The Quest for Harmony

by Spirit Derpy

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Luna, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, Starswirl the Bearded, Adventure, Princess Celestia
Length: 6489

Equestia is a very old country and it holds many secrets. There is only one pony in the whole of Equestia that knows all of those secrets, or rather he has experienced those secretes first hoof. That pony is Star Swirl the Bearded.

The castle of the two sisters was a peaceful and quiet place. That’s why Star Swirl the Bearded decided to make his home there. It would serve as the perfect place to study magic. at least that was supposed to be the idea.

Late one night a group of thieves broke into the castle's royal archive. Star Swirl was forced to battle with the thieves. A fire broke out in the archive, distracting Star Swirl long enough to allow the thieves to get away.

Perplexed by what had happened Star Swirl, was about to make his report to Princess Celestia and Luna, when he noticed that something was missing. The thieves had made off with the crystal of harmony. It was now Star Swirl's mission to track the thieves down.

Published 2017-08-03 20:20:05 UTC
Last updated 2017-08-12 17:41:56 UTC

The Stolen Crystal

Chapter 1

The Stolen Crystal

The night was still and cloudless. All was quiet at the castle of the two sisters. A gray unicorn was resting peacefully in his study. His name was Star Swirl the bearded. That restful peace was shattered at midnight when a tremendous bang echoed through the castle. Star Swirl was startled awake and nearly fell out of bed.

A second later a royal guard burst through his door and said, “Sir, there are thieves in the royal archive. You’re needed at once.”

Star Swirl didn’t waste any time. He immediately teleported himself into the royal archive. A second later he stood in front of a shelf full of scrolls. He turned around and was shocked by what he saw. Several guards lay on the floor while a few more battled with a dozen thieves that were wearing dark cloaks.

With no hesitation Star Swirl rushed forward at one of the thieves. The cloaked pony didn’t see Star Swirl until he was right behind him. Star Swirl quickly cast a spell to knock the thief out. The pony collapsed to the ground a second later.

A few feet away from the first thief stood a unicorn with red fur and a light grey mane. The red unicorn looked at Star Swirl with rage in his eyes. Before Star Swirl had time to do anything the red unicorn sent out a blast of red magical energy toward Star Swirl.

Star Swirl was an experienced wizard and was able to cast a shield spell just before the laser blast struck him. As soon as the shield absorbed the impact, Star Swirl cast his own spell at the red unicorn. The red unicorn moved to the side at the last second.

Just as Star Swirl was going to cast another spell, movement to his left and right caught his attention. Several unicorns had gathered around him. It looked like the unicorns were preparing to attack Star Swirl all at once. Thinking quickly, Star Swirl cast a blindingly bright light spell.

The light spell’s effect was instantaneous. Everyone but Star Swirl was temporarily blinded. Before the effect wore off Star Swirl aimed a spell at the red unicorn to try and take him out. The red unicorn moved at the last second causing the spell to only graze his face.

The red unicorn grunted in pain as the spell left a five-inch cut across his face. This served to only anger the unicorn, who immediately set fire to the archive. The fire quickly grew and speared, threating to burn down the whole palace.

Star Swirl had no choice but to stop fighting and put out the flames. He cast a spell that summoned water from a nearby lake. The water rained down on top of the raging flames. By the time the flames had been quenched the thieves were fleeing the archive.

Star Swirl had run after the thieves, but he quickly lost sight of them. After an hour of searching for them he gave up and went back to the archive. He was greeted by a guard who said, “Sir, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna want to speak with you immediately.”

“Why, what happened?” Star Swirl asked.

“While you were gone we found one the thieves lying unconscious on the archive floor. The thief wasn’t severely injured so we began to question him. The princesses want to talk to you about what we learned,” the guard said.

A short time later Star Swirl was standing in the throne room. Star Swirl gave a small bow to both of the princesses then he said, “Your majesties. You wanted to speak with me?”

Princess Celestia nodded at Star Swirl before she said, “I have a very important mission for you, Star Swirl. The thieves appear to have stolen the crystal of harmony. I had the guards question the thief we captured to find out why. What they learned is indeed frightening. The thief claimed to be a member of a group of ponies called the Order of Harmony. Their leader, a red unicorn named Nova, is planning to use the crystal to take over Equestria.”

