly the most horrible, selfish, conceited pony I have ever met! I guess now we're friends!"

Luna joined in with his laughter. "He's right! If you aren't going to stand up for me when I need you the most, then you truly are not worthy of my respect! I can't even stand to think of you as my sister."

"Friendship sure is great! I'm so lucky to have such a powerful and adored Princess like yourself as a friend! Why, I wish all of my friends were like you. Oh wait - ha, you are my only friend! Funny, right?"

"Maybe I should be the ruler - not you!"

"You? I think any true friend like Celestia would agree I'm the best choice!"

"I hate you!"

"You really are the worst!"

I could not escape these horrible visions that surrounded me no matter how hard I tried. The more I tried to justify my actions, the worse I felt. Even though I wanted to believe what they were saying was all lies, I knew it wasn't, and because of my arrogant choices, I had lost my two best friends in all of Equestria. Their words continued to spiral around me until I could not fight any longer. I stopped running and, with the tears streaming down my face, said the only two words I had left: "I'm sorry."

With a flash, the images and the darkness faded away to reveal only a door, the same one I had used to enter the room so long ago. Still overcome by tears, I realized that everything I saw had only been visions intended to trick me to see what I feared the most. As I walked through the door, I didn't feel any stronger now that I knew and had faced my worst fear. In a way, somewhere inside me I always knew. I knew that I would be the one to drive both of my friends away from me forever.

Chapter 10

"Wow, your first Gala! That's so exciting!" Twilight said with a smile, eager to see if she and her mentor shared any of the same experiences regarding this event. "At least I can be sure that it was not nearly as horrible as my first... It was a complete and utter fiasco!"

Celestia laughed. "Yes, yours definitely did not go according to plan. But Donut Joe always makes the most delicious donuts!"

"That he does," she agreed. "So, was it better than mine?"

"Definitely not, Twilight." Twilight's eyes widened in horror. "It was far worse."

~  ~

For the week leading up to the start of the Gala, we were informed that we would be refraining from our usual lessons to instead focus on learning the etiquette and manner of behaving while under the watchful eyes of the elite citizens. Not only would this time allow us to potentially learn these skills, but it would also allow the Professor time to clean up the magical mess than had once been the Room of Fears, as I had decided to call it.

I was looking forward to the opportunity to perfect my social skills, but the other two only saw it as a prime mocking opportunity.

"Ah, yes, Sir Discord, how is your tea?" Luna said with an exaggerated elite accent.

"Oh, quite excellent, Madam Luna. But I do believe that I require more candy of the cotton variety, yes," Discord replied in a similarly pompous manner, magically endowing both he and Luna with top hats and monocles.

Luna began to giggle, but then coughed to return to her accent. "Quite right, uh, you spiffy guy."

They continued in this way while en route to our first lesson with a unicorn we had not met yet who supposedly had written around twenty books all on the theory of manners. She certainly knew a lot about the subject, but whether she could turn the two oddballs next to me into proper members of royalty was another subject entirely.

When we reached the hall near the practice room, however, our group was interrupted by a guard. Maybe it was one we had seen before, but it was difficult to tell anymore.

"Miss Celestia, the Princess wishes to see you," the guard announced.

"Oh, but shouldn't it wait until the end of my etiquette lesson? It's just about to start."

"The Princess requests your presence immediately. She is not as interested in you taking the class as she is for these three," the guard responded, looking over at the group of two that became three with the sudden arrival of Sombra.

I glanced at Luna and Discord, who both had miniature tea cups in their hands, probably magically brought there by Discord. Sure, they were a bit silly, but why shouldn't I be taking the class as well? I did not want to deny a specific request from the Princess, though, so I convinced myself that whatever this was surely had to be important.

"Okay. I will come with you," I finally agreed.

Luna's eyes widened, knocking off her monocle. "What?! Why doesn't Celestia have to take this dumb class?"

"Now, now, Madam Luna," Discord said, taking a sip from his tiny teacup. "Celestia is simply not fancy enough to take this elite class."

He lit up his horn and suddenly I was wearing a clown wig. I glared at him. "Thanks..." I muttered sarcastically, pulling off the wig as I followed the guard down the hall.

