Chaos Cooldown, an Equestria Origin Story

by JeckParadox

Rating: everyone
Tags: Random, Discord, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Princess Luna, Original Character
Length: 14210

Discord explains the secrets of the universe to the newly immortal Princess, and what happens after the end of the world... and what happens when it begins again...

Twilight Sparkle gets into a conversation with Discord, which leads into Discord explaining the formation of the current universe, his own existence, as well as Twilight's new 'true' responsibilities. But some of these things she finds she didn't want to know.

*update* Twilight, finding herself the Spirit of Magic, decides to investigate and get to know the other Spirits, from Triumph, the weakened Spirit of Victory and War, to Harmony, the triplet Spirits of Friendship, to Windigo, the cold spirit of hatred. She also finds herself in a position where she knows more about the universe than Celestia or Luna, and has to decide whether or not to share Discord's knowledge with her mentor and her sister.
The wonderful image of Twilicorn and Discord is by Greivousfan on Deviantart. (not by me)

Published 2013-08-16 19:40:03 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-26 04:43:45 UTC

What happens when chaos becomes the norm?

"Hello there Twilicorn!" Discord called from above. Twilight's head turned up to see the Draconequus lounging in a large comfortable chair, along with a mahogany table, tea set, and a fireplace on the underside of a cloud.

"It's just Twilight, Discord."

"But that's not as fun! You need a new name to symbolize your alicornship!" He said playfully, sliding out of the armchair and snapping his claw, making the whole setup evaporate. "So I suggest Edward Von Twilicorn!"

Twilight sighed but she cracked a smile. "I think Twilight Sparkle is good enough."

Discord gave a short laugh. "Alright, but can we get rid of the 'sparkle' bit?"

"What? Why?"

"It just doesn't fit with the pattern."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Okay, two questions."

"Three, final offer."

"..."

"..."

"Okay... first off, since when have you liked keeping anything within a pattern, isn't that the opposite of chaos?"

Discord made a motion with his claw. "Kinda... but this particular pattern I've grown kind of attached to. Just think about it; Celestia of the Day, Luna of the Night, and in between: Edward of the Twilight!"

Twilight sighed. "What do you mean, 'of the twilight'?"

"The time between day and night, in this world it's the perfect title.... maybe I'm wrong about it... we could just call you Sparkle! That way your name works with the pattern: Twilight's the time you have control over, Sparkle is what you're called! Princess Sparkle!"

Twilight shook her head. "Could we not talk about my name? I like it how it is, thank you. What do you mean you're attached to the pattern?"

"Well, me, Celestia, and Luna, are very, very, very old. Even I can get attached to things that have been the same for so long..." he gave a warm smile. "You'll feel the same in a few million years."

Her eyes widened. "Millions?"

"Or billions, or trillions, or eternities.." he gave a wide grin. "Celestia's quite the old hag, you know!"

"...th-that long?"

"Yerp!" He said gleefully. "Next question! You have two left!"

"Uh... Well, my other question was why you wanted my name to fit the pattern, I mean, why can't I just have it stay the same?"

"Well of course you could keep the name, I'll grow attached to it eventually, or I could just call you Edward for a billion years until everypony's forgotten what your original name even was!"

Twilight frowned. That was actually a scary thought. "Have you ever done that before?"

Discord's grin kind of disappeared. "...only to myself."

"Oh?"

Discord looked her over again, and he began thinking deeply, an expression that didn't seem to fit on his face. "Twilight.... what I'm about to tell you... nopony in this universe knows. Nopony in this universe should know... Celly and Luna kind of know... but..." he frowned again.

Twilight was worried. The Draconequus seemed genuinely torn up about this. "What's wrong?"

"Well... I was just hoping we could wait a while, we have all the time in the universe, why not enjoy it? You'll learn most of it along the way anyway, if you're patient and you pay attention."

"What are you talking about?! I don't get it at all."

"Nah, it doesn't matter, go ahead on your way, I have a bubble to read." He said, summoning a large flattish bubble that he opened into pages that suddenly came into existence.

"Discord!" He turned to her, the bubble-book popping as his claws flinched.

"You can't just leave me hanging like that! I'm more curious than ever."

"... promise to not let it bother you?"

"...I promise, if I can."

"No. I need you to promise. If this still bothers you I'll erase your memory or prove that this was an elaborate prank. Okay?"

"...okay..."

"No. Promise." The Draconequus had risen to his full height. "I need to know that this won't change the way you act. Alright?"

"...alright. I promise I won't let what you tell me bother me."

Discord let out a long sigh, stroking his beard. "Alright. I trust you. Now then... where to begin... where to begin... well, I suppose in the best place: chaos."

He was about to snap his claw, but Twilight stopped him. "No, just tell me with words, if you show me images it'll leave a much longer-lasting and more emotionally invested response. It'll bother me even if I don't want to think about it. I've read enough books that I'm mostly word-proof. I'll absorb the information, but I won't think about unless I need it."

"...you're too smart for your own good, Twilight." He cracked his neck and began flapping his wings. "We might as well find someplace comfortable, it's a long story..."

Twilight nodded and unfurled her wings as well, taking to the air after the Draconequus. The two flew high up, where Discord stopped before a particularly massive cloud. He snapped his claw and a log cabin appeared on top of it. He fluttered down, stepping on the cloud and opening the door. Giving a gesture for her to enter.

Twilight giggled and walked in, finding a similar setup to before, with a fireplace, a tea set, and an armchair. But this time there was also a purple sofa for her to lie on, as well as a cake on the table. She also noted oddly that the fire was upside down inside the fireplace. A solid ball of shifting smoke absorbing logs and spitting a nice warm fire upward into the chimney.

Discord admired the strange fireplace as well. "That there, is a perfect example."

"Of what?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight... what if, okay, remember when I first escaped? There were clouds of cotton candy that chased ponies and rained chocolate milk. The roads were covered in soap, the ground was checkered in some spots, houses occasionally would get up and begin to float. Day and night passed incredibly quickly..."

Twilight nodded. "What if, I disappeared the next day, and you had no way to change it back."

"Huh?"

"Just think about it Twilight... just think, what could you and your pony friends and Celestia and Luna actually do?"

Twilight frowned. "We could release you again, and try to convince you to turn it back..."

"Okay, say you couldn't. Say I was gone, no way to come back. No way for you to reach me. What would you actually do in that chaos world?"

"Well..." Twilight frowned, thinking deeply. "We'd try to keep in contact, and then we'd try to slowly rebuild. We'd be able to handle the clouds eventually, we could build new houses to replace the ones that float off... we wouldn't starve, that's for sure... but it might be more difficult to get around..."

"And that's what you have Celestia and Luna for."

"Huh?"

"They figure all that stuff out. All that stuff you were just talking about; those two would have helped the ponies adapt to the conditions they can't change back, and help them figure out how to wrestle the elements they don't like into something they can control."

"Okay, you've lost me again."

"Twilight... alright. I'll start at the beginning, that was only an example anyway." Discord said with a smirk, snapping his claws. She watched as the fire turned the right way around. The room got to a cozy temperature now that the heat-producing part of the furnace was exposed. "The very... very beginning. Oh, and when I mean don't tell anyone, your friends I suppose are exempt, as well as the other alicorns. They might as well know too."

"..but wouldn't Celestia and Luna know if they are as old as you?"

"no..." he leaned in close. "Don't tell them, but their brains aren't exactly of the highest quality... they can't remember much more than a few worlds."

"Worlds?" Twilight asked.

"I'm getting to it! Darn you, you're persistent." He leaned back into the chair, serving himself some tea with his tail. "Mountain dew?" He asked.

"...uh, no thanks. I'm good."

"Suit yourself. Alright, very beginning: there was nothing. Then, something unexpected happened. That was when it first started, that's where my memories begin."

"By 'there was nothing' what do you mean?"

"I mean there was literally nothing. Not even emptiness. Emptiness and space hadn't even been freaking invented yet... just... nothing had happened yet. It was infinitely nothing, maybe there was something before that time, but there's none of it left. Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself."

"Something unexpected happened....

I wasn't really sure what I was yet. I wasn't really even conscious yet, but I existed. Something unexpected happened, I think it was just some energy, but that was enough. Just some energy, the most simple, simple thing, it just came out of nowhere, and with it's arrival I came too. The energy eventually turned into almost an atom. But the structure for an atom didn't exist yet, so it worked. "It wouldn't be possible in this universe," Discord said nonchalantly, "but that's not really important."

