The Rise of Nightmare Moon [with MadamLestrange]

[Carl]

Chaos had ruled over the Equestria for a while. Nopony was very happy about it, but nopony was willing to stand up to Discord, either. After all, most of his chaos didn't stop them from living, it just created so much unpredictability, which in turn caused a lot of suffering and hardship to be sure, but what could they do about it? It was, however, a horrible tragedy amid the chaos that brought a looming wave of rebellion into the hearts of two young ponies. Their parents lay dead after a mishap invoked by the very anarchy that Discord had created. What mishap it had been, exactly, the eldest child could not say. She had found her parents in this state, she and her younger sister, and knew only that they had bits of cotton candy stuck in their manes and were drenched in chocolate rain. Canterlot had once been full of alicorns like themselves, and despite having moved to their castle in the Everfree Forest, the princesses had still cared about the alicorns, and their parents, as well as the rest of Equestria.

When Discord had risen up, they had tried to stop him, but they could not find any spell that worked against him. Star Swirl the Bearded had been at a loss as well, insisting, however, that the princesses could overcome Discord simply by manifesting the opposite of what the mischievous draquonequus represented. They had pondered for a long time on this as the ponyfolk around them suffered, and their own race became less common than it had been before. Now the two sisters stood on a street in Canterlot, at the corpses of their parents, with much anger and sadness in their hearts. Normally a full funeral would be performed, but in this land of Discord's, that simply wasn't possible.

Celestia gestured with her head for her sister to follow as she lifted the bodies of their parents into the air with her magic and cantered away to the area nearest where the graveyard ought to be. Without speaking, she placed the bodies on the ground and crafted two graves for them with her alicorn magic. At length, she lifted each of them, one at a time, and placed them lovingly into their graves, waiting for a long moment so that she and Luna could both say their goodbyes before covering the parents they'd loved with earth. She lowered her head, igniting her horn and casting off a few sparks in memory of the lost ones, before raising her head again, the wind tugging at her colorful mane. It was now that she uttered a single sentence, brief, to the point, and in a voice full of determination and anger.

"We must stop Discord."

[InsaneSeagull]

Luna found it very hard that her beloved Equestria turned into a chaos. It was a while until she felt so much pain in her heart, since she never thought that the peace she had as a young filly, living with her parents and older sister, would ever change. She was standing, looking up at the sky filled with cotton candy clouds and sighed.

That was the day she found that awful scene of her parents being dead. She never expected that to happen, either. She knew that the true immortality didn't exist at that moment, but she never thought something like that would happen that soon.

What could somepony like her do anyway? Take on responsibility? That's way too much. She knew in her heart that she must do that, anyway, she just didn't feel ready. She too kept hearing Star Swirl's words that it's only her and Celestia who can bring end to that chaos, anyway. But she still didn't feel capable of doing it. It was just hard for her to make up her mind.

She was crying inside while watching her sister burying their parents. So, that's what happened? What will happen to them now? They are supposed to grow up so soon?

"Yes, we will stop Discord," she said to her older sister at the end, finally making up her mind. She still felt uncertain, but all that happened made her realize that she had no choice.

[Carl]

The elder princess stood there for a moment longer before spreading her wings and turning her head towards Luna to say, "I need to get back to the library in our castle, and perhaps search farther... I need to discover what exactly it is that Discord represents so that we can stop him. Will you be coming?"

The opposite of... chaos? What exactly was that, anyway? Peace? How could they manifest peace? That couldn't possibly be it. She wasn't sure how to manifest anything, so there must be something she was missing... or perhaps Star Swirl was wrong? He was brilliant, but he was also aging... it wasn't really out of the question that he may have come to an incorrect conclusion. Her mind was so muddled and confused with all of the chaos everywhere even before the death of her parents had made it even harder for her to focus. It was her duty to Equestria, and now her personal agenda, to restore order to the land. She was determined, but she wasn't prepared. She needed answers, and so she knew that she had to get some research done, and as quickly as possible.

