Truth Behind Harmony

Luna watched as the two alabaster alicorns eventually broke the hug, Celestia flying up to them as Anastasia left to the other balcony. Celestia looked down at Twilight, who began to stir as Celestia heard a purr of content from her mind, causing bile to rise in her throat in realization.

Twilight opened her eyes, looking up at Celestia before whimpering and moving up close to her, seeking comfort from the ordeal she had just gone through.

After a brief hug they stood, Celestia walking over to her sisters with Twilight in toe, Ixen walking up beside Celestia as they traveled and nudging her to get her attention.

“I assume you have told them about the history that has been covered up yes?”

“Only part of it,” said Celestia, “I stopped last night after telling them all about you, and I was planning on telling them the rest over the next few days.”

“I may have a better option,” said Ixen, “you remember my first born daughter Eris yes?”

Celestia looked rather surprised at Ixen; she had not heard that name in some time, “Yes I do, what about her.”

“I have brought her with me, though I left her at the far edge of the Everfree at her request, for she said she had some business to take care of. I was thinking that we could let her finish the tale, as she knows it as well, if not better, than any of us. That way the elements can know the full story, and we sisters can catch up on old times.”

Celestia thought about it for a moment, weighing the options as she stared up toward the sky. While she did want to continue telling the story to Twilight and her friends, she also really wanted to sit down and talk with her sisters after being parted for so long.

There was also the fact that Ixen was right about Eris; she did know the story as well as them, though Celestia still wondered how she knew it so well, for she should have been too young to know all the major parts of it.

“Very well, you send a message to Eris telling her to go to the meeting hall, I’ll have Twilight and her friends wait for her there.”

It had been several minutes since the message had been sent to Eris, and Celestia couldn’t remember laughing so hard in all her life, sitting in her chambers with her sisters and all enjoying freshly served food that had been left by a completely flabbergasted cook, who had not expected to walk into the room and find seven alicorns all gathered around and talking merrily. Celestia sat next to Anastasia, who despite their recent fight, was smiling and chatting with her like it was the old days, simply happy to be back with her big sister.

The talks started out rather somber when, after much hesitation on her part, Celestia had informed them of Marmora’s death, it hitting them all in turn but it hit Mercury the hardest, for she had been the one who had searched for her the longest out of all of them.

After a moment of silence and a few sniffs, Dreamstride finally spoke up, “Has anypony heard from sister Siren Gale?”

“…No,” said Fantasia, “well at least I know I haven’t spoken to her since she swore never to speak with any of us again, which if I remember was some time after Luna was banished,”

“What, why would our sister do such a thing” asked Luna, who looked highly confused

“…She…she said she would not suffer us the luxury of her presence, not until we mended our ways and stopped blaming Celestia for our kingdoms plights.”

“That sounds just like her,” said Ixen sourly, “she never could handle conflict between us that well could she?”

“No she could not,” said Celestia, “but it does bring up a question I have wanted to ask the rest of you.”

Celestia, looking at the Mercury, Dreamstride and Ixen in turn; breathing in deep before asking the question she had been holding in all night. “I already know Fantasia’s and Anastasia’s stories, but what happened to the rest of you after…after I…?”

Ixen held up a clawed hoof, shaking her head before speaking. “You don’t need to say it sister, we know why you did what you did, and in retrospect we should have been there to help, then maybe things could have been different.”

She then straightened herself, looking up as the ceiling as her mind raced back over those thousand years.

“After you left the last time, things went downhill for us. You know how my land is full of the wildest creatures imaginable, from dragons to manticors to hydra. After you left they began to change, becoming wilder and more hostile as they lost touch with what made them more then wild beasts. There are only a few dragons left who have not been consumed by their greed for gems, my mates included, and even some of my own kirin have become wild feral things, no semblance of true self left within them.”

She looked down, turning to Dreamstride and nodding, indicating that she should go next.

“Things did not fare much better in my realm,” she said, “my ponies as you know are deeply connected with the land and the creatures that live in it, drawing strength from the harmony of the land we lived in. But after you left things changed, and the land became dark. It stopped supporting us like it used to, stopped feeding us the love and care we needed, and due to this some of our ponies began to change. They started to drain the love from other Fey to feed themselves, for they no longer could feed off the love provided by our forest home, and so the changelings were born.”

“So those came from your land,” said Celestia, “I thought they were from some wasteland near the outskirts of my kingdom…so that was what Chrysalis meant when she said…”

There was a loud crash as Dreamstride shot forward over the little table in the room, grabbing Celestia in her hooves with a wild look in her eyes. “You have seen my Chrysalis…where, where is she?”

“What…you know her?”

“Know her…KNOW HER! OF COURSE I KNOW HER SHE IS MY DAUGHTER!”

Celestia stared at her in stunned silence along with the others, the shock of this revelation hitting them all in turn. But after a moment Dreamstride let her go, calming down and backing away, her eyes growing clouded and her coat taking on a foggy white color as she spoke.

