//------------------------------// // 17 - Binary Souls // Story: Re:Harmony // by starcross7 //------------------------------// Chapter 17 - Binary Souls “Butler!  Another round for me mate! Hic!” “Coming,” said Twilight as she carefully balanced a silver tray of hard apple cider on her back.   “Oi, that’s a nice party hat.  Why don't you hold onto mine for the time bein’?  It's very important to me.”   “It’s already off, sir.” “Izzit?  When did it come off?  Hic!” Probably when you were busy dancing on the table, Twilight thought to herself.  The dining hall bustled with liveliness, which included a performance from the Stalliongrads kick-dancing on their hind legs and the endless stream of maids and butlers doing everything in their power to please the foreign delegates in honor of Winter Tulip’s birthday party.  But really, none of the delegates were required to attend as it was a personal party between the Elite Earth Party members and their children.  Yet knowing how well Posey doted on her daughter, it was in the best interest to please Winter to please Posey.  Pleasing Posey allowed the foreign delegates to earn more favors, often in the form of money and weapons to use against their enemies.   "Hey there pretty mare," Ace called out from his table where he sat with an annoyed Teddy and a bored Lancer.   The President-Adviser of Economic Advisers had eyed Sunny throughout the entire dinner.  The mute pink-maned pony had unintentionally ignored him the entire time, and while she understood simple commands, she seemed blissfully unaware of the attention she was attracting.  Ace got his chance when she arrived with the tray of tofu hors d'oeuvres, and the blonde stallion immediately reached over the table to take her hoof.   "Now, that's no way to ignore a handsome stallion," Ace smiled.   "By the earth," sighed Teddy as he rolled his eyes at the spilled drinks his compatriot spilled.  "Can I get some wine here?" "Tell me, where are you from, beautiful goddess?" Sunny tilted her head, and grinned.   "That's… an interesting answer," said Ace.  "You must be one of those shy types.  I like that." "She must be a foreign hire for the party," said Teddy.  "For goodness' sake, where's my wine?" "It's right here, sirs!" cried a squeaky and crackling voice.   Hiding his fangs was nearly impossible, but Spike managed to do so while he used his mouth to settle the tray of fine wine glasses onto the table.  His odd appearance of being a cross-dressing baby dragon drew stares from Teddy and Ace, and Ace rarely ever broke his focus away from pretty mares.  The baby dragon quaked and sweated on the spot on all fours.  All the while, Sunny closed her smile after sensing his nervousness, and Twilight at the other side of the room stood ready to drop her party hat and go all magic-out should the dragon’s deception become unmasked.   "Fillies and gentlecolts," cried Matron Harshwhinny from the entrance, "the honorable Chancellor Posey wishes for all of you to gather in the reception hall for an important speech to congratulate another year of her daughter's life on this great country of Gaea.  If you will please follow me…" Ace and Teddy disregarded Spike as uninteresting, if not an eyesore, and they soon followed the train of important ponies out of the dining hall.   "Must one of those shetlands," said Ace.  "Ugly little bastards they are." "Lancer, where are you going?" asked Teddy.   "I'm going to pick up Winter," replied Lancer as he went the opposite direction. "I tell you my dear friend, you're not going to win over the Chancellor by going through her daughter," said Ace.  "Unless you're after Winter in the first place." "It's not like that!"  Aside from Posey and Harshwhinny, Lancer, when he was serious or angry, had the most wrathful stares of anypony, and perhaps he was the only stallion able to place anypony into self-submission with a mere gaze.   With the delegates and the Elite Party Members filing out of the dining hall, Twilight, Sunny, and Spike grouped together once more and left the dining hall along several other maids and butlers into the East Wing.  They all traversed one level down to the servant lounge where everypony either collapsed on the floor or on the nearest chair from all the hard work.  Matron Harshwhinny had immediately returned to order several ponies to help with the reception hall service.  Luckily, Twilight and her companions weren't assigned to that detail, but the Matron singled her out once more, and marched right up to her.   "Despicable," she said to her. "Just because one of our guests gave you a party hat to wear doesn't mean you should oblige." She nearly swatted it off with her hoof, and if she were successful, the whole ruse would have been ruined.  