The sun was beginning to set on one of the finest day Canterlot had ever seen. For almost the entire day there had not been a single cloud in the sky. It had seemed like the day had lasted longer than most, and if you had asked a certain princess she would tell you it had. Today was the last day in Canterlot of visiting, for Twilight Sparkle and the Princess and they both planned make the most of it. Even if it meant breaking a few of her own rules because she had the chance this day would last forever.
"So Twilight, did you enjoy your week in Canterlot?" Celestia asked still focusing some of her energy to slow the suns decent.
"Yes Princess, I enjoyed it very much” The lavender unicorn said with a smile. "I really wish I could stay longer, but Spike and the girls must be missing me by now."
Celestia smiled to herself Nopony will notice if I raise the sun just a little bit. using almost no effort she began raising the sun hoping her student wouldn't notice.
POP Twilight and Celestia screamed, everything went dark.
.
"Twilight?! Are you okay?" Came the panicked voice of Celestia from within the darkness.
"Yes Princess, I'm fine but one question."
"Yes?"
"What in the seven fires of pony hell just happened?!" Twilight shouted not quite sure which way her mentor was.
"I let go" Celestia said flatly
"Let go?"
"Yes let go."
"Of what?!" Twilight asked now completely confused.
"The sun."
If one good thing had come out of the sudden darkness, it was that nopony could see Celestia's face. The sheer amount of embarrassment had turned her white coat almost completely red.
"You let go of the sun?!" Stammered the unicorn.
"Eeeyup it's probably hurling through space right now." Celestia let out a sigh "Well it's not my problem anymore."
Light slowly returned to the room as Celestia's horn began to glow and the glow continued to grow Twilight noticed light was not only returning there but also outside as well. The expansion of light finally stopped as reached a low glow.
"You should probably close your eyes now" she said with a chuckle
With a blinding flash Light returned to all of Equestria as a new sun was formed. Twilight was stunned she knew the princesses were powerful but had no idea what she was truly capable of.
"Bravo" came the familiar of Discord "I didn't know you still had it in you."
Both Twilight and Celestia spun around to see patch work creature they had so foolishly freed. In one paw he held a pin and in the other held the broken remains of a balloon.
"Really Discord? Really?" Twilight said will doing her best to kill him with her gaze. "All the powers of chaos and you resort to popping a balloon."
"Hey, don't knock a classic." he said with a chuckle. He placed the broken end of the balloon on his mouth and began to blow. To Twilight's surprise the Draconequus began to inflate after several seconds he had become almost completely balloon shaped.
"Poke me" he said as another needle appeared between Twilight's lips.
Twilight hesitated at best the balloon would pop instead of him. At worst she'd blow up Equestria.
"Ah don’t be such a chicken my little pony; all you have to do is poke me."
So be it then she told herself as she lined herself up for the charge, she glanced back up at Celestia how gave her a nod of approval. She began her charge either this would be a great moment or an extremely bad one.
Discord smiled as the lavender unicorn approached. Celestia realized what he had planned, but it was too late.
With a snap of his now stubby fingers he disappeared leaving a now balloon shaped Alicorn in his place. To Twilight's credit she did everything in her power to stop but it was as if the floor was moving not her.
Dammit Discord she said to herself as she realized the floor was in fact moving. This was it Twilight was mere feet away from her teacher with no way out. She closed her eyes and prepared for the worst.
Pop
Twilight didn't dare open her eyes for fear of what she'd find
"Twilight, its okay you can open your eyes now" came the sweet voice of her teacher.
She hesitated what if it's another trick? she asked herself what if it isn't though? The Princess will think I'm nuts.
Twilight's need to please the princess eventually won over and she began to open her eyes. To her surprise everything seemed fine, her teacher wasn't plastered on the ceiling and Equestria wasn't destroyed.
"Hey! we're not dead!" she said cheerfully
Celestia let out a chuckle "He might be strange but he's not really dangerous, possible stupid but not dangerous."
Twilight nodded it was probably best that she didn't question it "So princess what you want to now?"
"Well" she said "How about we just talk? Is there anything you wanted to ask me since you've been here?"
