//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Elements of Harmony // Story: Diary of the Necromancess // by Sebbaa //------------------------------// Chapter 5: The Elements of Harmony I spend the night in Twilight Sparkle's solar in the library's upper story. She had a large guest bed there, easily big enough for two people, though no separate guest room. I lay awake for several hours, before my exhaustion finally caught up with me again, brooding, pondering strategies for the meeting with the Princess. When the little dragon Spike came in the morning to wake me and his mistress with a hearty: "Breakfast is ready!" I felt like I had not slept at all. I forced my body to rise like I would a corpse and headed for the lavatory with the grace of a shuffling zombie. By the time I reached it, Twilight was already leaving it. She was efficient like that. I could probably write a whole page about the facilities of a pony lavatory, but lets just say it's a good thing I was used to relieve myself crouching somewhere in the wilderness. On the other hand, it was still impressive; they had hot, running water even in their lavatories! By the time I had cleaned up and brushed my hair -I already missed having someone doing it for me- Twilight had almost finished her breakfast in the kitchen. Spike poured me tea, when I came to the table. I could tell by the smell alone, that it was not the grass variant; I lifted the cup to my face and inhaled its glorious aroma, before I took a sip. I sat the cup down a gave the little dragon a warm smile. “Thank you little one, you remembered!” I think I saw him blushing at the compliment, quite a feat for a dragon, but for now I had to speak to his mistress. “Is it normal in this world for a sorceress to have a baby dragon as her major domus?” “Oh no!” Twilight smiled sheepishly and waved the notion away with her hoof. “Spike is special. I hatched him when I did my entrance exam for Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. We have been together ever since; he's like little brother to me! I'm lucky to have him around.” “I see.” I took another sip from my tea, choosing my next words. “So, this Princess Celestia that is coming today, I gather that she is some all pony immortal, who has ruled this land for centuries, beloved by all of her subjects.” As hard as I found that to believe. “But you are her personal student, are you not? What can you tell me about her?” I could see her face light up, as she thought about her mentor. “She's a wonderful pony! Kind and caring, she loves each and every of her subjects like they were her own foals. She's like the mother of the whole nation.” She giggled. “Or grandmother, if you catch my drift.” “And what about foreign policy? What's her attitude towards non Equestrians?” “We live in peaceful cooperation with all our neighboring countries, the griffon kingdom and diamond dog republic among them. Princess Celestia is always very benevolent of guest to our country.” Twilight gave me a reassuring smile. “So don't you worry, I'm sure the Princess will like you. Everything will be fine. “I'm that easy to figure out right now, ain't I?” I shook my head. I was still not convinced and had Spike give me a bowl of porridge, thankfully rejecting every extra to actually flavor the meal, that he offered to me. I took a spoonful in my mouth, wondering if the non unicorn pony races would use spoons, or eat right out of the bowl. The dish was as tasteless as I remembered it; I started to eat with stoic disregard. “One time I and some adventurers traversed a trap and riddle filled labyrinth to settle an argument between two magic schools. After we had succeeded and won the dispute for the school we represented, we were received by a Sultan to be honored for our success. When we finally spoke to the man -after climbing several hundred steps just to get up to his ridiculous throne room- he turned one of my companions to dust and blew him out of the window, because the man did not kneel before him.” Both Spike and Twilight were just staring at me wide eyed, when I had finished the story. I took another spoon of porridge, chewed and swallowed in complete silence. “So just to be on the save side, would you give me some basics in Equestrian etiquette before I am to meet the Princess?” .oOo. I was still preparing, when Celestia ambushed me. Twilight Sparkle came trotting upstairs, telling me that the Princess wanted to speak to me personally before the official reception. Cold shivers ran down my spine, and my stomach turned, as I came down the stairs. My heart skipped a beat, when I saw the Princess waiting for me in the librarie's main hall. She was easily twice the size of any other pony I had seen, with long, slim limbs and a much more pronounced snout. She reminded me more of a horse than the other ponies did. That is if a horse had a sharp tipped horn on its head as long as my arm and swan like wings with a span of at least six steps. She was wearing some kind of golden, royal insignia, a tiara, some kind of chest plate and what I would describe as horseshoes, meaning they were like actual shoes and covered more than just the underside of her hooves. But I have to say, apart from all that, the most impressive part about her was her mane; it was a multicolored, bellowing aurora borealis. Words cannot hope to do it justice. It was set off by what was easily the most annoying part of her, her fur. It was white as milk and so bright that it seemed to shine with some inner hue. Looking at it irritated my eyes like direct sunlight. I swallowed hard, and forced myself to walk down the steps slowly and steadily. With every step I slipped more into the role of the untouchable master sorceress, my face becoming