Primeval Retribution

Chapter Two: The Band of Parity

Parchment flew through the air, quills spilt onto the floor, and books soared across the library as Twilight Sparkle ran around her room. Her shadow bounded on the floor as the morning sun shone through her bedroom window, the lavender unicorn breathing quickly and heavily as she tried her best to organize the library. The mess that began to form in Twilight’s room slowly building, it was apparent her worries were taking over her sense of cleanliness and organization. The letter she had received from Celestia not only an hour ago had sent her into a frenzy of trying to clean her house as fast as she could, though the process didn’t seem to be the best, her room gradually starting to look as if another tree burst through her window.

From the sidelines, a purple dragon stood still near the stairs leading to Twilight’s bed, watching the ordeal. “Uh... Twilight? Don’t you think-?” Spike began.

However, as every other time he had tried to intervene for the past twenty minutes, he was cut off by a loud bang and some of Twilight’s incomprehensible ramblings.

“No time to talk!” Twilight shouted in response after throwing an assortment of books up towards her bed. “Oh how did I not see how messy the library was before!?” She continued her rampage.

Spike folded his arms and leaned on his left leg. “How can you not see how messy it’s getting?” he mumbled to himself.

It had been coming apparent to Spike that either Twilight actually thought her room was becoming cleaner the more she moved her possessions around or she was just delirious. With the library’s upper room turning into a hazard zone with all the things flying through the air, Spike figured it was a good time to put a stop to the unicorn’s madness. He turned his head to the desk he stood next to and eyed the items across the surface of the wooden table top. Somehow, most of the articles of writing and studying atop the desk had been untouched throughout Twilight’s fury. It was the perfect setup. Wincing slightly at the thought of what would happen, Spike reached up onto the desk, grabbed ahold of an ink bottle, and tipped it over.

The eerie silence that swept over the library in a single second sent fear into the purple dragon’s heart. All at once, the books, quills, and parchment floating in the air came crashing down, and a scurry of hoofsteps raced across the floor.

Twilight Sparkle slid to a stop near the desk Spike stood next to and began to hyperventilate. “Spike! What are you doing!?” Twilight shouted, repeatedly switching her eyes from her assistant to the ink oozing onto the floor of her room. “I have to have the library fixed up for the princesses and you’re over here making messes! What are you trying to-!?”

Cowering slightly, Spike slowly pointed a finger out to the rest of the library. Wondering what he was doing, Twilight Sparkle turned herself around to look over what the dragon was motioning to, and her ears flopped against the sides of her head as the catastrophe that had become her room entered her vision. The floor of the bedroom was barely visible through the piles and piles of miscellaneous items scattered all around. Parchment hung from the area where Twilight’s bed rested, and from what it looked like from the lower part of the unicorn’s bedroom, her bed and pillows themselves had been gutted in all the commotion.

A deep and exasperated sigh escaped Twilight Sparkle’s mouth as she flopped down onto her flank. “Thank you, Spike,” she muttered, her eyes closed in part shame.

“Hey, you need someone to keep you in check, right?” Spike joked, though quickly shut his mouth as Twilight only hung her head lower. “Should I get started on cleaning?”

“No no, it’s fine,” the lavender unicorn said solemnly as she stood back onto her hooves. She poked at some of the feathers of her pillows beside her. “I guess I just got a little caught up in trying to make the library clean for the princesses.”

“Well it’s probably a good thing that you didn’t go downstairs,” Spike admitted, picking up a few books laying open at his feet. He took a glance at Twilight, the unicorn tiredly looking over her room. “Maybe you should just focus on rounding up the others for now. You still have the rest of the day before the princesses get here.”

Twilight Sparkle stretched her hoof out to her room. “But what if the princesses see the mess and-”

“Listen, Twilight,” Spike interrupted as he set the books in his hands down on the desk next to him. “Don’t worry about it. I’m your assistant, remember?”

The lavender unicorn paused for a moment, and she smiled and shook her head. “I suppose I can’t deny that one.” She picked up the purple dragon with a levitation spell and brought him over to her, rubbing her head up against Spike’s cheek. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Spike blushed and dug at the floor with his feet as Twilight set him back down. “Aw shucks,” he mumbled.

