Titanomachy

Celestia

A matched set of white pegasus stallions in gilded armor stood stiffly at attention in front of the door to Princess Celestia's private chambers. The position of guarding the diarch's chamber itself was a duty that required more than just vigilance or martial prowess. Often the ability to specifically not hear what was occurring within was clearly the skill most needed at the moment. Delicate international negotiations, the debriefing of master spies, even the occasional tryst all required the guards to be trained in not hearing. Their brows were furrowed and sweating with the effort they were manifesting to try, desperately try to not hear the shouts and bellows shaking the chamber door on its hinges.

"You are a liar!" Celestia proclaimed at near Traditional volume. The horn doctor's ears folded back both in displeasure and to protect what was left of his hearing.

"Your Majesty, I-"

"You told me that wasn't going to hurt!"

"Your Majesty, I need you to-"

"I do not care what you need, you lied to me!"

"It was only to-"

"Lying to me could be construed as treason, you know." Celestia's volume lowered as she started to recover from her shock.

"I had to inject the distillate of coca into the base of your horn to prevent pain."

"This was to prevent pain?!? What kind of sadist are you?!?"

"Lie back your Majesty. I must work before the anesthetic wears off."

"How dare you give orders to me within my own chambers, in the old days I would have had you flogged for - OW! You stabbed me! In the neck! What poison did you give me foul assassin?"

"It was a general anesthetic my Princess."

"Why would I need...a...gen...gener....anaaah..he-he."

"There we go your Majesty, now lay back like a good girl."

"I am...good...girl."

"And good girls get cake."

"Oooo, cake. I...like....caaaaaa...zzzzzzzz

As the chemically induced bliss wore off Celestia became aware of a noise like that of a particularly aggravated mosquito. There were vibrations traveling down from the tip of her horn so she attempted to look up its length to see what was occurring. From her eye-crossed vantage she could see that the doctor was hard at work but could not tell with any detail what he was doing. The buzzing whine stopped and the doctor, muffled from the surgical mask he was wearing, implored without taking his eyes from his work. "Please your majesty, you must not move." The buzzing resumed and Celestia did her best to not move a muscle.

She wasn't feeling any pain, per se. But she could feel vibrations and pressure whenever the doctor brought his tools to bear. She could feel him grinding away at high points on her broken horn, smoothing out the irregular surface. In her mind's eye the nooks and crannies on her damaged horn inflated into crags and crevices and she felt the drill remove whole mountaintops. She still couldn't see and he hated being so totally at the mercy of someone else. It bothered her deeply, to be so far out of control so soon after her recent losses. Closing her eyes, she endured the rest of the process; The interiors of each fragment were sterilized using magic, the ends of each fragment were ground flat and the two pieces were glued together with a cement that would be replaced with horn over time.

After the procedure was complete, the doctor instructed Celestia in the care and cleaning of her repaired horn. Additionally, he extended the complete ban on her use of magic for a week and then limiting herself to small acts of telekinesis for the next. Celestia soon grew restless and needed something to keep her mind occupied, so she ordered her staff to bring some of the most urgent paperwork from the office she and her sister shared. "I may not be able to raise the sun, but at least I can get though some of these reports," she thought to herself. Mostly she needed to feel useful and capable and this was an unwanted chore that everyone would enjoy seeing done.

Alongside the stack of unloved papers, her porters brought a floral arrangement. It was a somewhat stylized and overwrought example of the sort of gift one would give a friend or loved one who was ill. The arrangement was a combination of white roses, daisies, and the nameless green fronds that were used to add volume to bouquets. Dismissing her porter she examined the flowers with a smile, she found the card hidden within the green fronds.

Get Well Soon, Beloved Princess
Canterlot Banking Consortium

"Well, this was new," she thought. "At least they look tasty." She thought about he act of giving flowers or other edibles to a sick pony. The practice dated so far back that even Celestia couldn't remember an actual beginning to the tradition. What likely was a simple act of kindness, giving food to someone who was too weak to go out and forage, had evolved into a formal act of well-wishing with the colors and flavors of the flowers conveying increasingly complicated and obscure messages over time. Examining the floral choice and arrangement alongside the sender's identity, the message of the flowers themselves were symbols of pure sisterly love and that of an early and rapid spring. "Hm." She approved. "It seems they hired a professional," she thought.

