Bringing Balance

by Shumiry

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“You think this is a game? You've never been in a war before, have you?” -Secret Seeker

The party was going splendidly. Despite the knowledge that they'd need to discuss serious business at some point, Pinkie Pie had, once again, gone haywire. Streamers, signs, games, the party cannon, and other party supplies were everywhere. The mane six were sharing stories with Seeker about their various adventures, with Luna and Celestia chiming in from time to time, explaining what they'd been doing.

It was funny to see the reactions on the pony's faces when they learned how easily several of the problems they'd faced could've been resolved.

“So you were watching us as we struggled up Dragon Mountain to face a huge red dragon?” Celestia was trying not to laugh at her student's incredulous expression, though her face betrayed nothing, and she dared not open her mouth, lest she erupt into hysterics. Fortunately, Luna noticed her predicament, and came to the rescue,

“It's not like we weren't prepared to teleport to you should it look like you required assistance, or were in any serious danger, but it was an excellent learning opportunity that would've been squandered by our involvement.” Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but suddenly remembered some of the ridiculous, often dangerous, things she'd done in her pursuit of knowledge. Slowly, her mouth drifted shut once more.

“I guess that makes sense,” she grumbled, still not completely convinced, as Secret Seeker munched on another cupcake. The unicorn had been steadily packing treats away since the party had started, and even Pinkie Pie was casting surprised glances his way each time he grabbed another.

“Really takin a shine to those cupcakes, eh Seek?” Applejack prodded. He looked up, frosting on his face, as he took in the amused looks his friends were giving him. With a roguish grin, he devoured the rest of the scrumptious snack, finishing with a flourish and a bow.

“I'm running at a hyper-metabolic rate right now in order to power some experiments I'm working on, so I need lots of calories...” he trailed off at the blank stares he was getting from everypony except Twilight.

“Well, suffice to say, they're really delicious,” Pinkie Pie grinned with pride at the compliment, “so I mean, yeah, you can never have too many cupcakes.”

“What kind of experiments?” Twilight probed, prompting the rest of the gathering to go silent. Seeker looked around at the congregation for a moment before heaving a sigh.

“I'm working on some ways to strengthen my base magical ability. I originally thought that I would be able to replenish my soul by living and making new memories, but it seems I was mistaken.” He had made his way over to a console on the far side of the room, and telepathically engaged the device. A hologram of himself appeared, showing the thin green light of his soul within a translucent body.

“Living seems to replenish the strength lost by using magic, in much the same way as a good meal and some rest will replenish the loss from a hard day's work.” The hologram fired off some violet energy beams and started panting with exhaustion. A clock appeared running at fast-forward to signify time passing, then vanished to show the holopony standing tall once again.

The ponies were looking wide-eyed at the display. They'd seen similar things before, concocted with magic, but the effortlessness with which Seeker was manipulating this device struck them, especially the magic users in the group, as unusual. His horn wasn't even glowing...

“But the amount of energy expenditure possible in a single session is set by the capacity of the soul. Ie, if I can only fire five shots before I become exhausted,” here the holopony performed the actions described, “then that is my limit for the rest of my life.” The hologram went through the motions of firing five shots, becoming weary, time passing, and starting over again, a few times in a row.

“Ok, so what's the experiment?” Twilight asked, intrigued. Celestia and Luna were also leaning forward, eager to hear what he had learned. Seeker's mouth twitched into a frown for a second.

“Well...” he delayed, mulling over the hole he'd dug himself into, and how best to escape, “one of them is something like exercising the soul to make it stronger, like a muscle,” he shrugged at the unnecessary analogy.

“But it isn't working out very well.” He was starting to look decidedly uncomfortable, shuffling his hooves and rolling his shoulders.

“Aaaand...?” Twilight prompted, a bit of a grin creeping onto her face at the sight of his unease. Seeker shot her a scowl, then quickly schooled his features. Luna and Celestia cast worried glances at each other. With a resigned sigh, he continued,

“The other is an experiment with soul stealing.” he muttered, struggling to keep his gaze leveled at the gathered ponies. Twilight and Rarity gasped! The others seemed less fazed by the revelation.

“Surely you're joking,” Rarity offered, trying to help him out, “pursuits into that kind of black magic were abandoned millenia ago as impossible.” For a moment, the others looked hopeful that whatever apparently evil thing he was alleging to have done had failed. With another sigh, his horn glowed an eerie green, and the holopony's soul shifted.

It now had several threads of varying colors running through it. Most were small, barely a few inches long. But some stretched a foot or more, and two, one a thick, red line, the other a thin black one, ran almost four. Luna and Celestia were fighting to stay calm, desperately trying to focus and hear his explanation for these blasphemies.

