Harmony

by Luna Nightshade

2 - Azure Silk

Celestia jolted awake from a dream. The memory of it faded quickly, but she had dreamed of being chased. She couldn’t recall falling asleep, so her sleep could have lasted somewhere between a few minutes and several hours. The sun was still on the horizon, casting its orange-red glow over the world. The blue filly next to her had fallen asleep as well, her slow and even breathing a sign that her dreams were a lot more peaceful than Celestia’s before. The other mare next to her was still awake, her ears perked up and her eyes scanning the surroundings. Even though her wing covered both Celestia and Luna, she could feel that Harmony was on edge, ready to spring up and flee from any kind of danger.

“Awake again?” Harmony spoke without looking at her.

“Y… yes. Sorry for falling asleep.” Celestia yawned and rubbed her left eye with her fetlock, just before using her other fetlock to rub her other eye.

“Both of you have been tired and since I saw no mane, tail or fur of anypony else I let you sleep. We still should get going, soon.”

“But where should we go? Is there a village we would be safe at?”

Harmony sighed and looked at her. “The short answer: No, the long answer: Maybe.”

“I don’t understand. Either we are safe or we are not.”

“We may be able to pass for a while, if we disguise ourselves.” Her horn lit up and a small image of an alicorn appeared before Celestia. “If we hide our wings, other ponies might just see us as unicorns and thus leave us alone.” The image changed, the wings pressed to the body of the alicorn and then hidden behind a layer of clothing.

“But wouldn’t they notice?”

“I can put a subtle enchantment on the cloth that will hide the rest.” The image changed into a representation of a normal unicorn and then vanished.

“But where will we get those clothes?”

“That will be the hard part.” Harmony gulped. “I know of a seamstress in another village. She still owes me a favor and I hope that she will help us. The problem is that we need to sneak into her shop without being seen.”

“B… but.” Celestia looked to the Horizon, her voice rising. “There is an eternal twilight! How can we sneak anywhere like this?” The filly next to her stirred and opened her eyes, yawning.

“Well, I have a plan for that as well”, Harmony answered, “but it is a dangerous one.”

“I… in what way?” Celestia shivered. The little filly next to her scooted a bit closer, nuzzling her gently.

“We need to draw most unicorns out of the village.” Harmony said, her look stern. “And I think you are the one that can pull this off.”

~*~*~

Celestia hoped that Harmony was right. She pressed her wings as close to her body and to look as inconspicuous as she could. They were hidden beneath an illusion spell that also gave her a tattered appearance. She slowly trotted towards the village entrance, her gaze fixed on the two ponies standing guard. One was orange and slim, the other bulky and white. Both held spears within their magic. She limped slightly with her right hindleg. Her heart was pounding up to her ears. She wasn’t sure that she could do this. But she was the only one that could. Blueberry was still too frightened to do anything and Harmony was known in that village. Her hooves were shaking with every step she took.

The guards took notice of her. Or maybe they had a long time ago, but only now they lowered their spears. Celestias heart jumped. Her step faltered and she fell forward.

“Are you okay?” One of the guards shouted and trotted over to her.

Celestia gulped and pressed the ruse they had devised through her lips. “Alicorn rampage.” She took a deep breath her voice shaking from being so nervous. “In Appleon.”

“Get the milita and the village council. We need to mount a defense! Alicorn on rampage in Appleon!” A moment later the guard next to her stretched out an orange hoof. “Can you stand?” Celestia slowly got up to her legs again, although they felt a lot more like they would gave way again anytime soon.

“W… will you help Appleon?” She asked, every hair on her fur on edge.

“We will probably be too late to help them, but we will try to meet that Alicorn on the fields. Do you know his or her name?”

Celestia shook her head. “The only thing I saw was a black shadow …”

“Sounds ominous. We should be careful.” He nodded more to himself and looked at Celestia again. “Come, I know a place where you can rest.” He turned and trotted toward the village.

Celestia looked back over her shoulder, hoping to see a glimpse of Harmony or Blueberry, but she didn’t see anypony. Reluctantly she followed the guard.

The village itself looked very much like the last one she had been to. Houses made of wood and straw stood scattered all over the place. In the midst of them all a horde of unicorns started to gather. There were a lot of voices shouting at each other. She could only make out some pieces of various conversations going on all at once. Some were arguing: “Why should we go and help them?” “Let him come!” “Why should we care?” Others replied: “We must help them.” “They are unicorns as well.” “Don’t let them come here and destroy our village!”