From there my consciousness began forming. I started playing. At first I could just summon more energy, and had to wait for the shapes later. Thank goodness time didn't exist yet, or I would have been unbearably bored waiting for them to form shapes from pure energy naturally. But they did, and they reacted to each other in ways that were unexpected... and with each unexpected thing; (basically everything was unexpected considering the emptiness), I grew stronger, more whole. Finally, I created the first 'world'. I don't really remember it that well, I think it would be boring compared to my more recent ones, but it was the opposite of the Nothing, so I was satisfied.

It was mostly just fire and ice. And Nothing in between. Then more unexpected things happened in the icy place. I gave a few more pushes, and with some experimentation, I got it to work.

I could make whatever I wanted, I understood the way 'existence' worked. Sadly, I had no inspiration to make anything. So I did the obvious next step: I threw the two places together. Let me tell you: the first universe's first real explosion has been unmatched in magnitude and beauty by any other explosion since. And I haven't dared try to recreate it.

Well, I went to sleep as the dust settled, and when I woke up, everything had cooled down. Let me tell you, I was surprised... and that was all it took. I grew in power, in intelligence, and my consciousness was complete. I had never been surprised before, and that last bit of inner chaos completed the whole ensemble. From then on the process was a lot smoother: wake up and see the world around you. Find out what's different, what parts are fun, that kind of thing... then amplify it, destroy parts of it, change parts, randomly leave things the same, build up more and more randomness and craziness and madness, and then... go to sleep again. Let it cool down. Let the dust settle. When I wake up...

That madness, that mishmatch of stuff I made up on the fly and the world before it, it will have become a universe that made sense. Do you understand that Twilight? That's the main part you should get from all this: even if I had left that chaos world the way it was, it would have eventually calmed down, and the universe, it's inhabitants, and even Luna and Celestia would agree that the new world made sense. That it had it's own order. That it had it's own rules that had formed around that world.

Discord was grinning wildly. "Celestia and Luna know some of this of course... they know their job is to bring order to the chaos, but they don't really get or remember why..."

Well, I went along like this for millenia, but truly the first really interesting thing happened was when life first started appearing. I mean, I realized I was alive, but this was the first time something else was alive. Let me tell you, after that first accident it took so long to do it again. I was devastated. When I shifted the world again, it died. And I was alone again for nearly a trillion years before a different life form appeared. This time I took things slow with it. I improved it slowly and subtly until it was, in the terms of it's own universe, immortal. Not like me exactly... but it would last a long time. Discord's face was covered in a warm smile, deep in nostalgic memories. That was the first time I watched a cooldown. I stopped changing thing on a wide scale, and the universe changed it's laws to fit the changes I made in the burst a few thousand years before she and I decided it would be okay to just live in the new universe a while... but after only three million years she and I decided it would be okay to change the world again. After all, in that world, she was the only interesting thing that appeared...

Soon we began to fit into a new method. I'd shift the world, make it as chaotic as I could, break plenty of physical laws, and basically fill it with whatever I wanted, change whatever I wanted... and then as it cooled down, and I became sleepy, she would keep it orderly. She'd shape it in a certain direction... and say goodnight to me when I fell asleep. When I woke up again the world had 'cooled down' long ago. She was magical, even before magic existed.... would you call her 'miraculous' then?

Her mere presence seemed to have a calming effect on the very laws of nature....Oh... I wish I could've seen her in action, but I fell asleep so easily back then... I was so young... I barely even got to know her...

Twilight's eyes widened as Discord's eyes began to water. He cleaned them with his paw in a quick motion.

Well... my methods of making her immortal were flawed. She was aging, and while she helped the universe cool down, and helped the laws of physics adapt to the new world, she just made her own body less and less suitable for living in the new worlds.

In the end, she died. I tried to remake her... and made Celestia instead. Together we tried again a few worlds later, and made Luna... but even though she died, what we thought of as her children, Celestia and Luna, were truly immortal. Not perfect like me of course...

But close enough. They could survive the chaos and the new rules that followed. Unfortunately their memories aren't eternal. They don't remember much farther back than the world before this one. I stopped explaining all this to them after every change, because eventually they don't remember the details. I prefer they don't try to remember their mother. It just means less regrets. One thing that arose from it is what they thought of me, and their... hehehe... mission. They began to think I was a monster! That by modifying what was originally my creation that I'm destroying their world! Let me tell you, when it first began to occur to me that that's what they thought... hoo boy did I have fun with that! A whole new brand of chaos, an almost cruel one. They thought that they were the guardians of the poor pink rocks I was going to change when I remade the world? Well! Time to change them the same color as all the other ones! Pranks, tricks, it was new to me. I had never been surprised before, remember? But when I was, there was a burst of inner chaos. I found out I could trigger the same things in Celly and Luna! It was tons of fun, some of my best memories of us together.... and, a world later, their only memories of me.

I thought it was funny that they called me a villain they existed to destroy, considering we were fulfilling the same exact purpose as when they saw themselves as her and my daughters... but they took it seriously. They thought that by helping the universe adapt to my chaos they were healing as much of the damage as they could... and polishing the scars afterward. They didn't see it as creation any more. Just destruction... a sentiment that their siblings got as they appeared.

"Siblings?!" Twilight asked. "You mean it isn't just Luna and Celestia?"

Well... they were the closest to each other, but the new spirits, as they appeared one after another, are just as much brothers and sisters to her as she and Luna are sisters to each other. The first was Triumph, the Spirit of Victory, from the first time they actually 'defeated' me. They created her to show that they won. She was the first generation of 'pony' as well. Made in their image, sent to wander the lifeless wilderness recreating herself from rocks and clouds and magma. There was no other life yet... just the four of us. And the three tried to stay away from me as much as possible. I spent more time sleeping, taking multiple naps in the same world. But I saw problems they didn't. Worlds collapse Twilight, they wither and die, just like anything else. It's me constantly revamping them with chaos that makes sure there's a world that comes after!

I tried to explain that to the three of them, but only Triumph agreed. So then we started making war, me and Triumph versus Celestia and Luna. I found that that was enough of a chance for me to use my powers that I could make the world sufficiently chaotic! And then me and Triumph would sleep, and the two of them would try and fix it... and that was our new pattern. That is, until life began on a wide scale for the first time! It was beautiful Twilight, watching it. I didn't dare change anything for a trillion years, watching every little change... we even called a truce! And when I changed the world I did it on a smaller scale, so that the life could survive transitions.

It just got wilder and wilder from there, Twilight. The life got bigger and bigger, and smarter and smarter. As new things appeared new immortals were formed and chosen and rewarded. We created ponies in the image of Celestia and Luna and Triumph, and by extension, her... we created dragons, we made trees, we created goats, we created leaves and flowers, minotaurs, griffons, grass, cockatrices, mushrooms!... all kinds of things, things you can't imagine, things so majestic, but you don't even notice. We made the sun and the moon last of all. We awarded 'spiritship' to a few ponies who represented a new element that shaped the universe:the triumvirate of Friendship. They don't even have their own names because they don't like to separate each other. Each one's personality is represented in five elements of harmony: loyalty, kindness, generosity, honesty, and laughter... which is technically representing being 'good natured' and being able to take a laugh and forgive mistakes. Those three are boring. I could prank them nonstop for years, and they'd merely laugh while undoing each one slowly on their own time. Ugh. Triumph hated them.

So they froze her in stone. And thusly ridding the world of war: friendship overran the world. That was the first time I realized there was a balance to all this, and that it shifted along with each world. As each new spirit was added to our slowly building pantheon, the ways they controlled the world shifted too. Celestia and Luna lost power, not that they remembered.

But I didn't. I just got tougher and tougher and smarter. That was also when my form became static. I could transform into whatever I wanted before then, and I still can now, but that was when I got this form. He gestured to his own body, the mismatch of animals. Having a form however, means I'm part of order, so I had to at least make sure I don't work. As if to prove his words he tipped his head back and showed Twilight he was completely smooth and hollow inside. Like the inside of a vase. She shuddered, and Discord put his head back in it's proper position. "Sorry." he said. "But I digress...

I found starting fights between spirits, or sealing them away, I could cause huge, dramatic, unexpected changes in the natural world as the other Spirits try unsuccessfully to fill in voids or deal with matters they're not attuned to. It's subtle chaos that grows and explodes over time... but when they wake up, the cool down is so much faster, and I can get started on making more chaos the very moment I wake up!

