The world was in better shape
A thousand years ago, the spirit of chaos and disharmony, Discord, was sent on the moon as punishment for his crimes. But this noble attempt didn't stop the chaotic spirit and his messy magic leaked through the spell of harmony and laid a curse on the Equestria.
As revenge or as an attempt to get back, the curse took half of the Equestria with Discord for the duration of his punishment.
But it didn't just take half of the Equestrian ponies, it also took their spirits of friendship and harmony, and under the lead of princess Celestia and her magic, ponies fought Discord and imprisoned him.
With the use of Celestia and Discord's powers, ponies constructed a flourishing city and named it after the lost sister — Lunapolis. It gave ponies hope to return home someday, but no magic could speed up this process for all thousand years must pass.
Ponies aren't immortal like their princess, and generations changed until banishment ended. At that time there was a grandiose event. One yellow pony with pink hair finally was able to tame chaotic draconequus, and with the help of her pink friend, they helped him to apologize to Celestia.
A thousand years later, when the stories already became myths, and myths become legends, ponies suddenly return home. No one expected it. Almost no one believed Princess Celestia and the stories of their grandparents.
It was chaotic. Mistakes that took some lives and changed others. In the thousand years, Equestria changed drastically. The beautiful sceneries still remembered by Celestia and Discord were no longer there. Instead were gray skies, towns on the verge of collapse, and nature fighting as hard as it can to survive the pollution coming from factories.
Celestia however had only one question: "Where is Luna?"
Ponies appeared in the middle of an abandoned town — Ponyville, which was able to live only due to the pear orchard in the past. But now, all trees are dead and all citizens either followed the example of the orchard or escaped the town.
As no one expected something to happen, ponies, who seconds ago were on the moon in the comfort of their homes, were scared to death. Familiar city sights, moon mountains, and the stars up above disappeared.
Only a few ponies believed Celestia: Pinkamena Diane Pie, Fluttershy, some of the guards, and Discord. They were the main force that was in control, as Celestia became weak while she was on the moon.
With many lies, explanations, and thoughts about all of this being Nightmare or conspiracy, ponies were gathered in the middle of the old town. Many resisted, and a fight almost broke out, but Celestia was able to calm everyone down.
"Listen, my ponies. I always told you that this would happen someday. But something is terribly wrong. Instead of an expected party and happy reunion, all I can see is destruction and sorrow, " her bright shining face was eclipsed by sadness.
"Something is bad, and my worst assumption is that someone bad took over Equestria. It might be too dangerous to be alone now, so I ask you to stay here and plan our survival, while we figure everything out~"
"Why are you so worried, Tia? Have you forgotten who I am?" Discord interrupted her, " Give me few seconds and I will tell you everything!"A few seconds later, draconequues disappeared in a building and a snap followed by other snaps could be heard.
"For now, while Discord is doing what he does, let's try to settle in. This town maybe doesn't look good, but it still can be a great place for home! We will have to stay somewhere after all," Celestia finished her speech, the last part of which produced a negative impact. Unhappy whispers began walking around the crowd, but after few seconds of unpleasantly, they stopped.
With the help of Pinkie, everyone found something to do for themselves inside of the town. Someone began guarding it, someone helped to rake out the trash and ruins to find a suitable home. and some began planning what to do next.
"My magic, it isn't working! I… nothing just happens! " said draconequues to the princess and her closest ponies when they entered.
"That's what I was scared of. My magic doesn't work either. Perhaps something much stronger blocking it, maybe some demon or amalgamation?" suggested Celestia.
"Wait for the tiniest minute. What can be stronger than the goddess herself?!" asked shocked Pinkie Pie.
"And the magic of other unicorns is alright!" added Fluttershy.
"Well, my dear Pinkie, you see, the magic of Alicorns is different from the unicorns. While unicorns can just use active magic and spells, Alicorns use most of its abilities. We can fly like pegasi, cast spells like unicorns and we are stronger than earth ponies… and it requires quite a lot of magic, whatever it really is… " She stopped for a few moments to think.
