Guardian of Harmony - The Unsettled Task

by Tom Juraszek

Chapter 2 - Doubts

Previous Chapter

Nurse Redheart together with Nurse Tenderheart moved along the corridor of the Ponyville Hospital, checking on the patients that were stationed in this sector.  To be honest there was only one patient here right now: because of his loud snoring the most patients asked for a quick transfer. Over two weeks ago, this rather unusual patient has been brought here by Princess Celestia and her younger sister Princess Luna.  The presence of the royal sisters had a big influence on the ill patients: once they placed the creature called Ember on a bed, that was big enough for him, they visited each patient and gave them their blessings. The staff was not sure if they would be able to aid the Guardian of Harmony: he was very weak and surprisingly pale all over the body.

Signs of burns were all over his hands and wrists, a very long scar distorted the right side of his face but the worst thing was the fever that was haunting him nearly every day. Princess Luna demanded to do everything that may help him to recover, regardless the costs. The citizens of Ponyville supported the Hospital as good as possible: they did not forget that he has protected the fillies with his own life. The Pegasus Ponies brought immense amounts of ice from the largest mountains, which were always cowered with a white coat. Special flowers were nearly always decorating his room, spreading out an aroma that supported his weaken organism: the oldest ponies brought fourth medicine that has been passed on them by their grandparents, with a wonderful effect on Ember that started to lose his pale color.

The Princesses were constantly checking on him if they were able to do so, especially Princess Luna visited him very often during the night. With each visit they brought special potions and ingredients that somehow boosted his organism even more, but regardless of all those treatments Ember remained in some sort of coma. Soon nearly everypony in the city started to visit the guardian and since then his state became better and better. Once the two nurses checked on him they left the room and came back at their post where they filled several documents.

Before Tenderheart could say something a loud beep sound went out of the machine. The two nurses gasped loudly and ran as fast as they could to their patient. Apparently his heart has stopped to beat. Once they entered the room the two mares have been greeted by a very loud sound. Ember was sitting on his bed totally disoriented, the cables, cords and patches that were attached to him have been ripped out, what caused the machines to alarms the staff. He was breathing very strangely, the blaze of his eyes was very weak and their color somehow lost its natural look.

Ember grabbed his head again and groaned loudly. He charged towards the door, passing the two protesting mares and started to look for the exit.

He did not hear the nurses that were running right behind him. Right now his stubborn mind, that was deeply confused and disoriented, had only one goal: to check if Sugar Heart was okay. Somehow he managed to leave the sector, which was awfully empty; he literally bumped into the nearby door and entered the main sector of the hospital. His sudden appearance scared everypony that was in the corridor, regardless if patient or staff. Ember saw few signs on the wall and noticed an arrow that had a big EXIT over it. Once he moved forward he unleashed unbelievable chaos, avoiding the ponies was not easy because they were simply everywhere. In the end he pushed over many carts, beds that were waiting to be transported away, till he reached the door that leaded out of this place.

Before his shoulder reached the door, Ember could hear familiar voices outside of the building: with a loud crash the door went open and the lovely sunshine greeted him with its revitalizing heat. His eyes did not adapt right away, nearly fully blinded he saw silhouettes of ponies running towards him. Gladly his eyes regained their old shape; right away he recognized his six small friends, and Princess Celestia herself in the middle of the group. They all would have crash into each other, but the Guardian disappeared in slight black energy and teleported behind his friends without harming them. His teleportation was a big fail and he fell down on the ground, groaning he stood up and tried to remember where he was now. Once his mind cleared a bit he ran through the crowded cities of Ponyville, ponies that saw him from the distance pointed at him and greeted him loudly.

He did not hear any of those greetings, and as numb, disoriented and weak as he was right now it was a miracle that he was running. Soon he reached the restaurant that was filled with hungry customers. Butterscotch was delivering some hay sandwiches; he nearly let them fall down after he saw him coming. Weakness started to spread around his body, his sight faded away and with a dampen moan he fell on his knees. Ember saw shadows surrounding him, low pitched voiced echoed in his ears like mighty bells in a cathedral: he grabbed his head and before he lost his consciousness he said:

Darkness surrounded him. A strange sounding sound that seemed to be artificial filled the air with its annoying beep. His eyes started to open; the well known quiet sound of a sudden flame outburst announced his fiery eyes, which were merely small embers of a dying fire. Ember groaned and touched his head that seemed to have exploded several times. The beeping sound caused an immense headache that roughly brought him back to the cruel reality: he was in a room he did not recognize. If he was not wrong he could smell flowers, and something he could not really identify but it was simply gross for his sensitive sense. It seemed like he was attached to a device that was beeping all the time, besides that something has been implanted into his veins: some sort of fluid was floating into his body.

