The Void of Harmony

by Mordred

Voided Complications

*Celestia’s P.O.V.*

I was sitting on my throne just as Day Court was ending, and was getting ready to go to the castle’s dining hall, when the stained glass window that depicted my defeat of Nightmare Moon imploded, with a purple streak landing on the floor. The guards that were just outside of the room rushed in and surrounded the being clothed in purple that was shaking its head while crouched on its hands and knees. It looked vaguely familiar, but I could not place where I had seen it before. It stood up, which prompted the guards to shout, “ Keep your hands were they can be seen, and don’t try to use any magic!”

The being became surrounded by a bright purple energy, and was suddenly replaced by an obviously female being, with what seemed to be a solid metal mask that had two glowing purple eye slits, and a glowing purple diamond shape in the center of its forehead. She was visibly armed, with four weapons visible on her body, one of them being an odd looking staff which she held like a crossbow in her hands, and two other, smaller weapons that looked like the grip and barrel of a crossbow, and were oddly spiky. The final weapon, which concerned her the most, was the sword on her hip that crackled with green lightning and sizzled with an orange flame.

Suddenly, the original being came out from the front of what she could now only assume was armor, and she realized why it had been familiar. It was the being that had showed up out of the blue at the end of her fight with Nightmare Moon, who was previously her sister, Luna, but had been corrupted by the Void. This being had also been corrupted by the Void, and she had turned her to stone for what might as well have been a thousand years. She started charging the same petrify spell that she had used then, but was surprised when the guards that were between Mirage and herself were blown into walls and she felt a hand on her forehead.

Mirage reached up behind her head and seemingly pressed something, causing the mask to fold down away from her face. She looked me in the eyes, and I saw nothing but consciousness and rationality in her eyes. I started crying, and grabbed her and pulled her to me in a tight hug, and managed to blubber out, “I-I’m so sorry, w-will you forgive me?”

She nodded against my chest, and I let go of her. When I looked up, I saw a perfect copy of her, except it had solid black eyes. It appeared from nowhere, and was standing just behind her right shoulder. I saw its right hand and arm move forward rapidly, and both Mirage and I looked down to see her copy’s hand sticking out of her abdomen, crackling with electricity. It pulled its hand out of her stomach, and she looked over her should just in time to see it disappear, leaving the words, “Hey kiddo,” ringing in everyone’s ears.

She fell forward into my arms, and the guards, too shocked to move, only snapped out of it when I shouted, “Get a stretcher and get her over to the medical wing, NOW!!”

The guards snapped to it with various phrases affirming that they had received their orders. I started casting a spell to stop the time in a small area around the wound, and was relieved when the bleeding stopped. The guards that had left to get the stretcher returned, and gently lifted her onto it. They rushed to the medical ward, and I paused for a moment to think on what I’d seen.

There were two of her, one with solid black eyes, and one with normal eyes, albeit glowing purple ones. The one with solid black eyes seemed to hate the real one, and wanted it out of the way. I realized that the guards were probably nearing the medical wing, and dispelled the time stop on Mirage’s abdomen.

I went over to examine the armor that was still standing in the center of the room, and noticed that it wasn’t completely immobile, but rather moving ever so slightly on its own. I tried to pull the sword off of its hip, and was surprised to find that I couldn’t. I tried the same with the other weapons it had on, but to no avail, only achieving the same result as the first attempt. I snapped out of the trance that I was in, remembering Mirage’s condition, and teleported into the infirmary, surprising an invigorated Mirage, who was slapping away the doctor and nurses, noticing that the wound on her stomach
was gone, along with the hole in her suit.

*Mirage’s P.O.V.*

I regained consciousness after what I assume was a few minutes after being stabbed through the stomach by the Void demon that took my shape. I noted that I was on a stretcher carried by two of the guards that had been in the throne room. Realizing that my passive healing wouldn’t be enough, I merged with the Void, allowing it to wash over me and heal my wounds. I noticed kind of icon in the top right of my vision, displaying 228 in red and a red bar, both of which were rapidly filling up. By the time the guards arrived at the infirmary, I was at 960 health, and I unmerged with the Void, and the guards deposited me onto a bed, with what looked to be a doctor running in from a door on the other side of the room.

