Twilight sparkle had long since established that her chambers were her fortress of solitude. With so many forces at work after her head, it would not be foolish to take such a basic measure. Alone with books stacked sometimes high and sometimes low she would immerse herself for days on end developing magic and strategies for the empire. She would then go to the university to teach worthy unicorns and pony generals or find hapless fools or prisoners of war to experiment them on. As such her chambers not only acted as her place of respite, it also acted as the greatest vault of knowledge in all of Equestria. Naturally,Twilight has enchanted the room with so much protective magic that no pony besides her and Shining armour or the empress herself would ever enter that room, under punishment of a multitude of possible horrible deaths.
And yet there she was, a mongrel bred filly of night purple mane and sun bleached white coat. Charity just had no idea of the honour she was given to stand within such a hallowed chamber. Especially how fortunate she was to be alive within the room.
"Can I please take off the blindfold?" Charity shook her head to loosen the piece of silk across her eyes but it refused her will. Her horn sparked with pain with every attempt of magic she tried as well.
Twilight stared at the filly for a long time, leaving her to grope about blindly while Twilight contemplated what exactly was before her. Who was this child that would be of so much importance that her two students would so hastily send the child to me directly to my chambers? More importantly why did I trust her so easily as to let her in?
"What is your name, filly?" If she claims to be Rarity or Sweetie belle, I'll be certain that demon's trickery is at play. Pinkie pie, just what are you up to sending me this thing? Is this you sending me a chance to redeem myself? Or is this just another of your false hopes you sent to torture me some more?
"My name is Charity... ummm highness... I come from the Church of Saint Rarity to ask you about the elements of harmony." Charity opted for a cautious approach, pretending to only be a member of the church was good enough. She didn't need to know her role in it. Especially if Twilight was everything the young girl had feared, or rather the church has always feared. A bearer of harmony that fell to chaos.
There was a reason Twilight has not been trying to reunite the elements. Whether it is cruel circumstance or a turning of sides, there was simply no way of knowing whether she was friend or foe at this point. However, Twilight Sparkle is Charity's only hope in progressing in her quest, no book can tell her beyond what many ponies had already known. Only Twilight Sparkle would know what became of the other five elements.
Well it was either Twilight Sparkle or impossibly get an audience with the Empress, who to common knowledge kills half breeds on sight. Rarity wasn't exactly a talkative type and the demon of laughs, would just laugh at me while horrifying me with torture and madness.
"I... see... For you to be able to convince my students in bringing you here to ask that, you must be a very special filly." Charity's poker face was so obvious that even the two mares outside the room felt it's sudden snap to existence.
Am I so easy to read? Charity did not like that smile on Twilight's face.
"Relax filly, I'm a big supporter of the church. Why do you think I took in Sugar and Spice as my students? They think they infiltrated my circle with their "charm", but in actuality I brought them in because of two reasons. One reason was that they were two very gifted unicorns and secondly they were not nobles that fall into the trappings of imperial politics." Charity still couldn't see her, but by the tone of her voice she seemed nice. She could feel her smile, like a warm ray of sunshine.
"Yes... It is true that I'm very important to the church. Despite their refusal to let me. I'm on a pilgrimage to find the elements of harmony."
"I... see..." The sound in Twilight's voice was not missed by Charity. Her confident jovial tone had taken a melancholy turn and it had taken a dangerous edge to her words, though that could have been her imagination. "You must be this 'new element' Sugar and Spice talk about. Honestly, those two are very bad at keeping secrets." The princess giggled to herself, but the lack of mirth was not lost to the small filly.
"The Church still thinks they can reunite the elements of harmony. My friends are dead, girl. You can't just replace friends with 'new elements!'" Twilight was shouting that last line, appalled and wholly insulted by what she was perceiving before her. Like something she thought to be a joke had suddenly been revealed to be a serious matter.
"And they send out a filly to quest for them no less. You must be quite an important little one." Twilight's tone was most definitely intended to intimidate and condescend, but Charity had had her shares of sticks and stones. Charity was not the kind of filly to be fazed by mere jeers, the smug little smirk certainly gave that away. But behind that small measure of bravado was doubt. She had only been on her quest for a full day and already, she was discovered, found incompetent and helpless and even incapable of being tactful. Clearly Charity was nothing more than a naive child to the old and wise Twilight Sparkle, and somewhere in her, Charity was beginning to believe she wasn't up to the task as well.
