//------------------------------// // The Puzzle of the Element of Magic // Story: Dragons of Hourglass // by Rammy //------------------------------// Discord pulled on his beard deep in thought. For hours he had sat there on his throne in the Council Chambers like that. He rarely went into thought like this. To do so could make it more difficult for him to use his magic. He wasn’t a strategist he could never make plans. Well, he could, but not complex ones. Harmony on the other hand spent most of his waking hours like that. He had to figure out how to deal with the situation without revealing that Harmony’s condition was never cured. The Bearers and more specifically Twilight would undoubtable focus their attention on Harmony than on the coming darkness. He had hoped that after nearly dying in the Untamed Wilds that Harmony would avoid dangerous situations that would aggravate his condition. As soon as he felt the magic disturbance in Hourglass he knew that something had happened. What he didn’t know was that Harmony had been foolishly dealing with dark magic. He of Hourglass could have help. By Tartarus, even he could have helped, but no, he had to do it alone. The sound of the door opening pulled Discord out of his musings. He looked up to see that the spark dragon known to him only as He of Hourglass had entered. He could see from the sparks flowing off of him that something was disturbing him. The sparks should be flowing freely off of him but right now they seem to swirl and pause before finally falling off and disappearing. “Dragon Keeper what brings you here?” Discord curiosity peaked. “He of Harmony. I sensed the lifting off of the dark magic from the dishonored one. But I also detected something else...” “He of Harmony has Magic Wasting Disease.” Discord gave him the answer and as par for him interrupted what was probably going to a boring description. “Uncommon for non dragons and as long as he doesn’t aggravate it’s non lethal, crippling, but non lethal…” Discord seemed to be a bit irritated toward the end. He of Hourglass was confused at He of Laughter’s reaction. The disease did explain the oddity of what he detected as the dark magic lessen and disappeared altogether. The anger over it was unusual. The disease was one of the curses on mainly the dragons races however he doubted that he would know that.  THe curse or disease as it is called artificially ends a dragon’s life near the fifteen to twenty thousand year mark. It was a problem that he would need to fix as it was lethal for dragons. Apparently it was not for other races so back to why the irritation over He of Harmony having it. “Gah, I’ll be glad when I leave this story…” Discord trailed off. After a few moments he  noticed that He of Hourglass had a look of complete confusion. Discord waved his hands dismissively, “Forget that last statement only two other beings would have gotten it anyway… Well so will the readers but that is besides the point.” He of Hourglass only raised an eyebrow to that clearly not sure of what the draconequus was going on about. He of Laughter was going to get on his nerves. It may be time for everyone to leave my territory but not before I get my answers about He of Harmony and the dishonored one. “Okay enough of the randomness. I get that He of Harmony has Magic Wasting Disease… Something else about He of Harmony…He seems…” “Ah so you noticed that he seems so unpony like and more dragon like too?” The dragon’s maw dropped a bit at Discord accurate assumption. Discord took note of this and sighed heavily while slumping on his throne. He rubbed his eyes a bit before looking through his hands to see He of Hourglass staring at him quizzically. “Harmony is…” “Harmony is known in all the lands and he has good relations with all of the races but the equines. Very few equines have ever heard of him much less seen him. His Bearers didn’t even know of him until a few months ago. He may be King of Equestria but I’m sure that a box of donuts has more donuts in it then ponies that are aware that the Kingdom of Equestria has a king.” Discord grabbed a donut from behind his ear and dunked it into a coffee mug that he snapped into his hand. “Hypothetical question,” He started before taking a bite out his donut. ”Hmmm raspberry…” He of Hourglass facepalmed at He of Laughter’s continuing randomness. What had this to do with being dragon-like? As he was in the Council of Harmony he had to keep in check his natural dragon tendencies to not tolerate this kind of behavior. Here he was equal with He of Laughter and had to treat him with the respect that was due of a Keeper. Figuring it was going to be a bit he sat down on an empty throne wrapping his tail in front of him. Discord finished his donut then took a sip of his coffee before finally continuing, “Harmony has spent nearly half of his nearly ten thousand year life with the dragons. Do you know why? I don’t. I can only speculate that he believes that there is something the dragons are missing or that something the dragons have that the ponies are missing…” A box of animal crackers appeared in front of Discord. He pulled out two animal crackers one that was an alicorn the other a dragon. The crackers came to life and started to struggle against his tight grip.He quickly chopped off the pony head leaving its body to twitch. The dragon squeaked out a mini roar trying to bite Discord’s hand. Discord yelped when the dragon cracker finally managed to bite his clawed hand.  