an opaque mask bearing an ever superior half smile. I had become so used to this role over the years that not even the presence of an immortal was enough to break it down and make me show how terrified I really was. Not even my voice shook, when I descended the last stair and greeted her. “Ave Princess Celestia. It is honor to be received by you personally.” I walked up to her until I was only two steps away -noticing with disdain that I had to look up to her- and knelt down before her, looking down onto the ground. “Please rise, there is no need for such formalities.” When I rose again, she was gracing me with a warm and welcoming smile. “I take it you are Sapphire? The hero who saved the town and the life of one of my subjects with her magic?” I made a deep bow. “The same. A human sorceress from the world of Dere, if that means anything to you, your grace.” My first objective in this conversation was to find out if she could read my mind. If she could, I could spare me any more words and teleport out of this world right away. So I went on the offensive and thought about all the things she might dislike about me: That I was necromancer, that I had practically brought the demon who almost destroyed Ponyville here, and that I hated the color of her coat. “I fear I have never heard of your world, and it has been well over a thousand years, since I have spoken to any human. Twilight Sparkle wrote that you seek a troll path back to your home world?” The second objective was not to let any of the aforementioned slip. For that I had planned to keep this conversation as brief as I could, but the prospect of finding a troll path made me rethink that plan. “Yes, your grace. I am. I got ripped from my world and have been traveling through the limbo for weeks now. A troll path to my world, or any human world would be most helpful.” She slowly shook her head. “It pains me to say this, but I can't help you in this matter. You see, when this world was still young, there was many a path open to other worlds, some human worlds among them. From those that traveled through that paths did my little ponies get the first glimpse of civilization. You can find many remnants of that times even today. “But then came the reign of chaos. A powerful spirit by the name of Discord had been summoned to this world. Discord twisted everything that was good and pure, the very laws of nature were his plaything. The borders between several worlds -whose troll paths had been trodden so very wide- broke, and they merged with this one. Each one bringing its own sentient species with it. Dragons, griffons, changelings; beings so very different were forced to live in the same world. War was inevitable; the loss of lives was so very high.” She looked down and shook her head, even I could see that those memories were still hurting her. “When me and my sister came to aid my little ponies, we closed off all paths leading to other worlds for good, before Discord's influence could spread to them. That included the paths to any human world; they are forever gone.” I let a slight frown of displeasure show on my face. “I am sorry to hear that. But I thank you for taking your time and telling me this, your grace. I'll just have to leave this world by my own means then and continue my search. I doubt I will stay longer than a few more days” “Please, you are our honored guest. Feel free to stay in this world as long as you like. Now please excuse me. I still have much to attend to. I will see you in the reception in two hours.” I bowed down before her, and she vanished in a bright light, leaving me alone in the hall. I chuckled, this princess was unbelievable. First time a noble had ever asked me for my leave, even if it was rhetorical. .oOo. The reception was a boring affair. Lots of very important ponies who wanted to thank me personal to look good in front of the rabble, long speeches, useless medal. I won't waste any ink on that. Much more interesting was Twilight's continued search for a cure to my decay. After two more days, she had finally found one. “So tell me again about this Elements of Harmony.” Me and the five of Twilight's friends who had battled the demon were sitting in the library's main hall. “You say they are the most potent magic in this whole world, even more powerful than the princesses themselves. And they have been used to defeat Discord, when he reappeared only a few month ago, turned him into stone?” Twilight nodded. “And they banished Nightmare Moon, bringing Princess Luna back after her thousand year exile. They cured her form the nightmare if you so will.” “And you say they can cure me like that. Are you sure they will not turn me to stone too? The effect seems a bit random to me.” She shook her head. “It's not like that at all. You see, me and my friends are the bearers of the elements, chosen by them because we represent the virtues of each element. When we use the elements, we guide them, channel their power to serve harmony the best way they can. So you see, we will just guide them to cure your curse, and then you will finally be healed!” She was more excited about the concept of shooting the mightiest magic of this whole world at me than I could ever care for. Still, it sounded like a good chance, maybe the only chance I would ever have to get my mortal flesh back. “Alright, it's worth a try. How soon can you have the Elements ready?” .oOo. We had traveled to Canterlot in the most amazing machine I have ever seen. It was like a chain of carriages all drawn over a road made out of two iron rails by a machine with the power of many horses. I had Twilight explain to me exactly how it worked all along the way. She was happy to tell me everything I wanted to know, much to the