> Element of Unity > by Hanku2691 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue - A New Equestria > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue – A Whole New Equestria It was mid-day in Equestria, Celestia's Sun was shinning high in the sky, the birds were singing and all around ponies were going about their business. A beautiful day deserved to be a day of relaxation, and that was exactly what Raze was doing. Relaxing on a small cloud as he overlooked his hometown of Ponyville, keeping an eye on all and making sure all things were united as they always were in these peaceful days. For thousands of years Raze had insured Unity remained among the ponies of Equestria, aiding his greatest friends Luna and Celestia in anyway he was able to make sure not only the ponies, but the other species of the world lived in Harmony. He still remembered the first day after he'd awoken, the feeling of being born and connecting to Equestria's very heart as the Elements of Harmony crafted his form. “Heh, I'm getting all nostalgic in my old age,” Raze chuckled, shaking his head fondly. Razor Claw, or Raze, as he preferred to be called, wasn't like the other species that inhabited Equestria. He hadn't been born into the world, but rather created by the Princesses as they wielded the Elements of Harmony. Crafted to preserve and balance the world, to create Unity and maintain Harmony. He was a creation of magic, and a hybrid of considerable power, stronger than even Celestia and Luna...though they didn't hold it against him! Humanoid in appearance, like the Humans from ancient Equestrian legends he stood on two hooves and was therefore taller than every pony he'd ever met. His lower body was that of a pony, fur and hooves, but his upper body was that of a human, smooth-skinned and flesh, except for his left arm which from the elbow down was draconic in nature, covered in icy-blue scales and ending in claws. Raze had no muzzle but a mouth that contained sharp canines and flat teeth together, and brilliant crimson eyes. Raze liked to consider himself part stallion, part dragon and part human...though, he had the magic of many more species unified inside himself and was able to alter his form if he so decided. Running his claws across his head Raze gently untangled his icy-blue mane and let the spiky length return to it's proper position just past his neck. Letting out a loud yawn he shifted on the comfy cloud, and momentarily thought about maybe returning to the ground and grabbing a bite to eat. “Nah, too comfy.” "Looks like we might be due for a big old storm of chaos!" Raze moved like lightning, his entire body flickered as he was suddenly standing up on the cloud, eyes narrowed as he cast out his senses, searching for the menacing voice that had just spoken. It took him only a moment to find it, and reaching out with his claw he tapped the air in front of him, cutting a smooth line down as he tore a hole in space and time to appear in front of whoever was attempting to cause chaos in his home. Stepping forward Raze met a wall of resistance and frowned heavily. Moving through the barriers of Equestria had never been difficult for him because of his power, but this felt much harder than it was supposed to. Bringing forth a little more power, Razor didn't need to look to know the whites of his eyes had turned the same icy-blue as his mane, a white aura had formed around the rest of him as he stepped forward and shoved himself towards the hole in space-time. 'RAZOR NO!' 'What? Celestia?' A sense of panic flooded Razor's mind from his connection to Celestia, Luna's sleepy presence joining an instant later and immediately switching to horror and fear. Before he could figure out what was happening, Raze felt the barrier protecting his space-time bridge shatter and he stumbled forward from the lack of resistance. 'RAZOR!!!!!' Then...there was only white... / / / / / / / / / / “What to do, what to do...” Discord hummed softly as he absently turned day to night once more, twirling an ice-cream cone in his griffin claw as he tried to think of what to do well he waited for Celestia's Student to find the Elements of Harmony. RIIIIIIPPPPPP~ “Hmm?” Looking up across from him Discord raised an eyebrow as the ripping noise echoed through the Canterlot Gardens, watching as a slow tear began to appear in the middle of the air. “Well isn't this interesting!” The tear suddenly pulsed, growing large and wide and for a moment Discord could feel the presence of Harmony on the other side. Recoiling faintly, he glared and focused on the strange rip in reality that he hadn't created, willing it closed. “Very interesting...” Discord tilted his head thoughtfully as a pig flew through the sky above him, wondering what was keeping him from being able to close this strange distortion. Focusing harder he tried once more to close it, only succeeding in finding it becoming