//------------------------------// // Return of Harmony - Part II: Back Together // Story: Dawn Of The Silver Sun // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// Straw was shaking due to his nerves usable as quitar strings. First of all, everything hinged on princess Luna staying true to her word. The second issue was that he had to periodically report to her without being discovered. The last but not the least worrying problem lay in the fact that once again he was being watched by a dreamling who, unlike the previous one, had no experience with him and could attack Straw after he sneezed the wrong way. It wasn't all bad, though. As the three friendly faces of his squadmates greeted him after midnight on the train platform, he breathed a sigh of relief. At least the princess hadn't sent guards after them immediately. "So, what is this all about?" Fortune looked at Straw firmly. "Huh? Why are you asking me?" "Leo said you led some crazy secret mission during the last week or so." The mischievous look on the noble's face betrayed that Leo was leaving it up to Straw to tell Fortune that Cromach was alive. "I think we should wait for Seven before we start anything. I assume you've been sent here by him as well." "A dreamling disguised as a Royal Guard? Yeah," Fortune nodded, "Said something about Order business." "Yeah, I don't even know where we're going," Straw shrugged, "Perhaps Seven should do some explaining first." "We're going to Pine Hills, the dreamling hive likely," Connie waved her ticket, "Dodge Junction is our destination, and from there it's only few hours on hoof to the town. Since everything is snowed over it might take a bit longer, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out. Ever since we got detained in Canterlot I've been doing some digging on the Order." "Found anything juicy?" Leo's interest rose a little. "A lot of stuff, actually. Nothing I considered vital or necessary to share, though. The Order was founded around the time princess Luna got Nightmared, and the official knowledge is that it was Celestia's devoted followers who wanted to protect the crown from all followers of Luna, especially batponies. Their importance grew over the years into one of the most prestigious organizations ever. Later, when Luna was safely locked up on the moon ponies forgot what even happened, and the Order turned into just another high-class club for nobility to feel superior to normal ponies. A little bit of the old pride remained, however, and turned into some twisted zealotry concerning Celestia and the sun." "Nothing too important then," Leo shrugged in disappointment, "aside from us breaking the racism mold of the Order." "Not really, there was this one little note I found in an old history book and which I had to talk to princess Celestia directly about. It explained how the other history books are basically bullcrap. The name Silver Sun, as it is understood now, was used by the previous Order members to address themselves because they didn't want to seem too prideful and compare themselves to the gold of Celestia's sun. That's not the real meaning, though. The real reason for the silver part is that the sun shone its light at the moon, thus creating silver moonlight. Princess Celestia told me that the original Order was founded by various ponies - unicorns, pegasi, batponies, earthponies, and even some griffons, all from differens echelons of society - to show unity in the dark times of civil war and attempted regicide. Unfortunately, as the hateful voices of ponies, mostly unicorn nobles, grew during the civil was the Order lost the original purpose almost immediately." "Hey!" Straw brightened up, "And we're making it right, aren't we?" "What?" Fortune looked at him skeptically. "There's us, a hippogriff, a satyr, and two unicorns, trying to kick the rump of the most racist guy I know, at least if we go by Blinding Light's journal. The Order was led by an earthpony - heavens protect baron Hoof -, an alicorn, and a griffon. The members are being trained by changelings, and right now we are following a dreamling's orders. From a noble," he looked at Leo, "to a lost orphan, we're what the Order was really supposed to be. Honestly, I feel pretty good after the little history lesson." The others quite visibly didn't share Straw's excitement and pride, but couldn't bring themselves to disappoint him by saying how completely unimportant they really were. Nopony wanted to kick the world's biggest puppy-griff. Shockingly, it was Fortune who took his side first. Perhaps it was because she had joined the Order before anypony else present. "Hey, if there was a minotaur, an earthpony, and a dreamling in my squad then the new Order has to be doing at least something worthwhile." "Here you are!" a Royal Guard whom they recognized as