//------------------------------// // Act II - Triels and Harmony (part I) // Story: Princess Rainbow // by rphb //------------------------------// As the fog began to clear Rainbow glimpsed a pony in the middle of what was left the town hall. It looked like a dark version of her mother. Instead of white, her coat was midnight blue, instead of an aurora her hair was like a star filled sky. Like her mother, and so very much unlike her own, it was saturated with magic and waved in an ethereal wind. Above her, looking down on her from the balcony stood her the empress of ponykind, her mother Celestia in all her divine glory. She wore her massive battle armour, the armour she had often seen in its showcase behind the thone, but never actually seen her wear. Covered from horn to hoof in brillaint white and gold, even her wings were covered in the glintering adamantium armour. Already larger then any known pony alive or dead, the massive armour made her look even larger. Rainbow doubted she could even lift the set. She had once tried to sneak into the showcase to play dress up, because honestly it did look kind of awesome, but she hadn’t even gotten half passed the first look before she was caught by the royal guards. After that her mother had given her such a spanking that she almost couldn’t sit for a week. Comparing the two the dark twin looked almost naked, despite all ponies almost always being naked, yet there was a power over her that poked at the very tip of her horn. She stared at Celstia with more then mere defiance. This wasn’t like one of her own temper tantrums when she didn’t want to follow her mothers orders or an upstart noble that wanted more then his due. She had an aura of confidence that told her that she would not only challenge Celestia’s word, but her very right to rule, and that she would overthrow her. She could be only one pony. “Luna” Princess Rainbow said, stepping into the entrance. “Rainbow, what are you doing here?” Celestia said; looking positively chocked at seeing her daughter here, in the dirtpony town of Ponyville. The night goddess wasted no time while her foe was distracted stroke. With magic Rainbow couldn’t even begin to imagine she wrapped Celestia in a liquid force field that seemingly froze her in place. This woke up the terrifying ponies in the town hall that had all been frozen in magical fear with the arrival of the night goddess. Freed from their trance a full blown panic erupted on the floor and in the air. Ponies fled in every direction out the windows, the whole in the roof the lunar goddess arrival had created, one particularly large red stallion disregarded the structure of the house all together and fled though the walls. Others were quick to follow in the whole he had made. The only way they didn’t flee was though the door where Rainbow stood, nopony would puss past a princess even with the situation as it were. Smirking at her handiwork, and looking with satisfaction that the ponies had all fled with her presence the dark goddess went over to face Rainbow who seemed to be as frozen as the mortal ponies had been only moments before although no spell had bound her. “Rainbow Dash princess of the sky” walking directly in front of her niece. Rainbow had a large lump in her trout that she just didn’t seem to could get rid of. After gulping a few times she stammered “yea” as she looked into the eyes of a goddess who was not her mother and whose intentions she couldn’t even begin to understand. “Princess Rainbow, listen carefully for this is important and we do not have time to repeat, the spell we cast will only last for moments. Everything thou have ever heard is a lie. We sent thee the letter that brought thee to Ponyville so thou might see her rule for the tyranny it truly. Thou must avoid capture at any cost and find the Elements of Harmony that has lied dormant since her greatest betrayal.” From the darkblue magic of her horn a gloving silver tome materialised and glided down to the tiny princess. “Take this book it will tell thee of our quarrel and find our lunar priestess she will guide thee to the Elements.” Luna looked like she was about to say more, but at that moment the forcefield that surrounded the empress wavered. Celestia was moving towards its edges. She moved in slowmotion, but she moving none the less; and she did not look happy. “We don’t have more time” With that she teleported both herself and the empress to a place unknown but even as she disappeared her voice continued to hang in the air. “Recover the Elements of Harmony, use them to purge thy mother of the evil that has infected her heart, and most importantly remember…” A loud bang was heard and then all was silent. *** Rainbow walked in silence though the streets of Ponyville where a full panic was in swing that included the standard looting of the stores. The reason why the villages was in a total panic became apparent to her a moment later when she looked up after noticing the strange dancing of her shadow. The sky, it was divided. The Sun and the Moon was up at the same time, half of the sky, half of the sky was starfilled black with the moon shining softly, the other half of the sky was the same bright blue colour as her