Forgotten Sins
Sunset opened her eyes and stared up at a beautifully patterned crystal ceiling. She blinked a couple of times, unsure of where she was or what exactly had happened, but slowly flashes of memory returned. She’d been in a blizzard caused by the Windigos, gotten separated from the others…and then she’d almost been encased in ice.
“It’s good to see you awake.”
Sunset was shaken from her thoughts and looked away from the ceiling, into the room. Princess Celestia was there, smiling warmly at her. Sunset briefly wondered how long she’d been there, but then her thoughts snapped back to her friends.
“Twilight and the others…” she began.
“All recovering in their own rooms,” Princess Celestia said. “Everypony is all right, Sunset,” the Princess went on when she saw the worried look on Sunset’s face. “I arrived right on time.”
The memory of a bright golden light flashed through Sunset’s mind. “I never imagined your full power would be this overwhelming,” Sunset said softly, lowering her eyes to the floor.
Princess Celestia gave an amused chuckle. “Full power? That wasn’t my full power, Sunset Shimmer. I don’t think I’ve ever used my full power since I became Princess of Equestria. Or at least, not anywhere within the kingdom’s borders.”
Sunset blinked stupidly at her. “Never?”
The Princess had effortlessly destroyed a group of Windigos powerful enough to completely defeat Sunset and the others and negate their magic like it was nothing, despite having two magical prodigies there, one of whom was an alicorn, and that hadn’t even been her full power? A chill ran through her body when she began to realize, for what felt like the first time, just how strong the ruler she’d sought to overthrow actually was.
“Does it surprise you?” Princess Celestia asked.
Even though she was still smiling, her voice had become much more serious. Sunset nodded, still muted by her own racing thoughts, by the sudden terror Princess Celestia inspired in her despite her pleasant demeanor.
“Sunset, I wield more power than anypony in Equestria. Only Luna even comes close. But just because I have all that power, doesn’t mean that I can use it in whatever way I want. Trite as it may seem to you, power must be used responsibly by those who have it. It’s a lesson I tried to teach you, once, but you wouldn’t hear it.”
She fell silent for a moment and stared off into the distance, seemingly lost in thought. “I suppose it’s not surprising. When I was younger, I didn’t always agree with that lesson myself. When Star Swirl asked Luna and me to assume the leadership of Equestria, I wanted to use my power to help other ponies. While I never saw them as beneath me in any way, I grew up among natural alicorns for the first two centuries of my life.
“Some of the other alicorns are so powerful they could reshape the world with a thought, which is why we generally live away from other ponies. When Luna and I were chosen to be Equestria’s guardians, we knew, of course, that we represented each of the three tribes, and that our powers surpassed theirs, but what we didn’t realize was just how much more powerful we were. Because of that, and because of my drive to be a well-liked Princess, I wanted to help everypony solve their problems. I wanted to use my magic to make things easier for them.”
She finally looked at Sunset again. “But Star Swirl wouldn’t let me. He told me that facing adversity is part of everypony’s life. That it helps them to grow into stronger ponies, and that magically taking away those hardships would not be beneficial in the long run. I had to restrain my abilities, using only what power I needed and no more. It was a hard lesson to learn. More than once, I had to stand idly by while a problem I could solve in a heartbeat was growing and growing.
“I offered insights, guidance, to those involved, but I had to hold myself back from magically solving the problems. In very rare cases, things escalated to a point where I needed to intervene, but most of the times the ponies — or other creatures — involved did eventually sort out their issues, and I could see that their experiences left them stronger, more confident. Over the centuries, I have seen Star Swirl’s advice vindicated time and again.”
“But…what about the time you and Princess Luna battled Discord? Or when Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon?” Sunset asked. It seemed unlikely that Princess Celestia wouldn’t use her power even for threats of that magnitude.
Princess Celestia lowered her head. “Those were some of the hardest times in my life,” she replied. “Discord’s chaotic nature makes pinning him down with raw force exceptionally difficult. He is also incredibly adept at turning magic against its caster. Even though I have more raw power than he does, his ability to manipulate magic other than his own made using my full power against him impossible without doing far more harm than good. He is almost unbeatable in a direct fight. The Elements of Harmony, however, are immune to his tampering. He cannot affect the Harmonic magic itself. And Tirek was only able to steal his magic because Discord had let his guard down. Even with the power he wielded at that time, Tirek could not have fought Discord because pony magic is easily influenced by him.
