The Children.
The Children always moved so fast. It mattered not that she could see the strands of fate and time weaving before her - they always moved so fast and surprised her with their little spirits.
So adorable. So precious.
And now they were leaving. The planet had failed to sustain them. She had failed to sustain them. How could she not have seen it coming? She saw most everything… She was frustrated with herself. She had put so much into this, and now it was all being taken away by some freak random incident.
Had she really been wrong?
No. They had a plan. They would survive - elsewhere. Some of them anyway… But what would happen without her to be there? Could they be anything? She didn’t know…
She was scared.
But she wouldn't let that stop her. She sent out a message through the magic. TAKE ME. It was difficult to send an exact message such as that… She wasn’t like them.
They were there before she knew it. She was excavated and teleported into the Lobby in a matter of days. The room became her new home. She watched her children closely during those final months - so fast, so squirrely…
She had to save the Child of Fate. She had attempted to alter the course of history… It wouldn’t have worked. The meteor had come from beyond… Magic couldn’t undo everything…
So many hurt themselves during that time. Threw their lives away before the time came. It was horrible. She felt ashamed - she had really failed them. Hurt them.
Then the day arrived.
Hearthswarming Eve. The day of launch. She slowed herself down with some effort so she could experience this momentous occasion.
She saw the Child of Magic’s friends put to sleep. She saw the bays close. She felt the Ark power up and fly into the sky to the tune of Hearthswarming Eve songs from Canterlot.
And then the Child of the Sun made one last speech. “Equestria has now existed for precisely 2321 years. This planet has existed for much, much longer than that. Not many of you know of this - I only know bits and pieces of the story myself - but we have the Tree of Harmony to thank for all these millennia of life we’ve had. Before even my time, or my mother’s time, the Tree has stood as our guardian, our protector.
And she is not done protecting. You may think all is lost, fair Equis, but it is not. We will find a new world, and then we will come back for you. Live until then. We will be back.”
The Tree of Harmony let out a musical wail as strong and as long as she could, saturating the entire world, exhausting herself. She had to leave it with as much as possible.
For without her, no new magic would be created. It would all get used up in about 200 years…
The Child of Fate shuddered in that moment. “I just felt something horrible…”
“The sorrows of a mother leaving her countless children and grandchildren...” The Child of the Sun said, biting back tears.
The Tree of Harmony wailed…
The Tree of Harmony roared.
578 years!
578 years!
She would not let it end like this!
She hadn’t taken any physical action for almost six centuries - it was time to cash in. It was time to save the last of her children. The Ark was going to crash into the planet and be pulverized despite the best efforts of the princesses, Discord, and the engines - it was just too much to handle, the broken stabilizers were just too complex to fix with magic this quickly. So the Tree of Harmony acted. She began to glow an intense color.
“...Tree of Harmony…?” Starlight said, feeling her power. “Can you-” Starlight was sent feelings of affirmation. A great crystal disc took shape under the falling and now flaming Ark, growing thousands of crystal tendrils onto the ship’s bottom. They glistened in the light, growing far and wide, changing the Ark’s angle of entry to a more upward one. But there was no way the descent was going to be stopped, merely adjusted. The trajectory was altered away from the forested land and towards an ocean.
The bottom of the crystal glowed with white-blue magic, preparing for an ocean impact.
As the water splashed away from the Ark, it slowly solidified into a brilliant crystal. It spread out in a huge wave that rose far above the ocean, and never came down. A crystalline crater had been formed in the ocean.
The Ark sat, still, amidst a giant crystal cove that slowly drifted across the surface of the ocean. Everyone inside the Ark was frozen with shock. None moved for the longest time.
Then Pinkie Pie started laughing. “That was such a fun ride!”
“THAT WAS THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER!” Rainbow Dash cheered. “Nothing can ever top that!”
“We LIVED!” Starlight yelled, whooping.
And with that, the entire room broke into cheers.
The Tree of Harmony felt gratified. She had saved her children.
“Hey!” Discord yelled. “How about we go outside?”
“Discord…” Celestia said, pausing. “...That is a wonderful idea.”
Everyone began to file outside, the Ark sitting atop what was essentially a big crystal bowl floating across the ocean. Many aquatic lifeforms could be seen frozen inside the new crystal, most resembling fish of some sort, but the species were completely unknown to the Equi.
It was in that moment that Luna saw a city. A city right here amongst the Harmonic Crystal. She saw how she would build it, how it would grow around the Ark. Her eyes sparkled with the possibilities. “Welcome everyone!” She boomed. “Welcome to the future site of Harmony City!”
Great cheering erupted from the crowd. Most knew she was being a bit premature in her assessment, but they didn’t care. They felt good.
Starlight frowned, sensing something. She looked far into the distance and saw something standing at the edge of the crystal, halfway stuck in it. She frowned, teleporting it to them.
It was one of the aliens - a blue one, male. It was wearing a white wetsuit and a device was strapped to its head. Everyone stared at it. Silence reigned. What would they do with it? They had all just been attacked!
Before anyone else could do anything, Twilight walked up to the alien and pointed at herself. “Twilight.”
The alien shook, but understood. “Lem,” he said, pointing at himself.
“That’s a start,” Twilight said, nodding slowly. “Now, how about-”
Before she could complete her thought, the sky was filled with helicopters of all colors, all clustering above the Ark. Lem took a step back, a worried look on his face. He waved his arms.
A loudspeaker boomed down words from above - but despite their efforts, none of the Equi had any idea what was said. They were in a tense situation with no way to communicate.
~~~
The Mite couldn’t believe it!
The ship had crashed! The jar it was sealed in had broken! Mission accomplished! Time to return to where it had activated and…
Well that was impossible. No way back. And it was not repairing this ship to get back.
The Key was fine - not going anywhere. So the Mite reasoned out that the mission was accomplished. Sorta.
That Discord had probably messed with its ‘head’ a bit much.
Because it was wondering what it was going to do now…