Grab Bag of Harmony

The halls of the Aetheraenum were too cold, too quiet. Only when you learn that your heart doesn’t beat, do you miss the repetitive, comforting feeling of your own life. My life. It had been over 2000 years since I had been on Earth, since I had been home, with my family.

If time passed the same between worlds, then Earth had changed, my parents died thinking their sons were dead, and the world had no explanation for the two kids that disappeared into thin air. Or ink and magic, as it were.

I held my hand in front of my face. It turned dark, and split apart like the branches of a tree, and began to glow with lavender light, my light. I had a mystery on my hands. Some entity came to me and Finn, transported us to Equus, and gave us the powers of Harmony and Chaos.

Why? How? What purpose did sending me here, and possibly taking my memories of my time here serve? A tendril of ink shot towards the ceiling, and broke through it. I pulled it back, and used my magic to repair the damage. It made no sense.

I made my way to the atrium of my old, and new home, and opened the gate. I needed to visit some old friends of mine, to have chat with them about recent events. I worked on the magic within the gate, and the image of the stone tower shifted to that of the throne room of Canterlot.

The Sisters sat on their thrones, working. Luna’s horn was lit, and her eyes were closed. It was almost sunrise, so Luna was likely finishing up her duty of tending to the dreams of her citizens. Celestia was looking over some paperwork. She didn’t look to be 100% in it, though. Perhaps she had already seen the remains of my prison?

I stepped through the gate, and stood still. The guards behind me yelped, surprised by my sudden appearance. I heard them ready their weapons, and move towards me. Celestia looked up from her paperwork, and tensed.

“Accord. I should have known you would break free, it was only a matter of time after Discord. Why have you come here? Don’t you know that I could easily detain you, and bring the Elements of Harmony here, and imprison you again?”

Luna woke from her slumber, but jumped to her hooves at the sight of me. “Celly. The Elements wouldn’t work, trust me. Their power is based on the target. The more Chaos in their sights, the more Harmony they fire. Discord, a being of Chaos, was frozen.” I locked eyes with Luna. “Nightmare Moon was driven from her host, and the changelings were all pushed away.

“I am Harmony incarnate. I created the Elements. Do you really think that they could fire on me? I know that you found another way to imprison me the last time. Using the Elements on me would be like forcing a spear to strike itself, or a cloud to clear itself. It wouldn’t work.”

I turned around to the guards, and held up my hand, which began to glow. The earth pony dropped to the floor, and the unicorn dropped his spear. I heard Celestia get up off her throne, and take a step towards me. “What did you do to them, Accord? Cease these actions, stand down. I’ve changed, I’m sure we can work something out.”

I felt a tear roll down my face, and I chuckled. “You’ve changed? You mean, you are no longer the pony that stole from, lied to, beat, betrayed, mocked, and broke the spirit of two of her oldest friends? My brother is imprisoned in his own mind, my family is dead, my world changed, my humanity stolen, and two of my oldest friends betrayed me.”

I shook my head solemnly. “When I was imprisoned, I forgot everything that I had done here. The last thing I remember was being at home, with my parents in the next room, and my brother upstairs. I read my own accounts of my life, and I begin to remember.”

Luna gave me a shaky smile. “Please, Accord, we can work something out. We can try to make up for what you’ve lost, in any way we can.”

“I know you can try. But… whatever you give will not compare to my family. From my perspective, I last saw them six years ago. Only small pockets of memory from the time before come to mind, so I still mourn their loss. They probably think me dead, Sisters. Your father is still there, within the sun. I can feel him, reaching out in great bouts of fire, and plasma.”

“Our father was a mad pony. He would have destroyed the world, had we not stopped him. I am truly sorry for your losses, Accord. I know that pain, of knowing the ones you love have passed on, and you will never see them. I can help you overcome it, just please, do not harm my ponies.”

I stared at Celestia, tears in my eyes. I waved my hand, and the two guard’s magic returned to them. “I would never harm your ponies. There are countless foes on the horizon, however, that will want nothing more than to do just that. Surely you’ve seen them, Celly? The Shadow King, the Lord of Destruction, and many others?

“If, and only if, you promise to try to find a way to return me and my brother to our home, in the time we left will I be willing to leave this room as a friend.”

“I promise, Accord, I will do what I can to restore what was taken from you.”

I snorted. “You really have changed, Celly. The Celestia I knew never would have promised with that much passion. Now, I’m afraid I must go. I need to return what is mine, and speak to the bearers of my Elements. I need to thank them for freeing me.”

I turned back around, and walked through where the gate was, and into the Aetheraenum. I closed the gate behind me, and sat down on the floor. I remembered some small things from the old days. Sitting around a fire, making jokes with my brother and the Sisters. Chaos and Harmony, with the Sun and the Moon.

I stood back up, turning to ink as I did so. The liquid expanded out, then came back together in the form of a unicorn, with a black coat and mane, with lavender eyes, and an ink well cutie mark. An old disguise from an old memory.