“A red unicorn named Nova, that might be the one I fought in the archive. Are you sure that he really intends to use the crystal of harmony? The crystal of harmony doesn’t have the power to take over Equestria. I don’t see how it could be of any use to them. The thief must have been lying,” Star Swirl said.

“I am quite sure that the thief wasn’t lying. My guards questioned him thoroughly. The thief was definitely telling the truth. He didn’t know how they planned to use the crystal, but he was sure that the crystal would allow the Order of Harmony to take over Equestria. They plan to use the crystal in three days’ time, near an ancient ruin in northern Equestria,” Princess Celestia said. “That’s where you come in. I want you to go to these ruins and put a stop to the Order of Harmony’s plan”

Star Swirl bowed to both of the princesses as he said, “I will not fail you.” Then he left the throne room. He took an hour to gather supplies for his trip to the north. Once he had everything that he needed he went on his way.

Star Swirl arrived at the ruins a short time later. There were six obelisks in a circle, and one larger obelisk in the center of the circle. He concealed himself in some foliage and made himself comfortable. This would be his hiding spot for the next few days.

Nothing had happened the first two days and nights. During his third night there, however, something happened. While he watched the obelisks, several shadows began to move across the barren landscape. It was too dark out to tell who they were, so he quickly cast a spell to give himself night vision.

The landscape changed right before his eyes. He could now see what was hidden in darkness. The dark shadows now reveled themselves to be ponies that were clad in gray cloaks. All of the ponies were facing away from him so he wasn’t able to see their faces.

He watched the ponies as they started to gather in a circle around the central obelisk. One pony approached the obelisk. The pony removed his hood and stared at the ponies gathered around him. When Star Swirl caught a glimpse of the pony’s face he gasped in shock. Standing right before him was the leader of the Order of Harmony, Nova.

During the battle in the archive Star Swirl hadn’t been able to study Nova in any great detail. This time though, star Swirl could see more details on his face. Nova’s left eye was red and his right eye was yellow. There was a patch of missing fur that stretched from just above his left eyebrow to the middle of his cheek. It was the scar that Star Swirl had given Nova during their fight.

While Star Swirl watched the ponies, Nova started to talk. Star Swirl strained to hear what he was saying. All he could hear was a low whispering sound. He decided to cast a spell a moment later to enhance his hearing. Once the spell had been cast he immediately started to hear what was being said.

“This moment is what we’ve been working toward. We have accomplished the impossible thanks to all of your hard work and devotion. Tonight, we will achieve true greatness,” Nova said. Then his horn started glow red. A second later a small object floated out of one of his pockets.

“Behold the reason for our gathering here tonight; the crystal of harmony,” Nova said in a raised voice. The small crystal twinkled as it floated in front of the gathered ponies. The group of ponies cheered excitedly as they beheld the precious crystal.

Star Swirl grumbled as he stared at the crystal of harmony. That crystal shouldn’t be waved around so carelessly. It was clear to him that Nova and the Order of Harmony knew nothing about the crystal. If they did they wouldn’t have attempted to take it in the first place.

The crystal might be powerful, but it had its limits. The only way that the crystal would be of any use to them is if they had a massive amount of magical energy to funnel into the crystal. There was no way that these ponies had access to that much raw magical energy.

Star Swirl was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Nova talking again. “With this crystal, we will be able to banish all that disobey us. We will create everlasting harmony for all. This crystal may be small, but it holds immense power.

“The key to this power is the obelisks behind me. They channel magical energy from all over the world to this spot. That is why we have gathered here. When all of that magical energy is focused through this crystal I will be able to use an ancient spell to bring order and harmony to the entire world.”

Star Swirl looked at the obelisks. They did seem to emit a magical power. Could these ponies really use them to power the crystal of harmony? All of Star Swirl’s knowledge of the magical arts told him that it wasn’t possible. That much magical energy would be impossible to control.

While Star Swirl thought to himself Nova turned around and approached the central obelisk. This drew Star Swirl out of his thoughts. He watched as Nova brought the crystal within an inch of the obelisk. What was that pony doing? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. Star Swirl needed to stop him before the crystal touched the obelisk.

Before Star Swirl could do anything, the crystal touched the obelisk. The crystal and obelisk began to glow a bright red. A low humming sound started to emanate from the crystal. Star Swirl could feel the magical energy flowing into the crystal. There was far more energy than he could have ever anticipated.

