"Your Majesties, a fish approaches."

As attention-getting interruptions went, it was pretty good. The princesses of Equestria looked up from the debate at hand and stared at the guard who had delivered the message, nonplussed. It was a welcome distraction for some. Thwarted in their efforts to get the new wayward Princess Twilight under their control by marrying her off(1), the lords and ladies had hit upon the notion of sending her away. Far, far away. To tend to some currently-empty throne in some barely-remembered fiefdom or other. For the good of Equestria, of course.  

To that end the House of Lords had finagled a meeting with Celestia, Luna and Twilight, and were wasting the early morning of a perfectly good Saturday petitioning Celestia and Luna to send the Alicorn of Magic off to "rule" over an archipelago in the Eastern sea. Celestia had just gotten through explaining, for the third time, that yes the Unicorn Archipelago had nopony on the throne at the moment, and as they had been so for the past two hundred and twenty seven years it was self evident that the population of four hundred currently there could continue managing their affairs without their own princess, thank you very much.(2) The guard's arrival and peculiar announcement had been a welcome distraction from listening to the Lord Duke Wellington Boot huff and bluster. "Beg pardon?" Celestia said, blinking.

"A fish, your Highness," the guard said. "A giant fish. It was spotted rising from the Western Sea. At its current flight speed, unless it changes course it will arrive in Canterlot by noon today."

Recognition crossed Celestia's face. "A giant flying fish?"

"Yes, your Highness. The size of a galleon."

"Blue metallic scales, gold trim?" Celestia pressed.

The guard paused, taken aback. "Y-yes, your Highness, I believe the report mentioned something about 'blue, with gold flecks...' and it seems to be followed by a flotilla... um, a school? of smaller fish like it."

The gleam in Celestia's eye made Twilight's eyebrows rise. Who, or what, was coming this way?

"A flight of pegasi and sky chariots is on its way to intercept," the guard continued. "What are your orders, your Highnesses?"

Celestia got to her hooves, the smile on her face absolutely radiant. "Firstly, it is not a fish. It is a ship. A royal ship. Tell them to offer our welcome with the utmost courtesy, and to escort our visitors here." She raised her voice. "Attention, everypony! Court is cancelled for the day, all meetings are postponed. Make the palace ready. Roll out the red carpets, all of them! Clean the castle, top to bottom. Clean and decorate. Lay out the finest banquet. Prepare the royal guest suites..."

One of the castle staff stepped forward. "What theme for the banquet, your Highness? The decor?"

"Aquatic, of course," Celestia answered, chattering on. "Plenty of seafood and island cuisine, but include some Canterlot and Ponyville dishes as well for variety, be sure and include some Sweet Apple Acres cider-- oh! Summon the Bearers as well, they should be in attendance for this, and issue a summons for all the royalty and noble families of Equestria; this is a state event-- tell them to wear their finest-- "  Servants and staff scurried to obey. She turned to Twilight and Luna. "Oh, Twilight, Luna, we will all need to prepare. Nyx too; she's a princess too and should be in attendance... Wear your finest, but gods and imps not that coronation wear, it's too stiff and uncomfortable and the colors clash anyway,(3) wear those lovely things that Miss Rarity made for you.(4) Oh, and Twilight?" She suddenly seemed anxious. "May I borrow back Sea Foam for the day? I'm afraid she's the only one who knows how to fix my mane up in the way I want for this..."

"Sister...?" Luna said, querying. Her eyebrow rose uncertainly. "What... is all this about?" Twilight said nothing but pressed in closer, face alight with curiosity.

Celestia smiled at her sister and her protege', her eyes sparkling. She seemed positively giddy. " Oh Luna, Twilight, isn't it obvious?

"We have a gentleman caller!"

Down in the depths of the castle, in chambers set deep in the mountain itself, a meeting was taking place that would have sent Canterlot's conspiracy theorists climbing the walls in panic had they known about it. Nopony would have blamed them, though; some of those in attendance were made rather nervous by the circumstances themselves.

After all, two of those in attendance were deposed former tyrants of Equestria.

"Another cookie?" Discord said to Nyx, holding out the tray.

