• Published 19th Mar 2015
  • 5,380 Views, 301 Comments

Light of Harmony - GjallarFox



The Traveler has felt the victory of its Guardians at the Black Garden. With this decisive victory comes a new decision: take the fight to the Darkness. With a set of six Ghosts sent to the far reaches of the Sol system, what is it expecting to find?

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Old Friend...

The three Vandals had explored the Tower to the best of their ability without detection. They'd found that the docking bays for the Ghouls' ships was off to the left of where they had originally entered the Tower, and the dormitories were off to the right. Stranger still was the nature of one particular Ghoul in the tower: one that looked and smelled like Hive. They did not wish to get anywhere near this strange Ghoul, as they did not know the nature of its power. The other Ghouls, though, were much easier to gauge. The bulky ones were what they called Fists, the lean hooded ones were Knives, and the ones with robes and glowing armbands were Palms. They didn't know, nor care, what they called themselves.

They split themselves up, Palhas sneaking through the hallways towards the docking bays. And while Jyara stayed in their spot above the main plaza, Greksis went off towards the dormitories. The three of them had agreed that splitting up to find their target would be the best course of action, just in case there were areas of the Tower they frequented more often than the plaza or docks.

Greksis hung from the ceiling like a bat, cloaked in glossy stealth, in the hallways of the Tower's dormitories. None of the Ghouls were around, and all he could hear was his own breath and the dull hum of the plasma-based lighting. A skeletal robot walked down the corridor, carrying a broom in its hands. The hidden Vandal watched it carefully and listened to the metallic tapping of its feet against the concrete floors. It seemed to be talking to itself, but Greksis didn't understand the words.

"These creatures have such technology..." Palhas' voice whispered through the communications line between the three of them. "No doubt this was the work of the Great Machine..."

"We'll have the Great Machine's blessing again one day..." Jyara replied.

"Hello there," a strange voice said from below Greksis.

The Vandal squawked in response, "Gah! Who are you and how can you see me?"

As he looked down he saw a strange creature that looked to be made of various parts of many different creatures, some of which he didn't recognize, but some of which he did. It took a form that looked rather like him, save for the mismatched wings sticking out of his back and the horns protruding from his head. "I have many names to many peoples. I am rather odd like that... But I believe your people call me Deksorak," the being replied. "But my friends call me Discord. Pleasure to meet you." He stuck out one of his hands, perhaps signaling that he wished to shake hands.

Greksis denied the offer. "How can you see me?"

"Fine. Don't shake my hand," Discord huffed indignantly. "But to answer your question, I can't actually see you. And you can't actually see me. I'm just a figment of your imagination right now. And don't worry about staying hidden. You aren't actually talking to me either so you're dead silent right now."

"What do you want from me?" Greksis growled.

"The same thing the dead people want. Revenge." Discord sat down and snapped his fingers, reappearing on the ceiling, sitting on it as if it were the floor. "You see, the things you work for are responsible for my home's destruction and the death of someone very near and dear to me." He paused and let his face extend cartoonishly forward, as though molded by a terrible edit in Photoshop. "You can understand how I'd be into the whole vengeance schtick, yes?"

Greksis leaned back as much as he could to avoid touching this odd creature. But before he could reply, it sank into the ceiling, extended face and all, leaving him alone in that hallway once more. Its voice resonated in his mind once more, saying, "Go. Find your traitor. I think this'll be fun to watch."

An odd sort of feeling began to wash itself over Greksis at the mention of the Great Machine's blessing. It felt almost like nostalgia. Within moments he felt the desire to shed his armor and weep with the intensity of a mother whose child had starved to death. He wished to just get back into his quarters within the Orbiks-fel's barracks and sleep until he could awaken to peace. A storm began to brew within his mind, dark clouds shrouding his resolve and snuffing out his will to kill this traitor of House Kings.

"I feel something nearby... I will investigate..." Greksis said just before reaching up to his helm and turning off his communicator.

As he moved across the ceiling like a spider, he could feel this "nostalgia" growing stronger. He took a few turns, and found himself staring down at a door that looked to house a staircase within. His gut told him to go through the door, but he had no way of ensuring he could slip through it without detection, so he chose to wait for something else to pass through this door. He got lucky. A group of six odd looking Ghouls passed through the door, one of them carrying something that sent a chill down his spine just from its mere presence. As the six of them made their way through the door, so did Greksis, much in the way a spider would. He followed the Ghouls as they walked down a few flights of stairs before they passed through another door.