disguised Seven passed by them and hopped onto the train, "Come on, let's find out seats." When all of them were sat down in a private area and the train started its slow thumping on the track, Connie took the lead. "So, Seven, what is this all about?" He looked around if there was anypony within earshot. The overnight train to Dodge was mostly empty, and it didn't seem like anypony or anything would be able to hold onto the frozen sides of the train. With snow rushing behind the window, Seven quickly explained the situation. "Dad and his griffon have a plan to deal with Blinding Light which requires you to participate. They'll tell you all the details after we arrive at the hive." Connie smiled in satisfaction. "Griffon... mate?" Fortune's face twisted into something unpleasant, "Well, Blaze got over Cromach quickly, didn't he? Or was it some bastard looking for an alicorn on a rebound as an exotic catch? After Cromach believed him despite everything-" she stopped herself, and just grumbled something unflattering. "Ummm," was the smartest thing Straw could think of. Connie, however, managed to conjure a predatory smile which would put a hunting lion to shame, and asked: "Can I? Can I? Can I?" "Please, don't blow anything up again," Straw muttered. "What's going on?" Fortune looked at beaming Contradiction, then sternly at her probably-coltfriend, "Leo?" "Can I? Can I? Can I?" Connie hadn't stopped. "Well, it's like this. The griffon, ehm, you called a bastard-" Leo bit his lip. "-is Cromach," Connie couldn't handle it anymore and went for the killing blow, "The 'crazy secret mission' as you called it was to give Cromach's soul still hanging on a new body. The morons didn't want to tell you because you'd cream your panties and leave your new loverboy in the dust." "Leo?" Fortune looked at each of the others, stopping on the noble, "Is it true?" He stared at the table. "Of course it-" Connie began. "SHUT UP!" Fortune slammed the table, "I want to hear it from him." It dawned on Leo that there was no way out. In her rush to make Fortune uncomfortable, Connie messed up really bad. He could explain he hadn't wanted to tell her until there was a clear result and save his hide, but... but that would go against everything he had learned from the griffon soldier they apparently saved. He looked Fortune straight in the eyes and said: "Yes. Straw and princess Twilight discovered sir Cromach's soul wasn't gone from this world, and we went to ask the alicorn of Death what to do with it. He said it was possible to give it a body, and if Cromach was strong enough he could use it. Straw was badly hurt by Nightmare not liking the places we went to at all, and needed rest. I took over his shifts, but it seems he wasn't sleeping, and instead of me he got Contradiction to help and finish what we started. Before you ask - yes, neither of us told you because... well, what Connie said." "I see," she said in a tone colder than the night frost staining the train window, "So that's how much you trust me." With Leo's eyes fixed on the floor, Straw broke the silence. "Uh, how about we turn in for tonight? Who knows what Blaze is going to want from us." "Good idea," Leo smiled weakly. He slipped from his seat next to Fortune down on the floor and unpacked a little pillow. The satyr meaningfully stretched her legs over the now free spot. Leo looked at her and muttered, "I'll... just tuck myself under here." "I'll be right back, bathroom," Straw stood up and left for the end of the train car. Using the toilet as a chair, he pulled out a notepad and a pencil from a smaller bag around his waist, and started writing. Your Highness, Straw Basket here. I'm sure you are busy, so I'll keep it short. We are currently on the way to Dodge Junction, and our destination is likely Pine Hills and the dreamlings' home. Blaze and sir Cromach should be there and brief us on their plan. Good night. I'll write as soon as we know what's going on. When he came back to the others, Connie and Leo were breathing quietly, already motionless. Seven was on the floor just like Leo, but his blue eyes followed Straw's every step, and Fortune... ...Fortune was propping her chin with her hands, making a small pyramid on the table. When she noticed Straw she shook her head and whispered: "I'm being stupid, aren't I?" "He was just afraid of losing you," Straw said quietly as well. "He doesn't think I can control myself." "To play devil's advocate, you WERE pretty crazy about sir Cromach." "He has no idea how I feel about him." "Do you?" She twitched and smiled to herself. "No. Cromach is my idol, I adore him, I dream about him, but... I don't love him. I can't see us walking hand to talon together, I can't see us sitting on a bench, just staring at the sunset. I can see us doing a lot of stuff in the bedroom, don't get