Freedom Through Harmony

by Electricut

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty
EverFree Forest; House of the Hylian
Twilight

Oh my... Twilight thought, surprise and guilt competing for attention in her mind. So that’s it... that’s why he was so violent against Celestia. Oh man, I feel terrible now. Poor guy... I know Celestia does have to do executions from time to time, but... I never would have thought it would have been like that...

She had a hard time keeping her thoughts in order- she of course believed everything Rainbow Dash had said, as he wouldn’t still be composing himself if he was lying. He wasn’t that good an actor. But she was raised her whole life by the queen, and she still found it difficult to see from his point of view completely.

“That night was when Mac made his vow, his promise to Vi.” Applejack picked up solemnly. “He swore he would never lift a weapon again, unless it was to protect his loved ones, ‘cause the two of them had a perfect sync fighting style set up, and to change it felt like he was betraying Vi’s memory. He found the Demon Sword about a month later and redoubled his promise- that he would fight with all the rage and power at his disposal to make sure no-one else had to share his fate... I hate to say it, but he’s never been the same since that day. He still loves and protects us with his life, but he’s changed. I haven’t seen a real smile cross his face in years...”

Fifteen or so minutes passed while everyone let the story, as well as a fresh helping of stew, soak in. Twilight was still struggling with her thoughts, and Phil moved over next to her and patted her shoulder sympathetically. “You okay?” He asked.

She shook her head to clear it. “Yeah, I’m alright. Just have a lot to think about.” She gave him a weak smile and turned back the the bowl in her lap. What would I have done in his situation, if I had lost Phil or Spike like that...? I know Dash can’t have held up too well, but it’s probably better than I would have. Of course... I think Phil would have fit AJ’s role in that story better... No one seemed to notice as she blushed ever so slightly at the thought.

Dash, having recovered, motioned that his story was finished. Xekroa now spoke. “Exactly what I was aiming for with this. By bringing these memories to bear today, you pave the way for everyone here to be tied into the next chapter of your stories. You may feel weakened at first, but you’ll walk away stronger than ever, mark my words. Now... Who’s next?”

Once again, no-one jumped to begin. No-one seemed exactly eager to walk down a painful road again like Dash had. Twilight knew that her ‘group’s’ turn would be soon anyway; with Spike, Trixie, and Phil a part of the overall story, that only left Rarity and Pinky besides them. She looked to each of her companions in turn, and each nodded back. Spike stood before anyone else.

“I suppose the four of us are up.” He said, not entirely disappointedly. “I guess I should start, since my part begins before any of these kids can remember. Alright, let’s see... Well, like any great storyteller, I think I’ll start by flashing back to my navy days.”
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Year 482
Unknown Waters; HMS Dragon’s Fang
Spike

I swung into the quarters and onto my hammock wearily, feeling soaked to the bone. It was positively dumping outside, and while it was fortunately not enough to be an actual threat to the ship, it still made managing it extremely uncomfortable. Luckily, night had fallen and most of my work for the night had been finished, so I was able to just lie in my bunk for a while.

In the center of the room was a medium-sized wooden table, affixed firmly to the floorboards so as to not go and move every time we hit a wave. At the table sat Fafnir- seven years my junior (though of course in Goldoan, that was about the equivalent of a month) and the only one on the ship close to my age. He wore a dark grey leather vest and white bandana identical to my own, though the similarities ended there. His green hair was cropped short, save for an uncut strand that hung at the front of his right shoulder, and mostly covered by his headwear; while my violet hair fell long past my shoulders in its single braid, leaving the bandana little more than an accessory.

He leaned far back on his barrel chair, balancing himself by kicking his legs up on the table. He shuffled a deck of cards idly, and spoke without turning away from them. “‘ey, Spike. You finished for the night?”

“Yeah.” I said, stretching out my arms. “I was just about to turn in.”

“Think you could last for a quick game, then?” He turned to me, holding up the cards. “Only other person who’ll play these days is Faslot, and I don’t feel like having my butt handed to me again.”

I agreed and took a seat across from him, collecting my hand of cards. Faslot, his older brother, was one of the senior officers on the ship of fifteen crew members, and had taught Fafnir most everything he knew: about combat, cards, and overall coolness. While most of the crew had adopted a sword or knives as a weapon (being on strict orders to keep transformation to a minimum on this mission), the two of them had gone to spears- Faslot had learned to use the heaviest one he could find, while Fafnir used a lighter, double-ended one as his main weapon.

He had also created a set of large throwing dart-like spears, with a leather sling affixed to his arm. The sling would recoil as soon as he threw the dart, easily doubling the distance they could be thrown. The darts were simple to make, so he only kept a quiver of ten with him at any time. I hadn’t been as resourceful as him when choosing- Instead, I trained hard and became proficient with a pair of large, curved steel knives.

As we whittled the time away with the card game, my thoughts began to drift to home, and our reasons for being so far from it. In recent years, multiple people of unknown origin and power began to wash up on the shores of Crimea, Gallia, and a few at Goldoa. From those who survived the trip, a picture of another continent far across the sea began to be painted- a real curiosity, because according to legend, Tellius was the only continent to survive a great flood over a thousand years ago, and until that point there hadn’t been any evidence otherwise.

