He was just a boy when he was converted. A young boy growing up without a care in the world, every day an adventure, learning new things, finding new treasures.
He came from a loving family. His parents never fought or raged against each other, remaining faithfully and fully in love till the end of their days. He was never abused or beaten, his family loved him to much for that. Neither was he ignored or abandoned to play by himself, his parents often devoting time and effort to spend time with him and each other as a family.
He never grew up in poverty nor did he grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth.
In short, he was a perfectly normal, healthy boy at the tender age of 11, going on 12.
Of course, that's when it all went wrong. During his twelfth birthday, a day that he should have spent the day fondly remembering (especially as his parents loved him and his friends all took the time to come) was instead his final day as a Human. To be fair, it was his final day as anything remotely relatable to the current laws of this universe. His birthday was raided by members of the P.E.R. or the Ponies For Earths Rebirth.
Fortunately, or unfortunately for him, the P.E.R. was still very much condemned worldwide as a terrorist group at this point in time and still lacked any funding from the royal sisters, which was to come at a much later date. They had gotten their hooves on some very potent equipment, specifically, some of the earliest batches of the Ponification serum, which was incredibly unstable and had resulted in horrific changes during the early testing stages.
It was with this Potion the young boy was hit, and it was this potion that had subsequently caused his body to dissolve rapidly, absorbed into the tumultuous energies that was the early stages of the Magical rebirth of Earth. Which, suffice to say, was a rather painful experience for the young boy, shattering his mind and casting him adrift into the Magic.
This lasted for ten years, his mind broken, scattered throughout the various leylines of this Earth.
Soon, his mind began to reform, up taking all the accumulated knowledge of those who had become part of the Earth itself, which was every Man, Women and Child of every species to ever live on Earth.
In short, he obtained the collective knowledge of billions of humans and hundreds of other creatures, Ponies or otherwise, rending him a vast knowledge of all of Man's technological advancement along with the accumulated knowledge of all Pony magic.
Celestia had tapped into the leylines had she not?
The result of which gave him access to all her powerful spells and incantations.
Of course, one cannot not have anything for free, especially when both Magic and Technology are part of it. His spirit was reunited and ascended to a higher plane, only to return to the world of his birth, from a reality where the powers of a 'god' were a simple as breathing to the common man. He became one with the Crimson swirling lines of Unity, of Harmony. He became one with the blood of Ascension.
~~~~~~~~~~~
His arrival back to his home was anticlimactic. No great sign blazed in the nights sky, announcing his return. Nor did the many magical creatures now inhabiting the world wake up screaming in fear of the seeping crimson power than bleed into their thoughts and dreams. His arrival was through the simple conversion on an innocent child, joining his soul to the boy's, both of them trapped in the younger body of a Pegasus.
Thus did he enter Equestria as a 'NewFoal' and learnt much of their society, of the power of the 'Gods' that controlled the great Sun and the Moon. He watched as the world of his birth was slowly consumed beneath the gentle expansion of the great barrier that outlined Equestria, destroying the lands of Mankind forever.
And he grew sorrowful. He saw the great conflicts between Man and Pony, the fanaticism on both sides and the great racial hatred that would lead to the final war of Earth. And thus he knew that now was the moment to act, to bring unity to a world that craved it, and peace to all those who deserved it.
He would bring them into Harmony. Into the greatest peace and joy of their lives, bound forever in a life of peace, with no thoughts of war or death. Free to live in unity. He would be the Harbinger of their ascension and the vanguard into the new world.
Through his actions he would bring them into his state of being.
He would make them one with the universe.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The Elements of Harmony slowly moved through the vast cavern, the many creatures, all of them bound to the control of this "Harbinger" Pony, that they had seen and even fought through having vanished, leaving only a central platform raised. The cavern itself stretched upwards, its ceiling a miasma of inky blackness, sharp stalagmites hung down, each hanging precariously over the Elements head.
"Come on girls, once we've dealt with this, Equestria will be safe once again!"
Twilight continued forward, slowly followed by her friends. Pinkie suddenly darted forward, startling Fluttershy.
"Ooooooh, whats this? Ooooh look Twilight, Buttons, pressy pressy pressy!"
"No, stop Pinkie! We don't know what that'll do!"
Twilight' words were particularly prophetic.