"Thank you, I think I shall," Nyx said in her politest voice, taking one.  She dunked it in her teacup and took a bite. This one tasted like pizza. She regarded the cookie and her teacup. "You know, ponies do an awful lot of tea parties."

"It's just one of those things one gets used to," Discord agreed, dunking his teacup into his cookie, drinking the cookie, and taking a bite out of the cup (Raspberry flan flavored.)

"On the other hoof, free cookies," Pinkie Pie said cheerfully, scarfing one down (tofu hot dog.)

"True, true. So what brings you two down to my little lair?" Discord asked.

"Just doing my duty as your parole officer," Pinkie said. She whipped out a notepad and a police hat and glared at Discord across the table. "All right, Discord, whadda you got to report on this month? You been doing your community service?"

"Of course," Discord said. "I kept notes, see?" He held out a chinese menu.

Pinkie Pie scrutinized it with a serious expression. "Good, everything's in order. And I'll have the moo goo gai pan." A cardboard takeout box popped into existence in front of her. She picked up the chopsticks and dug in with relish.

Nyx giggled. "You two are silly," she said.

“Why, thank you,” Discord said with a smirk.

The other three guests looked a bit more nervous. Cherry Blossom had been given the duty of arranging this early-morning tea, and was feeling rather intimidated. Sundiver and Lightning Blitz were there as security and were feeling decidedly out of their depth, and were wondering with no little irony whether it was the allegedly reformed Chaos spirit, the unpredictable Element of Laughter, or the former Nightmare Moon who was the most potentially alarming guest.

Some time ago, Princess Celestia had found herself chastened by the redemption of both Luna and Nyx to reconsider the imprisonment of yet another being. She had released Discord from his prison of stone, on condition of his reformation, and assigned the Bearers as his probation officers. One in particular was to be his overseer and final arbiter, and to try and win him over as a friend.

That pony was Pinkie Pie.

The two had gotten on like a house afire (much to the alarm of the other Bearers, to say nothing of the more sedate citizens of Ponyville.) But Discord had been more and more carelessly cruel with his jests and pranks, till he'd finally gone too far..and Pinkie Pie had told him their friendship was over and run off in a torrent of tears. It was at that point the draconequus had realized that he had lost the only real friend he'd had in his millennia-long life. He had followed her to make amends... and found she had stumbled into a long-forgotten magical trap meant for him. He had ended up sacrificing the lion's share of his power to save her. Much diminished, and greatly changed, he had returned to the palace and was now rumored to be out and about doing tasks obscure and arcane for the rulers of Equestria. He and Pinkie were fast friends, and got together as often as they could.

The rumors that the Cakes were now drinking heavily or on psychotherapeutic medication were false. Understandable, but false. They were spending a lot of time on meditative yoga and stress counseling, though.

“So how's the big project coming, Disky?” Pinkie Pie asked, spraying crumbs. Nyx really didn't know why she was trying so hard to mind her table manners when the grownups were acting like this. Maybe for contrast.

“Oh, a few breakthroughs, but nothing massive," Discord confessed. "Still, baby steps, baby steps..."

"Big Project?" Cherry Blossom couldn't help asking.

Discord waved his lion paw at the chamber around them. It was packed to the walls with beakers, tubes, wires, gauges, bunsen burners, bottles full of bubbly liquids, things that went "zap," other things that went "doink," and still more that went "ding" and then there was stuff. And at least one live duck, wandering aimlessly through the shelves. "You don't suppose this is my preferred form of interior decoration, do you?"

"It... could be," Cherry Blossom ventured cautiously.

"So what's the Big Project?" Nyx asked.

Discord didn't answer at first. He gave the alicorn filly a knowing smile. "I suppose you were quite overjoyed when you learned that your adoptive mother was an alicorn as well," he said. "Am I right?"

Nyx frowned at the change of subject, but nodded.

"Can you tell me why?" Discord said.

