A Story from Harmony

With the scene on stage dimming into the darkness, gusts of wind swirled around the auditorium as the story prepared itself for the next scene. While Dusty was almost merely drunk from the vodka he had been sipping on, the earth pony was just sober enough to remain in utter amazement by the powers of which the Storyteller wields. To make his scenes come to life, it literally was leaving the tan earth pony speechless towards how he was able to control the elements within the theatre while still narrating the story.

Leaving his bottle to rest on the counter, the equine sat back to relax with his forelegs crossed over him. He then saw the set come back to life with amber fires burning in the cauldrons above. Lying on a white marble floor below, an elegant tapestry of red and gold stitching draped over a bare wooden table that was displayed with a single spotlight. Six royal delegates sat around it with Princess Celestia herself being at the head. Her sister, Princess Luna, sat at the other end while the remaining ponies were located on opposite sides of the long board.

Banners of the past independent nations were hung around the meeting room with the new Equestrian Flag also present. Meant to symbolize the union of the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasus, the members of the Royal Cabinet were also representatives of their former empires or nations they once served. With most of them being the highest of senior officials, they were quite older looking in their appearances when compared to the alicorn rulers they serve under.

With the scene completely step up and the characters mimicking their words as if they were carrying on a discussion, the Storyteller spoke up.

“Upon the arrival of the Gadabouts trip back from the mountains, the explores immediately made their way to the throne of Princess Celestia. Upon bowing to her, they presented the heart to their Highness while explaining the actions that unfolded and why they returned earlier than expected. After they presented the jewel to her as a gift, the Princess was almost baffled by the claim that the heart can see into the future of any pony that happens to touches it.”

“Seeing it for herself, Princess Celestia and eventually Princess Luna witnessed the vision of the same ceremony that Olona saw in her future as well. They both then understood the amount of magic contained within the heart was absurd and the potential action towards how they should handle the jewel needed to delegated upon. Did it need to have its power striped? Does it need to placed in a safe keep? Does it have an original owner to return to?”

“All those questions were laid out on the table and one pony seemed to have an idea upon what should be its intended use.”

“It seems to me as if we were presented with an opportunity my Princess,” said a grey unicorn with a general's uniform on.

“General Tempest,” the Storyteller explained. “...Commander of the 3rd Solar Guard and one of Celestia’s chief military advisers, was a rough riding pony that saw the establishment of the Equestrian Military from the three former nations. While he was at the command of the front lines, he used the information from the Gadabout Expeditions to expand the Equestrian influence and drive out, with relentless force, some of the land’s more terrifying creatures into an area he began to call the Everfree Forest, where they can roam forever free of their ideals.”

“And that is?” Princess Celestia’s words resumed the conversation.

“As you may have heard, your Highness,” the General stated. “While we might have been able to conquer the vast the land that was acquired from the constitutional agreement of the three advisors, there has been a bit of struggle in the west with an ever growing bug population we discovered to be quite hostile to ponies. They even have went as far to capture some of our troops which are currently MIA at this moment, pending a possible POW status if our intelligence comes back true.”

“I concur, your Highness. I have been hearing about this incidents just as General Tempest was tending to the situation as well,” said a pink pegasus with the same style of uniform as General Tempest. The only difference was the golden lightning bolts she wore on the top of her shoulders and around the neck.

“General Firefly, head of the Pegasus Flight Division (PFD),” spoke the narrator. “...Was a specialist in tactical trades and aerial flight assigned to the Equestrian Counsel on the demand for the advancement and preparation of Equestrian troops, regardless of race. A supreme commander, she later on went on to form a special ceremonial flight team called the Wonderbolts after overseeing the banishment of Princess Luna. As for now, she was also the current the overseer of the Gadabout Expedition’s since her and Aulus were husband and wife.”

Firefly resumed, “My scout teams have reported that the Equestrian forces were being ambushed by these changelings that pretend to disguise themselves as our troops, infiltrating our ranks and surround ourselves in numbers that are more vast than our own. For the most part they have overwhelmed our small teams and taken them alive without any warning or hesitation.”