Fortunately, Sunny clumsily bumped into Harshwhinny; not enough to make her trip and fall, but enough to turn the attention towards the mute pink-maned mare.   "Fortunately for you, I need a pony who can help, not speak," she said to Sunny.  "However, don't expect me to hire you and your friend ever again." Matron Harshwhinny stormed off, giving Twilight a moment to take a breath.  The disguised unicorn had to go through a lot to hide her horn in front of everypony, starting with Applejack's stetson hat, a tall cake she balanced on her head, hiding behind balloons, carrying a pegasus-shaped piñata, and ending up with a party hat.  Between those times, she must have poked a hole through several boxes of apples, pears, muffins, and bananas she carried on her head.   However, there was no time to fully relax while the fate of Applejack remained unknown.  Twilight had not felt anything within her half of her soul just yet, so the orange mare must be doing all right for now.  She motioned to Sunny and Spike to follow her out through the back door of the servant's lounge to make their way into the halls of East Wing.  For all she knew, they were at the other side of the Palace of the Earth and far from Applejack. "That's a lot of hard work moving on all fours," said Spike as he wiped the sweat off his brow.  "So that's what a birthday must be like on the surface." "I guess so," said Twilight.  For Posey's daughter, this was the utmost extravagant.  For birthdays back in Unicornia, they lit candles and prayed to the Sun and the Moon in the temple.  Gifts were scarce at Twilight's home village, and every unicorn had gotten to used to the idea of not receiving any for each passing year.  That didn't make her feel any envy whatsoever.  Back then, all her gifts arrived on the underground shores of the Great Chasm.   "Did Octavia celebrate birthdays with you?" Twilight asked.   "Not really," said Spike.  "She tried, and she left me gifts whenever she could." The baby dragon nearly went to tears, but she snorted his snot back into his nose, and took a deep breath.   "We gotta find AJ," said Spike as he perked up.   "I know, but this place is big," said Twilight.  "I can't believe this entire building is a pony's home." "I had a home much bigger than this," Spike declared.   "But it was more like a prison.  If my hunches are correct, we might have emerged in the West Wing when we left the caverns, and the layout might be identical to the East Wing.  There has to be a hallway that connects the two." Getting there was easier said than done.  The trio immediately hid when they heard the hoofsteps of another pony, whether it be a Palace Guard, another servant, or a lost delegate.  Due to these obstacles, Twilight, Sunny, and Spike ended up circling around entire blocks and a set of floors twice before ending up back the way they came from.   "Couldn't you use your magic to find her?" Spike asked. "I can't in this place.  They'll find me for sure." "At least once would help.  Then we can make a run for AJ and then break out of this place." "Not with all this security.  Sunny, get down!" The white mare had stepped out into the hallway as if aroused by an unseen and unknown presence.  She began gesturing to the unicorn and the dragon to move.  When they didn't, she began bouncing up and down and whinnying.   "Sunny, be quiet!" Suddenly, Twilight felt a deep rumbling wave passing through her.  It wasn't anything physical, because Spike didn't react to it.  But Sunny sensed it, and that would explain her panicking.  The unicorn felt this before as one of the spells unicorns used to announce their presence across vast distances.  It was a basic spell, but each unicorn could exert his or her own aura to uniquely identify themselves.   The spell was never practiced regularly in Unicornia for fear of their race being detected from above, and the practice of such spells were done on a small scale.  Yet whoever was casting it was here deep inside the Palace of the Earth.  Another unicorn perhaps?  Was it her brother?   The aura was indeed familiar, but Twilight had to be cautious all the same.  The earth ponies might despise magic, but it would not be unheard of them to use ancient magical artifacts against both unicorn and pegasii.  After slipping the party hat off her horn, Twilight emerged from hiding and stared at what Sunny had been frantic about.   There was a hooded pony in a dark black cloak far down the hall.   "I have been expecting you for a long time," said the pony.   "Tell me who you are," said Twilight.   The pony finally pulled back the hood.  After all these years, Twilight expected to finally see her brother, but it was not to be.  Still, the revelation was enough to make her smile and weep for joy.   "Trixie," Twilight cried.  "I thought… I thought they killed you.  So they have taken you away instead.  