“Time is of the essence, everypony!” A voice rang out over the crowd. “We should try and help the ponies from Appleon! Together we stand more of a chance and even if we are too late, we should go and meet that alicorn on the way. Now he or she is still weakened for their battle. If we go now, it improved our chances!”

The stallion’s speech quieted the arguing ponies. Harmony seemed to know the mayor pretty well to predict his thinking. She took a deep breath of relief.

“Is everypony here?” The mayor’s voice resounded over everypony. “Good, then let’s move out!” The ponies stampeded in the way Celestia had come from, while the guard led her through the village still.

“Won’t you join them?” Celestia asked after a while.

The guard stopped and looked to her. Had she asked something wrong? “A few ponies are known to stay here. They are either too old or too young to fight, some are not even suited to fight and those need protection as well.” He explained with a clam voice, then turned toward a house on their left.

“Then you have been fighting for a while now”, Celestia concluded.

“Yes, there were always tussles with other villages, but it is the first time we head out to fight an alicorn. To be honest, I am glad that I can stay behind.” He knocked at the door.

Celestia gulped. She had hoped that even the guards were to disappear.

The door opened after a few moments, held in the azure glow of somepony’s magic. “What is it, I am busy?” A mare called from within.

“Sorry to disturb, Azure Silk, but I thought you would look after this filly while the town is busy.” The guard explained while they trotted inside.

The house itself wasn’t very big and everywhere was cluttered some sort of differently colored cloth, while a mare sat over a table, holding some fabric in her magic and staring intently at it. “The town is busy?” She asked without looking.

“Yes, there was an alicorn attack on Appleon.”

“An attack on Appleon?” Her magic faded and the cloth fell onto her mane, with her staring at them.

“And this filly risked her life to tell us about it.” The guard gestured toward Celestia with a hoof.

“Oh dear, you look dreadful. Come on in, sit. I’ll make some tea.” The mare jumped up from her position and disappeared into another room. Celestia looked around, unsure where to sit down, as all the possible places were cluttered with one thing or another.

“I’ll leave you to it, then”, the guard said and disappeared.

Celestia heard some clinging and clanging, something splitter and a bit of water being poured. She winced with every loud noised that came from the other room. Azure Silk soon arrived again, her coat a deep azure blue, her mane and tail a deep shade of purple, both longer than what she was used to see on mares. Mane and tail were a bit tussled but Celestia got the impression that Azure Silk usually tried to keep at least those in better shape.

The unicorn had a towel and a bowl of water in her magic, sitting down next to Celestia and starting to tend to her illusional bruises on her legs and face. “Galloping all the way here from Appleon to get help … You are very brave.”

“Uhm … thank you”, Celestia answered, her heart beating a bit faster again.

“What is your name?”

“Oh… I’m Ce… Pink Diamond.”

“The Pink Diamond? Are you famous over in Appleon?”

“N… no. I am … just Pink Diamond”, she stammered. She needed to be more careful of what she was saying.

Azure Silk looked up at her, letting the towel just float next to her. “There is more to this, isn’t there?”

“M… more?”

“Young Filly, I have an eye for details, it comes with my profession. And you may belief this or not, but I have tended to more injuries than I can count.” Azure stared into her eyes. “These injuries are fake, are they not?”

“I … I …” Celestia felt pressed into a corner. What should she do? Maybe if she admitted that part, Azure wouldn’t start to question more about her. She sighed and looked down. “Yes, they are …” Then she looked up to Azure again. “How did you know?”

“Simple. Ponies usually flinch when one tends to wounds as such”, she said, putting the bowl of water and the towel down. “But don’t try to change the subject now, young lady.” Celestia gulped. She had just been curious. “You just lied yourself into this village, probably clearing almost all the population out of it with another lie.” It was clearly a statement.

“P… please, don’t …” Celestia flinched back.

“I first want to know why!” Azure sat back on her haunches. “And I want the truth!”

The filly gulped. The mare in front of her was intimidating.

“We … need the help of a seamstress”, Celestia admitted.

“Well, I am the seamstress.” She stared at the filly, squinting her eyes. “Who else is with you?”

“Well, Harm…” The mare was on her, a hoof to Celestias muzzle, quieting her.

“Don’t say that name aloud here”, she pressed through her teeth. “Why has that idiot come back?” Azure Silk shook her head. “Come upstairs. Some things are still dangerous, even if most of the village is out.”

