//------------------------------// // 3 - Starswirl // Story: Harmony // by Luna Nightshade //------------------------------// They kept on trotting through the wilderness for several days. The sun on the horizon made it hard to keep track of time. The plants around them started to wither and the food they found grew sparser with every day that passed. Luna trotted next to Celestia and slept next to her all the time. Her mood seemed to improve over time and she opened up toward Celestia and Harmony. One evening she settled next to Celestia, looking sad again. “Are you okay?” Celestia asked carefully. “I … I have been wondering”, the little filly said, “what … was your mother like?” Celestia stared at Luna, her own feelings threatening to overwhelm her. “My father was … fun to be with, but … I always wondered about my mother …” Celestia tried to gulp down the lump in her throat. She had always wondered about her father, so she could understand her question. “M… mother was … the kindest and most beautiful mare I can think of”, Celestia finally answered, her voice breaking and tears starting to flow from her eyes. “She was strict … but only to protect me at all costs …” Luna started to tear up as well, leaning into Celestia as if trying to comfort her. “What did she look like?” “She was … tall. Taller than everypony …” She sniffed and choked. “White coat, her mane and tail like the sun… set …” She started to cry loudly and Luna cried with her, her head laying upon Celestia’s shoulder. Harmony soon went over to them and settled next to them, putting a hoof over both. She didn’t say a word but let them just cry for a long, long time. When finally their tears stopped, Celestia looked to Luna and asked the question she had on her mind for a while: “Can … can you tell me … about your father? I never had one …” Luna looked up to her with her big, teal colored eyes, burying her muzzle into Celestias white fur. “My father was … also tall. His fur dark blue and his mane and tail black, flowing … sparkling.” She scrunched her nose a bit. “We often went stargazing during the night and he told me all about the stars. He … he taught me how to fly …” She started sniffing again, but stopped herself from crying. “As … as he sent me away … I think he wanted to tell me something.” Silence fell over them. Celestia didn’t know what to say, nor could she even begin to speculate what it was. “We may be the last alicorns alive”, Harmony whispered, “but we have each other. We’ll stand together, like a small family, won’t we?” “Like sisters?” Luna asked quietly. “Like sisters”, Harmony answered with a nod. Celestia didn’t say anything, she had doubts. Harmony had cast spells on other ponies to save her own hide. It was something that her mother had been against for as long as she could remember. A pony who did that wasn’t a pony she would want to be family with … ~*~*~ “Who are you?” The black coated guard with a white mane stared them down, his spear aimed at Harmony. “I am Silverware and those little fillies are Pink Diamond and Blueberry.” The older mare answered with a gentle smile. They had finally managed to arrive at the village they were headed to. It was a fairly large village and it was surrounded by a stone wall instead of a wooden palisade like all the other villages. Harmony had invented more unicorn-like names for them all, only Luna’s alternate name was the same as before. Luna pouted a bit, although she hadn’t said anything about that name before. The guard looked at all of them in turn, staring into everyponies eyes for a moment. “Seems about right”, he finally said. “What do you want here?” “We are searching for some refuge, at least for the night and something to eat.” Harmony replied. “Where do you come from that you are searching shelter here?” “Our home, Hill Valley, was destroyed by an alicorn”, Harmony didn’t miss a beat. She had probably thought about this for some while. “Ah, yes, heard of that. Very tragic. No one can live there anymore.” The guard relaxed and retracted his spear. “You can come in. Starswirl needs all unicorns he can get. Best go directly to the marketplace. If you make yourself useful, you might be able to stay.” “Why? What is it that he needs done?” Harmony asked. “Don’t ask me. Go to the market place. He said to send all unicorns there that are not busy with guard duty.” He shrugged with his left hoof. “Thank you anyways”, Harmony said and trotted off. Celestia and Luna followed her, wondering who this Starswirl was. The town itself wasn’t much different from the last village she had been to. The houses were made out of wood and had a straw roof each. The only difference was, that the houses seemed to be build a lot more packed. But apart from all the houses, the streets almost seemed empty. There were a few earth ponies and pegasi around. Maybe they had had an alicorn that wanted to spread friendship to other races as well. The ponies she did see were slumped against houses, seemed devoid of any energy or motivation. They trotted further into the village, coming upon a unicorn selling apples somewhere along the way. “Fresh and delicious apples, only 50 bits!