It was the time for the Summer Sun Celebration in Equestria and the whole Canterlot was brimming with excitement for when their ruler, Princess Celestia, would rise the sun for the longest day of the year. The preparations for the ceremony were right on schedule and the town on the side of the mountain was more beautiful than usual under the perfectly clear weather granted by the efforts of the pegasi.
The last train to the capital of the pony kingdom was arriving at the station leaving behind white clouds of smoke. The scream "Canterlot station, end of the line" echoed together with the screech of the brakes and several ponies came down, but one group stood out from the rest for two main reasons: the huge pile of luggage following them and that the one carrying it was a little purple dragon with a green spines.
-"Spike, you're a real gentlecolt to carry all my luggage by yourself" – said a white unicorn with a purple mane to the little fire breathing creature.
-"N-No problem, Rarity. I may look little, but I'm s-strong" – muttered in response the little one struggling under the weight.
-"Why did you bring all that stuff anyway? You can't wear all those dresses in just two days!" – pointed out a flying blue pegasus. Her mane was the strangest of them all: it looked like she dived into a rainbow and stole all the colors from it.
-"Oh, but they're not all mine, Rainbow Dash. I have a few of them for each one of you! You'll need one for the ceremony, one for lunch, another one for dinner…" – she started to explain with extreme discomfort of the Pegasus.
-"Ya really think all of tha' is necessary, Rarity? I think we'll be fine with just one" – said a mare with orange fur, blonde mane and a cowboy hat.
-"Nonsense, Applejack. A true lady wears a different dress for every event" – replied in shock the unicorn.
-"Sugarcube, I still think they're too many…" –
-"PARTIIIEEEEESS!" – screamed a pink pony with a mane of a slightly darker shade of the same color while sliding on her hind legs and throwing a bunch of streamers everywhere -"How many parties do you think there'll be?! One?! Two?! A bijillion?! I sooo hope it's a bijillion! What do you think, girls, which one is better: a bijillion parties or one mega-super-fant-spectacular-party!?"
-"Pinkie, as I told you for the WHOLE trip, "bijillion" is not a true number" – intervened another peculiar one. She had purple fur and she was the only pony around with both the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus, which made her an alicorn.
-"And a bijillion parties you'll have, Twilight" –said the pink one with an extremely serious look on her face out of nowhere. She then ran off disappearing somewhere before any of her friends could say anything.
-"Do you think she'll be fine?" – asked a yellow pegasus with a pink mane in a really feeble voice, but she was immediately reassured by the one called Twilight.
-"Don't worry, Fluttershy. It's Pinkie Pie we're talking about and there's no safer place than Canterlot, especially when my brother is here. Oh, I can't wait to see him and Cadence, it's been too long."
All of them missed the kind princess of the Crystal Empire and her valiant groom Shining Armor, Twilight's big brother and captain of the royal guards. The last time they saw them was right after the defeat and imprisonment of the centaur Tyrek after he tried to take over the kingdom after stealing all pony magic. From that day, a few weeks had already passed and everyone was dying to know if they... well, we'll get there.
-"Let's hurry. Before meeting my brother we have to visit the Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and there's not much time before din-"
A loud scream interrupted her making everyone jump in fright.
-"LET'S PARTYYYYYYY!"
For a brief moment none of them could understand anything, but they were suddenly covered in confetti and something was poking out of their luggage.
-"Pinkie Pie!? How come you're in one of my bags? No, wait, how did you get in there?!"
The pink mare smiled happily before taking out a tray full of cupcakes from the very same bag she came out from.
-"It's the first of the bijillion parties I prepared for you. Here are cupcakes for everyone, look forward to the next one!"
She dived into the bag, but when Rarity tried to check inside she was nowhere to be found…
-"Classic Pinkie Pie" – stated Rainbow Dash.
From an underground lair to the highest of the skies. He was kinda surprised when he opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of a gray wasteland with the planet he was trying to conquer looking at him from above. Between him and it, there where JUST several thousand kilometers of empty space.
-"So much for "safe landing". This is the worst anchoring ever…" – grumbled.