It continued like this for dozens of worlds, up until the last one... Discord gave a sly smile. The world before the world before Equestria. Your granddaddy world. That was when Friendship got fed up with everypony, her infinite patience somehow used up, and she systematically sealed away every single spirit beside the big three: me, Celestia, and Luna. Let me tell you the chaos was palpable. And it wasn't even directly my fault! I just pushed them a little. The most chaos in the universe for trillions of worlds, and it was the Spirit/Spirits of Harmony that set it off! Oh the irony, I was proud of them, let me tell you!

All that delicate balance between spirts: poof! Gone! Yadda, they're out of there. The entire world fell into discord. Gravity threw up, light decided that it would do whatever the heck it wanted, reflecting off of things that don't reflect, passing through things it shouldn't, the plants and animals changed and shifted in absolutely insane ways. And if you don't believe me, look at a manticore or a Cockatrice. Heck, just look at an ordinary giraffe!

The laws changed again, in a way more extreme than ever before. And after one of the longest cool downs in trillions of worlds, after all, there were only three... or five, if you look at Friendship as individuals, spirits trying to bring back order this time. Not that they didn't make more to help them along the way, like the Windigoes. But it worked, and we got a world with plants that ate soil and sunlight, animals that had to eat the plants, and animals that had to eat animals. We had clouds that would eventually collect too much steam and explode, releasing rain and lightning. We had rocks that could be compressed into gems, it was a very ordered world, but a very wild one. I liked it, despite the savagery that went on between different species. It had very clear boundaries and rules, but within those rules tons and tons of freedom. Actually, when I messed up that world to create Equestria Celestia managed to keep a bit of the world intact. You might recognise it. 'Everfree Forest'? The reason it's so scary and weird is because it comes from another world. Or rather, it's built like another world. It doesn't follow your rules.

Through Celestia, Luna, and Friendship's work, they managed to rebuild civilization. They brought order to one of the longest-lasting worlds in my memory. And despite the fact I stayed awake during the majority of the cooldown, I went to sleep seven times during that world, just so that they could build it up so well.

And then I twisted it around and made it go insane and colorful and fun, just like always!

I did a whole bunch of hilarious changes, I gave a third of the ponies either wings or horns, not both, because that would have made sense, and actually made them work! I made ponies made of crystal, I made ones that were half-dragon! I made it so that the rocks grew and the plants didn't! I made the sun and the moon stay in the exact same position, the sun on one side in the day, and the night literally attached to the moon on the other! Ha! I made it so that the ones with wings could walk on clouds, and I made it so that the clouds would just grow and grow and grow, never releasing water or lightning until you squeezed it out of them, like a grape! And then, as the final kick in the flank to the spirits of Harmony, I gave a little spirit-like power to every single creature of the whole world. Let's see them deal with that! The ponies with horns got a little bit of an unfair share, but I felt guilty because all they got up to that point was a useless tiny horn. I made it so that the regular ponies could force the plants to grow, but that was a mistake, it made it far too easy for Celestia to abuse that power in the cooldown, making sure the plants would grow almost the same as before.

And that spirit power didn't just belong to the ponies! I gave powers to zebras, so they could do things like a unicorn without wings or a horn, I made it so that dragons shrink and grow with their emotions, and ate rocks... that was another mistake by the way, Celestia used that to mostly counteract the fact that my rocks grow. She keeps the ground almost completely level by having dragons constantly eat the rocks that grow underneath the crust... growing upside down! How could she turn that into something orderly!? Ah, anyway. I didn't find any of that stuff out until I woke up, that was when the fun began.

I tried to mess things up right after they finished cooldown, but Friendship, Celestia, and Luna were waiting for me! I brought chaos to the land, but the two of them actually joined their powers with the Spirits of Harmony, and they used the magic I gave everything against me. They actually sealed me, Discord, oldest and most powerful of Spirits in stone! While I was singing no less... It was three thousand years that passed, and I decided to play things as a new game.

Oh, by the way, that was three years ago. You kind of know what happened. I set off the first wave of chaos, and then you and your five friends managed to use the elements to beat me. Honestly, I was intrigued that they even worked. I wanted to see more of this world, and it wasn't the first time I was patient and merely lounged through the order instead of sleeping through it. That was why I allowed Celestia to 'reform' me. Oh that poor, poor, mare. Discord laughed. She genuinely thinks that I was a monster who she sealed away with a bunch of magical artifacts. She doesn't even remember how Friendship sacrificed herself, sealing herself in stone like all the other spirits, in order to make those pieces of jewelry.

Well, now that I've told you the history of everything, I'm going to tell you what part you play in it. Twilight, you and Cadence are the first two alicorns that have been made since Luna. All the other spirits were former 'regular' ponies. That's because of magic. Cadence was born a thousand years before you were, I was in stone at the time, but I'm told it was a fairly crazy decade. Luna decided to rebel and change the world, one that would have made for a nasty cooldown, but not enough chaos, it's not something I would do. I mean, why have just one time of day? Why not three? Day, Night, and Edward! Hmm... we'd need another orb too... nah, but like I said. Day and Night, and the sun and moon representing them, are two things I've grown attached to. But I'm getting carried away again.

Well, because love had become a physical force, and because of how interconnected it was to magic, a spirit of love was created: Mi Amore Cadenza. A certain bookworm unicorn filly though, quickly changed her ancient and holy spirit name into the easier to pronounce 'Cadence'. Cadence exists because love has become something that literally shaped the world just as much as friendship or victory or knowledge or my chaos.. well, not as much as my chaos, but close. Love existed before, in previous worlds of course, but never on a scale where it was important enough to warrant a spirit. I thought that was it for then, I mean, two spirits in the same world? It had never happened before, unless you count Friendship's three bodies springing forth at once. Magic had also, finally, become important enough that it warranted a spirit as well. Personally, I'm mad that one wasn't made instantly, but hey... at least she found a good one.

Discord leaned in closer. "I don't really mean to insult you, but Luna was hoping for Starswirl..."

Twilight made a happy sound and she put her hooves together. "You mean I'm in the same magic class as the Great Starswirl the Bearded?!"

"Twilight. You're the Spirit of Magic. Starswirl the bearded would have wished he was in the same magic class as you."

"...really?"

"Really. So... essentially, that's the gist of it. I mess up the world.. go to sleep... and the world, just kind of... accepts the new messed up version as 'normal'. You, Luna, Celestia, the Windigoes, Cadence, and the Elements of Harmony... all of you exist so that when the world gets messed up again, you can help the ponies adapt to it."

Twilight gulped. "This... is a lot to take in..."

"I know. But don't worry... eventually you'll forget about this conversation..."

Twilight frowned. "I... I will?"

"Yes. You will."

"Will..." Discord frowned.

"Hey! No frowns! I told you to not let this bother you! You promised."

"no, no... I'm not going to let this bother me... but.. will I eventually forget about my friends? Are they immortal too?"

"...No. They aren't."

"..."

"Twilight, everything passes... the idea is, that, well." Discord turned toward the small alicorn. "The idea isn't that you focus on what's gone. The idea is that you keep making new things. Your friends are going to die someday Twilight, and you're not. But you'll have to make new friends."

"I... you want me to replace my friends after they're dead?"

"No, no, no! Nothing as heartless as that, Twilight, who do you take me for? I know how important friendship is." He gave a warm smile unbecoming of the Draconequus. "Your friends are individuals, they're special, and you can never replace them. But after they're gone, that shouldn't stop you from finding new friends."

Twilight sunk into the sofa, thinking. "Discord...?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"I don't know, can you?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Discord... are you God?"

The Draconequus' eyes widened in surprise. He opened his mouth, but shut it again. "Well... I hope not. I don't think so."

"But you created the world! You created Celestia and Luna!"

"Yes... but... they were random. I'm chaos, Twilight. I can control what I do, but what comes naturally isn't anything I put thought into. I'm not God, Twilight. If I'm going to glorify myself, I might as well say I'm his favorite paintbrush perhaps... or perhaps the guy giving him the parchment." He gave a sly smile. "Maybe I'll meet him someday. There seems to be too much intention in every world.. and when a world really works, something stops me from spreading too much chaos, be it a new invention from a different Spirit, or my works ending up turning against me. I can make things random, but those 'random' things always turned out to work.... even before I had all the other spirits around to speed up the cooldown."