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, advertising the small harvest he had next to him. Celestia counted just fourteen apples. A few other stands were on the street as well, but those were empty. Neither goods nor ponies were anywhere to see. Celestia looked at the apples again. They were round, greenish-red and plump, probably as fresh as advertised. She could feel her mouth water and her tummy rumbling as she kept staring at the apples. It had been a long time since she had one and grazing the sparse grass on the way did only so much to quench her appetite. There was something rumbling next to her. Luna’s blush told her that the little filly felt as hungry as she did. She looked to Harmony and found that the mare had gone on already and was looking to them. After a moment she went over to the salespony. “Could you spare one apple for three starving mares?” She asked innocently. “Do I look like I care if you are starving or not?” The orange colored pony looked angry with her, his dark mane was tangled up and his deep brown eyes stared at her like daggers. “Next you want three apples and then all I have left. No, you’ll have to pay like everypony else!” Harmony sighed and used her magic to pick out the pouch she had had as they were with Azure Silk. She carefully counted the bits and looked up to him. “I only got about 30 bits.” The salespony looked to Harmony and the fillies, before snarling: “I can give you one half apple for that.” “But isn’t that more expensive?” “Do you think I can sell half an apple to anypony else? You can be glad that I am even considering this offer!” “Very well”, Harmony put the bag with the bits on the counter. The salespony went to count all the coins, biting onto a few of them in the process. Afterwards he took out an axe and cut the apple into two. He shoved one of the halves to her and took the other into his own magic. Harmony took the other half into her magic and trotted over to them, halving it while she went. She gave one to Luna and Celestia each. Smiling they sat down on their haunches and took the quarter apple into their hooves. The first bite was sweet, crunchy and moist, the second was even better. But before she could eat it all, she noticed Harmony smiling at them. Somehow she felt bad, seeing that Harmony didn’t take an apple at all. She might not consider her family, but she still helped them out. She looked at her last bite of apple she had left. “What about you?” “It’s fine, I’ll find some grass later. Now, eat up.” Celestia eyed her piece once again and looked over to Luna. The little filly was as torn as she was. Then harmony gently touched her hooves and brought the apple closer to her muzzle. As the sweet smell assaulted her nostrils once more, she had to take the last bite. It was the same with Luna. “Now, come. Let us go to the market place and find some place to stay for the night. Or at least for some time.” Harmony turned and passed the apple stand without looking back. Celestia looked to the salespony again before trotting after the mare. He didn’t look that happy with the half he still had left. They followed the mostly empty street. Celestia and Luna looked around, admiring some of the larger houses that had up to three stories. Many roofs were also fashioned from wood instead of straw while the houses themselves were made of stone instead of wood. They met a few more pegasi and earth ponies on the way. Celestia overheard them speaking to one another while they passed. Some were gossiping about other ponies, some were cursing alicorns and some wondered why Starswirl wanted to gather as many unicorns as possible on the market place. Some of the ponies wondering joined them on their way. They trotted along, but kept their distance. The market place itself was full of ponies. Mostly unicorns, but also earth ponies and pegasi were waiting there. A cacophony of colors. Differently sized ponies, mares and stallions alike came into view. The murmurs on the place were so loud that she couldn’t make out anything at all. She trotted a bit closer toward Harmony and Luna. The murmurs grew louder. Something seemed to happen, but Celestia couldn’t see anything from her position. “I can’t see”, Luna whispered to Celestia. Harmony looked down on then and smiled. Her magic got hold of them both and floated them on the mares back. Luna was clinging to Harmony’s neck, while Celestia stood with her hooves on Harmony’s hindquarters. From there she could see over the whole crowd. Roughly in the middle of them all there was a wooden platform. It was wide enough to hold several ponies and she wondered if it was used regularly. On the Platform a pony was slowly going to all the corners of the platform, trying to quite the crowd with a hoof. He was a young, handsome unicorn stallion, probably the same age as Harmony. The color of his coat was probably grey and his mane slightly off-white. Most of his body was hidden by a blue cape and he was wearing a hat that was adorned with stars and moons. Despite the hat his horn was still visible, surrounded by a faint glow of magic. She could hear him clearing his throat. The murmurs within the crowd started to die down. He must have been amplifying his voice by magic. “My fellow ponies”, he began, his voice quieting the last murmurs within the crowd. “You may wonder who that pony is that gathered all of you here and why. Some of you have heard my name already.” He looked around, making sure that he had the attention of everypony. “I am Starswirl and the reason why I gathered you here is in plain sight.” He