Celestia had been pacing her bedroom floor for hours now, worried about the royal court Luna had called. While any royal figure could summon one, they were to be held only in emergency, and were not to be taken lightly. When the time came for Celestia to proceed to the perfectly circular room of which the meeting would be held, she quickly teleported into the room to already find the others there. Twilight, with a purple drape with her cutie mark embroidered on the front behind her, sat in between Cadence, with a similar drape with her respected colours, and Luna, with a flag of the darkest hues of blue and her crescent moon in the middle. To the left of Candesce was Discord, ruler of Chaos, with a drape fit for his liking. Its image changed whenever anything laid eyes on it, always conjuring a new picture for someone to see. Between Discord and Luna was a spot clearly designed for Celestia, with her flag radiating a soft light in all directions, bearing a mighty picture of the sun on it.
“I am sorry to have kept you all waiting.” Celestia said, taking her seat.
“Twas no wait at all sister, we had all arrived mere seconds before you.” Luna responded, “However, I have called you all here for a reason. As you all know, I have a rudimentary understanding of the near future and distant past, given to me by the movement of the stars. This knowledge has told me that a powerful being will find its way into Equestria with a month. This being is chaotic in nature, and origin.” She said, looking at Discord.
“Why would I have anything to do with it?” Discord retorted, a quizzical look coming onto his face. “Ever since my quote-on-quote “reformation” I have kept chaotic tendencies to a minimum.”
“Exactly,” Luna said, “ I have read the past as well, and I believe this force is coming from before your reformation.”
“ What? I would have remembered jumping through time, especially my own timeline.” Discord retorted.
“Would you?”Celestia stated in an accusatory tone, “When my sister and I fought you many centuries ago, you had done many things that you claim to 'not remember doing'. Perhaps one of these actions is relevant to Luna's foresight?”
Discord stroked his beard before saying“This could have been true, in which case we will in for quite a fight, as my past self was quite ruthless.”
Celestia cringed, a saddened tone in her voice " I remember... all those ponies and towns caught in the crossfire.
“Well I don’t-” Discord started.
“ It doesn’t matter!” Twilight exclaimed, “ That was all in the past and has no relevance to the situation at hoof! The problem is that a chaotic being is coming to Equestria, which is most likely a past form of Discord,” -Discord raised his paw- “what is it, Discord?”
“ Drocsid” Discord put simply.
“What?” Twilight said irritably, a confused look on her face.
“ That’s what we should call my past form coming here, Drocsid, so we don’t get confused.” Discord said.
“Fine, Drocsid is coming, “ Twilight said, glaring at Discord sternly,” and it is unlikely that he will be here for tea and a nice chat. So what are we going to do about it?” The royal group sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity, until one of them spoke up.
“My magic differs from that of the Alicorns and Unicorns, and as such it is hard to defend against. Only Celestia and Luna’s magic combined could even hold its own against my chaos. It will not be easy to defeat Drocsid.” Discord stated, an unusually serious expression on his face.
“Perhaps we would have lost, if it had not been for thine boredom towards the end of the war, Equestria would have sustained far greater damage.” Luna said.
“There was also a flash of light, the sky turned yellow, and you disappeared for a few seconds before the sky turned yellow again, another flash of light, and you reappeared, lighter, and more lackadaisical.” Celestia said.
“ That sounds like a time spell,” Twilight interjected, instantly blushing in embarrassment over her interruption, “When I was researching spells in the Star Swirled the bearded wing, one of the books described something similar, and I can only assume that the spell had been altered to conform to your chaotic magic, Discord.”
“This could be true.” Discord replied, maintaining his unperturbed demeanor.
“What can we do to defend against this?” Cadence asking, speaking up for the first time. She had her mind elsewhere, as was clearly dictated by the ruffled mess of papers that she had brought with her. She had been moving and writing on those papers most of the time she had been there.While everyone knew she was paying attention, they were all surprised that she had dropped all of her papers and was now devoting all her attention to the meeting at hand.
“Very little, I’m afraid.” Discord responded, “ But your kingdom is in no danger as my past self had no knowledge that the Crystal Empire was still in existence.”
“And while it is apparent that you are preoccupied by something else, you may leave to give attention to whatever is demanding it. I will personally contact you if there is any more information regarding the Crystal Empire or you.” Luna said, allowing Cadence to leave. Cadence gave a nod and a goodbye to everyone, gathered her papers and teleported away to her kingdom.
“ To respond to the matter of defence, I will continue to study, this time with Twilight, to help narrow down the time frame. In the mean time, as we cannot project a force field around all of Equestria, especially one against chaotic magic, I believe we should place stations around the country, to report any changes in the sky and on the ground.” Luna said, levitating a scroll of parchment to Celestia, “I just need you to sign this with your seal of approval to make it official.”