harder and harder to try and manipulate the distortion, almost like someone was magically fighting against his attempts to control it. Frowning in annoyance, Discord gathered a rather large portion of his power and made to simply remove the distortion from Equestria, only to suddenly be thrown back by a massive wave of power beyond anything he'd ever felt. Floating a few inches from the tear, he prepared for whatever might come through, first there was a hoof...than a claw...than a hand...and suddenly a strange creature unlike any he'd seen before was standing in front of him, the distortion gone. It took Discord a few moments to realize why the strange creature looked somewhat familiar, he'd seen a few humans those thousands of years ago before he'd first been turned to stone, and this being reminded him of it. Smirking he floated forward and stuck out his griffin claw, “Why hello there, how nice to meet such a strange creature, I'm Discord, the ruler of this world,” the Draconequus introduced himself in a friendly manner. Discord knew from the feeling of magical power he could feel coming from this stranger that he needed to get him on his side right away. It was only the fact he was paying close attention that allowed the Chaos God to dodge backwards as the stranger's own claw cut through the air where he'd been floating only a second ago. “Don't bother...Discord...did you say?” the strange creature's eyes were narrowed, and a white aura surrounded its body, “The chaos I can feel from you was so strong I could feel it from my own dimension, it's obvious you aren't to be trusted.” Discord frowned angrily, before his eyes suddenly widened and he looked to the side for a moment before facing the stranger once more. Laughing mockingly, he waved at the strange humanoid as he began to fade out of sight, having felt Celestia's last hope finally appear back in Ponyville. “It seems my game is back in motion, I'll leave you for later!” poof... Razor frowned as the strange mismatched creature suddenly disappeared from in front of him; his senses letting him feel...Discord, as it called itself, reappear miles away in what he assumed was Ponyville from what he understood of the situation. It had only taken him an instant after exiting the space-time bridge he'd created to realize he was in a different dimension, Discord's chaos signature was so strong he'd felt it in his own Equestria. He was moderately worried about the situation as he knew without a massive beacon in his own dimension he wouldn't be able to open a space-time bridge to it, which meant for the moment he was most definitely stuck in this dimension. Raze knew he'd be more worried, if not for the fact he could feel the presence of Celestia and Luna, which meant at least this dimension wasn't too massively different from his own. Discord, or whatever the creature of Chaos was in truth, was definitely dangerous to Equestria. But this wasn't his world and he couldn't chance interfering if Discord truly was the ruler, though his senses made him believe the creature had been lying to him. Pushing the thought of Discord from his mind, Razor glanced around, recognizing the Canterlot Garden even if some things weren't quite the same as they'd been in his dimension. Turning he glanced up at the castle, wondering why Celestia and Luna weren't doing anything about this Discord being. His frown deepened and he narrowed his eyes in concern as his heart began to beat faster, the Alicorns he knew wouldn't let anything stop them from protecting their subjects, which meant something must have happened to them! “No choice, I need to see what's happening.” Razor took a deep breath and loosened the limiters he'd set in place on his power, feeling more of his magic flow through him he felt his eyes slit and the scales of his left claw flow up his arm and faintly over his shoulder. Grinding his teeth together, he grunted in pain as a pair of scaled wings seemed to instantly materialize on his back, the process of them actually forming happening faster than that instant had taken. Giving his large wings a faint beat to make sure they'd formed correctly, he could only shake his head, “Ugh~ That'll never get any easier, stupid wings.” Letting his wings spread to their full length, Raze launched himself into the air, soaring towards the castle and where Celestia's rooms had been in his own dimension. Finding the familiar balcony, he dived and landed on a knee with a loud echoing boom. The ground cracking underneath him from the impact of his improper landing. Quickly moving to his hooves, he folded his wings against his back and began to look around. Quickly noticing that Celestia's room looked pretty much the same as it did in his dimension...although quite a few things were missing, which he supposed wasn't too odd. With Celestia obviously not in the room, he cast his senses outwards through the castle, magically