------

Twilight placed the black tooth down on the table and began arranging the parts she'd selected from her other sniper rifles around it. The crystals seemed to glow more intensely in the presence of the tooth, and Rarity could feel the magic in the room vibrating like an unheard minor second in a symphony. She almost felt sick, choosing to hunch over and hold her belly instead of sit up straight with her usual sophisticated posture. Applejack wrapped an arm around her and tried to convince her that everything was fine now.

"This one goes here... and this one goes there... aaaaaaannnnd that should do it... But I only need a small piece of it..." Twilight murmured to herself as she worked. She turned and pointed at Rainbow. "You!"

The Hunter in question looked up, "Yeah?"

"Do you have an Arc Blade ready?" the discordant Twilight asked.

"Yeah, why?" Rainbow replied.

"I might need you to cut this thing," the Warlock said as she grabbed a knife from the kitchen. She twirled it between her fingers before bringing it down on the tooth. The tooth refused to be cut by a simple press of a steel blade, so she tried to use a sawing motion to slice through it, but that failed as well. "Come cut it. I need a strip about as long as the crystal."

Rainbow sighed and unleashed the energy stored within her, letting it flow through her body and shape the knife in her hand. She stepped over and took the tooth in her hand and pushed it against the table's surface to keep it stable as she cut into it. At first, there were sparks and a strange screaming sound. The table shook and the tooth seemed to be trying to move away from the blade. But as she sliced through it, the tooth gave up, letting itself be cut by the weapon of Light.

Within seconds, Twilight had the strip of material she needed. She took it into her hand and inspected it, almost admiring the way the object seemed to emanate Darkness. She could feel the power locked away within it, and she was going to convince it to let her use it.

"You work for me now, and you will devour yourself for sustenance and the furtherance of my will."

Rainbow and the others visibly cringed as Twilight spoke. Fluttershy's wings ruffled with a sudden itch, and Rarity tightened her hold on on her own abdomen, and one of Pinkie's incurably curly locks fell flat.

And why would I do that, old friend?

"To survive."

Twilight placed the strip of material on the opposite side of the chamber compartment as the crystal, listening to both of them scream in torment at the other's mere presence and proximity. Once she was certain they were secured in place, she placed the housing over the rifles inner workings and sealed it shut. She pulled back the action, exposing the empty chamber, slapped a magazine into the rifle and chambered a round.

"Rarity, I think now's the time," Applejack whispered into her friend's ear.

------

Greksis stood on the ceiling of the hallway, staring at the door just across from the group of Ghouls that had allowed him passage through the doors. The feeling in his heart was definitely coming from behind that door, and he needed to face it. He needed to see it. Why was he really here? He didn't know, and he needed to. Was he wrong? He felt like he was, but he'd never bothered to ask before.

He knocked on the door... lightly. He had no knowledge of whether this was a practice that the Ghouls used, and if so, he had no ideas of how the variations in strength were perceived culturally. But Greksis figured that a stronger knock would imply someone of importance was at the door, or that an urgent matter was at hand. This in mind, he chose to knock lightly so as to imply a casual guest was at the door, and that there would be no need to be combat ready.

A deeply accented voice called through the door. He didn't understand the words, but he knew the accent well. It sounded like Eliksni, specifically an accent prevalent in the House of Kings... His House... Greksis' frown deepened, and his brow furrowed even more. He knocked again, this time slightly harder and faster, hoping to imply enough urgency to warrant opening the door. A few silent moments passed. But then he heard the turning of a lock and the door opened.

An Eliksni Captain peeked out the doorway, its armor scrubbed of all House identification, and a strange chestplate of obviously foreign design. But the helmet still had remnants of yellow paint, and Greksis could see where a House of Kings crest had once been. This was his target, and also the source of the odd feeling in his chest. "We should step inside and talk for a while... old friend..." he said to the Captain he was sent here to kill.

The Captain froze and placed a hand on his shock pistol. "Who is there?" the Captain said in Eliksni. "How did you get here?"

The Vandal dropped from the ceiling, letting his stealth fade away and reveal himself to his target. He drew his dagger and tossed it into the air, catching it by the blade on its way down. "You were once my Captain... I'm here to see if you still are... Shirska..."

Shirska looked at the Vandal with narrowed eyes, and opened the door further, gesturing for Greksis to enter. "Come... I shall answer your questions."

