Chapters From Eternia to Equestria
"Get a medic over here now!" someone shouted over the sounds of lasers pelting over their heads. Explosions tore through the night sky as airships and gun-platforms tried their hardest to keep the invaders at bay. "Hurry!"
"How? How could this happen?" The old warrior whispered in response to his daughter's words.
A charred, gaping hole stared her in the face. The damaged chest-plate had melted around the edges from a stray blaster round that had cut clean through his armor.
A medic rushed over and knelt by the wounded commander's side. There were a few moments of silence as he ran his scanner over the old warrior before putting several pieces of cloth over his chest while taking an auto-injector and slamming it into his arm. The medic looked up and ever so slightly shook his head.
Teela's mind blanked. In any other situation, she would have thrown herself onto her father and wept like a daughter should, but this was war and with the battle raging about them she knew she could not weep as she had wanted to. She needed to stay strong and true. There would be ample time to mourn later.
If there was a later.
Another gun platform burst into flames and started plummeting towards the planet. Even as the ship went down, the defense guns did not let up. Eternian soldiers were manning them to the last, even knowing that their ship was doomed. Their sacrifices would not be in vain. She would see to it.
"Father," Teela whispered, "Rest easy. I will not let Eternia fall."
Man-at-Arms, Sir Duncan of the Kingdom of Eternia, nodded, "Then I'll leave-" He choked back the feeling of pain that welled up in his body, the auto-injection had worn off. The medic made to put another in his arm, but Duncan stopped him by waving him off, "Save it for others who need it. I know that my time is nigh; it would be wasted on me."
The medic nodded and saluted before returning the device to his medical bag.
"Teela, I know you will do well. I'm sorry. Sorry about everything. I hope that you can forgive an old fool..."
"I already have, father. Rest well. We shall see each other again in time."
The old man nodded, and closed his eyes for the last time.
"Take word to the King that Sir Duncan has passed," Teela said to the soldier behind her.
He saluted to her back and rushed towards the hover-tank. Another gun platform exploded in the air above them, but one of the Horde's ships was also falling from the skies. Soldiers of skin and blood against the legions of mechanical monstrosities. Even with machines of their own, the Horde far outnumbered them.
But they had an ace up their sleeves. Two aces. The brother and sister of the Royal Court. Prince Adam and Princess Adora, holders of the Swords of Power. They were He-Man and She-Ra, and they had the soul mission of taking the fight to Horde Prime. High above them, above the atmosphere of their world, the true battle was taking place. All they were doing was buying time to save their world. It would all be for naught if there was no one left on Eternia or Etheria to save.
"Brother, we must hurry!" She-Ra said as her blade tore through the chest of one of the Horde soldiers easily. Unlike the invasion force far below them, these creatures were not made of metal and circuits, but of flesh and blood -- and were far more efficient at fighting.
"Find the control room and destroy it. I will find Horde Prime and end this once and for all!" He-Man shouted crushing the head of one of the enemy with one hand. It burst open, the contents spilling onto the floor through his fingers, "This ends today."
"Then may the Sorceress protect you, brother," She-Ra said as she kicked a door open to one side. According to the map she memorized, it would lead down towards the control center in the center of the ship.
"She's dead, She-Ra." He-Man paused briefly as he looked over his shoulder, "Orko, go with her. Take care of her."
"I do not need a baby-sitter..."
"That isn't a request!" He-Man cut her off, "Now go!"
She-Ra glared at her older twin, but didn't press the issue further. This was not the time.
"Are you sure, He-Man? I mean, she's capable-"
Whether or not He-Man heard his friend's words, he never knew. He took off down the hall, all he heard was his battle-cry as he cut through the enemy like a hot knife through butter. A cold shiver ran down Orko's spine. He had never seen Adam like this, but then again, never has the Horde dared to attack Eternia like this before.
"Adora, tell me," Orko asked as he hovered behind the Princess, "Why is the Horde really terrible?"
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
"B-but to destroy an entire world..." Orko refused to believe that any ruler, no matter how evil, would dare to exterminate an entire planet. It made no sense.
"Castle Grayskull is on this world, and Horde Prime believes that it is the only source of magic in the known universe with enough power to stop him. He believes it so much, he himself has come here to oversee the battle."
A blaster bolt singed the edge of the hallway as She-Ra dove across the hall. In mid-air, she flung her Sword of Protection at the Horde soldiers. In the interim, Orko summoned a fireball and blasted two more, burning them alive. They screamed as the magical fire consumed them and within moments all that remained were their charred corpses.
"I'll never get used to this..." the 'court-jester' muttered.
"Horde Prime!" He-Man roared, "Where are you? Come out to where I can see you, you coward!"
"You dare call me a coward, He-Man?" A voice said in the darkness of the throne room, "Here, in my ship?"
"I say that which is true! If it is not so, then show yourself!" He-Man said pointing his sword towards the general area where the voice had come from, "Or should I hunt for you in the dark as I did Hordak before I took his head!"
Pulling a bag from his side, he pulled the contents out and threw it into the darkness. The object bounced twice before coming to a rest, the ghost-white form visible even in the dark.
Hordak's head.
He-Man had taken it when he had taken Etheria, freeing it from the Horde's control, freeing the people and the kingdom with the help of his twin sister. It was not long after that the war finally broke. It was during that campaign when Horde soldiers trapped and killed his best friend, Cringer. The cowardly lion who became his steed Battle-Cat when the raw magic energies of his Sword of Power flowed into him. He had died trying to protect the Sorceress while she tried to channel the spell that would seal the Horde in another dimension forever.
It had failed.
Cringer had paid for everyone's failure, along with the Sorceress. Theirs deaths were sudden and quick. The portal between Etheria and Eternia remained open and was slowly pulling the worlds together. In time, they would cancel out one another's existence. Their only hope to stop it? Destroy Horde Prime, and use his Havoc Staff, the weapon that was perhaps the most feared in all the universe, to close the portals. He-Man had not told anyone this. There was no need to tell anyone this. If he failed, then the worlds were lost.
"We are not so different, you and I. Join me, and I'll save your world. I'll even leave it to your rule. Govern over it as you wish, just join me and be a general in my army," Horde Prime said, his voice suddenly seductive, tantalizing.
"The same way you tricked Skeletor into rejoining your ranks? I think not. Isn't it sad that he was the best chance you ever had in hoping to defeat me and yet you kill him?" He-Man laughed, "You're pathetic."
"How dare you? I will show you your place, Eternian!"
A beam of dark purple light exploded from the darkness. He-Man dodged to one side, using his sword to deflect the blast. It tore a hole next to him in the floor. The Sword of Power vibrated in his hands. The power from Horde Prime's staff was raw ethereal energies, the same source of power that his own sword had. No wonder the Sorceress was powerless against Hordak. It all made sense now.
Swift Wind stood in the hold of Horde Prime's starship. He understood his mission was to guard the shuttle they had used to board, but he felt out of place for leaving She-Ra to her own devices. She was strong, cunning and fearless, but she made mistakes, some of which had nearly cost her her life. That was not all. After Battle-Cat's death, He-Man had changed so drastically. Normally Swift Wind was fearless, unshakable, but lately with He-Man he always felt afraid when he was close. It was as if the Horde had inadvertently released the raw rage He-Man had usually suppressed. Or perhaps it was because the Sorceress was gone as well.
"When did it all go so wrong?" The large white unicorn-pegasus stallion whispered. He spread his wings wide open, revealing his long blue feathers, bordered by pink and gold trimmings, his golden horn glowing furiously with raw power.
"Fear not," Bow said, patting his neck, "She-Ra has never failed us yet! We are this close from ending this confounded war once and for all. Let's hope that she makes it out of here alive." Bow muttered the last part to himself.
"Fear? Me?" The stallion scoffed.
"Wait... did you hear something?"
"Above you!" Swift Wind yelled, and dove to cover the archer.
Bow, quick as lightning, fired three arrows. They found their marks, the Horde troops screaming as the arrows pierced them fatally. Unfortunately, one of the blasters also found their marks and Bow moved no more. It was so quick, sudden. One moment he was his usual, cheerful self, and the next he was gone. Gone like so many before.
The Horde had to be stopped. The war needed to end. Too many friends had died. He thought of Kowl and his sarcastic humor, and how his first moment of true bravery and action were also his last. He had managed to delay the Horde invasion on his own by closing and destroying a portal on the other side of the dimensional rift on one of Hordak's flagships. His remains were shoved into She-Ra's face, his head atop the lance of one of the Horde's generals.
Now he was alone.
Swift Wind bowed his head to Bow and said nothing. There would be words enough when this was all over.
The ship shook. The lights flickered. Another sudden surge and the ship started to shift angrily. Something was either very wrong or very right. A blue haze appeared in the hanger and Orko floated through. He turned around quickly and She-Ra stepped through the mist and Orko waved his hands and closed it off.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place?" She-Ra asked, panting, "You could've saved us the trouble of running around the ship!"
"I already explain that I can't teleport unless I know where I've got to go! I can't know if I haven't been there. Just be glad I knew how to get here. Any further and I could've teleport us into space, or even inside the floor."
The ship heaved to one side, sending them all sprawling on the floor.
"Where is He-Man?" She-Ra asked looking around.
It was then that she saw Bow lying on the floor. She turned away. She couldn't look at him like that. Losing Madame Razz was too much for her, and now Bow. One of her best friends, one of the first men to help her and her cause. Bow was always there for her when she needed someone. Was always there for her when she needed comfort.
"Let's shed tears for him when we defeat this army and halt the invasion," Swift Wind said quietly, "The people of both our worlds are relying on us. It is our duty to save them; our boon and our bane. We must protect our worlds. We must wait for He-Man and the staff."
A horrific roar echoed through the ship. Then, the starship began to lurch once more. Suddenly everything felt weightless, and She-Ra looked over to her stead. He flapped his giant wings and She-Ra turned her body using the now free-floating shuttle to orient herself. Orko hovered by their side.
"Get the ship ready to leave," She-Ra shouted at the mage, "We need to get out of here as soon as Adam reaches the hanger."
"Me? Fly that thing?" Orko looked at the shuttle, "Probably not a good idea, but okay..."
"And Orko."
"Yes, m'lady?"
"Bring Bow. Please."
"Anything for She-Ra," the mage said.
Swift Wind darted through the halls, using his powerful wings to carry him through the halls. The dead littered the way, and the Unicorn-Pegasus found it hard not to gag whenever he flew the remains of a defeated foe. Finally, the two of them found the throne room. He-Man stood staring at the remains of Horde Prime, in each hand he clutched both his heads. Slowly he turned to She-Ra, a savage look on his face.
"Adam, what's wrong?"
"He has broken the staff. I tried to stop him, but my blade was not quick enough. So, I've taken his heads. Both of them. Horde Prime is no more. If our world cannot be free, then at least other worlds under his dominion now stand a chance to fight for freedom themselves."
"And what of our worlds?" Swift Wind asked, "My family still lives in Etheria, He-Man."
"Then we must head down there and try to close the portals ourselves. It is the only way."
The ship's engine core exploded, the ship surging to one side. Fire started to burst through the air ducts. The once great ship of the ruler of the universe was now becoming a flaming tomb.
"We need to get out of here, now!"
He-Man nodded, and pushed away from the floor towards Swift Wind. The large stallion easily carried the two twins on his back.
"Hang on!" he shouted to his passengers.
"Fly through the walls, Swifty," She-Ra shouted.
"With pleasure!"
Using his powerful wings, and his magic, he tore hole through the ship's halls, pushing towards the hanger. He-Man swung his sword every once in a while.
"Why are you doing that?" She-Ra asked.
He-Man looked at her, "Cutting the wires for the escape pods. No survivors. We don't need one of his generals taking his place."
"Adam!" She-Ra scolded, but said nothing more. This was not the time to argue.
Orko was waiting in the cockpit, the shuttle turned around and ready to go. As soon as Swift Wind was inside, he closed the doors and started to navigate through the debris.
"What are you doing?" He-Man roared, "By the Power of Grayskull, shoot torpedoes into the hull and let's get down to the surface! We've do not have time for this!"
"B-b-but that will destroy the ship..."
"I care not for them! Nor should you. Do it. Now!" He-Man shouted.
"Adam, even if they are our enemies, you cannot just... murder them..."
He-Man walked to the joystick and armed the missiles. He turned to Orko and leaned in, "After all they've done to us, after all they've put us through, you wish to show them mercy? No. I ran out of mercy a long time ago."
The missiles tore a hole through the hull of the ship, the sudden opening sucking out all the air from inside. With expert control that could have rivaled even the best fighter pilots, He-Man piloted the shuttle out of the newly created exit, slipping through the gap and into space. Orko and She-Ra turned to see the massive ship turn over and burst into flames as sections of it started to exploded. Pieces of debris started raining down onto Eternia.
Then a bright flash of light as the engine went into critical mass, and exploded.
Below them they spotted the enemy ships falling from the skies straight into the planet's surface. Hundreds of them, one after another. Without their controller, the Horde machines were no longer a threat.
And even after such a significant blow against the enemy, their planets were still in danger.
The shuttle landed near the palace. Teela stood there along with what was left of the royal family to welcome back the heroes from defeating Horde Prime.
"Welcome back my children," the king said hugging his offspring tenderly, "The battle here has been won, but I fear that the portals still remain open. The worlds are still merging, and we no longer have any means to stop it."
"There is one way," She-Ra said, "We go to Castle Grayskull and find a new Sorceress. One that can help close the portals."
"That could work, but that won't be enough. We need more power. More magic. A lot more." He-Man turned to Swift Wind, "An army of unicorns would help save our worlds. They have enough magic within them to help save both our planets."
Swift Wind looked at He-Man, "You wish for us to remain here while your people flee?"
"Or we could remain here and your people flee. Either way, it would save our worlds."
Swift Wind nodded understanding that He-Man was not trying to leave his people behind, "Then the unicorns will remain here on Eternia. We will channel our powers to end the merging."
He-Man nodded, "I am grateful. When you are ready, dear sister, we will head for Castle Grayskull."
"I shall see you later this evening then?" She-Ra said to her stead.
Swift Wind nodded, "Till then, m'lady."
She-Ra re-boarded the shuttle. She did not know what to expect, but she was neither nervous nor fearful. She had a duty to do, and she was chosen for a reason. He-Man saw his sister's face and held her hand tightly. She returned the gesture and smiled at him, letting him know that she was ready. Ready for what was to come.
They flew directly to Grayskull.
Upon their arrival, He-Man walked out and headed towards the jawbridge. His sword resonated with the magic of the castle, and the bridge began to lower itself.
Orko looked up to his friend. "We've been through a lot together, and I've been your friend for so long, He-Man, but I think that... our paths must end here. I think that... it is time for me to return to my world."
He-Man turned to face his long-time friend. After a moment he could not longer meet Orko's gaze.
"I understand. Once the worlds merge, who knows what will happen to the magic of this land. I will miss you, Orko."
"We'll meet each other again one day. There is never a goodbye to my people, only long moments of separation."
For the first time in a long time, Adam smiled, "I like that."
He-Man looked over to She-Ra, "Do you wish to change your mind? I'm sure I can find another to take your place..."
"Brother, are you going to entrust the fate of two worlds to a stranger?" She-Ra asked.
"The thought of never seeing you again..." He-Man looked at Orko who nodded, "never crossed my mind. We will see each other again. Perhaps not on Eternia or Etheria, but one day."
She-Ra hugged her brother, "Give my love to father. He will not understand this."
"I shall. Give my love to mother if you should see her. She is dearly missed."
The border between life and death was blurred within the castle walls, and within the pool in which the raw energies of the universe was gathered. Whether or not She-Ra would live to become the Sorceress was still unknown.
"I shall, dearest brother."
She-Ra released her brother for the last time and turned to enter the castle. Adam watched as the gates closed behind her and the drawbridge began to raise. Taking his sword from his back, he placed it in the ground in front of it.
"The Sword of Power shall return to Grayskull. With the Horde defeated, the danger is gone. Perhaps one day it shall be needed once more... one day..." Adam released his grip from the hilt and felt the power of He-Man still with him.
A parting gift? Perhaps for his service to this world and the other.
Orko touched his friend's shoulder, "Until the next time."
"Take care of yourself, Orko. I will miss you."
"Me too, He-Man... Adam. Me too." Orko said, his voice echoing as he faded out of Eternia for the last time.
"How many are left?" He-Man asked.
"Nearly everyone has gone through to Etheria, sir," the soldier reported, "Sir, why are we going to Etheria? Would it not make more sense for us to remain on Eternia instead?"
"You may stay if you wish, but I cannot. This world will be flooded with powerful magic," He looked up at the sky, "I cannot guarantee that either of us would survive it."
"But why not do that on Etheria, Your Highness? Surely the unicorns would prefer that their home planet be kept for them."
"Because that was the choice made," He-Man said, "Come, let us not beat about the bush. I will also miss Eternia, but we have a chance to rebuild on a new world. Etheria is bigger than this world, and has much to explore."
"If you say so, sir."
The soldier went on his way as Swift Wind stood next to He-Man.
"I see that you've kept your form as He-Man. Is it permanent?"
"Feels so," Adam replied looking at his hands, "And you are still a unicorn."
"Perhaps a gift from the Ancients for defeating an ancient evil?"
"Perhaps."
"All unicorns present and accounted for, sir," Blaze said bowing his head.
"And we are almost all evacuated from this world as well. There are a few that refuse to leave. They might not survive the magical storm..." He-Man shrugged, "We have warned them, and I am not about to bother convincing them with force."
Swift Wind nodded in understanding. "Then we shall grant them a gift. There has been too much death on this day. I will not allow another being to die."
"Thank you," Adam bowed, "You are noble leader... king."
"King?" Swift Wind laughed at the suggestion, "No, not king. Perhaps a prince, but never a king. That title will sit with you and yours for the rest of time."
"I do not rule worlds, Swift Wind. I rule only those that wish for it."
"And as long as the rule of your line is fair and just, my country will always refer to your line as the line of the kings and queens," Swift Wind smiled, "A prince or princess sounds a lot better as well."
Adam laughed heartily, "Indeed it does."
Lightning flashed through the skies, and thunder echoed through the clouds.
It had begun.
"It is time for me to take my final farewell. I trust that you will take care of yourself and your kind from here on?"
"I shall. Until the day we should meet once more, farewell."
"Farewell."
Adam stepped into the portal along with the last of his soldiers and watched as the image of the stallion faded into nothingness behind him. He walked over to a small stool and sat down.
"Sire! He-Man does not sit on a stool! He must sit on a throne!" a soldier shouted.
"No. He-Man sits on a stool, because it is not what you sit on that defines you, it is your actions. And until this world is safe and I convinced of it, I will remain on this stool."
"He is not king yet," Teela stated, "He is our prince, and we must love him like one."
He-Man heard that and looked up at her and smiled, "Thank you, Teela. I like that."
"You do not have a choice," Swift Wind stated, "If you do not wish to be like us, then we will make you something that can survive the magical anomalies. You had your chance to flee and you did not take it. Now you must choose whether to accept our help, or die."
The people looked at one another, "How dare you horses speak to us this way? We are humans! We are your masters! We ride atop of you! Change us ? You must be mad..."
"You say this as if you have a choice. Since you refuse to be like us, I think this is a more suitable form for your kind."
Swift Wind's horn glowed a bright blue, and in the next instant the humans turned into a half-mutation of dog and man.
"You call us filth? Yet that is where you will dig your homes! For the rest of your lives and those of your descendants, you will live beneath us, digging under our feet out of sight! That is what you get for insulting us !"
The dog creatures yelped and began to dig their holes in the ground around him. In moments the ex-human population had disappeared beneath the soil.
"That wasn't very nice, Swifty," A melodic voice said from next to him.
"She-Ra?" the stallion asked.
The woman shook her head, "No longer. I am the Sorceress."
"Yes. I had forgotten... you're beautiful in that form..." Swift Wind said, stunned by her majesty. She was elegant, her skin was fair and even, her hair was a variety of pastel colored streaks, atop her head she wore a small crown, and her body was shrouded in a very faint, transparent cloth.
Swift Wind had never been attracted to the human female form, yet he found that he was unable to take his eyes off of her.
The sorceress blushed, "Thank you, Swifty, but now isn't the time to... be distracted. Let's save our worlds."
He nodded.
As the Sorceress mounted his back, he felt her on top of him. It took everything he had to suppress the feelings in his body. She was right, this was not the time. They traveled to where the unicorns had assembled, and landed gently. All their eyes fell on the Sorceress.
"It is time for us to start," she said, her eyes starting to glow a deep blue as an aura of the same color surrounded her, "We must pry the worlds apart. Focus your magic into me."
The unicorns did so eagerly. They shot their powers into the Sorceress as she concentrated all the magic towards where the portal was. The sky changed from a violent violent to a gentler cyan as the skies started to clear. The lightning began to abate, and the sound of thunder faded quickly. Soon it was over. It all happened so terribly quickly that it took them all a moment to realize that they had just saved the world.
Once the knowledge had sunk in, they all began to cheer.
"That was... simple." Swift Wind placed his head on the Sorceress' shoulder.
She giggled, "It was a lot easier than I had thought. He-Man had left the Sword of Power behind, so perhaps the combination of the two Swords, the Sword of Power and the Sword of Protection helped. But it is done! We are free!"
The unicorns continued to scream and yell in jubilation. In her mind, Adora wished she could see the throngs of people in the cities of Etheria celebrating their own freedom from Horde oppression. She had fought so long and hard that being unable to see it gave her a slightly empty feeling.
Now it was time to rebuild.
"You know," Swift Wind said as he descended the platform, "Since this is our planet, I was thinking of changing its name. What do you think?"
"You are the ruler of this world, Swifty. Whatever you want to do is okay by me." She flashed him a smile.
Again his breath caught in his throat. He had to cough to clear it, "I was thinking of calling it by the name 'Equestria'. Do you like it?"
"That is beautiful," The Sorceress replied, "I think it suits this new world perfectly."
"You do?" He asked.
"I do," she replied, as she pat his neck, "Now you must build a new castle from which to govern the lands."
"How about... Castle Grayskull?"
"Oh no, one cannot dwell within the castle's walls. It is forbidden for all, save the chosen few."
"Then why not build around it?" Swift Wind asked.
The Sorceress laughed. It was music to his ears, "Very well. Around it is fine."
As the two of them headed towards the castle, a pair of eyes glared at the Sorceress' back.
Star Wind watched as her mate and the Sorceress walked away together unnoticed by the others. She narrowed her eyes, a dark shroud seemed to surround her and a voice in the back of her mind crept in. It told her a great many things as a very thin, faint purple aura of magic slowly found its way up to her muzzle and she breathed it in.
A cold shiver ran down the Sorceress' spine. She spun around and searched for a moment. She could have sworn she had felt the presence of Horde Prime right behind her, but all she saw was Swift Wind's mate, Star Wind, staring back at her.
From Eternia to Equestria
"Right here's good," Twilight Sparkle announced as the Equestrian guards brought the last of the items and placed them along the edge of a particularly huge cavern. The ceiling here was so high that even the light of her horn failed to illuminate any part of it. What was even more amazing was the fact that there were no bats around. Twilight quickly surmised that the lack of prey might've contributed to that factor.
No prey, no predators.
"What ya need all this stuff for, Twi?" Applejack asked, bringing the unicorn's attention back to the task at hand. "Aren't we jus' gonna help the Princesses by drawin' a map of these here tunnels?"
"Well, these caves are really big, so we might need to camp underground for a night or two before we're done. I mean, we've been walking down all morning and I bet we're really deep down. I'd say at the bottom of the mountain..."
"How are there so many tunnels so deep down here without anypony knowing about it?" Rainbow squeaked as she landed next to Twilight , folding her wings over her back. She let her gaze wander upwards, "How can something as big as this exist under Canterlot in the first place? I mean, look at it! It's huge ! You could put the whole Canterlot Palace in here. Just how big is this thing anyway?"
"That's what we're here to find out," Twilight said looking around herself making sure she had everything she'd need. "We've got to find out everything we can."
Rarity walked through the tunnel, the guards making room for her as she sat gently on a small stone, "Seriously, Twilight, why do we have to do this. Can't the guards do it themselves."
"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both asked us to do it. While my brother and Cadence are on their honeymoon, they can't spare any more of the guard then they already have. I have my duty to the Princess, and you're my best friends..."
Rarity smiled gently and placed her hoof over her friend's shoulder, "I got it, Twilight. I was just thinking out loud. Anything for you... and the Princesses."
"I have such wonderful friends, " Twilight thought to herself.
"Wow! Hey, Twilight, c'mere and look at this!" Pinkie Pie beckoned to Twilight with her hoof, "Check this out..."
Taking a stone, she held it in front of her then let go. Nothing. Not a sound.
"What, Pinkie? I don't have time to-"
"Shush! Listen!" Pinkie cut her off.
Then, after what seemed like ages, Twilight heard the faint clatter of the stone hitting something far, far below.
"Oh... my..." Fluttershy backed off from the edge instinctively, despite the fact that being a pegasus meant she was relatively immune to falling great distances to her death.
"That's a long way down..." Applejack commented, staring uneasily at the darkness right next to Pinkie, "Why don't ya just take a step back from the ledge there, Pinkie."
"Good idea!" Pinkie giggled and took an overly exaggerated step back, much to the relief of her friends.
Rainbow, on the other hand, zipped over to the edge and peered into the abyss, "I'm going to see what's down there!"
"Rainbow, wait!" Twilight shouted forcing the cyan pegasus to freeze mid-flight, "We can't just start go barging into the unknown like that. It could be really dangerous. First, we need light..."
As if on cue, the guards used their magic on a light-crystal. It absorbed their magic and instantly there was a bright, steady glow. The newly recharged crystal was then placed into a box full of mirrors that helped amplify the magical glow several fold. The boxed crystal was then placed on a pole and placed upright. This was how Equestria created their street lamps.
While the guards started on several more of these devices, Twilight picked up a smaller light-crystal and used her magic on it. As it began to glow she put this particular one into the end of a cylinder that opened wider on the side where the crystal faced. This allowed for the light to be focused in a single direction. She held it in her hoof and pointed it towards the darkness beyond. The light wasn't strong enough to penetrate it.
"Gimme that," Rainbow demanded, snatching the light out of Twilight's hoof and she zipped over the edge and down into the chasm.
"Rainbow!" Applejack gasped and peered over the edge. She could make out the pegasus zipping lower and lower and lower.
