Chapter 22:
Harm(P)ony
In her mind, Twilight screamed.
She was bursting with panic but had no outlet. There was nothing outside her thoughts to latch on to. Complete absence of anything invaded her senses. She couldn’t even sense herself. All she was, was a silent, terrified shriek.
She had no concept of time, nothing with which to measure its flow. For all she knew her terror had lasted a minute... or a thousand years already. All she knew was that eventually she was no longer shouting but crying. The crying turned to moaning. Then she finally gave up the last shred of hope and the moaning died in her mind.
That’s when she became aware of the song.
It was a lullaby. She could tell even though she sensed no words. It was hummed, by an unfamiliar voice, somewhere near her... as far as she could tell. She didn’t hear it as much as she thought it.
This is it. I have gone mad.
The lullaby stopped, to be replaced by a ghost of pleasant laughter.
My little pony, the only ponies who come here are either completely sane or completely mad to begin with. It’s the sane ones you need to watch out for, if you ask me.
What... Where am I?
The mind Twilight sensed was definitely that of a mare. She didn’t know how she could be so sure. She didn’t care if it was a mere figment of her imagination. Even if she was only talking to herself it swept away most of her terror, diminishing it to a mere seething in the back of her mind.
Canterlot Garden, near the hedge maze. At least, that’s what it was when I arrived. It might have become something else. Does Canterlot still stand? The one who came before you won’t tell.
What? Yes, Canterlot is still here. But... Why would we be in Canterlot Garden? I can’t see anything! I can’t feel anything!
Wait... You don’t know? How could you not know? Didn’t they even give you a trial? Have they been reduced to such barbarism that they have become assassins themselves? I... This is my fault. I failed. Now Harmony is anything but.
There was a long, drawn-out grumbling. Twilight was unaware of any words in it, but somehow she intuited that a long-dormant anger was awakening.
Please, what happened to me? Who are you?
The grumbling was replaced by a chuckle.
Sorry, newcomer. Rules say the newbie goes first. What’s your name?
Rules? Um. My name is Twilight Sparkle.
Hello, Twilight Sparkle. Funny enough that’s a name I’ve actually heard here. It’s been screamed, mostly. The last one to arrive has a serious grudge against you. Whenever he gets going he rants so loud that it’s heard all over the place. The others yell at him to be quiet but he ignores them. For my part I despise him with all of my might, so if he hates you as strongly then we must be destined to become really good friends. Now... My name is Silver Gavel.
Silver Gavel... I’ve heard that n— you had access to Luna’s library!
Ah. I was afraid of this. A fellow champion of True Harmony, then?
True Harmony?
It’s a long story. But I haven’t answered your other question. You’ve been turned to stone. And unless they’ve moved me somewhere then they’ve placed you somewhere near me in Canterlot Garden.
STONE? No! Nonono—
Hey! Calm down! There’s no use panicking! Don’t make me sing to you again, because I don’t think I have the patience.
If – if we are stone then... how do we speak?
We don’t speak. Have you studied any spirit magic? There are books about it in the Embargoed Texts.
Yes... Well, not much beyond specific spells I needed.
All right. Well, cosmological theory says: Everything has a spirit. Right? Everything. Take the smallest speck of dust you can see: it has a spirit. Take a very, very delicate blade and cut that speck in half. Congratulations, you now have two vanishingly small specks of dust, each with their own independent spirit. That goes for you too. You have one spirit. But every part of you has a spirit as well, and that spirit is somehow both independent of and integrated to your whole spirit. It goes down in scale as far as you can detect. With me so far?
Yes.
Good. Now, our spirit is kind of the knowledge of who we really are. An ideal version of us, you could say, though it does tend to reflect our current state of being. We can get in touch with our spirits by meditating, and through that we can get in touch with other spirits. Being turned to stone kind of shuts us off from the real world, so there are no distractions preventing us from sensing with and acting through our spirits. Our spirits don’t really speak so it doesn’t matter to them that we’re currently statues.
