Legacy of Kain: Harmony's Rise

by Time Reaper

Chapter 19: A Chaotic Encounter

Days has passed since Raziel told his story to the ponies. It sufficed to say, if it weren't because of the ponies already being aware of Razie’s life being harsher than they could imagine, The Elements of Harmony would be, by this point, seriously traumatized after seeing it with such detail.

Still, they managed to get through that and, after an intense debate on what was the most disturbing thing to see on his unlife (with a tie between Melchiah, Zephon and the Sarafan era), they agreed on helping him to find the Elder God and using the Elements of Harmony to defeat it.

Not only that but Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both decided to aid Raziel by giving him intelligence both on places he could search on as well as telling him on the best ways to go through Equestria undetected. Twilight also helped by providing her knowledge on how to create portals between the Spectral Realm and the Physical Realm, giving Raziel plenty of places to spawn without the need of rotting corpses.

And so, Raziel started to move around Equestria, searching for the Elder God, and leaving his friends to think about the problems they were about to face.

For Fluttershy, she was worried about everything, from her animals to her friends but she was also worried about Raziel. After seeing how his actions affected him and just how far he was willing to go just to save his own land, she started to wonder if he would do the same for her world and the idea of Raziel putting his own self in danger terrified her. Not because of how brave he was, but rather, because she didn't want him to suffer anymore. She didn't want to see him going so far to endanger his own life when she doubted even herself would do it. No, she would do her best to help him but always trying to ensure that none of the creatures she cared about would suffer or see themselves committing a sacrifice for "the cause".

Rainbow Dash, after seeing Raziel's adventures, started to have mixed emotions. On one hoof, she was amazed by how awesome Raziel was, from how he managed to fight everything he encountered to how he became the cool wraith he was now even if he didn't have his wings. She wanted to be like him, she wanted to go with him and fight monsters while defending her friends, she wanted to be remembered as the awesome pony she has always been. But, once more, after giving a thought to what Raziel went through and the hurdles he fought, she now more than ever wanted to just have a normal life with her friends and be away from those evil creatures but, yet again, there was one of them in Equestria and it was among the most dangerous. She was still thinking about it but there was one thing she didn't doubt: she would do whatever it takes to defend her friends and stop that thing from harming the place, and ponies, she loves so much.

Rarity didn't have any second thought about what to do. She was aware of what was in Equestria and what it meant for everything she cared about, and she was having none of it. Sure, she was aware that the danger coming may be beyond her capabilities, but she promised herself that she would do all she could to aid her friends and that included Raziel. Oh, Raziel, how much has he suffered. It was so clear that he was a knight after seeing how he fought all those monsters and, after all of that, he was still willing to sacrifice himself once more just to save some foreign entities he never heard about because it was the right thing. She had no doubts, she would make sure to make his stay in Equestria as suitable as possible.

Pinkie Pie was, unbeknownst to everyone, among those who worried the most about what was about to come. She could still remember how her pinkie sense was telling her of how there was something on the Everfree and, once she discovered that it was Raziel, she thought that it would be the end of it but, after seeing what was the big meanie Raziel was now chasing, she could do nothing more but to pout. It's not that she liked it that way, but she was certain that this meanie was going to do much, her pinkie sense was telling her. It wasn't noticeable at first, she originally thought that it was perhaps a muscular shake caused for having too much delicious and superb chocolate and cupcakes but, as the days passed, she could sense how that feeling was increasing on its intensity. It was strange, she was certain that it was a doozy but, unlike any doozy she has ever felt, this one was starting small, in the bottom of her left foreleg and it started so restrained and small that she really gave it no mind but, now that it was extending through her leg, she was starting to wonder what was going to happen. She only hoped that Raziel would be there to help them when the duper doozy finally came.

Applejack, like the other gals, was certain that fighting this monster was going to be dangerous but, after seeing with her own eyes what it was going to do, she was now certain that training would have to be part of her schedule. She had to get stronger, she needed to get stronger. Strong enough to defend both herself and her friends should anything try to hurt any of the ponies she loved, just the idea of Applebloom or anyone from her family living in a doomed Equestria scared her and she was willing to do anything she could to save it and the knowledge that her friends would be there to help on the fight was enough to ward off her worries.

