//------------------------------// // LXVIII - Temple Vault // Story: Mortal Coil // by Reeve //------------------------------// With Fauna’s final words, the world began pulling back, the memory fading as the liquid receded back through the room to where it first originated. There it amalgamated back together, returning to its sphere form. After the noise of the battle outside coming to an abrupt stop, the silence that reigned in the temple was almost deafening, as we all stared in shock at memory sphere. I felt myself wavering slightly on my hooves as I looked around the room at the others, Fluttershy appeared pale and shaky, Applejack just appeared slightly confused like she had forgotten what she walked in for, Rainbow was glancing rapidly between all of us as if looking for some guidance on how she should feel, Twilight looked completely blown away, while Pinkie just frowned with her eyes narrowed slightly. “Well…” Applejack uttered in a plain voice. “Yeah…” I responded, feeling light headed as I tried to make sense of everything we had just seen. “Crane,” Pinkie muttered. “Could he really be the leader of the Covenant?” “His name begins with C,” I pointed out. “Remember how that letter had been signed? And he referred to himself as father, just like the ponies I saw at the Demon Shaft had said.” “But… what does it all mean?” Rainbow asked, sounding frustrated. “So they organised the attack on this island in order to abduct the ponies living here, to what end?!” “Ascension…” Twilight whispered, drawing all our attention as she slowly began pacing the temple. “They’re experimenting on ponies… changing them. They came here looking for secrets; they spoke of a Princess…” “That pony, Fau… I mean, Grandmaster Fauna called her the Princess of Honesty,” Fluttershy reminded her. “The Bearer of Honesty,” Pinkie stated. “Just as it was written in the tomb.” “Exactly,” Twilight agreed. “This Princess, Clover the Clever, is somehow connected to this temple and the ponies who lived here. Crane wanted their secrets, and now they’ve stolen her body… the body of an alicorn…” “So when Crane said ascension…” Applejack began, looking worried. “They’re trying to become alicorns!” I finished in a horrified voice. “Alicorns like Celestia?” Rainbow questioned. “With the wings and the horn? Is that even possible?!” “I… I don’t know,” Twilight admitted, clearly disturbed by the implications of what we had learnt. “Nopony really knows how Princess Celestia came to be.” “Or any of the Six,” Fluttershy added, glancing over at me. “All we have are legends.” “But that Fauna pony said that it couldn’t be forced,” Applejack brought up hopefully. “That what Crane was messin’ about with would only end in failure.” “She said that ascension needed to be earned,” I stated thoughtfully. “She must know something, perhaps that’s the secret of this Isle, of this temple. The truth about the Six, who and what they really were… and the ponies who know the secrets are Crane’s prisoners!” “They wouldn’t speak!” Fluttershy insisted, deep pain for the captured ponies evident in her tone. “You heard what the Grandmaster said; nothing they could do would have broken her.” “But then how did they learn about the tomb?” Pinkie asked in an ominous voice. There was a deathly silence following that, even Fluttershy couldn’t argue with her reasoning. “So that’s it then?” Rainbow asked in a dry voice. “The Six are real? Are we just accepting that?” “Ah think… ah think it looks that way,” Applejack admitted in a surprised tone. “And that makes it all the more important that we find the Covenant and put a stop to their schemes once and for all!” I declared. “We’ve seen the things they created, if they could produce those kinds of horrors before… what will they be capable off with the secrets of this temple and the body of a Princess to work from?!” “We’re with you Rarity,” Pinkie replied. “But we still don’t know where those damned ponies are. We came here, we beat the trials and saw the memory, but where do we go from here?” “The Grandmaster believed in us,” Fluttershy said calmly. “She had faith that we would be the ones to stop this.” “All she said was that the ones they were lookin’ for were coming,” Applejack argued in a resigned voice. “These… bearers they were tasked with finding. We don’t know what that means, we don’t even know if we really are the ones they were lookin’ for.” “But we did pass the trials,” Rainbow reminded her. “And there are six of us… why is that number so significant anyway?” “Well, the Six each represented a different aspect of harmony,” Fluttershy explained. “Kindness, Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Loyalty and… the, um… the last one which nopony really knows. I’ve sometimes heard the Six referred to as the bearers of these elements, Princess Celestia would be considered the bearer of Kindness, while this Princess Clover would appear to be the bearer of Honesty from what you saw. Perhaps the mission she spoke of, was to seek six specifically to represent those same elements.” “Do we fill those roles?” I asked a little