"Alright... a second question... what do you think of Celestia and Luna? Are they... siblings to you? Children? You said you created them."

"...I don't consider them my children, even if that's what they're closest to. We don't share any genetic material. But then again, a few million worlds back, genetic material didn't exist! 'Life' was closer to what fire was. Moving, affecting it's surrounding, but created out of a reaction as it's own individual flame..."

Twilight smiled. "You can get pretty poetic, when you're not trying to be funny."

"Oh? Is that what you think of my jokes?" He gave another sly grin, snapping his claws. Twilight was now bright blue. "What about that?!"

"Slightly irritating. Please make me go back."

"I did it to you with magic, turn it back yourself."

Twilight frowned, but concentrated for a few seconds, her colors gradually turning back. "Amazing!" She turned back to Discord. "But, if not your children, what do you consider the Princesses?"

Discord sighed. "I think of them as her children." Twilight blinked. Surprised.

"But I thought you said that you made them."

"I did. But I was trying to remake her. They didn't come out wrong though... just... the same person can't exist more than once. Celestia and Luna slowly individualized themselves, but I can still see the resemblance between them and her. I made them to be what she was, so she could continue to live... and I kind of did, kind of didn't. She was passed on, they're the same thing as her children. She remains through them, what she taught me, I passed on to them... I kind of like to think of myself as their uncle."

Twilight smiled. "What about me?"

"Oh, I never really felt the same about the other Spirits as with them... Triumph was a creation of theirs, but she took to me much better... I suppose I could consider her my daughter, she doesn't consider Celestia and Luna her mothers... as for you... you have your own family. You were born from two ponies, you lived as a pony, you're a pony. You've joined our ranks, so you're kind of like family, and I'm sure you'll get to know us better than anypony you've ever met before... but you're still a pony at heart. That might change over millions of years, and eventually I might think of you as a spirit, and you might think of yourself as a spirit... and then, I don't know. Maybe you could be my niece, or my daughter, or just... 'family'... to me. I don't know. We have all the time in the universe to find out... but right now. I think you're just my friend."

"Just your friend?"

"Just my friend. And that's not too bad of a thing to be, is it?"

"...no, it isn't."

"So, what else were you doing today?"

"Well, I was going to see Fluttershy and Applejack over by the town square for-"

"Sounds like fun! Can I join in?"

"...well, I thought maybe I should call it off, take a day to think about this..."

Discord shook his head and laughed. "Twilight, Twilight, Edward, Twilight, Twilight... you'll have all the time you want to think about it. You could spend eleven hundred years thinking about it and nothing else, someday. But if you did that you'd go crazy from boredom. But today? Let's go talk with Fluttershy and Applejack. Days like these don't last forever."

Twilight smiled and nodded, but before they left the cabin on the cloud Twilight nudged him with her hoof.

"One last question?"

"Shoot." Discord said.

"How much longer will this Equestria last?"

"Twilight, this world is young. Not even a million years old yet...The world Everfree was from was ancient, it lasted for more than thirteen billion years... and I like this world a lot more. And have more reasons for letting it stay the same. Who knows? Not in your friends' lifetime. Not in their descendant's lifetime... I think I'll wait until Fluttershy's line is gone from the world, or maybe just until she's related to everypony."

"That long?"

Discord smiled. "Maybe sooner, maybe longer. Who knows? It's part of my nature to be sporadic and unexpected... but I plan on relaxing a long time. Maybe I'll take a nap, or just lounge through it for a while...nothing needs to be decided today. And I won't know when until it happens. Until then, why not enjoy ourselves?"

Twilight smiled and wiped her eyes with her hoof. "Let's go see what Applejack and Fluttershy are up to."

Discord nodded. "I'll race you there."

"No teleporting!" Twilight said jovially.

"Fine, then no flying either." With a snap of his claws both of their wings disappeared, the cabin disappearing as well. The two plummeted through the cloud, Discord screeching with joy, Twilight screaming in fear. They both crashed into the field below, leaving a pony-shaped hole and a jumbled mess of a hole in the ground. Discord slithered out, dusting himself off before reaching down the other hole and pulling out Twilight. She shivered for a second, but she dusted herself off afterward and concentrated, bringing both her and Discord's wings back.

"That was mean, Discord. I wasn't prepared."

"You're fine." He snapped his claw and the hole behind them filled in with water. It overflowed slightly, forming a new pond for the park. He put in a lilly pad for good measure. "We should jump from the moon next time!"

Twilight shook her head. But she found that after the shock stopped she began to laugh. "Okay... that was a little fun."

"Then it was worth it."

The two spirits walked down the path to Ponyville, not caring about their race, or the pond they just created, or the fact that they were spirits. They were off to spend the day with two of their pony friends. And what better way could a day be spent?

Author's Note

I was thinking about making a fantasy world, when I realized the core dynamic of making a world with different forces than our own: that every world has rules that everything in it runs on, and even if something's impossible in the real world, in that fantasy world, it's an accepted part of reality.
This got me going for a while, I thought about it... and the world the ponies are living in right now, their 'normal' world is absolutely crazy. Ponies walk on clouds, they have to make the plants grow intentionally, except the exceptions, they are all different colors, ones that couldn't have evolved normally in our world, they have marks on their butts that show their hobby/destiny. The sun needs to literally go down before the moon can rise, and vice-versa. Not to mention the fact that the moon is attached to the night like the sun is attached to the day.
If the world was our own, and these things took hold, it would be considered random, chaotic, and impossible... but these things are normal in pony society. This got me thinking about the core idea of this story.
Please, tell me what you think, sorry that it's so wordy, but I have a lot of details going around in my head for this story. Written in two sittings.

The Spirit of Order and the Day

Twilight walked over to her bed and jumped in, sighing contentedly. She stretched herself to the limit, her wings and legs extending as far as they could go before she let them relax and sink into the bed. She levitated the comforter over herself and closed her eyes.

Just one of the benefits of living in a castle.

Twilight closed her eyes, but she found it difficult to go to sleep for some reason. Her brain was almost always working on something or other, far into the night. It wasn't often she could just sit down and take a nap like this.

She thought about getting back out for about a half hour before there came a knocking at the door. "Come in." Twilight said happily, getting up.

"Hey Twi, message for you."

"Oh?" She took the message from her assistant and unfurled it. She noticed the golden horseshoe mark and smiled. Celestia had been pretty busy recently, and hadn't sent a message for almost a month.

Dear Twilight, I heard from a certain Draconequus that you had some time off today and I thought we could have tea like we used to. Just sit and chat for a bit. Luna and I both have some time off this evening as well, and I thought it would be a fun get-together. Come to the Canterlot Gardens as soon as convenient, Luna and I will be setting up.

Yours truly, Celestia.

Twilight smiled. "Spike, I'm heading over to the Royal Gardens for a few hours. You're in charge."

"Yes ma'am!" Spike said cheerfully, extending his wings and fluttering back out of her room.

Twilight giggled and began floating her saddlebag over to her, checking to make sure her purse still had some bits.

Twilight walked down the road, nodding to the ponies passing by as they professed their loyalty and honor at seeing her. She turned a corner and smiled at a foal who had skidded to a halt in front of her. His mother took the time to shake Twilight's hoof before leading her son around the lavender alicorn. Twilight giggled at how surprised they all were to see her. She walked down this way at least twice a month after all.

She stopped in front of the nostalgic donut shop, which had a flattering cartoon of her on a sign. "Eat at Joe's" was in the little speech bubble next to the image of her. She pushed open the door and walked in, smiling at Jen as she looked up at the bell. "Hey there Jen." Twilight greeted, the customers in the shop looking at their Princess with cheers and greetings. This was one part of town where ponies gathered just in case Twilight came over, which was fairly often, considering how much she had gotten addicted to the donuts prepared here over the last hundred and thirty years.

"Hello Princess! The usual?"

"Not today I'm afraid, I'm off to have tea with Celestia and Luna and I thought I'd bring a treat along."

Jen smiled as the patrons gave impressed clapping. It was no small matter to be liked by all three Princesses. "Then what will it be?"

Twilight grinned and looked over the glass case with various donuts on display. She quickly picked out thirteen and had them put in a box. She opened her purse but Jen stopped her. "Please, my treat, tell the other Princesses I'm glad they like them!"