[InsaneSeagull]

The younger sister just nodded at the suggestion to go to the library. "There's not much we can do here anyway, and I need a break from all this chaos and these feelings," she said.

She loved the library she and her sister shared in the palace. It was grand and many interesting books could be found there. Luna loved reading, as it could distract her from depressing reality she was a part of. But, this time, she knew that she didn't come there for that purpose. Actually, that day's purpose she was supposed to face reality in the library, something she rarely did.

Just like her sister, she was also confused by the meaning of "opposite". "Hmmm," she thought. "I guess everything in this world has the opposite. Just like my sister and I. I suppose something similar is with Discord. But what could be it?" Just like Celestia, the first thing that came to Luna's mind was "chaos". But she knew that there must be something deeper than just chaos to him. He did cause chaos, but that doesn't have to be his true form.

She doubted Star Swirl The Bearded even more than her sister did, as she believed that there were many better unicorns in history who deserved as much recognition as he had, maybe even more of it. But she couldn't deny that his point made sense, except for one thing. Why them? Both her sister and her were alicorns, and she knew they were powerful, but she was sure that many other alicorns she knew contained at least as much power.

She was leafing the books as quickly as she could, even though she was always slower in it than her sister was. But in the end she found something interesting. She found the book called "The History of Chaos".

"Come here," she told to Celestia. "I'm sure this book has the answers we need."

[Carl]

Dropping her own books, Celestia hurried to her sister's side and began to skim through the book... it was indeed very fascinating, but it didn't seem to mention Discord, or any draconequus for that matter, much less what exactly it was they were meant to represent, and still the only answer to what was opposite of chaos was... peace. How could they outwardly manifest peace? She groaned, dropping to the cold stone floor and placing her hooves over her eyes. This was so difficult and frustrating. Why wasn't there anything to go on? Was it possible this was the first time such a being had plagued the lands in recorded history? Could that truly be the case? At last, with a sigh, Celestia rose to her full height again.

"Luna, I fear there may not be an answer in these books, at all. You can keep looking if you want... I'm going to go think somewhere."

Without another word, she strode away, exiting the castle and making her way to the secluded area where the Tree of Harmony resided. They'd read about it often in the past, and they had been surprised to find that it was real... it had seemed the perfect place to build their castle, but looking at it now, Celestia couldn't help feeling as if she'd failed the tree, somehow. It stood here rigidly, the strange gem stones adorning it sparkling, the symbols on its trunk seeming to call out to her. The third marking they had still yet to figure out. Luna's cutie mark and her own were the first two, but the third, a big star in the middle... what did it represent? Was it the tree's symbol of harmony?

Feeling like quite the useless princess, Celestia leaned her head against the Tree of Harmony. She'd not only failed the tree and Luna in allowing Discord to carry on unimpeded, but she had failed all of Equestria. She had failed the three tribes who had chosen herself and her sister to guide them as princesses. She'd failed everyone... a tear escaped her eye and dribbled down her face, dropping off to the earth below and vanishing into the soil. The Tree of Harmony continued to pulse, seeming to call ever louder to the dismayed princess...

The Tree of Harmony...

She had failed it by allowing disharmony to reign supreme... Wait a minute! Could that be it?! Disharmony was another way of looking at chaos... Was it possible that the answer to their problems was to... somehow... use the Tree of Harmony against him? Could they perhaps, manifest the magic power it possessed to expel him from Equestria?! Feeling very strongly that she was onto something she leaped into the air, spreading her wings and rocketed back towards the castle library.

"Sister!" she shouted as she flew, approaching the castle at a reckless speed.

[InsaneSeagull]

Luna was highly discouraged to find out that the book she found wasn't helpful. She just hoped she could be of use. That's obviously not what happened then. She sighed and just nodded when Celesta told her that she wants to leave.