gestured with his hoof toward the setting sun. “The sun hasn’t set for days and is still on the western horizon! It is the latest of a series of … gifts, left behind by the defeated alicorns!” Murmurs started back up, the crowd seeming to affirm their hatred against them. Celestia shrunk a bit down, feeling cold showers run over her back. “In the south east, there is a village where everypony was turned to stone”, Starswirl recounted. “In the south there is now a patch of land completely barren of life. In another village all ponies forgot who they were and what they were doing.” Recounting all this the angry shouts around them increased in strength, Starswirl was inciting the masses against alicorns. “I am not trying to recruit you to hunt alicorns”, Starswirl shouted. Celestia looked up at him again. This was somehow surprising. “I am here because of the incidents that were caused by them. I have been able to turn those ponies back from stone, I have been able to return the memories to those ponies that have lost them!” The mood of the crowd shifted. Ponies stomped with their hooves, applauding the pony on the podest. “I have come to you, because I have found a solution to set the sun!” The cacophony of noises that celebrated Starswirl increased. Celestia could see him smile. As the noise started to die down, he rose his voice again. “I stand here because I cannot do this alone”, he shouted, the rest of the noise dying quickly. “I need a few magically inclined volunteers to help me!” Celestia looked around. After that speech, he should get at least a dozen volunteers. “How do you plan on accomplishing that?” A pony shouted. The shout was soon joined by others that demanded the same answer. Celestia lowered her ears. She had expected things to go differently. Starswirl didn’t stand as upright as before as well. The stallion cleared his voice again. “The plan is relatively simple. We reach out to the sun and set it ourselves.” All ponies stared at him. The silence that encompassed the square was so intense that Celestia wondered if she had gone deaf. “Come on”, one pony shouted, a pegasus jumped up and flapped her wings above the crowd. “You can’t be serious!” She stretched her hooves out, gesturing over the crowd. “You can’t seriously expect us to believe that it is possible.” “Fact is, that this eternal Twilight is hurting us more and more by the minute”, he answered. “Which is, in fact, why we should go out there and hunt down all the last alicorns”, the pegasus retorted. “Hunting down the last alicorns may be dangerous”, Starswirl snarled. “I thought that would be obvious after every time one was destroyed, the curse they left us got worse.” “How can you know that?” The pegasus answered. “We may have just gotten rid of the most dangerous ones! A few days ago you even proposed a different theory!” Celestia shifted uneasily. Why were they fighting right now? “What are we losing, if we simply try?” “Whatever”, the pegasus said and flew away. Other ponies turned away as well. The crowd grew smaller by the minute. “Please, I cannot do this alone”, Starswirl begged. As Harmony stepped forward, Celestias heart jumped. What was she thinking? Shouldn’t they lay low? Wasn’t this guaranteed to get them noticed? She needed all her self-restraint to keep herself from panicking outright. Even though the crowd had diminished and was only a third of its initial size, there were still enough ponies around to give them a hard time. “Doesn’t any one of you want to try at least? Don’t you want to have a normal day or see the night again?” Starswirl sounded more and more desperate as the moments passed by. He went around the platform and looked to everypony that hadn’t left yet. He stopped when his gaze fell upon them. Harmony kept moving slowly through the crowd, waiting occasionally for ponies to make place for her approach. With Starswirl standing still, looking onto them and Harmony moving through the crowd toward the platform, more and more ponies looked onto them. Some of those that were leaving stopped, as murmurs started and other ponies called them back. Celestias heart beat up to her ears. Hopefully the disguise would hold. “I don’t know what everypony else thinks, but I would like to end this eternal sunset”, Harmony said as she was in earshot of the platform. “We have a volunteer”, Starswirl shouted. That definitely made some other ponies come back. “Please, please come up here”, he said and pointed with his hoof to some stairs. Harmony trotted around the platform and trotted next to him. “Thank you”, he whispered. “I hope you will help us later to find some shelter, something to eat and maybe work?” Harmony whispered back. “Of course”, Starswirl answered with a smile. Then he turned toward the crowd again. “We need at least four more. You don’t have anything to lose in trying.” Harmony set Celestia and Luna down and rose her own voice: “I am not from this village and I only just arrived here. On the way I saw the plants wither and die. Food is growing sparse and what little you have left may not last until you find the last alicorn. This pony is offering you a chance. Take it!” The murmurs between the ponies started up again, they were looking at each other. Harmony gestured toward Celestia and Luna. “I don’t want my sisters to starve!” “Might as well try”, somepony from the crowd shouted. “I