At first, Twilight Sparkle had accepted it. Everything was perfect, organized. No matter what, nothing went wrong. Each step was measured, each breath following a rhythm. After she and her Five faithful friends had defeated Discord and frozen him back to stone, Harmony really had been restored to Equestria.
Each day Twilight practiced her magic, each day Spike said the same thing. “Another trick to add to your list!” But even his inflection had seemed flat. The rhythmic tap tap tap tap of her hooves filled her ears as she walked down to her study yet again. Everything was happening time and time again, every day, as if the world was on some sort of schedule.
At first, she’d liked it. She liked things to be organized. But now… something nagged in the back of her head. Something was wrong.
Rainbow Dash practiced her moves every day – but they were always the exact same way every time. Nothing new. Nothing different.
Fluttershy still cared for her animal friends – but she she did the exact same thing, day after day, hour after hour, as if following some unheard rhythm.
Pinkie Pie seemed subdued and quiet, and only now was Twilight starting to realize this. The pony still threw her parties, but when she did, steps and breaths felt measured , the fun was not in them any longer.
Rarity worked on her dresses… and they all came out perfect. Every single one came out the exact same. Dress after dress. Her sewing followed the rhythm of her breathing, her walking.
Even Applejack was affected. It was apple bucking season. Come to think of it, it had been apple bucking season since they defeated Discord. Every day she went out with measured steps, each buck produced a soft thump as apples landed in the barrel.
Everypony’s manes and tails were perfect. Not a hair out of place. The weather, not a cloud in the sky, the grass perfectly trimmed the houses symmetrical, at the exact same distance from eachother. Everything was perfect.
Too perfect. She felt herself reciting the daily words, performing her daily spells, reading her daily books.
‘if everything is so right, why am I so worried?’ she thought to herself as she went through the motions of her day. ‘Why does it feel so.. wrong?’ She shook off the thoughts. ‘Harmony has been restored to Equestria. Everything’s back to normal.’ Normal? Really? Twilight tried to lift her head, realizing that an unseen force was guiding her. Unseen force… What was this! Her eyes widened as her horn glowed against the strange energy around her.
“Spike, I’m going to go talk to my friends.” She told the purple and green baby dragon.
“But we aren’t finished with the checklist.” He said, his voice even and monotone. Twilight frowned. The more she thought of this the more wrong it all seemed.
“The checklist can wait!” She said. Her horn flashed again, and she took off out her front door. She looked left and right, hearing a soft, faint rhythm all around her created by walking ponie’s hooves all moving in perfect unison. They moved up and down the roads as they were supposed to; but why? Everypony seemed to have a place to go, a thing to do.
She arrived at Dash’s place first. The blue pony was practicing aerial maneuvers, loops, flips, and hovering. The Pegasus pony didn’t even notice her arrival.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called. There was no response other then the rhythmic flapping of her friend’s wings. Twilight frowned. ‘Normally she’d at least acknowledge that I am here.’ She thought to herself. Things fared no different for her other friends, all following the same, steady, driving rhythm.
Twilight’s mind was filled with even more doubts as she walked back to her library. She found her hooves falling into that same rhythm once again, an ease setting to her mind. She gasped when she realized it, before she shook it off and went into her library.
Spike was pacing to the same rhythm, but Twilight ignored the young dragon for now. She needed to study her books. Surely at least one of them would have some answers! She had to find out what was wrong. She was interrupted when Spike paused his pacing. The young dragon let out a loud burp as green fire erupted from his maw. A wrapped parchment landed at his feet.
Spike paused in confusion for a moment, unsure what to do about the letter. He resumed pacing. Twilight moved to the letter quickly, her horn glowing as it rose to float before her.
‘My most faithful student – Something is very wrong here in Equestria. In my research I have learned of two beings from another world, Guardians of Balance. Something is out of Balance, and I believe these two may be of assistance. I will send you the spell to summon them. I trust that you and your friends will be able to overcome this new danger.
Your teacher, Princess Celestia’
Moments later, there was another loud belch from spike, followed by another flash of green flame. This time, it was a spell written on paper. It was not a spell Twilight recognized. Her horn glowed as she lifted the paper to read the spell.
‘A summoning, of some sort.’ She thought to herself. She took a piece of chalk up with her horn’s magic, then drew the diagram shown on the paper. A summoning circle.
“Something to represent Light… “ She paused to think. “A candle!” She quickly lit a candle and placed it within the circle.
“Something to represent Darkness…” Her eyes fell on a black stone, which she put next to the lit candle. The flame was perfectly steady, not the slightest waver. ‘Odd’ She thought to herself. But she was not going to let this distract her.