coat with an angry sun in the middle shining brightly on its puny subjects below. The two skies were divided by an invisible but incredibly sharp line. Black and blue tendrils constantly lashed at the other side both trying to gain dominance. The Sun and the Moon was not stationary rather they moved slightly behind the front lines enforcing the line every time it looked like there could be a breach. What she saw was nothing short of an all out war between two gods, no wonder ponies were panicking. Remembering the book she had received she thought that the best thing she could do was to find Twilight and ask her about these Elements that Luna mentioned. With a course set she cantered quickly towards the library certain that that must be were her lady-in-waiting was waiting. *** Twilight was doing anything but wait as she frantically dug though the books throwing them in every direction in the already poorly organised library. “Where is it where is it” she halfway screamed to herself, completely oblivious to the four mares that now stared at her with interest. “Where is what sugercube?” she heard somepony say from behind her. Turning around she saw that it was that cowmare with the Stetson hat accompanied by the three other ponies she had met yesterday, one of which she had really hoped never to see again. “What are you commoners doing here?” she said lightly irritated to the four ponies below her. “Why we came to help darling.” The white unicorn said “Yea noticed that ye looked like ye knew something about what the ligity split is going on, and as it properly aren’t any good for the crops with the sky being all topsy-turvy like that we thought we could lend you a hoof.” “Or sixteen” the pink blue-eyed mare added. “What? Oh nevermind, look unless you know where I can find a book about the Elements of Harmony there aren’t much you can do” “The Elements of Harmony a reference guide” the pink coated pony read balancing a book she had just dug out seemingly from nowhere on her snout. “Where did you find that?” “It was under E’e” “Oh this is perfect” Twilight said immediately taking the book from Pinkie with her magic. However her smile soon faltered as she saw that all the pages had been blackened from a fire that only the cover had managed to survive. “Oh this is hopeless” Twilight said throwing the ruined book into the pile. “Looking for a book Twilight?” Rainbow said trotting though the door with the white glowing moon tome still in her magic grip. “The history of Equestria and the true origin of the Alicorns by Princess Luna” Twilight said reading the title. “Not exactly what we are looking for, we need to find out about the Elements so we can stop Nightmare Moon.” “Twilight I don’t think that…” “What? You saw her attack the princess and now the sky is broken” To emphasis her point a loud thunderclap was head overhead. Looking up though the door they saw that one of the blue tendrils had manage to grab one of the night stars which was now pummelling towards the ground, luckily it didn’t look like it would hit anywhere near Ponyville but it was incredibly unnerving none the less. “Perhaps we should give that book a chance Twi, ah havn’t ever seen a book glow quite like that before, it gotta be magic or something”, the orange farmpony said. “Okay we can give it a chance, but it better have some answers about the elements. Opening the book she read the first page Dedicated to our unconceived nieces and to our mentor and eternal friend Flutterstout the Vigilant. Your bravery inspired us Your loyalty changed us Your wisdom made us see the light.” “Who the hay is Flutterstout?” Twilight asked the room. Nopony noticed that one of the seemed to shrink a little by the mention of the name. Flipping a few pages she came to some kind of introduction to the confusing tome. It seemed to be about time. Time have always been difficult to measure in Equestria as every constant, from the sun to moon and stars, for as long as anypony can remember, have been controlled been controlled by pony hooves and horns. So instead of scales and numbers we talk about ages, divided by significant events. In Equestria today there have been seven ages, but as you are reading this we stand on the precipice of the eight. The seven passed ages are: 1. The Preeclasical Age 2. The Classical age 3. The Age of Hyperiun 4. The first Luna-Celestial age 5. The Age of Discord 6. The second Luna-Celestial age 7. The age of treachery. You may call the last something else, but for us it will always be remembered as the age were we were betrayed by the one we trusted the most. The preclasical age accounts for all time from before the founding of Equestria. Famous ponies from this age is wizards like Starswill the bearded and Clover the clever, the later was one of the mares that found the Fire of Friendship, and the first unicorn to serve in the triumvirate that ruled Equestria in the classical age. The Classical age is sadly the one we know least about, as much of what was writing from that age was lost in the fires of Hyperion libricides. Hyperion was the king of Equestria and his reign was as cruel as it was merciless. He was also the first of the immortal ponies known as alicorns, that