me wrong, but that's not what I really want." "Hey, sir Cromach is Leo's idol too, at least you have something to talk about," Straw smirked, "Besides, nopony can blame you for your dreams. I'm sure Leo dreams about the Trottingham milkmare with huge... breasts. For a pony, I mean, not like you. I mean... not that I'm looking..." "I get it, I get it," Fortune covered her mouth, watching reddening Straw, "Hey, you want my... our seats?" "What about you? I can squeeze next to Connie no problem." Fortune carefully crawled under the table next to Leo and threw a blanket over the two of them. "Can't leave the idiot without a reward for helping save my dream crush, can I?" she snuggled up to Leo. Stretching over the free seats, Straw was sure more than any time before that his butting in was the best thing he'd ever done. They spent the entire next day by trudging through frozen road between Dodge and Pine Hills. It was clear the wide path was made for transporting lumber to the train station, but at this time of year even the normally safe way was at least a little perilous. However, nopony stubbed a hoof or anything, so the main issue was arriving fairly exhausted. Eight eyebrows got raised upon seeing an undisguised dreamling wearing a wooly beanie and high, furry boots. Four mouths dropped when the ling waved presumably at Seven who just raised a hoof. "Are ponies not bothered by undisguised dreamlings?" Leo asked. "No," Seven shrugged, "not really. When we first arrived they didn't like it, but eventually it helped in making them see us as we are, not as somepony who will shapeshift and steal their partner and friends. These days we are at most a curiosity." Straw immediately liked this place. Just like Wild Bastion, Pine Hills was a logging outpost, and seemingly open and friendly enough to those who had nowhere else to go. Ten minutes of watching the sleepy life of the town taking a break after a long day around them, the group reached an unremarkable one-story house. Unremarkable at least to common visitors, if there were any, that was. Leo and Connie felt a slight touch of magic as they entered, but Straw once again suffered a direct reminder that there was something other than him inhabiting his body. To him, every stone of the building glistened with power he had never seen before, but which felt familiar to what Seven and Three felt like, only on a much greater scale. Either the protection surrounding the house was the collective work of the dreamling hive, or queen Guiding Light was immeasurably more powerful than any normal ling. The second, and more important difference from any other building in the town was a system of caverns seamlessly connected to the cellar and lit up with blue crystals without any visible power source. The third, and the most important difference lay in- "SIR!" Fortune jumped and ran away from Leo who didn't look bothered anymore. -Blaze, Cromach, and Guiding Light sitting at a table in a larger cave which looked like the dreamling throne room. "Heyyy!" the griffon managed to stand up before she wrapped her hands around his neck, "Calm down, you're choking me," he complained, smiling. Blaze stood up as well, and gave the group an exploratory look. Seven bowed, Connie, Leo, and Straw saluted. "To be honest, I wasn't expecting all of you to be here," he said, and the corners of his mouth twitched, "I'm glad I was wrong," when the group exchanged glances, he added, "I know all of you are doing it for Crom, not me, the Order, or some crazy world-saving heroism. I only wish Heavy was still alive so you had somepony other than him to look up to." The usually depressed alicorn looked as if he hadn't slept for days. Bags under his eyes, a barely focused stare, all of it was there. Still, under all that he seemed calm and collected. "Are you okay, sir?" Connie asked. "Just a little tired. We've been thinking about our next step and-" "Humping like rabbits each night?" she gave him the most evil grin she could. "EHM!" Blaze coughed loudly, "...maybe a little." "Good for you, sir. Nice to see you not completely crazy again." He just sighed, and then proclaimed loudly: "Attention, guys!" Fortune broke her inescapable hug and joined the group in saluting. It was clear Cromach wanted to say something, but Blaze just shook his head which stopped the griffon. The alicorn continued when the other were ready, "Have a rest tonight, look around the town if you want to. Anything goes. In the morning, I want all four of you here for the briefing. Just make sure you're in your best shape, because what's before us isn't going to be easy. That's all, go and hug Crom, everypony. Dismissed!" He froze and his eyes bulged when Connie went straight up to him, wrapping her front legs around his neck. "You are as important as baron Hoof and emissary