Tears of Harmony

"Auntie Cadance! ...She's dead. I can't believe Flurry Heart turned on me like that... Don't they understand?! It's all for our benefit..."

"Empress Twilight! Are you alright, I heard magical fire-- Oh gosh, is that Attendant Cadance? What happened?!"

"Flurry Heart happened. Find me a replacement Royal Hunter, please. I have to take care of Cadance. And Starlight? This incident never leaves this room. Do you understand me?"

"I'm so proud of you, my little Flurry. I knew you had it in you to do it."

"Me too, sweetie! Your father and I have never been so proud of you before."

"Thank you, both of you. I promise to uphold the integrity of the Empire."

"I suspect that you will. The Royal Hunter program is still in its infancy, but to have such a powerful Alicorn as the Hunter will ensure Equestria maintains nothing but the peace and prosperity she is deserved of. I, too, am proud of you, Flurry Heart. I am confident that you will serve Equestria with nothing but dedication and loyalty."

Kill them all, Flurry Heart, Harmony awaits.

What--

Their necromancy is an affront to the spirit of Harmony and its divinity upon the universe.

I don't understand, who are you? What is happening?!

I'm you. I'm all that you stand for, all that you have fought for. They have served their purpose, now kill them. They can not be trusted. They will reveal your existence to Twilight. Kill them.

That is not the way I will do things. I have a plan to wipe their memories of me before I leave; killing them won't be necessary.

They're going to tell Empress Twilight of your existence right now, Flurry Heart. They're preparing to leave. Kill them!

Something was wrong. I was losing control. I couldn't be certain of what was happening, or what was causing it, but I knew something was terribly wrong. I'd been asleep in the room, dreaming of my graduation from the academy, when I came to. It was late into the night and...

"The Greater Equestrian Empire does not demand. It does not expect. It asks. It asks of you undying loyalty, unwavering commitment, unyielding faith. In the Empress, and in the ideals of the Destiny we have so rightfully attained, through the labor and service of those who served before you!"

I was having flashes. Moments where i'd hear Twilight's voice, or mom's. I'd blank out and see these events as if they were happening again. My graduation, my first kill, the twitchy edge before a mission. Infiltrations, assassinations, reward. Then...the split.

"These traitors represent a grave threat to the very fabric of Equestrian society. They spread subversive material and engage in acts and tactics meant to weaken the foundation of our Empire, and it is time that their subterfuge ends. A patriotic citizen has ascertained their current location, and it is only in you whom I trust to carry this mission out. No prisoners. You'll find their identities and location within this sealed dossier."

The mission that changed it all, when I was sent to track down and kill Fluttershy's Harmony Brigade. I remember the terror in their eyes, but all I remember feeling was indifference. Before I could kill them, though, Fluttershy pleaded that I at least listen to them. She showed me the diary of Equestria's Princess, Celestia, and offered me the truth potion if I did not believe. I drank, and...I learned. In that terrible moment everything I'd ever known was savagely ripped away, and the truth of my service to the Empire dawned on me.

I rolled over and fell out of the bed, and as I staggered to my hooves my vision blurred. "What... What is..." I uttered, stumbling towards the door. I scrabbled at the handle and flung the door open, and trotted out into the hall. As I approached the main hall my vision cleared and my mind began to rest. I entered the main hall in time to see the door to the launch tunnel close, and I trotted over to it on hooves quickly growing steadier. I eased up to the door and gently nudged it, hearing the hum of the skyboat's engine. Mortis' voice drifted through the air, just loud enough to be audible over the gentle thrum that filled the launch tunnel.

"She'll likely be fairly incapacitated by now, potent as that gas is. Go collect her, and make sure you restrain her well. Our stopover on Ascension is more than a week's journey away, and I don't want there to be any surprises. I have to prepare a message for the Imperial Embassy, so it'll be a few minutes before we take off. Go on, now" I heard Mortis say to one of his cohorts, and I stepped back from the door.

He's planning to sell me over to the Empire. If Empress Twilight even hears of my existence she'll utterly eradicate Mortis and his entire group, along with me. What does this moron hope to even gain!? I wondered, growing infuriated. As the door opened I rammed it open, the heavy steel whacking Mortis' cohort in the face. He fell to the floor, blood soaking his snout, and I stepped over him. Mortis turned and jumped as he saw me step into the tunnel.

"Great One, what are you doing here? Are you well? You should be in bed, truly; we're not certain if you're fully healed yet" he said, his honeyed words entirely believable, were it not for the fact I already knew of his facade. As I stood before him contemplating my response, the rage died, and I was struck with a cold revelation. There was no point in words, no point in negotiating or even intimidating. He and the other necromancers were now a threat, and there was no proper response.

With a calm turn of my head I charged my horn and blew one of the skyboat's engines to pieces. The blast cracked the catapult it was on and the vehicle began to accelerate, the hull striking the crack and derailing, ramming into the tunnel's wall where it exploded, the windscreen shattering and doors popping open. Thick black smoke bled from the interior, hued by the orange glow of a rapidly spreading fire.

