//------------------------------//
// Broken Spirits 
// Story: The Quest for Harmony 
// by Spirit Derpy 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 2



Broken Spirits



 


Star Swirl woke up to the sound of a bird chirping. He lifted his head off of the ground and looked around. For a few seconds, he was confused by his surroundings, until he remembered the strange events from earlier. This was the clearing that had seen in the weird floating ball of light.

                Star Swirl stood up and looked around the clearing trying to figure out what had happened. It seemed that the crystal of harmony had teleported him to a different part of Equestria. How that had happened he wasn’t very sure. Perhaps when he tried to use the teleportation spell on the crystal he was brought along with it because of the sheer amount of magic in the air.

                That seemed like the only logical explanation for what had happened. Then another question entered Star Swirl’s mind. If he had been teleported to a different part of Equestria, what had happened to Nova? Nova was caught in the same explosion as Star Swirl, so why wasn’t Nova here with him now?

                Well whatever happened didn’t matter at the moment he needed to get back to the ruins and retrieve the crystal of Harmony. That being said, Star Swirl had no idea where in Equestria he was. The forest did not look familiar to him at all.

                Star Swirl took a one step forward. As he did that he felt something under his hoof. He lifted his hoof off the ground out of curiosity. As he did a small object glinted in the sunlight. To his complete surprise the crystal of harmony was resting at his feet.

                The crystal must have somehow traveled with him. That made his job a little easier. Star Swirl picked the crystal up with his magic. He looked at the sparkling crystal for a second, then he put it in one of the pockets in his robe.

                Now that Star Swirl had the crystal of harmony in his possession, he wouldn’t have to go to the ruins. All he had to do now was to go back to the castle and report to the princesses. He looked around the clearing again.

                Since he didn’t know where he was he had two options. The first was to look around the forest and see if he could find a path that led to a village or town. If he did that it would probably take several hours and since he didn’t know the terrain very well he would probably end up getting more lost the process. The second option was to teleport directly to the castle of the two sisters.

                The second option seemed like the smart thing to do at the moment. With that in mind Star Swirl focused his magical energy and teleported. A few seconds later he was standing in front of the castle of the two sisters. He began to walk toward the castle, but stopped in his tracks when he caught a glimpse of the castle.

                The castle looked different somehow, almost like it had just been built. Star Swirl shook his head. It had to be a trick of the light. Star Swirl started to walk again a few seconds later.

                As he approached the front door to the castle the guards on duty stretched out their wings to block the entrance. Then they said “halt, who goes there?”

                Star Swirl was taken aback and ended up stopping in mid stride. “I’m Star Swirl the bearded. Are you new or something?” Star Swirl asked in a confused tone.

                The two guards looked at each other for a split second then they looked back at Star Swirl and said, “I’ve never heard of you before. What business do you have here?”

                The guards definitely had to be new. “I’m on a mission for the princesses. It’s very urgent and I need to talk to them right away,” Star Swirl said in a commanding tone.

                “What princesses are you talking about? There are no princesses in this castle. I think you’re confused,” the guard said.

                “What princesses am I talking about? Don’t you even know who Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are? What is this your first day? Anyway, I don’t have time for this, let me past,” Star Swirl said. This time he gave the guard a stern look.

                The guard held a confused look on his face before he said, “Did you say Princess Luna and Princess Celestia? What are you talking about? Luna and Celestia aren’t princesses. They might be related to royalty but they aren’t princesses. What are you going on about?”

                Star Swirl was starting to become very frustrated. “How could Luna and Celestia not be princesses? They’re alicorn’s, that’s what alicorn’s do. Enough of this nonsense. I demand to see Luna and Celestia right now,” Star Swirl said.

                “Look, you seem to be confused. I don’t know what an ‘alicorn’ is, but Luna and Celestia are definitely not alicorn’s,” the guard said.

                Star Swirl shook his head and said, “I’m not confused. Look can I just talk to Luna and Celestia? They know who I am.”

                The guard didn’t say anything for a full minute as he stared at Star Swirl. “Alright, I’ll take you in to see Luna and Celestia. Just so you know though, I’ll be watching you the whole time. Any funny business and I’ll escort you out of the castle,” the guard said. The guard then turned around and walked through the castle entrance. Star Swirl quickly followed behind him.

                 As Star Swirl followed the guard through the castle he couldn’t stop glancing around. The interior of the castle was completely different from what he remembered. There wasn’t one single decoration that he could recognize. What was going on? Did they completely redecorate the castle while he was gone? It didn’t make any sense.

                A short time later the guard stopped in front of a door and politely knocked on it. Then he said, “Luna, there’s someone here who wants to talk to you.”

                Before star Swirl had time to wonder why the guard had taken him to a bedroom chamber instead of the throne room, the door burst open. He was shocked by what he saw. Standing in the doorway was Luna, only not the Luna that he remembered. This one looked younger, but that wasn’t what was so strange about her. The Luna that stood before him had no wings, she was just an ordinary unicorn. It looked so strange to see her hair standing still. What happened to her?