Cromach, sir," she whispered in his ear. He just smiled and requited the embrace. "Not even close, but I appreciate the gesture, Connie." She pushed him away and ordered: "Hoof of Fate, ATTACK!" Three ponies and one satyr immediately piled on the alicorn paralyzed with shock. "Gee," Blaze chuckled, rolling on the floor and resisting only a little, "I get it, I get it. Now let me go and jump on Crom, seriously. I'm not made for foalsitting." The griffon looked flatly at him, resisting the urge to smirk. The Hoof of Fate, none of them more than five years younger than Blaze, gave him a questioning glance. "Give him another twenty seconds for the grumbling!" Cromach commanded. They obeyed the voice of authority. Next day, the Hoof of Fate assembled for the mission briefing. "Alright, guys, the next step for you will be fairly dangerous considering you are now hunted by the crown for high treason," Blaze started the morning briefing on a happy note. To Straw this meant that nopony knew about his arrangement with princess Luna, and that there would not be any surprise dreamling neck biting from behind. The others paled a little, but it was clear they knew what they were getting into, "You need to go to the Everfree Forest, pass through a secret magic portal leading to a different reality, ask the supreme ruler of the place about the whereabouts of weapons called Blades of Balance, and bring those back if possible." The briefing was taking place in the throne room under the oversight of Guiding Light, Blaze, and Cromach. "Why?" asked Connie. "We need those to fight Blinding Light, I believe," answered Blaze without answering anything. "Sir, can you for once tell us everything? We have no idea what we're getting into," she pushed on. "It would take too long to explain everythi-" "Longer than it would take to get the weapons if we get caught, imprisoned, or something worse?" "Connie, just listen! All you need to know about the plan-" "Blaze," Crom butted in calmly, "Just give them the short version. They know literally nothing about the mirror world, the Blades, Iron Hoof Twilight, or your memories. Five minutes won't hurt, and they can be trusted." "That's the problem, not all of them can," Blaze looked at Straw, "Our main strength is in gods underestimating our power and knowledge. If that goes away..." Let me speak for a moment, servant. The voice inside Straw's head was calm and measured for the first time ever. "Sir, Nightmare wants to talk to you," the hippogriff raised a talon. "Okaaay?" Blaze raised an eyebrow. "Ehm," Straw felt the entity push itself forward with unusual care, "Alicorn, it is you who underestimates us. Your limited access to our memories is known to both me and Discord. Don't be a fool and assume Harmony is out of the loop. You being Blinding Light's target had nothing to do with the death of his wife and sons. If it wasn't a convenient excuse then Harmony would not have bothered taking Blinding's wish into account. We might not be sure about the precise extent of your knowledge, but that is not relevant to our plans. You do not have the mental strength and experience to piece together the entire picture and we can work around that. Your betters have tried and failed. Void, Faust, Magnus, the three primal alicorns, each one the first creation of one of us know the most about how the existence works, and yet their resistance to our rule is very limited. Do not presume that anything you say here will change the difference in absolute power between us. There is a limit you can reach, and that is nowhere close to what we can do in our prime. I might be weak right now, but that will change no matter what happens. Harmony's victory is... undesirable to all of us, though, so do your best." Everypony froze, but Blaze just smiled. "Heh, indeed. I will take that into consideration. Straw, you there?" "Yes, sir." "Good," he addressed everypony at once again, "I'll give you the short version. Equus consists of two worlds, not one, which are very similar and in which history used to take a mostly same course. Some ponies are unique to each world, but usually there is a version of everypony in each one. Whenever a pony reaches enough power in both worlds to create their own, they 'merge'... sort of. That happened to Void and Scream. In both realities Void was imprisoned in Tartarus, which is a prison dimension shared by both worlds, and his versions became one. When Scream, after being used by Celestia to bait Void into his punishment, left the worlds and locked herself in her own dimension she became only one as well. However, our Celestia did a really dumb thing long time ago. Out of the eleven Elements of Harmony, which means balance, she took the 'evil'," Blaze popped the hoof quotes, "ones Harmony left in our world, shoved them into the mirror one, and