Harmony Through Chaos - Book One: Emberdawn

"We must let go of the life we have planned...”

A midnight blue unicorn mare stood atop a ridge, looking down at the camp below. Multiple indiscernible shapes moved in the shadows around the small fires that were scattered amongst the tents.

Metal blades glinted orange in the firelight, attached to their wielders by leather straps. A sharp cry of pain rang out from the center of the camp, causing the mare's ears to swivel in an attempt to locate the source.

There! A brown pegasus mare lay motionless, green blood starting to pool around her. A lavender unicorn mare was crying on the ground about twenty-seven hooves from the pegasus, and a brown unicorn stallion was standing defiantly in front of the two in an attempt to protect them from an unseen aggressor.

The observing unicorn pulled a glowing sphere out of her saddlebags and examined it for a second before turning her gaze back to the camp below. "I hope you can forgive me, but I will not abandon you."

"Felicia! Where'd Twilight go?"

"Uh... Ah'unno."

"Joy." He noticed something out of the corner of his eye.  "Hey wait, her saddlebags are over here." He ran over and examined them. Nothing was missing, but there was a small splash of blood on one corner of the left bag. "That doesn't look good..."

Felicia wandered over and tilted her head to one side as she examined the blood. "Huh. Well, she's probably dead by now. Let's keep going."

"Quit being a bitch, Felicia. I may be a dick, but— Huh... that's the second time I've started a sentence like that... Anyways, I was the one who let her come, so it's my responsibility to keep her safe. That goes for all of you."

"That's nice."

"Whatever." He put the saddlebags on, then turned to Luna and said, "You got any way to track her?"

Luna was busy with her eyes closed again. Hopefully she was doing some magical Goddess thing and not just sleeping. It was well past her bedtime. She opened her eyes and galloped in a seemingly random direction. "This way!"

"Felicia! Let's go!" Jackson took off after Luna, not checking if Felicia was following. He followed the wisp of starlight that was the tip of Luna's tail as it bobbed and weaved through the lush foliage.

He lost track of it for a second and picked up his speed... Only to run right into Luna from behind. Awwwkwaaard... Luckily, she was too preoccupied with something else to notice. Jackson removed himself from her tail and moved to stand beside her. "Woah."

Apparently lava wasn't exactly an unusual occurrence in Gryphus. Before them was a series of long gashes in the ground, as though some giant creature had scored it's claws through the earth. In the depths of each crevasse was a bubbling pool of lava. Luna looked at Jackson, her eyes starting to water. "I said that Gryphus was recovered enough for them to rebuild, not that the landscape had healed completely. So many innocents lost their lives on that day..."

In a completely out of character show of compassion, Jackson placed a hoof on her shoulder and quietly said, "You did what had to be done. Now, we need to find a way around this mess to make sure that you never have to do it again."

Luna shook her head and brushed Jackson’s hoof off. "Right. You're right. Here, I can just teleport us across... Wait, where'd Felicia go?"

"She's... Uh... Oh... Well this is some horror movie shit we've got right here..."

Luna's eyes were erratically scanning the treeline. "I don't know what that means, but something tells me that you're correct."

Two dark shapes flitted in and out of sight just inside the treeline, followed by a scream that sounded uncomfortably close to Felicia’s voice. The scream cut off abruptly, then everything was silent once more.

The two remaining ponies took up defensive stances and waited for their enemy to reveal itself. Five minutes passed... Ten minutes passed... Fifteen minutes passed. Jackson relaxed and then sat down. "I'm bored."

Luna relaxed as well, though she continued to eye the trees suspiciously. "Yes... It would appear that whatever it was has left for the time being."

"What now?"

"We can probably assume that Felicia will be taken to the same place as Twilight, so we should just continue tracking her magical signature."

Jackson looked at the destroyed landscape before them. "Across... this?"

"I could just fly across, but..."

"You could always change me into a pegasus, but it's not like I know how to fly..."

"No. We'll have to find another way..." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then looked down at Jackson with a curious expression. "How did you already know how to walk as a quadruped anyways?"

"Uh... Let's just say that it involved a lot of alcohol, fifty-three pancakes, ten police cars, and a squirrel."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"Good idea. Speaking of good ideas, why don't you just teleport us across like you said earlier?”

“Pony teleportation is both bright and loud. Whatever’s out there would be on us within seconds.”

“Pony teleportation? I get what you’re hinting at, but I don’t exactly have any fingers to snap at the moment, now do I?” He waved a hoof for emphasis.

“You have a horn, don’t you?” Luna replied, gesturing at the aforementioned protrusion.

Jackson went cross eyed in an attempt to spot his horn, then gave up and said, “Well I’m pretty sure there’s something up there, but uh... what do I do with it?”

Luna sighed, and did something with her hoof and her face that gave Jackson the impression of a human pinching the bridge of her nose. She put her hoof back down and shot Jackson an ‘I’m only going to say this once’ look. “Imagine the sensation of snapping your fingers...”

