A Tear in Harmony

Two days later — 2:36 in the afternoon, or 14:36 Standard Equestrian Time.

"Twilight, what exactly do you mean by this?"

Princess Sparkle cleared her throat and gazed up at the divine, snowy white-coated alicorn Princess who sat up on her throne in the Central Royal Hall. She then opened her mouth to speak to her. "Princess Celestia, I am here to present to you these conclusions I have drawn of our current situation, based solely on the information I had at hoof. Before making any kind of blind guess, I went to the Archives to record data and review footage from Princess Luna's patrol two nights ago, which, I know, had been untouched by analysts and the press during that time. Now, however, I know that almost everypony in this castle knows the details of that, as well as the Chaos forms themselves, but I'm afraid I must present them for contextual sake before I continue on with my report.

"Now, as many of us know, the Chaos forms are the manifestations of Chaos itself in physical forms, because of the previous destruction of... of the Elements of Harmony..." her voice caught for a moment, but she continued on: "... their usual behavior is that they destroy anything that is in harmony that they are able to lay their 'hands' on.

"This brings me to the information I have deduced. As shown by the Princess's patrol, the griffons had been able to meet up with the Chaos forms without being harmed in any way. However, I've come to the conclusion that the only logical reason that the griffons had met with the Chaos forms (and therefore it can be deduced that they have been meeting with the Chaos forms in the past), is because they griffons plan on working alongside them to wreak havoc across the landscape. I have personally translated the recorded griffon sentence that Luna had picked up, and it states that the griffons are demanding an advanced weapons shipment from the Chaos forms themselves."

At this revelation, the soft murmur of conversation resounding throughout the entire room completely disappeared, replaced by silence and receptive ears. Even Princess Celestia herself was left speechless. Twilight had to ask, "Princess?" to snap her back into reality.

The snow white alicorn's eyes immediately snapped back into reality, and she glanced up around her Council. She herself didn't know what the safest thing to do was in this sort of situation, so, in this time of need, she would usually ask everypony for their opinions, and make a decision based on that. And that is what she would do.

"My Council. My fellow advisors, my fellow ponies. The question at hoof is, how exactly do we deal with this dilemma? I would like to hear everypony's opinions on the matter. We'll start with you, Rose Petal. What do you think we should do?" she turned her gaze to a white Earth pony mare with rose-red hair, sitting on the furthest seat on the left. She perked up and slowly stood up to speak.

Twilight sighed and sat where she was. Hopefully this new knowledge would not push these ponies into doing something drastic... however, she knew that unavoidable things like this were truly... unavoidable.

"I demand that we declare war against the griffons!!" Rose Petal suddenly declared loudly, and pounded her hooves on the table. When she had done this, a few other ponies stood up as well, shouting angrily. Phrases like "Kill the traitors!" and "Death to the griffons!" rang out throughout the Council.

The lavender scholar flinched at the reaction and glanced back behind her to Rose Petal with a panicked expression. If war broke out between them and the griffons, chances were that Canterlotian Equestria would be in a critical position. Others would launch coordinated attacks upon seeing them in a weakened state, and the whole landmass would fall right down to the ground in a messier state than it had ever been before. She wanted to voice her fears, and she needed to do so now.

She raised her hoof, which caused the whole Council to fall quiet in a matter of seconds. Clearing her throat, she spoke once more.

"I am afraid that war is not the correct answer during this very critical time. If we attack the griffons, others like the zebras, dragons, and windigos may see that our resources are being strained and attack us as well. If this entire landmass falls to the ground, what w—"

She was cut short by a harsh, criticizing voice from behind, coming from a blue stallion with black hair wearing a charcoal suit. "Young Princess, I am sure that Equestria will not fall at the claws of the dragons or the hooves or the zebras. This city has held out against outsider attacks for as long as Princess Celestia has existed, even while it was on the ground! Our cloud-lift generators have been working flawlessly since they were turned on during the Great Evacuation six hundred years ago! There is no possible way that such uncivilized creatures will be able to cause the destruction of our home right now, since they couldn't before!" he growled at her.

Another pony stood up before Twilight could reply to him; this time, it was an orange unicorn mare who spoke critically. "And how can we be so sure that her conclusions are even accurate? I, for one, find it hard to believe that the griffons are stupid enough to even try creating an alliance with the Chaos things! They've been decimated by them hundreds of times before; they can't side with them at all, especially now!"

"But, madam! Couldn't you see the footage I jus—"

Cut short again. The orange mare continued. "The footage does not tell us what happened to the two griffons in question, Princess Sparkle! For all we ponies know, they could have been killed moments after they went off-camera! We have no definite answer here!"

The mixed conversations in the Council turned heated, and then into quarrels, louder and louder, until Princess Celestia herself lifted a golden-horseshoed hoof up to calm the room down. Just as before, silence overtook the whole place (though it took a bit longer this time around), and everypony was listening intently to their eldest Princess. Some still glared at each other in annoyance every now and then, however.