Finally, the light stopped, and below her was the ground. It looked like a marbled floor.
"It's ice!" Rainbow's voice yelled back up to them.
Several of the pegasi guards flew over the edge, catching up with Rainbow. With them they brought a few of those street lamps and started setting them up, their glow illuminated the base of the cliff.
Rainbow, being Rainbow, could not sit in one place and began to zip around, but no matter how far she got there was no sign of any obstacles apart from the ledge where she had come from. Seemingly satisfied, she flew upwards and landed next to the girls, "There's a staircase that leads down there..."
"A staircase? Where?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow hovered to the ledge and along it until she found the staircase. She then flew back over the edge and landed on a particular spot. "It's under here." She stomped the ground with her hoof, "Right here."
"Okay, let me try something." Twilight focused her magic on the ground, and three large stone slabs started to move. Rarity helped her friend and the two of them began to haul the stones themselves, but it was too heavy. They were about to give up when some of the unicorn guards that were with them helped and together they moved all three slabs, placing them neatly to one side.
"Darling," Rarity panted, "why didn't we move one slab at a time?"
"I was going to before you and everyone else helped." Twilight looked at each of the unicorns and blushed, "Thanks for the help, everyone."
Rarity smiled while the guards nodded (their expressions never changed) and went back to their work.
"Let's go!" Rainbow squealed, "Wait till you see the ice. It's so awesome!"
It took them the better half of an hour to reach the end of the stairs. At once Pinkie launched herself onto the ice, and even without her skates, began to do some pretty spectacular tricks.
"This isn't ice, Rainbow. It's crystal," Rarity pointed out, her eyes sparkling. "Such wonderful hues... oh, I simply must take a piece for a brooch..."
Spike tried to use his tail to cut a piece out, but the surface was too strong. He picked up his now sore tail and whimpered as he noticed that the tip of it was bent slightly out of shape. It would take hours for it to recover.
Picking up a pickaxe with her magic, Rarity struck the ground with full force. Not even a scratch. She harrumphed in annoyance and, using a lot more force, slammed the digging tool down as hard as she could onto the crystal flooring.
As soon as the tip touched the ground, lightning bolts extended outwards and downwards throughout under the crystal 'ice' lighting up the immediate area in a bright blue glow. The lights slowly started to fade away, dimming gradually before eventually shutting off. Everything returned to darkness, only the lights from the light-crystals remained.
"What did you do?" Rainbow shouted flying up to Rarity and taking the pickaxe away from her.
"l-I-I don't know. I just... hit the ground and-"
"I've never seen a reaction like that before. It was pure magic. A lot older and stronger than the kind of magic I'm familiar with. Something is definitely really strange about this place," Twilight said while furrowing her brow deep in thought. "Let's try that again. I mean, nothing happened to us and the magic seemed to go down..."
"Are you crazy? Did you see those lightning bolts? They were easily ten times thicker than what we pegasi can make with our own storm clouds!" Rainbow flew to her purple friend and placed her hooves on her shoulders, "You can't be serious!"
"Well, we could... oh, let me just do something. Everypony, head on back up. I've got an idea."
About half an hour later, everyone was safely behind the ledge of the cliff. Twilight held a drilling-spike over the ledge with her magic and looked back at everyone, who were hiding behind some large boulders.
"Ready?"
"Ready!" The all replied.
Twilight released the spike and ran for cover. She hid behind the nearest rock and...
Thud.
"Nothing happened! You missed!" Rainbow shouted.
"No, that isn't it," Twilight replied patiently, "I think that it might have something to do with magic. Let me try again, this time with magic as it hits."
Picking up another spike from the ground, Twilight walked over to the edge once more and wrapped the drill-spike with her magic. Then she hovered it over the edge and dropped it before running for cover.
Thud.
"Nothing hap-"
Before Rainbow could finish, a loud roar echoed through the chasm as magical bolts of light surged through the floor. This time instead of fading away, it continued and got brighter and brighter, the entire crystal flooring lit up in a that bluish light. It continued until the entire floor looked like a glowing lake of water. Twilight had never seen anything like it before and peered over the edge. Whatever it was, it looked strange. It looked like water, yet it didn't look fluid.
Descending back down the staircase, Twilight paused at the edge of the 'lake' and cautiously put a hoof in. Solid. She took a few steps out and turned back to her friends who had all watched cautiously and worriedly. Except Pinkie, who was just annoyed that a guard was holding her back from jumping onto the glowing crystal.
"Sweet Celestia, would ya look at that." Applejack gaped at the far end of the cavern.
Twilight followed her gaze and took a step back instinctively. She had never seen anything like it. She had never come across this in any of the books she had read. It looked like a gigantic skull and it loomed over the distance surrounded by the blue light that emanated from the floor.
"What is it?" Fluttershy asked fearfully, "I-I don't like this."
"It kinda looks like a skull, but I've never seen an animal with that shape for a head..."
"Well, we need to map this cavern, so let's get to it. It could be just a rock formation," Twilight suggested, but she knew that it couldn't be one. This wasn't naturally formed.
Or was it?
It took them the better part of an hour to cross the distance. All the while the guards kept setting up light-crystals along the way, just in case the floor's light stopped. Planning ahead was one thing Twilight was good at, and her friends were grateful of that trait.
"Well, now we know for sure it wasn't a natural formation," Twilight stated as she gazed up at the face. "It's got a drawbridge and look at those chains! They're huge!"
"What do we do now, Twi? Do we... knock?"
"Ooh! Let's try that!"
Pinkie bolted over to the drawbridge, which was more or less useless as there was no moat between them, and knocked on the door.
"There's not going to be anypony home, Pinkie. This place has been abandoned for years! Maybe even decades or centuries!"
"No. It's been abandoned for a lot longer than that," a voice said from behind them.
All girls swirled around, but all they saw were the guards equally as confused.
"It has been a long time since I've seen another living being," the voice continued. "A very long time, indeed."
"Who are you?" Rainbow shouted, "Show yourself."
"I mean you no harm. Just... curious. You all look like unicorns, except a lot smaller..."
Rainbow growled, "I'm not a unicorn! I'm a pegasus! Not a nerdy magical snob!"
"Rainbow! That's uncalled for! At least I'm not a rough, unladylike, uncouth-"
"Enough!" Twilight shouted.
The girls silenced themselves instantly.
"I apologize for my friends. They're easily excitable."
"That's quite okay," the voice replied.
"Please can you show yourself? You have my world that none of us here will harm you."
"I'm right here. Above you."
Everypony looked up to see a strange creature hovering above them. He was dressed in a red shirt, with a large hat that covered most of his face and a scarf that covered his mouth. Large eye holes had been cut through the hat and through them shone two very large, very bright yellow eyes. He had blue hands and blue fingers.
The being slowly lowered himself until he was level with Twilight and folded his arms, "You are unicorns?"
"Well, some of us are. Unicorns have horns, see?" Twilight showed her horn off to the stranger, "Pegasi have wings..."
Rainbow spread them open and flapped them as hard she she could.
"And my friends Applejack and Pinkie are earth ponies."
"Amazing," the creature said hovering closer to each of the ponies and looking for over, "Your magic is focused instead of singular like before."
"Like before?" Rarity asked, "What do you mean?"
"Where are my manners. Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Orko. I come from a different place. I was asked many years ago to watch over the castle until it was time for me to leave. So, here I am."
"Castle?" Twilight turned back to the building behind her. She studied it carefully before bring her attention back to the creature, "Orko? If you don't mind me asking, what are you?"
"I'm a Trolla, from a world called Trollan. It's in a different dimension from here."
"A different dimension?" Twilight asked, "What do you mean?"
"What do you mean what do I mean? It's in a different dimension. You've got to teleport across several different dimensional space rifts before you can get to my world. Well, you could've if you were in the relative same position is the string of cosmic influences. We're nowhere near where we should be in terms of dimensional placement, and as a result... we're lost, or should I say I'm lost. Have been since... forever. Too long."
"I don't understand," Twilight replied, "I don't know what you're saying."
Orko rubbed the back of his head and looked up with his bright yellow eyes. "Okay, let's start from the very beginning. My name is Orko."
"Hello, Orko. My name is Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and the shy one hiding behind the guards over there is Fluttershy."
Orko snapped his fingers and the guards jumped back in surprise as the yellow mare was suddenly teleported right in front of the others. She squeaked and ducked behind Rainbow.
He studied them all again for a moment. "I still can't get over the fact that you guys don't have both wings and a horn. I mean, your people always did, since the beginning. Unicorns always had wings and horns. It was common knowledge."
"Well that must have been a very long time ago. It's not like that anymore." Rarity looked at the short Trollan with a sad eye. His clothing was old and tattered. "That attire. You simply must let me stitch you a new one."
"This? Nah, I got it." Orko snapped his fingers. A light swirled around him and in the next moment, his clothes were clean as a whistle, the holes in his clothing had gone and looked brand new.
"H-how did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Clean your clothes like that? Even I can't do that."
Orko scratched himself behind his left ear, "You can't, or you don't know how?"
"I mean, I've never tried it..."
The way the Trollan closed his eyes and leaned his head back made Twilight realize that he was laughing. What was so amusing about what she said?
"Nothing. Just... it's something that we Trollans can do. We're magical beings, more than you unicorns. As you can plainly see, levitation is one of our most basic spells and we learn it to the point it feels a lot more natural to float around rather than walk. I've hardly ever used my legs for walking. They're probably useless now. I'd probably break them if I tried. Sad, really."
"You said that, from what you can remember, the unicorns all had wings?"
"Oh yes. All of them did. I can't remember all the details, it has been so, so long, but from what I do remember is that unicorns had wings."
"Our Princess has a horn and wings. She's an alicorn," Rainbow blurted.
Orko nodded, "Now that sounds more like a unicorn. An alicorn you say? Never heard of that before. Then again, I've been stuck down here for ages. What year is it, by the way?"
"It's one year after Luna's return," Pinkie informed him. She had appeared behind him and was looking him over.
"Amazing. You have spatial distortion magic."
Twilight looked at Orko, "What? What is that? How could you know that about her..."
"Hm? Oh, it's simple. I can do it too," Orko began. "It's not that hard once you know how."
He was now right behind Applejack, who jumped a foot in the air with a yelp.
"I beg your pardon. I didn't think you would scare very easily."
"Aw, that's okay... just... ya just caught me off guard."
"You six are especially powerful. There is something very familiar about each of you, but I can't put my finger on it." Orko hovered over to one of the pegasi guards and began to poke him. "Interesting, very interesting."
"What is it now?"
"Hm? Oh, it's such a pleasure to see another living creature."
"Orko, what can you tell us about this place. What is that thing behind you? Why is it down here, under these crystal caverns and mines?"
"The thing behind me? Wow, I must have been gone for longer than I thought. That's Castle Grayskull. The secrets to the universe are hidden it is labyrinths and vaults. If ever should this knowledge fall into the wrong hands, the entire universe will once again plunge into war."
"Why is it down here?"
"To keep it hidden, obviously. At least, that's what I think it was. Not that it really matters."
"Why is that?"
"It's a very long story. Are you sure you want to hear about it? I'm not very good at storytelling." He met Twilight's eyes for a moment, then smacked his head. "Of course! I completely forgot!"
"What'd you forget?" Applejack asked.
Orko folded one arm across his chest and waved his finger around with the other, "I can show you what happened instead."
"Show us?" Twilight asked.
"Uh-huh. If you want to see."
Twilight didn't need to think about that. She nodded, "Of course."
"Well then. Let's show you a little bit of your history." Orko snapped his fingers and the blue crystal lake changed color to a deep red and the drawbridge lowered itself, "After you."
From Eternia to Equestria
Twilight and her friends were astounded by what they saw. Everywhere they looked was something new and completely different. Orko noticed this and could not help but chuckle at them. Not because he thought himself superior but because it was just so nice to have company. He had been alone for so long - too long.
"Orko, if you don't mind me asking, how did you end up here?" Twilight asked.
His demeanor shifted dramatically as he lowered himself to the ground. His happy and jubilant demeanor from a moment ago had vanished only to leave behind a very sad and morose Trollan. He exhaled a heavy sigh and shrugged, "I was stupid... am stupid, I guess. I did something I shouldn't have and got stuck here."
"I'm sure it wasn't that," Rarity stated trying to comfort him by placing a hoof on his shoulder.
"Well, in order for me to tell you that story, I would have to start from the beginning. Anyway, we're here."
The girls looked around at the large chamber. There was a domed ceiling above them and the walls were slightly bent inwards so that it kind of resembled a cupcake from the inside, as Pinkie so eloquently put it, with smooth sides. There were dim dark blue lights along the floor and across the upper beading where the wall ended and the ceiling began. At the very top of the dome was a red crystal glowing in a similar hue as the crystal 'lake' outside the castle.
"And where's here, exactly?" Rainbow asked.
Spreading his arms out like some sort of presenter, Orko spun himself around the center of the room, ascending ever so slowly upwards, "The holo-chamber! Here we can access and view any point of history that has been recorded and see it as if we were there!"
He had cheered up mighty quick, which relieved the girls.
"You mean like a time-machine?" Twilight asked excitedly.
"Well," Orko said, stretching the word out, "kind of. It's more like a vid. You can't interact with the past, but you can watch it."
"You mean like a picture, or a history book?"
"Yeah! Like that. Except instead of a picture or a book, you get to see and hear things as if you were actually there. Like a magical illusion," Orko replied. He then put his hand on his chin deep in thought. "Where should we start?"
"Start from the beginnin'," Applejack suggested shrugging her shoulders.
"Are you sure? That's pretty long... you'd be here for the rest of your lives if you want to watch everything. How about I just do the important parts?"
"Okay. That sounds good," Twilight replied. The girls all nodded in agreement. Staying there for the rest of their lives was not really an option.
"Then let's get started." Orko raised his hand above his head and bolts of red lightning burst from the red crystal high above them. They flickered throughout the room and each bounced off the slanted walls before rebounding off the floor and back towards the ceiling right back at the crystal in the middle.
The girls all huddled together trying to dodge the bolts of crimson lightning but they soon discovered that this action was pointless; the lightning was harmless. Pinkie, on the other hand, found it much more fun to prance around hopping through the lightning bolts giggling away to herself.
Suddenly the ground beneath them disappeared and in its space was a deep black darkness that seemed to stretch beyond infinity. The girls gasped in surprise. Twilight and Rarity both understood that it was an illusion, their hooves were still firmly planted on the floor. However, the pegasi naturally hovered above the darkness while Applejack clung to Rainbow for dear life. Pinkie remained unaffected by the sudden change and just kept dancing with the red lightning bolts now cascading faster and faster.
There was a sound that started to grow louder and louder. Like approaching a waterfall.
The red lightning started to move faster and faster until it seemed to form a solid orb of energy around them along the walls. High above them the crystal seemed to explode outwards in a mixture of colored lights as blue and green joined the red lightning. The three different colors began to fluctuated in increasingly rapid succession until the lights started to turn white.
"I can't see!" Applejack protested closing her eyes tightly trying to protect them.
"What's going on?" Rainbow moaned trying to peer through the blinding light as best she could.
"Whee!" Pinkie shouted spinning around and giggling.
Suddenly the light faded and the girls found themselves standing on a small hill overlooking a valley. A light breeze seemed to waft through the air, but they could not feel it. There was a large river winding its way lazily through the valley and long irrigation fields splayed out on either side of it all the way to the base of the hills. The crops were growing nicely, Applejack noticed. The skies were mostly clear except for some stray clouds that moved lazily across the azure sky.
The scene quickly shifted to the left where a large white alicorn stood gazing out into the distance.
"Oh my," Fluttershy whispered seeing him. She shyly landed on the ground and hid behind Twilight and Rarity who were at a loss of words. They had never seen a stallion like this before.
His wings were partially spread open, an unfelt breeze ruffling his large feathers.
Twilight opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by an unseen voice.
"Swifty?" it asked. Whoever it was, they sounded so kind, so gentle, so tender.
The great stallion turned his head towards the the girls, "Yes, Sorceress?"
"This is a wonderful place to build you new city," the voice replied.
The image shifted back to the right and gazed across the green pastures and fields again. Birds fluttered in a tight formation together over the river. In the far distance the girls could see the reflection of water and understood that it was a lake.
"I know this place," Twilight whispered.
The stallion replied to the voice's opinion. "It is. I think it befitting for our people. The lands here are healthy. The abandoned human cities are not right for us. We need to start from the beginning. A new beginning for a new age." The image once again focused on the stallion. He gave the girls a derisive look. "Are you recording this?"
The image moved up and down and the girls instantly realized that the 'voice' was nodding.
"Why?" The stallion asked, his voice rumbling as a deep chuckle escaped his throat.
"Memories. One day, in the distant future, your descendants might find it and watch it. Then they can see where they came from. You never know. They could be watching right now."
The stallion laughed gently, "Why do you concern yourself with such things, She-Ra?"
The image moved again. Whatever the device was was now being held by a bald, fair looking creature who peered at it with a gentle smile. Her face had filled the entirety of the wall. Gently, she placed the object down on the ground and stepped back. The girls could see her walking towards the stallion and within a few quick steps was standing next to the alicorn.
"Because it's important to remember the past, Swifty. It's important so that we don't repeat our mistakes. We've made some terrible mistakes in the past. Dreadful ones," she replied stroking his neck
The stallion put his head on the creature's shoulders.
"Indeed. You are right, but I don't believe that a holo-vid would help."
"You never know, is just might," The creature replied.
She stood on her hind legs and wore a thin veil across her body while on her head she wore an eagle shaped hood that covered her head, shoulders and back, right down to her legs just below her knees. The beak of the eagle formed a brim over her eyes that strangely suited her face and figure.
Standing next to them, the girls felt tiny. This great stallion and whatever the other creature was were tall, especially the stallion who was a full head taller than the Sorceress.
Pinkie hopped over to touch them, but her hoof failed to touch anything as it passed through them.
"Ghosts?" Applejack panicked trying to climb on top of Rainbow who was having trouble staying aloft.
Orko's laughter could be heard at that moment and he appeared through the 'image' by breaking the 'sky', or whatever it was. An illusion, the mage has called it, but Twilight didn't know anypony who could create this kind of illusion or with this amount of detail. It broke apart as he entered the hologram, the picture reforming behind him almost instantly.
"No, no, silly. It's a hologram. They're not real."
"A hologram?" Twilight asked looking at the mage. That was when she noticed something peculiar. Everything was now standing perfectly still. Even a bird in the distance was no longer moving. All movement had stopped.
"Didn't I explain it already? Well, think of it like a living picture. Instead of you looking at it from outside, you're looking at it from inside instead! Does that make sense? Right now I've paused it."
"This is amazing. It's like a... dream."
"Actually, that's a great metaphor. It's like we're watching someone else's dream from the inside."
"How have you paused it?"
Orko pulled out a small black rectangle from within his cloak and offered it to Twilight. "See that small blue triangle in the middle there? If you push that, the hologram will resume. Go on, try."
Twilight carefully pulled the remote from Orko's hand and looked at it.
"Amazing. Simply amazing." The Trollan hovered around Twilight, "You can hold that without any fingers! That's incredible."
"This? All ponies can do this..."
"Ponies, hm? I guess you are. Considering your sizes," Orko replied as he hovered around the large alicorn, "that does make sense."
"Who is he?" Twilight asked.
"This? You don't know who this is? Wow, I must've been down here much longer than I thought. Well, this is His Royal Highness, Swift Wind of Equestria. Sovereign and Guardian of Harmony and Peace. I think. I don't really remember these long titles and stuff. Prince Swift Wind is easier."
The girls exchange looks. They had never heard of him, and Twilight who had read almost every history book in Equestria had never once come across his name. Sure, there were other 'Swift Winds' in the past, but none of them ever held the title of Prince.
"And who's that?" Twilight asked pointing at the other creature.
"That? That's the Sorceress. Before she became the Sorceress of Eternia, she was She-Ra, Princess of Power." He had said the title and name in a deeper voice, as if announcing her presence. "She led the rebellion against Hordak and the Horde on Etheria, another world from this one-"
"Wait! Let me get this straight," Applejack said interrupting Orko, "we're supposed to be descendants of Swift Wing-"
"Wind. His name's Swift Wind ."
"Sorry. Swift Wind. If we're supposed to come from him, how come he's so big and we're not?"
Orko shrugged, "I dunno."
"Well," Twilight began, "if you think about how tall the Princesses are and how old they are. Maybe it has to do with time. I mean, maybe over time we've just grown smaller and smaller. Our Princesses are over a thousand of years old, you know. That would mean you've been down here all that time... alone..."
The reality of that fact made the Mane Six cringe.
"How did you manage to stay sane for all that time?" Rarity asked, "It must have been just dreadful for you being all alone for so long."
Orko shrugged, "It was at first. After a while you get used to it. Plus, when I got bored, I just watched movies and videos and stuff, I guess. Plus, there's always nap time. I like nap time."
"You poor thing," Rarity replied with her friendliest smile. "After we're done here, you can come live with us in our town. I'll even lend you a room until you get yourself settled."
The floating red mage just blushed, and wiped a tear from his eye, "T-thank you very much. You're very generous."
Rarity gave a comforting smile in response.
Twilight felt really proud of her friend. Taking in a stranger was just like Rarity. She was after all the Element of Generosity. Looking down at the remote she pressed the triangle making the scene continue from where it had left off.
"... Swifty, it's been over a year since the war-"
Twilight paused it again.
"War?"
"War. Yes. A very brutal, very bad, awful, awful war. A lot of good people died. I lost a lot of friends that day," Orko said sadly. He looked at Twilight. "If you don't mind, I don't really want to talk about that war. Even if it has been eons since it happened, the memories are still very painful to me."
Pinkie walked over to the Trollan and smiled. "There, there."
Orko bawled on Pinkie's shoulder as Twilight pressed play again.
"- you cannot keep blaming yourself for what has happened so far!"
"It was my fault our peoples are divided, Sorceress. It was my pride and arrogance that led to half this pointless conflict. It is different from before, when we battled the Horde. These are my people. To take the life of another that is similar to me is not what I had envisioned." Swift Wind walked towards the valley, "I cannot believe that the one I love would betray me in this way."
"Star isn't thinking clearly. I have no idea what has come over her, but I'm sure she loves you just as she always had. You are her mate, after all." The Sorceress walked over to the stallion and stroked his shoulder, "Perhaps you should talk with her again. Renegotiate her return?"
"You believe she will listen this time?" the stallion scoffed.
"I believe her love for you will make her see sense."
Swift turned around and walked away, "While I do find your optimism refreshing, my experience and expectations know better. She will not come to me willingly."
"Then you refuse to see her?"
"I never said that. I only said she would not see me willingly ."
The image faded to black and the girls found themselves standing in the holo-chamber, only this time the walls were white a bright white and the lights that formed the boundary of the walls were glowing various colors, slowly changing. Orko landed in the middle of the room and sat on the ground deep in thought.
"What's up?" Pinkie asked kneeling beside him.
"I got confused about which war they were talking about. I thought they were referring to another war about how they came to Eternia, but I think they were referring to Star Wind's jealousy."
"Star Wind's jealousy?" Rarity asked, "Whatever do you mean?"
"It was before I came to Eternia- er, I mean Equestria. You see, the Sorceress over there and Swift Wind have always had a special relationship with each other. They were partners that fought against the Horde together-" He saw the look on their faces. "Oh right. Um... the Horde are really, really bad guys who were really, really mean and liked to hurt things and destroy things and... yeah, they were just a really bad bunch. They liked conquering planets and enslaving the population. It was rumored that the horde had over a thousand planets under their control, but no one knows if that's really true."
"A thousand planets?" Twilight asked.
"Across many different dimensions and stuff, yeah." Orko shrugged, "You see, Eternia was special because it's in a the perfect position between the many different kinds of dimensions, which is how magic and science can exist together so naturally. My guess is that when Etheria and Eternia were pulled apart, Eternia was pulled into another dimension along the way. I guess."
"You guess?"
"Well, as well as being watching videos and stuff, there's also the library-"
"You have a library? With books?"
Orko looked up at Twilight, "Well... yes. It's a pretty big library... it's somewhere in the lower levels."
"You mean we can go further down?" the lavender unicorn asked.
"Oh yeah." The way he had said it implied that there was a lot more below the castle than they could imagine. "Anyway, Star got real jealous of Swift's and the Sorceresses' attentions to one another and one day she just up and left with half the other equines. It broke Swift's heart. After that a civil war started. I think. Now that you mention it there might be more information in the library below."
"I've been meaning to ask; what is the Sorceress? I mean, I've never seen anything like her." Twilight thought about it for a moment, "She stands on her hind legs like a minotaur, but she has no fur covering her body."
"She's a human. Don't you know-" Orko smacked his forehead, "Of course you don't know what a human is. How silly of me. You don't get them on Eternia anymore. Oh, sorry, Equestria. I'll never get used to that name. Well, that's a human. They're not equines and I guess you could say they're really, really smart bald monkeys. I guess. Let's play the next scene. There might be more information. Twilight, if you please."
Twilight obliged.
The room suddenly changed and they all found themselves indoors. A large open doorway led to a balcony to one side from where they could see Castle Grayskull in the distance. At the far end sat Swift Wind on a raised platform; a throne. His wings were folded behind him with a dark and dangerous look in his eyes. As the image began to fill and settle, the rest of the room was populated by other alicorns of similar height and build. Many wore armor of some sort, and they all carried weapons. None of them smiled. This was not a happy occasion.
"Bring them in!" Swift roared making Fluttershy duck behind her friends.
The far end of the hall two large wooden doors were pulled open with magic. In walked five more alicorns: a mare that led them who was flanked by the four stallions. None wore armor and they each had wounds across their bodies. The last one was limping as they approached Swift and stood before him. Not a word was spoken, not a single kind gesture extended.
The mare walked right up to the base of the throne and was blocked by two large halberds that barred her path. It was clear she was not going passed this point.
"Dear," the mare began.
"You have no right to call me that!" Swift shouted slowly, his voice seemed to shake the very foundations of the castle.
"Very well. Swift Wind, or should I call you Your Highness . Congratulations on overthrowing my armies. You have done well for yourself..."
"Why did you attack Trottinvale? Why did you bring your armies across the Bad Marshes when we agreed on a cease fire? Why did you invade my lands when I did nothing to provoke you and yours?" Swift's voice was as cold as steel.
