Chimes In the Dark

by Faindragon

Chapter 15: The Truth

The chime did not have to echo to reach the throne room this time. Four Star sat at her normal spot on the throne; her hooves holding the grey soul of Mistrunner at the height of her eyes. The soul had stopped trembling now; it knew the reasons and had accepted them. It felt as if it was grateful that Four Star did this, a feeling that she did not understand how Mistrunner could have for the one who killed her. No, it wasn’t Mistrunner who trembled now. It was herself. For the first time since this nightmare had begun so long ago was she afraid. She had kept this inside herself for so long. All of her reasons, her fears, hers logic; all of them had she kept for herself since the beginning. Or as nearly to herself as she had been able to; it was one other pony who knew about it, who had given her the approval, a pony that had seen it like she did. A pony that had understood her logic, understood her reasons. And the souls had she told, but that was not the same. It didn’t matter if they agreed or not; they she could force. Notharam on the other hoof had to go freely, he had to accept it and be a part of the ritual. His soul was the most important one for this, and for the sake of Equestria would she not fail. Not in this, the harmony would be retained; Equestria would be safe again. She could feel how the soul in her hooves tried to soothe her, telling her that everything would turn out to the better. She smiled at Mistrunner soul before she lowered it down to the crystal. She had collected forty-nine souls. Left was the most important one, Notharam’s soul. She lifted the parchment with her magic, raising the quill to make the thirteen line. She stopped herself, what would be the reason to do this? It was the last half hour, a single half hour to explain all her reasons to Notharam, a single half hour that would bring with it harmony or chaos for Equestria. She steeled herself; she had to do this and succeed. A single tear rolled down her cheek, she wiped the tear away with her hoof. The nightmare was soon over, would she wake up to harmony or chaos?

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Notharam stared into the darkness beyond the door, trying to see the room before he entered it. It was, as nearly every other room he had a memory of, a circular room. The ceiling was higher here, the pillar were well taken care of. In the middle of the room stood two statues; one of Celestia raising the sun and one of the other alicorn, Luna, raising the moon. The statue of Celestia was a perfect twin of the statue in the library. Between the statues was a red carpet placed on the floor, leading towards the raise of the floor. And on the raise was a throne placed. Upon the throne lay Four Star. Notharam slowly walked forward. Four Stars only wing was slowly moving back and forth. Her hard cold gaze meets his eyes; locked eyes with him, blue eyes against dark orange. They were frozen like that, he standing between the two statues and she lying on the throne, in more than a minute. Notharam had to admit his defeat, he looked away, but not before he could see the satisfied smile on Four Stars muzzle. She spoke with a cold voice; it was something in the voice that he couldn’t place.

“Welcome Notharam, to my throne room. Here you can speak without fear; everything that I say will be the truth. I will answer all of your questions before the clock chimes next time. The clock will chime around five minutes before the sun raise; in those five minutes will you have to make a decision. Ask anything you want.”
Notharam didn't have to think about a question, it escaped him before he could consider it. It was a simple question.
"Why?"

Four Star flinched, it didn't seem like she had expected that question. Notharam could feel her gaze at him but he didn't look at her.
"Notharam, you will have to be more specific, why what?" she said, her voice still held a trace of something he couldn't put his hoof on.

"I have a lot of why questions that I want answer on, but I'm gonna ask the one closest to my heart first. Why did you torture Zinky? As if killing her wasn't enough did you have to go and tear her apart, torture her. Why?" he said, his heart once again ached at the sorrow, a picture of the little filly flashed before his eyes. "Did you want to give her a painful death? Did you want to find revenge on me by torturing my filly?"

Four Star stared at him.
"I guess my memory spell removed to much of your memory Notharam. Don't you remember what field I was a master of magic in? I was a master in the fields of protecting and removal, both of the body, the mind and the magic alike. I can ensure you that your little filly did not feel a lot of pain during my 'torture' of her. I blocked as much of her pain as I could without interfering with her other emotions." she chuckled coldly. "As to why I did it. See it as a safety reason, I wanted you to show your daughter how much you loved her. You have been in the army long enough to have seen accidents that have killed ponies, you have seen the affection another pony shows a pony that is on the brink of death, even more so if they die a horrible death. Words are said that would not have been said otherwise, emotions are shown that wouldn't have been. I gave your daughter a chance to see what you felt about her, tried to keep the pain from her. The tears you saw in her eyes where tears of joy, not of pain. You showed your feelings towards her in the end. She wanted me to thank you for that. What is your next question?"