Nyx fidgeted on her cushion. "Because... because before, she wasn't immortal like I was," Nyx admitted softly. "And... I knew someday she was going to get old and die. But... now that she's an alicorn like me--" She around at the adults, embarrassed by her admission. "I know that everything dies someday and goes Beyond, even immortal alicorns. But it was going to be so soon--! "

"And even before that, you would have to watch her get older and older," Discord said. "And sicker and sicker, and be able to do nothing about it..." Nyx nodded, her face puffing up with tears. "Now now, none of that," Discord said, whipping out a polka dot handkerchief. Nyx blew her nose into it; a foghorn blast echoed in the room, making her giggle. "Better--- But now she's an immortal, isn't she? She'll be with you a long, long time, and she'll be healthy and whole for all of it." Discord sat back and threw the handkerchief over his shoulder. It exploded into a cloud of chicken feathers.

"Now wouldn't you want something that wonderful for all your friends?"

Nyx nodded, thinking of the other Bearers, of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, of the Cakes and the Pies.... then her eyes went wide as she realized what Discord was saying. "You mean you're working on-- a way to make everypony immortal?"

A bell and buzzer went off someplace. "Congratulations, you said the secret woid," Discord (who was now sporting a pair of Groucho glasses) announced. "That means the duck comes down." The duck, also wearing a pair of Groucho glasses, dropped down from the ceiling on a Slinky and handed Nyx an envelope. Nyx tore it open. Inside was a cupcake. For lack of any better ideas, she ate it. It tasted like a daisyburger.

"That's... that's wonderful!" Cherry Blossom said. "...Are you getting close?"

"A little bit at a time," Discord admitted. "Not as fast as I'd like, but Sunnybutt, Moontush and I are getting close. We've already made several developments that will extend pony life by about twenty percent, and delay senescence by about a decade. Introducing them will be complex: A few spells added to the cloud machines in Cloudsdale, some changes to the nutritional contents of processed food, a little extra something in the flu vaccines next year..." he shrugged.

"Oh wow!" Nyx said, grinning gleefully.

"Huh," Sundiver said over his teacup. "I would have figured your big project to be, I dunno, building a better rubber chicken or something."

Pinkie Pie scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous," she said. "Disky and I did that last month." She whipped out a rubber chicken and pointed it at Sundiver's face, giving its belly a squeeze.

PUCKAAAAWWWWWWWKKKKK!!!

Sundiver's helmet flew off, his mane blowing back in the blast. He sat there for a moment, dazed. Pinkie looked at him in expectation. "Well?" she asked.

Sundiver grinned. "Can I have one?"

Nyx laughed so hard she nearly choked. Lightning Blitz just groaned and rolled his eyes. Cherry Blossom took the opening to pour more tea (it turned to chocolate milk as it left the spout). "This is a wonderful thing," she said to Discord. "But if you don't mind my saying so, all this... scientific, um, stuff... seems rather... Order-ish? for you."

Discord grinned. "Well that depends on whether I'm using 'science,' " he made air-quotes, "or ... "SCIENCE!!" The word reverberated off the walls. He stood and threw his arms wide; the word 'SCIENCE' formed over his head in an arc of three foot high, crackling neon letters. "And scientists and inventors are some of the most wonderfully chaotic people you could ever meet. Did you know that the reason the pony who discovered penicillin did so was because his lab was a complete mess? He left some petri dishes out, some flecks of moldy breadcrumb got in them... and the rest is history.(A) There was another inventor who never cleaned his desk-- he threw down layers of butcher paper on top of everything when his desk got too cluttered.(B) And you should see Time Turner's workshop back in Ponyville-- lots of lovely chaos.

"Besides..." he said, sitting back down. He looked at Nyx, whose laughter had died down to a few stifled giggles. "-- oh let's have the Quiz Kid answer this one. Tell us, Nyx, what does Chaos involve?"

Nyx scratched her head with a hoof. "Um... change?"

The bell and buzzer sounded again. The duck handed her another cupcake. This one was lemon sherbet. "Precisely," Discord said. "Chaos is neither good nor evil. Neither is Order, for that matter, but let's stick to talking about Chaos. Chaos is randomness. Chaos is change. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. And this little science fair project of ours is darn well guaranteed to CHANGE THE WORL... ahem." He thumped his chest. "Testing testing ONE TWO... AH. TO CHANGE THE WORLD!!" Dun dun dunnnn..." He sat back and sipped his chocolate milk. "And what could be more fabulously chaotic than that?"

