Harmony on the Winds

Chapter 2 - True Harmony

written by Fire Soul and Samantha Sprocket

She awoke on her side, her eyes bleary and an odd taste in her mouth. She flapped her mouth and her tongue a few times to clear the dry feeling from the inside of her mouth, but it was no use. Oogh, she was thirsty....

She crawled out of her bed, exhaustion weighing heavily on her eyes and every fiber of her being as she slowly walked downstairs, taking each step one at a time. It felt like it took several long minutes just to clear it.

She let her gaze wander around the library, lingering on the shadows and the center table that had the little horse head wooden statue on it.

Wait. Wait wait wait. Where were her bodyguards?

No sooner had she asked the question that there was a clattering sound from the kitchen, the groggy mare spinning around to face the door. Ah, that made sense, they must've decided to grab a late-night snack or something like that. It's not like anypony would cause trouble with four members of the Royal Guard watching over her home!

She let out a relieved breath and walked towards the kitchen door, pushing it open....and gasping in terror.

There, lying in a pool of blood on the floor, with one guard sitting at the kitchen table slumped over it and pouring blood out of his neck, were the four guards that were supposed to be watching over her home.

"Unicorn. Disgusting sins of nature....!"

She knew that voice. She knew it too well, it was too impossible for her to ever forget that voice. Her heart began to race and pound at her ribcage, as if it were struggling to get out, get away from the situation she found herself in. Alas, there was no escape from this terror she felt.

She began to hyperventilate as she stepped backwards, the lavender mare feeling dizzy and utterly terrified of the room she was stuck in now, her eyes darting left and right trying to find the source of that voice.

She only heard a few hoofsteps behind her before a foreleg went around her chest and her muzzle, muffling her shriek. The pony's weight pressed down on her back, forcing her to plant her hindlegs and forelegs before she could try to buck him off. Just before she could take advantage of an opening however, the pony pulled back and up with his own body, the foreleg around her chest forcing her up and onto her hindlegs as well, the pony's chest pressing firmly against her back while holding her tightly around her chest with that foreleg.

She flailed her forelegs desperately, pure terror causing her to panic and scream in vain against the assassin pony's leg over her muzzle. Then she saw it out of the corner of her eye as he let go of her chest, the moonlight coming in through the window glinting off an ornate, polished hoofblade, filigree covering the entire weapon, just short of coating the actual cutting edge with that filigree as well.

Twilight screamed in horror against the assassin's leg covering her mouth.

She felt his teeth bite down on her mane closer to the top of her head and yank back hard, forcing her head to bend backwards far, the flesh and muscles around the front of her neck being pulled nice and taut on both reflex and because of the position she was forced into.

Then, she felt him begin to cut.

Her eyes went wide and her forelegs flailed harder, the hoofblade cutting cleanly through her esophagus and cutting off her screams almost instantly. She struggled and flailed harder, but with her silenced, the assassin moved his leg from her muzzle to her chest the more she struggled, holding her tight so she had no chance of escaping his grasp.

She spasmed and tried to gasp for air, but all she got was blood, her limbs trembling as she tried to grab at something, anything that would help her in her blind panic. She could feel the blood running down her front and flowing over her thin fur, soaking her skin with the quickly-fading heat.

Suddenly she felt his body leave her own, and she stumbled forward, barely catching her weight. Her eyes locked on the window and she struggled towards it, an odd and horrible feeling surrounding the area of her throat as she tried to swallow.

She could barely breathe, the unnatural sensation of air flowing in and out through the opening in her neck making her feel nauseous. The warmth in her body rapidly began to leave her the more she bled out, and soon one side of her body began to go numb. A few steps short of the window, the numb side of her body gave out, and she collapsed onto her side.

Her horn sputtered weakly from the tip as she tried to focus on a spell, any spell that would get her to someone that could help her. She closed her eyes to concentrate on her magic, sluggishly trying to conjure and weave the magic with her mind.

She didn't open them again.