"Actually, yes Princess" answered Twilight almost shaking with excitement. "I had other questions, but after what happened just now I have a new one in mind"
Celestia chuckled at her student’s enthusiasm. "Okay what did you want to ask me?"
"I wanted to ask you how you did it."
"How I did what?" she asked genuinely confused
"How did you create another sun? More importantly how did you create it so easily?"
Crap Celestia thought to herself How could she see me through all that light? Did she peak when I told her not to? Maybe it's time I'm more honest with her.
She chuckled nervously "I had to use up most of stored magic it to do it; in fact Luna is currently controlling the sun."
Good she told herself she'll buy it just like the last pony that caught on
"But I couldn't feel any of your magic, actually that's not true when you lit up the room I could feel that. But not when you created the new sun I couldn't sense anything from you."
Crap! Abandon ship
Celestia let out a genuine laugh. "Twilight Sparkle, you truly are the most talented student I’ve ever had."
"What do you mean?" asked the confused lavender mare
"Luna and I have ruled Equestria for over five thousand years and yet no creature as ever been able to truly tell the difference between our magic and our real powers."
"What do you mean real powers?"
"Yes my dear student, the three of us, Luna, Discord and myself have been around far longer than any creature could possibly imagine there are more of us in fact, at the time there were only eight of us, now there are twenty two and if you count Nightmare Moon that makes Twenty three. For awhile we were content to float around in the nothingness. However we quickly learned that nothingness is boring, so we created the first planet. Then we found out we weren't good at sharing so we each went our separate ways. However some of us went in groups such as Discord, Luna and I."
Twilight was stunned; there was probably no living creature other than herself who had ever heard what the Princess was telling her.
"We created this planet without a name and watched as it grew."
The doors to the door creaked open and a Pegasus clad in golden armor entered the room.
"Princess the train will be arriving within the hour"
"Thank you Brass, wait didn't your shift end at sundown?"
"Yes Ma'am but I'm not really sure when that is. You see I was about to leave the castle when the sun came back up over the horizon. I watched it to see if something was happening but then it disappeared and came back after a minute. I wasn't sure what to make of it so I just went back to work."
Celestia gave a nervous chuckle "Sorry about that we had some...... Technicality difficulties. Won't happen again now you go have a nice evening."
With that the guard closed the door, leaving Celestia, Twilight and possibly Discord alone.
"So Twilight, it looks like you'll be leaving soon." Celestia said with only a hint of sadness betraying her voice.
"What else do you wish to know? Ask me anything I won't keep any secrets from you"
"Really?! Anything Princess?!"
Celestia nodded in the affirmative
"I believe we have time for me to answer at least one more of your questions. So please think about it carefully I would rather not send such personal information through letters"
Twilight paused and began to think, any question. Celestia had just promised to answer any questions she'd wanted to ask and yet she could only get one.
"Ahhhhh" Came the scream of Discord as he slipped from the rafters before slamming into the ground
Screw it she thought.
"What the bucks wrong with him?" she said pointing a hoof a Discord. Who had somehow managed to climb back up the pillar and wrap himself around two of the pillars and begun spinning himself like some form of giant jump rope.
"Fair enough" Celestia answered with a shrug "How about we move somewhere more comfortable before we begin."
"Sure thing Princess"
Celestia's horn began to glow once again and the two mares and Discord were transported to her room. However during the teleportation they had apparently picked up a fourth passenger.
"Dear sister what is the meaning of this?" Asked the now extremely confused Luna.
"Story time!" Celestia blurted out before throwing herself on to the bed.
"Yay!" Luna shouted "I mean, oh yes story time" she said quickly attempting hide her joy in a vain attempt to save some dignity. However the damage had been done and Twilight and Discord just stared at her.
"So sister what story is it?"
Celestia laughed "It's one of our favorites"
"Oh really which one?" Luna said joy beginning to breach her poker-face
"How Discord became so messed up."
Uh Oh Luna thought to herself. "You can't be serious sister; I thought we agreed to never speak of it in front of mortals."
"Don't worry Luna, I trust Twilight completely. Anyways you remember how ridiculous everything was on that day. Do you really think anypony would believe her if she told them?"
"I guess your right sister." Luna responded beginning to ease up.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Discord shouted finally catching up to everything. "Is the story of how you two "Defeated" me and turned me to stone?"