“As for Luna…Luna is my sister. In my darkest dreams I wouldn’t dare to use all my power against her. And she, even when she had turned away from me, never intended to kill me. She wished to rule over an eternal night. She wasn’t out for destruction. She would have used her power to keep the plants and ponies alive in the darkness, but not for violence and death if she could help it.
“The one time my approach backfired was during the time of King Sombra. Luna and I banished him to shadows, trapped underneath the ice of the wastelands…but he was still able to curse the Empire and cause it to vanish. Had I used my full power…I might have been able to save it.”
She looked at Sunset again. “You must realize, Sunset Shimmer, that I am not omniscient. I know many things, but the future isn’t written in stone. I try my hardest to guide Equestria to peace and prosperity, but ultimately I’m just guessing, just like everypony else. And as you well know, my guesses can definitely be incorrect.”
Sunset nodded slowly, thinking back to Princess Celestia’s reveal that her destiny had been altered by being shown the mirror. A thought then came up in Sunset’s head. She began to say something, but then held her tongue. What if the Princess got angry?
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions, Sunset. I promise you, I will not get angry,” Princess Celestia said, as if she’d read Sunset’s mind.
Sunset nodded once, then again to calm her nerves. “Does that mean you’re not certain about the Forges being able to defeat the dark force, either?”
Princess Celestia remained silent for a long while. Her face was neutral, but her eyes never left Sunset’s, and Sunset wondered if this had been the one question the Princess would get angry about.
Then, after what felt like a lifetime, Princess Celestia finally answered Sunset’s question. “I’m not,” she said.
Sunset said nothing, waiting for Princess Celestia to continue. With a troubled look on her face, Princess Celestia went on, “The dark force threatening Equestria is something I don’t fully understand. I had never even heard of it, before the Forge of Generosity was discovered and the very fact that I don’t even know its name worries me greatly. Only one document from the time of Caballus references the existence of some mysterious force, and mentions that the creation of the Elements seems to have all but erased it, or at the very least significantly altered it. I must admit that when I first read that document shortly after the Forge was discovered, I didn’t pay any attention to it at all. No, my true goal was to find a way to activate the Forges of Harmony.”
She smiled ruefully. “I never thought that another Forge would be discovered during my lifetime. I thought they had all been lost to time, except for the Forge of Magic beneath the Tree. My hope was that the Rainbow Power Twilight and her friends possess, in combination with the Forges, could bring true Harmony to Equestria at long last. I wanted to finish what the wizards of Caballus had started.”
Her expression turned grim. “That was when the nightmares began. At first, I thought I was just stressed, too obsessed with the Forges, but then I realized that my sister, Princess Cadance, and Twilight all suffered nightmares as well. I looked through all the ancient records again to see if I could find anything, and eventually I remembered that one mention of a dark force. To my great frustration, I couldn’t find any other information regarding the dark force, and even Discord wasn’t able to provide me with anything useful.”
She stopped talking for a moment and took a deep breath, apparently steeling herself before launching into the next part of her story. Sunset wondered what could be more serious than what she’d already heard.
“I resorted to Destiny magic,” Princess Celestia said.
“You what?!” Sunset shouted out of sheer reflex. Destiny magic was so dangerous and volatile that even at her most power hungry, she had never even considered using it for fear of destroying not only Equestria, but the entirety of existence, aside from her own fear and dislike of the very notion that ‘destiny’ even existed.
Princess Celestia grimaced at Sunset’s outburst, but her expression showed that she had expected it. “I observed the threads of Fate. I saw that you were affected as well, which gave me hope that perhaps, your destiny might not have been changed altogether by my mistake with the mirror. I also saw that, should the Forges be activated, Equestria’s thread becomes more stable than it has ever been, even more so than it did after the moment the Elements were first created. Seeing this confirmed my suspicions that the nightmares were being caused by the dark force, seeking to stop the Forges from being activated. That is why I believe that your efforts to activate the Forges are necessary. True Harmony will be brought to Equestria at last.”
