Ponies of Choas' Dawn

"You're supposed to say 'Who's there?' This is the most basic of jokes!"

In the shadows of the mountainside metropolis of Canterlot grew the verdant expanses of the Everfree Forest. Lush with flora and teeming with beautiful woodland denizens, it was a place that the royal sisters always enjoyed visiting on their rare trips outside the city. Beyond the eastern boundaries of the forest lay the town that was the heart of the earth pony tribe’s nation of Urth, Fillydelphia. As a result, it had only made sense for this mutual meeting between the leadership of the Alliance and Urth to take place within the woods of Everfree. Specifically, at the shores of Shimmering Lake.

As Celestia might have expected, the Alliance’s entourage was the second to arrive on the scene. Last minute fussing over the wardrobe of the royal family, coupled with reservations about the arrangements for the meal, had resulted in a delayed departure. It was nothing that had not been anticipated on the part of the palace staff, as they were accustomed to such trends, but the elder daughter had to wonder how the earth pony delegation would respond to their tardiness.

Smart Cookie, at least, seemed to take the delay in stride, limiting herself to only a single passing remark before greeting her guests more formally. Though, Celestia observed, there were clear indications from the onset that the Alliance and Urth delegations had possessed rather divergent views on exactly how ‘formal’ this luncheon was going to be. The party of unicorns and pegasi were attired in the regalia that suggested this was to be much on the tier of a typical palace gala event; while their grounded neighbors were dressed much more…um, informally, Celestia supposed was a fair term.

If Princess Platinum viewed this as any sort of slight, there was no outward sign of it. Granted, the alabaster princess well knew that her mother rarely took a pointed interest in the wardrobes of others any more than was necessary to confirm that her outfit outshone all the others. Hurricane, her father, on the other hoof, was clearly irked at the knowledge that he could have worn something other than his parade best and not been underdressed for the occasion. Not that his wife would have heard any such notion on the matter.

That wasn’t to say that Smart Cookie and her family weren’t wearing what Celestia was confident were very proper garments from their point of view. While not as formal looking as what they had worn during their visit to the palace, they were clearly rather recent acquisitions. The young princess’ keen eye noted that both Tough Cookie and Wise Cracker were nipping idly at their vests in an effort to get the never before worn garments to sit right. Their manes had also been the subject of a recent touch-up with a pair of scissors, if Celestia was any judge.

“Sakes, Princess,” the chancellor said as she beheld the train of staff and attendants that followed in the wake of the royal family, “if I’d’ve known you were bringing the whole Alliance with you, I’d’ve packed more fritters!” she nodded her head back at the blanket that had already been spread out by the lakeshore, and the basket filled with freshly baked fruit pastries.

Ever the diplomat, Princess Platinum smiled and waved away what she had taken to be a polite apology, “that’s quite alright, Chancellor. It was an oversight on my part not to insist on exchanging a formal list of attendees,” she nodded a wordless command to one of her mares-in-waiting, and the teal unicorn began to direct the rest of the staff as they set up the pavilion tents and serving tables that they had brought with them, “so I made sure that I brought enough for everypony, just in case.”

Silver platters laden with artfully composed hors d’oeuvres and crystal decanters of fresh juices appeared and arranged themselves on the long serving tables. Chaise lounges materialized seemingly out of thin air, arranging themselves loosely around a smaller circular table bearing a selection of cheeses and chocolate fondue.

While all of this was rather typical where Celestia was concerned, she did not miss the wide-eyed astonishment on the faces of Chancellor Smart Cookie and the rest of her family. Her mother either did not notice though, or was simply choosing to ignore the reactions as she went on to explain her intended arrangements.

“I decided that we should start with a few appetizers and juice while my chefs work on preparing the main course, a zesty four cheese tortellini served in a rich alfredo sauce, accompanied by toasted garlic bread. Dessert will be a sumptuous crème brulee and hot chai tea,” she beamed at the earth ponies, “doesn’t that sound marvelous?”

“Y’all don’t do anything by halves, do ya?” the chancellor mumbled as she took in the sight.

“Hm?”

