Alternative Harmony

by FableTail

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Alternate Universe, Main 6, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Spike, Comedy
Length: 2286

Twilight Sparkle must find the Elements of Harmony and stop the evil rising in Equestria.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna died after turning Discord into stone. Their deaths sent the Elements of Harmony to who knows where and the land of Equestria divided into 6 states. A thousand years later, Twilight Sparkle is the princess of Equestria and resides in Canterlot with her family. She possesses one of the Elements of Harmony, the Element of Magic, and is perfectly content in her posh castle. But then, tragedy strikes as Twilight is framed for the murder of her father. To prove she is innocent, Twilight and her trusty servant, Spike, must gather the other Elements of Harmony and banish the evil that has begun to take over Equestria.

Artwork by my best friend! Will update genre and characters as story progresses.

Published 2012-07-12 10:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-12 10:44:01 UTC

Prologue

Prologue

The revolts in Equestria were becoming larger and more frequent. Nopony liked their tyrant and leader, Discord. He created mischief with the snap of his claws. His jesters were any bystander that he wanted to ‘play with’ as he manifested their worst nightmares and tortured them for laughs.

When one of these sessions went wrong and when the poor, innocent pony received a fatal blow, the Princesses knew Discord had to be stopped. The answer was right under their noses.

“But thou must! StarSwirl, thou must hath a spell to defeat thoust Tyrant!” Princess Celestia, the alicorn who raises the sun, begged. The bearded pony looked at her with an old and tired expression.

Princess Luna, the alicorn who raises the moon, seemed to be losing her patience as she nudged her sister aside and drew closer to StarSwirl.

“I shall not be ignored! Ignorance breeds a foul hatred, StarSwirl the Bearded.” Princess Celestia looked at her in surprise, and then pinned back her ears as she looked back at StarSwirl.

“Please, it is the Chaos that makes us desperate and sharp-tongued. Thou must know a way!”

StarSwirl, the most powerful unicorn of all (And the unicorn with the longest beard), gave Princess Luna a wary glance before training his eyes on the Sun Princess. “I do know a way, my Princesses… but thou shall not survive in the end.” The Moon Princess scoffed arrogantly.

“We can survive anything.” She stated foolishly, her voice strong and confident.

“My dear sister, we are not immune to everything.” Celestia reminded her, but Luna just rolled her eyes.

“Arrogance breeds fools.” StarSwirl muttered as he turned around. Using a simple spell he pictured a particular book in mind. His horn glowed and the exact book teleported right in front of him. He opened the book and gestured for the Princesses to come closer.

“These are…” Princess Celestia started, trailing off as her eyes widened.

“The Elements of Harmony.” Her sister of the Moon finished.

StarSwirl nodded. “The Elements of Harmony; Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Generosity, and-” He was cut off as the Princesses breathed out the strongest Element of them all, “Magic.”

“B-but, thou must knowest, the Elements are lost to all! Their disappearance is what led to Lord Discords’ reign!” Luna sputtered out, her face adopting a hopeless expression.

StarSwirl held up a hoof to the young Princess. “That is what Lord Discord has thou believe. But all is not true, he hides the Elements in a place dear and near.” And that is when Princess Celestia realized the location of the Elements.

“I know where they are.” She announced, gaining her sister and the unicorns’ attention. She trained her pink eyes on the door opposite of their position. “When we retrieve them, we must activate their power to destroy Lord Discord, yes?”

“His body shall turn against him and harden into stone.” He corrected, closing the book up and tossing it up in the air where it exploded in sparks of blue and grey, then teleported somewhere else.

“To stone? It won’t destroy him?” The darker alicorn asked with an undertone of anger. But before StarSwirl could say anything, Princess Celestia was already dragging Luna out of the unicorns’ castle.

The white alicorn touched the tip of her long horn to the hard and cold ground of Discords’ Throne room, and quickly slashed it across to make a mark. Her pastel colored mane floated around her as her eyes began to glow along with her horn.

Her sister was in a similar stance, a strong one with chest puffed out and horn high in the air. Their surroundings hummed with life as their magic twisted together and spread out.