Princess Celestia’s face lit up when she said that last sentence, and Sunset wished she could share in her former mentor’s conviction. As it was, she was still too shaken by Princess Celestia’s revelation of using Destiny magic at all, even if it was a passive form of it. If she hadn’t feared being labeled a hypocrite, she would have admonished the Princess over it.
Princess Celestia seemed to feel Sunset’s dismay, but instead of growing serious again she just chuckled. “Your expression reminds me so much of Star Swirl’s,” she said. “When I brought up the topic of Destiny magic with him, he would instantly change the subject and implore me never to use it. But I knew that he had great interest in that forbidden magic, and I was crafty enough to gain access to his notes. I learned to observe the threads of Fate, to see them change in consequence to different choices. I followed Equestria’s thread through hundreds of possible futures…until Star Swirl finally figured out what I had been doing. He was furious. So furious that he left Equestria for well over a decade. I always told Luna he was just away on personal business, but I don’t think she ever fully believed me. Despite her gruff demeanor now and then, she really has always been the sensible one of us. When Star Swirl returned, his anger had still not gone. Using a time travel spell, he showed me, first hoof, some of the potential futures I’d only seen glimpses of.”
She looked at Sunset, serious now. “I saw things I never want to see again. Small changes can affect the future in ways we cannot even fathom, and merely viewing the threads of Fate can cause us to disturb them. I vowed not to use Destiny magic lightly, and I only used it twice between then and this time. I had seen that there was a possibility certain ponies could ascend into alicorns. This intrigued me, because I had never heard of artificial alicorns before. I couldn’t look back to see if such transformations had occurred before, and if so, why it had happened. I had promised Star Swirl I wouldn’t.
“So, instead, I used a different form of Destiny magic. I wove an interception into Equestria’s thread. Whenever unicorn magic would change into alicorn magic, my interception would bring me and the pony in question to a hallway outside of space and time. In that hallway, all the pivotal moments of that pony’s life would be on display, so that they and I could see the events that had transpired to cause their ascension. As an added benefit, I would be able to give these ponies advice on their new powers and responsibilities.”
She fell silent, and Sunset let the implications of everything she had just heard sink in.
“So…you don’t make ponies into alicorns yourself?” Sunset asked, feeling a faint shame rising in her for her callousness all those years ago in assuming the Princess could simply grant any unicorn the privilege of alicorn powers.
Princess Celestia shook her head. “No. I want to be aware of each alicorn that comes into being through this way, but I have no power to make anypony into an alicorn, or prevent anypony from becoming one. Their ascension comes from within themselves. It is not up to me to write their destiny, but I want to be there when they reach it just the same.”
She stared off into the distance, slightly troubled now. “It may seem selfish of me to do such a thing, but as I said earlier, true alicorns can wield incredible power. Some among my kind have powers that dwarf even me. If somepony with an evil heart were to be destined to become an alicorn…I would want to be able to stop them as soon as possible, and right when they ascend would be the best moment to do so. Fortunately, that has never happened yet. Princess Cadance and Twilight have been the only ones in all those centuries who have ascended, and both of them more than earned it.”
Sunset nodded slowly. She wasn’t entirely sure if she agreed with this use of Destiny magic, but she had to admit that the thought of an evil alicorn was a scary one, potentially scary enough to warrant the use of such dangerous magic. Then she remembered that Princess Celestia had said she’d used Destiny magic twice between her vow to use it only sparingly and her attempt to detect the dark force.
“So…what was the second time you used Destiny magic?” she asked.
Princess Celestia sighed, and Sunset felt apprehension rising within her. “When I…lost you…as a student, I spent several days locked in my chambers, berating myself for all the mistakes I had made,” the Princess began.
Sunset felt pinpricks all over her skin as her anxiety grew.
“I had thought that I was being clever. Your display of solar magic made me certain you were destined to be my successor, but you were too ambitious, too hungry for power, and too self-absorbed to ascend. As your skills grew, so did your arrogance. I began to worry more and more what would happen to Equestria if you were to ascend and take my place as her ruler. I wanted to temper your arrogance, humble you a bit before you would reach your destiny, because I felt that my time was running out. I showed you the mirror, hoping that it would teach you some patience, but as we both know, I was wrong.”
