The Equestrian Monomyth - Book 2 - Complexs of Disharmony

It was the third day of the deadline given by the gryphoons to Celestia, and nopony from the countless atracted by the Royal Edict, had been able to even make the lighstones to shine. Celestia was sadly looking to the sky, hopes slowly fading bit to bit: What can she do? She can't make Twilight to return. The gryphoons could find out and that'll be it. Equestria will end up invaded, after a thousand years without having a single gryphoonic war. The ponies weren't ready for this. I was going to be a butchery.

But the time was running out! Oh, what can she do?! What can she do?!! Celestia walked to her wardrove and started to repeteadly hit it with her head, completely sank in despair.

Even worse, if a war gets to come open, Twilight will surely be at the front lines, and she'll be one of the first ponies to...

"AHHHHHHRRRRGGGG!!" Celestia, with an enraged and crying scream, launched a spell over the wardrove, destroying it. Then, she cooled down, and started to nervously look around: "What... what's happening to me? Why I'm feeling like this...?"

She was deep on those toughts, when a royal guard knocked her door: "Princess! Are you alright?! What was that scream?! What was that noise?!"

"Ah... I'm alright! I... I just think I saw a mouse!" Replied Celestia. "A really big and mean one! So I shot him!"

"Ahh. Thanks heavens. By the way, Your Highness. Have you heard? Twilight is back in Canterlot!"

Celestia opened her eye, filled with happiness: 'She's back! She's back! She has forgiven her! Oh, thanks heavens!'

"Thank you, my little pony, thank you thank you thank you!" She thanked the guard, then quickly opened the window and flown down to the city, looking for her former faithful student.

It didn't took long until she found us. Then, she landed to Twilight and embraced her with her wings: "Twilight! Twilight... you came back. You forgave me!" She happily exclaimed.

"Your Highness, I wasn't mad with you. There's nothing to forgive at all."

"Come, come, I need to talk to you. In private." Said the white alicorn, teleporting away with Twilight and leaving Trixie and me behind.

They appeared in some hideout. Then, Celestia made sure that there weren't anyone else around, and turned back to the purple unicorn: "Twilight, my faithful student, you have to help me, look..."

"Your Highness, I..." Tried to talk Twilight.

"Shhhh, shhh, shhh!" Celestia whispered. "We haven't time for that. Look, I need you to manipulate those lightstones, but the gryphoons can't figure out that's you, so I'm going to cast this appearance changer spell on you..."

"Actually, about that..." Tried to speak Twilight again.

"Shhh! Not now! Listen, that's a temporary spell, so you'll have to excuse yourself from time to time, then you'll go to my room, and I'll renovate the spell, and you'll quickly come back to your place, like nothing has happened..."

"I've brought a replacement..." Twilight tried to speak even again.

"... and don't worry, we'll only be doing this while... What?" Celestia shooked her head.

"I've brought a replacement for me. She's brilliant! I'm sure she can perform this task as good as me, if not better!"

"What?! A replacement you say?! But Twilight, I don't want to replace you! Is that odious gryphoons the ones that want another pony!"

"And I've brought one!" Happily confirmed Twilight.

Celestia shooked rapidly her head "No. No no no no no. NO! I don't want another pony, Twilight. I want YOU!" She pointed Twilight with a foreleg.

"Me? Why me, Your Highness? I'm not that important."

"Yes you ARE!"

"Then why you bucked me out in the first place?"

Celestia hoofslapped her own face: "Twilight! I've already told you that we haven't time for this!"

"I'm sorry, Your Highness, but if you don't tell me why you want me so badly, I'm afraid I can't help you."

Celestia raised a foreleg, but remained speechless: That's right. Why she wants Twilight so badly? Which could be... the reason...?

"Your Highness? Are you alright?" Asked Twilight, concerned.

"I... " Barely could say Celestia, when a bright light popped just behind them, and a form teleported there.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Celestia screamed, scared, putting both forelegs upside.

"Your Highness, it's me, Shining Armor!" Said Twilight's brother. "What's happening?! Are you in danger?!"

Celestia sat on her haunches with a hoof in her chest, panting: "Captain, please warn me before doing that!"

"Oh, I'm sorry for the rushed arrival, but the gryphoon delegation has just arrived, and they are requesting your presence in the contest. They said you made a 'Deal of Honor' with them. That's true?" Explained the unicorn stallion.

"Your Highness, you made a Deal of Honor with the gryphoons?! Why?!" Asked Twilight. "You can't break a Deal of Honor with a gryphoon! In the Gryphoon Empire, the ones that breaks it have to commit suicide! Is that important to them!"