The doctor, seeing that I was awake, took a syringe off of a tray that a nurse just behind and to the left of him was holding. He approached me with the syringe, talking to me like I was a scared child, and went to inject me in the arm. I slapped the syringe out of his hand, and he looked disappointed. He turned to a nurse, and said, “Hold her down while I sedate her, she won’t survive the operation conscious.” The nurse nodded once and grabbed my left arm, while the doctor went for my right. Apparently, being a denizen of the Void gives you incredible strength, and I easily got the nurse off of my left arm and continued fending off the doctor with my right.

In the meantime, while I hadn’t been paying attention, my health bar had filled the rest of the way to 1125. Celestia suddenly appeared in the center of the room with a soft ‘pop’, and I paused in flailing at the doctor and nurses, and looked at her with a question on my mind, namely, ‘How the hell did she get there?’

The doctor took this opportunity to come back in with the syringe, and I grabbed his wrist and injected it into his thigh. He looked down at his thigh with a look that positively screamed ‘Fuck,’ and collapsed to the floor, out like a light. The other two nurses, after actually looking, saw that I was healed, and pulled the doctor off of the floor and into one of the other beds in the room. Celestia walked towards my bed as I stood up and made sure that the wound was gone.

Celestia came to a stop in front of me, and asked, “What happened to your injury? That thing punched straight through your stomach,”

I replied, summarizing it as much as possible, “That thing was a Void Demon that took on my visage, and the wound is healed, largely because of my ability to rapidly heal while merged with the Void.”

Celestia nodded at that, and said, “While you’re here, I would like to ask a few questions and perhaps run a few tests, since your situation is rather unique, being the only person not to go insane on contact with the Void.

“That’s fine, but I’ll want to ask you some questions also, so is that fine by you?” I asked.

Celestia nodded thoughtfully, and asked, “What is that weird suit of armor that you left in the throne room?”

I answered truthfully, stating, “That is a Warframe, a suit of armor that only I can use, as I am the only Tenno on this planet, as far as I know.” I then thought of a good question, and asked, “How did your sister come into contact with the Void, and where is she now?”

Celestia looked surprised at that question, and then realization dawned in her eyes. She led me over to the window, and pointed out towards the moon, and my gaze followed. There was a face etched into the moon, one that looked like it was extremely angry. She then answered the first part of the question balefully, saying, “She came into contact with an artifact that no one knew how to use, and while tinkering with it, was pulled into the Void. She came out changed, and a day later, she turned into an evil portrayal of herself, proclaiming that she would make it eternal night. The fight that you were there for the last portion of happened after a month of her terrorizing our subjects, so I challenged her to fight me in our Castle. She took me up on that, and you saw the rest.”

I looked at her, realizing this was a touchy subject, but asked anyway, “There is something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

She nodded, and said, “The spell that I used to banish her to the moon ends tomorrow night, and she will be returning. I’ll be sending my personal student, Twilight Sparkle, to try and stop her, but for that she’ll need the Elements of Harmony, but they need new bearers as they stopped working when Luna became corrupted. I feel she will target me, so I’ve put some books on the ways to stop her out in the open in the place she’ll be staying.”

I followed along, and thought to ask, “Would you like me to help delay her until your student can find these ‘Elements’ or whatever?” Celestia nodded gratefully, and I walked with her back to the throne room.

When we went inside, I prepared to use Transference to get back into Mirage Prime, but stopped when I heard Celestia ask, “One thing about your Warframe, how are you supposed to take the weapons off?” I reached over to its hip and just pulled the Dakra Prime off like it was nothing, and waved it around a bit before replacing it.

Celestia just looked stunned, and I said, “Probably prevents anyone other than me from removing its weapons as a safety measure,” I used Transference and said, in a rather mechanical voice asked, “Which direction to your old castle?”
Celestia pointed to the east, at a large forest with a small town next to it, and I jumped out of the window I had previously broken, hearing her shout, “Good luck!” as I disappeared from sight. I reached the edge of the city, and jumped up the wall, and into a small field that led to a cliff. I leapt off, rolling just as I hit the ground to prevent myself from having to delay for any unnecessary amount of time, and started bullet jumping towards the forest.

I reached the forest after about thirty minutes of uneventful travel, and made my way into it, with the direction I was supposed to head in firmly memorized. After about ten minutes of walking through the trees, there was some growling as I entered a small clearing.

