//------------------------------// // The Decision // Story: Darkrim And The Elements Of Harmony // by Lunaexcelsior //------------------------------// Darkrim felt his breath quicken as he slowly trotted through the Everfree forest. His companions on this treacherous journey were the twinkling stars and the pale glowing Moon. Their celestial light was the only thing that helped Darkrim orient himself in this horrible forest. The silent whispers of the midnight wind were the only thing he heard, although he could easily feel the glowing eyes of the Everfree predators on every hoofstep. The calmness of the forest only intensified all of the banished prince’s sense. His ears pricked up, attempting to decipher any and all auditory disturbances, and his horn lit up, ready to strike whatever crosses his path. As he continued his walk, Darkrim suddenly picked up a loud scuffle in the bushes nearby. He positioned himself, horn first, as he waited for the menace to jump out. However, nothing happened. “Must have been just some wildlife,” Darkrim attempted to easy himself. As he walked through the Everfree calmness, the more he reminisced about the past. Everything, from the silent howling of the wind to the pale glow of the night, began to remind him of that faithful night when he met Princess Luna. He began to feel his lip curl up into a wide grin. Truly, if it wasn’t for that night, who knows what, would have happened? He would have probably been still in Radifus’ clutches if it wasn’t for her. “Do snakes even have clutches?” Darkrim suddenly thought to himself. His train of thought was soon stopped as he noticed something in the distance. A pair of yellow glowing eyes stood in front of him as a loud booming voice announced: “Timberwolves, stage one! Activate combat!” In a mere split second the pair of yellow eyes turned to a beast concocted of twigs, leaves, logs and other parts of trees. It was in a shape of a wolf with its fangs being sharp pieces of wood. It howled as two other beasts of the same kind jumped out from the bushes behind Darkrim. He slowly began to back away, as the feral creatures began to prepare their attack. They began circling around Darkrim, seizing him down, before finally charging at the banished prince. Darkrim just smirked as his horn glowed bright red. Within a split second, the three wolves attacked, but Darkrim was quick to teleport out of their way. In that moment the three beasts had just realized the error of their ways, but it was too late as they collided with one another and disassembled into nothing more than a scattered pile of wood remains. Darkrim looked baffled at the scene that had just played out. “I knew they were supposed to be easy, but this is just ridiculous," he smirked and began to walk as if nothing had happened. However, he soon stopped when he noticed that parts of the disassembled timberwolves were being pulled together by some force. He watched in horror as the three disassembled timberwolves began to from one huge creation. “You just had to have regeneration, didn’t you?” Darkrim thought to himself as he began to run away. The newly formed creature gave chase to the fear driven Darkrim. He began swerving around the trees, but the wolf was in its element. Even if it lost a piece, it would soon replace it with another log or a branch. Darkrim began to run out of breath, so he decided to face the beast head on. Just as the wolf caught up to him, he used some of his teleportation to escape the beast’s deadly jaw. “Hey, woodwork,” he yelled out to the wolf as it turned its attention towards the unicorn “Yeah I am talking to you, firewood! Take this!” As he yelled, Darkrim unleashed a red beam of energy straight at the wolf’s head. The beam was powerful enough to take out a chunk of its wooden head and make it stumble back. Darkrim launched a few other blows like that, attempting to destabilize the monster. At first it seemed to work, since the beast was beginning to crumble down, but it was only a façade. His continuous attacks exhausted Darkrim quickly. He began to pant heavily as he looked gleefully at the shattered remains of the beast, but his face quickly turned to horror when he noticed the monster reassembling. “No,” he started to shake his head. He couldn’t run nor could he shoot his magic anymore. He was far too tired at this point to do anything. Just as the beast tried to attack, Darkrim yelled “End simulation! Now!” Suddenly his surrounding flickered as the beast in front of him disappeared. The dark forest was changed to an astral plain and instead of a giant Timberwolf, Luna stood in front of Darkrim. The night regal extended her hoof and helped the fallen prince back to his hooves. “Thank you,” he said as he brushed himself off. “No problem,” Luna said with a smile. “I guess it didn’t go as planned, huh?” Darkrim said in