Author's Notes:

I don't think I've managed to churn a fan-fiction or story out this quick in .... years.

They're right, a change is as good as a holiday!

The Usual Disclaimer:

The following is a work of parody, and is protected as Fair Use under section 17 U.S. Code § 107 of US Copyright Law. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all affiliated characters are property of Hasbro Inc.

I own nothing. All characters, settings and other belong to their respective owners. This is purely a fan-work with no intent towards profit, slander or harm towards the characters, settings or other, or their respective owners. If the respective owners feel that this fan-work in any way, shape or form threatens or besmirches their property, please let me know so that it be can be removed asap.

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IT BEGINS!

CHAPTER 6

“Nnnngh! Hnnnnngh! Grrrrrnnnnnnnnnggggghhh!” Groaning and straining, the Aspect of Chaos struggled to prise the window open, but the adamantite frame and glas-steel panel refused his efforts, his claws blunted after many unsuccessful attempts to escape.

Who knew Celestia had so much pent-up frustrations? Or that she had written the book on Pony Sutra?

Or that, when pushed, she would turn into some sort of molestation goddess and overpower him! Him! Discord! Lord of Chaos and Change! Stuck in one form, imprisoned in a bedroom and likely awaiting another round of ‘crush the Demi-God’ with Celestia’s tush when she finished with her boring, orderly court-duties.

“Oh, I’m just glad that Tirek and the others can’t see me now.” The serpentine chimera moped, trudging back to sit on the edge of the bed, which had been abused so hard the legs had snapped off, the headboard had been broken in two and the bed itself lay on the floor, the clouds that made up the mattress smelling strongly of vanilla and chocolate milk.

And the rest of the furniture wasn’t in a good state either. Discord had had no idea one could use a bookshelf in that way, or that a set of drawers had so many uses in Pony Sutra …

Surrounded by the magic-disrupting properties of Celestia’s spell of negation, his ability to teleport was severely limited and there was only so much Chaos one could cause in a single room without magic. And the thought of just up and walking out the door of their beloved Princess’s bedroom, in full view of everypony, might upset Celestia at the ‘scandal’ of him seen leaving her bedrooms, and Discord quailed at the thought of what Celestia might do to him for that.

“Of course … she’d have to catch me …” Discord said aloud, tapping a blunted talon against his lips in thought. “No, best not to risk it, but maybe a small rebellion? I’ll go mad if I have to sit here all day with nothing to do! I’ve not sat still and done nothing since … since … actually, I don’t think I’ve ever done that!”

Yet as his eagle-like arm reached for a scroll that lay within easy reach, jutting up from a pile of kindling that had once been a book-shelf, Discord’s mind betrayed him, recalling Celestia’s hind-quarters dropping down onto his face, an all-consuming, implacable foe, that blocked out all light and vision, and the overwhelming scent of vanilla in his nose and mouth …

“Of course there’s a first time for everything, yes? I-I couldn’t very well call myself the Aspect of Chaos if I didn’t experience everything every now and again, right?” Snatching back his arm as if the scroll had turned into a venomous serpent, the Chimeric Aspect wrapped himself in his tail and burrowed deep into the cloud-mattress, plugging his nose with the tufts of hair from the end of his tail and closing his eyes, trying to think of happy, chaotic thoughts.

I’ll never be able to eat anything with vanilla essence in it ever again.

The lumpy clouds over the buried aspect shuddered in response to that thought, Discord writhing in a maelstrom of emotions.

Draconequs didn’t mate because there was only supposed to be one of them in a particular layer of reality at a time, and One would become Two if a layer of reality divided itself so that each new reality had its own Draconequs, as momentous events were want to do to the multiverse. And since all the realities of the multiverse were stacked upon each other, much like layers in an onion, gender was something Draconequs gave themselves as a way of exploring their own personal takes on Chaos, or more often, to mess with the local mortals.

Celestia and Luna had been females, so he had taken on a male gender to irritate them. That and the socially ‘dominant’ gender at the time had been stallions, and whoo had it been a kick to mess with them as well …

And right now, Discord was kicking himself, both literally and metaphorically, for not exploring that avenue thousands of years ago. During his reign in the past, he’d had a cult of Ponies worshipping him. He could have had so much fun with this ‘sex’ thing if only he’d known!

