Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Waking up once again to the sound of Cedar getting up, Zeph looked to her side and smiled at Argon before getting up herself and gathering breakfast. When she got back with the glow berries, she saw that Cedar had drawn an impressively detailed scene of a spider in the sand.

“You’re a great artist, but I’m not sure about your taste in subjects.”

“Thank you, I’ve had a—lot of practice. They were really interesting critters, though. I wished I knew their name.”

A moment later, Zeph got a mental image of a book page in her mind. None of the text was legible except for a clear section that read, “timber web spiders.”

“I get the feeling they're named timber web spiders.”

“I like it. Not quite accurate given that their webs are vines, but it’s a catchier name, then vine-webbed twig spiders, which is what I was calling them in my head.”

“Now that I know not to touch any strange vines—hopefully we can make it somewhere today.”

“Having you ride on my back the other day worked so well I was thinking you could just ride today, too. Even together, you two barely weigh anything.”

“I mean, it was fast, but it was pretty awkward…” Zeph laughed awkwardly as she replayed the whole thing in her head.

“Wasn’t for me, but if you mean it was awkward for you to hold on, I can take corners slower.”

Staring at Cedar, Zeph really wasn’t sure how to deal with his seemingly complete lack of social awareness. Though as an image of a green light entered her head, she realized that Argon was telling her she should just go with it. “Easy for you to say you’re used to riding on ponies’ backs.” Muttered Zeph in a low whisper directed at Argon.

Argon stared back at her unamused as if to say, “and so? Get used to it yourself.”

Turning back to Cedar, Zeph sighed. “Okay, yeah, if you’re okay with it, we’ll do it. But only until we get to a safer place.”

After finishing their food, Zeph reluctantly got back atop Cedar, and the trio made their way through the forest. Though awkward for sure, Zeph had a hard time arguing with the results. Not only were they—much faster, but with both Zeph and Argon able to dedicate their full attention to watching out for danger, it made the trip through the forest feel much safer.

Coming to a large, strangely barren spot in the forest that had few trees but was rather a large field of oddly shaped viney mounds that had a rather unnatural look to it,

As the trio approached one of the viney mounds, Zeph turned to Argon.

“These aren’t spider nests, are they?” A moment later, she saw an image from a book seemingly showing that timber web spiders reproduced by building new spiders rather than laying eggs. “Okay, that’s just weird.”

“What’s weird?” asked Cedar.

“That timber web spiders assemble their kids.”

“That does sound weird.”

Reaching the mound, Zeph could see weathered stone peeking through some places of the vines.

“Huh. I think these are actually ruins! Still, I’m not risking touching any vines I don’t have to around here.”

Not wanting to disturb the vines, the trio made their way carefully through what they imagined were the long, overgrown ruins of some ancient civilization as they continued following the compass.

As the trio circled around a rather large vine mound, Zeph gulped.

“I guess this is our spot… So much for leading us to earth pony civilization.” Remarked Zeph as she carefully studied the vine mound, looking for a way in.

“Maybe this used to be an earth pony civilization?”

“Perhaps. Anyway, we may as well find a way in and see what the compass is actually pointing to.”

A moment later, Zeph heard a thunderous smack, followed by crashing sounds, which caused her to look back to see that Cedar had simply kicked a hole through the vines and wall behind it.

“Found one!” Announced Cedar as he made his way into the hole.

“Next time, talk to me before destroying something.”

“Okie-dokie.”

Making her way into the building, Zeph was unsurprised to see that plants had grown through the building as well. Using the compass, she navigated through the large building, having Cedar make paths where necessary until they reached a room that had been so well sealed that no plants had gotten inside.

In the room filled with little more than piles of dust, the trio followed the compass over to a lightly glowing pile of dust. After a moment of hesitation, Zeph used her wings to brush away the dust and reveal a glowing purple cube with swirly shapes and symbols engraved into its sides, along with a rather normal-looking purple gemstone laying next to it.