"GREAT ONE!! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!?" Mortis screamed, and I cut him down without a thought. I changed spells and my magic turned rigid, extending into a thin pink beam that went out a good three feet, leaving little wisps of magic as the air passed through it. I plunged the saber-like beam into the body of Mortis' cohort, and entered into the main hall. Necromancers drawn by the explosion were near the door, about to come into the tunnel, and stopped when they saw me emerge.

"Great One, what is happening? Is all well?" one of them asked, and I quietly approached him. I lowered my head and speared him through the barrel and all Tartarus broke loose. I lit a shield and felt a few of the necromancers bounce off, and I turned to find them knocked to the floor. I split my magic and two small bolts sailed into their heads, splitting them open. I turned back around and watched the necromancers scatter, some of the Unicorns opening fire with their own magic, which harmlessly dissipated against my shield.

As the minutes began to progress the temple turned to a bloodbath as I effortlessly cut through the 20 or so necromancers who resided and studied there. With the main hall cleared I entered the East wing where hastily constructed barricades were being put up against doors and in halls. I pushed into one of the labs and was met with a fusillade of magical fire, the orbs deflected by my shield. I lowered the power and changed the shape of my shield until it was blocking only the front of me. A quick burst of my horn saw two more of their number felled with simmering holes in their head. A third necromancer fired magic at my shield as he cowered behind a desk. He stood to fire again and I reshaped my magic to form a beam saber again and I swung my head, the tip of the beam running along his head. He shouted in pain and fell to the floor, his head cut to the bone from his jaw to the base of his ear. I speared his head and listened his flesh simmer as I pulled out.

As I turned away and back towards the door I was singed by a near-miss from a necromancer by the door, and I jumped. I lit my shield and charged her, and she fell backwards as she tried to scramble away. I killed my magic and drove my horn itself into her throat, feeling the warmth spurt down the length of my spire, matting the fur around the base of my horn. I pushed her off my horn and fresh blood splattered out onto my face, her body dumped to the floor with unseeing eyes boring into the old wood. I started bucking open doors and violently cutting down those who hid and those who resisted. I submerged myself into the adrenaline and bloodrush and became reckless, killing all my spells and reverting to using my horn to stab and slash and gore my victims as they futilely fought back. Near-misses and splashes cut me and blistered me and burned me, but no shots found their mark. My pink fur dripped deep crimson from my horn and my chin, and I breathed deep. In less than ten minutes the temple was clear, and I was standing in the main hall, my body violently shaking from hoof to horn.

When the last of the necromancers fell I took a few minutes to search some of the ritual rooms until I found an empty soul gem. I found one lying on the floor of the room I'd done my first supplantation in, next to the bloody body of one of the necromancers. I slid the gem into a pocket of the cloak that Indigo had given me and made my way back to the main hall. Once I returned to Koss I'd have all six gems that I needed. I stopped in the center of the hall and looked around, musing to myself how still it seemed. The building really was quite beautiful, it was a shame what had happened to it.

After a minute I lit my horn again and let the tendrils of magic snake out across the room, the wood smoking at the touch. I fed more power into the spells and the wood began to simmer and crackle, and before long it lit, the walls and floors beginning to burn. I did the same to the halls of the East and West wings, the flames licking at the ancient mahogany. I stood in that inferno long enough to assure myself it'd all burn to the ground before I turned back to the launch tunnel. The skyboat was unusable, of course, but I knew there was an elevator that went down into the mountain where a garage for surface vehicles led into a tunnel back to The Dome. The smoke from the skyboat filled the tunnel, but I paid it no mind as I trotted through it. As I passed by Mortis' body I paused and stared down at him. It was sad in a way, to see such a brilliant mind wasted on such repugnant magics. I nudged his barrel and he gasped sharply, proving to me he was still alive, if barely. There was a modest hole bored through his chest and a gaping exit wound along his barrel; he had minutes to live, if that. "I didn't see Indigo during my battle."

"She...." he breathed. "She was on...the skyboat... She was ou-- Our pilot..."

I felt nothing. "A nurse and a pilot. She was talented. She deserved better."

"D-Don't...we all....."

I left the smoke to envelop him as he slipped away, entered the elevator, and pressed the descend button. The old lift shuddered quietly as it descended into the mountain, a naked lightbulb casting a soft glow. I wiped what blood I could off my fur, but most of it had dried. The trip down was but a blur, and before long I reached bottom and the door opened, revealing the garage as promised. I ignored the hovercars and began to canter down the tunnel. It was a long way back to The Dome, and I had a mission to get back to.

I sure was hungry, though. Famished, even. "Sure could use some snackies" I whispered to myself. I started giggling, the sound gently echoing down the tunnel as I went. "S-- Snack-- Oh my gosh, snackies. What a stupid word" I said, my laughter rising. I was oddly giddy, but I didn't fucking care. It felt good to just laugh. Cathartic, even. I was still alive, and more of my enemies weren't. I had a right to be happy.

I'm sure it was just a side effect of that drug the necromancers had exposed me to, anyway.