Harmonius: Song of the Imprisoned Maiden

by Basic13

Chapter 1:1 - The Alpha and the Omega

The dark unicorn walked silently along the subterranean path, the sheer drop to either side of it not seeming to give it and pause as it continued on in silence, resolute in its purpose deep beneath the earth where the world locked away its greatest of evils

The silence was shattered by the ominous growl coming from above, and looking up, the unicorn saw the large form of Tartarus's warden, bearing all three sets of fangs threateningly at the intruder in this realm, great strings of slobber falling from its jowls.

"Ah, well met, noble warden," the unicorn spoke in calm and aristocratic tone, unconcerned as the great beast crouched, muscles like thick corded ropes bulging as it launched its vast bulk to land in front of the unicorn. "I must say, it is truly an honor to meet the legendary gaurdian of Tartarus in the person," he said, bending his front legs into a bow. Cerberus was unimpressed, the leftmost head letting out a guttural bark that sent a gust of hot, foul breath into the unicorn's face.

"I see," the unicorn commented. "I pray you step aide, sir," he entreated to the three-headed dog. "While I have no quarrel with you, my need to speak with one of your inmates is quite urgent," he told him. Cerberus only took a menacing step forward, further bearing his fangs. "Indeed," the unicorn observed, "your commitment to your station is commendable; unfortunately, it seems as if we now must be at cross purposes."

He vanished with a flash of green fire just as the rightmost of the heads threatened to take off his own head. "So be it," he said simply.

---

Twilight Sparkle stared at the open tome before with an unfocused gaze, and her mouth opened and let out a deep yawn that she tried to stifle with her hoof, but to no avail. She glared darkly at book, rather irritated that she had been on the same page for close to ten minutes now, but the words on the aged paper skittered about like a colony of worker ants. Blinking, she shook her head sharply in an attempt to regain her lost focus, taking in the familiar site of her bedroom in the Ponyville Library. She had yet to relocate to her new "castle," instead preferring to continue to keep the job of librarian and work from a familiar and comfortable environment while she worked out the finer details of her new position, and how exactly one went about properly running a kingdom.

Frowning, she took a long drink from the steaming mug besides her, grimacing at the bitter taste of the roasted beans; she had recently taken to coffee over her usually preferred tea, and was now on what might have been her third or fifth cup of the morning? She couldn't remember.

She knew it was unhealthy to consume such large amounts of the beverage, especially when using it as a substitute for proper sleep, but it seemed to be the only choice the new princess of Friendship currently had.

The clouds churned before boiling away from the intense of the multitude of flaming rocks that wore summoned from the sky. The cacophony of screams from the floating landmass below only grew into a horrendous crescendo as the great meteors impacted, turning settlements of civilizations into little more than charred ruins and sending entire chunks of the land tumbling into the ominous miasma of thick, dark gases that covered the world's lands miles below.

The symphony of destruction only got louder, more notes of agony and terror from the wounded and dying adding their cadence to the dirge that was responsible for calling forth the death from the heavens.

Was jyel ga desfel here, vonn en colga,
Was jyel ga desfel here, polon quivale.
Was jyel ga syunaht gigeadeth noglle ciel

Glancing about, she saw that she was still at her desk and that she must have nodded off for moment. Closing her eyes, she cradled her face in her hooves and fought to keep the tears of desperation that welled in the corners of her eyes at bay. The near two weeks of insomnia and the horrific night terrors were strain enough, but dealing with the aftermath of Tirek's assault upon Equestria (specifically the damage done to the town of Ponyville, no matter if the wave of Harmony had set all the damage to rights when it had been released) and the responsibilities and technicalities that came with the establishment of a new kingdom--the youngest of Equestria's princesses was near her breaking point.

"Why?" She whimpered to herself. "What do these dreams mean?" she whispered to herself. She had discreetly asked Princess Luna if there was anything wrong with her dreams, but the princess of the night had found nothing, and Twilight did not wish to unduly worry her or give her any reason to suggest that she might be unable to fulfill her new rule or oversee her new kingdom.

Even now, that accursed song played itself in her thoughts, an endless refrain of misery and death that had been haunting her every moment--waking or not.

Unseen, a small figure observed her despair from the shadow of the doorway, another mug of steaming coffee held tightly between his claws in a lilac-knuckled grip. Spike was at a loss on what to do for his oldest friend (who, honestly, was all but a mother to him in everything but blood,) and it was as his heart was being torn about within in his chest to see Twilight like this.

Knocking on door so as to seem as if he had just arrived, he saw Twilight whip her head up, her mane in frazzled disarray, and stare at him in shock. Spike frowned: he could see the prominent dark circles unearth her bloodshot eyes, even through the coat of her fur. Twilight quickly tried to compose herself, blinking hastily to banish the tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes so that Spike would not notice--he did.