And as quickly as the event happened, it ended with a bright flash and the appearance of a very bored looking draconequus. His horse like face bearing a frown, a large sharp tooth sticking out from his top lip.

He put on a coy smile as he realized who summoned him. “Ah the Princesses. What did you two think of my offer?” He twisted his long, deformed body around itself as her floated in the air.

“We refuse.” Celestia said, taking a threatening step towards the spirit of chaos. Discord tsked, his lion paw making a gesture in the air.

“A decision thou shall regret.”

The Princesses exchanged looks and then began running around Discord, horns glowing and manes whipping. The room was suddenly enveloped in a mixture of white and black magic. The vortex was void of color, seeming to even suck it out of Discord.

Discord raised a fuzzy eyebrow and laughed, unphased by the spectacle.. “It’ll take a lot more than silly little spells to stop-” He was never given the chance to finish his sentence as the Princesses activate the Elements of Harmony and the vortex exploded in a rainbow of color.

His entire body froze in his position and quickly it hardened into stone. Once they were finished, his expression was forever frozen as one of amusement.

Everything seemed fine for a moment, and Luna smirked. “Our legs hold strong.” She said, nodding at her sister, who looked relieved as well. But then, Luna felt a twinge in her hooves and she grimaced. Celestia looked at her sister with worry. “I-I’m fine...” Neither alicorn was convinced.

Princess Lunas’ legs gave out and she fell to the floor, her face a twist of pain. Celestia felt her legs shake and convulse before she fell as well. They exchanged twisted looks of pain and shock.

Their horns still glowed, but the light began flickering out. Until finally, their horns dimmed to where they were void of color. Their entire bodies dulled until they too, were turned into stone.

Then three balls of light drew from out from Celestias’ body, and three more from Lunas’. The Elements of Harmony glowed, and began to float upwards. They shined their own unique light, before each one disappeared in a flash.

Midnights and Mornings

Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle, a light purple unicorn with a neat cut mane and tail of a dark shade of indigo with streaks of purple and pink, closed up the history of Equestria book she had been studying.

And although she would rather continue reading it, it was high time she got herself to bed. As the Princess of Equestria, she had duties to attend to in the morning.

Her horn glowed a faint purple-pink as she levitated the book to its correct spot on a large bookshelf.

Twilight trotted out of her castles’ library and up a winding staircase that would lead to a corridor with three doors.

One would led to her older brothers’ room, Prince Shining Armor, another would lead to her fathers’ room, the King of Equestria, and the last would take her to her own room.

She tip-hoofed to her room, careful as to not wake anypony up, and gently nudged her, slightly ajar, door open with her snout.

Thankful that it did not make a squeaking noise, she hurriedly went into her room and used her back leg to close the door until it shut with a click.

Her room was a neat and organized place of studying and regality. There was a corner with a wooden desk complete with a phoenix quill and parchment ready for writing, and a wall completely devoted to shelves of books of all genres.

A smaller corner consisted of a room divider, used as a dressing screen, a large wardrobe, and a vanity with a large mirror. And on the adjacent corner to the left was a quaint little area for Twilights’ servant, Spike.

There was a small plush bed that was purple and green to match the purple and green baby dragon who was currently snoring on it in a deep sleep.

The entire interior of the room itself was carefully designed to match the color scheme of Twilight Sparkle. The walls were light purple, the floors covered in plush red carpeting. Her furniture ranged from purple, to indigo, and pink. Some with white or red trims.

Her bed was queen size and had the softest and snuggliest comforter she had ever known.

On her way to her bed she glanced at a large secondary mirror, a habit she detested, and smiled briefly from what she saw.

Then she clambered onto her bed, planting her forehooves onto the comforter and pushing the rest of her body up, backhooves attempting to ‘grapple’ onto the side of the bed.

She resulted in being belly down on the bed, and crawling over to her pillows.

Remembering she was wearing her tiara, Twilight levitate the golden, sapphire encrusted headpiece to her night stand. She smiled softly at the center jewel, a large six-pointed star ruby that resembled her cutie mark.

