Celestia double checked the ritual circle and the book, looking for any minute flaws between the circle and her instructions. When she was satisfied, she placed the book down and stood in the middle of the circle.
She took a deep breath in and closed her eyes, emptying her mind of any distractions. Her horn lit up, the circle following suit as it began glowing a beautiful prism of colors, Celestia feeling her whole body floating in the air.
After a minute, the prism subsided and Celestia was back on the ground. She found herself in a beautiful clearing, the sun shining down on her, cool air brushing against her fur, and trees swaying in the wind.
Her ears twitched as she heard the familiar crackle of a fire, turning around to face a young mare with a blue coat and white mane and tail. She wore a simple red cloak and was stoking the flames as a pot hung over it. She looked towards Celestia and wordlessly gestured for her to sit.
Celestia eyed the strange mare suspiciously, slowly walking forward and sitting across from them. The mare didn’t say anything, staring at the pot patiently, not even acknowledging Celestia's presence. “Uh… hello? Who are you?”
“You go through all the trouble of entering my domain and you don’t even know who I am?” The mare looked up with a smile. “I’m hurt.”
Celestia's eyes widened. “You’re Harmony?”
“The one and only.” Harmony said with a proud smile.
“You… don’t look like any representation of Harmony I’ve ever seen.” Celestia said as she studied the mare.
“I know.” Harmony rolled her eyes in annoyance. “You mortals have only ever seen me when I’m trying to be impressive and awe inspiring. Got an image to uphold you know? But there’s really no need to when I’m at home.”
“And I take it this is your home?” Celestia asked as she looked over the clearing.
“It is.” She said with a content smile, looking out over the clearing. “It’s quite beautiful isn’t it? Spent a lot of time working on it. But that’s not why you’re here, is it?”
“My sister.” Celestia looked back to Harmony, a desperate look on her face. “I had to use the Elements during my battle with Nightmare Moon and they… they imprisoned her in the moon. Is there a way to save her?”
“I’m sorry Celestia.” Harmony's face fell. “Even if she could be released from the moon, she’d still be under the influence of Nightmare Moon.”
“Surely the Elements should’ve freed her!” Celestia stamped her hoof. “Luna’s still in there! The Elements should’ve separated her from Nightmare Moon's influence!”
“They should’ve, but you misused them.” Harmony pointed to the streaks of color in Celestia's previously pink hair. “That just proves it.”
“Misuse them?” Celestia asked in an offended tone, trying to hide her hair. “What was I supposed to do!? She was going to kill me!”
“And I’m not saying what you did was wrong, you had no choice. But you still misused them.” Harmony continued. “The Elements are too powerful for any one person to use, you and your sister were needed together to properly wield the Elements. The fact you’re still alive is nothing short of a miracle.”
“But… but I’m an Alicorn.”
“And that’s probably why you’re still alive. Anyone else would’ve been turned to dust... Not that they could’ve used them anyway.” Harmony explained uneasily. “You won’t get lucky next time, if you use the Elements again, with or without your sister, you will die.”
Celestia was taken aback by this, looking down at the ground as tears welled in her eyes. “So, Luna’s gone forever?”
“I didn’t say that.” Harmony lifted Celestia's head upward. “The Elements are to never punish an innocent, but because they didn’t work properly, Luna was imprisoned along with Nightmare Moon. Because of that, the magic that binds them will be the same that frees them in a thousand years.”
“A thousand years!?” Celestia shot up, pacing anxiously. “That’s not any better! I’ve imprisoned my sister for a thousand years!?” She stopped and looked at Harmony. “Please, can’t you free her yourself? You made the Elements!”
“I wish I could, Celestia.” Harmony said sadly. “But to release Luna, I must free Nightmare Moon in turn, who you are in no condition to fight. Not to mention you need the Elements to even free Luna, which, again, you can’t use… Even trying to free them from the moon requires messing with the laws of the universe. One mistake, and the universe could suffer a metaphysical breakdown far worse than anything even Discord could ever cause.” Harmony shook her head. “It’s not worth it.”
Celestia looked at Harmony with horror, falling to the ground in a heap, tears falling from her eyes and onto the ground. “But I… It's my fault. I wasn’t there for her. I didn’t notice how unhappy she was. How… how unfair everypony was to her. She… she doesn’t deserve to be imprisoned.” Celestia curled into herself. “I-I can’t be without her for a th-thousand years.”
Harmony stood up and enveloped Celestia in a hug as she began breaking down, stroking her mane in an attempt to comfort her.
After a few minutes of Celestia crying and berating herself for her failures, she came to a realization. Her eyes snapped open and she pushed against Harmony. “Wait.” an angry glare growing on her face. “It isn’t my fault.” She pulled herself from Harmony's grasp and took a few steps back. “It’s yours.”