“I…we are sorry, it’s just we lost her long ago, in the most horrible way imaginable. She…she tried to help some of the ones that had been changed, little ones who my ponies had nearly put to the torch. We tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t leave them to that cruel fate, for they were just foals, not knowing the curse they had been beset with, and so she…she let them feed off of her love. She…she used her love to restore them to what they once were…but at the cost of her becoming like them…”

She broke down crying after that, Ixen getting up and wrapping a foreleg around her to comfort her while Celestia just sat there distraught…how could she have not known about any of this.

However she heard Mercury clear her throat nearby, and turned quickly to face her, for she was most eager to hear what events had led to her current state.

“…well, here goes nothing I guess. Like with the others things started to go the Tartarus after you left, by then we had constructed great works of technological and magical might, magi-science fueling all our endeavors. But after you left, our magic began to fail, making it so that we could no longer produce the spectra our technology had become dependent on, which we created through our magic. Our technology began to fail, so I tried using my own magic to produce the necessary amounts, but the shear quantities that were required day after day started taking its toll on my own body, which is how I ended up like this.”

She gestured to the mechanical parts of her body after saying this, smiling sadly before starting again. “It was after my heart started to fail that I realized I could never supply the amount of spectra necessary to keep my ponies alive, and we only had one option left…an option I had kept from my mind till one of my unicorn scientists brought its proposal to me, and I…I…”

She could not continue, but she didn’t have to, for Luna brought her hooves to her mouth before speaking, “You…you started to harvest spectra directly…didn’t you?”

Celestia and the rest turned toward Luna, shocked that she would suggest Mercury would do such a horrible thing. They of coarse knew what Luna was talking about, all ponies new about spectra, and how there were two types of it. One type was the type of spectra that was produced naturally in a pony’s blood, which allowed ponies to perform the magic that was akin to their nature, like the Earth ponies ability to manipulate the land or the Pegasus’s ability to control the weather, or even the Unicorns ability to use pure magic.

The other kind of spectra was the one created through unicorn magic, which was less powerful but could be used for a variety of things, especially the kind of technology Mercury’s ponies were dependent on. But what Luna had suggested was barbaric; harvesting spectra directly would mean killing the pony in question, for it came from the ponies’ blood, and without it a pony could not function. But as they turned toward Mercury they saw her head was hung in shame, tears falling from her eyes as she spoke one word that confirmed all their fears.

“…Ye…yes…” she said, her body shaking with continued sobs.

Celestia felt bile rise in her throat as images began to flood her mind, and she could tell that the others were sickened as well, Fantasia actually levitating a trashcan to her side and throwing up. After she stopped retching, Fantasia looked up at Mercury with revulsion, “How could you do such a thing to your own ponies?”

“I had no other choice, my ponies were dying, we needed a solution if we wanted to prevent total economic collapse…and that’s not even the worst of it.”

“Not the worst, how can anything be worse the harvesting your ponies for spectra?” asked Celestia in disbelief.

Mercury bit her lip before speaking, her fears climbing to the surface as she continued. “Even after we began harvesting spectra, things only improved slightly. Most of the spectra had to go to the machines which run the cities and businesses, and also to help control the weather. That didn’t leave much for the farms and food production facilities…and we were back at square one once we realized we didn’t have enough food to feed a nation, even with the…‘culling’ that was happening due to spectra harvesting…Until one of my governors came to me with a solution…he looked sickened even suggesting it, but after a few days of contemplation I was finally forced to agree with his solution, and I set it into motion…”

“What did you do,” asked Luna, fearing the answer that might follow.

“…we…we began to round up the dead and…and process them into food.”

Celestia used her magic to rip the trashcan from Fantasia’s magical grasp and it made it just in time as she threw up her most recent batch of food, her sisters having similar reactions, Dreamstride’s normally rainbow like coat turning a sickly green color to reflect her disgust, Fantasia vomiting again, having found a vase to dump the contents in, Luna had put her hooves to her mouth as bile rose to her throat, Ixen looked like she was going to be sick, and Anastasia patted Celestia on the back with her hoof, keeping her gaze turned away from Mercury.

Celestia couldn’t believe it, Mercury, the one mare who would move heaven and equis to keep from doing wrong, was keeping her people alive through sanctioned cannibalism. Finally she was able to lift her head from the trashcan, looking at Mercury with pure disgust that was not at all hidden in her voice when she spoke.

“Do your ponies know about…about this?”

“Know about it, how could they not know Celestia…it’s kind of hard to hide the fact that bodies are disappearing instead of being buried, no matter how well the cleanup crews work. I know what I did was wrong, and even offered to step down as president after announcing the terrible news…but after I got back to my office I found it flooded with mail telling me not to do such a thing, that they understood the hardships I was going through and that I had no choice, they even said they supported my decision.”

Her voice cracked up as she said this, a shaky laugh escaping her lips. “They supported me sister, do you know how sick with myself that made me feel, that they supported my discussion to put hundreds of their friends and family to death and then serve them back to them on silver platters.”

