The Edge Of Harmony

by Alazak

CH12

The beauty of the nights sky stretched far across Equestria, the moon was a mass of white among the vastness of a starless sky. In the center of a ruined temple sat a lone white Alicon staring up into the emptiness that felt more like herself than the brightest, warmest, day.

“The nights sky is so empty to night sister is there a reason?” Celestia spoke to the darkness never pulling her eyes away from the sky as she searched for a single pin of light to guide her.

“My stars shine for those who would see them.” Celestia turned her head to see Luna step into view. Luna looked at the same sky to see thousands of stars that no other pony would ever see, constellations and worlds that made up the shimmering night she controlled now and since her father gave it to her so long ago. “How many can you see? Just the singularity of my ancient prison, or can you see the vast beauty of the heavens?” Celestia closed her eyes and turned away.

“Its been ages since I’ve seen more than just the moon. I would look up for centuries and wonder if I did the right thing all that time ago. You say you forgave me but did you really forgive me?” Celestia stood and stood face to face with the Princess of the Night.

“I forgave you a long time after my banishment, The darkness that I created rebelled with me for along time and it finally took over my soft heart. I forgave you because I saw from my prison all that you lost. I saw fathers elements reject you like they did me and I cried for you.”

Luna stood like a fortress against her sister, it felt like it did 1000 years ago. She lashed out at Celestia for underestimating her for so long and she had felt cheated by the ponies that her father sacrificed, no her entire race sacrificed for them just to lay about in Celestias warmth and neglect the darkness that they had escaped.

“In the time I have been back I have had a good amount to time to see the Equestria that left me behind. I wandered the land in disguise and attended schools as a foal to better learn and bridge the time gap. But in all my research and experience I have found things missing.” Celestia backed up from her sister. “I expected to see great murals of our kind in their glory and vast libraries of our wisdom for all of pony kind to better themselves as father had always hoped for them.” Luna went to a fallen pillar and stroked it remembering it in all of its glory, because she knew what it felt like to be forgotten.

“But instead I find so many tales of the great Princesses Celestias triumphs over the darkness in Equestria. Massive tomes dedicated to you. I’m disappointed in you sister, I came home from the darkness hoping to have finally escape my own prison only to step into yours.” Luna looked to her sister.

“It’s no good anymore Luna I’m not father and I never will be. He did so many great things for us, our shining capitol that floated among the clouds now nothing more than rubble. He banished away the dragons to the great mountains beyond the lush forests, he even sacrificed the greatest part of his power to help preserve his legacy.” Celestia shied away from her sister in shame. “After you lost your connection to the elements all that power was thrust on to me. I could barely contain it and soon when we fought it broke my heart to send you away.”

“And the elements abandoned you also.” Luna finished.

“I wanted to give the ponies some thing to understand about what had happened, I comforted them and told the stories of father driving the darkness away that threatened their lives and to never worry a long as I was there.”

“But the stories had a different hero didn’t they? Not a grand Alicorn of the cosmos but a white filly of the sun.” Luna watched as Celestias eyes began to overflow with tears. “Now, now, don’t be like that sister. I know you did it for a good reason. With only you to protect them you had to make it look as if your power was unquestionable. This I can understand, what is the dragons were to find out you had nothing left? No power to stop them and even the monsters of the Everfree would rise up against you.” Celestia was surprised to hear this from her sister.

“You know Celestia a long time ago I met a very peculiar unicorn who father taught a great deal of things. He was so handsome and I was smitten with him for a long time, his talent was overwhelming I never thought I would meet another quite like him.” Celestia thought back to the golden days of the Alicorns. “Star Swirl,” Celestia remembered the great bearded unicorn for so long ago and remembered him helping Celestia create the great library of magic unicorns used today. But Luna, this was news to her. “that insane charismatic nut. I would follow him around like a lost puppy both father and Star thought it was cute.” Luna blushed a little thinking back on the time he caught her peeking in on him while he fiddled with new magics.

“But I did find another who had his charm for magic.” Celestia shook her head.

“No, don’t say.” Celestia was afraid to hear the answer.