Quickly giving Spike a smile, the lavender unicorn, now out of her fury of panic, got on course for the day. With her mind finally clear, she raced up the stairs to her bed and surveyed the disaster zone. Obviously apparent throughout the rest of her room, she had done more damage than help to clean her previously barely messy home.

I hope Spike doesn’t have too much trouble cleaning all of this up, Twilight Sparkle thought to herself.

She leaped over the heaps of feathers and strips of cloth from her bed as she searched around the area for the letter Spike had burped out earlier that morning. She had already read the letter several times over, and she knew it was important, but Twilight felt as if there were something more to the task Celestia asked of her. The bearers of The Elements of Harmony had only ever been assembled by order of Celestia in times of distress, and the situation described within the ominous letter didn’t seem any less dangerous than the others, despite the lack of any explanation. The lavender unicorn searched through the mess around her bed and Spike’s bed, urgently shoving her things that were on the floor out of the way as she looked for the letter she had misplaced earlier. Luckily, before Twilight could make any more of a disaster of her room, the certain piece of parchment she sought out for showed itself out from under a pile of books and quills. A grin spread across Twilight Sparkle’s face as her eyes met with the letter she beckoned, the unicorn picking up the letter with a levitation spell and holding it up straight in front of herself.

“Faithful... risk... midnight...” Twilight muttered as she scanned over the letter once more, though this time she was actually calm and not desperately trying to clean her room. “...speak to all of you. Yours, Princess Celestia.” Twilight Sparkle bit her lip and rotated the letter in the air, searching over every corner and fold on the parchment. There was nothing else to the task that Celestia asked, only a simple instruction to gather the bearers of The Element of Harmony and bring them to the library at midnight. No postscript, no attached notes, no small print, nothing.

“There has to be something... but what?” Twilight Sparkle whispered to herself, rubbing a hoof on her chin as she peered at the letter from Celestia.

Twilight’s concentration didn’t last very long, as a loud bang from the other side of her bedroom shook the entire library. Shaking her thoughts out of her head, the lavender unicorn trotted over to the side of her upper loft to see what was going on. A few areas had been cleared out across the floor of Twilight Sparkle’s bedroom, though they didn’t remain so as the aftermath of Spike somehow managing to knock over an entire bookshelf spread across the floor. Her room even more messy than it had been before, Twilight Sparkle sighed and flattened her eyes as her assistant poked his eyes out from under the pile of books on top of him. Twilight knew she wouldn’t be able to coax Spike out of cleaning for her, so she accepted that it would be a while, quite a while, before the upper floor of the library was cleaned.

Maybe I’ll just meet the princesses downstairs when they get here, Twilight Sparkle thought as she turned away from the rest of her room.

Trying her best to not knock over any more things around her, Twilight Sparkle gingerly hopped across the area by her bed over to the window. She peered out of the sparkling clean glass pane as she neared the wall, squinting against the early rays of sunlight raining onto a new Equestrian day. It was still quite early, and it seemed that the other ponies in Ponyville were just getting up, or wandering around in a tired haze because of Twilight’s rampage not too long ago. Some of the ponies even gave the library an exhausted glare before they continued on further into Ponyville, Twilight ducking down a little. There was still plenty of time for the library to be cleaned, and the whole day was ahead of the lavender unicorn to gather her friends and bring them to her home before midnight. The sky had already been cleared of clouds by a few pegasi in the previous hours, so weather didn’t look as if it would be an issue for Twilight in getting around town.

Twilight Sparkle sighed and brought Celestia’s letter back to her side in a levitation spell. She looked over the parchment one last time.

It is to my grief that I have to inform you that Equestria is at risk.

“What risk could we be in now?” Twilight asked herself as she rolled up the letter and wrapped a ribbon around it.

She placed the letter down on her nightstand and hurried off towards the stairs leading to the lower levels of the library, waving goodbye to Spike before she descended downstairs.

It could take a while to gather the others, knowing the six bearers of The Elements.

