The world is not to be put in order. The world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.
-Henry Miller
Since the morning of the First Rising, the view of Harmony had undergone a change.
True Chaos was not permitted. All it ever brought was evil and suffering with it. The equine race, and all beyond it, were believed to have fallen into a downward spiral from their once more Harmonious state.
Since the First Rising, had any outsiders come into Ponyville, it would not have been the same as previous visitors had seen it. While ponies did roam in the streets, it wasn't their everyday hustle and bustle anymore, as those who did appear were sparse. There was work to be done, and the Empress had given her teachings to her followers. Teachings that the "disharmonious" were not privy to. A new relationship had come among the townsfolk, a division: blessed against cursed. Us against them.
But there was part of the population that nopony was aware of but themselves and the Empress of Harmony, formerly known to the world as Twilight Sparkle. A spirit realm that remained cut off from the living. And as they stared from the streets below, able to make out the towering edifice from their enclosure but limited in the more physical realm, they waited for the time when they could finally be free. What had once been Laughter waited with dismal resignation. What had once been Kindness waited with burning hatred.
Their Essence, that of the Elements, had once been pure, but their fallen forms had entrapped them in corruption. A lesson that those who were taught the Empress's lessons would be sure to correct.
Within the construct that was part nature and part metal, a reconstruction of her former home, Twilight was no longer the sole equine occupant. In one of the lower floors, where her old basement had once been, it had been transformed into a larger room. The walls were stone, the ceiling looked more like that of a church, and there was now a distinct back and front. A point of entry in the back, desks carefully aligned, a few small stairs that led up to the front, a few inches higher than the rest, where the Empress of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle, stood.
Several ponies sat at the desks, younger ones—her students, in training to learn what it really meant to be truly harmonious. And she had one regulation: "If a question comes to your mind—any question at all—ask it."
Hooves were raised, and Twilight smiled. It was good that so many young ones were willing to question, to learn.
Questioning lifted the veil of deception from my eyes. Questioning allowed me to see the truth. Questioning allowed me to see that the world couldn't go on like that, in its corrupted, rotten, disharmonious state!
And some of the students would ask, "What happened to them? The ones who had the essence of the Elements? Why did you require them to be eliminated?"
Twilight stood before them, her opposing-shaded wings at her sides. Even when folded, out of sight of those directly before her watchful eyes, they knew what the ethereal appendages represented, formed from neither fur nor feathers. While their wispy forms were of the pure energy of the Elements and the Chaos that fought against it, others believed it was just a symbolic representation, and there were normal wings hidden underneath.
The thought brought a chuckle to Twilight, but the question was answered. "Their souls became corrupted, and their Essence was in danger. If the energy of the Elements died with them, the chance for Harmony to truly reign would die with it."
This was a story that was to be known well. The Empress had her reasons for doing what she did. For the greater good, there had to be sacrifices.
One, Scootaloo, raised her hoof, eagerness alight in her eyes. "Is that why you chose us?"
Twilight smiled at her student's inquiry as the pegasus sat down at her desk, eyes as bright as always. "Exactly. I chose you to be in this classroom because you are all so young, least tainted by the chaos of the world.". She stepped closer to Scootaloo and placed a tender hoof under her chin. "You can learn. You can be safe. You can help make reality right again."
Scootaloo's face flushed with pride. "I'll do whatever I can to help you, Empress!"
"And that's precisely why you're in training to be my Ambassador of Loyalty," Twilight said, smiling and withdrawing her hoof. She then moved to the front of the room, looking at the clock she had created to tell what time it was, seeing as here there were no windows to the outside. "Alright everypony," she called out, "tomorrow we'll begin some of our more proper training. And I want you to remember," here she bowed slightly to them, rather than the other way around. A blend of white and dark light emitted from her horn, each forming a shimmering tendril that lightly touched the head of each student. "You are our future."
All the students nodded their heads, as if in that moment a great honor had been bestowed upon them.
The light vanished, and Twilight raised her head high. "Class dismissed."
The students, almost as if a collective, rose from their seats and walked out, talking among themselves. Twilight watched them depart with a wistful smile.
"They have so much to learn, but they're so bright," the alicorn mused, trotting to the stone wall at the front. She gazed upward, at the stone engraving of the Elements of Harmony.
Twilight hovered up to the center of the engraving, silent on her ethereal wings. She pressed her hoof to the center of it, and she allowed a light to shine from her horn. It swirled around her, making only a faint whisper of a sound.
Her eyes were closed as she recalled getting the essence of the Elements, gaining her wings, allowing the others to see the truth.
But the serene smile on her face turned into a frown as she remembered other things. She remembered what happened before.
The cries and screams of those she once called friends. Their uncomprehending as they furthered her goal. That nagging battle with her conscience, the haunting visions—
"E-Empress?"
Twilight opened her eyes and looked down at the voice, one she recognized. To her surprise, two foals stood there. One was Scootaloo, but it was the other who had spoken in his Trottingham accent, a young earth pony colt she knew as Pipsqeak. The pair looked up at her with concerned faces.
Twilight sighed and lowered herself down to them, landing silently on the stone floor.
"Are you alright?" Pipsqueak asked, brushing a strand of his scruffy brown mane out of his face. "You seem kinda lost in thought."
Twilight knew she couldn't—wouldn't—lie to them. "Just thinking."
"About the past?" Scootaloo questioned.
Twilight nodded. "Yeah."
"Well, like you've said to us," Pipsqueak said with an encouraging expression, "look to the future, right?"
Twilight smiled gratefully, nodding a little. "You're right."
"So, uh..." Scootaloo shuffled her hooves, something clearly on her mind. "Empress?"
"Hmm?"
Scootaloo looked a little more enthusiastic, now that her Empress seemed to have regained her spirits. "I was wondering... when are we gonna start planning things out for everywhere else besides Ponyville?"
Twilight chuckled. "Three days, if all goes well."
"Three days?!". The pair looked startled, but out of excitement rather than nerves.
Twilight arched her brow slightly. "Is that a problem?"
"I thought it was gonna take a month at least!" Scootaloo exclaimed
Twilight glanced upward slightly, a determined grin forming on her features. "Not if I get you trained up properly."
"Well, what about the Princesses?" Pipsqueak asked. "What if they find out?"
"Oh. don't worry," Twilight said with a chuckle, "I've already got that figured out." Her violet, darkened eyes lit up slightly.
"And you all are going to help."