I looked around the clearing, counting eight pairs of glowing green eyes staring back at me. I switched the Tiberon Prime from three-round burst to full auto, and took aim at the first pair of eyes. I placed a single shot between its eyes, and thought I had missed when I heard the crunch of a bullet hitting wood. The other seven wolves, which were made out what looked like dead wood, made their way into the clearing, snarling. They surrounded me, and I tried to use any of Mirage’s abilities from in game, namely her first ability, Hall of Mirrors. Instead of making four clones, like I thought it would, it made six. I pulled out the Dakra, and charged at the largest wolf while slashing, with the six clones mimicking my actions. Four of the clones scored hits, killing another three of the wolves and separating the fourth wolf’s right front paw from its body. I hit the biggest wolf in the neck, severing its head from its body, along with setting it on fire.

The other four wolves, which were mostly behind me, did not take kindly to me killing their leader, and pounced. I turned around, slicing the first wolf, the one with a missing paw, in half, and then switched back over to the Tiberon, spraying down the remaining three wolves with bullets, killing them in seconds. I continued on my way through the forest, not getting attacked by any more creatures.

After around twenty minutes of walking, I arrived at a river with a giant purple, orange mustached sea serpent in the center of it. It was talking to itself, and I shouted up at it, “Do you know which way to the abandoned castle?”

The serpent turned and looked at me, and said, “If you can answer this riddle correctly, I will allow you to pass, along with tell you the way there.” He then said the following riddle.

‘You are at the gates of heaven, and there are two guards. One of the guards always tells the truth, and one of them

always lies. You are allowed to ask one question to either of the guards. If you can identify the guard who tells the

truth, he will allow you into heaven. If you don’t, then you will be sent to hell. What question do you ask?’

I pondered over it for a moment, before realizing the obvious answer. I whispered it into his ear, and he chuckled at my response. He brought most of his body above the water, allowing me to cross it like a bridge. As soon as I reached the other side of the river, he turned to me and said, while pointing with his tail, “That path there will lead you to a ravine with a rope bridge going across it. After you cross, you just need to keep following the path, and you will reach the castle.”

I nodded, and continued on my way, reaching the castle in a couple of minutes. I walked through the entrance, and sat behind the throne with the top depicting the moon, and prepared myself for a long wait until later in the day, as it was well past midnight, nearly dawn in fact. I spent about five minutes checking over my gear before taking up a meditation pose, floating just over two feet above the ground. I let my mind drift, thinking on my abilities.

Comments

[Who cares]

I never heard the answer to the ‘one guard tells the truth the other always lies’ riddle before what is it?

[Mordred]

8895624
Ask the path to heaven, or something you already know the true answer to.

[lord hades]

Ask the path that other tell you if you him/her ask the path to heaven

[Timeless Lord Slayer]

Again, this seems much too rushed, much too fast too quick. PACE yourself, don't go spewing out one chapter after another without giving more thought to what you're doing. Much of the characters reactions, both Celestia's and Mirage's, rely too much on realizations that really should NOT come that quickly. VERY few people realize such things in the INSTANT they see something. Think more about how to elaborate and draw scenes out, instead of shifting from one to the next with little to no information or filler.

I'm sorry if any of this comes out as rude, this is just all I can think of to say. I only hope it does not come off as rude, and instead helps you become a better writer.

[Mordred]

9044842
You don't have to comment the same thing multiple times, I get it. Also, I understand that the pacing is an issue, which I am working on. My main problem is that I wrote all of this in roughly two hours, and I didn't think to look over it for issues before posting, which could probably be fixed if I were to get an editor to help iron out issues.

[Lunar Flarion]

It pulled its hand out of her stomach, and she looked over her should just in time to see it disappear, leaving the words, “Hey kiddo,”

Rap, tap, tap...
The Man in the Wall.
Rap, tap, tap...

Also,

“Probably prevents anyone other than me from removing its weapons as a safety measure,”

I think if you get captured by Zenuka, you’ll find your Warframe will have no weapons upon waking up... but that is just a nitpick.
Good story so far!

[Mordred]

9053013
But with Zanuka, you're also still inside the Warframe, in this instance Mirage was outside, which caused the weapons to lock in place.

[SithicKnight]

9044842
Agreed.

[Kailoken]

9053013
I know this is from 2 years ago, but salad V is a literal technological genius, and has dealt with Warframes for presumably years. Meanwhile Celestia has no idea what a phone is.

[Infernati]

i have literally no idea what is going on they dont know each other he doesn't even ask why he was petrified for 1000years she immediately acts like they know each other wtf is this....