posses both wings and a horn. We are called alicorns after the unicorns horn, as we are magic incarnate, having all the traits of the three tribes and in a much purer form. It is unknown how Hyperiun came to be, but the few glimpses of records from the clasical age that we saw, spoke of a terribly and powerful unicorn necromancer committing crimes on ponydom, that we cannot even begin to imagine. Hyperion had two daughters, princess Celestia, and we Princess Luna, both inheriting his immortality. He also had sons, and although he favoured them more, they were always born as either unicorns or pegasi. We were small back then, and very much afraid of our dreaded father that in every way seemed like an all-powerful and unstoppable god. He made us feel weak and powerless next to his mighty status, just like he did to all of ponydom. It wasn’t until Celestia and I meat Flutterstout, that we started believing that things could be different, that we could make a difference. Flutterstout was a pegasus and leader of the resistance ageist Hyperion’s rule. Time and again she eluded his traps, and never once did she sink to his level of bestiality. She thought us the true meaning of friendship, of the values Equestria was founded on, she thought us to be brave, thought us that there is always hope, always light, even in the darkest of night, and thought us to believe that a tyrant would always fall no matter how powerful. Thus started our long fight ageist our father, to free the ponies of Equestria. We were victorious in the end, but victory came at a too high a price. Flutterstout was mortally wounded in the final battle, and never saw the new Equestria she fought so hard to help us create. Our vengeance towards our father was merciless. We wanted to kill him, we did everything we could to kill him, but nothing we did could permanently destroy his body. So we left him in the depth of Tartarus with his mind all but shattered hopping that it would forever hold him fast. We were wrong, so very wrong, but for a few centuries Equestria knew peace. Then he broke out. It took us a long time to even realise that it was him, as the creature that immerged from Tartarus was as alien from a pony as it could possibly be. This new demon conquered Equestria, his chaotic power having us completely overwhelmed. Beaten and broken we used the last of our strength to flee to the Everfree Forest, the one place that seemed immune to his taint. Their we founded a resistance in the spirit of Flutterstout But it wasn’t until we discovered the Elements of Harmony that we got a real chance of victory ageist the monster that had once been our father. The Elements whose origin even we do not know, was hidden in an ancient tomb hidden right beneath our rebel headquarters. There are six elements of which the most obvious is magic, but magic can do little without being fuelled by the fire of friendship that the first settler ponies discovered back when they were threatened by the windigoes. These five elements are honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity and loyalty. I am talking about them here, because it is important for you to know them, for you my nieces must wield them, like we once did to defeat our father, so must you wield them to defeat your mother. Because after our second victory Celestia grew mad. Perhaps it was a final curse from our father, perhaps, it was just simple ambition that had poisoned her soul but she wanted the power all to herself, saying that she deserved her position. When I tried to protest she banished me to the moon. I have been able to see very little from my exile, but fear that she have become very much like our father and if so you too is trapped in her web of fear. But know that you can defeat her, even if you are young, for with the elements you are unstoppable.” Twilight put the book down having reached the end of the chapter. “This can’t be right.” Twilight said “Empress Celestia isn’t a tyrant” “She sure seems like one to me, after what her goons did to ma Mah and Pah. Apple Bloom was just a newborn back then, she never even knew them because of her” “What happened to them?” Twilight asked with the first hint of genuine concern for a common pony she had expressed all weekend. “Ah don’t wanna talk about it” “Please don’t pressure Applejack dear, we may never had seen quite eye to eye on most things, especially on what we can do against the empress, but we are of one mind when it comes to her nature, she is evil pure and simple and I would do anything to see her pay” the white unicorn said with uncharacteristically unladylike determination. “Pinkie Pie” Twilight said with rising panic in her voice. “One of her goons gave me a black eye when I tried to throw him a party. Why would he do that I just wanted to make him happy.” “Rainbow surely you can’t be aggrieving with…” “What I saw yesterday only confirms what these ponies are saying. We have to stop her” “You are not stopping anypony” a harsh male voice said from the door before they had time to listen to what the meekest member of their group had to say. It was one pony that the young princess recognised all to well. The very same unicorn she had blasted after he had beaten up