                Luna looked excitedly through the door and said, “Are mom and dad back?”

                “No Luna, I’m sorry but your mom and dad are still up north. This fellow here says that he knows you and he needs to talk to you,” the guard said.

                The excited look on Luna’s face quickly vanished as she looked at Star Swirl. “Who are you?” she asked.

                It was at this moment that Star Swirl began to realize that the crystal hadn’t just teleported him to a different place. It must have teleported him to a different time. Somehow, he had travelled far into the past. If his guess was correct this was more than a thousand years before his time.

                Star Swirl had studied time travel his whole life. He had a lot of theories about how time worked, but he had never been able to travel through it. This was truly wonderful. To be able to travel back a thousand years into the past was an amazing accomplishment. This would be big news to the magical community.

Then a second later his excitement evaporated. How was he going to get back to his own time? He wasn’t even sure how he had gotten here in the first place. The crystal of harmony seemed to be the solution but how could he get it to teleport him through time. He was going to need to study the crystal thoroughly, he realized.

That would require a place to stay, which meant he would need the help of Luna and Celestia. Star Swirl looked at Luna and wondered how much he could tell her. If he wasn’t careful, Luna might end up learning some dangerous knowledge about the future.

Would she be able to keep information about the future secret? Star Swirl contemplated everything he knew about her. He smiled to himself a second later. There was no doubt that he could trust her to keep this secret. He would just need to earn her trust first.

“Luna, you may not know me right now but I know you. There is a matter of utmost importance only you and Celestia can help me with. You must keep what I’m about to tell you a secret. I’m from the future,” Star Swirl said.

Luna just stared at him confusion and the guard said, “Do you want me to remove him from the castle, Luna?”

Before Luna said anything, Star Swirl said, “I know that it sounds crazy, but I am from the future. I can prove it, you just have to listen to what I have to say.”

Luna sighed and said, “Alright, then go ahead and tell me.”

“Thank you, Luna. I can tell you something about yourself that you’ve never shared with anyone. Let me share with you the story of how you got your cutie mark,” Star Swirl said.

“How could you know that story? I’ve never told anyone that story,” Luna said.

“You haven’t told anyone yet, but you will tell me in the future. Come closer and I’ll whisper it in your ear,” Star Swirl said.

Luna looked over at the guard who gave her a questioning look. She nodded to him then she leaned toward Star Swirl and said, “Ok, I will listen to what you have to say.”

Star Swirl stepped forward to whisper in Luna’s ear. “One night when you were alone, you stared up at the moon. It looked so lonely up there all by itself. Everyone was always taking it for granted, but the moon didn’t care.

“No matter what happened the moon would always be there. The moon was strong and independent, just like you. In that moment, you understood. The moon was your destiny. You realized that you had the power to raise and lower the moon. That’s when your cutie mark appeared,” Star Swirl said. Then he stepped back and looked at Luna.

It almost looked like there were tears in her eyes, but they vanished as soon as she looked away. “You may leave us,” Luna said to the guard.

The guard hesitated for a moment and said, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I will call you if I need you, now go,” Luna said.

The guard reluctantly walked away. Luna turned to Star Swirl and said, “I believe you. I’ve never told anyone the story of how I got my cutie mark. The only way that you know that story is if I told you it in the future. That is unless you were spying on me, but I don’t think you’re the type to do that. I’m going to trust you for now. Come on let’s go find my sister, Tia, so you can tell us the whole story.”

Luna started to walk away. Star Swirl followed close behind her. A short time later the two of them stood in front of a door. Luna knocked on the door, which was flung open a second later. A young Celestia stood in the doorway. Even though Star Swirl was expecting it, he was still shocked by her lack of wings and flowing hair.

“Are they back yet Luna? How did everything go?” Celestia said. There was a smile on her face as she kept glancing around the hallway.

“No, Tia, they’re not back yet. I know you’re worried, but you need to give it time. Everything is going to be fine,” Luna said.

The smile disappeared from Celestia’s face, and was replaced by a look of defeat. “Oh” she said.

“That’s not why I’m here. I wanted to introduce you to Star Swirl the Bearded. He’s a friend and I think that we can trust him. I’ll let him explain why he’s here,” Luna said.

Celestia looked at Star Swirl, disappointment was etched all over her face. “Nice to meet you, Star Swirl,” she said.

Star Swirl smiled at Celestia. He knew that this was going get weird really quick. “Actually, I’ve already met you before, but that won’t happen for a thousand years or so. I’m from the future,” Star Swirl said.

Now Celestia had a look of confusion on her face. “What are you talking about? Luna what’s going on here?” Celestia asked.

“I know that it sounds weird, but he really is from the future. We can trust him, Tia. Just give him a chance to explain what’s going on,” Luna said.

Celestia nodded and said, “Ok, if you think he’s telling the truth, sister, I’ll listen to his story.

