Father of Chaos

Era of Chaos 930

Equestria

When Celestia saw what had happened to Equestria and the sacred vale of the Wilds, she cried for the first time since becoming an alicorn.

Celestia and Luna had spent many centuries in the Frozen North, helping their fellow alicorn Prince Gem Sparkle and his family establish a kingdom of harmony and peace.  They had feared the Dark One would come that way, and it was that fear that had kept them from Equestria, an Equestria they thought would at least remain balanced and under control by its ponies.

It was not to be.

Celestia and Luna navigated Equestria from the northwest, heading east to the beautiful vale they had one day planned to establish their own kingdom in.  Over a thousand miles had been ravaged with random landscapes and abnormalities that caused confusion and misery to the pony inhabitants.  It was all these mortals could do to eek a living off of a land that could turn from dirt to cement in the blink of an eye.  Something was not seeking to destroy them, but just letting them survive.  Just.

The alicorn sisters flew the entire way; they dared not set hoof on Equestria lest boiling pools of pudding or checkered fields so common across the heartland appeared suddenly.  Only Celestia's tears reached what used to be earth and forest and stream.  She wept for the ponies that screamed for peace, that begged for it all to stop.  Even Luna, stoic serious Luna, cried over the injustice.

“We have waited too long to plant our hooves, sister,” Luna finally cried out to her as they passed over a field of flattened houses with ponies weeping over their homes. “We have waited too long to establish a kingdom!”

“It was not our fault,” Celestia tried to sooth.  She could sense the vale near; whatever had caused this ruin had left many of the mountains intact, at least, and they were growing thicker. “Our time has come, Princess Luna.  Hold to your faith.”

They winged into the canyons, and these soon opened up into what had been a beautiful vale with rolling plains and a great river and a peaceful, untainted breeze.  Celestia and Luna reared in their flight to a hover, gazing at the horror below them.

The entire valley was covered in layer upon layer of haphazard buildings and layers of earth checkered and shot through with glass and bones.  Fish flew through the air, and birds floated helplessly in a lake of egg-yolk at the center of the vale.  The only thing that seemed intact was the Everfree forest, wild and free.  Celestia and Luna didn't see anypony until they looked to the mountainside, where hundreds upon hundreds of ponies toiled in a quarry.

Luna closed her eyes, and her blue aura hummed about her horn.  Celestia felt the spell sweep across her and towards the valley.

“All the ponies are at the quarry,” she reported. “And sister...there is something else there too.  Something wrong.”

Celestia took a closer look at the huge city.  Such chaos, such a horrible living situation.  She saw no water, no food.  There was no kindness here.

Only chaos.

The Princess of the Sun felt a flood of righteous anger in her breast, and her eyes glowed with unearthly power.

“Luna, this must end,” she said.  Her voice was quiet, but it echoed with her bridled might.

The sisters turned to the quarry, the wind roaring over and below their wings.  The chaotic presence sensed them seconds before their arrival, and he reared up against the glare that surrounded Celestia and Luna.  They flared and hovered above the ground, drawing more than a few pony eyes to themselves.

“And who are you?” Discord demanded with a grin. “Be quick about it!  I'm missing out on some great fun here!”

He snapped the fingers of his paw, and half of the quarry became an avalanche of cream, burying several dozen ponies.  They writhed out gasping and weeping.

“We are Celestia and Luna,” Celestia boomed.  A great wind blasted from her voice, and the ponies braced themselves against the stone. “You are Discord, master of chaos, and you must go!”

Discord stroked his beard, considering.

“What will you do to me?” he asked. “Anything you throw at me, chaos just turns back on you!”

“You have been given your choice!” Luna roared. “Leave, or pay the consequences for your insolence!”

Discord guffawed, falling on his back and kicking his legs.  While he did, sparks appeared around Celestia and Luna.  Celestia eyed those nearest to her, and blinked when they flashed.  She suddenly found herself falling.  Her body crashed into the checkered earth, and she found her feathers webbed with thick, yellow-green sap.  Luna had endured a similar punishment, and both climbed to their hooves.