"Hey, Spike," the princess greeted her young word with a voice full of false cheer, and a shaky smile like a pane of shattered glass. "Did you need anything?"

Swallowing the thick lump that had formed in his throat, Spike had to take several seconds to answer her, not trusting himself to speak. "Y-yeah," he said eventually, his voice shaking ever so slightly and he cursed himself for the fact. "I brought you a fresh cup of coffee," he said, gesturing with the mug between his claws, and he let out a tongue of emerald flame to curl about the mug, heating the contents within.

Twilight stared uncomprehendingly at Spike and then to the said coffee, before glancing down to her still half-full cup. With a slight grimace, she levitated the mug to her lips and drained the bitter lukewarm beverage in two quaffs. Setting down the empty mug and breath out through her nostrils, she smiled at him as she gratefully took the new beverage with a smile of gratitude. "Thank you, Spike," she said, taking a long sip. "What would I do without you," she said, her voice full of fondness and affection that was audible despite the noticeable note of fatigue that caused the otherwise steady words to waver slightly.

Spike could only smile wanly at her. Suddenly, his mouth opened a gout of searing jade flames were expelled from his maw, as a scroll materialized mid air, fumblingly being caught his claws.

Twilight stared in shock at the scroll, before frowning severely and closing her eyes. Though she hated herself for the thought, she was not in any state to speak or do anything for her mentor at the moment. She couldn't afford another task piled upon the ones that were already straining her to the breaking point.

"What does it say?" she asked quietly, her voice weary and dejected. Wordlessly, Spike handed the scroll to the lavender mare who scanned it with a disinterested, roving gaze before it widened in shock at the words.

"W-we have to go!" she cried, her coffee forgotten, her frame colliding harshly with her desk and sending the jetsam and flotsam that littered the surface to the floor in the resulting disturbance. Quickly grabbing what she could think of at that moment, with her magic, she rushed out, hastily stuffing the items in her saddlebags.

Spike watched her go, casting his gaze to the scroll that laid forgotten upon the floor where it displayed its text to the world. He quickly hurried after her, knowing exactly how serious the matter was, from what the scroll.

In Princess Celestia's elegant scroll were two sentences:

Come immediately.

There has been a security breach in Tartarus involving Lord Tirek.

---

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and slowly counted backwards from as she listened to the droning of the aristocrat, going on about requesting some new form of tax break or complaining on how the commoners were in some way making the quality of his life just that much worse on a microscopic level.

"And so, you majesty . . ." Celestia listened with half an ear (less than half, if she was being honest to herself) and the voice of the pony shifted into an indistinct combination of different tones punctuated by guttural constants. All the while, she kept her serene expression on her face, gently smiling down at her petitioner and nodding when it seemed most appropriate.

She found herself slightly impressed, at times. The nobles could seem to prattle on and on, all on a single breath. Their inflated egos must be where they get the spare reserves from, Celestia figured, watching the mouth of the pony open and close, making noise but not sense.

It was times like this when she couldn't understand why her younger sister had rebelled all those years ago. Honestly, she would be thrilled if nobody paid her any mind--she was quite certain that Luna didn't have deal with listening to such inane prattle from entitled nobles each day, for hours on end.

Then again, the few nobles that had tried to seek an alternate ruling from her sister about being denied by Celestia, found themselves being summarily lectured, berated, and sometimes laughed at in the Royal Canterlot Voice--not necessarily in that order, either.

Oh, it seems as if the noble was finishing up his speech.

"And that is why the commoners should be required to wear color-coded attire when in Canterlot!" he finished triumphantly. The princess of the day blinked at him incomprehensively. Granted, she was tuning most of what he said out, but it was a rare thing when she heard such proclamations filled with such levels of, well, stupidity.

Raising one brow at the noble, she glanced towards the stone-faced guards flanking either side of the foot of her throne; though they gave nothing away from their dour expressions, Celestia could tell they too were baffled by what had just come out of the upper-crust earth pony's mouth. Was this pony serious? No, of course he was.

"I'm afraid I have to deny your request," she said, putting on a faux-apologetic look as she said this. The earth pony looked utterly dejected and baffled--why could she not understand the validity and benefit of his request! He had just explained it all in perfect logic!

Steeling his resolve, he gave formal bow and his thanks to his sovereign for her time, resolving to not give up! There must be chromatic order! For the good of Canterlot!

Watching as the pony left, Celestia found herself wishing that something--anything!--would occur to break up the monotony of her day! She immediately scolded herself for wishing such a thing and tempting the fates--If the trend of the past year was followed, the changelings would stage another invasion or some other long forgotten prisoner would escape from Tartarus to torment her little ponies.

