Tears of Harmony

When we left, I stood on the bridge of the corvette, staring out the viewport. The world of Equus hung, picturesque, amongst the cosmos. Some hundred thousand miles away we watched as the IEN Marelothian moved closer to a formation of frigates captured by the Starborn. My tired eyes watched as the frigates opened fire on the Marelothian and she responded by obliterating them, her lasers flashing out for but a second and spearing the tiny vessels, snuffing them out in mute explosions that sent jagged chunks of steel drifting across the stars. That such violence could occur without a sound in the vacuum lent the events a kind of detached feeling, that they weren't really happening. It was a strange feeling, one that I couldn't stomach any further. I ordered the Star to take us away from Equus, on a vector bound for the Serpent system. I retreated back into the living quarters of the ship and fell into one of the bunks there, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Year one

After just a year, the Empire's war against the Starborn ended. They chased the Starborn up and down the Serpent system, the Utopia system, the Unity system, across planets like Starlight, Equus Prime, and Cadenza. Across Tirek, Ascension, and Quaray. I'd hoped to use the war to weaken the Empire, but their resources never ended. Every time they joined battle with the Starborn, they exerted such force on them it was unbelievable. Every time the Starborn went after them, it was a slaughter. Dozens of capital ships chased them across the stars, and even a stealth prowler I quickly learned belonged to the Royal Hunter, Disc Jockey. I never caught sight of her, but every action she took painted a grim picture of a twisted pony. It'd take me an eon to describe all of her crimes, but when you've taken to dropping asteroids on planets to snuff out resistance you've become something less than equine.

With my plan to weaken the Empire in as many pieces as the Stars that fought in the service of that plan I ordered the Starborn to retreat to the uncharted Siren system, hoping and praying the Empire would not follow us there. They didn't, and we were finally given reprieve. After several tense months, wondering if the Empire actually would come after us, we settled down on the planet Etherea, a small red orb, fourth from the sun. Siren was actually home to a rather large garden world, which I'd initially been interested in, but that interest rapidly vanished when I saw it was inhabitated by numerous species of giant carnivorous lizards. I lived on the corvette while the Starborn settled Etherea, building facilities that were more suitable for ponies used to a planet like Equus. In time I came to call Etherea home, and the Starborn began to carve out a life for us all there. I learned that a mere 10,000 Starborn had survived the war, when previously they'd numbered in the hundreds of thousands. I hurt for all those lost during the awakening, but I pressed on. Moondancer, the Pies, and Sunburst were still out there.

Year two

I began to theorize.

With the real Elements of Harmony locked away in Castle Twilight, back on Equus, and with no chance of ever reaching them, I began to explore the possibility of creating facsimiles. As expected, there was no surviving literature on the Elements, nor any mention of them anywhere, by anypony. Twilight had removed the knowledge of their existence from the world, and my own memory was rather hazy. I knew that they were powerful magical artifacts, capable of purging impurity and evil from any creature, or, failing that, encasing them in stone for all eternity. How they worked, what powered them, how to use them, all things that I did not know. With no way to research them, and no one to talk to about them, my options were limited.

I'd have to wing it.

I postulated(to myself) that the basic underlying principle was a variation of the spell I'd used to awaken the Starborn. It was some manner of life-altering magical spell that forced the individual it was used on to realize the errors of their ways, or force out any evil forces that had possessed or corrupted them. It was possible that any spell of the right type, sufficiently powerful enough, and channeled through the new bearers, would work. But without the Elements themselves, the Bearers would be powerless.

So I drafted designs for a device that the Bearers, or myself, would one day be able to use. It was spherical in shape, and it would hold and channel the necessary magical power that imitated the Elements of Harmony. I would just have to wait until the Bearers came of age.

Year three

The Siren system was a beautiful place. It was so peaceful. So far away from the cruelty of the Equestrian Empire, it was easy to forget it even still existed. I spent many nights staring up into the sky, wondering if I should just give it up, and live here with the six foals and the Starborn forever. Then I would think of Fluttershy, of Pinkie. Of all the millions of Griffons and Minotaurs who lived in poverty, with such a bitterness in their hearts, and I'd then spend days without sleep, writing theories about the Elements of Harmony and practicing cleansing spells for the time that we'd all return to Equus. Sixfour would find me pacing around the labs late in the night, having not bathed in days, eyes bloodshot. I would sleep irregularly. I'd spend hours screaming in anger and wailing over the centuries I suffered, over the injustice of knowing so many lived in misery while Twilight lived like the Empress she was. I'd pass out for hours, only to wake up and do it all again. I'd run ten miles a day on the treadmill, I'd wolf down poppies and swim in the subsequent numbness and hammer on the practice dummies until I collapsed, my hooves throbbing for days afterward. I would just...SIT. Fucking SIT, for hours, and relive EVERY WAKING SECOND I spent in Tartarus.