“Uh-huh...”

“Now imagine that sensation on your forehead.”

“Uhhh... Uh-huh...”

“Now at the same time, imagine the two of us at our destination.”

“...”

“Jackie? Wha—” With not a single trace of light or sound, Jackson and Luna were suddenly across the entire stretch of damaged terrain, and standing on the other side. “... Oh. Very good.”

“You say that as though you didn’t think I could do it.”

“Well you see... I had absolutely no idea if my instructions would actually do anything.”

“...”

“...”

“Okay. Which way now?”

“You’re not angry?”

“Not since it ended up working. If I had ended up exploding or something, then I might be a bit upset... Or dead... Or heck, why not both? I’d make a pretty badass ghost if I do say so myself.”

Luna released an exasperated sigh before starting to head east. “This way...”

They walked for hours, but eventually they managed to catch up with whatever took Twilight and Felicia. That was when the metaphorical shit hit the proverbial fan. The shit being a metaphor for gryphons.

There was a screech from somewhere in the jungle. Another screech answered from the other side. They were surrounded. Luna dropped into a fighting stance, then whispered, "Gryphons. As a Princess of Equestria, I can't fight back without risking an international incident."

Jackson turned to her and quietly said, "Make yourself a smaller target. We're the last two, so they're going to go for the biggest threat first.

"What about you?"

"I'll hold them off as long as I can."

"No. We stick together."

"Luna, you're a Goddess. You've got a better chance at stopping Infernus than I do."

"That's just propaganda, we're not real Goddesses; I need your help."

"I can't even light a fire without getting worn out, and you already said that there's nothing you can do here. The longer we sit here whispering, the closer they get."

"I—"

Jackson cut her off by placing a hoof over her mouth. "Just stop." He removed his hoof, then waited for Luna's response.

"... Very well." She lowered her head and reverted back to the form she had not long after her return from the moon. Then, her wings receded until she was just a regular unicorn.

"Good." Jackson closed his eyes and concentrated. A glowing orb suddenly appeared hovering in the air between them. Jackson opened his eyes again, then placed it in his saddlebags. He proceeded to slide the bags off and give them to Luna. "I want you to make sure that thing gets to Chrysalis. Oh, and promise me you won't come back. Promise me you won't risk yourself to save me."

"You mean like you're doing for me!?"

"Yeah. But I'm a ninja, so I'll be fine."

Luna gave a sad smile, then chuckled and shook her head in defeat. "Okay Jackie... I promise."

"Good. Now get out of here." Luna took a step backwards, then hesitated. Dark shapes were visible moving through the trees behind them. "Go! Now!"

Luna took off in a run, and Jackson turned to face the oncoming Gryphons. He remembered Luna's earlier instructions and made a show of arcing lightning along his horn. He noted that it didn't seem to use nearly as much energy as anything else he had done previously. Fascinating.

Five feathered felines burst from the trees, wings like non-metaphorical blades... meaning they had sharp things on them. "Woah!" Jackson yelled as he ducked under an improvised wingblade of jagged steel.

He released the pent up charge on his horn, singeing the gryphon's feathers and producing a satisfying strangled squawk. "Gah! Someone grab that stupid horse!"

Jackson suddenly had a thought. 'If I make it out of this, Luna's gone. I'm gonna be stuck as a pony forever. Shit.' He was broken out of his thoughts as a gryphon grabbed him from behind. Another one swiftly ran forward and swung a taloned fist at Jackson's face.

Right before it hit, he released as much power as he could in the form of a giant shockwave of electrical force. Then he saw black.

Then he saw dead grass and crimson sky. "Oh good. This again." He grunted as he stood up and brushed some dirt off his coat. As in, coat coat. As in, human. "What the hell..."

“Back again, are we?”

Jackson turned around and realized that the smoke figure was standing behind him just like last time. The figure was slightly more solid this time around. “Oh. You again. Am I going to have to deal with your bullshit every time I get knocked out?”

“Looks that way!”

Jackson responded with a deadpan look. “Yippee.”

“Oh, it's not that bad. I can teach you how to use your new power better!”

“New power?”

“Yep. ‘parently you’re an electromancer. Probably runs in your family...”

“Right... I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in my family who can do magic. Plus, my dad left, mom died, brother went missing; usual sob story.”

“Hm... Kicked too many puppies in a previous life or something I guess.”

“Yeah. ‘Or something’.”

“So!” The smoke figure clapped his hands together. “You accept my training?”

“I’m probably gonna regret it later, but sure, what the hell.”

“Fantastic! Want to get started right away, or wait ‘till you get knocked out again?”

“Now would be preferable, I think. What’s your name anyway?”

“I have many names, but please, call me Adelphus.” He answered with a sarcastic bow.

“Great.”

“Yes, I’m quite amazing. Now let’s test your basic knowledge. What kind of element do you think I control?”

“I’m going to say fire. The whole smoke thing you’ve got going on kind of gives it away.”