______________________________________________________________________

“Rarity, would’ja stop lookin’ at yerself in the mirror? You’re startin’ to worry me a mighty bit,” Applejack announced as she watched the snow white unicorn brush her mane over and over.

“What else am I going to do?” Rarity called out, partially turning her head to look at Applejack from the corners of her eyes. “I would rather not partake in those... games that you girls have been playing for the past two hours.” She looked back at herself in the mirror. “Besides, my mane would be ruined if I went over there.”

Applejack opened her mouth to give her own feedback, but she clenched her teeth and opened her eyes wide instead as Pinkie Pie crashed into another bookshelf along the library’s main entrance room.

“My point exactly,” Rarity said smugly and continued to brush her mane, Applejack only groaning and turning away from her friend.

The inside of the library was quite lively for the time of night in Equestria, and the boredom that had overtaken the six mares didn’t seem like it was going to end any time soon. After sitting in the same place for three hours, a group of ponies can turn into a nonsensical competition of who can balance on top of an exercise ball for the longest. With Twilight Sparkle keeping an eye on everypony and making sure that no one left the library, the six friends could only resort to silliness as they waited for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to arrive. They had to do something; Pinkie Pie had been starting to shake due to fun withdrawal.

Apart from the mini party bouncing within Twilight Sparkle’s home, the rest of Ponyville had already fallen asleep. Night took over in the sky a few hours ago, a full moon resting in the middle of the nocturnal overlay spread across Equestria alongside its sparkling neighbors. The muffled laughter and joyful party music from the inside of the library didn’t disturb the usual quietness of nighttime Ponyville too much, though the houses around Twilight’s home couldn’t say the same. The Ponyville Inn was quite full this night. The town’s local wild animal population, too, seemed as if they were remaining a distance away from the normally peaceful library, the majority of the scurrying of paws and flapping of wings off in the distance.

“Hey, no fair! Fluttershy’s using her wings!” Pinkie Pie pointed out, staring at the yellow pegasus beside her as she recovered from her loss of balance earlier.

“Oh, um, no. I really wasn’t,” Fluttershy pleaded quietly. Whether she had been using her wings wouldn’t make a difference any longer, however, as Fluttershy soon lost her balance and her exercise ball rolled out from underneath her, the pegasus flailing in the air for a second before flopping onto the floor.

“Ha! Last one standing, right here!” Rainbow Dash gloated, a large grin spreading across her face. “AJ, you’ve been keeping track of how long we’ve been balancing, right?”

“Was I supposed to be?” Applejack asked as she came near the last remaining pony standing atop an exercise ball.

“What!?” Rainbow exclaimed, her expression turning to frustration. “Were you supposed to be? Yes you were supposed to be! I told you to keep track when we started!”

“Well you three had been balancin’ for so long that I lost track of the time. Besides, it’s not like there’s any sorta world record that we’re tryin’ to break,” Applejack said.

“We can make one, then!” Pinkie Pie shouted, bouncing around Rainbow Dash. “Here, Dashy, let me on!”

“Hey, wait! What are you doing!?” Rainbow Dash yelled as Pinkie began to climb on top of the exercise ball as well. “You’re going to make me fall! Pinkie, sto-!”

Rainbow Dash’s pleas were finished with a loud grunt as the exercise ball slipped out from under the blue pegasus, Rainbow and Pinkie Pie falling to the ground on top of each other. A flutter of giggles filled the library’s main room as Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack watched Pinkie and Rainbow lay dazed on the floor.

“Twilight, what time did the princesses say they were going to be here? We’ve been in here for hours!” Rarity asked, walking away from the mirror in between two of the bookshelves along the wall. Even though she had been doing the same routine of brushing her hair for quite a while, her mane seemed even more elegant than it usually did.

The lavender unicorn sitting near the library’s entrance looked up from her book at Rarity. “Princess Celestia wrote that she and Princess Luna would be here at midnight. What time is it?” Twilight asked, closing her book and standing up.

Applejack took a glance at the clock near the stairs leading to Twilight’s bedroom. “Eleven fifty seven. I reckon they should be here any moment then,” she concluded.