I'm so glad!" From her horn, Trixie suddenly fired a magic blast that narrowly missed Twilight by the hair.  It had obliterated a painting on the wall far behind Twilight.  It was around that time that Spike had hid fearfully behind Sunny, who crouched low in growled aggression.  Twilight's tears stopped running.   "Trixie," Twilight winced.  "What's going on?  This isn't like you." "This is me--the true me, Sparkle," said Trixie.  "Or shall I say, Twilight Sparkle?  I had always knew all along that your mother was going to give you the title of 'destroyer of worlds' right after our Destiny Glyphs appeared." "Get a hold of yourself Trixie!  You're not being yourself.  You're being manipulated!" "I'm not being manipulated, and I haven't been fooled by the honorable Chancellor.  I already know both versions of the Starswirl Prophecy, but I only need to know our version to know that your existence is nothing but an ill omen to ponykind.  Everything you touch, Twilight Sparkle, you destroy.  First your father, then your brother, your mother, and many of our brothers and sisters in Unicornia.  If you only knew what I suffered through all these years just to please your foolish and whimsical ideas of visiting the surface." "Trixie, How could you be saying this?  We're best friends, and we're basically sisters." "Sisters?  Friends?  I guess you have forgotten the destiny the Lulamoon Clan had to suffer to serve the Twilight Clan.  Even if that weren't the case, I had to live through every year knowing that I have to surrender myself to the whims of my mother's murderer!"   "Murder?  I didn't kill your mother, Trixie.  It was a cave-in!" "I don't know what's sad, Twilight.  Either you were too dense to realize what you did or they have never told you." "Told me what?" "Nopony wanted to tell what really happened.  They were afraid to tell you because of your mother.  Since she's not here, I can tell you that on the day when you took me to the cave of that pillar of sunlight, you were hit with a rainbow flash that changed you forever.  Your eyes glowed.  You spoke in tongues.  You expelled so much raw magical energy that I worried that you have doomed all the unicorns to a cave-in.  If it wasn't for your brother, we would all have died that day.   "Just as you received your Destiny Glyph, I received mine.  I became so excited that I wanted to immediately tell my mother about it.  I ran ahead back to the village only to find it in ruins because of the earthquake you have caused.  As it so happens, nopony died except for one.  Why, why of all ponies does my ill mother have to be one who died that day?  The mother who served your mother all the way to her deathbed.  I knew she had not long to live, but you of all ponies had to add more insult to her long injuries! "But it did not end there.  Your mother adopted me under her hoof, and I thought she took pity on me and wanted to treat me like another daughter.  I soon realized that I was never to destined to escape my ancestors' destiny, because she, of all things, ordered me to watch over you and your surface-dreaming frivolities.  I did everything to make sure you have never crossed the Great Chasm or caused Unicornia untold damage from your wasteful Earthian inventions.  With every year that passed by, I prayed for any opportunity for your demise, and I finally found my chance when the Clone Soldiers showed up for that rebel mare.  Sure, they tried to execute me when I tried to show them your Secret Cave, but the silly Clones did not know how great and powerful I was.  Then I felt your magical aura killing all of them, and realized that if I were to lure to you the surface to exact my revenge, I had to cross the Chasm myself.  That way, you'll think it was the earth ponies who took me away.   "Now my patience have finally paid off.  Twilight Sparkle, I, Trixie Lulamoon, challenge you to a magic duel!" "I will not fight you, Trixie!" "Really?  In some ways, you're just like your foolish father.  I heard from Posey that she tried to make him her secret magic arts adviser while she was working for the previous Chancellor.  He flat out rejected!  And look where it got him!  He's probably in several jars in the Labs right now!" Trixie's mockery triggered Twilight to unconsciously cast her distinct battle aura that resonated throughout the hallways in a sharp rumble.  The purple unicorn's magenta glow from her horn soon enveloped around her body.  In kind, Trixie enveloped her body with her distinct pink aura.   "Sunny, take Spike and find Applejack." Sunny whinnied as she rubbed her snout on Twilight's face.   "Go now!" Frightened by Twilight's anger, Sunny's ears drooped on her head, and promptly pulled Spike on her back and galloped off.   "So what do want out of me if you win the duel?" Twilight asked.   "YOUR LIFE!" Just as the pink orbs of light appeared around Trixie, they immediately fired homing lines straight towards Twilight, who only barely managed to deflect half of them with her barrier before jumping to safety into the nearest room.  She barely had enough time to catch her breath and seal the doors when a pink energy blade sliced a crisscross pattern across the wall.  In one raging push, Trixie crashed in and thrusted her extended Psy-Blade towards Twilight.  Between deflecting the magic blade with her barrier and jumping out of the way, Twilight telekinetically threw every object at her former friend, be it tables, chairs, books, and bookshelves.  Nothing fazed the enraged blue unicorn as she promptly sliced everything in her path.  Trapping Twilight at a corner, Trixie made what she thought was a surefire pierce at the purple unicorn, but then Twilight suddenly vanished in a blip.   The purple unicorn materialized in the air and landed a bucking kick to Trixie's head near her horn that immediately shut off the spell.  The same kick threw the blue unicorn off her hooves, and she careened into the nearest bookshelf.   "Using dirty earth pony tactics, eh?" Trixie grinned as she rose back to her hooves.  "Two can play at that game." Then she cast a magic duplication spell, filling the entire room with copies of herself.   "Or would twenty do?" the copies said in unison.   The first set lunged in with a few punches to that landed on Twilight.  This was not an ordinary illusion.  This was advanced magic, or more specifically, solidified magic.  With such a spell cast by powerful unicorns like Trixie, she could easily overwhelm anypony with her clones in minutes.  Twilight quickly summoned a Psy-Blade from her horn and sliced through the first row of duplicates, reverting them into a pink magic form that flowed back to the original caster.  Twilight then telekinetically surrounded herself with almost every book she could spot and set them ablaze.  She had cast a fire spell that placed herself inside a columnar barrier, but it served a dual purpose of opening a hole through the roof.  Twilight then levitated herself out of the hole and landed outside before the entrance to the Palace Spire right as the sun began setting.   "TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" Trixie yelled.  The blue unicorn levitated herself from the floor below and fired blasts of magic energy at the other unicorn, who began running in circles and bouncing away before each shot hit her.  Once Trixie landed, a circle of energy surrounded her, and further out six points of energy shot up from the ground to bind her in magenta-colored magic chains.   "You think this hex spell is going to stop me?" growled Trixie.   "I know it won't," said Twilight.  "Trixie, whatever I have done to you, I am sorry, but I can't stay, and I don't want to fight you.  I promise, I will come back for you." "No.  You won't come back.  I won't let you get away you mare of mass destruction.  You are the unicorn betrayer, the Twilight who will destroy everything in this world.  I can't let you live any longer!"   "Trixie, I'm sorry!"   A sharp pain stabbed through Twilight’s heart and soul.  She lurched left and right, and slowly she began drooping towards the ground.  Visions of another area, of another location, of another soul flashed in her mind.  Twilight saw in those brief images, to her horror, Applejack being kicked, beaten, spat upon, shackled, and then mercilessly thrown into a holding pen.  At the same time, Twilight's body grew colder and colder.  Her consciousness rapidly faded.   The ground shook again, but not from any magic.  From the side, the large black dirigible bearing the flag of Gaea rose into view bearing southward.  Twilight struggled to keep her eyes open and head raised, because she saw, or rather, she felt Applejack's presence inside the airship.   An orange mare, bruised and bloodied, peered past the tiny and barred window, and her eyes sorrowfully met Twilight's.  Hooves reached out to one another in all vain hope of contact, but alas their exchange of tearful glances lasted for only a moment.  The airship sped up, and trailing them were two smaller airships and a pair of fighter jets.   Twilight collapsed, and she completely lost all feeling within her body.  Her hazy vision witnessed Trixie wrenching her way out of the disintegrating magical chains.  The blue unicorn readied another Psy-Blade from her horn and a murderous grin.   Then Sunny arrived to face off against the blue unicorn.  Spike leapt off her back and bent over and reassured to Twilight that he and Sunny were going to rescue her, at least that was what she could gather from his lip movements.  She could no longer hear him.   "Spike… Sunny… get out of here…" She could no longer speak anymore.  Or see anymore.  And all warmth within her had expired.