....She woke up screaming.

Her bodyguards were up the stairs in seconds, each of them activating the runes on their armor, the four guards glowing a radiating, gentle light by the time they reached the top of the steps.

She quickly threw a foreleg over her eyes to shield them when the guards charged into the pitch-black room, the moonlight from outside doing nothing to ready Twilight's adjusted eyes for the light the guards were letting off, no matter how gentle the light may have been in the way it lit up the room.

"Lady Sparkle!" one of the guards said quickly, the other three moving to surround the bed, their eyes wandering over the room quickly to search for any sign of an intruder. "Is everything alright?!"

She had her face buried in her hooves, tears running down her cheeks while she cried and sobbed with no sign of stopping. The guards looked to one another while standing guard, before the one in charge out of the three of them placed his hoof on her left wither.

"I-I'm sorry! It was just so real, I thought you were all dead, and he'd just cut my throat open....!!" she shakily told them, her forehooves going to her neck just to comfort herself by confirming that it was dry and very much un-cut.

He sighed. "Well, as you can see, we're fine Lady Sparkle. I understand what's happened is likely difficult for you, but there's nothing you can do about it at the moment. You need to rest."

"How can you expect me to-?!"

"Because somepony made an attempt on your life. We are here, we are watching over the library, we are keeping an eye on you and then some," he said, the other three nodding in agreement. "We are also working in shifts. One in the kitchen, one outside the front door, two just downstairs sitting in the main area reading or patrolling, with ten-minute pauses between when we walk up the stairs to check the upstairs area to make sure the balcony doors are still locked and the curtains drawn."

She just stared at him, only breaking his little speech with a small sniffle.

He stepped back and nodded to her. "The entire house is under constant observation. You can trust us," he said, motioning the others back downstairs, the other three guards returning to their posts quickly. "If you can feel safe enough to fall back to sleep, even if just barely, I would recommend it....there's little worse than being paranoid, scared, and exhausted on top of everything else."

He headed back downstairs, leaving Twilight to her own open-eyed lounging as she flopped back down on the bed, eyes staring up at the ceiling while her magic tucked her covers in more smoothly over and around herself. She was still trembling lightly from the nightmare, the thought of sleep bringing with it the terror of that horrible experience happening to her once again.

Twilight's sleep was very broken for the rest of the night.

Waking up wasn't something that Twilight took kindly to, now that it was actually time for her to get out of bed. The guards in her kitchen were barely noticed as the grumbling, slouching and barely aware mass of purple pony walked to the table and slumped down unceremoniously next to it, her head thudding down against the wood noisily.

"Spiiiiiike....I need coffee. Lots n' lots of coffee...." she muttered, barely heard by the guards.

One of the guards already in the middle of her breakfast opened her mouth to say something, but a stern look from the pony next to her shut her up. Instead, the silence continued unbroken as one of them retrieved a steaming mug of coffee for her, utterly black and with only a single packet of sugar torn open and mixed into it.

Her magic grabbed that cup as if it were the nectar of the Gods themselves brought down to her by a Cherub from high above to grace her parched, unworthy lips.

Sadly, she didn't realize that the coffee was both pure black and scalding hot until she took a quick swig.

Instantly, the coffee had a lovely, if startling introduction to the surface of her kitchen table, including that which had managed to enter Twilight's mouth. Thanks to the guards and a particularly overzealous wash rag however, their romance never got a chance to leave the ground.

"Ghk-GAH! Spike! You know I-" she said, turning to glare at her assistant.

She froze when she saw the guard sitting there, a sympathetic look upon his face, another guard sitting just next to him.

Twilight's eyes seemed to stare far beyond either of them. "Oh."

Her gaze lowered and her withers along with her head slumped, her eyes glistening with fresh tears. "Oh...!" she uttered, her voice clearly trembling as she said it.

The lone mare in the trio of guards went to Twilight's side, an armored hoof resting upon her shoulder just as she began to cry, her near-silent sobs unheard by the two stallion guards as they left the kitchen with their coffee cups.

