The Secret of Harmony

by Brassboy212

Chapter 7: Crumbling Bridges

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses. Example: (1)

After their trek through the Everfree Forest, Equestria's forces reached the Castle of the Two Sisters. Immediately, the soldiers began setting up camps and tending to the wounded. Most of the castle's ground floors had turned into medical wards. They actually ran out of bedding mats and had to use beds of leaves collected from the debris around the castle. Some of the soldiers only suffered minor injuries while others were injured so bad that they made the military trained doctors cringe. Soldiers that were unhurt or well enough move did whatever they could to help the medics. They weren't able to do as much medical work, but every little bit helped. By nightfall, things were finally brought under control. Capt. Flash Sentry, Capt. Midnight Blossom, and Gen. Diamond Shield stood at the entrance to the room looking forlorn at their wounded comrades. The three were not without their share of wounds.

Most of Flash Sentry's hindquarters were wrapped up in white bandages and the rest of his body was spotted with smaller bandages; all of which were a result of Twivine's plundervines.

A part of Midnight Blossom's wing was wrapped to bandage the hole one of the dragons made during their scuffle. One side of her face was bandaged due to a slash across her cheek another one of the dragons gave her.

Diamond Shield's front left leg was bandaged and he had a an ice pack wrapped around his side as a result of a burn Spine gave him when he caught him off guard. In his attempt to dodge the attack, he sprained his ankle.

Flash walked up to a nearby unicorn medic who was checking one of the patients.

Seeing the captain, the unicorn stood at attention and saluted him. "Capt. Flash Sentry, sir!"

"At e--" Flash was interrupted by a sudden coughing fit. After a few seconds, he managed to clear his throat. "Ahem, at ease, medic. Sorry, my throat is still swollen from those poison fumes. How are things looking?"

The medic looked at the clipboard he was holding with his magic and flipped through a few pages. "It's not pretty, sir. Out of the 1000 ponies in that surprise attack, we've lost about 250 in the battle and a little over 300 wounded. During the retreat, another 30 were killed and about 60 wounded."

"What are the details on the 360 wounded?"

"As I understand it, we've been able to fix up about 150 from the total, however, out of the remaining 210, we've lost 100 more. The last 110 are still being treated."

"How many soldiers does that leave us with now?"

"In terms of living soldiers, this currently leaves us with 620; 510 being battle-ready."

"What? No, this can't be. It couldn't have been that much! I'm sorry, doctor, I need to sit down for a minute."

Flash pulled up one of the chairs next to the beds. As he sat down, an excruciating pain went through his body and he shrieked:

"YEOW!!!" He sprang out of the chair and breathed heavily, trying to will the pain away.

"Captain! Are you alright, sir?" asked the medic.

"I'm fine. I know the doctors told me not to put pressure on my flank, but I didn't think it would hurt that much if I did."

"Sweet Princess Luna, what did that Twivine girl do to you?"

The only thing Flash said in response was:

"I don't want to talk about it." (1)

Blossom and Diamond Shield had an idea of what might have happened and both of them cringed.

"So let me get this straight," continued Flash "you're telling me that in just one afternoon we've lost almost half of our forces?"

"I'm afraid so, captain...but we're still doing everything in our power to--" he stopped for a second when he noticed the pegasus' face. "Captain?"

Flash Sentry looked like he had just seen a ghost. His eyes had shrunk, his face looked incredibly pale, his legs were trembling, tears began to well up in his eyes, and he was biting his lower lip so hard that he almost drew blood. Seeing that the medic was looking at him, he did his best to keep himself together.

"Th-Thank you...c-carry on, m-medic." Was all he managed to say before quickly running out of the room.

The unicorn was surprised by the way Flash acted. "Was it something I said?" he asked.

"I wouldn't worry about that, doctor. We'll talk to him." Said Diamond Shield. "In the meantime, you worry about helping the rest of these injured soldiers."

"Like you said, you're doing everything in your power, and that's all that matters right now." Said Midnight Blossom "Tell my boys to stay strong."

The medic saluted the two commanders "Yes, general and thank you, captain, I'll be sure to tell them."

Blossom and Diamond Shield raised their right hooves accepting the salute before leaving the room in the direction Flash Sentry left.

The two scanned the dim hallway and they found Flash Sentry sitting in a darkened corner looking at the captain's helm in his hooves and quietly sobbing. As they drew closer, they began hearing some of his mumbling.

