//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: The Royal City // Story: The Balance of Harmony // by The Rising Tide of Night //------------------------------// It took two days flight, but we eventually reached Camelot. Much of our flight was spent in silence, Applejack and Fluttershy cleaning the weapons we had acquired. Fluttershy had brought a small paint set as well, and took some time to decorate her guns with a stylized butterfly, much like her old cutie mark. When she saw me watching her paint, she blushed, and said, “Well, they don’t have to be ugly things, do they?” Applejack, who had been watching, handed over her own rifle with a hopeful smile, and we watched as Fluttershy decorated her rifle with a stylized trio of apples. We first saw the city of Camelot when we were roughly a half day out, the gleaming white buildings on the edge of a cliff, the large white castle jutting up into the air. We decided to land outside the city and approach the rest of the way on foot. With the situation in Camelot an unknown at the moment, we thought it was better to come in quietly on the ground than appear as an attacking force. That decision being made, we touched just off of the road into town, doing our best to disguise the disc once more, shouldered our packs, and hiked towards the city. We approached the gleaming white walls, passing a checkpoint on the way in. The checkpoint appeared to be unmanned, so we hurried our way through and headed directly for the main gate. The approach felt eerily familiar to our approach to the Changeling’s castle, and just as silent, which set us all on edge. We kept our weapons sheathed as we approached, the only exception being my staff, which I used as a walking stick. We saw that the main gates were open wide, as they usually would be during an average day. However, we still couldn’t see anyone manning the gates. We strode through the entrance, unchallenged. We looked around the familiar city, searching for some form of life. Suddenly, Fluttershy pointed down the street, and called, “Look there!” We looked where she was pointing, but I couldn’t see anything. “Fluttershy, what did you see?” I asked. “I thought I saw something down the street,” she replied. “It looked like someone walking.” “Ah didn’t see anything,” Applejack mentioned, looking around. “On the other hand…” She stared down towards a different area of the main street. She shook her head. “Ah thought I saw…” Suddenly she looked confused. “Ah dunno.” “Wow, that couldn’t be any clearer than if you’d drawn a picture,” I grumbled sarcastically. “Sorry,” Applejack looked contrite. “Ah just thought I saw… you.” “Me?” I looked around, searching in confusion. Suddenly, I saw a flash of movement in the street. “Wait, did you...?” We all looked around, seeing flashes of movement, which grew more and more prevalent. Suddenly, it was as if a film had been pulled back, revealing a hidden world. We saw people, but they weren’t truly there. They were transparent, filling the streets and buildings, passing around and through us. It looked as if we were standing in the middle of a bustling city that wasn’t real. “Oh my…” gasped Fluttershy. “What is this?” Suddenly, Applejack pointed again. “Twilight, it is you!” I looked where she was pointing, and gasped, as I saw a young girl, no older than eight, with hair matching mine exactly. She was walking with two adults, a man and a woman, who I recognized as having to be my parents in this world. They appeared to be walking down the street, heading towards a large building that looked like a barracks. They approached the door, knocked on it, and disappeared inside. Suddenly, I looked back again, and saw myself in the same position on the street, heading down to the barracks with my parents. We watched as this scene repeated itself over and over again, much to our confusion. We looked around, focusing on other specters, noticing the same repetition among them. It looked like someone had taken a slice of the life of Camelot and just looped it over and over again. “What the hey’s going on here?” Applejack asked. “I have no idea,” I replied, astonished. Suddenly, I was tackled from behind, slamming down on the ground. I felt a weight resting on my back, and tried to turn myself over, but I suddenly felt the edge of a blade resting on the back of my neck. I froze, and heard Fluttershy’s voice, except at the same time it wasn’t Fluttershy’s voice. “Living beings have no place in Camelot,” she said, another voice echoing under hers. “Fluttershy, what the hey are you doing?” Applejack called, and I felt the weight being pulled off of my back. I chanced a glance up, and saw Applejack holding back Fluttershy, who was holding one of Pinkie’s old daggers, straining to get to me, a twisted expression on her face. Her eyes, however, were vacant and staring. As I watched, pushing myself to my feet, Fluttershy suddenly twisted around, driving her dagger into Applejack’s shoulder, skidding off her armored shirt. Applejack let out a cry of surprise, releasing Fluttershy, who attacked Applejack once more, blade flashing. Applejack’s defensive instincts kicked in, and blocked the attack with a blur of motion, catching the blade on her arm. “Fluttershy, what are you doing?” I cried, grabbing her with my magic, halting her attack. She glared at me, eyes still vacant, and she spoke in that dual voice once more. “This is the land of the Dead,” she intoned. “Living beings have no place here.” I stared at her, trying to figure out what was going on, when I suddenly saw a