“I’ve never seen symbols like these before… I guess we came all the way out here for this…” Zeph said, as she picked up the cube.

A moment later, Zeph saw a bright flash out of the corner of her eye. Looking towards the light, she saw the purple gemstone that had been next to the cube glowing brightly in Argon’s paw along with Argon himself, who was now neon purple.

Frozen in a state of awe, Zeph could only watch as the neon purple drained from Argon into the crystal. When it was done, Argon fell to the ground, and the gemstone bounced away.

In a state of shock, Zeph dropped the cube and rushed over to Argon. Finding him unresponsive, she quickly took out a cluster of glow berries from her bag and held them in front of his nose. A moment later, he sprang up and began nibbling the glow berries.

As Argon nibbled the berries, tears began to swell in Zeph’s eyes. Picking up Argon, she held him tightly as she whispered. “New rule, no more touching strange gemstones—ever.”

Even with her eyes closed tightly as she hugged Argon, Zeph’s vision turned white. When the light faded, she opened her eyes to find a younger-looking dark purple mare, who was about the same height as Zeph, wearing ornately scrolled black clothing with a foxtail. Looking towards the pony’s face, Zeph noticed, under her hood embedded in the pony’s forehead, appeared to be the purple gemstone that had done something to Argon.

Putting Argon down, Zeph glared angrily at the new pony, who appeared to be looking around confused.

“What did you do to Argon!?” Demanded Zeph as she stared into the deep purple eyes that soon transfixed on her.

“What did I do to who?”

“The bunny.” Zeph said while pointing her hoof at Argon.

The purple pony looked at Argon, confused for a few moments, before smiling and walking over to him.

“Awe~ he’s so~ cute!”

Zeph cut off the purple pony and glared at her. “Stay away.”

“W-why?”

“Because you just did something to him, and you’re not doing it again.”

“I did?”

“Yeah, that gemstone on your forehead just drained something out of him.”

The purple pony stared at Zeph blankly for a few moments. “I don’t seem to be able to remember anything… but if I did something wrong, I’m really sorry about it.”

“Who are, and what are you?”

The purple pony stared at Zeph as she scrunched up her face as if she was trying really hard to remember something. “I want to say my name is Hakumei Kirameki… and I am… uhm… a pony?”

“That is a really long and weird name. Anything else I can call you?”
The purple pony shrugged.

“How about Kira?”

“Okay.” The purple pony smiled at Zeph.

Zeph, not wanting to take her eyes off Kira, stared at her while directing a question towards Argon. “Argon, do you know anything about what’s going on?”

Zeph stayed staring into Kira’s eyes as she waited for a mental image from Argon, but seeing a blur from the corner of her vision, she looked down to see Argon hopping up to Kira, who in turn crouched down to meet his gaze.

Rushing over to get between the two, Zeph looked at Argon. “You shouldn’t get close to her until we know what happened.”

Argon stared at Zeph unamused and shook his head, as if to say, “You’re being too paranoid.”

“I am not! You were unconscious!”

Argon hopped around Zeph and held out a glow berry for Kira, who accepted it and nibbled it as instructed by Argon.

“Those are good! Thank you, Mr. Argon.”

“I don’t like this.”

“It is a might bit strange.” Said Cedar as he walked over. “My name’s Cedar, and the defensive pony is Zeph. Do you really not remember anything?”

Kira finished eating another berry that she got from Argon, then looked over at Cedar. “I remember something… something about that cube on the ground over there… uhm… It was sitting by a book… and uhm…. That’s all I can remember.”

“That’s the—only thing you can remember about anything?” Zeph declared, clearly unconvinced.

“I remember some other random things. Like the sky is blue, the meaning of some words—oh-oh! And that the most important thing in life is to stay positive and protect your friends! Uhm, are you three my friends?”

Zeph looked down to Argon, who nodded as he offered Kira another berry. “Seems so, but is that really all you can remember?”

Kira nodded as she ate the berry, taking tiny nibbles out of it in the same way Argon was eating the berries.