"I don't know what makes you-"
"Why?" the stallion stomped his hoof on the ground as raw magical power exploded from it cracking the floor in a burst of red and blue light. Such was his power that the crack extended towards the mare stopping inches from her.
Everyone else in that hall shifted in their hooves. All but one. Not the mare. Not Star Wind. She held her ground against her mate standing tall and proud. Like a princess. No, she was more than a princess; she was a queen.
"You want to know why?" she asked, turning her head away from him, "I'll tell you why! It's because of her! She's the one that made me do it! It's all her fault! She stole you from me! She took your heart from me! You think me a fool? You think me some docile mare that does nothing but accepts your every whim and fancy? I am your mate! You are a part of me! Not her! Not that... that... whore ! Am I not your partner? Am I not the mare who bore your only child, husband ? I refuse to be second prize to any! I refuse to share your love with any! Especially her!"
The Sorceress did not flinch at the tirade, nor did she avert her eyes. Neither broke eye contact.
"Canterlot." Swift's voice said quietly as he sat heavy upon his throne. His voice was no longer laced with anger, but with a different emotion; sadness.
"We burnt that city to the ground," the mare replied calmly, laughing as she paced along the stone floor in front of the throne. "Under my direct orders since you had it built for... her."
"I know you burnt the city to ground! I know you ordered the entire city razed so that not even one stone could be used and I know that you even cursed the very ground it is built sacrificing the magical powers of half your subjects. I know of how their horns rotted off, their magic gone. What is a unicorn without a horn? They can never cast another spell, and their children will never know magic. I know this. I know it all because there were survivors who had fled your purge. I know of how you condemned them, even after they had loyally served you without question, and yet you betrayed them."
"They were no longer necessary. Unlike you, I know when it is time to let go of the past."
"Murderer!" one of the alicorns shouted, only he was not an alicorn any longer. His horn was gone and instead he had a scar on his forehead. "I served you without question and you had me and my family put to death! You treasonous wench! You deserve to die! You lied to us! You lied to us all!"
The magicless alicorn was dragged away by other alicorns.
"... my children! Give me back my children!" he shouted, tears streaming down his cheeks. His voice could still be heard as he was taken from the throne room and down the hall.
Twilight pressed pause and the image froze, the sounds of the alicorn's screams ended.
"I... I don't know what to say."
Twilight looked at Rainbow and Fluttershy.
"I guess I should've warned you that... yeah, it's not a happy time." Orko scratched the back of his head.
"That was a pegasus." Rarity said slowly.
Fluttershy did not hide her tears, "How horrible. How could she do that?"
Orko did not respond. He looked at the girls and hovered in front of Twilight, "Maybe... maybe you shouldn't actually see this. I wasn't thinking. I don't think that you should be seeing this. It's in the past. I shouldn't have brought you here. It's unfair to you-"
"No." Twilight looked at Orko, "What the Sorceress said before is right. We need to learn from the past, not forget it ever happened. We need to know because it's important. Right, girls?"
They all exchanged looks. Even Pinkie, the Element of Laughter, could not bring a smile to her face. Everything they had learned, everything that they had discovered, was all too much.
"How much more is there, Orko?"
"Um... quite a bit more, Twilight. Are you sure you want to continue. I don't think your friends are ready for it."
"Girls, he's right. If you don't want to stay, I understand."
"I'm with ya, Twilight," Applejack said. "Honestly, I don't know if I can not see what happens next. This is where we came from, after all. Even if it's painful, I think it's important."
"I'll always stick by you," Rainbow landed next to her lavender friend, "and if it's important to you, I'll be here with you all the way."
Fluttershy and Pinkie exchanged looks before nodding. They would stay.
Rarity sighed, "My dear, as painful as it is, I also think it's important to see."
"Okay then."
With that, Twilight resumed the hologram.
They could still hear the pegasus' screams as it slowly faded into the distance.
Star looked at the Swift with disgust, "You let that abomination live? You cannot allow them to exist! Why have you allowed it? Have you no pride in what you are? You are a unicorn. You were one of the most feared creatures on Etheria. You were one of the most feared warriors in the known universe! Since when do you protect those that are impure? That should not be allowed to exist!"
"All things deserve to live, Star."
"Do not talk to me, whore !" Star shouted at the Sorceress.
Still the Sorceress did not flinch.
"Do you know who was in charge of Canterlot's defenses?" Swift asked his voice as cold as ice.
"No. Should I?"
"Winter was there."
There was a long moment of silence.
"What?" the mare croaked.
"Winter was there."
"M... my... my son was..."
"He was!" Swift barked as he stood up, "And you and your generals tore him asunder! You might have not known he was there, but your generals did. They knew."
With tears in her eyes, Star spun around on the stallion behind her. Her eyes focused on the general that was limping. "Is this true? Did you know?"
The stallion bowed his head, "I did if for you, Your Majesty. I did it for our cause. We offered him to live when we took the city and stormed the keep. He refused. He said that he would not leave Canterlot alive. We had no choice. His magic alone was protecting the entirety of the keep! His forces would have beaten us back-"
Star charged forwards and impaled the general with her horn right through the eye. The stallion did not make a noise as magic power tore into him. Twilight had seen the tell-tale glow of magic and in the next moment the general collapsed shattering into pieces as he hit the floor. She had turned him into stone.
Nobody had moved to prevent this.
Slowly Star turned to Swift. "I... I... my son... my baby... my... what have I done? What have I done..."
Suddenly Star started convulsing and she struggled to stay on her hooves. She let out an ear wrenching scream that seemed to shatter their very souls. Twilight covered her ears, but it did little to prevent the sound from reaching her.
Dark violet smoke started to pour from Star's mouth, ears and nose. Her screams were muffled as the smoke continued to flow from her body and onto the floor. Instinctively Orko and the others took a step back away as did every creature there. Only Swift stood his ground.
A voice cackled from the mist. A cruel laughter.
"I know that voice... I know it all too well." Swift stood there horrified.
The Sorceress stood in front of Swift and glared at the smoke, "Hordak?"
"She-Ra? Is that you? Oh how you've changed. I like it. That blond hair was very unbecoming. This... this is so much better. It's a shame that you no longer have your sword. Without it you're powerless against me." The smoke rose from the ground and changed to form a humanoid shape, only much taller and much broader. There were no legs but the girls could make out arms and a head where two slits of glowing red light formed the eyes. "It is so nice to hear your voice. After your brother unceremoniously cut off my head, it's been very hard concentrating on things. Still, as they say, when there's a will, there's a way."
"This is not possible. You are dead," Swift said standing along side the Sorceress.
"Excuse me while I prove you wrong," Hordak replied in a derisive tone.
"How are you here, Hordak?" the Sorceress demanded.
"How am I here? Well, your brother brought me to this world, don't you remember? Or did he not tell you?" The voice laughed, "Well, he brought my head to be more accurate. As a souvenir for my father. You should have seen his face when he saw my cold, lifeless, decapitated head at his feet. I've never seen him smile with both his heads."
Swift turned away in disgust.
"Does my family disgust you? It shouldn't considering yours, Prince Swift Wind."
The stallion growled and lowered his head, "Watch your tongue."
"Sorry, don't have one. As you can see, I don't really have much need for one anymore. You have my father's Havoc Staff to thank for that. That fool Skeletor took a piece of it with him, but I had retrieved that piece when I killed him. I reformed the lost half of the Staff while my father had the other. That was probably what made his so happy. I stored it on the last place anyone would look. On my face."
"Your mask? Your mask was the last piece of the Havoc Staff?"
"Give it to the Sorceress for a job well done. I must say you've become a lot more astute since our last encounter. Living in the subconscious of Swift's wife was a real treat. It was so easy to manipulate her puny mind and her desire for your affection. All she wanted was your love, Swifty . I fed off of it, turned it, corrupted it, and destroyed it." Hordak laughed, "And it was so easy. You know, she really did love you. Would have gladly taken her own life for you, but I needed a body. And you have yourself to thank, She-Ra. If it hadn't been for you and her jealousy I doubt I would've succeeded. You made it almost too easy for me to twist her mind. To take one little nagging thought and turn it into a fire that burned your kingdom to the ground."
"You disgusting, low-life, evil-"
"Please, flattery won't spare you. Besides, if it hadn't been for you and your brother, I would be the supreme ruler of the Horde by now. With the completed staff, I would have been a god."
The Sorceress raised her hands up, "I don't know how you survived, but you will no longer endanger these people! You have already caused so much pain and suffering..."
"Oh? You knew?"
"What?"
"You just admitted you knew about me, yet you did nothing to stop me from making her commit those very acts you abhor. Not very Sorceress-like of you, She-Ra. You're supposed to protect these pathetic fools, not let them slaughter one another." Hordak laughed again.
"She-Ra, is this true?"
"No! I didn't know! You must believe me, Swifty. If I had known, I would have tried to purge him from her mind! You know that!"
"Does he? Or perhaps you wanted to keep 'Swifty' all for yourself. Getting rid of Star was the only way you could do that, considering that she's his mate. Not. You."
"Do not listen to him, Swift. He's trying to poison your mind as he poisoned Star's. Please, Swift. Can't you see, he's trying to establish a discord between us. He's trying to break our friendship, twist our minds as he has done to Star."
Star Wind was on the ground panting heavily, her tongue sticking out and tears streaming from her face. Seeing her like that, Swift felt pity for the mare.
"Guards! Kill that creature! Kill Hordak!"
"You kill me? You cannot even stop me. Not this time." Smoke erupted forwards towards the Sorceress who put her hands up. A barrier of light formed, but the smoke did nothing. It passed through the barrier, but left She-Ra and Swift untouched. "It seems that you cannot harm me nor can I harm you. Not directly anyway. Guess I'll just have to use others to do my work for me... for now. Your pure heart and intentions won't protect you forever. One day, I will destroy you all."
Star looked up, her horn glowing a deep orange hue, "For the murder of my son, I will kill you!"
"Star, no!" Swift shouted, but his call came too late.
A bright beam of light surrounded Hordak. He merely laughed. "Is that the best you can do, Queen ? You're pathetic. You've served your usefulness. Now you shall die."
The smoke raised one of his arms as lightning began to form around him.
She-Ra cast a spell that surrounded Hordak containing the lightning. The sound of a loud explosion echoed through the hall as the lightning spell rebounded inside the Sorceress' force-field and the hologram exploded in a bright light.
"I can't see what's happening!" Twilight shouted.
"Neither can I!" Rarity replied.
Fluttershy lay down on the ground and put her hooves over her eyes, "Make it stop!"
Then the lights slowly returned to normal and Twilight looked up to see the Hordak smoke split in two. One half, the darker half, was hovering over Star, the other was making a rapid getaway towards the nearest window.
"Stop it! Stop that shadow!" Swift shouted as smoke floated towards the nearest open window. He used his magic to close it, but the smoke easily passed through the gaps. "After it!"
A large number of alicorns surged forth as ordered.
While they had been distracted, the darker essence of the smoke reentered Star's mouth and nose. Seeing this the Sorceress ran to Star just as the last vestiges of it reentered her body. The alicorn coughed and spluttered before her body began to shake.
She-Ra watched in horror as the smoke started to change her. Fur fell from the body revealing a hard, black rough skin. It looked like armor; smooth and polished. It resembled a carapace. The horn grew longer and brittle in places. The feathers on her wings began to fall and in their place were transparent, vein-like appendages, like those on a dragonfly. A slightly green tint spread through them. Finally her eyes changed from a deep brown to an emerald green.
"What is happening to her?" Swift asked.
"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before-"
Then it was all gone. The changes vanished without a trace and instead Star was lying there in front of them just as she always was.
"What just happened?"
"I don't know!" She-Ra yelled, "I don't know, Swifty. All I know is that she needs our help. Help me get her to a doctor..."
"You four, help them," Swift ordered four alicorns. They walked forwards and used their magic to pick Star up and She-Ra followed them towards the exit of the throne room. She-Ra stopped at the end of the hall and looked back at Swift, but he had already turned his back on them. He had another problem to deal with now. She bowed her head knowing what was coming. Perhaps she did not need to be here for this. She did not want to be here for this.
Again the hologram stopped.
"D-d-did you see that?" Twilight asked. "Did you see what happened to Star?"
The girls exchanged glances, but the answer was clear.
"She's a changeling." Rarity pointed out.
"For centuries ponies throughout history have tried to find out what the origin of the changelings was. There were theories, but this... clear proof! We know ."
Applejack laughed nervously, "Yeah. We know."
"Twilight, I... I don't like this. It isn't fun anymore. Can we stop now?" Pinkie asked.
"You can leave, Pinkie. You don't have to be here for this if you don't want to."
Pinkie looked at her friends who looked at her expectantly. She plopped herself down on the ground and crossed her hooves.
"Are you sure, Pink? We won't think anything of it if you go."
"No. You can continue."
The hologram resumed with Swift walking back to his throne. The was not a sound apart from his hoofsteps as he walked up the dais, turned around and sat slowly.
"As for the three of you," Swift said addressing the three generals still alive, "You will all be tried in court where our people will decide by rule of law, as it has always been done with our kind, what your fates are. You have made many suffer when you could have returned here instead. You chose power and greed instead of peace and harmony and for that you must suffer the consequences of your actions."
"You speak of peace, you speak of harmony, yet you are led around by a human female! She is not one of us!" one of the generals shouted. "You are nothing, nothing without your human mistress, and as long as she remains by your side, we will rebel against you. You gave away our home so that they could have a world to themselves! Your selfishness cannot go unchecked, you-"
"Enough!" Swift said quietly.
The general stopped speaking and gulped. "We are masters of our own fate now. There are no humans here to obey."
"And what is the Sorceress then if not human?"
"She is a guardian. Protector of ancient magic that must be kept safe from those who wish to use it for evil. She controls nothing, nor influences anything. All she can do is wish for us to protect our world our way. We were free with the humans on Etheria, why would it change now? You have been tricked, manipulated by the shade of Hordak."
The generals exchanged glances, "We-"
"There is little use denying it. Hordak hates our kind, and wishes for us to destroy each other, or were you asleep when he admitted taking control of my wife and manipulated her jealousy into thinking the way you do? Do you actually believe that you chose to commit these crimes against our race of your own free will?"
One of the generals dropped to his knees. "What have we done? What have I done? I've... I've ordered the massacre of hundreds because... because... because of t-t-that..."
"No! It can't be true! I refuse to believe it to be so!" Another general cursed.
"We deserve to die," the third and final general stated. "We have done things that cannot be forgiven in life or in death. We are... evil. Contaminated. Cursed."
"Take them away!"
The generals did not resist as they were led from the throne room.
"Leave me be. I wish to be alone."
The remaining alicorns all bowed and exited the throne room as Swift sat down.
Then, alone, with no one watching he lowered his head and began to cry.
"My son, Winter, I am so sorry, but your mother's jealousy is well founded." Swift spoke so quietly, that the girls were barely able to hear him. "After all these long years I have forgotten my love for your mother and have formed a love of the most unnatural kind. It is the Sorceress now that lives in my heart, that gives me the power to run this kingdom, that gives me the strength to wake up each day, that brings me joy and happiness. I cannot help myself."
The girls watched as Swift's tears continued to fall for a moment longer, then he took a long deep breath, closed his eyes and stood up. The moment had gone, and the stoic ruler of Equestria walked over to the doors of his throne room and opened them with his magic. He stopped for a moment and looked back and seeing nothing exited the throne room and closed the doors firmly behind him.
Then, from behind one of the pillars a figure stepped out. It was hard to tell because it had merged perfectly with the background. As it stepped forward the figure shed its disguise like a chameleon. It was the Sorceress. She had been there for the whole thing.
She picked up the recording device from where it was hiding and held it in the palm of her hand. She gripped it and held it close to her chest, "Oh, Swift. I love you too. If only we could be together. I would give anything to be yours."
The screen faded away and the room returned to the bright white walls once again.
"Well, that's the end," Orko said sat down on the floor using the wall as a backrest.
"We learned a lot today," Twilight said in the silence.
"The mist... the one that escaped... do you think..." Rarity began.
The girls all looked at her, but she didn't continue.
"Orko, what happens after all this?"
"This? Well, the generals go on trial, which I have. They are condemned to serve as wardens to a new prison to house the criminals in a prison built deep below the surface of the planet."
"Wait. You mean Tartarus?" Twilight asked.
"Yes. Yes, that's it. Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that after all this time, that prison still exists?" Orko whistled, impressed with this bit of news, "That's unicorn -er- alicorn architecture for you. Built to last."
"These... three guardians... were they... cursed?" Twilight asked.
"Hm? Oh yes. They were cursed. You could say that their fate was worse than death. As far as I know they were... merged, I guess. Forced to come together as one, so that they would share the guilt together. Why?"
"Anything else?" Rarity probed, understanding what Twilight was getting at.
"I think they were also changed."
"Into dogs?" Rainbow liked the blunt approach.
Orko nodded. "Yeah. Yeah! That sounds right. A three-headed guard dog. Yeah."
"I don't believe it." Twilight shook her head, "And here we thought that somepony from ancient history captured and trained Cerberus to guard the gates of Tartarus. This is amazing! It changes everything we've ever known about ourselves!"
"Twilight, this is a lot to take in and I do believe it's best we tell the Princesses what's going on, don't you think?" Rarity asked.
"That's a great idea, Rarity. The Princesses would likely know more about this than any of us. I'll tell one of the guards to inform them."
As Twilight left, Pinkie bounced over to Orko grabbing him by the collar, "Everything is so sad and serious! Is there anything fun you can show us? Anything... nice? Please? I wanna see a happy part of our past, not all this sad saddy sadness!"
"Well..." Orko began, "you know what, I actually do know of something that is happy. It skips a lot of time, but I think you'll like it."
"Skip it! Skip it!" the girls all unanimously agreed.
"Well, okay. Wait here just a second," Orko turned and floated off through the wall.
"Okay, I told a few of the guards to fetch the princesses. Where's Orko?"
"He's gone to show us something happy! This is going to be great!"
Twilight nodded, "Yeah, even I have to admit, seeing all that... drama just put a bad taste in my mouth."
"Do you want a mint?" Pinkie asked.
"It's a figure of speech, Pinkie."
"I knew that."
"I don't know about you girls, but I'm kinda hungry." Applejack's tummy rumbled in agreement.
Orko floated back and smiled, "Your new hologram is ready any time you are."
"Thanks, Orko, but we're kinda hungry. So we're going to go and grab a bite to eat. You're welcome to come and join us if you want."
"Sorry, but I don't eat. My magic sustains me..."
The girls all looked at him, "Surely you're not saying you actually live off magic."
"Nope, that's exactly what I'm saying. We can eat, we just don't need to."
"Wow. That's... amazing. Your people must never starve."
"Until I came to Eternia, I've actually never heard of starvation. So, yes." Orko rubbed the back of his head, "Tell you girls what, why don't you go ahead and do what you need to do. I'll take a nap right here. Wake me up when you're ready to continue."
"Okay."
"Bye."
"See you soon."
Fluttershy could not stand it and hugged Orko as tightly as she could. It was impulsive, but she just felt that being alone for so long in the deep darkness where they had found him was just so sad.
"Ooh! My back! Careful, you're really strong. You could easily break my ancient bones."
In the process of hugging Orko, somehow the remote had been touched. The white walls vanished and again the floor fell out to reveal a deep dark abyss. Moments later, the hologram reformed and the girls gasped in surprise as they found themselves standing on a cloud.
"Swift?" a familiar voice asked, "What are we doing here?"
"I said I'll show you. Now keep your eyes closed," he replied. He landed on the cloud. The perspective of this particular hologram was taken from swift's back. To the front they could see his mane and head, behind him sat the Sorceress.
"Okay. Take off your blind."
She snatched it off and gasped silently as her mouth opened wide in surprise. She put her hands over her lips and began to laugh.
"You found a place for them, Swift. You found a place for them."
"I call it Nephelippion. Do you like it?"
"I do. What about that. A city in the clouds. How have you kept this a secret from me all this time?" The Sorceress asked.
"It was not easy. But in the end, I think it was because I didn't try all that hard. You are funny that way."
She laughed, "True. Whenever you hide anything from me, I make it a point to find out what. So. Have they accepted it?"
"Yes, but I have made some conditions. They may have their own form of government and trade with whomever they wish so long as they respect those that live below them." Swift sighed, "It's a start. These... pegasi, as they like to call themselves now, are very timid. My guess is that they still feel vulnerable and wish to be left to their own devices. Since our kind cannot live in the clouds for prolonged periods of time, I thought that this would appease them."
"How can they live in the clouds without magic?" the Sorceress asked.
"We have various kinds of magic, She-Ra, or have you forgotten?"
"Perhaps. Humor me."
"Very well then. Magic we cast comes from our horns, but other parts of our body react to other magical elements as needed. Our wings have passive magical properties that allow us to do other things, such as stay on clouds, feel the ground and know where best to plant our crops. For these new pegasi... I think without their horns, the magic in their wings replenishes itself faster. They can stay on clouds indefinitely."
"What will they eat?"
Swift sighed, "That's what I wondered. They said that they'd manage. My guess is they'll have to fly down to the ground."
"I don't see why they can't just live in New Canterlot instead. It just feels... wrong to split them up just because they can no longer use any magic."
"I understand how you feel, but this is what they insisted. It doesn't help that many of my... mate's," Swift said the word with just a hint of negative emotion, "followers still treat them like second class citizens. If they remain, it might lead to another conflict. A class war. I cannot allow that. If this will help them regain their pride as Equestrians, then so be it. And the city's name is just Canterlot. There's nothing left of the original..."
Jumping off Swift's back, the alicorn gasped as She-Ra safely landed on the cloud next to him.
"You forget, I am one with this world, Swifty. You might have strong magic, but I am magic."
"Quite right. I had forgotten." He chuckled.
The Sorceress took her hood off and shook her hair out. "Now, let's go see that city. Race you to Nephelippion."
"Teleporting is cheating in a race, She-Ra."
"Spoil sport."
With that the two of them vanished in a flash of light blue light.
The pastel colored hair on the Sorceress was not lost on Twilight, who had audibly gasped when she saw it.
Author's Note
Before you go blaming me for using Cerebrus instead of the Hekatonkheires - I was seriously contemplating it. In the end I decided to user the former. The reason was that I didn't think the vast majority of readers would know who or what the Hekatonkheires were and it was harder to sustain that kind of legend in this universe. I changed it after going over this chapter a bunch of times.
Plus Cerebrus is canon...
Also, I had trouble thinking of a name for the sky city. So, I want to thank my buddy Archonix for coming up with Nephelippion, which translates to "cloud horse city".
From Eternia to Equestria
Chapter 3: The Foundation of Harmony
"I've never heard of... what was the name of that city?" Rainbow asked, munching on her daisy sandwich.
They were sitting outside the castle in front of a few boxes surrounded by bright lights. The ground was still glowing red in that slow throb that dimmed slightly before brightening up again. The girls had all come out of the holo-chamber leaving Orko to take a nap. Although he did seem young and lively, the girls knew that he was an ancient relic from a past that no living pony could remember.
Maybe.
"Nephelippion," Twilight replied. She was looking at the entrance to Castle Grayskull as if expecting it to suddenly talk. The amount of secrets that resided within those walls. It made her giddy just thinking of it.
Still, there was one thing that bothered her. The Sorceress' mane. It was almost like Princess Celestia's, except that there were more colors on the Sorceress than on her mentor. While her friends discussed all that they had learned, her thoughts were on the most obvious of questions. Was the Sorceress Princess Celestia? Could she really be that ancient? Were the immortal Royal Sisters older than she had expected them to be, or was there more to this than that?
She felt somewhat overwhelmed.
"Who wants a cupcake?" Pinkie revealed a pink coated goody and waved it in front of Rainbow.
When nopony answered, she scarfed it down in one bite, chewing it quickly at first before slowing down, her puffed up cheeks turning up at the corners revealing a very satisfied smile.
"Twilight, what d'ya supposed we ought ta see next?" Applejack asked.
"I want to know more. Maybe let Orko show us key events throughout their history. We don't even have a time frame to compare it to. I don't know when these events took place, and I'm not sure our history texts cover this far back. I've never heard of there being two Canterlots, for example. Where would the first one be?"
"Yeah! And like I said, I've never heard of... what was that name again?"
"Nephelippion." This time both Twilight and Applejack said it at the same time.
"Yeah, that. I mean... was that Cloudsdale's old name? Or maybe... what about Pegasopolis? I mean, could it be that city?"
"No. We know Pegasopolis existed, albeit briefly, as was Unicornia and... Dirtville," Twilight shuddered at the name, remembering the Hearth's Warming Eve pagent, "but all those cities never really existed, as the leaders of our peoples united under one banner and named our land Equestria. Remember?"
"Oh yeah!"
"Well, I for one think what we've learned invaluable. Did you see those uniforms the unicorn guards wore? I mean alicorn guards, sorry. They were simply divine! And they all look so big and strong." Rarity sighed, "I do wish they were still around."
"Let's go back inside. I want see more." Twilight tidied up her spot and put the leftovers back into the picnic basket. A guard came seemed to appear out of the darkness beyond the lights and levitated the basket away with his horn, taking it back into the shadows with him just beyond the light.
Applejack felt uncomfortable with the guards standing around like that, but they were still suspicious about everything, and did not like standing on top of the glowing red crystal floor. She knew better than to complain, after all these ponies were just doing their job.
Reluctantly, the five mares followed Twilight back inside. They were all curious as well, but they did not have the thirst for knowledge that their purple friend had. They knew how obsessive Twilight could get when it came to learning.
They all walked in to see Orko still napping. Twilight walked over and shook the creature awake.
"Wha-? Who? Oh! Hi, girls. Ready to get started?"
"What are you going to show us next?" Pinkie asked, hoping that it was a happy vid.
Orko stroked his chin, "Well, most of what happens is boring stuff. Mostly Swift taking court and issuing new laws, proclamations, and the like. After Nephelippion was founded, peace reigned for years. But... something bad happened. So, the next part is really, really sad. Sorry, Pinkie."
Pinkie's mane deflated.
"It does get better afterwards... we could skip this part, but it would leave a lot of questions unanswered. I guess."
"Why do you always guess?" Rarity asked. She had ignored it the first few times, but he just kept repeating it to the point where it was grating on her nerves.
Orko shrugged, "Dunno. I guess it's because I'm never really too sure about anything. Never was, but it got worse over time. I guess."
Rarity didn't know whether to be mad or sorry for Orko, so she just sucked down her anger and grinned.