I turned around, and pressed my hooves to the gate, opening it to the tower in Whitetail Woods. I walked through, and closed the gate behind me, and began to make my way towards Ponyville.

——————

Twilight Sparkle was looking over every book in her collection franticly. Despite her large collection of knowledge, mental and physical, she barely knew anything about the Accord figure that Celestia mentioned in her letter.

She remembered her trip with the Princess through the Castle Gardens six years ago, and her brief mention of Accord, but nothing else. Twilight threw her books to the floor in frustration, but caught them and re-shelved them before they landed. She didn’t want to damage them.

“Spike, can you go get Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity to come here? I’ll get Applejack and Rainbow Dash here as well. I need to talk to them about the letter the Princess sent me. From what she wrote, it sounds like this Accord figure could be more potentially dangerous than Discord.”

Spike saluted. “Your number one assistant is on it! See you back here in a bit, with the rest of our friends!” He walked to the door, but was sent flying back as the door slammed open, revealing a mass of pink.

“Twilight, Spike! It’s happening again!” She gave a full body shudder. “My Pinkie Sense is telling me that there’s gonna be one heck of a doozy, although its not as big as when Twilight accepted Pinkie Sense.” She scratched her chin. “Have you discovered how Pinkie Sense works?”

“No, and I don’t plan to. Pinkie, you came at a great time! Can you help Spike and I gather the rest of the Elements? The Princess sent me a letter, and I want to talk about it with all of you.” Pinkie saluted, and turned to leave.

She stopped as a black unicorn approached the library. “Uh, excuse me, this is the Golden Oaks, right? I was looking on some history books, and I was told that this library could have what I was looking for.” Pinkie smiled, and slowly looked back at Twilight.

“Elements first, Pinkie. And yes, this is the Golden Oaks Library, where knowledge really does come from a tree! My name is Twilight Sparkle, I’m the librarian. Do you know exactly what book you’re looking for?”

“Not really, I was just going to browse. And whats with that motto?”

“Oh, uh. It’s a work in progress. History books are on the fourth column clockwise. Just out of curiosity, what’s your name?”

“Ink Blot. And thank you for pointing me in the right direction.” He walked over to the pointed section, and began looking over the books. “So, Twilight Sparkle, eh? Element of Magic, student of Princess Celestia?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s me.” He glanced over at her, then chuckled.

“Humble, eh? I’ve had a few dealing with the Princesses, but nothing like becoming either of their personal students. I just helped them with a few occasional problems, nothing major. I’m currently studying magical theory, I’m trying to find out what exactly magic is. It bothers me that we know so little about something so integral to our society.”

Twilight scoffed. “I know! I mean, the last great wizard to delve deep into the Aether Theory was Starswirl, of course, and before that it was Clover the Clever! Why have only two unicorns investigated it? I’ve been trying to figure out a way to start research on the topic, but my life’s a little busy.”

He picked up a book with a lavender glow, and began to flip through it. “I’d imagine. I have to wonder, what kind of glow would aether produce? Unicorn magic makes a field, like an amorphous formation of magic, and changeling magic is like fire. What do you think?”

“I believe that, based on the manifestation of all horn-based magics, including the shimmering, sparkling glow of the deer to the west and north, produces a light of some sort, that aether would produce a solid, unwavering light. Kinda like your light.” Twilight looked towards her shelves of magical theory books, then did a double take.

Ink Blot was holding a book in a solid lavender glow, one that didn’t waver or move at all. “Yes, you were saying? What about my light?” He looked at Twilight, and she felt a chill on her neck she only felt when looking into the Princess’ eyes, and Discord’s.

At this moment, Spike and Pinkie came through the door with the rest of the Elements. They all looked at the frozen Twilight, and the mysterious unicorn in the room. Twilight shook her head. “That’s impossible. Aether can only be manipulated by deity-level beings, like Discord and… Accord.”

Rainbow blinked. “Yo, Twilight, what’d you call us in here for? And is it safe to talk about in front of that guy?”

“Princess Celestia sent me a letter informing me that a being more powerful, and possibly dangerous than Discord had broken loose from his prison during the invasion. She told us that she would be sending the Elements to us, and for us to be on our guard.”

Ink Blot flipped a page. “Fascinating. Did you know that Accord managed to conquer over 40% of pony kind before he was imprisoned? What power that must have taken. So, Elements, how’s your week been? Aside from being attacked by an army of changelings, anyways. My life’s been rather free as of recently.

Ink set the book on the shelf, and pulled another one out. The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. He flipped it open to the middle, and stared closely at it. Then, he pulled his head back, and the Element of Magic floated out with it. The bearers immediately tensed, and glared at him.

“Honestly, this Element was named wrong. It never needed a large amount of magic to run, since the Elements don’t use magic. They draw off of the Harmony produced by the qualities their bearers hold. ‘Magic’ isn’t a quality of heart, unlike the others. Should have named it Friendship instead.” He shook his head, and pulled the rest of the Elements from the book.