stole the 'good' ones from there. Our reflection of the world was left with Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity, and Laughter, while their sort of got stuck with the bad parts of equilibrium - Imprisonment, Suffering, Destruction, Greed, and Betrayal. From what we know the Element of Magic, or Friendship, appears whenever one world's Elements become too powerful to bring unity to the other side and balance things out. Well, Scream used the darkness within the 'evil' Elements to force the mirror world under a single ruler who would punish Celestia for imprisoning Void and get him out of Tartatus. The ruler was called king Sombra. On our side, he was weakened a long time ago, and finally defeated by Twilight Sparkle, Mi Amore Cadenza, and Shining Armor using the Crystal Heart. In the mirror world, he won, and his armies invaded our Equestria twice. I stopped him both times, and finally, with the help of mirror Twilight Sparkle found a way to destroy the shadow king for good. With Void out of Tartarus, Scream stopped pursuing her vengence, and helped us several times since." He took a little break, on the lookout for anypony having questions. Everypony just listened. "Now, when I still had no idea who Void was or what his goals were, I used to spend a lot of time reading in the private Canterlot castle library, and I got into some notes from Starswirl the Bearded regarding a way to create a weapon able to lower the Elements' influence. A pair of weapons, to be exact." "The Blades..." Fortune muttered. "Yep. Their original intent was to counterbalance the Element of Magic in case it got abused. Starwswirl failed, however, and the Blades can mitigate an Element's power only a little. What they DO give their wielder is a complete immunity to any sort of magic, though. There is a price which you will have to bear in mind. If a magic user tries to wield the Blades they will die, quickly and painfully. As far as I know, I'm the only unicorn able to use them effectively due to my natural inability to use magic. I can only levitate stuff. If you get your hooves on the Blades, either split them up or make Straw or Fortune take them. They look like two greatswords, one with ebony hilt and white blade, and the other with ivory hilt and ashen blade. The last time I used them was against a Nightmare's host in the mirror world, which is why I believe mirror Twilight will know where they ended up." He took a sip of water from a cup on the table. "Why would she know that?" Leo tilted his head, "Sorry if I missed anything. It's all just like listening to a fairy tale, a bad one on top of it." "Right, I forgot that part," Blaze scratched his head, "Mirror Twilight, who hadn't been alicorned by the way, was Sombra's head mage at the time, and took over the reigns of power after his death. We have a fairly good relationship with her these days. They have lost their connection to nature as a price for their advancements in military technology, so as far as I know we trade our natural inventions like the firefly lamps, natural medicine, or fertilizers for their advanced blueprints for engines and magic crystals." "Why isn't there an open trade? Why does nopony know about this?" "Well, opening a completely new world to public would likely have more drawbacks than benefits, but you'll have to ask the princesses about that, not me. As for the trade," he sighed as if trying to explain neurosurgery to a nine year old, "Nothing made in one world can pass through to the other world permanently unless there is a stable portal being maintained between both worlds. If the portal closes then everything would return to its world of origin. That's why we can only really trade knowledge." "So, the portal you mentioned..." Connie stopped, looking into the headlights of an unpleasant train of thought. "Yeah, you'll have to get through, and yeah, it is very well guarded by a garrison of elite soldiers from the Royal Guard and the Nightguard. That, however, is where Crom, Guiding, and I come in. We will disguise ourselves and cause enough of a distraction to lure most of the garrison away from the portal. On this side, there are only some barricades, makeshift barracks, and some more provisional buildings, so you should be able to knock out whoever is left and sneak through. On the other side, well," he chuckled to himself, "you should ask for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. They know me and will at least grant you an audience with Twilight. Explain to them what's going on, and get the Blades if possible. Since Blinding is filled with Harmony's divine power way too much they might not be enough, but I don't have anything better." "Yes, sir!" the group saluted. "Good, try to get the Blades back here as soon as possible. A report I got from Shadowstep in