In fact, he was kicking himself so hard that he fell out of the bed, tangled up in the cloud-sheets and landed on the floor, and saw something rather odd.

No, not the Itallion Stallion, he’d seen enough of that to last an eternity. A large book, with a cover made of dark, age-stained wood and faded red silk bindings.

It had likely been hidden in the bedside cabinet, before the enforced molestation had knocked it over, and in a fit of rebellion, Discord grasped the book with his lion’s paw and dragged it over to himself and flipped the cover over.

He’d seen enough decrees stating that he was to be left alone to recognise Celestia’s hoofwriting, but this book seemed … cruder, somehow. It was obviously Celestia’s writing, but the words were smaller, less elegant, even scratched out in places.

A grimoire? A novel? Discord wondered as he read the first few pages. As he read on, however, it seemed he’d come across Celestia’s filly-hood diary.

Chortles of delight soon gave way to engrossed silence, and then a scowl crossed Discord’s chimeric face.

He’d never truly paid much attention to the Pony Tribes until he’d discovered that sentient life was much more fun to mess with than elemental forces or dumb, mute animals.

He’d always ignored the founding of Equestria. Boring, trivial orderly stuff.

But the picture painted by the Celestia of that distant, brutal past both intrigued and infuriated him. It had been the presence of the Windigos that had first alerted him to the existence of Ponykind while he had been meddling with the warring Lion and Eagle Tribes, literally weaving the two armies together during their last, greatest struggle, melding pairs of combatants into composite wholes to create the first Gryphons.

Of course, he’d always intended to go back and undo the transformation, it was only a prank to get the two proud, arrogant Races to stop their distasteful slaughter of each other and focus on his pranks, but the confusion, the disbelief and the Chaos of the aftermath as the newly created race struggled to reconcile the memories and personalities of the bitter, mortal enemies that made up their constituent pieces had intoxicated him, and then the maelstrom of disharmony from the lush, green lands to the south had dragged his attention away.

I never was much good at following up. Discord thought sadly as he felt a twinge of guilt. Accursed Ponies. Teaching me how to feel empathy and friendship, I shouldn’t feel like this.

But Celestial’s diary told a story that the history books had conveniently omitted, a story of the Ponies that had lived in Equestria long before the three ‘Tribes’ that would eventually come to the land, bringing their conflict and discord with them, and the Windigos trailing in their wake.

It told the story of a little filly, considered a freak and the bringer of ill-fortune by her superstitious people for her physical deformities, centuries before the invaders led by Chancellor Puddinghead, Princess Platinum and Commander Hurricane would lead their bickering people to the untamed lands that would become Equestria.

And despite himself, Discord found himself unable to stop reading, turning each of the delicate, age-yellowed pages with extreme care, his free talon clenching into the cloud-sheet in anger as he read on.

Celestia, what did you do?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everfree Forest, Day 1, 10pm

I think I am getting used to this.

It was an odd thought, but Twilight found herself thinking odd thoughts a lot these days.

Like, how come Alicorns were bigger than normal Ponies. What purpose did it serve?

Why was it that the Everfree created such wild, discordant magical effects without anypony doing anything?

How was Celestia able to obtain, let alone bottle, raw Dragonfire, if Spike was the only known Dragon in Equestria’s borders sociable enough to oblige and was absent from Canterlot for months on end?

And how in the name of bucking Equestria had Luna ended up on Twilight’s side of the tent, and why was she hugging Twilight so tightly in her sleep?

Not that it was a completely bad thing. Without the thick walls of a building, the night air of the forest was bitterly cold, even with the thick thermal blankets the two Alicorns had bought with them, the inside of the tent was chilly.

Yes, just keep thinking that it’s only the temperature that’s the reason to be held by somepony ….

Aaaaaaaand you can go buck yourself, inner voice. Twilight firmly told her mind, which responded with a petulant mental raspberry before submitting.

Unfortunately, every time Twilight tried to wriggle loose, Luna would mumble in her sleep and hug Twilight back to her chest again.