Disgusted the guardian started to rip those things off him, what in the end caused the annoying machine to beep constantly and made his headache even worse. Ember did not know how to turn that darn thing off, which is why he simply hit it with his fist: the machine broke under his strike, finally granting him silence. The door of his room has been opened, two mares literally charged into it: as fast as they came in as fast they jumped on him and were pushing him against the bed.

The sound of hooves was clearly noticeable on the marble floor, he saw his friends entering the room, all of them happy and yet concerned.

– What have you done to me?

The nurses reported everything, even the smallest detail that has occurred to him while he was in his coma. The most shocking thing for him, besides the information about the duration of his coma, was the news that at one moment he has been completely pale. Shocking as the report might be Ember was touched after he heard that the entire city of Ponyville supported his recovery.

Once more he turned into the slight dark energy and teleported out of the building. A bit dizzy he sat down on the ground, touched it with both hands and started to look for magic sources. It was not an easy task to do, because it was a common knowledge that such sources usually died out if a city was build on them. After a while he was sure that there were no magic sources under the city of Ponyville, which is why he got up and moved towards the nearby woods. The traveling was not easy, due the lacking power in his body, muscle atrophy and empty belly. Gladly right after he have entered the forest, a slight trace of a magic source started to reveal its existence beneath the earth. While he continued his journey Ember thought about the recent *adventure*.

The reason why he was in his two weeks coma was the recent struggle within the Everfree Forest. It is not an easy task to close a gate between two dimensions especially if it was open for a half year, the pillars were already way too strong to close only with mental energy. His connection with the pound was already too deep and strong, if he would have canceled it the gate would have siphoned him and Luna alive. The guardian instinct have been triggered after he has noticed it, that is why he has been forced to pay with his own life essence that have strengthen the spell, eventually closing the gate. The marks that were on his hands and wrists confirmed his sacrifice, which have saved their lives and ended the threat of the dark corruption.

Finally his journey ended and with a big relief he saw the energy floating across the land. The sight could only be spotted with magic, but the source he has found had an immense core, that was so strong that Ember could feel its vibration with his body. His hands touched the ground; the guardian concentrated and established a connection with the source. The energy went though his hands into his body, a nice warm feeling spread like wild fire. The muscles atrophy started to fade, the former fortitude returned within seconds and soon even his skin started to look as it was supposed to look like. His hunger faded away and soon Ember cut the connection with the mighty energy source. With a loud cheer he teleported out of the forest into the air, let his wings appear out of the back, and with a wonderful feeling in his chest Ember simply glided though the air.

The Guardian looked to his left and noticed a blue shape flying towards him. He knew only few ponies that could establish such speed and only one was living in Ponyville. Soon Rainbow Dash was flying next to him;

His shadow announced his presence and the ponies who noticed it were either waving or greeting him loudly. Ember waved back and kept flying towards the restaurant.

The guardian mumbled something in his dead language. How could he be so careless and forget that? Ember placed a finger on his temple and spread a tiny part of his spirit that started an immediate search after Twilight or Rarity. It did not take long and soon he connected with the white Unicorn who was not far away from them.

It did not take long and soon he landed next to the restaurant that seemed to have even more guest in it. The small quake after his landing made the dishes dance on the tables; another thing the ponies were used to. Butterscotch ran out of the restaurant and stopped right in front of them.

Ember let his ears go down and his eyes changed their shape and color.

The guardian chuckled and nod at the Earth Pony. Due the lack of free space outside the building Butterscotch invited them into his home. As always was the air filled with the smell of various things being cooked in the kitchen. Ember sat down on the ground nearby the chimney but soon as he heard the well know sound of tiny hooves hitting the ground he stood up and welcomed the small filly with open arms. Sugar Heart jumped into them and cradled against him with everything she got in her tiny body.

Gladly the ponies calmed down rather fast and soon they were eating the delicious carrot soup. Good ten minutes later his friends bumped into the house only to see the healthy Ember playing around with Sugar Heart. Twilight inspected him with her curious eyes and was about to open her mouth to speak but he cut in and lifted his arm.

All of them laughed while the girls sat down in front of the guardian and the flying Sugar Heart that was being held by his magic.

As always Twilight was about to start a report but again he stopped her with his lifted arm.