She turned to the white alicorn and addressed directly to her, “Princess Celestia. We tried raising our security standards, but they have continued to be proven ineffective since our enemy is using camouflage techniques that we simply cannot counter without serious interrogation of our entire military population. As far as I’m aware, we don’t seem to have that many options at this moment except for what General Tempest is proposing.”

Celestia turned her head towards the old unicorn, “And so what do you advise, General Tempest?”

Clearing his throat, he presented his idea to the princess. “It’s quite simple, really. We use the power of this heart to strike back at them with relentless force! If they are willing to do harm to our troops, then we must hit them with everything we have to offer…” He slammed his hoof on the table while raising himself up tall. “...and if the power within the heart remains true, it should give us an upper hand in maybe predicting how, where, why they are able to slip past us without notice.”

He got down from the table and looked back at Celestia. “Of course, that is considering the fact of which we can bend the gem to our use, Princess.”

Quickly sharing a glare at him, the white alicorn then turned her attention to the middle of the table with both her forehooves pressed in front of her face.

The Storyteller explained, “Considering the idea of which has been placed in front of her, the Ruler of Equestria had to ponder upon the idea of wanting to order her counsel to try and tap a new found source of power for the sake of her own kind. While she didn’t quite know the clear risks towards drawing out magic from another object and possibly transferring it into other source or host, that wasn’t the main thought upon Celestia’s mind.”

“She was thinking about if General Tempest did succeed in the task of obtaining the magical properties of the heart. To which, seeing him using the boost to push out or eliminate the foes of which that captured her forces wouldn’t come as a surprise to her considering his record. He was a beast tamer, so to speak, and used the forces themselves under her orders to move the creatures around with effortless will to shape up the kingdom of which she ruled. While most of the time, movement, and settlement of the animals were mostly peaceful, the violent disruption of others had often left to casualties and loss of lives at the expense of training other ponies to take their place and funerals for the fallen. Also, she and the delegates had to live with the burden of their orders that created the situations in the first place.”

“The Tempest Movements were harsh and unforgiving at times to those who were involved regardless of which side they served. To see that kind of power posed within a pony was equally detrimental to the kind of destruction that any tyrannical dictator or ruler would use to show their udder dominance to another creature or race. As for the other side, to see that kind of power posed against them with the tent of harm or something equally worse could cause something with a more violent nature to attack or defend what they hold dear. Not giving up on what they hold close.”

“That was on Celestia’s mind. To further advance the power of oneself, she could see it as almost an act of mutual self destruction in regards towards the kingdom lossing ponies and / or becoming power hungry. To her, and after pondering about the idea for a minute, it just didn’t seem to sit well with her as the time passed and more thought was put into it.”

Celestia clacked her hoof on the table, declaring a direct, “No.”

She then explained, “We have already done enough harm as it is to the creatures that of which roam this land we called home. We have removed them from their remote lands, forced them into a concentrated area, and have keep up with the entire population’s near extinction due to their environment almost not supporting their needs. If are to do the same with these creatures, then I will not allow it… However, I will look for alternative options that see fit to rescue and return our soldiers to their rightful homes.”

General Tempest wasn’t happy with the response as his mouth made an ‘O’ shape with his jaw dropped. Raising a hoof onto the table, he curled it inward and cinched it tight while he looked directly back at Celestia. With a hint of anger in his tone, he spoke very clearly to her.

“Princess Celestia,” said the General. “...Out of respect I simply must say that it's a completely absurd approach towards keeping our ponies safe from harm. They are captured POW’s for your sake, Your Highness! I’m sure that deep down inside that the necessary use of force is the only way we can see their lives being saved! Otherwise, it just might be better to assume they are died with their blood on our hoofs.”

Matching his tone of voice, she responded, “I understand your concern, General. However, I cannot hold myself responsible anymore for the cause of another tragedy that I could prevent since the first time was… unexpected given the harsh resistance.”

“But I urge to you to reconsider, Princess Celestia!” he shouted.

