The League of Harmony

by Kinni

Origins part 2

The night in the city of Ponyville was a study in contradictions.

While it was a true metropolis that never really slept, with the commercial and entertainment zones still being completely active whether it was night or day, with many ponies and other beings who had completely exchanged the day for the night. However, there were also several zones in the city where night truly was night, like the farming zone which was filled with more traditional ponies, and the border zones, which were simply the places where the ponies who didn't really like the excessive bustle and noise of city life had slowly congregated over the decades of development of Ponyville.

But for six very special ponies, this night had an altogether different meaning. Because they were inexorably drawn towards the depths of the Everfree forest, one of the most mysterious untamed places in the world.

The first of them was Twilight Sparkle. She had already been feeling a need to go inside the forest ever since she got to Ponyville, but around four hours after sundown, this need finally became overwhelming.

But of course, she couldn't simply go the way she was at the moment.

Instead, Twilight spoke a few quiet words and reached forward with a hoof. This hoof seemed to disappear in the air, as it entered into the special secret dimensional chest she had opened with her words. She took a few moments to grab what she wanted, and then took out a tablet of silver, that seemed to be completely normal.

She touched a few spots on that tablet in a very precise manner and order, while whispering more strange words, and after a minute of that, she put a hoof at the center of the tablet, and it began to shine slightly.

And then something incredible happened. The magical seals that were tattooed on Twilight's body started to wriggle, and then they started to move, as if they were being drawn towards that silver tablet. It took only a few seconds until Twilight's body was completely free of all of those sigils.

With that done, she removed her cloak and hat and started doing some actual magic.

First, she used a spell of transfiguration on herself, changing her mane and her eyes to a red color while her coat became silver. Her cutie mark was transformed into a stylized image of a dragon head. After that, she conjured a new cloak and hat, but those were very different from what she usually used. The hat seemed more like a crown, being golden and encrusted with jewels, despite seeming to be made of cloth. While the cloak was a brilliant orange and had a design that looked like dragon scales.

“It's showtime!” The Dragon Mage spoke, in a voice that was fairly different from Twilight's.

-0-

Applejack sneaked out of her home.

This wasn't usually something she would do, but for some reason she felt like she shouldn't let anypony know where she was going tonight.

Applejack put on her necklace and turned into the Ponyville Crusader. The transformation was instant, but also very through. Her entire body was covered by a sort of energy aura, and it concealed everything about her features, and that was not all. That aura didn't shape itself to her body, instead it became a somewhat amorphous quadruped form that could have hidden a mare, a stallion and even a griffon. It was also twice as big as her original body.

But that didn't seem to be a hindrance. She felt like her body had been expanded and enhanced, and her awareness was almost like she had been born already using that aura. Applejack's senses had also been enhanced, and she looked around to be sure nopony would be able to see her.

Then Applejack took off running, moving at speeds that were far beyond what any normal earth pony should be able to achieve, and she went into the forest without hesitation.

-0-

Rainbow Dash was resting in her cloud home when the need to go to the Everfree Forest finally became too much to ignore.

She lived somewhat far from the center of the city, but there were still some pegasi flying around, so she simply acted like she was going on a night flight, and slowly went further and further up, to a height where even pegasi would find it difficult to see what was going on, and she entered into one of the huge clouds that floated in those high altitudes.

While inside the cloud, she shifted, like when she was trying to go as fast as possible, only this time she did it on purpose, and from within the cloud, she dived towards the Everfree Forest at supersonic speeds.

It wasn't flight, not quite. The movement wasn't beholden to the laws of wind in any capacity, being closer to the magical movement of telekinesis. In fact, while she was covered by the rainbow matter, the pegasus was literally incapable of interacting with the weather, to the point where she wouldn't even be able to stand on clouds, much less manipulate the wind or create lightning.

Still, she zoomed through the air, going after her feelings.

-0-

Fluttershy used a special remote combined with a voice confirmation in order to open a very well-concealed hatch in the abdomen of her Chimera Armor.

She slowly moved inside, having to squeeze through a few parts before she got to the command seat of the armor. She pressed a button and the hatch outside closed, while the insides of the armor were rearranged so that the path she had passed through to get there was closed off.

Fluttershy put on the helmet that was inside, which came equipped with a visor and covered her entire head, before opening four slots into which she put her legs. Then, she spoke a few lines to give voice confirmation, and another slot opened from which came a kind of technological blanket, which covered her entire body before tightening up and connecting with Fluttershy's nerve center. The process used to be severely uncomfortable, but lots of improvements in her technology led to a point where she only felt somewhat itchy.

As she executed the procedures to initialize the armor systems, Fluttershy kept having idle thoughts about some form of separated under armor suit, which would give her options even if her armor was completely disabled. But before it could get too far, Fluttershy banished those thoughts and focused on the here and now.

