Chapter 13: The Elements of Harmony

"The Elements of Harmony are one of the most enduring of the legends which permeated out from the country of Equestria over the years. It was said that they were artefacts of pure, crystallized magic, the strongest force known to exist on the Earth. Naturally, we paid very close attention to such whisperings."

-Dr. Szill Tosak, Research Log: July 5, 1900 UIT

A sombre mood had returned to Everfree, and for once the weather had lined itself up to suit the occasion, as ominous storm clouds had rolled in, and a grim shower fell throughout the forest. Around the Citadel, and its sister towers, windows were drawn and fires were kindled, as the disheartened members of the Resistance tried to warm their hearts and spirits with the same tools as they warmed their bodies. But for many, the day's news was simply too grim to be helped. For another year at least, Equestria would remain captive.

In their upper room in UnicornTower, the two sisters tried to recuperate as best as they could. Celeste was pacing once more in front of the doorway, thinking, always thinking. Meanwhile, Claire was at the window, looking long out at the country. The country which she was so sure would be saved yesterday, and now seemed destined for even more suffering.

The Masters had been succinct and sincere, attempting to soften the blow by insisting that the two of them still had parts to play in the Resistance, and that surely they would live to see the free Equestria one day. While Celeste fervently hoped that this would indeed be the case, she found herself doubting more and more as she considered the situation further. With all modesty, the two of them had been the best to have yet arisen since the original Masters. If neither of them was good enough to save the country, then it seemed very likely that Equestria still had long to suffer.

That was, at least, if the two of them gave up on that dream now. But Celeste most certainly had no intention of giving up. She had come so close, stood on the very cusp of victory, of the achievement of that dream. She just needed that little bit more, that final extra push needed to clear the last hurdle. She reflected once more on Altas' final pieces of advice. The trick is not to force it. Release the sun, and then let it do what it must. It went against much of her internal philosophy. Things became ordered when one placed them there. On their own, they leapt into disarray.

Claire had told her a similar story of her own travails, though it had been flared with her own distinct style. Her sister had taken a shining to the Pegasus art in ways that Celeste could only try to imagine, and it gave her certain advantages in dealing with the problem. In the end, however, it had still not been enough.

"Claire," Celeste began, stopping in the middle of the floor. Her sister turned around then from her perch at the window. The younger alicorn had recovered somewhat from the devastating turn that the afternoon had taken, but her face was still far from cheerful. "There's one thing that I still don't quite understand about what you've told me. You said that you were able to reach out and feel the sun?"

"Yes," her sister replied, as a crackle of thunder sounded outside. "It's a special little ability of mine, which I only discovered a few weeks ago. I just let my mind go blank, and I become aware of every entity, every consciousness in the surrounding. Each one of them is like a bright dash of colour in a dark purple void. I can sense them, touch them, and interact with them even."

"Only a few weeks ago?"

"Yes," Claire's head shot up suddenly. "Just like your sort of second vision?"

"It would seem so. That's awfully coincidental." It seemed as though the two of them might share connections besides just familial ones. "And then the sun and moon are like one of these consciousnesses?"

Claire got up from her place at the window, and took her turn pacing about the room. "I could sense them just as easily as I could anything else. I could feel that all they needed was to be set free, but I couldn't get to them." The downcast look returned to her eyes. "I failed in my one purpose, and now everypony will suffer for it." A fresh tear rolled its way down her cheek.

Celeste placed a foreleg across her sister's shoulders. "There, there Claire. I don't think that our part in this story is over just yet." The first inklings of a plan were beginning to filter their way through her mental machinery, but she needed a few more details yet. "I think that I may have an idea, Claire, but first I need to know one more thing. Can you sense my mind right now?"

Claire caught herself, and then closed her eyes. "Of course I can. Your mental footprint is practically impossible to miss."

"Excellent then. Follow me."

---

The rain had intensified, and as the two sisters exited the tower and began their trek out into the forest, each drop felt like the sting of a tiny needle as it impacted their backs and wings. Even though it was still just early evening, the combination of the clouds and leaves overhead made the forest floor exceedingly dark. It was Celeste that struck up a light with her horn, just so that they could see where they were going.