“We could finally have the chance here to fix those mistakes in the past as well while helping to increase our catalyst to the point that our power can scare those creatures into our will without a single spell being casted after some bloodshed! Thus, we can possibly achieve total victory and bring home those of which we have lost, Your Highness. I urge you, Celestia, it can do very much more good than you could ever think-”

“That’s enough!” Celestia nearly snapped at her official, leaving his words to die within his throat while once again wearing an expression of shock upon his face. He has never seen his princess lash out like she did. Her cool, logical demeter seemed to be shattered upon the idea of obtaining more power for the sake of control.

General Tempest then leaned back in his seat. Cracking a smile upon an idea he thought of, he called out his royal dignitary and made sure she heard every word. “Hey Celestia… Just admit it, you are scared of the power to take the life of another.”

The comment didn’t soothed over with the angered alicorn. “General Tempest, I must ask if you speak out another line like that once again, I will order that your position on the council to be terminated on the spot with your career being evaluated for a potential discharge. Do you understand?”

The words fell flat upon the ears of Tempest, remaining silent while his hoofs were crossed. With moments passing by, no words were spoken between the two while the rest of the council waited for a response from the old pegasus. With Celestia’s anger growing by the second, she cleared her throat, lowered her eyebrows, and glared at her general. She made sure that every single one of her words were spoken directly to him.

“Final warning General Peter Tempest, do you understand?” Celestia asked, speaking perfectly clear, yet bitter Equestrian.

“Yes, your highness,” he replied.

The scene dimmed into darkness with the fires in the cauldrons burning out.

With a single spotlight shining on the Storyteller, he stood with the complete darkness while addressing the crowd in an authoritative manner. “General Tempest didn’t take to kindly to the idea of a cautious approach of rescuing his fellow soldiers, in fact he hated the very ideal of not using force at all to overwhelm anyone or thing that posed as a threat towards the new nation of Equestria itself. For the most part, he wasn’t welcoming to Celestia’s idea of not using a new found power source to establish dominance above all, for good… even if he didn’t fully understand the heart himself.”

“That gave him an idea.”

With the light returning to the mirror pool, the water within began to reflect slideshow images of what the narrator was speaking about. The first image was of General Tempus wearing a black cloak and appearing to be running down a long marble corridor with the Crystal Heart floating in his magic above him. It seemed to be that he was in quite a hurry to get out of where he was at since his face was portraying an expression of complete determination while sweating.

The narrator continued, “After requesting that the heart be put through trials of experiments to see exactly where its source of magic comes from, he insteads steals the heart after the countless denials and requests being dismissed by Princess Celestia herself. Risking his entire career, his original goal was to prove to the Princess and the rest of the Council that peace can only be achieved through the new power of which the heart could supply. However, after he felt disrespected by Celestia for her continuously ignoring her senior officials due to the idea of such power, his plan changed.”

“Mutiny.”

After the pool showed Tempest’s eyes burning with wild furry, the image began to transition into another still frame. In the photo shown to the audience, it had two ponies looking at each other in a confrontation of might and power. With Tempest and Celestia being the ponies portrayed, they were looking at each other with anger in their eyes while the general seemed to be shouting something at the white alicorn. With his horn being charged up, it appeared that he was ready to attack Celestia with very vigorous spell.

“He was going to stage an ultimatum on Princess Celestia herself. The conditions were for her to either give up the throne or risk being thrown into the dungeons on charges of neglecting the duties of the royalty, which included keeping its subjects well equipped and safe. With the power of the heart, he should have no problems going hoof-to-hoof with an alicorn if the situation called for it. To him, it’s force alone would ultimately secure his victory over Celestia without a hoof or magic even being struck between the two.”

“If only the heart would have coordinated with him.”

Smoke began to rise around the edge of the pond as the pink heart came into view. Spiraling around the middle of the lake, its glow allowed for Dusty and the rest of the ponies in attendance to see it through the rising fog. The rest of the set remained in the dark while small beams of light orbited the jewel like electrons. Occasionally, a thin shield would form around the heart with the spheres of light protecting it.