“You raised her well sister, with better resources I could only imagine what she could accomplish. Perhaps prefect Stars final spell.”

Celestia wanted to run, Luna spoke madness.

---

“You are a fool Star Swirl, that kind of magic is not meant for the mortal races.” Celestia’s voice boomed through the ancient unicorns laboratory.

“This is no longer your call my dear, your father entrusted this knowledge to me and I plan to see it through. It’s the least I can do for my fallen teacher.” Star Swirl flipped through an ocean of archaic pages deciphering complex formulas and scribbling messy notes on to others.

“Prophecy is one thing Star, but to see the future is wrong.” Celestia begged Star Swirl to stop. “Father told me once that to see the future is to set it in stone. No future should have to be that way, ponies should have a choice in their destines.” more pleading did nothing for the aged wizard.

“If I had this back then I may have been able to save him and both our races would ascend into legend, not get buried in the myths of time.” Star stopped for a moment of silence for his teacher. “What about your sister I know she would agree with me.” He shot Celestia a cold stare that gave the great ruler a pause.

“My sister is a dreamer as much as you and father, she can not possibly understand the complexities of rulership.” Star Swirl Stopped dead in his work and a mountain of floating papers fell from his telekinetic grasp rustling to the floor.

Star Swirl marched across the paper floor and up to Celestia’s face. “How far will you go to stop me Celestia? Kill me? Maybe banish me to the dragon lands to become food for their hunger? My magic has laid the foundation for the rest of my tribe and will for generations to come. The earth tribe will only strengthen their bond with the very land and nurture it to feed all of our race. Even the pegasi have mastered the very skies they call home. All this was possible thanks to a single sacrifice that may or may not have had to happen.

And what of your father what have you done with his prison? Last I saw your sister held it and cried for days, have you attempted to rip that away also?” Star Swirl was as forceful as he was powerful, Celestia had no answer for him. “I thought so, you silence tells me everything. Now go sun goddess the court of the sun will be opening soon and there are still ponies that need your guidance, if you can call it that.” He turned away from Celestia, scattering the papers from his hooves to clear his way.

Celestia turned bright red in anger at the unicorn, how dare he talk to her like that? He may have been her father's pupil but he was gone now and this upstart would question her judgement? “Star Swirl the Bearded I, Celestia, Princess of the sun and eldest daughter of the late Gallatais Order a cease and desist of this crime against my kind!” Star Swirl stopped stunned at what Celestia was saying. “By the power invested in me by the Elements of Harmony, I hear by pass down upon you the same punishment that all those before you who have trespassed on the power of the Alicorns.”

Star Swirl quickly went to defend himself against what was to come, but it was of no use her power was too overwhelming. “Good bye Star Swirl you should have never tread were Gods slumber.” And to that her horn sparkled with a radiant light as if she had summoned the very sun she rose on a daily basis. Star Swirl prepared himself for the conclusion and as the light enveloped him he began to harden and petrify into a stone statue, as was the Dragon King she had done before. The light died out leaving only the glorious white marble figure of the great unicorn wizard standing in a dignified pose.

“I’m sorry Star but that couldn’t have saved my kind before, nor would it save any one else's, and as a final act to your punishment I’ll leave you to watch all your work burn before your stoned gaze. My dear Luna please forgive me.” Celestia shed a single tear that hit the floor and ignited the ground. The dry books of notes and magical tombs light up like kindling, cracking and burning away centuries of knowledge. “This new Equestria will have no need for such dangerous power.”

---

“What have you done Luna?” Celestia rushed to her sister.

“I haven’t done anything really it was all her.” Luna nodded in the direction of a large rock.

“Hello teacher it’s been a long time.” Twilight Sparkle sat on the rock and watched the sisters quarrel. “please don’t think badly of Princesses Luna.” Twilight was ragged and showed her age from becoming a hermit, her tangled mane and deep wrinkles raced across her weathered face. “It was about a decade and some change ago, I found the most peculiar book while exploring these ruins.” Celestias heart seemed to die a little. “It was a little burnt but still legible and with some time I managed to transcribe the whole thing.”

