Harmony's Wrath

by hahatimeforponies

Breakout

"L-Luna? What..." Twilight Sparkle looked around at the frozen scene, her tired mind struggling to comprehend this revelation.

"Twilight, we haven't got much time." The alicorn leaned in closer, speaking almost in a whisper. "I wasn't expecting you to find out so quickly."

"Find... find out? You know about all this?" Twilight tilted her head. "Why did you... what..."

"I'll try and be brief. I guess you know about the Harmonious Revolt?"

"The what?"

"The..." Luna grimaced and nodded to the images of the ancestors. "That."

"Oh. Yeah, a gryphon friend of Rainbow Dash gave her a written account of the whole thing... but wh-"

"You need to find the seventh. Hornblende's reincarnation is vital to banishing Celestia."

"Why do you want to banish Celestia?"

"Hm." Luna frowned. "The account must be incomplete. I'll try and fill in the gaps. Do you know anything about my part in this?" Twilight shook her head sternly. Luna looked over her shoulder nervously. When she resumed speaking, she was quick but clear. "Okay. Pay attention, because I don't have time to say this more than once. I'm not Celestia's sister, nor am I by nature an alicorn. During the Harmonious Revolt, I was a unicorn, and a member of the Canterlot aristocracy. After Celestia banished you, she assumed an equine form and declared herself ruler. Though she fended off the gryphons, the nobles rebelled. I, being young and greedy, was quick to sell the other nobles out to Celestia in exchange for power under her. She admired my cunning, but had no need for my knowledge. It was the aristocracy's rebellion that drove her to inflict the curse on all of ponykind. Everypony except one - me. She took the form of an alicorn and took me on as her eternal servant, and to the ponies of Equestria we presented ourselves as sisters."

"What about Nightmare Moon? The Elements of Harmony? I thought..."

"An elaborate ruse, designed to solidify her own power."

"But if she'd wiped everypony's memory, then shouldn't she be off scot-free?"

"You underestimate yourself, Twilight. The Elements of Harmony were one of the indestructible remnants of the Banished, and Celestia knew that if even one of them was used against her, she would be undone. So, making full use of my servitude to her, she made a show of banishing me to the moon, to lie in wait until the reincarnated Banished - you and your friends - could be fooled into using your Elements on me, under her control, achieving nothing and rendering them useless."

"... what?" Twilight gaped. It took all of her focus just to keep up with Luna's frantic exposition, let alone process all of it. Regardless, she was visibly incensed at the very idea of having been deceived.

"The only thing is, it only took care of six of the seven Elements. The seventh is still out there, naive to the whole story, and she holds the key to defeating Celestia and freeing ponykind!"

"But... why do you want to help us? You betrayed your peers to serve at Celestia's side!"

"Twilight..." Luna sighed. "A thousand years gives you a lot of time to think about your mistakes." Twilight lowered her head apologetically.

"Oh, and what's with the hurry? Haven't you stopped time or something?"

"The longer we're down here, the longer Celestia has to find this place."

"She... what?"

"Usually I come down here to get time away from her. Something about this place... when I'm here, she can't find me. But I don't know if she can detect others here, so you need to leave at once. I started this time bubble to tell you what I know, and the moment it drops, I'm going to teleport you and your friends outside the city, and you all need to get out of here as fast as you can. Regroup, find the seventh, and find the way to banish Celestia from this plane in the study of haemomancy."

"But wait! I sti-" Before Twilight could protest further, Luna bowed her head, her horn drawing in light, culminating in a blinding flash, stunning Twilight momentarily. By the time the glare had dissipated from her vision, she saw, not the inside of the dank, ruined palace, but the exterior of Canterlot, from the snowy grove they had drawn their plans in earlier. She looked around to see Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie, all looking around themselves, befuddled. She turned to address them, but her exhaustion caught up with her; she collapsed in the snow with a groan, catching her friends' attention anyway.

"Twilight!" Everypony exclaimed in unison as they crowded around her.

"We need..." she managed, still trying to struggle to her hooves. "... we need to go..." At this, her face fell in the snow, and she lost consciousness.

"Twi? Twi!" Applejack prodded her. When she turned her over, the sight of her chest rising and falling brought relief.

"Well you heard her, let's go!" Rainbow Dash fluttered around anxiously.

"We'll need a stretcher for Twilight before we go anywhere. Rarity, think yer can fix one up?" Applejack ordered, assuming a sort of de facto leadership in Twilight's stead. Rarity looked around for a moment, as if she'd lost something.

"Yes, certainly, just as soon as I figure out what I was already making... a... the sword! Where's the sword?"

"Ah don't know how it happened, but ah think..." Applejack turned back to face Canterlot. "... it's back in there."

"And Spike!" Fluttershy exclaimed, realising where she was.

"Rainbow, you know what to do!" The earth pony barked. Dash just saluted and bolted for the storm drains. Rarity grimaced, and started pulling twigs from the nearby trees.

---

"Darn drains, why do they have to be so dark?" Rainbow's usual lightning pace was slowed to a crawl as she entered the exit chute. With the ladder removed, the only indication she had to fly up was a firm collision with the back wall of the pipe. She knew that Spike would be directly above the exit pipe, and without ground-bound companions, she could fly straight up, saving time. Luck was also on her side - Spike's floating light was visible from the drain's central hall, giving her a beacon.