combing the halls and rooms in search of her powerful presence, only to come up empty. It wasn't that he couldn't feel her presence, or the equally strong presence of her sister. In fact, their presence practically cloaked the castle, which was making it hard for him to detect their actual locations. Shoving open the doors to her room, he moved out into the hallway, frowning at the sight of guards and staff laying unconscious all over the ground nearby. Knowing he didn't have time to check on them, Razor decided to head towards the Grand Hall, figuring it was most likely that's where Celestia or Luna would be during a situation like this. As he did so he considered the situation was worse than he'd previously believed. If the magically resistant armor of the guards had been so easily defeated, just how dangerous was this Discord? As he approached the Grand Hall, he came to a quick stop frowning as his senses registered the powerful barrier surrounding the wide-open double doors leading into the Grand Throne Hall. Ignoring the barrier for the moment, he looked into the hall and went completely still at the sight greeting him within... “Celestia! Luna!!” His voice echoed loudly, but the two unconscious figures within the hall didn't stir. His worry only grew, his claw twitching as he slammed down on his desire to cut through the barrier and rush inside to aide his Princesses. Taking a moment to steady himself, he looked over the barrier with his eyes and senses. The first thing he noticed was that the barrier was invisible to the naked eye. The second was that it had been composed of the same chaotic magic that Discord seemed to wield. Discord's....chaos magic...was both incredible and horrifying to Raze at the same time. Incredible in how it seemed to function, and horrible because it's very presence disrupted the Harmony of Equestria. The barrier was pretty simple from what he could discern. It would stop anyone who tried to magically breech it, harming them in return for however powerful their attempt to breech it was. It also stopped sound from passing in or out of the room. It also seemed to be stopping magic from within as well, so the Princesses wouldn't be able to escape, even after they awakened. Finally, it was filled with chaotic energy that would harm anyone trying to enter it physically, forcing them to retreat before it dealt mortal wounds. “He's mighty dangerous this Discord, his magic is powerful and adaptive...if he wasn't so chaotic the creature might have been able to aide Equestria with its talents.” Discord seemed to have accounted for everything...well, everything except the possibility of there being someone able to breech the barrier without it mortally wounding them. Not that he could fault the creature, it wasn't like he'd expected another being at the level of the Princesses to be around when he'd set the barrier. Reaching out with his claw, Raze sunk his magically resistant dragon-scaled arm into the barrier. Taking a deep breath, he dug his hooves into the ground and launched himself forward. The barrier clamped down on him as he attempted to hurtle himself through, but the second his claw breached the other side he dug into the floor of the castle and dragged himself through without an ounce of hesitation. Despite the magical resistance of his dragon-scales, they only covered a tiny part of his body. As the rest of him moved through the barrier, he felt it acting out it's programming. His body was wracked with cuts and wounds, the magic stabbing into his heart with each inch as it tried to force him to withdraw, finally turning deadly and all-out assaulting him as he remained. When he finally passed through the barrier, he was laying on the ground breathing weakly, his throat sore from screaming and his entire body littered with wounds. “Ugh~ ...t-that...was...wasn't fun,” he groaned as he began to slowly force himself to his hooves, his breathing heavy and wheezy. “Heh...heh...kkkkk~” dropping back to one knee Raze coughed heavily as his body protested him trying to move, a hint of copper filling his lips and warning him that he shouldn't move. Breathing slowly he forced himself to look up, eyes taking in the Grand Throne Room and the sight of the two Princesses who were now awake and staring at him, his screams having obviously awoken them both. Staring, it took Razor a second to realize that both Princesses were locked in separate container-like objects; weird containers with little barred doors with locks on the front that kind of reminded him of...pet containers! “Prin...princ...Princesses,” he rasped out as he forced himself back to his hooves, putting one in front of the other as he began a slow walk across the room towards them. Every couple of steps caused him to cough weakly, blood dribbling down his face and the wounds littering his body, his entire being protesting his movements. “Please stop, you are