A child going out into this large and loveless world, searching out vainly for hope. The Church is a joke. Her friends are either dead or insane. No pony among them alive wants the other to live, vulnerable immortals fearful of death. And this filly wants them to undo eons of hatred and rivalry? This child is fate's foal. This one is most certainly another of the demon mare's cruel little jokes.
None of us can be saved. But I can at least save this filly.
Charity had been patiently listening, determined to try for any kind of reply but she had only met her opposition's rant with silence. Twilight sparkle didn't speak for what seemed a very long time after she realised the filly was on the brink of breaking. Charity couldn't help but imagine what expression was on that old mare's face. A mixture of emotion welled inside the child, fear and hope and impatience and anger all churned inside. Literally anything could happen with Twilight now.
Charity heard the old mare sigh. A gentle hoof touched her flank and wheeled her to a gentle breeze.
Was her journey going to end here? Was she going to fold into the pressure and continue to hide and slowly go mad with nightmares just as what everyone wanted?
Charity was staking everything on the conclusion Twilight would give. It was unfair of the filly but from the beginning she had staked her journey on Twilight Sparkle. It seemed she was too weak to decide on her own, just yet.
"Look out into the city, Charity and tell me what you see." With Twilight's telekinesis, the silk fabric untied and was let go to be caught by the wind, forgotten. A guiding hoof led her to somewhere windy, pointing outwards signalling her to the grand metropolis below. Charity stood precariously to the edge of a long drop while Twilight stood behind her pushing her out, just barely keeping her on solid ground as the filly's forehooves leaned out and over the windowsill. At any given moment she could fall by the slightest nudge from the old mare, but her warm touch and the smell of her lavender coat seemed strangely calming. Nostalgic even, perhaps even motherly. Or at least this was what Charity could guess as motherly. Memories of her mother a distant memory, if even that in her mind. She looked out at the busy city and opted to speak frankly, sensing that Twilight intended to make some sort of point.
"Just ponies going about their daily lives." Charity said simply, after her moment of thought.
"Is this not harmony?" Charity was taken aback by this statement, her desire to react with bewilderment died as she remembered her precarious situation and instead decided to remain calm. One careless misstep would end with her demise. Twilight, to Charity's realisation, was trying to pressure her with fear. She was being held up to her only choice, being to comply and obey her ideals with Twilight nonchalantly threatening her to do so. But to what end?
To what end indeed?
"Yes. But what about places outside this city. The battles being fought, the people getting killed, robbed or... even worse." Charity closed her eyes to feel the embrace of gravity and the inevitable slam against the hard cobblestones below, but it didn't come.
"Usually I don't trust people with these things, but I know you're a good girl." These were the words Charity heard before she felt her stomach lurch. Instantly she was in the rooftops of the royal palace to some sort of empty war council room. On the long table Twilight unfurled a long parchment. It was a map of Equestria marking the borders of the night and day by differing the shading of two sides of the map.Twilight then floated over pieces of stones on the corner to keep the parchment in place. She then placed black and white play pieces on the map that Charity could safely assume to be military forces.
"As you can see Canterlot is currently in our control." Twilight said indicated by the dot captioned Canterlot and the many white pieces around it.
"The night has retreated westward and are preparing a counter offensive." The old mare used her magic to move a few black pieces to the left of the map and began adding more pieces from other parts of the night side to join with the ones from the dot named Canterlot.
"My forces cannot afford to pursue them and finish them off. And so, I alone have returned to Celestia to bolster the defenses with reinforcements." Currently the black pieces close to Canterlot had numbered vastly compared to the white pieces in Canterlot, even a child could tell that the white pieces would lose.
"However by the time they get there, the already exhausted forces of my army will be overwhelmed. like so" Insulting Charity's intelligence, Twilight demonstrates what she had already surmised. She moves the mass of black pieces and removes the white pieces from the table. Meanwhile white pieces gather at the middle of the Solar Empire around a dot named Celestia.
"I intend to retake the city once more... and the cycle will repeat." The white mass from Celestia moves to Canterlot and retakes Canterlot, forcing a few black pieces to retreat westward while many are removed from the table. And as she says, everything repeats from the beginning.