Notharam looked at Four Star. For some reason did he feel that he could trust her. Had it really been tears of joy? Had Zinky died knowing his much he loved her? He looked at Four Star, saw the tears in her eyes. That was as much of a confirmation as he needed.
"What is this place and how many times have I been here?" he asked.

Four Star chuckled.
"You have been here three times now Notharam. The first time was when we were sent here by Celestia herself to vanquish an enemy that was within these walls, an enemy we never found. The second time did you escort the squad here before leaving with Thunder and now you are here for the third time." she shifted in the throne before continuing. "This place is an old temple, founded a long time ago. Its located in the cold north, located between the physical world and the spiritual world."

It was Notharam’s turn to flinch.
"I understood that I had been here once before, but I couldn't have guessed that I had been here three times." A question popped up into his head, a new question that he had asked himself before.
"Why me? How did I betray you?"

Four Star looked away stated at a spot in the distance. When she answered was it with a worried tone.
"Notharam, do you know the meaning of your name? Your name is translated to leading sacrifice. You have that name for a reason, your name is written in the stars as the one who should lead the ritual to restore the harmony on Equestria, as the last to be sacrificed for harmony." she chuckled softly. "You betrayed not only me but all of Equestria by not accepting your fate, you refused to be sacrificed; not only once but twice did you refuse." The worried tone had disappeared; anger had taken its place for a brief moment. Anger that now was gone as well.

It felt as a hammer had struck Notharam. Equestrias fate depended on him? Depended on him to be leading a ritual where he himself would be sacrificed to restore the harmony in Equestria.
"How is the harmony in Equestria damaged? What is it that needs a sacrifice to be restored as it once where?"

Four Star looked with disbelief at him. It felt as if that could gaze saw straight through him.
"You were blind during your time in the army Notharam. You better get comfortable, this might take a while to explain."

She looked at him as he lay down on the carpet, waited for him to get comfortable. She laid her head to rest on her front hooves, her mane hiding her eyes from him.
"For you to understand this do I have to tell you a story that tonight is one thousand years old. It's the story about the two goddesses; I believe Emerald told you about it. Luna and Celestia, the goddesses of death and life, of night and day. I don't have the time to tell the story in detail, but know this; Luna must come back to Equestria. I searched through this entire library when we were here the first time, and I found something interesting. Luna wasn't in control of herself when she challenged Celestia. No, she was corrupted by another being, a being she had helped Celestia to imprison long ago. The corruption slowly changed Luna; made her feel hatred towards the ponies that she should protect over while they slept."

She stopped to see if Notharam followed. He motioned for her to keep going. She nodded before she continued.
"The corruption did not come from Luna's inside. It came from something that shouldn't be able to become corrupted, something created to imprison the being. It flooded through the elements of harmony, corrupted her from outside and in. As the corruption reached Luna's heart did she change, she became Nightmare Moon. And she killed hundreds of ponies; she was the goddess of death after all.”

“Long story short did Celestia banish her own sister to the moon; she took control over the elements herself, used them to rebuild the destruction that had happened during the battle between them. She also used the magic of the elements to remove her control over life and her sisters over death; making sure that something like this could never happen again. The ponies had to pay the price for this however; they lost the immortality they once had. This place was once a place where a pony; where he pegasi, unicorn or earth pony, went to die, went to let his soul join Luna’s side with protecting over the living."

"So the elements are now slowly corrupting Celestia?" Notharam asked" But how can we stop..."

Four Star laughed out.
"No you foal, Celestia is not getting corrupted. She cleansed the element as soon as he had understood what had happened. She would probably have done it during the time that Luna had control. I do however believe that she would have to control them herself to be able to cleanse them. No Notharam, the answer is much simpler. Celestia's power is weakening, weakening of the tiredness that drains her veins of its power. For a thousand years have she raised the sun and the moon singlehoof. She won't have the power for much longer to continue with it. And I'm not the only one who has noticed this; both the griffins and the zebras are preparing for war. I do believe that Luna now could get cleansed like the elements and Celestia have confirmed this. She didn't like this but that's why she has not stopped it."

