Night was dark, so dark that Twilight Sparkle couldn't even see the ground below them. Even Luna's moon seemed dimmer than usually. Stars seemed to be just small candle fires high on the sky, not big flashy orbs like they used to be. Dark night sky seemed to fade into one with the ground at the horizon, making it look like they would be flying in complete darkness.
Twilight looked over the edge of her chariot again, but still couldn't see the ground below them. She then turned towards two other passengers in the chariot, that was flown by three royal guard pegasies.
"Princess Luna. Is it just me, or is the night darker than usually?" Twilight asked from the dark blue alicorn with night sky like flowing mane next to her. Luna looked at her with a small smile on her lips.
"Thou are more observant than thou let us think, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, with the quieter version of her royal Canterlot voice.
Twilight blushed from the praise she got. Still in five years she hadn't learned how to act casual in other princesses presence. She still thought that they were in much higher rank than herself.
"Thank you," she said timidly, but then asked: "Why is the night darker then? Is it because of the thing you are going to show me?"
Princess Celestia turned towards Twilight, and smiled warmly to her. Her eyes glimmered in the night, and her long flowing mane seemed to glow light in the darkness.
"Yet again you are right," she said with her calm and gentle voice. Her expression then changed into much more serious. That made Twilight feel a bit more nervous again.
"Nopony must see us where we are going, That's why Luna had to dim the night as much as possible." Celestia continued, and looked at her sister, who nodded.
"So where are we going?" Twilight asked, staring into the horizon. Older princesses looked at each other, and then turned towards Twilight sparkle.
"Twilight Sparkle," Luna started, gaining her attention. She then continued: "Thou have been a worthy and responsible ruler for five years now."
"So we have decided to show you something that only few in whole Equestria knows." Celestia continued. She looked at Twilight, who's eyes were full of anticipation.
"It is the biggest discovery of whole Equestria, and it has enlightened us about the history of our world," Celestia told Twilight, who was getting more and more exited.
"What is it?" she asked, and saw that the two sisters glanced between each other.
"It is grim, and maybe even frightening thing for some, but we think that you need to know about it," Celestia told her, making Twilight feel a bit more nervous again.
"Grim? Maybe even frightening? What can it be?" she thought, and looked at the two other princesses expression, that didn't tell anything to her.
"I think I just have to wait," Twilight thought, and stopped asking more.
They sat in the chariot that flew in the darkness for fifteen minutes, before Luna said: "We're close now,"
Just then the leader of the royal guards turned his head towards the three princesses.
"Were over the landing zone my princesses. Proceed to landing?" he asked, and Celestia nodded to him.
Then the chariot started to descent, turning to left slowly. Twilight looked over the edge again, and soon she started to see the land. It was rocky, and she noted that they were probably in some of the deserts in Equestria's east regions.
The chariot was almost on the ground and the pegasies pulled up a little, making the chariot stop. Then it landed to the rocky landscape with a small thud.
Twilight was about to hop away from the chariot, but Luna stopped her with her hoof. Twilight looked at her confusedly, but she just shook her head and said: "Wait."
Just then Twilight noticed red dot on her chest, she looked at Luna and Celestia, and noticed that they too had red dots on their chests. Even the pegasies who flew the chariot had them. Twilight tried to brush it off, but it didn't come off. She noticed that it was some kind of a light, that came from somewhere nearby.
"Identify yourself!" they heard a rough voice shout at them. Twilight started to feel really nervous, but Celestia and Luna seemed to be calm. Celestia then cleared her throat.
"Seven nine three zero one," She slowly said, and the dots disappeared. Then they heard the same voice again: "Welcome to area fifty-two princesses!"
"Thank you commander," Celestia said, and pointed that Twilight could now get out of the chariot. Twilight did so, and the older princesses followed her. Twilight was still confused. What were those dots, where were they? What was are fifty-two? She looked at Luna for some answers, but she she just started to walk towards something with Celestia.