don’t have anything better to do anyways.” A brownish unicorn trotted toward the platform and up the stairs. He trotted between them and simply said: “Let me handle this.” His horn started to glow. As he spoke, his voice was so loud that Celestia was sure that everypony had have to hear him. She laid her ears back and winced. “Make up your minds! Either you want to help or you want to go but STOP gawking and DO something!” Suddenly there was movement in the crowd. A few more ponies stepped back and galloped away. For a few more his speech fell on deaf ears, but there were a few more that raised their hooves, volunteering at last. The pony with them smiled, his horn stopping to glow. “And that’s how it is done.” He said. “What now, Starswirl?” The grey stallion cleared his throat, his horn glowing again as he started to explain what they needed to do: “This will basically be a levitation spell. First you will have to close your eyes and picture the sun in your minds, will it down the horizon. I will use my magic as well and coordinate all your efforts.” “In other words we don’t even need to learn a new spell”, the brown pony with them said. “You should have said that in the first place.” “Why do you want to set the sun?” Another pony asked. “The day was just beginning when this happened”, the yellow mare pointed toward the horizon. “The sun is on the western horizon. It is where she would normally set. I don’t think it would be easy nor wise to go against its natural progression, but to continue it, take a small break and then have it rise where it needs to rise.” “Agreed”, the brown pony said. “Let’s do this, everypony!” One after another the ponies still left closed their eyes, their collective horns starting to glow in a myriad of colors. The colors of their magic soon changed, synchronizing into a pure white glow. Celestia looked toward the Horizon, wondering if their combined effort would prove fruitful and after a moment, she thought that the sun had begun to move. Only a bit at first but then a bit more until it smoothly disappeared behind the horizon. Celestia felt a bit disappointed to see it go. “A bit more, everypony”, Starswirl shouted, his horn seemingly glowing the brightest. The orange sky changed first into a dark blue and then into being completely black, only a few stars visible within the sky. “That’s it”, Starswirl shouted, and the glowing horns subsided. Starswirls horn glowed in his own silver-grey color again and a few torches around the platform sparked to life, the flames bathing them in their orange light now. “Now all we need to do is raise the moon. So, picture it within your mind and will it up. I will coordinate your efforts again.” A few ponies were groaning, but they closed their eyes nonetheless. Their horns started to glow again and soon the moon would be up. Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. Everything went far smooth… There was something in the corner of her eyes that startled her. Harmony’s mane and tail moved, waving in an unseen wind. This was bad. She was losing control of some of her magic and it started to show. She hoped that nopony would notice until the moon was up. Where was it? She looked to the eastern horizon. There it was slowly climbing over the forest. In thoughts she urged it on, wanted it to go faster. Luna stared at the moon, not noticing anything. It was as if she was mesmerized by it, her muzzle open as if in awe. Celestia looked around. Was there anypony not casting the spell? Anypony watching them, watching Harmony? She hoped that it was too small of a change, that it would go by unnoticed. Her gaze met the moon again. It was almost at its zenith. She looked again to Harmony. Was her mane and tail sparkling now? “Good, that is enough.” Starswirls voice got her attention. He was looking down from the sky. She looked to Harmony. The mare looked normal again. Had he noticed or had she stopped her spell in time? Her heart was pounding. “Good work, everypony!” Starswirl shouted. “We can do this! We will have our sun back soon enough.” There were half-hearted cheers all around him. “Go rest, we will reconvene in about four hours.” The orange pony trotted toward him and put his hoof to Starswirls shoulder. “Good work. Didn’t think that it would work.” Starswirl smiled, slightly embarrassed. “Thank you for pushing them the last bit.” “Well, next time you plan something like this, come to me first!” The orange pony turned and trotted away. “See you in four hours.” “In four hours”, Starswirl replied and trotted toward Harmony, Luna and Celestia. “Come. You can stay with me for now.” “Thank you”, Harmony replied with a smile on her muzzle. “Come on, sisters, let’s go.” Celestia followed them, keeping a careful eye on Starswirl. He could have seen it, could lead them all into a trap. And Harmony probably didn’t know. What could she do, if it was a trap? It if was only one pony, she maybe could immobilize him. Or silence him. That is if he didn’t know any counter spells and wasn’t more powerful than her. But if he showed his true colors alone, then Harmony would probably have something she could do. But what should they do if there were several ponies? She should tell Harmony of the possibility somehow … “Welcome to my humble abode”, Starswirl said and opened the door to a small two-story house. It was made of stone and had a