“Star Swirls final spell,” Celestia sat in defeat. “Farseeing.” Celesta spoke barely above a whisper.

“I wanted to show you what I had found, after all you of all ponies would have needed to see it.”

“But I stopped her.” Luna approached Twilight. “You stopped Star once without consulting me I wasn't going to let you do It again.”

“Luna, Twilight you can’t possibly understand what that spell does.” Celestia pleaded with them, the act reminded her once again of that night.

“You're right, well at least you would have been right about twenty years ago, I was so green and there was no way to have been able to have comprehended what Star Swirl was researching.” Twilight pulled a massive book from her bag. It looked different from all those centuries ago, but it still had the magical taint surrounding it. “It took some time to perfect and understand what I was perceiving. The very fabric of time is complex and it took time to sort out what I really was looking for.” Twilight put the book away.

“Princess I saw so many wondrous things. Equestria shined like a star in the darkness a brilliant gem that gave all ponies a shimmering hopeful future. And I also saw horrible things that no words could describe. Terrors that haunted the deepest story book come to devour the land and all those who stood in the way. I saw all of Equestria burn I saw the dead rise their endless hunger consumed Equestria and you were nowhere to be found, it was all so scary.” Twilight shivered at the memory of what she had seen.

“But with a little help she managed to filter the spell and find the answers to the real questions.” Luna cut in. “You once said the future is set in stone if you look into it.” Celestia nodded, Luna had always remembered the old soothsayers saying such things. Beasts now known as Diamond Dogs used gemstones to gaze into the void to direct their tribe to riches and survival. But even they couldn’t stop their own destruction at the claws of Discord.

“But it’s not true. Star Swirl was onto something well beyond the scope of simple visions. Paradox lines is what he found, instead of one future you could search out hundreds.” Twilight sounded so happy as she rushed to her teacher side.

“But how does our father fit into all of this?”

“I searched the dozens upon dozens of timelines and found my kind failing to proceed in a fashion that suited us. The ponies would live out the next one hundred years on a kind of stasis, we would progress only so far and then stop. We had become lazy and no longer had anything to look forward to because we had nothing to fall back on, our history was stale and brittle.”

“I gave you a thousand years of peace Twilight, only your safety mattered.” Celestia stood up towering over Twilight.

“No Celestia, your father gave us a thousand years of peace. And we achieved that peace because you pushed us away from that pain he died for.” Celestia looked to Luna for support but found none. “I thought I had gone mad when I found the path that would save my kind. It lie with a single pony and a ghost. I tore apart that path for years searching for a way to make it happen any other way, but it was no use. The path was had so much heartbreak so much pain I pleaded with Princess Luna for it not to be.”

Twilight began to cry and Celestia held her. “Spike’s dead because of me he died once before your eyes, but for me I saw it happen a thousand times over, whether he was with me or he had come to you it always ended the same. And the worst is yet to come.” Twilight pulled away from her longtime teacher and turned away. “He will be coming back to Ponyville soon. He has three of the elements and I will be the last darkness will fall over Equestria the gears are in motion and like every path it will all lie in the hooves of a dreamer.” and with that Twilight vanished in a sphere of purple light.

“Luna I don’t understand.” Celestia looked to her sister. “What have I done wrong, tell me what have I done to cause you to go this far?” She pleaded to the Princess of the Night.

“This is not punishment for wrongs, this is for the betterment of Equestria. This is the path that was entrusted to us by our father, our race, and my lost Star.” Luna looked to her moon and sighed, “I can still see them in my dreams Tia.” A tear rolled from her blue eyes. “Father, mother, the council and even my friends, they smile warmly and tell me not to cry. They never truly died the day the dragons attacked, they live on inside us giving us strength to do what is needed.” Celestia was alone once again as Luna dissolved into black starry myst.

Twilight returned to her library of solitude wrapped in darkness and silence she cast her magic on a bookshelf. It began to glow wrapped in her magic and slid open to reveal a staircase leading to the basement. It was a poor secrect when the library was filled with light and laughter, she had taken Pinkie to discover just what made her ‘Pinkie Sense’ work and failed miserably. But after she discovered Star Swirls book she hid the entrance and buried herself into the research of his mysterious grimorum.