Twilight followed them silently, right behind them.
She soon saw six ponies, who she recognized as royal guards with their battle armor on. Their helmets covered their snout too, making them look really threatening. They had their mean looking weapons hanging on their chests from straps around their necks. Twilight saw that there was something attached under the barrel of the gun. She saw a red dot on the ground where the gun was pointing.
"Where they pointing at us!?" she though terrified, and looked at Luna with wide eyes. She seemed to know what Twilight was thinking, and said: "We have maximum security here, nopony gets trough here without clarification."
Twilight glanced towards the soldiers one more time, before they disappeared back into the darkness.
Soon they came to a halt, and Twilight walked next to the older princesses.
She saw two more soldiers standing by two sides of a well camouflaged metal doors. Luna took a step forward and said the same numbers that Celestia had said earlier.
The soldiers saluted, and opened the doors for them.
Inside Twilight saw a long well illuminated tunnel, that lead down into the earth in slight angle. There were also two guards inside the tunnel. She followed the two princesses in, and hear how the metal doors shut behind them.
Now princess Celestia turned towards Twilight again.
"What you will see next, is something that will change your way of seeing Equestria," she said calmly, but with serious tone. Twilight looked at her, not sure what to think.
"You see dear Twilight," Celestia said, and held a small pause before continuing: "This discovery shows that ponies haven't always inhabited our world."
Twilight chuckled, and said: "I know that already. Griffons were here long before us,"
Luna and Celestia both nodded to her, and Celestia said: "Yes, that is true. But we are talking long before that. So far away that we thought our planet was only being created during that time."
Now Twilight perked up and looked at the princesses with wide eyes and open mouth. She tried to say something, but couldn't figure what. After a while she managed to ask: "What is it?"
Luna chuckled, and said: "Thou shall see it now,"
Twilight looked in front of them, and saw two more metal doors. They stood in front of them, and Twilight couldn't almost stand still, she was so exited and nervous at the same time.
She looked at the older princesses, and Luna made a gesture that told Twilight to open the doors. Twilight didn't hesitate, and quickly trotted to the doors. She rose to her hind legs and lifted her front hooves to the cold metal doors.
She pushed them hard as she could, and they started to slowly open.
What Twilight saw there behind those doors, was something that made her dumbfounded.
In front of her spread a room at least three hundred meters long and two hundred wide. The ceiling was high above them, and there were metal fairways going around the whole room. All around the room, there were different kind of artifacts and objects, all different from each other. Under the fairways she saw ground, and four long excavations where he saw some kind of statues, that seemed familiar to her.
"Are those.. humans?" Twilight asked from the princesses, who nodded. Their faces were serious.
Twilight had seen humans before, when he went into the portal after Sunset Shimmer to retrieve her stolen crown. But what were human artifacts doing in Equestria? In whole different universe?
"What are those doing here? Has somepony retrieved them from their world?" Twilight asked, but Celestia shook her head, and said: "They were found underground, buried deep under fossil ash and dirt."
"Long before the portal was found," Luna added, looking at Twilight with serious eyes.
Twilight's eyes went wide. She closed and opened her mouth couple of times, before managing to say: "So humans inhabited Equestria long before we did?"
"That's what we believe," Celestia answered, and gestured Twilight to follow.
They walked on one of the fairways, towards the other end of the room. Twilight looked down to the excavations, and saw that the statues there didn't seem like humans she had seen while on her trip to the human's world. These had much more sharper cheekbone's and their eyes were more narrow than the ones she had seen.
"These were found right here, -" Celestia points at the stone soldiers "- We call them the silent nation," she told to Twilight, who looked down to the soldiers.
"Many other artifacts in this room has been found from other parts of the Equestria," Celestia continued to explain to Twilight, who listened carefully.
They came to a small set of tables and shelves. There were some kind of crosses made of wood and other materials like metal and some were even made from gold.