~  ~

The guard escorted me down a long hallway until we arrived at the throne room. I had not had a chance to fully examine the throne room much during my time here, so it was easy to feel daunted by the high ceilings and the massive throne that commanded the attention of the entire room. I took a moment to admire a particularly stunning glass window with the image of the Princess standing triumphantly atop a bright green hill when I heard her say, "Ah, Celestia, how good it is to see you!"

I moved my eyes to the source of her voice and saw her standing in front of two tables that both had three-dimensional designs of different places. One I recognized as likely the plan for the upcoming Gala decorations, but the other was unfamiliar. It almost looked like a scale model of Canterlot, with a giant castle at its head, but it was also different somehow. It was definitely shinier.

"Admiring my models, are you? Yes, they are quite wonderful and detailed," the Princess said, gesturing for me to come take a closer look. "This one here has the design for our upcoming Gala. I knew it was going to be difficult to top the marvelous decorations from last time, but I believe we have. Don't you agree?"

I examined the designs more closely. Although I had nothing of the same quality to compare it to, other than the holiday festivals back home in my small town, it certainly seemed like the team that had designed it had spared no expense in ensuring that this Gala was the most impressive and regal Gala thus far. I could not even begin to notice all of the intricate details that seemed to range from the carefully shaped dance floor to the mats that were placed outside the doors that were works of art.

"It's...amazing! I cannot wait to see what the castle looks like when the day finally arrives," I complimented.

The Princess smiled at my approval. "Nor can I, dear Celestia." She turned to the other table. "Now this one here I am sure that you have never seen before."

She paused, so I said, "No, it doesn't look familiar. It does kind of look like Canterlot."

"So it does, but it is not Canterlot. This model is a complete map of the newly established Crystal Empire."

She seemed to have been expecting a gasp or something from me, but I did not know enough about what she was described to be surprised.

"The...Crystal Empire? What's that?"

Walking around to the other side of the table and across from me, she explained, "The Crystal Empire was very recently established as the royal land of the Crystal Ponies." I was about to interrupt, but she continued. "These Crystal Ponies, for the last few years at least, have been living in the North as little more than peasants for many years, keeping to the icy caves for protection, but recently they have acquired enough wealth and power to form their own empire. It is truly a wonderful place and, myself being the ruler of Equestria, I gave them these designs to help them construct their new empire. It certainly helps build foreign relations, don't you think?"

Unsure as to why she was asking my opinion, I replied, "Well, I think so. It was a nice thing to do, that's for sure."

"Definitely. So, why do you think I called you in here to show this all to you?" the Princess asked, pausing to give me a chance to think.

I had been looking for the opportunity to ask her the same question, but I hadn't been expecting her to turn the question back to me. "Maybe...because there will be representatives from the Crystal Empire at the Gala and you wanted one of us to have specific knowledge about them?"

The Princess smiled. "Well...I suppose that is part of it, yes. And I wanted to show you that I value your input and would like to see how you react to seeing the duties of the Princess."

That seemed a bit suspicious to me and vaguely reminded me of my vision of fear. "But why just me?" I asked, even if I thought it might be speaking out of turn. "Why not invite the others to see this as well? You know I'll tell them all about what happened. Even if I don't bring it up, they are sure to ask what I've been doing."

If this surprised the Princess, she didn't show it. "Ah, the others. Perhaps I will invite them later, assuming they learn something from that manners class. I assumed that class would be a bit menial for you, don't you agree?"

There she was again, turning the questions back towards me. "Umm...I suppose," I reluctantly responded. I still was not entirely convinced, but I decided to see how the Princess acted in the coming days. Maybe she really did believe that I would be more useful here since I already knew how to behave myself. The more I went over this in my mind, the more I convinced myself it was true.

For the duration of their class, I spent the time with the Princess going over the layout of the Crystal Empire, discovering where the castle was located, where she had decided to place the library, and where it was located in reference to Canterlot. Eventually, a guard entered to inform the Princess that the etiquette tutor had had enough for the day, so I was released to join my friends.

When I exited the throne room, the two were already standing there with no sign of Sombra. I was about to mention how it seemed that he was more absent than usual when I was shocked by the state of their appearances. They were both still wearing their top hats and monocles but somehow had embellished their costumes to the point that they were in full on, over the top "fancy" clothes. Luna was in a sparkly, bright pink dress that was so poofy that her body seemed to be at least twice her normal size. Her mane had been curled so much that it was even fuller than the hideous clown wig Discord had bestowed upon me earlier.