Star Swirl knew then that he had no choice but to stop this madness no matter the cost. Without hesitation, he teleported himself right next to Nova. There was a startled look on his face for few seconds until it was replaced with a look of anger.

Before Nova could do anything, Star Swirl reached out to the crystal with his magic. Once he had it in his grasp he attempted to pull it away from the obelisk. He struggled against Nova’s stronger magic. Star swirl had the element of surprise on his side, and was able to move the crystal an inch away from the obelisk.

A few seconds later Nova got over the surprise of Star Swirls sudden appearance. The red unicorn then began to struggle to regain control of the crystal. Time seemed to stop as the crystal shook in place. This didn’t last, however, as Nova’s stronger magic began to overwhelm Star Swirl.

The crystal began to move closer to the obelisk. As their struggle continued, Nova said, “You won’t win this old wizard. This is my crystal and I’m going to use it one way or another.”

The crystal was now almost touching the obelisk again. Star Swirl was starting to grow desperate at this point. He needed to stop this now. Drawing on his reserves of magical energy he cast the only spell that he could think of. He was going to teleport the crystal far away from this place.

However, just as Star Swirl began to cast his spell the crystal touched the obelisk. The air around the crystal began to shimmer. Star Swirl looked at the crystal in confusion, unsure of what was happening. The ground started to grow hot as it began vibrate violently under his hooves.

Star Swirl began to grow afraid. Nova must have been able to cast his own spell. Star Swirl looked over at Nova and was shocked by the look on his face. Nova’s face had gone pale and there was a look of fear in his eyes.

Nova looked down at Star Swirl and said, “What have you done?”

Star Swirl stared back at him in confusion. “I have done nothing. You’re the one that wanted to use the crystal,” Star Swirl said.

Nova growled at Star Swirl and said, “Quit mocking me. I know you cast a spell. What did you do?”

Star Swirl was about to respond when he happened to look behind Nova. He was both shocked and confused by what he saw. There was only an empty void behind him. The ponies from earlier were gone, replaced with darkness.

Before Star Swirl had time to figure out what had happened to them a loud roaring sound started to emanate from the crystal of harmony. Star Swirl looked back at the crystal and gasped. The crystal had a bright red aura around it.

As Star Swirl watched the crystal, it’s aura began to glow brighter. The crystal’s aura soon shifted from red to orange, getting even brighter. Star Swirl had to look away a few seconds later when the crystal’s aura turned yellow.

Its brightness was starting to hurt his eyes. Star Swirl looked back Nova. He could see the bright light of the crystal painted across Nova’s face. The light coming from the crystal was now green. Nova stared into Star Swirls eyes.

Star Swirl could see that Nova was just as frightened as he was. It seemed like he didn’t know what was going on either. Then Nova’s mouth began to move as if he were speaking, but Star Swirl couldn’t hear him. The roar coming from the crystal was too loud.

Star Swirl shook his head at Nova and said, “I can’t hear you.” Nova’s mouth stopped moving when he realized that nothing could be heard above the roar of the crystal, which was now glowing blue.

Time seemed to be moving so slow. Star swirl couldn’t think of any way to stop what was happening. He was forced to watch as the crystal started to glow purple. It was now so bright that Star Swirl was forced to close his eyes.

Once his eyes were closed, the crystal’s light began to shift again to red. Then it shifted to yellow even faster than the first time and kept on shifting colors even faster. Every few seconds it would change.

As the crystal kept changing color the roar grew louder and louder until it reached such a high pitch that it was starting to overwhelm Star Swirl. Just when Star Swirl was about to cast a spell to protect his ears the sound stopped altogether.

The new silence was so startling to Star Swirl that he opened his eyes to see what was happening. That’s when he noticed that the crystal was no longer glowing. Everything around him was now too dark too see.

As Star Swirl waited for something to happen, he heard Nova breathing next to him. A second later Nova said, “What just happened?’

Star Swirl was about to respond, but before he could say anything there was a tremendous explosion. He was knocked off of his hooves as bright lights flashed all around him. Star Swirl heard Nova shout in surprise as he too, was flung into the air.