The pair walked in silence for a few minutes, each one in deep thought over what they were about to attempt. Although it had never been explicitly stated that they would never get a second chance to succeed, it had been quite seriously implied. There was even the possibility that attempting a stunt like this would put them in dire trouble. It was fair to say that neither Celeste nor Claire cared about such considerations at this point. For if they succeeded, then that was another matter entirely.

After about five minutes of sullen silence, Claire spoke. "Do you remember a year ago, sister, back in Eridian? We both promised to do whatever it took to save Equestria?"

Celeste remembered. Eridian felt like it had been ages ago, before both of them had been thrust into the search for their final destiny. All of that had been leading to this night, this one chance at success. "I do, Claire. I remember that I promised to always stand by your side, if an opportunity should present itself for us to free our country."

She stopped for a moment, letting Claire come alongside her in the darkness. In truth, it had been scarcely a week since they had been reunited, after a year spent in individual solitude. But neither of them had grown apart, indeed that year had only strengthened what had always been an unbreakable bond, a bond forged from hardship and struggle in the depths of the High King's cruelty. And now, the two of them were about to become even closer.

"We go forward together now, sister," Celeste said. "Whatever happens in the times ahead, I shall never leave your side. We shall fight for this country, and rebuild it in time, as one entity, forever."

"Together, forever," Claire agreed. "I couldn't have made it this far without you, sister." And the two sisters shared a long embrace, as the rain came down all around them, and lightning lit up the black sky. Both were so lost in the moment that neither realized that the forest in their immediate vicinity had been illuminated slightly during that instant, but the effect was lost as soon as they released each other.

They came thence to the small clearing in which Celeste had made her attempt earlier in the afternoon. It was roughly circular, and filled with tall grasses that swished about the two alicorns' knees as they came into its center. Unfortunately, since they were now clear of the forest's protective canopy, the rain fell upon them again in a hard torrent. But neither one paid any heed to it. Nothing would deter them from their goal at this point.

Celeste and Claire both cleared their own little section of the space, sitting down into their own pieces of privacy. Taking a deep breath, and steeling herself for facing this task yet again, Celeste locked onto her sister's gaze. "Ready?" she asked simply. Claire nodded, and so both of them closed their eyes, and fell down inwards into their own private little worlds.

Equestria fell away once more, and again Celeste awoke to find herself suspended above the intricate web of knotted cords that was Discord's hold on Equestria. The tangle of his magic infected every corner of the land, concentrating on population centers but present everywhere regardless. The colossal warped tower that was his hold on day and night still stood there, forming a bridge between land and sky. It was thick and twisted as a braid, but Celeste knew its weaknesses. She had deciphered this puzzle once before, after all.

But before she could set off on that errand, Celeste felt it. A sort of uneven pressure applied across her eardrums, building up to a note of pain. She gritted her teeth and tried to force the sensation away, but with each breath it came harder, focussing into two intense spikes of discomfort. Eyes clenched shut; Celeste heard her sister's voice, softly echoing in her head. "Don't fight it, Celeste. You have to let me come. I'll be here for you the whole way."

Celeste allowed herself to relax, taking a deep breath even as the discomfort intensified further. Even though obviously neither one of them had attempted this sort of thing before, she hadn't thought that it would be quite this hard. "That's good, sister. It should only take a few more seconds. Do you remember our years together in Eridian? It wasn't much, but we made everything that we could out of it."

"I do remember," she thought to herself, casting back in time to what happy memories there were of that part of their lives. Most of the time they had been working, either in the streets or back at home, doing whatever it took to get by, but there had been moments that created fond memories. Surprisingly enough, it was not their games of chess that Celeste found her memory drawn to though. It was instead the times that they had just talked, just been together, without objectives or plans. Just the two of them.

