//------------------------------// // 6 - Sephiroth // Story: Harmony // by Luna Nightshade //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Sephiroth “As much as I’d like to cure you of your idealistic mind right now, we need to go”, Sephiroth finally gnarled. “Fine, we will settle this later”, Harmony answered and turned away from the stallion. She trotted to Celetia and Luna, leaning down toward them. “Are you okay?” She nodded, although her hooves were still shaking. She wasn’t okay, but she was more okay than a moment before. “I am okay”, Luna replied. “Good”, Harmony sighed. “Though my heart jumped as you went out there. It was dangerous to do what you have done, and I would like you not to do any rash things ever again.” Her voice had a strict tone, though her face was still soft – and as she added “though I’m glad that you managed to save your sister” a small smile formed on her muzzle. Celestia looked toward the elder mare, who began to turn now “come, we need find a hiding place.” She had acted like her mother … she acted as if she cared for them more as for any strangers she happened to meet on the way. If that was the case … She slowly willed her hooves forward as a warm feeling spread within her. She knew that her mother would have done anything to keep her safe – and if Harmony was doing the same, then all she had done up until now, all the things she had despised so far, had been to safe them. To safe them with doing the least amount of damage she could do. A shiver ran over her spine and her hooves felt even weaker for a moment. Why was she going out of her way to safe them? Why wasn’t she looking only after herself like everypony else? Were they the reason? Or was it just Harmony herself? Was it really only her being naïve, as Sephiroth claimed? She willed herself forward, willed her hooves to hold her, as she followed them into the Everfree Forest. “I really like her”, Luna whispered all of a sudden. “I bet she would make a great mother.” Celestia smiled wryly. Harmony was nice, and she cared, but she couldn’t be compared to her mother. To their mother. Although Luna never got to know her. “I would say she is more like a big sister.” The blue filly smiled and fluttered her wings for a bit as the shadows of the forest began to engulf them. Celestia had never been to the Everfree Forest herself, but she had heard stories. Stories of Timberwolves, Celestial Beasts, Pony-Eating plants, Poison Joke and other things come to life. That knowledge added to the general eerie feeling she had, trotting after Harmony and Sephiroth. The trees themselves just looked like every other tree she had seen, though the undergrowth seemed to be a lot thicker than what she was used to, the shadows a bit deeper, the air colder. A wolf howled in the distance and she hurried to close the distance between them and Harmony. “S…so”, she gulped, “what happened to the forest?” “I only heard that an accident has happened here, an accident caused by alicorns”, Harmony turned toward Sephiroth. “Would you tell us what you know?” Despite her growling on him before, she was very polite. The stallion turned his head partly, staring at Harmony. After a moment he looked forward again, trotting silently deeper into the forest. He probably wouldn’t answer. Whatever catastrophe had happened, he might have been responsible – and why should he admit guilt? “It was … a big project”, his deep voice suddenly resounded in the forest. His horn glowed and illuminated the ever darker growing forest. “We wanted to help everypony by making the weather controllable.” Celestias ears perked up. What was the point in making the weather controllable? “No more sudden storms, never too much rain or too much heat that could affect our harvests”, he stopped suddenly. Before them was a big field of blue flowers. He looked left and right, before settling for left, making a beeline around the flower field. “Poison Joke”, Harmony whispered and followed him. “We gathered the strongest alicorns, the most brilliant minds and we combined our strengths to craft a big spell, a spell that would allow us to achive our goals.” He stopped again and looked back toward Celestia and Luna. “Your mother and father were part of that team”, he said, before continuing on. “It wasn’t a simple task. Creating the spell took us the better half of a decade – and even then we still needed a lot of magic to make it work. Your father insisted that we should recheck it a fifth time – although the four times before we couldn’t see anything wrong with our theory. Everypony else was content with trying the spell and although he was grumbling, he helped us casting it, pooling in his magic with everypony else. “Everything seemed to work fine, the magical energies build up as planned, forming a bright sphere in our midst.” He started walking again, ducking beneath a low hanging branch of an oak tree. Harmony followed and ducked as well, Luna and Celestia were too small to be bothered by that branch. “But your father had been right. There was something we had missed, something we had forgotten to think about and maybe we would have found it with another check”, he gritted his teeth audibly. “Suddenly the enormous amounts of magical energy went out of control, striking at the sky, at the trees, at the ground and … at us.” He shivered, his wing fluttering slightly. “The ground shook and broke open, the sky was wounded and we could see stars during the day