Twilight smiled. "Celestia's been hooked ever since Joe started business." Twilight then levitated the bits she was going to pay into the tip jar and walked back out with the donuts. "You know, her offer still stands about the recipe." Twilight called back.

Jen smirked and shook her head. "Sorry, but I'm not about to let the family recipe go, it's been four generations and we've still managed to keep it to ourselves."

Twilight nodded. Glancing at some of the photos on the wall, one of which showed the original Joe standing with Twilight and Celestia, sprinkles and frosting on all of their faces. Her eyes fell on one of the other framed ones, Twilight, back when she didn't have her wings, all that time ago, along with Celestia and her six... her smile turned nostalgic as she looked at the picture for a few more seconds.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late." Twilight announced, Celestia and Luna looking up at her appearance.

"Well met, friend Twilight, salutations, we were worried you wouldn't make it!"

Celestia chuckled. "Come over here and sit a bit, we've got... a lot to talk about."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, but she shrugged it off and sat down with two of her best friends. "Oh? I thought we were just going to chat and drink tea."

"We are... but Discord's recently told me something... unsettling, that I was hoping could be our first topic." Celestia said slowly.

"What is it Tia?" Luna asked.

Celestia sighed. "...Discord said off-handedly the other day that he created the universe."

Luna gaped for a second before beginning to chuckle. "And you took him seriously?"

Celestia rolled her eyes and grinned. "Of course not, at first... but then he told me to ask Twilight about it."

Luna turned to Twilight, who's eyes widened in surprise. "Well, friend Twilight?"

"...you guys... oh yeah... hehehe.... I think I know what he's talking about... it was pretty early on, when I first got my wings, it's remarkable what you can still recall after a hundred years... huh?"

Celestia nodded. "You'll come to treasure that perfect memory of ours."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Perfect you say? Then you should know for yourself whether or not Discord created the universe."

Luna frowned. "Well... not perfect, but accurate. Our memories don't exactly span the edges of time, Twilight."

Twilight smirked. "If what Discord told me those years ago is true, his does."

"oh?"

Twilight nodded.

"So... you think Discord really did create the universe?" Luna asked, deadly serious.

Twilight thought for a few seconds. "Well.... yeah. At least he didn't have any reason to lie, and it sounded convincing. He's older than both of you combined, and even then, you two probably don't even remember more than maybe one percent of your lives."

Celestia stared at Twilight with bewilderment as Luna began to giggle. "Well, I for one refuse to believe it. I've got thousand upon thousands of years in my memory. And while I may not remember my childhood, I refuse to believe I'm that old."

"Well, that's what Discord says. He thinks, or at least he said you two were trillions upon trillions of years old. And that he was way older."

Celestia's look became thoughtful, but she just looked to the side. "Twilight... I'm not sure I believe Discord.. though I think I can entertain the possibility. I can't remember much past a few hundred thousand years ago... but I'm sure me and Luna were fighting Discord earlier on than that... and I haven't aged a day in all these years..."

Luna shook her head. "You two... you believe the physical embodiment of pranks on something of this scale that easily?! Pfft. Discord's been our enemy since before I can remember. Even now that we've reformed him I'm sure he'll go to great lengths to get a crack in on Tia and I. I'm sure in his explanation of the universe he made us out to be utter dunces, correct?"

Twilight grinned. "Quite the opposite, he spoke of you two quite fondly... though he did mention that he taunted you a lot... and... well... I better tell the story, as best I can remember it..." Luna and Celestia looked at each other, before nodding for Twilight to continue. "Well... Discord said that he came into existence with the first.. atom, I think it was. And he learned how to create matter. From there he made the first world, which he exploded."

Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a second, before deciding to shrug and go with it.

"So... that's the gist of it."

Celestia frowned. "...If all of that is real... I don't really know how to take that..."

Luna frowned as well, "as for me, I refuse to accept it. And I have several good reasons I'm surprised Celestia hasn't thought of." Luna said, smirking a little. "Reason one: Discord created us? Please, we're as powerful as him, why would he do it in the first place? Not to mention the idea that Discord is the closest thing we have to a father..." Luna shuddered slightly. "And reason two: he expects us to believe this feud started with a misunderstanding on our side? Discord is obviously shifting the blame to us, Twilight.... when he first broke out, so long ago, and the fight we had... it was horrifying, the chaos was enough to almost drive me mad from looking anywhere for more than a few seconds! And though I can't remember it now, I could remember back then that that wasn't even the worst I had seen him do! Do you even comprehend how long it took to scrounge up enough energy to even begin the healing process? Him doing something 'playful' or 'natural' is ridiculous. If that's what he calls healing the universe, I'd hate to see him try to hurt it."

Celestia nodded. "I think this whole thing is made up... now that I think more seriously about it." She gestured to the statue garden. "I think I even know what he's basing it off." She finished her tea and the donut on her plate, getting up. "Follow me, I think it's about time we went and looked at the statues."

Twilight frowned for a second, but she got up and followed Celestia anyway, Luna following close behind.

"These are probably what Discord was speaking about." Celestia said, gesturing to the statues that lined the area. I recognize a few of them; Victory, Friendship, wonder, music, almost a hundred different statues."

"And you kept Discord here?" Twilight asked.

"Kind of... it's..." Luna sighed in annoyance.

"What?" Twilight asked the Princess of the night.

"...you might take this as evidence for Discord's absurd story... but my memory of what happened is fairly foggy.We hit him with the Elements of Harmony hundreds of thousands of years ago, and believed him to be destroyed, gone from the world completely. And I think it was justified too, considering the damage he caused... but thousands of years later, when we first came to Canterlot Mountain, before the current city was built, we found... well, we found ponies here worshipping the statues. They agreed to let us live there and build in exchange for preserving the statues. Considering what a good piece of land Canterlot is, we agreed immediately, and they left. It was only after we accepted that we realized the statue of Discord was kept there... we assumed it was just a statue, he was well known throughout the world, and we didn't doubt that an ancient artist had used him as a model... but then he broke free... we managed to use the Elements again, and we did hundreds of spells on the statue, to make sure he was kept sealed. We investigated the other statues, but none of them have the same energy as Discord did... they're just rock." Luna walked up to the statue representing Victory and gave it a buck. Twilight winced as the statue's legs cracked, and the whole thing tumbled down, shattering even moreso.

"That was your daughter!" Twilight almost yelled.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "You really believe Discord's story?"

Twilight frowned. "Princess... I've always been good at believing impossible stories, made up monsters... and more than a few have turned out to be still alive and well. And honestly, when Discord was telling me that story, that was the most genuine he had ever seemed to me...all the rest of the time he seems to be playing... but the look on his face when speaking about your 'mother'... that was the only time I thought he had ever shown real regret around me."

Luna looked at Twilight for a few seconds before sighing, her horn glowing, rebuilding the statue so it seemed to have never broken in the first place. "Fine. I'll speak to Discord about this... but if all this is true..."

Twilight shook her head. "So what? It has no real meaning for this world. I mean... of course I'm curious about our history, but... it doesn't really affect us much. Discord says that I should just focus on the now. On being happy, doing my current job, all that stuff."

"Twilight, what are you talking about?! This is monumental, if it is true... it would mean rewriting Equestria's history-"

"No, it wouldn't . All the stuff you remember is Equestria's history, it's the history of all the previous worlds that needs to be written down." Discord said from above, making all three alicorn Princesses jump. "Honestly Celly, Loony, why do you even care?" He sat down on top of Victory's statue, and patted the head fondly. "It shouldn't matter to you. Luna, if I told you it was all a prank, and I really was the devil who has been trying to destroy the universe all those years ago, would you feel any different than if I was a crazy Spirit who occasionally spices up the universe for it's own good?"

"Hey there Discord." Twilight greeted. "Sorry about all this... it's just that Celestia and Luna don't think you're telling the truth about all this."

"Oh please, they've insulted me far worse than that. Once Celestia said she thought turning bright pink and having constant fireworks shoot from where her mane used to be was ugly and demanded I turn her back. Nopony appreciated good art nowadays."

Twilight giggled at the image, prompting Discord to do it to both Royal Sisters, who immediately began threatening and shouting at him, Luna diving at the Draconequus as he teleported away. "Oh! I have a great idea for a new game! Sparkler Tag!" he shouted, snapping his claws as both Twilight and he were also pink and launching colorful sparks from their heads. "Me and Twilight versus you and Celly!" Discord cheered, snapping his claws and rearranging the field, making impromptu goalposts out of various statues.

