//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: When Deities Clash // Story: Substitute Harmony // by blayzekohime //------------------------------// The square in Ponyville was finally at peace, although that was in part due to there being very little left to destroy. The area around the crater had been roped off for several blocks, a number of royal guards still patrolling the area, every one of them on high alert. Near the edge of the disaster area stood a rather proud-looking, white unicorn stallion, his mane and tail primped and proper, using his magic to float several documents in front of his face. Staring at the papers, he seemed to be quite uncertain about the purpose he was supposed to be serving. Still, someone had to come and oversee things, and the Princesses were... busy. “Your… your Highness?” a tired voice behind the royal unicorn caught his attention, his golden mane swaying gracefully as he turned about. “Yes, what is it? Oh. It’s you,” he struck a pose almost habitually, blue eyes and even the golden and gray compass rose on his flank seeming to glow in the late day sun. “Um, yes, it’s me,” Missus Cake awkwardly replied, giving a bow before continuing, “I was just wondering, Prince Blueblood, if there was anything else you needed me to do. I told the guards about what happened before for their report and… well, I was wondering if it was true that they caught the pegasus pony who attacked me.” “Yes, yes something like that,” Blueblood turned to look at the documents again, practically ignoring her for a few more moments before moving one hoof upward as if to shoo her away, “That is all we need, loyal subject. You may go and rest. I have an important meeting with the Mayor with regard to how best to fund the restoration of the town square. Apparently, she wishes to have a train track laid down while there is an opportunity to do so.” “Oh,” Missus Cake definitely had more questions, but quickly realized that this royal wasn’t exactly one for answering them, and so gave another, somewhat annoyed bow before heading off back to her shop for some much-needed rest as the prince had suggested. She found herself wondering why Celestia would have actually named someone so prim and proper to be in charge of disastrous situations such as this one. As soon as she was gone, Prince Blueblood lowered his papers into a neat little stack and sighed, his horn glowing as they ‘poof’ed away. His form seemed to visibly slump with exhaustion as he murmured to himself in a rather less grand voice than before, “By Faust if I have to keep this up for one more minute I’m going to explode.” As quickly as he had slumped over however, there was a flicker of static in the air that made the hair of his mane and tail stand on end. Blueblood’s eyes shifted from one end of the now empty street to another, then quickly leaped out of the way as if avoiding some invisible enemy. Sure enough, no sooner than he had removed himself from his previous location, the form of a large, dark alicorn appeared in a flash of purple and black magical energy, Helios now standing where Blueblood had been not a moment ago. The alicorn towered over the prince, who felt the shadow fall on him with an almost palpable weight as his own eyes looked up to meet the glowing red orbs in Helios’s head. “Right then!” Helios looked around, eyes immediately falling upon Blueblood, and correctly thinking that he looked like he might be in charge. A large and intimidating hoof was pointed at the unicorn’s face, inches from his nose, “Two pegasi were taken into custody here; where did they go? It’s important for uhhh… stuff. Like national security stuff. You know.” The hoof moved to wave in the air dismissively, as if the alicorn hadn’t really thought out this speech very well while on the way here. “Oh it’s you,” Prince Blueblood didn’t even bother shifting his manner again, actually smirking at Helios upon his appearance, “You know you almost tele-fragged me just now; you should concentrate more on your destination before materializing.” This response, as well as its complete lack of intimidation, caught Helios by surprise, and the alicorn put down the one hoof and looked at Blueblood with one eyebrow raised in confusion. For a moment there was silence. “Sorry about that. Have we met?” Helios finally decided that he may as well try to be nice, since it appeared this one was too brave or stupid to be intimidated. “So, I still need to know where they went. As you can see, I’m an alicorn, which you ponies currently lack, so perhaps I can help.” “We haven’t really met, no, but I’m sure you can help,” Prince Blueblood’s statement sounded surprisingly dismissive, choosing not to mention Luna’s continued presence. Aside from that however, he was quite forthcoming, “There, in Canterlot; you can see it