Manehattan said that the Vigil came back at large, but a lot of the more transformed members have been taking the train somewhere. Whether they are just trying to spread their influence or whether they are moving their base of operations I don't know, but I don't like it. Last thing, make sure mirror Element bearers REFUSE to use their Elements to help Celestia if she asks. I seriously doubt that Harmony would have left us a weapon which would pose a threat to it, and considering Celestia's track record she might do something dumb like trying to rainbow beam Blinding into oblivion," he paused for a moment, "If there are no questions then grab anything you need and meet us at the town gate in twenty minutes. Going on hoof through Everfree Forest from this side is going to take way too much time, but still less than taking the Dodge-Ponyville train and risking being discovered by the guards. I prefer blowing up a hydra or two instead of having to melt a pony who is just doing their job." Everypony left to grab the necessities for the trip, aside from Fortune who approached Cromach and stared at him. "Is anything wrong?" he smirked, "I believe you should be getting ready." "Yeah, yeah, it's just... I haven't seen you without the robot arm yet. How come you look all natural now?" Crom sat on his haunches and waved both his real arms, front legs, whatever griffons called their appendages. "I guess I haven't had the prosthesis long enough for my 'soul' to consider it a part of me, so I got revived in my good old natural form. I guess you'd have to ask Void for details about how these things work, I just bash the guys Blaze points me at over the head," he chuckled. "You look good," Fortune blushed, "I mean better than before." "I know," he flexed his muscles to make a little show for the satyr, "Come on, is this about what I think it is?" "No no no, I just... I was just taken aback by how good you look... on the outside of my head, especially after you were... gone." "And young mister Goldhorn?" he raised an eyebrow. "Leo," she sighed, scratching her head, "I really owe you everything, sir. You gave me a chance to see more than the inside of a repair shop, you-" "I put you in danger, I made you go through losing your closest friends, and I will likely be the reason you will face death again. Let's be real here." "You gave me a chance to grow, sir, no matter how much crap I had to wade through before I realized it. What's more, you made Leo grow, and now I have to catch up to him," she smiled widely, "I think I'll have to chip away at his more annoying aspects, but I think he'll do the same for me. I just wanted you to know how much everything you did mean to me, even when it wasn't for me." "I simply believe there is good in everypony, it just takes some effort to find. If you do, though, then the reward usually is beyond your wildest dreams, Fortune. That is exactly why I stuck with him through good and bad," he looked at Blaze who was discussing something with Guiding Light, "and look what I got. Honestly, who on this planet can say he regularly bones a completely submissive alicorn, right?" Their snorts of laughter made the queen and the alicorn shoot them a mildly surprised glance, but they quickly returned back to reviewing the diversion plan. "I hate to break your beliefs sir, but what about the good in Blinding Light. Will you try to spare him if it comes to it?" That took a moment for Cromach to chew through, but eventually he shook his head. "No. I believe there was a point in time when Blaze and Blinding could have sorted their differences and worked through the horrors each of them had suffered. After all, the guy who killed his son WAS his son, no matter the dimensional nonsense. I know they hated each other even before, but... as far as I know from talking to Heavy, both of them respected each other even though neither would admit it. I guess being stubborn beyond all reason runs in the family. That ends here, though. Blinding is clearly insane and a victim to Harmony, and Blaze will never find peace as long as Blinding lives. For the sake of his future, my future... our future, I have to make Blinding disappear. I won't try to save him even if I get a sure chance of it working. If, in the end, I stand over an old, broken stallion who has lost everything I will not hesitate to cut his head off no matter what anypony else says, and deal with the consequences later." "Sometimes you've got to be selfish, is that it?" "Yeah, just don't overdo it." "Thank you, si- Cromach. I'm gonna go and tell my little idiot what to pack for a trip through a frozen forest. I doubt he's set hoof out of a city before." "Good luck, Fortune. Don't hesitate to put everything on the line for the ones you love, and never regret having done so." With a bow, she ran off to pack.