"We don't know what these symbols had to do with humans, but archaeologist have found them in vast quantities."
Twilight examined couple of them, and saw two that were a bit different.
"What about these?" she asked and pointed to the two, rusty metal crosses that had the heads of each arm bent right in ninety degree turns. Celestia looked at them, and said: "Ah! We don't know if they are connected with the rest of these other artifacts, but we thinks so."
"Oh how wrong you are.." they heard a sly voice say, but it sounded more like an echo. Twilight started to look around herself, looking for the source of the voice. She was feeling rather nervous.
Other princesses looked around the hall too, but they had more like angry than confused expressions on their faces.
"Discord! How did thou get here!?" Luna shouted in her full royal Canterlot voice.
They heard an echoing laughter bouncing from the walls.
Then Discord spoke again: "Oh dear Luna.. I'm Discord! I'm older than anything in this world. Do you think that your high security would stop me from finding this place?"
Luna frowned angrily, and shouted again: "Show thy self!"
Celestia too looked wary, when dark shadow glided towards them. Twilight was almost in panic, what if Discord was up to no good.
The shadow rose up in front of them, and from it stepped the lord of chaos and disharmony, Discord. He lazily stretched his different pair arms, and yawed. All three princesses looked at him carefully.
"I'm sorry for my tirednes," he said, bowing to the princesses.
"It's just that all these old things make me feel rather sleepy," he continued, taking one of the crosses to his hand. Celestia looked at him thoughtfully, and then said: "You sound like you would know something about these things."
Discord placed the cross back to the table, and smiled to the princesses happily. He then took a deep breath and said: "I know everything about these things."
"How is that?" Twilight asked, sounding more interested than scared. Discord leaned closer to her and took the funny looking cross with bent arms into his hands.
"For example my sweet princess, this was one of my best works!" he said proudly, presenting the cross to Twilight. All the princesses looked at Discord with their mouths open.
"Your work?" Twilight asked, looking at him suspiciously. He nodded proudly and continued his story: "Under this little thing, swastika it is called, one crazed little human killed close to six million of his own kind."
Princesses looked shocked, they couldn't believe what he was telling them.
"How do you know that?" Celestia asked from Discord, who scratched the back of his head and said: "throughout the ages, all the living things have known me."
"What are thou trying to say?" Luna asked.
Discord smiled to her and gestured them to follow. He took them to another table, where was some old hieroglyphs drawn to a old vase. Discord pointed at one character painted to the vase. It was a a long snake like figure.
"That's me over there. I was called Apep during those times," Discord announced, and looked at the princesses.
"That doesn't look nothing like you," Twilight said after examining the vase closer. Discord just chuckled and said: "Oh yeah? Well look at this then."
In a second, a white smoke came out of nowhere, and when it cleared. A big snake like creature resembling the one in the vase was where discord used to be.
Twilight let out a scared squeak. Celestia's and Luna's horns started to glow, but the creature chuckled and spoke with familiar voice: "You believe me now?"
All three princesses looked at the weird creature in front of them, and in seconds it changed back to the Discord they knew. He spread his hands to his sides and exclaimed: "Tada!"
He waited for a second, but then flopped his arms to his sides, and looked displeased.
"Hmph. No applauses? Though crowd," he said to himself, and scratched back of his head. Luna was staring at him with wide eyes, and she asked: "Do thou know what happened to humans?"
Discord lifted his right hand, that was actually a lions paw. He then said: "Yes, but I was in a middle of a story here. Haven't Celestia told you that it's really rude to interrupt somepony else?"
Both Celestia and Luna frowned, but didn't say anything. Twilight instead said: "Please, continue."
Discord nodded, and gestured them to follow again.
This time they stopped next to a big shelf full of another vases, but this time they were made differently. They were painted with black and brown colors, and there were other decorations in them as well.
Discord browsed trough the vases and stopped when he found the one he was looking for.