"If alicorns were able to use the same magic unicorns use, there wouldn't be enough for everyone… same with you, I presume? " She asked sad draconequues.
"Yes, but no. My magic comes from chaos, from disharmony! There are a lot of it around, but I can't do a single thing! I can't even take your tail like in the old times."
Fluttershy and Pinkie were a little bit stumbled, as they were way too young to know their past. They hardly know the present, thanks to Fluttershy.
"Well? There is no time to lose! " Screamed Pinkie, " It's been an hour since we got here and I can't get a single party started! Not without any suppliers… We have to act! "
"Pinkie. I ask you to wait with parties until we find special someone," she looked at Pinkie with pleading expression, " But your urge to react is in the right place. We have to find what has happened, and this town definitely won't survive without food, " she winked at Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie held her breath in excitement, "You will finally allow me to bake that cake?! Xoi t me in! "
"I might be in the wrong place, but I can't stand looking at all those little creatures running around the town scared and without home or food, so I am in too! If you don't mind… " squeaked Fluttershy.
"I can't leave you after what you did, so I am coming after you. Maybe my magic is useless, but I know dew ways to piss someone, including Celestia, off if someone needs comic relief," bragged draconequues.
Few hours of thinking, planning, and exploring later, Celestia finally decided what would be her little team’s first destination.
It was the city on the mountain they were able to see. Unlike most of everything around them, that place seemed alive, and smoke coming from them only fired those thoughts up.
A team, without any questions, took this mission. No one, except draconequues, knew why or what they wanted to find. Resources only were an additional goal of the mission.
Their path laid alongside the railroad which they decided to follow, and it was suspiciously quiet. They, of course, didn't know what the railroad was, or why there were so many towns and fields, but something was off.
It felt like the whole Equestria stopped breathing for a while. No birds, not a single noise came from bushes or the forest that was behind them. It felt like mourning.
"I would never expect that place so big can be so still! Maybe they are playing hide and seek with us!?" Pinkie was so excited that it felt like she was about to pop! She was about to meet someone new!
"Tshh, Pinkie! For all we know, we are the prey in the enemies layer!" silenced her Discord.
"In the LAYER OF ENEMY?!" Screamed scared yellow pony.
"Not literally! Just please, be quiet! I don't want to attract unnecessary attention! This place looks too bad to be inhabited by someone good. "
“Hey, look! There is someone over there!” Pinkie screamed when she saw a silhouette of a quadruped creature behind the ruins of an old railroad station. Silhouette immediately disappeared leaving a dust cloud and sparks behind.
It was too late for others to notice it as it was gone, but Pinkie wasn’t ready to give up on meeting someone new, so she rushed towards the building hoping to finally set up a party for someone she just met.
Fluttershy and Discords weren’t very happy about it, but their screams were ignored by a pink pony and they had to go after her. When they finally caught up with her near the wall of a barely standing building, they saw tears in her eyes.
“Did I do something wrong?” she cried while her fluffy mane slowly began deflating. It was the first time when someone just disappeared like that without even saying hello to her.
No one knew what to say next, so they just waited for her tears to dry.
Suddenly, the dark pink mane inflated making itself fluffy again, “There is no time for tears! I have so many parties to do! Maybe while we are in that city, we will meet this person again and I will throw a party for them too!”
Fluttershy and Discord weren’t expecting her to be ok so soon, but it looked like she found something to bury her unrest in.
For the next hour, they were just walking towards the mountain and talking about different things around them. Discord could explain something, but of the time, the trio was just guessing what or why certain things were.
It took them some time, but they reached the point of their destination — Canterlot. The city looked so much better than everything they saw before, even the entrance gates were made out of gold and encrusted with gemstones.
The gates were closed and the guardian was standing on the other side, protecting the only way in, “What do you want?” he asked them, as they were near. He was tense and his spear was ready.