In an instant, the pain built itself to a crescendo, and then was gone. Celeste opened her eyes, and found that Claire was now standing beside her in the realm of her own imagination. Her younger sister's dark mane flowed out behind her head as she stared in shocked silence at the nightmarish landscape that was laid out before them. Celeste came up to stand beside her.

"It's…" Claire tried to begin. "It's… unbelievable. The way I could see it, it was all just grey, as if Discord had drained all the life and colour out of the country. I could sense them, all the lives out there, waiting for the day that they would be free. Now I can see why they're not." Both of them felt their gazes drawn to their old home, which seemed almost to glow, such being the sheer concentration of magical strands that ran like tentacles out from it.

"Seeing it again, I almost want to go back there right now and dismantle everything from the ground up. Tear it all out by the roots," Claire continued, a note of anger entering her complexion.

Celeste shook her head. "As much as I agree, we're still not strong enough for that. Our only hope lies in the Prophecy still." Let the light of order again shine free; And Chaos' End shall find thee. "Our task lies over there still." And she indicated the tower of magic clawing its way up into the heavens.

Both of them took to the skies, flying over to the area where the massive rose like a tree trunk to the sky. It did not take Celeste long to discern the shape of the structure again. It was different than it had been last time, as chaos tended to be, but still followed the same general patterns as before. It was beyond simple to cut it up once more.

Finally, she stood precisely where she had been only a few hours previously, with but a single strand still holding the celestial bodies in submission. Claire now hovered a few feet to her left, taking in the scope of the situation. "Okay, Celeste. So as soon as you cut that last thread, all of that power is going to be released, right?"

"Yes, Claire. You can feel them just like before, can't you?"

Claire nodded immediately. "Their power is almost unimaginable at this close of a distance. I can understand how you were beaten now. None should be capable of withstanding this strong of a force."

"But you'll just let it pass through, right? You'll allow each of them to find their own way?"

Claire was silent for an instant, and then calmly replied, "I think so, but I might need your help as well. There's going to be a lot of magic at work here, perhaps too much for me to handle on my own. Be ready to jump in if I need you."

"Right. Are you ready?" Receiving one final nod from her sister, Celeste wound up and cut the final strand, once again letting the full fury of the sun run wild. She could feel it at the corners of her own awareness, that same burning force of nature as before. Expecting a similar grimace of concentration, she looked over at her sister. But oddly enough, Claire's face was serene; eyes closed and lips curved into a gentle, slender smile, as though she was contentedly resting after a day's hard work. Rather than fighting the rush, she was simply letting it happen.

But it was only an instant before she noticed a slight creasing of her sister's brow, and the pulsing of a vein above her right ear. It seemed that her sister's magic was indeed not enough. Coming to Claire's side, she whispered softly in her sister's ear. "I'm here, Claire. What do you need me to do?"

When Claire spoke, her voice was strained with obvious effort. "You… can feel it, right? Take… some of the burden, let it pass through you."

Although the prospect frightened her, Celeste knew that there was most certainly no turning back now. So, gathering her own thoughts, and focussing hard on her sister's words, she opened up her own mind to the torrent, immediately feeling the rush of power run through her consciousness. Fighting her natural urge to maintain control, she tried to just relax and let it all happen. It was a terrifying feeling, as if she was being swamped in the flood of magic and natural force. If she didn't assert her own place, take some control, she felt sure that she would be lost. But then she heard Claire's voice again, and it gave her strength. "Take heart, sister. Don't fight it; above all else let it flow. We don't have to do this alone. You should be able to find me within the torrent."

Celeste tried to think calmly in the raging flood, tried to see through it to the source of her sister's voice. Sure enough, she could detect the pinpoint of her Claire's consciousness, doing its best to stand amidst its own current. Slowly, the two of them came together. "Offer me your strength, Claire, and in return you shall have my own. Together we shall outlast all of this."

"Together forever, Celeste," Claire answered, and in that instant, their minds joined to become one.