I wonder if this is how Miss Smartypants felt like when I used to sleep with her? The image of the ragged stuffed doll brought a smile to Twilight’s face, and then another blush when she realised it was still in the hooves of Big Mac. Oooooh-kay! Do not need to think of Big Mac in bed, cuddling something with my scent on it … tttttthat’s not something I am thinking about right now! No. NO. Clean thoughts. Dry thoughts. Not now!

But it was … pleasant. To be held. Even by another Mare. At least it was one of her friends, and Luna was so … adorkable? Was it wrong for Twilight, of all Ponies, to refer to somepony else with that term?

I can just imagine Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie having conniptions if I ever said that out loud in front of them ... Twilight couldn’t help but grin as she imagined the teasing she’d receive. Oh … oh what the hay. Why not?

And so, hesitantly, Twilight snuck a leg over Luna’s side and returned the embrace. For a few moments, there was no reaction, then Luna mumbled something low and happy-sounding in her sleep, nearly crushed Twilight with a sleeping hug and finally relaxed enough that Twilight could breath again.

One thing I don’t get … Twilight thought to herself as sleep began tugging on the back of her mind once again. Luna’s supposed to be mostly nocturnal … how come she’s able to sleep at night so easily then?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Diiiiiiiiiiis-cord?” Celestia whispered, creeping into her bedroom, more than a little nervous.

Would he be angry? Night Court had sadly been unable to be cancelled, due to the overwhelming number of Nobles petitioning her for this and that, all of which were small, petty and foolish, but given the state of the Court …

There was a muffled curse, the clatter of wood against stone, and then Discord’s head popped up from under the ruins of her bed, a cheeky grin on his face.

“Sooooo, my dearest captor returns!” Discord crooned, his head and neck swaying from side to side like one of the cobras of distant Saddle Arabia, being enchanted by one of the snake-charmer’s flutes. “What now, oh ‘Molestia’?”

“I … actually don’t know.” Celestia admitted, pushing the door half-closed behind her. “I did want to apologise for taking advantage of you like I did, but I als-ssaaahaaa!”

Celestia’s yelp came from the tip of Discord’s long, serpentine tail sneaking along the floor to brush over her teats, sneaking up between her hind-legs and brushing the soft furred tip back and forth across the pink nipples.

“Oh but Cellie, I should be thanking you. All this time, and I never bothered with something so … messy and fun!” Discord chortled as Celestia danced from hoof to hoof, torn between laughter and rebukes as the Chimeric Aspect used his tail to gently tease Celestia away from the door, and a small shape rushed out the doors to freedom.

Celestia’s magical spell was powerful, but Discord had spent most of the day reading her ancient diary and focusing on a rather old trick of his, taking a single piece from each of his component body-parts, a sliver of horn, a piece of fur or tiny scale, and binding them together with a drop of blood to make a Familiar that would track down the one Pony he felt could give him the opening he needed.

It was old magic, a very primitive and crude form of blood magic, and he had gambled that Celestia’s spell, even as powerful as it was, would have been too complex to be able to detect and neutralize his work.

And as Celestia, still laughing and half-heartedly telling Discord to stop, collapsed on the remains of the bed next to him, Discord quickly distracted her with the rest of his body, while his tail swept back and carefully, quietly, pushed the diary back under the shattered remains of the furniture as Celestia’s magic surged once more and reinforced the anti-magic barrier around the room, slamming the doors shut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

5:25 am

When Twilight woke up again, midnight had passed, yet the dawn was still so very far away, and Twilight found herself willing to risk a little boldness as Luna woke up when Twilight tried to move into a more comfortable position and immediately froze, going rigid against Twilight’s body in shock.

“Luna … we need to talk about our … problem. Could we have our lesson inside the tent, where we’ve got some privacy?” Twilight asked softly, resisting the urge to laugh as Luna’s rigidity turned into outright trembling.

“I … I … I guess so. B-but why are you in my bed …” Luna stammered, her dark fur barely hiding the blush that was raging across her face right now.

“Uh, actually, that’s another thing I wanted to say. You’re in my bed, Luna.” Twilight pointed out, trying very to not laugh as Luna’s trembling doubled in strength. “Uhm … Luna?”

“B-bathroom!” Luna squeaked, untangling herself from Twilight violently, before rushing out of the tent, tail billowing out behind her like a cloud.

