Author's Note

Merry Christmas, everyone!

It was Under See

The banquet hall was as large as it was empty. The stained-glass windows, normally orange, blue, and pink, were woefully incapable of filtering the red sunlight back into their own colors. The clashing shades of red turned the checkerboard floor from an odd stylistic choice into an optical illusion, making even walking difficult. Celestia and Luna sat on opposite ends of a grand banquet table. Celestia gingerly picked through the rich assortment of fruits on her plate, whereas Luna was in the process of stuffing a large pineapple in her mouth.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t make breakfast for us this morning, Luna.”

“‘Tis just as well. I prefer to eat light in the morning, anyway.” Luna mumbled.

“Luna, don’t speak with your mouth full.”

Luna rolled her eyes and swallowed her food. “Yes, mother.”

A comfortable silence fell over the hall, interrupted only by the crunching of pineapple. Then, sometime after Luna had finished chewing, she spoke. "Tia, what makes you think that Discord is involved? It doesn't really strike me as his style."

"Oh, I doubt he's involved. He's just a very convenient suspect."

Luna’s eyes narrowed. "Explain."

"Our ponies are not as you remember them. We've been at peace for a thousand years. Surely you recall the recent changeling panic. Our ponies' hearts are fearful, Luna. They need direction.”

“Do you forget the witch hunts of yore? Ponies’ hearts have always been fearful.”

Celestia shrugged. “Perhaps, but we were not then in a position to guide them. Now, we are. Would you not have lied to prevent the witch hunts, had you been able to?

Luna frowned. “And what of truth? What of honesty?”

Celestia’s voice softened. “Sometimes kindness requires the bending of truth. If I can prevent a witch hunt by suggesting that Discord may be at fault and then find the real culprit in the time I bought, isn’t that a small price to pay?”

“A price that Discord will have to pay?”

“A price he won’t even notice. He is far too powerful for anypony to hurt him. He is already hated by most of ponykind, so it isn’t as if we are harming his reputation. And any accusations that might reach Ponyville will be nothing more than rumors.”

Luna sighed. “You are right as always, sister. Even so, I do not like this.”

Celestia smiled. “Trust me, Luna, it’s better this way. Give it a decade or two. You’ll see.”

***

C. The book started with C. Celestial Catastrophes, Cases Common and Curious. She had been searching for nearly half an hour. She had checked astronomy, selenology, even uranology, but no. It was under C. For neither the first nor the last time, Twilight reminded herself that, although the Dewey Decimal Classification system would make it easier for her to find the books she was looking for, the average Ponyville resident had neither knowledge of nor interest in learning the system, which would defeat the point of using it. Even so, it was at times like these when she was in very real danger of reorganizing the entire library, if only for her own sanity.

Pinkie, seemingly oblivious to the battle raging within Twilight’s soul, continued to gleefully shout “It was under C!”

Twilight’s right eyelid twitched. “I can see that, Pinkie.”

“Well, what does it say?” asked Sunset.

Twilight stared vacantly at the open book. “The chapter on Blood Suns… it’s missing.”

A deep voice dripping with sarcasm echoed through the library. “Oh, but what fun would that be, to solve your problem by looking in a book?”

“Discord, what did you do to my book?” Twilight yelled.

Sunset watched in stunned silence as Discord stepped into existence in front of her. One might reasonably assume that it was his appearance that threw her, and it certainly didn’t help matters. His torso was elongated like a snake, and each arm, leg, and horn were borrowed from different animals. He was part dragon, part lizard, part horse, part goat, part snake, part deer, and part other animals besides. And yet that wasn’t what silenced Sunset. No, her horror was directed at his means of entrance.

Though teleportation may seem instantaneous, it requires both time for a spell matrix to form and for the matrix to dissipate once the spell is completed. For unicorns unskilled in teleportation, that process may take half a second, whereas for the more experienced, the spell matrix can form and collapse in half that time. It was theoretically possible that a very talented sorcerer could form and collapse a spell matrix faster than the naked eye could see, but even if that were the case, the faster one teleports, the louder the accompanying pop. Not even the princesses could ignore these fundamental limitations of magic. Discord, however, was clearly no princess. There was no spell matrix. There wasn’t even a sound. He was just… there.

“Did he just teleport without a spell matrix?” Sunset whispered to Twilight.

“Oh, he does that,” Twilight replied.

“He does that,” muttered Discord. “Break the rules of reality once, and everybody is amazed. Do it every day, and you’re the ‘guy who does that’.”

“Don’t change the subject, Discord. What did you do?” Twilight growled.

Discord put up his mismatched hands in a placating gesture. “Woah, ease off the friendship laser. I’m just helping.”

“You’re helping by removing the only information we have?”

“I’m helping by redirecting your focus away from a dead end. You’re not going to improve at reading the signs by looking in a book.”

Twilight stared blankly. “What are the signs?”

Sunset and Discord stared at Twilight in disbelief. Discord plucked his right eyebrow off of his face and lifted it into the air. “You’re not serious, are you? Dear Celestia, you are, aren’t you?” He broke into hysterical laughter as he returned his eyebrow to its rightful place. “Oh, this is priceless. An alicorn princess who doesn’t know about the signs. Taught by Celestia herself, no less.” He wiped a tear out of his eye. “As much as I’d love to teach a newborn alicorn how to read, I think I’ll pass.” Discord raised his hand.

