Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Cozy poked her head through the tapestry leading into the underground library. Remembering that Emerald had wanted her to stay quiet the last time she was there, Cozy did her best not to make a sound as she began looking around for Emerald, in hopes that she could help her get something to tune the compass with, as Cozy didn’t want to go to Zeph’s directly in fear of running into Flare and having to explain herself.

As Cozy entered the dragon statue hallway once more, she carefully studied the magic coming from each artifact. Coming to the center of the hallway, Cozy saw a few particles of pure magic. Such a tiny amount that had she not been on high alert she would have never noticed them in the dense magical atmosphere of the hallway. Following the minuscule trail of pure magic, she found them emitting from a crack in the side of the wall behind a statue holding a shield that seemed to nullify magic around it. Which prevented most of the pure magic particles from leaking further.

Studying the crack in the wall, Cozy deduced that it was actually part of a trapdoor system. Using the stream of pure magic coming from the crack to amplify her levitation magic, Cozy fiddled with the trapdoor, which, in turn, caused more pure magic to leak out, which she funneled into her levitation magic until she was able to open the door enough for her to slip through.

On the other side of the door, Cozy found herself in a room even more densely packed with pure magic than the cellar she had found the royal earth pony artifact in. Likely due to the fact that the room she was in now was actually sealed in an attempt to keep the magic from leaking out.

The room was lit with a pale blue light, coming from the hoof of a pegasus statue in the middle of the room that was holding a cube that looked identical to the royal pony one, except it was blue, and instead of having the symbols of the royal earth pony family, had symbols relating to the sky and weather.

Approaching the statue, Cozy noticed that it was standing around a circular hole in the ground along with three other statues: an earth pony, a unicorn, and a type of pony Cozy hadn’t seen in quite some time, known as kitsony, a race of ponies that were born with gemstones known as spirit gems embedded in their foreheads. They also had bushy tails and fluffy ears, but otherwise looked like any other pony. Each of the other three statues had one hoof stretched out like they should be holding something like the Pegasus.

Taking out a cluster of glow berries to see better, Cozy looked around the room and quickly noticed that the walls were covered in claw marks, which made what appeared to be engraved writing nearly impossible to read. Studying the walls, Cozy was able to pick out a few words: “Return…ponykind…harmony…break…beware…return. Whatever made these claw marks really ruined that message… It was even repeated on every single wall, even the ceiling, and yet it’s ruined beyond any recognition. It’s clearly a warning, but a warning for what?” Cozy muttered to herself as she continued to look around the room for anything else that could fill in the gaps.

After finding nothing more, Cozy took the seal she had made for the royal earth pony cube and reshaped it around the pegasus cube. “I’m not a fan of taking things that don’t belong to me, but no pony’s been in this room for a very long time. The stuff in the hallway I can say Emmy found first. Furthermore, it could be more than a little helpful, and it’s not like pegasi can manipulate magic anyway.”

With the cube sealed and tucked away, Cozy used the surrounding magic to easily slip back out of the room and back into the hallway. Coming out from behind the statue, Cozy heard Emerald’s voice calling out from the room above. “Is any pony down there? Ironhoof, is that you?” Still not wanting to talk in the hallway, Cozy didn’t reply, but instead made her way swiftly towards the upper room. When Emerald saw Cozy, she looked shocked, but then quickly made a motion for Cozy to follow her. Just as before, Emerald left her pendant behind and led Cozy back out into the greater cave system before turning to Cozy and glaring at her.

“You haven’t left yet? If I knew you were still on the Lost Isles, I could have given your compass to Amber!”

Cozy, feeling more than a little annoyed at being accused of something she didn’t do, glared back at Emerald. “I don’t appreciate your accusations.” Cozy waved her hoof dismissively before changing her expression to a smug smile. “I’ll have you know I not only found but also helped Zeph once already.”

“Zeph’s back?”

“You sure do assume things a lot. If I were back with Zeph, I wouldn’t be sneaking around here to get your help.”

“My help?”

“I need a stronger tuning force for the compass. I got separated from Zeph in the Everfog, and an old feather isn’t a good enough signal to make it through to her.”

“What’s the Everfog, and what do you mean, stronger tuning force?”