Speaking of Discord, he was just as horrifyingly dressed, wearing a giant purple overcoat with tails that extended onto the floor behind him. Underneath that, he wore bright green, striped pants and shoes that were so pointy they would have popped a balloon. The entire sight was too much for me to take in.

"What...are you?"

"Celestia! Thank goodness we have found you. Luna and I have become proper gentleponies now!" Discord said with an even more obnoxious accent than earlier, if that was even possible.

"What did you two do in there?" I asked, unsure if I really wanted the answer.

"It was a lot of fun!" Luna coughed. "I mean, it was indeed rather fancy, I say."

"...And the instructor?" I said, not sure what I wanted to ask.

"Umm..." the two both said, turning back towards the room.

Down the corridor next to us walked a pony wearing a dress that was as awful as Luna's who seemed to have an expression that was both seething with rage and welling up with tears. I did not want to know what had happened in that class, but I felt pity for the poor manners instructor.

"Anyway," Discord said as their outfits magically disappeared. "What were you up to with the Princess? Talking about secret crushes and gushing over each others' manes?"

"Well, she showed me a model of what the Gala is going to look like, and then she taught me about the Crystal Empire," I mentioned.

"The Crystal Empire? Is that anything like the Rock Candy Empire?" Discord asked.

"Ooh, what is that?" Luna asked at the same time.

As we walked back to our rooms, I explained what I could remember regarding what the Princess had taught me.

"Wow, I didn't know that there was another place like Canterlot. I wonder why the Princess wanted to tell you about it..." Luna pondered.

"Is it up by the Crystal Mountains? I think I've been up there before... Oh, that's right! I got kicked out after I really did turn one of the mountains into rock candy. That was a fun trip..." Discord reminisced.

"I'm not sure why the Princess wanted me to know about all this, but it was interesting, at least."

We all nodded and then Discord continued describing how he had gone about transforming the mountain, even until long after we had stopped listening.

~  ~

The next few days were the same; Discord, Luna, and Sombra would attend the etiquette class while I spent time with the Princess. I was allowed in on some of her diplomatic meetings, was introduced to some of the visitors, and even had a chance one day to lead the court where ponies would come to make requests of the Princess. It was engaging and interesting work, but as each day passed, I became more guilty that my friends were not here with me. I had attempted a few times toward the beginning of the week to convince the Princess to allow them to join me, but to no avail. She insisted that the etiquette class was necessary, even if each instructor had to be replaced by another at the end of each day because of the terror that was Discord and Luna.

Still, I managed to convince myself that I would continue these learning experiences until after the Gala, since then the Princess could not use the lessons as an excuse. Until then, however, I would allow myself to enjoy the feeling as acting of the Princess of Equestria...even if that meant doing so alone.

Prologue

"Dear Princess Celestia," read Celestia as she opened the latest letter from her favorite student, Twilight Sparkle. As she read on, today she was entertained by the elaborate and crazy story of Pinkie Pie's latest party, thrown this time for her tiny pet alligator, Gummy. While Twilight and her friends didn't send her specific friendship reports as often as before, Twilight still made a point to write to Celestia whenever she had the chance to inform her of the daily surprises and adventures of life in Ponyville.

In so many ways, Twilight reminded Celestia of herself at that age: smart, resourceful, but with the weight of responsibility and expectation on her shoulders beginning from the moment her unique cutie mark appeared. Celestia, along with the rest of the world, expected great things of Twilight - Celestia's expectations perhaps a bit more specific than the others - largely without Twilight's acceptance. Sure, Twilight had always wanted to learn from and impress her mentor, but she had no way of knowing what trials lay ahead. Because of this, Celestia was glad Twilight had discovered and learned from once of the most powerful types of magic of them all: the magic of friendship.

Through this particular branch of magic, Celestia was confident that Twilight would succeed where she had not. She had never been encouraged to establish any particular relationships with her subjects, nor to do any more than duty required of her. Perhaps this was the reason for her great downfall; she had to teach herself to find friends in the ways her own mentor likely frowned upon. But she ended up where she wanted to be, right? Would she take any of it back? Maybe not, had others not been wounded in the wake of her failure. She could not dwell on this any longer, though. What had happened surely happened for a reason, and all she could do was make sure that Twilight did not fail in the same way she had.