Twilight Sparkle turned around to gaze out the window behind her. The streets of Ponyville appeared to be empty from any of the towns residents or visitors. The large field that spread out in front of the library yielded no signs of anypony coming or going, the dark of night the only sight in Ponyville’s late hours for now.

“I hope so,” Twilight Sparkle whispered to herself. She longed to know what was going on and why she was asked to gather her friends in the library. Twilight, along with her friends, had arrived at her home four hours early in case the princesses decided to show up ahead of time, though the extra precaution just seemed to be a waste of the end of a beautiful day for the other bearers of The Elements. Of course, they hadn’t read the letter themselves.

“I hope they don’t get here too late,” Rarity said, flipping her mane. “I won’t be able to get my beauty sleep! How else am I going to look fabulous for the rest of tomorrow if I don’t rest up the night before?”

“By quit bein’ so picky with how you look,” Applejack remarked. She and Rainbow slipped a hoofbump while they snickered to themselves.

Rarity turned her head away from Applejack and closed her eyes. “Well maybe you can go through a day without feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, but I cannot.” She lifted a hoof up in front of her face and admired it. “There is nothing in the world that would make me walk around Ponyville a tired mess. I would never stand for such a lack of fabulosity.”

“Would you two stop bantering and help me?” Rainbow asked, hovering over one of the exercise balls. “Hold it still so I can get my balance.” Rainbow centered her eyes on Applejack. “And this time actually keep track of how long I’ve been on.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Alright alright, quit yer fussin’. I’ll hold it steady.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and lowered herself on top of the exercise ball, placing her hooves strategically across the top hemisphere of the large, rubbery sphere.

“Okay, I think I’m good,” Rainbow Dash confirmed, bouncing up and down slightly as Applejack let go of the ball. “Ready, AJ?”

“Wait wait wait wait wait!” Pinkie Pie shouted as she rolled another one of the exercise balls next to Rainbow Dash. Almost effortlessly, the pink pony hopped up into the air and landed perfectly onto the ball, a squeak emitting from her mouth as she grinned. “Okay!”

Applejack rolled her eyes. She looked towards the clock in the room. “Alright. Time is starting right...” Applejack waited a moment for the second hand to reach the next minute, and as the hand struck the top of the clock, she thumped her hoof against the ground. “Now!”

Not even a second later, however, the competition was already over. Without any type of warning, the two exercise balls disappeared in respective flashes and sparks of purple magic. Caught of guard and focused more on the suddenly canceled time trial, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash opened their eyes wide in surprise as they fell to the ground on steady hooves.

“Hey! What was that for?” Rainbow Dash asked, focusing on Twilight Sparkle as the lavender unicorn peered out the window.

Without an answer from Twilight, the library suddenly grew quiet. The small stereo sitting on the middle table within the room, too, disappeared in a purple teleportation spell, and off in the basement, the quiet sound of something breaking traveled up into the library’s entrance room. The other two exercise balls still in the room along with the group of ponies snapped away to the basement with the stereo, leaving the six friends with nothing to aid their boredom any longer.

“No! Not the boredom again!” Pinkie Pie shouted, her eyes straining as she planted her front hooves onto her face. The pink pony began to shake suddenly, though she calmed down slightly as Fluttershy rushed to her side and placed a hoof on her back.

Twilight Sparkle turned around quickly and stomped her hoof on the ground, the quick action making her friends tense up and stare at her cautiously. “Everypony quiet down!” Twilight Sparkle announced in a hushed voice. “The princesses are here.”

Being told to silence their voices wasn’t needed any more for the bearers of The Elements as the second sentence left Twilight Sparkle’s mouth. Though it may not have been showing, the tension within each of the mares had been quite high as they waited for Celestia and Luna. As if they had planned out a sort of rehearsal for the occasion, the six mares trotted to the middle of the room, standing around the table and staring towards the door of the library after nodding to each other. Hoofsteps slowly came into earshot from outside, accompanied with the sound of grass moving with the beat of the steps. What felt like forever to wait for, the hoofsteps came to a stop outside of the library’s front door. A knock on the entrance made the six friends within Twilight’s home jump slightly, though they quickly calmed themselves down. Despite the present moment being the one Twilight had been waiting for the entire day, she partially hesitated in her magic as she cast a spell on the door to open it. With the door cracking open further and further, Twilight Sparkle felt something in her, and she knew, as two cloaked ponies lit up in the light of the library, some things would never be the same again.