“I want to befriend you!” said the naive party pony.
“Well, that’s what she wants. We wanted to talk to your leaders… and maybe ask for some resources,” said the draconequues.
“‘Your leaders?’ Sounds like you aren’t from here, so I will make a few things clear: only residents are allowed in the city and people here don’t like outsiders, so just go away before something bad happens.”
Discord was about to begin arguing, but someone did it before him, “Now wait just one darn minute!” said the orange pony, “What is wrong with letting them do it? There were no new rules or guidelines for watchers!”
“Yes mam, sorry mam!” the guard immediately changed his voice and attitude. After a few seconds, he opened the gates.
“I believe you wanted to see our leaders? Follow me! By the way, names Applejack”
She walked them through the streets of Canterlot, all covered in gold and platinum. Most ponies there were walking with an upturned nose and expensive outfits, but they looked dizzy and sometimes were falling out of nowhere.
Pinkie was trying to make some new friends, but they were ignoring her. Her mood was getting worse and worse with every refusal.
“So, where are y’all coming from? Manehattan? Crystal Empire? I come from a little town known as Applelousa, but after bad things, I had to leave,” said Applejack with a very welcoming voice.
Neither Fluttershy nor Discord knew what to say, Pinkie, however, said “We are from Lunapolis. Lovely, small city.”
“Never heard of that. Anyway, mah question is, do you use that stuff there?” whispered honest pony.
“What stuff?” loudly asked Pinkie.
"Tshh! Drugs that everyone uses?" Applejack tried to silence Pinkie.
Some ponies around looked at them weirdly.
"Drugs? We never heard of them. Do we have to use them or something? If so, please forgive us… " apologized Applejack.
"No. No, it's good. Just be quiet about it, or bad things could happen, " she said as she showed guards to open big golden doors of the castle.
"Well… can you tell us about them?"
"That's what I was about to do… almost, " she pulled a string near the entrance of a long hall. Tens of curtains opened revealing stained glasses telling a story.
"A long time ago, two sisters ruled Equestria in peace and harmony, until an evil creature of pure chaos and disharmony decided that it wanted some spotlight.
He attacked the princess of the sun while she was alone in her castle. He demanded her throne and did evil tricks on her, Princess by her kindness, she said, that she could give him a piece of land, but he refused, and a fight continued, " Applejack revealed a picture where Princess, was struck by lightning and fell from the sky, while draconequues above was laughing with her tail in his claws.
Fluttershy angrily looked at Discord. He, however, already forgot this story and wasn't sure if it was real, although he said that he was sorry.
"Princess was alone, and her powers weren't enough, so she used a weapon — elements of harmony, to banish evil creatures to the outer world.
The battle seemed to be over, until ponies, including the princess, just vanished. It led to a time of great depression, and many lives were lost.
The sister of the ruler was left in charge, and she was desperate to stop the ponies' sadness, so she asked other countries for help, but all of them refused, except one.
Zebras came to help her with a suggestion of a substance that would cure ponies. Princess agreed, and Zebras began working on it.
A few months later they were done, and the Princess ordered everyone to take it, and so, the ponies were happy again for hundreds of years.
But a few years ago, something happened and there was no more production of that drug. Wars began for the leftovers until they were able to stop it. Zebras took over and isolated as much as they could in Canterlot.
I don’t know what happened to others who aren’t in Canterlot, but you brought me a little bit of hope that everything is alright!” she finished the story under giant stained glass depicting ponies praying to the family of zebras.
“WHAT?!” discord was shocked. The main reason they were here was to find Luna, but now, it seems like she is gone, “what about the second sister, Luna? Where is she?!”
“Luna? Hmm. I have no idea.”
“Discord, is something wrong? We came to ask for help, didn’t we?” Fluttershy asked Discord.
Pinkie at the same time was observing beautiful pictures.