She started to gather the magic into her horn, her body soon growing tight with the effort. Grunting, she closed her eyes tight, her whole body leaning forward as the light emanating from her horn grew stronger and brighter. Every muscle in her body was tight and strained with the effort and magic going into her spell. She was calling creatures from another world – another dimension. Sweat appeared on her coat, her breathing turning ragged and labored.
First, there was a flash of light, followed by a moment of complete darkness before she heard hooves against the wooden floor of the library. She opened her eyes to see two Alicorns standing before her, one as black as night with an iridescent mane and tail, and iridescent wings folded at his side. His horn was long and sharp, and unlike any normal pony, he had fangs hanging down over his lower lip. His eyes were amethyst, and his flank adorned by a marking similar to the white half of the yin-yang symbol. There was a circlet on his head, the gem resting on his horn, a band around his right foreleg, and a necklace hanging around his neck, this too holding an amethyst gem. He was well muscled.
The other standing beside him was white as snow, with an iridescent mane, tail, and wings. He had crystalline blue eyes, and a black marking on his flank; the other half of the marking gracing the black alicorn. The white pony was fangless, and his horn didn’t look as sharp as the black one’s did. The two were probably the most majestic stallions Twilight had ever seen. She was rendered speechless at the sight of the two of them.
Currently, both ponies looked terribly confused.
“Please tell me this isn’t one of Ishnar’s potions…” The black alicorn groaned. His voice was low and smooth, dark and strong with a slight growling undertone, which was odd for a pony. He shook his head and looked down, lifting a foreleg and looking down at his now hoofed appendage. He looked up as he heard the white pony laughing, pointing a hoof at him. “What!?” He retorted at the mirthful white stallion.
“Y- you’ve been turned cute!” The Alicorn laughed, thumping the ground with his hoof.
The black Alicorn snorted at him in irritation, nostrils flaring. “Shut the hell up, Eldaron.” He growled. “And I am NOT cute.”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
“Look in the mirror!”
He hadn’t a comeback for that one, and went to a full-length mirror beside a book case stacked with books. He moved a bit clumsily and looked at the mirror, greeted by something horselike, but with large eyes and a horn, a small muzzle. The creature staring back at him was most definitely NOT an Elf – but it WAS his reflection, because it moved exactly as he did when he lifted a foreleg, and set it down slowly, and blinked and stared back at him with the exact same shocked expression he knew he had on his face. He stared at it a few moments, blinking slowly, before he leapt back, away from the mirror with his wings, mane, and tail all puffed out like a startled cat. His expression was one of complete shock, eyes wide, ears straight up, even his posture spoke of shock and surprised.
“AAAUGH! I’ve been turned… CUTE!” he stated in an alarmed manner, his mane, tail, and wings all puffed out still. He groaned and moved to sit on his haunches, expression turning rather irritated and pouty, ears back and head low, and eyes narrowed with his brows arched. “Yup, this has got to be one of Ishnar’s-“ Izdrath started to say.
A voice interrupted him. A female one. “Are you two the… Guardians of Balance?” The voice asked, rather tentatively.
Izdrath turned towards the voice to see… a unicorn. Not just any unicorn – a purple one. With streaks of pink in her mane and tail. Nothing like the unicorns of his world, this one was more like a small, big-eyed horse with a horn, not the slender, deerlike creatures with shapeshifting abilities found in Galabastarin. He blinked a few times.
“Great, now the horses talk and come in bright colors. Now that we have this straight, I think we’re dreaming. El? Pinch me.”
“I don’t have fingers.” Eldaron said sarcastically, raising what he presumed to be a brow with a sarcastic look on his face. He waved a hoof in the air.
“…. Right.” Izdrath muttered. His tail flicked in irritation, before he gave El a brief glare. “Improvise.”
“If you say so.” Eldaron said. He turned his head and gave a nice, hard bite to Izdrath’s neck, making the black stallion rear and let out a shrill whinny – which surprised him.
“OW!” He yelled, in normal speech.
“You told me to improvise.” Eldaron smirked.
“Yeah, but not by BITING ME that hard! Sheesh.”
“Um… “ Twilight interrupted. “You are the Guardians of Balance, right?”
Izdrath blinked a few times at the lavender unicorn. “Eh… Yes. We are. I am Izdrath, and this is my annoying brother Eldaron – ow.” At that, Eldaron had reared up and bopped him on the head with a hoof with a slightly annoyed glare.
“You’re the annoying one.” Eldaron snorted at Izdrath.
“Pfft. You’re the girly one.”
“Oh please, care to look in the mirror again, oh great cute one?”
“I’m not cute.”
“Guys! Please!” Twilight interrupted again. “Now is not the time for arguing, I summoned you because I need your help!”
“He started it.” Izdrath said instantly.