“This is going to take a while so we might as well get comfortable first. Is there a place we can sit down and talk in peace?” Star Swirl asked.

“Come, we can sit down in the courtyard outside. No one will bother us there,” Luna said.

A short time later they were all sitting around a table in the middle of the castle courtyard. Star Swirl had just finished telling the two sisters his story. Celestia was looking off into the distance, when she suddenly turned back to Star Swirl and said, “So, in the future you were sent on a mission by me and Luna to recover this stolen crystal.” She paused and looked down at the crystal of harmony that lay in the middle of the table.

“Then you battled a pony named Nova and somehow wound up traveling a thousand years into the past. That’s a lot to take in, and it’s really hard to believe. Especially the part about me and Luna being alicorns. Do you really expect me to believe that? Alicorns are just an old pony’s tail.”

“I know that it’s hard to believe, but it’s all true. I am from the future. More to the point, I need your help to find a way back. It’s important that I return the crystal to its rightful place,” Star Swirl said.

“I believe your story, but I still have questions. Why did you tell us this? Aren’t you worried that it will mess up the future?” Luna asked.

“I’ve studied magic my whole life. Time magic is something that has always fascinated me. I’ve spent years trying to develop a time travel spell. I had been unsuccessful, until now. Time is a very complicated thing, but based on my theories the future is not something that you can easily change. My guess is that I was supposed to travel back in time. Anything that I do in the past now has already happened. This will all result in the same future that I was born into,” Star Swirl said.

“If what you say is true, then why didn’t Luna and I warn you about this in the future? Since you’re telling us all of this right now, our future selves should know all of this too. I feel like I would be compelled to give you a warning,” Celestia said.

Star Swirl shook his head and said, “I don’t know why you didn’t tell me about all of this. It could be that I asked you not to talk to me about this since it could change the future. That seems like the most logical conclusion. In any case I need to get back to my own time before I actually do start having an effect on history.”

“Before we get to that though, there is something else that I think you’ve overlooked. What happened to Nova? You said that he was with you when the crystal of harmony sent you through time. Shouldn’t he be here somewhere. From what you said about him he could cause a lot of problems for the future,” Luna said.

There was a small pause as Star Swirl realized that he had forgotten about Nova. “Your right. Nova should have traveled through time with me. I’m going to need to track him down as quickly as possible. Though it may prove to be a very difficult search. It’s possible that he was teleported to a different time. I’m going to need to think about this for a while,” Star Swirl said.

“Well you’re welcome to stay in the castle while you figure things out. There’s plenty of room for you here,” Celestia said.

“That’s very kind of you, thank you,” Star Swirl said. “By the way, I was meaning to ask you about something you said earlier. When we first met, both of you seemed like you were expecting someone else. Are you waiting for someone to arrive or something?”

The second the question left his mouth, both Luna and Celestia looked down at the ground with looks of sadness in their eyes. The courtyard become deathly silent. Star Swirl regretted asking the question almost immediately. It seemed that the sisters were afraid of something. What that was, Star Swirl didn’t have a clue.

The silence continued for several minutes before Luna said, “Our parents have been gone for weeks. They went up north to fix a situation with one of the neighboring countries. They were supposed to be back by now. We’re both worried that something bad has happened.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up. I’m sure that your parents will be fine though. It’s just a diplomatic visit, right?” Star Swirl said.

“You’re right. We shouldn’t worry about it so much. Our parents are going to be fine. Right Tia?” Luna asked.

“Right” Celestia said. When she said this though it sounded as if she didn’t believe it.

After that, they sat in silence for a while, until Celestia stood up and said, “Well it’s getting late. If you want I can show you to your room.”

Star Swirl nodded and stood up. Just as the three of them were starting to leave the courtyard, a guard walked up to them. The guard didn’t say anything. Instead he ended up staring at the ground trying to hide his face.

Celestia grew impatient and asked, “Is there something you want to say?”

The guard looked up at her with a sad look in his eyes. “I — I’m sorry. I just received news from the north. Your parents — they’re — they’re dead,” the guard said with tears in his eyes.

Both Celestia’s and Luna’s mouths fell open with loud gasps. Tears began to fill their eyes. “No — it can’t be true. There’s no way that it’s true,” Celestia said.

The guard stared sadly at her and said, “I’m so sorry. I wish that it wasn’t true, but it is. Your parents are — gone.”

As the guard’s words rang in Lunas ears, something broke inside of her. A small sob escaped her throat. Tears began to leak out of her eyes. Without any warning, she ran toward the entrance of the castle.

“Sister wait,” Celestia said. Tears were running down her cheek as she ran after her sister.

Star Swirl couldn’t do anything while he watched them running away. What could he do? A small tear rolled off of his cheek. It felt like his heart was breaking in his chest. Celestia and Luna had never told him about their parents. To see what had happened to them in person like this was heart wrenching. How could something like this have happened? It just wasn’t right.