"Well, as fun as it's been to catch up, I'm afraid I must depart for now," Discord declared with feigned unhappiness.

"OH? GOING TO CAUSE SOME MORE PROBLEMS FOR PONIES?"

"No. If you must know, I have a tea appointment to keep, and I do not miss those. So..." He smirked as he readied his fingers for snapping. "Toodles!"

As promised, he willed himself away from the chamber, leaving only Solaris, Flash and the as-yet unnamed and silent guard in the corner. "AS GLAD AS I AM THAT HE'S NO LONGER AN ENEMY, I DO CONFESS TO BEING FAR MORE AT EASE WITH HIM NOT BEING HERE."

"Preaching to the choir on that one, Sir," Flash concurred.

"IN ANY CASE, I STILL NEED TO KNOW WHAT CHALLENGES OUR NEW PRINCESS HAS HAD TO FACE OVER THE YEARS. KNOWING CELESTIA, I SUSPECT SHE MADE IT A POINT TO KEEP HER NICE AND BUSY AS SHE WAS PREPARED FOR HER GRAND ROLE."

"Well, let it never be said you can't be right about some things, Father." All eyes turned to see that the chamber suddenly had a new occupant. The former Princess of the Moon, Luna, whose arrival caused Flash to bow in her presence. Luna, for her part, gave the guard a smile and a nod as she passed him, before eventually standing before her parent. "I hope you're keeping well."

"ABOUT AS WELL AS CAN BE EXPECTED FOR ONE WHO WAS DITCHED BY HIS CHILDREN."

"Father, with all due respect, you can be a bit much sometimes. You can't blame me and Celestia for wanting to take a break from you."

"YOU HAD OVER A THOUSAND YEAR BREAK FROM ME! HOW MUCH MORE COULD YOU NEED?!"

Luna frowned. "Well, I'm here now. Isn't that what matters?"

"...WHERE IS YOUR SISTER?"

Luna knew he was suspicious of her arrival, and so, knowing there was no getting around it, she sighed before answering. "We flipped a coin to decide who was coming down...and I lost."

"YEP, THOUGHT AS MUCH."

"Don't get us wrong, we love that you're back in our lives, but some of your views were...a struggle to deal with."

"MY VIEWS WERE ALL IN AID OF PONYKIND AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT. AND HAD MY PLANS GONE OFF WITHOUT A HITCH WE'D ALL BE IN A BETTER WORLD RIGHT NOW. RIGHT, FLASH?"

Flash winced. "Oh, please don't drag me into this," he whispered to himself.

Luna, perhaps recognising the pegasi's discomfort, carried on without his input. "Father, I realise you had the best of intentions, but there were several positions that, in hindsight, weren't actually to the benefit of ponykind."

"I FIND THAT HARD TO BELIEVE. ESPECIALLY SINCE EVERYTHING SEEMS TO HAVE GONE AWRY SINCE MY DEPARTURE."

Luna was undoubtedly doing her best to appear unoffended at that, and after taking a deep breath, she resumed speaking. "Father...let us take the issue of dark magic, for instance. Both of us, and Celestia too, recognized it right from the start as a problem that needed dealing with. Ponies and other creatures frequently delved into its temptations and became a problem, and all of us sought to ensure that Equestria's future would be free of it."

"YES, AND HAD ALL PONIES ADHERED TO MY PLANS, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE'D HAVE HAD."

"Yes, your plan," Luna mused. "You refer to the plan to not only, eliminate all dark magic within the mortal realm, but to ensure that future generations would grow up never knowing that such powers even existed? To forever keep them, if you'll pardon the phrase, in the dark about it? The idea being that they'd never seek it if they didn't know of it?"

"CORRECT."

"Well...you were inadvertently making the problem even worse."

"...COME AGAIN?"

"You see, despite your best efforts, dark magic persisted in our world. And by keeping ponies ignorant of it, you also kept them ignorant of what to do when faced with it. After all, one cannot defend against a foe they know nothing about."

"SURELY PONIES HAVE ENOUGH BRAINS TO RECOGNISE WHEN THEY'RE FACE-TO-FACE WITH THAT WHICH THEY SHOULD NOT TRY TO PARTAKE IN?"

"You'd think so, but if they, say, knew in advance that getting involved in such damaging power was bad for them and those around them, then at least we'd have our bases covered. As opposed to staying quiet and just hoping they wouldn't make the wrong choice because they didn't know that choice was there."

"SHALL I ASSUME THEN THAT PONIES HAVE INDEED INVOVLED THEMSELVES WITH THOSE RUINOUS POWERS OVER THE YEARS?"

"Sadly, yes. And as your custodian will have undoubtedly informed you..." The younger sister glanced to Flash, who looked away with further discomfort, before again addressing her father. "I myself was among those unfortunate enough to make that choice."

"I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WERE GOING TO BRING THAT UP. WHAT IN THE WORLD COULD HAVE DRIVEN YOU TO TURN TO SUCH DARK POWER, MY CHILD?"

Luna, at first, looked very uncomfortable, but then steeled herself before frowning at the skeleton. "Don't underestimate the damage one can do to themselves when feelings of jealousy or insecurity are allowed to fester."

"...A FAIR POINT, MY DAUGHTER. I AM SIMPLY GLAD THAT YOU MANAGED TO MAKE IT OUT THE OTHER SIDE."

Though slightly taken aback by his words, the mare eventually smiled, albeit with a small one. "Thank you, Father."

The mood was pleasant after that, and even Flash, who had taken to trying to avoid interfering with this father-daughter conversation, finally spoke up. "I wish I could say we ordinary ponies would have resisted such temptations, but I suppose it's inevitable that we'd make poor choices."

"NOTHING IS INEVITABLE, MY BOY. ALL HAVE THE CAPACITY FOR GOOD AND ILL WITHIN THEM, AND FOR THE MOST PART YOU PONIES SEEM TO HAVE CHOSEN THE FORMER. THOUGH I STILL QUESTION SOME OF YOUR CHOICE OF ALLIES." Before anypony else could speak, another flash caught them off-guard, revealing the now-returned Discord, who looked more than a little peeved. "WELL, SPEAK OF THE DEVIL," Solaris remarked.

"Hmph," Discord replied. "Seems my bestie is a little busy at the moment. She and Twilight had some scheduled get-together that I, unfortunately, was not informed of."

Flash looked to him with interest. "The Princess was with her?"

"It would appear so. So, when Fluttershy said she was busy, I thought it best to just pop back here, after telling her where I was going of course. Don't want her worrying where I'm zipping off to after all."

A silence followed, and both Luna and Flash looked to one another before again regarding Discord. "So...Twilight knows where you are? Who you're speaking to?" Luna asked.

Discord arched an eyebrow. "Yes? Why?" Then, realisation slowly came to him, and he looked to the side, to Solaris. "...Oh. Oh!"

"WHAT? WHAT IS IT?"

Then, before anypony else could say a word, a sound could be heard. Something that, to begin with, was distant. But as the seconds passed, it became louder and louder, eventually being recognised as the sound of galloping hooves. All turned their attention to the doors of the chamber, and within moments they burst open, with a lavender blur zipping past all of them and halting right in front of the ancient king's bony face. And here, the former ruler of Equestria found himself staring into the wide and enthusiastic eyes of a very excited-looking alicorn mare. "How long ago did you rule?! What was Celestia like as a child?! Do you still have magic?! What can you tell us of Equestria's ancient enemies?! Tell me everything!"

After blinking to this, Flash cleared his throat, taking a step forward before speaking up in his more professional tone. "Um...King Solaris? Allow me to introduce Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"...HELLO."

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