"Aha! here we go!" he said and took the vase. He showed it to the princesses, and they saw the monster in it. They then looked at Discord with raised eyebrows. He smiled sheepishly at them and said: "The details might be a little off, but you get the picture."
He then looked at the picture himself, and pointed at the monster.
"I was called Typhon in that culture," Discord told them and looked at the picture. He could almost feel the nostalgia flowing from that picture. He lifted the vase back to it's own place, and said: "One of my coolest forms."
"Humans had different cultures?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, of course!" Discord said. He was pleased that even somepony paid attention to his story. He then thought for a second and scratched his chin before saying: "Humans had this bad habit of screwing things up."
"What do you mean?" Celestia asked. Discord looked at her and shrugged. He then explained, waving his arms around at the same time: "There was always at least one major culture in the world. It started to spread, and finally something went wrong and the whole thing came crashing down."
"Is that why the humans got extincted?" Luna asked, but Discord frowned to her again: "Patience Luna! Patience!"
Luna let out a small 'hmph', and continued to follow Discord with her sister and Twilight. He noticed some paintings that were under sheets of white fabric. He lifted the sheets and his face started to beam from excitement.
"Where did you get these? And in such a good condition!" he asked from Celestia, who told him: "They were in a underground vault, under San palomino desert."
Discord smiled broadly and showed one of the paintings to the mares. It was scary looking picture with a goat kind of a creature sitting in front of scary looking humans.
"I remember that one, it gave me bad dreams," Celestia said, flashing a nervous look to her sister.
Discord chuckled, and said: "Yeah, this one is pretty cool I was Baphomet at the time."
"It is actually a pretty funny story. They had this religion that was full of peace and love," Discord did a small gag, and then continued: "Anyway. Someone managed to turn it upside down! They started to kill each other in name of their 'god' and I didn't have to do thing!..."
Twilight wasn't listening, because she had noticed something. She looked at the picture, and then remembered the other forms of Discord too. She turned towards Discord and said: "You have something from every form you've been,"
Discords clapped his hands together and jumped on his place happily. He then ruffled Twilight's mane and asked from the two other princesses: "Do you give enough credit to her? She's amazing!"
Other two princesses flashed some kind of an smile to him and Twilight, even the subject they were talking about was grim.
"Yes that is true. I have the head of Baphomet.." Discord said and pointed at his head.
"..A tail of a Typhon.." he continued and swayed his tail towards princesses, who had to dodge it. They looked irritated, but let him continue.
"..And the tongue of a Apep," he said and stick his snake like tongue out.
"What about those other parts? And why aren't you in just one form?" Celestia asked, pointing at Discord's horns and wings. He looked at them and then at his hands. He lifted his gaze back to the oldest princess and said: "They are from some other not so famous chaos gods,"
"Then why are thou not in just one form? Why are thou such a big mess?" Luna asked, and others waited for an answer. Discord chuckled again, and said: "After the humans disappeared, I didn't know in which form to be! I had like tens of them and it was really hard to chose!"
"So you just mixed them all up?" Twilight asked, and Discord happily nodded to her.
"That make's kinda sense," Celestia added, and Luna nodded.
Discord placed the painting back to it's own place, and said: "Now Luna, Now we'll get to the thing you've been waiting for,"
All the mare's seemed to perk up. They followed close behind Discord as he walked towards the end of the hall.
"Ahh, here are the most latest discoveries," Celestia said, when they arrived to the end of the room.
"And they are also the last things to be created before humans got extincted," Discord told them, and they all listened carefully.
"You see these?" Discord asked, and pointed at some weird metallic structures that looked like chariots.
"They are cars," Twilight said, when she recognized the vehicles she had seen in the human universe. Discord patted her on the head.
"Anyway, people started to make their life easier by the year," Discord continued. Luna seemed to wonder something, and she soon said: "What is so bad about them making their life easier?"
