Keep calm. Keep calm. Arone was pleading with himself to keep calm. It had been just over a week since Bini's rather sudden change of heart and despite his many attempts at rekindling their friendship, Bini wasn't having it. Not only had she decided that Starswirl's word was pure truth but she dove herself into her work. Blocking out everypony except her staff, which had two ponies now. A pegasus who was a former guard named Rocky Snow and an Earth pony (Because the Royal Chanterlot Library needs diversity) mare named Chocolate Shadow. She had a light brown coat, purple eyes, and a black mane tied up high with a light purple bow and a book as a cutiemark.
They all carried scrolls and were frantically going through every situation they had prepared for on this occasion. Celestia had returned the Discord statue back to its rightful place in the garden a few months ago and now she brought it back to Ponyville to be "reformed." Arone assumed she came to this crazy conclusion on one of her many nights that she slipped out to "talk" with the statue of Discord.
Bini had ordered her staff to prepare for the worse. Bini always had a private habit to overthink things and stress herself out to the point where she spiralled into depression. She was dangerously close at this point. She was nervously sweating as she actually pushed a scroll into Celestia's face as they entered the outside platform of the castle where a chariot with four pegasi stallions and the famous statue.
Celestia momentarily let her irritation show at the Library staff before returning to her neutral expression. Bini used her magic to point at the diagram of chaos she designed.
"As you can see. If Discord is released, he can just teleport immediately without even hearing you out!" She had finally ended his final point of ranting. Celestia rolled her eyes as Bini gestured her staff, who was lagging behind to respect the Princess and guards flanking her. Arone was on the other side of her. Coming to a stop right in front of the chariot.
"I see where your concern is coming from, Bini-"
Bini waved her hoof to interrupt her.
"I am not done yet! There are endless dangers!" She said. Arone jumped onto the chariot with Celestia and Celestia managed to assure Bini that everything was going to be fine. The Elements of Harmony will be there. The entire conversation had managed to make them late.
---
Most of the mane 6 had gathered in a field just outside Ponyville. Watching for the Royal Chariot from Canterlot to arrive. Twilight was pacing and occasionally scanned the sky with her eyes for any sign of the Princess.
"I love it when Princess Celestia comes to Ponyville! I got my hooves shined just like Rarity for the occasion." Pinkie chirped to break the uncomfortable silence and showed Rarity her hoof. "Ya like?"
"I certainly do!" Rarity nodded as she fixed her mane in the reflection of Pinkie's hoof. Twilight let out a frustrated snort and looked over to her royal assistant Spike.
"I'm surprised she's not here yet." Twilight commented out loud to anypony who would listen.
"I wonder what's taking so long..." Spike replied. Twilight took a moment to look around at her friends and noticed that two of them were gone.
"And where are Applejack and Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.
"Fluttershy's detained helping Applejack with a mishap at Sweet Apple Acres. They'll be along." Rarity explained. Twilight began pacing again and Spike tried to help her keep calm.
"She's bringing an important visitor. That could be part of it." Twilight concluded.
"A visitor who's important and slow." Rainbow Dash complained as she landed on the ground.
"Maybe it's somepony so terribly important, she still had many more terribly important things to do before she got here." Rarity said with grace. Spike gasped and pointed to the sky.
"Maybe the visitor has a deer antler, a goat leg, a batwing, and a snake tail!"
"Yeah, right. That's Discord." Twilight said with a roll of her eyes. "There is no way-"
"Why in the wide, wide world of Equestria would Princess Celestia bring along someone like that?" Rarity asked. Spike kept frantically pointing to the sky.
"M-m-maybe you should ask... her!"
They all looked up and saw Princess Celestia in her chariot with her personal Assistant and the familiar statue of Discord. They gracefully landed to the ground in front of the shocked group. Twilight was the courageous one who stepped forward as Celestia and her assistant dropped to the soft grass.
"With all due respect, Princess Celestia, how could you bring Discord here?!" Twilight said. Then clear her throat. "Your majesty."
Celestia chuckled and placed a comforting shoulder on Twilight's hoof.
"I'm fully aware that the last time Discord was here, he created serious havoc." Celestia pointed out. "Chaos. But I have use for Discord's magic if it can be reformed to serve good instead of evil. This is why I've brought Discord here, because I believe that you are the ponies who can help him do just that."
Twilight raised an eyebrow with curiosity.