wisp of what appeared to be smoke floating in the air, heading directly towards Applejack. “Applejack, look out!” I cried, sensing malevolence from the smoke. She looked up in surprise, and the wisp struck her, vanishing into her. As soon as the wisp entered her, she looked over at me with the same twisted expression Fluttershy had, drew her dagger and leapt at me. I let out a cry and grabbed Applejack with my magic as well. “What’s gotten into you two?” They both glared at me, speaking at exactly the same time in that dual voice that caused the hair to stand up on the back of my neck. “Living beings that enter Camelot must join those that live here or they must leave here forever,” they both intoned. “Well, we can’t die yet, and we can’t leave until we get the element that’s here,” I countered. “And for that, I need my friends. So leave them alone!” With that, I cast a purging spell on the two of them, watching wisps fly out of them both. As soon as the wisps completely left their bodies, their expressions turned back to normal, and their eyes cleared, looking confused as I released them from my holding spell. “Umm, Twi?” asked Applejack. “What’s going on?” Fluttershy looked down at the dagger in her hand and let out a little squeak of surprise. “When did I grab that?” she asked. I looked up into the sky, searching. The daylight made them hard to see, but after some careful inspection, I found that I could see the translucent wisps floating in the air. “We may have a problem, girls. It looks like this is a city of ghosts, and they don’t want us here.” Fluttershy looked up into the air, panic on her face. “Ghosts? What’ll we do, Twilight?” “I think I can keep us protected from them, but it’s going to take a lot of my energy. We’ll need to make this a very quick visit, if we can.” “Are you sure you can handle this, Sugarcube?” asked Applejack, eyeing the floating wisps. Some of them appeared to be circling us with anticipation. “I don’t really have a choice now, do I?” I replied, steeling myself. “Now stay close to me.” They stood next to me, determination on their faces as I concentrated on my chosen spell. A force field flickered into being around us all, just as one of the wisps attempted to strike. It was deflected off back into the sky, and it circled back with an air of frustration, hovering over us once more. Fluttershy looked over at me. “A force field? But I’ve seen you cast those without any problem, and hold them for a long time.” I shook my head. “The actual casting of force fields is easy. And I can anchor them to a location, which allows me to keep it going without too much effort. It’s mobile force fields that are difficult.” I waved away their concern. “I’d rather deal with that then worrying about which of us will become possessed next. Now, we need to get moving. I’m betting the element is in the castle, it’s just where that I’m not completely sure about.” We headed up the main street, directly towards the castle, moving quickly. I hoped that there would be someplace we could hide from the floating wisps, since I could already feel the drain on my energy from keeping the force field going as we ran. Wisps struck down at us as we ran, bouncing off of my force field, and continuing to circle back. As we approached the castle, I felt myself starting to falter, and started looking for someplace to hide. “AJ! Fluttershy!” I called, pointing at an old guard house that looked solid. “Over there, quickly!” We rushed over to the guard house, and Applejack kicked the door in, pulling us in with her. We slammed the door shut behind us, and I looked around quickly, searching for any of the wisps before dropping the field with a sigh of relief. Fluttershy looked closely at me. “Are you doing ok, Twilight?” she asked, concerned. I nodded. “I’m fine, just tired. Give me a few minutes of rest, and I’ll be able to get us into the castle.” “Ah hope we don’t run into any more of those things,” said Applejack, shuddering. “Ah didn’t feel right, when that one was inside me. Ah felt… cold and Ah didn’t know what Ah was doing.” Fluttershy shuddered as well. “Me too. It was like I would never be warm again.” “Well, as long as they haven’t taken over the castle, we should be ok,” I replied, carefully glancing outside. “Ready, girls?” They nodded, and I cast my force field spell again. We ran out of the guardhouse, heading straight to the castle, flinging open the doors as we went. Applejack turned back and slammed them shut, and I dropped the force field with relief. We looked around the castle, searching for wisps while inspecting the castle entryway. The castle itself was dusty and uncared for. Moldy furniture decorated the foyer, while dusty old tapestries hung from the rafters, looking like they would disintegrate at the slightest touch. We strode up the main stairs, old carpet covering the steps, doing our best not to disturb too much dust. We had one close call when I stepped on what turned out to be a rotten stair, and it fell apart under my foot with a loud crack. I fell through, scraping my leg in the process, the rest of the board shattering into pieces. I felt Applejack grab the back of my shirt, pulling me back and away from the broken stair. We carefully tested the steps before putting weight on them after that. Arriving at the main hall, we entered the room, looking down the hall to the raised dais at the end, upon which sat two thrones, one of which was occupied. We strode down the great hallway, dusty, falling apart decorations on the walls, approaching the occupied throne. Arriving