As she dwelled on the power of the magic of friendship, it crossed her mind whether it had the power to possibly undo the damage. It had returned her sister to her after so many years, so maybe part of the problem had already been repaired. Celestia was forever indebted to Twilight and her friends for this grand service, but would it be possible for them to succeed again using a different approach? The first time they had, things hadn't turned out how she secretly hoped. The second time the Elements of Harmony had been used, there was no grand rehabilitation, no rainbow of magic to destroy the madness within.

Celestia stepped up from her place by the fire where she read Twilight's letters and peered across the gardens with a sigh. Maybe you are already too far-gone for friendship to make a difference anymore, she thought to herself.

She took a deep breath and composed herself. Twilight wouldn't think this way. She wouldn't just give up when something important to her was at stake. She would continue trying different solutions until something finally worked.

There had to be something. Maybe it was the manner of reformation that didn't work last time! She supposed that you couldn't just shoot everyone with a magic blast of friendship and assume they would turn good again, as Luna had. Perhaps a more direct, kind approach was needed. But while she had complete faith in Twilight, she didn't expect her to automatically see where Celestia's ideas were coming from. Kindness...what about Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness?

Celestia smiled widely, rushing over to her quill and ink to send a letter to her dear student. If anyone could be trusted with this task, it would be Fluttershy. And maybe Twilight would gain even more confidence in the magic of friendship, assuming this little plan of hers worked. Maybe Celestia herself would gain more confidence in it, as well.

~  ~

"Oh...alright. Frienship is Magic!"

Celestia could hardly believe her ears when she heard these words. Fluttershy had succeeded! No Elements of Harmony, no specific magic of any kind needed. Sometimes, apparently, all that is needed is pure, honest kindness.

But while Discord did seem to accept her friendship and learned something from the experience, he still did not seem to remember everything. He would be a gentler spirit, using the magic only he knew so well in the service of good, but not in the same way as before, in a way only Celestia remembered. This was a step in the right direction, but she would still have to keep searching for the perfect fix, if such a thing existed.

"See? He can be a real sweetheart once you get to know him," Fluttershy said with a smile, gesturing to her new friend. Celestia noticed as she turned away that Twilight and her friends smiled awkwardly. There was so much that they didn't know, that none of them knew, that she struggled to keep the blood from rushing to her cheeks.

"Now that you have seen what the magic of friendship can do, Discord, I believe it is time we found you somewhere else to stay. Perhaps somewhere outside of the castle?" Celestia suggested, regaining her composure.

"Oh, that would be just lovely, Celestia," he over-exaggerated. "As much as I grew fond of the palace gardens, a change of scenery would be ideal."

Celestia smiled. "I assumed as much. Luna and I have set aside a plot of land near Ponyville in which you will be free to...design...to your heart's content, as long as you don't start encroaching on Ponyville, of course."

"I can assure you that will not happen! Not with my new, dear pony friends watching out for me, that is," Discord said, glancing at the ponies around him. "Now, I have so much to do. So much to design!" He snapped his fingers and disappeared, then reappeared suddenly. "But I will be sure to have a house-warming party when everything is perfectly chaotic. Perhaps you will assist me in the plans, Pinkie Pie? I never have been one for plans."

"A party?!" Pinkie Pie said, likely about to burst with ideas. "Yes! We must have balloons and cake and I'll invite everyone in Ponyville and you, Princess, and there'll be chocolate milk with whipped cream!"

"I certainly have the party in the right hands - er - hooves," Discord said, ready to snap his claws once again. "Arrivederci for now, my little ponies! And Celestia." With a snap, he disappeared.

The ponies went over to congratulate, apologize, and cheer for Fluttershy, except for Twilight, who walked over to Celestia.

"Princess, I'm glad everything turned out fine and Fluttershy was able to befriend him as you planned, but there's something I have to ask," Twilight said. "Why? Why did you want us to reform him, and why now? You were fine with him being in stone for a thousand years, and then suddenly you want us to make him a good guy? I feel like there's something you're not telling me." Twilight paused to consider what she had said. "Not that you aren't allowed to keep things private! But since he'll be here living near Ponyville now, I don't think it's too much to ask for some information."

Celestia sighed and looked down with her student with concern in her eyes. She had never shared much of her past with anyone, some of it not even with Luna. Twilight had become more than her student, though. They had reached the point where she saw Twilight as her own daughter, someone like her, someone with whom she could confide anything. Maybe it was time to share her past.