Did … did I just send the Lunar Princess fleeing out into the night? Twilight wondered, half horrified, half amazed. It looks like we’re both worried about the physical side-effects we’re suffering from the Sympathy between us. Pleasure when our magics mingle, shared sensations when our horns touch … what’s next?

But that treacherous train of thought did give Twilight an idea. Levitating an ornate, carved wooden box to her side, the young Alicorn opened the lid and removed the two ‘Bracers’ from within the silk-lined insides, grimacing as her hooves tingled from the feel of the cold iron, and another tingle from her horn as her magic-sensitive organ felt the strange aura that radiated from the relics.

If Celestia is right, if we each wear a Shackle, and have Empathy’s Core nearby, any overflow of magic will be stored within the Core. Meaning that rather than sparking each other silly, we c-can … ooooh why did I use that term! Twilight’s dry analysis turned damp as soon as she said ‘sparked’, remembering the sensations as she and Luna held each other during the incident in Celestia’s bed all too keenly.

And yet you liked it. A small voice in the back of Twilight’s head remarked.

You stay out of this! I could lose Luna as a friend! This has to be handled right, or else … Twilight snapped back at the inner voice, furious at herself. I like Luna! She’s a good friend, and … and she’s wonderful! I don’t want to lose that!

Who said you’d lose her. She likes it too, you know that. You felt that. The voice replied snarkily, and images of Lyra and Bon Bon flashed into her mind for a moment. It’s not a bad thing to love another Mare. Lots of Mares do it.

Yes, it is strange that we have so many Mares, and so few Stallions ... Twilight replied to her inner voice, recalling the many theories on the gender-imbalance and too emotional to realise she was fulfilling the first sign of madness. I know a lot of Mares end up either having Foals on their own without partners, or in same-sex relationships …

See? You like Luna, you share a lot of interests, and the Sympathy between you will inevitably result in more … encounters between you both. Surely it would be best to clear the air between you …

That … does make a kind of sense. But … wait, no! We’re just friends! Just. Friends. We just … had a … oh … oh my …

Twilight clapped both hooves to her face and whimpered, trying to will the memories of Luna’s body thrashing beneath her own to go away.

This is just … all kinds of strange! I never actually thought about relationships like this before. I mean, I always thought someday I’d have my special somepony, but … like this? Because of our magical resonance? It just …

*snap*

Did … did I just call Luna my ‘special somepony’? Auuugh! AUUUUUUUGH! Twilight screamed internally, rolling back and forth under the covers in mental agony. Wait, this is so sudden! It’s just the Sympathy messing with my head! Our heads! I’m not a Filly-Fooler … am I?

Twilight’s only hope was that whoever this mysterious Pony that Luna kept referring to would arrive soon and give both Luna and herself somepony to focus on other than each other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

6:30 am ….

The remaining members of the Element Bearers had gathered in the library, home of their absent friend, well before most of Ponyville was out of their homes, let alone beds, intending to have a talk about the current situation without letting other ponies in on the topic, a difficult enough task these days with the usual gossip-mongers of Ponyville all snooping around their homes and businesses.

They could only hope the early hour of the day, the thick, living walls of Twilight’s tree-library, and the sound-muffling enchantments Twilight had laid into the walls to prevent the usual noise of the town disturbing her when she was working, would be enough to keep most of the snoops in the dark.

“Well gosh darn it, this is jus’ perfect!” Applejack snapped, slamming her empty mug of coffee down on the table of Twilight’s kitchen, ignoring the flinch from Fluttershy. “Yesterday, Big Mac up an’ leaves me to fix the barn roof all on my own, an’ he makes off with our wagon without so much as a word to me or Granny Smith in the process, then Time Turner goes missing an’ Derpy rides that thunder-cloud of hers through half the houses in Ponyville looking for him, an’ now you’re saying that you’ve got a … a Mini-Discord living with you?”

“Uhm, yes. I don’t know exactly how Discord did it, but he made a smaller … well, Discord to ask me for help with some sort of bush, but he was so frantic he wasn’t making any sense at all … even for Discord! But when I brought him some vanilla-flavoured tea to calm him down, the poor dear had a fit right on the spot!” Fluttershy replied meekly, fidgeting in place in the library. “I wish he’d tell me what actually happened, he’s not making any sense … well, less than he normally does. Something about a plot that’s out to get him and the need to fight, or find, a bush of some kind.”

