Harmony Consultant

by jqnexx

Phase 2: Escalation, Part 6

Mir hadn’t expected to wake up. She’d been defeated in battle, and soundly at that.

As she stirred from her unwelcome rest, memories of what had happened flooded over her. Croix. “Croix!”

“Yes?”

She couldn’t hear him. As memory had returned, so had touch, and she was in a straight-jacket. Her claustrophobia immediately kicked in at full power.

The jacket held her legs under her body with a thick white skirt attached to the tight sleeve on each leg. Straps along the base of the skirt prevented raising the legs more than a tiny bit, while straps across the back held the garment on. It was like the over-tightened saddle at Rarity’s, but far worse. A basket muzzle had been placed over her snout to prevent any mouth-manipulation. But the magic suppressor was the worst.

Along her horn were situated a series of metal rings connected by cloth straps which formed a sort of spiral pattern up her horn. As the magic tried to form together to get the straightjacket off her, the rings in turn lit up and squelched the magic with a wave of painful feedback.

Croix, having been revived by Celestia, stood in the same cell with a similar garment restricting his movements, with the subtraction of a magic suppressor due to the lack of horn and the addition of a set of sleeves and straps that pinned his wings to his side. He’d been awake before she had, but he wasn’t going to let anyone see how much the wing-binding bothered him.

“Yaaaaaaaaaaahhhhrrrrggg!” Mir had managed to flip herself over and was thrashing to the maximum extent possible with the leg-restraining skirt (not much). Light continued to pulse around her horn and cut off as the suppressor kicked in.

“Stop! Cease this outburst at once!” A pegasus guard had wandered up from the entrance to the holding cells, drawn by the noise. He seemed to Croix to be a little confused as to what he should do, although he could clearly tell that it was something.

“She can’t.” The guard quirked an eyebrow at that. “She’s got a very extreme claustrophobia. Any tight clothing will bring on that reaction until it comes off.”

“I’m not authorized to remove restraints from prisoners.”

“Then get someone who is before she hurts herself!” Croix yelled.

“Rrraaaaaagghh!” Mir’s thrashing and flopping had brought her to the metal door of the cell. Her front left leg hit the bars with a resounding crack.

The guard winced in sympathy, while Croix turned to look at his wife. She continued to flail and pulse, heedless of pain as the limb was bent at an unnatural angle. “Mir! I’m right here! Stop!” He wasn’t sure he could stop her if he stepped in. The cage over his mouth prevented him from using his lips to undo the strap, and he doubted he was strong enough to physically hold her down. Additionally, he couldn’t do anything at all for the injured leg.

“Croix?” The surge of pain from the broken leg had momentarily jolted Mir back to lucidity. How can he be alive? I felt him die. “You’re alive, huh?” The thrashing had stopped momentarily, but Mir was still panting furiously.

“I think someone did CPR or something. I have a hell of a pain in my chest, but I’m alive.”

Well, that seems reasonable to me. Gotta stay calm, gotta figure a way out of this stupid jacket. Mir tried to focus on breathing as deliberately as possible. I broke my leg close to the shoulder, I wonder if I can…

Mir twisted her shoulders, and slid the broken leg up. A pair of straps that would normally catch it just barely allowed the new “joint” it had to free itself. With the elbow joint past the strap she carefully flexed it and got the whole leg free.

“Hey! Stop that at once!” The guard, now realizing what was happening, had begun to panic. He’d seen the report on what had happened in the throne room, and had no intention of trying to fight Mir and Croix at once, even if they were wearing restraints.

Mir of course wasn’t stopping. With one leg free the straps had lost a great deal of tension and she was already working on getting her unbroken foreleg free.

“Alarm!” The guardsman ran for the entrance to the wing of cells to call for more backup.

Croix smiled as he looked down at his wife as she kicked the muzzle off her face. “You can’t let me get any rest, can you?”

---

“I don’t know what’s going on anymore!” Applebloom hid in a bush near the edge of Ponyville. Her two friends hid with her, Sweetie holding the Technical History close to her.