Luna was about to answer when she was struck in the back the of the head by an unknown object. She quickly spun around and regretted it almost immediately it took only a couple seconds for Luna regain consciousness and another minute for anypony to figure out what had happened to her. Discord stood in front of her shovel still clenched firmly in his paws.
"What the buck was that for?!" Luna shouted rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.
Discord's face for the first time became truly serious "You know exactly why."
"Should we help her?" ask Twilight
Celestia shook her head "No he's done now; anyways he never did get her back."
"Back for what?"
"You'll find out soon enough"
Celestia turned her gaze back to the two bickering creatures in the center of her room and cleared her throat.
"If you two are done now, I'd like to begin my story."
Once again Celestia's horn began to glow and in a few seconds the room went dark
15000 Years ago
For it's time the Everfree castle was one of the single most amazing structures within Equestria. Not only was it was it home to Equestria's elite but also Equestria's ruler, Lord Discord and his two advisers. Discord maintained between all species be they dragon or ponies. His advisers maintained the rotation of both the sun and moon.
However these events were never meant to happen, the three beings that at the beginning of Equestria had no names had never meant to be part of their creation. They had only ever meant to observe as their creations, their children grew. But as time went on these creature began to fight, instead of working together to survive they fought for trivial pieces of land and killed in the name of their god's.
The three creators saw this but they did not wish to interfere, for they hoped that somehow their children might be able to obtain peace. Yet as years turned to centuries their children continued to fight, showing no signs of stopping against the advice of the other two beings the third descended choosing to take on a form that he believed would show all the creatures of the planet that they could in fact work together as one.
"And you're trying to tell me this was Discord? Because I've seen Discord and that doesn't sound like Discord. That creature sounds like the opposite of Discord." Twilight said trying to find any signs that my show her teacher was trying to trick her.
"Yes Twilight it was in fact Discord." Celestia said giving her student a smile "Now please let me continue"
Once the creature had taken a form he began to travel across the planet seeking to bring peace. He'd travel to a village only to be treated as monster for his appearance. But instead of fighting back he would leave and try another village after ten years of traveling he was unable to find a single creature that was willing to listen to him. However that all changed when he found a village hidden at the center of a forest. He was prepared to run out of this town as well but was stunned when they offered him a place to stay.
The thing that stunned the him the most was not their behavior in this cruel and unforgiving world, the inhabitants themselves. During his travels he had seen villages of many types of ponies. But never a village with more than one type. However this town had not only Pegasi but also Unicorns and Earth ponies living together in a perfect state of harmony. The longer he stayed the more he believed there was in fact hope for this world.
With the help of the villagers he was able to truly begin spreading Harmony across the planet. After ten years the village hidden in the forest had gained the name Everfree as all creatures were welcome, from the smallest rabbit to the largest Dragon. Any creature could find peace and freedom there. After 200 Years the harmony had spread across an entire continent of the planet now called Equestria. After 1000 years the creature had managed to bring harmony to every corner of Equestria. By that time the ponies of the planet had deemed the creature "The Destroyer of Discord." The creature had always been one for a good joke shortened it and named himself "Discord" for the sake of irony.
Once peace had been established the remaining two beings descended from their realm where they had silently watch the past one thousand years. Feeling shame for not helping the creature now known as Discord they vowed that they would do what they could to help maintain the peace he had worked so hard to achieve.
"So you expect me to believe that Discord brought Peace to the entire planet and all you two did was sit on your flanks and watch him?"
Asked Twilight in pure and utter disbelief.
"See Twilight I'm a pretty nice guy, you just need to get to know me." Discord said pulling Twilight closer "Maybe later we can get to know each other." He whispered into her ear before flicking her with his tongue.
Twilight let out a disgusted shiver "First off ewww, secondly maybe."
Twilight looked back up at her teacher "Princess, that doesn't explain how the creature that brought peace to the entire planet went from a harmonious god, to that!" she said pointing back to Discord who had now rolled himself into a ball and had begun ramming Luna mercilessly.
Celestia let out another laugh "It's quite simple actually, the reason Discord began to change was simply boredom."