“Well. Behind this door should be a throne room. You can find our leader there. I would accompany you further, but I have to return to my guard duties, if you need more help, just find me,” Applejack left.
With no time to lose, Pinkie crashed into the door and fell right into the throne room. Many eyes directed at her and the sounds of harp stopped.
“And who may you be?” asked a zebra sitting on the throne.
“I had the same question… Where is Luna?” Discord was straight to the point. With no more chaos of the tips of his fingers, he wanted to find the moon goddess and ask her few questions. For now, the chaos was in the background.
“Luna? Are you talking about that old hag who ruined this land? Have no idea. She left this place a few years ago. But let me repeat my question, who are you? What the hell are you doing in our castle?!” he said with a smug look. It looked like he was the one in charge here, other zebras in the room were sitting quietly.
“Sorry my friend,” began Fluttershy, “we are just strangers and were wondering if you can help our people? We don’t have food or water, so we were hoping, that your kindness could help us?”
“Yeah! I can repay you with parties!”
Zebra just laughed and tried to stand up from his throne, but the sound of clothing ripping stopped him. He looked around and noticed that his cape was torn, “Somebody, call the tailor!” he screamed.
One pony that was standing near the door stepped in trembling, “Sir… Rarity isn’t in her place! She left a few days ago, saying that she needs inspiration and hasn’t returned yet.”
“WHAT?!” he screamed in anger, but quickly calmed down, “Perhaps I can help you. One good turn deserves another, so if you can return her into the castle, I maybe will give you some food. Until then, don’t even think about returning her…” he looked around until he noticed Applejack standing behind the door, “Captain, take them out of here and don’t let them go back!”
Applejack swiftly jumped inside, saluted, and began pushing the trio away.
When doors closed behind them, she stopped, “Sorry for that, I just don’t want to get in trouble, but I was interested to watch. It’s weird that everyone just ignores the fact that this pal looks exactly like the creature from stained glass!”
“Draconequues,” corrected her Discord.
“Draco-what now?” Applejack asked.
“Draconequues. That is the name of this lovely, yet stubborn creature,” Fluttershy looked at Discord.
“Wait just a darn minute! It is him, isn’t it?! The prophecies were the truth?!” she loudly whispered, “If it so… that must mean that princess of the sun is here?!”
“Pretty much! But why are you so silent right now? Do you want a balloon?” Pinkie pulled the filled balloon out of her mane.
“No… Just keep quiet until we leave the city, and don’t say a word, not at all,” persisted Applejack.
Neither of them wanted to argue with the captain of guardians, and Pinkie was just lost in thoughts about a party she was going to throw.
They left the city getting weird looks along the way. Applejack used her head to make herself less recognizable, but it was useless, as her platinum armor was giving her away.
Applejack took the lead near gates and approached the guard, “Listen, rookie. Don’t let anyone enter the city.”
“Mam, Yes, Mam,” he saluted and opened the gates.
Pinkie turned around and began jumping backward in front of Applejack, “He seems sad. Maybe I should’ve given him a balloon.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it, sugar cube, he just scared of me…” she looked around, “Anyway. I heard you they asked you to find Rarity. She escaped into the Everfree forest. She said she found out something that can help fight against tyranny. I will accompany you there, but only to make sure you aren’t forcing her to come.”
“Why are you doing this?” asked draconequues.
“Ah want to see ‘er. Princess of the sun.”
Applejack suggested that they first went for the Rarity. She was an old friend of hers, but friendship became hard when they both became servants of the zebras.
“Why are you working for them if you hate them?” Fluttershy asked.
“Not exactly hate them; they still managed to save some pony, but don’t like ‘em. They still spread that stuff that keeps pony happy, and because of this, they are still in their place,” she looked to the right and saw Shadow Falls, “Ahh. Some time ago it was a beautiful town. Part of mah family used to live there. I didn’t visit them much as they used to grow pears, and my heart opened only for apples and cherries.”