"Okay, then let's see what you have to show," the white unicorn gestured.
Orko looked at the remote in his hand for a moment, then up at the girls, "Are you sure? It's not pretty."
The ponies exchanged looks, but it was Twilight who nodded and took the initiative.
"I want to know."
"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."
With that, Orko pushed play.
At once the room was engulfed in fire. Flames licked the tapestries, smoke filled the room. The recorder was bouncing around, and it took a moment for them all the realize that it was being carried. The recorder turned and focused on a particular area. That was when Fluttershy screamed as the remains of a charred alicorn appeared when a breeze blew the smoke clear. They could not feel the breeze, nor the heat of the fires, but they could see the death and destruction, they could hear screams of equines dying.
"Make it stop," the butter colored pegasus whispered, covering her eyes and shaking in terror. "Please..."
As horrifying as it was, this was their history. The other mares watched with emotions flooding through them. Nopony in recent history had ever seen this before. This was the raw, horrifying truth.
More screams; distant cries of agony. This was not like the invasion they had suffered by the Changelings a matter of days ago. There was no comparison.
The Mane Six huddled close together in an effort to give one another some comfort. Pinkie lay on the floor next to Fluttershy singing to herself quietly in an attempt to drown out the noises that came from all round them. Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack watched as the recorder kept going down the hall until the arrived at a set of particularly large doors. The doors to the throne room.
A hand appeared from below the recorder, the fingers and palm spread out as a blast of white light surged from it. The doors blew open, one of them completely off the hinges as it bounced once against the floor before sliding to a halt in the middle of the room. It was empty. Running now, the recorder bouncing faster as the area ahead of them grew larger, the carrier approached the throne. Then it turned to the right, the doors to the giant balcony were wide open.
"Swift?" a voice asked for a moment before the recorder made its way through the doors.
The stallion in question stood looking over a city engulfed by flames. The recorder was dropped and the Sorceress ran out to the stallion throwing her arms around his strong neck.
"The city burns," he said gently, but in his eyes there was an ever bigger inferno burning. The intensity made the girls take a step back. "It is as if the name itself is cursed."
"Canterlot," the Sorceress whispered the name. "Why has she done this? How?"
"I do not know, but I intend to find out. My forces are broken, scattered. Those loyal to me have remained here in this castle, but it is only a matter of time before this place falls as well. These creatures are unlike anything we've ever faced in the past. They are shape-shifters, doppelgangers... changelings . They can assume the body and shape of any they choose, and they have chosen very wisely."
"We cannot stay here, Swift. We need to leave."
"I will remain and see this through. If it is my time, then so be it. I will atone for my sins."
The Sorceress ran to Swift and hugged his neck, "It's not your fault!"
"Is it not? The one that I loved has broken free from her prison, poisoned my people, changing them into... these abominations!" At those words, his horn glowed and out from a wall the remains of a changeling were unceremoniously tossed to one side.
It was huge. Far bigger than the changelings that the Elements had fought against a couple of days before. A changeling the size of these alicorns. The thought of it made the girls shudder.
"How? How did she... change them?" She-Ra asked.
He walked to the edge of the balcony and peered down, "Her fangs are like those of a snake. She injects her victim with poison! She had bit her guards and changed them. They in turn bit others, and over time she had amassed an army big enough to overthrow my own. We would have never stood a chance if it had not been for Night Flower. She has saved whatever is left of us. Without her we would have been overrun. May she rest in peace."
"And where is Spirit now?" the Sorceress asked.
"Gone. Gone from the city that burns. She has seen that we have found a flaw in her... poison, accidental though it may be. It saved us from her."
"What was it?"
Looking down at the ground, Swift growled, "Their poison does not change the pegasi, only us unicorns. My... personal guard had sacrificed their magic. Their horns are gone, but some were too late. Some had to sacrifice... more."
The girls all saw a large number of equines running through the streets below the balcony. Neither had horns nor wings on their bodies, yet despite that they seemed strong and very capable of fighting back.
"I was once a equine with neither wings nor horn, and as a tribute to the sacrifice of my people, I shall also release my powers. I shall become what I once was before... before I given the gift to fight along side you."
"No! Swifty, you cannot! The magic within you isn't the same as them. You were granted that form by the powers of Castle Grayskull. If you take it away, it will kill you."
He bit his lip repressing his anger and disappointment. "Then I must suffer in this form while my people sacrifice themselves?"
"I'm sorry, Swifty, but yes, you must. It's also the reason why no poison has affected you. You are different to them, Swifty. Different to us all. You are the Prince of all Equestrians, and you have a duty to those that follow you to see things through. You cannot sacrifice your power, you must instead sacrifice your freedom and bear this burden..." the Sorceress fought back the tears with futility, "I will try to ease your pain, but you will have to carry this weight yourself. I'm sorry."
"Yes. I must atone. Why must they suffer for my sin? They did nothing but wish for a peaceful life. It is I that have brought them these horrors and it is I who must earn their forgiveness. These are unicorns, proud and true. They have fought along side us for centuries on Etheria, and now many have been reduced to being nothing more than a horse! A mere beast of burden!"
The Sorceress slapped Swift Wind which silenced him. He did not turn his head to look at her.
"Don't you dare say that! Don't you dare! You were never a beast, nor were you one of burden! You have always been my friend. You have always been special to me. Do not demean yourself just because you feel that this is your bane," she shouted. "Rise up! Meet your destiny as you have always done. That is who you are."
He still refused to meet her eyes.
"I must put an end to all this. Put an end to everything," Swift replied after a long moment.
The sounds of the screams had long since died down, only to be replaced with the sounds of rubble collapsing as buildings toppled over sending ash, soot and embers floating up into the darkened sky.
"What do you mean?" asked the sorceress, clearly not liking where this was going.
"I must find Spirit... and kill her."
The Sorceress backed away from Swift, "B-but you can't!"
"I must. With with my own hooves, I must. This madness must cease! Too many have died, and many more will unless I end this once and for all. I will not allow our world to be plagued with war and terror on the basis that my," he paused and put on a disgusted expression, "mate , refuses to see reason!"
"Has it really come down to this?"
Swift turned on the Sorceress, "You will stay and rule while I continue with my campaign. I will take only those with neither horns nor wings and we will hunt this cancer from our lands and purge it. I do not know how long I will be gone for, but I will not return until I have fulfilled this oath."
The Sorceress looked at the stallion for a moment then bowed, "I will do as you ask. Only... if you will humor with one, small request."
"Speak."
"When you... when you do find her, please... let it be as your name, Swift."
Swift Wind looked hard at the Sorceress for a moment before turning away. "We shall see."
The stallion walked over to the balcony and spread his massive wings.
"If I do not return, protect my people. They will look to you for guidance and support."
"I will!" she said, "Only, do come back..."
The stallion leaped off the balcony and flew towards the far end of the city.
The Sorceress stared after him with a pained expression on her face. Only when he was out of sight did she fall to the ground and weep.
"Please come back... to me..."
The room started fading to black before brightening up again. Orko hovered above the girls, his hands behind his back not really knowing what to say to them.
"That was horrible!" Rarity said, wiping her tears, "How could she do that? How could Spirit do such dreadful things!"
"Why?" Applejack shook her head, "It makes no sense! No stallion is worth... killin' over..."
"I don't want to be here anymore," Pinkie whined. "I don't like seeing ponies hurt..."
Twilight hugged the pink mare.
"I understand. If you want to wait outside, go ahead," Twilight said to the pink mare as a mother would a scared child.
Pinkie sniffled and nodded. She stood up and headed for the exit followed closely by a very mute Fluttershy. The two of them paused and looked back at their friends for a moment, then continued on until they were two black dots against the red light emanating from the crystal-like lake.
"You three sure you wanna stay?"
Rainbow nodded, "I don't like this, but I want to know what happens. I want to see what happens."
Turning away, Applejack sighed, "It ain't right. It just ain't right. I've got to see this through."
"You... you do realize something, right?" Rarity asked.
Twilight and Rainbow shared a look with Applejack, "What?"
"It's the changelings, my dears. Didn't you hear what Swift was saying? Didn't you notice the body of that alicorn? That changeling?" Rarity looked at each of them. When none of them replied, she stomped her hoof, "The changelings... are alicorns!"
None of the others replied for a long moment.
"I... guess it makes sense... they do have horns and wings after all..." Twilight replied, not wanting to believe it.
Orko hovered lower to the ground under he was level with the ponies, "Look, I don't know if you want to see what happens after. It's one of the darkest moments of your world's history..."
"No. I want to see it. I have to see it."
The trollan understood and hovered away, "Okay. Shall we get started?"
Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Okay. Go."
The video changed. The screen showed that the recording device was now placed on the ceiling looking down from above. They were in the throne room again, but this time the insides were different. The alicorns were nowhere to be seen, and instead there were pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies lines up along the sides. They all bowed low to the Sorceress as she entered, her hair blowing in the breeze.
"Please, my friends, please do not bow to me. I am only the steward of your city, nothing more."
One of the unicorns, a mare, stepped forward, "You may not be an equine like us, but you have stayed by our peoples' side and have helped rebuild this great city. For that, we bow in thanks, for you are our world's protector. The Sorceress of the Castle Grayskull."
Forcing a smile, the Sorceress nodded politely to the mare and made her way to the throne.
She did not sit on it, instead took a seat in front of it on a step lower.
For a while the girls heard them talking about the status of the kingdom. Some boring reports about food, something about infestation of rats in a section of the city, and plenty of other things. The girls exchanged looks, not sure what was so bad about this. They way he made it sound, they were expecting-
The screen went black. Everything went black.
Slowly light returned, and the girls were now looking at the scene at a strange angle. The entire throne room was covered in smoke as three black creatures charged the Sorceress. There was no sound, but two pegasi leaped to the Sorceresses side and fought against the three. It took her a moment, but the Sorceress recovered from whatever cause the sudden blackness and the three were locked in cages of light.
The sound slowly returned.
"... take the wounded to the infirmary! Quickly!" The Sorceress turned to the mare she had been talking to moments before and knelt on the ground placing her hand on her side. Nothing. Slowly, She-Ra closed the mare's eyelids for the last time, as she wiped her tears with her other hand.
"The explosion came from a fourth, my lady. He... she... it was hiding in the audience," one of the guards said. "He was disguised as Flowing River. I am sorry-"
"Do not be. It is I who should say I am sorry. He was after me. I should have been the one to die, not her. Not them..."
"Those who refuse to coexist with others will always find a reason to harm those that they think are wrong, my lady. This is not anyone's fault but that of their own. They are ignorant and do not wish to see reason."
The Sorceress looked at the dead on the floor in front of her. Too much death. Too much sadness.
Again the screen faded and the white light returned.
Before the girls could say anything the hologram around them changed and they found themselves inside a forest. A deep, dense forest.
"Sire, we are at the ruins of Old Canterlot," a very large earth pony stated. He was in full barding and on his head he wore a helm of iron. He had numerous scars on his face and wore a hardened expression.
Swift appeared, stepping into the hologram and gazed at the stallion. "Destrier, you have been with me since the start of this campaign. You have fought by my side through all of this and never have you once shirked your duties nor complained. You have done much for me, and I cannot with good conscious ask you to do this, but you are the only equine in this army that the others will follow. I have no choice."
"My liege, I will follow you to the ends of this world and the next if that is your will." Destrier stated, bowing. His armor clinked as he did so.
"Then will you lead the charge on the ground against the castle while I attack from above with the pegasi? Those without their horns and those with shall be under your command." He bowed his head, "Use the horned ones to form a barrier from their arrows."
Destrier looked at Swift and sighed, "You cannot keep calling us un-horned. It does nothing but remind us of what we were. We do not have the magic that we once possessed, but we are strong. Perhaps even stronger than the others. We are grounded to this world, our hooves are rooted into the soil. We love this land as we have always done since we have come here, and always will. Now that we are bound to the it, we shall love it like no other."
"So be it. Then you shall be that of the earth, and we shall know you as such."
"Earthbound, we are. Our strength is yours to command!" Destrier stomped his hoof, the ground cracking from the impact.
Swift smiled slightly, "Then go, earthbound. Let us meet our destinies head on."
The image faded out for a moment, but quickly switched to an aerial view of the ground far below them. It seemed as if Swift was wearing the recorder around his head. The view twisted around to see a huge number of pegasi flying behind him. So many there were, of all ages. So many that were so young, no older than the mares that were watching them at that very moment, while others had more than a few gray hairs in their manes.
The focus shifted back, and far below they could see a castle under siege. Fires were burning bright all around, arrows and projectiles of magic flashed through the air, yet the pegasi remained silent in the sky.
Then there was an almighty explosion as the far side of the castle walls were brought down. A large line of these earthbound stormed the breach, using their bodies as weapons. Blades attached to their hooves tore through the alicorn changelings as the horned ones fired a continuous barrage of magic at them. Many fell, but the breach was taken. They had a way in.
Again the image moved to face the pegasi.
"Ready! We fly low, we fly fast. We cut their support and lower the gates!" Swift shouted.
His order was repeated louder to the entire pegasi army. A yellow mare with an orange mane who seemed to lead these pegasi. "We will follow you to the end, sire," she said to Swift.
"Do not die, Haze," he said quietly, turned and charged.
The view of the ground zoomed up at the girls as they watched Swift and Haze lead the pegasi in sharp dive towards the castle. Using his magic, her formed a barrier in front of him that the changelings could not break as the pegasi tore through their ranks. Using large curved blades attached to their hooves, they sliced their way towards the gates.
The walls were taken, only the keep remained.
"Surround it. Kill them all! Let none of them live past this night!" Destrier shouted crushing one of the changelings skulls beneath his hooves. The head imploded in a mess of green goo. The earthbound turned and saw Swift walking towards him and he bowed, "We have taken the walls. Their armies on the outside are scattered and broken. Only those within these walls remain."
Swift looked up at the keep. For a moment it seemed that all stood still. Even the wind had ceased to blow.
"Burn it."
"Sir?" Haze asked Swift refusing to believe what she had just heard.
"Burn it. To the ground."
"B-b-but, sir. There may be innocents inside!" another pegai shouted.
"I do not care, Tender Heart. My patience has long since waned. Only anger and frustration remains. Burn it."
Tender Heart took a step forwards, "Sire, I beg you to reconsider. Even they, our worst of foes deserve some mercy! They deserve some respite! They are only under the orders of their queen-"
"Who they will follow without question to their deaths. They are no longer capable of free thought, Heart! See sense in our lord's words! I know you do not want this, and neither do I, but it is the only way!"
"No, Haze, I will not! There is nothing to be gained by this!"
"Trust me, Heart. I know. I really do. My brother and my father are both those... things now. They're not equines anymore. They're creatures that have lost everything and have nothing. They are slaves with no will of their own."
"But... but..." Tender Heart looked to the others for support, but found none. Haze had spoken the truth that they did not want to hear.
"Do not let your kindness cloud your judgement, Heart. Do you really believe that our prince would order such a thing if there were any other way?" The voice of a stallion said out loud over the mare's pleas. Destreier walked to Tender Heart and placed a hoof gently on the mare's shoulder, "Do not make this harder on him than it has to. He must carry this burden on his own. We can only help make that weight lighter. He knows who they were, knows what's at stake. What would you have him do?"
"There has to be another way!"
Swift looked at Tender Heart, she looked up at him, stared deep into his eyes, then looked away. She knew then that there was none. It was indeed the only recourse they had.
"Perhaps they should be given a chance?" a horned one suggested. He walked up to Destrier, "Release the doors, give them a chance to live. If they come out and lower their weapons to surrender, then we will take them as prisoner. Tender may be right. We are not like them. We are better and we should lead by example."
Tender Heart looked at the horned one who spoke, "It's okay, Midnight... I know what needs to be done..."
"But yet you do not accept it. Sire, please allow me to give them this slight chance. I will stand with my kind to bar the way. We shall take this burden for it is we who wish to set an example for others. We might not have wings as we once had done, but we will make those that took them rue the day they were made."
Swift looked at the unicorn who spoke, his steel gaze on him.
The speaker gulped and bowed his head, "I meant only to say that sometimes a small act of mercy and generosity can go a long way."
There was a moment where nothing nor nobody moved. Then, slowly, Swift nodded once. Afterwards he turned and walked away. He took about fifty paces out and stood in front of the keep's massive doors; the only way in or out. Then he waited.
Midnight and his horned ones stood in front of the doors and lowered their horns. They were ready.
"Burn it!" Destrier shouted.
At once other the horned ones fired projectiles of fire into the keep. There was no movement nor any sound for a long while. Suddenly the front doors burst open as changelings piled out in one last futile attempt at escape or attack. Many were cut down by magic as they tried to take to the air and even more were cut down as they tried to gain altitude. The pegasi took those that managed to get far enough away from the projectiles, and yet there were still those that managed to get away. Some were pursued until they too were taken down, but there were survivors who had disappeared.
All through this, Swift Wind watched the keep burn, watched the stones crumble, watch the walls fall. Not once did he turn away until all that was left was smoke, rubble and soot. Swift turned and moved off, his personal guard followed him away.
"Not here either," Destrier whispered.
"Don't worry. We'll find her," Midnight replied and the two of them moved off.
The screen faded to white again.
"They... they slaughtered to them all!" Applejack shook her head, "I... I don't know what to say..."
Orko rubbed the back of his head, "I did tell you that the next parts were hard to see. It... it doesn't get much better than this, I'm afraid. Not through this war at least. I guess they had good reason to do it, but it doesn't make it any easier."
"Twilight, honey, I'm afraid I cannot witness any more... I'm... I'm not feeling too good," Rarity whispered. "If you don't mind, I will go outside with Fluttershy and Pinkie."
"Okay, Rare. I know it was hard to see..."
"Hard? Seeing a pony wear stripes with polka dots is hard. Seeing an unkempt handsome stallion is hard. This... this is..." Rarity could not find the worse to describe it. "Sorry, Twilight. I know it's important to you, so I won't ask you to stop, but I will take my leave."
Twilight understood and nodded. Generous with her time and patience, Rarity was her Element through and through. The three mares watched as the white unicorn headed towards the crystal lake, her head hung low.
"The poor thing," Applejack said quietly. "I hope that Pinkie can perk her up."
Twilight and Rainbow nodded. They too hoped that the pink mare could work her magic.
"Uh... do you guys want to continue?" a voice asked quietly from behind them.
The three remaining mares turned on Orko.
"How much more is there?" Rainbow asked, eying the exit.
"Quite a bit."
Rainbow was in two minds about leaving. Curiosity won her over and she steeled herself. She was going to stay. She wanted to know.
"Twilight, honestly, darlin', I'm not too sure if I can take much more of this. It's just too gosh-darn depressin'. I know it's all in our past, but there's just some thin's I'm happy not knowin'. I wanna know, but..."
"I need to stay. I need to see this through," Twilight replied gently. "Please don't stay if you don't want to. I'll be only a hallway away."
Applejack shook her head, "No. I wanna know too. Let's get this show on the road! Before I change my mind."
Orko nodded, "Here goes..."
The screen faded out for a moment before forming once more. They were standing at the edge of a cliff staring down over a large valley. Swift was to their left, but the focus was not on him. Deep in the valley lights of green and blue were lit, to their right smoke and fires were ablaze, while to their left in the sky the pegasi hovered in their thousands.
It was clear that the recorder was being held by someone else this time.
"We have them at last, my lord," Destrier said walking up to Swift and standing to his right -- the far side of where the girls were located. Despite Swift's large stature, Destrier's upper-half was clearly visible from their vantage. He was a huge stallion.
Swift tiled his head slightly towards the earthbound, "No. I dare not make any rash conclusions until I am certain that this infestation had been eradicated. The pegasi will remain in the sky. The unicorns are pushing them back. It will be time to end this soon."
"It shall be as you wish, my lord."
"This is wrong..." a voice whispered and the scene turned to the right. Tender Heart stared into the valley, shaking her head, "This isn't right... we're not like them... this isn't right..."
"I know, but we have exhausted all options," the voice with the recorder replied. It was Midnight's voice.
"You certainly live up to your name, Heart," another voice stated. The recorder turned another ninety degrees so that Midnight was looking away from the valley and back over his body. The earthbound stallion waltzed right up to them and slapped the mare on the back. "You certainly do have a tender heart. Perhaps I could... entertain you with an invitation to a small get together I am planning? I promise you there will be cake."
The mare winced slightly from the impact, but the smile on her face was genuine. "Why is it that whenever you are around, Percheron, I cannot help but smile?"
"Well... because it's because of my winning personality, is it not? It is not always easy to do certain things, but certain things need to be done in order for everyone to laugh and enjoy life. I don't like what we have done and what we must do, but if it ensures that future generations can wake up and live their lives free with a smile on their faces, then I believe it's worth it."
"But how can you think of a gathering when battle is about to commence?" Midnight asked.
"Because... I want to. And why not? I am no fool, Midnight. There will be those that die today, but their memories and their lives will be celebrated because even in death each life is an inspiration for the others to be better, become better. That is the way I believe."
"How can the end justify the means?" Tender whispered, looking nervously at Swift.
Percheron stood between her and their prince, "Because sometimes, just sometimes, the bumpiest road is the road one that must travel. One day the roads will be smooth, but until that time... we just have to make sure we avoid the biggest bumps, won't we?"
"At the ready!" Destrier shouted. Everyone there looked to the large earthbound.
The pegasi overhead drew their weapons from their scabbards; the blades sat snugly in their mouths. On their legs they had long scimitars attached to their hooves, and they waited patiently for their prey to rise towards them.
Far below in the valley the sounds of the battle escalated. Fires were burning of a multitude of colors; red, green, blue and violets bounced around the forest. Explosions erupted in little blasts as the fighting grew more and more intense. Finally, the sound of a horn echoed in the valley and at once a black tide rose up from the trees.
"Cut them down!" Destrier ordered, the pegasi rushed forwards to meet the changeling horde struggling to get away from the unicorns below them. It was over in minutes as the pegasi tore through the enemy ranks like a hot knife through butter. Bodies rained down as the unicorns pushed the remaining changelings further up the valley.
On the far end more explosions roared to life. They were trapped on two fronts. They had nowhere to go except up the slopes. On the far end the unicorns there started to cast spells sending boulders and rocks crashing down on the fleeing changelings as they tried to climb. Those that took to the air were cut down by the pegasi that were now making low sweeps of the valley.
That left only one way to go.
Swift watched as the changelings burst through the trees and up towards him and his waiting army. Here his forces looked the weakest, but behind the facade was a large number of earthbound. They had again and again shown their true strength. None could match their ferocity and hardiness on the field. With no magic to use and without flight, they had made up for their lack in power and stamina.
"Leave the Queen to me," Swift shouted to his equines, "the rest you may do as you wish."
"For Canterlot! For Grayskull! For Equestria!" Destrier roared. "Attack!"
The stallion and his earthbound rushed down to meet the changelings head-on. As the front-lines collided, the changelings were overpowered by the sheer force of the earthbound equines, many crushed under their hooves. Many fell, broken like tiny sticks beneath a great weight. The earthbound were a force they had never faced on open ground before, and from what was happening, was unlikely they ever will -- if they survived to learn from it.
Midnight, the stallion carrying the recorder was following Swift Wind and his personal guard through the battle. They never fully committed in engaging any particular force, instead chose to quietly observe the happenings.
In the chaos, a lone figure stood up. Tall and proud, with an aura of command, all eyes noticed her there.
Spirit looked up and saw her husband and he began walking towards her. His suit of armor glinted in the sun's fading light. There was a look of resignation on her face as she used her magic to draw two blades from her flanks. Two of her biggest guards stood in front of her, ready to die protecting their queen.
A sign from Swift's head made his bodyguards remain where they stood as they watched their liege walk on. His eyes glowing from the magic he was casting, his horn surrounded in a yellow glow. There was a glint of light from the edges of his wings as they reflected light, the tips possessed razor sharp blades that formed part of his armor.
The two guards roared and charged forward with long lances held with their changeling magic.
They were dead before they could take two steps as Swift cause the earth beneath them to form spikes that impaled them where they stood.
From the vantage of the recorder, the girls could clearly see the two move towards one another.
"Do you hate me that much that you would kill your own mate?" she asked.
Swift walked right up to her, "You ceased being my wife the day you murdered our son."
"All I wanted was for you to love me! All you had to do was love me! Why didn't you love me! Why couldn't you love me! All you have to do was love me! Not. That. Whore!" She let out a heart-wrenching cry of despair as she swung the blades at her husband from both sides, "She stole you from me! Tainted you!"
Swift used his wings to block them and watched as his wife raised her body in the air, the rear of her hooves possessing long spikes similar to what the pegasi had. He did not dodge and took one in the shoulder. He let out a tiny grunt as the spike hit home. Then, with the all his strength, shoved his Star up causing her to fall backwards to the ground.
Before she could move, she felt the weight of his hoof on her neck.
"I... I..." she whispered, "just wanted your love... I need your love..."
"You had my love until you betrayed me," he replied coldly.
She shuddered, fighting the tears that threatened to flow from her eyes, "Love... just... love... all I wanted... was love... your love... I needed your love... love me... love me... please just love me..."
"I will free you from your curse now," Spirit whispered and raised his right wing, pointing it at the back of the mare's head. "Rest in peace."
The blade went in and Spirit flinched before her eyes began alter in color and her body began to change. Then, for a moment she looked as she did before her transformation. She turned her head ever so slightly towards Spirit and smiled gently at him.
"Thank you... my... love..."
The light from her eyes faded and she moved no more.
From her body a black fog lifted and drifted away in the wind, the faint sound of malicious laughter fading into nothingness. Swift recognized it and closed his eyes controlling the rage that welled up within him.
"It's over!" a voice shouted. "It's finally over! We have won! The war is over!"
The call was taken up by many and soon the body of the changeling queen was paraded around like a prized trophy. The remainder of the changelings, those that had not been caught, had long since fled during the confusion.
The recorder faded quickly to black and returned a moment later.
They were now standing in a large copse, above them the pegasi were flying in stead patterns while around them both unicorn and earthbound ponies were keeping at eye on a large number of changelings.
"If one of you so much changes a single hair on your bodies," an earthbound shouted, "we'll cut you down where you stand and feed your carcass to the griffons!"
As if on cue, several wild griffons walked up and started snapping at the changelings, their massive beaks making hollow sound. The other equines laughed as the changelings tried to get away from the griffons.
"Look... look at that..." Rainbow stated in a hushed tone. The sight of the griffons reminded her of Gilda.