“Discord, wait,” cried Sunset. “You’re an expert at reading the signs, aren’t you?”

Discord froze in the middle of snapping his fingers. “Perhaps.”

“And you’ve been reformed, right?”

“That’s not exactly the word I would use.”

“Then tell us what the Blood Sun means!”

Discord’s eyes shot open. “Oh, so you knew it was a sign?” His right claw detached from his arm and wandered up to his chin, stroking it gently with its talons. “She only taught you, huh? I’ll admit, I didn’t see that coming.” He was silent for a moment. “Fine, I’ll bite. Come to the Everfree Forest tonight, and we can chat. Come alone. Ta-ta, then.”

And just like that, he was gone.

As he left, a firm knocking sound echoed through the library and, a second later, the door flew open. Rarity galloped into the room and screeched to a halt in front of Twilight. Applejack cantered in behind her.

“Twilight, there you are! Where have you been? Applejack and I have been looking everywhere for you!”

“I was at Sugar Cube Corner with Pinkie.”

Rarity looked at Pinkie, then back at Twilight, then at Applejack beside her. Applejack shook her head. “You know what, I’m not going to ask. Do you have any idea what’s happened to the Sun? I can hardly make dresses when all the colors are different shades of red.” Applejack glanced pointedly at Rarity. “Oh right, and it’s also unclear if crops can grow with the Sun like this.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “What? I mentioned your concern too, didn’t I?”

“I wish I knew,” said Twilight. “I found a book that might have had a lead, but Discord stole all the pages related to Blood Suns before I could read them.”

Applejack’s ears folded backward. “That good-for-nothing varmint. I knew we couldn’t trust him.”

Sunset lifted one hoof. “Hold up, Applejack. Discord said that he was trying to help, and I think he was telling the truth.”

Rarity and Applejack turned to face Sunset. “I’m sorry, darling, I thought you were here to check out a book. I wasn’t aware that Twilight had company. What’s your name?” Sunset lifted the hood of her cloak. “Sunset Shimmer? Is that you?”

Sunset rubbed the back of her neck. “Yea, it’s me. Sorry about the whole stealing-Twilight’s-crown thing.”

Rarity waved a hoof. “It’s quite alright. We all make mistakes from time to time.”

Sunset snorted. “Most ponies' mistakes don’t include threatening to destroy Canterlot.”

Rarity coughed and looked away. “Yes, well, if Twilight has forgiven you, then we should as well.”

Applejack sniggered. “She only says that because she almost destroyed Ponyville just last month. She got corrupted by a spell book and turned all the streets in Ponyville into solid gold. After an hour in the sun, you could literally boil water on them.”

“Applejack!” Rarity hissed. “I thought we agreed never to mention that again.”

“No, we agreed not to mention Tom.”

“Don’t even start,” growled Rarity.

Applejack laughed. “Seriously though, sugarcube. A friend of Twilight’s is a friend of ours.”

“Hear, hear!” cried Spike.

“I am curious, though,” said Applejack. ”What makes you think Discord was telling the truth? Ain’t like the truth is his strong suit.”

Sunset frowned. “It’s a bit difficult to explain, but the gist of it is that he said the book was a dead end, and given what I know of the signs, that seems reasonable.”

Rarity, who was still near the door, took a step toward Sunset in the middle of the room. “What are the signs?” asked Applejack.

Sunset sighed. “That’s the difficult part.” Sunset was silent for a moment. “Imagine somepony threw a large rock into a lake, but you didn’t see it happen. You can use the ripples on the surface of the water to infer what happened. The same is true of magic. When enormously powerful magic is used, it sends ripples forwards and backwards through time. The signs are like the ripples that move backward.” Rarity took another tentative step towards Sunset.

Applejack’s brow furrowed. “So, if you read the ripples correctly, you can tell what kind of magical event is gonna happen?”

Sunset nodded. “Basically, yes.”

Applejack turned to Twilight. “Could a magical event really send shockwaves to the past?”

Twilight was already scribbling math equations onto a chalkboard. “That is theoretically possible, but the event in question would need to be at least an order of magnitude stronger than even Luna’s corruption or Discord’s escape from stone.” With Sunset distracted, Rarity laid claim to one more hoofful of Sunset's personal space.

Applejack looked back at Sunset. “So, how do you read the signs?”

Sunset frowned. “I don’t really know. I know that trusting your instincts is part of it, but I don’t know the rest.”

“I hate to pry, but how did you learn about the signs?” asked Rarity.

Sunset lurched away from Rarity, who was at that point mere inches from her face. “Celestia told me about them while I was her student. I assumed she would have taught Twilight as well, but–”

“I’m sure Celestia had a good reason not to tell me,” retorted Twilight.

“Of course she did, darling,” said Rarity.

Sunset glanced at Applejack, then continued. “Anyway, Discord said that he’d talk to me tonight, about both the signs and the Blood Sun.”

Twilight scowled. “Whether he intends to talk or not, we can’t wait that long. Who knows what could happen by then.” She turned to Rarity and Applejack. “Have either of you seen Fluttershy?”

Applejack shrugged. “I reckon she’s either trying to calm the animals or she’s hiding somewhere. Either way, her cottage is the first place to start.”

“Alright. Sunset, Pinkie, you stay here with Spike. Come on, girls. Let’s go have a word with Discord.”