injuring yourself!” “Pray, hold thy position creature, thy injure thyself unduly!” Reaching the front of Celestia's cage Razor let himself lean against the grate, breathing in heavy pants as he shook his head softly side to side, “I...heal....soon,” he forced out before going silent as he took a few more wheezy breaths. After a few seconds of silent breathing Raze grabbed hold of the lock at the front of the cage, tearing it off with a screech of breaking metal and tossing it to the side. “One down,” he said in a slightly clearer voice, smiling at Celestia as he pushed himself away from her cage and moved across towards Luna. As he walked a faint hissing noise began to sound through the room, and steam began to rise from the hybrid's wounds as they started closing up and healing on their own. His breathing quickly evened out and his stance improved until he was walking normally. Approaching the door to Luna's cage, he grabbed hold of the lock and ripped it off with the same show of impressive strength. “There we go,” Raze smiled cheerfully as he stepped back, taking note that Celestia had already left her cage and was observing him closely. Ignoring her look with practiced ease, he stepped back from the door of Luna's cage and calmly stood to the side, pouting a little as he looked down at his blood-stained body. “Aww man, I got blood everywhere, this is gonna take forever to wash out...” “Ahem,” Raze blinked and looked up, noticing both Luna and Celestia starring at him in confusion. Blinking a few more times he felt his cheeks heat up a little as he blushed, “uhhh...I guess I should probably explain some things.” “Indeed, perhaps you could start with what you are?” Celestia suggested pointedly as she stood beside her younger sister, the smaller Alicorn leaning against her for comfort. “Right...” Raze took a moment to collect himself, “I am Razor Claw, though I prefer to be called Raze.” “I am a being of Unity, created by the Elements of Harmony as wielded by my Luna and Celestia when they were desperate for someone to aide them in helping Equestria. I am a Hybrid, being part Pony, part Dragon and part Human.” Raze let his magic flow more firmly through him, pushing forth his presence so it could be properly felt and judged, letting his harmonic nature pulse from within him to reassure the Princesses of his honesty and the truth of his words. “As I was created to help the Unity of Equestria I am actually composed of the essences of many of it's creatures, though those are the three most predominant in my current form. As I allow more of my magic free I become more draconic in nature until I appear half dragon and half pony with no visible humanity by my shape.” Here he paused, allowing the Princesses to think on what he'd just told them, and waited to see if they had any specific questions to ask of him. He suddenly turned and stared outwards towards seemingly nothing, a faint frown forming on his face after a few moments. “Somepony has just attempted to use the Elements of Harmony without being Harmonized...” he hesitated, looking towards the Princesses, “I had thought I could not feel their presence within you...does that mean, Equestria has a different bearer of them now? “Oh no...Sister, I must go and prepare something for my student, will you keep our guest company?” Celestia asked with some concern, waiting only for Luna's nod before vanishing in a burst of light...only to reappear a second later looking dazed. “W-What?” Celestia blinked and glanced around, apparently finally taking notice of the barrier surrounding the Grand Throne Hall. “Discord's barrier is still in place, magic cannot cut through it Princess,” Raze informed quietly. Celestia nodded in understanding...and than her horn began to glow, brighter and brighter until with a burst of magical power she cut straight through the barrier and vanished into another burst of light. Smiling softly Razor shook his head in amusement, pleased to see that this version of Celestia appeared to be quite similar to his own. Hearing a soft throat clearing he realized that Luna was still with him and turned to look at her, nodding respectively. “My apologies, Princess Luna,” “Be thou not concerned, Razor Claw, we are not displeased.” Raze blinked and then blinked again, wondering why on Equestria Luna was speaking in Old Equestrian when Celestia had been speaking just fine and normally only a moment ago. Also...he'd just noticed, but Luna seemed a little younger than she should have been. Now that he was in front of her, he could tell her power was quite a bit less refined that he believed it should be when compared to that of her older sister. “Tell us, Razor Claw, thou speaketh of our Sister and We as if we know thou,” Luna asked curiously. “Ah, that's because I do Princess Luna,” Raze paused, curious of how to phrase his response. “Earlier today, I felt Discord's presence and as a being of