Missing Harmony

by Razor Blade the Unicron

Chapter Eleven: Sudden

Spike, with Twirly tucked under his wing, regretfully ran. They just had to get to Twilight. They had to.

---

The dungeons of Canterlot Castle had been built before standardized jails, and hadn't been used in decades. The abundant amounts of dust and grime were still cleared out reguarly, for the possible necessity of them. There were individual keys for each cell, all marked accordingly, and a single skeleton key that was stored away for safekeeping.

Well, it was supposed to be. Something that Blue continuously muttered under her breath as she, Pumpkin, Twilight, and several other Night Guard members approached the entry to the dungeons. All were at the ready for a possible trap or attack, with everypony equipped with weapons. Naturally, Twilight was equipped with her construct spears and swords.

At Blue's non-verbal command, they walked through the entrance into the poorly-lit caverns where the dungeons had been built. With all ears alert, the group walked down the hall towards the cells.

"Be prepared for anything," hissed Blue. "We don't know what we're-"

A rusty cell door suddenly flew forwards and smashed into the wall. Blue quickly looked around the corner to where the cell of the door was, just in time to see Limestone drop back down onto all fours. She had just kicked the door.

Limestone turned around, and noticed Blue staring at her in shock. "What?" she asked roughly. "I wanted out." Twilight peeked around the corner, and her eyes lit up at seeing Limestone. "Oh, hey, Twilight. 'Bout time you guys found us."

"Do you mean that everypony is here?" asked Twilight excitedly.

"Pretty sure." Limestone casually leaned up against the gaping hole where the door had once been, poking her hooves at the ground. "I don't think Sparkler is, but I assume that she was with you." She pointed down the hall. "Princesses are at the end."

Twilight grabbed the skeleton key from Blue, who was still staring wordlessly at Limestone. She went from cell to cell, each with various different ponies from the party lying unconscious, unlocking all of them.

"Those doors are magically reinforced!" Blue finally managed to sputter out. "They're practically welded to the cave! There is no possible way you could have-"

Limestone covered Blue's mouth with her hoof, with Blue observing a burnt ring of fur where one would wear a bracelet. "Don't trap a rock farmer in a cave of stone." Her eyes narrowed dangerous. "Especially not me." Blue took a step back.

Twilight made it to the final cell, and quickly unlocked it. Celestia, Luna, and Cadence were all there, all of them half-unconscious. Unlike everypony else, who seemed as if they had been knocked unconscious with orichalcum, the alicorns all were completely covered in the mineral. Their horns had four rings each (though Cadence actually had three), their wings were bound with even larger rings, and their hooves all had rings on them. Twilight quickly ran over, and began to pull the various rings off of them using one of the emeralds from Spike's necklace.

"Princess, -es!" she quickly added on. "Are you okay?"

"We art most certainly not!" yelled Luna, trying to not sound dazed. "We have been brought down to Our defeat by the merest contact of thine wretched weakness! Whomever shalt have done this to Us shalt be emprisoned by Our greatest of-"

Celestia very calmly placed her hoof over Luna's mouth, interrupting her rant. "We are fine, Twilight. More importantly, is everypony else unharmed?"

"Every-" started Twilight, before she was interrupted by Luna.

"Wherest be Unity?" she inquired. "We saw her talking with thee prior to the darkness."

"She went to get the Elements of Harmony, just in case. So every-"

"Then We shalt goeth to inform she of your success." Her wings opened broadly, and Luna flew out of the dungeons before Twilight could say another word.

---

Luna landed gracefully in the room where the Elements of Harmony were stored, having flown through the castle to reach it. She hadn't seen Amethyst anywhere, which was unexpected. The Elements of Harmony radiated such great power, so she should have been able to sense it, even in her weakened state.

She noted the slot in the door, and stepped forwards to see the arrow embedded in it. "What hast been interfering here?" She very carefully grabbed the arrowhead in her teeth, a rather difficult task due to the size of the slot, and tossed it on the ground. "More of the infernal substance! Quite an interesting location for such." She could feel the energy locked behind the door. "Ah... A clever scheme... Locking in the one needed with said artifacts and negating the exit. T'were thou meaning to entrap or to merely inconvenience? It matters not, as we know the key to entry."

Flying into the air as to be at the right height, Luna slid her horn into place, and began to feel the spell. It wasn't stable, had been been completely ripped apart, needing to be recast for stability. This made it far easier to break through the blockades she had requested that put in place, and she opened the door within seconds.

The Elements were scattered haphazardly across the ground, with the chest they were supposed to be in pushed over into the back corner. She recognized her old armor in the other back corner, until she finally saw Amethyst.

"Unity, art thou alright?" asked Luna, walking up to the crying unicorn and sitting down next to her. "Art thou injured?"

"It's fine," replied Amethyst, quickly wiping away her tears. "I mean- I'm fine."

Luna frowned in concern. "Thou can most certainly tellest-" She paused. "You can tell me." Amethyst looked down at the ground, and Luna took in a deep breath, and began to sing.

"Little one, why do you fear? Little one, why do you cry? You are strong. You are brave. There is a reason why... You bear that crown. There is a reason why... You bear that crown."

Amethyst finally looked up at the alicorn, her eyes red from crying. "I... needed that." She sniffled. "Did you just come up with it?"

"T'was a song that Tia used to sing to me. She first sang it to me when I was trying to raise the sun, as she had hay fever at the time."

She leaned up against Luna's side, staring up at the ceiling. "... Luna?"

"Yes?"

"I forgive you."

Author's Note:

Thanks to CryptoBrony for editing!