Earlier today, something had happened at the Golden Oaks library that everypony blamed on Mir. Sweetie knew Mir wasn’t a bad pony (she’d helped get Sweetie her cutie mark), and her friends trusted her, but both she and they knew nopony else would believe them over Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Then the second something had happened. Details were scarce, but apparently dark magic had somehow gathered at the ruins of the library tree and blasted forth in an immense column. After that everypony hid, thus eliminating the gathering of further details. Since nothing seemed to have resulted from this, ponies appeared to be gradually resuming activities.

“Ow! Hey, what’s this?” Applebloom turned to see what her back hoof had touched. It was an odd, misshapen lump of some greyish-purplish material. On one side what looked like a distorted keyhole could be faintly seen. The object radiated heat.

Of course, what Applebloom didn’t know is that this was the mystery box that the Tree of Harmony had intended for Twilight and her friends to have opened, but things had gone badly off-course. Mir’s blast of magic had caught the box in her attempt to defeat Twilight, and it turned out to be unprotected against extreme heat.

What Applebloom did know is that it seemed to be the same kind of crystal as what she’d been reading about. “Huh. I betcha I could turn this into a little one of those metal seeds it was talkin about. All I need is some platinum. Let’s go see Mr Rich.”

---

“Down 120 centimeters.”

The airship moved so slowly that it was almost imperceptible. Only the constant electronic updates of its computer systems, and the signals it received from satellites, could tell anyone it was in the right place. Thrusters, cycling faster than a human could keep track of, would keep it in the right place. Originally, the ship had been meant to hover under a section of Tower infrastructure that was in need of repair. Now Lyner had resurrected this first-age barge and placed it at her disposal.

“I think we’re good on height. Ready to move in.” The brown-haired, brown-eyed woman glared across the exposed central deck of the airship at her quarry. To her left and right sat the forecastle and aftcastle of the airship, giving it a kind of bowl-shape in profile. “Move 15.9 meters port.”

As the airship moved gently to the left, a startling sight appeared. Crossing the line of her sight between her position and the forecastle, a bizarre ripple became visible. Once the ship had stopped, it was clearly visible as a spherical patch of space through which the sky could be seen where only the ship should be.

“OK hold the ship here. It’s time for our friend to earn his keep.”

A mechanical arm extended forward from the aftcastle, carrying a winged metal shape.

All around her, symbols appeared hovering in ghostly curtains. She began to scrutinize a section towards the center. “Looks good. We’ve got a slight antigravitational curve in the center to prevent pressure equalization between both sides of the portal, but it shouldn’t be an obstacle. Launch.”

The arm pressed the drone it was carrying up against the portal, and released. After a moment, it could briefly be seen igniting its engine and flying away on the far side.

A man in a white coat walked out to her. “Telemetry is good, Ms Sasha.”

“Thank you. We’ll have our data for Shurelia before the representatives can arrive.”

---

Mir didn’t really enjoy standoffs. She’d really rather blast her way out. These ponies had failed to kill either her or Croix while they were out, so she guessed she owed it to them not to slay her way out.

For now.

“It’s OK guys, they’re still wearing inhibitors.” The unicorn guardspony seemed to be reassuring himself as much as those under his command.

Inhibitor. The metal thing on Mir’s horn was what was blocking her ability to do magic. Whenever she tried, it sent a jolt of pain that disrupted the spell.

I am stronger than pain. She’d just have to try harder. Donning her most wicked grin, she looked the apparent leader of the guardsponies on the other side of the bars in the eyes and lit her horn.

The red aura flickered and flared as pain began to assault her. Compared to what I endured in the past, this is nothing. It will pass. I will remain. Each moment she continued, the pain increased in magnitude. The flickering and flaring did as well.

“S...ss...stop! You’ll break your horn!” The unicorn had begun to backpedal, his face distorted by horror. The idea that one would risk damage to their horn was virtually unthinkable to a unicorn.

Mir wasn’t a unicorn. The volume of light from her aura rose, as did the pain. A new sensation emerged: heat. The metal portion of the inhibitor was glowing as it was loaded far beyond its design capacity. Even an alicorn possessed the horn of a unicorn, and with it the associated biological functions. Most relevant to the inhibitor, a reflex action that would cut off magical power in the event that the horn was endangered by feedback.

