//------------------------------// // Origins part 1 // Story: The League of Harmony // by Kinni //------------------------------// In the beautiful and elegant corridors of the castle of Canterlot, a unicorn walked. Many other ponies were also walking through them, guards, servants and the like, but that unicorn was going to a destination different from that of everypony else. For that matter, her appearance was also different. Not her colours, as her coat was mulberry and her tricoloured mane (Blue, violet and rose) was unusual but not exactly unheard of. Her magician's cloak and hat (dark red for the coat, dark blue for the hat) only seemed strange due to the amount of magic stones expertly weaved into their fabrics, forming complex patterns. The thing that really made her different from everypony else in terms of appearance were the magical seals drawn all over her coat. Circles and letters concentrated in certain areas and connected to each other via lines. A particularly heavy bit of spellwork was around her horn, making the intention of the seals amazingly clear. This was a working designed to completely seal the magic of the target, and it revealed that the target should have an amazing level of power to need such a heavy duty level of sealing. The name of this unicorn was Twilight Sparkle. Twilight was nervous. She had been called to an audience with the princesses by herself. This could mean one of two things: Either she had done something very wrong without realizing it(she quickly thought about her actions in the last few days, trying to understand what that could be) or they had a new mission for her. Twilight checked her connection to Spike. If it was the second option, she would need those powers soon. Everything seemed to be alright so she finally entered the conference room. It was a small room with bare decoration, generally used for high level meetings with foreign dignitaries. The wall were a light blue while the floor was a dark brown. The two princesses were at the table at the end of the room. Twilight looked at Luna and immediately got calmer. The night pony was waving at her with a huge smile on her face. Luna always knew how to calm her down, ever since she became Celestia's student. She said it was part of being the "fun sister". Celestia was more serious, but she didn't seem to be angry, so it looked like it really was a mission. Twilight tried to think of the possible threats to the realm while she walked close to the table. "Twilight Sparkle, thank you for coming so quickly" Celestia said. "It was no trouble at all, your highness" and it isn't like I do much other than the missions, studying and training after all, Twilight added in her mind. "Regardless, your attention is appreciated" Celestia gave a small smile "But let's get to the point. We have a special mission for you" She added in a more serious tone. "And it is one of the big ones" Luna said, from her side of the table. "What will I have to do, your highnesses?" There wasn't any question that she would accept the mission. "In the first place, you will have to move to Ponyville, you shall be needed there." "Moving? You mean, I'll be living there?" That would be the first time Twilight would be going so far from home. "Yes. I have foreseen that your powers will be necessary in the long term" Celestia said, with a trace of sadness in her eyes. Luna was less restrained, she jumped over the table and hugged Twilight "We're gonna write to you every week, and visit whenever possible." "My sister is right Twilight. But I think you will be surprised at how much you will like it there" Celestia said, circling the table, before putting a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. Twilight was about to say something about being surprised if that was true, before remembering something about Ponyville. There were two heroes in that city, the legendary Ponyville Crusader and the famous Mare Do Well. Perhaps there were in fact positives to that whole situation. Perhaps she would finally find some ponies who understood her. "And don't worry" Luna said, with mischief in her voice "The Dragon Mage is going to be seen here for a while after you leave." Twilight smiled at her "Just like Twilight Sparkle is frequently seen while the Dragon Mage is doing her thing?" "Exactly." - In the property of the Sweet Apple Acres, a house stood. It was an old-style house, the kind that had seen endless reforms through its long life. But from the state of the house, it could be seen that it was very well-cared for, meaning their owners were well-off. This was made even more apparent from the newer additions that blended almost seamlessly with the old architecture, making the house bigger without changing its spirit. Inside that house, in a particularly private room, the ponies were talking. All three of them were earth ponies, and it was easy to see that they were related. One was an elderly mare with an apple pie cutie mark, another was a young stallion with a green apple cutie mark and the last was a young mare with a golden apple cutie mark. In order, they were Granny Smith, Big McIntosh and Applejack. The former two had just informed Applejack of her new role. Applejack couldn't believe what they were saying. "Now? But, but Ah haven't gotten ready yet" She looked at Big Mac and Granny Smith with wide eyes. "Yer gonna have ta learn quickly, then" Granny Smith said "Ya saw that Mac got very hurt the last time he went out. Now he can't use the necklace no more." "Yup" Big Mac said, eyes sad. Applejack looked at the necklace in her hooves. It seemed normal, with a black chain and