For Twilight Sparkle though, it would hard to find a day where she wouldn't find herself passing the night studying and researching what she saw in Raziel's memories. Sure, it was disturbing but the idea of that thing taking over Equestria obliterated any lingering nightmare Raziel’s memories could have given her.

As of now, Twilight was trying to figure out why Raziel’s powers were so effective against the Elder God. For personal experience, it was clear that the Spiritual Reaver was capable of revealing it to her, so it was easy to understand that, should Raziel extend his powers to her friends, they should be able to see it as well but that didn’t explain Twilight how that would help them to obliterate that monstrosity.

- “Maybe The Reaver’s magical properties would give some kind of help to The Elements of Harmony?”

She said as she studied her third book on magical theory and applications trying to theorize what would be the effects of having foreign magic being introduced on both her and her friends.

- “Well, if it allowed you to see now the Elder God, then maybe it has granted you some new kind of powers on your magic?”

Twilight turned and saw Spike, who was grabbing Twilight’s books and shelving them on their proper place as the scholar unicorn no longer needed their information. After giving some thought to his words, the princess’s apprentice decided to formulate her theory based both on her experiences using magic related to what Raziel, usually, dealt with and on what Spike just told her.

- “Well” -, she begun, - “one of the side effects of having the Spiritual Reaver’s powers being imbued on me was my ability to both hear and see the Elder God” -. She then started to write everything on her chalkboard. – “And, maybe, it also allowed me to create the portals needed to travel between the Spectral and Physical Realm so, maybe, I have been granted other abilities by the Reaver. Now, all I have to do is to test my magic to see what have changed and what hasn’t and see how true this theory is.”

- “Alright, that sounds great” -, said Spike as his mind was being filled with doubt on how safe this test would be, - “and how do you plan to start this tests? Going to the Spectral Realm?”

For a brief moment, Twilight’s mind gave the idea some thought and wondered if there was some change on herself that allowed her to do magic on the Spectral Realm; but the idea was quickly buried as she remembered that, even if she could use her portals and travel to the Spectral Realm, she wasn’t sure if that was going to be only a one way travel and the only one capable of aiding her on coming back (or protect her) was traveling through Equestria as of now on his search for the Elder God.

- “Let’s… better try something less hazardous like…” – as she was speaking, she noticed through the window how the clouds weren’t raining water, as they should, and how more and more stranger things were happening on her surroundings; and that gave her an idea, – “I know, why don’t we try to see if we can fix those clouds with…” – she then sought through her book for a spell capable of fixing whatever was happening in Ponyville, - “this!”

As both Twilight and Spike left the library, they noticed how everything in Ponyville was wrong and, as the animals’s legs grew larger and the houses started to float upward, everything was getting worse, forcing Twilight to quickly search for her friends and try her spell.

By the time Twilight found her friends, the bunnies were taller than a pony and eating the apples, the clouds were made of cotton candy and raining chocolate rain, the corn was popping and her friends were turned into a mess as they tried to make some sense of what they were seeing.

- “Don’t worry! I’ll fix it with this spell!”

And, just like that, Twilight quickly released her spell, blinding everything on the vicinity, and, when everybody was finally capable of seeing what was in front of them, to the surprise of one, the clouds were no longer made of cotton candy or raining chocolate, the corn was on its usual state and the animals were on their normal height.

As she saw this, Twilight couldn’t stop herself from feeling prideful.

- “Well, Spike, maybe the Reaver did improve my magic.”

- “I don’t know Twilight, maybe it was just the spell? I think this wasn’t well made test.”

- “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”

They were going to continue their discussion when, suddenly, Spike belched a letter from Princess Celestia, asking both her student and the other elements to go to Canterlot quickly, order they obeyed without a single doubt in their mind. They quickly left the fields surrounding Ponyville and, as soon as they left it alone, the lands surrounding Ponyville were quickly visited by a strange creature who was surprised to see the place looking peaceful.

- “Now, what do we have here?”

He then created a loop and started to look around to see how normal everything looked.

- “Well, this doesn’t make sense. My presence alone should be causing this place to go haywire.”

He then increased the loop’s size with his right paw while his left claw created some popcorn that he started to throw to the ground. As soon as the popcorn touched the ground, it quickly started to grow and transform in vines made of corn bathed with candy syrup, as they should.