Just a minor problem. Probably just an interference between magions and electromagions during the transfer. Why did he even asked for a safe landing, anyway? He could survive a volcanic eruption without a scratch, what could the mere absence of oxygen or a trip to the moon do? He may look like a weak scientist, but his body was peerless too.
He tried a couple of jumps to estimate the ground and how his body responded to the inferior gravity and found the results satisfactory, but even better than that, he also found traces of a moon civilization. Many rocks were scraped forming letters and long texts… in English?
-"Lucky me, I don't have to learn a new language! What's this? "1001 Ways to Make Celestia Pay"? Wow, some of those are intriguing, it's a pity the vocabulary sounds so old."
He couldn't help but find them… strange. There where words like "hooves" and "mane", was this Celestia a horse? Why killing a horse? What could have she done to make a moon civilization desire to kill her?
-"Well, I wasted enough of my precious time. I better get going."
He crouched flexing all his muscles and then just jumped. There's no atmosphere or sound on the moon and so there was no wall of sound to break, but the surface cracked for a mile under the extreme strength of his leap. He would have reached the planet surface in a few hours without even sweating.
Now that he noticed it, that fall would have been surely been the highest leap of faith ever done before. He laughed maniacally thinking of how his old friend Ezio could have reacted knowing that his personal record had been utterly destroyed.
A few minutes before, in Canterlot
The six mares and the little dragon were being introduced in the throne room where the ruler of Equestria was waiting for them. Anyone could guess her role even without the golden crown on her head: she was much taller than any other pony, her fur was shining white like snow under the sun, her long, pink, green and blue mane was flowing like waves even if there was no wind. Big wings, a long horn and soothing purple eyes full of motherly warmth completed her imposing figure. She was an embodiment of wisdom and power who every pony in Equestria loved and respected.
-"Welcome to Canterlot, Princess Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I'm so happy you and your friends could come" – welcomed her from the high throne with a sweet smile.
-"We would have never missed the occasion, Princess Celestia" – replied the unicorn walking to the throne.
She then noticed something strange: even if she and her friends were walking towards the throne, they weren't advancing one centimeter. Well, except for Rainbow Dash, but she was flying, not walking and Spike had the worst luck to be the one carrying all those luggages.
-"What the hay!? The floor is sliding!" – exclaimed the pegasus realizing the situation from above.
-"How's this possible?!" – echoed Rarity.
They tried to increase the pace, but so did the floor and so everyone started running full speed.
-"Fluttershy, hurry up and fly!" – called out Rainbow.
-"I can't! It's too scary!" – cried the yellow one.
-"Whoopsie!" – exclaimed a playful voice from nowhere. The sliding floor suddenly stopped making them almost crash at Celestia's hooves.
-"This voice… Discord! That's not funny!" – shouted the purple princess.
-"Oh, you should have seen the look on your faces" – chuckled the one called Discord appearing in the middle of the room with a flash of light. That was one hell of a strange creature: a chimera with a pony face, a goat beard, a snake tail and an incredible variety of limbs that included a lion one, an eagle one, a lizard one and an antelope one, but also a bat wing, a pegasus wing and two horns from different animals too. Truly a crazy combination, but that would only be expected by Discord, the Lord of Chaos and spirit of disharmony.
-"Discord, what did I tell you about playing this kind of pranks in the castle?" – reprehended the white Princess.
The draconequus frowned.
-"Discord, you can't disturb other ponies while you stay here" – he repeated with a bored voice without looking at her.
-"Exactly. Then why did you do that? You scared your friends."
-"But… but it looked so funny I just HAD to…" – he started before being interrupted.
-"Does it look like they are laughing?"
-"…no."
-"It's wasn't that scary. I'm sure he was just trying to greet us… in his own way" – said Fluttershy while standing up trying to help the draconequus.
Discord immediately livened up.
-"See? She has good sense of humor, unlike you all" – said making a giant sign with written "BFF" appear out of nowhere pointing to the yellow pegasus -"Hurray for Fluttershyuahyouhouhouh!"
His body suddenly had a big twist and started to wobble.
-"Whoa, that was weird, but don't think I'm not gonna make you pay for this joke, you hear me?! Come here so I can sweep the floor with you!" – said Rainbow Dash flying towards the foe, but Discord was already prepared and tied an iron ball to the pegasus tail with his magic. That way, no matter how fast she flapped her wings, she would have stayed anchored to the ground.