the poor weathermare Derpy. He looked positively furious at her, and had a whole squadron of heavily armed guards behind him. *** North of the shining city of Canterlot, in the shadow of the mighty mount Canterhorn, lies the steaming city of New Canterlot. Informally known as the commoners’ capital, it houses all the aspect of Equestria’s central government that the old city of Canterlot neither has the space nor the desire to hold. Among the later is ESCAPED headquarters, the Celstias dreaded secret police, among the former is the supreme command of the armed forces, housed in a giant heptagonal building complex known simply as Septagon. In this giant complex known for its order and rigid discipline a less then disciplined stallion was sprinting though the halls. The young old-mauve coloured stallion with two bloodshot dilated eyes as a cutiemark was galloping down the corridor with a scroll in his mouth. A mare in a light blue uniform and a tiny gold star on each of her shoulders had to spring for her dear life to avid him running into her. An officer cadet was not as lucky an accidentally crashed into a water cooler soaking himself and the floor in the process as he passed. The stallion saw none of this as he continued his neck breaking pace down the hall until he came to two giant doors. Above them stood “Equestria’s Armed Forces Supreme command Central Office” Hardly without thinking he focused a ray of magic on the door handles turning them, throwing the double doors open with a bang, frightening everypony in the large office. He wasted no time in greetings, and for the moment completely ignoring the twenty or so large earthpony stallions that was nearing him threateningly for breaking in unannounced into the very heart of Equestria’s defence. On the other side of the room was a dark brown secretary disk occupied by a brown mare that had been busy filing her hooves until his untimely arrival had made her drop her hooffile in fright Correcting her uniform and trying to look professional she got an annoyed look on her face when she saw who it was that had barged in unannounced. Unfortunately she had to call the security off, for now, it would have been so sweet to have gotten that sorry ass colt thrown in the can. However she still wanted to give him a piece of her mind. “Major Panic Attack what do you think you are doing, you can’t just be barking in her like…” “I need to speak with the supreme commander sub-lieutenant Pennywise.” Major PA said without a hint of hesitation and with much urgency in his voice. Sub-lieutenant Pennywise snared. “You need to make to make an appointment like everypony else, even if you are a chief intelligence officer. And if you have a letter you can just give it to me and I will…” “This is a distress message from Empress Celestia, code Burning Scarlet” He said matter-of-factly as if it were an everyday occurrence. “Bur-bur-bur-burning Scarlet? oh my, does that mean?” “Yes” “Go right ahead.” She stepped out of his way, and hurried back to her desk, desperately trying to organise her files (and find her file) before the storm, that was sure to come, hit. Whiteout wasting more time with the mare, Major PA went to the big doors themselves. He still had the good the sense of knocking before stepping into the lions den; however he didn’t wait for a reply. Inside the large oval office, was a likewise oval table, large enough to hold the entire supreme command council, to the left was a magical two way waterfall and to the right an animated 3D map of all of Equestria that showed all the current military positions. At the end of the large table was a chair. Well there were chairs along the entire table, but this one was impossible large and padded with what looked like leather, but what kind of pony would ever want to sit in that? At the moment it was turned the other way towards the window with a direct view to the backside of Canterhorn and the divided sky overhead. A sense of dread fell over the major as he stood in the room, a dread almost as when he first saw the sky this morning. The Supreme Commander also known as the the Oberst-General (highest general), was renowned as the most brilliant military commander of their age, but at the same time also as the most ruthless. Multiple rumours surrounded the quiet but deadly general; the very chair he now looked at was an example of this. Could it truly be leather, nopony knew, but the rumours were plenty, the most popular rumour was that it was made from the defeated zebra king after the generals successful conquest of Zimbrica. Regardless of the rumours, he was now in the OG’s office, and had a report to. “Your Excellency I…” “I understand you have a letter for me.” A quite voice said from behind the chair. “Ah yes here” he took it out of his mouth and used his magic to levitate it over to the desk. A beige hoof was seen taking the letter. After a moment that seemed like an eternity where the only sound was the sound of Panic’s beating heart, the pony behind the chair finally spoke again. “Have this been confirmed Major Panic?” “Yes I double cheeked, it is from the empress herself; there is no doubt.” “Then send out the seekers, we have a renegade princess to catch.”