roof plastered with wooden planks. Harmony nodded her thanks and went in first, wiping her hooves clean on the mat in front of the door. Celestia jumped almost as Luna ran into her. “What are you doing?” The filly whispered. “Nothing”, Celestia answered and followed Harmony into the house. Things within the house were a mess to say the least. Where Azure Silk had many things cluttered around that showed that she was sewing, Starswirl had his own things lying around: Scrolls of parchment, leather bound books, quills and ink. There were drawings plastered onto the walls that showed complex diagrams and some magic circles. But all in all there was no horde of ponies waiting to ambush them. The door falling back into its lock made her jump again. Celesia turned and saw Starswirl locking the door with a wooden beam from the inside. Why did he do this? Was this a trap? But that didn’t make any sense. He couldn’t keep them locked in like that. It was more as if he tried to lock everypony else out. “Excuse me for a moment”, he said and his horn started to glow. A small bubble formed around it and expanded until it encompassed the whole room, carefully ending in the middle of the door. “Please do not be alarmed”, he said as he trotted away from the door. “I want to talk to you without anypony prying on us. You can leave anytime you want.” Harmony nodded, but any smile she had had before had vanished from her muzzle. “Do you want some tea?” Starswirl asked and went to one of the two still open doorways that led away from the room they were currently in. Celestia trotted over to Harmony. She put her hoof to her muzzle and whispered: “He knows.” “Apparently so”, Harmony whispered back. “But how?” “What does he know?” Luna asked, her voice just a low whisper. “He knows that Harmony is an alicorn”, Celestia supplied. “Because she went and helped them lower the sun and raise the moon. But she didn’t take into account that her mane and tail would go all ethereal while she did so”, she snapped. She could hear Harmony swallowing something in her throat. “I … I am neither old nor strong enough for that to happen! Nothing should have happened!” “But it did happen!” Celestia fumed as quietly as possible. Starswirl trotted back to them, levitating a few cups with his magic and put them down on a table next to them. “Please, be comfortable. Tea should be ready shortly.” Harmony didn’t move and neither did Celestia nor Luna. They stared at the grey stallion, waiting. “Look, if I wanted to harm you, then I would have exposed you already. I want … no I need to talk to you and I fear that this will be my last chance to talk to any alicorn for a long while.” Harmony waited, her eyes looking over the stallion repeatedly. Celestia stared at him as well. Could it be true? Could he really just want to talk to them, especially after he managed to rile everypony against them so easily? “Very well, let’s talk”, Harmony replied and trotted over to the table. “Thank you …” “Silverware”, Harmony said, once again supplying her false name. “Silverware, then.” Starswirl cleared his throat. “One thing that I wanted to know is, if you can fix whatever is wrong with the sun and the moon?” “No.” Starswirl blinked a few times after Harmony’s short answer. “Why not? You seem pretty powerful for your age and …” Harmony sighed. “I am not that powerful. What you saw was probably a fluke and shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Even if I had that much power, I would not even know what to do or where to begin.” “Good point”, Starswirl rubbed his chin with a hoof. “I tried to investigate, but this very much puzzles me. I had hoped you could lend me your wisdom in this.” He turned his head and his horn started to glow, making a steaming pot float from next door into the room. “I suppose that was not all you wanted to know?” “You are correct”, Starswirl answered and started to pour them tea. “The other thing I wanted to do is to investigate and hopefully falsify a theory I had.” “Do you mean the theory that pegasus mentioned?” “Eagle Eye? Yes, that theory.” He took a deep breath and looked into Harmony’s eyes. “It is quite a grim one. There are two ways of keeping up a powerful magical spell like the one that has caused this. The first and most obvious way is either an alicorn or a unicorn that keeps the spell up.” “And your theory is that Galy Leo has bound his spell to the remaining alicorns”, Harmony concluded. “Which is why this Eagle Eye wants to get rid of the rest of us so desperately.” “Which is why I want to test your magical auras. I may be able to deduce from that if it has been bound to any of you or not.” “I see”, Harmony said and took one of the cups, sniffing on the tea. “What will you do if you find that it has been bound to us?” Starswirl looked down into his cup. “It is a question I have asked myself a few times. First and foremost I will try to remove that spell without hurting any of you, but should that fail …” He looked up into Harmony’s eyes. “I would ask you to help me keeping up the natural progression of night and day.” Celestia rubbed her eyes. Somehow she had expected a different answer. One where he would either apologize or let the truth stand unspoken between them. Of course there was a chance that he was lying. “I see.” Harmony said and took one of the cups in her own magic, taking a sip. “W… what