Freedom Through Harmony

by Electricut

Chapter Fifty-one

Chapter Fifty-one

My arm hurt like no other for quite a time after that, but in the end, it was just a flesh wound. Painful, maybe, but it recovered. The most important thing at the moment was to make sure I didn’t get sloppy while recovering. As much as Applejack wanted me to, I didn’t slow down with the kid’s training. In addition to helping them grow in skill, I found it helped me keep my own skill level from dropping, inconvenient as it was.

Yet, hard as I tried to keep from it, my mind kept wandering to the events of that fateful night. Sorting through the garbage of it, I came up with these facts: Scratch, a renegade and born deserter from the Order, claimed to be galavanting across time to fight them. Spitfire was alive and well, and might be doing something against the ambiguous organization as well. Lastly, Ultraviolet still had some kind of presence in this world, and was trying to get back to Equestria to get one last shot at his murderer, the queen Celestia.

When I got right down to it, I realized that I could do nothing about the Order situation. With this in mind, and my brother’s mission as my own goal, I set aside the issue of these black-cloaked individuals altogether, and turned my full attention to running the resistance that had come to be known as Moonlight.

There was more to it than I had thought, and I realized then why I hadn’t seen much of Trixie before she left. Lyra and Octavia were both originally from our town, so they were able to help, but it mostly fell on me to help rally the townspeople slowly to our cause. We were met with mixed results: plenty of people wanted to help in any way they could, though most didn’t possess much battle ability, while just as many wanted nothing to do with it. This second group had to be dealt with carefully, but most of the time we were able to avoid alerting them to what was going on, and the ones that figured it out agreed to keep their mouths shut. In this town, very few people actually supported her fully, and those who wouldn’t join us never took up against us either.

One of our prime concerns was Twilight, who was still officially in town at the bidding of Celestia. She could be called back at any time, and I remained unsure whether I could trust her fully. I wanted to trust her- I really did- but with as confused as she was about who to ally with, I couldn’t be sure she would be able to hide what was happening here if Celestia questioned her. If that happened, we were doomed, so I made sure to keep a close eye on her.

Things had calmed down somewhat after my run-in with Scratch; but as is the usual for my life, things started picking up again just as I was beginning to relax. Having given myself a well-deserved day off, I was just messing around in the town square, killing time with an old game Vi used to play. It wasn’t hard to figure out: just get a medium-sized rubber ball, a sword-sized stick or other blunt instrument, and see how many times you can hit it while keeping it in the air. I had decided that one way or another, I was beating my brother’s record, and my performance had begun to attract a crowd.

I leapt into the air to catch the ball before it came back down to normal height, and it flew still further upwards. I was floating on my wings now, eyes to the sky, watching the target arc upwards. By my count, I was seven hits away from Ultraviolet’s record. On the ground, I heard Pinkie talking to someone, though I was too intent on the game to see who.

What I heard from the ground from her was this: “Dude, come get the ruler, check this out... Dude, no. You’re holding it wrong... quick, he’s escaping from above! No, you got to flip it turn-ways... Gimmie that.”

I whacked the ball as it descended, but it was somewhat off and flew off to the side. I dove for it, hitting it from below with both hands. I watched it go again, but noticed that I had a guest in the air. Kyle, the soldier serving in the Silver Arrows, was hovering a few yards away, supporting Pinkie from behind. She held a measuring stick of some kind, and seemed to be guesstimating how high the ball was making it in the air. I wondered how she intended to do that with only one short ruler, but knew she’d figure it out. It was futile to try and understand the things Pinkie did, and was much more fun to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

I hit it twice more before launching it higher into the air, then followed through and jabbed it point-first with my wooden bat. It didn’t give the ball much of a push, but it kept it in the air long enough for me to give it one final shove into the air, and into new-record territory. Tensing for my final move, I pulled back and launched the bat clear into the air, spinning end-over-end towards the target. They collided, and the ball achieved a bit more air before falling. I had been going for an hour now trying to beat Vi’s record, and was satisfied to leave it at one point better.

The bat fell to the ground and landed on one end, balancing for a split second. The ball hit the end pointed towards the sky, and both clattered to the dirt. I floated to the ground quickly, taking a quick bow to the other people gathered to watch. Kyle and Pinkie touched down a moment later, and high fives were exchanged. I grabbed the equipment off the ground, and was preparing to drop it off at home, when someone called for Pinkie and I from across the clearing.