She kept on leafing books, but found nothing. At least, she found nothing truly interesting or helpful. She was frightened, as so many things happened lately. She was also a bit worried about her sister. She didn't know where Celestia went, so she couldn't go looking for her. So, she kept on reading books in the library, but again - she discovered nothing truly interesting.

She was still worried. She couldn't stop thinking about everything. Chaos, Discord, her responsibility to destroy Discord, her sister... something didn't quite feel right about it. She couldn't cry, even though she wanted to.

Right then she saw Celestia running towards her in the castle.

"She's fine," she thought in a relief.

"What is it, big sister?" she asked. "Did you find out something that could help us?"

[Carl]

"I'm not sure," the sun princess admitted uncertainly, folding her wings, "It's just this feeling I have. I was at the Tree of Harmony, and I could swear the tree was calling to me... that's when it hit me that perhaps... Perhaps what Discord represents is more accurately termed 'disharmony,' and if that is so, maybe we can find a way to harness the Tree of Harmony's magic against him to defeat him."

She looked her younger sister, entreating her with her eyes, hoping that the other princess would see what she did and think it a good idea. She didn't fully trust her own judgement, as affected as she was by the death of their parents, and she knew that her sister's state was not the best either, but she hoped another mind could see if there was any hope in this wild theory of hers--then there was also the chance that if Luna thought it was a bad idea, but it was the solution, she may not be able to manifest the tree's magic on her own. She needed her sister to help her at least try this out. If she was wrong... if this failed...

She didn't think she'd be able to call herself a princess anymore after that.

[InsaneSeagull]

Luna gave her sister a wondering look. She couldn't believe she never thought of this earlier. Disharmony! That could actually make sense. Chaos often included disharmony, and the way ponies lived in that chaotic Equestria definitely couldn't be described as "very harmonious".

She wanted to say "YES!", but then thought... What if Celestia was wrong? She didn't know much about the Tree of Harmony, she read a bit, but that wasn't enough. But she did know that it can be rather dangerous to mess with. If they fail, the whole Equestria might be covered in even worse chaos! She didn't want to think about what would happen then. But... if what Star Swirl The Bearded said was true, only her and her sister could do something about that. But she didn't feel that confidence at all.

"Alright, my sister," she said in the end. "But let us do some research first. Neither of us knows much about that mysterious tree."

[Carl]

It was no secret that Celestia was a huge book nerd and loved researching magic; she and Star Swirl did so with frequency--well they had done before Discord took over. As such, the princess truly understood and valued the necessity of research and she knew that if you didn't know exactly what would or wouldn't work, that bad things could occur. She understood this all too well. However, she also knew that they'd searched and searched for information about the Tree of Harmony and had found little to nothing; the tree was, as far as most texts were concerned, nothing but a mysterious myth. Even were that not so, she also knew that some times one needed to put the books down and act.

Unfolding her wings without thinking about it, Celestia's form became apparently larger and more dominant, filling the room, it could seem, as she defied her sister's suggestion, and with her posture almost dared the younger sibling to contradict her. None of this was her intent, but it happened in a split second, as she shook her head and explained all that she was thinking.

"Nopony knows much about the Tree of Harmony! Luna we've been through these books looking for more information on it time and time again. There is a time for research, and there is a time for action. Right now, if we don't try to draw something forth from the tree, we have nothing to use against Discord at all. Whether the tree helps us or not, we must try. Things will only worsen the longer Discord remains unopposed!"

[InsaneSeagull]

Luna got scared when she saw her sister unfolding wings like that. She was always seeing her as a dominant figure, but she wished it was different. And Star Swirl... he said they should rule equally. But, will they even be able to rule? Will Discord ever be defeated?

She suddenly "awoke" from that daydream. It wasn't time for that, and she knew it. Celestia was right, it's time for action! But Luna was way too scared. She didn't want to cause more harm, that's all. But she knew her sister felt the same, so she nodded.

"So, what do you plan on doing? Do you have any guesses how that tree can help us?"