doubtfully. While I could easily see Fluttershy representing Kindness and Pinkie Pie representing Laughter, the other three seemed a bit more grey, while I couldn’t begin to imagine what I might represent, if anything. I glanced around at the others, but they all seemed to be focused on Twilight, who had a distant expression on her face, as if she was lost in thought. “Um, Twilight,” I began, grabbing her attention. “Have you figured something out?” “I was just thinking about some of the things Fauna said during the memory,” she replied. “She told Crane that knowledge was only given to the worthy, perhaps by worthy she was referring to the same ponies who would fill the role of these bearers she mentioned. If that were the case, then presumably these bearers would have access to this knowledge.” “Oh, I get it!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. “If we can obtain this secret knowledge, it will prove we’re the bearers of… whatever that these ponies were looking for!” “Slow down a minute,” Applejack jumped in. “That sounds great and all, but the only ponies who could have shared those secrets with us are now gone, and these books aren’t going to be much use to us in their current state.” “True, but Fauna said some other stuff that got me thinking,” Twilight went on, drawing her sceptre again. “Remember what she said to the crow about bringing the six individuals here so that they could be ‘tested before the eyes of this place’, she also said that their mission would go on ‘through this holy place’. “I certainly remember those things,” I told her. “But what did she mean by them? I figured she was just being…” “Pretentious,” Pinkie finished in a flat tone, earning a small glare from Twilight and Fluttershy. “I think that there’s more to this place than what we see,” Twilight explained. “Remember before we came inside, I noticed the vast quantities of magic surrounding this temple, and not just here; while it may be strongest in this temple, it stretches across the entire Isle. I believe that there’s something here, like a… a force, I believe it governs this land, protecting it as Fauna had said, and looking into our minds and pasts to create those trials. A magical force that powerful, imagine what else it could be used for, say… a magical archive of secret knowledge?” “So the order that lived here,” Fluttershy began thoughtfully. “The one that Fauna was the Grandmaster of, they were placed here as the guardians of this force and keepers of its knowledge?” “Tasked to find virtuous ponies who might be these bearers, and share the knowledge with them if they could pass the Isle’s tests?” I added curiously. “So that knowledge is still here somewhere,” Rainbow muttered, looking around the small temple. “Even if the ponies who were watching over it are gone… it must be pretty well hidden.” “That’s the thing,” Twilight started. “I don’t think it’s hidden at all, I think it’s all around us, just waiting to be unlocked… if we’re worthy.” “We passed the trials,” Applejack said again, raising an eyebrow. “Does that make us worthy?” “Let’s find out,” Twilight answered, raising her sceptre high. She pointed it straight up, as if reaching out for something only she could sense, directing the orb to the ceiling before twisting it just as she had done when activating the memory sphere. The world was gone in an instant, the temple around us lighting up with a bright light, until it felt like we were trapped inside the sun. After a short moment it began to shatter apart into millions of tiny fragments, splitting apart and scattering themselves far and wide across a vast miasma of colours, before settling in place as tiny, twinkling stars. The world in which we found ourselves in was mind-blowing, like we had been launched into space and found ourselves soaring in a nebula of every colour. I could see my friends still, they were each floating close by through the endless space, like myself, their bodies appeared weightless, as if gravity had ceased to exist. They were staring all around us in awe, their eyes had all turned glassy, no longer showing their actual eyeballs, but rather reflecting the colours and stars around us, like crystal pools. I focused my own gaze at my new surroundings, sweeping my eyes over the stars. With every little light I looked at, my mind was filled with information, flashes of images and sound. Every single star contained a vast databank of knowledge; all I had to do to access it, was look directly at one. However, by scanning over so many at once, my mind was filled to bursting points with information that I couldn’t begin to comprehend. If I was to really and truly understand anything, I would have to pick a single star and focus on it until I knew everything that it had to offer, before I dared move on to another. With so many stars, such a process would take multiple life times before I ever learnt everything this vault of knowledge had to offer. “It’s too much!” I called out to the others. “How can we ever find what we need?” “The same way we do everything,” Twilight answered as she swam