"Such an idiot...how could I do this...I'm nothing but a failure."

Midnight Blossom approached him. "Don't be so hard on yourself. Sure, death is the worst part of a battle, but these kind of things are unavoidable."

"You don't understand." said Flash through his tears "All those soldiers died because of me. I wanted to lead them to victory, but instead I lead them to their graves! I was the one who organized the attack! I was the one who ordered the call for reinforcements! I was the one responsible for their well-being! My stupid plan is the reason over 400 of our soldiers are now dead!"

The pegasus' sadness and guilt had reached his peak as he broke down and started to bawl. "I should have known we couldn't handle an army like that! Who was I to think our forces could stand against Tirek, and hoard of dragons, four alicorns, and a second Discord?!"

He looked at his helm with disgust. "I don't deserve to wear this helmet!" he picked up the headgear and chucked it across the hallway. "I've brought shame to Princess Celestia!! Princess Twilight may never look at me the same again!!"

"Oh, cut the act! It wasn't a total loss. Those minions Tirek had were about to hand over Discord and the princesses. In a way, your plan saved them. Besides, if it were me and if I had to choose between handing the most powerful magic in Equestria over to Tirek or launching some kind of attack that would stop him in exchange for a few casualties, I'd pick the latter. If my boys are willing to die to help save the princesses by fighting alongside me, then that's their decision. You can't protect everypony. If you tried to, what would you do to protect yourself?"

"How can you be so selfish?!" Feelings of anger started to mix with Flash Sentry's sadness "You lost a good chunk of your own troops and you act as though this whole situation is no big deal!"

Blossom was slightly offended by Flash's statement. "Hey, that's not what I was saying and you know it."

Diamond Shield could sense the rising tension between the two captains.

"You're only acting cool because you made it out alive!"

Blossom was becoming more and more agitated. "Watch it, Sentry!"

"I bet you'd use your own troops and meat shields just so you could stay alive!"

The bat filly finally lost her temper and lunged at the captain like a ravenous beast. She slammed her right front leg against Flash Sentry's throat knocking him back and pinning him to the wall. She raised the hoof blades on her free hoof up to the captain's face. They sparked with electricity as they were held inches away. Midnight Blossom was heaving with anger; bearing her white razor sharp fangs which were clenched together in a furious snarl. She had the same look in her eyes she would have when facing an enemy; a look that ensured the victim that it was about to get hurt...badly.

Being a member of the Lunar Guard and not being seen as much by the citizens compared to the Solar Empire Guard, Midnight Blossom and her troops had a history of being called cowards ever since Luna's return. Rumors were spread about them being a band of ruffians who were always hiding away or nowhere to be seen like Luna when something major was going on. Some even called them weak fighters who had to resort to unorthodox means in order to survive and achieve their objectives. Having an undying loyalty to Princess Luna that would make Rainbow Dash proud, she did everything she could prove the incredible leadership of her princess of the night through the skill and strength of their army. Thus, when it came to prejudices towards her and her kind, she had very, VERY little tolerance.

After a few seconds of growling, the filly spoke. "I would NEVER treat my soldiers like that! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! I care about them as if they were my own children! I would never do something so cowardly and so despicable, and if I EVER hear say something like that about me or my boys again, I swear I will run these blades through those baby blue eyes of yours!!!"

Seeing where this could be going, Diamond Shield finally decided to step in. "That's it, I've seen enough!" The old general separated the two captains with his hooves.

For a moment, the two were surprised at the physical strength he had for somepony his age. Especially since one of his ankles was sprained.

"Capt. Blossom, that treatment was far too harsh for such an issue!" said Diamond Shield.

"You heard the things he was saying, he was asking for it!" said Midnight Blossom.

"That's no excuse, captain! We NEVER use our weapons or magic for disciplining soldiers!"

"If you were one of us, you'd do the same thing!"

"Don't you raise your voice to a fellow officer, maggot!"

"Stop treating me like I'm a private!! I hold just as much rank as Capt. Crybaby over there and I've held the position longer than him! I've charged these blades more times than he has pompfed his wings!! I am captain of The New Lunar Republic Guard and you will regard me as such!!"

Diamond Shield was barely swayed by the captain's outburst. "Capt. Sentry may be acting overdramatic, but what you did was wrong too."

"You crystal ponies are the same as all the others. Even after dealing with Sombra you still don't understand."