The ponies followed his instruction without any questions what was rather strange because Twilight was among them. A slight electric energy moved over his body but it was so fast they probably did not see it. With his hands he shaped a triangle form, the sound of his fiery eyes disappeared once he closed them; in all he even stopped to breathe what always made his friends nervous. Finally he started to see the world in a different way. Like it would be in a dream or as he rather preferred  to say: like he would watch the world though they eyes of an ghost. Misty, with all various kind of forms that were not visible to those who not possessed the knowledge or simply were still among the living. Though he saw the shapes of the ponies they were mere shadows of their true forms.

Along the entire body, where the veins are supposed to be, turquoise lines were transporting their life essence. In all it confirmed that his spell was an success. Without opening his eyes in the physical world he touched the two nearby ponies with the tip of his claws and connected them instantly with him. The overwhelming waves of emotions, pictures and memories went through his mind. Unlike the first connection with Twilight in the depths of the Underground Ember was able to control those waves.  His wings opened slightly throwing over the small chair that was once used to feed the small Sugar Heart. The connections that have been established did not require any physical connection anymore, which was a good thing for now he would need his hands for something else.

Ember was wondering with whom he should start his inspection: well it was sure that Twilight and probably Rarity would be at the end of the list for they were Unicorns and their mind, unlike the other subjects, could catch up things that a Pegasi or a Earth Pony would never notice. Fluttershy, Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash would be the first. The two first mentioned ponies were living not far away from the Everfree maybe he would see something that could be a lead. While this information’s would be from below Rainbow would provide memories from the air. He concentrated and small energy balls went out of the shadows of his friends. Warm and colorful in this world he grabbed the energy with his hand and let them levitate not far away from his head.

The ponies seemed to be talking to him but the only thing he could hear were whispers that were spoken in a different language; the language of the dead. It was not a surprise that they were talking at him for his movements now were strange; at least for them. With his own magical source he separated the memories of the last two weeks from the entire life time chains and started to look through them. As expected the things he saw in AJ’s memory were connected to the farm and apple bucking. Only several times she looked at the Everfree but nothing of interest could be spotted with his magic. Fluttershy did show something that he was hoping for. While she was standing in her window watching some wild birds flying not far away of the borders of the forest he spotted the so called last breath of the dark energy of the miasma.

It was sure that they would not see one again. Rainbow provided the necessary information about the health state of the trees while she was flying in a clear cloudless sky. Though they remained dark and grey, the rotten aura that was surrounding them was gone.  Ember sighed relieved and send the three balls back to their owners. The last three balls flew towards him. To avoid any problems the guardian started with Pinkie Pie first. Surprisingly he found out that she visited Zecora in her hut together with the small Apple Bloom. The pictures and emotions that were in this ball showed that the devouring effect of the miasma inside of the forest slowly started to vanish. He chuckled and send the ball back to her for the rest were only random things.

Rarity did not provide anything that could be of use though he learned a few things about sewing… Oh well we learn our entire life right? The last remaining ball belonged to Twilight. The guardian took a deep breath and touched it with his spirit. Tons of books, scrolls, empty bottles of ink and broken quills among a mountain of information’s about  magic, alchemy, technology, stars and constellations, ethic, history, biology, math, physics, geography, foreign and forgotten languages, powers of the Elements, love, philosophy… wait a second! Love? Nothing strange at all but it was in fact strange that he found it among it. He shook his head and moved on but he did not see anything of use. He separated his hands and with it he cut the connection between his friends.

The natural colors of this world came back and like with every connection of this kind the caster’s eyes started to hurt. The girls noticed that he did not open his eyes fully but gladly they did not ask any questions about it.

Ember mumbled something in his dead language and scratched the backside of his head. While they kept talking his sight became normal again and he was able to open the eyes fully. Cheery Berry made coffee for all of them and returned into the kitchen avoiding to bump into her husband who was delivering a huge plate for the biggest table. The guardian suppressed a chuckle and carefully he drank his coffee from a pot… yes a pot.

Ember was about to nip his coffee as well but once he heard the word Birthday he stopped.

Like himself the ponies who were about to drink their coffee stopped and looked at him like he would be a attraction in the zoo. He nipped his coffee and waited for the answer.

Ember puffed angrily what made Sugar Heart giggle.

How could it be that he missed such information while searching through their memories!? So many questions gathered in his mind. And the most bothersome one was the: How old might she be question. Only a fool would ask something like it while being among a group of mares.

Ember answered with an head shake and noticed that beside the ponies who were in the room others were watching him through the open doors or windows. A slight growl went out of him and he walked towards the door.

He was their friend; a friend who knew that despite everything he experienced… he would never belong into this world.