“I … think you mean a ‘plot to get him’, deary.” Rarity replied, tittering.

“No, I’m positive he was screaming about a ‘plot that’s out to get him’ after he went and hid in my sock-drawer. I did say he was making even less sense than usual.” The yellow Pegasus explained, giving a small shrug at the latest bout of weirdness from her chaotic friend.

“Ugh, okay, enough about Dip-cord. More importantly, where the buck are all the Stallions in town going?” Rainbow Dash shot up onto her hooves, pacing angrily in a circle around her friends. “First Big Mac ditches a job. Big Mac. Ditching. It just doesn’t happen. And then secondly, Time Turner goes away without taking Derpy with him? I thought they were joined at the Cutie Marks these days?”

“I’ll say! It’s totally crazy, and even I don’t know what’s going on!” Pinkie Pie added, pausing only to literally inhale a donut before continuing. “I was hoping my Pinkie-Sense would clue me in to what’s happening, but nada! Nothing! Zilch! I know something’s up, but I’m not getting anything on my radar!”

“Well … I guess I should tell you guys that I delivered a letter to Big Mac yesterday morning.” Spike commented from the kitchen, where he was making cups of coffee for everyone. “It’s weird, I never knew Big Mac and the Princess were pen-pals!”

The hiss of five Mares all gasping in surprise was all the warning Spike had before the world exploded into the clatter of hooves on the polished wooden floors of the Library and then the dull thump of those same hooves onto Spike himself, pushing the baby Dragon down onto the kitchen floor.

“WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?” Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie all roared at once, with Apple Jack spluttering in shock, holding a fainted Fluttershy in her hooves.

“Aaaah! I … I don’t know! I just got a letter for Big Mac, which hasn’t happened in months, and when I went out the door to go deliver it to Apple Acres, Big Mac was walking up the street towards the Library! That’s all I know, I swear!” Spike blubbered, scratching vainly at the floor to get away from the three sets of hooves that had him pinned down.

“Of all the … dang it girls! Let the young ‘un up!” Applejack yelled over the bickering Ponies as she gently put Fluttershy down on the floor, then resorted to manually pulling the three Mares off of Spike.

Rainbow dash was the easiest to pull off Spike, reeling back into shock once her initial spike of anger had worn off, but it was a challenge, even for Applejack’s great strength, to pull Rarity off of Spike, the fashionista demanding all the ‘juicy details’ and babbling about ‘scandals’.

“Aaaaand why didn’t you tell me sooner that Big Mac had a pen-pal! I could have thrown him a ‘congratulations on getting a pen-pal’ party!” Pinkie demanded, the last to be pulled off spike, clinging to the baby Dragon like chewing-gum caught between a hoof and the ground before finally ‘snapping’ off, causing her and Applejack to fly backwards into the Library proper and knock several shelves worth of books onto the floor.

“This … this is unheard of! The Princess of a Nation and a Commoner? Oh heavens, what a scandal! What an uproar! How romaaaaaaantic!” Rarity squealed, heedless of the dirty looks being shot her way by everyone else as she held her hooves to her cheeks and blushed furiously.

“Uh … Rarity, I don’t think it was that kind of letter. I just handed it over to Big Mac, he read it, then gave it back to me and headed back to the Apple farm. He wasn’t even nervous.” Spike replied, grunting as he ran a claw over the sore parts of his body, no doubt the start of several large, hoof-shaped bruises under his scales.

“An’ mah brother ain’t the kind of Pony that’d be taking a Mare for a roll in the hay without marryin’ her first, an’ since we ain’t heard ‘bout no second Royal Weddin’, you can jus’ plain forget that lil’ fantasy, Rarity!” The peach-coloured farm-pony snapped in turn, her mind filling with a fantasy of very nervous Big Mac and a hilariously pregnancy-bloated Celestia walking down the aisle, with the entire Equestrian Royal Guard walking behind them, shotguns aimed square at Big Mac’s back.

“Letter, letter, where is the letter!” Rarity demanded, a frightening gleam in her eyes. “Spikey-wikey, we need to see that letter!”