from a mile away, literally.” His own hoof pointed up towards the side of the mountain where Canterlot was visible in the distance, “They’ve been taken in for questioning, and I imagine they will be in the cathedral by the time you arrive.” Helios stared at the prince for a few more moments, still taken somewhat off guard. For a moment he almost wondered if this unicorn could be telling the truth, he gave it so easily. Of course, in Helios’ present mind, the conclusion he eventually came to was that this world was going to be a lot easier to conquer than he had initially believed. Grinning to himself, the alicorn disappeared in another flash of energy. “Prince Blueblood!” another voice from behind the Prince startled him one again. It was one of the royal guards still stationed around the area. The Prince immediately took up his former poise once more, turning about and giving the guard a smirk that couldn’t have been more full of itself, “Yes. Yes. What do you need now?” “Prince Blueblood,” the guard let out a sigh of relief, “I must ask that you not separate yourself from us again, these are dangerous times for royalty… Was anypony else just here?” “Nopony aside from my royal self.” -------------------------- Firefly was the first to wake up in their new environment, her eyes batting awake slowly as she tried to regain her senses. Her eyes looked upwards at a high, vaulted ceiling dotted with red and pink tiles, as well as the huge, white arches supporting it, each arch supported in turn by pristine marble columns. On one side of the two sprawled pegasi, at the inner end of the structure, there was a large door with six blue orbs and a key slot in the middle that looked different from most, in that it was a perfectly round hole rather than the typical keyhole shape. Light was trickling across the cathedral-like hallway, through stained glass windows depicting scenes that she could only assume were taken from history or myth. Many featured some sort of dragon-like chimera that she was unfamiliar with, as well as a sun and moon alicorn that she could only assume were the two sisters of which she had heard Lord Helios speak. The few images she found familiar were the ones that featured six ponies that closely resembled those that they had taken as enemies. In these windows they were depicted as champions - she supposed even tyrants had their national heroes. She tried to get up, only to realize that she was tightly bound with glowing, black chains. They weren’t particularly heavy or even uncomfortable, but were obviously enchanted in some way to keep the ponies in them from moving. She felt Surprise next to her, who had also started to stir. The other pegasus’ body was covered with bruises, but they appeared to have been treated well enough to not be an immediate concern. As Surprise awoke and began to struggle just as Firefly had, both pegasi raised their eyes to look upon their guards. The two pegasi stallions guarding the prisoners looked almost as if they might be twins, both dark gray fur and adorned in purple armor, plates lined down their backs from nose all the way to tail with decorative saddles covering their sides. A chest piece of darker purple was adorned with a single gem that looked like a reptilian eye. The most disturbing thing for the prisoners was that these pegasi appeared to be not entirely equine. Their wings, which matched their chest pieces in color, were clearly those of a bat rather than the feathered wings of more normal pegasi. Their manes and tails were the same color and looked more like reptilian frill than actual mane-fur. As the two stared down at the prisoners with gleaming, dark yellow eyes, grim smiles sat upon their otherwise hate-filled faces. “There you are,” one of them spoke, “The Princess of the Night will be here shortly. She wants to ask you some questions personally.” “Please refuse to answer,” the second one added with a smirk, “It would greatly please us if we were ordered to encourage you.” “Y-you don’t scare us!” Firefly claimed, even as fear rattled through her voice, “We won’t give in and you’ll be sorry when Prince Helios gets here!” “I gotta admit,” Surprise added in a more cheery tone, “This IS pretty surprising!” “And who might this ‘Prince Helios’-” one of the guards started to ask, but suddenly seemed to cut himself off. For a moment, the prisoners both wondered why their guards had become so silent, the eyes of each night pegasus darting around the room, even while their bodies seemed paralyzed. Soon enough however, they realized that a dark aura had encompassed the bodies of their guards, having clasp their muzzles tightly shut, and now lifted them slowly off the floor. Their forms slowly turned forcefully in mid-air to face the opposite entrance, where another larger figure entered. “That would be