- “Alright, that worked how it should, so why are these so… normal?”

His yellow eye through the look started to grow until it went through said loop as the strange creature tried to make sense of the normalcy he was seeing.

- “Aha!”

His eyes then started to throw fireworks in celebration as he finally noticed what was the cause of the place looking so boringly normal as his left eye quickly started to go technicolor and looked through the increased right eye and saw how the ‘normal’ corn was being surrounded by a white and foreign magic that was repelling his chaotic and native magic.

The left claw quickly snapped its finger and managed to remove the white magic protecting the crops, the clouds, the land and even the animals but not without spending a huge amount of magic, more than what he actually predicted to need to turn this place back into how it should look like.

- “Alright then” -, the figure stated as he decided to use his ‘hands’ to adjust his horns in the search of the source of this foreign magic. To his non-surprise, it was on a train going to Canterlot. – “I suppose I’ll see soon what’s this magic trying to stop me from making this place actually fun, but first…”

He then materialized a document titled ‘script’ and started to read it.

- “Now, this is strange, she shouldn’t have been able to stop my magic.”

He, then, de-materialized the script and created a zipper with which he started to tear the fabrics of reality, he then put his left claw and started to search for something. When he finally found what he was searching for, a security camera plugged to a tv, he closed the tear and started to look at the tv.

- “Well, time to see what happened through my absence.”

He then started to watch the footage on a x16 speed to catch up and then looked at his watch.

- “Alright, just in time to go to my scene as scripted. Hopefully, I’ll manage to keep things how it should and send them to the maze.”

He then disappeared, leaving behind the new jungle of corn vines bathed on candy syrup preparing themselves to be eaten by the bunnies.

Meanwhile, on a train going to Canterlot from the west, the carts containing foreign goods being imported from other nations were housing a spectral being that was planning to make a quick visit to the princesses and then go to Ponyville and see what were the ponies doing on his absence.

It was during these moments of respite where Raziel would find himself remembering the most of his actions and wonder where to go next.

He moved through all of Equestria, through both realms, and he could not find a single clue of where the Elder God was hiding. Sure, he was aware from the very beginning that finding its whereabouts was going to be an immense task but, considering how easy it was to find figments of its influence through Nosgoth, he considered that something would have been found by now.

Not even a glance of its figure on the Spectral Realm and not a single rumor on the Physical Realm. Perhaps a change of perspective was needed to improve on his search, after all, by the time Raziel was starting to travel through Nosgoth, The Elder God was already deep within Nosgoth’s life system in both realms; it didn’t have that much time here on Equestria so, certainly, it was going to try something else, but what?

It was that, among many more questions, what Raziel was going to inquire on the Princesses as well as The Element of Magic, hoping that they would provide him the proper lens to find his target.

It was then when the train started to forcefully stop its movement, making Raziel and much of the goods held within the cart to be pulled by the inertia into the wall.

It took Raziel a while to reincorporate himself from the mountain of luggage and crates burying him but, nonetheless, he managed to recover and leave his tomb. Once he managed to activate his Dark Reaver and turn invisible, he quickly went to the cart’s door and opened to be greeted with a strange vision of Canterlot in the distance as he took notice of the clouds being pink while raining a brownish liquid, all the while the houses were floating in the sky upside down and the sky was now multicolor.

Seeing how he was still far from Equestria, Raziel decided to turn into the Spectral Realm and get into Canterlot as fast as possible, hoping to find an answer to this as soon as possible and, surprisingly enough, he found that even the Spectral was being affected by whatever was going on with the rest of Equestria as it was proven by the fact that, on his road back to Canterlot, he could see a small cart wheel rolling past him, running from the city while shouting:

- "The end of times is nigh! The end of times is nigh!"

Raziel will never know how he was able to see that and not lose his mind.

As he was getting close to Canterlot, still on the Spectral Realm, he could see how there was a small barricade of random objects trying to stop him from advancing. It could be seen that there was little thought put into the construction of the barricade as the chairs were on the upper side of the barricade while the lower part had empty boxes and fragile mirrors holding the base. Thankfully, it was fairly small and a simple jump allowed Raziel to get into the upper side of the barricade.