The door of the library fully open, the two figures in cloaks outside of the library stepped into Twilight Sparkle’s home. Only their hooves showed out from under the brown and black cloths covering them, two pairs dark blue and the others pink-tinted white. The hoods covering their faces slid backwards and rested on their necks, revealing their faces as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. It soon became apparent to the six mares sitting around the table in the middle of the room that neither Celestia nor Luna were wearing their necklace and tiara, the two princesses almost seeming like different alicorns without them on. Their expressions were not that of felicity, and the feeling reflected off of them onto the bearers of The Elements, the six friends waiting quietly as Celestia and Luna walked forward and stood at the table with them.

“Good evening, my little ponies,” Celestia said quietly and solemnly, both her and Luna taking over their cloaks and setting them on the ground beside themselves.

“Good evening, princesses,” the six mares replied, bowing their heads to the arrivals.

“Where is Spike?” Celestia asked.

“Upstairs, sleeping. Should I go get him?” Twilight Sparkle asked, already backing up from the table.

“No. It’s best if he stays there.” Celestia lowered her eyes to the cleared off tabletop. “The fewer minds that know about this, the better.”

“Dim the candles and cover the windows,” Princess Luna spoke up. “What we came here to talk about isn’t something we would want the wrong eyes to see.”

“Who else is going to be up at-?” Rainbow began to ask, but Luna’s bitter stare on her quickly made her shut her mouth and sink down slightly.

The candles placed throughout the library’s main room lit up with purple, golden, and dark blue auras, all of the flames disappearing aside from the candle in the middle of the table the ponies stood around. The light from the candle in the center of the room only extended a few feet behind all eight of the company within Twilight’s home, darkness lurking in the rest of the library. A few sheets, along with some pairs of tacks, levitated from the basement with purple glows and made their way over to the windows in the room, the tacks planting into the walls of the library through the sheets that now covered the windows. The small flame on the table flickered ever so slightly with the breath of the mares standing around it, and after a moment of silence to gather their thoughts, Celestia and Luna began.

“I assume that Twilight Sparkle has told you all of the situation,” Celestia said, scanning her eyes across the mares.

“Well, all we were told was to come here and sit for a while. I reckon from the letter she showed us, there wasn’t much to be told,” Applejack replied.

“I apologize for the briefness of my letter, but there were other precautions to be made in Canterlot before my sister and I came here,” Celestia cast a small spell on the candle in the middle of the table, the flame switching from a soft orange glow to a dim golden one. “There is much to be told, and I need you six to keep your word that this will not escape your speech to anyone.”

“You can count on us, princess!” Rainbow Dash softly exclaimed, floating off of the ground and saluting to Celestia.

The princess of the sun smiled, though it didn’t last for long. “As I told before in the letter I sent Twilight Sparkle, Equestria is at risk.”

A small golden beam of magic sparked from the tip of Celestia’s horn and glided to the golden flame on the table, absorbing into the flickering fire of the candle. Startlingly, a large display of a purple symbol erupted from the tiny golden flame, the bearers of The Elements gasping at the sight floating above their heads. The symbol, though it appeared foreign to Twilight and her friends, was very familiar to Celestia and Luna, even the princesses’ hearts beating slightly faster at the appearance of it.

“This is the symbol of a long ago forged organization,” Celestia explained. “It has been around even before Equestria was born, back when Equestria had no name and few boundaries. It was only a specified area known as the explored world. Even then, however, such an establishment needed somepony to see over it and put it to its highest potential.”

“But with a leader, there are balances in power,” Luna said. “The symbol that you see now is the one of the oldest symbols in Equestria, one of the first marks ever established by ponykind in the explored world. It is the symbol of The Band of Parity, an organization made to keep the rulers of Equestria in check of their power.”

“The Band of Parity?” Twilight Sparkle asked. “I’ve... never heard of them.”

