//------------------------------// // Lost Solution // Story: No Elements, No Harmony // by Fret //------------------------------// "...And that's when I ran," Luna finished, wiping her eyes. Celestia pulled her under wing to calm her down. "Don't worry sister, that wasn't you. At least... not you you." "It was once," she replied quietly. "Oh my... Princesses, I think you should read this," Twilight picked up the journal with her magic and dropped it in front of them. Luna didn't bother, but Celestia scanned her eyes through the few pages, and started to read it out. "Dear Diary, I knew nopony appreciated my night. So I thought, I could either sit out in the dark, alone, for the rest of my life, or stop being such a doormat and step up from the little sister I am. I must say, Celestia's face when I transformed into the bigger and better me was rather hilarious. I almost had her. I shot her down, and she was almost done for. But she managed to get up, so I came down and stunned her. I gave her a choice. I could let her rule beside me as not a princess... but a Queen. We could still be sisters. That, or she would be thrown in Tartarus, and left to... well... die. I was surprised when she chose the second option, but I persuaded her eventually to live in eternal night with me. Can't wait for this new era of darkness! Queen Nightmare Moon." "That's what I would've done if you didn't banish me?" Luna started her weeping again. Celestia put a hoof on her face. Why did she read that out loud? "Of course not. This is an alternate universe... it's not you," she tried nuzzling her, but the smaller alicorn pulled away to glare at her. "Then why is everything in this journal the same? Mine and your personality is the same... so the same goes for Nightmare Moon." "There must be a gap that we don't know about!" Celestia told her, not wanting to talk about this anymore. "Um... Celestia?" Twilight spoke up. "What?!" Her mentor covered her mouth when she saw Twilight flinch at her tone. "Sorry... Um... yes?" "I think I might know what's missing." --- Spike repeatedly made an imaginary circle with his foot's edge. Unlike usual, he wasn't drooling over Rarity as she worked. There was just a stone in his stomach that just wanted him to go back to bed. "Um... Spike, darling?" his thoughts were cut by his crush's voice. "Um, yes?" he straightened up. "Spike, are you alright? I know it's been a whole day since Twilight disappeared. You really don't have to help if you don't want-" "Uh, no! I'm always happy to help Rarity!" he laughed nervously. Rarity wasn't buying it, but carried on. "Well, I was going to go and look for some more gems, since I'm out of them. Would you like to come help me?" "Uh... sure!" Spike lightened up. Maybe some tasty gems would cheer him up. After all, Twilight would come back soon... Hopefully. Eventually, Rarity and Spike arrived at their usual spot for looking for gems. But unlike usual, not a word was spoken to each other. As Spike was summoned to dig up the first batch of gems, Rarity finally broke the long silence between them. "You know Spike, you don't need to do this if you don't feel like it. I'm fine with... digging them up myself," she cringed at the though of getting dirty, but friends came first. "No Rarity! I'm always happy to help," Apart from now, he silently added. "You really don't need to worry about Twilight, you know," Rarity told him, putting a hoof on his shoulder as soon as he dropped the gems in the wagon, "she's got two Princesses at her side, and whatever she's doing right now, I'm sure she could handle it herself either way!" She had a point there - for the most part. "I know she's with two ponies who have lived over a thousand years and all... but name one time she's ever completed some sort of task without us." Rarity blinked at him. What he said was true, she couldn't remember the last time Twilight had ever defeated a villain... or any other task on her own. She's always needed her friends with her. Even when she had three other alicorn's magic on her side, she wasn't able to defeat Tirek without the help of her friends. Without giving up her magic. Then again, it wasn't just her five pony friends and Spike who were at her side that day. Discord had just as big a role as the rest of them. Because of friendship. So who was to say Celestia and Luna wouldn't have the same effect as the master of all things chaos? "She has two close friends with her. Whatever she's doing, she'll be fine." --- "You're right... I'm positive we wrote something about the tree of harmony here. Everything else is the same... but the tree's not even mentioned," Celestia went over her journal over and over, but there was no mention of it, "and the other me didn't banish the other Nightmare Moon to the moon. Was the tree never discovered here?" "I suppose there's only one way to find out," spoke Luna, finally getting up to escape the comfort of her sister, "we know where the tree is. We'll be able to know if the elements are untouched when we see them." Without further explanation, she let her sister and Twilight follow her to where they knew they'd find the Tree of Harmony. "Wait, we don't need to sneak out," Twilight stopped the two of them. "Huh?" Luna turned around. "We can just teleport. Remember?" "...Oh. Right." Each of their horns started to glow, and the three of them disappeared. They then re-appeared at their meeting spot, each looking at each other to make sure they were all in the same place. All of them knew where the cave was, so no words were needed in order to all fly down there. "It's really dark in here..." Twilight commented, her horn starting to glow for a light spell. "Speaking of darkness, why is it still night time? I'm sure it's been longer than twelve hours by now," Luna looked up to the sky. "Because Nightmare Moon is the Princess around here," Celestia replied. "Queen," Luna corrected her. "This can't be right..." Twilight murmured. "What is it?" Celestia asked. "The Tree of Harmony isn't here." For a few moments, silence erupted them. "Actually, that does make sense. For the most part," Celestia started, "no elements means I couldn't banish Nightmare Moon to the moon, leading up to all this chaos. But, speaking of chaos, that's a question I have." "Yeah?" Twilight urged. "Me and Luna couldn't defeat Discord without the Elements. So why isn't he ruling?" "Err..." "Well maybe we..." Before they could think of an answer, they were all interrupted by a somewhat familiar voice. "Did someone say my name?"