“My first attempts were met with... limited success.” he cringed as he said it, remembering the rabbit whose soul he'd obliterated. Celestia was nearly trembling with rage. Luna had to place a calming hoof on her sister's shoulder to stay her anger. The other ponies had taken a few cautious steps back, as even the non-unicorns could feel the power emanating from the Princess. Seeker continued, either oblivious to, or choosing not to acknowledge, the furious goddess.

“The conversion ratio was low, far too low. Fortunately, I figured out what went wrong.” His right forehoof began to morph, turning into a black, three-clawed appendage.

“It was too imprecise. I was squeezing a thread of useable soul out of the whole, sacrificing the rest. What I needed was a way to slice off just the part I wanted, while leaving the rest intact.” He held up the claws, and, with an eerie green glow on his horn, pulsed energy through them. Immediately the change became apparent, as the stone appendage turned pitch black, seeming to be absorbing all light that struck it.

“Voidstone...” Luna whispered, having just had extensive experience working with the stuff. Seeker looked at her and smiled, still desperately trying to ignore the inferno in Celestia's eyes.

“Yep. Modified onyx. Absorbs and dampens magical energies, and, in this case, acts like a knife, allowing me to harvest, painlessly,” he emphasized the word, hoping to mitigate some of the Princess' ire, “just what I need. I put them to sleep, take a little piece, and they wake up none the wiser.”

He'd known the revelation would not sit well with the others, but he'd vastly underestimated just how much it would affect them. Fluttershy had tears in her eyes, and Pinkie looked like she didn't recognize him anymore. Rarity and Twilight were aghast, mouths hanging open. Celestia, however, was the worst. The betrayal in her eyes cut through him like a knife.

“We trusted you,” it seemed to say, “and this is how you repay us?” Dash seemed unsure of whether or not she should be upset, torn between feeling glad for her friend regaining his strength, and pain at the method he had chosen to do so. Luna, it seemed, was the only one who had calmed back down, and was slowly nodding her head in contemplation.

Suddenly, runes flared to life across Celestia's torso as she lowered her head, horn aimed towards him. He stood his ground, unmoving, unblinking, seemingly unafraid. Seemingly. Terror had locked him still, rendering him incapable of defending himself. The vision he gazed upon was truly a frightening spectacle.

A series of three interlocking rune circles wrapped around the Princess' body, one looping vertically around her chest cavity, the second looping horizontally, like a sash, resting on her flank and coming up her sides and around her front. The third started just below her horn, and looped down her neck, merging with the sash-like circle. Each rune was drawn in a deep, black dye, and flared to white whenever they were activated.

She was going to kill him.

Just before the goddess could strike, a puff of midnight blue skies appeared between them.

“Stop this madness!” Luna bellowed in the Royal Canterlot voice. She tried to stand tall, but it was hard not to cringe from the radiant alicorn.

“He is like them! He will turn on us as they did! We shall have enough trouble facing two demons without Discord's assistance! Would you ask that we try and battle three!?” Celestia's voice burned with power. Each word thrummed through his head, seeming to resonate within his soul. At the comparison, Luna's resolve hardened, and she squared her shoulders, standing upright to face her sister.

“He is not like them...” she whispered, the cold calm in her voice slicing through the anger in the room. Tears welled in her eyes as she remembered Celestia's scream during her imprisonment, and the sacrifice that had lead to her rescue.

“Do you not remember, sister, what they were like before the change took them?” The other ponies looked on, terrified and intrigued at the same time, struggling not to run from the room, lest they miss something. Celestia's visage relaxed somewhat, though her eyes remained the blank white of a pony channeling extraordinary power.

“What you say is true... they were indeed malicious creatures from the beginning. But,” here her voice rose in volume, and she gestured with a forehoof at Secret Seeker, “will you stand there, sister, and defend these outrages!?” She punctuated “defend” with a stomp of her hoof. Luna's gaze dropped, and she turned to look at the white unicorn, who was staring off into space, a look of deep contemplation on his face. For a moment, all eyes were on him, as he muttered his thoughts aloud.

“Of course, that explains the fear.” He turned to look at Celestia, “Mephistopheles and Carryion. They were human first, weren't they? That's why you threw the sun at me when you saw me with the book. You knew.” Determination hardened his features. With a scowl, he took a menacing step forward.

“Destroy me then, but tell me this first: when they bring war against you, after all these thousands of years of peace, interrupted by only small scuffles, what will you do?” His voice dropped deeper,

“When they bring an army of the walking dead to your doorstep, and turn each of your allies against you through trickery and lies, what will you do? What, my dear Princess, do you know of war? A few paltry centuries?” Seeker barked a short laugh, and the ponies in the room jumped. Raising his head up high, he stared straight into the goddess' eyes.