Smart Cookie must have realized that she had in fact spoken her last comment out loud without intending to and schooled her features into a pleasant smile of her own, “that’s mighty thoughtful of you, Princess, but y’all didn’t need to go through all that trouble. This is just a cozy little lunch, after all.”

“I know,” Celestia’s mother said, a note of confusion in her voice and she look around at the meal that had been set up, “that’s why it’s only three courses and an after-meal tea.”

“…right.”

“If you think this is over the top, wait until you hear what we had for breakfast,” a new voice called out, and the emerald form of the Alliance’s First Councilor emerged from the milling bodies of the palace staff still setting up the encampment. The mage trotted up to her old friend and the pair of them exchanged a brief hug, “and you don’t even want to know what dinner with the nobles is like…” she added with a waggle of her eyebrows before leaning in close for a stage whisper that the rest of the earth pony’s family could easily overhear, “fourteen courses!”

Smart Cookie blinked, “fourteen?”

“Three of them are soups,” Clover nodded in grave confirmation. Celestia knew that it was not an exaggeration; though, to be fair, each ‘course’ was rarely larger than a few bites. It was more like a very extravagant ‘taste testing’ than what most would have considered to be a true ‘meal’. Still, it was amusing to see the frankly astonished expressions on everypony’s face, so she decided to forgo any clarification.

“Do you guys always travel with so many ponies?”

Celestia turned her attention to the auburn stallion and his younger sable brother who had finally approached her. She cast a glance at the baggage train and the castle staff pouring over their contents as they put the finishing touches on the lakeside camp, “well…yes, actually,” she admitted, feeling a little embarrassed. She was keenly aware of the rather blatant display of such opulence, and how out of place it must have been for something like this. But such was how things were done in her mother’s household.

“Why?”

It was tempting to answer with something along the lines of, ‘because that is how it’s always been done’ but that was such a lazy explanation and Celestia knew that. Besides, a real reasoning behind the practice might help the two of them to not think that it was as weird as they likely must, “it’s actually supposed to be sort of a compliment,” she began, fully expecting the questioning looks from the pair of colts, “it’s like saying: ‘see all of the effort I’m putting into this trip? That’s because I know you’re worth it.’”

“Really?”

“Pretty much,” there were a great many more subtle undertones and specifics that Celestia could have spent weeks explaining—as she had indeed spent years learning them at home—but that would certainly suffice for now, “in Canterlot, at least among the nobles, putting forth anything but your best effort could be seen as an insult. So it sort of becomes a custom to go really over the top,” she shrugged.

“That’s an awful lot of work to go through just to be polite,” Tough Cookie noted, nodding at the array of tents, “we’d have been fine with y’all just sort of showing up, you know that, right?”

Celestia smiled wanly at the pair, “you might have, but the nobles back in Canterlot wouldn’t. This was really more for them.”

“But they’re not even here, are they?”

“No, but they saw us leaving,” she explained, “and if they thought we weren’t treating this like a ‘serious’ meeting, it would cause a lot of grumbling back in Court. There are already a lot of ponies who are unhappy about what we’re doing as it is,” she said the last with a slight frown.

“Really? Why?”

A flutter of motion out of the corner caught Celestia’s attention and she turned to see that her younger sister had joined the three of them. She was suddenly a little more conscious of her surroundings with regards to the topic of their conversation, and of the members of the staff that were within earshot. The nature of Courtly politics, and the knowledge that her mother had instilled in Celestia at a young age with regards to the long-standing practice of Unicornian nobles to bribe members of the palace staff for any knowledge or hearsay that might give them the inside track on any upcoming dealings prompted her to hold off on an immediate answer.

Instead, she turned her attention to her mother, but then saw that Princess Platinum was already deep in conversation with the earth pony chancellor and her First Counselor. Her father, on the other hoof, was not looking quite so engaged, “Father? Is it okay if we go for a walk around the lake? It’s a lovely day out, and we’re not hungry yet.”