slight defeat. “It was pretty bad,” Luna agreed “but you can’t expect to perform amazingly on your first try. You have to try multiple times before you can see some results.” “Boy, isn’t that comforting?” Darkrim replied sarcastically “Can you at least tell me where I went wrong?” “Well,” Luna began “while your teleportation skills were impressive, your offensive magic still leaves a lot to be desired”, she explained. “What do you mean?” Darkrim asked. “You went way too ‘trigger happy’ if you will,” Luna continued “your attack didn’t hit all the right points.” “Hey, I made it disassemble!” Darkrim argued. “True,” Luna said “but you saw how it worked out in the end.” “Well why don’t you show me?” Darkrim asked angrily. “There’s no need for your anger, young prince,” Luna scolded him “I can show you how to defeat them, but you must remain calm.” “Fine,” Darkrim said and sighed. “Very well,” Luna said “Begin simulation; Timberwolves, stage one!” she yelled as the astral plane disappeared and in its place a dark forest appeared. Darkrim watched from the bushes, slowly moving to the designated area of the Timberwolves’ appearance. Luna walked confidently to the spot where the yellow glowing eyes appeared. She heard the beast snarl as the same booming voice commanded the battle to commence. The wolves began to circle around Luna, but she only blasted the first wolf with her magic. The other two wolves looked at their fallen brethren for a split second as they launched their rage fueled attack. Luna managed to fly above them causing them to crash into each other once more. Luna looked at to where Darkrim was observing her and winked at him. ”You know you’re not done, right?” Darkrim asked as he pointed his hooves at the regenerating beast. Luna quickly took notice of the giant Timberwolf, but remained unfazed. The beast formatted in front of her eyes and unleashed a roar, blowing a gust of its vile breath right into Luna’s face. Luna covered her nose and coughed a bit from the stench. It attempted to rush towards Luna, but she simply picked up a medium sized rock and launched it at the beast’s gaping esophagus. The wooden wolf began to choke for a few moments on the rock and, in mere seconds, the monstrosity disassembled into nothing more than a pile of twigs and logs. Darkrim felt his jaw drop to the floor as Luna simply smirked. “You mean to tell me that was all it took to defeat that thing?” Darkrim yelled in disbelief. “Sometimes the greatest threats can be defeated in the simplest manner,” Luna explained “You just have to find their weak spot.” “Easy for you to say,” Darkrim scoffed “You probably fought that thing a hundred times.” “That is beside the point,” Luna continued “If you had focused you would have noticed its jaw leaving a wide opening. Remember how we defeated the shadow serpents?” Luna asked. “Yeah, by striking its core,” Darkrim said as it finally clicked “Oh, so if I attacked the beast from the inside- -“ “It would have come tumbling down,” Luna finished his sentence. “Urgh I was so stupid!” Darkrim said and slammed his hoof against his forehead. “Don’t beat yourself up,” Luna said “Now come on, we need to wake you up.” “But we just started!” Darkrim protested. “We will continue tonight,” Luna smiled “but we have to return to the real world now.” “Alright,” Darkrim complied as a bright flash of light returned them back to reality. Darkrim yawned and opened his eyes as Luna was right by his side. He looked a bit sad from what happened. Luna placed a wing on his shoulder. “Remember why we started this training program,” she said. “I know.” Darkrim said “I wanted you to teach me to make my magic more powerful. I just wasn’t expecting to fail at first level.” “Hey, it’s your first try,” Luna smirked “Frankly, it would be stranger if you did succeed.” “Encouraging as always,” Darkrim chuckle as he got dressed. “I aim to please,” Luna bowed with a wink. Darkrim just shook his head as he followed Luna out the door. As they traversed the hallways, the Guards would salute the princess and stood up straight as she walked by. Luna would bow to them as they greeted her and so did Darkrim. Their paths soon crossed with a familiar violet unicorn. As soon as she saw the two royals approaching her, Amethyst quickly trotted towards them. “Princess Luna, prince Darkrim,” she saluted them. Luna nodded her head and Darkrim returned her the salute. “Amethyst, we’re glad to meet you. Will you be joining us for breakfast?” Luna asked. “No thanks.” Amethyst replied “I just ate. However, princess, we do have a small problem I would like to discuss with you,” Amethyst said. “Of course,” she said “How may I help you?” “Well," Amethyst began “I heard you are going to fuse the Royal Guard with the Lunar Brigade. Is this true? Are we in some danger?” she asked. “Yes that is true,” Luna said “Due to recent