Celestia put her hoof back to the ground, closed her eye and sighed. "Yes, it's true. I made a Deal of Honor with them... But it was for a good reason! I swear!"

"Your Highness, if they requested another pony than me for the contest, then you can't put me in on it. If they find out, they'll declare war to us!" Continued Twilight.

Celestia dropped her head and ears: "Oh no... I've doomed Equestria... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She cried.

"Don't cry, Your Highness! I've told you that I've brought a replacement!" Happily announced Twilight.

The place where the contest were taking place was a big amphitheater, designed to held concerts, circus shows and such, and consisted on a central circular square, surrounded by an elevated seat zone. In the center of the circular square, there was a pedestal with the lightstones over it. With great confidence and self-assurement, Trixie walked to the pedestal where the lightstones were lying: "Ha! The great and powerful Trixie will have no problems controlling this pitiful stones! Just watch!"

She lightened her horn, and the stones shined and brighted for a moment. Trixie lightened her horn again, and the stones started to shine with different colors. Other magickal pass from Trixie, and the stones levitated and started to slowly swirl around the pedestal, exchanging colorful lightnings among them, in a quite impressive show. "Ha ha! Behold! Game of foals!" She boasted.

"Ohhh! She's good! Pretty big pretentius, but she's definitively better than the other." Said Chad.

"See?. You should not underestimate us, ambassador." Said Celestia, smiling but still sweating cold.

"Bravo, Trixie, Bravo! That's how's done! Woooooooooo!" Cheered Twilight among the spectators, applauding.

Celestia looked to her, and, featuring a wide open smile, she started to applaud too, soon followed for all the ponies spectators around. Trixie's eyes quivered with a happiness beyond description: They're cheering her! Everypony, even Celestia herself where acclaiming her! Oh, sweet Celestia, this is the happiest happier day in her life!! Ohhhh, she could float right to the heavens right now!

Trixie couldn't resist, and standing on her hinder legs, she even threw some fireworks...

The gryphoons just gave a blank stare to the alicorn, and then they started to whisper among them.

Once the applauses were ended, the ambassador Chad turned to Celestia again: "Congratulations, Your Highness, we sincerely didn't think you'll make it on time. Heh heh heh. Alright then, let's retire the audience, so we can pass to the main part of the show."

Celestia made an agreeing gesture with her head to Shining Armor, who proceeded to clean the building from all the excess ponies.

Once the amphitheater was emptied, with the exception of Trixie, the gryphoon delegation, Celestia and her guards, the ambassador stood up:

"Alright, blue pony. Now, your next assignment will be to make an exact copy of Princess Celestia, using the lightstones. Your Highness, make us the honors." He extended his claw, indicating to Celestia to come down near the pedestal.

Now it was Trixie who was sweating cold: To make an... an exact copy of Princess Celestia?! Twilight didn't told her nothing about this! She gulped and looked around: There was no escape, as it was a large and flat circular square with not even a hole where to put a hoof in. And she doesn't even know how to teleport. She was doomed...

Celestia flown down near Trixie, and looked to her sternly: "What's happening, miss Trixie?"

Trixie gulped again "I'm sorry, Your Highness, but the great an powerful Trixie... doesn't know how to make a copy of an alicorn goddess..."

"Ah! Don't worry, miss Trixie, I'm pretty sure it's something like an appearance changer spell." Laughed Celestia. "And it turns that I've found a very practical one recently. Let me taught it to you." She said joyfully, lightning her horn.

Trixie looked up, relieved: Ooof! Heavens! Looks it isn't that hard. Then, she turned to the lightstones again, and lightened her own horn. The stones levitated and started to join together, forming first a formless mass of changing bubbles, but slowly receeding until they took the rough shape of an alicorn. Then, Celestia applied her own magic, and the roughly looking alicorn brighted for a moment, then the bright faded, and there was, standing, an exact copy of Princess Celestia.

Celestia herself was perplexed. She started to walk around the newly appeared alicorn, until she stopped in front of her copy's face. "Amazing... it looks exactly like me..." She commented. Then, shrugging her eye, she used her magic to raise the copy's eyepatch...

Celestia gasped and made a small jump backwards, standing in a defensive posture and with trembling legs: "... up to the last detaaaaaiiiiiil..." She said, scared.

"Perfect! Everything is going according to the plan!" Chad stood up, satisfied. "Now, put this magic dampener on the copy!" He demanded, throwing a roughly done bridle to them.

Celestia stared to the bridle: "What's this for? It's a statue! It's not like it's going to escape or anything!"