However, these people- referring to themselves as Children of Earth (identical to an average Beorc in every way), Children of Fire (identical to a Beorc mage for the most part), and Children of Air (humans with more powerful wings than any Laguz, having singular control over wind-based magic, though lacking any transformative abilities)- told another story. Apparently the three races lived in harmony on the small continent, and there hadn’t been any major conflict between any of the races specifically in their history.

I personally looked upon this with a bit of skepticism. I’d figured out long ago that most all humans, regardless of race or origin, would find a will and a way to fight each other. It was simply human nature to strive to be better than one’s peers in one way or another, then prove it- and while I did admit that exceptions did exist, sometimes even in numbers, a whole country couldn’t be made up entirely of them. Thinking this, I was forced to the conclusion that some other conflict had kept them distracted from warring over their differences. Perhaps a more territorial conflict, or a power struggle for the throne, which we learned early on was controlled by the Queen Celestia.

Our own King Kurthnaga had also become interested in this mysterious new land, as had the Gallian and Crimean thrones, and it had been agreed that a group of Goldoans would act as a diplomatic party to contact the Queen. It was a tough decision- with the Dragon Tribes having such a long lifespan, and such a crippled population after the Goddess War eight-hundred years prior, our people were still rather few. Even only taking away the fifteen necessary for the voyage left a noticeable gap in our standing forces- but it was also true that the only people to come from the new land were survivors of ships gone far off course and wrecked, and as far as we knew the sailing conditions were quite rough. For this, none were suited better for the job than the highly resilient and immovable Dragons.

The decision was made, and fifteen of us were selected (or volunteered, in a few of our cases) to make the long trek. We agreed early on to only transform if absolutely necessary, or if the Queen alone requested a demonstration. As such, we had all been allotted two solid months for training- some of us had to use some of the time to become accustomed to the ins-and-outs of the vessel we would be taking, but most devoted the whole time to finding alternate ways of fighting. As I stated, I had picked up knives, Fafnir and Faslot had gone for spears, and most of the others had learned swordsmanship, with the exception of one axeman.

Several other members of the crew had come down to the quarters, all in varying degrees of soaked-ness. Apparently the rain had let up slightly since earlier, but it was still clearly raining. I played one more hand, essentially finishing off Fafnir, and decided to call it a night. As could be expected, I had just gotten comfortable when Faslot chose to descend and call on me.

He walked over to my hammock and made a move to bump me out from below, but I had already dodge-roll-jumped out on the other side before he had a chance. Luckily for me, fast was something he was not.

“Need something?” I asked casually, as though nothing had happened.

He let a shadow of a smile cross his face, his way of acknowledging a good move. “Yeah. Captain needs to talk to you about something. Says it isn’t urgent, but just to come up when you get a minute.” I nodded and made my way to the exit. I had figured out the captain’s way of doing things by now, too- he said to come whenever it was convenient, but I guessed he actually wanted to see me as soon as possible.

I emerged onto the deck, turning my head down slightly. A few lanterns were still lit around the ship- one up at the crows nest, where a bulky form was just visible under a tarp strung up above him- and two each at the doors to the crew’s accommodations and captain’s quarters. I wasted no time in getting to the captains quarters, taking a seat across from Captain Irath upon being prompted to do so.

“What’s up?” I felt it safe to ask, seeing the easy expression behind his well-kept beard. The rest of his hair had also been cut short, and he still wore his white bandana as well (around half of us had lost or discarded the standard-issue bandana by now).

“Spike.” He said, his voice low but reasonable. “My thanks for arriving so quickly. I just wanted to ask your opinion on a few things.”

“Certainly.” I responded in turn. It was always a game with him, figuring out what would be suitably proper, yet not overly fancy, to say. “Why my opinions in particular?”

“You’re a bright young man, no other reason. I already got Faslot’s say on these things, but I feel a younger outlook might be handy to have. So...” He folded his fingers as he posed his question. “By our estimate, we should be drawing near to this ‘Equestria’- two or three days time should see us there. I have to ask- are you worried of what we’ll find? Have you any thought as to what we may encounter when we arrive?”

I sighed ever so slightly, not impatiently, but thoughtfully. “I’ve given it some thought, yes. It’s too early to make any conclusions, to be sure. From what we could gather from the castaways, it seems like we’re dealing with a fairly mild-mannered people- but the word of mouth from ten or so people isn’t really much to go on. I did do a bit of reasoning, however- since the three races of this place seem to not be at each other’s throats, and there’s only been one grand territory for several hundred years, it makes me wonder how they’ve managed to live in harmony for so long. Only thing I can think of is... they’re being kept busy by something else to fight each other.”

“An outside threat?” Irath asked, intrigued.

“Or an inside one.” I offered.

“You doubt the Queen’s intent, then.” The ship rocked slightly, and I passed it off as a larger wave.

“Like I said, I think it’s too early to tell. But I think it’s a good idea to keep our minds, and options, open- at least until we have a better idea of what’s going on. Perhaps neither side is truly in the wrong, perhaps it is in fact an outside force- or perhaps they actually have achieved harmony. There’s just too much we don’t know to make any well-founded judgement yet.”

He nodded knowingly. “Wise words, young one.” Whatever he was about to say next was cut short by a cry from outside, echoing around the whole ship.

“We’ve got another ship approaching, Captain!”