me,” the voice of Helios rang out from the opposite end of the hallway as he calmly strolled through the tall double doors, “You know, the guards inside this castle are complete pansies. The ones outside put up a decent fight though.” Helios casually tossed the two night pegasi towards the entrance as he arrived to stand over Surprise and Firefly. The two guards slammed into the floor, rolling head over hoof several times before they managed to bring themselves about, landing on all four hooves and looking prepared to charge back. Somehow however, the fact that Helios was now so blithely ignoring them without a single worry made them think twice. When they watched the alicorn rather effortlessly cause the magical chains holding the prisoners to release with a simple wave of his head, they knew for certain that they were not dealing with any normal enemy. “Get the Princess!” one of them firmly instructed the other, “I’ll do my best to hold him off!” The other guard nodded grimly, rushing out the exit and taking flight even while inside to hurry. The first one braced himself and walking forward slowly towards Helios from behind. “Yay, hey you’re even better at surprises than I am!” Surprise had a huge grin on her face as she picked herself up, even as her injuries made her stagger. “Prince!” Firefly staggered to her hooves, “I knew you’d save us! Time to bust some heads!” Her eyes went towards the guard that was approaching from behind. Helios chuckled almost like a parent amused by a silly child, “Right, about that. I’m actually going out of my way not to actually bust any heads. You two on the other hand, can enjoy some head busting while I’m talking to these guys. I’m sure the other one will be back soon too, once he realizes that his Princess is in another castle.” “On the contrary, sir,” the remaining night pegasus responded, somehow feeling that he should speak officially to even an enemy alicorn, “Princess Luna was already nearby, and will be here in mere moments.” “Right, right, but what you don’t realize is—wait, what?” Helios suddenly paused, turning himself around to face the remaining guard once again, one eyebrow raised in his trademark ‘what the hay’ expression, “Don’t be stupid. Princess Luna was the first on Celestia’s ‘I’m banishing everypony in sight’ list.” As if in reply, clouds began to gather outside, the evening light that had been streaming in through the windows suddenly darkening, and crackles of thunder rippling through the structure as if lightning were striking the building itself. Helios grew quiet, his expression grave; not quite so confident as before. “Firefly and Surprise, I’m sending you back now,” he stated simply. “But Master we can-“ Firefly began, but her mouth was quickly sealed with Helios’ telekinesis, as was Surprise’s pre-emptively. “No,” Helios stated plainly, “I can only fight if I don’t have to worry about protecting you. You’ll have enough fun where you’re going, don’t worry.” With that, Helios’ horn glowed and his two minions vanished from sight in a flash of teleportation magic, sent out of harm’s way, possibly to a somewhat less dangerous situation. The guard, now far more confident in seeing Helios’ reaction to the impending arrival of Princess Luna, took another step forward, only for his own body to suddenly blink away in a flash of purple energy. Apparently Helios was not the only one that didn’t want their minions getting underhoof. “Brother,” Luna’s voice echoed through the chamber as she entered, stepping into the cathedral amid a flash of lightning, electrical energy seeming to shiver through the floor as she gathered her power, “Why hast thou arrived after so long a time, and to attack us without provocation?” “Without provocation?” Helios almost laughed, “Oh, but I should have known that she was lying about you turning against her. You’ve been in league with her silly little plan all along, haven’t you?” “How dare you accuse our sister of wrongdoing!” Luna shot back, her voice booming through the cathedral to the extent that the windows rattled noticeably. Her being accused of evil would have likely rolled off her back, but Celestia being so accused was for her a reason to rage, “Our sister art the most innocent amongst us all!” She took a deep breath, moving her hooves as if bracing herself for an attack at any moment, “Why hast thou invaded? Doth our sister Selene know of this? Hath she accompanied you?” Helios just stared at Luna’s last question, one eye twitching in rage, the other quirked in confusion as the two emotions fought each other within him, “You DARE speak her name after you and Celestia MURDERED her?” Luna’s eyes grew wide, clearly having been unaware of that particular detail. Such was the shock that her next words were spoken in an almost frightened voice rather than the booming of