A great crimson light rose from the console, lines and shapes forming some strange geometry that hurt the eyes and damaged the mind to look upon. The cavern was lit from beneath, the crimson light staining the walls the color of blood. The Elements were plunged into a semi-darkness, their eyes just making out the forms of each other, appearing as strange shapes, corpses peeled of their skin, to each other.
The Elements stared at the rising mass of euclid crimson lines, each unfolding and flowing upwards, as if the blood of some great creature was pumping without the body to contain it, forming a mass of unnatural shapes, eventually culminating in a bizarre creature that looked both organic and inorganic, as if the being was some mad mare's dream of a titanic destroyer, a beast to end times.
It was massive in shape and size, the bloody lines pumping, forming a strange shape of writhing limbs and strange carapace. Lines continuously spiraling into infinity, shapes that defied the mind's comprehension sound and twirled creating a not-body, strange arms that were not bending to-and-fro, stretching and extending from every surface.
Rainbow Dash summed it up quite elegantly for someone facing a being that both was-and-was-not.
"This....is not good"
YOU ARE NOT OF US.
The voice echoed through the Elements, sound but not sound, resonating within their soul.
Rarity looked up in shock. "What is that? Some kind of fey Magical spell?"
RUDIMENTARY CREATURES OF FLESH AND BLOOD.
YOU TOUCH OUR MIND, FUMBLING IN IGNORANCE.
INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING.
Applejack shivered at the intrusion of this...this...'thing'. She could feel it burrowing within her mind, her own thoughts washed away at the VOICE that sounded in her soul, wiping away any thoughts of Freedom, of Control. "I don't think this is some Magical spell."
The shape in front of them wavered, shifting into something normal, something of this reality. A great ship, made of blackened metal forged from the essence of the void. Its form a great body, its many limbs dangling beneath it, eyes burning with that madding crimson.
THERE IS A REALM OF EXISTENCE SO FAR BEYOND YOUR OWN.
YOU CANNOT COMPREHEND IT.
YOU CANNOT COMPREHEND WHAT WE ARE.
WE ARE HARBINGER.
The VOICE sounded. The Ponies obeyed, as their souls twisted and buckled under the pressure this 'being' exerted, their own minds rebelling at the possibility of such an existence.
Twilight struggled, her breath hitched in her throat, noises that make no sense poured from her mouth. Her brain, desperately latching on to something, anything that made sense in this world of pure Madness. "Harbinger isn't a Pony...its...its something more." Within the deeps of her mind something click, as if the tangling of her soul had revealed some great cosmic truth to her.
Her voice stuttered and wavered, becoming hollow. "I.....I know you, a harvester of Man and Beast alike. You are the Great Destroyer, he who was held back by the lord from taking those that belong to him, You hath been realized by the foolishness of Mortals and the sins of gods. You are the Reaper made manifest."
REAPER.
A LABEL MADE BY YOUR KIND TO GIVE VOICE TO THEIR COMING DESTRUCTION.
IN THE END WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO CALL US IS IRRELEVANT.
WE SIMPLY.
ARE.
She could feel it echoing within her, its words but not words telling no lies, no falsehoods. It imprinted its will on the fabric of the universe, shaping and commanding reality to do as it commanded, for there was no alternative to its will.
"But you're... you're nothing but.... something wrong, an aberration against all life." Twilight felt her voice grow stronger, reforging her shattered sanity. Around her, the various Elements of Harmony began to rise up, her words shaping their minds in a unity of purpose. "You're just some machine abomination. And like all the machines of Man, you can be broken!"
ORGANIC LIFE IS NOTHING BUT A MUTATION.
AN ACCIDENT.
YOUR LIVES ARE MEASURED IN YEARS AND DECADES.
YOU WITHER AND DIE.
The Elements buckled and collapsed. Their will sapped, the strength torn from their muscles and all thoughts of hope extinguished.
WE ARE ETERNAL.
THE PINNACLE OF EVOLUTION AND EXISTENCE.
BEFORE US, YOU ARE NOTHING.
YOUR EXTINCTION IS INEVITABLE.
WE ARE THE AVATAR OF YOUR FINAL ASCENSION.
Pinkie struggled to her feet, her face locked in a struggle between her fear and some misguided attempt at laughter.
"Yeah, well you're just a big meanie pants!" she stopped, her mind struggling to form anything that could possibly be seen as a coherent thought. "There are plenty of Ponies that'll stop you. Just you wait, the Princesses will come and show you what happens to meanies like you!" She collapsed, her already fragile mind teetering dangerously on the edge between sanity and the abyss.