Celestia nodded and followed her into the kitchen. Pots, platters and cups were scattered everywhere, but there was still enough room to maneuver to the stairs on the far side of the room. The upper floor was in stark contrast to the lower floor. Everything seemed to be where it belonged. Azure led her into a bed-chamber. A single bed stood, a rug and a closet were all the items within the room, making it seem almost spartanic.

“You can drop the illusion now”, Azure said, sitting down on her haunches in the center of the room. “And don’t worry, there are no prying eyes up here.”

“B… but …”

“Look here. Whatever it is that she wants me to do, I need time to do it. And that ruse you pulled will keep them out of the village only for so long. When they come back without having found an alicorn, they’ll want to interview you – and then they’ll strip that glamour from you and I don’t think you want that to happen, but that you and her want to be far away from here by then.”

She nodded and spread her wings. She knew that after opening them past a certain point, the spell couldn’t keep her disguised anymore. The wings would become visible to Azure Silk.

“I suspected as much. What is it she needs for you and her?”

“She wants a disguise for our wings, some cloth that will conceal them”, she answered.

Azure nodded. “I hope she knows what she is doing. Wait here a moment.” She went past her and downstairs. Celestia sighed, her heart still racing from the encounter. She listened intently, heard things being moved and a few curses. Azure came up several minutes later, measuring tape and cloth held in her magic.

“Now, stand still, with your wings to your sides. I’ll try to make this disguise as good as possible, but you won’t be able to take it off without ripping it. So it will be a one-time thing, understood?”

Celestia nodded and did as told. Azure started to take her measurements, her magic moving the measuring tape all over the filly’s body.

“H… how do you and H… her now each other?” Celestia asked after a while.

“She lived in the village for some time”, Azure replied, putting some white cloth over Celestia’s back. “She helped me gather some rare materials from other villages. We were good friends.”

“Did you help her escape, when that pony came?” Celestia asked, curious.

“That pony …?” Azure stopped for a moment, her eyes looking up. “The one that started to spout all this nonsense about … all of you?” Celestia nodded. “No, she was long gone.”

“Why?”

“She made a mistake and managed to get almost the whole village upset at her. It made things even easier for that pony when he came here to tell those lies.” Azure sighed and wrapped some more cloth around Celestia’s body, adding some padding next to her wing.

“Why are you still … her friend?”

“Because I got to know her. Everypony else didn’t care much about getting to know her.” Suddenly there was a flash and the cloth around her body was fixed in place without any visible seams. “There, that is the best I can do on short notice. How does it feel?”

It was very warm and she was unable to move her wings. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it could have been worse. “It’s good”, she said. “Thank you.”

“Well, it does look like you got a bit too much weight.” The familiar voice made not only her jump, but Azure as well.

“Y… you!” Azure stomped over to the other mare. “You have nerves to come back here! Are you mad? Do you want them to slaughter you?”

Harmony took a step back, smiling uncomfortably. “Well, I didn’t have any choice”, she answered. “Can you help her, too?” She turned slightly and showed Blueberry to Azure. The little filly shrinking away from Azure.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to startle you”, Azure said, reaching out with her hoof carefully. The little filly didn’t move, but flinched slightly as Azure’s hoof touched her gently. “What is your name?”

Harmony didn’t say anything. Celestia waited, wondering if she should tell Azure the filly’s name. Moments went by in absolute silence, silence in which Azure just stroked over Blueberry’s mane.

“L… Luna”, she finally replied. Wasn’t her name Blueberry? What was going on?

“You have a very pretty name, Luna”, Azure replied with a smile. “Nopony here will hurt you.” Luna looked up, her gaze brightening just a bit. “Will you come down, so I can take your measurements?”

Blueberry – or Luna – looked to Harmony. “Don’t worry, you can trust her”, the mare answered. The filly looked back and forth between the smiling ponies and jumped off, fluttering her wings a few times, gliding smoothly.

Celestia stared at the younger filly. She seemed to have good control over her wings already. She watched as Azure went to work on her, more slowly and gently than she had been with Celestia.

“How much time do you think we have?” Harmony asked as she watched Azure taking the filly’s measurements.

“I’m guessing two or three hours tops”, she said and got back up. “Give me a moment, I need to see if I have her color in stock.” Azure went past the blue filly and downstairs.

“So … Luna?” Celestia asked and the filly nodded meekly. “I thought you said”, she looked at Harmony.

“I gave her that name because she never told hers. But Luna fits her, does it not?”