Star Swirl felt himself flying through space at an alarming rate. The light of the explosion started to fall farther and farther behind him as his speed kept on increasing. Soon the light vanished completely, surrounding him in nothing but complete darkness.

Even though Star Swirl felt like he was in a complete void he knew that he was still moving. After what felt like forever, the darkness that surrounded him soon began to change. He could see small balls of lights shifting around him.

At first Star Swirl could not tell what these lights were, but as time passed they grew bigger and brighter. A moment later Star Swirl could see strange details inside the balls of light. It looked like things were moving inside of them.

It took Star Swirl a few minutes to identify what the objects were. There were six ponies moving around in the balls of light. They appeared to be walking around a small town. For some reason Star Swirl could tell that these ponies were friends.

When Star Swirl drew closer he decided to try and get their attention. “Hello over there. Can you help me?” For a second he saw one of the ponies, a pink colored mare, glance back at him, but she quickly looked away.

Star swirl was going to try and talk to them again, but something weird happened. The ball of light changed. The six ponies appeared to be standing around in some kind of library tree house. As Star Swirl watched them, the pink pony glanced in his direction again. Before he could try to talk to her, the necklace around her neck began to glow and shoot out a strange beam of light.

Star Swirl blinked and the ball of light changed again. This time he was looking at the outside of the tree house. He didn’t see any of the ponies around. Then a split second later the tree house exploded in a bright flash.

Star Swirl was forced to shield his eyes with his hoof. He took his hoof away from his face a moment later. The ball of light had changed again. Now there was a crystal castle in the center. The six ponies from earlier were gathered in front of the castle. This time, however, they weren’t alone. There were dozens of other ponies around them. It appeared that everypony was staring at the crystal castle.

Then as Star Swirl watched the ball of light changed one last time. The castle was replaced with an empty clearing in a forest. He could see the clearing in such great detail now. It almost felt like he was actually there.

That’s when he realized that he had somehow entered the ball of light. He was now falling toward the clearing at great speed. The ground was growing closer and closer. He would need to stop himself before he hit the ground he realized.

Just as he was a few feet away from the ground he cast a spell to slow himself down. He hit the ground with a soft thump, knocking the wind out of him. For the next few minutes he just lay on the ground trying to catch his breath. It still felt like he was falling through the air.

Once he had caught his breath he began to feel very tired. He tried to fight against the feeling but couldn’t. His eyes began to close. He felt so sleepy. Maybe if he just closed his eyes for a minute, he would feel better. A short time later Star Swirl lay on the forest floor, fast asleep.

Broken Spirits

Chapter 2

Broken Spirits

Star Swirl woke up to the sound of a bird chirping. He lifted his head off of the ground and looked around. For a few seconds, he was confused by his surroundings, until he remembered the strange events from earlier. This was the clearing that had seen in the weird floating ball of light.

Star Swirl stood up and looked around the clearing trying to figure out what had happened. It seemed that the crystal of harmony had teleported him to a different part of Equestria. How that had happened he wasn’t very sure. Perhaps when he tried to use the teleportation spell on the crystal he was brought along with it because of the sheer amount of magic in the air.

That seemed like the only logical explanation for what had happened. Then another question entered Star Swirl’s mind. If he had been teleported to a different part of Equestria, what had happened to Nova? Nova was caught in the same explosion as Star Swirl, so why wasn’t Nova here with him now?

Well whatever happened didn’t matter at the moment he needed to get back to the ruins and retrieve the crystal of Harmony. That being said, Star Swirl had no idea where in Equestria he was. The forest did not look familiar to him at all.

Star Swirl took a one step forward. As he did that he felt something under his hoof. He lifted his hoof off the ground out of curiosity. As he did a small object glinted in the sunlight. To his complete surprise the crystal of harmony was resting at his feet.

The crystal must have somehow traveled with him. That made his job a little easier. Star Swirl picked the crystal up with his magic. He looked at the sparkling crystal for a second, then he put it in one of the pockets in his robe.

Now that Star Swirl had the crystal of harmony in his possession, he wouldn’t have to go to the ruins. All he had to do now was to go back to the castle and report to the princesses. He looked around the clearing again.

Since he didn’t know where he was he had two options. The first was to look around the forest and see if he could find a path that led to a village or town. If he did that it would probably take several hours and since he didn’t know the terrain very well he would probably end up getting more lost the process. The second option was to teleport directly to the castle of the two sisters.