Over the next few hours, the numbness in her horn and scalp changed into a strange buzzing and tingling sensation and eventually cleared into the strange metallic ache that only nerve damage could produce. Celestia had spent this time fruitlessly attempting to get through the paperwork she had requested. She had even gone so far as to ask her porter to bring her an earth-pony writing implement, a pencil. She had planned on spending the afternoon learning how to write with her mouth but the first gift of flowers was soon joined by others. The trickle soon developed into a flood and soon the porter was sweating and panting from the constant deliveries and her bedroom was taken over by a forest of white flowers as every flat surface was engulfed and there was only the narrowest of paths leading between her desk, the bed, and the door.

There was yet another knock at the door and Celestia looked up from her desk with trepidation, she simply didn't have anywhere else to put more flowers. "Cm n" was the princess' reply muffled by the pencil in her mouth. Instead of her porter this time it was Twilight who entered. The purple mare was carrying with her a small brown sack that was incongruously bedecked in bright pink ribbons. Celestia spat out the writing implement onto her desk and spun around to face her protege, "Twilight!" On the alicorn's a wide and genuine smile spread along with her wings, unfurling to assist her balance as she stepped carefully between the flowers towards the bed in the center of the room.

Twilight looked nervous, not that that was particularly unusual for her student. "I ended up having to rescue this when passing through security," referring to her burden.

"What is it?" Celestia asked as the sack was levitated to the cushions.

"I don't know how Pinkie heard about the flowers already. In fact I don't think it's possible for her to have heard about Luna's address and have had the time to post this here."

"Oh," Celestia replied as her smile faltered. "She asked everyone to send me flowers?"

"I wasn't there but not exactly. I heard that she said that those who wished to show their support to you should send you flowers and well wishes."

"That was better," Celestia thought despite being unable to put her hoof on what exactly made it so. "So, what is this?" she asked Twilight while taking a closer look at the sack. Printed on the side it said All Purpose Flour. "Oh." Her composure then began to crumble as she started making little snorting sounds.

"Princess? Are you-"

Celestia's mien broke and she began to giggle like a little foal. Twilight, after a few moments of gawping in amazement, joined in and laughed herself breathless.

"Oh, Miss Pie." Celestia said around tears of relieved stress. "Please tell her 'thank you' for me the next time you see her. She truly is the Element of Laughter.

Twilight, now having regained her composure, replied. "I will Princess, I will. Um, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Twilight. You can ask me anything."

"Who was Grogar?"

Celestia's smile vanished abruptly, having been totally taken off guard. She looked at her student, aghast.

Twilight's face showed disappointment, as if Celestia's shock was a confession of a crime.

A voice rang out from the doorway, destroying the moment completely. "He was the black sheep of the family."

Luna was wearing that smile again.

Twilight

"Ugg, in the name of Cel-" Twilight glanced at her mentor and then started again. "By the stars and moo-" she then thought again about who she was talking to. She settled for a sad, little "That was terrible, Luna."

"We have been waiting eons to use that one!" the grinning alicorn replied.

"Bu- Bu-" Celestia sputtered, staring at her sister. "How can you joke about this?!?"

"I believe it is called 'a straight line.' Luna replied, smiling smugly.

"I don't care if Twilight was wearing bells and motley," the older sister admonished.

"Bells and motley? Twilight asked in a quiet shocked tone.

"Oh, fie on your black humors Cele. 'Tis simply a joke."

"It's not just a joke Luna, how would she even know that name?"

"You see I found this book-" Twilight started to explain.

"Why shouldn't she know about Grogar? He was a fell foe we fought and overcame. There are dozens of ballads celebrating our victory."

"I purged the records Lulu, I erased him and all that he did. All that we did."

"Why would you do that?" Luna demanded.

"Things are different now-"

"It's because of the curse. That and the slaves." Twilight surmised in a clear cutting voice.

Celestia nodded.

"Is something wrong with the curse? Are they beginning to speak again?" Luna asked, anxious but for entirely the wrong reason from Twilight's point of view.

"No, sister, they are still mute, they are still broken."

"You knew about this?!?" Twilight turned with surprising venom.

"Well, yes. Of course I did. I was there. I'm actually surprised that it isn't public knowledge."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"That this tale is forgotten, yes indeed."

"No, Luna. About what you did to them."

"Why would that bother me?" Luna asked, genuinely confused.

Twilight stared at the alicorn with mute horror. "...I don't know you at all. Do I?"