Turning to face them, I saw that it was a small group of people, led by Twilight. Spike, Rarity and Applejack were already behind her, and she was motioning for the two of us to join them. Looking to Pinkyie and shrugging, I set off towards the group. It wasn’t easy reading their expressions: the girls all seemed to be pumped for something big, but Spike looked utterly distracted.

“Looks like the six of us are back in business already.” Twilight explained. “I’ve just received a message from Eclipse, and it seems a rogue dragon of unknown origin has just done some major damage to Manehattan, and situated itself atop the mountain in the distance between here and there. All attempts so far to reason with this dragon have thus far been fruitless, and it seems to be in some kind of berserker rage. The Elements of Harmony have been charged to confront this fearsome creature and get rid of it, one way or another.”

I see. I thought to myself. This is probably perfect for Twilight’s state of mind. There’s a threat to be taken care of, and it’s mutually agreed upon by both parties. This is a universally good mission we’re being sent on, so Twilight knows what she’s doing is right. She needs this; to be sure she’s doing the right thing and have her friends all back her up. There’s just one thing...

“Alright, sounds like a plan.” I said. “But could you do me a favor first? Could I take a look at the message you were sent?” She shrugged as though it didn’t really matter either way, and handed over a sheet of rolled up paper. I unrolled it quickly and scanned the scrawling text for anything hidden between the intended message, but found it said more or less exactly what Twilight had told me.

I found what I was looking for at the very bottom, however, in the signature. The handwriting was very similar to that I’d seen in other royal documents, but instead of the queen’s own signature signing off, I saw the signature of Princess Luna. Luna of all people would want to support any resistance out there, in any way she can. Twilight’s probably figured that out too, but she’s realized this mission needs done for the safety of both sides anyway. But Luna clearly intended for me to make the connection that she wants me in on this. Is there something else about this dragon she’s not telling us...?

“Here.” I handed the scroll back, and Twilight stowed it in her jacket pocket, looking all kinds of determined. “I’m in. But that mountain is kind of a trip from here. When did you plan on leaving?”

“Around an hour from now.” Was her answer. “We’ll set up a camp halfway, and reach the mountain midday tomorrow. I’ll go let Fluttershy know, the rest of you get your things ready. I hope it doesn’t come to it, but it’s likely that we’ll have to fight this dragon, so bring some weapons and armor.”

“I know the letter only said for the Elements to go...” Spike began. “But I’m tagging along too. I’ll transform if I have to and see if I can’t get through to him, as a fellow dragon. And anyway... There’s always that slim hope...” I saw that Spike had gone on to talk to himself, and decided not to push the issue. Whatever he was planning off by himself, I knew we’d see if it came to anything.

I made my way home quickly and took inventory of everything I wanted to bring. I never wore overly heavy armor, and even if I had any I doubt it would see much use. I preferred traveling light, to be able to fly faster. I left on my jeans and T-shirt, but needed a jacket for the frigid mountain air. My favorite cloth jacket had been ruined when Scratch burned the left sleeve clean through, and I had made do without one until now, but I had to make a compromise.

I grabbed my brother’s sexy brown leather jacket, and it fit perfectly. I also slipped on my recently fixed buckler and sheath for my broadsword, and took some food rations. I wasn’t sure if Twilight had already told someone else to grab food, but I decided to play it safe. Lastly I dug out a basic sleep roll, and sheathed my weapon on the way out the door.

I met with the other six I’d be traveling with at the gates to town. Most of them had dressed with similar intent in mind as I had: warmly, and with decent armor. Without much more discussion, as we were all preparing for the fight ahead of us, we set off across the fields towards the towering mountain. We walked for hours, taking decently spaced breaks. I stayed in the air much of the time, partly to scout around and make sure the way was clear, but partly just to lose some of the tension.

We eventually made camp near a rocky overhang, and made a campfire to cook dinner over. I warmed up some coffee first, and we all warmed ourselves over the steaming mugs. My thoughts were on the challenge ahead, as I’m sure they were for everyone else. I had fought a dragon exactly once in my life: the river-dwelling one the six of us met on our way to Castle Dawn. He had been in a rage, much like this new one, and we had managed to snap him out of it. I hoped against hope that we’d be able to do the same again.

Still, it had been a brutal fight all the way, and the river dragon hadn’t even been at full strength. I knew this one would be much tougher, and we had to be on guard. I was suddenly very glad Spike had decided to come along, and hoped that whatever he had in mind would work.