Shattered Magic

by EpicGamer10075

Cracks Amidst the Bedrock

Tempest Shadow sighed in disgust and disappointment. “Is that really what they called it?”

Princess Luna couldn’t hold back a scoff and replied simply, “Indeed they did.”

Sighing once again, Tempest walked through the threshold of what should’ve been a large and imposing Palace, but was instead awkwardly placed and stuck with the name of ‘Friendship Castle’. Luna followed just next to her, closing the massive main doors behind them with a loud noise that echoed across the crystalline main hall for several seconds.

“...They really don’t have much respect for anything, do they?”

Luna looked back to the irate Unicorn near her, then around at the... well, somewhat garish architecture, and commented back, “I believe that they value friendship more than anything else, so that would be a respectful name to them.”

Tempest rolled her eyes and shifted her head a bit uncomfortably. “...I guess.”

“Still, if you suppose that this place is some manner of sacred to them, then perhaps we are tainting it with our mere presence.”

Stopping in place as both mares were about halfway down the hall, Tempest gave a slight smirk over to the Alicorn, who stopped beside her, and said, “They said they believed in friendship in the face of everything, even literal Demons, Nightmares, and Gods, so...” Looking down the hall ahead of them to the main area, with the supposed ‘Friendship Map’ in the center of six thrones, she grimaced in jealousy and further disappointment, “...I guess they only care about their friendship remaining the same as it ever was.”

Luna paused for a moment to think, and eventually took a deep breath and spoke, “I have heard of some others they’ve attempted to add, but they are no less destructive than those seven alone, and such relations were always superficial in comparison, and never truly lasted.”

Lowering her gaze to the all-too-clean floor, Tempest soon responded wryly with, “They always keep brushing my ideology under the Storm King to the side, believing it to be completely wrong, but if their friendship is based on all this shit,” She gestured to the thrones ahead of her, and to the castle at large, “Then I clearly wasn’t completely wrong with believing friendship to be bullshit.”

Slowly nodding and starting to walk forward, letting the Unicorn raise her head and follow just behind, Luna replied succinctly, “But you’re not completely correct, either.” Letting the silence reign for several seconds as they trotted through the hall, their steps echoing about as they pondered their new circumstances, she eventually turned her head back to see and address the other mare, “They always like simplifying things, but... I always know better than that.

“I have always been the ‘odd one out’, as they say, in our relationships,” The Lunar Princess continued, getting closer to the thrones, “I am one thousand years behind this world’s society, I am nocturnal and find kinship with Thestrals, I am reserved and concise with my words, never wanting to ramble on and on... and above all else, I understand war. They--” She slowed down and turned around to face Tempest, though still kept moving backward towards the thrones, “--My friends, my sister, and everyone else, they all want peace. They want this world to be a utopia where no-one, not a single creature has to suffer for any reason, and no creature has to truly deal with the ramifications of their actions.

“But that’s not how the world works. I know that. You know that. And that’s what makes us different.”

Stopping next to the thrones, both mares put on hold their dialogue to observe the crystalline furniture, it seeming to be attached or grown out of the floor itself, and each throne beheld a carved image of the mark upon each of the Element’s flanks. There was a bolt from the blue, some balloons and confetti, peaceful butterflies, shiny apples, sparkling diamonds, and--

“...That’s not supposed to be like that, is it?”

Luna shook her head, staring at the six-pointed star upon Twilight’ throne, but the carving that was her mark now seemed as though it was improperly made, with cracks stringing out from multiple parts of it, webbing out lightly across the top section of the throne. “I fear...” She soon spoke, hesitant and wary, “That this entire building may eventually collapse because of...”

“Her death, yeah...” Tempest finished, though with her limited knowledge about the magic of friendship, she was uncertain about much at that moment.

“..No, actually,” Luna then amended, sharply bringing the other pony’s focus to her, “I mean, yes, that was the catalyst, but this is due to her friends falling away and there not being someone in her place to keep them together.”