"I bet you haven't heard of oil, have you?" Discord asked from Luna, who shook her head. Discord then continued his story: "Almost all they made worked on oil, and there wasn't lot of it."
Discord looked at one of the car wrecks, and said: "When they were running out, wars started to happen,"
"Wars?" Celestia asked, sounding shocked. She looked at Discord with confused look and asked: "Couldn't they just share?"
Discord fell on the floor and started to laugh out loud. He squirmed on the floor and laughed so hard they thought that he was going to choke. Mares looked at each other and then at still laughing Discord. After a while he managed to get his laughing under control.
He swept couple of tears from his eyes and said, sounding almost deprecatory: "Humans didn't know how to share! All they thought was themselves, and that led to their doom."
Everypony was silent, and watched as Discord walked towards a big object, that was too hid under a white sheet. Discord pulled the sheet away, revealing at least a fifteen meters long, cylindrical object with small flaps on the other end. It had some odd writings on it's side.
"W-what is that?" Twilight asked, but she was pretty sure what it was. She had seen those things while visiting army bases. She knew that it was some kind of a bomb.
Discord stood next to the thing and patted it's side. He looked proud, and said: "This thing here is my ultimate masterpiece!"
"What is it!?" Luna asked, starting to get sick of Discord dragging everything as long as possible.
Discord didn't seem pleased with her, and said calmly: "This is a thermonuclear cruise missile,"
"What?" all three princesses asked.
Discord then started to explain: "With one of these, you could swipe a complete city out of the map like that!"
He snapped his fingers to demonstrate, and the princesses listened in terror.
"Imagine thousands of these, flying in every direction of the world!" Discord explained exited.
"You're a monter!" Celestia said.
"Thou really are a monster!" her sister joined her. Twilight looked at them, and then at Discord. She then pleaded: "Let him finish.."
"Thou destroyed so many lives!" Luna continued, ignoring Twilight..
Discord looked hurt, and said: "I'm a monster? I was created by them!"
Celestia and Luna went silent, and looked at Discord strangely. Discord then continued: "Without them, there wouldn't be me! Don't you get it? Haven't you never thought how did you capture me in first place?"
"With element's of harmony.." Luna started, and Discord jumped up and exclaimed: "Exactly! Humans didn't live in harmony or peace!"
He seemed more angry now, and said: "I was changed by them! They saw me as Apep or Typhon, so I changed with them!"
He then looked around, and pointed his other hand at the missile, and waved the other one towards the hall they were in, and shouted angrily: "I didn't build this! They did this to themselves!"
He liked the expressions on princesses faces, and continued more calmly this time: "Humans were so self-righteous that they decided to destroy their own world. And only for couple of drops of that black goo."
There was a small pause.
"Couple of millions years forward and you guys started to habit their dead world," he added.
"That's terrible!" Twilight said, and felt how tears started to appear into her eyes. Discord knelt in front of her and placed his hand to her shoulder, saying: "That's how it went, but don't worry."
"Worry about what?" Twilight asked, and swept tears from her eyes. Other princesses too seemed to feel pretty upset too. Discord ruffled her mane again, and said: "This won't happen to you or any other pony in this way too happy world."
Luna and Celestia seemed to be relieved, but Twilight still sobbed a little. Discord almost felt bad for her, so he said: "Don't cry Twilight, that won't happen never again."
"What about the humans behind the portal? Will they too get extincted some day?" Twilight asked, and Discord thought for a while.
"I don't know about them. They aren't the same humans that lived here, that I am sure," he thought out loud, holding his chin with his hand. He then said: "They have their own elements of harmony right? You said that yourself didn't you?"
Twilight nodded, and looked up at Discord, who smiled a little.
"Then they'll be fine," Discord said, and patted Twilight on the back.
To Discord's and the princess sister's surprise, Twilight threw her hooves around Discord body, making him feel rather awkward. Discord looked down to the clingy Purple princess, and then he looked wide eyed at the two other princesses, who were at least as confused as he was.