Discord cursed before snatching the now fleeing dragon from the air and eating the dragon's wings before dunking it into the coffee he still had. He of Hourglass went a bit green watching Discord sadistically mutilating the crackers. He was glad he was a strict gem and greens eater.  Discord brushed off some crumbs before he continued, “As I’m sure you know the Dragon Migration is a new phenomenon something that is only been going on roughly seven thousand years. I suspect that Harmony’s influence on the dragon races had something to do with it.” “He has his hooves in nearly every pie as the expression goes… ooo rhubarb all I need is some ice cream!” Discord greedily dug into the pie, “Don’t tell Flutters she’d give me the Stare for stress eating… Gah! I’m turning into Celestia…” A seven tiered MMMM cake appeared which he promptly shooed away, “except she eats cake…” “Where was I? Oh, yes! No Keeper before him had ever done as much for bringing the light of harmony back into this world and its people. No Keeper went as far as he did to help to races beside those in his charge. I suspect that he is the only nondragon to be a ‘friend’ to dragons since the dark days prior to the sealing of the ‘Chaos Bringer’ though I do believe it’s ‘Nameless One’ to your kind.” “I’m getting way too old for this...” Discord snapped his paw and he suddenly look old and wrinkled. A cane in his claw and and false teeth half dangling out of his mouth. He quickly pushed the false teeth back into place before speaking again, “Finally my magic is working correctly!” “Are you going to continue being chaotic or will you get to the point.” He of Hourglass’s sparks were starting to redden. “The point? The point…” Discord pulled on his beard trying to remember what he was going to talk about, “Ah, the point!” “I gave you some of the puzzle pieces on the matter. I like riddles and puzzles but I find it frustrating when I’m trying to solve one then giving one…” Discord quickly showed the dragon a newspaper. Over the Manehattan Times Crossword Discord had crudely drawn an angry face in red dripping ink. He then casually threw the thing away into a trash can that wasn’t there before. “Harmony is an enigma and is difficult to understand… Of course so am I but for different reasons...”   A feral draconic growl got him back on track, “Let me ask do you know what attributes of Harmony he has?” Discord produced mock cardboard cutouts of the Bearers cutie marks and set them lazily floating in front of them. “Generosity. Loyalty. Honesty. Kindness. Joy… All of those traits Harmony is… But Harmony has another... commonly known as Magic…” This time he had a crystalline replica of the Magic Element, “A very poor name for the element slash trait. Magic has nothing to do with harmony. True there is harmony magic but magic in general is just that magic nothing harmonical about it…” “As far as I can tell the trait is ambiguous. That is unusual, unique actually. I’m not sure what yours are and may take a bit for them to manifest. I’m not sure given my lack in the knowledge of dragon magic... Every harmony trait that has manifested within a Keeper has or had was or is precise, known. Every one but his central Element.” “I suspect that the key to understanding Harmony lies with the solving the puzzle of that Element.” Discord pulled out a key ring with lots of rings jiggling on it. He fiddled with it for a moment before snapping it out of existence. “There is one other thing you need to know about Harmony.” Discord stood up from his throne and stood in the midst of the thrones, “It’s something I do with every Keeper. At first I had to do it by ‘feel.’ A sort of a modification of my ability to sense magical imbalances… Anyway it’s a bit easier now if a bit morbid.” Discord shouted a question, “Is the Alicorn Keeper in harmony?” The Alicorn Keeper is not in harmony. A chorus of voices echoed out. “Wait… what? How is that possible?” The dragon nearly fell off of his throne from the combined shock of the revelation and the sudden use of the Council. He growled angrily at Discord for using that function without warning him. “They are correct…not sure how. My only guess is that mysterious sixth element of his,” Discord shrugged, “I’ve asked that question about Harmony every couple hundred years and never once has he ever been in harmony… Never before except under extreme duress has a Keeper failed at being what they represent. Like I said Harmony is an enigma and an oddity.” Silence came upon both as they dwell on their respective thoughts. While both were on Harmony He of Hourglass was trying to figure out why He of Harmony seems so dragon-like. Discord on the other hand was trying to figure out why the dragon would be so interested in Harmony. He of Hourglass got up to look outward into the Plane from one of the windows as he really didn’t want the distraction of the chaotic draconequus. He of Laughter had only gave him more questions than answers. He was curious about the sixth element but that was a lesser priority. Why was He of Harmony so into the ways of the dragons? Some of what He of Laughter said made sense to what he knew of He of Harmony from his Keeper memories. Something told him he would need to talk to He of Harmony personally. Discord suddenly called out, “Is the Dragon Keeper in harmony?” The Dragon Keeper is not in harmony. “Interesting...” Discord mused. He then noticed that He of Harmony was making his way to the chamber doors, “Hey where are you going I’m not done…” “Doing my duty as a keeper.” He of Hourglass growled as he noisily exited the council chambers and into the Plane of Harmony. Discord scratched his head in confusion “‘…Duty as a keeper’?!? Want ever does he mean?”