Harmony's End

Harmony’s End

Written by: Midnight Rose and ChaoticLightning

Edited by:ChaoticLightning

Chapter One: The Announcement Derails Her.

Twilight’s mix of emotions were on a collision course, she did not know what to feel or how to convey that emotion without hesitation. The train finally arrived at the Crystal Empire, in which Twilight left the train station, wiping the sweat from her brow.

Upon making her arrival to the Crystal Empire, she was stopped by two Crystal Guards stretching their wings to block her entry. “State your business,” one of the guards demanded.

Twilight was a taken aback a little, she had never been treated with such….hostility before. But she tried to smile at them kindly, she hoped the smile didn’t turn into a grimace, but it probably did.

“I’m here to see Princess Cadence, she said she had something to tell me.” She informed them.

The guards sighed and nodded. They had all been on high alert ever since Shining had told them all the good news during one of their breaks, and with a salute to the grumpy Princess, they let her through.

Twilight walked past the guards and headed into the castle’s courtyard, where the sun reflected off the shiny surfaces of the castle. She smiled a little, the prettiness of this place always brought back good memories.

Ah, Spike. She thought wistfully. All grown up from the savior of the Empire to the ‘terror’ of Equestria. She chuckled a little at this, Spike was anything but a terror. He had only grown about sixteen feet or so, that was nothing compared to a fully grown alpha dragon.He was still much bigger than when he was a baby, however.

Twilight shook her head and tried not to think of him. Thinking of him brought back those happy, painful memories of her friends and she didn’t want to go into that depressed phase again, because apparently, Cadence had good news for her.

Twilight wondered what in Equestria it could be….but she had some idea.

The castle doors were open now and she realized that there weren’t any guards here, which was strange, but those guards seemed very diligent most ponies would probably get too scared to get this far. Or they were just off somewhere else.

Twilight shook her head, after all these years; she still couldn’t get Equestria’s security standards raised.

She didn’t really blame the guards, however. Ever since Twilight took the throne, nopony had dared threaten Equestria.

Twilight took that as a good sign, she must either be loved or feared. Either one worked for her.

Her grin widened as she happily skipped into the grand hall. It was as beautiful as ever, and the centerpiece was the dual thrones.

Shining Armor had a brilliant sapphire blue throne while Cadence had a very bright pink throne. The pink one was so light, it looked white with the mid-day sun shining on it.

Cadence was talking to Shining when Twilight walked in, and at first didn’t notice her. Shining did though, and he nudged her with his elbow.

“Twiley!” He cried happily. He got up off his throne and walked down to his sister.

She didn’t mind him hugging her, she even hugged him back. This made Cadence grin.

“Well, I see somepony’s feeling better.” She said with a giggle as Twilight blushed.

“I sure am, now, what was it you guys wanted to tell me?” Twilight replied, getting straight to the point.

Cadence smiled widely. She didn’t really know how to keep this light, friendly and calm; mostly because she was so excited! Twilight waited almost expectantly for Cadence to finally say what was on her mind.

“Twilight….we’re expecting.” She replied, grinning widely.

Twilight didn’t know what to say.

The little mare that Harmony once was had grown up,if even just a little. She had gained her cutie mark….by not doing anything. This had surprised everypony, doctors, her parents, and especially the other mares and colts at her school.

They would ask her what her cutie-mark symbolized and she would reply, “uh….I don’t know.” Usually followed by a hearty shrug.

This statement would be followed by questioning, sometimes teasing, but all-in-all a sense of awe. Most ponies had no idea how or why Harmony got her cutie-mark. She did.

She didn’t want ponies to know that she just woke up one morning with a mark. That would paint her as ‘too perfect’ or even ‘weird.’ She didn’t want that.

After a while though, the teasing got worse. Her parents noticed this after she came home crying one day. At first she didn’t want to tell them why she was crying, but after a while….she did.

That’s when she was shipped off to magic school.

Harmony hated it here! Everypony was acting like she was some kind of prodigy, and the students….oh, the students were the worst! They thought they were better than everypony else, they were stuck up and rude, and called her so too when she called them on it!

That’s why Harmony was hiding in the school’s bathroom. She didn’t want to go to class, where she would stand up in front of everypony and perform her ‘amazing’ abilities in magic, and then be asked how she could do such things! It was humiliating not knowing any answers. To questions, that is. Harmony could do the work fine, the bladdering questions however, were a different story.