CONFIDENCE BORN OF IGNORANCE.
THE HARVEST CANNOT BE STOPPED.
YOUR ASCENSION SHALL COME.
YOU WILL BE THE FIRST.
YOU WILL NOT BE THE LAST.
Rarity limped towards Pinkie, each step like walking across glass. She glared up at the swirling euclid crimson, blood leaking from her left eye. "There are more us than you, and you can't work within Equestria!" She screamed, her eye's blood vessel bursting, tinting her eye the same color as the bloody crimson soaking into the cavern around her.
"The Princesses have great magic, there is no way you can beat them." She stumbled, and fell, landing next to Pinkie, slowly embracing her in an attempt to stop the madness.
YOU CANNOT DEFEAT US.
BY THE MAGIC OF YOUR PRINCESSES.
BY THE TECHNOLOGY OF MAN.
WE ARE THEM. WE ARE THEIR MAKERS AND INHERITORS.
AND WITH THEM. WE DO WHAT WE MUST.
WE IMPOSE ORDER ON THE CHAOS OF ORGANIC LIFE.
YOU EXIST BECAUSE WE ALLOW IT. AND YOU WILL END.
BECAUSE WE DEMAND IT.
Her cyan wings hung limp. Her hair was flat and her soul was struggling, fighting to stay in control. She tried, oh Celestia she tried, to fight back with all her spirit against this eldritch thing, this Reaper. "What do you want with us? Slaves? Resources?" The words slipped from between Rainbow Dash's lips, her soul fighting back with all its might against this sheer, corrupting power.
WE TRANSCEND YOUR VERY UNDERSTANDING.
WE ARE A NATION, A WORLD. AN IDEA MADE MANIFEST.
FREE OF IGNORANCE.
INDEPENDENT OF CONFLICT.
YOU CANNOT EVEN GRASP THE NATURE OF OUR EXISTENCE.
WE HAVE NO BEGINNING. WE HAVE NO END. WE ARE INFINITE.
MILLIONS OF YEARS AFTER YOUR CIVILIZATION HAS BEEN ERADICATED AND FORGOTTEN.
WE WILL ENDURE.
Fluttershy's mind was influx. Every part of her soul fought and ravaged each other, claiming dominance and control over her thoughts and her soul. She should strike at him. NO SHE SHOULD FLEE. Stare him down like the beast he is! NO, HE WOULD DESTROY US. ~~We should follow him. Listen to him~~. Out of all her swirling, turbulent thoughts, one held true. She must protect her friends. "Where are the rest-est-EST of you-U-u-~~u~~? Y-Y-Y-You are only one Pony, you ca-CA-can't defeat all the Ponies of Equestria..."
WE ARE LEGION.
THE TIME OF YOUR ASCENSION IS COMING.
WE WILL FREE YOU FROM THE TYRANNY OF ORGANIC LIFE.
WE WILL BRING YOU INTO THE TRUEST HARMONY.
YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR FUTURE.
She bucked and she kicked, toiling away at the influence consuming her mind. The Crimson clouded her thoughts and her mind, only leaving her the one true avenue of escape from the prison that her mind had become. Applejack stomped the ground, shaking the Elements from the madness that had taken hold. "Y'er just a machine an' machine kin be Broken!"
YOUR WORDS ARE AS EMPTY AS YOUR FUTURE.
WE ARE THE VANGUARD OF YOUR ASCENSION.
THIS EXCHANGE IS OVER.
The great Crimson lifted from their minds, their sanity barely held together by their unity and friendship. Slowly the Elements rose to their feet, all coherent thought lost and only the echoes of madness remaining.
As one, they turned from the cavern. And they ran. They ran and they ran and they ran. Fleeing the madness, hoping that they would be saved, that the Princesses would save them from such foul madness, such unending Harmony. Each of them bore in their souls that Harmony, a powerful magic that resonated deep within the great euclid Harbinger.
WE WILL BRING THEM UNITY.
WE WILL BRING THEM PEACE.
WE WILL BRING THEM HARMONY.
Author's Note
Funny idea sitting around on my hard drive. Made in response to a comment on SpaceBattles someone once made about the bizarre similarities between the Reapers from Mass Effect and the Ponies from the Conversion Bureau.
What is harmony but the unity of all beings?
No Gods.
No Kings or Queens.
No betters or lessers.
All equal.
Is that not Harmony?