dismay of her friends, who didn't seem interested in engineering at all. Truth be told, I understood almost nothing of what the unicorn told me. I decided it would be best to just label it as “science” and be done with it; no use in even trying to understand it and instead focus on my magic studies. Canterlot itself is an amazing city. It was build onto the steep side of a mountain right above a waterfall, standing on platforms with impossibly long support beams. Every building seemed to be made out of stone, most even from marble. It reminded me of the ancient cities of the Tulamyds with their slender minaret towers and buildings that can only be reached by flying carpets. I wondered if the builders of Canterlot used summoned demons and elementals for their construction work too. But I have to say for the capital city it is surprisingly small. No comparison to great Bosperan. It makes me wonder how big this land actually is. We got an escort of soldiers from the royal guard, the first armed ponies I had seen so far. They carried spears and wore bronze armor. I thought they served only representational purpose, because with the technologies I had seen I thought ponies should have far more advanced weapons. But maybe the spears and cuirasses were heavily enchanted. We were brought to the royal palace, and I found the lack of thousands of stairs you have to climb just to get up to it quite refreshing. The palace was not the largest one I had ever seen, but it had quite the interesting architecture; high rooms with arched ceilings, many towers and overbearing use of colored glass windows. Some of them even showed important events from the land's history. Luckily the Princess had considered my wish of having no official reception. Instead Celestia and her sister, whose name my amulet translated to Luna, welcomed us in an almost private parlor adjoined to the throne room. I gathered it was usually used to receive important envoys. The younger sister of Celestia, Luna, is just as impressive a sight as Celestia herself, but I found her much easier on the eye. She was of similar build, if a bit smaller, and she had a dark blue coat instead of the garish white one. But her mane was even more amazing than Celestia's. It was as long and bellowing in astral winds, but it was like a window through which I could see the stars, thousands of them, blinking and gleaming among the vast blackness of the firmament. I made the princess a compliment on it, but it only produced giggles and laughter. I think it must have translated to something as stupid as : “Dear princess Luna, I really like your mane.” Luckily Celestia was not staying with us for long, for she had other state business to attend to; she left after sharing only one cup of tea with us. Keeping my act up under the scrutinizing eyes of two immortals, no matter how nice they pretended to be, was one of the hardest things I had ever done. My respect for professional diplomats grew tremendously that day. Princess Luna stayed; she would be our host and oversee the ritual herself. I had just enjoyed my first sip of tea with only one Princess to worry about, when the pink and pink earth pony who was even named Pinkie Pie held some form of small cake right in front of my face. “You should try the cupcakes! They are super ultra delicious!” The smell of freshly baked wares -a symphony of buttery and sugary delight- alone made my mouth water. I took the cake from her, but set it back on the table. “Thanks, but no thanks. I'll stay with the tea.” Pinkie tilted her head to the side and mustered me. “Don't you like cake?” I shook my head. “Actually I do, and I can smell that it is as tasty as you say. I just don't eat any sweets.” “A lady has to watch out for her figure, I understand completely.” Rarity said and put down the piece of chocolate cake she had been eating. The comment confused me a bit. I looked down on myself, holding my arms apart from my body to get a better look. “Well, I know I'm beyond skinny and should probably eat more, but my masters always told me that one has to be above the fleshly desires of her body. Only through disciplined ascesis is it possible to train the willpower required to wield higher magic.” That was a lesson I had ignored before that fateful night I lost my arm. Before that I had indulged in every debauchery that had struck my fancy, as it was common among the high society of Bosperan. Self discipline and ascesis was another lesson I have learned the hard way. “What an old fashioned way to approach magic.” Princess Luna set down her cup of tea and leaned a little bit forward. “Every magic school in Equestria nowadays will teach you that a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. A proper diet and regular training is required to prepare the body for the stress of channeling greater amounts of arcane energy.” A thoughtful expression came to her face. “Actually I haven't heard of ascesis since the times of Starswirl the Bearded. In those days sorcerers would summon spirits to do their bidding; they required great strength of mind to subjugate those spirits to their will.” I figured if ponies didn't like necromancy, the summoning of ghost and demons was also frowned upon. I needed to change topic, fast. “Who is Starswirl the Bearded?” “He was the greatest conjurer of the pre-classical area. He invented over two hundred spells. He even has his own wing in the Canterlot library.” Twilight came to my rescue without fail, she seemed to jump to any opportunity to display her vast hoard of knowledge. “An accomplished wizard I see. Have you mastered any of his spells?” That question brought me five minutes of respite from the Princess' questions. But she was on to me, and I had to figure out