time. The trees started to grow unnaturally fast and … Eva and I were hit by lightning.” He stopped again, his voice suddenly full of regret. “She died … and I …” he opened his wings – the one wing only a stub, some small thing left from a once big and beautiful wing. “Many other ponies died that day and the forest claimed our village in a matter of minutes. Your mother took a minor injury before the others got the magic back under control and dispersed it safely.” Celestia gulped. “Only later we found out that the magic had done far more than we expected. Celestial beasts had fallen from the injured skies. The Ursa Major rampaged through the forest before finally settling somewhere. The magic had awoken the trees themselves, had created timberwolves and some of the flowers had begun to mock us.” He stopped and pointed with a hoof to the poison joke at their sides. “Ever since then, the ponies didn’t trust us anymore. They wanted us to separate, to never again assemble in such a big group. It is probably another reason why your family lived apart from each other.” His voice sounded sympathetic. Harmony was quiet, biting on her lower lip for a while. “That’s unfair”, Luna suddenly said. “You tried to help them!” Sephiroth barked laugh. “That wasn’t the worst for me”, he said finally. “The worst one was that nopony, except your mother, showed me sympathy that I had lost Eva.” He grumbled. “No they pushed the blame on me because I insisted on trying in the first place. That easily forgot that they all agreed to do this.” “I am sorry”, Harmony said all of a sudden, “for your loss.” Sephiroth looked at her, startled. A smile soon crossed over his muzzle. “Thank you”, he replied. They went on in silence for a while and then away from the patch of poison joke flowers. Luna looked back on them, her muzzle scrunched in thought. “The biggest irony of this all”, Sephiroth suddenly began again, “is that now, after those ponies killed some of us, the weather stopped working in its natural way and may even be controllable.” “It is not only the weather that has changed”, Harmony replied calmly, “the sun and moon have stopped on their tracks as well.” “I noticed”, Sephiroth replied. “I have a theory as to why …” “Can it be reversed?” All three of them asked. The stallion shook his head. “Not anymore. Not with only us left.” “But if you know why, you should also know a way on how to reverse it”, Celestia countered. “It is because I know why that I know it cannot be reversed anymore.” He stopped again and turned toward them. “I believe, that the very spell, we cast here, backfired on us.” He stepped aside and gave way to the view of a big ravine, a cleft in the earth, right in the middle of the Everfree Forest. “It probably bound us to the forces we tried to control – and with killing us they only manage to kill those forces with us.” He turned and gazed on the scar left in the ground. “We cannot restore what has been killed”, he said loudly, but is muzzle moved a bit longer, as if he was whispering something to himself. “Now, come. I believe us to be safe in this very spot. Not even the monsters awakened by our spell dare tread close to this place.” Celestia stepped closer and felt a shiver. There were some roughly hewn stairs leading down into the cleft. “Who made the stairs?” The filly treaded carefully downwards, shivering with each step. It felt wrong going down into the wound left within the earth. “I did”, Sephiroth answered. “I can’t exactly fly down anymore, and I had need to get down there … To get down to Eva …” Celestia gulped down any and all things she could have asked. As much as she didn’t want to go down into the injured earth, she didn’t want to bore into Sephiroth injury. All the things he had told them explained why he was so bitter, so angry with the ponies attacking them. But it had also sealed their fate. Unless they stayed down there until everypony forgot all alicorns, they would still be chased and … She shivered and hugged herself with her wings to keep warm. The ravine itself wasn’t as deep as she had thought. It was not the path to the center of their planet like in those stories she had been told when she was young. Instead they trotted on solid and plane ground after roughly three or four stories of what she knew to be a normal house, though that didn’t change the fact that it was dark and creepy. Sephiroth led them to a spaceous cavern that was located in about the center of the ravine. His horn lit up and illuminated the place: The stone walls and ceiling were made of some dark, almost black stones. The floor had the same color as the ground outside – a simple grey. In one corner of the cave were saddlebags and in the center lay a single rose. It seemed to be cut of freshly from a rose bush. This was probably the place where Eva had died. And the rose … maybe it was her favorite flower? Celestia didn’t ask any of these questions. They had awoken enough sad memories for Sephiroth. “There is one more thing I wanted to ask you”, Harmony said and looked at the stallion. “What is it?” He trotted over to the saddlebags in the deepest part of the cave. “I started to notice these magical surges whenever I was close to a dying alicorn.” “Yes, I noticed those as well”, Sephiroth said and produced five differently colored stones from his saddlebags: A red, dark blue, light blue, orange and green gemstone were floating in front of him, held within his magic. “You see, whenever