The boy runs a finger over a replica shield. It resembles a roaring lion, and he can only shed a single tear.
The time he'd spent with his other self was educational to a fault. Especially under that most trying of circumstance...
-----
(If I could save Time in a bottle...)
Auric crossed his arms and stared at Dullahan within the Penumbra Sanctum. The armor had been sitting in the impromptu throne, but raised himself quickly to his feet when he'd heard what the boy had proposed.
Absolutely not. You would leave this town defenseless! Should we carry out your plan, what is to stop this Teridax from striking here?
Auric sighed. "If it goes well, we won't be leaving them defenseless. Just because you'll be traveling abroad doesn't mean you'll lose your link to this place."
That gave the armor pause. I beg your pardon?
Auric nodded. "You were accepted by Equus as a whole because of the link you share with this place. Granted, a link I started, but you chose to continue it. So your title, Defender of Newvale, is more than symbolic or descriptive."
It is literal. I have a connection with this town, no matter where I go?
Auric nodded. "Should they need you and call out, no matter where you may be, no matter what form you may be in, you will hear it. And it's not like I'm asking for it forever. I only want to try this until the crisis is past."
The armor shifts around, but eventually nods, sheathes the blade it had unknowingly drawn, lowers its shield, and steps forward. I have faith in you, boy, like you have faith in me. What do you require for me to do in this?
Auric smiled and held out his right hand, and the possessed armor did the same. "Sort of like when we focus on making a Hole, except this time, you need to focus more on what you were, what we were, rather than our shared memories."
The armor nodded and the bipeds clasped hands. After a second, a light began to shine from between the two of them, and with a flash that would have blinded any onlookers...
Dullahan vanished.
-----
One of these days, I'm going to stop going into my own mind. That, or teach psychologists back on Earth this trick. It'd cut out all the bullshit and let them get to the real heart of the issue.
I must say, boy, your mind resembles your home a bit more than I thought it would.
I turned to see the headless armor standing at the gates. I smiled at him and waved him in. "No need to stand on ceremony, Dully. We're friends here. At least, I think we are."
Just beyond the door was my subconscious, still in pony-form. He looked from the armor to me, then back to the armor. "Oh, so you've decided to do it, then."
The armor nodded. Indeed. What now?
I motioned towards Sub, who'd taken up residence atop the emblem in the middle. "Now we all gather there and I activate the memory. It should let us figure out what happened, where we went wrong."
The other two gulped at the thought, but complied. I looked to Sub and cleared my throat. "A little help?"
He actually blushed in embarrassment before lighting his horn up and proceeding to nearly fulfill the secret knock. At the last one he paused and looked back to us. Both me and Dully nodded, and the last portion was entered.
The memory activated, and suddenly, I could see.
Where once I had retained control over my emotions, either through fear or diligence in being raised in a 'polite' society, now, I saw that my control had been eroded...no. Taken. By accident, but by the one I had split from. And he, too, had changed. He now required a trigger for his emotions, which had been awoken, yet severely tamped down...which is why he had been capable of being accepted as Newvale's Guardian. If he lacked that control, he would have been seen as the monster he was.
The both of us had gained and lost something. We were incomplete without the other now.
Which is why we were doing this. The memory faded, and the three of us stared at each other.
To think, the armor started, I thought our emotions and lines of thought were our own. I suppose that our exposure and split thanks to the Golden Sun would not have been without consequences, and thinking otherwise was foolhardy.
"Indeed," Sub said, "We noticed a hole in our heart, something missing, something off. From time to time it was hard to control our rage."
"But now," I finished as I stuck my hand out between us all, "We can rectify that. Once we were two, separated by dimensions. Design brought us together as one, and then we split again, changed for it. Now the time has come for two to be one again."
Sub placed his hoof on my hand and we looked to Dullahan, who only waited a second before adding his hand.
Promise me this: he who started this will not succeed. That we shall emerge victorious, and that Newvale shall not fall while I am merged.
I nodded at all three. "So long as we are one, we shall hear the call should it be issued. Newvale shall ne'er fall."
Sub vanished, becoming a representation of Eureka. Dullahan too vanished, and suddenly I was wearing his armor over my clothes. I hefted the blade and moved in the armor, feeling like myself for the first time in a long time.
"Now...we are one."
-----
ShiverSpine paused, momentarily struck speechless by the fact that here was Auric Fulcrum, human again. Moreso was he speechless because here was not Dullahan, the one he'd been coming to see. And as he watched, Auric...shifted.
First, his clothes shifted from Day to Night, but it didn't stop there. Bits of armor appeared at the shoulders, knees, and elbows. The coloration shifted back to Day, but the armor remained, even though its coloration shifted as well. And only when he paused halfway through the shift, the left half Day, the right half Night, did he finally place why the armor looked so familiar.