Still, she wouldn't be adverse to Discord randomly popping in and causing some harmless chaos, such was her boredom. Celestia frowned as she thought of the chaos spirit and the strange nighttime visit he paid her weeks ago; it had brought up many memories she had not thought on in centuries, and his behavior still weighed upon a part of the alicorn's mind.

She had written to Fluttershy, asking about Discord--if any pony knew what was troubling the dragonequus , the bearer of the Element of Kindness would--and indeed the pegasus had written back that he had seemed troubled as of late, but that she was quite certain that the spirit was still feeling guilty over having betrayed all of them to side with Discord.

Indeed, Celestia was certain that some of Discord's uncharacteristic melancholy was due to his feelings of guilt, but that did not explain his anxieties over the Crystal Mirror. When Celestia had paid a visit to the Crystal Empire specifically to check in on the mirror, nothing had profited from the visit save for being able to see her niece and former captain-of-the-guards, and bringing up some long forgotten memories.

Try as she could, Celestia could not recall anything her two otherworldly friends had mentioned that might have inspired such fear in the Lord of Chaos. Theirs had been a sad world, and the people suffered still suffered from the mistakes wrought by the hubris of those who came before them--robbed of their very world's land and sky, with little available shelter save for the grand structure built by the same civilization who had damned them.

Shurelia had mentioned only that Discord had somehow entered into a separate realm that existed inside the Tower in a nonphysical sense that Celestia had not understood at the time. Even now, Equestria was only now grasping the concept of computers and digital technology, but the Tower she had arrived in had been a construction of that Equestria would not be able to surpass for millennia to come--if they ever did at all.

The woman claiming the title of Administrator of the Tower had been less than forthcoming in her information, and slightly curt, but Celestia could not fault the woman her caution given the situation she was responsible for.

Shurelia was a ruler, and her people came first, Celestia knew.

Still, the armored woman had taken the time to construct what had eventually become the salvation of Equestria's people, even if she had nothing but hope that it might work, and for that Celestia would be forever grateful to the two otherworldly woman.

Only Star Swirl had ever known of what laid on the other side of the Crystal Mirror, but fearing that the danger that currently plagued the world of the Tower might somehow spill over into Equestria, he had cast a complicated temporal binding spell upon it, forever locking the two mirrors connecting again. Now, as Twilight had found, the mirror still lead to a world of humans, but an alternate reality of their own instead of a new reality altogether.

Her wish for more interesting times was answered as doors to the throne room were bucked open enough force to send them crashing into the marble walls hard enough to cause fractures to the stone. Luna rushed in, eyes frantic, as she bellowed out in full Royal Canterlot Voice: "SISTER! WE BRING THOU TIDINGS MOST ILL!"

Celestia grimaced at the volume of her sister's trademark voice, which was compounded only by the echo afforded to it by the throne room's high vaulted ceilings; even the normally unflappable Day guards could not help but flatten their ears and frown.

Waiting for her ears to stop ringing, Celestia stared at her frantic younger sister, who, after spending a thousand years upon the moon, was more than slightly out of touch with the cultural norms of modern day Equestrian society, and thus occasionally overreacted to something her old-fashioned world view found to be outrageous or amazing.

Best not to mention her younger sister's pure joy when she discovered the snack known as "moon pies". . .

"Yes, what is it, Luna?" Celestia asked, the corner of her mouth curving upward as she awaited her dear sisters no-doubt exaggerated reaction to something commonplace or mundane.

"There has been a breech in Tartarus!" the celestial mare proclaimed, her voice no longer quite so loud, though she did still employ the Royal Canterlot Voice, as she tended to due in times of great stress.

All amusement fled Celestia at once and she immediately summoned forth a scroll. Quickly, she wasted no time in writing two sentences and sending it to her dear pupil. The overseeing of Tartarus had traditionally always been Luna's domain and fell under the purview of night, and such she had taken over the responsibility once more when she was well--shortly after Cerberus's dereliction of duty, in fact.

"Tell me what has happened," Celestia commanded, looking her younger sister in the eye.

---

"Oh?" an aged sounding voice asked, as thin red fingers wrapped tightly about the bars of their cage. "I wasn't expecting a visitor . . . certainly not so soon," Tirek commented, stroking his wispy beard as he saw the dark unicorn approaching his confinement.

"You and I have business," the unicorn stated simply, staring straight on at the being who had ravished so much of this peaceful realm recently.