The mention of King Sombra and his cruel dictatorship over the Crystal Empire hit Diamond Shield hard. He was shunned that the officer would stoop to such a level. He looked away from Midnight Blossom as his face contorted into a look of repressed fury. "Get...out...now!"

After glaring at the general one last time, the bat-pony angrily trotted down the hall and turned a corner.

Diamond Shield turned his head to Flash Sentry. "Don't think you're any less guilty than she is, Capt. Sentry." he said "Her actions were uncalled for, but she's right to a point. There is no tolerance for such racial bigotry in Equestria's military. Somepony of your status should know that all too well by now."

Flash Sentry slowly nodded.

The general continued. "I'm going to go check on my troops. You do what you must." He proceeded in the opposite direction toward the medical ward and turned a corner into the next room leaving the pegasus alone with his thoughts.

---

Meanwhile, in one of the meeting chambers on castle's upper level, the mane 6 were waiting for the remaining princesses. Twilight was frantically pacing the room trying to figure out what just happened while the rest of her friends were sitting quietly, barely saying a word to each other. Suddenly an eruption of unintelligible bickering between several voices was heard from down the hall as was rapidly moving towards the entrance. In a matter of seconds, an arguing mob consisting of Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, and Discord came bursting through the door.

"Don't act like you're as clueless as we are!" yelled Shining Armor.

"What are we going to do about those injured troops?!" asked a panicking Cadance.

"Oh, so it's always my fault whenever something goes wrong around here!" said Discord sarcastically.

"Quiet! I can't think! QUIET!!" ordered Celestia

"Now's not the time to worry about that, Cadenza!" Luna shouted.

"Alright, everypony let's calm down. We've been blindsided." said Celestia.

"We should have won!" protested Rainbow Dash. "Tirek only beat us because he was hiding behind those phonies and those dragons like a coward!"

"Yeah! That rainbow power picked a heck of a good time be broken or we would have knocked him and his buddies out of the park!" said Spike.

"Correction, little Spikey, the rainbow power wasn't broken, it was simply overpowered by the Rainbow of Darkness." said Discord. "Tirek just happened to have the better magical laser thingy."

"That we can worry about later, for now we must make sense of what has happened and figure out how to fight back." said Celestia

"I too believe Tirek created the duplicates out of remnants of our magic and then used these duplicates to revive the Rainbow of Darkness and overpower the elements." said Luna. "What remains unanswered is, how could he do something like that after being weakened? How do we stop these imposters? And what does Tirek plan on doing next?"

"Twilight, did you weaken Tirek when you and your friends defeated him?" asked Celestia.

"Yes, princess." Twilight answered

"Was there anypony that didn't get their magic back afterwards?"

"No princess!"

"You're ABSOLUTELY sure?!"

"Yes, princess!"

"Tirek has to be toying with us!" said Cadance.

"Of course he is! Even the way he described how he made those things sounds iffy!" said Discord. "Casting a duplication spell without the original present is exceptionally difficult to accomplish, and even if he was able to do it, only an exceptionally powerful corruption spell could have turned duplicates of us into those things; two feats of magic that should have been way out of his reach in the state he was left in!"

"Is there any method other than that?" asked Luna.

"None that I know of. Unless he had another mirror pool in his pocket, there's no way he could have pulled it off."

"You seem to know a lot about these kind of things, Discord." questioned Shining Armor.

"I'm the Lord of Chaos. I know everything there is to know about dark magic, Shining Armor." Discord held up his eagle hand, fingers ready to snap. "Perhaps you would like a refresher course on the subject."

"You're not helping, Discord!" interrupted Celestia.

"He started it."

As the stress continued to build in Celestia, the whispers of Searing Nova's words echoed in her mind amongst her scrambling thoughts.

"You should allow no creature to threaten your position of leadership. Assert your rightful dominance over your subjects!"

"Discord! As your leader I order you to control yourself and help figure out a solution or I will personally put an end to your shenanigans PERMANENTLY!!!" snapped Celestia.

Everypony was in shock at Celestia's outburst, even Discord. He was about to back off, when he remembered something Havoc had said to him earlier.

"You are supposed to be the Lord of Chaos! Fairness, control, and especially order should be the last things that come to mind when creatures hear your name!"

A spark of rebellion kindled in Discord's mind. "Control...CONTROL?! Have you forgotten who you're TALKING TO?!"

He pointed his eagle claw toward Shining Armor

SNAP!