The slate gray Pegasus glanced at the currently conversing mares for a brief moment to confirm that they were too occupied to field the request and then barked a curt summons, “Captain Maelstrom!” the crimson flier appeared in a flash, hovering above them and issuing a formal salute, “the children will be taking a walk. Arrange a suitable escort.”

The scarlet guardsmare cast a glance at the four young ponies, making sure to note the subtle frown that her elder charge had not been able to completely mask upon hearing that there would be an escort. Maelstrom then rendered a second salute to her commander and called over one of her own subordinates, “Sergeant Fourragere!” a white unicorn dressed in the golden parade barding of the royal guard cantered up, “take charge of things here. I’ll be accompanying the princesses until further notice,” she flashed a subtle wink at Celestia, who appeared visibly relieved at the news.

It would have been too much to hope that she and Luna would be allowed out of sight without any sort of escort at all—that was how it was for members of the royal family—but she was grateful at least that the commander of their personal guard detachment had decided that she was going to handle the matter personally and afford them as much privacy as she could in the process. Celestia suspected that she had one of the many novel compromises that had been made between her parents’ respective tribes to thank for it too.

The royal family of Unicornia had always been protected by a specially drafted detachment of the regular army. The soldiers that served in this unit were selected for their fierce loyalty to the Crown, and were instilled even further with a sense of devotion that ran right to the bone. It caused many of their members genuine distress if they knew that the royal family wasn’t under the watch of any of them for even a few idle moments. Traditionally, no room where a member of the royal family was could be without at least one guard in it as well, even sleeping chambers.

Soon after their marriage, Commander Hurricane had managed to…amend some of those traditions. It had taken him some time and—if Court rumor was to be believed—was why it had taken nearly a decade for the two to produce their first heir. One other arrangement that their father had managed to alter was where the care of those heirs was concerned. It had been a much easier fight for him to win, diplomatically, as it was hard to deny the core intent behind it. As part of the broader integration of the Unicornian and Pegasopian militaries, Hurricane had lobbied hard for his own version of the Crown Guard; but specifically for his and Platinum’s heirs. The protection of the Princess and her consort would still be the purview of the same guards it had always been, but the safeguarding of their children would be overseen by a crack group of pegasi soldiers.

The more conservative members of the Peerage had cried bloody murder, but were eventually shouted down by the majority who saw it as a very logical compromise. Celestia was rather glad for this, since the guards of the pegasi contingent were far more…reserved than their unicorn counterparts where privacy was concerned. They were not bound by centuries of protocol and tradition the same way the rest of the Crown Guard was, and so treated the assignment like most any other they received, with only a modicum more seriousness, since it was to protect the offspring of a pony they greatly admired and respected.

Had it been up to the veteran members of the Crown Guard, Celestia was certain a half dozen or more soldiers would have been marching with them, forming a protective ring around the young ponies. Maelstrom could be counted on to keep a respectful—but acutely attentive—distance as they walked.

“Thank you, Father,” Celestia nodded before looking at the scarlet flier, “Captain.”

“Yer Grace,” the scarred mare bowed to her alabaster charge before bowing to Luna and the others in turn, “Wee Grace. Sers. Shall we?” and with that, she alit into the air and hovered about the small group of young ponies.

“You really don’t get to go anywhere on your own, do you?” Wise Cracker noted.

“Nope,” Celestia confirmed as the four of them began making their way along the shoreline of the sparkling lake.

“So,” Tough Cookie probed once they were a suitable distance away from the rest of the crowd, “about those unhappy nobles you were talking about…?”

“It has to do with the Peerage, and their relationship with the Crown,” Celestia began to explain, and then drew up short when she saw the befuddled looks on the faces of the colts, “how familiar are you with Unicornian politics?”

The pair exchanged brief glances before the elder snorted, “we barely know about earth pony politics,” he admitted.

“Talking about that sort of thing gets adults really heated,” Wise Cracker chimed in, “so it doesn’t come up much.”

“You’re fortunate,” Luna mumbled. The younger indigo Pegasus princess was not a fan of their regular lessons on the workings of the Alliance Court. Truth be told, Celestia found it tiring at times as well, but there was little point in pretending it was something that she had to know about.