“And no one outside of the throne of Equestria ever has,” Celestia noted. The symbol floating over the table swirled around in its center and formed into a small ball of magic, turning red and straightening into a single strand of magic. The strand lined out into a formation of letters, a sentence that made Luna take a deep breath inwards.

Applejack read the text out loud, “From this instant on, the throne is under my control, but my actions, are under yours.” She gave her friends a confused look, and from their faces, they seemed just as befuddled as her. “What in the hay is that supposed to mean?”

“This is the final line of the oath of parity, The Band of Parity’s oath that has been given to every leader that has been over Equestria and the explored world, apart from the first ruler,” Celestia elaborated. “The Band regulates the actions of Equestria’s ruler and makes the final decision if...” Celestia peered at Luna out of the corners of her eyes. “...they are to be retired.”

“Retired?” Twilight Sparkle said. “As in... removed from the throne?”

“Precisely,” Luna confirmed. “Sister and I took this oath when we first became princesses of Equestria. The reason that we are here now is that The Band of Parity has returned.”

The six mares looked back down at Celestia and Luna as the line of text disappeared from the air.

“Returned from what? A party?” Pinkie Pie asked with a grin on her face.

“From sleeping for as long as we have been ruling over Equestria,” Celestia said. “The Band of Parity stays dormant during terms of leadership, watching over the leader or leaders and making sure that they are what they promised to be. However, when they break that promise, The Band of Parity wakes up once more, and almost nothing can stop them from their purpose of keeping the rulers of Equestria in a certain limit of their power.”

“But, why are they awake now?” Twilight asked. “Surely you and Princess Luna haven’t...?” She couldn’t finish her sentence.

Celestia bowed her head slightly. “There is one thing that The Band of Parity has no tolerance for, and unfortunately, that force had to be used to repress back Nightmare Moon the night before.”

“Nightmare Moon?” Rarity recalled. “But I thought we got rid of that horrible creature!” She sheepishly smiled at Luna. “No offense, your highness.”

“Unfortunately, such a monster doesn’t disappear so easily,” Princess Luna admitted quietly.

“But what happened? What made The Band of Parity start up again?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“The sole foundation of The Band of Parity itself...” Celestia stayed silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts before she forced the words out of her mouth. “Dark magic.”

“Dark magic? Princess, did you use dark magic?” Fluttershy spoke up. Her surprise wasn’t the only one showing, the other mares staring at Celestia with wide eyes.

“I regret to say that I have,” Celestia spoke.

“Wait wait,” Twilight interrupted. “You just said that it was the sole foundation of The Band of Parity! How do they have no tolerance for it? That doesn’t seem fair!”

The golden flame in the middle of the table flared up into the air again, this time forming a crystal ball darker than shadows. The ball radiated with what appeared to be darkness itself, seeming as a blind spot in the eyes of the mares that stared at it.

“Dark magic was founded even before The Band of Parity was formed,” Celestia said. “It was founded by the one soul that is truly and purely evil, an ancient alicorn by the name of Grimoire.” The silhouette of a tall male alicorn formed above the crystal ball in the air. “When The Band of Parity met their first leader that they needed to take from the throne, they found that even with their combined alicorn powers that the leader was too strong.”

“Alicorns?” Twilight Sparkle jutted in. She closed her eyes and shook her head, giving Celestia a distressed look afterwards. “What is going on!? I thought that alicorns were a rare, powerful species! An entire organization of them!?”

“An organization formed of more than three thousand alicorns, yes,” Celestia verified. “While they are rare now, alicorns were one of the plentiful species that lived in the ancient times. Please, just listen and everything will be explained.”

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath in and settled down, Applejack rubbing her back gently.

Celestia nodded and continued on, “The Band of Parity knew that they could not stand up against Shade, the ruler that had first taken over the explored world and began to abuse his power. The news of dark magic had spread all over the explored world by then, but only few knew how to use it efficiently. Shade had been one that found out how to use it, and with the power of dark magic, he slowly worked into tyranny. He defied The Band of Parity, and The Band needed to find means of stopping him.”

The crystal apparition floating above the table lowered down to eye level.

