The Six Deeds of Harmony

by Defoloce

Dénouement

─────────DÉNOUEMENT─────────

questria is home to all the Sky,
And Her great goddesses doth keep us well
Betwixt Her and the earth beneath our hooves,
But Love be yet a youth, unsure in wills.

Like silver-vein in moss the palace rose
Up through the canopy to call them home,
For Harmony would come again, perceived
By all who look’d upon the Ever-Free.

The Throne is shut away from friendly hearths
Which reap its isolation, knowing not
The brooding loneliness of older times
Upon the withers of their princesses.

Now Love, too, had a care for by-gone wills
Which brought their subtleties unto the knight
Where he could not account, but She could see
The machinations of an evil thing.

He offer’d up no words as they returned,
And in each step he took She counted years
Of aging and of toïl on his mind,
Yet still his eyes were clear, his armour bright.

Upon the border of the Ever-Free
The earth had been rent by a giant’s axe,
Or riven by a storm in godly strife.
Upon its passing, he seem’d to be buoyed.

“I’ve made what I shall say,” said then the knight,
“And vexing, marry! will its utt’rance be,
But I am wiser now, for what is done,
And wisdom now asserts its gravity.”

“To be so inward now doth trouble me!”
Replied Cadenza. “Thou shouldst celebrate
The Harmony deliver’d to the world,
Perpetuated by a winsome heart!“

“A worldly Harmony? And what of me?”
He said before the mouth of palace-gates.
“I shall live on, perchance to become old,
Regretting all the Harmony forsook.”

“Thy love will giveth thee all that thou needst,”
She said in praise to him. “With this, my word:
Thou wilt be noble, fit for her to wed,
And shalt not want for happiness again.”

“An happiness I want,” he grimly said
As slowly did the portcullis withdraw
And they make entry to the anteroom.
“What happiness be happiness not earn’d?”

“Thou hast not earn’d it? Be thou then a god?”
Cadenza laughed as they were so announced.
“I pray thee look upon her face but once,
And Love anew will settle It to thee.”

The unicorn was there, from Canterlot,
His love and vision paces from the Throne.
Her coat the bluer than his last recount,
Her mane the whiter for her joy for him.

“He cometh now, he cometh now at last!”
Did cry the maiden, forgetting her place.
“My love return’d by Love, O Highnesses!
I am a nestling bird, new on the wing!”

The Sun was oft to smile in those days,
And here She gave Her laughter with the maid
While soft did Moon regard the knightly face
And saw within him promises for Her.

The maiden charged him then, and they embraced
With fury of relief the parted know
And wish for none, but as she stepped her back
She saw his joy so temper’d by a woe.

“What pains thee here, my knight, my champion?
Thou art deliver’d, and we can be wed
This selfsame day, once thou hast accolade!
Step up and take it; pray, be glad with me!“

“I love thee,” said he soft, “and always will
For all remaining days, O precious one;
Alas for it! the quest hath took its due
And now I can no longer live for thee
Nor I a-side. I ken things I should not,
So given to the sorrows of the land
An I ignore it, would my breath be stole,
A vile pleurisy to torment me
‘til I sleep not again. So will I strike
As I was at the first: a humble knight,
Unstandarded but for my errant will
Which taketh me to what has need of steel.
My love for thee hath broken not, I say;
I’faith, I love thee more than e’er I did,
Though understood it’s to no consequence,
For both our hearts will breaketh just the same
In sadden’d parting. Here our tale ends.“

She plain recoiled, tears sprung to her eyes,
As all her soul was then devour’d in loss
So great she lost her legs. Cradled by Love,
She desperate cried out to him at last:
“My knight! Thy deeds could fill the lyres of
A hundred minstrels! Wherefore seek out more?
The snows of bitterness hath wrung thy heat,
Thy bless’d compassion, leaving but resolve!
I wish a husband; I wish not a knight!
Come home to me, and find thy wellness there,
A gentle life of safety sorely earned,
No winds to cut thee, nor the rain to wash
Into a sodden cloak out in the wild!
What of our children, then? Our progeny!
Am I to be a dam without a foal?
Wilt thou sire none, so forfeiting thy line?
I curse this quest, an it takes thee from me!
I curse the day I fell in love with thee!”

The Moon fell to him. “This be sorcery,
So do I sense it! Something shade within,
A primal ken which sears the inner skin
A-round the soul, and I would banish it.“

The knight stood tall, regarding her with poise.
“O Moon, this can’t be banishèd from me,
For it is Magick pure, within all things,
And facets of the Harmony are here.”