one of us dies, our magic disperses to everypony else. Or should I say every alicorn else?” He chuckled. “Part of their essence lives on within us, ready to be reborn one day.” “I haven’t heard of any reborn pony”, Harmony answered. “Oh, they will never be the pure pony they were before, unless you do your best to piece them together bit by bit.” Sephiroth smiled, but Celestia got the impression that this smile wasn’t a warm, welcoming one. It felt threatening. “It is also such a shame to let it disperse first”, his horn suddenly glowed a lot brighter, a stream of energy hit Harmony in her chest. The mare held her chest with her hoof. “It looks much more beautiful when it is crystallized. In this way”, he glanced onto his stones”, not one drop of the original essence is lost!” His horn flared again and a stream of magic hit Harmony in her chest again. The mare screamed in agony. “What are you doing?” Celestia heard herself scream. The stallion stopped its magic. Harmony stopped screaming, but a part of her barrel looked as if it was made of crystal. “I will set things right”, Sephiroth said, his horn started to glow again, but his eyes were not fixed on Harmony. It was fixed on a point behind them. Celestia turned her head just in time to see his magic flicker in the air, sealing the cave’s entrance off. He had brought them here not to protect them, but to imprison them. “To get things right, we need to make sacrifices”, Sephiroth explained and smiled at them. “You see, Harmony here has the last part of Eva’s essence that I need to resurrect her. And all three of you have the last bit of Alicorn Magic that I need to become powerful enough to brainwash everypony into worshipping us.” He giggled and turned his head toward Luna. His horn started to glow again. “Eva and I will be the new heads of a new race of Alicorns!” She knew he was going to attack Luna. He was going to attack her sister! To make her suffer like Harmony! Time slowed down for her. Without thinking much, she gathered her own magic, concentrated on the spot were Luna was and – pulled herself toward her. She barely registered the plopping sound her teleportation made and immediately grabbed Luna’s neck fur with her teeth. Without pause she concentrated on another spot in the cave and pulled them there. She had the felt that Sephiroth’s spell graze her tail. “Leave. Them. Alone.” Harmony’s voice resounded behind them. Sephiroth ducked behind a quickly summoned magical shield. “You can still cast spells?” Sephiroth gnarled at Harmony. “Casting spells should crystallized your essence!” “FREE HER!” Luna suddenly cried. The little filly was angry. Angrier than anypony she had ever seen. Sparks of magic appeared around her horn, turning into lightning bolts that all but scarred Luna’s own horn. A dark blue stream of magic burst forth from Luna’s horn. Spehiroth was once again forced to shield himself. “DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME!?” Sephiroth lowered his horn and shot a blue stream of magic against Luna’s. Her stream of magic was repelled, shoved back toward them. Celestia gulped in panic. She was sure she couldn’t teleport Luna away while she was casting – and if she stopped casting, the spell would hit them. But she had to do something! Anything! Maybe if she duplicated the spell Luna was casting … But what was she casting? Perhaps she just needed to help her push. She gulped and charged up her horn, feeling the magic course through her body, she directed the flow to the big knot of clashing magic in front of them and pushed. The knot of magic stopped advancing toward them. Together they were managing to stand up against a grown alicorn stallion! “You fools! There is no time!” Sephiroth grunted. “Do you really think that Eva would like what you have become?” Harmony stepped forward. She had sweat glistening within her fur. Every move was visibly straining for her, but she still closed in on Sephiroth. “STEP AWAY”, he screamed. “YOU DON’T KNOW HER! AFTER WHAT SHE HAS BEEN THROUGH … WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH …!” “YOU REALLY THINK SHE WOULDN’T CONDONE YOU KILLING INNOCENT FILLIES?” Sephiroth froze. Celesita could feel his magic giving in to them. Celestia cancelled her spell, but Luna was still casting, and with a cry her stream of magic hit Sephiroth’s horn. The stallion cried out as his horn shattered, bits and pieces scattering on the floor. The five stones he held in his magical grasp fell to the ground, five tingling sounds like small bells reached her ears. Somewhere behind her the magical barrier shattered like a piece of ice. Sephiroth fell to his knees as Harmony stepped toward him. Luna breathed heavily next to Celestia, but the filly kept an eye on them. She was still gritting her teeth. Sephirtoh gritted his own teeth, tentatively reaching up to feel his shattered horn. He winced back as he felt the sharp edges where it had broken off. “Are you … ?” Harmony stopped with what she was saying, a wing gently touching his back. “You and Eva … are too much alike”, he looked up to Harmony. “You have her personality, her views … even your voices are close … but you are not her.” Luna stopped glaring and fell to her own knees. Celestia started to nuzzle her sister gently and placed a wing over her back. “I had hoped to bring her back … but I never thought of what she would have wanted.” His ears swiveled and he used his wing to gently touch Harmony’s face. “I