"No! Change us back now, or we'll get the Elements of Harmony and-" Celestia began

Discord smirked. "You forget, my defense is the element of magic!"

"Defense? I thought this was tag!" Twilight interjected.

"You haven't played Sparkler Tag, have you Twilight? Seriously, what kind of childhood would you have to not have played Sparkler Tag once?"

"You just made it up!" Luna growled.

"New Rule! Every time Luna speaks something catches on fire!" Discord said triumphantly, "Everypony ready? Go!"

Celestia sighed as Discord sped straight down through the ground. Lun rolled her eyes as he popped back out, flying upwards and bouncing off a cloud. Twilight let out a short laugh before beginning to revert the 'arena' back into the statue garden. But not before Discord could crash into the statue of Victory with a loud crash. "I win! Victory! Triumph! Hooray! King for a day!"

"Never." Luna said. She then noticed a blade of grass erupt in a sudden poof of flame that disappeared as soon as it appeared, leaving only an ember where the blade of grass was the second before. She clamped both hooves over her muzzle and glared at Discord.

"Celestia, would you please make Luna stop looking at me like that?" Discord said, pointing accusatively at Luna.

Celestia sighed, turning to Twilight. "You still think... this... created me, Luna, and the universe?"

Twilight looked at Discord dancing in place near the statue. "...I'm not really sure... he seemed serious back then... but that might just be my memory acting weird..." Twilight shrugged. "But then again, he has the power to do it, so why question him? He doesn't seem to care what we think, so..." Twilight smiled sadly at the ground. "...I figured I could think about it seriously some other day, when I had nothing better to do... but honestly, I just want to have tea with you and talk about my week. We can solve all the mysteries of the universe on our own time." She looked back at Discord, still dancing, but now with an afro on a color-changing glass tile floor. "A draconequus once told me nothing needs to be decided today, until then, why not enjoy ourselves?"

Luna smirked. "That sounds like a good motto for a sloth." She then realized what she just did and looked around to make sure nothing caught fire.

"Already un-did it Luna. Come on, let's go finish the donuts. Discord, do you want to come and have tea with us here?"

"Nah, I'm good, I still want to gloat in my utter beatdown of the Princesses."

The three alicorns each nodded, Twilight giggling, Celestia shaking her head slightly afterward, and Luna rolling her eyes. The three trotted back out of the garden, leaving Discord to dance by the other statues.

He stopped after a few minutes, standing and looking at the statue with the golden flag. "Come on, that was a flawless victory! Still not enough for you to wake up?" He groaned at the statue. "What will it take, a war?"

There was no response from the stone. And Discord stood there for a few seconds before taking out a permanent marker and drawing a moustache on her muzzle and angry eyes over her own eyes. "I'll see you sometime, Triumph." He said cheerfully, snapping his claws together and teleporting away, leaving the statue to stare, unblinking, over the gardens, with a triumphant grin on her face.

"Please, please open your eyes!" She didn't really understand the words, but she understood the meaning well enough, she moved slightly, trying to regain balance. Her wings and her horn and her hooves all glowed with white light, and they levitated her up, turning her around and around, before she turned toward the source of the voice.

"Are you okay? Is everything alright? Do you feel fine, nothing out of place?"

"Ahb.... dbu..." she tried, her mouth wanting to make the sounds, but unsure of how to do it correctly.

"Oh my... oh no... there's something wrong with your brain! Nonononono!!! I'm sorry, can you fix it? Do you know how?" Once again only the meaning was passed to her, unable to understand the words. She tried to speak back, but she found the meaning was easier to convey.

I'm confused...

The source of the voice, a gray light containing many smaller red and yellow lights, let out a sigh. "Whew... don't worry, it's your new body, it's just like your old one, only better! Not that your old one wasn't good... it just... doesn't work any more... or exist..."

I don't understand.

"Y-you don't have to yet... we're back together now.. what do you want to do? Can you tell me where you went when your body stopped working?"

What are you talking about?

"So you don't remember where you went?"

Who are you?

The light shrunk, filled with pain. "...do you remember anything?" he asked quietly.

I... I don't think there's anything to remember...sorry.

"...." the light backed away slightly, but it turned back around and glowed even warmer, a comforting light. "It's alright.. I knew it wouldn't work... somewhere deep inside me. Welcome to the world, one who isn't me or she. I hope you live a long, happy life."

This time it was her turn to be scared. Are you going somewhere?

"No... there's nothing more interesting than you in this world. I'll stay here."

Where am I? What am I? Who are you?

The light looked over her for a few seconds before turning back to the endless landscape of rocks, water, and the stuff that was in between. "You're here, you're you, and I'm me."

Those aren't answers. she thought, somewhat annoyed.

The light seemed confused. "What do you mean, they aren't answers, they're all correct, aren't they?"

Kind of... but they're not specific, they don't mean anything more... they need something else...

The light was intrigued. "What do they need? What do you mean they need something?"

She made her meaning. The light frowned. "There's no word for that."

"Nayhm." she said.

"A name?"

She nodded. They need names. I need a name, you need a name, this place needs a name. How else can you tell them apart?

"Easily, this place is everything that's not you and me, I am what isn't you or this place, and you are what isn't me or this place."

But what about everything else?

The light thought for a few seconds. "I don't think there is anything else... maybe the stuff that isn't anything? Or the place she went to when her body stopped working...But there's nothing else here."

Why not?

The light smiled deeply. "Why not indeed?"

Celestia's eyes opened suddenly, and she got up out of her bed, a contentment deep in her bones. "That... was a strange dream..." She whispered to no one in particular. She got back in the bed, summoning a little water to help her get back to sleep. As she began drifting off she began to mumble. "...I wonder what I named him..." she whispered before falling back into deep sleep.

Author's Note

Hey, I decided to expand on this story, seeing too much potential to leave where it is, despite how much I liked the ending of the last chapter. On a side note; Requesting a name for the Spirit of Music
This is Triumph, the Spirit of Victory and War
These three are Friendship, the triumvirate Spirit of Harmony
This is Nycteus the Spirit of Knowledge
and Unity and Loyalty, the the Spirits of Cooperation.
Along with Cadence, the Windigoes, and maybe one or two more I make up along the way, that's the entire pantheon.
I can't for the life of me think of a good name for the Music Spirit, please give suggestions and tell why. Every name has a meaning.

The Spirit of Order and the Night

"Luna!" Twilight called, "I'm here, when are we going to start?" She looked around the balcony before walking over to Luna's telescope and peeking inside, before gasping as she saw the Moon in far closer detail. She frowned as she zoomed in, spotting a shoddily-built castle.

"Friend Twilight?" Luna asked suddenly, making Twilight jump a foot in the air.

"Oh! Sorry Luna, you startled me a bit."

Luna trotted up to the telescope to see what Twilight was looking at, smirking at the castle. "Ah, I remember it as if it were yesterday. I... I've never really studied architecture." She admitted, chuckling. "I'd get trapped in one room or another often, and the entire thing collapsed daily." She smiled at the lopsided structure. "It took me a thousand years to get it right, and by then I realized I was already used to not having any shelter..."

Twilight gazed up there. "...so... is that where we're heading first?" She asked, trying to downplay her excitement of going to the Moon. Luna nodded. "It's a good a place as any, though it's a bit of a trek... I take it you've already cleared your schedule as i've done mine?"

"Yep! Spike has everything covered, and I triple checked with Celestia that she could handle it all."

Luna chuckled. "Foolish sister, she thinks just because she was able to operate Equestria alone for a thousand years that she's going to just breeze through the work of three Princesses..."

Twilight grinned. "Hehe... Celestia always has managed to underestimate her workload..."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I thought Celestia's been keeping very reasonable and organized since I've come back."

Twilight giggled. "Well, perhaps compared to a younger Celestia... but compared to any one of her secretaries... yeesh... to think, back when I was her student I wouldn't really wonder what Celestia's duties were, I mean I knew, but it never really occurred to me that she'd shirk her work to deal with whatever minor problem started up in Ponyville."

"Minor, friend Twilight? Possibly Ursa Minor. Throughout Equestria they tell daring stories of the fearless residents of Ponyville who dare to place their village next to the Everfree Forest and directly in front of Canterlot, Ponyville's been on the verge of nearly being decimated to nothing more times than I can count."

