The Alicorns of Harmony

by Dracoliat

Chapter 6: Seeds of Madness

The sun had slowly descended until it stopped near the horizon. The powerful magic that had been fueling it during the day, presumably cast by Celestia, had dissipated completely. Twilight's lips tugged upwards into a sincere smile as she, Applejack, and Fluttershy stood side by side on the royal balcony. Underneath them was a magnificent design of a shining yellow sun, it's craftsmanship was beyond superb. Not a flaw to be found, even to the discriminating eyes of the three alicorns. It seemed to be older then the palace itself, a place with true history that stretched back to since Equestria's founding, perhaps even earlier. But the stone sun's magically dimming light reminded them of their own new duty.

A crowd had gathered to watch the first time they would set the sun, a tradition everypony assembled hoped would last with the same queens for another millenium. Each of the three new alicorns looked at each other and nodded in unison. Twilight's eyes closed lightly as her horn began to glow fiercely. The purple glow that usually only enveloped her horn soon eveloped the whole of her body, her wings seemed to spread almost of their own accord and her hooves left the ground. Fluttershy's body was floating slightly lower with a mysterious pink light surrounding her, only it seemed to be almost protecting her. Applejack was doing the same thing only her light was a distinct light orange. The magic flowed around them as they carefully stretched out their magic towards the sun, an impossible distance for even the most powerful unicorns to cast magic across. But to each of their surprise their reach was much longer then they needed and the sun felt almost as light as a small bottle of water.

Collective silence came from the assembled ponies as the sun slowly began to sink beneath the horizon casting an enormous array of colors across the sky. It's gorgeous light slowly faded from the land as it sank deeper and deeper.

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On the other end of the palace waited an eager Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. They stood on a balcony similar to the one their day counterparts stood on, only there was no sun present on the balcony floor, only a moon in the exact current phase of the moon. The many stars of the night sky accompanying it as they magically kept proper alignment with their real life comparisons. An equally respectably sized crowd was gathered on this side of the castle and went silent as the light began to fade.

"This is it!" Rainbow Dash shouted excitedly before closing her eyes and allowing the magic to flow through her. The glow from her horn intensified as she reached out to the moon and the stars, the blue glow slowly starting to cover the rest of her body. In the blue cloak of light could be seen sparkles of nearly every color imaginable and the sheer amount of power being given off was self evident by the soft light that covered the balcony and the ponies below. Rarity's magic took a purple hue as its desired form as it completely enveloped her and she became airborne, the light cast by her glow brought a certain regality to the entire ceremony as the purple light mixed with light blue tint already being given off. Pinkie's own magic took no true color as it flowed from one color to the next smoothly giving a much needed boost to the mood of the light being produced around her.

The moon was much closer and much easier to move then the sun would have been, but they also had to stretch their magic even farther in order to grab the stars. A absolutely impossible task for any normal pony, no wonder they need so many unicorns to do it in ancient times. But the stars seemed almost eager to replace the space that had been occupied by the sun all day, their lazy and easy path was directed by the three alicorns. After a difficult spell they had been taught their magic's retreated back into them and the magic glow left the balcony, leaving a simply light from the stars and moon shining.

It's majesty was at least equal to that of the sun, the moon's light gave a fainter less intrusive light to everything allowing for ponies to see but not to the point of blindness. The green grass seemed to finally be at rest after a full day of absorbing the plentiful sunlight, it's blades looked like they were turning gray, but in reality it was just the optical illusion that the low light provided.

Finally the alicorns of laughter, loyalty, and generosity opened their eyes to examine their work. There on the way up to the middle of the sky, was a gorgeous full moon, its yellow ambient light shining beautifully in the star dotted sky. "Well, shall we meet with the others in the throne room?" Rarity asked pleasantly, pride shining in her voice.

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie said enthusiastically as she skipped inside the large doors that had lead onto the balcony. Rarity quickly followed suit but Rainbow Dash stood there, obviously enjoying the copious amounts of applause. The ponies down below were bowing and cheering, their hooves striking the floor with a deafening crash, like that of thunder. It's sound reverberating and getting louder until finally reaching the balcony where Dash stood. Her head held high in the air as her eyes surveyed the crowd below.

Rarity's hoofsteps were silent as she approached the rainbow maned alicorn before whispering in her ear with extreme slowness, "mare do well," and walking away. This left Dash with a noticeable blush on her face as she remembered the time her friends had out competed her in everything heroic and left her absolutely humiliated at her previous behavior of bragging and attention hoarding. The message struck home hard as she turned to join the others in the throne room. After a moment of running she caught up to Rarity and Pinkie as they walked down the hall. Their hooves striking the floor allowing a small clip-clop to be heard as they traveled down the corridor. Their laughter soon overpowered their steps as they realized exactly what they had just accomplished.