“Exactly that! Pyromancers like Infernus and I are the most common. Electromancers like you are extremely rare, though not quite so much as chronomancers and aeromancers.”

“Yeah, I’m awesome, I get it. Not really testing my knowledge much here.”

“Ooh. Bit cocky are we? Fine then. Explain to me why you were able to create an electrical force like that which you used on the gryphons.”

“Magic?”

“Sort of. The amount of energy that it should have taken for you to do that is massive. Generating that much energy should have completely drained your reserves, right?”

“It did. I lost consciousness.”

“Wrong. If you were to drain all your magic, you would have died.”

“Well that’s nice to think about. You gonna tell me why I’m still kicking then?”

“Kicking puppies that is...” *snerk* “Anyways, I will tell you why only if you can answer the following question.”

“Okay...”

“What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”

“Fuck you.”

“Close enough. Every Chaos Mage specializes in an element. This is unfortunate if they never figure out their element, since about eighty-five percent of their magic is solely for use with that element.”

“So I don’t actually suck at magic, I’m just running at around fifteen percent.”

“Exactly. Of course, your pony form decreases that even further, so you probably only had about five percent for the last day.”

“Lovely. Speaking of which, Luna mentioned that she and her sister weren’t real Goddesses. You wouldn’t by any chance know anything more specific about that, would you?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Just curious as to exactly how strong Celestia is. She wants to kill me right now after all.”

“Honestly? If the ponies decided to revolt, the Princesses would be screwed. Think of it this way, about five unicorns are an army, and Celestia is an army of the same size. The only difference is that Celestia has nukes—Almost literally—In the form of that lovely ball of fire in the sky.”

“Twilight Sparkle?”

“She’s probably closer to a Goddess than Celestia and Luna will ever be; she just doesn’t know it.”

“Fascinating.”

“Quite. Now, enough chit-chat. Let’s get back to business.”

Branches whipped past her face as she ran through the jungle. She could hear the sounds of metal striking something, followed by the sound of an electrical discharge and a cry of pain. Seconds later another discharge, followed by a gust of wind which caused her hair to stand on end, and small arcs of static charge to jump across the leaves around her.

She paused and looked back. There was silence. She continued onwards at a slower, almost melancholy pace. She chuckled sarcastically at some thought as she went. “What would Tia say if she knew that I abandoned my friends? How I ever held the elements alongside her, I have no idea...”

Friends...

They were her friends, weren’t they? Definitely Jackie at the least. The human had been eager to help her with almost no persuasion; he had sacrificed himself for her. Shouldn’t she be willing to do the same?

She kept walking.

Twilight. Twilight had helped her on that first Nightmare Night. Without her, she would still be in her tower; alone. Now Twilight was gone, and she was alone again. “Would I abandon her, just because of some stupid rule that says I can’t attack a gryphon?”

She paused.

Felicia wasn’t really a friend, but Rainbow Dash was the only pony she knew who was more loyal than that changeling. No matter how much the drone said that she was only there on Chrysalis’ orders, Luna could tell that she would give her life in an instant to save her friends.

She looked at the darkening sky.

“I may not be a good friend, but I am not a monster; not anymore.”

She turned around.

Princess Celestia stood atop the tallest tower of Canterlot Tower, looking out at the sunset. She spread her wings and gracefully floated into the sky, the moon ascending with her for the first time since her sister had returned. She landed, then released a sad sigh. She never imagined that she would ever have to take up that duty again.

The sound of hooves jerked her out of her silent reverie, and a gruff voice called out, “Your Highness? We’ve... returned from Ponyville.”

Without turning around, she more stated than asked, “You lost her.”

He confirmed, “The human and the changeling managed to teleport her away...” He hesitated before adding, “With the assistance of Twilight Sparkle.”

“No... Not her too...” Celestia finally faced the stallion. “Did you manage to track the teleport?”

“It was only open for a second after we arrived, but we did manage to discern...” The stallion sighed at having to relay this much bad news. “Miss Sparkle put too much power into the teleport, causing it to fail. They never arrived at their intended destination. They... could be anywhere.”

“Or nowhere... Thank you for trying, Lieutenant. You are dismissed.”

Night fell without Luna’s help for the first time since her return. She didn’t care; she had more important things to do. She had spent the last few hours tracking the gryphons that had taken her friends, and now she had found them. She stood atop a ridge, looking down at the camp below. Multiple indiscernible shapes moved in the shadows around the small fires that were scattered amongst the tents.

Metal blades glinted orange in the firelight, attached to their wielders by leather straps. A sharp cry of pain rang out from the center of the camp, causing the her ears to swivel in an attempt to locate the source.

There! Felicia lay motionless, green blood starting to pool around her. Twilight was crying on the ground about twenty-seven hooves from her, and Jackie was standing defiantly in front of the two in an attempt to protect them from an unseen aggressor.

Luna pulled a glowing sphere out of her saddlebags and examined it for a second before turning her gaze back to the camp below. "I hope you can forgive me, but I will not abandon you."