She fell silent for a moment, and Sunset wondered where this story was going. The feeling that, whatever it was, she wasn’t going to like it, was still getting stronger.
“When I saw Twilight’s display of raw power, my first thought was that she might be yet another potential Princess, but she wouldn’t be my successor. Her magic was too different for that. I wanted to take her in, like I had done with you, but this time, I was determined not to make the same mistakes.”
She clenched her jaw and her expression hardened, and Sunset’s eyes widened as the truth dawned on her.
“You didn’t…?” she began.
Princess Celestia nodded grimly. “I used Destiny magic to watch her possible futures,” she said.
Sunset shook her head in anger. “That’s…that’s…”
She struggled to find the appropriate words to voice her disgust. Viewing somepony’s future, even just the key moments, was an enormous invasion of privacy. The viewer would gain an incredible amount of control over the victim, because they would be able to exercise influence at every important decision and guide it into their own favor. In Sunset’s eyes, it was even viler than using outright mind control.
And to have such a thing done to Twilight, of all ponies, was even worse. She knew that scrying of this kind would only ever show a set of possibilities and vague outcomes, and not a bright, clear line with guaranteed outcomes, but the very idea of it being used like this sickened her.
“Twilight idolizes you,” Sunset said eventually, glaring hard at Celestia. She struggled to keep her voice level. “There’s nopony she respects and loves more than you, and this is what you’ve done to repay her?! Or did your machinations cause her to idolize you? Did you decide that I’d been too rebellious, so you would just make sure your next student was a bit more devoted to you?!”
Celestia bowed her head, but said nothing.
Sunset shook her head derisively. “I can’t believe this. The benign, just ruler of Equestria using Destiny magic to make sure her student remains loyal. And you think I would have been a tyrant?”
“I don’t blame you for your anger, Sunset Shimmer,” Celestia said gravely. “In fact, I deeply admire your devotion to your friend, to show such anger on her behalf.”
Sunset said nothing. She just kept glaring at Celestia. She wasn’t about to be swayed by some kind words.
“But you must believe me when I say that Twilight means just as much to me as she does to you.”
“I must do nothing,” Sunset said, turning her head away. “As you can imagine, I’m not exactly in a forgiving mood right now.”
Images of all the times Twilight had been as happy as a little filly whenever Celestia praised her or gave her something of great historical value shot through Sunset’s mind. She recalled that she’d said that Twilight reminded her of Celestia. Back then, she had meant it as a compliment. Right now, she felt like she’d inadvertently and retroactively insulted her. Twilight wouldn’t do something like this to any student of hers…would she?
“Sunset, Twilight became my student when she was very young. She was younger than you were when I took her in. Do you really believe that simply knowing her future would make me any less fond of her?” Celestia sounded almost desperate when she asked that. There was an edge of insecurity to her voice that sent a chill down Sunset’s spine.
She looked back to Celestia and saw that she was fidgeting, looking more like a foal being scolded than the nigh-omnipotent ruler of Equestria. Sunset blinked uncertainly. If Celestia was feigning all of this, she should have gotten a cutie mark for acting.
Celestia gave Sunset an imploring look. “Sunset, I know how this all sounds, but I promise you there is no way you can hate me more for this than I hate myself.”
“I don’t hate you.” Sunset said the words without thinking, and she knew that, despite her anger, she was telling the truth.
She could still remember the tears in the Princess’s eyes when she had revealed that she had inadvertently taken away her destiny. Whatever Princess Celestia had done, it wouldn’t have had malignant intentions…but that still didn’t justify it.
“Everything I did…I did for Twilight’s sake,” Princess Celestia said. “I had already stolen your destiny from you and chased you away to a different world. I’d sooner have joined my sister in exile on the moon than destroy Twilight’s destiny as well. Using Destiny magic was the only solution I could see. It would allow me to make the correct choices at the correct moments, all so Twilight could ascend and reach her destiny.”