But right then, like it was meant to belie her, the 'statue' started to move.

"Hurry up, put that on it, put that on it!" Exclaimed Chad, pointing with his claw.

Startled, Celestia took the bridle with her magic and put it on the copy's muzzle, and the 'statue' stopped moving.

"It's safe now?" Asked Chad to other gryphoon that looked like his magickal advisor. The other gryphoon nodded, and then the entire delegation flown down where the two mares, and the copy, were.

"Alright, seems that you've driven our request to good endpoint. You've honored our Deal of Honor. We're satisfied with the results." Said Chad.

"Then, this is all that was about? Make a copy of me?" Asked Celestia, perplexed.

"Oh, Princess, this isn't just a 'copy' of you. This is like... your twin sister, if I may say so. It thinks like you, behaves like you, and the most important thing... it can do the same things that you do... like raising suns and moons..." Explained Chad.

Celestia opened her eye and muzzle wide:

"Then... do you mean... what... that thing can raise the sun and the moon?!"

"That's right. You know, that lightstones are actually called 'seeds of life', and they can be magickally manipulated to mimic any living thing, so we come out with the idea, after you were nearly killed in your kingdom's recent conflit, that we needed a backup sunkeeper in the case that... How I can say it politely...? you kick the bucket."

The gryphoons laughed.

Celestia shrugged her eye: "That wasn't funny, ambassador."

"I'm not supposed to be 'funny', Princess. I'm supposed to be trustful and loyal to my wings, which is much more than I could say about your previous adjutant." Replied Chad.

The gryphoons laughed again.

"Well, I think this ends our business. Please, return now to the Empire. We're done." Demanded Celestia.

"How's that? You're going to let us take your little twin sister nice and easy?" Mocked Chad, and the gryphoons laughed even again. "If that is the case, we're taking that blue pony with us too." He pointed Trixie, who looked to Celestia, scared.

"What?!" Celestia blurted. "NO! You can't take her, ambassador! This wasn't what we agreed!"

"We're 'deeply' sorry, Your Highness, but we need a magic user to control this thing. It could explode or something. And we'll hate to lose our feathers! We need them for... you know... fly." The ambassador made a flying motion with his wings.

"No. No! No!! NO!!! You're not taking that mare, ambassador! Now leave before I lose my temper!" Exclaimed Celestia, very upset.

"She definitively lost that half of the brain." Said Chad, pointing Celestia and turning his head to the rest of the gryphoons. Then, he turned his head to the alicorn: "It seems that you haven't figured out, but with this copy we don't need you anymore. Listen, little princess, the only reason because we haven't crushed your cute little kingdom was because not only us, but all Equus needed of you. But not anymore! We have power over the moon and the sun now! So we can wipe out Equestria from existence... anytime we want!"

Celestia froze in place. Oh Tartarus! He's right!

"So, listen, and listen well 'Your Highness', you have two choices, or you give us that mare, or we'll send our almighty army over Equestria and we'll take thousands. The life of one in exchange of many. I think it isn't a hard choice to make!" He opened his claws. "Is it boys?!"

"Yeah!"

"It isn't!"

"Easy as pony meat!"

The gryphoons laughed.

Celestia looked to them, then to Trixie, then to them:

"Please, Your Highness, don't let them take Trixie! Don't turn Trixie to them! Trixie begs you!" Pleaded Trixie with her forelegs together, scared to death.

"So well?" Asked the ambassador Chad. "I'm waiting."

"Can... can she at least say goodbye to her family?" Sadly asked Celestia. Of course, that was a trick so she can take her out of danger and hide her somewhere later.

"Nooooo! No, Your Highness, noooo! Don't let them take Trixie! Don't let them take Trixie! I beg you!" Trixie pleaded, drooping to the floor, unaware of the deception.

"Ohhh, Ho ho ho ho!" Laughed Chad. "Old trick, old trick! Are you trying to take us as fools again, Princess? I told you that will be unwise."

Celestia bristled, realizing that she won't be able to save Trixie using side moves: "And that means exactly... WHAT?!!" She screamed, lightening her horn, and adopting a fighting stance. Her pony guards quickly came, with spears at the ready, and surrounded their liege to protect her.

"Ohhh, it isn't what you're thinking, Your Highness. Just more demands." Said Chad with a mocking tone, while handling another scroll to the alicorn.

"More demands, huh? Hmpft!" Huffed Celestia, turning off her horn and getting back to her previous stance. Then, she took the scroll with her magic and opened it to read. Her angry expresion soon turned into a shocked one: "But what's this?! Restoration of the gryphoon's hunting rights?!! This is outrageous!!" She wrapped the scroll and angrily waved it. "NEVER!! I'll never allow you gryphoons to hunt down my ponies again, like the ancient times! And that is out the question!" She asseverated, violently tossing the scroll to the ground.