It looked just like the armor of Dullahan. And that was when he noticed the eyes had snapped open and were looking at him. "Auric?" he ventured.
The boy laughed. "Close, but not quite."
The slight duality of the voice and armor clued Shiver in to what had most likely happened. The flaming blue eyes were a big giveaway as well. "Did you two...merge, or something?"
And then the boy laughed louder. "Indeed we did. Auric claimed to be the Knight of the Eclipse, yet for all his boasting, he aligned himself more with the ideals of the Light than the Dark. On those rare occasions he slipped into the Dark, his actions then were not an equal counterpart to his actions under the influence of his own Light. Dullahan could have been his counter in this...had he not become fond of Newvale. His viciousness had been bled out of him by the influence of Auric."
The boy hefted his blade and looked at it, smiling. "We are more together than we could ever be apart."
And then the Night side of him faded to Day, taking the glowing eyes with it, and the boy let the smile drop slowly. "But then again, that's true of all living beings, isn't it?" He then blinked and recalled he hadn't sent for anyone, and looked to the dragon. "Something you'd like to share?"
The dragon nodded once as he recalled why he'd come here. "Something showed up in Canterlot. Something big."
Auric frowned and focused his energies - it was easier now - before vanishing in a cloud of golden fire.
-----
It was approximately two meters wide, by two meters tall, by half a meter thick. It glowed a faint blue, and I felt the Void-touch on it.
It'd come from another world, and I knew what that meant. I was idly tempted to blast it into atoms, consequences be damned. Either from expending that much power, or from the researchers who were attempting to indirectly scan it.
Apparently rule one of investigating any new item, especially one that's landed in Canterlot, is no direct magic. Seeing as how it's a city of primarily Unicorns, all it would take is a clever enchantment set to go off when the item is levitated, and suddenly you have one less unicorn.
At least.
I'd mentioned this in passing to Cel and Luna, and they'd blanched at the thought and immediately instituted new safety procedures.
So naturally, I decide to break them and walk right up to the damn slab. I carefully placed a hand on it and sent a trickle of my power into it, frowning...
And then smiling. Raw, unfettered, powerful, primordial. It felt like the foundation of foundations, incredibly malleable. I could work with this. I turned to the head researcher and smiled. "Get a message to the Princesses, both of them. Tell them they're going to want to hear the words I have to say."
Ten minutes later, Cel and Luna appeared in a flash of light outside the perimeter formed by the guards and researchers. They sedately walked up to me and looked at the object. "Auric, good to see you human again. What is this object?"
I sighed and groaned. "Another 'gift' from one I wish would take a damn hint. He probably sent it here as a distraction, but I have a plan. Can you send a letter to the other two Princesses? What I'm planning goes beyond what he'd think I'd do, and I'm going to need your help. I only just have enough power to get away with doing this and remain human."
Celestia's horn lit up and she nodded a few times before letting the glow die. "They will be here within a few moments. What have you discovered about the slab, Auric?"
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "It's incredibly dense, one might say nigh-indestructible, and responsive to elemental energy and possibly magic. Problem is, even a slab like this is heavy. Incredibly heavy."
They raised an eyebrow each at that, and I smiled. "Put it this way, were it a little larger and in your castle, I'd be afraid of it sliding off the damn mountain."
The two shared a Look at that, and right about then, Twilight, followed by Cadence, teleported in. I nodded in greeting to the two, and then walked over to the slab and began carefully carving it with Eureka.
The alicorns were stunned that I'd deface this new discovery, but I shushed them. "Cadence, Twilight, take up opposing sides, will you? Same for you two, Cel and Luna."
They blinked, but slowly nodded and complied with my request. My carving didn't stop until I was satisfied with my runework, which I inspected thrice before smiling. I took up a place behind Cadence and began my intonation.
"Earth, stoic, slow to act, dislikes to move, but when it does, ye'd best be gone. Keeper of the dead, cradle of life, foundation of the world. That which claims and restores all, for only through the earth can unjustly taken life be returned. This is Earth, Venus."
A small light flickered into life on the slab, and the alicorns started, but I continued, this time behind Luna. "Water, ever flowing, ever shifting, master of forms, healer, killer. It perpetuates an endless cycle of life and death. It can soothe the greatest of wounds, or cause them. This is ice, Water, Mercury."
Another flash of light, and now I was behind Twilight. "Air, ever moving, that which desires constantly to be free. Bridge between the heavens and below for pure energy now and again. Associated with knowledge, for information desires to be as free as the breeze. This is the mind, electricity, Air, Jupiter."