------

In the beginning, there was nothingness. She didn't exist. No one she remembered existed. Her sister didn't exist. Her home didn't exist. But something happened in the blackness of space. Some say God began creating the universe. Others say it was a "big bang." But how it happened didn't really matter as much as the fact that it did happen. The universe was formed and planets began to spin around stars, and stars around black holes. Atoms were arranged into molecules, and life inevitably sprung up and evolved from near-nothings to leviathans and everywhere in between.

Earth. Fundament. Equis. Zebes. Corneria.

Civilizations sprung up from the wilderness of these planets, and empires rose and fell. Lives were lived. Art was made. Knowledge was attained. And most of these civilizations made it off their respective worlds into the void. Some warred upon themselves. Others made friends with other civilizations. But Equis...

Equis' civilizations never made it to space. They seemed to be content on their little world, without much in the way of wanderlust plaguing their peoples. They were satisfied with faith and magic and the day to day shenanigans of their lives; old friendships, old laws, old beliefs.

Luna felt the weight of genocide upon her, and it felt like a thunderstorm of blood; hot, sticky, and smelling heavily of metal. Her mind wanted to puke, but her body seemed to be reveling in the feeling. She was powerful. More so than she'd ever been. Nightmare Moon was an unborn foal by comparison. She stepped forth, and the Darkness parted around her, as though in reverence. Ahead of her, she could see three toxic green eyes watching her, and a sword in the clawed hands of some massive creature. In her heart, she felt fear. It screamed in protest with each step forwards towards the creature, which simply narrowed its eyes at her.

"You are Nightmare Moon..." the dark voice of the eyes spoke aloud, followed by chattering chorus from behind the veil of the shadows. "How I've missed watching your work... old friend..."

She froze in place, and for a brief moment she felt as though her fear had broken whatever foreign will had been controlling her. But she could not act upon it.

"You had so much potential... You had such power, such conviction, such magnificent hatred... Had it not been for the Elements, you would have decimated your world... All of those deaths could have fed my Worm for a week of your planet's time..."

You need to overcome contingency; force all who challenge you to play by your rules. Your convictions must be indestructible. Your potential must be realized. You must adopt the sword logic.

Luna turned at the signal of the eyes, and saw a strange creature kneeling, holding up a sword. Its blade was sharp and bloody, as though it had just been used to slaughter a city the size of Canterlot. She picked up the blade, and felt the weight of genocide within it. As she lifted it from the hands of the strange creature, she twirled it in her hand and brought it down like an axe, cleaving the creature in half. It crumbled into dust, and the chattering chorus in the shadows approved.

And then, she felt her feet go numb, and her body froze with her back arched and her mouth open in a soulless scream. Her eyes could not comprehend anything she saw. Her nerves soon became overwhelmed with pain, and shut down as the feeling climbed up to her knees. She collapsed to the floor, and her ears could hear only the sounds of death.

"You have been taken."

------

Twilight looked over her new weapon, freshly built and ready for a test. But there was nothing to test the weapon on. Plates of metal or sheets of paper were not the same as living enemies made of or with organic matter. They tested only accuracy and the force of the bullet. They did not, and could not, test the true power of the weapons. They did not trigger precision explosions, or certain smart weaponry technologies, as they were simply inanimate.

[Recommended Listening]

Her thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of arms wrapping around her, followed by wings. In that moment, she remembered, and she set down her new weapon. She turned herself around as best she could and wrapped her own arms around the pegasus she'd caused so much pain. She no longer had her helmet on, nor did Fluttershy. Everything in that moment felt real, and organic, and pure. The world outside wasn't theirs, and the fighting was not why they were here. For a brief moment, they pulled apart just enough to look into each other's eyes and realize that both of them were crying. They both smiled at each other, and Twilight reached up to brush away the tears staining Fluttershy's face and chestguard.

The two kissed, just enough to be felt. It wasn't tainted with passion, or lust. It was just a small act of love. Some might even call it true love. When they pulled apart, they were ignorant of the rest of their friends in the room watching them. Rarity made an odd squee sound, and Applejack simply crossed her arms across her chest with the widest grin across her face. Rainbow openly began weeping, and Pinkie began furiously scribbling notes after she'd taken a picture with a camera she'd pulled from seemingly nowhere. Even Discord, who'd finally woken up from his nap on the ceiling had to wipe his eyes with a tissue that he'd also gotten from seemingly nowhere.

"I'm glad you're back..." Fluttershy whispered, just loud enough for Twilight to hear.

"Did I hurt you...?" the unicorn asked softly.

Fluttershy didn't bother to dignify the question with an answer. She just pulled Twilight as close as their armor would allow. But in her eyes, the answer still showed itself, and rolled down her cheek. It crashed down onto the floor with just enough force to cause Twilight weakness.