“Celestia.” Harmony sighed inwardly. “I know you’re angry-”
“You’re damn right I’m angry!” Celestia growled. “You made the Elements, they failed and sent Luna to the moon, so it’s your fault.”
“You don’t think that.” Harmony responded calmly. “You’re just lashing out at me because you’re hurting.”
“What would you know about hurting!?” Celestia challenged, her horn glowing. “You’re second to Faust, I bet you’ve never had a bad day in your life!”
“Not much.” Harmony's hooves moved to her cloak. “Just this.” Celestia averted her eyes when Harmony revealed her chest, the previous anger she felt disappearing as she cringed at what she saw. “... I want you to look.”
Celestia, with some reluctance, looked back up. She cringed as she studied the ugly, glowing, jagged rift in Harmony's chest. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“I know. But it was still the Alicorns that did this to me.” Harmony covered it back up. “It’s excruciating, you know. It never stops hurting and it never heals. I’ve learned to live with it, but I’ve never gotten used to it.”
“And I’m sorry for that-”
“You don’t need to be sorry Celestia, this happened long before you were born. Just know that I do know what it’s like to feel pain.” Harmony subconsciously touched her chest.
Celestia looked at the ground, ashamed of her prior outburst. “I-I’m sorry I just… What am I going to do? I can’t imagine my life without her and if… if I can’t use the Elements to free her…”
“Then you will have to find the bearers.” Celestia gave Harmony a questioning look. “In a thousand years, the stars will aid in Nightmare Moon's escape. Those who embody Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic must wield the Elements to stop her and free your sister. Otherwise, you’ll have to end Nightmare Moon yourself, no matter the cost.”
“But how am I supposed to do that?” Celestia asked in a desperate tone, feeling her connection to Harmony's plane weakening. “How will I find these bearers?”
“That, I leave to you.” The world began breaking away in chunks, a bright light clouding Celestia's vision. “I will send to you a Guiding Light to show you the way. Good luck, my friend.”
Celestia's eyes snapped open and she found herself back in her room. She groaned as she sat up, her entire body aching in pain from her trip. She sat there for a few minutes, trying to process everything she had talked about with Harmony.
Her face fell as she started thinking about Luna. Even Harmony herself couldn’t do it. Her sister was stuck in the moon with that… thing for a thousand years. And it was all her fault.
“It’s all my fault.” She said as tears began gathering in her eyes. She let out a pained sob and collapsed to the floor. memories of Luna flashed through her mind, from the time she was a baby to the day they were both coronated.
How could she be so selfish as to ignore her sister's unhappiness? So blind with how unfair everyone was to Luna? How could she not have found a way to save Luna?
Now, because of her, she wouldn’t see her sister again in a thousand years, perhaps she’ll have to kill Luna herself if she couldn’t find the bearers in time. And it was all her fault.
Celestia cried even louder, curling into herself pathetically, muttering only one thing to herself: “It’s all my fault.”
“It’s all my fault.”
“It’s all my fault.”
“It’s all my fault.”
Author's Note
Hello readers, this is a little something that’s been in my head for a few weeks. I decided to write it out and have my first oneshot.
I came up with this idea from another one of my projects, where Harmony judges what Sunset Shimmers punishment should be after she’s defeated at the end of the first EQG movie.
I thought the idea of Harmony being an actual character and anthropomorphic (not that kind furries) representation of the concept of Harmony was interesting. I imagined her as a simple, humble, motherly, and unbelievably patient mare.
The fissure in her chest was something I added at the last minute cause I thought it’d be a neat bit of worbulding and mythology that could be explored some time down the road. Along with why and how the Alicorns wounded her in the first place.
I also always kind of felt the Elements were just too powerful for anyone to wield alone, and that the only reason they worked before the bearers was because Celestia and Luna wielded them together. After all, it seems odd Celestia never used them again when Luna was banished.
It also seemed weird that the Elements freed Luna when being wielded by the bearers, but banished NM when Celestia used them. My explanation was Celestia misused them and that’s why they didn’t work. I also explained away why NM was able to escape despite the fact the Discord was presumably supposed to stay imprisoned in stone forever.
Some may also notice that I implied Celestias hair used to be pink before she used the Elements; that’s a reference to ‘Lullaby for a Princess’ where Celestia gains the streaks of color in her hair after using the Elements. I went further and had the Elements permanently cripple her soul, killing her if she uses them again.
Harmony promising to send a Guiding Light is also a reference to ‘Historical Equestria’ and their series on Equestrias history, an unfortunately dead worldbuilding channel that held a lot of promise but stopped halfway through their history of Zebrica. I loved their take on what happened after NM, I took a bit of inspiration.
I also wanted to end this on a sad note, so I decided to just have Celestia say ‘it’s all my fault’ over and over again with the text getting smaller. I thought it was good enough.
Anyway, hoped you like this little detour from my other projects. Thanks for reading my fic!