a moment ago, “W-what dost thou-?” “Don’t play stupid!” Helios shot back, “Celestia lured her here under the pretense of defeating you, then brought back a lie that she had been killed during the battle! And now I have all the confirmation of that lie that I need!” “Killed… while…” Luna’s face was shocked, eyes staring into space as if not even seeing Helios for a moment, “We… we…” It was no wonder that Celestia had not told her the full story; she had probably not had the heart to further burden Luna with such knowledge. For a brief moment, Luna seemed to falter in her stance, unsure of what to do. The sight of Luna looking so stunned only served to make Helios more angry, flames literally lapping around his hooves, mane and tail letting off waves of heat that shimmered through the air, “Stop with this ruse! I refuse to be a pushover for you and Celestia any longer!” “Brother,” Luna’s voice regained some of its strength as she spoke again, “None of this is our sister Celestia’s fault. If thou returns her and takes us instead, we shall overlook thy actions. If our offer is refused, then we hath no choice but to retrieve her by force.” The only answer Luna received was a scream of rage as Helios completely lost any semblance of self-control, his form surging forward as a jet of flame formed around him. The shockwave of his launch cracked the marble floor beneath him and sent slivers of damage up through the windows on either side of him. Luna was quick to respond of course, a wall of black energy surging up in front of her, slowing his movement as he flew through it, then raising her hooves to slam against his head. The force of the impact was still harder on her than it was on him, sending her sliding back to the hall’s entryway, hind-hooves grinding against the tiles and digging a gash into the floor in the process. Her magic strained forward, trying to send Helios back again, lightning dancing about her as she attempted to deaden his flames. Each alicorn gave another mental shove, bursts of energy slamming into one another, the percussion sending a ripple through the cathedral and causing not only windows to outright shatter, but cracks to appear in the support beams on either side of the structure. The night mare let out a scream of effort in response, directing a surge of dark energy to flank beneath Helios and nail him in the gut, sending him flying upwards then over her head from his own inertia as he still tried to surge against her. Helios slammed into the frame of the building just above the door, the energy of his misplaced attack shattering it and causing their end of the cathedral to sag dangerously. Ready for him to double back to strike again, Luna teleported herself back towards the other end of the room, facing the entrance from which she expected him to come back. Instead, however, she felt a burst of energy from behind her as he instead teleported there, quickly followed by a sharp pain in her back as he bore his energy down upon her, causing her legs to give slightly before she managed to teleport beyond his reach. No sooner did Luna appear ready to bear down on Helios in turn, than he had disappeared once again. The two powerhouses followed this pattern for several more moments, forms flashing about as each attempted to out-teleport the other, more and more attacks shaking through the walls of the building. Suddenly, Luna found herself standing in the middle of the ruined hall, nearly all the beautiful windows shattered, but no sign of Helios. She stood still, breathing heavily, her emotions reaching out to try to sense where her brother was. It had been a long time since she had felt his energy, but it was quickly coming back given how she had been slammed by it several times. Of course, Helios had one significant advantage. He was channeling anger at Luna and was fully willing to cause her serious harm. Luna, on the other hand, was also channeling anger at herself, and although unlike Celestia she would not pull punches, she was still aiming to overcome rather than destroy him. “Thou art insane!” Luna’s eyes grew wide as she sensed his next attack in the nick of time, a well of energy felt forming within her own body. Luna quickly dissolved herself into starry mist once again, Helios appearing right where she had been in an apparent attempt to teleport inside of her. The mist swirled about him nebulously, then imploded inward, Helios suddenly finding himself coated with searing shards of Luna’s energy as they crushed in upon him. Helios’ mane and tail flamed upwards, surrounding himself with flames, but finally resorting to allowing his own form to spread outward, gushing out from between the cracks in Luna’s mist to reform across the hall from her, his knees buckling slightly at his sister’s unexpected maneuver. It seemed to have