"Why're they actin' like that?" Applejack asked.
Twilight shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe they aren't evolved enough yet. They're acting more like pets than what Griffons we know today. And they're also..."
"Tiny!" her two friends exclaimed at the same time. It was true; these griffons were no bigger than a foal.
"My lord," a loud voice said and the recording device looked up as Destrier walked towards it, "what of the prisoners?"
Swift's voice could be heard, but her was unseen. "I have killed their queen. My hoof in the affairs of changelings is over. I think it is time that someone else chose their fate. Tender Heart?"
"Yes, sire?"
"I give you leave to decide what to do with these unfortunate creatures. You have shown them mercy and kindness through all of this. If there is a way that they can be... rehabilitated, then they can be granted a chance. One chance. If they dare to rise against our kind again and cause harm, then there will be no changelings on this world."
Tender Heart shuddered at the warning, but bowed to him, "It shall be as you say, my lord. I will help them."
"Good. Much we have gained and lost from this war, and we need to ensure that something like this does not happen ever again. We cannot allow the changelings to rise ever again."
"Sire?" his followers asked turning to one another unsure what he had in mind.
But he had began to walk off. With the war over, he wanted to return back home.
The image faded and the white returned as the three mares looked at each other.
"What a terrible, terrible war," Twilight whispered.
Applejack nor Rainbow had anything to add to that and kept silent.
"There's a little more," Orko said. He scratched his chin, "With the war over, I don't think the next part is so bad."
"Okay. Let's see it," Twilight stated looking to her friends in case they had any objections. When they made none, she nodded once more to Orko.
They were back in the throne room. It was full of equines of all kinds cheering and yellow. The Sorceress was to one side wearing a white dress with some leaves through her pastel colored hair.
"I do not have to tell you all of our victory against the changelings, and I am aware of the many opinions you have regarding their fate, but you have to remember that they too were once like us. Their crimes were not their own, and they were led by their Queen, whom I have slain. Now, we must look to the future. Our conquest has allowed us to explore far and wide. Eternia was a wide world, and it is now our time to spread forth and start a new chapter in our history."
There was some murmurs, but the girls could tell it was because of excitement.
"Therefore, it is only fitting that the lands be divided into smaller fiefdoms. Each realm will be there to ensure that not one kingdom should ever fall to the ways of evil and corruption. Destrier, for your fierce loyalty and your unyielding strength, I grant you the lands south of Canterlot. There you shall take your earthbound and make with it what you will. Tender Heart, for your unbending kindness even to those that wish you harm, the west is where you shall govern those that shall follow."
Tender Heart spread her wings, and lowered her head, "I... I don't know what to say. Thank you?"
Swift's voice chuckled slightly, "Do not thank me yet, Heart, for your reign has yet to begin. To the north, I will bestow to you, Midnight. You have shown generosity and and benevolence to even our worst enemies. May those that follow you learn by your example."
Midnight bowed his head, "Thank you, my liege."
"For your bravery and optimism, the lands to the east is where you shall rule, Percheron. Your ability to see the bright side even in the most darkest of moments will inspire others to follow your example."
"To the skies, I shall grant the rule to Haze. Your honest views, despite painful, always made sure that we did not need to lie to ourselves during the entire campaign. Let your way of government guide your kind."
The five stood in front of Swift. Each looked at each other, before bowing to him.
"Loyalty, generosity, kindness , honesty and laughter. These are the five foundations of any great kingdom. Without one, the others cannot exist. Together, it is unbreakable; an unstoppable force of truth, benevolence and freedom. Each of you have displayed these traits and each of you will lead by example. As a sign of your new lands and titles, I will bestow upon you the powers of Grayskull."
Closing his eyes, Swift concentrated his magic into his horn before levitating in the air. The power exploded forth and five necklaces of gold formed around each of their necks, at the center of each a brooch of precious gems appeared. The gems glowed in response to Swift as upon his head a circlet formed of the same material formed.
The light faded and the five gazed at their new symbols of status with mixed emotions.
"They are shards of the Swords of Power and Protection. They are powerful combined but apart they are useless," Swift smiled at his followers. "Our true enemy isn't one that can be beaten through raw power of strength, but only through the unity of our kind. I'm afraid that the war is not yet over, but I hope that for a time there will be peace. With our guidance, we will see to it that no matter what comes we shall be ready. Henceforth, we shall be your protectors. Never again will we wage war as we have done. Never again will the sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, have to commit to battle. It is us that will protect the innocent, defend our homes and preserve our way of life. This we vow."
The five all bowed in acknowledgement of the weight of responsibility Swift was prepared to give to them.
"I, Destrier, vow to be loyal to you and our kind."
"And I, Percheron, vow that there will always be a reason to celebrate with joy."
"With kindness and compassion for all, I vow my life to protect all those that need my help," Tender Heart smiled, tears in her eyes, meaning the words with all her heart.
"To give to those that need, even if it is my life, I, Midnight, vow to serve Equestria for as long as there is breath in my body."
"And I vow to always set an example of truth and justice, no matter how painful," Haze announced.
"We are your protectors, Equestria. The foundations of our way. Behold, we are your defenders." Swift stood up and walked to his five and stood in the center.
"All hail Swift Wind! All hail Percheron! All hail Midnight! All hail Tender Heart! All hail Haze!" a call sounded and was taken through the halls until outside the chants echoed through the air. It sounded like thousands had taken up the call.
"All hail the Elements of Harmony," the Sorceress said. "The six Elements that can create a world of peace, joy and most of all, love."
"Six?"
"Loyalty, laughter, generosity, kindness, honesty and... you, Prince. The element of magic."
Swift Wind laughed, "So be it. We are the Elements of Harmony! Together, we are strong. Let us always remember this. Tonight, we celebrate!"
The screen faded to black briefly before the scene changed.
It was later that same day. The Sorceress was wearing the same clothes, sat alone outside on the large balcony staring upwards at the night sky, the moon shining brightly. Far below there was music and the sounds of laughter took to the air. There was much celebrating and feasting going on. The balcony door opened slightly and in walked in Swift.
He was clearly celebrating quite hard, for he walked at a slight wobble.
"There you are! I've been searching all over for you. Why are you alone?" he asked. "Should you not be inside celebrating with the rest of us?"
"This is your kind's victory, Your Highness. This celebration belongs to you."
"What are you talking about? You are a part of this kingdom-"
"Please, Swifty. Stop. I am not like you. Please don't patronize me."
"What are you talking about? I would never patronize you. You are one of us. Of course you-"
"Look at me, Swift!" she screamed.
Swift took a step backwards, not expecting that sudden outburst.
"Look at me!" she whispered as she stood up. She placed her hand upon her chest, "Do I look like you? Do I have wings? A horn? Four legs? Hooves? A tail? Do I have a coat of beautiful colors?"
The prince of Equestria just stared in bewilderment.
"I am nothing like you... I am not one of you."
"She-Ra! What are you talking about?"
"I am a human, Swift. Human. Spirit was your mate, but how I wished with all my heart I was her! I wish that your heart was mine! I wish that I could be yours and run freely with your kind! I wanted you to myself! I want to be your mate!" A look of horror spread across her face. "I-I'm sorry... I... I'm sorry... I don't know where that came from..."
"She-Ra?" Swift did not move.
"I... I'm sorry... I... I don't know what came over me..."
He walked towards her.
"No! Go away! Get away from me... get away..."
Instead, Swift kept on walking until he was standing next to her, "You think that I care what you are? You think that any of us care?"
"No, Swift. Stop..." she backed away from him.
"Do you think that anyone thinks less of you because you are not like us?" he shouted, leaning in closer.
"Please... stop..." She-Ra whispered, "Don't..."
Swift looked right into her deep blue eyes, "Do you think that I'd think of you as anything besides wonderful?"
The Sorceress turned her head away, "We can't... we're not... I'm not..."
"I don't care."
"But I do!" She-Ra shouted and pushed past him. "It is... forbidden."
"Says who? My mate? My subjects? Who? Nobody cares what you are! Least of all me!"
For a moment the Sorceress stared at Swift. The she smiled gently at him. "Thank you, Swifty. Thank you for those words, but we can never be."
"Why? I do not care if you are human..." Swift looked at her. He was about to move towards her when she raised her hand making him stop in his tracks.
"Because I am the Sorceress, and my duty is to protect Castle Grayskull. A duty that I have put aside for far too long. It is time I resumed my duties before I do something... we do something we both will regret. It is time for me to go, Swifty. It is time for us to say goodbye. Something that we should have done before that awful, awful war."
"Goodbye?"
"Goodbye, Swifty."
"Wait!"
She-Ra began to fade away, her body becoming transparent. "Farewell. Until we meet again..."
"Wait. Wait! Please!"
The last thing Swift saw of her was that loving smile as the Sorceress vanished from sight. He stood there for a long time staring at the spot where she had been. He took a deep breath, snorted and shook his mane, then walked out the door.
The lights returned and the girls once again found themselves standing in the holo-chamber with mixed expressions. None of them knew what to say to what they had just seen. The sheer weight of it all seemed far too much for them to handle.
"The formation of the Elements of Harmony..." Twilight whispered, "Did you see?"
The two girls nodded too dumbfounded to speak.
"He loved her... and she loved him... why did she run away?" Applejack asked, "It ain't right! It shouldn't matter if they ain't the same kind..."
"Yeah, that was kinda lame..." Rainbow agreed with the farmer.
"Guys! Come quick! Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are coming!" Rarity's voice called from down the hall. They could see her silhouette against the red glow coming from the crystals.
"Okay, let's pause for a moment. Orko, I want you to meet the Princesses," Twilight said to the trollan.
"Oh boy! More company!" the trollan exclaimed and rushed on ahead of the girls.
Despite the somber mood from a moment before, they couldn't help but share a quick laugh as they chased after the ridiculous creature.
Author's Note
Destrier is a type of war horse - perhaps the most famous kindPercheron is a type of draft horse
From Eternia to Equestria
Chapter 4: The Fracture - Part 1
The girls bowed low to the Royal Sisters as they slowly descended onto the glowing crystal lake, their most elite guard (except for Shining Armor who was happily off on his honeymoon with Cadence) bravely keeping an eye out for any sign of danger. The sisters had decided to come below and see for themselves exactly what the reports were talking about. How could something like this exist right under their noses? They could scarcely believe their ears when they heard the descriptions the guards had given them. The attack on Canterlot had left the city on high alert. Was it a coincidence then that Queen Chrysalis then knew about the caves? Did she try to take Canterlot to get at this new discovery far below? It had been a mystery as to how the Changelings knew about the extensive network beneath the city and this new discovery only deepened their concern. Was Canterlot really the Changelings' goal, or were they really after this new discovery.
"Princess Celestia," Twilight began as she rose from the ground. "I want you to meet somepony. This is Orko. He's a trollan from another dimension."
"Trollan? Another dimension?" Princess Celestia looked at the strange creature hovering in the air.
"Greetings and saluta-" the trollan stopped in mid-sentence and zoomed right in front of a shocked princess' nose. He leaned in and stared at her horn then whipped around to her sides and inspected her wings.
The guards had started to make a move, but one quick glance from Celestia reassured them that this being meant no harm. They had been utterly humiliated by the Changelings, getting overwhelmed quite easily against the invaders. Due to this they were eager to prove themselves to their princess. Perhaps a little too eager, and with small remnants of the Changelings still within the city, they were beginning to judge too quickly.
"Wow! You're a real unicorn!" Orko stated after he was satisfied with his inspection. He nodded to himself much like a foal would after coming up with the answer to a question on their own for the first time.
Not wanting to spoil the trollan's mood, but also wanting to emphasize a point, Celestia smiled politely before responding with a firm but calming tone. "I'm an alicorn; a unicorn has only a horn and a pegasus only has wings."
Orko slapped his forehead with his hand. "Oh yeah! I guess I forgot that you call yourselves something else nowadays. Back where I'm from all horses with horns and wings were unicorns." Orko tilted his head to one side. "Do you guys have horses here?"
"Yeah, of course we do. Why?" Pinkie replied.
"Oh. Just was wondering. You know how sometimes when you know something that other people don't you don't know what to say about that thing because you don't have anything to compare it with. Right?"
Pinkie nodded at the Trollan. "I know exactly what you mean!" she exclaimed. "It's so difficult to explain things when they don't know the thing in the first place because if they knew that thing then at least there would be point of reference or something, right? Then it'd be so much easier to explain because it would be explainable!"
"I know!" Orko stated.
Twilight passed a knowing look over her friends who all replied with a smile and a shrug. Pinkie would always be Pinkie, but after the Parasprite incident she made sure to pay extra close attention to whatever Pinkie was trying to say, especially if she was extravagant about it. Still, it was amazing that anypony could keep up with Pinkie and her randomness. But then again Orko himself was an oddity of sorts. Perhaps oddness and randomness went together quite comfortably. It did so in this case.
"We don't really refer to horses that way, Orko. We're all equines. Just some equines are different. There are ponies, horses, donkeys, deer, buffalo to name a few," Rarity put in. She thought it was good to make it a point to let him know that there were equines that might have taken offense.
Orko seemed to acknowledge this. "Wait. Don't you mean ungulates?"
"What?" Rarity asked not quite hearing the trollan properly.
"Nothing. So there are other types, huh? That's great. Back when Castle Grayskull was on the surface we used to get a lot of creatures hanging around. Was fun. Actually, no. Not near the Castle. The castle was always was rocky and kinda... dead, I guess. Animals didn't really come close."
"How long exactly were you alone here, Orko?" Twilight asked.
He scratched his head underneath his wide-brimmed hat. "Y'know, I don't really know. If your time goes the same as my time... I'd say maybe... oh... hundred or so..."
Applejack furrowed her brow. "A hundred years? That's not too-"
"Thousand. Hundred thousand, maybe. Just a guess. Maybe shorter. Lost track of time." He burst out laughing at that. "Get it? Lost track of time? Don't know how long I've been here?"
None of the girls laughed. There was nothing funny about it.
"Wow, I guess I've been here way too long. Normally that would've floored the others." He snapped his fingers and a pad of paper and a pen appeared. He scratched something on it and then slammed it shut. As he did, the notepad vanished in a puff of smoke and twinkling lights. "Now that I think of it, that's a really long time."
"Give or take a couple thousand years, that puts the events you've said in a period we call Prequestria . Before... well ancient history." Twilight looked at her mentor. "That's even older than you, right?"
Celestia nodded. "That's right, my faithful student. Much older. That is much before our time. Even before Discord's reign."
Luna looked at her sister, then back at Orko. She was intrigued by the creature. "Have we not seen thee before? In the world of dreams? Thy face is strangely familiar to us."
"Don't think so. I've slept a lot over the years, but I don't really remember my dreams. Could be, I guess. I usually dream of a certain someone. Would be nice to... see her again. I guess."
Rarity could not help but roll her eyes at the last two words as it was repeated much too often. She turned her head in an attempt to relieve the growing irritation she felt when she saw Twilight jerking her head towards Princess Celestia. The trollan was staring at Twilight but it was quite clear that he did not understand what she was implying. It was amusing in a pitiful sort of way. Rarity tried her best to keep from laughing.
"Is there something wrong with your neck, Twilight?" Orko finally asked.
Twilight grunted in annoyance. "No. It's just... don't you see something? If you look around I'm sure you'll notice a few things."
"Notice?"
At that the mare planted a hoof on her face. "I'm sure if you look around you'll see something."
Orko's eyes narrowed. It was clear that he was furrowing his brow in though, but because none of them could see his face they could only assume. He kept looking around slowly rising up into the air. Rainbow hovered next to him out of boredom. He floated back down after a few more seconds and shrugged.
"The power crystals are glowing slower than usual?" Orko asked pointing down at the crystal lake underneath them.
"No! I mean- what?" Twilight looked down. "P-p-power c-c-crystals?"
At once Applejack and Rarity leaped onto the nearest crate, Fluttershy hovered in the air, and Rainbow began kicking the glowing crystal harder, much to the other three's chagrin. She was stopped by a guard who put a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder and shook his head before pointing to Fluttershy about to burst out into tears. At once the cyan pegasus ceased her antics, but not before giving the crystal flooring one last kick for good measure.
"Oh yes. These crystals hold a lot of power. Many things on our world were powered by the energy stored in these crystals. We used them for lights, our machines, weapons... everything! Even shields and force-fields. Oh! And starships! Yeah, without them the starships wouldn't even be able to fly. Anyway, without all this crystal around this place to deflect the magic it would have significant effects on your world as a whole. I guess that was why it moved down here." Orko floated over to Pinkie who was chewing on something.
"Put?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah," Orko replied and took a doughnut that Pinkie offered him. He looked at it for a moment before shoving it into the empty space where his mouth would have been. "Ow! My teeth! I think I need to practice on something softer before eating this."
"Oh! You poor thing! We have some dentists above that-"
"No, no. No need." He snapped his fingers. "There. Nothing like a bit of magic to fix things up!"
"You can grow back teeth?" Rarity asked shocked by this new knowledge. She needed to learn that spell.
"Of course! Why? Can't you? It's real easy."
While the others were talking about dental hygiene and how to use magic to grow teeth back, Celestia was looking over to Twilight whose mind was on other things. She shook her head to herself, as if she were telling herself off for thinking about something so outlandish.
"Orko, what do you mean by 'put here'?" she asked unable to come up with an answer.
"Huh? What do you mean what do I mean?" He asked.
"She means who put this down here?" Celestia asked on behalf of her faithful student.
"The Sorceress of course! Before she gave her powers to me. Well, not that she gave them to me, I sort of just took the responsibility seeing as no one else wanted to do it, and I just happened to know a lot about Castle Grayskull and magic. I guess you could say I was the perfect trollan for the job! Being the only trollan is besides the point. And being friends with He-Man sure helped!"
"He-Man?" Luna asked raising an eyebrow. "That is a strange name."
The trollan suddenly appeared behind the princess of the night in the next instant making her jump and squeal in surprise, which delighted Pinkie and Orko immensely making them roll of the floor laughing. Rarity and Twilight frowned, but couldn't help but let out a soft giggle. Even Celestia couldn't stop herself from forming a small smile along the corner of her lips at her sister's cute exclamation of surprise.
"H-h-he just caught us unawares," Luna stated trying to be as regal as possible. Shame that her small blush spoiled the effect.
"Orko, is there anything else? You know. Something you might be missing ?"
The trollan looked at Twilight completely and utterly confused.
Using her magic, Twilight grabbed Orko and pulled him to her. She took his head and tilted it towards Princess Celestia. "So, Orko, doesn't Princess Celestia remind you of somepony ? I mean someone ?"
Orko shrugged, "Yeah. She reminds me a lot of Swift, now that you mention it. The horn and the wings, obviously. Only the white coat and the hair colors remind... me... more... of..."
There was a long moment of silence as something in the trollan's head clicked.
"BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!" he roared.
"I... beg your pardon?" Princess Celestia stated taking a step back.
"You! You're her ! Of course! Why didn't I see it before? You're her-" he stopped and stroked his chin. He began to mumbled to himself. "Not possible. No. Can't be. She would've remembered me. No way, no how. Nuh-uh. Impossible..."
The girls all exchanged looks with each other unsure about what to say or do. Something about the trollan's demeanor had changed and he looked dazed and confused. The way he just floated there made it clear that something was bothering him quite badly.
"Orko? What's wrong?" Twilight asked worried that she had done something that made the trollan feel offended.
He looked up at her. "What? Nothing. Just, she looks like her , you know?"
"I know! That's why I was trying to get you to put it together!" Twilight replied exasperatedly.
"Can you live for that long? No. Can't be. I saw you... her, I mean. Do you recall anything from your distant past? When were you born?"
It took a moment for Celestia to realize that Orko was talking to her. "I don't remember the day I was born, but from a very young age I was orphaned-"
"During The Fracture ?"
"The what?" Luna asked.
"How do you know that? Even our most advanced and well read scholars don't know much about that terrible time, if any of it was true. It was too long ago and only the most ancient tomes in the very rear of the forbidden section of the library have any reference to it." Celestia lowered her head. "It is said that it was the creation of Equestria. Are you saying that we have been wrong?"
"I guess. There were a lot of things happening before that, right girls?"
"Y-yeah. We saw the creation of the Elements of Harmony and the Changelings and-" Twilight began.
Celestia held a hoof up and her student silenced herself. "You said you saw these things?"
Twilight quickly explained what they had been shown. The holographic room where they could see events from the past as if they were there, they could hear the voices of those that had once existed but were now nothing more than a distant dream. As the she told them everything she could in as much detail as she recalled, it was clear that the girls did not like being reminded of what they had seen. The vividness of the war and the cost had been much too painful for Fluttershy.
But it was the sudden change in Orko's demeanor that worried Twilight. Pinkie tried to cheer him up but could not help. Orko's face looked pained and Twilight could only imagine what those glowing eyes must have remembered to change his mood so significantly. It did not seem to matter to him before, so what would make it change now? Perhaps as time drew closer to his own involvement, he started to recall memories that he had wanted to repress even this far into the future. Over a hundred thousand years. How could anyone stay sane after that?
"I guess I could show you. Things happened and it... you could say it was worst moment in history, I mean for this world. I can get everything ready, but I'm not going to watch it with you. I feel funny seeing myself in the recordings. Not just that, I don't really want to undo my memory charms as well. Couldn't forget, so I used magic to stop myself from thinking about it. When I do, I..." he suddenly stopped and looked spaced out. A few seconds later he shook his head and looked around confused and lost. It took him a moment to snap out of it. "See?"
"Oh, that's okay. I'll stay out here with you, if you want," Fluttershy said in her comforting tone.
The trollan shook his head. "I guess you could, but I think it'd be better if you go in. Feels like the right thing."
As Celestia took a step closed towards the drawbridge, the glowing crystals beneath her began to change color. From under her hooves the red huge changed to blue, then orange, then white, then purple, then yellow, pink then the cycle would repeat from red again except the colors cycled faster and faster until they began to merge into each other to produce a steady white glow. Exactly like it had done in the holographic room in the beginning.
Twilight looked at the trollan. "Orko, what are you doing?"
"I'm not doing this! I don't know what's going on? This has never happened before! I mean, not that I would know, but still! This is-" he cut himself off and suddenly bolts of lightning from the top of the drawbridge struck the trollan. He shook and convulsed as the power fluctuated through his entire body as tongues of lightning hit the lights making the bulbs inside explode in a shower of sparks.
Fluttershy screamed, Applejack yelled something, Rarity hollered something unladylike, Pinkie said words too fast that no pony alive could have possibly understood what she was saying, Rainbow zipped straight up into the sky, Twilight gasped and instinctively formed a force-field around herself, Princess Luna was smothered by her Night Guards and Princess Celestia found herself behind a wall of her own guards blocking every angle.
Then everything went black. The crystals under them turned themselves off and everything was bathed in darkness.
"What's happening?" Twilight shouted as she used her magic to light up her horn.
"I don't know!" Rarity replied, also using her horn.
The unicorn guards did the same illuminating what they could with their magic, but none of them knew what to expect.
"Girls, come closer to me. Luna, can you use your magic?" Celestia asked. Her voice was calm, but with it came total control and an authority that could not be missed.
"Yes, sister," came the reply and soon the area was illuminated ten-fold by both princesses.
Then a noise could be heard. It was very quiet at first, but got steadily louder. It sounded like voices. Faint and muffled.
Then, from where Orko had been moments before, a figure formed. It stepped out of the empty space as if there had been a door there. The figure walked until it stood in between the large pillars that held the drawbridge and looked down at Princess Celestia behind her guards. They did not know what to do, as before them stood an alicorn, taller than their princess and strong. That was not what made them hesitate, however. It was the fact that they could see through him that gave them pause.
Applejack darted behind Rarity. "A-a-a-a g-g-g-ghost!"
"No, it's a light-made projection," Twilight replied in a whisper to her friend. "The hoofsteps aren't making any sounds."
"A hologram?" Rarity asked.
Twilight nodded. "Yeah, that's it! Hologram! Like the ones from inside the castle... wait, didn't Orko say that it was using light inside a room? How is this-"
The figure took a step towards Celestia and the image filled in more. Before it looked like a stenciled drawing, rough and light. Now when they saw it the image was still transparent, but now had color. There was no doubt about it.
"That's Swift!" Pinkie pointed out. "Right?"
All the Elements of Harmony nodded slowly in response -- even Pinkie, who had asked the question, as if to confirm it to herself as well.
"Hello, little one. If you are hearing this message then we have stopped the destruction of this world and have saved you, and our kind. I am sorry that we could not be there with you, to see you become the beautiful mare you are destined to be, but we have no choice. Perhaps it was our bane for forming the Elements of Harmony, but it has also proven to be our boon. My sacrifice and that of your mother's will not be in vain. I believe it to be so."
"Sire, we must go. We do not have much time," a voice said from somewhere. "The Elements are almost in synch."
Swift looked to the side, towards where they supposed the speaker would have been, and nodded. "It is time. I love you, my darling. Your mother loved you very much and I wish that the three of us had more time together. I am sorry. Sorry letting your mother go so soon, sorry for locking you away in the Castle, sorry for bringing this atrocity on the world... sorry for leaving you. Words that I will never be able to say to you face to face. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and when you look upon the dawn of a new day, please know that I love you. Always will. Take care of the world we leave to you and those who dwell within it. I wish you all the happiness in our world and beyond. Good bye, my dearest daughter. Be safe."
The image flickered for a moment and was gone.
As soon as it did, the crystals beneath them began to glow again and soon the area was once again awash with the red hue of the slow fluctuating light. They all shared a look with each other not sure what to make of what they had learned, nor why the speaker seemed to be talking to Celestia directly, as if the message was meant for her.
Orko picked himself from off the ground and shuddered. "Ouch. Wow. Too much energy."
Twilight picked the trollan up off the ground and levitated him onto one of the hard-case used to carry the lights. He thanked her as he sat down and removed his hat. He rubbed his temples a little bit and scratched his dark blue hair before running his fingers through it. Despite his ancient age, he showed no sign of going bald. This was the first time the girls got to see the blue skin of the trollan and noticed it was a lighter shade than his hair. His long narrow ears sagged along with his mood but he seemed to pick himself up and narrowed his eyes in a good way. He was smiling at them. They couldn't see his mouth because of the scarf, but they did not need to.
Luna was staring hard at the place where the image of Swift had vanished. She turned her head to look at her sister. "Was that our father?"