"Why do ponies think I was a villain, all those millennia ago? I was immortal, and I had nothing. I didn't even bother with friendship, because what was the point? Anypony I tried to care about would be gone in the blink of an eye. So I never learned about friendship, and my heart turned hard as stone. But now... now I've learned." He looked over at Pinkie, who was blowing bubbles in her chocolate milk with a straw. His normally wicked grin softened. "I've learned that there are some things worth fighting to save."

There was a knock at the door. A palace courier slipped inside and galloped to Cherry Blossom's side to whisper something in her ear. She sat up, eyes wide. "Oh my! Sir Discord, I'm afraid Princess Nyx and I must go. A very important guest is arriving soon and her mother wishes for her to be prepared for the reception."

There was a faint "Aww" from Nyx. Discord looked keenly interested. "And who might this guest be? Am I expected to make an appearance?" He got a wicked grin. "I'd hate to miss out on livening up the festivities..."

The courier shook his head. "The Princesses didn't say," he said. "But they are apparently arriving by... er... by way of a giant flying fish."

Discord's expression almost miraculously changed to one of extreme disinterest. "Meh, I know the bloke," he said, reclining in his chair. "I'll stay here unless summoned. He's no fun at all. Besides," he half-muttered to himself, "Celestia would flat out kill me if I messed things up for her now--"

"Come along, your Highness," Cherry Blossom said to Nyx. "We have to go make you all pretty." She smiled at the alicorn filly.

"What for?" Nyx said, setting her cup down and hopping down out of her chair.

"For a very special guest," Cherry Blossom said. "King Triton is coming to visit!"

The royal flagship of King Triton sailed into view from the towers of Canterlot as the sun reached its zenith. It hovered silently in the air, an enormous glittering fantail goldfish the size of a merchant ship. Its metal scales, blue-green and trimmed in gold, gleamed in the sun. It sailed at a sedate pace through the clouds, it's fin-shaped sails fanning slowly, propelling it along. A flight of pegasi flanked it on either side, while a handful of smaller guppy-like courier vessels hovered around it, flitting back and forth.

Ponies crowded the streets of Canterlot, gaping up at the spectacle drifting along overhead. Every balcony and rooftop had pony spectators staring in awe at the vast, elegant ship. Canterlot castle was no exception. Every window was crowded as servants and soldiers, petitioners and nobility, bureaucrats and broom pushers alike dropped everything to watch as the flagship of Atlantis arrived.

The Western Courtyard was in actuality more of an enormous balcony, jutting out from the side of the castle, hanging over one of the enormous waterfalls that provided Canterlot with its water. It was built to hold ceremonies and gatherings in the open air.... and also served as a landing place for royalty and heads of state arriving by sky rather than by land.  The air vessel drifted over to hover in midair next to the castle, just outside of the Western arch. It slowly edged closer till its nose was but a few feet from the ledge that ran around the courtyard. then windows opened in its sides and torrents of water cascaded down its scaly flanks, falling to mingle into the waterfall thundering below. ("They're letting the water level drop inside the ship," Celestia muttered into Twilight's ear by way of explanation. "If they didn't, dropping the gangway would spill water out in a gush on us.")

The jaw of the giant goldfish dropped, its chin resting on the edge of the parapet, forming a gangway. ("and it keeps it from looking like the ship is barfing up the passengers," Twilight thought silently.(5))  A procession of soldiers came out.  A procession of sea pony soldiers.

A gasp of astonishment went up from the crowd as they appeared. From the middle forward, they resembled ordinary earth ponies or unicorns. But from the waist back, they had long, limber dolphin tails. Fishlike scales gleamed on their flanks. They were outfitted in heavy bronze armor, curled like nautilus shells, and carried short, sharp tridents. They did not walk out of the ship, but rather floated, suspended in shimmering balls of water.

Nyx tore her attention away from the astonishing sight before her and regarded Princess Celestia out of the corner of her eye. When Celestia said she wanted to roll out the red carpet, she had not been exaggerating.