"This has been going on for eons, much like the day and night itself we ponies live in harmony of each other waxing and waning as the situation sees fit. But never winning over the other." Charity marvelled at this new perspective. It was amazing how this war had gone on for so long that it could be put down into cycle of power. A waxing and waning of forces. However.
"War is not harmonious. Far from it" Charity said simply. She didn't know how she was so certain but she knew she was.
"There is a huge difference between harmony and tranquillity. Ponies live and die even in times of peace, but never in the days before the war have we truly lived with any true purpose." Twilight retorted anticipating such a response. But she was certain that this theory was sound. Tranquillity is the achievement of peace but harmony is the equilibrium of good and evil.
"You've gone mad. There is nothing good coming out of this war. Only death and destruction. I want an end to this destruction so that everypony can live without fear." She use to think that once. How naive she was, the world was so simple then. A world of black and white. She would be out there in the world with her best friends, smiting evil with powerful magic all in the name of peace. But that peace was not harmony. Harmony was how evil rose and fell while we both struggled for supremacy. Such a simple insight that I had been so blind for so many years.
"War is an engine of innovation. Fear and the threat of destruction will always exist child, even after war is gone. At least this way the march of progress continues." Yes, the more I research and experiment, the more lives I save. The more lives I save the more soldiers there will be and the more this harmony will continue. Who needs demons and spirits that want to kill you for friends? I have an empire that loves me.
"This is not you Twilight Sparkle. You use to write so many letters about such times when you put an end to the conflicts big and small, and wrote it down and sent it all to Celestia, telling her about your lessons on the magic of friendship." Both ponies present were surprised by this revelation.
"How do you know about that?" said Twilight, demanding an answer than asking for one.
"I dunno... it seems whenever I'm near you I get these vague memories in my head... just now I had a flashback." Charity massaged her temples with her hooves, trying to dig deeper into her mind. Trying once more to grasp something, maybe the information she needed. If she reached deep enough, maybe she could tell what happened to the element bearers.
"Rarity...?" Twilight held Charity close, looking the filly deep in the eyes as if looking for another soul inside that body.
"She is my guardian, long before I lived in the order. Rarity visited upon me memories and dreams of happier times. A mad war orphan wandering the wilds with visions of... friends. It made life... bearable to live. This hope in my heart, will never leave. Because Rarity gave it to me." Charity spoke with no hesitation, with a persevering tone, a tenacity that was all too familiar to Twilight. The two ponies looking deep into each other's eyes, they exchanged the truth in each other and touched their hearts for the briefest moment.
"I am not her, Twilight sparkle. She is gone. I am her successor, I am the new element of generosity and I want you to have my hope." Tears were running Twilight's face as the filly embraced her, she was warm to the touch. A soft flame that was warm to the touch, impossibly warmer and yet gentler than the fiery hate in her heart.
And then she pushed it away.
"Keep it. If what you say is true, then Rarity entrusted it to you for a reason. I will opt to wait and see, and if you truly are what you claim to be then someday you will succeed. As of yet I don't see that 'spark' I saw so many ages ago."
Charity knew that she was being told to leave but she refused the silent command. Staying motionless as if waiting for something she stares at Twilight for the answer she seeks.
I am not here for a heartwarming exchange and a debate on philosophy.
"Pinkie Pie has lead me to you." Twilight froze at the mention of that name, as Charity expected. This next statement would either have her killed or be her saving grace.
"She wanted to scare me away from my task with relentless nightmares as I sleep. To stop this meeting, this day." Those words seemed to have saved her life as the dangerous look in Twilight's eyes vanished.
"I value your opinion on my quest but I have come here with an objective in mind." It took all of Charity's courage to remain steadfast. It took everything she had to hold and stop herself from fleeing with her tail between her legs.
"You want to know what became of the six element bearers." Twilight shuddered at the thought. That would mean she'd have to talk about Rarity.
"Yes, it doesn't have to be much. Just a direction to follow. It seems I have the ability to sense the other bearers if they're near." At least that's what these memories seem to mean.
"The Everfree Forest." These were the last words she heard Twilight say before her stomach churned in an instant.