And now it was time for the final alicorn. I stood behind Celestia, and I could swear I saw a smirk. "Fire, destroyer, protector, blight, nurturer. Without it, it would be a cold world indeed, and with too much, all the world would be ablaze. Careful moderation turns it from a thing to be feared to a useful tool. It hungers, devours, changes all things in its path. Whether it be from far above, in the stars, to the core of the planet below, and all that lies between. This is Fire, Mars."
I finished my circuit as the runes I'd inscribed lit up. One to an element, which glowed brightly. One to an alicorn, which I was about to take care of. One for Alchemy itself, which I would also fill at the same time as another, namely one for my blood.
And then, finally, the greatest rune of all. A blank square, which would be used to bind the name and ideals I would give it to its form. I nodded as the pattern caught. "If you would, M'ladies. Feed a bit of your power as Alicorns into the spellform."
Four horns ignited, and four distinct colors appeared over the runes in front of them. The runes caught on to the power, and even once they'd cut the link, the spellform still fed the power around and through itself, mixing it into what was already there. I raised my right hand and fed a bit of my power over Alchemy as the golden flames into one rune, just enough to make the spellform recognize it. Then I cut myself and fed my blood into the next-to-last rune, and it, too, was funneled into the spell.
I then stepped onto the slab and stood over the square in the middle that had been surrounded by ten runes and a circle, composed my thoughts, and began to speak.
"Harmony, true Harmony, isn't about what a lot of people think its about. Not just Order, because then none would be allowed to dissent. Not just Light, for without Darkness, how would you know what Light truly was? Not just Creation, for without Destruction, what is its value? No, Harmony is about mixing opposites...and taking the best results from the resulting fallout, and incorporating them back into the world, and repeating it ad infinitum.
"Harmony is something all mortal beings strive for. It is a state of perfection that only mortals can help bring about. It is taking your opposition's point of view and going 'you might be right' with it. It is about creating a think tank and accepting even the most ludicrous ideas, and asking yourself 'why don't we at least try' with them.
"In essence," I began to wrap up, "Harmony is all around us. It is a million voices singing in unison, the song of Life Itself as it marches ever forwards. Order and Chaos, Creation and Destruction, all that is Good and Evil working in tandem. The World Itself is Harmony, and it gets better all the time. And thus, I name this creation of mine."
I jumped off the block, which had begun to glow brightly during my speech, and held my right hand over it. "Arise, Concordia!"
The top layer of the slab peeled itself off, curling up as it did so until it was cylindrical. Then it rapidly made itself narrower and narrower, until it was staff-like in nature. A flash from within changed it from the blue it had been to a steely grey, and upon it I could still read the various runes on the exterior, save for the...security measures I had placed on it via the Alchemy and blood ones, which had ended up inside. Even as I watched, the runes glowed with their otherworldly light, and I smiled.
I held the staff up slightly and concentrated. In a quick flash of motion, it was no longer a mere staff, but a halberd. I brought it close to the block and carefully sliced a small corner piece off. Smiling, I returned the staff to its original form, then flexed my right palm. Instantly, the staff...flowed. Into me.
Oh yeah, it hurt like a bitch, but that was the price you paid for working with something not of your dimension. On the upside, far less likely for this to end up stolen if it couldn't be separated from me. Experimentally, I caused it to appear in my left hand and probed the connection. Linked to me, attuned to my power and blood. It would serve as a focus, though it would take time for me to grow used to using it. I turned to Twilight and the researchers, then motioned back to the slightly-less-intact slab.
"Go nuts."
-----
I stared at my Mirror and recalled a promise I had once made. It'd taken me a while to fulfill it, but if I could secure an ally, it would be worth it.
Essentially, I'd gone down to Ponyville Hospital, went to their Pharmacy, and asked them what they would give a typical pony who was plagued with even the worst sort of psychotic episodes. I then asked them to adjust their dosages for me, and they did so. And then I asked them to adjust it again, and make it so powerful it wouldn't impair me from doing anything, but only just.
I hoped it would be strong enough. I had a King of Terror to aid.
I slowly brought to mind the symbol of the Halo of the Sun that had been imprinted on me and laid a hand on the Mirror. It rippled and showed that familiar scenery, of a land locked in an eternal fog and nightmare.
I carefully chucked the bottle into the Mirror, and watched it and the note attached to it appear in the street of Silent Hill. Instantly, the sirens went off, and I smiled. It appeared that it was not always silent there. I wished I could see the King's reaction to the note.
Scott Visk,
This is the strongest stuff I could legally get my hands on. I'm not sure if it'll help with the voices, or with being chained to Alessa. All I know is, it should help you somewhat in reclaiming your mind. I wish you luck and pray you take care. I am no longer the only one who Understands.
Auric Fulcrum
Frank Defontaine