The courtyard was decorated to a fare-thee-well with dozens of tapestries, hangings, banners and trimmings in the usual sun-and-moon trappings of the palace intermingled with ones with themes from the sea. The royal guard, day and night, was in full presence, gold and indigo armor gleaming. The Princesses of Canterlot themselves were no less dandied up; they were all together-- Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Nyx--- standing in the great courtyard, dressed in their best finery and waiting for the vessel to make its berth. Celestia in particular was looking seriously made up. Along with her usual minimal gold tiara and torc, she was wearing a shimmering, flowing dress of sea-foam green. And her mane and tail were made up in a way Nyx had never seen before; it was still flowing and rippling, but it was slower, almost as if it was underwater. They were done up with jewels, mostly pearls, and seashells, and rippled down over her shoulder and flank on one side like a rainbow colored waterfall.

What's more, she looked... nervous and eager. Almost like Twilight did when she was expecting Ink Spot to arrive. Nyx squinted. And was Celestia biting her lip ever so slightly?

Once they had formed up in two rows, a single seapony came down between them. The water around his head and shoulders parted and he blew on a conch shell. The finny soldiers snapped to attention. "Presenting, his Royal Highness, King Triton, Master of the great sea currents and King of the Western Seas!"

Down the gangplank, flanked by several more mer-ponies, came... a  Hippocampus. He was bigger than the rest of them, as much as Celestia was larger than regular ponies. He was lean and strong, with muscles that rippled under his pearl-colored coat. His mane was blue and green, and flowed down his neck in waves from under his crown. He had a short, neatly trimmed beard, a long tapered horn, and bore an enormous golden trident, as tall as he was long, in the crook of his left foreleg... well, just his left leg, Nyx supposed. He only had the two. And he had two enormous white wings rising from his back.

Wow.

Celestia strode forward to meet him. "Welcome, King Triton," she said softly. Was she blushing?? "It has been too long since last we met."

King Triton looked about, then back at Princess Celestia. His face was stern. "Indeed," he said, sighing. "And I am sorry it is not under better circumstances."

"How do you mean?" Celestia said, concerned. "What trouble that brings you to our door?"

"Trouble between my kingdom and thine," Triton said gruffly. He raised his voice to be heard by the crowd. "As king of the ponies of Atlantis, as the high seat on the Assembly of the Western Kingdoms, and a member of the Council of Celestial Stewards, I come on their behalf to bring a petition of grievances against the land of Equestria."

A gasp arose from the crowd again. Murmurs of confusion flew. Celestia looked shocked. "And what might these grievances be?" she said, finally.

"The disruption, damage and destruction caused by the grievous mishandling of the Sun and Moon."

There was stunned silence. Then a tiny filly voice could be heard.

"Oh horseapples."

1)While notable for its spectacular results, Lord Duke Blueblood's attempt was far from the last. Unhindered by the fact that Twilight and Ink Spot had publicly announced their betrothal, several ambitious types had made overtures ranging from the subtle to the gross... clumsy seductions, marriage deals bordering on bribes, attempts to catch either of the betrothed out in an "indiscretion..." the results had been uniform and consistent: A short teleportation, followed by a long drop to the royal reflecting pool and a quick frog-march to the front gate. Sometimes with a detour to the hospital wing where bouquets, engagement rings, marriage contracts, and badly faked "incriminating photos" were extracted from various bodily orifices.

2)They had already attempted a petition the week before to send her to rule over the recently discovered Flutterpony settlement in Hollow Shades. The Flutterpony Queen had been rather miffed.

3)This statement set off a chain of gossip that led to the current royal dressmaker breaking down in a fit of histrionics that would make Rarity roll her eyes in disgust, tendering resignation and fleeing to Vanhoover in outraged tears. And there was much rejoicing, at least among the fashion sensible and the non color blind.

4)Rarity's reaction to this bit of court gossip would of course be ecstatic bordering on the indecent.

5)Nyx, on the other hand, impishly pondered whether the king made ponies he didn't like exit from the other end of the ship...)

A) True Story.

B)Also true.