taken a lot out of him, being far less practiced at mist techniques than his sister. No sooner did he reform than his sister coalesced in front of him, slamming into him again before he could prepare. Helios barely managed a partial defense with his own energy, still getting smashed through one of the very few remaining windows. Together, the two alicorns fell into the embankment below the cathedral as the hallway completely collapsed behind them. They rolled into the gardens below, nearly smashing through several of the many statues in the process. For a time, the two deities resorted to somewhat lesser forms of attack, no doubt getting tired of all the teleporting and mist-forming. Luna’s forehoof slammed into Helios’ face, quickly followed by his hind hooves bucking her in the belly and sending her flying over his head. No sooner had he risen to his feet than Luna was in his face again, leaping upwards and bearing down on him with another hoof to the top of his head. The two crashed together again and again, hooves flying, heads butting, each impact letting loose a burst of angry energy, the sound rippling through the gardens. The environment around them seemed to be slowly shredding apart from the mere proximity of their battle. So into their combat were they, neither noticed the clip clop of smaller hooves rushing towards them. “SSTOOOOOP!” an elderly sounding voice temporarily snapped them from their concentration on one another, “Are you both MAD?” So startled were they that both of the alicorns obeyed the suddenly yelled command, each stunned that somepony would walk up to them while they were locked in combat, let alone give them orders. Luna looked over towards the voice, Helios atop her, each of their hooves mere inches from slamming into each other’s faces again. Not more than a few feet away, a brown furred, elderly earth pony with gray mane and tail, as well as a long gray goatee, stared at them with angry blue eyes. Whoever he was, he looked completely livid. “Hayseed!” Luna recognized him, her voice booming once again, slightly peeved herself that he would put himself in danger by walking up to them, “Why hast thou stopped the Princess of the Night as we defend our palace grounds?” “Mad? Mad? I’m FURIOUS!” Helios started, but then paused, arching an eyebrow, “Wait, did we just get scolded by a gardener? I love this guy! You didn’t want to switch sides did you?” Hayseed sounded unusually brave, even in the face of his own angry Princess, “I’m sure the Princess of the Night knows how to read!” With that, Hayseed’s hoof rose up, pointing to the other side of the pair. Both of the alicorns swayed their eyes over to the target of his pointing, a sign which stated simply ‘No fighting near the statue’. Their eyes rose up slowly, and each alicorn felt their whole body freeze as they looked upon the stoned form of Discord, having been propped up here in the garden exactly where he had been after his re-petrification. A slow, ever-so-slight pulse was visible, resounding through the statue. Both alicorns were on all four hooves in an instant, almost as if they had shot right through each other to stand up. For a long moment, the two stood there quietly, eyes wide and locked onto the statue as a second, somewhat less noticeable pulse shivered through it. As calmly as he could possibly manage, Helios finally voiced a few words, “You…you propped him up… in your garden? Really?” He gave Luna a look of utter confusion. “Be still, for it was our sister’s idea,” Luna responded, her voice much quieter than usual, despite a faintly defensive tone. “Right. I shouldn’t have had to ask,” Helios replied, trying very hard not to show any irritation, “So what do we do now?” Both eyes were still locked onto the statue of their ancient foe, watching as another beat ran through the stone chimera’s form. “We are uncertain,” Luna admitted, her gaze unmoving. “All right you two,” Hayseed interjected, “Go on now, hug and make up.” Helios and Luna simultaneously gave a flat “What.” in response to Hayseed’s suggestion, but then each slowly nodded in turn. Slowly the two moved together again, raising up their forehooves and hugging around each other’s necks. Luna actually smiled a bit, and so did Helios, though his smile looked more like he was having an allergic reaction than as if he were happy. “I’m… sorry for attacking you and your… castle thing, dear sister,” Helios stated in a less-than-convincing tone. “And we,” Luna was clearly putting very real emotion into her own words, “Art sorry for the pain and suffering we caused as Nightmare Moon, and as our royal self. We shalt never forgive ourselves for the demise of our dear sister, and shall not ask that thou forgive or forget our crime.” “Come on now, lad,” Hayseed huffed, “Your apology didn’t sound very sincere, so ya