"Do we?" Tirek mused, staring thoughtfully at the unicorn before him and taking in his strange features. What little lighting that was offered in this desolate place, seemed to reflect off the pony-like creatures flesh. While this being appeared to be a unicorn in the sense that it seemed to have a horn and walk on four legs, its flesh seemed to be composed of jutting of plates and spurs of a dark metallic compound, with an eerie green glow shining from between the segments. "I fear our discussion will be cut short," Tirek commented, narrowing his golden eyes at the creature, "my warden is quite zealous in the performance of his duties, you see."

"He is taking a nap," the visitor said simply, and refused to elaborate more on the statement.

"Is he?" Tirek asked, easily reading the subtext of that claim and what it might mean for his freedom. Might it be possible that he would not languish for countless centuries as he last had last? Had his freedom truly come so soon? "And who might you be, to lay low the guard dog of this prison with such ease?" he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously at the newcomer.

There was something familiar about his being, to Tirek. He had never met this strange creature, to be sure, but a forgotten remembrance whispered at the back of his mind, or a similar being spoken of in tales. His eyes widened in shock.

"Ah . . ." he breathed. "Now I see," he said, tilting his head to gaze at the creature before him. "I had thought you merely a myth, to be honest," he confided to his guest.

The dark pony-like creature did not respond to that statement.

"No, but now it is so clear in hindsight," Tirek mused. "How could you be anything but he? So tell me, what has this old prisoner done to deserve the elusive presence of the Alpha Changeling? The father of the entire race?" he asked, taking in the Changeling-like appearance of the creature, and easily seeing the resemblance of where the race he had sired took after him in appearance.

The Alpha did not reply, and the ominous green emanating from his body increased ever so slightly, casting the prisoner in a mournful emerald hue.

---

None of the six bearers of the elements of Harmony spoke as they were escorted through the halls of the palace to the throne room. At first, though alarmed by the news, Twilight's friends had been confidant that they could easily imprison Tirek once more, especially wielding the unlocked power of the Elements that they had called upon to defeat him before. But as the train ride to Canterlot continued, all of them remembered the despair and suffering the tyrant had caused, and they began to be concerned that it might make a return, as well as the quite horrendous state that their friend appeared to be in.

Rarity was particularly averse and filled with great concern about the exhausted state Twilight seemed to be in, and she looked towards Spike--who had come along out of concern for Twilight's health, instead of staying to act as librarian in her stead--and the young dragon could only shake his head mournfully at his crush.

Fluttershy trailed near the rear of the group, next to the strangely silent spirit of chaos that had joined them. He had not said a single word since hearing the news, secluding himself into the back corner of the train car where he stewed in his own thoughts for the duration of the trip. Silently, she bit down upon the tuft of his tail to gain her friend's attention.

Feeling a tug on his tail, Discord turned and gazed down in confusion at his friend. She let go of the appendage, and only offered him the kindest most supportive smile she could, but Discord could only offer a small one in return to ease her worries somewhat. But before Fluttershy could inquire to his frame of mind, the group found themselves before the grand doors of the throne room, cast open.

At the foot of the throne, Princess Luna and Celestia, as well as Shining Armor and Cadence stood, worried looks upon their face. Walking forward, Twilight smiled at her brother and sister-in-law, who smiled back at her, but their joy was tinged with much concern as they saw the state that the youngest princess seemed to be in.

Celestia and Luna were also deeply concerned with the state of lavender unicorn (Luna, in particular, recalling a question Twilight had asked her about what the state of her dreams had been a few weeks ago,) but did not get a change to enquire as she spoke out.

"We came here as fast as we could," she answered, and all the other royalty present could hear the exhausted undercurrent that pulled her normally confident and steady voice down, "what's happened with Tirek? Has he escaped!" she demanded frantically, and the rest of her friends all tensed as they awaited the news of what new threat was about to descend upon the land.

Celestia and Luna glanced to one another, a strange expression on their faces that Twilight could not decipher, before the white alicorn shook her head, her eyes closed. When she spoke, it shocked the eight newcomers into silence.

"No, my dear student, Lord Tirek is dead."

Comments

[kakkaohjus]

First Blood!

[Basic13]

4682751 Yes, boys and girls, there's going to be whole lot less rainbows and cupcakes from herein out . . . except, you know, whenever there will be cupcakes, with Pinkie Pie and whatnot . . . and Rainbow Dash is one of the main characters and she is, well, . . . her name . . . and. . . and . . .

Ah, you know what I mean!

*Quietly goes off to work on next chapter.*

[Basic13]

4682751

It technically would be considered a flawless victory, as well

[kakkaohjus]

4682808
4683261
And considering what did it, if my guess is correct, expectable. Now MORE!

[Basic13]

4683717 Writing as we speak. Give me about a half hour and I should have the next part of chapter 1 done.

*Sigh* My fans . . . so demanding!

[kakkaohjus]

4683748 In that case.