I hated Twilight. I hated her. I hated her, I hated the Empire, I hated ponykind, I hated myself. I wondered and asked myself how I could've done the things I did as the Royal Hunter, all that time ago. I wondered how anypony could've gone along with her INSANITY. How my parents could've stayed by her side, how so many of her friends could've stayed by her side, how she could've murdered the Princesses the way she did. There'd been some resistance to Twilight's reign, of course, but so many swallowed it up, and the Empire grew uncontrollably!! It was so bewildering, to see how the Empire grew into this juggernaut overnight, and began to sweep across the surface of Equus with such a fervor that it devoured everything that stood in its path. The first Expansion War SLAMMED the Minotaurs, smashed them into dust, and the Griffons had helped us! Then, not thirty years later, the second Expansion War brought the might of the Equestrian Empire down upon the Griffons, and they were quickly subdued. The Changelings were deemed such a grave threat to the fabric of Equestrian society that they were hunted down and exterminated to the last, and the Yaks and Bison never surrendered. They never stopped fighting, and they were not able to retreat to the stars the way the Minotaurs and Griffons were. They were erased from the surface of Equus, and from the pages of history.

I hated her.

Year four

We froze the Bearers. They'd become too much of a hassle to care for. I spent so much time researching magic and practicing magic and trying to understand the Elements of Harmony that I couldn't take the time needed to care for the foals, and the Starborn were too busy managing all the various utilities and labs they'd built on Etherea(plus, they're absolutely terrible at rearing a foal, I'd learned). When Sixfour first suggested the idea of sealing the Bearers in cryogenic chambers, I'd rejected it, saying it was too risky, that it wasn't right. After so long, though, I couldn't tolerate the distractions. I didn't like it, but I agreed to have the Bearers frozen. I told myself that maybe when I found Moondancer and the Pies, and finished my research into the Elements, that we'd unfreeze the Bearers.

Year five

Moondancer and the others found me. I'd told Sixfour and the rest of the Starborn to keep an eye out for them, to post across the worlds a generic-sounding notice, 'sole heir of bloodline seeks prodigy unicorns and three sisters to discuss, study, and practice magic and its harmonious relationship with the universe', with a location specific to each planet the notice was posted on. At each location there was an apartment, innocent-looking enough, but watched by Starborn. The Pie Sisters had seen the notice on the planet Ascension, Moondancer had seen it on the lawless pit of a world that was Draconequus, and Sunburst had seen it on Starlight. At each location, once their presence had been noted, they'd been approached by Starborn in the days thereafter, and given a pair of coordinates on the edge of the Serpent system. From there, they'd received an encrypted message from a relay, with one word: Etherea. Sixfour had alerted me, and I'd been in the spaceport when they'd arrived, a day apart.

With the Pie Sisters, I cried. We all did, save for Maud, though even she looked very pained. I caught them up to speed on everything that had transpired since we escaped from Tartarus, and told them of the six fillies. They'd looked so elated to hear of the new Bearers, it had hurt to tell them I'd had them cryogenically frozen. They'd looked bewildered, but I made them understood.

A day later, Moondancer and Sunburst arrived. With them, I planned. I told them everything, and they'd listened very carefully. I told them my theory on the facsimiles of the Elements, how the Bearers could use them, and of the drafts for the magical device that would act as the facsimile. They dived into the idea, spending as many sleepless nights as I did studying my theories on the Elements, on the facsimile. They, especially Moondancer, were so much smarter than me. They created their own designs, in intricate detail, and showed them to me. I let them handle the technical side of things, managing the designs, testing, while I studied the magic end of the equation. We decided to call the facsimile the Harmony device.

Then Moondancer suggested something to me that I found appalling. She suggested that we use the souls of the Bearers to power the device. I'd rejected it immediately, but she pressed. She explained to me that the Elements were at their most powerful when there was no restrictions. With multiple Bearers, the Elements were under the control of each, and they'd all have to be working in unison to control the magic. With the fillies being nearly pure Bearers, Moondancer explained, we could make the Harmony device even more potent by removing as many restrictions as possible. With no organic limitations, with no ponies hesitating or making a nervous mistake, the Harmony device could channel and fire pure Elemental magic. I was hesitant, but the idea sounded appealing in theory. There was also the matter of expenses, but in the five years since leaving Equus the Starborn had set up mining operations across the various planets in the Siren system, and were selling minerals and metals on the black market. We'd used the funds mostly to create the facilities on Etherea, and to manage the ships, but it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch to get the money for six soul gems, plus the materials needed to make the Harmony device, chief among these was silver.

After some time, I agreed. It made me upset, and it was one more thing I felt ill to do, but, I'd learned, Harmony demanded sacrifices.

In the end, it'd be worth the price.