Celestial Eclipse

Chapter 1- Day of recollection

Celestia was wondering the halls of the Canterlot palace. The day had been worth nothing of note. The occasional visitors and diplomats were nothing new to the princess. The few guards that actually took the time to interupt her mundane life usually had nothing of value to say.

Her duties would soon be relieved to her sister for the night, and she couldn't have been happier. The last few days were starting to flow into each other as she found it more and more difficult to sleep. She had tried confronting Princess Luna about it, but her sister offered no resolution.

She always felt as if she was being watched by something, an unseen force that she felt rather uncomfortable about. Only recently had it escalated to the point where she would wake up to what she thought was mumbling. However, her searches would always turn out pointless as nothing was out of place.

As she thought about the entirety of the problem she felt an unnerving urge, and decided to look out one of the passing windows. There was nothing unusual about the ornate frame work.

It wasn't until she looked out that she realized that there was a much greater problem at hoof. The sky was occupied by not only the setting sun, but the moon as well.

The moon wasn't supposed to be out for another hour, and she hadn't even gone to wake Luna yet to raise the moon.

A few ideas came to the front of her mind, but she quickly shook her head and shoved them back into the vault in which they had been locked away.

She galloped through the palace, hoping that what she had thought was not true. Her sister would not have done such a thing. Although it would be easy to fix. The rest of the Canterlot nobles would surely want an explanation as to why Luna had put the moon up early. Cilestia only hoped that her sister had not returned to her old dire state of mind.

She slowed her pace as she approached the Lunar Goddess's private chambers. She walked slowly to the door careful as to not make a single sound. She leaned an ear against the door and was temporarily relieved when she heard the sounds of Luna's rather loud snoring.

She really didn't want to wake her peacefully sleeping sister, but felt that the issue she was facing was far more pressing than Luna's rest.

She quietly opened the door and poked her head in to see her sister lying not in her bed, but in a rather akward ball of blankets and pillows on the floor beside her bed.

"I guess you didn't notice when you rolled off the bed." Celestia chuckled as she moved toward the disheveled mass lying on the floor.

Luna woke with a loud snort which only aided in Celestia's laughter. Luna didn't remember falling asleep this way, but she honestly didn't care as it was rather comfortable.

"Is it time to raise the moon already Tia?" Luna asked trying to pry herself from the prison she had wrapped herself in.

"No actually," Celestia replied using her magic to aid in her sister's escape. "It appears that it has already been done."

Luna froze partway out of the blankets and looked straight at Celestia with a puzzled look, obviously still groggy from her recent slumber. "Umm...could you repeat that? It sounded as if you said that the moon was allready up."

"That is exactly what I said. The moon has risen, but yet the sun hasn't completely set."

"But that is impossible!" Luna said rather loudly, now fully grasping the seriousness of what was going on. "Only I can raise and set the moon...well at least now anyways."

"That is precisely why I came to check on you. I wanted to make sure nothing had happened to you while you were asleep."

"We'll I'm quite fine I can assure you, but this is a little difficult to believe. You aren't trying to prank me, are you Tia?"

"I wouldn't dream of doing something like this." Celestia stated as she shot her sister a hurtful glance.

Luna noticed and immediately regretted accusing her older sister of such a thing as pranking. "I'm sorry Tia, it's just that this was not the best thing to hear when I wake up. Are you one hundred percent sure that the moon has risen?"

Celestia moved to leave the room, and right before entering the doorway, she looked back over her shoulder at her stumbling sister, " if you don't believe me Luna, then come see for yourself."

Luna looked toward her bedroom window, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. It was simply a peaceful sunset. At least it should have been, but Luna soon noticed that the sun was no longer setting but rising again.

Once she was freed, she quickly followed her sister into the hallway and was completely astonished to see that Cilestia was correct. The sun was rising again, but so was the moon.

Luna stood next to Celestia as they both looked out a window at the unfortunate event that was taking place before them.

Luna decided to try to pull the moon back down, and was preparing to do so when Celestia spoke up.

"Do not bother with it Lulu. I tried that once already while I waited for you." Celestia looked down at the floor with concern guising her usually bland face. "It just feels as if something is stopping me from reaching the sun."

Luna looked away and rubbed her chin in thought. "I can still try. It might just be something that only affects you."