The Sun then spoke: “Yea, Magick without check
Be knowledge cast, both great and terrible.
Our knight was made to see immortal cares
And weighs it with a mortal mind, alas!”

“But this beside,” spake knight, “I see a rift
Betwixt these Two, the Sisters Sun and Moon;
A living omen said as much to me
And she will strong return in by and by.“

“Wherefore thou spurnst me, knight?” cried Princess Love.
“All happiness was thine. Thou turnst thy back?
Two hearts left then to break, both thine and hers?
Thou dost forswear thy cause for questing here!“

He then approach’d his sword, where it had lay
For all his days of absence, left in peace.
He took it up and girt it to his side,
Becoming once again what he had been.

The knight looked to the Sky upon Their thrones
And gave to them the measure of his lot,
An oath a-new, though they had bid it not,
Confession to the ending of his life:

“I learned in seeking Sooth that some would lie,
I learned in seeking Mirth that voices fail.
Ambition would leave Fealty to die,
Benevolence so cowed by cruelty’s flail.
If Charity must stand before all greed
And Magick curseth thoughts, injuring dreams,
Then all the world hath first a greater need
For heroes than for Love, ‘tis made to seem.
All pony-kind arrays to honey’d spice
Of rash delight and softness in their thought;
In pure consumption, so besot with vice,
They would not reck how comfort there is bought.
In steël hence will I go to serve Thee.
I carry not my sword; it carries me.”

The Sun did paw the ground, She whickering
At what had took the knight, her folly full
Rebounding to her: friendship lost for love
Of knowledge, in its merits unapplied.

“O lonely warrior! Thy specious cause
Be selfish in a way thou canst not see!
The Magick’s not in ken alone, forsooth!
A friendship be the fulcrum to its spark!”

“O stark ascetic! Thou wouldst abjure love
And pure contentment for a bloody field?“
Cried out the Moon. “Our quest hath undone thee!
A madness grips thee, fevers of the will!”

“A madness? Pray!” asked knight in grim return,
“What madness danced here ere the ponies came?
What black enduring hatred do we bear,
Which, ever at the corners while we wake,
Would bide for weakness, seeking agency?
Alone Thou livest here, O Sun and Moon,
So far removed from subjects seeking thee!
Equestria, my mother-land, be ill,
And I’m not made to laugh over a grave!
Do I lament this not, as she? I do!
Would that I were the knight thou put to quest
And not the bearer of this heavy vex!
O fortune! two souls hast thou claimèd here!
Mine own, and of my lover, mourning me,
Though for my practices, it matters not:
I can not make her happy ever more.“

To maiden his and Love he said this much:
“I wish not absolution, nor reprieve.
I’ve visited an injury to thee
Which long shall heäl, and I be forgot.
‘Tis better for it; I shall work what good
I can upon the world ere I would die.
Think not of it as ruin, but resolve,
The lasting burden of the valourous
Which naught doth satisfy. I wish thee well,
Though I have set it back, thou must abide
And live on for the joys that we deserve.
Do fare thee well, my loving unicorn.”

He turned his back. She wept to see him leave.
Not Sun nor Moon nor Love barred passage out,
For freedom be the cruelest joy of all,
And never did he there return again.

The Sun so took a lesson to her heart:
Not ever should a pony come to know
So much that she rejects the love of friends
And hangs her up a blessèd fellowship.

The knight took sword into the Ever-Free
And strode the world, as other tales tell.
He ever carried her within his heart
Against the Chaos, bringing Harmony.

Author's Note:

All done! Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought. I do love comments. Doesn't everybody?

This was quite a challenge for me to write! I think my next outing I'll go for something a little... pulpier. And prose-ier. Definitely prose-ier.

Comments

[Dan]

Brilliant ending. Comparable to other greats.