at the foot of the dais, we looked up at the one person I was afraid to see in this new world: Princess Celestia. She sat on the throne, staring blankly off to the side at something that only she could see. Her pale, multicolored hair flowed behind her, and her pale skin shone in the light. She was wearing a long white gown made of a shimmering material, and her golden crown was perched on her head. She suddenly smiled, and I thought for a minute that she was smiling at me, like she always did whenever we saw each other. However, my joy was short-lived as she spoke, incoherently, apparently talking to someone that we couldn’t see. “Princess Celestia?” I asked, tentatively. She ignored me for a while longer, conversing with whatever shade she was seeing. I approached her, coming up the dais. I got to the first level before she reacted, her face flashing in my direction. “I do not remember summoning you, Twilight Sparkle,” she spoke in her commanding tone. I stopped reflexively in the face of that tone. Mastering myself, I replied, “No, Princess, you didn’t. I’m here to obtain something that you hold.” “The element of Harmony, yes, I know. My beloved has informed me of your quest, and how it is you are here, despite being dead in our world.” I was taken aback, and glanced back at my friends. They were just as surprised as I was. “Y-you’re beloved?” I asked. She smiled, somewhat vacantly. “Yes, my beloved Discord. He told me about your arrival shortly after he met you last, and told me that you would be coming by to retrieve the element of Harmony that he keeps here.” She reached up, golden light surrounding her hand, and we looked up as the element of Honesty came floating down, a stone with a crystal apple set into it. Celestia took hold of it, admiring it in the glow of her magic. I was still in shock over her calling Discord her beloved. “Princess, what has Discord done to you?” She looked up at me in surprise. “Why, Discord has given me the greatest gift of all. He has given me the freedom to be myself. I have ruled for the past two thousand years, and Discord has allowed me to step down from that position for the first time. He has even brought my long lost sister back from her banishment.” She gestured to the empty throne next to her. “Have you met Princess Luna?” she asked. Somewhat hesitantly, I replied, “Yes, your Highness, I have. She’s actually in the Crystal Empire right now. We freed her from being Nightmare Moon.” Somewhat testily, Celestia replied, “Twilight, I know not what you are talking about. Princess Luna is right over there. Can you not see her?” “Umm… I’m sorry, Princess, but there’s no one there.” Celestia sighed. “Oh, Twilight, and here I thought you were a bright student. Perhaps if Discord were to visit, you would be able to see the truth.” “What truth?” Applejack asked, confused. “Why, the truth about Discord and myself.” She stood, still holding the element, and called out, “Discord! Will you come here, please?” “Yes, my dearest Princess?” came Discord’s voice. We turned to see him opening the side of one of the pillars like a door and entering the room. He closed it behind him, and took a bow. “Greetings, ladies! It’s wonderful to see you again!” “Discord!” cried Fluttershy, stepping behind Applejack, a frightened look on her face. “What are you doing here?” I demanded. His expression became mock-hurt, and he replied, “Why, can’t I come by and see my good friends and my Princess?” Suddenly he was right behind me, hands on my shoulders, head craning around to look at me. “My, my, Twilight, love the eye patch. It suits you.” I shrugged his hands away and spun around, staff at the ready. “Discord, what did you do to the Princess?” With a look of innocence, he replied, “Me? Why, I gave her some well-deserved time off from running the country. Is that so wrong?” “What’s this about Princess Luna being here? You know she’s in the Crystal Empire right now.” “Well, now, it’s not my fault if the Princess needs a companion,” he replied, indignant. “I just happened to give her one.” He snapped his fingers, and I could see a form in the second throne. It looked like Princess Luna, but was made entirely of wood. As I watched, it got to its feet, joints clacking much like the timberwolves. It made a jerky sort of bow, and sat back down, going limp. “A puppet!” exclaimed Fluttershy. “If you say so, dear Fluttershy,” Discord replied. He stepped forward to me, causing me to take a step back. We walked this way back down the steps, him advancing and me retreating until we got to the bottom of the dais. “Now, Twilight, I must commend you on your progress so far. Four of the elements, and you’ve only lost three of your wonderful friends. Somehow I expected it to be one to one, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.” He disappeared and reappeared next to Celestia, who handed him the element of Honesty. Suddenly, Discord was standing between Fluttershy and Applejack, tossing the element back and forth. My friends each jumped away from him in surprise. “I suppose you want this one as well. Now, I could just give it to you, but that wouldn’t be very fun, now would it?” “What do you want?” I growled, frustrated. “Some entertainment, my dear Twilight,” he replied. “I am the master of Chaos, after all.” With that, he snapped his fingers, and two of the wisps from outside suddenly appeared above Applejack and Fluttershy. They both let out a cry as the wisps struck them, their faces going blank, then becoming as twisted and menacing as they had outside the castle.