“Now wait just one apple-pickin’ minute! That there’s private cor-es-pon-dence ‘tween my brother an’ Princess Celestia! No pony’s got the right to snoop on that!” Applejack protested, trying to get between Rarity and Spike, but the baby Dragon was already deep in the clutches of his crush and had rushed away to find the letter, leaving a spluttering Applejack and a sparkly-eyed Rarity behind.

“Look, Applejack, I get where you’re coming from, but maybe you should try looking at it from our point of view!” The cyan-blue Rainbow Dash pointed out, angrily, as she slammed a hoof onto the floor and made both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie squeak and flinch away. “Twilight’s off pony-knows-where, with Luna of all Ponies, and we haven’t seen her in weeks! Yeah, the gossip magazines gave her a pounding, but isn’t it our duty as her friends to be there and support her?”

“Well ah … ah guess we should know where she is, jus’ in case of an emergency.” Applejack conceded after several moments of thought. “But don’t y’all forget, Princess Celestial invoked a royal decree on this. I don’ think bein’ the Elements of Harmony’s gonna get us outta this pickle if she done finds out!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Spike, you got that letter yet?” The rainbow-maned Mare snorted, in an obviously foul mood as the baby Dragon came rushing down the stairs, holding the offending letter aloft in one claw.

“Yep, got it right here!” Spike replied, still grinning foolishly, no doubt in the grip of some fantasy involving Rarity right now.

“Good. Now gimme!” Snatching the letter away, Rainbow Dash took to her wings, hovering just out of everypony’s reach as she read the letter with a furious scowl on her face. “T-the … what the bu … are you kid … oh for … aaaaaaaaugh!”

“Rainbow Dash! You will give me that letter this instant!” Rarity demanded, pouting that she wasn’t the first to read it and jumping up and down, trying to grab one of Rainbow Dash’s legs and pull the Pegasus down to ground.

“I … I think this is a really bad idea …” Fluttershy mumbled, sighing as nobody paid any attention as the squabbling over the letter got worse and worse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

7:10am

The feel of the cold shackle around her right fore-hoof, and the subtle tingling of the enchantments within the crude pig-iron device attuning themselves to her own magical resonance made Luna shiver with a barely-suppress whine of fear.

Out of concern for what might happen, Luna had lowered the moon and stars early, leaving the sky bare of all celestial bodies until Celestia’s sun had begun to creep over the horizon. It had pained her to do so, but the risk …

Many times in the history of Equestria had the Shackles of Starswirl been misused, and Luna herself had once been a victim of the Shackles, a Unicorn she had rejected from the position of Royal Consort having used the Shackles to drain a significant portion of her magical energies and attempted to turn himself into an Alicorn, mistakenly believing Luna's magical energy came from the same source as her ability to raise and lower the Night Sky, and all it contained.

Celestia had come running, full of rage and righteous indignation with the Royal Guard of that era vainly trying to keep up with their enraged Princess. Before the Guards had caught up to their leader, the Princesses had left that cave together, in tears, leaving the mewling, pitiful thing the once-proud and cruel Unicorn had warped himself into to die alone from the fatally flawed transformation spell.

Even though Twilight had been more than willing for Luna to wear the ‘Master’ shackle, the mere thought of such sorcery on her person caused the Lunar Princess no end of trepidation.

Even though the Twilight has been so gracious to let me wear the Master shackle, I still feel … nervous. What if this doesn’t work? What if Twilight is harmed by my power? And what happens if we have another … episode? Can our friendship survive it?

“Okay … I think the Shackles are ready, we’ve gone through all the rituals and the scrolls we have on hoof. Are you ready, Luna?” Twilight asked, holding her left fore-hoof up and staring hard at the Shackle she wore. In-front of the two Princesses was the pumpkin-sized cube of rose quartz, known as Empathy’s Core, which would hopefully absorb the excess magic the two created when they experienced a ‘Sympathy’ towards each other.

If it worked, they’d not have to worry about their magics over-lapping and causing … issues.

If it didn’t, they were in for a long haul in the Everfree Forest, until they could manually control the ‘side effects’ that the Sympathy caused them.