Unity it is my duty to repair things that effect Harmony.” Running his claw through his mane to fix it once more he frowned thoughtfully, “I followed the source of chaos I felt to this place, thinking I was just moving across Equestria, but in reality I punched a hole in time-space and appeared in a completely different dimension.” “We see...and thou are...close with us in thy dimension?” Raze nodded softly, holding out his claw with a thoughtful smile. “Would you like to see?” Luna took a few steps forward, her head tilted thoughtfully to the side. Smiling a bit brighter at the cute inquisitive look, he carefully explained that he could share a few of his memories with her. Letting her see what he'd mentioned, and gain a little bit on insight into who and what he was. “Just touch your horn to my claw,” he instructed gently. She hesitated for a few seconds, but then Luna gently put her horn's point against the palm of Razor Claws....claw...and waited until she felt his magic gently nudge at her mind. The feeling of harmony he gave gifted her the courage to open her mind, and in a moment images and memories began to flow across her mind's eyes, and in the Grand Throne Hall the Princess of the Night slipped to the ground in sleep as she dreamed the memories of Equestria's Guardian. “Right...should of warned her about that,” Raze mumbled embarrassed..before shrugging, “Eh, might as well go see if the new wielders of the elements have been able to deal with Discord.” Tapping into his power Raze warped himself to where he could feel the Elements of Harmony and Discord, just in time to witness a group of Six Ponies blasting the Draconequus with the rainbow colored magic of the Elements and turning the creature into a scared looking statue. As Discord was turned to stone, Razor couldn't help but frown softly, his intuition telling him this wasn't the last he'd see of the chaos loving hybrid. With a massive flash of rainbow-magic all the chaos he could feel around him began to disappear, and as his eyes wandered he watched the town that was definitely Ponyville return to normal. Smiling softly he nodded in approval before feeling a shiver run down his spine, frowning he turned and found himself facing a group of six defensively positioned ponies who were all starring at him in suspicion. He recognized the Elements of Harmony that each was wearing, or at least could feel the power in the forms of jewelry the elements had taken, but didn't recognize any of the ponies wielding them. So far the only ponies in this dimension he recognized were Luna and Celestia, he'd lived in his Ponyville for the last many years and didn't recognize any of these ponies. “What the hay is that?” “I dunno Dash, I reck'n it's likely some left'o'vh of that there Discord.” “Oh I doubt that Applejack, he looks much to handsome to be some chaotic beast!” “Careful Girls, I sense some powerful magic around it.” “I...it's...r-realllly big.” Raze shook his head softly in amusement as the girls discussed in front of him, seemingly unaware that he could understand and hear them from the short distance they wer...wait...? Hadn't there been six of them a second agHOLY SHIT!” Razor stumbled backwards away from the pink face that had been an inch away from him, eyes wide in surprise as a bubbly pink pony flipped out of the tree she'd somehow been hanging in and began to bounce in front of him, speaking every time her bounce brought her face to muzzle with him. “HI!” “I'VE NEVER” “SEEN SOMEPONY” “LIKE YOU” “BEFORE!” “I'M PIN-” “PINKIE-” “PINKIE PIE!!” “YOU MUST BE” “NEW!” Razor couldn't bring it in himself to speak, so he just gave a soft nod, and starred for a few more seconds at the bouncing pink pony... ... Shaking his head he finally found himself broken of the odd scene that had just greeted him, and a soft laugh broke free of his lips, his slightly raspy but musical voice letting his laughter echo through the clearing they were all standing in. This pink pony...this...Pinkie Pie had to be the oddest pony he'd ever met in his long life, but she definitely truly represented the element of laughter she was wearing around her neck. “Hello Pinkie Pie, my name is Razor Claw,” he introduced gently, giving a nod. “I'm a Hybrid.” Pinkie Pie bounced back up and opened her muzzle to say something else, only to be caught by a streak of rainbow and deposited back beside the group of ponies, all of whom were starring at him with varying emotions. They glanced between each other for a second, and then the purple-coated one wearing the element of magic looked towards him and frowned. “We're sorry Razor Claw, but if you're a leftover of Discord, you're too dangerous to be left in Equestria!” the element of magic began to glow, and as Raze watched the six ponies began to float up into the air. “Well...this should tickle...” A pair of glowing-white eyes snapped open, and a rainbow filled his vision...