“You see everypony, magic isn’t exactly a kind of force that does bend to the will of whoever pony is in control if it. It can have a mind of its own due to the unstableness of how it conducts itself within a natural field that surrounds us, to which if some inexperienced pony was to simply command this force without the proper training and confidence to do so… then what on Celestia’s Earth would even listen to or do whatever it asks?”

“Instead, the heart reacted in its own unique, and quite interesting way.”

With the rest of the light returning to the stage, General Tempest and few other ponies could be seen inside a stone room that appears to be underground in a location not known to anyone except the occupants. With a few tables, chairs, and various sources of candle light scattered around the basement, the configuration of furniture could give away the idea that they were moved in order to levitate the heart within an open space. A single unicorn was circling around the heart with a clipboard in her magic, taking down a vast amount of notes.

“Done under the watchful eye of one of General Tempest’s most trusted field scientist, a unicorn named Dr. Mortem, the experimenter shot various amounts of different beams of magic at the heart in an attempt to draw out the magic’s source within, only to be reflected off by the heart’s strong natural force field. It was quite annoying to the experimenters that something very inanimate to them is resisting anything and everything that they can throw at it. Spells, charms, and even curses couldn’t penetrate the wall that heart kept strong. It seemed almost hopeless to even continue trying after their countless attempts.”

All the unicorns within the area were huffing and puffing after their attacks. Bringing themselves to mere exhaustion, sweat was raining down their faces as they all glared at the heart with enmity. They were not familiar with an opposition as unique as what the heart was capable of, bring their heads down and almost to the floor out of their ruthless aggressions. It just didn’t seem to anypony that the heart could be tampered with.

“I… I cannot do this anymore, sir.” Dr. Mortem panted, “It just simply is too strong…. for anypony to tamper…. with its properties-”

“Nonsense!” Tempest shouted. “You are just too weak to even possibly do anything to break the force field… This is magic that comprehends even our most advanced practices. Dare I say it's almost, ancient?”

“What do you... mean?” Dr. Mortem asked out of his fatigue.

“What I mean is that this heart could have been produced from a ritual of some sort,” Tempest explained. “One to give it the ability to see in the future… and the other is to protect it from anypony willing to destroy or draw the magic from it such as ourselves, possibly casted upon the heart in the same ceremony as the ability of foresight. This is why both properties could possibly be active at the same time without the heart breaking into pieces.”

“So what are you getting at here?” Dr. Mortem asked while curling his hoof around in a circle before pausing with the underside out.

The general casted a spell on a nearby book and floated it within view of everypony to see. With the Tavern’s band beginning to play an deep hasty tune, General Tempest took his front hoof and slowly rubbed it all the way down the spine. He told them, “Like the treads on a book, we could be able to just simply unwind the magic from the Crystal itself…”

He opened the book and began to tear the pages out of it. Grunting with anger in his voice, the stallion was beginning to shred apart the book with an increasing effort. “Giving us the chance to capture it... transfer it… and then use it. Afterwards, I can dispose of the heart and Princess Celestia herself. Tartarus, maybe even Princess Luna if she dares to ever challenge me as well.”

After lighting the book on fire and tossing it into a nearby bin, he let out a maniacal laugh in front of Dr. Mortem while ordering his troops to stand around the heart in preparation for a spell that will combine the effort and powers of all present. Unknown to them however, Dr. Mortem wasn’t quite accepting towards the attitude of Tempest with his greed and rage starting to get the better of him. To her, she felt almost betrayed by the way the General was composing himself. She knew him for quite awhile to be a very level headed equine with impressive intelligence for the leader that he was.

She never would have considered him to be a power crazed dictator that he was slowly becoming.

The Storyteller spoke further, “Calling upon a couple friends of his that shared within the same vision of General Tempest, he, Dr. Mortem, and two other unicorns stood around the heart and recited a spell that caused the four unicorns in the room to have their horns start glowing a mystic red that burned with an yearning for what was ahead. Together, they held strong as they all felt the magic within themselves beginning to tug and pull as streams of light began to leave from the tip of their horns.”