The second option seemed like the smart thing to do at the moment. With that in mind Star Swirl focused his magical energy and teleported. A few seconds later he was standing in front of the castle of the two sisters. He began to walk toward the castle, but stopped in his tracks when he caught a glimpse of the castle.

The castle looked different somehow, almost like it had just been built. Star Swirl shook his head. It had to be a trick of the light. Star Swirl started to walk again a few seconds later.

As he approached the front door to the castle the guards on duty stretched out their wings to block the entrance. Then they said “halt, who goes there?”

Star Swirl was taken aback and ended up stopping in mid stride. “I’m Star Swirl the bearded. Are you new or something?” Star Swirl asked in a confused tone.

The two guards looked at each other for a split second then they looked back at Star Swirl and said, “I’ve never heard of you before. What business do you have here?”

The guards definitely had to be new. “I’m on a mission for the princesses. It’s very urgent and I need to talk to them right away,” Star Swirl said in a commanding tone.

“What princesses are you talking about? There are no princesses in this castle. I think you’re confused,” the guard said.

“What princesses am I talking about? Don’t you even know who Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are? What is this your first day? Anyway, I don’t have time for this, let me past,” Star Swirl said. This time he gave the guard a stern look.

The guard held a confused look on his face before he said, “Did you say Princess Luna and Princess Celestia? What are you talking about? Luna and Celestia aren’t princesses. They might be related to royalty but they aren’t princesses. What are you going on about?”

Star Swirl was starting to become very frustrated. “How could Luna and Celestia not be princesses? They’re alicorn’s, that’s what alicorn’s do. Enough of this nonsense. I demand to see Luna and Celestia right now,” Star Swirl said.

“Look, you seem to be confused. I don’t know what an ‘alicorn’ is, but Luna and Celestia are definitely not alicorn’s,” the guard said.

Star Swirl shook his head and said, “I’m not confused. Look can I just talk to Luna and Celestia? They know who I am.”

The guard didn’t say anything for a full minute as he stared at Star Swirl. “Alright, I’ll take you in to see Luna and Celestia. Just so you know though, I’ll be watching you the whole time. Any funny business and I’ll escort you out of the castle,” the guard said. The guard then turned around and walked through the castle entrance. Star Swirl quickly followed behind him.

As Star Swirl followed the guard through the castle he couldn’t stop glancing around. The interior of the castle was completely different from what he remembered. There wasn’t one single decoration that he could recognize. What was going on? Did they completely redecorate the castle while he was gone? It didn’t make any sense.

A short time later the guard stopped in front of a door and politely knocked on it. Then he said, “Luna, there’s someone here who wants to talk to you.”

Before star Swirl had time to wonder why the guard had taken him to a bedroom chamber instead of the throne room, the door burst open. He was shocked by what he saw. Standing in the doorway was Luna, only not the Luna that he remembered. This one looked younger, but that wasn’t what was so strange about her. The Luna that stood before him had no wings, she was just an ordinary unicorn. It looked so strange to see her hair standing still. What happened to her?

Luna looked excitedly through the door and said, “Are mom and dad back?”

“No Luna, I’m sorry but your mom and dad are still up north. This fellow here says that he knows you and he needs to talk to you,” the guard said.

The excited look on Luna’s face quickly vanished as she looked at Star Swirl. “Who are you?” she asked.

It was at this moment that Star Swirl began to realize that the crystal hadn’t just teleported him to a different place. It must have teleported him to a different time. Somehow, he had travelled far into the past. If his guess was correct this was more than a thousand years before his time.

Star Swirl had studied time travel his whole life. He had a lot of theories about how time worked, but he had never been able to travel through it. This was truly wonderful. To be able to travel back a thousand years into the past was an amazing accomplishment. This would be big news to the magical community.

Then a second later his excitement evaporated. How was he going to get back to his own time? He wasn’t even sure how he had gotten here in the first place. The crystal of harmony seemed to be the solution but how could he get it to teleport him through time. He was going to need to study the crystal thoroughly, he realized.

That would require a place to stay, which meant he would need the help of Luna and Celestia. Star Swirl looked at Luna and wondered how much he could tell her. If he wasn’t careful, Luna might end up learning some dangerous knowledge about the future.