“That could make things tricky to explain, but I’ll try my best: the Peerage is the collection of all of the nobles of the Alliance. They are responsible for voting on much of the legislation that governs the realm. While the Crown—that is, our mother—can technically take any unilateral action that she wishes, to do anything without the support of a majority of the nobles would be folly.”

“If they didn’t like what she did bad enough, they could even revolt,” Luna put in.

“Correct,” Celestia nodded, “and so the Crown is often taking measures to ensure that it has the support of as much of the Court as possible,” she flashed a wry smirk now, “usually this can be accomplished with gifts of gold and jewels.”

“Bribes,” Luna chimed in as she took off and engaged in a lazy aerial circle of her own close by.

The elder sister frowned slightly at the rather abrasive characterization, though she could not deny the accuracy, “indeed. But such measures are very temporary, and hardly a way to create lasting bonds of support. For that, marriage is preferred. The Peers themselves will marry between their families to form political alliances in the Court, and when the need is dire, the Crown will marry into these minor coalitions to secure their votes on important legislation.

“More powerful nobles will often…strongly suggest, that a royal union might be in the best interests of the Crown if they feel their family has enough connections with other nobles.”

“So, what? They basically say, ‘let me marry your daughter or you don’t get the votes of me and my friends’?” Tough ventured, following Celestia’s broad description of how her nation’s government operated.

“Basically,” she shrugged, “they’re far more veiled than that, of course; as they are aware that most of their ‘friends’ are probably making the exact same suggestion while their backs are turned.

“But, as you can imagine, the news that one of those daughters may be betrothed to somepony outside the Court entirely,” she flashed a keen eye at Tough Cookie, “has ruffled quite a few withers among the Peerage. It was scandalous enough when Mother married Father. Hearing that the same sort of thing may happen yet again so soon…” she rolled her eyes, “you’d think it was the end of the world the way some of them are carrying on!”

“You don’t sound very upset by any of this,” the older colt noted.

“If I let myself be upset by every noble that wasn’t getting their way I’d spend every waking moment sobbing into my pillow,” Celestia chuckled before adding as an afterthought, “and perhaps a few sleeping moments as well. There are a lot of nobles.”

“Actually, I was kind of talking about the whole ‘betrothed’ thing,” he amended, “the idea of getting married to somepony just so your mother can get ponies to agree with what she’s doing doesn’t bother you?”

Celestia was a bit more somber when she answered this time, her eyes drifting to her younger sister and Wise Cracker, who had parted ways from them during their conversation and were now engaged in some sort of game than resembled a variation of Tag, “not for myself, no. I’m the eldest, and as such will eventually inherit the Crown after Mother passes. Were I to marry a Peer of the realm, it would be a political alliance that would endure throughout my reign. Picking the right stallion could make or break the entire Alliance. It is a weighty responsibility, but not something that ‘bothers me’ in the way you mean.

“It would be different for my sister though,” she sighed with a note of regret, “she truly would be just a pawn in such an arrangement. The power her eventual husband wielded in the Peerage would be invaluable to me during my rule, but…I would truly regret using my sister like that, however necessary it might be. Under normal circumstances, it might have been possible to allow her to wed whomever she would prefer; primarily capitalizing on the influence of my own husband. Unfortunately…”

“…Me and Wise don’t have a lot of friends in that Peerage of yours,” the colt supplied with a smirk.

“Correct,” Celestia nodded, “if we commit to this alliance between our tribes, there will be a lot of ‘grumbling’ in the Peerage, and a lot of nobles that will threaten to withhold their support in the future,” she sighed, “by that same token, if we were to approach it with anything less than the full endorsement of the Crown, then the Peerage won’t take it seriously, which could only serve to degrade the treaties over time.”

“See all of the effort I’m putting into this treaty? That’s because I know it’s worth it,” the older colt paraphrased, casting a grin at the princess walking beside him.

Celestia was forced to laugh at the subtle twisting of her own words from earlier, “exactly!” then her mirth eased, “it’s going to be hard back home,” she admitted, “but I do believe in what Mother and Father are trying to do. Chancellor Smart Cookie does too, I think.”