Mir did not possess this reflex action. Pain would not force her to give up. More power. The metal was heated white hot, and beginning to smoke. Some of it had liquefied, dripping down her horn. Burns will heal.

Bang!

The magical matrix in the inhibitor gave out, sending bits of it all over the room.

The loud noise sent the guards dropping to the floor.

“Hmph.” Mir grinned smugly at the prone guardsponies as she began to unwrap her husband.

Croix’s wings immediately flapped once as the bindings came off them, and he sighed contentedly. The confinement of his wings had affected him more than he’d expected.

“Cease this at once!” The shout had been far louder than anything the guards had been capable of, pinning Croix’s ears back.

“Ha, as if anyone would. Are you interested in a rematch?” Mir grinned viciously at the great white pony striding into the room. “You humiliated me once Celestia. I won’t let it happen again.”

Celestia glared down at the duo. The cage bars held for the moment, so either side would have to either attack around them (which was probably impossible, due to the enchantments she’d had placed on them), or forfeit the initiative by destroying the bars. I always prefer talking to fighting, so let’s see where we can get with that. “What is it you want?”

“Well, let’s start with an apology for attacking us,” Croix broke in.

“I do believe your wife smacked me first.”

“No, this started this morning when your royal guard and your henchwo– henchmare tried to kill my wife.”

“Why do you have to be so reasonable? I was hoping to get my win record against pony princesses to 2-1.”

Wait a second. “You’ve fought a princess before me? And you defeated her? I demand an explanation.”

“Ugh, fine.” Mir rolled her eyes. “Early this morning, your royal guard goons grabbed us and the mare we were staying with, something about a ‘Changeling Verification Act’ that gave them the power to check us out without cause.”

Celestia ground her forehoof into the floor. Only Mir noticed.

“They dragged us before Princess Twilight Sparkle. She asked me some questions and seemed unhappy with my answers. I’ll admit they were evasive, but I don’t like giving out info to people who randomly black bag me. Then she asked me about Sunset Shimmer.”

“Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia’s eyes popped open, even her centuries of experience couldn’t quite keep the mask up.

“Yeah. I answered her questions truthfully, but the stupid lie-detecting flower claimed I was lying, then she went berserk and tried to kill me.”

“Mir, the lie-lilly cannot be deceived. If it claims you made an untrue statement, than you did.”

“Bullshit. It’s impossible for me to have killed Sunset Shimmer.”

Celestia’s eyes opened even further, then narrowed. “What do you mean… killed?”

“I mean Sunset Shimmer died hundreds of years before I was born.”

“Died?” Perhaps it’s someone else named Sunset Shimmer? The lie lilies can behave in interesting ways when its users believe two different things to be the same thing. “Tell me about Sunset Shimmer.”

“Sunset was the greatest wave science theorist ever, and also the first. She came up with what we call song magic at the age of 17, using it to save a high school from evil mind control magic. Or something. After that she went on to oversee the infrastructure development to provide our entire planet with song magic. For some reason there’s no record of her life before age 13 anywhere, not even a birth certificate. Like she just appeared out of thin air one day. Which might be possible in a couple different ways.”

Appeared out of thin air. Perhaps via a portal. But “centuries ago” doesn’t square with that. Unless the portal moves through time as well as distance. Time was always Starswirl’s specialty.

A glass container containing a nauseatingly familiar plant popped into existence outside the cage. “Oh hell no. Not those again.”

Celestia quirked an eyebrow at Mir. “Choose your words carefully, and don’t make your sentences too full of clauses, and you should obtain significant accuracy from them. Now, first question. Please answer yes once I ask.” The lid popped off, held in a sun-yellow aura. “Are the person or pony we both know as Sunset Shimmer one and the same?”

“Yes.”

No reaction. Celestia buried her sadness deep into her core. She’d loved Sunset, but she’d already accepted she was never getting her back when she didn’t return with Twilight as the portal closed. “Now answer this question honestly. Is it possible for you to have killed Sunset Shimmer?”

“No.”

“How long ago did Sunset die?”

“Three quarters of a millenium ago.”

The glass lid lowered, closing the flower from sound. “So, what happened after Twilight asked you about Sunset Shimmer?”