“...I see,” The Unicorn replied at length, clearly annoyed and yet further disappointed.

Looking at the mare beside her as she turned her attention back to the cracked throne, Luna tapped a hoof idly in thought for several seconds, then looked over at the thrones to ponder something, finally beginning with, “She was the one that begun their friendship, out of circumstance and with a magical bond between them. The Elements themselves will not be able to function without all of their Bearers, and the Bearers are falling apart due to one of them being lost. These are facts.”

Tempest Shadow looked back to the Princess at the same time she turned to address the Unicorn, but a response made her pause; “...Are they?”

Squinting and pursing her lips in intrigue, Luna gestured with her head for the other mare to continue, allowing Tempest to preface, “I know their friendship is supposed to be related to this ‘Elements’ and saving the nation all the time, but... you know them. Did their friendship ever seem like it was forced due to these things? Due to straight-up needing to be friends?”

Genuinely taken aback, Luna turned her head upward in thought, and recalled the occasions she spent with the Elements and the many, many times she had heard of their deeds, both heroic and chaotic. “...I know they have forgiven each other for a great many things,” She eventually answered, turning her gaze back down, “Even horrible offenses like abandoning each other due to naïveté or greed have been gotten past. However, I do believe they had an obligation to each other due to their totality and happiness that they do not now. Now, they wish to suffer and mourn alone, forgoing their friendship as they never wish to deal with that hole in their hearts they have been left with.

“This may end up degrading their relationships without someone there to help, turning them into little more than strangers to each other that will be unable to save this world when the time inevitably comes once more.”

“...That sounds very ‘worst case scenario’.”

Luna smirked. “Indeed, it’s very unlikely.” Her expression turning more serious, she sat down on the floor, gesturing for the Unicorn to do the same, and she continued, “They all have friends and family that will help them through this, and they will retain some level of friendship, but never at the level it once was, and the Elements will still be unusable. In order to amend that, one would need to... replace Twilight Sparkle,” She finished, her tone turning somber and slightly bitter at the end.

Tempest, having sat down before the Princess and looking back at her with a hesitant look on her own face, took a moment to reply, “...That is something that needs to happen, though, isn’t it?”

Taking a deep sigh of defeat, Luna nodded. “I... have already thought about this to some degree, but the throne tells us we may be under a time limit. My mind first went to Starlight Glimmer, as she is quiet similar to Twilight, especially Twilight’s younger, more foolish self, but her relationship with the rest of the Elements are already quite... strained due to her issues.”

“I don’t believe I’ve met her,” Tempest added, slightly concerned about a mare that even the destructive and forgiving Elements considered problematic.

“I do not think you have seen her either,” Luna commented, glancing down for a moment to recall something, “I believe she was out of town at the time of your arrival with another mare, Trixie Lulamoon, who I have also considered as a potential.. replacement, but...” Taking another deep sigh, she finished, “I’m not certain how truly magically-inclined Trixie is. She is creative and more than able to hold her own, but she is very... slippery, and difficult to properly trust.”

Looking back towards the thrones, Tempest took a moment before asking, “..So what will you do about it now?”

Musing for a second herself, Luna then stated, “We need a replacement at some point; of that we are certain. We don’t know the time by which it must be done, but we do know, in some essence, what we are looking for.” The other mare’s head went back to her, letting her add, “While we may wish for an optimistic creature with immense magical power like Twilight Sparkle, I am realistic enough to know that instead, we require someone that is intelligent and capable, with the will to continue on in the face of death itself and the ability to command forces otherwise beyond their control...

“Someone like yourself.”

Tempest stared back at her, her expression emotionless. “Me.”

“Yes, you.”

After multiple more seconds of their staring at each other, trying to gauge the other’s emotions, Tempest sighed heavily and closed her eyes. “I assume you thought of this before we entered?” She asked of the other mare.