She stopped fidgeting, but her eyes were still full of guilt. “Over the years, she became like a daughter to me. And because of that, I felt nervous every single time I had to step aside and let her deal with threats I could have easily dealt with myself. The only influence I had on any of those events was on my own actions. If Twilight had made different choices, things might still have gone differently. Of course, I always tried to guide her in the direction most likely to be successful, but there is always an element of chance. Any of the foes she encountered could have defeated her, and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything against it.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, seemingly trying to banish imagined timelines, in which Twilight had failed, from her mind. When she opened them again, however, her expression was full of pride. “But Twilight and her friends rose to every challenge they had to face. Their friendship allowed them to beat the odds, time after time. Their mastery over the Elements, far greater than Luna and I ever managed when we wielded them, has enabled them to save Equestria on numerous occasions, and I believe with all my heart that this time is no different.”
Sunset considered what Princess Celestia had said. Twilight definitely didn’t seem to be any worse off because of Princess Celestia’s scrying, but everything in her hated the thought that none of it had really been her choice. She’d just been sent on her path by the Princess and it happened to have turned out alright, often against the odds. Did that mean that Twilight and her friends really were destined to succeed in every challenge they faced as Element bearers, or was Sunset just reading too much into it? Again, that just seemed too much like they never really had a choice in anything, and that idea scared Sunset far more than any dark force ever could.
“Even if it was with the best of intentions, I still don’t agree with this,” she said eventually. She decided she wouldn’t bring up her aversion to the notion of an immutable destiny.
Princess Celestia solemnly lowered her head. “I understand that, Sunset. Though I will still have the audacity to ask you not to reveal this to Twilight, partly because it might hurt her resolve in completing your mission, but mostly because I couldn’t bear to have her hate me,” she said.
Sunset looked into the Princess’s eyes. She looked resigned, as if she wouldn’t even argue if Sunset would deny her request, but behind that resignation Sunset saw a trace of fear.
“I won’t tell her,” Sunset said.
Princess Celestia looked grateful, but Sunset raised her hoof and went on, “If you promise not to use any more Destiny magic to see her future, or anypony else’s.”
Princess Celestia’s expression became serious, and she gave a single nod. “I promise.”
“Then your secret is safe with me.”
Princess Celestia visibly breathed a sigh of relief, and her tone was much lighter when she spoke again. “Thank you for having enough faith in me to trust me,” she said. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much that means to me.”
Sunset nodded wordlessly. She wasn’t entirely sure if she completely trusted the Princess never to use Destiny magic again, but she was at least prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt.
“Now, then, shall we go find your friends?”
“I’m surprised you’re coming with me,” Twilight said as she and Sunset walked through the streets of the Crystal Empire. “I thought learning from books wasn’t really your thing.”
After being reunited with her friends, they had decided to stay in the Crystal Empire for the rest of the day to get some downtime in before heading back to Ponyville for the activation of the final Forge. Twilight, ever the eager student of magic, had decided she wanted to visit the library because it contained many rare tomes from historic times, including magical scrolls and theories, preserved there during the millennium the Crystal Empire had been lost to time, and that was where she and Sunset were headed now.
Sunset’s reason for wanting to go the library had very little to do with grimoires, however, and everything with Atonement. If this library contained knowledge from a thousand years ago, it wasn’t inconceivable it might have records, however few, dating from the time of Caballus. Sunset decided not to mention that to Twilight, though.
“Well, I was a student of Princess Celestia’s before you,” she said. “I’m still very interested in magic; it’s just that I’m generally more interested in casting the spells than analyzing them.”
She wasn’t really sure why she didn’t want to tell Twilight the real reason she was coming along. After all, Twilight had been very understanding and even supportive of her desire to embody an Element. But for some reason, Sunset felt that this was something she needed to do alone. Maybe a part of it was that she was still bothered by the conversation she’d had with Princess Celestia.
Despite the promise she’d made, the thought that the Princess had manipulated Twilight for so long really didn’t sit well with her. She also had a nagging feeling that Princess Celestia hadn’t told her everything about what she’d seen when she had used her scrying to try and find out what the nature of the dark force was.
Childish though it was, finding evidence of Atonement’s existence as an Aspect of Harmony would prove Princess Celestia wrong about her own assertion on the subject, and Sunset would like nothing better than to stroll into the palace and declare in front of everypony that she was right and Princess Celestia was wrong. She felt vaguely ashamed for thinking that way.