CHORUS
"Look upon the ruins
of the castle of delusion
haunted only now
by the spirits of those who perished
a scene of carnage
born of consuming desire
never-changing now
and throughout eternity.
HERE STOOD SPIDER'S WEB CASTLE."
~~~~~~~
“Here ends the SILMARILLION. If it has passed from the high and the beautiful to darkness and ruin, that was of old the fate of Arda Marred; and if any change shall come and the Marring be amended, Manwë and Varda may know; but they have not revealed it, and it is not declared in the dooms of Mandos.”
~~~~~~
"This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world 'This was a man!'"
~~~~~~~~~
"Lead me away, I pray you; a rash, foolish man; who have slain thee, ah my son, unwittingly, and thee, too, my wife-unhappy that I am! I know not which way I should bend my gaze, or where I should seek support; for all is amiss with that which is in my hands,-and yonder, again, a crushing fate hath leapt upon my head."

CHORUS
"Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness; and reverence towards the gods must be inviolate. Great words of prideful men are ever punished with great blows, and, in old age, teach the chastened to be wise."
~~~~~~~~
The Donn Cúailnge arrived. He turned his right side to Crúachu and left there a heap of the liver of the Findbennach. Whence the name Crúachna Áe.

He came forward to the brink of Áth Mór and there he left the loin of the Findbennach. Whence the name Áth Luain.

He came eastwards into the land of Meath to Áth Troim and there he left the liver of the Findbennach.

He tossed his head fiercely and shook off the Findbennach over Ireland. He threw his thigh as far as Port Lárge. He threw his rib-cage as far as Dublind which is called Áth Clíath. After that he faced towards the north and recognised the land of Cúailnge and came towards it. There there were women and boys and children lamenting the Donn Cúailnge. They saw the forehead of the Donn Cúailnge coming towards them. ‘A bull's forehead comes to us!’ they cried. Hence the name Taul Tairb ever since.

Then the Donn Cúailnge attacked the women and boys and children of the territory of Cúailnge and inflicted great slaughter on them. After that he turned his back to the hill and his heart broke like a nut in his breast.

So far the account and the story and the end of the Táin.

[Hoof of Approval]

And thus Celestia learns the lesson which she applies to Twilight Sparkle...

"Knowledge makes you strong. Friendship makes you stronger."

[Dusty Sage]

I carry not my sword; it carries me.

Even if I'd missed all of the preceding chapters, that line from the final sonnet would have sealed the deal. A masterwork on many levels.

[redsquirrel456]

That was.... that was beautiful.

And to tie it in to what Celestia teaches her next student later on... stroke of genius, man. Stroke of genius.

I eagerly await what comes next.

[Defoloce]

3760151
The quality of the meter does improve, and I'm confident you'll see this for yourself as you read on. In light of your recommendations, I can go back and adjust the early stanzas to reflect how it was after I found my footing a little better.

Thank you for your input!

[Dafaddah]

Bravo, dude, bravo! A very fitting end to the tale, and a lesson learned by Celestia at dire cost. You have all my !

[Defoloce]

3761016

Thanks very much!

[alt-tap]

I can think of nothing worthy to say for such a masterpiece. Bravo, good fello. I eagerly await your next tail.

[Alondro]

Alas, too long they ignored the necessity of training him first to resist the darkness and so it corrupted him in subtlty. Wisdom first, THEN heroism. Otherwise the deeds override the mind, and deeds can always be reiterpreted to the detriment of all by a creature wicked at heart.

I, however, am a hyper-White-Knight and reject all clever machinations of Nightmares!

See, I'm all like, "Stuff you, beeyatch! I do what I want! To the moooooooon!" The real way to win is pigheaded fanaticism! Ya can't outreason the insane!

[Third Wave]

I finally got around to reading this all the way though. That was simply brilliant, especially the ending.. Excellent work.

[Defoloce]

4230569

Awesome, I'm very happy you enjoyed it.

[Defoloce]

4475582

Thank you! I hope you like the rest too!

[SkelePone]

Holy shit IT IS in iambic.

[NightoftheD]

Once I got accustomed to the format, this story gripped me and wouldn't let go. The format elevates this to be SURE, it's like I'm drinking mead and reading a stained-glass window. The format and worldbuilding give this so much weight, it has the feeling of genuine mythos. There's no question this thing would have been on Twilight's shelf as a filly, and remained there to be read again when she grew older during her time at Celestia's school.

[PresentPerfect]

A tragic ending? And yet entirely satisfying.

Ah, I wish I could see him as one of the Pillars. I wonder what Star Swirl would think of him.

[Ice Star]

Absolutely stunning. It is rare that I stumble across stories with this much care put into them. An epic quest, told entirely in complicated iambic pentameter, with no happy-ending cop-outs, and a plethora of magic and fun world-building along the way? It's really a treat when I find stuff like this in the sea of mediocre porn that floods this site. Thank you for writing such a compelling, clever story. It was a very satisfying read and really ought to have more attention.

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!