"My dear friends. Mares and gentlecolts. Two very different opinions seem to be manifesting themselves here: one opinion states that I should declare war against the griffons, and the other says that there isn't any such alliance going on between the Chaos forms and the griffons. However, I would like to present my own say on the matter.

"We aren't entirely sure of the situation, but I trust in my faithful student, Twilight. Though she is young compared to my sister and I, she is still much older than any of you ponies in the Council, and you will respect her conclusions. Therefore, I will take her word that the griffons are indeed working with the Chaos forms, no matter how odd and unlikely that sounds; I will also try to please those ponies in this Council who are asking for war. My final decision is that I will send a negotiation party over to the griffons' capitol to try to make sense of what's going on. Is there anypony in this Council whom opposes?"

To nopony's surprise, none raised their hooves to object. With her more-than-two-thousand-year experience, it was a no-brainer that Princess Celestia's decisions would not be opposed in any way. It was probably because ponies who opposed her would have to present an extremely good reason to do so, or risk punishment. The era of "nice Princess" during the time of the Mane Six was over.

"I believe it's a good enough idea," Twilight chirped. She stood up from where she sat, and turned around to gaze at the Council. "I... I believe I should lead the negotiation group. If they talk to a Princess directly, they're sure to reconsider!"

Some ponies shook their heads or sighed in disbelief at Twilight's innocent suggestion. Princess Celestia spoke up and cleared her throat, prompting the lavender pony to turn around and give her her utmost attention. Everypony else in their seats stopped moving.

"My dear Twilight, I know that this is a very important thing for you, but... do you really believe that you can head a group of ponies to the griffon capitol for negotiations? Judging by their behaviour, they seem extremely edgy and may attack at any moment, especially at the sight of our 'kind'. I suggest that you not go by yourself, and at least have a detachment of trained guards at your side at all times. You will definitely be in grave danger by just being in their territory, you do know that right? I don't want to risk losing you, especially at this grave hour," Celestia finished, and continued to gaze at the young alicorn worriedly.

But the smaller alicorn shook her head and smiled up at her mother figure. "Princess, I'll be alright; actually, now, I believe that I should be on my own. If the griffons see that I'm bringing combat-ready guards or anypony else along with me, they'll be less receptive to a treaty for peace. If I'm there by myself, they'll reconsider their declaration of hostilities with us. And besides, I'm not completely untrained with my defensive spells..." she smirked up at her teacher with a twinkle in her eye.

The Supreme Princess knew she couldn't do anything except give up. She sat motionlessly for a minute or two, weighing the potential consequences of either choice, before reluctantly nodding to her student. "Alright, then, Twilight. But promise me you'll come back... unharmed. Are we clear?"

Princess Sparkle nodded up at her superior and gave her a quick salute. "Yes, ma'am," she spoke before bowing her head down low. She took hold of her research and documents in her magical grip and stood up,  turning to leave through the door a distance away to her right.

Celestia watched her leave, not paying attention to any of the sounds coming from her Council or the words they were speaking quite loudly. She sighed. Had she made the correct choice, letting Twilight do something as important as this?

———

"Come on! Stupid spell... work! Work!!"

The target in front of Princess Twilight Sparkle was indeed charred and in disrepair, but it was not in any way fatally harmed. Sure, a few firebolts to the shoulders and knees would have hurt a lot to a real pony, but would that be enough to stop the griffons in case of attack?

She didn't really want to kill anypony, or anygriffon, or anyone else inhabiting the planet, especially now: she didn't arrange to go to the capitol to fight their leader into submission, no — she would go there to negotiate for everlasting peace and an end to the grand scheme of things they seemingly had been planning for years. Didn't the griffons realize that any sort of treaty with the Chaos forms would end up extremely badly, even if they seemed to be helping them out?

Her thoughts got in the way again. Darn... she muttered to herself and sat down. Maybe offering to negotiate peace with a potentially deadly hostile force was the worst idea she'd come up with in months. The Council should have just offered to send an emissary. But she knew that would have gone badly, especially since all the potential emissaries she knew were extremely hostile. She knew for a fact that she was the only pony she could trust with this sort of matter. Or maybe she was just being narcissistic and not letting anypony else do the job, even if they were just as good, or even better, than her?

But that didn't matter anymore. She stood up and began to pace around the room with its stainless steel walls and ceiling and fire-retardant-coated mahogany floors. Her horseshoed hooves made no sound against the floor, as they usually didn't, and the complete silence in the room allowed her to think.

