"So, what about the Flutter Ponies?" Twilight asked. She recalled her friend Fluttershy's recent bout with her morals when she had to take care of a few of the small, insectoid creatures. "Didn't they come from the Old World?"

"As a matter of fact, they did." It was not Celestia that answered her, but surprisingly, Discord. "The Flutter Ponies have been here for about as long as the early Pegasi. Their race was an offspring of Pegasi and the original Changelings, as far as I am aware. I remember turning a lot of them into--" Discord cut himself off before he divulged a secret that he had yet to let Celestia know.

"What was that, Discord?" Celestia and Twilight asked, Celestia's eyes slightly narrowed.

Discord appeared to physically shrink, which he probably actually did, as he let out a nervous titter. "Oh, Celestia, nothing important. Flutter Ponies! They're important! Let's talk about them..."

Celestia's eyes remained narrowed, but she said nothing else. Discord took this for a good sign and continued speaking. "The Flutter Ponies used to be far more magical than they are today. Their dust could cure diseases, or so I heard..."

"Wasn't there a fifth race? Seaponies, or something like that?" Twilight asked, suddenly remembering an old passage from one of her History books about ancient Equestrian legends. The mythical water ponies had been among the more obscure texts.

Discord suddenly looked pale.

"Um, well, yes...at one point..."

"Would you care to elaborate?" Celestia said this, noticing his reaction. "I believe Twilight would like to know why no more Seaponies can be found in most of the world."

Twilight looked shocked, not only at the rather dark tone her fellow Alicorn had taken, but also at what she was insinuating.

"Can...can I save it for the next chapter?" Discord pleaded. He readied his talon to click, preparing to knock the two princesses out as he made a run for the exit.

"I think not. Go ahead, Discord, explain to Twilight why the Seaponies are an endangered species." Celestia's tone was positively acerbic now. Twilight swore that she could see the dangerous spark in her mentor's eyes practically glowing.

With a nervous gulp, Discord began, "Well, as you know it, the Seaponies are the one true 'lost' race of pony. They used to be abundant, found in every ocean and a fair few lakes all across Equestria. However, when I began my thousand-year Reign of Chaos, I may or may not have accidentally turned every Seapony on the planet into a dolphin..." Celestia's glare did not let up.

Twilight's eyes, unlike her mentor's, were not filled with untold malice, but rather bewilderment. "You annihilated an entire race...on accident?" A single strand of her mane sprung out of place as she attempted to imagine the amount of Magic it would take to transform thousands, if not millions of creatures into a completely different creature. Her attempt failed; math failed her. Another little part of her mane became messier. Before she could have a mental breakdown about how she was currently having tea with a creature capable of genocide on such a massive scale, she forced herself to breathe and relax like Cadence taught her. It worked.

Discord, meanwhile, sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck with his paw. "Erm...yes?"

Celestia sighed heavily. "That's enough for tonight, I believe. Twilight, you're free to sleep in the castle tonight. Discord, please retire to your room if you've got no further business within the castle. I need some time to cool down."

With a still-meek grin, Discord teleported off in a flash. Twilight did the same, still somewhat shocked, re-appearing in her old tower. Celestia shook her head, turning to her bed and collapsing onto it. It had been a while since she had last slept. That may, perhaps, have been because she had continually stopped and stared off into space, thinking of little for hours on end, multiple times over the past couple of days. She hoped she wasn't going insane. That was Luna's job.

The Aftermath

Twilight and her entourage were getting worried.

Princess Celestia hadn't moved from her spot for a week now. She had been staring off into space the entire time, her eyes glazed over, mumbling to herself in a language that nopony (or draconequus) could decipher.

Eventually, it was decided that Celestia had gone brain dead after she had realized a paradox in her storytelling, and had seemingly found no way out of it. Twilight Sparkle took over the mantle of Princess of the Day, learning to raise the Sun from Luna. As Equestria's newest ruler, much skepticism from the nobleponies was directed towards her newest plans, but eventually everything smoothed out. Celestia, who was still unmoving, was declared by doctors to be "in a waking coma of some kind." She was relocated to a large, marble tomb in a secret room behind where her old throne once sat. In her throne's place was Twilight's own, made of lilac crystals that she stole borrowed from the Crystal Empire. Celestia was placed on her throne and moved to her new sanctum, whose entrance only the living Alicorns know about. To this day, she remains there, locked in a stare with the wall.

A funeral was held in her honor by the remaining Alicorns, because none of them believed that she had any chance of recovering (they still don't.) Luna was sad at first, but then she took the opportunity to try Dream Walking with the comatose ex-ruler. What she found startled everyone: Celestia was alive and dreaming constantly. She was—and still is—locked in a constant battle with her psyche to fix the paradox she unknowingly created. The two ruling Alicorns visit her dreams often to aid her in her endless quest against her own mind.

Discord has taken to placing bets on who will win.