“Oh yeah, our Aunt’s got really high hopes for this whole thing,” he confirmed, “Ma and Pa are a little iffy about it,” he cleared his throat, “and honestly, I wasn’t all on board from the gate either.”

“Oh?”

“Well, y’all just got done talking about what it means to be a princess and how you gotta go on about dealing with other ponies and how it determines who you’ll marry; but we don’t have any of that where I’m from. I’ve never met anypony who ‘had’ to marry somepony else for any reason other than ‘cause they wanted to.

“So imagine how me and Wise reacted when Aunt Cookie came by and asked us to come with her to Canterlot Castle and what it was for,” he snorted and shook his head, “she made us promise to be nice and behave and all that, but both of us were plumb set on not going through with it.”

“Were?” Celestia remarked, catching the tense that the auburn colt had used.

“Yeah, well, that was when I was sure both of you were spoiled little brats that grew up always getting whatever they wanted,” he waggled his eyebrows at her, “like all rich unicorns.”

The alabaster princess narrowed her eyes at the colt’s own playful expression, and wasn’t quite able to hide her own crinkle of a smile on her lips as she replied, “much like I was expecting a grubby, turnip brained, farm hoof to come trapesing in through the Grand Hall?”

“Hey!” Tough Cookie sounded almost reproachful, “I was not trapesing,” he defended, managing to look almost genuinely insulted, “it was a ‘confident swagger’, I’ll have you know!” he thought for a brief moment, “all the other stuff you said is right on though,” he grinned once more.

Celestia snorted in an effort to contain the laughter that bubbled up inside of her, “oh, when the Court sees you walking down the aisle,” she shook her head, “I can think of at least four of them who will certainly die of apoplexy!” and she wouldn’t be sorry to see it either, come the think of it.

She noticed that the colt was looking at her with a vaguely quizzical expression now, and cocked her head. He asked, “did one of us just propose?”

The young princess blinked a few times as she thought on the matter, “it had actually not occurred to me that either of us would need to,” she admitted, “since everything was more or less being organized by my mother and your aunt.

“Besides, any actual marriage would still be many years off in the future yet. A formal betrothal announcement would be made to the Peerage upon ratification of the treaties, but nothing much would really change between us,” Celestia informed the colt, “a lot can yet change in the Court’s political climate,” she admitted, “after so many years with the treaty in place, a marriage may not even be necessary to maintain it further.”

“So, this all could end up being just for show?”

“It’s possible,” though not very likely in the princess’ opinion, “in any case, there’s no need for you to feel quite so…tied down, just yet.”

“I get it,” the colt said, sounding a little more subdued, “you’re trying to let me down easy. I didn’t really think somepony like me had a shot at a for real princess.”

Celestia balked, “no, no, that’s not it at all!” she stammered in an effort to get her words out quickly enough, “I just thought that maybe you…” her words trailed off as Tough Cookie looked back into her eyes, and she saw the sparkle of amusement in them, “…you are a bad pony, Mister Cookie.”

“Prince Cookie, thank you very much,” he insisted in a playfully haughty tone, “ooh, I like the sound of that…”

“There’s still plenty of time for me to choose your brother, you know?”

“Not if you don’t like jokes,” he laughed, “if you think I’m bad, then there’s no way you’d be able to stand him for more than an hour.”

“And who says I don’t like jokes?” she favored him with a coy expression before stepping past him to continue their trip around the lake.

“Well, I sure haven’t heard—oop!”

Whatever the young pony had been about to say was cut off in an abrupt exclamation of surprise followed by the sound of somepony collapsing to the ground in a rather unceremonious fashion. Celestia, of course, had a pretty fair idea of what terrible fate had befallen the colt, and so she turned around and let out let out a blatantly feigned gasp of surprise, “oh my! It seems as though, somehow, the draw-strings on your new cuffs became tangled and caused you to trip! What a terrible ‘accident’!”