The Captain in charge of the three of them pointed to the other. "Private, I want you to gather up the Elements of Harmony and bring them here. We can't provide the emotional support she needs for a situation like this, she shouldn't be left alone."

The younger guard nodded and gave a salute, leaving the library quickly behind, his wings spreading and taking him to the skies so he could make a beeline for the closest Element nearby.

It only took around a half-hour for him to gather up all of the Elements, the ponies arriving one by one as the guard told them that Twilight Sparkle really needed her friends right now.

First Pinkie, then Rainbow Dash, then Rarity, Applejack, and finally Fluttershy arrived to check in on her, all five of them sitting in the main area of the building consoling their friend as she slowly came to terms with what happened to Spike yet again.

"I-I don't....I wanted to believe it was all just one huge nightmare so badly....!"

Applejack was patting Twilight on the back in a quiet attempt to cheer her up. The others were sitting there drinking tea....though Pinkie could have been said to have been drinking sugar with a bit of dark water poured over it.

"Twilight, I stopped in at the hospital last night, and Spike is doing just fine. They have guards inside and outside of his room, so he's perfectly safe!" Rarity said with confidence.

"I-I know...." she whimpered, her sobbing having ceased for the most part.

Fluttershy smiled and set her tea down. "Not only that, he's very stable, they finished patching him up last night after Rarity and I left to go home."

Twilight just nodded to Fluttershy, managing a weak smile while Rarity offered her a fresh cup of tea. She took it within her hooves, too upset to use her magic all that effectively. It had the intended effect, her nerves seeming to calm considerably after just a few sips.

"Th-thanks, girls...." she muttered, sighing deeply and sinking down in her seat, laying her head on the table. "It just caught me so off-guard this morning, I don't know how I convinced myself it was just some big nightmare!"

Pinkie tilted her head a bit. "Nightmare? Now that I think about it, the guard said that you were having nightmares all night. What's that about?"

Twilight shrunk away from her friends a little. "I don't really know...."

"Ah, it's no big deal, Twi! Might help ya calm down a bit if'n ya get it off yer chest."

"Yeah Twilight, tell us a super-creepy story!" Pinkie chimed in, all grins by now.

The exhausted-looking lavender mare couldn't help but smile at her cheerful friend, briefly wondering if there was anything in the known universe that could actually get Pinkie down. If there was, she certainly didn't know what it could be....aside from maybe a law banning parties, or a worldwide shortage of sugar and sweets in general.

"Well....I'd woken up and it was still dark out. The lights in the library were off even though I knew I had guards posted to watch over me. It had me nervous, but I went downstairs anyways since I didn't want to be alone," she began, biting her lip. "I think I called out for them, but no one answered me."

"Then I heard something from the kitchen, and walked over to take a look. I stepped in and the kitchen was dark, but I could see the guards laying dead on the floor. Before I could do anything, I heard something behind me, and then somepony was on my back like they were mounting me!"

Rainbow tensed at the thought of that, but everyone had their attention on Twilight, so no one noticed.

"Then a leg went over my mouth before I could scream, and the other lifted me up by my chest. We're both standing there on our hindlegs, I see a flash of metal by my neck, and next he's just....cutting back and forth, like he's trying to slice my head off or something! I'm flailing in panic, I can feel my blood running down my chest, and when he's done he throws me to the floor and just watches me bleed out....I-I've never felt so cold before....!"

"Whoa there, calm down now! Yer safe, yer with us-"

"Am I? Am I safe, Applejack? Are any of us safe? Wh-what if I'm not the only target, what if they're after you girls too?!"

"Uh, hey, Twilight? Not to be mean or anything, but you're kinda sounding like some kind of conspiracy theorist, saying stuff like that," Rainbow said, cringing a little. "Just....calm down a bit."