“Ten. Thousand. Years. Since the day we delineated from the apes, we have been at war. Sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant, but omnipresent. Our most potent literature is rife with battle tactics and subterfuge. Destroy me, and you lose your greatest asset in this battle. I don't know when these others came to your world, but in the time that elapsed, our methods of combat have evolved.

“They have battled you before, and I can guarantee they have learned from the experience.” Celestia's glow had dampened during his rant, and her eyes returned to their normal splendor. She and Luna shared a glance, remembering how Mephistopheles had corrupted Discord, without whom the plan that had separated the two beings would never have occurred. They had indeed learned.

“They will isolate you. They will turn your friends, your allies, and your subjects against you. They will paint you as a tyrant, and convince the populace that you've been treating them unjustly, preying on their prejudices and fears. And when all is chaos and anarchy, they will come, waving banners of peace and prosperity. Promising a future of balance, free of your transgressions.

“Attempts to rally ponykind against them will only serve to strengthen their cause, making you seem afraid. And you will be afraid, but not for the reasons your ponies will suspect. Once you are gone, and the threat has been removed, they will wreak havoc, and you will gaze on this world as it crumbles into ash and dust, until a new beacon arises in a few thousand years. Assuming ponykind isn't extinct.”

The gathered ponies were weeping. Pinkie's hair had deflated, and she wore a piteous expression, contemplating a world without parties, laughter, or joy. Cold dread settled deep in the chests of Rainbow Dash and Applejack. The confidence with which the words were said left no room for doubt. It would be like questioning whether or not the sky was blue! Twilight's gears were running so fast her thought process was nearly audible, as she churned the information in her mind, seeking flaws and solutions.

Her tears didn't inspire much hope.

Celestia and Luna stood, mouths agape. While the information wasn't entirely surprising to either, they had, after all, fought in the Great Pony Wars, the ease with which he brought it to bear was deeply unsettling. An off-the-cuff rant shouldn't have been this sharp and concise. If these were the kinds of tactics that leapt readily to mind, what knowledge dwelled in the deeps of this creature's psyche?

With a sniff, Seeker fought down the tears threatening to escape him,

“I'm not proud of any suffering I may have caused, but I'm not ashamed either. I followed the best course of action I could discern. The threat that comes against you is dangerous, and real. They will strike fast, as you well know,” he raised his eyebrows meaningfully, prompting them to remember the assault from the other day,

“And they will strike hard. I will be the first to admit that I have much to learn about love, tolerance and friendship. But I know war. Would either of them have gone to such lengths to find such a painless, risk-free method of increasing their strength? Would either of them have been forthright with you, knowing their explanation would earn them your ire? I'm trying to save you.” He raised his head once more, matching Celestia's gaze,

“Have you forgotten our conversation in your mind?”

The words returned to her in a rush. The passion with which he'd spoken. “To me, that is perfection.” With a sigh, the runes faded, and her power receded.

“You are right,” she said, sounding uncharacteristically tired. “Forgive an old mare her prejudices.” Everypony in the room visibly relaxed, releasing the breaths they'd been holding.

“I have treated you unfairly, to be sure, jumping to conclusions and laying blame upon you for the actions of others. I do hope I haven't damaged our friendship...” Seeker smiled.

“My Princess,” he said, bowing low, “I should have considered it a grievous affront had you taken everything I'd said and done in stride.” Celestia arched an eyebrow as he continued,

“I know well my kind's reputation, and, though I've done favors for you in the past, you would have struck me as a poor ruler indeed to have not expressed concern over my transgressions. I do dabble in dark magic, and the potential for misuse, even unintentionally, is great.” He straightened, and waved a hoof through the air, as if making a grand proclamation.

“I propose an arrangement! I'll send you weekly reports on my studies and findings. That way, you can remain in the know about my doings, and intercede if you feel I'm overstepping my bounds.” Celestia smiled at this.

“Very well. Just, don't let the deadline concern you overmuch. Wouldn't want you to have a panic attack over not having anything to report.” She finished with a wink, subtly gesturing her horn towards Twilight. Seeker snorted, trying to hold in his laughter, and Luna and Celestia struggled to suppress their smiles.

With the debate seemingly settled, the party cannon went off, showering all present in graffiti and candy.

“Then it's time to PARRR-TAY!” Pinkie shouted, as music began playing from somewhere. With laughter in their eyes, the congregation began dancing and playing, momentarily putting their concerns behind them to revel in the joy of being alive.