Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Zeph helped Kira up the last part of the mountain to where Cozy was waiting for them, impatiently tapping her hoof.

“Phew, even floating up half the way, it took quite a long time to get up here,” panted Zeph as she admired the last sliver of the sunset. “Anything change from inside the ruin?”

“I’ve made some progress figuring things out, but it’s been slow given that I’ve had to keep flying out here to check on you two.”

“Was that slight really necessary? Kira already feels bad about slowing us down.”

Zeph watched as Cozy took a deep breath. “It wasn’t. I’m just on edge. Balancing your safety and figuring out what happened to Runa and Cedar has just been—a lot. Anyway, hurry inside. Once you’re in the ruin, I’ll cover the entrance.”

Once everypony was in the ruin, Cozy used her levitation charm to move a boulder in front of the exit before leading the group deeper into the ruin.

“I’ve flown through this place several times, so we should be pretty safe. Still, I want at least one of you on guard at all times, and you should all stay together. If somepony or bunny needs to go to the bathroom, you all go. Furthermore, try not to touch much. The nature of this ruin is making it difficult to tell if there are actually traps.”

After quite some time walking through hallways and down stairs, the group came to the edge of a dark room covered with symbols.

“This is the room Runa and Cedar disappeared in. For the time being, I think it’s best if—” Cozy stopped talking as Zeph took a step into the room to get a closer look.

“If what?”

Cozy sighed. “If—nopony comes into this room but me…”

As Cozy’s voice faded, Zeph looked around and noticed that everypony was already inside the room. A moment later, she heard a loud slam, causing her to look behind her to see that the path they had taken inside the room was now closed off.

“Well—at least we’ll figure out what happened quicker this way,” remarked Cozy as she continued to hover in the room.

As the room began to glow and a haunting melody filled the air, Zeph gulped. “W-we’re going to be okay, right?”

Cozy shrugged. “We’ll find out. If not, at least I get to see something interesting before the end. To be honest, seeing this spell in motion is breathtaking. A truly marvelous feat of magical engineering. It appears to be sending and receiving information using short bursts of displacement magic and temporary storage fields. It’s putting into motion things that I had barely begun to theorize were possible.”

“I’ll admit, hearing you talk about it in such a way is oddly comforting.”

As a shimmering swirl of light began seemingly pulling Zeph towards it, she looked back at Argon. “If this is the end, I just want to say sorry I couldn’t get you home.”

Argon put his paws against his chest and smiled, as if to say, “Have hope, our adventure isn’t over yet.”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t be talking like it’s over. When it’s over, it’s over—until then, we stand together!”

Taking a deep breath, Zeph stopped resisting and walked towards the center of the room. As she came into contact with the shimmering swirl of light, her vision seemed to smear, and the melody became muffled until it faded completely and her vision returned to normal.

Looking around the room, it looked a lot like when they first entered it.

“So, wait, nothing happened?”

“We traveled an interestingly long way,” remarked Cozy as she flew away from the group. “These symbols are different.”

“The air also smells different,” remarked Kira.

“Judging by the black hoof prints on the floor, I’d say it’s safe to assume we wound up in the same place Runa and Cedar did,” commented Zeph as she began following the prints until she reached a room filled with shelves similar to the one they passed through not long ago—except this one had boxes on some of the shelves and a strange black slate that Zeph watched Cozy fly up to.

Walking alongside Cozy, Zeph noticed she was smiling widely. “This is what I was looking for!”

“A mirror?”

“Not in the least, Detective,” Cozy said as she tapped the slate, causing it to spring to life with strange symbols for a brief moment before going dark once more. “That’s interesting… It’s completely passive. So it only works for as long as there is a steady stream of magic going into it. That’s very un-dragon-like. Unless…” Cozy trailed off, then tapped one of the empty shelves with her hoof, at the same time tapping her other hoof to the slate, which caused the slate to once more spring to life—but to Zeph’s surprise, this time it stayed alive. “That explains why there needs to be constant power pulsing through the shelves. They provide the magic to the display.”

“So how about explaining what you found to us non-magically inclined ponies?”

“It would be a way to access the information in this library—if I knew how to read it…”

“Not fluent in dragon, I take it?”

“I know some, but I wouldn’t call myself fluent at all.”

“If it’s a library, maybe you can find a ‘how to read’ book for kids?”

“Actually, that’s a pretty good idea.”

Zeph watched Cozy tap her hoof around the slate for a few moments.