"I have to count up my assets," she muttered, half to herself. "I don't have any deadly combat spells at my disposal, my stun spells are lacking, but enough... hmm, I know that my space-breaking and illusionary spells are much more practiced than they should be, and if the time came, I could easily teleport out of harm's way..." She continued to count her spells and calculate her chances of surviving unharmed, while time continued to pass. Just as she was about to finish her thoughts a few hours after she had started, a doorbell-like beep sounded.

She snapped out of her trance and stood up regally, making sure she looked nice, before she trotted over to the door on the southern corner of the room. She pressed a seemingly random place on the steel wall and the outline of a hidden door appeared before sliding slowly open. A unicorn mare stood in the hallway. She looked up at Twilight with an unreadable gaze, and Twilight stared back down at her expectantly in reply.

"Princess Sparkle," she finally bowed her head after a second or two. "We have sent a notification of your arrival to the griffon capitol of Ur. They will be expecting you in one hour."

Twilight gulped quietly before acknowledging that she heard what she had said. An hour?! I thought that the Council would at least wait a good three hours so I could get myself ready!! She quickly asked the mare why.

"Excuse me, but... can I have a reason as to why the Council only gave me an hour's notice before my departure? I don't really understand..."

"We gave you five hours, ma'am. You left the court at 14:47, and now the time is... 19:56. A messenger arrived two hours ago and rang the doorbell, but he reported that there was no response from within. So we decided to give you an extra hour. The latest time you may want to be there is 21:00. If you arrive there later than the aforementioned time, the griffons may be extremely hostile. I suggest that you move quickly, Princess Sparkle," the mare finished.

By now, Twilight had face-hoofed. Did she really miss that noise two hours ago? She was probably busy thinking, but she thought she had heard something sound nearby... But she sighed.

"I guess I'll go get ready now... Thank you for reminding me, though. I would have angered the griffons if you hadn't alerted me..." she smiled sheepishly.

The mare turned and left, making her way to a staircase at the end of the hallway. Meanwhile, Twilight left the room and turned towards the opposite way the mare had gone, over towards the lift. It was such a shame that the castle was so complex, and to get to her suite, she would have to go downstairs and board another lift. It wasn't so bad, though; it only took about twenty seconds to go from the lobby to her six-hundredth floor room.

She entered the lift and dragged the icon from the top, down to the lobby. This would be quite an intense night of negotiations indeed...

———

"Miss Sparkle. Are you ready?"

Twilight was standing in front of the bay doors in the large, concrete-floored underground warehouse. She would deploy on the underside of the landmass they stood on, out the bottom for quick exit towards the griffon capitol. There was the option of a vehicle, but, of course, Twilight had declined, saying it could potentially provoke them into attacking. So, naturally, she would have to fly there on her own.

She nodded to the engineer pony, who pressed a button. The ground in front of her slowly opened up, revealing near-pitch blackness below, with only her HUD on her advanced contact lenses to guide her. She gulped and sighed quietly. This would be the first time in years that she were to leave Canterlot on her own. Not to mention that it would be her first mission in even more years.

She spread her wings wide and sucked in a deep breath. Stepping forward, she fell forward into the cold blackness, allowing her to fall for a moment before her HUD alerted her. At this instant, she caught the wind in her wings and bolted forward in a single powerful motion, propelling her to two hundred miles an hour. She zoomed along the underside of the landmass, undisturbed, for a few minute or two, before the engineer pony spoke to her through her earpiece.

"Princess, your exit will be just ahead. As always, please don't hurt yourself on the way out. Good luck to you."

Radio silence followed. Her modified charcoal grey nano-suit slowly covered up every inch of her body, making sure the fit was tight and aerodynamic. Her ears were shielded from the harsh drafts she encountered, and her mane and tail were quickly tucked into the suit, much like it had been during her secret night mission to Canterlot so many centuries ago.

A bright, flashing yellow light caught her eye. Her HUD was blinking rapidly, telling her that she was approaching her designated exit through the shield. She narrowed her eyes and tucked her wings in, quickly flying right through it. She glanced back behind her; it melted back into place, looking like a shrinking amoeba; the rest of Equestria was completely undetectable. And just like always, the atmosphere changed from the understandably cold, yet comfortable Equestrian air to a heavy, frigid, hostile outside environment. Down below her, her night vision allowed her to see the ruined landscape. Sure, the logs and video that Princess Luna had brought back were quite impactful, indeed, but to see them with her own two eyes... this was a completely different experience.

Her HUD locked onto the griffon capitol of Ur. Listed at 133 miles away, she sighed to herself and continued to firmly move her wings. Though she had declined the Council's suggestion of a flying vehicle, she had been slightly more receptive to a device that could have aided her flight; a jetpack of sorts. Just as she had done for the vehicle, she still told them that it would cause the griffons to be less receptive. Now, though, she was starting to regret her decision. Sure, she could get there in twenty minutes if she really tried, and thirty minutes if she were to go at her normal pace, but it was quite tiring either way.

And Twilight could swear something was watching her every move...