Luna started approaching the distressed unicorn. "Twilight, what are you talking about, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" She asked. "You are what's wrong. Slaves Luna, you took slaves and we still have them to this day. And the curse, Luna, you broke a whole people. You turned them into animals. Worse, they're smarter than any animal should be but can't ever speak again. At least she," she jerked her horn towards Celestia, "knows she should be ashamed for what she did."

"Ashamed? We saved ponykind from that fiend and crushed his army. We made sure they couldn't hurt anyone ever again" Even confused and hurt, there was still a touch of prickly pride in her over the accomplishment.

"Go."

"But Twi-"

"No, I don't want you here. I can't talk to you right now. I- I can't even look at you."

Twilight saw that her words were hurting Luna and in her aching disappointment that was a good thing.

Luna slowly backed out of the room, picking her way through the flowers without looking. She never broke eye contact with Twilight until the unicorn slammed the chamber's door with a magenta shove. Dust drifted silently down from the rafters in the aftermath, highlighting Twilight's gasps. She was breathing as hard as a marathon runner on the last mile as the impact of what she said to Luna sank in.

Celestia's calm and quiet voice shattered the silence and dragged Twilight's mind back to the here and now. "Things were different then, my dear student. Do you think that language was the only thing to have changed in that time?"

"But she acts so normal most of the time."

Celestia's expressively raised eyebrow spoke volumes.

"I mean, normal for her, or me." Twilight replied, flustered by the eyebrow. "Somepony who knows right from wrong. Someone who is lonely but appreciates the quiet. Someone who you can talk to and who understands. Someone who you could be...friends with. Not...that."

"She still is all those thing but she is also much more. I know it is easy to forget how old we are, especially my sister. We've lived through countless pony lifetimes and some have been filled with war, blood, and savagery. The battles against Discord were just one of many fights we had to join against those who would destroy our ponies."

"So killing, cursing, and slavery is just fine to her? To you?"

"No, they were never 'fine,' they were necessary at the time. Doing those things are never easy and never should be."

"But you did them," Twilight replied with a tone of finality.

"Yes, we did. Despite the many battles you've fought in the last two years, you are a child of peace Twilight. You never had to fear dragons strafing your village with flames and then eating the survivors as they fled. You never had to face a platoon of armed and armored griffons bent on tearing your city from the sky itself. If you hear enough screams and smell enough blood, you will find that there are things which...There are things you think you cannot and must not do. You will find that you were wrong."

Celestia looked old to Twilight then. Not 'Granny Smith' old but mountains, oceans, and stars old. Her true age, Twilight reminded herself. "I...I don't want to think about that anymore. It's just too big right now."

Celestia simply nodded, looking every inch the ageless immortal despite her recent defeat.

Twilight forced her mind away from wars, terror, and Luna. It took effort, but eventually she was able to bring herself back to the reason she came to Celestia.

"So, was Grogar a god?" Twilight asked her mentor.

"Yes, or whatever term you want to use for beings like my sister and I. He was the king of the cloven hoofed in his time. He was the master of bells and the paragon of spite and greed." Celestia betrayed no emotion in the lecture, sounding more like a professor of history than someone who was there.

"What happened then? She prompted.

"You seem to have worked a lot of it out yourself. He challenged our rule and attempted to take the pony lands for his own kind. He was fiercely loyal to his people but thought nothing about destroying other species for his own gain. The two of us together, Luna and I, were able to destroy the bells he was using to power his sorcery. Without easy access to his magic we were able to bind him and place him within Tartarus."

"Bells? Sorcery?"

"Grogar was an accomplished magician and had mastered a form of magic that isn't practiced anymore. His people used to craft bells so that when they were rung a spell would be cast. The art is forgotten but I am given to understand that cows still wear bells to this day, for reasons of tradition and culture."

Twilight didn't know much about the cloven hoofed races in Equestria. They were almost never seen in Canterlot at all and the few she'd met in Ponyville were kept by the Apples. She had thought at the time that the bells around the cow's necks served some sort of practical purpose. Instead they were the remnants of a once powerful magical tradition, the details forgotten and reduced to a form of decoration. She felt sick.

"How did you know he was a god?

"Well, we knew each other, in the beginning."

"What do you mean?"

"In the...early times. Before all...this." The alicorn tried to gesture at everything in the universe in a single movement of her wing.

"So, there was a time before...everything?"

"Everything has a beginning and an end, Twilight. Even if the two are indistinguishable."

"Uh, what?"

