Howdy, guys! I’m back with another sketch, and this time IT’S PARTIALLY IN COLOR! I rarely color sketches to this extent but I am slowly changing to color sketches more often than before. This is also the first time I drew Celestia and Discord, and the Alicorn sisters are in a manga-ish art style.

My headcanon for this drawing (which is not the same as the previous drawing) is that when the Royal Sisters were younger, and during Discord’s chaotic reign over Equestria, they chased him through a tunnel that led them to an ancient and ruined metropolis. Below is a mostly unedited version of a short story I wrote while I was waiting at an airport. A certain detail will contradict the image, which will be explained in a separate note below.

“Ugh, how much longer until we reach the end, sister?” Luna growled as she accidentally hit her head against the dirty low cavern ceiling. She rubbed the sore part with her hoof. “I’m starting to think that we should not have followed that foul demon into this wretched tunnel in the first place!

“Honestly, I don’t know, Lulu. This tunnel seems endless,” her sister, Celestia, replied while she swatted a twig out of her brown coat with her hoof. When she was finished, she looked onward through the tunnel to the inky blackness the light of her horn couldn’t reach. She sighed and craned her neck to look at her younger sister. “We just have to keep moving onward, Luna. There has to be an end,” Celestia returned to look forward and continued walking. “There has to be!” The last couple of words seemed to be used to comfort herself rather than her darker sibling. They have been in the tunnel for more than 5 minutes, and they haven’t seen the end yet.

“Tia, maybe we should just turn back no-” Before Luna could finish her sentence, a dim, but visible light appeared at the end of the tunnel. The sisters immediately stopped, held their breaths, and waited for anything to happen. After a full minute of nothing happening, they looked at each other.

“Should we keep on moving?” The darker alicorn asked warily. She then quickly added the next question, “What is that, Tia? I can’t detect it with my magic at all.”

Celestia sighed and replied, “I don’t know, Lulu, my magic doesn’t detect anything, either. I think it’s safe, however. Let us continue.”

“If you say so, sister.”

With that, the two alicorns continued through the tunnel, getting closer to the tiny prick of light. When they got closer, they realized that it was a small crack in the dead-end wall. A tiny ray of light seeped through the crack.

When they were 6 yards away, Luna turned to her sister and asked, “Should I look through it, Tia? Whatever this wall is made of, my magic can’t get through it. I don’t know what’s on the other side.”

After a few moments, her sister nodded and said, “Sure, Luna. But be careful, okay?”

With a small nod, Luna crept to the hole and looked into it.

“I see, I see…”

“What do you see, sister?” Celestia asked anxiously.

“I am not sure, but it looks like some room with a light source from somewhere. There’s a lot of moss and plant growth here, too.”

“Hmm, that is interesting,” the white alicorn said in a whisper. “Okay, let’s make a hole in the wall. Get back, Lulu.”

With that, Luna returned to Celestia, and they backed off a few yards before they deemed it acceptable. After a quick decision, Luna lowered her horn and blasted the wall with her magic. When the two alicorns walked through the hole, they found out that, besides the overgrown and crumbling area, they found a big hole in the far ceiling above them. The hole showed a cloudy sky, but there was little else seen through the opening. With the flap of their wings, the two sisters flew upwards and through the hole. What they saw outside of the hole shattered their expectations, and it took some time for their brains to process what they were seeing as they hovered.

Tall, dilapidated structures towered all around them. All of them were of architectures that were not like anything the royal siblings have seen in their entire lives throughout their travels of Equestria. Some were tall enough to even pierce through the cloudy overcast of the skies above!

“W-where are we, T-Tia?” Luna asked shakily as her eyes darted around the ruined towers. “Why are these buildings s-so tall?”

Her lighter-furred sister replied in an equally shaky voice of Luna’s, “I-I don’t know, L-Luna. Perhaps this is all of D-Discord’s doing. I don’t remember seeing anything like this in Equestria.” She turned her gaze downward and saw even more odd things on the ground. Strange-looking carriages lined the ruined streets, all of them were in differing states of decay. Some were on their sides, while the others were either upright or upside down. “Just where are we?”

Suddenly, in the distance, a familiar voice called out from somewhere in a sing-song tone, “Oh, Tia and Lulu, where are youuuu!”

“Discord!” The sisters said at the same time as they were immediately snapped out of their trance. They flapped their wings harder and flew through the streets and ruined structures, flying in the general direction the voice came from. After passing by two structures, they came across a long elevated pathway filled with the odd carriages from the roads below. They almost stopped flapping their wings in shock at the sight, similar to how they reacted when the two siblings first appeared out of the hole. In the distance, more dilapidated towers dotted the landscape. Some were leaning toward another, a few were on their sides, and others stood upright, standing high into the skies above.

Suddenly, loud laughter broke them out of their trance like the previous time. When the sisters looked toward a ruined bridge, they saw their foe between the alien carriages.

“Enjoying the view, beloved sisters?” Discord asked mockingly.

Almost immediately, the two alicorns raced toward the draconneques at a seemingly lightning speed, nearly ripping their respective brown coats off of their necks. They landed some yards from Discord with a loud thud and a gust of dust that enveloped the two for a short while. When they came out of the dusty fog, Celestia and Luna wore angry looks on their faces.

“Enough with, with whatever this is, Discord!” Luna began with an irritated tone in her voice. “It’s over!”

“Oh? Are you sure? You two don’t wanna look around the beautiful sights of this dead city?” he asked in feigned curiosity.

“Shut up, demon, we will have no part in this game you’re playing! Give up now!” Celestia replied angrily.

“Very well, then, so be it!” Discord got into a stance before he continued. “Let’s fight, my ladies!”

(you may notice that I said that both of the royal sisters wore angry faces at Discord. This is, however, untrue as you can see in the drawing. This was largely because I rushed the picture so that I could board my flight at a certain airport. So, I apologize for the minor contradiction)