Here Raziel experimented another effect from whatever was now tormenting Equestrias when, as soon as he stepped on the upper side of the barricade, it quickly started to fall down the road while making harmonious sounds as if they were harps, pianos, lyres and the like. As he saw this, Raziel decided to take his moment to think about it.

- "Whatever is afflicting this land, it has managed to even change the fundamental rules from the Spectral Realm. Normally, what can be seen as solid objects on the Physical Realm, when shifting to the Spectral Realm, become mere shadows that cannot be interacted with. If I managed to interact with a barricade, then whatever is afflicting this land is doing so on a fundamental basis" -. He then decided to look at Canterlot, wondering how was the city itself being affected. - "I briefly considered to put the blame into that squid but this was not his way of acting. The Elder God's common tactics always were resorting to manipulation and the long term planning; meanwhile, this was pure chaos, as if the culprit just wanted to bend the rules for the pure sake of doing it."

- "You aren't far away from that."

Raziel quickly turned around, searching for the creature that spoke to him but he found nothing.

- "My apologies for interrupting your inner monologues but I couldn't stop from noticing your presence getting closer to Canterlot from a realm the ponies can't access, so I decided to take a look on you."

Raziel quickly released his Reaver, flashing white at its maximum power, preparing for battle.

- "Unless you are of those who prefer to coward behind words, I ask you to show yourself and present to me how any respectful creature should."

The voice quickly laughed as it responded in a mocking tone.

- "Oh, don't give me those words. I've never been of those who likes to follow etiquette or rules of engagement, there's no fun in that."

There was a brief silence before the voice talked once more.

- "Say, you have an interesting blade in there with you. I wonder if..."

Raziel wasn't sure what he heard next, while it sounded like a snap, he was sure that he also heard something else, as if one of Pinkie's balloons suddenly started to run out of air. Nonetheless, the creature quickly spoke once more.

- "Well, you are the second thing I've found that has resistance to my magic."

- "Second?"

- "Yes, second."

There was another brief silence before the voice spoke once more, this time with a tone that was more often used by those who were planning something of mischievous nature.

- "Say, why don't we play a little game?"

Raziel was already having a bad feeling from its words but the creature spoke before he could even have a chance to reply.

- "Now, now, don't worry, this will be a simple game. Just come to the garden housing the statues here, on Canterlot Castle, and I'll personally present myself to you. Deal?"

Raziel took a moment to think of this, he was aware that he couldn't trust in this creature, whatever it was, but he also knew that there was no other option, after all, he couldn't simply go to the Physical Realm until he could find a portal. In the end, Raziel had no other choice but to accept.

- "Alright creature, I accept your challenge."

- "Creature? Is that what you call respect? Anyways, thank you for accepting" -. Raziel couldn't stop from noticing how delightful this creature sounded. - "I'll be waiting for you."

In that moment a bell ring sounded, as if notifying that the game has just begin and with that, Raziel went back to be on his own as he started to move deeper into Canterlot, hoping to find some kind of answer into what was going on right now.

It was as silent the walk as Raziel expected, with neither the Elder God or the new voice talking to him while he was moving upwards but everything started to change once he got into the city as the road started to disintegrate before his own eyes, leaving nothing more than emptiness where there once were gravel and rock from the mountain.

- "We don't want this game to be so easy, right?"

Raziel wanted to answer with any kind of retort but his mind was overwhelmed with the creature's power. If it was capable of changing the terrain that easily, then what was stopping it from destroying everything he knew? Perhaps that is why it was trying to play with him, it needed something that could sate its boredom, bringing him back memories of those times he used to have clans skirmishes with his brothers for the sake of no longer be bored.

He quickly started to look around for a way to reach the castle and its gardens, resorting to move through the roofs, while wondering what kind of entity he was dealing with if it was capable of change the terrain on the Espectral Realm so easily.

- "You know?" - The voice started to talk as Raziel started to navigate through the roofs which were still holding down to the ground. - "I find it fascinating that you are capable of existing in both planes of existence, usually, this place tend to be inhabited by those who no longer live."

Raziel patiently heard him talk as some of the houses started to change in some way that Raziel wasn't capable of comprehend.