"Sorry, never mind that. Just woolgathering. So, yes there was a beginning."

"So you and all the other...gods...popped into existence at the same time and place?"

"Oh no, dear. Some of us are much younger or older than each other. I am older than my sister because without the sun the moon could not shine. Our niece is much younger than us, she could not be born until after there were people with the capacity to love."

"Ehhhhh." The tiny noise escaped Twilight as deep truths about the nature of the universe were discussed like so much family gossip.

"But we really weren't all there in one place either," Celestia continued. "The world was much smaller then and more...mythic. So it was inevitable that we would run into each other. We sort of had to, so that the world would turn out this way."

"Eh."

"That's about it, my dear student. Why is this important?"

Twilight mustered some semblance of composure "I...I. So, you knew all the other gods because they were there with you, in the beginning and interacted with them."

"Yes."

"And the Changeling Queen wasn't one of them?"

"Exactly. Now, what does this have to do with anything?"

" I was just getting my hopes up about your injury. It looks like I was wrong."

"I'm sorry, Twilight. The Queen isn't a god and that means I'm going to grow old."

Twilight willed herself to not cry over this once again.

"Is there anything else I can do to help?"

"No, I should get back to the library. I wasted a lot of time on this wild goose chase," Twilight said with some frustration.

"It was born of hope, Twilight." Celestia smiled sadly as she said this. "And I thank you for that. I don't want to die either but we need to concentrate on getting the sun back into the sky as soon as possible. I'll last longer than the crops will, even like this."

"I won't fail you, Princess," Twilight said as she moved to leave.

"Of course you won't."

Luna

The door slammed on Luna's stunned face. "What just happened?" she thought to herself. She turned slowly from the door, feeling a tightness in her chest and a catch develop in her breath as she did so. "Twilight is upset at me, that much is clear, but from what slight?" The lunar mare re-ran the twisted conversation through her head again as she shuffled slowly down the hall. "Was it the joke? I thought it was funny but was it really that bad?

"No, it was something to do with their victory over Grogar. The enslavement of the cows and sheep?" Luna did feel that that old business was a bit unpleasant but what else was there to do? If she and her sister had allowed the cloven-hoofed to remain in control of their lands they would have waged a war of revenge within a generation. Was it the curse they had placed on the goats? She had offered them the same choice she gave the others, their freedom or their speech. The goats had chosen their path, stubborn to the end. The Minotaurs and other monsters were decimated and then banished to the far corners of the world. How were any of these outcomes better or worse, morally, than any other?

"Maybe it's been long enough? Is that what Twilight meant?" Luna thought, grasping for some hope. Eventually her hooves drifted to a stop, the front of her mind trying to parse what just happened between her and Twilight while the back of her mind sought the comfort of shadows. There has been no shortage of dark spaces in the palace over the last two days, much of the structure was designed to take advantage of the sun's direct light. The perpetual dusk blanketing the world painted the alabaster walls in hues of rose and indigo and allowed deep pools of shadow to gather in pockets and corners. Her subconscious sent her into one of these cool, black pools where she could feel the subtle texture of the shade and pull it around her like a foal's treasured blanket.

She was still deep in thought when Twilight came walking down the hall. The young mare looked sad but like she had calmed down at least. "Twilight," Luna spoke from the shadows as the unicorn approached.

"Gyaaah!" she screamed, jumping straight into the air in fright.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." the princess rambled in apology while stumbling into view.

Still panting from her fright Twilight turned on her with a look of irritation. "Don't do that. Don't you know you shouldn't sneak up on ponies?"

"Yes, I mean, of course I do. Twilight, I'm sorry. I wasn't hiding, I just didn't think." Luna still felt off-balance talking to Twilight. The previous argument added to the awkwardness of startling the unicorn.

Something Luna said must have affected her, Twilight quickly regained focus. "Yep, I'm pretty sure that was it," she said with a worrying coldness.

"Twilight, I...I'm sorry if I said something back there," she gestured back up the hall to Celestia's chambers, "to upset you. I know I don't understand everything about ponies these days but I'm trying to learn as fast as I can."

Twilight closed her eyes and sighed before replying. "Of course you are, I know that. Our...disagreement is as much my fault as yours."

"Really?" Luna's hope for reconciliation caused her to blurt out the simple word, forgetting the connotations.

Twilight pursed her lips for a moment and then replied. "I had forgotten my place; I forgot what you are. I treated you like any other pony and that was wrong of me. I hope you can forgive me for that."