a white jewel. Her friend Rarity would probably say it was "quietly elegant" or something like that, but she knew it was far more than that. "But, ya don't seem that hurt ta me" Applejack said, looking at Big Mac. "It's the kindness of the necklace" Granny said "He has been healed, but now he can't connect with the land. Everything has ta have a balance." Applejack took a deep breath. This was sudden, but it was her responsibility and she wouldn't renege that. Ever since the beginnings of Ponyville, her family had been the protectors of the city, and now the mantle fell to her. Applejack put on the necklace. For an instant, she could see everything in the city. Every building, house and field. All the inhabitants. She was connected to the land itself and nothing was beyond her reach. Then it ended. Applejack could fell the infinite power just waiting to be grasped. She looked down at herself, the necklace had fused with her body and now no one could see it. Applejack activated it, and felt the transformation come over her. A new Ponyville Crusader had been born. - In a hidden valley in the middle of the mountains, a place where very few ponies had ever set foot in, a pegasus was flying. Her speed was fairly high, to the point it would be significant even in professional flying competitions. Nothing earth-shattering, but certainly something unusual. She had a blue coat and a rainbow mane, as well as a rainbow cutie mark. Her face was scrunched up in concentration. Somewhat appropriately, her name was Rainbow Dash. As she flew, she kept going faster and faster, and her face was revealing more and more traces of distress. It seemed like she was feeling an intense level of discomfort, that only got worse the faster she flew. But Rainbow Dash kept going, forcing herself to accelerate even further, to the point where it would be amazing even in the highest levels of the pegasus flying speed competitions. And then suddenly her figure shifted. Her body was completely covered in what seemed like dense, solid rainbow, like a coat of paint that managed to completely hide all of her features, with two yellow circles on her face imitating eyes, and a violet line imitating a mouth. Even more impressive, her speed suddenly doubled, breaking through the sound barrier without even a blip, before the pegasus forced a stop with a suddenness that made it seem like she should have broken all of her bones in the deceleration. Then, a second later, her body shifted back to normal, and her distressed expression was replaced with a sad one. “I still can't control it...” She said to herself, before setting her face in a determined expression “But I got closer, I just need to try a little harder...” Rainbow Dash then decided to fly back home. But while she was in the way, she wondered why she kept getting the feeling she should go to the Everfree Forest. - Next to the Everfree Forest, very isolated from the rest of the city of Ponyville, a cottage stood. It was a large, beautiful cottage, full of birdhouses, and in several places nearby, there were special areas for animals to live. However, that cottage had a few secrets that would never be revealed in only a cursory examination, and the biggest of them was the fact that, in a secret room cleverly concealed inside of a support pillar, there was a hidden passage to the underground that was so small an adult mare would barely be able to squeeze through. And at the end of that passage, located under a fairly dangerous and remote area of the Everfree forest, there was a huge underground laboratory/workshop. Altogether, it was four times as large as the cottage. The laboratory part had all kinds of scales, animal fur, blood and other biological samples, some hooked up to machines, some stored in technological packages with careful temperature control, some under the sight of weird laser lights and some others in all kinds of other conditions and situations. Big computers also dominated the environment. On the other hand, the workshop part had all sorts of tools and materials. From common things like power drills and metal plates, to strange stuff like a pseudo-wrench shaped like an X and a small honeycombed blue crystal. It also had all sorts of machines, some which seemed almost like commercial stuff, complete and well designed, while others were half-finished, had exposed parts, or were simply not yet assembled. In a certain alcove of the workshop, next to a thick, heavy-duty safety glass, there was a pegasus. Her coat was butter yellow, while her mane was pink. Her cutie mark depicted butterflies and her name was Fluttershy. Currently, she was standing on her rear legs, because her fore hooves were wrapped in some kind of technological gloves, replete with circuits that were connected to the wall with wires. She was also wearing huge googles which seemed a lot rougher and less well put together than the gloves, and were also connected to the wall. Via the googles, she was looking at the feed of an adjustable camera which was in the room on the other side of the safety glass. Via the gloves, she was manipulating an industrial sized tool on the other side of the safety glass. That tool was an injector which shot high-temperature liquid metal, and she was using it (along with several other tools she could swap freely and were just as big) in order to perform maintenance on a certain amazing piece of technology. It was mostly pony shaped, due to being a quadruped, but that was where the similarities to ponies ended. It had double the size of a hippo, and not one but three heads. One of the heads looked like the head of a lion