I... I see. It... it had to be the Elements. They... they turned me to stone. I just couldn’t believe they’d turn on me.
Surely you must have had some kind of warning. The Element Bearers are the False Harmony’s lapdogs anyways. They don’t tend to be subtle around their enemies.
False harmony? And no, you don’t understand. The Element Bearers are my friends! I bear the Element of Magic!
A silence stretched out. Twilight couldn’t measure it reliably. She somehow sensed great amazement and surprise in her unseen companion.
That’s unexpected. But I guess I should have seen it. No matter who you are, if you know too much then the False Harmony will stomp on your head. I wonder what happens to Princess Luna when she really starts investigating my case like she said she would. Actually: as far as I know the princesses were the Element Bearers. Did something happen to make them give them up?
Another silence stretched. This time because Twilight’s mind was racing.
Twilight Sparkle? Are you still there?
I’m sorry. It’s just that... The princesses haven’t been Element Bearers for over a thousand years!
Twilight proceeded to relate the main points of history. The fall of Princess Luna and the rise of Nightmare Moon, how she was banished and how she later returned. She then proceeded to recent events, focusing on the fallen mountain and the creature. Once she finished a third silence began, the longest so far. She waited patiently for Silver Gavel to speak.
A thousand years? It hasn’t felt that long. Of course, time is impossible to measure in this state. But still. No matter; from what you’ve told me our fates are tragically identical even though you aren’t actually guilty of any crime other than knowing too much. I wouldn’t compare it to my own. I know that the False Harmony is cruel though, so I am not that surprised.
If I may ask... What was your crime? There are references to court records, but they’ve all disappeared.
I’m not surprised by that either. I tried to assassinate the princesses by poisoning their food.
Twilight gasped mentally. Silver Gavel chuckled darkly and continued.
I know. It’s awful to think of even in retrospect. I, same as you apparently, was Celestia’s faithful student. I loved her dearly and admired Luna with all my heart. Still, it was the only way I saw to vanquish the False Harmony. I... I don’t regret trying. I had to. From what you’ve told me, things haven’t gotten better since then. My failure cost more than what my potential success would have.
Why did you fail?
I overdid it. I had no idea what kind of dose it would take to kill an alicorn, so I added so much poison that the servants carrying their food were adversely affected by the fumes rising from the hot dishes. They collapsed and the guard was called. The food never even entered the royal dining room.
So... Why did you do it?
To end the False Harmony.
What’s that? Surely there’s only Harmony?
That’s what they would have you believe. Twilight Sparkle, let me tell you about Harmony, both the True and the False.
Twilight listened. Eventually she understood.
~~~~~
Fluttershy landed with only a whisper of a crunch from the frozen lawn and folded her wings. She listened: off in the distance she could hear two palace guards trying to make their patrol duty more bearable by having a conversation. They were too far away to notice her and were unlikely to come this way. This was not a night for stealth. The air was too cold and the overcast sky too dark; you’d just risk hurting yourself. Unless you were somepony who made extra effort to be gentle and careful. No lights illuminated this part of the gardens, except for some candles laid at the foot of the statue in front of Fluttershy. She noted there were some wreaths laid at its base as well.
The sight made her blood boil.
She sighed with more force than usual and reached back with her wings to unclasp her saddlebags and let them fall onto the light dusting of snow on the grass. After a moment’s rummaging with her snout she pulled out a piece of string from one of the bags. Tied to one end of the string was a strip of something dark and leathery. She held the other end of the string in her mouth and flapped her wings, leaping up onto the statue’s base. She hooked a hoof on the stone pony’s back to steady herself. She spent a moment to brush all the snow off the statue. Then she pressed the leathery strip against a stony cheek.
“Wake up, Twilight. Come back to us.”
She started rubbing her hoof against the stone, leaving a smear of something dark. She muttered under her breath.