"But, Princess. Based on your short conversation with Discord, it seemed like you two have a history of at least something close to friendship. Can't you do it? I mean, we would release him and then give him to you." Twilight suggested. Celestia looked away in embarrassment.
"I am sorry, Twilight. But my relationship with Discord is complicated and did not end on a good note." She admitted. She, then, smiled towards the group and used her magic to detach Discord from the chariot and placed him in front of them. Just then, Applejack and Fluttershy joined the group as Celestia continued to assure that she had cast a spell on the elements to make sure he wouldn't be able to make him disappear again.
Then Celestia focused her attention on Fluttershy and dropped to her eye-level.
"Fluttershy. I believe you will be the main source of reforming Discord. I believe you know best how to handle him. I realize that this is a tall order, but I wouldn't ask if I weren't confident you could get him to use magic obediently of his own free will." She explained.
"And... you really think I'll know best how to do that?" Fluttershy muttered with uncertainty.
"I do. Now, I must return to Canterlot for Equestria's royal summit." Celestia revealed. She heard Arone groan in the background. He had never been to a summit before but Celestia made sure that he was aware that they are usually very boring. "You may release Discord when ready."
---
Bini and her staff had never been to a Royal Summit before but when Bini took one hoof step into the ballroom that had nobels, royalty and the rest of the castle staff wandering around. Some even struggling to set up a moon and sun throne at the front of the room with a table full of refreshments. She gestured her staff to follow her to the front of the room where Celestia and Luna stood, waiting for their seats to be placed down so that they could begin the day of boring delegations.
"Sister." Luna said. Catching Celestia's attention among the noise. "Why must we have this summit? We already have a council of ponies to help us make decisions and a solar and lunar court. This really isn't necessary
"This is more of a....gathering for ponies outside of Canterlot. There are representatives from each and every village, town, city, and even farmland here. Most of those types of ponies wouldn't be able to come and would most likely be too late to reach any of us. That is why this is so important."
Then there was a commotion. Prince Blueblood entered the room and started demanding why he didn't have a throne for the summit. He was a prince after all. He marched over to a very annoyed Bini who was trying to delegate her staff to help at the Princesses' request.
"You! Mare in the glasses." He called out. Bini looked briefly around before realizing he was addressing her.
"Um, hello?" She replied. The assistant who worked previously in the Royal Guard glared at the Prince with hate and the earth pony mare simply slowly back away from him.
"Where is my throne?" He demanded.
Luna scoffed and glared at Blueblood.
"His great, great...great...great grandfather was much nicer than he is." Luna mumbled as Bini stepped closer to him with a raised eyebrow.
"Prince Blueblood." Bini said. "I am a Librarian. I am nowhere near-"
Blueblood shoved his hoof into her chest, shoving her a few steps back. Her glasses fell slightly from the force and quickly pushed them up again with a scowl.
"I don't care who you are! Get this fixed at once! Do you know who I am? I am a Prince!" He barked. Gathering the attention of some of the ponies around them. Bini rolled her eyes and moved past him. Only to be stopped by his hoof. Bini looked ready to buck him in the face.
"You are a spoiled rich prince who isn't exactly an Alicorn, so you aren't worthy of a precious stupid throne!" Bini snapped. Luna and Celestia couldn't help but chuckle at his flabbergasted expression. He scoffed a few times and circled the pony with hatred.
"SPOILED? I AM BETTER THAN AN ALICORN! I AM A BLUEBLOOD!"
Bini groaned and hoof planted herself in the face.
"Congrats. You officially look like an idiot. Idiot." She insulted and held her head high as trotted past him with her grinning assistants. Blueblood gave a smile and held out his back hoof, causing Bini to trip and faceplant into the floor. She groaned as she pulled herself up and the crowd around her burst into laughter.
Bini's horn lit up with the most powerful spell she knew.
"Sister." Luna hissed. Nudging Celestia with her wing. "Perhaps we should-"
BAM!
"Too late."
A blast of light came from Bini's horn and knocked Blueblood across the room and into the thrones. Effectively breaking them from the force. Bini was never a gifted unicorn. She was a little bit below average but that spell was her best one, so damn, was it effective. Bini leaped on her hoofs and started prancing towards Blueblood, who lay groaning and a little broken from the impact. Bini shoved her hoof in his face with a big smile.
"HA! SUCK A THRONE, BLUEBLOOD!"
She, then, decided that it was best to give up on trying to make good appearances for the Library's sake and just left the Ballroom. Completely ignoring her duties. Her assistants hesitantly left with her. Discussing whether or not they would need new jobs later in the day.