Mir wondered why Celestia wasn’t doing lie detection on that, but knew better than to ask. “She asked me if I killed Sunset Shimmer, and I said no. The flower bloomed and she attacked me, calling me a murderous changeling or something.”

“That seems inconsistent with the behavior of the flower here. What were your exact words?”

Mir closed her eyes, priming her recall. “Hell no, it’d be impossible for me to have done it because time travel isn’t a thing.”

Celestia blinked once. Twice. “Miss Mir, I hate to inform you, but time travel is a real thing. That last clause is false, causing the flower to reject the entire sentence.

Mir blinked as well. “So the whole thing was a big, dumb misunderstanding. Now I’m definitely glad I didn’t finish her off and wait a second.” Time travel is real. Mir’s eyes bulged in shock and focused at infinity directly ahead of herself. I can go back in time. Undo all that horror, that misery. I can…

“No!” Mir turned towards the shout, to see a second, dark blue alicorn stride into the room.

“Luna?” Celestia looked to her sister in confusion. She hadn’t been seen since the previous evening when she had raised the moon.

“Mir, I know what you are thinking, as you have shown what lies in the depths of your heart to me. Do not attempt to tamper with events that have already occurred. That way lies only even greater tragedy as the universe itself pushes back against the paradox: that you travel through time to prevent the reason you traveled through time.”

Mir blinked for a moment as she took that in. Easy come, easy go I guess. But more importantly… “Where were you when they were trying to verify I was actually an ambassador? We could have avoided a lot of ponies getting hurt if you’d answered promptly.”

“We… I received no such request.”

“Huh, I figured burning a message in a dragon’s flame was a terrible method of contacting someone.”

“Was anypony seriously injured?” Luna leaned in preditorially.

“I don’t think so.” Mir made a sweeping gesture with her forehoof. “We’ve had some experience battering people unconscious without permanently messing them up. It used to be his primary job.”

“I was hoping to stay out of this.” Croix used his wing to push down the hoof Mir was pointing at him.

“In any case, we shall attempt to arrange a suitable apology between yourself and Princess Twilight. That is, however, not why I have come to see my sister. I have spent the last day attempting to clean up my own mess. To destroy the last vestiges of my transformation into Nightmare Moon. Unfortunately, I have failed.

“The metamagical matrix I used to transform myself was not the only one of its kind.”

Celestia’s face became impossibly paler.

“It was one of eleven that I made as I perfected the art, and the remaining ones are I believe in the hands of a pony of ill intentions. I have briefly felt them several times in different places in the Everfree, but have been unable to locate them. I felt a burst of dark magic from nearby that tells me somepony has begun to activate them.”

“What?” Celestia blinked. “Why did you not inform me of this earlier?”

Luna flinched back as if struck. “We… I wished to clean up my own mess. I wished to avoid you dwelling on that sordid era.”

“Too bad. You’re going to regret it for the rest of your shortened lives.” The words seemed to come from two voices at once, one male and one female. All heads turned towards the entrance to the cell block. There stood a dark gray pegasus mare, flickering with shadow. Her once yellow eyes were now reddish-orange.

“Sombra!” One shout came from two throats as the alicorn sisters took up flanking positions ahead of and beside the intruder.

“Now now, foolish little fillies. This is merely an innocent mailmare. I’ve provided her with a crude copy of the blessing I’ve extended to those idiots you’ve stupidly entrusted the realm’s safety to. Even now they are under my control. Soon, they will be the end of you. But first, I’ll make you watch this tragedy. This poor single mother will, once I release direct control, attempt to kill the nearest pony she can find. If she can’t find anypony, she’ll kill herself. And dear Luna, you know quite well the added capabilities that the nightmare matrix provides. Without your precious Elements of Harmony, you can’t get it off her by any means. Good luck! Ahahahahahaah…” The laugh faded into nothingness, but the mare wasn’t done talking.

“Ten. Nine. Eight.” She counted down robotically.

Mir looked quizzically at the pegasus as the royal sisters exchanged panicked looks. “I can fix this. Open the cell door.”

The two looked back at her.

“Six. Five.”