Harmony hid in one of the bathroom stalls and whispered to herself, “everypony is pretty curious about my abilities in the magical arts, but I don’t think I can handle the barrage of questions that they ask me.” She thought about the negatives and positives of her abilities for a moment before returning to the classroom.

She sat at her desk and started to fidget a little.

The teacher levitated a piece of chalk in her aura, writing today’s lesson on the chalkboard. “Okay class, for today’s lesson we’re going to focus on the importance of controlling your magic.” She wrote down a picture of a magical aura, before explaining to the class the further details of magic control.

“Controlling magic is of the utmost importance when you’re a beginner in learning magic, the best way to control your magic is to practice and read books about magic. To separate the good from the bad, the weak from the strong points of magical use, and honing in on your skills. At first, using your horn for the first time with a magical spell will start out in sporadic patterns until you get the hang of it.’’

Finally, the teacher finished her lesson when she said, ‘’Practice makes perfect.’’

The bell rang as everypony exited the room, leaving the teacher alone in the classroom.

The teacher wiped the board clean with the board eraser and sighed a little. She didn’t have anywhere to go after class, and neither did the mare standing right behind her.

Harmony wanted to ask something, but she couldn’t quite get the words right.

She took a breath and started to ask a question, “sorry to intrude, but can I ask you something?’’

The teacher turned her attention away from the board and looked at the curious mare. “Harmony, you know that you can always ask me anything, no matter what it is.’’

Harmony smiled and looked at her teacher with a fond smile, “uhm, I was wondering….why does my cutie mark make my magic….uh, better?” She asked, not quite knowing the words to make it sound better.

The teacher laughed and shook her head. “I have no idea, sometimes destiny just sends you in the right direction.” She said with a stout nod. “I can give you an aptitude test if you’d like.”

Harmony smiled and nodded, she’d been wondering what kind of magic she’d be good at for a while now and the teacher smiled back and with her magic, made a rolled up piece of parchment appeared out of thin air.

“Thanks.” Harmony said, taking the paper.

The teacher smiled, sighed and shook her head slightly as Harmony left, paper levitating beside her. There went her night of relaxing.

Twilight didn’t know how to respond. Well that was a lie, she did know….she just didn’t know how to phrase her questions without offending anypony with her bad language.

She had so many questions in her mind, only half of them decent ones. When did this happen? Was the filly and or colt going to be an alicorn? Why did they want to give somepony so young that horrible sentence of loneliness?

Twilight shuddered as she tried to look away from Cadence, who looked at her with a hurt, confused glance.

“Twilight….aren’t you happy for me?” She asked.

Cadence was a bit surprised by this. She thought Twilight would be instantly happy for them, as she would’ve been in the past.

She wasn’t though, she wasn’t even looking at her anymore.

“T-Twilight?” Cadence asked. She had anxious tears forming in the corners of her eyes and Twilight sighed.

“Oh, Cadence… why would you do something like this?” She asked in a whisper.

Cadence gave her a shocked, hurt look and Shining frowned. Why was Twilley being so mean?

He sighed, it was their wedding rehearsal all over again. Shining shook himself, Twilight had been right in that situation...but still.

“Twilight, you’re behaviour is unacceptable!” Shining said, grimacing at his sister’s look of hurt.

“It is, is it?” She asked, “And giving somepony eternal life without them even knowing is acceptable!? I can’t believe this, I thought you two would be smarter than that!” Twilight argued, her anger fully blossoming as she put her thoughts to words.

Cadence blinked back the tears and choked out, “o-oh…I…didn’t realize you felt that way, Twilight.” She replied softly. Tears came out of her eyes as she finished her sentence.

Twilight sighed and shook her head. Tears were now flowing down her own face. She had never fought this hard with them before, usually they would tell her to calm down, be rational and she would. But for some reason, those rational, sane thoughts eluded her today.

“Twilley, how about you go and….think about this for a while. It’ll probably help.” Shining said.

Twilight was surprised at this. It was usually Cadence who was the calm, voice of reason. But the alicorn was crying and she couldn’t really blame her. Twilight had felt an angry passionate demon inside her all day, and she didn’t really understand why, until now.

“T-thanks. I will. I’m….I’m sorry, Cadence. I….I’ll leave now.” She replied.

Cadence only nodded and watched with bleary eyes as her once favourite sister-in-law walked out of the throne room and she winced as she slammed the door behind her.