“At least I’m not the one invading ponies’ privacy…” she muttered. It didn’t make her feel better.
The library of the Crystal Empire was enormous. It contained books on every imaginable subject, both modern and ancient, and as soon as Sunset and Twilight had entered, Twilight had run off to the magic section, leaving Sunset to wonder where she should begin her research. Of course, the Elements themselves were clearly magical artifacts, but it was equally likely that any writing that survived from the time of Caballus would be stored in the history section, especially since she wasn’t really looking for any actual spells or rituals.
“I find that in case of doubt, ‘eenie, meenie, miney, moe’ usually works best,” a voice behind her said.
Sunset turned around, and found herself faced with the oddest creature she’d ever seen. Its body was vaguely serpentine and none of its limbs matched any of the others. The creature had an amused, somewhat mischievous expression on its face.
“’It’, really? You wound me, Sunset Shimmer. No,” the creature interrupted, holding up its right forepaw, which looked like a lion’s, “don’t bother justifying yourself. You have that look in your eyes.”
Sunset blinked stupidly, before it dawned on her who this strange creature could be. “You’re Discord, aren’t you?” she asked.
Discord grinned widely and gave a deep bow. “Reformed spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, at your service,” he said.
“So…what are you doing here?” Sunset asked. She was beginning to feel a bit nervous, meeting a being so powerful and unpredictable without Twilight or the others nearby, even though she knew that he wasn’t likely to hurt her.
“I just wanted to meet the new member of the gang,” Discord said, “The seventh ranger…or eighth, I guess, if you count Spike, but for some reason nopony ever does seem to count him. But it seems to me, my dear Sunset, that I know what I’m doing here far better than you know what you’re doing here.”
Sunset shifted uncomfortably. “I know what I’m doing here,” she said lamely, “I just don’t know where to begin.”
Discord pretended to think very hard about that, floating in the air with his lion paw under his chin. “I would suggest you try the beginning,” he said earnestly after a few seconds.
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Would you, now?” she said through gritted teeth.
Whatever Discord’s motivation had been to talk to her, she was losing valuable time to find out more about Atonement by standing here.
Discord sighed theatrically. “I thought you were supposed to be just as smart as our little Princess of Friendship,” he said. “I wasn’t talking in riddles, you know. If you want to find out if your theory is true, you should go back to the beginning. The oldest records this library has go back to a time before the Elements existed.”
Discord got a fond look on his face. “Everything was so beautiful back then. There was chaos which ordered itself in the most interesting ways. Ponies just had to deal with whatever came their way.”
He shrugged. “Of course, I was far less powerful back then, but that didn’t matter to me. I was happy. I could create lots of chaos and watch while the ponies ran around trying to fix it all. And then I would go to another village and do it all again. I would suggest you try it sometime, but sadly, the ponies made that impossible when they created the Elements.”
Sunset’s thoughts were racing. Had Discord really been around for that long? If he had lived during the time of Caballus, then wouldn’t he know if Atonement was real?
“Don’t get any ideas, now,” Discord said, guessing what Sunset was thinking, “I’m not in the business of helping ponies whose name isn’t Fluttershy. Besides, back then I wasn’t concerned about Harmony. It existed, and it was my job to undermine it. It could be made up of dozens of aspects, for all I care, as long as I can disrupt it.”
The hope that had been building up in Sunset’s chest seemed to deflate. Of course, it would have been a bit too easy if Discord could have just told her all about the Aspects of Harmony, and since when were things ever easy for her? But still, here was her chance to interrogate a being old enough he’d actually witnessed the event that put nature under pony control. Even if he couldn’t confirm Atonement’s existence, he should still know something useful, right?
“So…what was it like? When suddenly, nature wasn’t chaotic anymore, but controlled by ponies?”
Discord’s expression darkened. “It was an abomination, and not the kind of abomination I enjoy. Everything became stagnant and orderly and boring. When I realized what they planned to do, I tried to stop them, but I could only save the Everfree Forest. Not that I knew that, at the time. The blast sent me into another dimension, my dimension now. It responded to everything I wanted and I realized that I had become far stronger than I had ever been before.