Luna's heart fell through the floor. In desperation she brought forth words she hadn't even admitted to herself at this point. "But, Twilight....We've grown ever so fond of you."

"And I you, Princess." Twilight's use of her title rather than her name caused her blood to run cold. "It would be an honor to maintain a friendship with you, but I've been far too familiar and presumptuous in our interactions. If we are to maintain a friendship I must ask your forgiveness for this."

Friendship, a word Luna normally loved had become vile and poison. Her eyes ached with tears ready to march. "There is nothing to forgive Twilight, I refuse."

"And yet I beg for it, your majesty. I need your forgiveness or not even friendship will be possible." Twilight replied with increasing formality and a shimmering wetness in her eyes.

"Please, Twilight. Don't do this." Luna said with a thick voice. She took a step towards the purple mare, her purple mare she had begun to realize far too late.

Twilight took an equal step back and Luna's heart broke.

"Of course, Miss Sparkle." Tears overflowed their levies and ran down indigo fur. "I would give you anything for which you ask. Anything."

Tears were coursing down Twilight's own face as well. "I know." She whispered. The unicorn stepped forward and gave Luna a chaste kiss on the cheek. They both knew it was a kiss goodbye. Twilight then vanished in a magenta flash.

Luna was no longer within the shadow, she was shadow. In her sorrow she found the place within her that remembered how to cut the strings on the puppet that was her body and become darkness itself. She flowed down the labyrinthine halls of the palace like a subtle tide. The shadows grew deeper and more solid when she passed. Candles and torches guttered at the pressure she exerted on the light. Servant's napes stood on end and they shivered as she flowed around them. She poured herself into her ebon throne, tendrils of smoke and shadow gathering into solidity. Here, at the center of her domain she should have the power to do what she willed. Here, she should be too strong for pain. Here, she is too grand a being for a neurotic little filly to reject.

She shaped the darkness into a new body. As much as she was tempted by the merciless mien of Nightmare Moon, she had done far too much work over the last two years to separate her reputation from that pseudo-mythological figure to undo it all in a single fit of pique. Instead she crafted her body as an embellishment upon her latest form as Luna. She would be a hoof taller than before, a shade darker, and with a mane just a touch more nebulous. She had no need to terrify, she just needed to be more.

"WE ARE HERE!" she proclaimed in the Traditional Canterlot Voice. The courtiers and guards jumped and stumbled in their surprise. "THE COURT OF NIGHT IS NOW IN SESSION!"

Her ministers were the first to shake themselves out of their stupor. "Your Highness, we welcome you. Are there any proclamations you would like to make or should we begin with the petitions?"

The goddess of the moon paused a moment. Normally, she would begin with petitions immediately but tonight she had something on her mind. "WE DO!" Her ministers, not expecting any announcement were thrown off a beat. "WE PROCLAIM, FROM THIS NIGHT HENCE, ALL OF THE CLOVEN-HOOFED ARE NOW FREE AND MAY NO LONGER BE HELD AS PROPERTY." Silence dominated the throne room for several second and then chaos broke out.

Discord

Discord's attention was drawn back to inside the library by a spike of magical energy punching its way through some of the strongest wards in Equestria. "Ah, Twilight. The things you do when you forget to remember your supposed limitations."

He could feel that something was deeply wrong with the unicorn, her aura was burning, flaring mess. Despite the endless training and discipline he knew this unicorn put into controlling her power, several small objects d'art were knocked over, flung, or melted. She was straining against her raw power with all her might. "She'd be magnificent if she just let go," Discord mused while imagining reality flowing like so much candle wax under the unicorn's onslaught.

"Damn you for a collaborator, Fate. I'd bet my horns that you had a claw in this. Chances are it was all schmaltzy and poignant too. Bleh." Celestia had nearly ruined this mare, here she was clinging to the edge of sanity on a daily basis, gifted with power that could rival the gods themselves, and still she kept her mind and power under control. It was tragic to him, like seeing a priceless work of art defaced.

He pulled himself away from ogling the mare's distress and instead concentrated on hearing her surface thoughts. He dove in, hoping to see the results of his guidance on Twilight's studies. Instead of a young mare mourning the revelation of her mother-figure's imperfection, he found himself swept into a torrent of romantic strife and recrimination. While he was no stranger to love-based discord, heck he had two daughters who specialized in such things, it was as disorienting as snapping one's fingers and having strawberry flavored milk fall from the sky. It's not that strawberry milk is bad, it's just that he was expecting and looking forward to chocolate.