can’t reverse the spell anymore. But I hope that you can somehow create a miracle.” He got to his hooves and trotted slowly to the cave’s entrance. “I shall buy you some time.” Harmony hadn’t said anything at all. Her ears were erect and pointed towards the cave’s entrance. Celestia turned her head. She could hear the faint hoofsteps of … many ponies. She gulped and pulled Luna closer to her. “Thank you”, Harmony finally said, smiling at Sephiroth as he was about to disappear out of the cave. He looked back at her. “I … you really are too much like her.” He shook his head, and put on a grim look of determination. Then he galloped off. Celestia could hear his hoofsteps receding. “What now?” Celesita asked. “Now”, Harmony took a deep breath and winced. “Now it is time for me to say goodbye.” “W… why?” Celestia stammered. She felt a sudden pain within her heart. Harmony slowly moved toward them, moving as if her right foreleg had gotten stiff. “I cannot flee and I cannot protect you or me.” She sighed and looked on them with a pained look on her face. “T… there must be a way. We can reverse that spell. Right, Luna? Luna?” The blue filly had fallen asleep next to her. She had exhausted herself by holding up to the stallion. Suddenly there was this eerie feeling passing through her. All the hairs of her coat stood on edge. The last time she had felt that … “I am afraid we do not have time to figure out how this spell even works, let alone to cancel it.” Harmony shook her head. “I need you to take care of your sister.” Harmony’s horn lit up. Celestia could see the crystal on Harmony’s fur spreading. “S… stop casting”, she screamed and jumped to her hooves. “Stay where you are”, Harmony chided, her magic slowly wrapping around the stones that Sephiroth had … created. Celestia stopped, her hooves still ready to jump further. “There is something that I have learned, something that will help us all to live together in peace”, the mare said, pulling those stones toward her. “And I am trying to teach this to all ponies.” She winced as more and more crystal started to grow around her, her right foreleg glittering in the glow of Harmony’s own magic. “B… but how will you manage to teach anypony if you’re … you’re …” Celestia felt tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn’t say it, she wasn’t even able to think it. When had she gotten this attached to Harmony? “I can make ponies forget. I can also make them remember”, Harmony answered, the five stones started to swirl around her in a flurry of colors. “I will remind them how it is to laugh, to be honest with each other, to show kindness, to be generous and loyal to one another”, those stones started to light up as her spell started to form, the glow around Harmony got stronger, lighting up the cave as if the full moon was down there with them, as if the sun was climbing over the horizon. “And I will remind each and everypony of what they love to do!” “D… down there”, somepony cried outside. “The light! Quick!” Celestia turned, her ears picking up the stampeding hooves of the ponies storming into the ravine. She had to do something. Maybe she could hide them with her magic. Put a shield around them like in that cave … She stepped back to Luna, her horn glowing. Harmony was swept into the air by her own magic. Her barrel was consumed by crystal as were her other hooves. Crystal was growing out of her and toward the ground, while her eyes glowed in a brilliant white, the five stones floated away from her, as if trying to complete a big magical circle. “She is casting something. STOP HER!” Somepony shouted and others stepped into the caves. But nopony dared to get close. A wave of magic passed over them. Celestia’s magic wavered. “Quick, throw that spear!” Somepony called. Celestia saw the spear flying toward the still exposed parts of Harmony. She wanted to scream. Her hooves were at her muzzle. She barely felt the second wave of magic passing over her. The spear hit Harmony’s neck. The glow of magic was suddenly everywhere. An uncontrolled flow of power hit everypony. Images assaulted Celestia’s mind. Images of Harmony growing up alone. Images of Harmony being ignored from her foster parents. Images of her being robbed. Images of her attacking the robbers and getting her belongings back. Images of ponies condoning her actions, of ponies throwing her out of the village. Images of her not being welcome anywhere she went. Images of her fond memories with Azure Silk. Images of her struggle against her own darkness. Images of her seeking revenge against some fraud-ponies. Images of her feelings toward Celestia. Images of her fear against Sephiroth. Images of Luna. Images of Luna’s father. Of her own father. And her mother. Celestia’s own memories swept away the pictures of Harmony’s presumed past. Her mother sending her away, her escape, her meeting with Harmony and Luna. Their flight through the lands. Every action Harmony had taken. Seeing them again she knew that Harmony had done them to protect them. Up until her last, big spell. The spell that fell apart around them. Like glass shattering. Pieces of light falling toward the cold, uncaring floor of the cave they had found themselves in. Before Celestia stood one big tree, made entirely of crystal. The five stones were held in its outstretched branches like fruit. There was no sign of Harmony anywhere. There was only the sign of other ponies. Ponies looking around frantically. Nopony