A sweet memory of how she found the Element of Magic and received her cutie mark played in her head as she casted a protection ward on the tiara and drifted to sleep.

Mumbling in her sleep, the lavender unicorn shifted under her covers. Her body was warm and she felt half-aware of her surroundings. Her eyes were shut tightly, her brain feeling numb from relaxation.

“Princess Twilight?” A voice called from her side. Twilight shifted in reaction to the sound, her ears twitching.

“Princess Sparkle.” The voice was familiar, and carried a stern tone. But Twilight didn’t have the will to open her eyes, sleep just seemed to alluring.

“Twilight!” The high-pitched child-like voice shouted, dropping the formalities. This woke the unicorn up, and she pushed the covers off with her backlegs then straightened herself. Her purple eyes darted to the side where they met green ones.

“Schedule.” She ordered in a groggy voice, taking a hoof and rubbing her eyes with it in an attempt to get rid of the SandMares’ sand.

Spike bowed slightly at the royal unicorn before jumping off the queen bed and walking over to the writing desk.

“Your, majesty~” The purple unicorn turned her head to look at a white pony with a red, pink, and white mane. Said mare had been using a sing-song voice when she addressed Twilight, and was now smiling at the princess.

“Good morning, Sweet Plum.” Twilight said politely. The white mare bowed before trotting into the room a little more, she had been standing at the doorway.

“While Spike rounds up your schedule, I’m here to announce the events and fix up your mane.” She was already at the vanity and wardrobe, picking out dresses and make-up.

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “But Flitter Heart usually helps me in the morning…” She did not like that her only friend, besides her brother and Spike, was not present for their morning talks.

“Flitter is tied up with other maid duties.” Sweet Plum answered as she took a dress out of the wardrobe. “Hmm, no. Too blue.” She placed it neatly back into the wardrobe and hummed a tune as she looked over the dresses again.

Twilight deemed that as an ok excuse. Though she was still ruffled from the fact that she hadn’t been warned or told ahead of time.

Sweet Plum seemed to notice this as she pulled out a yellow dress and trotted over to the unicorn with said dress in her teeth.

She placed her forehooves on the bed and gently laid the dress down before pushing off and smiling encouragingly at the princess. “It came up just this morning so Flitter couldn’t tell you, but she said she’ll make it up to you tomorrow morning with your favorite treat.” This made Twilight smile, and she levitated the dress up and slipped it on.

“Thank you Sweet Plum.” The purple princess then jumped off the bed, landing on her hooves, and trotted over to her little dragon servant, though was stopped by the white maid who called for her again.

Sweet Plum had a purple horse brush with a white trim in her mouth, and she motioned for the unicorn to step closer. Then she brushed Twilights’ mane and tail, ridding it of kinks and straitening it just the way the princess liked it.

When she was done she placed the brush on the vanity and bowed.

“Announcements; There is an Equestria meeting today in the Throne Room and the King requests you come by, and there is a special lesson for you today with your tutor.” The red maned maid said before smiling at Twilight and trotting out of the room.

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” Twilight seemed excited as she levitated her tiara over to herself and then placed it on her head. She inspected herself in the mirror for a moment, and then she trotted over to Spike.

“Spike, when’s my lesson?” The baby dragon had been munching on a blue gem, and then turned his green eyes to Twilight as he held up the schedule. The princess scanned it quickly and smiled.

“Perfect, thanks Spike!” She levitated another gem to the dragon, Twilight had a stash of them as rewards for Spike, and earned an impish smile.

“You’re the best, Twi’!” He left the desk to munch on the gem, leaving the seat out for Twilight.

The princess sat down and used a simple spell to summon her journal of speeches. The unicorn had to speak in front of Canterlot today for the celebration the opening of a new high-class restaurant.

Since she had a whole hour free of things to do, she quickly levitated her phoenix quill to scribble, though in neat hoofwriting, ‘Study’ on her schedule. Then the unicorn cracked open her journal and began to read.