“Looks like I’ve found some, which seems to also prove that this is a book-less library as I suspected. I mean, at some point, I suspect there were actual books here too, but apparently the dragons who built this place planned for the future.”

Zeph felt a tap on her back, followed by a mental image of Runa and Cedar.

“We should probably keep looking for Runa and Cedar.”

Cozy sighed. “Right.”

Cozy flew away from the slate and began leading the group again until they reached a zigzagging stairwell that seemed to stretch up several floors, which caused Kira to collapse.

“I-I can’t do more climbing, I’m sorry. I-I just can’t!”

Zeph walked over to Kira and put her hoof on her back.

“You’ve done great today. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure—”

Kira sniffed as she looked towards Zeph with tear-filled eyes. “B-but the others are still lost…” Kira stared wishfully at Argon. “I wish I was a bunny. That way I wouldn’t be a hindrance.”

Zeph blinked as a bright light suddenly blinded her. When she managed to open her eyes a moment later, she saw Argon sitting on the ground where Kira had been.

“Argon? What happened to Kira?” Zeph felt a tap on her back, causing her to look back to see Argon still on her back. “Wait, what!?”

Looking back to the Argon on the floor, she saw him examining himself with awe for a moment before hopping up in excitement and declaring in a voice that sounded like Kira’s, “I’m a bunny! I’m a bunny!”

“What do you know? Kitsony—can transform into things they can see,” muttered Cozy as she landed near Kira. “I was just going to levitate you up again, but I suppose this works too.”

“I can turn into anything I see?”

“Maybe not anything? To be honest, I’ve only heard that kitsony can turn into ponies they can see, but that seems to at least apply to animals, too.” Cozy stared intensely at Kira for a few short moments. “You don’t seem to have used up much energy transforming either.” Cozy pulled out a small cluster of glowberries and held them out for Kira. “Still, you should eat some glowberries to be safe.”

“So, is this just a natural thing kitsony can do, like my ability to connect with Argon?” inquired Zeph as she watched Kira nibble glowberries.

“Sure, we can call it ‘natural.’”

“You don’t sound convinced?”

“Natural is a relative term when it comes to pure magical creatures.”

“What’s a pure magical creature?”

“As in, made from magic. She doesn’t have a true biological form like you do. Natural creatures are made of living cells; pure magical creatures are made of crystallized magic.”

“Wait, Kira’s like a ghost, but solid?”

“That’s one way of putting it, I suppose. The Lost Isles really doesn’t have many pure magical creatures… the aurora wisps on the East Isle are the only ones that come to mind.”

“I remember those things. That was an amazing trip. But I don’t remember you being with us on that one?”

Cozy looked at Zeph with a raised eyebrow. “It shocks you that I’ve been places without you?”

“Yeah. I mean, we’ve known you most of your life, and it seems like you only go places if Flare’s dragging you along.”

“Suppose it probably does seem that way from your perspective.”

“So, you really go places without Flare?”

“Detective…” Cozy sighed heavily. “Just a couple of odd trips now and again. Such as a recent skip across a puddle to find a wayward friend.”

Zeph turned her attention upward as she heard a strange sound echo down the stairs. “Yodel-odel-lay-ee-hoo!”

“That was weird… I’m not sure what that sounded like…”

“Indeed… we should probably be going,” Cozy said as she walked over to Zeph and tapped her. “That should make the climb up easier for you.”

Having Kira hop on her back, Zeph trotted up the stairs with ease, feeling light as a feather. As she reached each landing, the strange sound became more frequent and louder. By the time she reached the top, she could swear that she could hear Cedar’s voice mixed with the odd sounds.

As the group came out of the stairwell, Zeph could see bright mid-day sun shining in from large skylights in the ceiling.

“Wasn’t it just dusk, not too long ago?” remarked Zeph as she entered the room behind Cozy.

“I was thinking the same thing myself,” Cozy said as she guided the group through the room and toward the sounds.

Coming out of the ruin, Zeph looked around in amazement at the jagged, towering mountain range that seemed to stretch on endlessly in every direction, until her eyes landed on Cedar and Runa sitting on circular stone benches surrounded by goats and what Zeph was fairly certain was a dragon.

The moment Runa looked their way, she immediately jumped up and galloped over to Cozy.

“Cozy! You’ve found us! Thank the forest. I don’t know how much more of these goats I can take.”

Zeph listened for a moment as the goats and Cedar made another call out over the mountains, before he started walking her way with a big smile.

“Cedar seems to be enjoying their company,” Zeph remarked, causing Runa to cringe.