“This is The Crystal of Cataclysm, a very powerful and very strong catalyst for dark magic created by dark magic’s founder,” Celestia explained. “The Band of Parity used this to put an end to Shade’s reign of terror, bringing him from the throne so a new and better leader could take his place. Grimoire, the forger of the crystal, requested that The Band of Parity return the crystal to him, but The Band insisted that they needed it in case any other incidents would happen with the rulers. Eventually, Grimoire let them have it on terms that they used it only for what he created it for.”

“How is this Grimoire fellow so evil? He let The Band have a tool they could use to stop leaders like... uh, what was his name?” Applejack asked.

“Shade, dear,” Rarity answered. “Maybe you should pay attention for once.”

“I was payin’ attention! I just forgot his name, is all,” Applejack snapped back.

“Girls,” Celestia announced. “Now isn’t the time.” Celestia focused on Applejack. “Grimoire, despite founding it, saw dark magic as a threat and wanted to limit the use of it throughout the explored world. The Band of Parity, however, saw otherwise. When The Band had the idea to split The Crystal of Cataclysm into six fragments to spread its power to multiple ponies, Grimoire tried to stop them. Grimoire was able to do significant damage to The Band of Parity, but in the end, Grimoire himself was absorbed into his own creation, turned to dark magic itself and stored inside of The Crystal of Cataclysm. Before he could break out, The Band of Parity broke the crystal into six fragments, creating The Shards of Havoc.”

The crystal floating above the table shattered into six fragments of the black crystal, each a different shape. The alicorn silhouette had disappeared earlier, though none of the mares had noticed.

“But... he doesn’t sound very evil,” Pinkie Pie muttered, rubbing her chin.

“Later on, however, Grimoire returned,” Luna said. “The Shards of Havoc had turned into the foundation of The Band of Parity’s way of stopping the rulers of Equestria that grew out of control. The Shards, though, were still dangerous. If brought back together, they could reform back into Grimoire himself, bringing back the founder of dark magic. And that’s just what Discord planned to do.”

“Discord!? What does that big mouth have to do with all of this?” Rainbow Dash asked angrily.

“When Discord was made ruler of the explored world, it had been named Equestria by then,” Celestia went on. “Many rulers had passed, and most of them had been peaceful and passed on the throne without having to be taken down by The Band of Parity. It wasn’t until Discord that The Band needed to act again. Discord slowly delved Equestria into chaos, and when The Band of Parity acted, he needed to stop them.”

“Though Grimoire had been sealed away in The Shards of Havoc, he could still return,” Luna said. “The Shards of Havoc set off a harmless and very large wave of dark magic when they are awoken from their slumber. The waves take three days to deteriorate, but if two of The Shards are awoken within three days of each other, the waves of dark magic can come together and bring The Crystal of Cataclysm back to whole. Discord released The Shards all at once with his chaos and brought back Grimoire.”

“As anypony would have guessed, Grimoire wasn’t the happiest with The Band of Parity after they entrapped him and sealed him away,” Celestia said. “Now bonded with The Crystal of Cataclysm, Grimoire was much more powerful than before, and he unleashed his fury onto The Band of Parity. Few survived the attacks that he brought on The Band of Parity, and only twenty two known alicorns survived Discord’s chaos and Grimoire’s attacks. However, despite our few numbers, Luna and I joined with the other twenty alicorns and stood up to Grimoire and Discord. We were barely able to seal Discord into stone while the others dealt with Grimoire. Only six of the alicorns survived the assault on Grimoire, and thus they became the wielders of The Shards of Havoc in the barely standing Band of Parity after they repressed Grimoire back into his crystal ball form. Thus, we began our turn as rulers, but now we are brought to the potential end of our turn.”

Twilight Sparkle planted her head on the table with her mouth open, stretching her brain to its limits. “I don’t understand. How has no one remembered this? Wouldn’t Equestria’s population have heard about this?” she asked.

“Discord’s story was heard throughout Equestria, but Grimoire was limited to The Band of Parity and alicorns,” Celestia replied. “Grimoire paid no attention to the pegasi, unicorns, or earth ponies, and with The Band of Parity’s secrecy already, almost no one knew who Grimoire was after being gone for so long. We know this is so much to take in, but it is necessary for what we need to ask of you six.”