Would she be able to keep information about the future secret? Star Swirl contemplated everything he knew about her. He smiled to himself a second later. There was no doubt that he could trust her to keep this secret. He would just need to earn her trust first.

“Luna, you may not know me right now but I know you. There is a matter of utmost importance only you and Celestia can help me with. You must keep what I’m about to tell you a secret. I’m from the future,” Star Swirl said.

Luna just stared at him confusion and the guard said, “Do you want me to remove him from the castle, Luna?”

Before Luna said anything, Star Swirl said, “I know that it sounds crazy, but I am from the future. I can prove it, you just have to listen to what I have to say.”

Luna sighed and said, “Alright, then go ahead and tell me.”

“Thank you, Luna. I can tell you something about yourself that you’ve never shared with anyone. Let me share with you the story of how you got your cutie mark,” Star Swirl said.

“How could you know that story? I’ve never told anyone that story,” Luna said.

“You haven’t told anyone yet, but you will tell me in the future. Come closer and I’ll whisper it in your ear,” Star Swirl said.

Luna looked over at the guard who gave her a questioning look. She nodded to him then she leaned toward Star Swirl and said, “Ok, I will listen to what you have to say.”

Star Swirl stepped forward to whisper in Luna’s ear. “One night when you were alone, you stared up at the moon. It looked so lonely up there all by itself. Everyone was always taking it for granted, but the moon didn’t care.

“No matter what happened the moon would always be there. The moon was strong and independent, just like you. In that moment, you understood. The moon was your destiny. You realized that you had the power to raise and lower the moon. That’s when your cutie mark appeared,” Star Swirl said. Then he stepped back and looked at Luna.

It almost looked like there were tears in her eyes, but they vanished as soon as she looked away. “You may leave us,” Luna said to the guard.

The guard hesitated for a moment and said, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I will call you if I need you, now go,” Luna said.

The guard reluctantly walked away. Luna turned to Star Swirl and said, “I believe you. I’ve never told anyone the story of how I got my cutie mark. The only way that you know that story is if I told you it in the future. That is unless you were spying on me, but I don’t think you’re the type to do that. I’m going to trust you for now. Come on let’s go find my sister, Tia, so you can tell us the whole story.”

Luna started to walk away. Star Swirl followed close behind her. A short time later the two of them stood in front of a door. Luna knocked on the door, which was flung open a second later. A young Celestia stood in the doorway. Even though Star Swirl was expecting it, he was still shocked by her lack of wings and flowing hair.

“Are they back yet Luna? How did everything go?” Celestia said. There was a smile on her face as she kept glancing around the hallway.

“No, Tia, they’re not back yet. I know you’re worried, but you need to give it time. Everything is going to be fine,” Luna said.

The smile disappeared from Celestia’s face, and was replaced by a look of defeat. “Oh” she said.

“That’s not why I’m here. I wanted to introduce you to Star Swirl the Bearded. He’s a friend and I think that we can trust him. I’ll let him explain why he’s here,” Luna said.

Celestia looked at Star Swirl, disappointment was etched all over her face. “Nice to meet you, Star Swirl,” she said.

Star Swirl smiled at Celestia. He knew that this was going get weird really quick. “Actually, I’ve already met you before, but that won’t happen for a thousand years or so. I’m from the future,” Star Swirl said.

Now Celestia had a look of confusion on her face. “What are you talking about? Luna what’s going on here?” Celestia asked.

“I know that it sounds weird, but he really is from the future. We can trust him, Tia. Just give him a chance to explain what’s going on,” Luna said.

Celestia nodded and said, “Ok, if you think he’s telling the truth, sister, I’ll listen to his story.

“This is going to take a while so we might as well get comfortable first. Is there a place we can sit down and talk in peace?” Star Swirl asked.

“Come, we can sit down in the courtyard outside. No one will bother us there,” Luna said.

A short time later they were all sitting around a table in the middle of the castle courtyard. Star Swirl had just finished telling the two sisters his story. Celestia was looking off into the distance, when she suddenly turned back to Star Swirl and said, “So, in the future you were sent on a mission by me and Luna to recover this stolen crystal.” She paused and looked down at the crystal of harmony that lay in the middle of the table.

