//------------------------------// // Breaking Harmony End // Story: The Hag, the heroes, and a few other things // by Amaranthine Thought //------------------------------// The three girls had gone into town in a hurry, then separated, going their separate ways. I am told that the reunions were… emotional. The greatest joy with their loved ones; their girls were back! The girls happy to see them once more as well after their long recovery. The obvious question was asked of them: where had they been? At Miss Hag’s home in the Everfree came the innocent response. They did not have the words to describe the sheer anger that had blossomed on their sisters’ faces upon learning that. Not only had I lied to their families, causing their worry to become worse, but I had lied to the girls. The girls’ families had all spent the time agonizing over their fates after my deception, Rarity and Applejack unable to even work or sleep due to their concerns. I had kept the fillies from their rightful places, lied in one of the most hurtful manners possible and no end of discussion or persuasion could change their minds. To Applejack and Rarity and particularly Rainbow, I was evil, soon followed by their friends to a lesser degree. I suspect it was fortunate that the girls could not remember the path back to my home; their sisters might have killed me. I was not free of their wrath yet though. Discord remarked that he knew me, and took great pleasure at drawing out their anger, rubbing at the injury I had produced. Keeping it raw as a minor form of revenge for their hate of me. He kept the secret for three days, the time when I could finally resume my work, before telling them that I might be found at the crystal tree in the Everfree on a regular basis. Six ponies departed soon after. Twilight Sparkle, the purple alicorn, Applejack, the orange pony, and Rarity, the white horned pony who had regained her elegance since Sweetie returned to her. Amongst them, Rarity and Applejack thought me evil, Twilight upset at me, but far less than the other two. Pinkie Pie followed them, one of the two ponies that wondered why I had lied instead of condemning me for doing so. Fluttershy, a yellow winged pony with a pink mane and tail, was the other, but her hesitation stemmed from a love of all life instead of any of my actions. Rainbow Dash brought up the rear. She is a bright blue winged pony, with a mane and tail the colors of a rainbow. Her hate was strong, born from a strong love of her friends, and a burning desire to hurt any who might hurt them. Which I had. When they came upon the chasm they stopped, hearing my echoing screams. They forgot what they had come for and rushed in like the heroes they are, and stopped dead at the sight. I was at the tree once more, tugging at the tiara in the center. They tell me it was as though my skin was burning away only to be replaced with each passing second. Gouges tore open in my flesh only to close shut just as fast. I was actually on fire, but I had focused my mind to my job, reducing the pain I felt. I still screamed in agony. I would have been dead in an instant without the Everfree’s boundless assistance, and I suffered badly even then. They jumped at the snap, Twilight unable to think as I fell to the floor with a thump, going from nearly dead to fully restored, at least physically, in an instant, making the watchers assume that they had hallucinated the sight. The tree gave a great groan and seemed to slump, losing most of its glow as the tiara’s parts landed next to me and the gem dust coloring the floor. A gargled noise came from Twilight at the sight of the broken tiara, the shattered gem, and the darkening tree, her eyes betraying her feelings. She was caught in turmoil, nearly unable to comprehend the sight. I stumbled upright, having suffered more than before. Every branch had been worse than the last, stronger and harder and more painful. After leaving it for so long, I had decided to try and get the rest in one fell swoop. Mind, soul, and body all suffered from torment fit for the underworld. I didn’t even notice my stunned watchers as I dropped the pieces of the broken tiara into their place in my drawing, the bearers only now noticing my scuffs and seeing the other broken elements. Twilight saw them and a cold truth settled in her mind. She had discovered the cause of Applejack’s inability to spot a lie and Pinkie’s unexplained anxiety. With the breaking of the elements, I had broken them a little, reduced their abilities to be themselves, and Twilight now knew who had done it. The same pony who had lied to them about the girls. The same pony standing before them, squinting to get the colorful blurs to come into focus. “Who’s there?” I groggily called out. I was weakened badly, and though I was standing and moving and seeing, it was because of the forest, and not my own power. Twilight and the others didn’t even respond past Rainbow growing at me like a dog. I blinked, sensing the magical buildup as they all prepared to attack me. I wasn’t sure what was there, or how many there were, but I knew it didn't like me. Weak as I was, I prepared to defend myself. They got me fairly quickly. I was groggy