Luna's horn light with her magical aura. However something felt off about her magic. It was as if her magic would get close but right before making contact with the moon, it would just stop as if hitting a wall. She would push more and more magic into her horn, but she could never make the connection between herself and the moon.

She eventually gave up with a long exhausted sigh. "I don't understand! How can I, the goddess of the moon itself, not be able to do my one and only duty?"

Celestia let out a long sigh as well seeing her sister's distress. "I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it's stopping both of us. Perhaps it is not us, but something else."

The sun and the moon were now touching on the edges as the two sisters travelled to the castle library where perhaps they could find information about the current state of the sky. Although they were immortal beings who have been alive for thousands of years, neither of them had ever come across something such as this.

They walked in silence on a bridge that crossed the land gap from the living quarters of the castle to the gigantic library, and were just about to enter the library's double doors when a familiar, but not at all welcome voice chimed in both of their ears."Where are my two favorite princesses headed off to at this hour of the morning?"

"Discord? Where are you hiding?" Celestia shouted, annoyed that the mismatched being had interrupted her deep thoughts. "Were you following us?"

"Eavesdropping? I would never dream of such a thing as spying on two benevolent beings who rule over all of equestria, and I'm up here for your information."

Discord had been lying in a bed on top of the library roof. He yawned when he waved down to the princesses, but raised an unamused eyebrow when he noticed that Celestia was grinning up at him, lacking the annoyed expression that her sister held strongly.

"I did not say eavesdropping Discord, I said following. Perhaps you should pay closer attention when you engage yourself in a conversation." Cilestia couldn't help but laugh a little to herself when Discord discovered that he had just blown his cover.

"Okay, okay you caught me Celery. I guess I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but realize that you two where quite distracted coming here and didn't even notice your guards trying to get your attention." Discord turned himself into a snake and slithered down the wall towards the bridge. Once he had positioned himself in between the princesses and the library door he quickly transformed back into his more typical multi-beast self. "I simply wish to know what is troubling you two, and offer you any assistance if i can."

"Well, you have probably already noticed that the sun and moon are not entirely cooperating with us at the moment, and we thought to come to the library to do some research, unless you know anything about this?" Luna was not pressing a shrunken discord against the wall witha hoof on either side of his neck, and was starring directly in to his eyes with the most accusatory gaze she could muster.

Discord turned from her eyes and looked at the sky. He was almost surprised when he saw that the moon was covering up an entire half of the sun. "I can not believe that you would accuse me of something that is impossible for me to do." He grew back to his normal size and promptly teleported behind both princess, escaping Luna's death stare.

"What do you mean it is impossible? While you ruled chaos over equestria the sun and moon would go trough insane changes." Cilestia said as she turned to face Discord.

"You see my dear princess, when I delivered chaos, I was never able to control the sun and moon, and I am still unable to. The chaos down here simply changed things up there." Discord said pointing up at the sky.

"But were you not in control of the clouds?" Luna said approaching her sister's side.

"Indeed I was, but clouds are a whole different matter. It just seemed like the chaos I created over the land, leaked up to the sun and moon." Discord looked up at the sky again, and was completely shocked when he saw that the moon was now completely blocking the sun's light. None of them had noticed the darkness while they were arguing. "I...think I know what the problem is." He continued scratching his chin.

"Do either of you remember your brother?" Discord asked shooting a sideways glance to both princesses. They were both stuck in completely confused states of mind. "Oh don't tell me you don't remember your own brother." He was now frowning completely annoyed by the possibility of the princesses forgetfulness.

"Actually it might not-" Discord was cut off as a loud electric blast sounded from the sun and moon. Instantly both orbs were surrounded in a large dark red electric field. "Eh....most certainly him."

"Who exactly are you referring to Discord?" Luna was now standing next to him, but with a look of genuine concern. It was probably the right move because it instantly banished any plans Discord had for prolonging the conversation with any plans for pushing the princesses further into annoyance.

"This is as much a surprise to me as it is for you two. To be honest I'm rather disappointed that you could forget a vital part of your own family, but...do either of you remember Solar?"

"Solar who discord? I remember no one with such a name." Celestia was now standing next to her sister, but was rather nervous to know more.

"Oh for the love of...your own flesh and blood brother? How could you possibly forget Solar Eclipse?!"