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// Finding Solutions 
// Story: Discordant Disaster 
// by LewdaCRITS 
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It is now a couple of days since the virus began. Most of Equestria believes Luna had betrayed them once more despite Celestia saying it’s not Luna’s fault this time. However, there have been protests that have sprung up for different and more complex reasons. Each riot demands a change in the government, believing Celestia and the government had grown increasingly incompetent since that faithful night. Celestia was unable to raise the sun, and Equestria may literally no longer see the light of day until she feels better. It is very possible that Luna’s bite had drained some of her magic. As of right now, doctors are simply dubbing this disease the Lunar Disease. Whatever disease Celestia is coming down with, it’s not affecting just the residents of Canterlot. The best she could do was issue a nationwide curfew in order to lessen the Lunar Plague cases.
Twilight lives alone in the Golden Oak Library, hard at work at finding any solution to this virus. She has her mane tied in a bun as to not get in her way. She also wears her glasses, with brass rims and clear lenses, as she normally does when reading or doing any research. With no one to assist her with additional tasks or even spend some quality time with, her work hasn’t been very easy. Everyone seems to be busy this evening, including herself. She’s seeking to be a scientist or a scholar since she has an interest with chemistry and has learned some biology from Fluttershy last week. She imagines that she could find a position in a prestigious magical institution, where she can solve magical mysteries.
She may have encountered her first magic-related mystery, and it seems to be the most dangerous and most mysterious by far. She still can’t believe Celestia can no longer raise and lower the sun anymore. She remembered vividly that it was nighttime, the analog clock hanging on her wall reading 10:03 PM, and she needs to get ready for bed and continue her research in the morning.
At that moment, Twilight had some lingering thoughts running through her head. Just the other day, Princess Celestia wishes to promote her into a princess, but she refused. Celestia understood, and allowed her to pursue her own dreams as long as it doesn’t negatively impact her friendships.
Twilight looked at her clock, and her mind was interrupted from its autopilot once she realized what it read, fearing that being three minutes off schedule wouldn’t be good for the amount of sleep she’ll need for tomorrow. Each time the second hand ticks—every second that passes—feels more like a ticking time bomb that’s about to go off if she doesn’t do something. She stops whatever she was currently doing and hastily goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth before crawling into her bed upstairs, making sure she put everything away nicely, of course.
Aside from the occasional adventures she and her friends have, Twilight follows a strict schedule. It gets very repetitive, that’s the way she liked it. It’s her baseline. Things seem normal for her like this.
After brushing her teeth, Twilight went to her bedroom upstairs without hesitation. She makes herself comfortable in her bed before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep, but not without checking the time once again, first, on the digital alarm clock on her nightstand. It’s 10:12 PM. She made a mental note to get ready for bed earlier next time as she lay down with her eyes shut, concluding yet another productive day. 
This would be the last time her schedule would follow the same pattern that she had gotten used to. Because when she woke up to the loud and obnoxious beep of her digital alarm clock next to her bed, she found out it was still nighttime. She initially believed her clock was misleading her and she had just set her alarm too early. But, she explicitly remembered to set that alarm at 8:00 AM, which was what her digital alarm clock and analog clock hung on her wall read. Her friends as well as everypony else was skeptical and confused.
It took hours for them to realize that their clocks weren’t lying. It has indeed been ten hours since 10:00 PM yesterday. It’s not their clocks that are experiencing difficulties. It’s the ever present waxing crescent moon that remained in the sky since that hour. The letter recently sent from Celestia that Twilight found in her mailbox gives some sort of context. When she revealed it to the rest of the town, they have some mixed opinions. Twilight and her friends did try to calm them down and assure that Luna was being held against her own will by this curse. Many remained unconvinced, blaming Luna for keeping the moon in the sky.
Twilight had already visited the castle to inspect Luna, who is now contained in a glass cell. So far, Celestia isn’t experiencing any dangerous symptoms other than her waning control over her own magic. She expected to come face to face with Nightmare Moon again, but the real state of Luna did suggested something different. She hasn’t seen anything like this. She was allowed to do more research on the matter with added assistance from her friends and a few other magic experts. However, Applejack was busy at the farm and is getting very protective of her family since the night Luna was possessed. Rarity didn’t want to abandon her sister, Sweetie Belle, either. And Fluttershy was busy at the vet. That leaves Rainbow Dash and Pinkie. They did everything they could to help her, but they couldn’t do a whole lot to help with the magical mystery. Even so, Twilight was thankful.
As of her latest findings, the only way this supposed curse could have befallen on someone like Luna would be via a special type of magic that no ordinary unicorn or even an alicorn is capable of possessing. Out of the 37 different types of magic used in the entire world in pony history (not counting magic potions, beverages, or foods), she doesn’t quite know what kind of magic would be responsible for the Lunar Disease, as only 25 of those types of magic are capable of casting curses or producing diseases. Even the curses or infection spells that require said magic to work aren’t too different, but are unlike the one Luna is currently being influenced by.
One of the magic experts claim it must be Discord, but that’s impossible. He’s stone, now. It’s only when he explains Discord’s desire to bring chaos did Twilight understand a little more. But they can’t be so sure. Without Discord’s direct testimony for confirmation, they’re reliant on historical records to determine whether chaos magic could’ve played a role in Luna’s infection. While this theory makes more sense than assuming it’s something from the Everfree Forest, politics, news outlets, and the general public thought it was an assassination attempt to kill both princesses. 
Twilight asked her friends about their thoughts on how Luna was infected. When they said they had no idea, she asked more specific questions, like if they think Discord might’ve infected Luna or if any of them see him snap his fingers at some point before being encased in stone. Only Pinkie and Rainbow Dash said yes, with Twilight herself even recalling Discord at least raising his right hand, while Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity either didn’t notice or remember. While Twilight and her friends are the only eyewitnesses to Discord’s defeat and what he did right before he was turned into stone, the discrepancy on their recollections didn’t quite give a definitive conclusion to this theory. Until they can gather some definitive proof, this theory will remain as such. 
During the whole day, Twilight had to make use of the little time she was allowed outside and kept a fair distance away from the few others who are brave enough to venture out from the safety of their homes. By the time she went back home after asking her friends, she realized she wanted to ask Pinkie something else, but couldn’t muster the courage to do so.
She always took a liking to Pinkie. She always finds a way to bring joy to the smallest things. What makes it seem more interesting is that Pinkie seems to enjoy spending time with her more than any other pony, finding comfort in her calmer and more sophisticated nature and can’t seem to back away from her when she entered Sugarcube Corner to ask her some questions for her investigation. Despite being full of energy, there are times where even Pinkie can find solace in the quieter aspects of life. Twilight has seen her read books before, most of them being cook books, and in her spare time, her favorite works of fiction to read involve drama, romance, and comedy. Maybe when she gets the time to see her and she’s not so busy at the moment, Twilight can talk about their feelings a little more.
She hadn’t noticed that it’s almost midnight by the time she got home, or at least that’s what the clock said. The waxing crescent moon is still positioned an hour after astronomical dusk. It still felt unnatural for the moon to still be up after 5:00 AM. Once Twilight noticed her analog clock, and her mind was interrupted from its train of thought when she read it. In a panic, she prepared for bed, no longer willing to make dinner for herself. Once she got into bed, she unties her hair bun ans took off her glasses, putting them on the nightstand next to her, where the digital clock sat. She checked the clock, which read 12:04 AM. She cursed under her breath before she made herself comfortable, closing her eyes, and eventually drifting off to sleep. She couldn’t seem to get Pinkie off her mind that night.