Shooting out in every direction, the individuals held strong while their magic was flustering with sparks and streaks of light bursting from their horns. With robust “pops” and “crackles” sounding off with each flair and spark, their spells were beginning to focus upon the heart as small spheres of light shined from the edge of each unicorn.They began to grow in their individual sizes as they all absorbed and drained the magic from their hosts. Thus, they became a vessel of power to use in the ritual to strike the heart’s defences with a much stronger force.

With the lights building in size, the conditions within the room began to intensify with a relentless gust of wind swirling around the ponies as a bulk of their magic left their bodies entirely. While the dust within the room was violently twisting behind the equines, the lights themselves rose into the air before they rushed towards the heart and conformed with an illumination that made the jewel glow almost intensely bright. The combined powers then held the Crystal Heart within its grasp.

Acting out of a natural reaction to an invading attack, the Crystal Heart’s force field began to appear as a glass blanket layered on top of the surface. While it did completely resist the aggression of the continuous onslaught the ritual was causing at first, it wasn’t before long that the glass shield around the heart showed signs of faltering as the spell increased its barrage along with the brightness. Thus, each pony had to cover their eyes while they could hear the sound of glass crackling, coming from the epicenter of the act they created.

General Tempest couldn’t be anymore happier with what he was hearing. “That is excellent my fellow soldiers! Feel the ritual begin to make the heart break from the pressure!”

He let out a hearty laugh while Dr. Mortem looked at him with disbelief and mere sorrow in her eyes.

Within the chaos, the narrator spoke over the action, “As the heart began to lose its shield from the force of a spell combined by four unicorns, the General began to act more hysterical with each passing second. And just like how each piece of the shield’s heart began to crack and fall, the General’s true attitude began to show through his once cool demeter, making his face almost seem like he was possessed with the power he seemed to be unlocking.”

General Tempest couldn’t be anymore happier with what he was hearing. “That is excellent my fellow soldiers! Feel the ritual begin to make the heart break from the pressure!”

He let out a hearty laugh while Dr. Mortem looked at him with disbelief and mere sorrow in her eyes.

Within the chaos, the narrator spoke over the action, “As the heart began to lose its shield from the force of a spell combined by four unicorns, the General began to act more hysterical with each passing second. And just like how each piece of the shield’s heart began to crack and fall, the General’s true attitude began to show through his once cool demeter, making his face almost seem like he was possessed with the power he seemed to be unlocking.”

“This terrified his best friend, Dr. Mortem, seeing who was once a leader to an improving army beginning to act like he won the ultimate power that he could lay his hoofs upon. Not only did it scare her, it made herself feel betrayed by the thought of him being a modest gentleman, who would not put his own self greed above all else. Who saw his elders as a symbol of righteousness and proud honor to serve under, not as the enemy.”

“As a stallion who wouldn’t dare use the power to take a life of another.”

It was then at that instant she knew the power from the heart shouldn’t belong to him or anypony for the matter. Mustering what she could from the remaining amount of effort and willingness she had left in herself, her horn began to glow a bit brighter than the other unicorns within the room. General Tempest seemed to noticed as he tried to look at his assistant, only to be shocked by what she was trying to do.

“I’m sorry, General,” she cried out. “But I cannot let you do this!”

“WHAT!” he shouted back, not realizing the fact she was trying to cast small spell.

With a loud grunt, Dr. Mortem threw everything she had into casting her charm into the fury of the ritual as she nearly collapsed to floor out of physical and near mental exhaustion. Before her eyes closed, she was just able to see the spell hit the glowing intensity around the heart. Afterwards, the doctor couldn’t see the reaction she caused as it began to shift through different rays of colors.

With the spell twisting and bending itself out of the form of a once perfect sphere, beams of magic were being shot back to the individual owners of their shared part. Feeling their magic return to them, the two assistants within the room were being pushed back behind the grey wall of dust every time the heart shot their magic to them. As for the general, managing to stand his ground while trying to hold his forceful grip on the heart, he remained in complete awe by what Dr. Mortem did to his attempt at power.

Rushing over to her and trying to shove her with his front hoofs back to consciousness, Tempest glared at her with anguish and yelled, “What, what did you do! No wait, the heart!”