is the other possibility?” Luna asked a bit shy. “The other …” Starswirl looked to her and tried to think. “Oh. Yes. The other possibility is to bind that magic to an object and create a magical feedback-loop that will keep the spell alive. I did theorize that possibility as well and unless he managed to bind it to some far away object, I doubt it.” “Could he have bound it to the world itself?” Harmony asked, the tea cup still floating before her muzzle. “Possible, but no. I already tried to detect the magic coming from our world and it has not changed in a degree that would allow for such a large-scale spell to work.” Starswirl sighed. “If you told that to anypony else …” Harmony put down her cup. “Then you basically told them to hunt alicorns down.” Starswirl nodded. “I fear that I did. I didn’t and still do not want to consider the other possible explanation.” He put his own cup down and poured himself some more tea. “His powerful release of magic might have broken something fundamental in this world.” “Judging by the research strewn about this room, you still investigated that possibility.” Harmony looked to some of the walls plastered with scrolls. “Yes, but I haven’t gotten to any conclusion in that regard.” Celestia reached out to her cup of tea, floating it down from the table with her magic. It was a red liquid and smelled sweet, like apples. She took a sip from the warm fluid and felt her whole body warm up instantly. “Would you allow me to examine your magic aura?” Starswirl asked again. “It won’t take long.” “If it will set your mind at ease”, Harmony replied and took another sip from her own cup. Luna finally grabbed hers as well. “Thank you.” Starswirl closed his eyes and his horn began to glow. They sat in silence while he did what he wanted to do. Celestia briefly felt a tickling sensation all over her fur and then even her horn. As he opened his eyes he stared at them. “Well, I don’t feel any magical spell attached to you.” Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. That meant that they would be safe now, wouldn’t it? Something crashed against the door. Then there was some frantic knocking. Starswirl looked toward the door, his horn glowing for a moment, dislodging the strange bubble that he had cast around them. As soon as the bubble passed her, Celestia could hear somepony shouting from outside. “… the door! It’s important!” She had heard the voice before. “Eagle Eye.” Starswirl trotted toward the door slowly. “He may have seen the same as I and have come to the same conclusion. If he did, then he already has assembled a mob.” He sighed and shouted loudly: “I’m coming!” The knocking subsided. Starswirls horn started to glow with a rhythm and Harmony’s horn did the same. It was strange seeing them stare at each other, their horns glowing in an unsteady rhythm. Starswirl then turned toward the door and removed the beam that held it into place. The door swung open to reveal a large mob outside. Eagle eye was the one closest to the door, smiling at them. “Good job, Starswirl”, he said. “You kept her here without raising suspicion.” “I just told her the truth”, Starswirl said, “she didn’t expect you to be showing up with a mob.” “Then it is true”, Eagle Eye smiled even broader and turned toward Harmony. “An alicorn sneaking into a pony village. I am guessing that you didn’t take on any other foals than alicorns themselves.” He trotted into the room, a smug smile on his muzzle. “You know that what you are doing won’t solve the problems you are facing”, Harmony replied. “I don’t have any reason to believe you. You deceived us, sneaking into our village and you will do everything to save your own hide.” Eagle Eye stood between them and the doorway out. A few more ponies were streaming inside through the door. “We don’t have any hostile intentions”, Harmony said, standing on her legs. “Ether said the same thing one day and after we declined to become his minion on another day he attacked us. Now come outside and we will make this as quick and painless as we can.” “We are not bad and killing us won’t help! Tell them that we are telling the truth”, Celestia said toward Starswirl. The grey unicorn hung his head, closing his eyes. Eagle Eye watched him and them looked toward Celestia. “At least you didn’t alter his mind with magic, making him stand up for you. I commend that.” He smiled. “We have a pony that is very skilled with his axe. It will be over in a moment!” Celestia gulped. She felt betrayed. Starswirl didn’t stand in for them as he said before. “I see that you have already formed your opinion”, Harmony answered. “You leave me no choice!” Her horn started to glow, her wings ripped through the fabric, unfolding to their full wingspan. Eagle Eye gulped and took a step backward. “You won’t intimidate me! Even if you defeat me, there is half the village outside, ready to take you on! And they won’t know any mercy. They’ll tear this house down, if necessary.” Harmony’s horn glowed even brighter, the power radiating from it stirring a wind that hurled Starswirls parchments and scrolls through the air. “Oh, I have different options.” The alicorn suddenly crouched down, her wings encompassing both Luna and Celestia, darkening their vision. But even through the feathers she could see the bright flash, hear Eagle Eye’s scream and suddenly everything went dark and silent.