Wishing for the freedom to conjure himself up some popcorn, he watched the show that was Twilight attempting to berate herself while at the same time raging against Luna while at the same time begging her forgiveness while at the same time trying to convince herself to run to the mare and take her back while at the same time telling herself that that was a bad idea. Some details were clearer than others, depending on how much Twilight was going over them in her memory. "So, the Grogar info he led Twilight to yielded this? Perhaps he should consider a career in teaching," he thought to himself. It was obvious to the dragonequus that the two were crazy about each other and this little misunderstanding was likely to blow over, given enough time and love will conquer all. "Booooring," he thought. "How do I make this actually interesting?"

It took a few minutes for the overwrought unicorn to stop tormenting herself and get her mind back onto business. Once she did, Discord was gifted with the reason for Twilight's research binge in the first place. Celestia's injury and her inability to raise the sun, both were the result of her duel with Chrysalis. He knew she was hurt but this was the first mind he had been able to enter that knew the true extent of her wounding. He guffawed upon learning that Celestia didn't know that the Changeling Queen was his daughter and therefore divine. The big, white cry-baby had convinced herself that her wound was inflicted by a mortal monster and therefore her connection to the sun was broken, ergo, she was now mortal and was going to die. It was at this point Discord lost track of what Twilight was thinking - he was rather busy howling with laughter for the next several minutes.

Once he was done exalting in Celestia's ego-driven misery he tuned back into Twilight's mind. It made sense now, what she was researching. She had been hoping (against Celestia's insistence) that his daughter was a goddess and therefore able to inflict a divine wound upon her mentor. The mare was about to give up though, the Grogar story Celestia gave her had convinced the poor little thing that her all knowing goddess of light couldn't possibly be ignorant of the younger gods. "Sigh. Arrogance, pure uncut hubris. It was almost too predictable for Discord's taste but perhaps he could liven this up at the same time as the matter with Luna.

He lurked in the unicorn's mind, waiting for the right moment while she was putting away the books on mythical monsters and foal's tales. She had just thought to herself that "Celestia should know," referring to the alicorn's supposed knowledge of all matters divine. In a voice matching the one Twilight used when debating with herself, he whispered a single, short phrase: "Maybe she doesn't." It didn't hurt that it was also the truth.

Twilight froze at the errant thought. Discord worried that perhaps he had overdone it but then her next thought confirmed that he had hooked her. "If she doesn't know, where could I find out?" Twilight thought to herself. The internal thought was deliciously tinged with guilt over the treason implied by her doubting Celestia's perfection.

"She's not the only god you know about." Discord supplied.

"I can't ask Luna, not so soon after..." Twilight thought with a wince at the end of the sentence.

"Princess Cadance?" Twilight then listed. That was the dangerous one from Discord's point of view. His daughter did know the truth and might have even overcome her shame at being related to the "monster" that stole her fiancee to tell Twilight about the Changeling Queen. He had to steer her away from this line of inquiry.

"They'll ask about Luna." he whispered, softly, delicately, it all hinged on this.

Twilight shivered at the thought of her brother asking about her and Luna's fight. The potential embarrassment of admitting her feelings to Luna's own niece. There had to be another god, one who's whereabouts she knew.

"Grogar." She said out loud at the same time as Discord whispered the name in her mind.

"He was in Tartarus, imprisoned for his crimes against ponykind," she thought. A gate to that bleak realm was near to Ponyville she remembered, deep in the Everfree Forest. She had dealt with Cerberus before, she knew she could get past the three-headed guard dog if she was careful. She moved among the stacks of books, pulling titles that likely contained information on the prison of the gods. She was confident that if she read through these she'd have enough knowledge to get in, ask the fallen goat god about his relations, and get out without any trouble and before the Princesses even knew she had left.

She pulled the cards from behind the front covers of all of the books she had selected, stamped them and filed them properly. She was a librarian through and through and the thought of just taking the books never even occurred to her. The books were due in two weeks and she noted the date in the proper place inside the covers. "More than enough time to accomplish my mission," she thought with a touch of pride. Placing the several tomes into her saddlebags she headed out the main doors and towards the train station. Her heart was swollen with confidence and anticipated praise from Celestia.

"Hubris," Discord thought with a chuckle. "A lesson well taught, Celestia."