“What do you recommend we do next?” Celestia said, signing the parchment and teleporting the the scroll to elsewhere in the castle.
“At the moment, nothing more but my plan. However, I will keep you updated. Until then, meeting adjourned.” Luna concluded, magically gathering her papers quickly, and teleported out. Twilight and Celestia quickly did the same, leaving Discord with his thoughts. He was perturbed about even the thought that he could come back from his past to his future to harm others, and especially not remember it. Snapping out of his trance, he looked around the room to find that the others had left, leaving him alone. Gathering his thoughts, as he had no papers, he quickly stood up and teleported away, extinguishing the candles and torches on his way out, leaving a cold room, looking like no one was even there.
Author's Note
Here is the first chapter of my first story. Please leave any suggestions in the comments. Huge thanks to DarthZew for helping me rephrase some of my thoughts. Please tell me what you think, or a better title, or ( if you are really fancy ) you could give some better cover art suggestion/actual pictures.
"Twilight, what is the movement of star 8675309 relative to 7194269 since last evening ?" Luna asked, levitating multiple quills and writing quick notes on her parchment.
" .07 degrees, why ?" Twilight responded, gazing at the night's sky through the royal telescope in the Canterlot Observatory. They had been doing late night stargazing for the past five days, going nearly nocturnal in the hope to narrow down the parameters of when Drocsid will arrive. Luna, of course was handling this very well. An "unforeseen addition to my immortality " as Luna liked to put it, she rarely slept, and when she did, it was only for a few hours.
" The position of this star, nicknamed Jenny's star, gives us a component of the time. We multiply it by the twin quasars in the center of the Milky Neigh galaxy's rate of gravitational pull. This will give us a seventy-eighth of the time that we will put through the Sandal Arabian zodiac, and this will give us our time and date within a few days. " Luna responded.
" I have no idea how you can wrap your mind around this. Astral Divination is one of the hardest fields of magic I have ever seen. I don't know half the things you are talking about. I'm just happy I can learn some of the study. " Twilight said, very confused.
"Well, that and Dream Magic. Both of which I happen to be an expert at." Luna smirked, chuckling slightly, " Perhaps, when there is a less pressing matter to attend to, I can teach you some of my magics."
" That would be wonderful." Twilight retorted, a sly half-grin growing on her face.
" Back on track now, what is the gravitational pull rate of the center of the Milky Neigh galaxy ?" Luna asked returning to her work bluntly.
" 400 rpm, Princess.” Twilight blushed, embarrassed at how easily she went off topic.
“ Very good, that will give us 2184. Now we will need a zodiac calendar. Please go and find one in the Archives. We need a sixteenth-century one, if you would be so kind.” Luna asked, doing quick calculations in her head. Twilight gave a quick nod and teleported into the Canterlot repository of knowledge. She walked past many doors, looking for the foreign cultures area, turning on the lights as she went . After walking past the Starswirled the bearded wing, she found herself back where she started, with all the lights she had turned on now off. She found this rather odd, as any pony would, and made a mental note to tell Luna when she got back. Twilight ran back to where she was when she teleported, this time being careful to stay clear of the Star Swirled the bearded wing. After finding a copy of the calendar, Twilight teleported back into the Observatory with a large stone tablet floating behind her.
“ Twilight, I hadn’t thought it necessary to ask you to bring a paper copy of the calendar,” Luna chuckled, “nevertheless, this will do.”
“ Princess, did you experience a time relapse while I was gone?” Twilight asked, disregarding her comment and dropping the stone tablet with a loud thud.
“Why no, Twilight, why would thou ask such a question?” Luna asked, reading the zodiac carefully.
“ When I walked past the Star Swirled the bearded wing, I was instantaneously back at where I had first teleported too. No spells, potions, anything. Even the lights turned off.” Twilight explained.
“ Well I am not surprised, Drocsid’s return is bound to have temporal repercussions.” Luna put simply, “ However, it is interesting that the focal point would be around Starswirl the bearded wing. I am sure that his work with time and this development are simply coincidental. I must congratulate you though, on finding the likeliest location of Drocsid’s return.” Twilight took a minute to take all this in as Luna continued with the zodiac. She had just discovered the location of where Drocsid would come through, and it was none other than the capital of Equestria.
“ Well, I have the time of arrival, and it is much sooner than I had previously thought.” Luna gravely said, looking up from the stone slab.
“When is it?” Twilight asked nervously.
“ Five and a half days.” Luna said, looking up to Twilight, “ We must tell Celestia what we have found.”
Author's Note
Very sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I am at war with my technology currently. I am actually borrowing a friend's laptop to uphold this, but I hope to remedy the situation soon. Many thanks to DarthZew for helping me fix up this chapter, and I hope you like it. Please leave a comment, positive or negative. Leave a like if you like this story so far, and leave a dislike if you think I deserve it, but please tell me why. I will try to update on a weekly basis from now on.
