Truth Behind Harmony

Luna followed Fantasia as they sped through the skies, eager to see the one place in their world that had long since forgotten the touch of day. Long ago, Fantasia had found a race of ponies that could not tolerate the light of the sun, the dark and often misunderstood vamponies. So Fantasia, being the alicorn of their kind cast a mighty spell over the entirety of her land, causing the sun to shine like the moon whenever it passed over the land. It had been a very powerful spell, for it never ended, and it covered the entirety of her kingdom, never letting a single ray of sunlight in and keeping the vamponies safe.

They soon passed into the spells effect, the daylight changing to night as they continued to fly, and Luna’s heart skipped a beat, she was home.

“I have missed this place greatly; this was always my favorite realm to visit. Tell me sister, do your ponies still hold the Moon Rises festival like they did in the past?”

Fantasia smiled, looking back at her night dwelling sister and nodding. Unlike most ponies, who celebrated the daytime, Fantasia’s worshiped the night, and specifically the moon that harbored the true night that had been their only source of comfort till Fantasia had cast her spell.

Fantasia also knew, though Luna did not, that the celebrations were also held in honor of Luna herself, for most of her ponies saw Luna as their savior just as much, if not more so than Fantasia due to the night which she represented.

“Yes they do dear sister, and we still call your name every time the moon rises into the sky, like we always have.”

She turned her gaze back to her destination, and she stopped in midair as her eyes widened in horror, Luna stopping beside her and gazed in horror as well, for the capitol was destroyed; buildings scorched and toppled over as fires raged throughout the streets and fields. And in the center, where the great castle should have been, lay a massive crater that still leaked violent magical energy. Ponies were gathered around it, trying to repress its harmful effect from spreading, but soon stopped as Fantasia glided down, provoking hostile responses as they raised their spears at her, their eyes filled with malevolence.

“Guards what happened here…?”

“Silence you witch,” yelled one of what she now realized to be her personal guards, “you dare asked what happened here when it was you who caused it! We will not listen to your lies, not until you are brought before the clan heads to be judged!”

Luna bristled at the blatant disrespect they were sowing towards her sister, but she kept quiet, knowing she had no authority in this place even with how they viewed her. Fantasia meanwhile hung her head in shame, but soon looked up with a determined glare, causing some of the guards to back away as she spoke.

“I know you do not trust me, especially if you believe I was the cause of this madness, but I can assure you I am not, at least not entirely. I was under the control of a dark spirit, one which wanted to cause harm to our ponies, though I am not sure why.”

“And how do we know you are telling us the truth,” asked a cold voice from behind them.

Fantasia caught her breath as she turned, seeing a large unicorn walk out toward her and backing away a bit in fear. Luna stared at the stallion as well, for she had never seen anything like him in all her life. He stood as tall as an alicorn, his strong muscles rippling as he moved over to face Fantasia, his cold blue eyes staring into the depths of her soul.

“Can you look me in the eye, and tell me that is the truth?”

Fantasia gulped, looking at him and nodding toward him. “You of all ponies should know I would never lie about this, least of all to you,” and then she held her breath, praying that he would believer her.

The stallion walked up to her then, nuzzling close and causing her to gasp in surprise, till he silenced it by kissing her right in front of the remnants of her personal guard. Luna, who was not used to such forward displays of affection, blushed in embarrassment, but that was nothing compared to Fantasia’s reaction.

“Ebony what are you doing,” she yelled, trying to push him away while also attempting to hide her face with her wings.

“It’s ok, they know.” he said, nodding to the guards as they withdrew their weapons. As they did so Luna walked up to them, her face still flushed as she gazed upon them.

“Is this…Is this father of the child you spoke of?” Luna asked, biting her lip as she kept her gaze solely on her sister.

“Ye…yes, oh sweet mother, Ebony what about…”

“We lost track of him after he chased that creature posing as you into the woods after the explosion, and we saw another one happen near the outskirts, you should head there.”

“What about…”

“GO!” he yelled, pointing his hoof towards the horizon to urge her on before turning back to the guard to shout orders. Fantasia nodded, walking away and spreading her wings, and then taking off into the skies with Luna in the direction of the forest.

Fantasia and Luna landed in the devastated woods; the trees burned black from the exposure to powerful magic, and the ground lay cracked and scarred beneath them. Luna grimaced, for sites like this reminded her all too often of when she had lost control, during her own time of madness.

“That beast possessing you must have been powerful, much like the one that whispered to me so long ago.”

“The destruction of neither the capitol, nor this was caused by that monster; all of it was caused by my son.”

Luna’s jaw dropped, her mind reeling at the statement, “How could a mere colt…?”

“I shall explain when we find him Luna; right now the kingdom is still in danger, now come.”

They pressed forward, moving through the burned trees and scared ground, the destruction growing as they neared their destination. But when they finally reached the center of the destruction Luna gasped, for standing in the middle of the crater was a young colt, his mane, tail and wings turned to red and black smoke, his hooves cracked into claws, and his eyes glowing feral red as red lighting leaked from them. This disturbed Luna greatly, for it nearly mimicked how Fantasia looked when she awakened the deepest part of her powers, except on a much smaller scale.

The child turned to see Fantasia, and he growled, his horn crackling as he directed a blast of red light at her, which she dispersed, running up to him before he could get another shot. She touched horns with him, using that connection to link their minds, and slowly with great effort she began to calm him down.

Luna watched as the internal battle waged, the light from the two beings melding together as the transformations began to fade from the young ones form. But finally, after what seemed like hours, the colt lay unconscious in Fantasia’s forelegs, sleeping soundly as Fantasia cradled him.

“Come here sister,” said Fantasia, “I believe this will answer most of your questions.”

Luna walked over, kneeling down so that she could see the colt. His mane and tail lay in shambles, and sweat from his ordeal rolling down his face as he slept. But what drew Luna’s eyes was the mark on his flank, a star whose points joined with a circle, glowing blood red in the moonlight.

“He shares your cutie mark!”

“And my power,” said Fantasia, “it is something I discovered after I gave birth to him, for I saw that he already had a cutie mark on his flank. Apparently, we pass our power and our gifts onto our children when we give birth, though we retain dominance over said power.”

“So…so if I or Celestia, or any of our siblings were to give birth to foals…” Luna’s voice faltered, her brain reeling from the shock of it all.

“They would gain your power, and your connection to the moon, but you would hold dominance over it because you were the first to connect with it.”

Luna sat there, her mind buzzing with confusion and revelation as she took it all in. She had had suspicions of course that ran along this line, due to the nature of Princess Cadance who was the only daughter to their deceased sister Marmora, who had bound herself to the uncontrollable force that was love, but she had never dared to connected the dots. Now here was another child, bearing the same cutie mark, and wielding the same power.

“This will change everything…but one thing still puzzles us dear sister. The colt’s father, we have never seen one like him in all our years of life, for we were certain the bonding process only worked with mares.”

Fantasia chuckled, “That's what I thought as well, till I talked with another of our sisters, you remember Ixen and her children?”

“Yes I do."

“Well she was the one who told me it worked with stallions as well, for after you disappeared she told me about it, plus you remember what Marmora used to say about the magic of love.”

Luna nodded, still confused, but she remembered all that their old sister had said, so she let the matter drop. “So where to now,” she asked.

“First I must go and tell the guard where I will be going, then we must return to your home. Once there, I believe it will be time to gather the others once more, it’s time we mend these old wounds.”