-"You big-"
-"Hush for a second, will you Rainbow Dash? I'm trying to concentrate here."
A little snap with his lion paw and the whole roof became glass.
-"Whoaaaaa, so pretty… Glass Roof Partyyyy!" – screamed Pinkie.
-"Discord, you're going too far!" – exclaimed Applejack.
-"Wait a minute, darling. This is actually marvelous! I'm sure holding a gala in such a magnificent hall would be the greatest hit of the season" – said Rarity with gleaming eyes.
-"Hush now, I'm trying to concentrate here" – said the Lord of Chaos scanning the night sky with both his eyes transformed into a pair of binoculars - "Strange…"
-"Do you mind explaining yourself?" – inquired Twilight stomping her hoof.
-"You do remember I have the ability to sense magic disturbances, do you? I just felt one far above our heads, but I can't see anything strange."
-"I appreciate your concern, Discord, but would you mind turning my castle back to normal?" – asked Celestia with her tender voice.
-"Aw, come on! They say they like it!"
-"Discord…" – repeated the monarch.
-"Uff! Fine" – he snapped his paw again and everything turned back to normal in a flash.
-"And free Rainbow Dash" – added Twilight.
-"Nope. She was mean to me and my feelings are hurt" – protested the draconequus with an exaggerated sad expression.
-"WHAT?!" – screamed the trapped pegasus still trying to fly even with her tail stuck like that.
-"She must say she's sorry or else she can stay there for the rest-"
He was immediately stopped by a hoof on his mouth. It was Fluttershy's and the normally shy pony was giving him a really hard look.
-"…or maybe I can take an example from the generous Rarity and forgive her like good friends do, right?" – he laughed awkwardly under those strict eyes before freeing the mare.
Seeing that as a good moment to intrude, the white alicorn stepped near them to settle the discussion.
-"I think it's enough emotions after the long trip. Go to your rooms and rest well before the celebration starts, I'll send someone to call you."
-"Sure, Princess. Just… can we see my brother first?" – asked Twilight hopefully.
Celestia smiled, already knowing the reason for that request.
-"Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor will arrive tomorrow after the ceremony. Unfortunately, something unexpected kept them in the Crystal Empire. Who knows, maybe it's because of the same thing you hope to hear."
The mares left the throne room a little sad for not being able to immediately satisfy their curiosity but full of expectations for the day to come. Rainbow Dash gave a little advice to the draconequus before passing the big door.
-"Watch your back, Discord. I'll prank you so hard you won't even know what got you…" – hissed the pegasus.
-"Try me, Rainbow Crash" – taunted him in respond with a chuckle.
Discord and Celestia were alone now. The chimera gave her a crafty look before he started to slowly float around her in circles.
-"How cunning of you, sending them away before hearing the whole story. Not willing to let Twilight hear the truth, are you? Such cold attitude towards your precious student…"
-"She's still a novice princess. I don't want to increase their burden. So… is it some kind of menace you felt from the moon?"
-"Oh? So you felt that too. Though I can't say I know the answer. It was really quick, but it was definitely very powerful. By the way… are you sure it's not just your cute little sister Lulu being all rebellious again?"
-"Hold your snake tongue. She's no more Nightmare Moon, but my beloved sister" – answered the princess with an hint of rage in her voice. She didn't like to remember the old and painful days of Luna's exile and Discord's insinuation definitely touched a nerve.
The draconequus smile widened a little.
-"Of course, so silly of me to think that. Then, what do you suggest we do? Stop the celebration?"
-"No, we cannot spread panic. I'll have my guards put up a magical barrier. It won't be as strong as Shining Armor's, but still better than nothing."
-"Please, who even needs that? I'm here, I'm Discord, the Omnipotent Lord of All Things Chaos, do you really think there's anything I can't deal with?" – boasted the draconequus with a mid air flip that made the monarch smile in gratitude.
-"Thank you, Discord."
-"You're welcome. You sure you don't prefer the glass roof?"
-"Yes."
-"Yes, you want it or yes, I don't want it?" – insisted.
-"Leave it as it is now."
-"…fussy."