across between us all. “Together.” She held out her hooves and invited us to join her. We all waded our way across to her, Pinkie and Fluttershy linking hooves with her. Applejack took Fluttershy’s free hoof, while Rainbow took Pinkie’s; finally I joined hooves with both Applejack and Rainbow Dash, so that all six of us were connected in a circle. “Focus girls,” Twilight instructed. “Just close your eyes and concentrate; what do we need to know?” “We need to know about the Princess,” Fluttershy replied as we all let our eyelids shut. “What does she have to do with the Isle of Serenity?” “Alright everypony,” Twilight said. “Let’s start with that, don’t think about anything else but the question at hand.” We all fell into a deep silence as we obeyed; I started thinking hard about what Fluttershy had asked. I thought about everything we had learnt so far about the Princess, the name Clover the Clever and her role in the unification of Equestria, the term Bearer of Honesty, and all the things Fauna had said about her order’s mission on the Isle. After an indistinct length of time, I felt the urge to open my eyes, and did so at the same time as the other five. As we all did, we could see the stars spinning around us, swirling in circles at incredible speeds, as they sorted through themselves to find the relevant information. Finally the stars began to slow down, until only one was moving, and it was moving fast and getting incredibly close to us. The star collided with us, swallowing us in its light until I couldn’t see or feel my own body let alone my friends. When the light faded I appeared to be nothing more than a disembodied consciousness, images and sounds slowly forming around me. When the world formed, I found myself in the very same corridor of Canterlot Castle that Twilight Sparkle’s nightmare had taken place. Once again Princess Celestia was standing there, but the pony with her was not Twilight… “You’re leaving?!” Celestia exclaimed to the other pony, as she closed the lid on a purple chest encrusted with gemstones. “I’m sorry Celestia,” Clover replied in a calm voice. “There are things I need to do… but I need to be alone if I am to work.” Clover looked just as she had in statue form, tall and slender, her mane long and curly, much like my own. What the statue could never have captured though, was her soft green coat, or the way her hair flowed like clusters of leaves in a cool breeze. It was ever shifting and changing, and yet somehow managing to maintain that same form, much like Celestia’s own. She was also wearing the same robes she had been depicted with in the statue, long and flowing, reminding me in many ways of the ones Twilight had worn the day I first met her in Canterlot, only Clover’s allowed for her wings to poke out the back. “But we need you!” Celestia insisted, grabbing hold of Clover’s hoof as she made to turn away. “I need you!” “Celestia…” Clover said in a slow, weary voice. “I know… things haven’t been the same since… since then, and after what happened last year…” “Exactly,” Celestia pressed. “Where once we were six, now we are only four. Don’t make it three by leaving us now.” “I’m not doing that and you know it,” Clover replied, slightly snappy. “I am only going away for a short period of time… a couple of centuries at the most.” “Is that a lie?” Celestia asked in a mopey voice, as she let Clover’s hoof slide out of her own. “Of course it’s not,” Clover told her firmly. “I didn’t become the Element of Honesty by lying… not that any of us are Elements anymore, but then that’s exactly why I must leave.” Clover had been levitating the purple chest beside her, but now she turned to it and stroked it reverently. “Our actions last year were necessary… although deeply painful,” she went on to say. “But now these Elements have become… corrupt, they will never work for us again. So I must take them somewhere secluded, somewhere I can study their power without endangering others, and hopefully someday restore them.” “Will you even tell me where you’re going?” Celestia asked hopefully. “In case we really need your help here.” “I suppose, but only contact me if it is of dire importance,” Clover agreed. “There is a land to the west, across the sea. I have visited it often in my free time, there are many things there that intrigue me and warrant study, but that will have to wait. I once built a small home on an island off the southeast coast, it is there I will be carrying out my work, and it is there you can find me if you really need me.” “Only of dire importance,” Celestia repeated, smirking and shaking her head in exasperation. “You never did like being a Princess or a ruler.” “No, but then that’s why I’m not on the flag,” Clover retorted, returning Celestia’s smile. “I’m going to miss you,” Celestia said as she reached out and hugged Clover, her eyes shinny with unshed tears. “I’ll miss you too,” Clover replied, returning the hug. “Until we see each other again, my friend.” With that, I could feel my consciousness pulling out, the light of the star swallowing the scene until there was nothing left