Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Zeph trotted alongside Cedar with Argon on her back as Kira lay atop Cedar doing her best to hold on. Kira had tried hard to keep trotting along with them, but by the time they had been going for an hour, she had collapsed from exhaustion. Zeph felt bad for not realizing how tired she was getting, but it wasn’t something she was used to watching for either.

As the group approached a steep drop, Zeph looked to both sides of the cliff and sighed. “This looks like the start of a—very long detour.”

“You can’t fly, but could you glide over?” Asked Cedar as he bent down to let Kira off his back.

“I’m pretty sure I mentioned that Cozy was the only pegasus I knew who could glide.”

“Yeah, but not even a little?”

“Not even a little. Besides, even if I could, we’re not breaking up.”

Zeph watched nervously as Argon hopped all the way to the edge of the cliff and looked down.

“Maybe don’t stand that close to the edge?” Zeph called to Argon, who ignored her for a moment before motioning for her to come over.

Taking a deep breath, Zeph made her way over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. A long way down, she could see a large viney web below.

“If you’re thinking we jump down into that web, you’ve lost your little bunny mind.”

Argon looked at her unamused. A moment later, she got the image of a black-furred colt with a black mane wearing what appeared to be jungle-colored body wraps stuck in the web. Looking closer to where Argon was pointing, she could see the same pony indeed, stuck in the vines.

“That’s not good… I’m not sure what we can do though…”

Zeph got a mental image of her helping the pony out of the web.

“I’d like to, but…”

Argon continued to stare at her as if to say, “You can’t possibly be considering leaving him there.”

“I’m not, but we’re not getting down there anytime soon.”

Zeph looked over to Cedar, who was still pretty far back with Kira.

“You mind coming over here and yelling down to a pony? Your voice is way louder than mine.”

“Oh, uhm, y-yeah…” Cedar gulped hard as he inched slowly over to the cliff.

“Let me guess. You’re afraid of heights?”

“Not normal heights, but this… This is not normal.”

“I’m not exactly comfortable being this close to the edge either. Though, I’m not really scared of heights, just the splat at the end if I fall.” Zeph laughed awkwardly. “You can just call from there,” Zeph said after she had noticed that Cedar had frozen in place.

As Cedar called, Zeph watched the pony below, but didn’t see any movement.

“Either he can’t hear us, or he’s sleeping… or … uhm, yeah…”

Zeph turned back to see Cedar taking several long, deep breaths before inching closer to the edge before freezing in place again. A moment later, Kira came up behind him.

“You can do it!” She exclaimed enthusiastically.

Which prompted Cedar to let out a huff of air. “I can do it!” Cedar echoed as he slammed his hoof down in front of him, causing the ground to start shaking.

Zeph felt herself turning sideways. Looking behind Cedar, she saw the edge of the cliff break apart. Turning to Argon, she grabbed him in her teeth and ran as fast as she could, but feeling the ground slip from beneath her hooves, she used her last bit of footing to toss Argon as hard as she could towards the cliff.

As Zeph fell, she saw Argon run back up to the edge of the cliff, which allowed Zeph to breathe a sigh of relief. As she watched him shrink in her vision. She knew he’d be fine, even with her gone. Cozy would find him, and she would—

Before Zeph could finish her thought, her world suddenly turned into a blur as she jerked around, forcing her to instinctually close her eyes. When she stopped moving, she felt unable to move. Opening her eyes at the sound of a squeaky male voice calling out to her, it took a few moments for her vision to clear and for her realize that she was tangled in vines, hanging near the pony she had seen earlier.

“Good, you’re alive! Nice to meet you. My name’s Clef Noir of the Sparkmaster clan, and you are?”

“Zeph—Zeph Cloudchaser of the Lost Isles?” Zeph said in a daze as she studied the oddly colored pony in front of her. From a distance, he had appeared black, but up close, he appeared to have ash-colored markings throughout his fur. As she looked him over, her gaze moved to his bright blue eyes and then to the rather sharp-looking horn sticking out of his head. “Y-you’re a unicorn? Wait, Cedar! Kira! Are you okay?” Zeph yelled as loudly as she could.

Zeph heard Cedar’s voice call out from beneath her. “Yes, ma’am. Just hanging around.”

Kira’s voice came from above her. “That was kind of fun, but I feel really sticky now is that normal?”