If Twilight and I cannot cast spells around each other without linking up like this, I fear that we may have to remain separate from each other forever … Luna thought to herself, feeling an ache in her heart at the thought of never being able to be around Twilight again, her first real friend in over a thousand years …

“As I will ever be, Twilight. I know only the theory on how the Shackles work, but from the scrolls Celestia gave to us, the magic should be fairly intuitive to use.” Luna replied softly, repressing the urge to once again flee the tent, and the smaller Alicorn whom was distressingly, and intoxicatingly, pressed firmly against Luna’s side under the blankets. “We will start with a small test, and work our way up from there. We will both attempt to feed Empathy’s Core a small trickle of our magic, and then see what the result is.”

“Sounds safe enough …” Twilight added, giving a nervous grin before her horn began to glow with her pale lavender magic, and then Luna made her own horn glow with her dusky, translucent blue magic, the two Alicorns leaning down to the cube of pink quartz and placing their horns on the artefact, willing their magic into it.

As before, both Mares flinched as arcs of their magic snapped from one horn to another, but both did their best to ignore the sensations the Sympathy caused them, focusing their attentions solely on Empathy’s Core.

And after close to a minute of effort, Empathy’s Core remained annoyingly devoid of magic despite their efforts. The magic literally slid right off the surface of the rose quartz like water off a duck’s back.

“Maybe we have to focus our magic through the Shackles?” Twilight ventured as both Princesses stopped trying to channel their magic into the artefact and re-read the scrolls on the Empathy’s Core crystal.

“I … don’t think that will work. Their function is to act as a focus, a lodestone to draw the Core’s ability towards us, not … oh. Oh no.” Luna muttered as she re-read her scroll, dread creeping into her voice as she came to a dreadful realisation. “I know why the Core isn’t reacting to our magic.”

“What? Why? How?” Luna flinched as one of Twilight’s wings reached across her back and gave Luna a gentle shake after the Lunar Princess didn’t speak for several seconds. “Luna, what did you think of?”

“We … our magic wasn’t … oh this is … Twilight, I’m so sorry!” Luna tried to escape Twilight’s grip, but caught on the verge of a new discovery, the younger Alicorn’s grip was like that of a lamprey. I’ll drag us both into the Everfree River before she relents! “Empathy’s Core didn’t react to our magic because it wasn’t mingled. The artefact was designed to absorb two types of magic that have been melded together by a Sympathy. We need to … do that for the Core to work.”

Blushing furiously, Luna watched as Twilight absorbed the news, going from confusion to open-mouthed shock, and then spluttering understanding.

“S-s-ssso we spark each other, an-and see what the Core does?” Twilight mumbled, unable to look Luna in the face, but not retracting her wing from across Luna’s back.

“If we are fortunate, the Core will absorb the excess magic the sparking will create, leaving us with clear minds and an abundant source of magic to draw upon while our own natural reserves restore themselves.” Luna replied softly, biting her lower lip in thought … before extending one of her own wings across Twilight’s back. “The moment we ca … can’t endure it anymore, we stop, alright?”

“That’s … that’s a good plan. It’s just … I never thought I’d be … that we’d … I just never thought I swung that way, you know?” The younger Alicorn whispered, shaking at Luna’s side, her primary flight feathers digging deep into Luna’s fur.

“It’s not as if we are filly-foolers, Twilight. I … I know Equestria has come a long way since my banishment, but I still believe we are both normal Mares, it’s just that our magic is … sympathetic to each other. Not that being attracted to other Mares is a ... it does not mean I don’t feel … oh pony-feathers, I’m not making this any better.” Luna huffed, stumbling over conflicting thoughts, stopping herself before she said something embarrassingly definitive.

Is it really so bad to feel that way with another Mare? That inner voice asked again.

Buck! OFF! Luna retorted angrily.

“Alright, on the count of three, then?” Twilight offered, as Luna nodded and gently bent her horn to line up with Twilight’s own, both spiralling horns glowing softly with their owner’s own unique magical energies.

“One …” Luna whispered, inching closer.

“T-two …” Twilight said in a trembling voice as she lifted her horn upwards to meet Luna’s.

“Three …!” The two Mares said together as their horn-tips came into contact, and arcs of magical energy began snapping between their horns.