It was an altogether novel experience for both of them. Never before had they been so close, literally joined together on a psychological level; each intimately aware of the other's thoughts and memories. Time stretched out to an infinite continuity as the two sisters simply were, together in the face of the entire world's power, weathering the storm. Neither before nor again would any two ponies experience such purest Harmony as did Celeste and Claire that evening.

After only a second (or an hour, or a century; it was impossible for either one to tell) it was over. The torrent ceased, bringing with it a sense of purest excitement, and undeniable power. For perhaps the first time, Celeste truly felt the legendary fury of the magic of the pegasi, held deep within her heart, and combining with the unicorn magic in her mind. Together, the two alicorns experienced the lost pure magic, the first beings in more than twenty-five thousand years to do so. The collected energy erupted forth from both of them in a dazzling nova of energy, illuminating both their mental realms and the real world of the forest where both still sat. Looking beneath their perch where the sun and moon had once been held captive, Celeste could see the tower of magic, before merely severed, was now shrivelling in the intense blast of light, dying away to nothing on the matted floor of the country. Indeed, not only was the sun free for now, it would be for a long time afterwards. They had done it.

---

When Celeste and Claire opened their eyes, they were met with a most unexpected sight. It was still dark, for apparently the "true" time had been the middle of the night, but the fullness of the Equestrian moon lit up the forest with a twinkling radiance. There was not a cloud to be seen. Moreover, the formerly empty clearing had been blasted flat in radiating lines, each blade of grass blown outward from the very center of the area. And in the clearing's center, still smoking slightly from the release of magical energy, rested a most curious artefact.

On its side on the ground was a circular disk of gold, upon which the design of an eight-pointed star had been inlaid. Resting on the outlying edges, five bright gemstones had been arranged in a symmetrical pattern, with a sixth sitting in the very center. Each of them greedily drank in the light of the moon, thus shining forth in a dazzling multi-coloured array of hues and tones. Besides their visual beauty, Celeste and Claire could both feel something else. An intense magical aura radiated out from the area, imprinting each of their minds with a feeling reminiscent of what they had experienced together in their shared mind space. It was an exhilarating euphoric experience, and both of them turned to each other with wide grins.

"We did it, Celeste!" Claire let a joyous laugh shake through her features. "Discord's power has been shaken, and soon it will break."

"Indeed, Claire. These magical gems must be the article spoken of in the Prophecy: Chaos' End. I can't wait to get back to the Citadel and spread this news." And picking up the ring, Celeste began galloping back through the forest.

"Sister, wait!" Claire yelled after her, causing her sister to stop and turn. Claire was airborne, wings flapping powerfully over the forest. "I don't think that this occasion really calls for walking," she called down to her sister. "Let us bring back this news with the triumph it deserves!"

With a laugh, Celeste joined her sister in the sky, and in seconds the two of them were closing in on Everfree. Both could see that a few ponies were outside, milling about in confusion over the rain's sudden disappearance. It wasn't long before one of them pointed upwards, spying the returning sisters out over the forest's canopy. Afire with each other's fully awakened magic, both of them knew that the situation required something special. And so, with only the slightest effort, Celeste and Claire reached out with their minds and built a sprawling rainbow, arching gracefully from one end of the night sky to the other, and passing directly over the Citadel.

As the news spread quickly through the building, more windows and doors were opened, and soon enough there was a large crowd gathered beneath, joyous at the turn of events. Celeste couldn't help but think back to the days they had spent entertaining crowds back in Eridian, although this event comprised a completely different nature than those ones had.

Celeste looked over at her sister, aflame with the glory of magic and light that rang through both of their minds. "We're ready sister. Today Everfree, tomorrow Equestria, and for the future, finally there is hope."

"Ponies will be free once more. Thank you for everything, sister." And once more the two of them embraced each other lovingly, to the exuberant cheers of the multitude gathered down below.