The question seemed to catch the elder princess off guard. She looked at Luna and smiled gently before shaking her head slowly. "No. We've never met our father, you know that. I can only remember little bits of our mother."
Luna looked down at the ground, closed her eyes and inhaled. As she did, she raised her head towards the ceiling and inhaled a deep breath. The momentary lapse of her royal visage slipped away and was replaced by the strong, proud ruler of the Equestrian nation she was. The Princess of the Night stood all. "Yes. We had forgotten, but only for a moment."
"My poor body. Remind me never to allow that to happen again," Orko muttered.
"What was that hologram?" Rarity asked.
"No!" Orko shot back shaking his head impossibly fast. "No. That was no hologram. That was pure magic. A nifty spell, and a powerful one to boot. Never expected that at all. Just like Swift to use an overpowered spell like that. I bet you he didn't realize just how much it'd hurt when he made it. After all, I'm the only living thing with a link to the castle that could survive a soul-bind spell like that. Ouch."
"You're the only living thing with a link to this castle," Twilight pointed out.
"Oh yeah! I guess I forgot about that."
"Soul-bind spell? What's that?" Applejack asked.
"It's like a kind of message for someone specific that can't be unlocked using any technology or anything. It's really dangerous kind of spell because it saps the life-force of the caster, in this case Swift himself. Then the life-force is... 'borrowed' by anyone lucky enough to be the proxy. Namely me. Just lucky that I'm not normal in that sense. Spells like that are triggered when someone with a certain... essence is within a general area. Wait. That's impossible!"
"What is?"
Orko stated slamming his hat back on and grabbing Twilight's face in his hands and pulling her face into his so their eyes were inches apart. "Nobody can be alive from then!"
"That's not true, you're still here," Twilight pointed out pushing the trollan back gently to give herself breathing room.
Orko looked at her and furrowed his brow for a few moments. "Oh yeah! I guess I kinda forgot about that! But I'm different! I guess it's better than leaving a message on the systems as they can be hacked. This way it's always a hundred percent secure. It must have taken your genetic signature, I guess. I've never been real good with all this technical mumbo-jumbo. That was always Man-at-Arms' thing. For me it's magic through and through!"
The girls exchanged glances once more as they did not understand a word of what the trollan was saying. Hacked? What did he mean by that? Orko seemed to think that they understood what he meant, but the basic principles of his science were still foreign to them. It sounded so advanced and different from what she knew that Twilight herself was having doubts. She had always believed that science and magic were closely connected, and she had devoured entire sections of the library in an attempt to find out. She once remembered from an anthropology book that stated that if an advanced civilization met with a primitive one, then those beings with their superior technology would deem to have magical powers.
But would that then mean they were the primitive civilization? Did all the comforts and luxuries they took for granted now come from a past they did not understand nor remember?
The librarian felt her head starting to spin. This new line of questioning was making her giddy. How much could she learn from this discovery?
"Orko, do you mean that this spell was made to prevent somepony else from hearing it?" Rarity asked.
"Yeah! The magic must've been stored inside the castle and got triggered by one of you. Think of it like a lock, and one of you the key. So... I guess you could say that you were the bottle-opener and the castle was the bottle." Orko cricked his neck. "I guess that's the way it is. But wow. I hope that there are no more messages like that."
"Who d'ya think triggered it?" Applejack asked looking at the trollan.
"You, Your Highness." Orko was pointing at Princess Celestia. "I think it was you. It must be because it activated the moment you stepped towards the castle. But that can't be right. You weren't alive when it was written."
"Wait, you said that someone's essence triggered it. Do you mean that a piece of someone was lost in here and got out when we entered this place?" Applejack asked.
Rainbow was impressed with the farmer for keeping up with the complication conversation. This wasn't lost on Applejack who gave the cyan pegasus a shove with her shoulder after she started grinning and wiggling her eyebrows at her.
"No. Nothing that simple," Orko responded. His demeanor was no longer jovial; he meant business.
Twilight pursed her lips in thought. Who else could it have been?
"Unless it was genetic. Then that would mean that it would have only come out of activated after I... touched... someone... with the same genetic code!" Orko spun around and looked at Luna. "Of course! The two Princesses... and that mane also! It all adds up!"
"To?" Celestia prompted.
"That this message was meant for you or your ancestors! Don't you see?"
"You're talking about things that none of us can know," Princess Celestia replied. "It could be any of the girls for that matter. Such a long time ago... it could be one of the guards as well."
"You're forgetting that it came out from underneath you, Your Highness," Applejack stated.
Celestia was about to reply when she heard her faithful student's voice. "What was that, dear?"
"What if you could know?" Twilight asked again louder. "What if I said that it was possible for you to see the past and find out exactly who the message was for? What if you could see your mother? Would you want to... if you could?"
The Princess of the Sun opened her mouth to reply, but found that she could not. She stopped herself before she could speak.
"I would!" Luna shouted cutting in. She blushed a little, but pressed on. "In all my life I have always wanted see my mother... I mean, we would like to see our mother."
"No need to user the royal 'we', dearest sister," Celestia replied patiently. Her mood seemed a little off, and despite the others not noticing it, Twilight saw through her guise. "We're amongst friends now. If what you say is true, Twilight Sparkle, then I..."
Again Celestia faltered. This time the others noticed.
"We must . We must, Tia. This is a gift! Can't you see? This is our chance to finally know our mother."
"I know, Lulu, but... to open such wounds again. It was difficult for me. It took centuries for us to get over her. I'm not sure that I wish to relive those moments again."
Luna furrowed her brow. "But... you said that our mother left us when I was a foal..."
At that, Celestia's face seemed to pale. Something about what Luna had brought up seemed to strike a chord deep within her. The change was obvious enough that even Rainbow caught on.
"It might not even be your mother. It could be your grandmother. The last recordings stored aren't recent. Most of them go back a long, long time ago. I guess you could say that your mother might still be a mystery as all this might've happened before then." Orko put a hand on Celestia's shoulder, much to the ire of her guards. "It's up to you and Luna, of course."
"Well, we sure ain't gonna know anythin' if we just keep mullin' over it. Let's go and see for ourselves... that is if you don't mind, Your Highness."
"Applejack's right, Tia. Please?" Luna looked at her sister with wide eyes full of hope and expectation.
How could Celestia say no? She had the luxury of knowing their mother, even if their time together was extremely short. Even if she could not remember her personality or what she was like, she could recall her voice, the color of her mane, the life in those deep blue eyes that seemed so full of wisdom. It seemed cruel to have all that when her sister could barely recall anything. Memories of long nights Celestia spent telling her sister tales about their mother in a time when they had no one else except each other. Celestia had put her on such a high pedestal, while in truth she made most of it up. She wanted to give Luna somepony to look up to, and their mother was the perfect candidate. What if she learned a truth she was not prepared to accept. What would it mean?
Still, even if it was painful, even if it would reveal her barefaced lies, Luna deserved the truth. She deserved to see the mother she never knew. She needed her mother, and here was good opportunity. Celestia understood that she did not have the right to say no.
"Okay."
"Great! Let's go on inside!" Twilight replied. "You sure you're not coming, Orko?"
"I'm sure. You just go on inside and start the show. You know how to work it now. I guess I'll be out here. I've been cooped up in there way too long. Be nice just to be out and about, even if out and about is in some huge cave under a mountain." Orko laughed and slapped his knee. After he was done, he wiped a tear from his eye and reached into his sleeve pulling out the remote and offered it to Twilight who took it in her magic. "Everything should be ready. Just head on in and press play. It does have some pretty... strong parts, believe me. But I think it's important too. Something in my gut tells me so."
"Okay. And Orko?"
The trollan looked up at Twilight.
"Thanks."
He smiled, and nodded.
In the time it took the girls to reach the holo-chamber in the castle, Twilight gave the princesses a comprehensive lesson about what was they were about to experience. She had already told them about what they learned so far, but she quickly added more information withing sparing anything. She gave them the harsh, brutal reality in a simplified form that seemed slightly cold, but the Royal Sisters understood. To Celestia it seemed incredible that such a vast volume of wealth survived throughout the ages and she never knew about it. She had no idea that the world they had was inherited was caught in such a vicious storm.
"Are you ready?" Twilight asked looking at her friends one by one.
Rarity gave a firm nod. Pinkie closed her eyes, took a deep breath, but she too nodded. Applejack and Rainbow exchanged glances before turning towards Twilight and let her know they were prepared. They all looked at Fluttershy. She gave a very slight, almost imperceptible nod.
"Here. We. Go."
She pushed the button.
From Eternia to Equestria
Chapter 5: The Fracture - Part 2
At once the area lit up, unlike before when it took time for the image to appear, this was almost instant. The image cut in almost instantly and the girls all found themselves soaring high above an unfamiliar landscape with a literal birds eye view, or was it pegasi view, of Equestria spread out in front of them. It was gorgeous. Something about the rawness and freshness of it made it seem even more magical.
In the far distance mountains decorated the horizon, and below them was acres and acres of dense forests. To the side stood the floating city of the pegasi. It was in the distance, but they could clearly see just how impressive it was in size. This was nothing like Cloudsdale. The current city was nothing more than a mere village compared to the sprawling metropolis.
The figure suddenly jerked upwards into the skies before diving through the clouds and straight down towards the ground.
"Yeah!" a voice shouted as it leveled off at the last minute, skimming over the tops of the trees.
A few ponies under the canopy looked up and shouted in response, some whooping as the figure darted back upwards towards the skies high above them. Several other pegasi nearby watched the source of the current noise with mixed expressions, but most found themselves busy going on about their lives. Everything seemed so peaceful and perfect. This was the Equestria they all knew and loved. This was the land they lived in. Had Orko done something wrong and loaded the wrong thing?
"Snowy!" a voice called out.
The image came to a sudden halt. It looked towards the west for a moment before turning back to the east. Then, with the same break-neck speed, the video went back the way it had come.
"Snowy? Where are you?" the voice shouted, this time louder than before.
"I'm here, grandpa!" the speaker called out. "I'm here!"
She cut through a gap between two clouds and zipped upwards and over a large pegasus who twisted easily in the air and landed expertly on another cloud. They all recognized him immediately and he watched with quickly waning patience as the flyer kept whizzing around him.
"Okay, that's enough, Snowy. Come here."
The image closed in on the stallion and the speaker landed softly on the same cloud in front of the Element. He reached over and the camera began to shake from side to side. It was obvious that Haze was ruffling her mane.
"Grandpa," the voice moaned. "Stop. It took be all morning to get it to set right."
"You say that, but you messed it up yourself zipping through the sky like that. What did I tell you about diving under the clouds when you're going that fast? I know you like recording your flights, but that is not a toy, my dear," Haze stated. "It's one of the last few that work." Haze took the device and placed it on his head.
Now they could now see the speaker and she was looking up at her grandfather with wide, excited eyes that were so full of life and adventure. The small white pegasus filly had extraordinarily bright green eyes and a flowing orange mane and tail. "I know, I know. I just... it's so fun!"
Her smile was adorable.
"Between you and me, darling, I know exactly what you mean. But if your mother or father ever found out that I let you zip around like that, they'd never let me hear the end of it." The stallion chuckled and ruffled her mane again, to which she protested vocally once more.
A loud explosion thundered across the sky, and in the distance they could see a trail of storm clouds trailing behind three flyers in the far distance. They twisted together with the grace and agility that was the envy of every modern day pegasus who wished to fly with the Wonderbolts. Snowy bounced on her cloud and shouted in glee as they sped towards them for a moment before cutting back and heading into the distance again.
"Wow, grandpa! That was amazing!"
"See? Aren't you glad I told you to get here early? They always patrol this part of the kingdom around this time of day."
"I wish I had a horn too! Then I could fly really fast."
Haze ruffled her mane yet again. "It doesn't matter about your horn, darling. What matters is how much heart you've got. Some of the greatest flyers in our kingdom are pegasi, like us. Plus we get to live on the clouds. They can't."
"Yeah. I know, but I still want to have a horn too, so I can do magic as well!"
"We can do magic, darling. Just not the same kind of magic they do. We have our own magic, and we can live on top of the clouds because of it."
"But I want to do the kind of magic where I can make things move and stuff."
Before Haze could answer he saw another contrail heading towards them. It was fast, perhaps even faster than the alicorns that had zoomed on by. He kept his eye on it as Snowy continued to talk.
"Grandpa?"
"Yes, Snowy?"
"What's he like? The Prince, I mean."
Haze looked down at his granddaughter and smiled. "He's a great prince. He lead our kind through a very dark time and because of his leadership we have lived in peace. You were born into a world where you don't have to worry if you'll survive into tomorrow."
Snowy furrowed her brow. "What do you mean, grandpa?"
"Never you mind, dear. Never. You. Mind..." His voiced trailed off as the pegasus flying towards them drew closer.
"Who's that?"
"Your father."
"But isn't he supposed to be on duty?" Snowy looked up at her grandfather.
Twilight walked around her to get a better view of what they were looking at. From the tone of her voice, the filly seemed so young, but Snowy was already almost her size. These ponies were a lot larger than current Equestrians and she felt tiny standing next to them.
"Yes. He is."
The pegasus charged right at them and came to a sudden stop a few feet from the cloud. A rush of wind surrounded them as the vacuum behind Shock Wave closed pulling the air forwards. Snowy raised her hoof to keep the blast of air from her eyes as her father landed and bowed. That meant he was here on duty, not as her parent.
"News, my liege."
"Speak then, my son. What news has sent you here at such terrific speeds?"
He looked at Snowy who stood next to him with wide eyes, then he shifted his gaze to his father. "It... is not for me to say in front of my daughter, my liege."
Haze did not seem to accept this answer. "She is old enough. These are times of peace, what could possibly be of any serious concern?"
"Please," His son muttered.
"Speak!" Haze growled angrily. "Do not waste my time."
"Sire, our Prince summons you to Canterlot right away! There have been... problems."
"Problems? What kind of problems?" Haze asked, concern evident in his eyes.
"The worst kind, my lord." When it was apparent that Haze was not going to do anything without any more explanations, he narrowed his eyes. "Trouble to the west, sir. Changelings."
"Snowy!" Haze yelled.
The pegasus leaped where she stood surprised by the sudden outburst. "Y-yes, grandfather?"
"Go back home with your father."
The filly was confused. "W-why?"
"No more questions. Go. Fly! Fly as fast as you can! Son, you make sure she gets home and you do what needs to be done, do you understand?"
"Of course, father."
Haze spread his wings and in one flap he shot into the sky. The image moved so fast that all the girls could see was a continuous blur. Rainbow's eyes lit up. Even with her talent, this was fast and it was clear that she may have been the fastest pony in Equestria today, but that may not have been always the case. Perhaps it was because of their larger wingspan, or the fact that they were bigger and had larger muscles. Rainbow watched the world zip by them and she leaned with Haze as he twisted and turned.
He rolled in mid-air and dipped down towards a steep valley, his powerful wings disturbing the ground below. Then he suddenly zoomed upwards as a gust of air pushed him back into the sky and he swung around a mountain peak and headed across a vast plain.
The girls did a collective gasp. In front of them, far below, was a city the likes they had never seen before. Not only was its size far larger than that of their current Equestrian cities, but it was beautiful. Tall towers that stretched almost as high the as clouds, large streets that accommodated thousands of ponies, markets that were bustling with life, the sounds of the city washed over them as the Haze slowed down.
Some had spotted him and cheered. Others followed suit, waving their hooves at their protector.
He waved back, but continued towards the far end of the city were a large stone wall was built at the base of a mountain, its walls tall and black. Through the gateway a large river flowed through, and the girls could see many ponies enjoying its cool waters feeding the city below it. The water was so practically transparent, it was so clean and it was clear that the city benefited from indoor plumping.
"This is amazing! Look at how complex the infrastructure is! Everything from clean water to public transport is already here! And look, schools, law enforcement-" Twilight paused the scene. "I mean, we never really realized just how many of these things we've taken for granted."
"That is interesting," Rarity replied, nodding at her friend. "I for one love the way they've designed this city. It's simply fabulous. I must be such a wonderful place to grow up, and think of all the markets and fashion! I mean, just look at the styles some of these ponies are wearing! I can infuse them with today's styles and make a line of-"
Pinkie hopped over to Twilight. "Where is this place? I don't recognize it."
"Neither do I," Celestia said looking around. "Perhaps it was too long ago, or maybe this was in a land very far away. I can't make out anything that can pin-point this location. There isn't a mountain this tall in Equestria."
"Let's continue. Maybe we'll spot somethin' we'll all recognize," Applejack suggested.
With that, Twilight resumed the feed.
Haze caught another updraft, but this time he rode on it gently, allowing the thermal currents to carry him higher and higher along the steep mountain's slope. Droplets of water from the waterfall fell onto the recording device bending the image slightly.
When they reached the top, they spotted a large lake in the middle of the peak. It took Twilight to realize that this was probably a volcano that had been extinct, the lake formed inside its mouth.
After gaining some altitude, Haze started to descend towards a circular podium on the lake's surface. It was clear that it was ponymade and not natural the closer he got. Despite the waterfall at the end of the lake, the water here was calm and peaceful and in the middle of this particular dais was a tree where the wide, heart-shaped leaves were a deep, vibrant green and petals of a bright blue and white huge were being caught in the gentle breeze landing delicately on the water's surface. From here, long lines of stretched out across the lake connecting to other podiums of various heights and shapes. that connected to a large circle right in the middle where a small tree stood with beautiful pink flowers whose petals delicately landed on the lake's surface whenever the breeze caught it. It was here that Haze landed, though he did not take in the beauty, nor marvel at the elegant architecture of his surroundings. Instead he marched forwards at a quick pace to the entrance of what they girls could only assume to be the palace. Armored alicorn guards stood at attention as Haze drew near, withdrawing their spears as they stood at attention.
Once inside, the girls noticed a lot of activity. Armed guards of all kinds were rushing past Haze in groups, all giving the Element the courtesy of a bowed head, but most did not stop. Orders were being shouted from one end to the other as groups of guards got into position, and as Haze walked into a large open space within the palace, there was a platoon of earthbound stallions gearing themselves up.
Whatever was going was must have been very important.
"My lord!" a voice shouted, and a mare fell in step with the stallion.
"Hello, Phosphorous," Haze said as politely as he could. "Can you please tell me what is happening?"
"Sir, I'm afraid I'm not sure. We were told to prepare for an engagement with the changelings. That was all. Ever since last night the troops have been on high alert, but as to why... well, you probably know more than I do." The pale yellow earth pony stated. Two light colored lines along her back were visible and a rough patch of fur on the top of his head. She had once been an alicorn and she had aged most gracefully.
"Ma'am," a unicorn stated running up to them. He bowed low to Haze. "It is an honor to be in the presence of one of the Elements. I apologize for this, but Lady Phosphorous is required in the antechamber. The other captains are gathering for orders and her attendance is mandatory."
"I'll be right behind you, Nocturne." They watched him trot off down the hall. "Grandfather was killed in the Changeling War, and he decided to join the Honor Guard in his memory. Peace time has ruined our young ones as a fighting force. I'm afraid that this generation is ill prepared for the horrors we faced during our time."
"The entire point of us existing is because we would relive those horrors. Not them," Haze replied.
The earthbound laughed gently. "No offense, but even you cannot protect every province and corner of our beloved kingdom on your own."
That statement only seemed to annoy him. "Then are we no more than symbols? Symbols that have no power?"
Phosphorous shuddered. "I hope what you say has no weight, my lord. Dark tidings are in store, but I can still hope. Hope that this is a false alarm." With that she also trotted down the hall and took a left where Nocturne had turned.
Haze walked and passed the hallway where Phosphorous entered a room with two large doors. The girls could make out quite a few other ponies in uniform inside just as Haze walked past the corner of the corridor blocking the video feed's angle. Onwards he walked until he arrived in a room. At once two mares approached him from either side. One held a cloak in her magic, the other a brooch in her mouth. The cloak was thrown over Haze's shoulders, the front secured by the brooch that fastened to cloak securely. Then the stallion walked over to a large, golden box and touched it. At once it began to glow and open. Inside was a familiar sight.
"The Element!" Applejack exclaimed.
Haze brought it up so it filled the entire image, then it disappeared above them. The mares followed the movement and continued to stare at it until the necklace was now draped over his him hanging just below the brooch. This was the Element of Honesty, although it was differently shaped to the one that Applejack carried.
"They are expecting you," the pegasus mare stated as she bowed and moved aside.
The unicorn's horn began to glow, as did the handle for the door that lead into the throne as it slowly swung open. As Haze stepped inside, he immediately noticed a black unicorn standing in front of the raised dais. At once his sour mood seemed to disappear. The unicorn turned around, age had not been as kind to him as it had been to Haze, but his smile was still genuine and especially kind.
"Well, well, well. It has been quite some time."
The change in tone of Haze's voice was clear. The morose attitude evaporated after seeing an old friend. "Midnight! How have you been? It has been far too long. I see you're still as young as ever."
"Oh, don't make me laugh. Hurst my chest. I'm getting too old for this," Midnight sighed.
"Well, your coat is still lush and pristine."
"Please. This coat is a burden on any equine with sensibility. It gets hot as soon as the snow stops falling and we have to use most of our own crystals to cool our homes and appliances," Midnight replied. "Then when the snow starts again we have to use the same crystals to heat up our homes! It's a never ending cycle."
The two shared a laugh.
"Ah, but without your crystals we would not have half the comforts we have today."
"Perhaps that wouldn't be such a bad thing. Many of the youngsters today take what they have for granted! Sometimes I wish that they didn't have access to such things. It makes them... weak. Indeed the crystals are useful, but I feel that they are not being used correctly." Midnight sighed. "I suppose I could be over thinking it, but one can never be too careful. At least my new foreman in charge seems bright, if nothing else. I mean he is completely obsessed with them."
"Well, that could also be a good thing." Haze looked around. "Why do you think we have been summoned?"
"I do not have any clue. The alicorn that fetched me stated that he knew nothing, that his orders were to bring me here. Still not used to teleporting. It seems... foreign to me. We never used to teleport in the past."
"I wonder why that is," Haze stated. "Did we always have such power?"
"I guess so. I also think that alicorn magic has become significantly stronger since our arrival here. It's almost as if something within them has been unleashed. A sort of block that was on their powers before has been freed. While our magic has started to become, for the most part, weaker, theirs has gotten stronger."
The pegasus nodded slowly. "I think I understand what you mean. My son has shown great fortitude in his skills at flying, and can fly with the best of them, but the alicorns make him look as if he were standing still in the skies. What do you think it all means?"
"I'm not sure, but it is troubling that all alicorns live in this city and this city alone," Midnight pointed out. "I'm never one to point out issues, but it could become a serious problem in the future."
"Problem? What kind of problem?"
Midnight looked at Haze for a moment. "Nothing. Perhaps I'm over thinking things."
"Not since we formed the Elements has there been any threat that would warrant such a commotion as this," Haze gestured towards the door he had entered. "What could cause such a reaction?"
"No idea. Whatever it is has seemed to be kept quite quiet. I didn't realize the extent of the issue until I arrived here."
"What is this issue? My son only informed me that there has been trouble out west."
"West? It can't be that kind, can it?" Midnight looked down. "No. Not now. Not after everything we've built... the changelings are in Tender Heart's-"
Just then two large stallions entered from the back room along with Swift. Haze and Midnight bowed out of respect for their prince, and he acknowledged them with a nod of his head. He gestured with a hoof towards a large table in an alcove to one side where all five sat comfortably.
"Destrier," Haze said.
It was clear that these two must have had a falling out at some point with the way they reacted towards one another. There was a cold chill that could be felt pass through the hall, and even though this was an ancient recording from many generations in the past, the girls could feel the animosity between the two of them.
"Haze."
"I ask that you put your differences aside for now," Swift stated calmly. "I know that Destrier had insisted that we needed to exterminate the changelings after the war, but that is in the past now. We must look at the situation at hand."
"And what is the situation, Your Highness? You summoned us in a hurry, but neither Midnight nor I had any idea as to the reason."
"Agreed. I have too much work in the northern mines that needs overseeing. The factories cannot run themselves, and there are a sizable group of disgruntled Equines that insist we administer a tax on the exports of the crystals. There's even been proof of tampering on several of the Purification Systems . Black deposits have been found inside them that cause serious damage to any contraption they are inserted in. I fear that the power crystals are being weaponized with the intent to cause harm to others."
"I understand, and I have asked a team of be formed to oversee the matter," Swift stated. "I have read your reports, Midnight. I am not neglecting my duties."
"I never said you were, Your Highness. I was just reminding you that this problem can escalate rather quickly. Already the ponies in the northern kingdoms have threatened to take drastic action. I have informed you that there is a small group there that says that we should form our own empire. Of course I feel that this is detrimental to us. Segregation of our forces will put a strain on our kind."
"Perhaps the changelings have infiltrated this group and have been causing issues," Destrier said coldly.
"Of course they are!" Haze cut in angrily. "That's because all our problems stem from the changeling menace and we should purge them from this world. Isn't that right, Destrier? We should cause genocide because a race of beings you do not understand exist!"
"I am just stating a fact. The changelings only want one thing. Us. They feed off of us. That is evident."
Haze burst out in laughter. "Evident? You don't have any more evidence to state that they do. If what you say is true, then why do they convert us instead of killing and consuming our corpses?"
"I never said that they fed on flesh, Haze."
"Then what?" The pegasus shouted back, standing up. "I find your point of view deplorable."
"We know about your point of view and we know how vocal you are against my thought," Destrier calmly replied. "Still, it stands to reason that they are still a threat, and this proves my point."
"This? What is 'this'?" Haze retorted.
Swift looked at Destrier and nodded.
"It is that serious then?" Midnight stated after seeing the expression on Percheron's face. The Element of Laughter not smiling.
"It is as Destrier had predicted," Swift said in a neutral voice.
Haze's blood froze. "What do you mean, sire?"
"I mean that Destrier was right!" Swift yelled slamming his hoof on the table in anger. The magic power inside him caused a bolt of lightning that cut through the table itself. "I should have listened... but I was tired. Tired of all that death and killing. I realize now that when it comes to war, you cannot show kindness ."
He let the words sink in.
"Tender... Tender Heart... what has she done?" Haze sputtered as the weight of Swift's meaning slowly started to press down on him.
"Enough."
"She... she wasn't summoned?"
"She was, but she will not come. Not willingly at least." Swift looked away from them and walked to the nearest window. They were the only ones in that room at that moment. "I had sent an alicorn to inform Tender Heart to come here and explain why she has closed the borders to the west. The kingdom is already feeling ripples from her abandonment. I had no idea that she could be corrupted."