“I only found out what they had done to Equestria centuries later, when I figured out how to open a portal at will. When I saw the travesty that was Equestria, I made it my solemn duty to wreck everything the wizards had wanted to build. They thought they had tamed chaos, so I showed them what true chaos looked like…until, of course, Celestia and Luna turned me into a garden ornament for the better part of a thousand years, using the very same Elements the wizards had created to tame nature.”
“Why would the Elements have made you more powerful?” Sunset wondered out loud. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Discord shrugged. “More than you might think,” he said. “Haven’t you remembered anything from the scrolls Celestia sent you that wasn’t directly related to Atonement? The magic Twilight and her little friends embody was a lot more common before the Elements existed. It was everywhere, just like chaos was everywhere. It was only after the Elements were created that only one pony at a time could use magic of that nature. Why would chaotic magic be any different? Only instead of being focused in gaudy jewelry, it was focused in me. A much more beautiful vessel, if I do say so myself.”
He held up a mirror and admired himself in it. He winked at his reflection, which blushed and bashfully fluttered its eyes. He turned back to Sunset while his reflection blew him a kiss, which somehow left an exaggerated human-looking lipstick imprint on his cheek.
“Well, my dear Sunset, that’s all the time I have for now. Do say hello to Twilight, will you?”
Before Sunset could reply, Discord had already vanished. Sunset smiled. For someone who didn’t want to help, Discord had been very helpful.
Sunset walked along the rows of bookcases in the history section of the library. The oldest books and scrolls were all the way at the back, in specially darkened rows so that the light wouldn’t damage the centuries-old parchments.
The only reason Sunset had even been allowed to enter this part of the library was because she was on a mission from Princess Celestia. She could smell the age of the books she was walking between, a scent that reminded her of her years as an apprentice in Canterlot, when she would spend hours in the archives looking for powerful spells to try.
Eventually, she reached a bookcase marked ‘Caballus’, and she began carefully removing the books and scrolls from the shelves. Many of the documents were communications between leaders from different villages and cities, or detailed stocks of food and other commodities. Several featured reports of battles, long forgotten to history, or monster attacks which had been dealt with in other ways than through the use of Harmonic magic.
Then, however, she came across a cornuscript from a shaman who had lived centuries before even Parallax Dream had been born. It was so old even Star Swirl’s translating spell struggled to deal with it.
Protection against evil is always sevenfold. All Aspects of Harmony need to be honored in their own right. Where One fails, Seven will surely succeed. Evil is not meant to be confronted alone. Remain close, each to their own Aspect, and there is no enemy these Seven cannot overcome.
Vague and short though the note may have been, it still sent chills down Sunset’s spine when she read it. This was the first time she had ever seen any writing at all mentioning seven Aspects of Harmony.
Of course, she couldn’t be certain that the mysterious seventh Aspect was indeed Atonement, or that the shaman had been correct at all, but this small scrap of parchment gave her hope, and with renewed vigor she continued scanning the bookshelves.
For a long time, she found nothing of interest, but in the back of her mind something was gnawing at her, telling her that she was overlooking something and that, before she did anything else, she should recheck all the books she’d already glanced over before.
Without really knowing why, she decided to humor the voice in her head, and once more she began at the beginning of the bookcase. When she opened the second book, she realized that this was what she’d missed the first time, and that subconsciously a part of her must have noticed it. The book contained several letters sent by influential ponies. It was slightly newer than the note from the shaman, but still much older than the Elements.
Skygazer,
We’ll need reinforcements as soon as you can spare them. It’s absolutely ridiculous how fanatical these ponies are with their belief in six Aspects. Even here in Sesmet ponies are starting to convert to their lunacy. We’ve had to quell three riots today alone, and Dust Trail’s army is on the way here. We can’t afford a siege. Our stores are running low and our best soldiers are on riot control duty.
Stoneskin
Sunset read the short letter several times. She almost burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all. Ponies who believed in six Aspects were seen as fanatical? Only a few centuries later, the sole pony who still believed in seven was seen as crazy. But this letter implied that there had been a time when ponies had indeed strongly believed in seven Aspects of Harmony. Eagerly, she continued perusing the book. It wasn’t long before she found another letter, dated only a few weeks after the previous one.