In a flash, Shining Armor's armor had been transformed into a frilly pink dress.

"Discord! What the heck?!" protested the prince.

"Consider that letting you off easy! I could have done much worse!" answered the draconequis.

"Have you gone nuts? What's gotten into you?"

"Something that should have gotten in a long time ago!"

"What are you talking about? Cadance, help me out here!"

But she too was being influenced by the words of her dark half as a result of the stress.

"If you had any common sense, you would forget about them and focus on your own objectives and nothing more!"

"It's not my problem that you made Discord angry. I've got more important things to do than solve your little problems, like trying to figure out what to do about the Crystal Empire."

"Excuse me?"

Luna, who was standing next to Twilight, wanted to step in and be the bigger pony in order to break up the argument. Unfortunately...

"Put as much effort into it as you want, but everypony will still focus on those more skilled and more popular than you."

"Since no pony wants my opinion and would rather listen to my more successful sister, I'm just going wait until they get this madness out of their systems."

"Twilight, do something!" said Spike "You're the Princess of Friendship, you should be stepping in and breaking this up!"

"THERE IS NO 'PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP! YOUR ROLE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A POLITICAL SCAM!!"

"What difference is my role going to make? They already know all about friendship, what do they need me for?"

Applejack looked at Twilight confused. "Uh, are you that Twivine girl we ran into earlier in disguise? Because that sure don't sound like the Twilight I remember."

"Really, darling, this isn't like you." said Rarity

"Don't you get it?!" yelled Twilight "They won, we lost, the elements failed us, they have Canterlot, and we're stuck out here in the woods hiding in some ruins!! Friendship is useless now!"

"Twilight! Snap out of it!" defended Spike.

"You know it's true, Spike. You all know it's true!"

On and on the princesses and Discord were arguing all at the same time as the words of their enemies poisoned their minds while Shining Armor, Spike, and the Mane 5 tried to talk some sense into them. Eventually it got to the point where everypony had enough and decided to discuss things further in the morning. After Luna raised the moon and brought forth the night, everypony made their way to the bedrooms.

The once mighty kingdom of Equestria had begun taking an extended turn for the worse. The armies were battered, the commanders were divided in conflict, and the rulers and heroes of the kingdom were at each others' throats. This would only be the beginning of their worries, for as this force of harmony was continuing to crumble, a new force was continuing to build.

---

Under the cover of Luna's darkness, Tirek, Searing Nova, and Starless Night stood at a distance from the gates of Tartarus.

"I find it wonderful that you want to recruit this gentlecolt, Lord Tirek." said Searing Nova "It'll be interesting to see what he's like after all these years."

"No doubt he'll be surprised to see the two of you." replied Tirek

"From what we have heard, he will indeed be a valuable asset." whispered Starless Night "Are thy sure he will agree to join, Lord Tirek?"

"With what we have to offer, there's no way he'd turn us down!" Tirek began to slowly proceed to the prison gates.

"Now come!" he said. "The prince is waiting!" (2)

Author's Note:

NEXT CHAPTER: Tirek makes an offer to a fellow prisioner

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYPONY!!

Author's Notes

1. Anyone want to take a guess as to what Twivine did to Flash Sentry? Leave your answer in the comments below.

2. Any guesses on who this "prince" is?

Comments

[Snowkitsune]

gorgran....er gen 1 monster boss goat thingy

[Brassboy212]

6764610 Grogar. And no, it's not him, but that is a good guess!

So what do you think of the fic?

[MinionsFanatic]

OMG!!! Another chapter!!! YAY!
The princesses and Discord are out of control!!!
Why Tirek! I'm gonna kill you.

Anyway, awesome job. Still following you!

[Brassboy212]

6764727 Thank you for your support! And Merry Christmas!!

[MinionsFanatic]

6764862 merry Christmas too!!!

[Phoenix Nebula]

Hmm.... What is more power full than friend ship? OH I KNOW IT'S LOVE!!!!

It's most likely Sombra but could just as well be Groger.

[Brassboy212]

6765001 I'm sure you'll be quite surprised as to who this mystery prince really is!

[Snowkitsune]

6764634 Its good.. but im starting to wonder who the allies for the good gals will be i mean if this is the multiverse theres a host of people that would beat down tirek some of them not pony and a few not even flesh and blood... also i had a dream about your story and how just one person could make a differnce in what they say to the heros lol