"But we are the Elements! We can use the Power of Grayskull to-"
"The Elements are no longer in tune with one another. Now that I concentrate on my magic I can tell that they have not been in harmony for a while. We have carefully maintained these years of peace and prosperity, but now that this has happened they have started to wane. Already we can see troubles in the north, some to the south, east and in your own sky there is talk of sedition."
"Impossible! Such things I would have come to know!" Haze replied. "I have heard nothing of this."
"Nor would you. Do you think that they would tell you, an Element of Harmony, that they wish to separate themselves? I am sorry Haze, but your beloved has betrayed us. They Harmony has been broken. Without it, peace cannot be maintained."
"What happened?" Haze shouted taking a step towards the prince. "What happened to her ?"
"As far as we know," Destrier cut in, stepping in front of Haze, "Tender has been infected by the same poison that corrupted Spirit."
"What are you talking about? What infection? Surely we cannot isolate her because she is sick."
Midnight placed a hoof on Haze's shoulder. "No, my friend. Not that kind of sickness, I'm afraid. This is the worst kind of infection. She has been taken by the very thing she sought to cure."
It was clear that deep in his heart he was denying the inevitable. The way his entire demeanor fell looked like he was physically hit. "It is not possible. Swift killed her! How could Spirit corrupt-"
Swift held his hoof up and all silenced themselves. "She has been tainted. Of that, we have no doubt. We don't know how long nor how deep the infection has seeped, but it is clear. She has broken the Harmony we have forged through so much pain and suffering. Already the borders to the west have had rumors of disappearances. Too many to be attributed to natural causes. Most of our population are young foals. They are not prepared for the horrors of war. We cannot, will not, allow them to endure what we had suffered in the past. We cannot let our children inherit our burden."
"Then why mobilize the army?" Midnight asked. "Surely the Elements can handle this ourselves. Even if one of us has broken their oath, the other five can maintain the peace."
"No. The Elements were forged from the Swords of Power and Protection. Each of the Elements contains shards from both. They cannot work alone."
Haze stepped forward. "That's insane! Why would you do that?"
"Because if ever the Elements were to fall into the wrong hands and our enemy find a way to weaponize them. Only if all six Elements work together in harmony can the full power of the Castle Grayskull be used. That was the only way to ensure that none could use an Element's power for their own selfish gain. I was confident that none of you would attempt it, but as generations go by and as ambitions change, there will be one day when one will try to oust me or my line from its right to rule. When that happens, the Elements of Harmony should not, can not, will not, be used." Swift closed his eyes and inhaled a deep sigh. He was tired, that much the girls could tell. "When I slayed my wife, the creature that caused her to be as evil as she was exited her body. I freed her from the curse that had taken her."
"What? You're saying that this so-called infection is free to attack whomever?" Haze was none too pleased to hear that. "You should have warned us!"
"I did. Why do you think that even after all these long years I did not slow our patrols, nor left any of our subjects free from scrutiny? It has always been because I expected this day would come. It was inevitable. Not with Hordak-"
"Hordak?" Haze narrowed his eyes and stepped forwards. "You're telling us that Hordak is behind this?"
"Yes. Do you not remember his appearance at my castle? He had admitted to corrupting Spirit's mind, twisting her thoughts into a jealous rage. That was how he managed to convince her to attack and raze the first Canterlot city, and also had my son, Winter, slain in the process."
"I apologize, Your Highness. I had forgotten," Haze replied, bowing his head in shame.
Swift shook his head. "I don't blame you. How could any bare the thought of remembering anything from that time? It has been so long, but as long Hordak remains I will not stop hunting him. He is not like before. His mind and that of Horde Prime are at odds with each other. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that it is so. This makes him even more dangerous because he is unpredictable."
"Then what will we do? We cannot avoid telling the troops to prepare without informing them of why!" Midnight growled. "How long have you known?"
"I have known a couple of months. I had gone to the west to demand why crop production was faltering. The place was evil, I could feel it in the pulse of the land itself. The ground beneath my hooves was crying out in agony. This was no place for a living thing to be. It was as if the very soil had been infused with darkness," Destrier stated. "We headed for their new capital. They had built it around the entrance to Tartarus-"
"Why would they do that?" Haze shouted. "I was there just ten years ago! There was barely a hovel there housing a few guards!"
"It is now a sprawling metropolis filled with hate, crime and swarming with denizens and unmentionables. Creatures that have evolved somehow, and have made a living for themselves in... less than honorable ways." Percheron replied. "Yes, I had visited the new capital as well. Aptly named Rift. It is doing precisely that. The city lures those that feel they have no other place to go to, or belong. It is a den of evil. It is causing a rift in our kind. Never before have I seen animosity of the sort between pegasi, earthbound and unicorns there."
"Racial bigotry? Have they really descended to that level?" Midnight could not believe his ears.
Percheron nodded. "They have. Still, there are pockets of normal ones that have maintained our principals, but it is quickly fading."
"What do you propose then?" Haze asked.
"Simple. We go to Rift and find Tender Heart before she does anything that could cause a serious divide between our kind. Then the army will move in to prevent the changelings from causing an uprising." Swift looked at each of them in the eyes. "We then shuffle them into Tartarus and lock them away. Any that try to escape..."
"That is murder !" Haze shouted. "That goes against everything we stand for! If we compromise on what makes us the Elements of Harmony then we are no better than them!"
"Tell that to the thousands that will die if we don't," Destrier replied coldly. "I won't pretend to understand the turmoil you must feel inside you, Haze. I will never understand. But this isn't about us. It's about those we have sworn to protect. You gave your word that you do whatever it took to protect our subjects. This is that time. Even if it means protecting them from the one you love."
"I know full well my oath. Don't think that for once I have forgotten it. But I will not condone the mass murder of a species that I have just learned we helped create! That is... abhorrent! Swift, you cannot allow this to happen."
"I do not wish it to be so," the prince replied. "I do not give this order lightly. Never can I give this order lightly, but then again it is an order I cannot make alone. That is why I have asked you to come here. If we do not do something it will seep into the rest of our lands and those that we protect. Then what will happen? If they start 'converting' our subjects into slaves as they had done in the past, what will become of our entire existence?"
"It is wrong!" Haze barked back. "Tender would never allow such a thing to happen!"
"It is not Tender Heart anymore!" Destrier argued. "Understand that!"
"Our duty is to protect all our subjects! Even those that have been infected ! That is not our way!" Haze countered. "Y-you should all know this! Swift! Do not give this order. Please! I beg you."
"I do not give this order easily, Haze. I do not make this decision alone. Without a majority vote here I will not allow it to happen. We cannot initiate an action without proper debate. If you think that there are alternatives, then we would gladly hear them."
Destrier looked to Swift, who nodded in agreement.
"Then let us vote," Percheron stated. "Those who agree that our best course of action shall be to capture Tender Heart and retrieve the Element of Kindness, then banish the changelings into Tartarus, raise your hooves."
Destrier raised his hoof, followed by Percheron a moment later. Swift closed his eyes, and raised his hoof as well. Then, to his horror, as could be seen on his face, Haze watched as Midnight raised his hoof as well.
"Sorry, Haze. This is really the only way," Midnight explained sadly.
"No! This is wrong ! I refuse to allow-" The screen immediately went black as the recording stopped.
Author's Note
*Proof of electricity in current MLP timeline:
From Eternia to Equestria
Chapter 6: The Fracture - Part 3
"Spectacular," Luna whispered still staring at where the stallions had been just seconds ago. "Midnight must be talking about the founders of the Crystal Empire."
"I was just thinking that too," Celestia replied also stunned by the sight of it all. It was mind blowing just how much she had learned in such a short period of time. "But I have read the ancient texts. I do not know of anyone by the name of Swift Wind, or any of the stallions we saw. They are simply not there."
"Crystal Empire?" Twilight asked. She had paused the video.
Celestia smiled at her pupil. "Never mind that for now. I will explain in the future. Let's continue."
"Right! We might get some more answers. Plus, I kinda want to see what happens after." Twilight said and pushed the button on the remote before any could get in a word edgewise.
At once the scene changed and they were looking down a dirty alleyway; tall walls on either side of them extending high up in an unfamiliar material. At once Twilight recognized the place. A tickle in the back of her mind made her recall the day when Cerberus had managed to escape from his prison. Iron that not long after that the changelings had attacked Caterlot. The coincidence in her mind could not be avoided. Were the changelings trapped inside that prison for all this time? She could not help but feel a little sad for them, but she also recalled how they had tried to take Canterlot by force and how she nearly had her brother stolen from her. Her pity evaporated almost as quickly as it had come. She pushed the matter from her mind; there would be another time to dwell on that.
This was what the ancient ruins of Tartarus looked like. She had assumed, as perhaps hundreds of others did before her, that it was an old guard tower that had long since disbanded, but now she understood that most of this ancient city now lay beneath the surface; that she had seen the very top of these walls when she had visited last. Here the doors to the great prison were directly in front -- the huge metal gate still as intimidating and impenetrable as when she had last seen. It was obvious that there was powerful magic imbued within them.
Then it was not the princesses that created the prison. She had always wondered if it was possible for her mentor, with her kindness and benevolence, to create such a place. Relief flooded her as she realized that Celestia nor Luna had anything to do with this place's creation.
Now she could see why the place was designed the way it was. The walls were tall, along the time were supposed to be guards to watch the lower alley. This gave them a vantage on any creature that managed to escape. The sides were smooth, made by that strange, unfamiliar material. Now she wanted to go back and actually examine what it could be. It looked metallic, but at the same time she knew it wasn't. Some sort of element, perhaps?
"The stones are not something I am familiar with," Princess Luna stated.
Pinkie grinned. "It's obsidian!"
"What?" all girls asked looking at her.
"It's obsidian. You don't get to work at a rock farm and not know it when you see it," Pinkie replied. "Although, I don't know how they found such big pieces, but considering how many alicorns and everything there are, maybe they made it! Ooh, maybe they made Tartarus out of a volcano and carved these alleys down from that!"
"That... that actually seems realistic," Applejack said, impressed with her pink friend's answer. "That is doable, right?"
"It would take years, but it is, yes."
"Princess, if we take what we see here as an example, you could say that Equestria today is on higher ground. I mean, when I went to Tartarus-"
"You did what?" Celestia barked.
"I-I went to Tartarus... to return Cerberus to his post... didn't I tell you?"
The princess watched her pupil for quite some time before shaking her head. "No, Twilight, I didn't know you went to that place. Please don't do it again. It's a prison for a reason. There are things in there that must never be released."
"I was just... trying to help," the unicorn replied lowering her head.
"I know, but you must understand that it was very foolish for you to do." Celestia lifted Twilight's face so that their eyes met. "How could I be able to explain to everypony if anything happened to you? How would I be able to cope if I lost my number one student?"
Twilight blushed. "Sorry. I won't do it again."
"Gosh, I had no idea how dangerous it was. If we had known we would have certainly have insisted on going with you to that place," Rarity stated.
The others nodded.
Twilight felt happy that her friends were so caring, but she also felt particular silly for going all the way to Tartarus on her own. Now that it made clear how dangerous it was, she knew to exercise caution before going to that place again should the need ever arise.
The image moved forwards towards the massive doors and stopped right in front. When Twilight had last seen them, they were a lot smaller than before. Here the full size of the doors were clear. It was massive, big enough to fit a hydra through. The top tapered down until it joined together in an arch at the very top. When she had brought Cerberus she understood that only the top portion of the massive doors remained visible.
Judging everything on that fact alone gave her a better idea on just how ancient this world was.
Another thing that was amazing was their language. Even after all this time they spoke like how they did now. Even some words and phrases matched theirs. Did they retain their language from that long ago? That, in of itself, was simply astounding.
Just then the figure jumped as a loud bark erupted from the side.
"Down boy!" a yell came before a blast of red light struck the beast sending it crashing into the obsidian wall.
It whimpered and went back into a makeshift hole and the side. It lowered itself to the ground, eyes staring straight at the camera, a glowering hatred. The guardian of Tartarus, Cerberus.
"Oh no! That poor, poor, animal," Fluttershy squeaked, tears flowing from her eyes. "They didn't need to do that."
"That was barbaric!" Rarity concurred. "How uncivilized."
"Is someone down there?" a voice shouted.
"Nah, don't think so. Cerberus has been acting like this the past few days," the unicorn shouted back. "He'll calm down in a sec, won't you, big guy?"
The animal whimpered and retreated further into his hiding place.
"Good boy."
The image quickly changed as the speaker and whomever else was involved started to run from that place as fast as their legs would carry them, yet at the same time their hooves hardly made a sound. This place was very different from the previous Equestria they had seen earlier. It was not so much the dark architecture or the strange uniforms these particular guards wore. It was the feeling. A feeling of coldness that seemed to permeate from the very land itself.
"I don't like this place," Applejack stated. "Not one bit. It feels like the first time we ventured through the Everfree."
"I know what you mean," Rarity replied. "It seems so unfriendly and hostile. I get the feeling that anything bad could happen at any second."
"Yeah, this place is so not cool," Rainbow muttered hovering around the ceiling.
The feed continued on, the carrier staying close to the side of the walls to maintain their cover in the shadows. How had the guards above not notice them? The recording device panned to the side and there they could see the face of the figure clearly. They looked at each other and the other figure pulled his hood back slightly to reveal part of his face. It was the Element of Laughter, Percheron, but there was no sign of humor or laughter on his face. It was quite frightening to see just how serious he was.
He gestured with his head towards the monolithic gates to Tartarus and the one who was holding the recorder nodded ever so slightly, the image going up and down almost imperceptibly. The image turned towards one of the two guards standing at the base of the gates, who seemed to be struggling to stay awake.
"Hey!" one of the two shouted. "Who's there?"
The other guard snapped awake and peered towards them from across the street. He rubbed his eyes with his hooves, but that proved to be the worst thing he could do. In that moment the feed darted forwards at a horrific pace and pinned the unicorn guard to the wall with a well place blow to the throat. The guard coughed as he tried to make a sound, but in that next moment a glint of something long and silver appeared in the other hoof and the object vanished inside the body. The guard looked up at them, his eyes petrified with fear. He knew he was going to die. He could feel his life slowly slipping away, his eyes glazing over as the life was sapped out of him.
The attacked ducked and allowed the guard to slump over his shoulder as he turned around to see that Percheron had already done the same thing. They both quickly made their way back across the space and dumped the bodies into the alley they had come from a moment before, shedding their cloaks as they draped them over the deceased and pushed them against a pile of garbage and debris.
Percheron now stood in full armor, the exact same kind the two guards had been wearing a few seconds ago. They then quickly trotted back to the place where the two guards had been standing a moment before.
Neither moved nor talked for a long time.
Fluttershy wiped the tears from her eyes. "H-how could they do that?"
"There was a time when things like this were quite common, Fluttershy," Princess Celestia said quietly. "I have waited for many centuries to see Equestria become what it is today. I am glad that taking a life of another pony is very rare today, and I hope that it will come to a complete end soon."
"That was unnecessary. They needn't kill 'em just for standin' there an' doin' their duty!" Applejack shouted gesturing violently with her hoof. "That's murder!"
"Something's happening," Twilight stated out loud.
Two other guards walked up slowly. They stopped just in front of Percheron and saluted.
"We're here to relieve you," one said.
"Password?" Percheron asked.
"A new dawn is coming," the soldier replied rolling his eyes.
Percheron narrowed his eyes and reached for a sword. "Is that all?"
The soldier sighed. Then, in a very bored tone, he replied: "A new dawn is coming for a new era that will see the power of the powerful wane and the power of the masses rise."
"That's better," Percheron stated releasing his hilt.
"Why our passwords have to be so long, I'll never know," the guard muttered and saluted Percheron again. "I relieve you."
"I stand relieved." With that, Percheron saluted, took a step to the side, turned and watched as the other guard got into position. Only after he was standing there did he turn around and walk off, the individual with the camera following close behind.
"I can't believe they fell for that!" the voice whispered. "You managed to get the password without an issue."
Percheron smirked, "I should've been an actor, no? Too bad those two had to die."
"Yeah, but watcha gonna do, right?" That speaker laughed dryly. "And you should have been an actor. Bein' an Element doesn't really suit you. You were built to make ponies laugh, dance and sing. Not kill."
"Nopony is made to kill. And I don't see what being an Element has to do with my acting."
"Who is carrying the recorder-thingy?" Applejack asked.
"I'm not too sure, but it sounds a lot like your brother," Rarity whispered back. "It sounds just like Big Mac. The accent is unmistakable."
Applejack nodded, he eyes sparkling at the thought. Perhaps this stallion was an ancient ancestor of the Apple clan. That would put her line all the way to this period in time. As a girl who treasured family and values, this was simply the most exciting thing she had discovered. She couldn't wait to tell her family about it.
"I know, I know. Ponies aren't meant to kill one another, they taught us that in school. But then why do we have armies and fighters and stuff? I mean, we have to kill them hydras and dragons to ensure that our cities are safe. Why don't we just kill them all-"
"We protect our kind from the hostilities of this world. Things have changed in these long years. Creatures we haven't seen have started to come and threaten our way of life more and more. I don't like it any more than you do, but if we don't protect our kind, who will? The Elements are here to take on the things that our guards can't." Percheron turned his head to look at the speaker. "We do not go out there and slaughter others. Dragons and hydras have as much a right to exist as you and me."
"Yet we're still going to hunt'n'kill changelin's."
Percheron made a face. "No. I mean, not really. We're going to imprison them. We gave them a chance to adapt, and all that has happened is they may or may not have killed an Element, and-"
"You can't have it both ways, Perch," the voice stated.
"I know. I just wish there was another way. You weren't there during that terrible war. You weren't there when they razed Old Canterlot to the ground. You weren't there when thousands of our kind were changed into those things against their wills. You weren't there, so you don't know."
"Sounds like the more I hear about the past, the less I like it."
Percheron stopped and looked over to him. "Me too. The past few decades were... magical. I wish that kind of peace remained."
"Same here. I just bought a nice plot of land on the outskirts of Trottingvale. Nice place. Nopony around for miles, all that land ready for plantin'. Can't wait to get my hooves on it."
The two continued walking on.
"You decided what you're going to grow?"
"A little bit of everythin', I guess. I mean, I've always loved apples, but I like oranges too. Guess we'll just have to see. You?"
"Me? Grow things?" Percheron laughed. "No thank you. I may be Earthbound, but I am no farmer. Soldier to the core. Always have been, always will be. One day I'll gallop into battle, and won't be galloping back. I might not be as morbid as Destrier, but we're cut from the same cloth, him and I. We are fighters."
The two continued for a while in silence.
"Not me. I'm more of a grower. I like plantin' thin's. I'm only servin' because my daddy served."
"I know," Percheron said. "Your father was a good friend of mine. He was brave."
"I know. Got his medal on my mantle back home. Heard he fought the Horde."
"Yes. Yes he did. Wow, I had forgotten about that. Not that I like recalling it."
"What was it like? Etheria, I mean."
"Etheria? Well, it's a lot like this world. The main difference, I guess, are the creatures. Back on Etheria we had a lot of humanoids. Not so much here. Apart from the Sorceress... and perhaps a few others, you don't get them."
"Why did the humans choose to leave this world?"
That made Percheron laugh again. "Is this a history class? They had to combine their magic to separate the worlds. Simple as that. We came here and combined our powers with that of Castle Grayskull and pulled off a miracle. Not to mention we defeated the Horde to boot. It's a sad shame that you will never get to see it, but considering how vast Eternia is that's not so bad."
Celestia looked at Twilight and she instantly paused the video.
"Can you please explain what Eternia and Etheria are?" the princess asked.
"As far as I can make out from what Orko has said, Eternia is our world that was renamed to Equestria. Etheria is another world where the Sorceress is from... she's the one I mentioned to you before. Anyway, something happened and the worlds were split apart. From what they said, they must have had a terrible war."
"Yes, I think so too. It's troubling how many conflicts our ancestors had to face in their short time. And you were saying something about different dimensions."
"Well, Orko is from a different dimension, and from the way he was talking about it, even this one wasn't where he belonged. He seemed to have come here and stayed, I think. I'd have to ask him."
"Why would he stay if he was the only one of his kind?" Applejack asked.
Twilight shrugged. "Maybe because he made good, good friends."
That made the girls smile at each other. As long as there were good friends around, it would make this place bearable. But Orko had been alone for so long, so why was he here?
"Let's continue." Luna took the control from Twilight and pressed the button.
The image started moving again, but all they could hear was the sound of their hoof-falls on the cobbled street as they reached a set of barred gates that marked the entrance to a walled-off area. In front of the keep and were a large number of guards. They did not seem to pay attention to the two as they walked inside. There were a lot more guards here than at the entrance of Tartarus, a fact that Twilight considered rather strange.
As they crossed under the gate, they were immediately stopped by a large, obese pony chewing on a straw of wheat. He sniffed and wiped his leaky nose with his foreleg and sauntered over to them.
"What's the pass phrase?" he stated in a bored tone almost equal to the soldier from before.
"A new dawn is coming for a new era that will see the power of the powerful wane and the power of the masses rise," Percheron said without a pause.
The guard nodded, "Right, head on through." He then turned and sauntered off, spitting a huge wad of half-chewed hay onto a wall. It was tinted red.
"Ugh, I do hate it when ponies chew cud. Disgusting habit," Rarity stated shuddering. She had stood where the fat guard had spat.
"Cud?" the others asked.
At that Rarity blushed. "Oh, you know. When in university I did experiment a little with... things."
"Way to go, Rare!" Rainbow shouted, slapping her friend across the back. "I didn't you know you were into that kinda thing!"
"I'm not. I just... experimented... a little. Oh, it was so long ago. Anyway, it's a stimulating, psychoactive preparation of betel leaf combined with areca nut and or cured tobacco. It is chewed and finally spat out or, it can be swallowed depending on how it is made. Cud has many variations."
All she got was blank stares from her friends.
"Like I said, I experimented."
"You said 'a little', Rare. That don't sound like 'a little' to me. Kinda sounds like you could make it on your own if you wanted to," Applejack teased.
Rarity rolled her eyes. "That part of my life is now over. Can we concentrate on what's going on? We can always discuss this further when not in the presence of Royalty."
Unexpectedly, Celestia smiled at that. "Cud, although not recommended, isn't illegal, Rarity."
"I know, Your Highness, but it's still taboo in respectable society. I don't think it is appropriate to discuss it in front of you."
"You'd be pretty surprised what 'respectable society' does behind closed doors," Luna muttered quietly.
That brought a snicker from Rainbow and Pinkie.
Their attention was brought back to the feed when the two stallions entered the courtyard and headed over towards what looked to be a tavern. There were several other ponies drinking outside the doors, making noise, singing and whatnot. They seemed to be having a wonderful time.
One particularly intoxicated mare walked over towards them. As they approached she put a hoof out and shoved the one with the recorder against a parked cart and licked her lips. "I think you're cute," she said in slurring, seductive tone. She leaned in closer so that her face was inches away from the camera. "Wanna rut?"
That made every one of the girls watching blush furiously. The mare turned around and shook her rear in a tempting fashion. Percheron ignored her and continued on as if nothing happened. The one recording, however, seemed to have been mesmerized by the shaking of the posterior and the device was glued to the subject at hand.
"You like?" she cooed.
That made Rainbow laugh out loud, rolling on her back in mid-air kicking her legs out at the ridiculousness of it.
"You coming?" Percheron stated glancing backwards.
"Huh? Oh! Oh yeah! Sorry, got distracted." The voice trotted by the mare who blew him a kiss.
"I noticed. Aren't you currently seeing someone?"
The voice muttered something, but it was unclear as to exactly what he said.
"Well, I'm all for fun and games, but there's a time and a place."
"I get it, Perch. Can we just go?"
Again, Rainbow roared in laughter.
The subjects walked into the tavern were multiple numbers of ponies in and out of uniform were milling about minding their own business, or conducting business. There seemed to be a lot of different things going on within the tavern and not just the purchase of food and drink.
To the back Rarity spotted a mare and a stallion slobbering over one another as they suppressed their moans. She blushed when she realized what they were actually doing and turned away.
Pinkie was interested in the strange dancing some of the ponies were doing in a lowered floor area to the back. Here ponies danced in synched steps that were so easy that Pinkie was in step with them perfectly within seconds. All they seemed to be doing was taking a step to the right before switching over to the left and bouncing their right-rear hoof twice then repeating the steps again.
In many ways it seemed a fairly simplified square dance.
Their eyes spotted a hoof waving casually towards them from the very far corner. A group of about six ponies sat along a roundish table, each had a mug either in front of them or in their hooves. They two newcomers sat down and the recording device was skillfully placed in the center of the table and the entire image changed.
Now they were standing on the table itself, the mugs were standing to their shoulder. The other ponies were huge from this perspective and the girls finally got to see the stallion who carried the recorder. He was a pony that none of them had been introduced to before. A young beige stallion with a spot over his right eye. There were no scars on his forehead.
"So? How did it go?" Percheron asked, then burst out laughing making the others look at him before they all imitated his outburst.
"Why are you laughing like this?" the beige pony asked over his ruckus laugh, breathing in a breath.
Percheron smacked his back hard making him choke on the brew. "So we don't look suspicious is why!"
Indeed most of the ponies around them were now completely ignoring the group. Twilight had noticed that a few were eying them their suspiciously when Percheron and the beige stallion walked in. She read enough mystery novels to know that taverns like these carried a sloth of undesirables that were usually trouble.
"Let's go over the plan again. Swift and the pegasi are already heading towards the keep tower as we speak. When we get inside we're to lock the gates from within and hold out. Once we have secured the entrance, the others will arrest Tender. Everything clear so far?" Percheron looked at each of them one at a time as each gave a single nod. "We're severely outnumbered, and we're got nothing to back us up. If they raise the alarm, it will be very bad. We're all that we've got."
"More than enough," a deep baritone voice spoke. It was Destrier, but he was sitting in such a way that he was hidden behind a ledge. "I'll head inside first. I'll secure the guardroom on my own. The rest of you take the guards in the gate. Then we proceed along each floor. No alarm should be raised until we have Tender in custody."
"What if Tender doesn't surrender?"
They all exchanged glances.