“I can fix this, you two step back and give me five minutes. Croix! Time to take a beating for me.”

“Ah, the things I do for love.” Croix smirked as he walked up to the bars and spread his wings, kicking off the last of his restraints.

A lightning look passed between the two alicorns. Luna nodded once, and Celestia opened the cage.

“Two.”

Croix stepped up, inches from the shadowy pegasus.

“One.”

Mir began to sing.

“Zero.” The mailmare launched forward with a look of fury on her face, but wasn’t expecting Croix to begin the fight so close. A ‘ching’ sounded as the pony was hurtled backwards onto her rump.

“Let’s go! Bet you can’t touch me.” Croix smacked his rump with a wing and then hovered into the air.

His opponent surged into the air, then darted past him. She angled in for an attack on Mir, but found Croix suddenly in front of her, once again bouncing her with a ‘ching’ sound. Behind him, the odd figure in a shadowy ball appeared over Mir’s head.

Celestia and Luna watched as Croix deflected attack after attack from the unfortunate mare. While it was obvious she had no training or experience in a fight, her strength was formidable. If she landed a solid blow, whatever pony she hit might become a liquid. Despite this, Mir stood stock still, singing with her eyes closed, not flinching even when Croix deflected attacks barely a body’s length away from herself.

Celestia strained her awareness. She’s not just singing one song. She’s singing a second song at the same time, it’s just not audible physically. It’s mental, purely supporting the magic. How can anypony, anyone, concentrate on two songs at once? The level of mental discipline to do something like that would be unreal. I wonder if I could do that, if I’d practiced my entire life?

“Croix! She’s not as fragile as she looks. You can hit her a little if you think you have to.”

Oh come on! She’s singing a song, and singing a second song, and talking. All at the same time! That’s just showing off.

Four minutes and 20 seconds. The song was coming to its end, and the shadows that had clung to the mare were now streaming off her.

Luna could hardly believe her eyes. As the only pony, ever, to experience the Elements of Harmony from both the right and wrong end, and she had no doubt that the power Mir was drawing on was of the same essential nature.

The song ended, and the gray pegasus flopped to the ground. Mir opened her eyes and gazed down at her fallen foe. “I’d say, based on my experience with this, that she’s completely out of energy now. Can you get her a sweet or something?’

Celestia lay down in front of the mare, and levitated her head. She held her eyes open, and they seemed unfocused and misaligned. The pupillary light reflex still worked, though.

“I recognize that mare.” Luna could see her eye color clearly for the first time, and it added up. “I met her in ponyville. Her eyes are often misaligned normally. Her name is Derpy, I believe.”

“Why in the hell would anyone name their kid–” Croix interrupted his wife with a wing in the mouth. “Ackpth!”

“Dear, no.”

“Derpy seems to be capable of recovery on her own. We must deal with the situation.” Celestia turned to her sister. “First of all, do you believe that Mir’s ability to purge such corruption is part of some elaborate set-up?”

“Wha– Ackpth!” Croix once again prevented his wife from making things harder. She bit down, but he figured he owed a bit.

“I have seen inside Mir’s deepest heart via her dreams. While I shall not reveal what I saw and heard, suffice to say she is powerful and dangerous, but would never use such means, and can be trusted to handle this matter.”

“Hmm. I can work with powerful and dangerous.”

“No offense.” Luna muttered to herself under her breath. Mir made a note of that exchange for future reference.

“So what you want is for me to scrub off the heroes Sombra has corrupted and then kick his ass. I can do it, but it won’t be cheap.”

“Cheap?” Celestia turned to Mir, who had begun to grin like a shark.

“I’m a professional consultant. I can’t just give this away.”

Croix had assumed a similar grin. “We’ll give you a discount on this one. Let’s talk terms.”

Luna suddenly looked up and away from the conversation. “My room! There’s an intruder!”

Author's Note:

This got delayed a bit due to problems with google docs import.

Also, this took a long time just because I couldn't figure out how to get to what was originally the core of the chapter: Celestia freaking out and Luna defending Mir from her. Then I realized that my difficulty was because that would be massively out of character for Celestia. Even when she's enraged, she isn't irrationally aggressive. So now the chapter works better and characterization is preserved.