to see or hear. Soon the light began to fade, as the star ascended and returned to its place among the rest, leaving my friends and I still linked together. “So the temple was once Clover’s home,” Pinkie summed up, narrowing her eyes slightly, as if something about what she had just seen rubbed her up the wrong way. “And she left Equestria to come here so she could… restore the Elements?” “But what are the Elements?” Rainbow asked. “Fluttershy used that word, but she was referring to traits… wasn’t she? So what was Clover referring to? What was in the box?” “I guess that’s our next question,” Twilight replied. “Everypony ready?” We all nodded or voiced our confirmation before each of us shut our eyes and began thinking about the Elements Clover had mentioned. I thought about everything she had said in that vision, about the five traits Fluttershy had mentioned as well as the one mystery trait, and about what Fauna had said about finding new bearers and the trials we had faced on the Isle. Once again we opened our eyes to see the stars circling around us, when they began to slow, there was one left which descended upon us, overwhelming us in light. This time however, when the light began to fade, I wasn’t dropped down in some period of history, but rather my consciousness emerged exactly where I had left. I was once again in the sea of colours, only this time there were no stars, and as I waited I could hear a voice echoing out. “My efforts to restore the Elements…” the voice began, I recognised it as Clover’s, although it sounded to be coming from all around me. “Have been a failure.” There was a flash of light, and before me something gold began to materialise within the void. “I have attempted countless times,” Clover went on as more gold object began flashing into existence. “But I must now accept that by using the Elements against another bearer, we have corrupted them beyond repair.” There were six objects, they were now fully formed and rotated around me. Five of them were necklaces, crafted from gold, broad and curvy in form, each with a hexagonal gem placed into the centre of it. The last object was a golden tiara, several blue cats eye gems set into it, with a large six pointed star mounted on the top. The gems were pink, purple, orange, red and blue, with the star being magenta. “Even if I could restore them,” Clover continued in the background. “I very much doubt they would acknowledge us as their true bearers after what we did. I was… despondent at first, after all we had been through to get them, now we had lost them, but then I had an idea…” As I watched, the purple gemmed necklace exploded in front of my very eyes. “If I could not restore them…” Clover began, almost ominously. “Maybe I could break them down… and build something new.” One after another, the necklaces exploded, the tiara doing the same at the end. They continued to rotate around me however, now reduced to a writhing golden liquid, trying desperately to take form, the gems swallowed within. “I had much more success in this,” Clover declared, sounding pleased with herself. “The Elements did not reject the change as I had feared, but rather they embraced it!” One by one, as the broken down Elements began to pass in front of me, they started to turn steadily from gold to silver. “Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty,” Clover listed out. “Even Magic, they all changed, becoming something new… something different.” The liquid Elements, now shimmering silver as opposed to gleaming gold, were starting to solidify, morphing into new forms, unique and individual to on another. “The Elements of Harmony are gone,” Clover stated. “But the Elements of Unity are now born!” Before I could see the final shapes they took, all six Elements vanished from view, leaving me with only the colourful space to look at. “True, they still won’t respond to me, and I doubt the other three would have much better luck,” Clover went on, her voice starting to quieten, as if she was getting further away. “But perhaps this is for the best; perhaps what this world needs is new heroes to look up to. I shall begin preparations for finding the new bearers immediately, although I should be prepared for the possibility that they might not emerge for many years.” The voice faded entirely after that, and once again the world was absorbed by light as the star took the information and returned to its place in the sky. I had no idea how long it was taking to get through each one, but considering we were only scratching the surface of the two stars we had glanced into I was starting to feel a bit exhausted at the thought of going on. “The Elements of Harmony,” Twilight muttered to herself. “So they were magical artefacts, weapons perhaps, wielded by the Six.” “But now they’re the Elements of Unity,” Applejack reminded her. “And we didn’t find out what their names are, how will we know if we represent them or not? And if we do, how do we get our hooves on ‘em?” “It shouldn’t be hard to find out,” Twilight replied, I could hear the eagerness in her voice and it pained me