gotta do it over.” “Um,” Helios was very unused to elderly ponies bossing him around, and certainly not used to being referred to as ‘lad’. He took a deep breath, and tried again, “I should have talked to you first, this fighting is not going to get us anywhere. Uh. Dear sister. And I’ll uh. I’ll fix that stuff I broke; we’ll just call it a renovation.” He shifted his eyes about, trying to think of something else nice to say, then added, "Nice bat guards, by the way; ‘wish I had those instead of flutter ponies, honestly." Both alicorn’s shifted their eyes towards the statue again as they hugged, both forms seeming to shrink slightly in sheer intimidation as they looked up at Discord’s form. Hayseed appeared to feel better at least, and he took a few more steps forward to prop himself up and give both of the alicorns a brief hug as well. “There ya go; now didn’t that feel better?” Hayseed nodded as he pulled back away, “Now you two head on out and find tha other Princess; ya kin all three have a nice chat tagether.” The two alicorns ignored that command for a while however, instead staring at Discord’s statue for several more minutes to ensure that it had settled down once more. Both let out a deep breath, very slowly moving away from their hug, both acting as if they were ready to cling together should the statue pulse again. “Right, so uh,” Helios’ eyes shifted again, his wings flexing outward, “We’ll just be going somewhere else now." ----------------------------------------- In the midst of the Everfree Forest, deep underground, lay the portal into the other world of ponies that had stayed hidden for so long, yet been so very active as of late. Many levels above the portal, the entrance of the ruins was covered in foliage, barely visible beneath the vines and flowers growing around it. It was at this entrance that four ponies stood. Twilight Wish stood in front, her body shaking with either nervousness or excitement, eyes wide as she strained to keep her awareness under the emotional strain of what she had been through over the past few days. Behind and to the right of her stood her world’s Applejack, chewing down an apple casually as she waited and sat comfortably in the grass. The second unicorn, Sparkler, stood behind and to Twilight’s left, her eyes fixed on the same area as Wish’s. Directly behind Twilight, Posey stood, shaking hard and knees nearly buckling. In front of Twilight, a pocket watch hovered in mid-air, the energy of her telekinesis surrounding it. Wish’s eyes shifted from the watch to the clearing again, then finally she spoke as she dropped it, certainty in her voice, “Places everyone. According to Prince Helios, the rift opens less than five minutes from now.” Applejack huffed, but all the same moved up the side of a hill that bordered the clearing in which the heroes were expected to appear. There was a log trap constructed there, a simple stake in the ground that could be kicked out of the way to cause the stack of logs to come rolling into the clearing. Sparkler went up to another hill, this one directly behind the entrance to the ruins, sitting her plot down on a place that she had cleared and made sure wasn’t too particularly dirty. Beside her was a pile of shiny looking stones, on her other side Pinkie’s cupcake cannon that Helios had previously confiscated and then given to them. She loaded one of the rocks into it using her own telekinesis, gingerly holding the garish weapon on one side. Posey looked the most reluctant, but all the same moved around to the opposite side of the clearing from where Twilight was, unfolding a net and looking as if she was preparing to throw it. She took a deep breath, seemingly to try to prepare herself, her eyes looking as if she might run as soon as things began. As for Twilight, she kicked open a nearby box with her hind hoof. Her horn glowed as half a dozen menacing-looking knives floated up out of the box, forming a circle around her, pointing them all towards the clearing and clearly preparing to take aim. “Um,” Posey voiced out softly, quickly realizing that she had gotten the short end of the stick in this plan, “I don’t mean to be rude, but should my position really be directly opposite those knives that you’re about to throw, Twilight?” “Oh quit complaining,” Twilight glared at Posey, shutting the rather more timid pony up, “Okay everypony, when I give the word…” Then, as all eyes pointed inward, there was a flash of light, a glowing blue vortex suddenly expanding outward from the center of the clearing. It was exactly when Helios had said they’d arrive, and he would certainly know given it was he who had sent them to this time and place to begin with. Six figures fell from the portal, five of them landing neatly on their feet and a sixth flopping limp onto the ground beside them. “Now!”