Twilight's gaze wandered over her friends before she focused on the surface of the table. She took a few deep breaths and set her tea down while her hooves covered her face, dragging them down her muzzle in frustration, mostly with herself.

"I know. I know, you're right. I'm....I'm sorry," she muttered, taking a moment to stabilize her thoughts. "This whole thing just really, really threw me."

"That's okay Twilight," Fluttershy quietly chimed in, the timid pegasus smiling happily at the lavender mare. "You're just worried about us, aren't you?"

Twilight looked to Fluttershy, her eyes glossy with tears as she looked over her friends.

She looked over Fluttershy first, gazing into her timid, shy eyes, finding a true friend within her pure and caring gaze. Twilight smiled at Fluttershy and looked to her other friends.

All of them. It didn't matter who she looked at, the feeling was always the same.

"Yes. Yes I am. I'm terrified by the possibility that I'm not the only target out of all of us."

Her friends sighed and moved in to surround her in a big group hug, the five mares hugging each other and Twilight in the middle of them. Twilight reveled in it, feeling that it had ended all too soon when all of her friends pulled away from each other as well as herself.

"Darling, take it from me," Rarity said, resting a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "If you do naught but worry, you'll wind up in the same situation as you did the first time you delayed in writing a friendship report to Princess Celestia. I think we can all agree that that's the very last thing you need right now."

Twilight sighed and nodded to her friends, her mind in the process of running through the recent events and quickly sorting them out. She tried an old mental exercise from school, just closing her eyes and breathing while focusing on one single thing at a time.

It worked, for the most part. While she had managed to stop crying and calm herself down, she still couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. It kept reminding her of her youth. It kept reminding her of the time she'd been poisoned by a psychopath. It kept reminding her of how close she'd come to dying under the blade of a zealot.

She had to keep quiet about that though. No one could know. She was fine now, she went to therapy for that, it's over and done with. She'd be fine.

She didn't want all her friends to fear being around her again.

Beyond that, she felt a whole lot better visiting with all of her friends. Fluttershy's soothing voice did a lot to keep her calm, and Rarity's generous offer to stay with her and be there for her at any time if she needed help was a very nice gesture that put her mind at ease. Applejack only compounded that by stating that if Twilight didn't feel comfortable in the library, she could come and stay on the farm for a spell. She was very tempted to take AJ up on the offer, but she declined after thinking about it a little longer.

The library was, in the end, her responsibility to herself, the Princess, and the entire town. She kept the books in order (with Spike's assistance of course), and she kept all the records neat and tidy. She even sorted out all of the records that had been made before she started running the place, and those papers were an absolute jumbled mess!

After a few hours of conversation and talking about the recent Daring Do book, Pinkie Pie grinned wide as could be, a classic over-the-top gasp coming from her soon after.

"We should all go to Sugarcube Corner for lunch!"

They all stopped suddenly, staring at Pinkie after her fairly loud outburst. Then they all smiled, Pinkie's gleeful bouncing and grinning being fairly infectious.

"Hey, yeah! Sounds like an awesome idea to me," Rainbow said, fluttering idly in the air above the group. "Where'd all that excitement come-actually, nevermind. It's you we're talking about here."

With the decision made by the group, they all picked themselves up from the library and headed straight for Sugarcube Corner.

Along the way, Twilight felt a chill run up her back despite it being the middle of the morning, almost like someone just stepped on her grave. Her friends began to walk ahead of her while she peered around, her gaze wandering over the ponies walking through the area.

Aside from a few idle ponies walking around the library gazing curiously at the group of mares, she didn't really see anyone worth notice. She took another quick look around, her eyes scanning the library for some reason. Something was nagging at her in the back of her head....

"Hey Twi, whatcha laggin' back there fer?"

She jumped a little and turned her attention to her friends, who were all looking at her with a mix of impatience and curiosity. She gave her friends a sheepish grin and took one last look around, then rushed to catch up with them. The feeling was still there, but for now, she chalked it up to her nerves and paranoia.

