The Night Falls, But Day Breaks
One thousand years.
A long time to nearly anyone, except for a select few, and one of those few was currently sitting in her favorite chair awaiting a visitor.
The years had been kind to Celestia – as kind as they could be given everything that had happened – but kind nonetheless.
In her younger days she would have been ecstatic to find that she would have journeyed through a millennia with her mane more lustrous than ever before, her coat as shiny and new as the day she was born, and her mind overflowing with knowledge and wisdom that never seemed to dull with the passing years.
It was in these reminiscences that a knock came on her study door.
"Your Highness?"
The young guard, Locked Tight his name was, still worried that his princess was as strict as his superiors. Celestia merely smiled and beckoned him inside. "Is he here?"
Lock's shoulders and haunches had relaxed as he continued into the room. "Yes, your Highness. He's just outside…or, he was. He vanished just as I knocked."
Celestia rolled her eyes at his childishness. Playing hide and seek wasn't what she'd called him here for. "Discord?" she called, allowing the commanding tone in her voice to stay muted. "Discord, please stop teasing my guard and show yourself."
The room reverberated with a deep chuckle as Discord stepped out from behind Lock's left ear. "Just doing some spelunking, I could hear everything." He bowed half mockingly and added "quite the echo though" just loud enough for Celestia to hear.
With a brief scowl at the draconiquus, she turned to Lock. "Thank you for bringing him, that will be all." Lock bowed and exited, shutting the door behind him.
Discord was already making himself at home. He was laying down reading what looked suspiciously like a diary.
On the ceiling.
Trying to keep her tone light, Celestia went for the well-mannered approach. Discord would see through it, but since they both knew, it worked for them. "Please come down."
With a resigned sigh he walked down the wall and sat a few feet off the floor, laying the book in his lap.
"And please return that," she gestured at the diary, "back to where it belongs."
"Oh, Celestia," he chortled, "You'd think Luna would do a better job hiding it." He snapped his fingers and the diary disappeared. "Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of this summons?" He would have kept on goading her, but Celestia looked unbelievably tired and care worn suddenly.
"I feel it is time we discuss why you were freed now." She steeled herself. "I am old, Discord, frightfully old. I don't look it, but I am."
"You're younger than I am."
Celestia laughed softly. "Was there ever a time you didn't exist?" One eyebrow and the side of her mouth raised. "Small comfort to hear I'm younger than something that has always been."
Celestia melancholy, making jokes about herself, showing what was behind her regal mask – it all confused Discord. "Was I freed merely to make you feel young?"
"No, Discord, you were freed to free me." Celestia looked out the window at the starry night sky. "Do you know where Luna and I came from? Who our parents were?"
Discord frowned. "Not really. Just because I've always been doesn't mean I'm actually everywhere. I'm here because this place, this world, is where there are those who remember me. I always exist, but not always like this, and almost never with an actual body of my own."
Celestia stood and walked to the window she was looking out of. It opened easily and she pointed to a bright cluster of stars. "The night sky shows what is always above this world, an endless sea of beauty of patterns. The stars watch from above all worlds, day and night, and they are as old as you – and just as likely to have someone to speak for them. Luna and I were born from them and sent to help this world."
"Your parents are a couple of gas giants that send light through the deep reaches of space to make tiny dots in the sky?"
She smiled. "In a way. Just as you are the spirit of chaos, we were born from the spirit of order. There is a very good reason we did not try to destroy you – we need you. Chaos and order must remain in balance, if either dominates then life is doomed."
Discord raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"It's true, what is more orderly than a perfectly clean surface? Imagine how the spirit of order might wipe clean the universe. You clutter, he cleans, but life needs both for it to flourish."
"You're in a funny mood, Celestia. I knew all of this already; I'm just surprised you knew. First a genealogy lesson, and now a philosophy one; what's next, history?"
"Actually, I thought we'd discuss politics."
Discord groaned and feigned death in the air.
"Mostly I thought we'd talk about who will be succeeding me after I leave the throne."
He opened an eye at that. "You're stepping down?"
"I'm old." She said simply. "What Luna and I were supposed to do was step in and bring order to the chaos caused by you and Sombra, and then act as guides to those who would take our places so that the good ponies here would be their own rulers."
"Instead, after your defeat we were compelled by the grateful populace to lead and rule. Luna's loneliness and jealousy was already taking hold when we went against king Sombra; that's why he was able to return. And then I was forced to fight and imprison my sister."
"My battle with Luna, as you well know, ended our link to the elements of harmony. I knew that as soon as another came who could wield them that our old spells would break – Luna's broke first because it was the weakest, I used the power of the elements on my own and half were still tied to her before her defeat. You broke free next because you are the most powerful."
Discord gave a joking bow.
"Yes." She said with a smile she couldn't quite hide. "And Sombra broke free last, and even then he couldn't reform himself without the aid of the crystal heart."
"I thought you said we weren't going to do a history lesson."
"Think of it as a recap to understand why certain choices are being made." Her eyes were locked with his, letting him know that the point was coming. "Because my purpose was to bring order and then help others do the work of maintaining it, I was supposed to be here for several thousand years. But with the loss of my sister, the loss of the elements of harmony, and the knowledge that all my old foes would return, the plan had to change."
"I've spent the last thousand years raising and lowering the sun and the moon with no rest. One thousand years is a long time to go without sleep, but I couldn't afford it. When I wasn't performing my duties in keeping the sun and moon forever trading places in the sky I've been working to find the one who would be the new bearer of the elements."
"And you found them, they cleaned up all the messes you left behind, and everypony can live happily ever after now." It was a little irksome hearing that the pony who'd locked you up in stone a little while ago had spent your entire sentence looking for the folks who could put you right back in.
Celestia's eyes drooped as she smiled. "Not quite. I was meant to be here longer, but I can't fight the pull to return to my first home for much longer, and Luna does not trust herself to rule in my place. I was supposed to have centuries to teach them how to lead this world, but that time is gone."
"You were freed so that I could die knowing this world would be safe."
Discord could shift his eyes even a millimeter off of Celestia's. Through those shining orbs he saw what her youthful appearance didn't: age and tiredness. She wasn't going to die, she was already dying. It had already begun. "What do you need, and how much time do we have?"
"Twilight is nearly ready for the final step, but I need to find the right way to do it. And…not long. A few years at most."
Discord sat with his elbow resting on his knee and his chin resting on his fist. "Then let's get started."