Re:Harmony

by starcross7

118 - Herald of the Sun

“Sunny,” asked Twilight. “What is going on?”

“Yes, Sunny,” the chimeric creature said mockingly, “do explain what is going on. Tell them the truth on what you’re planning to do to these poor, pitiful ponies with your supposedly benign Elements of Creation.”

“Dash,” said Sunny, “you must insert this key on this panel.”

“Doing that will release me, you know.”

“I’ll turn you into stone again, Discord!”

“You’re bluffing, Celestia. You couldn’t do it then, and you can’t do it now. You sacrificed a lot of your and your sister’s power to render the Elements inert in a futile effort to purify them.”

Sunny charged her horn and fired a short towards the creature known as Discord, who then blocked it easily with his lion-arm. He shook before yawning into it, and the sound of cracking stone could be heard with each of his movements.

“That barely stung, Celly,” smiled Discord. “You’ve really let yourself go since you and your sister sealed me here a millennium ago, and I had plenty of time planning my revenge on you. But that can wait! I’d like to introduce myself since my fellow compatriot has been acting so rude. I am Discord, Spirit of Chaos, and the Herald of Storms. Let me see if got this right… The one in the dorky hat is Applejack… The one with the outlandish hairstyle is Rarity. The shy yellow one is Fluttershy… The nerdy one is Twilight Sparkle, and the crass one is Rainbow Crass—I mean, Dash. And Miss Not-appearing-in-this scene is the lovable pink wonder named Pinkie Pie, but she’s not doing well right now.”

“Pinkie’s in danger?” Dash cried. “We gotta go back and rescue her!”

Dash tried flying off, but with a snap of his fingers, Discord closed the exit doors.

“I didn’t say she was dead,” said Discord. “I told that Empress to keep the Element Bearers alive as part of the deal.”

Even so, Dash continued to beat on the metal doors before gradually giving up in frustration.

“How do you know our names?” asked Twilight.

“Hello? I’m Discord, Spirt of Chaos? I’m hooked up to this system thanks to the alicorn you refer to as Sunny, A.K.A. Princess Celestia, Herald of the Sun. After the current Empress ‘loosened’ me up a bit, I found a way to monitor this Depth Space Coordinator hovering over this mud ball. Alas, there’s not much to do but watch elephant birds and Breezies. They’re pretty lazy if you ask me.”

“Please, don’t listen to him,” said Sunny. “You have to place the Sky Key in the panel, now.”

Twilight felt conflicted. She had trusted Sunny the whole time, and leaned on her shoulder on many nights. She had been kind to her and her friends, and never showed any hint of disloyalty. Despite the Spirit of Chaos jeering at them all, her trust towards alicorn had diminished, and slowly backed away from Sunny.

“Twilight, you have to trust me,” said Sunny.

“I want to,” said Twilight, “but…”

“It’s no coincidence that she brought all of you here,” continued Discord. “Then again, you all wanted to believe that you were all collecting the Element for a greater good, but instead of you using her, she used all of you. I see that you’ve collected four Elements already. Aside from Celly over there, there are two ponies that don’t possess one. I assume the blue is going to inherit the Fifth Element, and the unicorn… Oh-ho, I get it now! I can’t believe you miss Mother so much!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you get it? She wants to use all of you to reestablish her empire as Tyrant Celestia!”

“That’s not what I want!” cried Sunny.

“Even so, you’re going to sacrifice this poor unicorn to become the bearer of the Sixth Element and become the new vessel of her ancestor and our dear old Mother. You have me crying stone tears, Celly!”

Where the tears should be water, pebbles fell from Discord's eyes and scattered themselves on the floor.

“Is this true, Sunny?” asked Twilight. “Were you using us the whole time?”

“Do tell, Princess," continued Discord. "Want me to tell them our origin story? You know I love to embellish on facts.”

Sunny sighed, and somberly she faced Twilight and her entourage.

“My real name is Princess Celestia,” spoke Sunny. “I am designated as the Herald of the Sun created by your ancestor, Twilight Prime, whom I destroyed. Rather, Luna, Dazzleglow, and I banded together to divide her being into Seven Elements representing her seven aspects of her power. Even separated, they are very powerful artifacts, but we could not allow them to fall into the wrong hooves. Thus, I enchanted that only ponies with a pure heart will be able to wield them, but the enchantments take a very long time to process. I then had them hidden across the continent, and then had myself captured by Gaea so I could be preserved until the First Element activated, which I had entrusted to Applejack’s ancestor, Smart Cookie.”

“That's a boring explanation!” said Discord. “Aren’t you going to tell them about you and Luna’s tyranny, and how you two almost fought each other to the death? What about Mother’s exploits in the stars? What about mine?”

“Sunny,” said Twilight. “You said that there were Seven Elements. The legends said that there were six.”

“I could not keep the seventh erased from history for long,” said Sunny. “Somehow, the chancellors of Gaea acquired it, and dubbed it the Alicorn Amulet. That Element has no name, but it contains the will and mind of Twilight Prime herself. I am saddened to say that its current bearer is your friend Trixie.”

“No, not Trixie. You knew this the whole time?”

“It was too late. The Seventh Element is the one I could not purify with the combined magic of Luna, Dazzleglow, and me. If it senses an atom of self-doubt and sorrow, it will completely merge itself with the mind of its bearer.”

“We could have done something!”