They soon were making completely idle small talk about no particular subject, but their minds were racing. Even though Rainbow Dash was the only one to show it, each of them had loved the attention, they loved the thundering applause whose echo could still be heard behind them.

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From either end of the chambers came laughter as the two separate parties of friends re-met in the center then the laughter seemed to die. The good mood gone, replaced by that awkward moment when nopony knows what to say. "Nice job raising the night, very majestic," Twilight complimented them causing their shoulders to lower a bit.

"And you with the sun, extremely smooth my dear," Rarity replied awkwardly. Her eyes not wanting to meet Twilights for reasons she couldn't figure out. 'But why? Twilight is my friend, the least I can do is look her in the eyes when I talk to her,' Rarity thought before looking into the alicorn of magic's eyes. Twilight was looking right back after having thought along the same lines. An awkward smile developed on both their faces before they started laughing together. Soon everypony joined in on the cheerful laughter that developed at seemingly nothing.

The days stress then began to quickly melt away as their shoulders resumed their normal positions and they each sat in a circle like they had so long ago. " Remember that night months ago when princess Celestia asked us all to report on our findings about the magic of friendship, and spike added..." Twilight said before being knocked out of her reminiscence. "Where's spike?" everypony froze for a moment before their keen eyes and ears scanned the chamber for any sign of the purple dragon, none existed.

"I think I might know," Fluttershy said hesitantly. After a bit of urging that they wouldn't care if Fluttershy was wrong she got onto her feet and began walking down the smaller hall that led to each of their rooms. As they passed the rooms they saw the wooden doors that Twilight had smashed that morning in her panic had been magically repaired back to their perfect state. Fluttershy stopped in front of a large unmarked door on the left near the end of the hallway. Her horn glowed with that same pink glow before Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder.

"Everypony, we need to remember to put our magic guards up, we don't want to smash the doors again, do we?" Twilight reminded as Fluttershy blushed brightly at having forgotten. Her eyes closed for a moment as everypony put the now familiar inhibitors on their magical flow. Fluttershy continued without delay by opening the door, a lighter pink glow then before surrounding it as it swung inwards.

Inside was an enormous closet, and inside of said closet was a comfortable looking basket, Spike laying inside. Twilight walked into the closet followed by the others and poked Spike. "Spike, time to wake up," but her prodding only resulted in a loud moan of protest. Twilight smiled slightly and used her magic to gently pick up spike and put him down before poking him again.

This time Spike opened his eyes groggily and said, "What do you want?"

Twilight responded with a laugh, "so you've been sleeping all day, and don't know that Luna and Celestia disappeared?" her statement caused Spike's eyes to widen faster then a bullet as a barrage of questions were directed from the small dragon to everypony present. "Calm down, let's go back to the throne room, we'll explain everything there." Twilight said as she and the other alicorns walked back to the throne room.

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They had arrived about an hour ago and had finally finished answering all of the curious dragons questions that they could. After this ordeal they were glad to finally be able to sit in the circle like they had been before, only now everypony and dragon was present and it really felt like home. The first time in days that relaxation was the norm and not the exception but it didn't last.

"I think we should go to bed Twilight suggested to Applejack and Fluttershy. "After all, we have to be up bright and early tomorrow morning," she reasoned while gauging their reactions.

"You know, I think yer right Twilight. I'm goin' to bed, night ya'll." Applejack responded rising onto her hooves. Her eyes were baggy and as she mentioned it, she could barely stand anymore. "I'll see y'all tomorrow mornin," she said before shambling of to the corridor that led to her room.

Fluttershy said nothing as she rose and followed Applejack to her own room. Twilight turned to the three other remaining alicorns and asked, "are you guys ok with staying here for the night for anything that comes up?"

Rainbow Dash made a jerky nod in the affirmative and Pinkie was too busy looking at the intricately designed ceiling so Twilight assumed she would. "Of course we will darling, you need your sleep. But please do remember you still need to raise the sun tomorrow morning," Rarity said kindly. Her eyes studying the purple alicorn carefully as she shambled into the corridor following the other 2 alicorns to retire to her bed.

Twilights horn glowed once more as her door opened and closed behind her silently. Her eyes scanned the room and confirmed that nothing had been changed since she left that morning, 'wait why do I care who could have been in my room?' Twilight thought to herself, remembering she never did that before. She had never been a particularly paranoid pegasus, but here she was checking her own room for even the slightest change. Knowing it was probably just a bit of pressure getting to her Twilight walked to her comfortable bed. The soft satin sheets inviting her to lay down in their warm confines if only for a few short hours. Finding no rational reason to not sleep Twilight allowed the bed to envelop her and she drifted to sleep.