Notharam didn't quite follow here, he had to ask.
"Why does she allow this? Why have she allowed you to kill forty-nine innocent ponies?"

Four Star sighed.
"Notharam, if this works then a war will be stopped; a war where hundreds if not thousands of innocent would die; pony, unicorn, gryphon, zebra and pegasi alike. She allowed me to sacrifice a few for the chance of saving Equestria from war."

Notharam looked at Four Star.
“Then why did you chose to go after everypony that meant anything to me or I meant anything to? Why did you chose to go on ponies who had a connection to me?”

Four Star sighed.
“I would have loved to keep that part away from you. But I promised to answer and answer truly. I thought you had figured it out by yourself, but I guess that memory haven’t returned yet have it? Oh well. I believe you don’t remember the first time we had been here, I erased all memories of this place from your mind, replaced them with other harmless memories. You, together with the rest of the squad, were with me that night when I spoke with Celestia about this. All of us, your fellow squad members and Celestia, tried to talk you into it; you were after all the one fated to lead the ritual. But you was stubborn, you refused to see reason. You had a wife and she would soon have a filly.”
“You refused at those ground; even though you knew what was at stake! You refused for your own selfish reasons, even though you knew you could stop a war and save thousands of lives.
From the moment you entered the army you had chosen to sacrifice everything for Equestria. And there you threw those arguments in our faces. Celestia removed you from the army and I was given the order to remove the memories about this from you. But that night I did something I have never forgiven myself for. That night I brought Silverstar over here and killed her, killed her in hope that it would make you see reason. But something, call it a miracle or a curse, happened; the foal survived. I didn’t know that then. You rejoined the army; you never said a word about your little filly. You didn’t speak much at all really. We went here again, this time we explained to you at place, told you what you had to do.”

Four Star took a pause to breath. Notharam waited, he would have time to ask more questions.
“And once again you refused; you had a filly at home that waited for you. I would say that answer made me… insane for a moment or two. I wiped out your memory, as well as Thunders who would follow you back home. I followed in the distance, I saw your battle against Snowfang’s mate, and I saved him from freezing to death. That poor thing had broken his legs; he couldn’t go and defend her mate. I knew that I could give him revenge one day, so I brought him here. No, it was not to kill them so brutally as possible, that doesn’t have any real use here. It was to scare; a scared soul is easier to harvest than a stable one. You arrived home and got your goodbye from the army, you also realized that Zinky had been adopted. And I returned to this temple; started to bring ponies close to you here, making sure that you couldn’t refuse next time you came here. Celestia was furious about it at first; she believed all would come here by free will. I told her that we wouldn’t have time to wait for ponies to get here at their own will, nor would we have the time to persuade you in other means. We don’t have long time left Notharam, one or two more questions is all you can ask before you must make the decision.”

Notharam stared at Four Star. She had thought about everything, that he had to give her.
“I have three questions; the first is what do you mean with bringing them here? The second is why have you taken Thunders wing? The third is why didn’t I see any of writings about my sacrifice, and why haven’t the walls talked to me?”

Four Star looked at him.
“That was four question, Notharam. However, they will not take long time to explain. I can not really say how I brought you here; the spell is far too complex. However, since this place is between the physical and the spiritual world so aren’t you here physically. You are only here mentally; or spiritually if you want to say that. Your body here is only a projection; your real body will not take damage here. However, if you die here then you die in the physical world as well, your brain will believe you dead and shut down the system so to say. This place is also the only place where you can harvest a soul, remains from the goddesses’ time. The wing is a memory, a way to remember myself about what I went through for Equestria, a memory of one of the greatest leader there have ever been. About the walls not talking to you so are you wrong. They didn’t talk directly to you. They did, however, give you some of your memory back, memories they had been a part of. They talk to each other, shares memory; and now they shared some of them to you. And for the text, take a look behind you.”

Notharam whirled around, stared into the darkness. And there, above the door was a text written in red letters.

The leading sacrifice will choose his way.

And the clock chimed.