"You know what will happen should that come to pass. Let us not humor the idea any more than we already have." Destrier stood up. "I may not like what she has become, nor her insistence that she rehabilitate the changeling scums, but she is still an Element. She deserves our respect. She was entrusted by Swift to defend this kingdom. Do not forget that. Let's go."
With that, the large stallion stood up and headed out the door. The rest of them continued to drink for a bit making small, idle talk and slowly, in pairs, the others followed after Destrier. Most of the conversation was about their current events, but with no context the girls could not understand what they were really talking about.
Twilight looked over to her mentor. Celestia seemed to be deep in thought by the way she seemed to be concentrating on nothing in particular, her brow furrowed. Meanwhile Luna was listening intently at the conversation, perhaps in an attempt to garner any clues about her mother.
"What's wrong, Your Highness?" Twilight asked.
"Nothing. It's just... it really looks like modern day Equestria. If you had shown me this yesterday, I would have thought you were showing me events from the past year, not thousands and thousands of years ago." Celestia looked up at the lights along the side of the walls. "See, here? This is powered by something. Electricity, right?"
"I think those are powered by the kind of crystals that are outside this castle, Your Highness. I mean, I think that's what's powering this place." Twilight studied the lights as well. How advanced was their technology? She had read books about electricity being discovered at the turn of the last century, but here it was.
"You may be onto something," Celestia voiced slowly coming out of her thinking process.
"Then... what Midnight said about mining crystals in the north. Maybe our Canterlot is further north?"
Celestia and Luna exchanged glances with one another.
"No, I don't think so, but it explains other things," Celestia replied cryptically.
Twilight chose to ignore the riddle for now. If the princesses were not ready to tell her just yet, then she would have to wait until they were willing to do so. She knew that they meant no harm by it, but the unicorn still felt a little hurt. Had she not proven herself capable? Or maybe they did not want to distract her from this.
The image changed suddenly as the beige pony took the recording device and placed it back upon his head. The remainder of the group headed towards the keep together with Percheron leading the way. Bringing up the rear was a reddish, tan pegasus mare who kept giving the beige pony stern looks.
Percheron turned his head to the side slightly and nodded.
At once they all trotted into the interior gate and past the secondary metallic bars towards the upper floors of the keep.
The camera had followed two others, not Percheron. The beige pony quickly vanished around the bend and some muffled cries were heard before the reappeared in the hallway. Then the three of them rushed up the stairs accompanied by yet another one of the ponies from the tavern.
"Hey, what's going on? You're not-" the voice was cut off as one of the two ponies charged into the guard. He slumped down on the ground and flinched slightly.
"He'll be okay. Will wake up with the worst hangover, but he'll live," the voice stated.
"Nice going, Rusty. Ember, you head on up with the others," a greenish unicorn ordered.
"Are you sure?" the recorder's voice asked.
"Yeah, we've got this place covered. No worries. Oh, and Rusty?"
"Yeah?"
"Be nice to Ember."
"Hey, Leaf, mind your own business!" the mare stated angrily.
"Hey, I just don't want you two to fight, okay? You're great together."
Rusty, the beige pony with the recorder turned to the mare. He walked over to her and she turned away. Gently her reached over and pulled her chin so that she faced him. "Stay safe."
With that the image turned and he quickly trotted away.
On the way the girls saw unconscious guards. Many had been knocked out, but a few would never wake up. Each time a dead guard was seen, Fluttershy would close her eyes and shake her head. All that death was pointless and sad for her. She just could not understand why a pony would harm another in that way.
But whoever these ponies were, they were good. They overpowered any guards within moments with brutal efficiency. In no time they found themselves on the top floor. Here, Destrier was standing in front of a door that was broken in. Inside there was nothing except for a small desk and a table. Everything else was a mess, and there was no sign of Tender Heart. In fact it looked as if it had been deserted quite hastily.
Percheron was sitting down on the floor. He had removed the helm from his head and had a mirthless smile on his face.
"What's wrong?" Rusty asked.
The two looked at him, but it was Destrier who spoke.
"It's a trap. We have been betrayed."
"H-how can you know that?" Rusty asked. He had placed the recorder on the ground. "We're still here... where is Swift and the others?"
"They were discovered. It will take time for him to mobilize the army. The keep is doomed, and it has been locked from the outside. I suggest that you make your peace. I doubt any of us will be leaving this place alive." Destier looked out the window and nodded. "Yes, they have surrounded us already. We have been betrayed."
"Someone told Tender Heart about us?" Rusty asked. "Who?"
"I wonder," Destrier growled.
"You can't automatically assume that it's Haze," Percheron argued.
"Is there any doubt?" Destrier replied. "We are going to die here because of his love for her. He betrayed his kingdom for the sake of a single mare."
"Maybe he wanted to make her come to him without all this?"
"Then why are we here?" Destrier shouted in response. "Wake up! She isn't the Tender Heart we once knew! She is a changeling and she must be stopped. Prepare for battle."
Percheron stood up and saluted. "Well, I was just starting to get bored anyway...'
From Eternia to Equestria
Chapter 7: The Fracture - Part 4
"This isn't right!" Haze shouted as he stood before Tender.
Wherever they were, it was clear that it was either underground or somewhere where light did not seem to be welcome. They could not see anything apart from the stallion who stood alone in the middle of what seemed to be a large room, the only source of light was from somewhere high above them that fell only on the pegasus, and the mare.
"You said they would not be harmed. How could you trap them?"
"You see to know quite a lot, despite your being here," Tender replied.
"Do not think that I don't know about the tower in Rift. I may not be a unicorn, but there are other ways to communicate across the ether besides magic. The Elements are there to help you!"
"Yet you are here."
"I had to try and talk sense into you," Haze shouted. "How can you allow this to happen? They are your friends!"
"They were going to kill my changelings. That I cannot allow. What kind of Element would I be if I did not treasure their lives as well? They are living beings too. They deserve to live. You think that I would allow you to kill them-"
Haze took a step towards her. "No! We are trying to save them! Save them and you!"
"Me?" Tender giggled. "Save me from what?"
"From yourself!" Haze retorted. "Listen to me, Tender. You cannot allow harm to befall the other Elements. If they are killed you will have all of Equestria turn on you. You cannot afford a war against the rest of the kingdom. You will lose!"
"No, Haze. I won't."
"Y-you were seriously considering war?" The stallion was clearly not expecting that, or hoped that it was not true.
"I had to. I have not spent this long as ruler without learning a few things about running an empire."
"Empire? You're the magistrate of part of a kingdom, Tender! Not the ruler of a newly formed kingdom!"
"I might as well have been!" Tender shouted. "You had all forgotten I existed! None of you came to visit me in all these long years, and none of you had any inkling to even write a simple letter! You know how long it has been since I have heard from any of you prior to this..." her voice tapered off. That was clearly hiding something.
"You cannot fight Equestria. You will lose! The Elements will-"
"Are you forgetting something? I am an Element. And while I still have my Element the powers of Castle Greyskull cannot be used against me."
Haze gritted his teeth. "We were not going to fight you!"
"Really? Then why did your peers sneak into Rift, kill some of my guards and tried to assassinate me in my personal chambers?"
"We were trying to stop you from..."
"From?" Tender prompted, it was clear she wanted him to finish what he wanted to say.
"From yourself."
"From myself. Ah. So, you killed my guards to protect me from myself? That sounds like something Swift would do. After all, that is all he knows what to do now. If others seem to be a threat to him, then he has no qualms of ensuring that the threat is no longer a concern. How many equines has he murdered to ensure that his utopia is maintained?"
Haze was stunned. "You cannot seriously believe that?"
"Oh, I don't have to believe it. I know. Don't you think it's strange that any voices of dissent are silenced after a visit by the Element of Loyalty?" Tender smiled when Haze did not respond. "See? Even you have suspected it as well."
"Our prince would never allow-"
"You are a fool, Haze! You choose not to see what is in front of you. Only when the Prince is dead can we truly be free of his tyranny," Tender stated, her eyes flashing a hint of green as it flowed through. "He must die."
"Y-you can't be serious. What you say is borderlines paranoia! Do you even hear what is coming out of your mouth? You are accusing the prince of murdering dissenters based on what? If what you say is true, then there would be no free press, no courts, no... anything that involves the equestrians ability to go against their government! That is all a pack of lies! Just last week there were protests regarding-"
"Do not dare speak to me about those meaningless campaigns! They are clearly organized by those loyal to Swift to trick equines like you to think that you are free, but you're not. No, no, no. You're not. I know. I know ."
"You can't-"
"Can't what? I am the princess of the changelings, Haze. You all pawned the responsibility of their lives into my hooves! You all shouldered me with the burden of that responsibility." She looked up, suddenly looking exhausted. "Was I not supposed to care for them as a mother would her own children?"
"You wanted to take them, Tender. Your kindness and devotion have done wonderful things for the kind-"
"You have the ability to be the prince along with me. The changelings are not evil, just different." Her voice suddenly changed, and a feverish look came across her face.
Haze recognized it, and it horrified him. This was the look of someone who had been consumed by power. The same look that Spirit had.
Tender pressed on. "I can control them, Haze. I can feel them. Each one of them are like a part of me. I can teach them to be ponies again. I can save them. I just need time."
Haze took a step back despite himself. "Then I will get you the time you require, Tender. Just... stop this."
That small action was not lost on the mare, whose expression went cold for a moment as she narrowed her eyes at the stallion before her. Then, in the next moment, it softened. She leaned forward and rested her hoof on the arm of her throne shaking her head sadly as if she were pitying him. "You don't get it, do you? Swift has already made up his mind about me."
"Please, Tender. I believe that you have been infected." It wasn't a question.
"Ah, you call it an infection, but you are wrong. It is... enlightenment. Did you know that I can see things through each and every one of my changelings? I can smell what their noses detect. I know their thoughts like they are my own. Our minds are all connected together? As each one breathes and lives, I can feel their life force flowing through them into me. They will do whatever I want, whatever I wish, whatever I say." Tender Heart eyes turned green as she stood up from her throne. A black chair carved out from the same material that littered her newly made capital. "I am their one and only princesses. No. No, I am more than that. I am their queen, and they love me, as will you."
"How can anyone love that which they fear, Tender? You're going against everything you've ever believed in!" Haze shouted trying to get her to understand. "Please listen to me!"
"No, you listen. When I had asked you to come with me, to stay here with me, what did you say?" She screamed. "What did you say?"
Haze eyes began to water. "You think I wanted to do that? Do you really think that I wanted to leave you? It was the burden of our responsibility as the Elements-"
"You got married."
That silenced him. He closed his eyes and gulped. "Y-yes. I got married."
"Why? If you really loved me, then why did you get married to another? Why didn't you marry me?"
The stallion could not respond. His mouth opened several times, but nothing came out. Instead he just looked down at the floor. He could not bring himself to face her.
"Tell me!" she shouted throwing something at him.
The pegasus dodged it easily, the projectile colliding with something at the far end. He looked up at her. "I was lonely. I needed someone."
"But why not me? Why did you choose her ? You knew that I was waiting for you! You knew that I wanted you to come for me! You knew it all! And yet you went and married that..." she growled and stamped her hoof on the ground. "Why?"
"I... I didn't want you to love me anymore. I thought... I thought that if I got married you would find someone else to take your love. I... I am so sorry."
The mare narrowed her eyes. "You said you loved me-"
"I still love you, Tender! I wouldn't be here if I didn't." Haze expression looked pained. "I'm sorry."
Tender calmed herself and leaned back on her throne. She looked amused. "Sorry? You're sorry?" She let out a cruel laugh. "Sorry? You want me to stop based on an apology which is nearly fifty years too late?"
Haze opened his mouth to respond, but Tender held her hoof up shutting him up.
"What was I supposed to do? Rot here alone? You left me when I needed someone the most. Perhaps it is your fault that I have become this way?"
"Y-you could have found someone else to love! Every single equine in Equestria loves you! Still does," Haze stated. "There isn't anyone who doesn't adore you."
"I only wanted you." The words were like daggers.
"I..." Haze could not answer.
"But what you said is true. Many still do love me. Especially my changelings." Her expression darkened again. "I will not allow them, innocent and pure, to be sent off into Tartarus without a fight! They were there for me when I needed them, unlike you."
"I said I was sorry," Haze replied as gently as he could. "I made a stupid, stupid mistake."
"True."
"But don't take it out on the rest of Equestria. Don't bring it to the brink of another war. Please. Let our fight remain between the two of us. Don't let our children see the horrors of war."
There was a long silence before Tender spoke. "I wanted children once. Your children. Now you have offspring from that , and I have none."
"T-they have done nothing wrong. It is my fault, not theirs. Their only crime was that they were born of a foolish father, please don't take it out on them."
Tender looked at Haze for a moment, her eyes narrow. "Fine. If the other Elements bow before me and shows fealty towards me then I will make sure that they are not harmed. I will allow the rest of Equestria to live their lives in peace."
"That is what you want?"
"That is what I demand." Tender sat back down on slowly, her eyes still glowing in that eery light.
"T-then I will ask Swift to-"
"You are a bad liar, Haze. Perhaps it is because of your Element. You are Honesty, after all. You know that Swift will not listen to you anymore than you will listen to me. All you are trying to do is protect the prince because if he dies, this kingdom will fall apart."
"I-"
"You are hiding something," Tender interrupted, narrowing her eyes. "I know you too well, Haze. What is it that you are concealing from me?"
The stallion lifted up the recording device and threw it in front of her, the image bouncing on the ground until it came to a stop at her hooves. She looked down at it with an expression of rage.
"You have confessed your wish for rebellion and treason. Now the Elements of Harmony and the rest of Equestria will know of your treachery. My love for you is unquestionable, but my allegiance will always be with this land. My love- no, our love pales in comparison when you place the entire kingdom against it. The lives of our children are... paramount."
"I thought you loved me more than anything," Tender replied, her voice mocking him.
"Not when the lives of so many hang in the balance. I should have never doubted Swift's words. I should have listened. I am a fool."
Tender stood up and as she did her body changed. Holes formed in her legs and hooves. A horn appeared from her head as it formed a sharp, long protrusion and the wings on her back shifted to form into a very familiar shape. She was a changeling.
"You have been infected," Haze stated, confirming his own fears.
"As I said, it is not an infection. It is rebirth." Tender tilted her head to one side and grinned, two long fangs glinting in the light. "Any last words?"
"I love you, Tender Heart. I love your kind, gentle, wonderful ways. I love how you cared for all living things, even that which didn't deserve your affection. But you are not her! Not anymore. You are... evil." Haze drew his blade. "Forgive me. I did this to you. And I will fix everything."
"Fix? Fix what? I am not broken. It is this kingdom that is fractured. And I will have you. If you will not follow me of your own free will, then I will make you. I will show you that you love me. I will make you love me. You will love me!" she screamed, her voice reaching a crescendo that made the girls cover their ears.
"I belong to no one," Haze whispered as all around him green eyes began to penetrate the blackness. From the ceiling above him all the way up to behind the throne Tender sat upon. Everywhere. Eyes of changelings could be seen. "You have already murdered so many equestrians with your poison. Your wish to be loved by all has cause you to infect so many innocents!"
"Does it not bother you that this could have all been avoided if you had stayed with me?" Tender replied ignoring his words. "If you had only stayed by my side, maybe this would have never come to pass."
Haze gripped his sword between his teeth. "Then I will atone for that."
Tender Heart's body changed back to its original form as she started laughing. As she did, the glowing eyes that surrounded them closed in on the lone stallion standing his ground as the swarm closed in around him.
"Forgive me, friends," Haze whispered as the avalanche of changelings rushed towards him. "Forgive this old fool."
The feed cut out seconds later.
"Oh no..." Fluttershy whispered. "That poor stallion."
Unbeknownst to the others, the words spoken by Tender resonated within the shy mare. She had uttered the same phrase during the Grand Galloping Gala when the animals in Celestia's garden refused to befriend her. She was so desperate for their affection that she had completely lost it. A horrifying thought crept up through her bones. What if the Element of Kindness still had a problem even after all this time? What that even possible? But she had proven herself a master of her Element as well. Discord had tried to corrupt her and yet she had managed to keep true to herself almost beating the Spirit of Chaos at his own game in the maze.
"What do you think happened do him?" Applejack asked. "Do you think he made it out alive?"
"Against those odds?" Rarity put in. "Highly doubtful."
Rainbow breathed out heavily. "Tsh. Ya right. I could take on all those changelings on my own. If I could do it, he could do it."
"Rainbow, these aren't the same changelings we fought. These are... bigger," Rarity stated.
The image faded back in almost immediately after Rarity's declaration.
They now found themselves moving down a hallway, fires burning drapes and furniture as they moved on by. Whoever was carrying the camera was hurrying along behind three large stallions, one of who was easily recognizable.
Swift was leading the way, and it was clear that he was being flanked by Destrier and Midnight. They could not discern who was carrying the recorder, but he was easily keeping up with them. They were decked out in full armor and armed with weapons.
"Tender! Show yourself!" the alicorn shouted.
Just then the doors on the far end slowly opened and the group quickly made their way through. Swift pushed inside paying no heed to what was inside and stood in the middle of the room. The girls recognized the place instantly. They had seen these very room seconds ago, but now with the fires burning the entire room was alight and if it weren't for them, the room would have actually looked very pleasant. Almost similar to Celestia's throne room high above them.
"Welcome to my home, Your Highness. It is a pleasure-"
"Save it. Where is Haze." It was not a question.
"Haze? What makes you think he's here?" the voice asked.
Swift eyes narrowed. "Your trap in Rift failed, Tender. Once we informed the city that you had betrayed us and our kind we wasted no time in hunting down what was left of your changelings."
"I know."
"You know?" Midnight asked, stepping in front of Swift.
"Yes. I felt their lives snuffed out. Those that were lucky. The rest you've locked away deep inside that infernal prison."
"How can you know this? Not unless..." the unicorn shook his head. "Oh no. Not you, Tender. By the Power of Grayskull, how could that happen to you?"
"Do you really think that Tartarus will hold them?" Tender said as she stepped out of a small alcove along with a large number of changelings in full armor. She had ignored Midnight's words and was staring directly at Swift. "Are you really so depraved of intelligence that you actually think that-"
"I've unlocked the cells within."
Tender took a step forwards. "You didn't."
"Yes. I did. If your changelings can survive the horrors of the abyss, then I'm sure that they'll escape. One day, perhaps. They'll live, for a time. After all, you know what else is down there, Heart. You help us put them in there."
The changeling shook with anger, her voice an expression of complete and utter hatred for the prince.
"Where is Haze."
For a moment the changeling queen was silent as she tried to stare down the stallion. But he was not going to give her the pleasure of looking away. "If you want to see him so badly, then so be it."
A beam of light swung over to a strange object on the ceiling, and within its confines, hanging upside in some sort of green ooze, was the Element of Honesty himself.
"Uncle!" a voice shouted and Rusty pushed past the camera holder. He stood next to Midnight looking up for a moment before glaring at Tender Heart. "What have you done to him?"
Tender laughed. "What have I done? I have given him a new life. I have given him the chance to see my love. To see how much he means to me. I've enlightened him to a perfect world. Shown him the true meaning of happiness, peace and love. I am doing all this to teach him that I'm right and you're wrong. He is... being reborn."
"No!" the earth pony growled. "Y-y-you monster ! He loved you! How could you do this to him?"
"No. He loves me. Our love will never die." Tender looked at the pod on the ceiling, her expression softening and a horrifying picture of warped affection and madness. She actually thought her words were true. "You are mine."
An explosion of light and fire erupted above the cocoon as whatever was holding it was destroyed. It cracked off from the ceiling and started to fall towards the ground. Midnight's horn glowed, his dark-violet magic engulfing the entire object as he set it down on the ground gently.
The girls all knew what they were seeing. It was the same thing that had entrapped Celestia when she was overpowered by Chrysalis during the invasion, only this one was a lot bigger.
"No! Don't touch him!" Tender shouted taking a step towards the cocoon-like thing.
Swift stomped his hoof effectively stopping the changeling and her entire battalion in their tracks.
"Hang on," Midnight said before Rusty got too close. "Don't do anything. Any sudden movements might kill him. Give me a second to figure out what it is."
"So, this is how you change our kind into yours?" Swift asked as he walked towards Tender.
"Ignorant as usual, prince. You know nothing of our kind," Tender bit her jaw when she said that but stepped back away from the advancing alicorn, her changeling guards putting themselves in front of her.
"You think you can control this?" Swift replied, narrowing his eyes. "After I had told you never to allow yourself to infect yourself? You did not listen!"
Tender advanced a step. "Do you want to know what it's like taking care of them all? To love them all?"
"You don't love any of them. You were prepared to sacrifice many to keep us from leaving Rift. Your main concern about those condemned in Tartarus was the numbers you would have to rebuild rather than for each individual being. You have been taken by the one thing that I have spent years trying to prevent."
"What are you talking about?" Tender asked.
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely. You have an army at your disposal that will do anything you desire at your merest whim. Without a leader to control them, the changelings would have to answer to themselves. It would have taken time, but eventually they would have learned to live for themselves. I spent years destroying any being that declared themselves as the changeling queen, but I never suspected that you would allow yourself to become one."
"What are you saying?"
"I am saying that you are the one that condemned them. You, their supposed savior. It is because of you that they are now being hunted across the continent," Swift roared, making Tender retreat further into her guard. "Now, because of you, there will be war. Because you-"
"Shut up!" Tender screeched. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
"Swift! Your Highness! Haze... he's still... he's..."
The prince rushed towards the pod and knelt down on his forelegs. Haze coughed out some of the green sludge and smiled at them.
"I am sorry. Sorry to you especially, Destrier. I had thought that I was doing a favor, but now I know. I had refused to believe it all this time, but it's apparent. The changeling is not a curse. It is a disease. It needs to be culled. It needs to be," the pegasus coughed out more green ooze. "M-my mind is going. I want to die as myself, not as some mindless slave. Spare me that. I beg of you."
There was a long moment where none of them said anything.
Finally it was Rusty who stepped in. "Howdy, uncle."
"R-Rusty... you have grown so much since... since then." He laughed weakly and reached for his nephew with a hoof.
Rusty held onto it with both of his own and placed it close to his chest. Already his fur started to change color.
"Y-you take care of this land... you take care of our kind. Y-you do what it takes to make sure that this will never happen again. Promise me this."
"I promise," Rusty said fighting the tears. "I will protect Equestria."
"End it. End it now," Haze pleaded. "I can already feel m-my mind being... taken."
Rusty took a dagger from a sheath on his hoof and placed blade over Haze's heart. "Good bye, uncle."
"Until we meet again," he replied and smiled.
Rusty pushed the blade down.
A horrific scream of anguish echoed throughout the hall and Tender plowed through the lot of them and threw herself onto Haze's fresh corpse.
"Barbarians! He was alive! He was living!" Tender shouted. "No. No, no, no. Please. Please don't... no. I-I'm sorry. I was just... p-please! S-save him! S-save him! You must! You-"
None of them moved.
"H-how can you stand there and let him die! R-Rusty, he's your uncle, surely you cannot-"
"You had already killed him."
Tender blinked, then looked at Midnight. "Y-you can save him with your magic!"
"If he were a pony, maybe. But he no longer is one. His physiology is different from ours."
"B-but... I-I-I... s-someone! H-help me!" Tender trotted to the camera holder. "Percheron. Y-you can help, right? You can..."
Percheron put a hoof on the mare's shoulder. "There is nothing I can do for him. Nothing. Nothing at all."
Tender turned to Destrier, who just shook his head slowly.
That only left one.
"Y-you... you wouldn't let your comrade die like this, would you?"
Swift took a step towards the mare. "He was dead the moment you infected yourself. The moment you became the queen of these monsters."
"They are not monsters!" Tender screamed.
"I should have never forbidden you to infect yourself." Swift said shaking his head sadly.
"What?" Destrier stated looking at his prince. "You put the idea into her head?"
"I had stated that we would not be able to understand them because they were no longer equines like us. That the only way to really help them would be from within. To become one of them, to learn what it would be like to think as they do. I had specifically asked Tender never to humor such a thought, ever. Over the years they have formed some sort of society within ours, keeping to themselves for the most part. We never found out what the ate, but they tilled the fields, helped our kind build cities, worked at numerous mundane tasks, all without complaint or argument."
"Yes. They were your slaves. Obedient, uncomplaining slaves who did your bidding without a second though," Tender replied rocking Haze's body backwards and forwards slowly. "What kind of a life is that?"
"At least they were not hostile. Our peoples got along peacefully. Then you tried to teach them how to be individuals, to gain back what they had once lost."
"Yes... yes I did, but they could not understand." Tender smiled drunkenly. "I needed to know."
"That was when you reconnected what is increasingly apparent to be a major network of thought, where your thought dominates the entire legion. Much like a queen bee and her hive. A hive-mind. It is the same way that Hordak had complete hold and loyalty over his non-robotic minions."
"Robotic?" Rusty asked. "What is a robotic?"
"Automated creatures made of moving parts that do certain tasks depending on their function," Midnight replied.
This only confused the young stallion further.
"This ends now!" Swift shouted silencing all conversations. "Take her!"
Percheron and Midnight advanced towards the mare.
Suddenly Destrier stood in their way. "No."
The two looked at each other. "What's the meaning of this, Destrier? We have orders from our prince-"
"Who is the reason why Tender Heart is the way she is," the stallion stated. "Tender took what Swift said to heart in order to try and understand the minds of the changelings. Despite that being wrong, the idea was not put into her head. It was planted by you, Your Highness. You are as guilty as she is. You are equally responsible of creating this new threat. If she is to be taken, then so must you."
The others looked at each other as if Destrier had gone mad.
"Do not do this. Misplaced loyalty can be dangerous," Midnight said looking at Swift through the corner of his eye.
"I am loyal to Equestria, Midnight, but I am also loyal to my friends. All of you."
"Incoming!" a shouted called from behind them. "The changelings are coming!"
"Call them off." Midnight said. When it was clear that Tender was not listening, he took a step towards her. "Call them off now!"
"No."
"No?"
"No," Tender stated firmly. She stood up, dropping Haze's body unceremoniously to the ground. "It's about time for a change. I think it's time for my changelings to teach you ponies how to run a nation properly. Prepare to die."
She said it so calmly, as if she were talking about the weather.
"This ends. Right. Now." Swift roared and stepped past them all, including Destrier.
There was a flash of light, followed by a scream before the feed cut off.
"Oh... my..." Fluttershy whispered quietly.
From Eternia to Equestria
Chapter 8: The Fracture - Part 5
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