with a horn, another looked like the elongated head of a crocodile and the last one was elephant shaped, complete with trunk and tusks. It had a tail with a stinger on the end, similar to that of a scorpion, but longer and with small black tendrils over its whole surface. It had two pairs of dragon-style wings, and the legs ended in feline style paws. In its entirety, it seemed like a complete piece of technology, with no exposed or missing parts, and there were multitudes of small details, hidden hatches, suspicious bulges, small lenses, unexpected agglomerations of tendrils and things like that. All sorts of things that showed that this was an invention with all sorts of secrets and functions beyond the obvious. Fluttershy sighed as she finished that round of maintenance. She took off both her gloves and her googles and started wondering why she had suddenly felt the need to make sure her Chimera Armor was perfectly ready for action, and why she wanted to wear it and fly deep into the Everfree Forest, even though she had never wore any of the armours for anything but testing before. - On one of the edges of Ponyville's commercial zone, there was a bakery and confectionery called Sugarcube Corner. It was not one of the big businesses, being more of a family run establishment, but it was a showy store that attracted attention, and had an atmosphere that made it easy to get regular clients. The owners never had much trouble in the financial sense. Inside one of the rooms of this place, there was an earth pony mare that was currently in the process of baking some confections for the following day. Both her coat and her (rather poofy) mane were pink, with the former being a light shade and the later being a dark one. She had a cutie mark of balloons. The name of that mare was Pinkie Pie. And she was deep in thought while she baked: 'The Crystal Creation is finally dead, but I also almost died there. If Crusader hadn't blocked that beam with his body...' Her face didn't reveal anything of what she was thinking, as she reflected on the events of the previous day. 'I was too careless. But with that, things should become a little more peaceful around here. I just hope the next thing Discord cooks up isn't as dangerous.' Her body was still hurting a little, but she had long since learned to suppress that level of pain, and it wouldn't be a problem even if she had to go out in that same night. The Mysterious Mare Do Well was always ready for action. - In another part of Ponyville, there was a small store where a fashion designer unicorn both lived and worked. That store was shaped like a cylinder and was named Carousel Boutique. There was currently only a single pony inside that place, the aforementioned unicorn. Who was a mare with a light gray coat and indigo mane, as well as a cutie mark of diamonds. She was named Rarity, and was currently casting a spell on herself. “Testing, testing.” She said, after having finished with the spell. Her voice was strange. It had a kind of ethereal quality and had changed in pitch somewhat. That had been the effect of the spell, achieved by putting a small point of magic inside her throat. “Okay, everything perfect.” She said, before cancelling the spell. While that magic was active, it would be impossible to recognize her by her voice. Rarity then looked at the clothes she had been working on recently. It was a magnificent vestment, a multicoloured affair full of frills and laces with a big number of varied gems having been weaved into it in beautiful patterns. It was also all-concealing, with a mask that had special lenses to allow the wearer to see while not letting others see their eyes. It was beautiful, but for Rarity, this sense of beauty was almost completely overshadowed by the sense of danger it emitted. For the unicorn, this dress was a weapon designed to give her abilities far beyond the capacities of most ponies, even if for most others, this dress would still be just a dress. And Rarity still wasn't sure why she had actually made it all of a sudden. She had known about her abilities for very long, but never felt the need to create something like that. She also wasn't sure why she wanted to wear it and go into the Everfree Forest. - Twilight Sparkle got into Ponyville without fanfare. She was relatively famous in Canterlot, but having arrived late, there simply weren't many ponies around, and she didn't have the trouble of being recognized, even with her distinctive appearance. By her side was her friend Spike. A dragon she had hatched 10 years before. He was still small, and his scales were purple and green. They didn't talk much while they were walking through town. And they got to their destination fairly quickly. It was a house in a tree that had recently been rented out as a temporary living place. Since Twilight would remain in Ponyville for a long while, the place had actually been bought and converted into a long-term habitation for both Twilight and Spike. The most important part had been bringing Twilight's book collection to the building, which made it become almost like a library. The workers selected by the princess for the job were very efficient, and there was not much the two new residents had to do once they got there. Mostly it was just a question of slightly reorganizing a few things. Spike went to sleep while Twilight was doing that, draining the magic from the jewels in her clothes to be able to use telekinesis, since her own magic was sealed. And while she did this, Twilight was also wondering why she suddenly felt the need to change into her costume and enter the Everfree Forest.