Luna pawed at the ground, but Celestia gave a whinny to her and galloped towards the forest.  A cloud of furious steam escaped Luna's nostrils before she followed her sister.  As the ponies watched on with slack jaws and slowly streaming tears, Discord continued his uproarious laugh that echoed after Celestia and Luna until the trees of Everfree swallowed them.

….............

1-51 After Chaos

Equestria

Discord received his due.  It was only a matter of time before Luna and Celestia learned of the Tree of Harmony from pony-folk in the Everfree forest.  They had gazed upon its sacred visage and with utmost respect removed the Elements from its body.  There was an understanding between the alicorns and the Tree, both beings of harmony.  Armed with the fruit of the Tree, the sisters faced Discord and smote him with the elements, turning him into a much more harmonious stone statue.

Luna, as Celestia, had always desired harmony.  However, she had not understood at first why Celestia had run so quickly from that first fight, not understood why Celestia didn't harness the power of the sun and blast Discord into charred bits.  Luna had been tempted to use the moon's power in such a manner, but she followed her older sister's lead, as always, and kept questions to herself.

The abnormal pink skies turned blue.  The landscape turned from a game-board for a beast of chaos into a barren land, but not so barren it couldn't be cultivated.  Ponies everywhere bowed knee to Celestia and Luna, Princesses of Sun and Moon, and they didn't stop them.  They needed leaders in these urgent times, and Luna was more than welcoming to ponies who called her their Princess.

Celestia organized the ponies over the thousands of square miles of Equestria, starting in the valley of what used to be the Wilds.  Celestia, Luna, and hundreds of ponies built a castle in the Everfree Forest, above the Tree of Harmony, that would become the temporary heart of their kingdom.

Luna and a group of pegasus scouts took to the mountains to scour for any stragglers or abandoned settlements.  It was there she located the observatory of Starswirl the Bearded.

Luna opened the hidden stone portal and explored the dusty but untouched tomb of knowledge.  Luna did not remember who Starswirl was until she found a fading portrait of him on a wall: a blue-gray unicorn with a white beard, dressed in a hat and cape lined with golden bells.  Images came then of the young colt in the Wilds, of one Celestia blessed with knowledge and power.

She located his desk, and upon it was a cracking leather bag and a book that didn't seem to have been affected by the passing moons.

Luna flipped the cover open with her aura and found a note that had been protected in the journal's binding:

To whoever keeps this journal,

I found this on the road, abandoned, along with some of his clothes.  I knew it belonged to Starswirl, and so I brought it up here until he came back.  I'm sure he'd appreciate it being safe.  It contains some of his most powerful spells, no doubt!

Unsigned.  Luna felt a shiver run down her back.  She tucked the book into her own saddlebag and resumed the search with her team.

….............

On a rest day for the Princesses and their subjects, Luna approached Celestia with the journal of Starswirl the Bearded in their study.  They reclined on large, soft pillows, evening light filtering through the beautiful stain-glass windows.

Celestia's golden aura lifted the journal, and she flipped through the pages, her pink eyes dancing across the words.  Luna watched her, eyes intense as she waited for some sort of revelation.  Celestia gazed on the last page for a few moments before she set it on the reading pedestal at the center of the room, and then looked at Luna, brows furrowed.  Luna sighed.

“There were some books, but most were burnt beyond reading,” Luna reported. “From what we could gather, though, Starswirl became great among his people, just as your prophesied, sister.”

Luna glanced towards the window, and she lashed her flowing tail once.

“Nopony knows what happened to him,” Celestia said, also looking at the window. “It is unfortunate...but there is peace now.  Whatever happened to him...whatever his last spell means, only time will tell.”  Celestia stood and caught Luna's gaze. “To you, my dear sister, I entrust this journal.  Keep it hidden and safe.  It holds a power that I fear nopony yet has the strength to wield.”

Luna nodded and also rose as Celestia left the chamber to set the sun.  Luna stared at the brown cover with its blue embellishments of lines and stars, her blue aura humming into life.  It hugged the old book, all that was left of Starswirl, and Luna felt both honored and compassionate towards the little tome.  She carried it with her as she too went to greet the evening and raise the moon.