Mentally, she gave a command for the hatch number 7 to open, allowing her access to one of the secret exit tunnels. The same way, she activated the armor's flight systems, and flew through the tunnel, going through many separate but connected passages before emerging inside of a lake in one of the border parts of the Everfree Forest.

Fluttershy used the sensor systems of the armor to check if there was anyone around, and upon determining there weren't, she finally flew out of the lake, heading towards the place that was calling her.

-0-

Pinkie Pie was sitting on her room, trying to work out plans for her next party planning jobs when her Pinkie Sense suddenly started ringing with a particularly strong insistence.

She took a moment to decipher the message she was receiving, and what she got boiled down to “go to a certain spot in the Everfree Forest and proceed as needed. Serious things are going to happen.”

Pinkie had not survived for eleven years as a super heroine by ignoring her Pinkie Sense, so she quickly wrote a message to the Cakes and put it in her pillow.

(Going out as usual.)

They knew about her second identity, and so Pinkie didn't need to write anything that could potentially allow her to be discovered. But she still did that every time she went out, just in case she didn't come back.

Shaking off those thoughts, Pinkie left her room through the window and quickly made her way through the dark alleys. She knew the city like the back of her hoof, and she went through the least well traveled paths to get closer and closer to the forest.

Once she was fairly close, and in a place without any witnesses, Pinkie reached inside her mane and took out a small apparatus that she glued to her throat, straight over her vocal chords, then she took out a special purple bodysuit. It was complicated to put in, but the earth pony had experience in that. She used her earth pony magic to grip without using her hooves or mouth in order to facilitate things.

Next, she put on the hoof wraps, which served the dual functions of protecting her hooves from impact and hiding the heavy horseshoes equipped with retractable climbing spikes. Then came the mask, blue with special lenses that would allow Pinkie to see perfectly and even express her emotions through. The mask itself was easy to breathe in. The mask was attached to the body suit in order to completely hide Pinkie's coat color.

Next she put on her cape, attacked to a brooch on her neck. And finally she put her hat on, completing the look of Mare Do Well.

Using a grappling hoof fired straight from inside her mane, Do Well moved the rest of the way to the forest and kept moving inside, hoping to reach the necessary place fast enough.

-0-

Rarity was happy that this wasn't one of the days where her sister was sleeping at her house.

That would have made things a lot more complicated when she sneaked out of home when it was already over 10 P.M.

Before sneaking out, Rarity first put on the dress/body suit she had made in the last few days, the same dress that pretty much turned Rarity into a pony weapon.

Each of the gems that had been sewed into the dress gave Rarity a different ability. Those perfectly normal gems were pretty much power granters for the unicorn, thanks to her Gift. Over the years ever since she discovered her ability, Rarity had tested literally dozens of different gems and variations.

None of those abilities were all that strong, and many of them were so weak, or so difficult to effectively use, that when Rarity was making her suit, she deliberately didn't put any of them into it. But that still left quite a lot of small abilities that Rarity could use while she was wearing that dress.

For sneaking out and going to the Everfree Forest, the unicorn decided that using two particular abilities was best.

The first was granted by a spinel. That gemstone gave her the ability to make her figure fade into the color of the gem. With Rarity using a black colored spinel, she pretty much became a living shadow, that would be pretty difficult to see outside of direct light.

The second was granted by diamonds. That gemstone could be considered Rarity's favorite, since different from nearly any other gem, the powers granted to her stacked with extra diamonds (up to ten at a time). And the ability of the diamond was a boost in Rarity's natural telekinetic strength. With ten of them at once, her power became considerable.

She used that telekinesis to lift herself up and fly into the sky, where her shadow form had very little risk of being spotted. That done, she flew at maximum speed towards the Everfree Forest.

-0-

Dragon Mage flew through the forest.

The spell she was using to do so was Dragon Wings, a particularly troublesome spell to cast for most unicorns, given that it was nearly impossible to use via simple magical formulas, generally needing a few material components from dragons to be completed.

For her, this wasn't the case. By focusing on her connection with Spike, she could draw on some of his dragon magic, and use it as a substitute. Dragon Mage flew through the trees with the confidence of long practice, and the performance of the spell wouldn't lose to most pegasi.

Following the feeling in her heart, she quickly got to a very interesting place. It was a stone door, standing in an empty field and radiating magic to an extremely high degree. There was already somepony else standing near the door. A pegasus mare who was covered in what seemed to be solid rainbow, to the point the only features that were possible to see about her were being a pegasus and a mare. Part of the colors formed a stylized face in the place her real face would be.