“The Everfog is a dense magical fog, which overpowers the compass when entered. Which is why I need a stronger tuning force. The compass needs to be tuned to something that’s a stronger match for Zeph than some old feather. That way, it has a strong enough resonance with her to guide me back to her.”

“You suddenly know an awful lot about how the compass works, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given that you’re a kitsony.”

Cozy was taken aback by the sudden accusation. Biting her tongue, Cozy prevented herself from correcting Emerald. “What would make you believe I’m a kitsony?”

“No need to play as if you’re not. I know kitsony can only copy the form of a pony they can see. Which is why you’ve chosen the image of a pony from the historical archive. That way, you’re not a copy of anypony who’ll be easily recognized as.”

Cozy had heard that before the majority of ponykind lost its magic that the kitsony, like unicorns, were a naturally magic-inclined race, but she didn’t know, or at least couldn’t remember any specifics. Just that they were said to once be amongst the stronger magical races.

“Where did you learn about kitsony?” asked Cozy, trying to sound suspicious so that Emerald would continue believing she was one.

Emerald blushed as she rubbed the back of her leg. “Fairytales, but you look just like Cozy Candles. Though I’m surprised you took her name too. It made it really easy to figure it out.”

Cozy blushed and looked away. “Pegasus names are weird.”

“Anyway, what do you need for the compass?”

“Ideally Zeph herself, but in lieu of that, we could use several things tied together, such as a newer feather, some hair, hoof filings, and so on. Anything you can find, the more recent, the better.”

“Assuming Flare didn’t clean Zeph’s house before she left, we shouldn’t have too hard of a time with that.”

“Flare left? To where?”

“To go after Zeph, of course.”

Cozy’s eyes went wide. “Flare’s on the ocean!?”

“Before you panic, she’s with Amber, so I don’t think she’s in any danger.”

“That’s the second time you’ve used that name. Am I supposed to know who she is?”

“Since you’re both mythical creatures, I figured there was a good chance you already knew her.”

“She’s a kitsony?”

“No, a dragon, actually.”

“Interesting… I certainly knew dragons inhabited these islands at some point, but I had no idea any were still around.”

“How’d you know?”

“I run into dragon artifacts quite a bit in the caves.”

“Is that what your bracelet is? It looks a lot like the artifacts here, but I haven’t ever seen it before, so I was going to ask about it.”

Cozy looked down to realize she had gotten so used to wearing her band already that she hadn’t even thought to hide it.

“Yeah, I found this quite a long time ago in the caverns.”

“Do you know what kind of magic it’s enchanted with?”

Cozy was starting to feel more than a little uneasy around Emerald, as it felt like she was a minor slip from potentially ruining her quiet life on Lost Isles. That is, assuming it already hadn’t been ruined, as ponies were seeing far too much of her true self for comfort.

“It’s weak levitation. I’m wearing it, since it allows me to fly, given that I’m already light enough to glide.”

“Ah, that explains how you’re getting around so quickly. So once we get the compass tuned properly, you’ll be able to get back to Zeph in a jiffy, perhaps even before Flare and Amber catch up to her.”

“That’s oddly specific.”

“I trust you. I know you, you don’t keep yourself hidden away, and you’ve helped a lot of ponies who get trapped in these caves. You also might have a crush on Flare, given how dead set you are on helping her.”

Cozy blushed. “I-It’s not like that!”

“Crush on Zeph that you’re trying to hide by helping Flare?”

Cozy stomped her hoof, causing a light tink sound. “It’s not like that either. I don’t need romantic feelings to help any pony. I do it because it’s—the right thing to do.”

Emerald smiled at Cozy. “And I know you well enough to trust you when you say that. Whereas Amber… I know nothing of substance about her. I have no reason to trust her. For all I know, she’s not even the daughter of the Amber who founded the Lost Isles, but the very same dragon. She looks identical to the statues.”

“At least I have a pretty good idea of what she looks like then. Is she also stone colored like them?”

“Well, no. I didn’t mean—that identical. Just imagine the statues as having yellow eyes and green scales.”

“Wait, what was that about her founding the Lost Isles?”

“I’ll tell you the whole story on the way back.”