and weakened from my battle with the tree and kept failing to see them as they attacked. I had the forest with me, and my skin was like stone and my head and hooves swung like hammers, but I needed vitality to keep myself moving, lessening my abilities by a good bit. I was weak yes, but they are very good. Even at my best they might have gotten me. I was a little groggier than before too; being bucked in the head could do that to a woman. It was a little odd too. The first spirit couldn't help, and the second was thrown away as if it was nothing. I couldn't tell why they were so weak against them then, and didn't really notice that until later on. “What are we going to do Twi?” asked Rainbow, looking back to me, floating behind them in a magical bubble, every now and then and rubbing at her side. I had rammed her and there was going to be a bruise. Applejack already had a black eye from my hooves as well, the only injuries I had inflicted on them physically. “Were are going to take her to Princess Celestia, as well as the elements. I’m sure that she knows what to do.” Twilight said, rather breathlessly. So we went, me unable to appreciate the trip until the castle itself. I wondered where we were and why I was being carried until I heard Twilight again. “This is her.” she said simply, and dropped me like a rock. I didn't even feel it. A white hoof stepped into my vision, capped with a golden shoe. I giggled. The power over me was great, and I was prone to nervous giggles. Whatever was over me outshined me like the sun outshines a candle. As if I was standing before a dragon, but one that was more magical than anything I had ever felt before. “What I don’t understand is why Discord hadn’t told us earlier? How long had he known about Hag?” Twilight asked. “I shall speak to him Twilight, you have my word.” responded the white one. Her voice was rather soothing considering, but I wasn’t about to let her do something to Discord. “Leave him alone.” I said, my voice rough and weak, “He knew me for a few days and did not know what I was doing.” “And what were you doing?” asked the white one above me. “Saving the forest.” I got a sigh in response. She didn’t believe me it seemed. No matter really. I was soon deposited in a small stone cell somewhere underground, iron bars in the walls and two guards watching over me as I laid on a small cot. They weren’t fit to guard a pumpkin, but I was unable to call for aid or move very much. No forest or spirit was nearby leaving me just to my own body. The same body that left me near immobile from weakness. I would be dead within a few days. The tree had struck back far worse than I had anticipated and the fight had worsened my injuries. The Everfree couldn’t aid me like it had before; normally it took several days of its assistance before I could fully recover. Now, without it, my life was flickering like a burnt out candle. I told my reasoning about the crystal tree to Celestia, the white horse from before, Twilight next to her jotting down notes. Celestia was huge, standing over twice the height of myself, spiral horn and graceful wings on a near perfect form. She had a sun as a cutie mark and always seemed calm, even though she was unable to not grimace whenever I brought up the broken necklaces. Her power shone, and I could never stand to look at her for long, both from the slight pain of looking at a bright light and from the fear of what she was capable of. You might have thought I had been speaking of genocide and madness with their expressions. Both had been greatly unsettled by my actions, particularly over the broken necklaces, or the elements as they called them, and as I spoke Twilight would often make some outburst or another, oftentimes forgetting to continue her notes in her anger. Apparently, even the aged Celestia didn’t know how to repair the elements and Twilight was hard at work researching how to fix them. They thought I might have a clue since I was able to break them. I suggested a jeweler, which irritated Twilight to no end. The elements are apparently great artifacts, and no simple pony could just mend them. By the next day (I guessed, no natural light in a cavern) I was fading. My job was unfinished and I was dying in a miserable piece of rock far from my forest, without a single being to care for my passing. A single tear dropped from my eye, quickly swiped away by a familiar paw. I weakly looked up and saw Discord hovering over me. The guards seemed not to notice his presence. “You’re dying.” He said. He was upset though he tried to hide it. “I know.” I rasped back to him, struggling to hold my head up to look at him. “Can you stay with me? I don’t wish to die alone in some cavern…” “I don’t wish for you to die at all.” He frowned as he regarded his claws. “And yet I find myself unable to manipulate you like I can other ponies.” He was hurting, I could tell. I even knew why he couldn’t: he didn’t know my name or circumstance. “I know why.” I said, ghost of a smile on my lips. “Then tell me! I… You can be saved yet! I can bring you back to the Everfree before you pass!” “Not until you tell me.” I looked up into his desperate eyes. “I need to tell you how to save me, and you