After she left, a lone figure in a camouflaged cloak leapt gracefully out of the leaves by one of the windows on the upper floor of the library, once she confirmed that the guards watching the place were inside.

Dark blue eyes scanned left, then right. No one had paid her any mind, good. She briskly trotted away, her features indistinguishable under the cloak, aside from a pure white tailtip and light green fur around her fetlocks.

The mysterious mare quickly made her way down the streets, seeming to draw very little attention from the ponies she passed by. Then again, this was Ponyville: strange occurrences and strange ponies were more commonplace here than anywhere else!

She kept an eye out for a single white chalk mark at the base of the far wall in one of the alleyways....yes, there it was! She quickly ducked out of the morning crowd heading for the markets and stepped into the vague shadows the alley provided.

There, several ponies were waiting, all of them of varying colors and species, but they all wore the same robes: gray robes with colored outlines around the hood. Each of the six ponies had different colors, each color matching one of the colors of the Elements of Harmony.

One of the ponies nodded to her. "How is she?"

The mare snorted. "Shaken, but alive. The Princess, in her naivete, cleared out her entire pantry, and all of the poison we paid for. Only her dragon assistant got a taste of it."

Another of the ponies spoke up, this one a more soft-spoken stallion, his robe's colored outline matching Fluttershy's Element.

"It's unfortunate they have to die. I wish there was another way...."

The pony wearing the robe matching Applejack's color spoke up next, another stallion. "We all do. Harmony belongs to all living creatures on this great Earth, not just us ponies."

"Indeed," the mare wearing the purple-lined robes said, having been the one moving away from Twilight's library. "Why the Elements chose six ponies instead of a multitude of other species, we do not know. What we do know is that Princess Celestia was involved somehow, and her need to keep Equestria as the dominant superpower no doubt influenced her decisions. Thus, we must make this decision for her."

Another stallion spoke up, this one of the same color as Loyalty. "Yes. In order for true harmony to exist, Equestria must share its strength with the rest of the world, and that starts with the release of the Elements. The Bearers have to die."

"What troubles thee, sister?"

Celestia sat there with her morning tea, her breakfast barely touched and her daily newspaper left folded and off to the side, untouched like the rest. She had a far-off look in her eyes, the Goddess not truly 'there' at the moment.

Well, until Luna stepped closer and booped her nose.

"Boop!"

"Buh-wha?! Oh, Luna!" Celestia said after jumping in her seat a little, her beloved sister having taken her by surprise. Then she blinked, wiggling her nose a little. "Did you boop my nose?"

Luna just smirked. "You're welcome."

"Sorry, Luna. I've just been so distracted since last night!"

"Twilight Sparkle?"

Celestia nodded once. "At first I thought of the possibility of them targeting Spike, but he has no enemies, none that I know of anyways, and I've watched over both him and Twilight since they were little ones! That leaves two other possibilities: Twilight was the target, or they both were. Every last bit of the food was covered in the poison, after all."

"Hm, true. Any leads?"

Luna wandered over to where Celestia was sitting, a large study desk covered in papers and scrolls. Among several individual profiles, there were multiple registration papers for several cults, all of which operated in the Canterlot and Ponyville areas.

"Cult of Luminous Suns, Cult of Harmony....Cult of Discord? When did the Cult of Discord come together?"

"About a year ago, soon after Discord was sealed away in stone once again," she said, smirking and shifting the papers around. "I believe I even have some papers on....ah! Here we are. 'The Cult of Shimmering Moons'! They have new beliefs regarding you."

Luna's eyes sparkled. "Really? What-"

"They harass Twilight three or four times a month through the mail and through surprise visits, trying to get her to admit that she's secretly yours, Nightmare Moon's, love-child with one of your many harem stallions, before I banished you to the moon."

"But, that....that doesn't even make any sense!"

"Oh, it's like a horrible fanfiction all about you! They actually think that I've kept Twilight in stasis until recently, so I could use her as blackmail material to get you to 'behave'! It's hilarious!"