Tough Cookie glared up at the filly standing over him and then looked at the offending garment on his fetlocks, “so I see,” he grumbled, “they became so ‘tangled’ that it’s like they were tied to each other,” he spread his forelegs apart until the strings between them became taught, emphasizing the neatly tied bow between them, “what rotten luck.”

“You should be more careful,” Celestia grinned at the colt.

“I suppose I should at that,” he said before tugging at the knot with his teeth and releasing his bound legs, “I stand corrected,” Tough Cookie got back to his feet and nodded in deference to the alabaster princess, “I didn’t have you pegged for a prankster.”

“Me? A sweet, innocent, princess of the realm; a ‘prankster’? Perish the thought!” Celestia winked.

“Uh huh,” he kept a more wary eye on her after that as they continued walking. Their conversations, fortunately, took on a much lighter tone as they went on around the lake. Celestia was fascinated by life in Fillydelphia, and plied Tough Cookie for even the most mundane story about the folk that lived there. No peers or ponies of noble birth, no dynastic machinations, and no magic. It was all quite a foreign concept to the young princess.

In turn, Celestia told her presumed suitor all that she knew about magic—which actually was not all that much. She also regaled him with descriptions of the habits and mannerisms of pegasi, for he’d seen scant few of them throughout his life either. In all, it was a rare moment that she got to share with Tough Cookie. Even with the colts her age in the Royal Court back in Canterlot she had to guard herself. Anything that she told them was sure to make its way at least to the ears of their parents, and from there to the rest of the Peerage. This pony had no such ties, and so, for perhaps the first time in her whole life, the young filly was free to speak and act as she pleased. She could relax, and she liked it.

The two of them soon came to a narrow stream that fed into the lake. To say that it barred their path would have been a gross overstatement. Indeed, at its deepest it might only have been a couple of inches, and it wasn’t more than a couple feet wide besides. Either of them could have deftly hopped across without even the need to get their hooves wet. However, it seemed that Tough Cookie saw in this moment a chance to make a jest of what he thought to be an expected chivalric act by a typical noble Canterlot stallion.

“Fair Princess,” he bowed speaking in an absurd mockery of a highborn accent that made Celestia chuckle, “allow me to see you safely across these treacherous rapids,” he bent low to the ground, “if Your Highness will permit me?”

Celestia was forced to cover her mouth with her hoof to keep from laughing out loud at the very amusing display. Being a good sport about the whole thing, and enjoying the frivolity that was all too rare a thing for her to experience back home, she followed suit, to include her own exaggeration of the speech that she listened to frequently, “oh, noble knight! Brave for me these waters, and see your princess to safety!” she then carefully gathered up her dress and gingerly climbed up onto Tough Cookie’s back and deposited herself there. Just as the other day in the garden, the earth pony colt bore her weight with hardly any indication that she was even there. The young colt might not have spoken or dressed like the knightly champions of legend, but he certainly possessed their fabled strength! The filly noted this approvingly.

Celestia continued the charade and extended her hoof, “onward!”

“As you wish,” Tough Cookie bobbed his head and began to march with exaggerated steps towards the stream. The two of them were hard pressed to keep from grinning like fools at the absurdity of the whole performance as they forded across.

Then, with startling suddenness, Celestia felt herself fall at precisely the same time Tough Cookie let out his own yelp of surprise. The next thing the young filly knew she was mere inches from the surface of the water. Thinking that this had to have been some trick on the part of her companion, Celestia turned to glare at the offending colt and berate him for the scare, only to find that he was looking rather surprised as well. He was also up to his neck in water.

The pair of them exchanged glances with one another before looking back at the trickling water around them. To either side of them, the depth of the stream was patently obvious, and it remained just a few simple inches. However, for reasons incomprehensible, the portion that Tough Cookie had chosen to walk through was deep enough to have nearly swallowed the earth pony.

“What just happened?” the colt asked, not taking his eyes off the stream around him.

“I don’t know,” Celestia admitted, looking around in confusion, “are you alright?”

“I think so. I might be going crazy though.”

“Me too. Can you get out?”