“What is it, princess?” Rainbow Dash asked confidently. “We’ll do anything to make sure that you two are safe.”

“The Band of Parity has developed into a organization of more than just alicorns ever since Grimoire’s release,” Luna explained. “They are still very powerful and, as we speak, are beginning the process of reviving The Shards of Havoc. As said before, The Shards respectively require three day periods to be awoken, and that is what we need you six to stop.”

A feeling of dread quickly washed over the bearers of The Elements, each of their ears flopping down against their heads. They had the idea in mind, but they didn’t actually expect to be asked to stop The Shards of Havoc.

“You want us... to stand up against The Band of Parity?” Twilight Sparkle asked in awe, lifting her head off of the table.

“As dangerous and difficult as it may sound, we have faith in your six,” Celestia assured. “You six have defeated Nightmare Moon, helped stop the changelings, and even saved an entire empire against King Sombra. You are stronger than you think, and Luna and I know you can do this.”

Twilight Sparkle bit her lip and thought to herself as the fragments of crystal floating above the table formed back into the candle, which turned back to its orange hue. The process of saving The Crystal Empire had been challenging enough with King Sombra’s dark magic, but against an entire organization that used dark magic as their basis weapon, the feat seemed as if it would be impossible. Though, Celestia had reason to believe in the six mares. They had stopped so many forces along their journeys since they became friends, and with the power of The Elements of Harmony, they could be able to carry out the task.

Twilight let go of her lip and looked up at Celestia and Luna. The two princesses still had grave expressions on their faces, awaiting the lavender unicorn’s response.

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,” Twilight addressed the two alicorns. “We would be honored to stop The Band of Parity.”

“Don’t we get a say in thi-” Fluttershy began with a waver in her voice, though she was cut off by Applejack’s hoof in her mouth for a brief second.

“Don’t you worry, princesses. There ain’t a thing on Equus that’ll stop us from serving our leaders,” Applejack said.

“We’ll stop them!” Rainbow Dash yelled, slamming her hoof on the table.

“I suppose I could go on and see new sites,” Rarity agreed.

“Oh boy! I love traveling!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, bouncing up and down.

“I... I guess I can go along...” Fluttershy said quietly.

“We’re glad to hear it,” Celestia said, both her and Luna able to finally let smiles on their faces. “I need to warn you, though. This won’t all be fun and games. The Band of Parity teaches dark magic to all of its members, even the non-unicorns so they know how to escape and prevent its use on them.” Princess Celestia pulled out a large roll of paper from her cloak on the floor, lifting the candle up in the air and spreading the paper across the table. “This is a map of Equestria.” She pointed to six letter Xs on the map near Equestria’s borders. “The Shards of Havoc are activated in a certain order; they are numbered by which order they are awoken in. They need three days to be activated, so you’ll have plenty of time to get to each shard before the three days are up and the next shard can be brought back.” Celestia rolled up the map and put it on the table in front of Twilight Sparkle. “Good luck, my little ponies.”

Twilight Sparkle lifted the map in a levitation spell and put it by her side, her friends joining next to her and nodding at the two princesses. “You’ll be safe with us on the watch, princesses. Don’t worry.”

______________________________________________________________________

So it would seem that The Band is up and at it again, huh?

I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut.

Hey now, who’s the one that’s in control here?

I said shut up!

Oh, feisty today, hmm?

I hope you remember why we’re in here.

All the reason why we need to get out.

Unless something goes wrong, that’s not going to happen. Just be quiet, alright?

But that’s no fun!

Be... quiet.

But I have a plan! Don’t you want to hear it?

I don’t want to hear your voice any more than I already do.

What’s the matter? Don’t like hearing yourself talk?

Not when it’s you.

Come on. It’s a good one!

Shut up.

Please?

No.

Plllleeeeaaaa-?

Alright, alright! Just spit it out already.

You’re going to love it.

Great.

Now that’s the spirit! It’s always nice when you cooperate with me... Grimoire.