“Then you battled a pony named Nova and somehow wound up traveling a thousand years into the past. That’s a lot to take in, and it’s really hard to believe. Especially the part about me and Luna being alicorns. Do you really expect me to believe that? Alicorns are just an old pony’s tail.”

“I know that it’s hard to believe, but it’s all true. I am from the future. More to the point, I need your help to find a way back. It’s important that I return the crystal to its rightful place,” Star Swirl said.

“I believe your story, but I still have questions. Why did you tell us this? Aren’t you worried that it will mess up the future?” Luna asked.

“I’ve studied magic my whole life. Time magic is something that has always fascinated me. I’ve spent years trying to develop a time travel spell. I had been unsuccessful, until now. Time is a very complicated thing, but based on my theories the future is not something that you can easily change. My guess is that I was supposed to travel back in time. Anything that I do in the past now has already happened. This will all result in the same future that I was born into,” Star Swirl said.

“If what you say is true, then why didn’t Luna and I warn you about this in the future? Since you’re telling us all of this right now, our future selves should know all of this too. I feel like I would be compelled to give you a warning,” Celestia said.

Star Swirl shook his head and said, “I don’t know why you didn’t tell me about all of this. It could be that I asked you not to talk to me about this since it could change the future. That seems like the most logical conclusion. In any case I need to get back to my own time before I actually do start having an effect on history.”

“Before we get to that though, there is something else that I think you’ve overlooked. What happened to Nova? You said that he was with you when the crystal of harmony sent you through time. Shouldn’t he be here somewhere. From what you said about him he could cause a lot of problems for the future,” Luna said.

There was a small pause as Star Swirl realized that he had forgotten about Nova. “Your right. Nova should have traveled through time with me. I’m going to need to track him down as quickly as possible. Though it may prove to be a very difficult search. It’s possible that he was teleported to a different time. I’m going to need to think about this for a while,” Star Swirl said.

“Well you’re welcome to stay in the castle while you figure things out. There’s plenty of room for you here,” Celestia said.

“That’s very kind of you, thank you,” Star Swirl said. “By the way, I was meaning to ask you about something you said earlier. When we first met, both of you seemed like you were expecting someone else. Are you waiting for someone to arrive or something?”

The second the question left his mouth, both Luna and Celestia looked down at the ground with looks of sadness in their eyes. The courtyard become deathly silent. Star Swirl regretted asking the question almost immediately. It seemed that the sisters were afraid of something. What that was, Star Swirl didn’t have a clue.

The silence continued for several minutes before Luna said, “Our parents have been gone for weeks. They went up north to fix a situation with one of the neighboring countries. They were supposed to be back by now. We’re both worried that something bad has happened.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up. I’m sure that your parents will be fine though. It’s just a diplomatic visit, right?” Star Swirl said.

“You’re right. We shouldn’t worry about it so much. Our parents are going to be fine. Right Tia?” Luna asked.

“Right” Celestia said. When she said this though it sounded as if she didn’t believe it.

After that, they sat in silence for a while, until Celestia stood up and said, “Well it’s getting late. If you want I can show you to your room.”

Star Swirl nodded and stood up. Just as the three of them were starting to leave the courtyard, a guard walked up to them. The guard didn’t say anything. Instead he ended up staring at the ground trying to hide his face.

Celestia grew impatient and asked, “Is there something you want to say?”

The guard looked up at her with a sad look in his eyes. “I — I’m sorry. I just received news from the north. Your parents — they’re — they’re dead,” the guard said with tears in his eyes.

Both Celestia’s and Luna’s mouths fell open with loud gasps. Tears began to fill their eyes. “No — it can’t be true. There’s no way that it’s true,” Celestia said.

The guard stared sadly at her and said, “I’m so sorry. I wish that it wasn’t true, but it is. Your parents are — gone.”

As the guard’s words rang in Lunas ears, something broke inside of her. A small sob escaped her throat. Tears began to leak out of her eyes. Without any warning, she ran toward the entrance of the castle.

“Sister wait,” Celestia said. Tears were running down her cheek as she ran after her sister.

Star Swirl couldn’t do anything while he watched them running away. What could he do? A small tear rolled off of his cheek. It felt like his heart was breaking in his chest. Celestia and Luna had never told him about their parents. To see what had happened to them in person like this was heart wrenching. How could something like this have happened? It just wasn’t right.