Tears of Harmony

"You have to understand: it's been weeks, Flurry Heart. We did what we thought was most prudent, since there'd been no word or sight of you in so long."

I stood in Koss's apartment once more, as this selfish backstabber attempted to explain himself to me. It'd taken some time to find my way back, but I had eventually found an area I recognized, and followed the familiar streets back to the Griffon's home. He'd been shocked to see me walk in, and I'd been shocked to hear him say that he had taken possession of my ship, and had sold the soul gems we'd amassed. Weeks of fighting, searching, traded away. A dead friend, the suffering I'd endured, the gains of each sold like any common commodity. For all the time I'd spent in The Dome, I now had nothing to show for it.

"To whom did you sell the gems?" I asked. There was no sense in giving up now. We'd merely have to track down the buyer and get the gems back. The Dome, for as large as it was, was just one place. There was no where else in all the cosmos for someone who'd buy soul gems to safely go. We'd find them, whatever it took.

"Tim'mrak..." Koss answered.

I snapped. I yanked the bird off his fucking greedy talons and shoved him onto his kitchen table, the glasses placed upon it knocked askew and sent to the floor, where they shattered. I fixed him with a gaze that bore into his very being and lit my horn, the tip shimmering as the thaums flowed like plasma. "Give me one, good, reason not to kill you" I hissed. His betrayal, and that of the monks, only served to further prove to me that no one and nothing could be trusted. Other creatures were things to be used, assets to employ, in the service of Harmony.

"B-Because I can help you get them back! You'll need an army to take on Tim'mrak and his marauders, and the Sons of Gilda can be that army! We can help you strike facilities owned and operated by Tim'mrak's thugs, and I can help track down where's he holding the gems" Koss rapidly explained.

"As soon as he learns I'm alive, he'll reveal where he's holding them to bait me into coming to him. Finding the gems won't be hard, it'll just be a matter of fucking killing him and taking back what RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO HARMONY! You ARE EXPENDABLE. You are ALL EXPENDABLE. NOTHING matters but the return of Harmony to THE GALAXY" I yelled.

"Yes, yes! Harmony and the way things should be, I get it I get it! But you'll never get anywhere close to Tim'mrak without our help! You'll need our numbers and our skyboats to draw him out and weaken him! The SoG will never help you without me" Koss protested.

"There's more than one Griffon mercenary group in The Dome. If not you, then someone else. All I need to do is flash some coin and they'll all walk in my shadow."

"They'll take one look at you and kill you! Equestrians are not trusted. You won't get anywhere without me and the Sons!"

I paused and mulled over what he said. I had no trust in him, no respect for him, but he was the devil I knew. In truth, the means mattered very little. I realized that the means had always mattered very little. All that mattered was the end, and I intended for that end to be the return of Harmony. When the time came, no one would care how it came to be. How I restored it. All that would matter is that we would all once again live the way we were all meant to. In peace, with trust, for each other.

I released Koss and stepped back. "You will help me. You will do this without question, without hesitation, and without compensation. Fuck your money, fuck your organization; Harmony will be your reward. Tranquility and peace will be your pay. Your checks will read 'justice.' Your coffers will contain nothing but fair treatment and equality for ALL of Equestria's races. You will bankrupt yourselves if I demand it, if it will return Harmony to us that much quicker. And when you are old and retired, on a quiet, white beach, before clear, blue waters, you will realize the errors of your past ways, and you will tell those who ask that you were happy to give up your riches and mercenary way of life in exchange for the life I will grant to all of the races of Equestria. And should you die in service of this goal, you will know that it was for a noble cause, and you will die happy. We will all die happy. Do you understand me?"

Koss nodded.

"Then let's get to work. Harmony is waiting, and I'm tired of making it do so."