"Eight hundred and fifty-three times...." she smirked at Luna. "As of last week."

Luna nodded. "Hydras are fairly pesky, aren't they?"

Twilight smiled again. "No match for any of us though..."

"...the Elements of Harmony, Celestia, Twilight, Luna, Discord, Cadence..." Luna listed off. "It's a wonder that there are still things out there willing to attack us, considering that particular lineup."

Twilight shook her head. "Where there is stupidity or desperation, anything can be made out to be possible."

"Well, enough talk of monsters and war, let's go up to the Moon... it really has been too long." Luna said. "Ready?"

Twilight pulled her suitcases closer and nodded.

Luna gave nod in return and lit her horn with some strain, and the energy glowed bright, surrounding the two Princesses and depositing them on the Lunar Landscape. "@#$%!" Luna shouted as the spell dissipated. Twilight would have stared at the Princess in shock, considering the Princesses almost never ever swore like that, even in private, but she was currently shivering too much to devote energy to turning her head. "I forgot how damnably cold it is here!!" Luna growled loudly. Luna's horn began glowing and a red aura appeared over the two of them.

Twilight sighed in relief as the heating spell warmed her from head to hoof. "....Luna... I don't think I would have survived much longer if I were still mortal..."

"Banishments were better prepared unfortunately, we have heating spells directly attached... most of the time..."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Nopony's been banished to the Moon in my memory..."

"Tis... an ancient spell... and a harsh punishment. We sealed Sombra here for a time, but it didn't hold him and he used our taking his imprisonment for granted to conquer the Crystal Empire... so long ago... he took advantage of everything Twilight..."

Twilight and Luna were quiet for a time, Luna's memories going back a few thousand years.

But Luna shook herself out of it fairly quickly. "Come on Twilight, let's walk. Everything's pretty far apart."

Twilight looked up into the starry sky. "Um.. where's the world?"

Luna looked up. "On the other side. We'll be able to see it when we reach the Castle. But that's a long, long walk away. We'll see the glow first."

"Why not fly, or teleport?"

Luna frowned at Twilight. "We could not. The last time I was here... no magic..." she let out a sad laugh. "...well, a little. But no more than you, before your ascension."

"I could teleport..." Twilight said slowly.

Luna shook her head. "Never was any good at it, Celestia's even worse. We just flew or spirited ourselves as smoke..."

Twilight nudged Luna slightly, showing a smile. "You should teach me that sometime. Now come on, are you going to mope the whole way?"

Luna forced a smile that slowly became genuine. "Apologies, friend Twilight. This... this landscape brings back a lot of old memories. The smell..."

Twilight nodded, unfurling her wings and levitating her cases. "Come on, I'll race you there!"

"You don't even know where 'there' is!"

"Well, you'll have a slight advantage then. Come on."

Luna landed with a soft sound in front of her 'castle'. She turned and saw Twilight barely fluttering in the distance. "You underestimated me Twilight!" Luna called back.

Twilight let out a groan as she teleported the final few yards and landed in a heap in front of Luna. Luna bent down and began doing a healing spell, but Twilight's horn shined for only an instant and she got up with another groan, but no longer tired. "Like I said.. slight advantage."

Luna smirked. Twilight was terrible in competitions typically, her ability to pace herself her only good trait. But despite the fact that Twilight was also a Spirit, her body wasn't nearly as powerful as Luna's. "So... here it is."

Twilight turned and saw the massive structure. "So, this is your Castle on the Moon?"

"Yep!...it's... not as impressive as the title implies..."

Twilight gave a laugh and went for the door. Luna walked with her for a few seconds before a connection suddenly occurred in her brain. "Wait!"

"Huh?" Twilight turned back to face Luna, who was blushing.

"I... it's... very unstable... so we should be careful..."

"We're both immortal." Twilight said with a smirk. "We could get crushed to a pulp, have our horns and wings taken off, and we'd still be able to get up and brush it off. I don't think I have to worry about getting hurt."

Luna rolled her eyes. "I mean I don't want to collapse it for the Castle's sake. I know we'd both be okay... and..." Luna sighed, looking off to the side. "and... well, the real reason i don't want you to go in is because when I built it I was Nightmare Moon.... I was a bundle of hate and jealousy and pettiness... there are probably things in there I don't want you to see."

Twilight brought in Luna for a hug and began walking inside. "I think we can deal with whatever's inside there, together."

Luna nodded. Took a deep breath, and the two mares walked into the dark castle together, Luna giving one last glance at the huge glowing blue-green sphere above them.

The structure was surprisingly empty, considering. Luna seemed almost disappointed that there wasn't slander and evil schemes painted across the wall in blood. She wasn't kidding when she said it collapsed daily, already the two Alicorns had collapsed a tower and taken out a wall from attempting to scrape out what might have been a message a millenia ago.

Twilight, despite the accidental demolition, was having the time of her life, snapping pictures and writing notes on the moon rock. Twilight had always been a fan of archeology, something she got from her mother and a childhood of being surrounded by Daring Do rough drafts.

It wasn't until they got to the third floor of the remaining castle that Twilight's mood dampened slightly. "Luna... is this what you were talking about?"

Luna gave a kind of half-laugh with little happiness behind it. "Yes... this was what I was thinking about... kind of tame in retrospect."

Scattered across the ground were statues of Alicorns that were viciously torn apart, shattered, and generally beat up. From the mark burned on each flank Twilight was able to recognize them as Celestia. "You really hated her for a long time... huh."

Luna shook her head. "I thought I did, but really... well, the night I came back, or at least the Nightmare did, I didn't even try attacking her. I dared her to strike first... but even then I didn't really put my effort into it." She smirked at Twilight. "Just think, you and your six friends, having to brave the greatest dangers a psychopathic Alicorn has to offer; scary trees, whiny serpents, and a broken bridge."

"Don't forget the manticore." Twilight added. "Or the cliff."

"Oh yeah... hehe, that cliff thing, I don't even know what I was thinking... I think I just didn't honestly believe that you six would unlock the Element of Magic. I didn't treat you seriously at all."

Twilight nodded, levitating a broken Celestia statue back to her hooves, only for the legs to crack and send it tumbling down again. "Good thing too."

"Yes." Luna's horn glowed and every statue in the room glowed with a pale blue light that soaked them through completely. She had a special connection with the moon, and every statue in the room's light came together in the center, in the form of one, whole, statue.

"Luna!"

"What?"

"I was studying those!"

"Oh... sorry Twilight. I just thought it would be kind of mean to just leave them broken all over the place..."

"Hmph. Fine, but no more disintegrating things, these are all valuable artifacts of Equestria's history!"

Luna rolled her eyes. "Alright, if my bratty rock tantrums have historical significance then I'm going to have your doll catalogued in the Equestrian Natural History Museum."

"You leave Smartypants out of this." Twilight jokingly threatened, snapping a picture of the new statue before moving on.

Approximately 400 years ago.

"And this is for making fun of my art!" Luna screamed, bucking the statue in the side over and over until the wing fell off and she made a substantial crack. She fell to the ground, gasping in exhaustion. But the mere fact that she could become exhausted just made a new wave of hatred against the stone figure and all it represented. She got up and pushed the statue over, then lifting it back into place, over and over, til it broke through the middle.

Luna grinned in triumph for a few seconds before it faded away, leaving only the normal frown she always had in the mirrors around her 'castle'.

She stepped over the broken statue, levitating it without looking and tossing it out the nearest window, not caring it destroyed the moon-glass she had spent hours making before. She would have time to do it again.

She had nothing but time.

She walked down the hall to her 'bedroom', in the highest tower she could build with her limited magic. She laid down against the tablet, despite the fact she didn't dare to sleep. Her first few years on the moon were so filled with nightmares she might have been put off sleep permanently. Luckily, it didn't really matter whether Luna slept or not. She would always heal enough to keep going, she'd always have enough magic to keep her alive.

It was fascinating, to the mage within, what the Elements had done to her. She didn't know they could be used by just one pony, as the Elements were fueled by Harmony, initiated through Harmony, and used weaponized Harmony. It was against their nature to be able to be used by any one pony. It took at least two, two ponies cooperating, with a bond of friendship. But apparently Luna wanting to get the recognition she deserved was threatening enough for the Elements to stop following their own stupid inconvenient rules. It was childish of her to anthropomorphize* the Elements, but if she was going to hate Celestia for all eternity, she might as well hate her weapons as well. But what they had done to her... it was fascinating. As an Alicorn she possessed seemingly limitless magic, but the Elements had put a limiter on how much she could release, taking her down as low as a Unicorn.