“I did N-“ Eldaron felt magic grip his mouth and hold it shut, looked to see Twilight’s horn glowing and a highly annoyed look on the unicorn’s face.
“I don’t care who started it.” The lavender unicorn scolded. “But right now you two need to put your differences aside and help me save my friends and all of Equestria.”
Izdrath snorted a bit at her. “And who do you think you are, telling El and I what to do?” That got him a stern glare from Eldaron. “We DO put our differences aside, but we are BROTHERS. What else do you expect? We argue all the time, and yet we still manage to get things done.”
Eldaron let out a slight sigh. “I am so sorry about my brother’s lack of manners.” He said, turning another short glare to the black stallion, who shook his mane with a fanged smirk. “What is it you need help with?”
“I’m… really not sure what is wrong.” Twilight said, with a small frown. “Only that something has a grip over Equestria. It’s making everything perfect.”
“… That doesn’t sound so bad.” Izdrath said. “Sounds boring as fuck, though.”
“Language, Izdrath.” The white Alicorn said, sounding rather exasperated.
“Aw, shut it.” The black stallion retorted.
“That’s just the thing, though.” Twilight continued. “It seems TOO perfect. It felt like an unseen force was guiding me to walk to a certain rhythm. Step outside of my library, and you can hear it all around. Everypony is walking to it, flying to it, or working to it. My friends won’t even acknowledge that I am here. Even Spike is affected.”
“Odd…” Izdrath said.
“Sounds like something to do with perfect order. Something took away the element of chance…” Eldaron said. “I would understand because Order is one of my elements, and I do feel strengthened here. Izdrath, why don’t you try walking up to her, and see if she feels any different.”
His expression now serious, the Guardian of Darkness nodded. “Hm, good idea. Do you still feel it now?” He asked Twilight. Twilight nodded.
“A little, but the feeling lessened when you two arrived.” She said.
“Makes sense.” Eldaron said, sitting down on his haunches to watch. Izdrath approached Twilight, in the process moving past Spike. He took hold of the chaos he had power over, and instantly, Spike straightened, shaking his head.
“Twilight the weirdest thing is happening… wooah!” He fell back to land on his scaly butt, and stared up at the two Alicorns. “Who are THEY?”
Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “I’ll explain later. Right now, I need to help my friends.”
Meanwhile, Izdrath frowned. “How… exactly… do I use my magic here? I want to form a barrier around yourself and your… small friend there to hold off the influence of whatever-it-is out there…”
“Through your horn.” Twilight said. “You focus your magic on your horn and envision what you want to happen or where you want something to go.”
Izdrath blinked. “Erm.. ok, let’s give this a try. He sat back on his haunches and moved to wave a hoof in the air instinctively, as if trying to weave with it. He managed to make a few shadows in the room quiver, just testing out if he could get it working. Twilight took a step back as her own shadow wavered and changed shape. It settled back down before a dark violet glow surrounded both Twilight, and Spike for a moment. Twilight’s tail twitched nervously as the room grew darker until the Guardian was finished with his “spell”. Barrier completed, Izdrath lifted his head and the room returned to normal.
“Now that that is done, let’s help your friends. We can’t barrier everybody in this world with my Chaos Element, I haven’t enough power to do that, but once your friends are saved, we can all figure out exactly WHAT is causing this.” Izdrath said. “Get to the bottom of things and put a stop to it.”
“And restore the Balance to your world.” Eldaron finished.
Twilight found this odd in a sense; the black stallion standing before her had powers of pure darkness and chaos; the information she had read said that he had a bit of Water and Earth based element to him as well. Yet, he was good. She could see it in his eyes, the way he spoke, fearsome on the outside, but good inside. He and his brother didn’t even know her, and yet both of them were going to help her save her friends, and all of Equestria. Summoning them had been the right choice.
She looked to Eldaron. “And you?” She asked.
“I should probably hang back. One of my powers is Order, which I can tell because the air in this place strengthens me. You and Izdrath go and help your friends… I am going to see if I can reverse this, or at least figure out what is behind it. Izdrath? Once I find the source, I’ll tell you.”
“But how will you tell him if you aren’t together?” Twilight asked.
“We share a link between ourselves.” Eldaron said. “What one of us feels, so does the other. If Izdrath gets injured, I can feel it to a point, and when one of us is upset, the other one can sense it. We’ve learned to block the link to some point, but it’s always been there. We can communicate through it as well, that’s how I can tell him no matter where either of us are.”
Twilight seemed fascinated by this; she’d never heard of such a link before, but questions could wait. She did agree with Eldaron’s idea; if they found the source they could put a stop to this.
And so they parted ways, Eldaron following the source of the power that held Equestria in its grip, and Izdrath following Twilight to her friend’s homes.