threats made by the Radifus, I have decided to ask my sister to fuse the two armies together.” “Couldn't they be just empty threats? I mean this is getting quite out of hooves by now,” Amethyst said, worriedly. Luna’s face suddenly turned dead serious. “Even if that is the case, We do not wish to leave anything to chance,” Luna proclaimed, “Our final judgment on this matter shall be passed down after We have properly discussed this with Our sister. Does thou understandeth Us?” Luna asked coldly. Amethyst was in shock. The fact that Luna used her archaic royal speech pattern, surprised both her and Darkrim a bit. “I understand, princess,” she said, clumsily, and rushed off to her duties. Darkrim started at Luna with awe. “What’s the matter, prince?” she asked. “I have not heard you use that diction since I saw you in the forest,” he said. “Well, I only use it when I want to make a proclamation or to let others know my intentions with utmost clarity,” Luna said. “Interesting,” Darkrim said as his voice trailed off. “Can I ask you something, prince?” Luna said, with doubt in her voice. “Sure thing, princess,” Darkrim gleefully replied. “You have known Radifus for quite a while, right?” she said as Darkrim nodded “Well do you think he would be capable of launching a strike on Equestria?” Darkrim bit his lower lip. “Under Hades’ rule, no.” he said “He would never authorize such an assault, mostly because he fears the Equestrian Diarchy.” “He must not fear us too much, since he is not replying to countless messages we sent him,” Luna said with fury in her eyes, but quickly realized what she said, by Darkrim’s raised eyebrow. “I am so sorry Darkrim,” she quickly apologized “I didn’t mean it like that.” “It’s alright, I understand”, he said, “but it is suspicious that he isn’t answering, considering that he replied to nearly every letter he got from Celestia in the past.” “So something is going down in Tartarus”, Luna said as her fears were confirmed. Darkrim was visibly shaken up, but Luna shot him a convincing smile. “Don’t worry, Darkrim”, she told him, “If he does try something we will be ready for him!” “I sure hope so”, Darkrim sighed as they entered the castle’s dining room. The dining room was rather large with its centerpiece being the table that could’ve easily seated thirty ponies. Celestia sat at the head of the table with her loyal Royal Guard standing by her side. Darkrim and Luna quickly joined her. “I am so glad you made it”, Celestia greeted them with a kind smile, “How was your training, prince? Did Luna give you a hard time?” “It was fine, princess, thank you for asking”, Darkrim replied with a smile. “He’s a bit rough on the edges, but I can see quite some potential”, Luna stated. “I am happy to hear that”, Celestia said as she rang the bell. Through the door came various servant ponies carrying pancakes, fruits, cereal, muffins, scones and various other breakfast delicacies. Darkrim licked his lips as the food came in. He didn’t even realize how hungry he was until he saw the variety of meals. As soon as the servant ponies placed down the food, Darkrim rushed to put as much as he could on his plate. Both Celestia and Luna smiled. Darkrim blushed a bit as he just realized how silly he must have looked, stuffing his face in front of the two regents. “Please, don’t let us stop you. Enjoy yourself”, Celestia said as she noticed Darkrim’s cheeks turning bright red. He gave off an awkward smile and continued to eat, but at a much slower pace. After all three ponies have been properly fed, Celestia rang the bell again. The same servants came back in and cleaned out the table. “That hit the spot”, Darkrim said as he wiped his mouth. “I am glad you enjoyed it”, Celestia smiled. “Well, now that breakfast has passed”, Luna began, “I wish to speak to you Celestia.” “What’s it about, sister?” she asked. Luna cleared her voice. “We wish to inform thee”, Luna began in her Royal voice, “that, due to recent threats, We have decided that it would be in our best interest to merge thine Royal Guard with our Lunar Brigade”, Luna finished her formal declaration. “I have been feeling the same way, Luna”, Celestia said. “You have?” Luna said with slight surprise. “Indeed”, Celestia responded, “After you told me what that serpent intends to do, I have taken as many precautions that I could. After all, that is why I asked both the Griffons and the Minotaurs for protection. I shall allow you the merger, but under one condition”, Celestia said. “What might that be?” Luna asked. “I wish that prince Darkrim moves to Ponyville to study with Princess Twilight Sparkle”, Celestia said. Both Luna’s and Darkrim’s eyes widened in shock to what Celestia had just said. “Celestia, he is my responsibility”, Luna said, “I have promised to help him get back to the throne and now you want me to just pass him to