"Really? Are you going to go to war with us for just..." Chad looked to Trixie and pointed her. "... a single puny pony?"

Celestia was about to say 'yes', but suddenly, the horrors of all the previous conflicts and wars she has seen, came back to her mind. There she stood, hesitative, with a foreleg half way up.

"Hard decision, huh? Really? Are you going to tell me that you're not bored after all those peaceful centuries? Even the strongest warrior gets rusted, if he doesn't pick a fight from time to time." Said Chad.

Celestia was sweating cold. She looked to Trixie, then to the gryphoons.

"And what could you be thinking? Let me guess... Oh, yes! The deafening neighing of the cavalry, relentlessly galloping to their doom, the wrecked bodies of the pegasi, falling from the sky like rain..." Continued Chad.

Celestia was sweating cold and trembling. She looked to Trixie, then to the gryphoons once again.

"... and the bloodshed, the butchery, the stinking corpses. The screams of agony and sorrow." And then, Chad shrugged an eye, did a taunting movement of his right claw and added with a crooning mocking voice: "I bet you miiiiiiiiss iiiiiiiiit!"

Celestia was sweating cold, trembling and hyperventilating. She looked to Trixie, then to the gryphoons even once again.

"Still no answer? Well, then we'll make this even easier for you: Due your majesty's unfulfillment of our rightful demands, I, the ambassador Chad of the Gryphoon Empire, making use of the authorization given to me by our almighty liege, King Gryphanus himself, declare from this moment that the kingdom of Equestria and the Gryphoon Empire are at...!"

I was at the Canterlot library, looking for a spell to heal Twilight's health issue, when she arrived there:

"Love! I'm baaaaaack!" She happily exclaimed. "Everything went just magnificent! Trixie perfomed amazingly well! Even Celestia applauded, you should have been there to watch!"

"Nah, you know than Celestia and me don't get along. So, I decided to make better use of my time here. And know what?! I found a spell to heal you!" I happily informed my marefriend.

"Really?! No way!" She happily exclaimed and galloped to me, but her happy face quickly turned in a concerned one when she read the book I was holding. "No. No no no no no. No. Love, that's a life-force powered spell! You could die if you cast it wrong!"

"Love, you're worth the try. So stand still while I..." I said, kneeling to put myself at her level.

"No! No, love, no. Please, don't risk yourself that much for me, please! I won't take it if I lose you!" She pleaded with crying voice and tearful eyes, putting her forelegs on my chest.

"Love. listen to me." I took her head with both hands, and looked her straight to the eyes, caresing her mane. "I won't take it if I lose you either. So let me do this. I'll be fine. You know that I'm a tough guy."

"And a stubborn and stupid one too!" Twilight still refused with concern. "Love, this illnes is not too serious! I could live 100 years with it!" She assured, pointing her chest with a foreleg.

"Yeah, sure. And I can wake up the next morning, finding you dead in the bed. That's why you were trying to 'put your stuff in order', isn't?" I sternly told her.

Twilight closed her beatiful dark purple eyes, lowered her head and ears, and sadly nodded. Then, I put my fingers on the lower part of her muzzle, and gently raised her head, and she looked at me again.

"Love, you have no reason to be afraid. The reaper and me had an argument, and he doesn't want me back there for a loooooong while." I made a black joke.

We both laughed and gave each other a passionate kiss.

"So, are you gonna be a good girl, and stand still while I'm saving you?" I asked her with a soothing smile.

Twilight looked to a side, focusing in a sharp sword hanging from a shield of arms. Well, if anything goes wrong, at least she'll have a quick death.

"Alright. Go ahead..." She reluctantly agreed.

Relieved, I put both hands in her chest, and a hexadic lightning formed inbetween. After a minute that made me sweat like I was running a marathon, the spell was done. Then, I put my hand on her chest again, checking with joy that her vitals were back to normal.

"Ta-chaaaaan!" I opened my arms, smiling. "As good as new, and I'm still alive!"

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Twilight screamed of happiness and hugged me, kissed me, cuddled me, mad of happiness and relief. "You had me so scared, you bucking stuuuuuupiiiiiid!" She joyfully exclaimed with tearful eyes.

"Shhhhh!" Warned the book keeper. "Keep silence in the library, please, or I'll have to ask you to leave!"

"Don't worry, ma'am. We were leaving anyway." I replied back.