Celestia nodded. “It is a nice name.” The little filly blushed slightly and avoided their gaze. She looked back to Harmony. “Two to three hours?”

“Probably only two. We need to be gone by that time.”

“Where will we go then?”

“I know of another village north of here. It is quite a bit, but we should be able to live there peacefully for a while. Maybe they’ll even forget their war and we can show ourselves one day again.”

“Do you really think that we can …?” Celestia bit her lip. Somehow she would have liked to go back to where she lost her mother. If only to mourn her.

“I hope so. Hope is all we have. And we should hold on to our hopes as much as we can.”

Azure came back up and gave Luna a small cube of sugar. Then she put the blue cloth on her and started working. Why did the filly get a sugar cube and she didn’t? Celesita pouted, but then she saw the filly smile for the first time since meeting her.

“Thank you”, Harmony said to Azure. She floated a bag out of her mane and emptied about half of the coins in it on the floor. “I hope this will compensate you for the troubles.”

“Don’t you dare make me take your money”, Azure answered without even looking on the amount of coins lying there. “Take it. You’ll need it where you go, especially with those two fillies in your care!”

Harmony silently gathered the coins again in her back, a tear flowing from her eye. She quickly wiped those away with her fetlock, just as another flash of magic signaled that Azure was finished with Luna.

“Do you feel comfortable?” Azure asked the filly and Luna nodded with a smile.

Azure put the rest of the blue cloth aside and pulled a big silvery-blue cloth over Harmony’s back. The mare worked on her in silence, her movements quick and deliberate. Fitting her body and wings took her a lot longer than on Celestia and Luna. The blue filly joined Celestia in her staring, leaning slightly into her.

Finally there was the third flash and Harmony’s wings were hidden beneath the cloth. “That is the best I can do”, Azure answered and wiped some sweat from her forehead. “The rest is up to you. And remember that you can only take it off by ripping through it.”

Harmony nodded and trotted over to Celestia. Her horn glowed in a silvery aura as she applied a spell to Celestias disguise. The borders where the white cloth met her fur seemed to vanish, making her look like a slightly overweight unicorn and not as if she was wearing anything. Harmony did the same to Lunas and her own clothing. “There, that is all”, she said finally.

“Now, hurry up and leave!” Azure shoved Harmony toward the door.

The mare nodded and turned. “Come, we have been here long enough. We shouldn’t put Azure Silk in any more trouble.” Celestia followed Harmony. “Thank you”, she said as she left. Luna took a while, then said “Thank you” as well and rushed behind them.

They went down the stairs, through the clutter in the kitchen and out the door. “Take care, you hear me? Don’t you dare die or something”, Azure said just before Harmony closed the door.

“I’ll try my best”, she whispered and started to run. They quickly passed some houses and the guards in front of the village. As Celestia passed the guards she noticed that they were staring forward with an empty gaze. Harmony soon turned left into the woods. Something was strange, but she didn’t have time to wonder. They stopped only when the village entrance was out of view.

Harmony’s horn lit up for a moment and some sparks fell down. Celestia didn’t notice any immediate effects. “D… did you do anything to the guards?” She suddenly asked.

The older mare looked back and fell into a slow trot through the woods. “I had to put them under a spell in order to enter the village. They would have recognized me and I couldn’t allow them to see us leaving.”

Celestia shivered. Those were some scary spells. No wonder that some ponies saw them as threats and wanted them gone. Was this the mistake Harmony had done before? Or was it something different? She kept her curiosity for herself and followed her through the trees, the setting sun watching them from their right.

Harmony picked the way they went very carefully, so that their hooves didn’t leave any prints at all. They stopped only briefly to pick a few of the sparse berries and cherries on some trees. Finally they settled down at some glade. “I think this is far enough for now. We should rest and get some sleep”, Harmony said, laying down. Celestia settled down a bit next to her and sighed, her hooves feeling sore again.

“C… can I sleep next to you again?” Luna whispered into Celestias ear after trotting over to her. Celestia looked a bit surprised at the younger filly, but nodded. The filly smiled and got down next to her, leaning her head over Celestias shoulders and quickly fell asleep.

The white filly smiled and looked over Luna’s shoulder and toward the still setting sun, clinging to her hope that everything would be fine again.

Comments

[Elkia Deerling]

I kind of wonder about Harmony's background. I sure hope they can make everything right again.

[Evastarfall]

Why is this so underrated

[Evastarfall]