She chuckled again, trying to keep herself composed, and then she continued. “I tried for many years after to find solutions; I even tried to manipulate the life blood of Equis to see if we could…”

She was cut off as a green aura of magic grabbed her and slammed her against the wall behind her, catching everypony off guard as Celestia turned to the source of the magic, which turned out to be Dreamstride, her eyes ablaze as her mane tail and coat swam with the colors of fire, reflecting her rage as she stared at Mercury.

“HOW DARE YOU DEFILE ONE OF MOTHERS MOST SACRED TREASURES! WE CAN OVERLOOK YOUR CRIMES AGAINST YOUR PONIES DUE TO THE NECESSITY OF THE SITUATION BUT THIS WE WILL NOT STAND FOR!”

“Sister calm down,” said Ixen, who then backed away as Dreamstride turned her gaze toward her.

“CALM DOWN, I THOUGHT YOU OF ALL PONIES WOULD UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS OF WHAT SHE HAS DONE, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU FIRST BORN SON AND DAUGHTER AFTER THEY TOUCH THE LIFE BLOOD OF EQUIS!”

“I remember sister, but that does not excuse your actions at present, now put her down before you crush her to death!”

Dreamstride stopped, and then looked at Mercury before quickly letting go of her when she saw the state she was in, many of the metal parts had been bent and crushed under her magic, and the glass panel over her heart had cracked in the shape of a spider web, blood leaking from it as Mercury slowly rose. Luna and Fantasia immediately closed on her, Luna’s magic already patching up what she could to keep the pony from dying, but the wounds were extensive, and much of it was old scar tissue that had hardened from centuries of healing.

Mercury herself opened up a panel in one of her legs, grabbing some tools out and beginning to work on her damage parts, only for Fantasia to slap them out of her magical grip.

“No,” said Fantasia quickly, cutting off any words Mercury was going to say as she raised her left foreleg to her open mouth. Fangs appeared inside her mouth then, allowing her to bite into her foreleg and draw blood, before letting go and offering it to Mercury.

Mercury looked at the offered leg for a moment, then shook her head violently, “no…no not again!”

Mercury made to get up and run, only to have not only Luna’s magic pin her down, but Celestia’s as well. “Mercury, you need to do this…”

“I said no,” screamed Mercury, struggling against their hold as she tried to get away. “I won’t get addicted to it again, not after the last time, I won’t!”

“Sister it won’t be like the last time,” said Fantasia as she looked her in the eye, “for this time I will be there to help you wean yourself from the blood, I promise you, now you must drink.”

Mercury looked into her eyes for a long while, her defenses wearing till she finally nodded, but she held up a hoof to stop Fantasia before speaking. “Wait…we need to remove the plating first, otherwise it may interfere with the healing process.”

They all nodded, and quickly as a gentle wind, they began to take off the plating covering Mercury’s body. It was slow going, for many of the parts were held together really well, but finally they had it all removed.

All the parts that had been covered by metal were scarred and dead, her left horn was broken, and the left side of her face was so scarred there was no indication she had ever had a left eye. However Fantasia was undisturbed by such sites, moving close to Mercury and once again offering her left foreleg, which Mercury finally put her muzzle to and began to drink.

The effects weren’t immediate, but slowly the old wounds began stitching themselves back together, century ancient wounds being erased in a matter of seconds by the magic in Fantasia’s vampony blood.

Finally after a long while Mercury let go of her sisters foreleg, lifting up her head breathing in deep, enjoying the lack of pain from her lungs before turning to Dreamstride, who looked ashamed for what she had done earlier. Mercury however only smiled at her in reassurance, “I know what I did was wrong sister, but when I said tried, I mean that we only got so far as tapping one of the veins before all hell broke loose. We lost an entire part of one of my major cities due to the disaster, and any living thing left there was vastly mutated from what they once were. So we gave up, resigning ourselves to what we had, though it still keeps me up at night knowing what I am doing to keep my people alive.”

They all nodded at her, but Celestia was lost in thought over all she had been told. She scolded herself for being so blind to everything beyond her borders, but she had been too concerned with her own kingdom to really watch what was happening outside them, like she used to before things went downhill. She was their sister after all, their big sister; she should have been there for them. But she shook the dark thoughts away however, looking up to see her sisters mingling happily, which brought small comfort to her heart, so she cleared her throat to get their attention.

“It is getting late dear sisters, and I am growing quite tired. I have had rooms prepared for you to sleep in, so I suggest you use them. I will have servants wake you in the morning, for we will have a lot to discuss tomorrow.”

With that the sisters rose to their hooves, everypony walking to the door and bidding Celestia good night, till finally only she and Luna remained, Luna walking up to her sister slowly and shaking her head in disbelief of what she had heard.

“To think such things could have happened so far away, it is little wonder they never came to find you after my banishment those years ago.”

“Yes,” said Celestia, “little wonder indeed, I’m just surprised they don’t hate me.”

“Tia we could never truly hate you,” said Luna, walking up and leaning against her. “You’re our big sister; it would take a lot more than that to destroy such bonds.”

Celestia looked down at her young sister, smiling down at her with appreciation of her kind words, before biding her good night and heading back to her bedchambers, hoping to get a good night sleep before the morning.