"Boredom?" Twilight repeat raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, what Discord learned was that by completely removing Chaos and the unexpected from all aspects of life and by replacing them with harmony, life became dull. There were no risks in life, no adventure, no need for harmony because there was no chaos."
"Is that why he changed?"
"Yes and no, at first he began to let chaos spread across the land, nothing major just enough to add some flavor to life. But over time it grew and creatures that had once been dormant began to wake up. This brought danger back into life but only in areas where no creature had lived. This in turn brought adventure back into life.
"However the chaos that he caused still wasn't enough he needed bigger, things that destroy laws of reality. Things that would really let him play around with his powers. He began targeting us, sometimes he'd reverse the gravity in the castle which would leave us and the staff stranded on the ceiling and unable to leave for fear we'd fall into the sky. Another time he removed friction Equestria which meant anybody who moved, MOVED. Keep in mind though that he never let any creature get hurt from his pranks."
"That doesn't sound anything like what you told me on the day we released him at the library." Twilight said somewhat angry that her teacher had apparently lied to her, not just about Discord but almost everything about her.
Celestia placed one of her wings on her back. "I am truly sorry Twilight, I never wanted to lie to anypony. It's just something’s are better off forgotten, Luna and I won't be here forever within the next 2000 years we plan to have Equestria self sufficient the creatures will pass the laws not us and they will have almost no memory of us. As always though we will continue to watch from above."
Twilight was stunned the Princesses were planning to leave Equestria? Sure it wouldn't happen within her life time or many life times to come, but it would eventually happen. Twilight was unable to even comprehend a world without the princesses and she knew it was probably best not to think about that. Instead she chose to continue the story.
"You still haven't actually told me what really happened to him, or how he ended up trapped in stone."
"What you need to understand Twilight is we were his targets for almost 1000 years. Some days we would get lucky and a war would break out that would give us about a week or two of peace before he'd stop it and begin the torture again."
Luna coughed "Sister do you remember the great Witch hunt?"
"How could I forget." she said with a sigh
"What was The Great Witch hunt?" asked Twilight
Now it was Discords turn to laugh "The great Witch hunt was the most fun I'd ever had, it was like a great big game of hide and seek. I convinced almost every creature that Celestia and Luna had been kidnapped and replaced by evil witches, and that the only way to save them was to capture the witches and sacrifice them in the name of the sun and moon."
"So what happened after that?" Twilight asked.
Discord stifled another laugh "I was actually surprised it had only taken them about a month to capture both Luna and Celestia, who at this point had just given up and accepted that the only way I was going to stop bugging them is if they just went along with it, till I bored."
"Let me guess you didn't get bored?"
"Nope instead I helped the ponies set up the pillars so that we could burn witches, The look on their faces when the flames did absolutely nothing to sweet little Celestia or Luna, After about a hour of trying to kill them they got bored and went home."
"So is that why you turned him to stone?"
"Surprisingly no we still hadn't tried to stop him, sure he annoyed us non-stop, but he kept his people safe and never did harm anyone. However it was particular event that drove us to what we did."
5001 Years Ago
Luna and Celestia had gathered in the dining area for their morning meal. Though these two creatures did not require food to survive. They had grown to enjoy it, it somehow made them feel more alive and in touch with the creatures they had once called their children but had now begun to see as their friends.
"Could you pass me the cereal? Dear sister." Sister Celestia repeated to herself, that word originally had no meaning to her. Celestia and Luna were not related nor did they have any parents. They were just there, they had grown so old that they could no longer remember everything they had experienced and yet now she saw Luna the same way any creature had seen those they called family. Deep down inside part of Celestia had always known that Discord and Luna were her family.
"Sister did you not say you wanted the cereal?" Luna said shaking the box in front of Celestia.
"Oh yes!" Celestia answered cheerfully as she snapped back to reality.
Luna and Celestia had long ago locked away most of their power. Now running of less than 0.1% of their original power they were still easily two of the strongest creatures on the planet. However they had begun to use the same powers they had given their children when they brought life to the planet.
She grasped the box with the powers the unicorns now referred to as "Magic" it had a strange feel as if it was traveling throughout her body at all time yet it such away you could never find its source.
She began pouring the cereal and almost immediately regretted ever creating this planet. Thousands of tiny spiders began to flood out of the box covering every inch of the room almost instantly.