---

The sun had begun to peek its way over the far eastern horizon by the time that things had gotten settled in the Citadel. It was the first real sunrise that Equestria had seen in more than four hundred years, and Claire could feel the hope that had radiated out to the whole of the country this past night. The two sisters now stood together outside of the entrance to the great chamber in the Orders held their general meetings, with space allocated for Earth, Water, Air, and even Fire, though those seats had of course sat empty for many years now. The room was divided into four quadrants via rails that drove from the corners of the chamber. These ended in a high square platform at the room's center, upon which a small table had been placed. At this table sat the present Masters: Terraria, Altas, and Aquos, and again, an empty seat where Seraph would have been had he not left the Resistance years ago. Two more chairs had been placed at the head of the table especially for this occasion; those being where the two sisters would sit.

From where they stood, just outside one set of doors into the room, both of the sisters could see a great deal of the arrangement, as multitudes of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies sat in their assigned sections. The overall mood was jubilant, echoing the thoughts and feelings which circled about within their own hearts. At the central table however, things were surprisingly more subdued. Altas especially appeared almost uncomfortable. Celeste put it down to nerves. He never had liked being the center of attention.

Once everything had gotten settled down, Celeste and Claire dutifully made their entrance, letting the excitement of the past twelve hours show clearly in their faces as they received a standing ovation. Celeste carried the magical ring in front of them with her magic, and finally placed it in the very center of the table, such that it was literally the focus of everyone's attention. Both sisters took their seats, eager to get the proceedings over with so that they could be off to Eridian to complete the revolution.

Terraria rose first to address the assemblage. "First, allow me to extend most sincere congratulations to our two guests of honour, Celeste and Claire, for having restored natural light to our Citadel, and recovered this article of power." There was another round of applause, even with some light whistles thrown in from a few of the pegasi. These Terraria quieted with a raised hoof. "However, allow me to advise caution," she continued, her voice having suddenly grown very grave. "This cannot be thought of as our final redemption."

A collective gasp shot through the pegasus section, as well as a few of the earth ponies, but the most of the Orders of Water and Earth nodded their approval. "We require three heroes to form our new Triumvirate," Terraria said. "At the moment, we have four. Somehow, we must still choose one of the sisters."

A pegasus in the front row of the Air section rose then to speak. "These two sisters have given their all to our cause," he bellowed out over the room. "Surely they are the heroes after which we have sought. How can we then commit such a crime as to only allow one of them to save our country?" There was a chorus of approval from the benches behind him, and it was Aquos herself that rose to answer.

"The Prophecy is very specific on this point," the white unicorn enunciated clearly. "We only require three heroes, and Altas and I have been selected beyond any doubt. We must make our choice somehow." Across the table from her, Altas stared longingly into the wood grain, looking as though he would rather be anywhere than here. Behind him, his Order was calling for their Master to speak.

Reluctantly, the yellow pegasus pushed back his chair, standing beside the table. In a clearly uncomfortable voice, he began, "This is a truly momentous occasion. For many of us, it is the first real hope that we have seen in all our time with the Resistance. Understandably, many of us are cautious about believing that the end has arrived after all our years of work." He stared a moment into the eyes of Aquos, seated across the table, then continued. "I think that my Order is simply a bit… restless after so many years of waiting for our opportunity to arrive. Now that real power has finally found its way to us, might we not consider striking against the tyrant while we can?" A tiny sliver of determination entered his voice on the end of this speech, bolstered by the many shouts of approval which he received.

Terraria quieted all of this with one hoof. Authoritatively, she rose once more. "To move on Discord now would be folly," she emphatically declared. "We must wait until the right time comes, and that time has been ordained for us by the Prophecy. Until it is fulfilled, we must take our responsibilities with heart." But no sooner had the words exited her mouth were they drowned out by another cavalcade of objections, answered by shouts of approval from Water and Earth.

As the chamber descended into argument and disarray, Claire turned to face her sister in the very center of it. "When you said that there would be a small ceremony before we got to go fight Discord, did you have this in mind?"

Celeste shook her head slowly, feeling the excitement of the past few hours drain out of her system. On the table in front of them, even the magical gems had lost some of their lustre, seeming to react to the tension and distrust in the room. "No, Claire. This isn't what I thought would happen at all."