to have to shoot her down. “No, no more,” I cut in flatly, everypony staring in confusion at me. “I know it’s tempting to just sit here and have all our questions answered, but don’t forget that we’re against the clock. Crane and his Covenant are out there now trying to turn themselves into gods. We have to stop them, and save Fauna and the others if they’re still alive, who knows how many more ponies they’ve kidnapped to experiment on.” “Rarity’s right,” Pinkie agreed. “We can come back here later and learn everything we need to know, but right now there’s only one question we should be asking.” “Of course, I’m sorry, I just let my curiosity get the better of me,” Twilight apologised, looking slightly ashamed before bucking up and looking to us with more determination. “Alright then girls, let’s find out where the Covenant are!” I shut my eyes almost instantly, eager to put an end to this once and for all. I thought about Crane and the other robed ponies of the Covenant we had seen, I remembered all we had seen from Brine to the Demon Shaft, and I remembered the words Spike had told us, ‘a massive building, like a castle… it was by the sea’. When we opened our eyes, it was easily the most tense moment as the stars sped around us, waiting for one to come and give us the answer to the ultimate question, the one that would finally lead to the end of our quest. I held my breath as they slowed, looked about wildly until I saw the odd one out, my eyes locking on it as the others came to a stop and it just kept on flying. It came plummeting down, crashing into us, its light washing over us, fading away to reveal… my map? Yes, it was literally just a blown up version of the map in my bag, complete with the marker for Sweet Apple Acres and all. It filled my entire field of vision, and as I looked at it, I heard a voice speak up in the background. “We know who you are,” Fauna’s voice echoed out, the same line she had used to first address Crane in the recorded memory. The single line repeated itself, over and over again, while it was soon joined and overlayed with numerous other quotes exchanged during Fauna's memory. Amidst the storm of sound as the many Fauna repeatedly recycled their lines over the top of one another, my vision began to zoom into a certain point on the map. The map swelled up until I could no longer see the towns and cities, I could hardly see any of Panchea… only the Dusk Coast. As the numerous voices cobbled together, faster and more frequent, making it impossible to decipher any words from them, a single dot was filled in on the map, just like how the Isle itself did when we first arrived. The voices cut out instantly as the dot was drawn in, then I zoomed back out, looking at the map in its entirety with the new addition. “I’m sure they will serve as an adequate tomb,” Fauna’s distant voice said, heavy with resignation. Just as the memory had ended on that line, so too did this star, flaring and dimming one last time before leaving us hanging in our circle. I quickly let go of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, reaching into my satchel and pulling out my map, opening it with shaky hooves to see if the marker really was there. When I saw that it was, I looked up and gave a single nod to the others who had been watching me eagerly. “Alright,” Twilight said, returning my nod. “It’s time to go.” As if on command, the stars began moving once more. This time however, they all concentrated around us, joining together once more to create a sphere of light that surrounded us. When it faded, we were left standing back in the temple, the glare of the setting sun shining through the open door, into the much darker room. We all looked at each other without a word, nothing needed to be said, we had the information we needed, it was time to go and bring an end to the Covenant. Pinkie led the way out of the temple, clearly eager to get our long journey under way. Fluttershy followed, then Applejack and Rainbow Dash, leaving me and Twilight alone for a moment. “Well done,” I told her, a little lamely. “Getting us in there.” “It was nothing,” Twilight assured me, looking bashful. “It really isn’t nothing,” I told her clearly. “If that mass teleport didn’t prove you had ‘superior knowledge’, then that certainly did.” “Knowledge is something we share,” Twilight replied simply with a small shrug as she started walking, continuing only once she was passed me and heading for the door. “We learn from each other, always growing from each new experience.” I smiled at that, before following after Twilight outside the temple doors to where the other were all congregated outside, waiting for us. We all stopped briefly on the cobblestone path, and as I looked between each of my friends and thought back on all the things we had done that day, all the trials we had beaten and the things we had learnt, I felt something swell up inside me… a powerful connection to each of them. It felt somehow familiar, like I had experienced the same feeling in a distant memory. “You know girls,” I began, beaming at them all. “If