“Do you want to do this now, or later? Harmony knows that Rainbow is just itching to use the Elements again. The feeling of pure, unfiltered Harmony flowing through you truly is a unique feeling. We can go outside, even, to prevent any harm to the books.” He tossed the Elements to their bearers, who caught them.

Applejack fastened her Element to her neck. “So, lemme guess. You’re the creature that the Princess warned Twi’ of?” The other bearers copied her movements.

“The one and only Accord, Spirit of Harmony. Nice to meet you seven, I’m a huge fan. I mean, the bearers of the Elements, as well as the third Loyalty?” He laughed. “I came here to thank you six for freeing me. Being a statue was getting awfully boring.”

Twilight shook her head. “We didn’t free you, we would never do something like that. The Princess—“

“Yes, the Princess told you about me, I remember. And yes, you did. You fired the Elements, and they washed over the entire city of Canterlot. Including the Gardens.” His horn lit up, and the eight of them all teleported outside, into the town square. “Go ahead, fire when ready, Elements. Might as well get this over with.”

Applejack leaned over to Rainbow. “Does this all feel a little fishy to you? Or is that just me? Last time somepony was this willing to get hit by the Elements, we were all under Discord’s control.”

Rainbow nodded. “There’s something up, alright. But this time, we’re still ourselves, and we have the Elements. This Accord guy doesn’t stand a chance.”

The Elements took a stance while some ponies ran, and others stayed to watch the spectacle. The Elements all lit up, and began to fire long strands of colored light that arced up, and onto Accord, one by one. Each poured onto Accord, wrapping around him, becoming a bright white light.

Eventually, the light stopped, and everypony blinked the spots from their eyes. In front of them wasn’t a statue, or even a purified pony, it was something seen only in the Castle Gardens. Accord, in his strange, ape-like body, was crouched on the ground on all fours. He slowly stood, and smiled to the air.

“Finally. Last time the Elements hit me, they only affected my prison. This time, they hit me, and me only. Something powerful had tampered with my mind using a form of Chaos magic, and had sealed my memories away. You just solved that problem.”

He raised a claw, and the Elements flew from the bearers in a lavender light. “Hmm. They’re still damaged, even after all this time. When Celly used the Elements to banish Nightmare Moon, she didn’t represent all the qualities of the Elements.

“She tried to rewrite the magic in them, so they drew from ambient magic instead. It drained them almost completely of their magic, leaving nothing but stone shells of what they were supposed to be. You six restored them to what they once were.”

Rainbow flew up close to Accord, and growled. “Give those back, those belong to us, not you, you weirdo!”

“Right. And your flying skills belong to me, right?”

Rainbow flew back, and gave an indignant look. “No, of course not, they’re mine! I worked hard to be where I’m at, which is a evil-beating, plot-kicking super mare!”

“I worked hard on those Elements, and they are very much mine. Just like the Tree they came from, and just like my own skills.”

Rarity turned her head. “So is that it? You just wanted us to hit you with your Elements, nothing else? Because something tells me that the Princess wouldn’t send Twilight a letter warning of you, if that’s all you wanted. You said it yourself, you conquered over 40% of pony kind. Do you plan on raising that number, this time around?”

“No, I made a promise. I told Celly that I won’t harm anypony, so long as she tries to find me a way back to my original home. I’m reformed now, believe it or not. Still annoyed that she stole from me and stoned my brother, but I think it’s about time I forgave her.”

The Elements froze. All at once, they shouted, “You have a brother!?”

“Well, yes. I thought that would have been fairly obvious. We act similarly, we both messed with ponies a long time ago, we both spent 1000-ish years encased in stone. If I’m the Spirit of Harmony, who do you think my brother would be?”

Spike chuckled nervously. “Discord is your brother? Oh man, those family dinners must have been a whole new level of crazy. ‘Hey Discord, could you pass the plaid sauce?’” He broke down into laughter, and Accord smiled with him.

“That actually did happen. He changed the honey so it looked like plaid, and it was actually very delicious on sandwiches, ask the Sisters if you don’t believe me.”

Twilight gasped. “The Princesses? Does that mean that—“

“No, they aren’t our sisters or anything. We were just good friends. Immortality is lonely, so we sought comfort in each other. Annnd then she stole the Elements, imprisoned my brother, and tricked me into getting slammed by that petrification spell. Speaking of which, I’ve got to go. I have family I need to visit, so see you later. Ciao!”

His hand lit up in a lavender glow, then he vanished into thin air. Fluttershy gulped. “Well, he certainly was much nicer than Discord, wasn’t he?”

Twilight sat down, and rubbed her forehead. “This isn’t going to end well, I’m sure of it.”

Pinkie shuddered, and nodded. "Yep! That was definitely one heck of a doozy, alright!"