seemed to see them. Celestia held her breath. She could feel her own magic still wrapped around them, still hiding them from view. “W… what are we doing here?” Somepony asked. “I don’t know …” another outside asked. “What is with all these weapons and torches?” Nopony of them seems to even recognize the big crystal tree in the center of the cave. “It’s getting dark. We should leave”, somepony suggested. “I… I think this is the Everfree”, another shouted, panicked. “L… let’s get out of here quickly!” The ponies retreated from the cave and the ravine. Their hooves clipclopping about as they tried to get as far away from where they were as they could. Celestia finally dropped her shield. Her heart was pounding. They forgot. They total forgot about them. She looked to the tree. Harmony had done it. She had managed to save them … She … who … Celestia felt her own memories slipping away. She refused to let them go. She closed her eyes shut and gathered all the fragments of her memory. She couldn’t just forget her. She couldn’t just forget Harmony. How could she be so cruel to erase herself? Why would she erase herself from every memory? Had she already managed to erase the memories that could answer her questions? Celestia struggled to keep the memories. Every time one piece threatened to slip away, she caught it and reinforced the memory of it until she had built a small castle inside her mind. A castle that Hamony’s spell couldn’t tear down. As she opened her eyes again she looked at Harmony’s only legacy. She looked onto the crystallized essence of the pony that had saved their lives. She looked upon a tree saturated with magic. The tree … of Harmony. “S… sister? W… where are we?” Luna opened her eyes and looked questioningly at Celestia. “How did we get here?” Celestia looked from Luna to the tree again, hiding her face from her sister as tears started to stream down her cheeks. Luna had forgotten. She couldn’t remind her. She knew that it would break the filly’s heart. “We came to the Tree of Harmony to ask it for its protection”, she lied. Now she understood why Harmony had erased herself. Why she had tried. She never wanted them to live with this pain that now dwelled deep within her heart. “Protection?” Luna asked. We were in danger? “It doesn’t matter now”, Celestia asked and trotted to Luna, putting a wing over her sisters back. “We are safe now. Let’s go …” Luna looked back to the tree, confusion showing on her muzzle. “Have you been crying?” She asked worriedly as the last two alicorns left the cave of the Tree of Harmony … ~*~*~ As the images faded and Twilight was returned to the present day, she could only stare openmouthed at Celestia. She felt tears streaming down her muzzle – the same tears that were streaming down Celestia’s. Her brain worked in overdrive. There were so many things she wanted to ask, so many things she wanted to know, but right now she knew that she couldn’t ask any one of those things right now. Instead she got up and settled down next to the sun princess. She hesitated a moment before putting her wing over Celestia’s back. The bigger mare answered with a nuzzle and leaned into Twilight. “Thank you.” Twilight stayed next to her former mentor. Being reminded of the times she was her personal student, learning all types of magic while cuddling beneath her big comfortable wing. It was something she had missed. She leaned into Celestia and most of her questions faded into the back of her mind. “I am sure you have even more questions now”, Celestia finally said. “I will try to answer what I have figured out myself.” “D… did she succeed with her spell?” Twilight asked. “Partly”, Celestia stared toward the window on the far end of the room. “She managed to remind everypony of what they love to do. It is something that holds true even today. She also managed to remove the memory of fighting against alicorns from everypony.” “W… wait. If she managed to remind everypony of what they love to do until today … then …” Celestia smiled. She waited for Twilight to give the answer to her own question – like she had done so often when she was younger. “That spell is the origin of our cutie marks?” Celestia nodded. “But that was all she was able to accomplish. Her other wishes were stopped and somehow sealed within the Elements of Harmony.” “This is so exiting. I need to write this down!” Celestia shook her head. “I want you to keep this knowledge between us. I still do not want Luna to remember. But I have to thank you for rescuing the Tree of Harmony.” “D… do you think that, if the tree had died … our cutie marks would have disappeared?” “It is possible”, Celestia’s smiled faded. “And considering that those marks boost our prowess with our favorite abilities … it could plunge Equestria into chaos.” Twilight shuddered. “T… then …” “If I knew that the tree was slowly dying without the elements, I would have had you bring them back earlier.” Twilight nodded. “I’m sorry for assuming …” “It is okay, Twilight. It is always worse to judge without knowing than to clarify your suspicions by asking first.” Twilight smiled. She looked out the window onto the full moon. “So … Harmony’s spirit still looks out for Equestria after all this time …?” “She does … and until today … I was the only pony who knew.” “Thank you for telling me”, Twilight said, and thanked the tree itself for all it had done to help them up until now. The tree … and the pony that had created it … THE END