Commander Treeleaf,
It is with great regret that I must inform you that the city of Sesmet has fallen to the heretics. The city is now firmly under their control. Those who still believe in the sanctity and truth of Atonement have been exiled. Dust Trail is against executing prisoners, apparently. As if his armies haven’t caused enough destruction over the past years. But he may yet open his eyes to the truth and Atone for what he is done, I suppose. I, for one, would relish the irony of such an event.
With the highest respect,
Deep Water
And there it was, at long last. Atonement had been considered an Aspect of Harmony long ago, alongside the other Aspects. Sunset wasn’t sure what had actually happened to make ponies change their minds about Atonement, but she assumed it had something to do with its ‘negative’ nature. It was easy to believe that somepony with extreme views and a lot of charisma could get others to follow their way of thinking.
It saddened her to think that, apparently, whoever had started the shift to believing in six, rather than seven, Aspects of Harmony had eventually won the conflict. Did that mean that they had been right…or merely that everypony believed them to be? She decided to keep looking through the book to try and find anything conclusive. Her eye fell on an entry with an annotation from the transcribing pony, stating that the transcribed text originally came from a pamphlet spread across several cities.
Atone, or face tragedy!
Ponies, you may believe that Atonement has no place in a Harmonic society, but you must be wary of its loss. Nature is a delicate balance. It is a dynamic equilibrium which grows, blooms, and decays in a cyclical nature. The new cannot come into existence without the disappearance of the old. There can be no light without darkness. There can be no good without evil. There can be no Harmony without Atonement. Atonement’s very nature makes it indispensable to a Harmonic society. What does Harmony mean if there is no Disharmony? How can we advance if we remain stagnant? Rejecting the very real Aspect of Atonement will lead ponykind to ruin. We will disrupt the cycle and bring ourselves down. Maybe not now, or tomorrow, or even in a hundred years, but we will lose everything we stand for. Need I remind everypony of the Crystal Cataclysm? The conversion to six Aspects began there, and now the city has been erased from existence. Stagnant forever, untouchable, pristine…and dead.
Atone, while you can!
“Crystal Cataclysm?” Sunset said out loud. She figured an event with such a momentous name would have been recorded in history, but she had never heard of it.
“Oh, you know about it?”
Sunset nearly jumped on top of the bookcase when she heard the voice. She’d been so absorbed in her reading that she hadn’t heard this newcomer approach.
The pony next to Sunset was a unicorn with a cream-colored coat and a dark blue mane, with a lighter blue streak in it. Her eyes were the same kind of blue as her mane, and her cutie mark was a rolled-up scroll with a magnifying glass next to it.
She smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m not used to seeing other ponies in this section. My name is Scroll Seeker. I’m a historian, specialized in pre-Equestrian history.”
Sunset regained her composure and stood up straighter. “My name is Sunset Shimmer. I’m here on a mission from Princess Celestia,” she said.
“I know. You’re here with the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, aren’t you? I didn’t think ancient history would be so important to your mission,” Scroll Seeker said.
Sunset looked at the stack of books in front of her and smiled sheepishly. “Honestly, this is more for myself than for the mission, although it is connected to it,” she said. Then, going back on topic, she went on, “So, you know what the Crystal Cataclysm is?”
Scroll Seeker nodded. “Not many ponies these days know about it. The early government of Caballus was adamant that it be removed from history after their ‘six-Aspect’ ideology had taken over the nation.”
Sunset cocked her head. “They wanted it removed from history?” she repeated.
“Yes. As far as we know, it’s the biggest event anypony has ever tried to cover up, but,” Scroll Seeker added with a smile, “we can’t be certain about that. After all, if they have succeeded with larger events we wouldn’t know they happened. Needless to say, though, with this particular event they failed. Too many ponies knew about it, and the pamphlets making references to it were ubiquitous. That helped to keep the memory alive.”
“So what exactly is the Crystal Cataclysm?” Sunset asked.
Scroll Seeker gave her a solemn look. “It was an event in which an entire city was turned into perfect crystal and sealed off from the rest of the world. It was the first attempt anypony ever made…to harness the powers of Harmony.”
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No, everything you've done was for yourself Celestia!