“Cockatrice comb under starry dome! Free my friend from stone and give her back her bone!”
Soft, yellow light erupted from underneath Fluttershy’s hoof and spread out to envelop all of Twilight’s petrified form. Fluttershy adjusted her grip, putting both forelegs around Twilight and flapping her wings. Colour returned to Twilight’s mane and Fluttershy felt her weight decrease to that of a pony. She fell limply around Fluttershy’s legs as she was lowered off the statue base and onto the ground.
Fluttershy gently stroked Twilight’s mane while tilting her face up to the stars and whispering.
“Thank you, Zecora.”
Eventually Twilight twitched and raised her head. Fluttershy shushed her quickly and threw a blanket over her. Twilight looked around in confusion before focusing on her friend, and Fluttershy was glad to see there was no sign of the purple fire in her eyes.
“Can you stand, Twilight? We need to get you away from here. It’s not quite safe for you out in the open.”
“I... Yes, I think.”
Twilight fought to gain control over her legs. Her first attempt to stand nearly tipped her forward but before too long she was upright on all fours. Fluttershy nodded and motioned for Twilight to follow, but just as she started to move Twilight apparently thought of something and looked around.
“Wait, Fluttershy. Is there another statue nearby?”
Fluttershy was perplexed but did not show it, instead shaking her head.
“Not that I know of. We’re quite far from the more frequented areas.”
Twilight looked confused.
“That doesn’t make sense. She should be very close by.”
“She?”
Fluttershy’s question went ignored. Twilight looked around, but no other statue was in sight. Then her gaze went to the stone base where she’d been stood. It wasn’t new: bare strands of withered ivy clung to it and its surface was heavily worn. Fluttershy looked on with anxious bewilderment as Twilight slowly walked up to it and studied it closely.
The top wasn’t completely smooth. Four broken hooves of stone was all that remained of another statue – one that had been sculpted separately from the base and then glued to it with cement. The fractures were very old. The statue hadn’t been complete for hundreds of years, and its original shape was probably long forgotten.
Twilight sat down and started to weep. She laid her lips gently on the cold stone and whispered.
“I’m sorry, Silver Gavel. There’s nothing I can do for you right now. I promise I’ll be back to help you!”
A hoof touched her shoulder and she heard Fluttershy’s bewildered voice.
“Twilight, who’s Silver Gavel?”
She swallowed and blinked away her tears before turning to Fluttershy. Fluttershy gasped and shied back a bit, and Twilight could tell why. There were purple pinpoints of light in Fluttershy’s eyes -reflections of her own gaze.
“A friend I met recently. We promised we’d help each other if we ever got the opportunity.”
She rose to her hooves again.
“But for now we must leave. Do you have something we can use to cover my eyes? I take it you didn’t free me with anypony’s permission.”
Fluttershy nodded mutely and fished through her saddlebags until she found a pair of aviator’s goggles with dark tinted glass. She gave them to Twilight, who donned them.
“I can’t see a thing in these!”
“Um, I know. I’m sorry. I couldn’t think of another way. Grab my tail. I’ll lead you wherever you want to go.”
“Wherever I..? Fluttershy? Do you mean you don’t have an escape route planned?”
Fluttershy’s ears fell and she whined.
“I – I was hoping this – all of this – was just a misunderstanding! Twilight, they left you imprisoned in stone when you’d done nothing wrong!”
She took a breath and her voice strengthened.
“I watched them be sad about it. You better believe they grieved. But they grieved you as one mourns the dead! They were pushing you out of their thoughts! I could see it on their faces: they were forgetting about you. I don’t believe for one second that Celestia is so busy that something as important as her most faithful student being imprisoned in stone would just evaporate from her mind. So it has to be like you said. There’s some kind of enchantment on us, isn’t there?”