Opening her eyes after faintly hearing the words of the old unicorn, she tried to speak up to him and could only barely uttered out the words she spoke. “I shot a simple... teleportation spell at it…. which should cause the heart to... transport somewhere even I have... no idea to where it could be located.”

“Wait, noooo, you bitch!” were the only words that General Tempest could scream before he tried to grab onto the heart he was about to lose.

Using the magic that was being shot back at him, the unicorn formed a golden ring that spun violently around the breaking shield of the Crystal Heart. With it being clasped onto the outer layer which was protecting the gem, it only seemed to look like it was crushing what was left of the shield as it continued to break and crack with the magic that was leaving from the original spell. Upon realizing the fact that the magic from the ritual was now the only thing maintaining the glass shield, General Tempest tried to tighten his gold band in effort to maintain the entire heart in once piece while trapping as much of what was left from the ritual.

However, as the last ounce of magic shot off from cover that protected the heart and back into the General himself, the shield exploded, sending smoke and pieces of pink glass shards in all directions. While the heart itself disappeared in a flash, the ponies within mere seconds put up enough of a defencive barrier to protect themselves from the flying shrapnel. Passing thru their respective walls of defence, the glass turned into dust and covered the unicorns until their coats turned grey. They managed to sustain no clear or visible damage as they waited for the smoke to die down and check upon each other.

As it did though, they realized that not all of them were able to defend themselves as the music within the auditorium fell silent.

Lying next to Dr. Mortem with a glass shard that stabbed all the way through his chest, General Tempest was bleeding profusely as his lifeless body was completely torn apart from the debris. As the shard died out with sparks that sputtered with small bolts of magic that swirled outwards and into the mid air, the rest of the body remained slashed up with gaping incisions that cut deep into the flesh. Pieces of his fur were ripped away from him in patches while his mane and coat soaked in a pool of his own blood.

General Tempest was dead and completely beyond any chance of a recovery. As Dr. Mortem tried to look upon the body with a paralyzing realization of the unicorn’s death, she herself didn’t have enough time to react before being pinned down by the two guards within the room. With both of them aiming their horns while she was plastered to the floor, they held within themselves a sudden deep aggression. They assumed she the murderer of their dear leader.

The slate colored guard shouted at Dr. Mortem, “WHAT DID YOU DO!”

“I DON’T KNOW, I DIDN’T-”

“BULLSHIT!” the other guard cried. “YOU KILLED HIM IN THE SMOKE!”

“DON’T LIE TO US,” the slate unicorn demained.

With tears running down her face, she cried, “IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I SWEAR!”

“Well buddy,” the slate equine huffed. “I can cause accidents too you know. Now tells us, WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?”

“I DIDN’T KILL HIM I SWEAR!” she pleaded.

Pleading for her life, Dr. Mortem was able to convince the guards of her innocence while in exchange for helping them to leave the scene entirely spotless of their presence. With just the body of General Tempest left behind, the two guards and the assistant fled the scene of the crime and sealed the steel door tight with loud bang, in hopes of never returning to the room again. Silence once again dominated the auditorium as the scene itself faded into the darkness. A single spotlight remained casted over the Storyteller as he closed out the first part of his story.

“That was the last time that anypony heard from the General… After the incident, the three unicorns disappeared into the unknown to regroup themselves within the guard while an investigation pended on the recent disappearance of a high end military official. Upon discovering his body at the scene of the accident, it was later ruled as a suicide since no one in the guard seemed to know how General Tempest ended up stabbing himself to death. Later on down the road, the case was dismissed by the royal court as a “sad and unnecessary tragic event that further shows the dark nature of us Equestrians,” as said by Princess Celestia herself. Meanwhile, searches were sent out to find the stolen heart and return it safely to Canterlot.”

“However, after months of relentless search conducted by General Firefly herself as the lead of many expeditions, all of them came back with nothing except for what the original Gadabouts expeditions were doing. Thus, not all was at a loss… However, unknown to anyone at that time, some of the higher delegates will learn that will take another certain pony to discover what was lost.”

“And the battles she faces to find the Crystal Heart.”