“Probably,” he sounded hopeful, “you should go ahead and get off me first,” he nodded towards the shore less than a foot away.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Celestia stepped cautiously over to the bank and proceeded to put a respectful distance between herself and the shockingly unpredictable water. She watched Tough Cookie cautiously place his own hooves on the banks and pull himself out. Fortunately, he did not seem to encounter any further surprises.

The sopping wet colt turned around and glanced back at the stream, “that…was really weird,” he noted. Then he looked down at his clothing, “and my mother’s going to kill me.”

Celestia stepped over and examined the garment. It wasn’t ruined all that much, really. Any one of the hoofmaidens that her mother had brought would be able to restore the garment good as new with a simple spell, and Tough Cookie’s own parents need be none the wiser. She informed him of as much and then looked around, “we can probably have Captain Maelstrom fly it back for you and get it taken care of in a few minutes…if we can find her…”

“That pegasus? I’m pretty sure she stayed back with Wise Cracker and your sister.”

That reminded her, “where is Luna anyway?”

“They were racing turtles or something last I saw,” the colt supplied, “so they probably haven’t gone far. Just stay here for a minute and I’ll be right back, okay?” Celestia nodded and watched the earth pony make a running leap across the stream to ensure that he achieved sufficient clearance over the deceptively treacherous water to put his mind at ease and then continued to canter until he was out of sight.

Celestia watched him go, and then turned to survey the stream once more. That had certainly been rather unexpected. She admitted that she hadn’t looked very closely at it before, but it had not looked as though it could have been anywhere near as deep as that! In fact…the princess blinked in surprise and slowly eased a tentative hoof into the water, feeling it meet the soft, muddy, bed just below the surface. She withdrew her hoof with a start.

That wasn’t possible! She had clearly seen Tough Cookie get nearly swallowed up by the water at that exact spot! It couldn’t be that shallow! How…

The alabaster unicorn princess became aware of the sound of laughter nearby. Surprised at the appearance of the sound, she wheeled around and glared off into the wood line, “who’s there? Show yourself, I command it!”

“You should have seen your faces!” the disembodied voice cackled out from the shadows. A moment later, a pair of crimson pupils framed in gold appeared, moving with the mirthful cackling, “they were priceless!”

Celestia took a step back from the trees and those strange eyes, “I demand that you reveal yourself!”

“My, my, my, and here I thought you said that you could take a joke?” the voice jabbed testily.

She tensed. Whoever, or whatever this thing was, he’d been eavesdropping on her conversation with Tough Cookie. Celestia found herself feeling rather anxious now, and for the first time in many years wishing that she were not quite so far away from any of the guards assigned to look after her wellbeing. She forced herself to look composed, remembering who and what she was, and what that meant.

“Am I to take it then that you’re responsible for what happened to Tough Cookie?” Celestia was pleased that her voice didn’t so much as crack as she spoke.

“The bit with the stream? Oh, yes, that was me! Not my best work, I’ll admit, but sometimes it’s all about finding joy in the simple things in life, isn’t it?”

“Why are you following us?”

The eyes widened slightly, “me? I’m not following anyone! You’re the ones who’re walking through my forest,” they narrowed now at the princess.

She narrowed her own gaze in return, “what do you mean, ‘your’ forest?” she demanded, “are you saying that you live here?” it would have been difficult to believe, as Celestia had not heard of any intelligent being that called the Everfree Forest its home.

“Sometimes,” was the response that she received, which only made her frown deepen, “I am living here now though. I gather that you’re one of those things that pretends to use magic that lives on that mountain over there?” the eyes bobbed in the direction of Canterlot.

'Pretends to—!'…Celestia glared at the eyes, but nodded, “My name is Princess Celestia, Daughter of Princess Platinum, and heir to the throne of the Unicornia-Pegasopous Alliance. Now,” she puffed out her chest, “I demand to know who you are!”

“Why…” the young filly just about jumped out of her hide as the voice that responded didn’t come from the pair of crimson and amber eyes in the shadows of the forest, but from something that was standing directly behind her where nothing had been only a heartbeat before. She spun around as quickly as she could, nearly tripping over her hooves in surprise, and found those same eyes peering down at her, “…my name is, Discord…”