No, not quite yet. She would let the Equestria Games pass and then give Twilight her final test, to see if she truly was ready. If she passed, and Celestia was confident she would, then she would tell her everything."

"I agree that you are entitled to the information, my dear student. When the time is right - and I believe that time is very soon - I promise to share with you everything I know about this situation."

"When will I know the time is right?"

Celestia kneeled down and gave Twilight a hug. "Trust me, you will know."

With a final wave to Twilight and her friends, she flew to her chariot and began her journey to the castle. She had a lot of preparations to attend to. Now where did Luna put Starswirl's book?

~  ~

A few days had passed since Twilight's coronation, and Celestia still could not remember a moment when she had been more proud. Twilight had passed her final test with flying colors, and now Twilight herself was flying. She had rose to become an alicorn, just as Celestia had many years ago. Yet, this coronation was a far more pleasant experience. To Celestia, Twilight appeared truly happy and honored to be bestowed upon such a privilege, not becoming a princess just because it was her duty. Maybe it had turned out so well because the coronation had been a surprise, not something she had been prepared most of her life openly for, or perhaps it was because Twilight was simply a better pony than she. Or maybe it was the pleasant state of Equestria and its subjects that embraced her with open hearts. Whatever the reason, Celestia couldn't help but let loose a few tears and smile every time the memories of Twilight crossed her mind.

As Celestia reminisced while sitting upon her throne, the doors opened and two guards stepped in.

"Princess Twilight to see you, Your Highness," the guard announced.

The two stepped aside, revealing the figure of Twilight. Celestia stood up quickly, eager to greet the new princess. She was still getting used to seeing her former student grown and with a new set of wings, but inside, she was the Twilight she knew and loved.

"My dear, Princess Twilight," she emphasized. "How good to see you! Have your new wings been treating you well?"

"They have, Princess! Mostly..." Twilight chuckled. "Rainbow Dash has been giving me some lessons, but I still haven't completely gotten the hang of it."

"Yes, it's not really something you can learn from a book, is it?" Celestia said, remembering her own flying lessons. Now that was an interesting experience!

"No, I guess it's not. But I did find this wonderful book, The Physics of Flight, and it has helped me calculate how much force I need to apply to fly properly. The hard part is actually accumulating the proper force...

"But that isn't why I'm here, Princess. I have passed your final test and, as you said yourself, I am not your student in the same way as before. Is this the time you were referring to when you promised to share everything with me?" Twilight said, confident in her judgement.

Celestia considered her day's schedule. She wanted as much time as possible to spend with her former student and didn't want to be interrupted with pesky appointments. She couldn't remember exactly what she had planned for the day, but whatever it was, it couldn't be any more important than what she had to share with Twilight.

"Guards, I would like you to cancel any meetings or appointments that I have for the day and ensure that Twilight and I are uninterrupted unless it is something of the upmost importance," Celestia commanded. She then turned to Twilight. "Yes, this is the time. We should go somewhere more comfortable, for I have much to share with you."

With a final salute to the guards, Twilight and Celestia walked to her private reading chambers beside her throne room. She sat down and encouraged Twilight to follow, even though she was in awe of this room of Celestia's that she had never seen before. Twilight shook her head, and then gave all of her attention to Celestia.

"Now, where to begin? Well, I suppose I first should show how similar my situation began compared to yours. How my life changed completely the day my cutie mark of the sun appeared..."

Author's Note

During my time reading stories here on fimfiction, I have come across many great Celestia origin stories that truly inspired me. None, however, fully fit with my own ideas of what I believe to be the manner in which Celestia came to power. This story, therefore, is my interpretation of what may be one of the most intriguing unsolved backstories of all. Enjoy! :)

Chapter 9

"Oh, Princess, you know that's not true!" Twilight said, moving forward to give her friend and mentor a hug. "Besides, they weren't lost from you forever. Well, I guess Discord's not exactly like this guy in the story anymore...but he isn't completely evil anymore, right?"

Celestia returned Twilight's embrace with a slight move of her mouth that was almost a smile. "I appreciate your kind words, but even for someone like me, a thousand years can feel like forever."

~  ~

After lingering outside of the door for a few more moments to gather my thoughts and to clear my face of tears, I rounded the corner to meet up with my friends, the ones that actually existed and (hopefully) still liked me. The Professor hardly looked at me and simply gestured for me to join the others.

"Better late than never, as they say. But, I suppose you did pass," the Professor said with his familiar frown.