“I had no choice! I had to protect you and your friends to right the wrongs that me and my siblings have caused on this world. I don’t want to have it destroyed again! Believe me Twilight, if I did not destroy your ancestor, no pony would be standing here today. Now, it’s on a brink of destruction once more, and it was all caused by the Alicorn Amulet secretly influencing Gaea for almost a thousand years.

"I know I wasn’t forward to you when we first met, and perhaps I have used all of you. Yet, the Elements of have chosen all of you, and with it, you will have the power to protect your friends and family from disaster. I understand if you hate me and that you no longer trust me. All I wish is that you six do not repeat the same mistakes committed by my Maker, my siblings, and myself.”

This must be Sunny at her lowest. This was a side that Twilight Sparkle had never seen. For their entire journey until now, Sunny had carried herself as a noble and confident pony who was always there to reassure Twilight and her friends. She appeared ready to prostrate for her sins, cry if she needed, and then shun herself away into non-existence. If this was rouse concocted between herself and Discord, then it worked beautifully.

However, the feelings between Twilight and a clingy pony like Sunny could not be faked. Beneath her mystic eyes, Sunny must have borne witness to an eon’s worth of suffering that would cause her to turn against Twilight Prime, which Twilight Sparkle herself had so many questions about. The time for those questions would come later. Twilight trotted to Sunny to place a warm hoof on her shoulder. The purple unicorn now saw the true tears streaming down from the alicorn’s face. Now, instead of Sunny reassuring Twilight, the reverse became true. Twilight smiled back at her benefactor, and her benefactor, threw her forelegs around the unicorn’s body.

“I trust you,” said Twilight.

“Ugh, gag me with a silver spoon,” spoke Discord. “You know that’s not going to change the fact that obtaining all the Elements might cause the world to end.”

“It’s a risk we’re going to have to take,” said Twilight as she and Sunny let go of each other. “Sunny, the Sky Key will free the Fifth Element, right?”

“It will also free Discord from his prison and the current level of petrification,” said Sunny. “Be forewarned, the Herald of Storms likes to cause suffering on other ponies.”

“Only if he promises that he won’t harm us if we release him.”

“Which is something we cannot guarantee.”

“I may be a Spirit of Chaos, but I always keep my word!” cried Discord as he threw a stuffed suitcase on the platform’s edge. “Release me, now! I’ve put in my hours, and I’ve been planning this vacation for a millennium!”

“Sunny,” started Twilight. “How did he—and where--“

“Chaos magic,” Sunny dryly replied. “Miss Rainbow Dash, you know what to do.”

“Aye-aye, Princess!” Dash saluted. She flew down and placed the lightning-shaped Sky Key on the computer panel at the base of the platform. Circuit-like trace lines and mystical glyphs flashed on the screen. The Fifth Element’s glass sphere flashed briefly before it disintegrated away, but the element itself remained floating.

Discord, however, crawled out of his prison roaring while he shed the last remnants of his petrification spell. He cracked his knuckles and cracked his back. He fell over backward to that his back rearranged itself in a painful zigzag pattern. Then he stood straight up and loomed over Twilight and her friends, and she swore he grew twice as large. He flapped his mismatched wings of feather and leather as he flew around the Element Holding Chamber before he stopped to hover above all the ponies like a slithering snake.

“You don’t know how good that feels!” he cried. “By the way, you have some visitors.”

A snap of his fingers caused the Element Holding Chamber's doors to swing open again. Twilight did not realize until now that the air had been getting warmer. Then it suddenly became sweltering hot, and she knew why.

Discord laughed as Twilight and her friends faced the Empress Commander, two of her Lord Generals Flash Sentry and Soarin, and an entire armored phalanx of her elite soldiers. The heat could not compare to the anger she expressed towards Discord at breaking his promise.

“Discord!” Twilight cried. “I thought you promised not to hurt us!”

“I did!” smiled Discord. “But you should have extended that to the Empress and her cronies. Firefly, the Element is yours for the taking.”

“Much obliged, Discord,” spoke the Empress.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I feel that there’s going to be big battle coming up in here, and despite me being me, I surely don’t want to get in this crossfire. So, I’m going excuse myself to safer viewing area for this spectacle, because things are about to get hot! Toodles!”

With a snap of his fingers, Discord vanished.

Comments

[Dlaf rferg]

Oh hell yea!

What will Dash's element manifest as? I hope it's something pirate-y.

EDIT: HOLY CRAP AN EYEPATCH IT COULD BE AN EYEPATCH

[Reaper6883]

Re:Harmony? Is that A reference to the anime Re:Zero or Re:Re?

[Sk1Tz]

7796479 What's the issue with using a katana?

[akajulester]

*grabs popcorn*

Welp, I can't wait to see how they get out of this one!

Also, I wonder how Luna/Everlasting Darkness will get free now. Hm...

[ElCazadorDeHistorias]

Classic troll Discord...

7796449 I'm betting it's gonna be something more awesome, like a badass ever-flowing cape or Kamina sunglasses!

[Dlaf rferg]

7796705 holy yes kamina glasses

[Bast]

7796465 look at the date of the first chapter. It was made way before that anime showed its face.

[FiredragonX]

Firefly vs Rainbow Dash oh yeah!

[Reaper6883]

7797961 Goodpoint I haven't noticed that

[Bast]

7798348 honest mistake so no worries.

[Gamble]

7796591
I can only assume because it's the most overused variety of the most overused weapon in fiction. Also, because it has no place in this as none of them seem to have any influences of their world's equivalence to Japanese culture, least of all Applejack.

Not an opinion I hold, I think the katana is an awesome addition; just what I would assume to be their reasoning.