The Warlock's eyes fell, and her expression faltered. The silence spoke loudly, and plainly. She understood it better than any book she'd ever read. She dared ask one more question, "Will you forgive me?"

The Titan looked into her eyes once more, her own teal eyes glimmering with tears and vulnerability. But she turned her lips up in a weak smile and offered as much of a nod as she could manage. "Of course, love."

They kissed once more, and stepped back into their room without another word. They helped each other out of their armor, and climbed into bed together, pressing their bodies as close to each other as possible. They didn't bother speaking. They knew exactly what they wanted. Twilight scooted back until her back was firmly pressed against Fluttershy's belly, and Fluttershy curled her legs up until they were firmly pressed against Twilight's. Fluttershy draped her arm over Twilight's waist, resting her hand over her belly, and let her nose rest in Twilight's hair, taking in the scent of her love.

Fluttershy placed a kiss on the back of Twilight's neck, and gently pulled the unicorn closer. Without missing a beat, Twilight twisted around and kissed her, placing her hands on the pegasus' shoulders and climbing on top of her. Both of them released a breath of contentment, and let their lips dance together. Neither of them had to put in any real effort, as it was just a slow, soft kiss. They didn't bother adding tongue or anything like that. Fluttershy placed her hands on Twilight's hips and pulled her gently closer, as though they weren't close enough.

For a while, they just kissed. Nothing outside mattered. No enemy was bad enough that they would need to be interrupted. No mission was more important than their kiss. Even their friends in the rooms on either side of them couldn't make them break their lips apart for even a moment. But both of them were tired, and broke apart. Twilight flopped back to her side of the bed, and curled up against Fluttershy, pressing her back to the pegasus' belly.

As the two of them fell asleep, both of them felt their lips curl up into contented smiles. This was how it was meant to be. This was what mattered, and why they were fighting. They weren't fighting for the City's survival, or even the survival of humanity. They were fighting so that they could end each day like this with their own lover. They were fighting for the sake of love, and peace, and happiness. And this... This was what they would fight for.

"Shy...?"

"Yes Twily?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Outside their room, the others had chosen to retire to their respective rooms as well. Applejack and Rarity also helped each other out of their armor, remaining fairly silent, safe for pained groans of sore muscles and sighs of relief as their bodies were allowed to relax. Applejack rolled her shoulders as she felt the weight of her chestplate being removed, moaning almost in pleasure at the freedom. She turned around and helped remove Rarity's cuirass, watching as she too rolled her shoulders and sighed in relief. Once both of them were completely out of their armor, they hopped into bed and pulled up the covers, sprawling out into whatever position they found most comfortable.

"I'm so happy for those two..." Applejack whispered.

"Me too. They deserve each other," Rarity yawned in reply.

"Do you ever feel like you're wasting time?"

Rarity turned her head and looked at her bedmate with an eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

Applejack turned to face the ceiling, staring at, or rather, through it. "All this fighting... All these missions... We could be finding the love of our lives like them... We could be doing something important instead of... this..."

Rarity twisted her body around to face the Titan, staring at her with a calculating gaze. "They are multitasking, you know. And we can too."

Applejack turned away, not wishing to face the unicorn in her bed.

"Applejack, you're being just as stubborn as those two were," Rarity huffed, scooting closer to the earth pony.

"What happens when one of us dies again?" Applejack asked in a voice barely held together. "I almost died out there today... What happens when one of us finally does get killed?"

"Then we make the most of right now," Rarity cooed softly as she pressed up against Applejack. "Darling, you're overthinking this."

The Titan finally turned to face her bedmate, finding a pair of blue eyes staring back at her. "What do I do, then, Rares?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

Without warning, Rarity leaned in and closed the gap between their lips. She kept it soft and sweet, waiting for a response from Applejack before continuing. Once she started kissing back, Rarity pulled Applejack on top of her, letting a contented sigh pass through her nose as the Titan's weight bore down on her. She wrapped her arms around the earth pony and pulled her closer, to which Applejack responded by placing her hands on Rarity's hips.

For a brief moment, they broke apart and looked into each other's eyes. Though the dark made it hard to really see, they knew exactly what was in their eyes, and they could see each other's intentions. They pressed their lips against each other's again, this time more forcefully, their hands moving across each other's body as though trying to find a more comfortable position. Rarity twisted her body and rolled on top of Applejack and pinned her to the bed with a wicked smile spreading across her face.

"Hooo boy..."