need to tell me: why have they imprisoned me? Quickly now, I am dying.” So he did. The tree of harmony, the single greatest defender of the land of Equestria had been the crystal tree. I had been killing what had kept ponies safe for millennia. He told me everything he could, the knowledge of his age coming to me. Horned ponies were unicorns, winged ones were Pegasi, winged and horned ones were alicorns and ones without any extra features were earth ponies. As much about Equestria that was important for me to know, or what Discord thought was important for me to know. He told me that Celestia thought me a monster, being able to break what nothing had been able to scratch before. The elements had been used by their bearers, the current ones the six ponies that had captured me in the first place, to keep Equestria safe from many threats, most of which had been fully capable of ending ponykind altogether. Discord himself had been their target twice. I was stunned at my blindness. I had judged in haste and had done more harm than anything I had done before, possibly dooming countless ponies because I had broken their protection. I had doubted the crystal tree’s capability as anything but a problem. But with Discord’s words, I could see. The wilds of Equestria didn’t need a guardian. The inhabitants needed a guardian from the wilds. “I was blind. I have done so much, seen so much, and I did… all that.” I murmured. “Yes, yes, but now tell me how to help you!” He was begging me. So I did. I told him of hags, the connection they were between spirit and mortal and what that meant for him. I told him that he couldn’t manipulate me with his power because my fate was held by Uwe, the great spirit of beyond. So long as Uwe held my fate, no other spirit could hold power over me. At the last he needed my name, and I would not give it to him until he had regained my fate. I then told him how to find Uwe. He was gone in an instant. I wished him luck and closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep. Twilight came every now and then to study me, uncaring and silent. Sometimes she would ask me a question about my health or diet and I would answer, gaining a huff or a hum in return. She was finding it hard to believe that I was that weak, and trying to find how I had done the impossible. Not that I either knew or know. I still do not know how I broke the elements, not even now. Another day and I found it difficult to eat or drink. Twilight and the guards found this suspicious, suspecting I was plotting something. Twilight constructed some magical way to get me food and water without my having to chew or swallow. It helped. Another day and I was unable to even move on my own, but I tried to endure, waiting for Discord’s return. I was growing weaker and weaker with each hour and upsetting ponies. I was tricking them, they were sure of it. The next day, I was dying. My end was only a few hours away and Discord had not returned. I doubted that he would, at least in time. I felt cold and numb, my heart slowly beating in my chest and growing slower. A cold began filling me, though I did my best to ignore it. As the time ticked closer my mind drifted back to my past, recalling my life. I remembered my birth, my parents and siblings, every one so important in my growth. I remembered my teacher, the same one who taught me the best way to deal with the fey, the lessons that she learned at high price given freely to me. I remembered the shaman I had almost married, but in the end deciding that my duties as a hag overrode the call of my heart. I remembered the many who by experience or example showed me how to navigate life. I remembered the places I had been, every beast I had seen. The frost dragon that I had healed, the giants that sometimes needed to be repulsed from attacking the village, or the horrors that sometimes invaded my wood. At some time or another I had seen and endured sights that could drive a man to suicide. Sights that would make one of weak will break. Some would fall prone before the greatest beauties of the fey, knowing that they would never see such beauty again. The nightmares that would shatter a weak mind with ease, that things that lurked in the darkness and devoured the soul of any unlucky enough to see them. I had endured them all. I had even beaten some of them. I remembered every place I had visited, every terrified person that made the journey to my door. A woman wishing a curse of another hag removed from her and her child. A man wanting something more in life. A werewolf searching for the end to his curse. Parents carrying dead or dying children to me, begging that I save them, their family, their village. Some I helped, others I couldn’t. My power is not boundless, and sometimes the price was too much to be accepted. A few times I had even been offered children in exchange for great favors; I had always sent those away. I remembered when I had settled down in the small valley when my wanderlust faded in my middle age, a few years before people first came there. I remember watching the community build up, a hearty people that could brave both nature and the marauders. I remembered when they first found me; they