today has proven anything to us… to me, it’s that our greatest advantage, isn’t our individual skills, talents or traits… it’s our friendship. When we’re together, we can overcome all odds and accomplish anything. That’s what makes us strong… that’s why we’ll win.” The others smiled back at me, and I saw that same elation fill them too, felt that connection strengthen as they too sensed it and embraced it. I took the lead, walking down the path, back towards the battlefield, the others all followed after me without any hesitation. We didn’t make it far before something dark swooped overhead; we came to a stop, looking up and following it as it descended, landing on a heavily busted birdbath nearby. King Crow stared at us, not making a single noise as he surveyed us, while I couldn’t communicate with him, I could sense a forlorn aura about him. Fluttershy marched over to him, stopping just a few metres from him. “Harbinger…” she murmured to him. “You’re the last one… you’re all alone now.” Harbinger let out a low, sorrowful noise; clearly he couldn’t help but mourn the loss of Fauna and the others despite her request. I felt my heart break for him, and was glad when Fluttershy reached out to him to stroke his head. “We saw the memory,” she told him. “We know what happened, she would be proud of you.” Harbinger didn’t reply to that, but stared intently at Fluttershy, refusing to tear away from her gaze. “We know where they are,” Fluttershy went on. “It’s far away, but we’re going there now. We’ll stop them… and we’ll save Fauna and the rest.” Harbinger finally began crowing again, I didn’t know what he was saying, but I detected determination. Fluttershy glanced back at us briefly, she seemed surprised by whatever he was saying, but not in a bad way. “If you can help us, we would be more than happy to accept,” Fluttershy replied to him. We watched as Harbinger hopped off the birdbath, flapping up high into the air. When he reached a point high enough that he had plenty of open space, he tucked his head and legs up, before wrapping his wings around him and yet somehow managing to stay airborne. We continued to watch, even as the air around Harbinger began to shift and jitter violently, silent flashes of black lightning erupting in a great sphere of pitch black feathers around him, growing bigger and bigger before our very eyes. We were all starting to feel a bit creeped out when finally the sphere burst, two massive wings spreading out and breaking free from the dark cocoon. Harbinger had grown monumental in size, dropping down and landing surprisingly gently on the path, and towering over us in his new form. His wing beats sent out gusts of air that pushed even Rainbow Dash off balance momentarily, his claws and talons were now big enough that he could have fought the monster at Anchorage and torn it to shreds in seconds, and finally his beak was now big enough to swallow any one of us whole. He turned his tail to us, crouching down and stretching his wings out like ramps up to his back. He gave a single loud, echoing caw to Fluttershy, who nodded happily while the rest of us just stared slack jawed at his transformation. “Alright girls,” Fluttershy announced, taking the lead and fluttering up onto his back. “Up we get, we don’t have a moment to lose.” “Isn’t that… dangerous?” Applejack asked with a noticeable gulp. “Not at all,” Fluttershy replied from his back. “We can nestle ourselves into his feathers, so there’s no risk of us falling off.” “I suppose it is much faster than walking,” I pointed out weakly to the others. “That’s good enough reasoning to me!” Pinkie declared as she bounced up Harbinger’s wing and joined Fluttershy. “Like I’m going to say no to that,” Rainbow concurred before flying up herself. That left just Twilight, Applejack and me to climb up more nervously. I found his wing surprisingly firm for walking on, and Fluttershy was right when she said about nestling into his back, it was actually quite cosy. And because Applejack insisted on not being near the edge, I would have a great view as we flew. Fluttershy asked for my map, once I produced it, she instructed me to levitate it in front of Harbinger’s eye and explain where we were going. I did, and once he nodded in confirmation, I took it back, tucking it back into my satchel before securing myself by holding on tight to the neck feathers like the others were doing. Without warning, Harbinger began flapping his great wings hard. He took a slight running start, crossing through most of the battlefield in just a few long strides before pushing hard off the ground. I felt my stomach lurching as he launched straight up and we were tilted dangerously far back. It only took a few seconds before Harbinger was high enough that he could level himself and fly straight on, but that was long enough for me to be hanging on for dear life. With the initial scare of the take-off out of the way, I was able to focus my thoughts on the matter at hand, and what lay ahead of us. It was finally time… time to take the fight to the Covenant and bring this story to the end.