- "Tell me, how are you capable of living between the two planes...?" - There was a great silence before Raziel noticed how the houses started to float on their own and the distortions started to increase, making some of the houses to expand beyond what was considered 'normal' even to the Spectral Realm's standards. - "Uhm, maybe I did the wrong question. Let's try with this:

How can you be beyond the living and still be able to shift between the planes and leave the place you are supposed to inhabit?"

- "A well made question" -, answered Raziel, - "with its implications being the answer to you. For me to be able to shift between the planes, I cannot be a simple creature like the ones that usually inhabit this place. For me to be able to shift, one would simply guess that my powers are beyond what one can simply understand as the norm."

Silence was all the creature gave to Raziel as he managed to reach the highest house in Canterlot and notice how the garden was not too long from where he was. Not far enough to get there through his wings but close enough to reach it if he was patient enough.

- "If you aren't going to answer me" - The voice commented. - "Then I'll have to find other ways to have my fun with you."

In that moment the house where Raziel was in place started to spin around, throwing Raziel back down to the bottom of the houses but not before the houses rearranged themselves into an arena where inanimate objects, such as chairs and tables, started to attack Raziel but they quickly succumbed to his Reaver.

- "So you can fight? Good, I suppose Sun Butt hasn't put her friendly manners into you. So let's see how well you can fight."

Another snap was quickly followed and Raziel quickly saw himself surrounded by Chimeras, Manticores and even ponies wearing armors, which was supposed to be impossible but this creature already left very clear that it wasn't subjected to the same rules as Raziel. The Soul Reaver, meanwhile, prepared himself for a hard fight but only to find, to his enemies's fear, that a simple slash from the Reaver vanquished each one of them, much to the creature's displeasure.

- "That blade of yours is starting to annoy me."

Raziel was expecting to see more enemies but, without any kind of warning, the floor disappeared, making Raziel fall down below into the emptiness until he landed into the garden, much to Raziel's surprise.

- "Alright, fiend, your game is done. Now show yourself."

- "Ah, ah, ah..." - Responded the voice in an condescending tone. - "You still haven't found me, come on, I'm waiting for you."

Raziel decided to withdraw his Spiritual Blade as he started to look around the garden, noticing the statues around him and how each of them held a plaque below that stated what they represented such as friendship and victory but there was one in particular that stood to his attention. This one was a disjointed creature that looked like if someone decided to just force the pieces all together. It had the head of a pony with two different kinds of horns, a left claw, a right paw, the body of a dragon, the left wing of a bird, the right wing of a bat, a hoof where the left foot would be and a lizard's right foot while having a goat beard and only one long teeth.

Raziel tried to see the plaque but, he noticed, that it wasn't so easy to read as the others. He decided to get closer to read it and he could only read the plaque when he got so close that he could no longer see the statue without moving his head but the plaque made it very clear to Raziel the statue's identity.

DISCORD

- "I have to say, it makes me glad to know that I was in the open to be seen by everypony."

Raziel quickly jumped back as he heard the voice so close to him, and with good reason as what used to be a statue was now alive and moving, looking at him with glint of displeasure and a desire to remove him from his sight.

- "Now that I have presented myself, I would like to know who are you and why are you invading my playground."

Author's Note:

Before anyone ask, remember, he saw a recording of over 1000 years of events but he hasn't seen all the details.

With that said, I'm glad of finally making this chapter, it has been kind of hard considering the lack of internet and my need to listen to Legacy of Kain music to write this. Now I have to make the second part. Oh boy.

If you find any problem with this chapter (both on a story perspective or a grammatical perspective) please do point it out so I can try to fix it. I am planning to reread the whole story once the second part is finished.

Also, in case you haven't read my personal blogs, I am in a need for money to keep my internet so, if you want, you can either commission me or help me to keep writing this story by donating to my Ko-Fi page

Thanks for reading, have a nice day.

Comments

[prism heart]

Nice chapter, looking forward to see what happens next.

[Black--Soul]

This will be a very complicated adventure...

[Black--Soul]

Days has passed since Raziel told his story to the ponies. It sufficed to say, if it weren't because of the ponies already being aware of Razie’s life being harsher than they could imagine, The Elements of Harmony would be, by this point, seriously traumatized after seeing it with such detail.

Raziel's

[Black--Soul]

What reaver would be the most effective? Or would the Soul consumption be enough?

If anyone deservs to get trolled by Discord, than it would be the Elder.