“Falling off cliffs is a normal thing for you?” Asked Clef looking inquisitively at Zeph.

“No. This is not normal.” Remarked Zeph as she began wondering how she was going to get free. A moment into her thoughts, she saw a mental image of Cozy flying down the cliff. “Now that would be nice.”

A moment later, she heard Cozy’s voice calling out from above her. Looking up, Zeph saw Cozy descending slowly, with Argon on her back.

“Now I’ll admit I—could have gotten here sooner—but I also get the feeling you could have been safer.” Snipped Cozy.

Zeph smiled at Argon, who was energetically waving to her, before turning her attention back to Cozy.

“Where have you been?”

“The Lost Isles, actually, but I’ll explain that after I get you and your new… friends out of this.”

“Hello, I’m—” Cozy cut Clef off.

“I don’t care. At the moment. Stay quiet and let me think.”

Cozy landed on Zeph’s hat, which felt weird as she could barely feel her at all. It was as if a small bird was perched atop her.

Zeph gulped as she heard a familiar clicking sound. “I-I think you need to think faster. I get the feeling we’re about to have company.”

“I suppose that’ll have to do.” Feeling Cozy jump off her hat, Zeph looked down to see several large timber web spiders crawling up the cliff side towards them. Looking back towards Cozy, Zeph saw her pull a cork out of a bottle filled with glowing yellow liquid. Zeph watched as Cozy flew around and splashed every pony with what she assumed was glow berry juice.

“I don’t see how making us taste like glow berries is going to help, unless you’re trying to deter them from eating us.” Remarked Zeph as she watched Cozy dump the rest of the bottle on Cedar.

“That might work—if I had—a lot more glow berry extract, but I don’t. So you’ll just have to settle for a chain spell.” Cozy tapped her bracelet, which caused Zeph to feel so light that she started pulling upward on the vines.

“Not to complain, but even if we can float, we’re still stuck!”

“True, but you probably don’t realize that what’s sticking you to the vines is reversal magic and not sap.”

“Which means?”

Cozy tapped the vines, which caused them to slip off and fall to the ground with a loud thud as the cliff side rocks and spiders went with them, leaving Zeph, Cedar, Kira, and Clef floating in mid-air.

“If you nullify the magic, they become super slippery, instead of super sticky.” Cozy explained as she pushed every pony up a bit and to the other side of the cliff.

Once every pony was over solid ground, Cozy tapped each of them, causing them to flop to the ground.

Before Zeph could stand, Argon hopped over to her and hugged her. Picking him up, Zeph held Argon tightly as she watched Cozy turn her attention to Kira and Clef.

“Okay, now as for you two... I’m most curious about you.” Cozy said as she pointed to Kira.

“I’m Hakumei Kirameki, but you can call me Kira, and I’m a pony!” Kira said with a big smile as she held her hoof out in the same way Cedar had when he introduced himself to her.

Cozy stared at her dumbfounded for several long moments until Zeph cleared her throat. “She doesn’t have any memories of who or what she is. We were at a ruin, and Argon touched the gemstone that’s now on her forehead, and she just kind of appeared.”

“He touched the gemstone?” Cozy turned her attention to Argon for a moment before turning her attention back to Kira. “Now that’s… strange.”

After a few moments, Cozy finally held her hoof out and introduced herself. “I’m Cozy.”

“A-And I’m Clef Noir of the Sparkmasters!” Clef said enthusiastically as he stared starry-eyed at Cozy, who turned to him with a look of contempt.

“What’s a ‘sparkmaster?’”

“It’s the clan I’m starting, and I’d love it if you joined!”

Cozy scrunched up her nose. “I’m not even a unicorn. I’m a pegasus. See the wings?” Cozy flapped her wings as she pointed to them.

“That doesn’t matter. The Sparkmasters care not for such things; we are dedicated to the pursuit of all magic to bring harmony to all!”

Cozy turned to Zeph. “I thought you were supposed to be returning a bunny to his earth pony home, not meeting the strangest ponies in Equitoria.”

“I’m working on it… Though to be honest, I’m really not sure where to go…” Zeph laughed awkwardly, as she hoped Cozy could guide her in the right direction somehow.

“I can lead you out of the Everglow and to the earth ponies.” Declared Clef. “But I’ll need to stop by my clan first.”