It had been one of the very few times Twilight ventured into the Everfree to gather information on the lost Alicorn empire that the Princesses once belonged to. She had very little documentation on their society while she grew up in Canterlot. A lot of pony tales surrounded them and she had debunked them for nothing more than what they were, stories. But after discovering the lost city deep in the Everfree she began to see more and more of their glory, a few ancient pages from destroyed books could be found and carefully deciphered. The Alicorns language was much like the elder unicorn language and Twilight had spent many summer nights learning the old dead words.

It had been a usual day a quick rush to find a mural shattered across the woodland floor like a puzzle or maybe some aged standing window that still held a remnant of their stained glass that the Alicorns were famous for having in every home. It had been pretty usual this time a few broken pieces of furniture and the sutch, that was until she moved a battered door and discovered a whole book. At least it was more whole than anything she had previously discovered in the ruins.

Burnt but strangely still somewhat new, the book seemed so out of place and after closer examination she thought she had died and gone to heaven. There on what was left of the cover was Star Swirls insignia. Twilight couldn’t believe it, recently she had been able to scour his research and understand their teachings. She no longer cared about her original quest so she took a second and made a quick jump home.

***

“It’s all gibberish.” Twilight pushed her prize aside. “Nothing makes sense. Ughh.” It had taken her a week to restore the pages to a point she could actually read them and even after a dozen trips to the Royal Library she was unable to locate anything remotely similar to what she had found. “Nothing, its like a notebook more than a spell book pages upon pages of gibberish, formulas and other nonsensical mumbo jumbo.” she was ready to admit her defeat to the long dead wizard.

“If its a notebook then why not read it like a notebook?” A laugh from Spike made her stop dead in thought. Spike had been on a ladder putting up cast away books in Twilights frantic research.

“That’s it!” Twilight jumped up and ran to the basement slamming the door nearly knocking the little dragon off his ladder. “I’ve been going at this all wrong it is a notebook and if that's so.” Twilight cringed as she focused her magic into the and ripped all the pages from it.

It was really heartbreaking to destroy such a find but if she was right, Twilight began to scatter the pages about the room connecting to make what seemed like a spider's web of pages. Slowly the incomplete formulas began to finish, the obscure diagrams gave way to full blueprints of something much greater. “Oh you clever old goat. Gotcha.” Twilight smiled as it all came together.

***

Now after twelve years she had it. The walls were plastered with diagrams and hundreds of calculation some scribbled in to paper and others etched into the walls giving off a faint green glow. A massive runic circle was burned into the floor and in the center of the room sat a mirror. Surrounded by more notebooks and singed scrolls the mirror was very plain and didn't look like anything more than a general store full body mirror. More glowing green etchings covered the outer edges of the mirror.

It had been so many years that she had first gazed into the final spell of Star Swirl it now only seemed like a dream. It was all so new, fascinating and ultimately frightening. She played with the power of the Gods and it slowly began to edge away her sanity. It was here she saw Equestrias end at the hands of countless horrors that existed in the Everfree and beyond the borders of their fair land. She watched her friends lives played out in the blink of an eye, some happy and fulfilling others sad and tragic. After deciphering what Star Swirl had discovered she began to understand how to controll it and find a different way. She could focus on one pony and watch a million decisions played out simultaneously and follow their outcome. It was sometimes too much to take in.

It was also here she found she would have to do the worst thing imaginable to help Equestria flourish.

Comments

[Alazak]

A little early but I didn't want to have to deal with it tonight

[Xaldon Ajide]

question is the divinity drain spell going to be used in this story? if not then thats ok. also i wonder what twi has to do thats so terrible?

[Alazak]

787242
Divinty drain sounds cool but sadly no. Well she had to let Spike die so that was pretty bad in my book so what could be worse.

[Xaldon Ajide]

788414 killing him herself. anyway i do hope she doesn't have to give up the element of magic.