“But a few stray thoughts,” Luna explained, her words slow and cautious as she observed the hesitant Unicorn before her. “‘Twas only this new development that made me truly ask myself this.”

“...But you definitely know there’s more to it than just those qualities,” Tempest retorted firmly, opening her eyes back up to nearly glare at the Alicorn. “I’m not magical, and I’m nowhere near friendly. Some would say I’m a monster, and they’re hardly wrong to. But your friends, your family, and these Elements... they all hate me, and being forced to befriend me for the sake of the world would only make them hate me more.”

“I am aware.”

“Yet you sound completely affirmed in your decision.”

“I am.”

Tempest started to truly glare at the Alicorn. “Why?”

Pausing for a moment, and guiding both their gazes back to the thrones, Luna explained with confidence, “You are a unique case in this world, Tempest Shadow. You do not believe in blithe friendship or blissful happiness, nor do you sing and dance and party and forget all the issues around you. You, like myself, are quite cynical and see the world as the messy maelstrom that it truly is, and will tear everyone’s eyes so they can look back and see the foolish shell of a creature they’ve made themselves into.

“To resume my previous thoughts,” She continued, recalling their conversation before they discovered the cracks within the Twilight’s throne, “We know that a perfect world is impossible by its very nature, and we want everyone else to understand that as well. The Elements’ friendship was always frail to a degree, and has been pressured before by seeing the horrors of reality before them, but their ignorance let time mend those wounds. Death and suffering to others has meant nothing to them, and they do not go out of their way to help others unless they see it.

“They’ve nearly destroyed this town so often...” Luna’s voice dripped with disappointment as she looked up and around at the castle they sat within, “They’ve left friends by the wayside for themselves and never bother to go out and forgive them, ruined others’ lives to some degree amidst their self-righteous chaos and never looked back, and even gotten almost each other killed on some occasions and haven’t thought to perhaps get a hold of themselves. They may ‘go to Tartarus and back’, I suppose, for their friends and those they see suffering, but in terms of truly trying their damnedest to help this world and its creatures, they could be doing so much better.”

Looking back to the mare beside her for some seconds, letting her think before turning back herself, Luna then begun, “As of this moment, we are in a perfect position to change things. To right their wrongs and make them better. To truly make them good creatures and not just ‘heroes’. And perhaps... you may even help yourself in the process, and earn back your true identity.”

Her mind stewing in silence for quite some time, when Tempest finally collected her thoughts, a small, wry grin appeared on her face. “I’m not quite like you, Princess Luna. This version of myself... it’s not a Nightmare.” Her expression falling back down into a sorrowful frown, she elaborated, “I can’t just call myself a different name and run away from my problems. Fizzlepop, that innocent filly, died several years ago and there’s no bringing her back.”

“...I know,” Luna replied with regret and understanding.

“You want me to be happy,” Tempest said, cutting off any elaboration as she looked at the Princess with somberness and determination, “But don’t forget why you wanted me to join these ‘Elements’ in the first place. I am Tempest Shadow, and I’m needed more than ever to fix things, but I have made so many mistakes of my own, ones that I can not and will not ignore until I have atoned for them. Maybe I’ll make some friends along the way, and maybe I’ll manage to do so with the Elements, but I won’t force it, and if they don’t try to help me in the face of their own problems and they don’t bother to help themselves, then... I won’t be friends with them, even if it means the Elements will be unusable.”

Luna at that last comment, truly taken aback. “You--” She tried to start, but paused and thought--truly thought about the decision for some time. “...It’s your.. dignity, and honour, that you are concerned with.” Smiling a bit and laughing quietly, she nodded at the Unicorn. “I can respect that.”

“You ought to,” Tempest replied with a sidelong smirk of her own, “If you and all the rest of the ‘heroes’ keep trying to use the Elements as a crutch, I will lose any last shred of respect I have for all of you.”