"You aren't such a bad creature. Or maybe you were, but you were forced to be," Twilight said, still hugging Discord. He came scarlet red on his cheeks, and said: "Umm.. Maybe it was something like that."
"Besides, it's more important that you're a good person now!" Twilight continued, while letting go of the blushing Discord. They all were silent again.
After a while, Princess Celestia stepped forward, and placed her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
"We couldn't have chosen a better ruler," she said, and Luna too stepped forward.
"True. Thou didn't judge Discord without knowing the whole story, like we did," she said drooping her ears, and looking at Discord. She then said: "We are sorry,"
"Please accept our apologies," Celestia said, and Discord looked at them both with with wide eyes and surprised expression.
He opened and closed his mouth couple of times, before managing to say: "I don't deserve any of your pity or apologies. I am what I am,"
He looked at Twilight, who smiled to him sweetly. He then forced himself to say: "But there's one thing I would like to ask."
"And what is that?" Celestia asked calmly.
Discord squirmed on his place and rubbed his hands together nervously, before asking: "I was hoping if we could leave all this behind, and have a clean start,"
Celestia and Luna seemed to be hesitating, but then they saw Twilight's pleading gaze.
They looked at each other, and nodded slowly. Then Celestia took step forward, and announced: "We have a agreement."
Twilight suddenly hugged her teacher, friend and ruling couple.
Celestia was surprised, but soon she returned the hug. They felt how Luna too joined the hug. After couple of seconds, they turned to look at Discord, with waiting expression.
Discords eyes went wide, and he mumbled: "Y-you want me to.."
All three mares nodded to him, smiling happily.
Discord gulped, and took a step closer. This was completely new to him, and he was really nervous. He slowly started to reach his hands around the mares, and finally closed them to something that resembled hug. He actually kinda liked that, and squeezed them a little harder. He felt their warmth against his body.
They broke the hug, and looked at each other.
"My princesses," Discord started and bowed. He then continued: "May I propose that we leave this place. I'ts full of bad memories."
Three princesses looked at him, and then at each other. They nodded and they all started to make their way towards the other side of the hall.
While they walked, Twilight looked at the human artifacts for the last time, and when they reached the big excavations she had to ask: "Why were these made?"
Discord looked down, and saw the statues. He looked at Twilight and explained: "They were made for emperor to protect him in afterlife."
Twilight seemed fascinated, and looked down. She tried to savor ever moment she could, before leaving the huge hall. Discord seemed to notice that, and said to Twilight: "If you wan't I can tell you everything I know about humans, and beyond that."
Twilight started to beam, as she looked at Discord, and then she said: "We have so much to talk about!"
"More than you can imagine," Discord said.
They reached the end of the hall, and Discord closed the metal doors behind him. They rose the tunnel, and soon reached the front doors. The guards seemed a bit wary when they saw Discord, but Celestia ensured that he's friendly.
Guards nodded, and opened the door. The night was still dark, but not as dark was when they arrived.
They walked to their chariot, where the three pegasus guards jumped a little, when they saw Discord.
"Don't mind about me boys! Just hitching a ride!" Discord said, as he jumped into the chariot. He helped Twilight Sparkle to get in by offering her a hand, which she gladly accepted. After all the princesses and Discord was aboard, Celestia commanded the pegasies to get airborne.
The chariot rose up from the ground, and levitated for a second, before starting to move forward. They were soon dashing trough the skies, towards Canterlot. The sky was getting golden from the horizon, meaning that it was almost time for Celestia to lift the sun to the sky, and Luna to take her moon away from it.
Discord was thinking about something, and soon he asked from Twilight: "How is my dear Fluttershy doing?"
Author's Note
Just a quick story I made today.. I don't know what you will think of this but who cares.
I didn't start to write how the ponies were born or formed, because I thought that they would already know that by themselves, so there wouldn't be need for them to start explaining it to each other.