had given me a great celebration, in the hopes that I might be appeased and not bury them alive in snow. I remembered how they slowly grew used to me, and how I protected them with care. I remembered the children who came to me over the years. They brought their children, who brought their own, three generations coming to my doorstep to hear of my tales. I grew old happily, caring for them all. They were my people, and I was their hag. I remembered the last day I was there, the joy in my heart at having found an apprentice, my duty coming to its end after so long. The horror at seeing them all dead that night. Every last life snuffed out by raiders wearing dark iron, the blood staining the snow and casting a shadow over my heart. The darkening of my life as I looked upon the blood and death and saw the dead girl with her siblings. The sickening feeling of seeing the dark magic in that iron and the weapon their leader had pointed at me. The burning desire to see them all suffer for their sins. The want to end them, and then die soon after, to put an end to my suffering. The strangeness when my spell was struck by their leader’s blade. My confusion when I had awoken in the Everfree. My discovery of the forest that so desperately needed me, my exploration of the forest and my new form. The discovery of the tree, and my… over quick judgement. The pain that we had inflicted upon each other, and the hate I had felt for it that I was certain it returned. Discord’s antics and jokes, his chaos bringing some joy to my ending life. The day I discovered the three fillies nearly dead by timberwolves. Tossing my self-appointed duty aside to help them far past what was necessary. The light that they rekindled in me as I helped them to recover. My laughter as they bungled their way through life, seemingly unable to accomplish a simple task without some disaster occurring. The warmth I felt having them with me. My guilt over my deception, both to their families and to them, and the fear that they might hate me for it. My sadness as they returned home, and it was worse than before; I knew I would not see them before I passed. In a month my life had died with my village, only to begin anew with my time here. A month ago I didn’t care if I died. A little less than a month ago I felt like I was doing something while I waited for myself to die. Three weeks ago I met Discord and I had someone to be there when I died. And then? I didn’t want to die. I wanted to see the girls again. I wanted to see Discord again. I wanted… I wanted to not die in that cave, alone, surrounded by ponies that hated me. I wanted to die in Discord’s arms in my forest, or by some miracle to continue life by his magic. But there was no time left for me, so… So I put forth my feeble efforts and held off my coming demise. I fought against the reaper, forced myself to keep breathing, my heart to keep beating, my life to stay strong. Using my power to make time for me to live. This was the same thing I had warned Discord against: ‘spirit, fey, man, or god, nothing has the right to subvert nature.’ I had told him. A lifetime of learning that lesson from teachers and examples. But I didn’t care about my own warning. I rejected every lesson I had ever learned and stretched my one minute out into nearly an hour. As the time grew shorter and shorter I trembled, both in effort and fear. I would scream whenever the guards tried to leave my line of sight; they were a comfort even if they didn’t care. As my extra time dwindled to only a minute and darkness collected at the edges of my failing vision Discord returned in a blaze of light and sound. The guards yelled and ran as he stood before me, covered in scar and injury, multicolored blood dripping to the ground. In his claws he clutched a simple medallion of gold; my dedication to Uwe. He had succeeded in his quest. “A bit late.” I softly whispered, managing a tiny smile. “Never too late, quickly, tell me! Your name!” As my last second drew to a close and he leaned close I gasped, “Emeline.” My vision blackened, then filled with a bright white light. I was standing in another white space, nothing to define my surroundings or what I stood upon, my weakness suddenly gone as I stood on my own. I looked around, seeing nothing but white, wondering if this was what death looked like. I decided that if it was then death was really dull. I determined that Discord had failed and I had left life trailing mistakes and pain behind me. I lowered my head, feeling regrets of my last few months of life still. Wasn’t death supposed to wash that away? Or was I to carry my regrets for the rest of eternity? Was it a punishment for my failures? “Nothing to be done now.” I said, beginning to walk forward to no real destination. “I’m here if anything is out there! Or am I to wander in nothing for eternity?! If I ever see you again Uwe I have a few words for you!” I said, continuing to move, venting some pain into nothing. So I walked onward, going nowhere. I would walk until something changed I decided. Even if that took forever. Not like I could keep track of time there. I only wished I might have had a chance to, if nothing else, see the girls one last time.