“Wait. Did you use to be a farmer? Maybe you can teach us to grow pears? Near the place we stopped is a full orchard!” said Pinkie Pie, still jumping around. Her legs never seem to get tired.
“Orchard of pears? Did you stop at Ponyville? Are you fell from the moon?! Aren’t y’all scared of everfree creatures?” warned them Applejack.
“You said you knew the prophecy! We did ‘fall’ from the moon. And I don’t think that they are in big danger, we have goddess on our side!”
There were still few talks and doubts, but it seemed like Applejack agreed. Although the princess lost her magic, she still was a good warrior, and she had some guards to help her.
They ventured into the forest until they found a path, “This should lead us straight to the castle. Rarity said, that she found it by accident when Zebras send few guards to check on some kind of tree,” and as Applejack said, the path ended in front of the castle.
“But your majesty!” they heard coming from the castle.
Applejack rushed into the castle screaming for Rarity. The others followed her.
The castle itself was still intact and was better than most buildings in Equestria. Some parts of it even seemed brand new, thanks to a pony who restored it in a search for inspiration.
“Rars! It’s me, Applejack!”
Rarity looked out of one of the rooms, worried. She didn’t expect anyone to be here at all.
“What are you doing here, darling? You should be at the castle! They can kick you out of the castle!” Rarity answered her friend.
“Who might thou be?!” a loud voice came out of the room. Princess Luna walked out of it after, “Who dares to interrupt my rest?!”
She looked around to see an orange pony in front of her, “Ohh… You seem rather unharmful,” but then she saw a familiar face.
“DISCORD?!” she screamed at the presence of the draconequues, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! YOU VANISHED WITH EVERYONE ELSE A THOUSAND YEARS AGO!”
Pinkie pushed Fluttershy in front, “Ahh… Princess Luna? I am asking your forgiveness, but Discords didn’t mean to… And also, are you really the sister of Princess Celestia?!
“And also,” added Pinkie, “they disappeared because of him… What color is your favorite?” tens of colorful ribbons flew out of her mane.
“WHAT?!”
Discord snapped his fingers. Something happened, “As I expected… Luna… There is someone who wants to see you… and her life might depend on it.”
He snapped his fingers again, and a big purple transparent orb appeared around Luna. That orb was following Discord.
“What is going on?!” squeaked Fluttershy.
“Let her go, you maniac!” screamed Applejack taking her spear out of the sheath.
“Everypony! Just relax! Drink some chamomile tea,” he snapped and some tea appeared in front of them, “Just follow me and listen.”
Applejack was about to attack him, but Rarity stopped her. She asked her friend to listen to him before trying to kill someone more powerful than a goddess.
“As Celestia explained to you three earlier, her magic is special. But what she didn’t say is that, like other creatures, she will die without it. I could feel my magic somewhere around there, but I didn’t know where.
But when we approached Luna, I felt it. It seems like she is limiting magic around her. We should hurry before Celestia dies.”
Everyone was a bit shocked, not only by Discord leaving the castle through the window but by his explanation. Applejack still wasn’t trusting him, but she trusted others.
Sounds of hooves intensified as everyone began trotting following floating Discord.
It wasn’t too long until they got to Ponyville. But something was wrong. Far above, three pegasi were flying fast towards this town. They were leaving behind tracks of thunderclouds and a rainbow.
With no time to lose, Discord hopped into Ponyville’s town hall. Applejack and Rarity stayed behind, as they knew, what was about to happen.
“Where is she?” Luna finally said something after being put in the bubble.
A pony pointed towards the room.
The sound of explosion came from the outside and a big rainbow appeared in the sky.
The bubble around Luna popped, and she was free. Her hooves began moving fast as she crashed the door in front, “CELESTIA?!” she screamed as she saw her sister on the floor, barely moving.
Author's Note
Well. Written for roleswap:reunions contest. I did badly with my time, and the story isn't what I wanted it to be. Still, I wanted to participate. And I am sorry if the story is bad.