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Twilight found herself in a meadow completely covered in luscious grass. It's beauty was nigh impossible, the tiny drops of water more balanced then any single thing Twilight had ever seen, the grass itself seeming to hum as if alive. It wasn't cold despite the obvious moisture in the air, and a slight breeze stayed the temperature so it would not become to warm. Yes it was a completely perfect dream, until something caught the alicorns eye. Something had shifted in the corner of her eye, but when she looked, the trees surrounding the meadow were still there and nothing else.

A tiny voice seemed to whisper all around the meadow, yet from nowhere at once. "This is perfection is it not?" the voice waited patiently for Twilight's answer, almost like a father waits for a child to think about what he said.

"Ya, it is pretty nice," Twilight responded absentmindedly her eyes still looking at the trees. Then one of them seemed to move forward, a bit closer to her, shrinking the meadow ever so slowly. The element of magic rubbed her eyes vigorously before taking a second look, the tree really had moved.

"You saw that, I thought you would. This place is named the meadow for obvious reasons. It is an accurate representation of Equestria in a way. Each and every time a new tree grows, or one spreads closer, disharmony spreads. and when the trees reach the center Equestria shall be engulfed in an endless age of disharmony and death, more powerful then anything you have ever heard of or seen. So powerful that even the Elements of Harmony will not be able to stop it. Will you help me stop it before it engulfs this land?" the voice said in it's strange way again.

"Of course I'll help, how?" Twilight asked nervously. She knew this was no normal dream, this was a vision; something she had read about a long time ago in Celestia's private library but was foggy on the details.

"Good," the voice said pleased, "however this will not be easy, and it will require sacrifices, both physical and emotional. Will you do this to save billions?"

"Yes," Twilight answered knowing it was most important to save Equestria, no matter what.

"Very well, I shall tell you how this future is coming about... Your friends will betray you for the power it brings, you see when one alicorn of harmony dies, the others inherit all of it's power making substantial boosts. They have not formulated the plan yet bu..." but the voice was cut off by twilight.

"That's impossible, you're lying. My friends would never betray me or Equestria, ever, you are just trying to make me more paranoid. It shall never come to be and this entire dream is just an elaborate illusion by whoever you are!" Twilight yelled before concentrating her magic in order to dispel the nightmarous vision and wake up.

"If you wish to believe this then you may, but know you must accept the fact that they will betray you, or Equestria will be destroyed. When you accept the facts, I will help you stop it." the voice said before fading and the vision breaking.

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With a powerful jolt Twilight woke up to find her friends all assembled staring at her. But before she could ask Applejack spoke, "You were screamin' in yer sleep sugarcube, we had to wake you up." For some reason finding all her friends that close to her was unnerving, it was never that way before. Behind Applejack's eyes Twilight could have sworn she saw a hint of some emotion that didn't belong there. Lust, not the kind of sexual lust but a more powerful lust for power.

"Thanks for waking me," Twilight said nonchalantly, still focused on Applejack who had now given her some more room to get up and stretch her wings. 'No, i'm seeing things, Applejack would never try anything like that, after all she is the element of honesty. She'd never blatantly lie to me like that. But still, the look had been there, and Twilight couldn't play down compeltely what she had seen, hunger for power.

Comments

[NecromancerX69]

Another good chapter!
keep up the good work my good sir.

[videocrazy]

Ow. Just, ow. Please, while you're writing the next chapter, find an editor for your old ones. First let me state that the cover is interesting, and so is the story, but if I wasn't a sucker for stories in the Dark spectrum I'd have stopped at the Prologue (which you spelled incorrectly). It's not to the point of unreadability, but it is quite painful. You have such a wide variety of errors, if you were to tell me that you thought they were Pokemon I wouldn't be surprised.

[Dracoliat]

203457
I know I made/ make a lot of mistakes. And I do plan on going over them, also pre-readers are in short supply, especially for someone that doesn't have any money to spare. Also, I don't have Microsoft word either.

[DJ Cobalt]

203595 dude get libre office its free.nand good story

[Dracoliat]

204148
Thanks for the advice.

[DJ Cobalt]

204151 no problem

[loststone]

I thought it was very good.

[Dracoliat]

206070
That is true, but fret not.

Have you ever had something devastating happen to you and it doesn't hit you until later?

[Moon_Fire]

ooooooooohhhhhhh........
foreshadowing before a cliffhanger, not very good but it keeps the readers interested

[TheWattsMan]

203595
Well, if you are in need of a pre-reader, I've been finding myself with a surplus of free time lately in which to pre-read, if you still haven't got one. PM me if you're interested.

[Rainbow87dash]

Why'd you cancel?

[Christopher12284]

This is really good. Are you going to continue?