"Hrmnmnmnm... escort you to the Gala, Rarity? Of course..." she heard as she parked inside the inflow pipe. Spike was sleeping sweetly on the edge of the hole. Remembering Twilight's warning about the sewer gas, she decided to pass Spike by and pick him up on the way back. However, another property of the sewer made itself apparent as soon as she punched the cover off - without a unicorn companion, it was pitch-black. There's no way I'll find the palace through that... she retreated down the ladder and thought for a moment. I'll need some kind of light, like Spike's... wait, that's it! She scooped Spike up in her forehooves and shook him roughly. She had no time for Fluttershy's finesse. "Uah! What? What's going on?" Spike looked around frantically. Dash just stared at him through narrowed eyes and uttered a simple instruction;

"Don't. Sneeze." Before Spike could protest, she plopped him on to the back of her neck and hurried back up the ladder. Using a mixture of memory and dead reckoning, she followed the path she had taken earlier. Spike held his breath and clung to the speeding pegasus for dear life. The palace wasn't quite as distinctive as before without Twilight to light the way, but it still emitted the faintest trace of torchlight. She went straight for the side of the building and ducked in through the window, the discovery still fairly fresh in her mind.

She skidded to a halt inside, her hooves kicking up a cloud of dust. Luna lay at the far side of the hall, kneeling on her legs, a book in front of her. The ruckus had drawn her attention, and the two ponies stared each other down. Oblivious to Luna's conversation with Twilight, Dash reared up, ready to charge at the slightest provocation. Spike looked on, looking a little queasy. Luna picked something from the ground and tossed it to Rainbow. The pegasus prepared to dodge, but instead the object slid across the floor, stopping a length in front of her.

"You forgot this." Luna added calmly. It was the sword in its sheath, with a hempen sling attached to it. Reluctantly, Dash picked it up, and, with Spike's help, strapped it on. It was awkward wearing it with the spear - the two jostled for space, and the sword was quite heavy to boot. "Now go!" Still eyeing her cautiously, Dash took off out the window. Spike's light was beginning to fade - the light she had to navigate with was noticeably dimmer than when she entered the palace. She followed her previous route as best she could, racking her brain for landmarks, anything that might signal the right turn. The diminishing light was bad enough, but the added weight of the sword slowed her down, throwing off her sense of distance travelled. With her held breath rapidly depleting, she took a chance on the current nearest side street.

A near collision with a wall indicated quite quickly that this was the wrong one. She backed around and tried the next one. It was quite long, possibly long enough... she felt a yank at the back of her head. When she stopped and looked around, she saw Spike - nearly blue in the face - pointing at the ground. An open ponyhole cover! Spike, I could kiss you right now! She banked around and dove, hind-hooves first, for the hole, not even thinking to replace the cover first. As soon as she was safely down the ladder, both her and her rider gasped. The air wasn't particularly fresh - sewer gas had seeped into the drain while they were away - but it was an improvement. Wasting no time, Rainbow dove for the hole, Spike desperately clinging to her mane. With the light all but gone, this wasn't so much controlled flight as a leap of faith. If she had remembered the geometry of the room correctly, and the speed and angle of her leap was just right, they would be fine. If not, then it was an ice bath for both of them. Spike screamed as they descended into the darkness. After a second of free fall, Dash joined in. She closed her eyes and braced for impact.

Thud.

She felt something smooth and cold impact her belly, and felt a high velocity change in direction, in the shape of a smooth curve. However, she wasn't airborne. It took her a moment to realise that she was sliding along the exit pipe's ice sheet. Perfect! She kicked off the ice to take to the air again, just in time to avoid her belly scraping along the bare streak Twilight had left. Both fliers still shouting at the top of their lungs, they shot from the opening and into the night at a dizzying speed.

With a thwump, Dash landed in the snow by the others, grinning triumphantly. Spike rolled off her back and planted his face in the snow. Pinkie Pie pranced around behind her, cheering and waving around what appeared to be pom-poms. Applejack just rolled her eyes.

"Always with the theatrics..."

Comments

[EvilEnchantress]

da buck what just happened

[Therizzen]

Well, the Luna concept you have going is not at all what I would have assumed it was. And everything being a charade, just a scheme to get the elements used up? That wasn't really expected either, at all. This whole thing is just taking one huge turn into unexpectedness. This is in no way how I would have guessed this story to play out in the beginning. I can't say I agree whole heatedly with the direction you are going, as I find this reality sort of unnerving, but that is also a good thing. You are taking the reader into unknown territory and in turn, subjecting them to being clueless as to how the next instance will play out. In these situations, it is now almost impossible to come up with a correct assumption or guess.

[Super_Big_Mac]

168307 ... Spike will turn into a giant newt, Trixie will be tricked into harnessing her true potential, a cake will be thrown, and a party will be eaten.

... I may have gotten those last two out of order.

[wirriam]

m.. mind.... FUCK. who that was good

[themanesix]

wait.....wait...stop everything.....are you saying....the fate of Equestria rests with TRIXIE.............this will take some doing

[Raycal_Zionei]

I wonder what Princess Celestia was before she assumed her equine form..

[Mecha G]

kinda weird for me, seeing a pre-season 2 Luna.

[dragenfire68]

HOLY SHIEEEEET its been a long time since i read a story that keeps me coming back to figure out what the fuck is gonna happen next. only mistborn and dragon mistress can do suchthings