Dragon Mage didn't approach to close to her, wary of a possible attack, and the pegasus also seemed to be wary, but neither of them did anything to aggravate the other for a few seconds, to the point where Dragon Mage was ready to try and talk with this pony when another figure got there.

It was a shadowy figure that landed nearby, her flight seeming to be telekinesis based, considering that Dragon Mage didn't detect any signs of wind manipulation coming from her. As soon as she landed, the shadowy aspect left the figure, revealing a costumed unicorn mare, whose costume consisted of some kind of really elaborate bodysuit/dress combination, multicolored and woven with gems.

And before Dragon Mage could even think of speaking with this new arrival, two more ponies got to that place in quick succession, except that thinking of them as “ponies” was only a convenience. The first was the Ponyville Crusader, whom Dragon Mage knew about and had an energy form that concealed any possible features, except for giving the impression that the being was a quadruped. The other was some kind of mechanical creature, similar to a manticore but with an additional pair of wings, both pairs being bigger than those of a normal manticore, and two extra heads, one of a crocodile and one of an elephant, while the lion head had the addition of a horn. That thing could be some kind of mechanized suit or it could not even have anything living inside, being potentially driven by AI or remote control.

And just as soon as the two newcomers got close to the rest of the group, the stone door seemed to react, shining brightly before both sides of it opened outwards, revealing something that seemed to be a portal.

As the five looked at each other, none of them seeming to want to make the first move, Dragon Mage decided that she was the one who had to take charge.

“So...” She broke the silence “I assume all of you are also here to get through this?” She waited for a moment “I'm Dragon Mage, and I hope we can all put aside out suspicions for now and enter together.”

The Ponyville Crusader was the next to speak “I agree with her. My instincts tell me none of you are bad, and I hope that my reputation, and hers would be enough to reassure you all of the possibility of cooperation.”

There was a moment of silence before the unicorn in the elaborate dress spoke “Considering that both Dragon Mage and Ponyville Crusader say this, I don't have any objections. The only way to make this more trustworthy would be if the Mysterious Mare Do Well was also here.” Her voice was soft and high-pitched, as well as having a mysterious ethereal effect.

“Did somepony call?” A voice came from the distance.

All of them looked at the origin of the voice, and they witnessed another figure come flying towards them before landing next to the group (the sharper-eyed members could see the grappling hook returning to under her clothes). It was then that Dragon Mage recognized her as Mare Do Well.

“There is something important going on here, and the Mysterious Mare Do Well will definitely get to the bottom of this!” She spoke, in a voice that was smooth and full of confidence.

“I guess I'm even more in than before.” The unicorn spoke.

“I shall also agree.” The mechanical being spoke, in a synthesized voice that sounded female but somewhat emotionless.

They all looked at the pegasus, who nodded and spoke “I think there's no reason not to.” Her voice was vibrant, but had a weird windy effect added to it.

“Everypony seem to have agreed.” Dragon Mage said, taking over again “But while three of us are well-known, we have no idea what to call you.” She looked at the three unnamed figures.

“You can call me Sonic Rainbow.” The pegasus said.

“You can call me Gemstone.” The unicorn said.

“You can call me Gaia Knight.” Said the mech.

After that, the only thing to do was walking into the portal.

Author's Note:

Wanted to cover more, but I thought it would be best to not leave you hanging for so long. Next chapter we will have some action.

Comments

[Naturefang]

[Marauder15]

Very interesting.

[terrycloth]

Rainbow Dash is best at secret identities.

[GearShift77]

Starting out, you give a nice description of Ponyville at night, having a set of contradictions of being both a town (city?) that never sleeps, and yet in some places it does sleep. I'm admittedly curious as to whether you meant for Ponyville to be strictly a town or a city? Notably with the fact that this universe has much higher technology than the main show if Fluttershy's lab is of indication.

Then you showed us everybody suiting up to head on to the Everfree Forest, where something is mysteriously pushing them to. Like your description of how everybody changes into gear, as well as how they travel to destinations. You even gave a few more details of their usual life, subtle but good. (Also how each of the heroine’s voices).

And then came the meeting, which I feel was pretty awesome, seeing them all come together to find what has been calling them to the forest. And also a bit funny, considering that Dragon Mage might’ve felt a little overwhelmed by seeing various heroes meeting up all of the sudden.

Question: Is Dragon Mage's catchphrase "It's show time!"  based on anything? I feel like I heard that from Solid Snake for Super Smash Bros Brawl trailer.

[Kinni]

8316215
A lot of people say those words, but I think the one that really stuck to my head was Beetlejuice.

Also, Ponyville is definitely a city.

[GearShift77]

8316719
Gotcha. Just that the usage of the word town along with city threw me off.

One more question on this chapter, does Gemstone's mask cover her mouth like Mare-Do-Well's does?

[Kinni]

8318323
Yes.