"That sounds bad." Twilight said putting a hoof over her mouth
"You don't understand!" shouted Luna as she grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and began shaking her "WE. DROWNED. IN. SPIDERS!"
Celestia and Luna did their best to stop the flood before it could get out of hand but the sheer number of them was overwhelming and they eventually found themselves pressed against the ceiling as the doors began to give all the spiders ceased to exist leaving Luna and Celestia in a now destroyed room with Discord in the middle.
"Wow, I honestly don't remember putting that many in there." he said with devious chuckle.
Before Celestia could begin another one of her lectures as to why doing things like that was bad.
A large thump echoed throughout the room and Discord dropped to the floor. What Celestia saw shocked her but also pleased her, though she'd never admit that part. Luna stood on her hind legs where Discord had once stood holding a brick tightly between her hooves.
"Luna what did you do?!"
"What?" Luna said innocently "I played a prank on him."
"That wasn't a prank; you hit him over the head with a brick!"
"So? You found it funny right?"
Celestia did her best to keep a straight face but eventually gave in "Yes Luna, yes I did."
“Okay then it’s 2 against 1 which means majority rules therefore it’s funny”
“I guess your right sister either way it’ll teach him not to try that again.”
"So what do we do now then? When he wakes up he's going to be really mad." Luna said staring at the lifeless body.
"Why don't we help him take a nice long nap?"
"What do you mean? Celestia"
"I mean if he doesn't wake up awhile longer we can finally get a break and possibly fix all the holes he put in the walls"
Discord began to slowly stand back up and has he yawned and stretched he went back down. This time however there was an audible thump as the now petrified Discord hit the ground.
"So what do we do now" Asked Luna
"We have roughly 5000 years before he wakes up, so there's only one thing we can possible do."
"What?"
"It means we have to become princesses, and find 6 mares with attitude, in order to defeat him before he can regain control of Equestria. But don’t worry we have about 4999 years before we cross that bridge so for now let's do horrible things to this statue."
"What do you mean Celestia?"
"Fetch me the lube." she said with a maniacal laugh.
And that’s how Equestria was made.
"Wait, wait a minute. You're telling me that's what really happened?" Twilight asked Disbelief think in her voice.
All three nodded in unison
"If that's true, then why did he go on a rampage once he woke up?"
Luna cleared her throat "I believe his mind hadn't caught up to the events that had gone by in the 5000 years when he was asleep so when he finally woke up he instinctively tried to release as much of his pent up chaos as possible. He wasn't thinking right that's why he went after you and your friends, he saw you as a threat to what he saw as peace so he tried to stop you."
"Then why did he seem fine after we hit him with the Elements?"
Now it was Discords turn to answer. "The Elements of Harmony are a fail-safe that was created before we began this world. It required at least two separate users. The reason they were created was exactly the reason they were used to stop me. Should one of us lose control it gave the other two the ability to temporarily drain their powers and immobilize them. Once I was hit it managed to not only drain my power but also my pent up need for chaos, allowing me to re-gain control."
"If that's all it did why did it turn you back to stone?"
Celestia let out a nervous chuckle. "Actually that was Luna and I; we needed to make sure that you understood he could be trusted so he wasn't seen as a monster. We knew that if every pony saw that if the Elements of Harmony trusted him than he couldn't be all bad and it worked didn't it?
Twilight didn't like the feeling that she had somehow been used in this whole thing. But in the end she understood that the princess never did anything without a reason. Now all she could think about was going home and telling her friends everything she learned. Then it hit her like the train she had missed.
"What time is it?!" she asked panic seeping into her voice
"10:22 to wh...... Aw crap the train." Celestia said with a sigh. "Looks like you'll be here for one more day" Celestia said with a smile Good work sure we just gave her some of the secrets of the universe but now she's staying for another day
Twilight Sighed in defeat and Discord rolled beside her before moving closer.
"So I guess we get to know all about each other." He said with a sly smile as he flicked his tongue again.
It is said that the screams of a unknown mare echoed all the way to the ends of time and space where it eventually bounced back causing the event of both the past and the presents and creating an entirely new dimension, a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. This dimension is known as the Twilight Zone.