That admission surprised me. How long had I been in the room? It was as if I had lost all sense of time and space while in there, so I didn't have the faintest clue. I glanced at my friends, managing to mostly hold back a flinch as I laid eyes on them. Even though their expressions were blank, the memories of those glowing eyes and that menacing smile continued to haunt me in the back of my mind.

Since I was curious, I quietly asked them both, "How long was I in there?"

The two both shrugged. Luna responded, "I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention. But...it felt like a while, I guess."

"Yeah. I thought you might never make it out," Discord muttered with a hesitant laugh. Even he had not fully recovered from his own traumatic experience enough to joke about the situation. I also assumed that my own expression did not exactly inspire confidence in either of them.

"Quiet!" the Professor hissed. "Sombra, you're up last."

Without a flinch or any slight indication of hesitation, Sombra confidently stepped forward and entered through the door. Within seconds, we heard horrible noises emanating from the inside of the room, as if someone was either dying or being tortured...or both. The source of the screams was unclear. Whatever was happening, however, it was clear from the Professor's reaction that this was not a normal occurrence.

"What...? But...this is impossible!" he said to himself as he stepped towards the shaking door. His horn was lit up in anticipation of shooting a spell of some kind if it proved necessary to stop this problem by force of magic.

Right as he was about to open the door, it burst open in a bright explosion. Those of us outside had mere fractions of a second to brace ourselves for the impact of the door bursting open and shattering upon the impact from the other side. Once the dust had resided, Sombra stepped forward, a slight smirk on his face that quickly faded to his usual scowl.

Looking into the room in front of us, I hardly recognized it as the same room that held my fears. No longer was it a white abyss of nothingness; it appeared no different than any other room in the castle. Sure, rubble and wooden pieces of door were thrown about randomly, but the room itself was free from enchantment. Whatever Sombra had done in there, it seemed that he had broken the magic of the room.

The Professor struggled to regain his stance, exclaiming, "How? But...the Princess and I enchanted this room ourselves! Even the two of us were not immune to its horrors! Just...how?" We all turned to where Sombra had been standing to await any kind of response, but he was no longer in sight.

"Wonderful, just wonderful..." the Professor continued, cursing under his breath. "At least I had enough sense to put him last..." Eventually, he escaped his personal monologue and addressed the rest of us. "You three are free to go. If you do manage to find that Sombra, tell him that the Princess has requested your presence at dinner tonight. You will be escorted to her dining room. And...watch your back. That one scares me." He shivered and then stumbled into the room, salvaging what he could from the wreck. Thinking it was better to leave him to it, we decided to head back to our own rooms.

At the very least, this strange business with Sombra served as the perfect distraction to our previous melancholic feelings. Luna and Discord returned to their crazy theories while I attempted to inject their theories with a bit of reason, hoping that I was not offending them. There was no way that I wanted the horrors of the room to come to pass.

"Maybe he turned into a shadow when he entered, so it confused the room to the point of madness!" Luna suggested.

"While I do like the idea of madness -" Discord said, then flinched. I raised an eyebrow. "I mean, my theory is that he was so scary himself that the room itself was afraid of him!"

"How can a room be afraid?" Luna asked, challenging his theory.

"In the same way that a room can be confused!" he said, reminding Luna of her own theory.

"Maybe he didn't do anything at all," I pointed out. "It is possible that the room just malfunctioned. Magic is not infallible, you know."

Discord scoffed. "Didn't you notice that 'you'll never prove I did anything!' smirk on his face? I know that smirk; it is a personal favorite of mine that just seemed so much more sinister on his face... And if I know that smirk, then I also know that there is no way that Mr. Sombrero is innocent."

To be honest, I had noticed that smirk and if anyone knew how to recognize mischief, it was Discord. "Fine. Maybe he sabotaged it somehow. Has anyone figured out his cutie mark anyway?" He and I turned to Luna.

"What?" she said, confusion evident on her face.

Discord and I glanced at each other and then back to her. "You are the only one who has actually spent any time with him. Any clue what his talent is?" I asked.

Luna paused, thinking through her time practicing with him. "Well, it wasn't like we talked much. Or at all, really. I just assumed it had something to do with shadows."