She would never exhaust her magical power, but never be able to summon enough of it to make a difference.

She found herself jealous of Sombra, who had managed to escape the Moon after just two weeks. She had spent almost a thousand years on this rock, and the only thing she could do was wait for the stars to get into position.

Luna sighed and rolled back off the slab, unfurling her wings and taking flight, going for a long loop, not bothering to keep track of any of her surroundings, she would run into her castle again eventually, and if not, she could just make a new one.

She headed in a random direction, as per usual, but stopped when she came to a small crater she managed to recognize. It was covered with burns, huge clefts of stone had been ripped out of the ground and thrown left and right, and at the center of it all, the imprint of her hooves and of six blackened burns arranged around the hoofmarks in a circle. This is where she had first arrived. And this is where she would be going back, she decided.

Summoning her strength of will Luna teleported her armor to her, putting each piece on in turn. She spent the next few hours making a mirror from a nearby boulder, and when she was done she looked over herself. She didn't require food to survive, but she had gotten incredibly thin over the years. Nopony would consider a walking skeleton attractive, even in Luna's jeweled armor.

Luna looked at the stars once again, the four most loyal of all of them, slowly closing in on the Moon so that they could sacrifice themselves to free her. She instinctively knew the exact time, now that she thought about it. Only a few more years. Only a few more years til she could get out.

Until she could break Celestia like that statue.

Until the ponies of Equestria feared her again, until they respected her again.

Celestia took a few deep breaths. She commended herself for keeping so calm, considering the circumstances. Her emotions were at complete war with each other inside her chest, inside her brain a million thoughts shouted at each other, deafening her from anything else.

Her sister was coming back.

An alicorn was about to declare war any minute now.

Her sister was coming back!

Equestria is about to fall to darkness.

Her sister was coming back!

Every town in Equestria and the world at large were going to go into a panic.

Luna!

Nightmare Moon.

Luna, oh Luna!

She needed to ready the army... but what good would throwing their lives away so early accomplish?

Luna was coming back!

She needed to get Shining Armor ready to seal Canterlot.

She needed to put together a party, no, a festival to celebrate!

She had to alert her ponies, help them prepare... but it's too late for that now.

Luna!

Need to trust Twilight. You have to trust Twilight.

Is Luna's room clean? She wouldn't want to sleep on a dusty mattress.

Would the Castle survive the initial onslaught?

But every single one of those thoughts came to screeching halt as it was time for dawn to approach, and as the four stars that had taunted her for a thousand years disappeared into the surface of the Moon, taking away every blemish that had marked her sister's presence.

Celestia froze. She had never done that before. She had gone to war before, she had had the fate of the world at stake before. Those terrible wars against Discord, hovering at the edge of her memory, floated to her consciousness. She barely remembered those days, but they were terrible indeed for the ponies. She hadn't hesitated then. Why now?

Her country was under attack, how could she possibly just stand here, in her own castle, as her student braved her sister's eternal wrath in Celestia's place.

But here she was, still standing here. She just continued looking at the unblemished Moon. The same as it had been for the million years before. The same way it had always been in her memory. Even farther back than Discord, farther back than she could possibly hope to remember. She remembered the Sun and Moon, and she remembered her and Luna.

She jumped nearly six feet in the air when there was a knock at the door. She lit her horn in a fight or flight response, but she recognized the magical presence of one of her servants outside. She calmed herself down and tried to quiet her thoughts and her beating heart. "Come in." She said as casually as possible.

The pegasus soldier opened the door and walked in, bowing before explaining it was time to go to the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville.

"...Tell me, what's your name?"

The soldier blinked, blushing. "Uh, Lt. Pendant, your Majesty, thank you for asking."

"Thank you Pendant. Pendant, I'm sorry, but we'll have to be delayed for a short while."

"But, Princess, I mean no offense of course, but the Summer Sun Celebration is typically held by you personally at the capitol building exactly at the stroke of dawn, which is around 5:30... I'm sorry, Princess, but if we want to arrive at the right time we need to go now."

"Pendant... rest assured, there will be no celebration until dawn, and it will not be dawn until I arrive."

Pendant raised an eyebrow at the sudden misuse of power. Princess Celestia had not delayed the Sun rising for centuries, for any reason. She was universally loved because in part of this seeming incorruptibility.

"Um... Princess... is there any reason why-"

"Yes. Yes there is, possibly the most important reason in a thousand years... you'll see for yourself.... I'll fly myself, don't bother with the carriage."

"But-"

Princess Celestia, on principle, was always regal, always loving, always gentle. She pictured herself as a doting mother for all of Equestria's ponies. Princess Celestia did not glare at anypony, especially not one of her noble subjects. But all the same, the look she gave her lieutenant sent a shiver down his spine.

She took to the sky, slowly arcing down toward the Everfree Forest.

She watched carefully for Nightmare Moon, eventually finding herself nearby the Castle where the two had spent over a thousand years together. She could sense Luna's... no, Nightmare's presence in the structure, as well as her student... and five friends.

Celestia's coat tingled as she felt the connection to the Elements of Harmony being drawn away from her, having found better hosts. She heard Nightmare's scream as she was surrounded by light. It was done, it was over. Celestia took a deep breath, spiriting herself into the ruined room as a ball of light, and saw her beloved student and her new friends each wearing a necklace of-

Twilight's was a tiara.

Celestia didn't allow it to register on her face, but she knew from that moment that Twilight was destined to be even more than 'just' a bearer of an Element of Harmony. Celestia congratulated them, spoke to them for a while, before turning to a very small Luna, surrounded by shards of steel and solidified magic...

And the rest was history.

Twilight had already filled two bags of moon rocks and had a half-full album. "So, where to next?"

Luna turned to the smaller Alicorn and gave a warm smile. "We have quite a while, why not relax for a while... I don't think you had the chance to enjoy the view yet, after all."

"The view-" Twilight stopped as she followed Luna's gaze to the blue and green and cloud-spotted sphere that towered above them. "....oh."

"It's beautiful isn't it?"

"Unbelievably."

"Not many have seen this sight, friend Twilight. Only the worst of the worst of history's criminals, as well as you, me, and Celestia."

"Heh... that's pretty unfair. You have to commit a felon to get a view like this?"

"No, felons get the dungeons, it takes an immortal tyrant or ancient demonic power to get the Moon."

Twilight raised the camera and took a few pictures. Luna smiled. "Well, not any more! This is going straight to Natural Geographic." Twilight grinned widely, looking at the picture for a few seconds before her face lit up. "We should start bringing scientists up here! Professional photographers...." Luna's smile disappeared. "What's wrong?"

"...Do you really think so?...the Moon is someplace sacred to me... despite all the bad memories..."

Twilight frowned slightly. "...I... I see." Twilight looked at the Earth slowly, ever so slowly, turning. "...but... when I publish this stuff... scientists are going to want to go up there... to see it for themselves."

"..." Luna sighed. "Twilight, you're so young. You've never once been treated as a true God."

"...Isn't that a good thing? You don't want the ponies to see us as Gods."

"Yes, it is a good thing... but I still spent over a millenium being treated as if everything I touched was Sacred, and the Moon itself was universally acknowledged to be something unattainable and holy... and it was mine. Nowadays... it's just 'the moon'. But ponies still had a respect for it in that it was unattainable, inexeperiencable except for the worst of the worst criminals."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I don't think inexperiencable is a word."

"I'm the Princess, I can make it a word if I want it to be."

"...Luna, things change... I've never really had anything considered 'holy' before but... if you don't think the Moon is ready for this, then who am I to stop you?" Twilight gathered all the notes and pictures and summoned a chest. She placed all the research she had gathered thus far into it and locked it shut. "Well, here I am, depriving all of pony kind from their knowledge of the Moon."

Luna sighed. "Twilight, you don't have to go this far, I get it it's just... I don't know... this is a big step for me, I've never had to do something like making the Moon public before!"

"...Alright. I'll help you."

"Huh?"

"I'm going to help you. Luna, I'm not talking about making the moon into a tourist attraction. I'm talking about letting ponies learn more about the universe."

"...I'm... I'm still not sure."

"...It deserves to be shared, and it's far too beautiful to be just a prison."

"...I can agree with that statement."

"And that's the first step."