Arone entered the ballroom and saw the mess near the front of the ballroom. He looked over to the Princess's for answers before looking back at Prince Blueblood who was violently cursing somepony out. Demanding that they be fired.
"Do I even want to know?" He asked.
"Bini told him to go suck a throne!" Luna said with a hint of excitement. Clearly happy with how the event ended. Arone chuckled weakly, he still missed his friend. Who had refused to talk to him outside of business matters for a while now. Arone handed her the latest reports from the guards secretly watching over the Discord situation in Ponyville.
The situation was going better than planned. Celestia had honestly expected-
She cringed and bowed her head down. Taking in deep breathes as the voice felt it was time for public punishment.
"I ordered you to destroy him!" The voice hissed in her mind. She couldn't reply. She couldn't risk anypony else hearing her response. "Very well. This is your new punishment."
She felt a great deal of magic pull out of her body in seconds. She watched as injuries that it had inflicted on her began to form. She felt blood pour down her fur and deep cuts and bruises reveal themselves. She bit her tongue to prevent from crying out as her legs buckled and she collapsed to the cold marble floor.
The summit, which was already pretty derailed, just became worse as Celestia's head spun and everypony started screaming and panicking at the sight of her sudden injuries. She wasn't sure how she would explain this to Luna and Arone later. Yet alone the rest of Equestria as news spreads fast. Her eyesight dimmed as she heard Luna used her royal Canterlot voice to order medical services as she used her own magic to desperately heal her sister. But they just kept reopening.
Finally, Celestia faded into oblivion from blood loss.
---
Twilight had entrusted Discord and Fluttershy to send the Princess a report, detailing how Discord was reformed and what he learned about friendship so far the previous afternoon. Twilight's eyes had fluttered open as warm sunlight filled the Golden Oaks Library thanks to Spike opening the curtains to the Library in Ponyville. Suddenly, as her eyes focused on her surroundings, she found that Spike was in front of her. Staring her directing in the face with a worried expression.
"Spike?" She said in confusion and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Usually, Spike would be downstairs making their breakfast. "Are you OK? What's wrong?"
"I am worried about...Princess Celestia." He admitted. Twilight slowly removed her blanket and shived as the chill morning air coming from open windows ran up her spine.
"Is this because of yesterday? Because I am sure that Fluttershy will be able to keep Discord in-"
"No. No. No." He interrupted and pointed to the sun rising in the sky. She got up and moved to the window. Taking a careful look as she noticed that the sun was shaking as it moved further into the sky to brighten Equestria. Almost like the pony lifting the moon was under strain and/or was inexperienced in moving the sun. "It was like that at sunset as well. You were too busy studying to notice. The moon was raised and lower just like normal though."
Twilight watched as it finally reached its first cycle in the sky.
"That certainly is strange. How about this? You make breakfast and I will write a letter to the Pri-"
Twilight was interrupted by a loud urgent knock downstairs followed by her friends calling put for her to open the door urgently. She groaned. Having a feeling it involved Discord. Maybe he was behind the strange sunrise? Twilight brushed that thought aside as she considered that if Discord was really behind it, it would be a lot more dramatic than a little bit of shaking.
She hurried to the front door with Spike and opened it to see her concerned friends. Rarity was using her magic to hold up her morning paper and the rest of them stared at her like she had all the answers to what was going on in Equestria.
"Twilight! Have you read the paper yet?" Rainbow Dash asked with her raspy voice in a tone of concern. Twilight shook her head and moved to explain that she had just gotten up but did notice the strange sunrise. Rarity handed her the newspaper and pointed to the front page of the Ponyville Press with haste.
Twilight looked down and gasped in shock at the headline.
"Princess Celestia mysteriously injured in Royal Summit."
She continued to read further. The Article stated that the Princess was simple talking with Princess Luna and Celestia's assistant when she suddenly had injuries appear on her body. The press wasn't sure how bad they were as the Royal sisters refused to make an appearance since rushing Celestia to a locked medical wing in the castle or a statement.
"I...I need to speak with the Princess!" Twilight thought out loud and started to have a mini panic attack as she considered the possibilities of what could have happened to the Princess! Was it Discord? No. No. No. Twilight needed to stop jumping to that conclusion! Discord was a lot of things but he wasn't about to torture the Princess like that! Her friends quickly stepped in to help calm her down and suggested they take the first early train to Canterlot.
---End of Chapter thirteen---