They both shared a laugh over that, Luna's laughter easily outweighing her older sister's.

Both mares sat there together giggling after their laughter died down. When all was silent again, Luna broke the quiet once more.

"Truthfully, what worries you is your student, yes?"

Celestia's smile disappeared at that, her gaze turning downward as if she'd fallen into thought yet again.

"Of course....you know what we had planned for her. How could I ever ask her to work on such an important, life-changing project under the current circumstances?"

Luna nodded, walking over towards the balcony doors. "Indeed. She is truly ready for such a change, but....I share your concerns. An attempt on her life could deeply alter her mindset for such a task. It could even cause her to fail if we were to send her this book now!"

"Yes. Yet, her wisdom upon being recognized as Equestrian royalty, a Princess no less, could put an end to all of these border skirmishes. The Griffons are a cowardly race and nation, acting only as bullies when they believe they have the upper hoof. Or claw."

Luna stared up at her moon, pensive. "We would lose a chance at such wisdom and knowledge if we dared to act hastily! We must have patience. Wait for things to stabilize in Twilight's life. Then, we may test her. As long as we are being honest, there is always the possibility that she could fail-"

"There is not! Twilight is far too capable, and her dedication to her friends is unbreakable. She will not fail."

"So you say, sister," Luna said, sighing. "But surely you have factored in the possibility of her failing?"

"Yes, I have. She won't fail."

"But-"

"The only way she could fail, Luna, is if all of her friends abandoned her, and we sent her this book right this very moment," Celestia said matter-of-factly, the serious look in her eyes easily discernable for Luna as their gazes met. "The Elements of Harmony will always stay together. They love one another, and are as close as friends could possibly be. Not even Discord could break the bonds of their friendship now."

They both stared at one another for a long, silent moment, Celestia's gaze just daring Luna to attempt to try to think of some way that her star pupil could possibly fail.

Luna could think of nothing, though. She had met Twilight Sparkle on more than one occasion, both as casual meetings to get to know one another better and generally spend time together with her and Celestia, and during a few consultations where the young unicorn's excessive knowledge and amazingly sharp mind could even rival her own!

Sighing, Luna bowed her head and closed her eyes, shaking her head.

"....I suppose you are right, sister. You seem to be able to put faith in others much more easily than I. Often, I wonder how good of an idea that truly is, but it has brought Equestria to a truly Golden Age, so you must be doing something right."

Celestia smiled at that and nodded to Luna, the smaller embracing the larger as the two gently pulled one another close for a hug.

"Thank you, Luna....I genuinely do feel better, clearly I was unaware just how badly I needed to hear someone say that to me."

Luna laughed a little and hugged Celestia tightly for a moment, smiling wide.

"Anytime, sister."

Celestia stepped back and away from that embrace, nodding and turning to her work desk to resume looking through the papers she'd been sifting through for hours already. A knock on her door had another three ponies setting down three stacks of papers each, filled with detailed information on cults and the cultists that were a part of them.

Luna turned and walked slowly towards the door.

"If you need me for anything Celestia, I shall be in my quarters resting," she said, looking back to the larger mare hopefully. "And I do mean anything, sister."

Celestia looked to Luna with a wide smile, nodding in appreciation. "It's very kind of you to offer me help like that. Thank you very much. I will see you at sunset, of course!"

Luna had learned over the eons of her life to learn how to control her emotions and her body language, but with Celestia, she was getting a lot of practice in! She sighed quietly through her nostrils and nodded quickly to her sister, exiting the room rapidly.

Luna briskly walked down the halls towards her own room, a blank expression locked on her face all the while. She looked to the two Night Guards standing watch outside her room, and they pushed her doors open for her to step inside.

Darkness consumed her entire room, her wings flapping once hard and rushing wind through the chamber to blow out all of the candles with ease.

She slumped suddenly, as if the weight of the world were on her shoulders, a single tear trickling down her left cheek while she clenched her eyes shut.