As I was about to inquire more about what these practice sessions had entailed, Discord suddenly had an inspiration that he had to share immediately. "I've got it! What if his talent is fear? Lots of ponies are afraid of the dark, so maybe that's what it represents? And if his talent is fear, then obviously he wouldn't be affected by a room of fear! I bet it was as much of a paradise to him as the legendary Castle of Candy that lies next to the fields of frosting is to me...."

Next to him, Luna mumbled, "Mmm...frosting..."

For me, while his theory was actually quite convincing, I still wasn't ready to completely believe it yet. "But is it even possible to have a talent that is so...broad? Vague?"

Discord stopped me before I could go any further with the raise of a hoof. "Listen here, Sun Butt. I have traveled throughout much of Equestria and have seen ponies with talents that are ridiculously specific and some that are vague enough to mean anything. I met this one tailor in Manehatten, who, consequently, is no longer a fan of mine after I turned all of her polka dots to plaid and vice versa... Anyway, her cutie mark is three buttons in a triangle that, as she explained, represents her special ability to, wait for it, put buttons on the sleeves of shirts. She is the best seamstress in all of Equestria for the application of those buttons that you see on the ends of fancy shirts, but that is literally the extent of her special talent. Conversely, you do remember that my special talent is chaos, right? What is clear about that?"

I was stunned. A reasonable, well-thought out argument coming from Discord? What had happened in that room when he went inside? "That...actually makes a lot of sense. Fear it is then. That's a, uh, frightening talent!" I said, waiting for a laugh from Discord. He just stared blankly back at me.

"You should leave the jokes to me, dearie."

~  ~

That night, after relaxing in our rooms due to the mental stress of the day, a guard came to fetch us for dinner with the Princess. As we followed behind him, Discord and Luna tried to ask the guard questions to no avail. Unfortunately, the room had not stopped their interest in their crazy conspiracies, but I refrained from saying anything, fearing what would happen if I did.

"So do you guys get vacation time? I'm sure the Princess gives you long hours and not many off days. So, what, you get someone to cover your shift every now and then? Because, honestly, who is gonna notice a difference?" Discord questioned with a laugh.

The guard did not respond to anything and continued with as much personality as, or maybe even less than, a statue.

"Well, you're no fun at all," Discord resigned.

None of us had seen Sombra earlier in the day, but somehow he had received the memo about dinner and was seated beside the Princess, albeit quite a few seats down from her. We took our seats on the other side, keeping our distance from him as much as possible. The Princess was seated at the head of the table with a placid smile as she waited for us to take our seats.

"Thank you all for joining me here tonight. I know that you all have been very busy today," she glanced over at Sombra, "but I have some crucial news to share with you all. I could have just sent a guard to let you know our exciting news, but I missed seeing your lovely faces! I have been so busy lately with plans," Discord and Luna shared a glance with raised eyebrows, "but I am finally ready to announce to you four that this year's Gala will be coming up in a week!"

The three of us smiled widely at the news, eager to finally experience the famous gala that anyone who was anyone in Equestria aspired to attend at least once in a lifetime.

"Ooh, is there going to be fancy food? And fancy dancing? And fancy ponies? Especially the fancy food," Luna said, presumably dreaming of the types of delicacies that could be present. I, for one, was looking forward to tasting that glorious cake we had tried on our very first day as students.

"Of course. But it also will be an opportunity to show you four off to the citizens of Equestria. Because of this, I expect you all to be on your best behavior with proper manners." After saying this, all of us turned to Discord.

"What?" he said with a knowing smile.

"With that in mind, tonight's dinner is served! Act as though you are at the Gala and you will be rewarded with an extra helping of dessert."

That got Discord and Luna's attention. If our dessert tonight was that cake, I admitted to myself that I would be right there with them. Not that I wouldn't use my best manners anyway, regardless of the bribe! But that cake was heavenly...

After a night that surprisingly - or not surprisingly considering the weight of the bribe - passed without issue, we were excused to our rooms, full of the extra dessert we earned.

"As much as I like a bit of mischief to liven up any event," Discord said, "I will shamelessly admit that I can be bribed with sugar."

As Luna nodded beside him, I smiled at my two friends. "I'll have to remember that one in case I ever need you two to do anything..."

I liked how everything was going and didn't want anything to change among us. While we might have escaped our worst fears for the rest of the day and managed to return to a state of normalcy that night thanks to a generous helping of sugary delicacies, the visions that I had seen earlier would never leave my mind. I would not let my fears come to pass. At least, not without a fight.