Twilight was silent for a while, not moving except for the occasional swish of her tail, staring blindly through the goggles at a point past Fluttershy’s shoulder. Then she put a hoof on top of the goggles’ rim and lowered them slightly, peeking over them with her burning eyes at Fluttershy.
“...Yes. An enchantment is basically what it is. But you have to understand, Fluttershy. This was not a misunderstanding. Harmony has cast me out with good reason. If I was to approach the princesses then they would probably render my magic inert, gag me, put me in irons and throw me into a dungeon until they came up with a way to dispose of me permanently without using the Elements.”
Fluttershy gasped.
“But why would they do that?! What have you done that is so bad?”
“I rebelled against Harmony.”
Twilight held up a hoof to stop any further questions.
“Fluttershy, the less you know the better. The princesses can’t help themselves. They too are under the enchantment. We should move quickly anyhow; we are far too likely to get caught if we remain here.”
“A – all right. Where would you like to go?”
A moment of silence passed. The chill air carried faint echoes of laughter from the two distant guards.
“I... think we need to stay in the gardens, actually. We need to circle around the castle, away from the city and towards the mountainside. You lead me, and while we walk I want you to keep an eye out for any kind of pond or lake that might be lying under the snow.”
“Oh? What kind of pond are we looking for?”
“It’s at least six bodylengths across. It’s perhaps a stone’s throw from the end of the cliff ledge behind the castle.”
“That’s the princesses’ private gardens. You’re probably talking about Luna’s carp pond.”
“You’ve been there?”
“Oh yes. Princess Celestia is kind enough to let me wander there freely to ease my mind. Luna feeds the carp with breadcrumbs. They’re very nice carp.”
“All right. Lead on. I’ll follow the sound of your hooves.”
Fluttershy started walking. Twilight could follow her easily enough as long as she stayed close. Nopony cared much for a frozen garden in the middle of the night, not even the guard captains who made the patrol routes, so their journey was worry-free. This meant they had time to think.
“Twilight?”
“Yes?”
“Are – are you going to become nasty? Will you start using dark magic?”
“I can see why this would worry you, Fluttershy.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. The answer is no – hopefully – and yes, I’m afraid I must.”
Fluttershy whimpered. They walked in silence for a while, Fluttershy easily navigating them through the maze of paths.
“Fluttershy?”
“Yes?”
“How long was I petrified?”
“Um. Ten days.”
There was a shocked silence.
“They have all of us travelling separately. We go from village to village, town to town, all over Equestria where the air is still breathable. We cure the poisoned. Even the ones who don’t want to be cured, and there’s more of them every day.”
Still more silence.
“I chose tonight because I’ve been sent to a small village on the other side of Mount Canterlot, not that far as the bird flies. I snuck out of my bedroom window on the second floor of a tavern. There’s a guard outside my door, Twilight. I don’t know why.”
Even more silence. Fluttershy flicked her ears to face backwards. She could still hear the hoof-falls behind her, so Twilight was still following.
“I think I can guess, though. You heard about the raid on the refugee train? The raiders struck again, and the guardsponies went missing as well. Now the guard is trying to evacuate villages that are already empty when they reach them, with only signs of a fight remaining.”
There was a sigh behind Fluttershy.
“Nopony understands what’s happening, Twilight. At least, nopony I’ve asked.”
“Are you asking me?”
“Um. Maybe? Do you know what’s happening?”
“Frankly? Yes. It didn’t feel like ten days, but I had time to think about this. I... also had help sorting it out.”
“Um... so what is happening?”
“She will not tell you, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy squeaked and whirled towards the new voice. It came from the side, off the path. Twilight had started so badly that she’d lost her balance and fallen on her side. She was scrabbling away from the direction of the voice, legs skidding over the frozen gravel. A part of the shadow under an alder tree dislodged itself and assumed the shape of a starry-maned alicorn.
Luna smiled gently at Fluttershy.
“Twilight cares for you too strongly to cause you that much harm.”