another pony?!” “Not to mention I have never even met this Twilight Sparkle”, Darkrim protested. Celestia sighed. She expected such a reaction from both of them. “Maybe I should have worded that better?” Celestia thought to herself. “I understand your concerns, but know that there is a reason I ask this from you”, Celestia began to explain, “Luna, I know you want to help Darkrim get back to his throne, but you have your duties as a princess as well. You have an obligation to your people and I need you at the top of your condition, both mentally and physically, if we are to stop this threat. You will still see Darkrim when your nighttime comes, but I will need you here with me, during the day, to hold our fort and to calm our people”, Celestia explained her reasoning to Luna. Luna sighed. She knew very well that Celestia was right. “Well don’t I have a saying in this? I mean it is me you are talking about!” Darkrim protested. “You don’t have to study with Princess Twilight if you don’t want to”, Celestia said, “but I think you could benefit a lot from spending time with the Elements of Harmony.” “Wait a sec!” Darkrim said as he tried to process, “This Princess Sparkle is an Element of Harmony?!” Darkrim exclaimed. “Indeed”, Celestia nodded her head. Darkrim felt like a huge weight had been put on his shoulders. “Princess, can I think about for a few hours and then tell you my decision?” he asked. “Of course”, Celestia nodded her head as Darkrim left for his room. “I should probably go with him”, Luna said as she got up. “Please do”, Celestia said and sighed, “I am sorry I had to tell you my decision so suddenly.” “It’s alright, ‘Tia, I understand”, Luna said, “Have you already written the letter to Twilight?” Luna asked. “No, I wanted to see how he would feel about it”, Celestia sighed. “I’ll talk to him, don’t worry”, Luna said and bowed to Celestia. She returned her bow and Luna was off. She located Darkrim very easily as he was standing right in front of a mural. It was the mural of her defeat, as Nightmare Moon, at the hooves of the Elements of Harmony. She approached Darkrim slowly. “How did it feel?” Darkrim asked her as she joined him. “Like a heavy burden was lifted from my shoulders”, Luna responded, “That creature promised me love, but it only filled me with hate. If it wasn’t for the Elements, I wouldn’t be here.” Darkrim sighed. “Yeah they’re the greatest heroes of Equestria, or so I have heard”, he said distantly as he looked at the mural. So many thoughts were swarming through his head and Luna could feel them. She covered Darkrim with one of her wings. He looked back at the dark blue alicorn, giving her a weak smile as a sign of his appreciation for the concern, and sighed. “Do you think I am better off with this Princess Twilight?” Darkrim asked. Luna thought about it for a second. “I strongly believe it would help you quite a lot”, Luna said, “Princess Twilight Sparkle is one of the best magic users I had ever seen. Her powers are most impressive and she is a very diligent and studious young mare. She could help you quite a lot in mastering your own magic. Not to mention that she could learn a few things from you as well.” “Like what?” Darkrim asked. “Well”, Luna began, “Equestrian bonds with Tartarus have been weakening lately. You could help strengthen those bonds to their former glory." “I guess”, Darkrim said, still thinking about the offer. “And you’ll still see me at nighttime”, Luna said with a kind smile, “I will still come in your dreams and help strengthen your mind and help you as much as I can.” “True”, he said, still a bit distant. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense for him to move. “Do you think she would accept me?” Darkrim asked. “It would stand to reason”, Luna said, “but I could tell Celestia to arrange a meeting for you two, before you move. To get you acquainted better.” “Sure thing”, Darkrim said, “Could you tell her to bring the rest of the Elements? I would really like to meet them as well.” “Of course”, Luna smiled as they both went back in the dining room. Celestia patiently waited for their final response. “So what’s the verdict?” she asked. “I have decided to meet up with Princess Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Elements of Harmony in order to see if they would accept me”, Darkrim said respectfully. Celestia smiled at his response. “As you wish prince”, Celestia said, “I will arrange a small get together for you and the Element of Harmony.” “You mean like a party?” Darkrim asked. “If you wish”, Celestia winked at him. Darkrim’s smile grew wide. “Thank you, Princess”, he bowed to the Solar Ruler. “No problem, dear prince”, Celestia said, “I will send the invitation right away.” As the Princess wrote the invitation letter, and Darkrim prepared for the party, some shady business was going down in Tartarus.