what I could tell about myself without falling out of favor. And to tell something I had, for Luna directed the discussion my way whenever she could without outright interrogating me. Eventually I decided to go into the offensive; tell so much useless information about my world that everyone would eventually tire of it. “And his son Bardo followed him on the throne. Under his rule the great temple to the goddess Rhaja was build. He expanded the network of imperial roads all the way to the far provinces of Garethia. I have to say I quite miss traveling on those roads. They are wide enough for two wagons to pass each other and are plastered with solid stone. You can easily make a third more way in a days travel than on the dirt roads the Tulamyds still use.” By now Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep and Pinkie had started building a tower out of the tableware, the only one still listening intently was Twilight Sparkle. She had even started taking down notes. I smiled, it was about time to turn the tables. “But enough of my world, I don't want to bore you after all. There was this one thing I wanted to ask since I had seen the first of your species. “What are these marks on ponies' flanks? I first took them for tattoos, but each pony seems to have one, and a unique one at that.” “That are our cutie marks. They show what a pony's super special talent is!” Pinkie replied from behind her tower as soon as I had finished the question. “So, they are some kind of tattoo, and everyone gets them? Is there are law for that or something?” Twilight shook her head. “It's not like that at all. They are a differently colored parts of our fur. They magically appear once a pony finds out what its special talent is. It's no spell or anything, just a part of pony nature.” “I see.” Now it was my part to take out my diarium and make notes. “So, you have a star with stars around it as a cute mark, what exactly is your special talent?” Twilight smiled and held a hoof to her chest. “My special talent is magic! I got it when I passed my entrance exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.” One by one the six friends began to tell me about their cutie marks after only little encouragement, and how they had gotten them. Nothing of consequence, but I found their talents and stories quite fitting on how I had experienced the six of them so far. In the end only Princess Luna was left. “And you Princess? You got a moon sickle as your cutie mark. Let me make an educated guess: Your special talent is moving the moon across the firmament.” “Indeed it is. I control the course of the moon and stars in the night sky.” “Interesting,” I said without looking up from taking notes to hide my surprise. This made four immortals I knew of that claimed to control the moon, though the first one I had spoken in person. “I'd very much like to see this!” “Then so you shall. You can join me on my balcony in the evening after the ritual is completed. All of can join me if you want to.” Me and the others were just voicing our most thankful acceptance of the offer, when a servant entered the room. “Your majesty, the ritual room has been prepared.” “Excellent! Now, Mistress Sapphire, my little ponies, we can go and use the elements any time you are ready.” “Great!” I stood up from the pillow I had been sitting on. “I'd like to go on with this immediately if you don't mind. I can't wait to feel the wind on my arm again.” .oOo. The ritual room was in a high tower at a far wing at the very edge of the castle; just as they often were in my world, to prevent damage to the main building, should the tower explode. It was a large, circular room with an arched dome and high glass windows on all sides that let the the setting sun flood the room in orange light. The elements were already there, resting on a marble stand on silken pillows. They turned out to be in the form of jewelry, five golden necklaces with different gemstones set into them, and a golden tiara. Twilight Sparkle levitated the necklaces onto each of her friends and put on the tiara herself. The six of them took position in a half circle around the center of the room, the setting sun behind them. I gathered all of my desperate courage and forced myself to walk into the center of the circle, one step at a time. The Princess stayed behind, observing the whole ritual from a distance. “Sapphire, are you ready?” Twilight Sparkle asked. I took a deep breath to calm myself. My heart raced, the hairs on my skin stood on end and I felt hot and cold at the same time. I slowly nodded. “I'm ready, please go on.” I hoped that my translation amulet would keep the shaking out of my voice. Twilight looked once again to her friends on her left and right. “Alright girls, ready when you are.” When all five of them had nodded, Twilight's eyes focused back on me, then she closed them and took a breath to collect herself. “Let's go.” The other five closed their eyes too and all six of them concentrated; the gems on the Elements began to glow. Ever brighter their light became, until it outshone the setting sun. An astral wind picked up and blew through the room, tugging at my hair and robe. The very air around Twilight and her friends began to shine white, and the they were lifted from the ground. Then suddenly they opened their eyes again, and they were ablaze with astral energy. The light around the ponies became so bright I had to shield my eyes with my hand. I felt my hair standing on its edge, my toes tickled. I wanted to run away, but my legs wouldn't move. Then a great rainbow shot forth from the Elements, arching towards me. The colors engulfed me, my body became weightless and everything around me was white light. Then the world went dark.