Chapter 4

War. That very word sent a shiver down each of the ponies' spines. Even though they had no idea what it meant, they could tell that it was something not good at all. Eager to put an end to their curiosity, Twilight asked, "What does this, war mean?" Celestia sighed. "It's when two sides or cultures come into conflict. It can be over… well pretty much anything, including their beliefs."

"Are you implying that they didn't believe in you?" asked Cadence.

"They all believed in us, since we created this world." Celestia said. "It's just that the way they believed in us was different, and so was their cultures or the ways they lived. Some believed in discord who as it his natural will manipulate them into destroying each other. But when those two cultures collide and don't reconcile, they sometimes go to war."

"Wh… what happens then?" asked Shining Armor trying to comfort his wife by asking a question for her as well as his sister's friends. Celestia's remorseful face never seemed to disappear.

"They… kill each other." she finally managed to say out loud. The ponies were speechless once again. Never in their lives have they heard of something so dark that it would go so far as to basically ignore the basis of friendship and peace.

"But… but why? Why would other ponies kill each other just for the sake of what they believe in?" asked Rainbow Dash, usually trying to look brave, but with an entirely new and ominous concept upon them couldn't help but show a face of cowardice.

"Because back in their time, they weren't as civilized as we are today." answered Celestia. "They didn't have as much logic as you do now so they turned mostly to instinct. Even though it is easy to become angry, those who go to war lose themselves entirely to anger, clouding their judgement. This makes others neither want help nor care for one another, thus it drives them further and further apart." The ponies felt both safe and sorry that they didn't hear about this earlier. Since they were creatures of peace and harmony, they couldn't comprehend just yet of how another loses itself entirely to anger and rage. Celestia continued, "I hoped that it was just a temporary thing, but soon enough one civilization after another began to fall to war. So if I let it continue happening, I knew that if I let the neighboring civilizations continue fighting, their anger would soon spread across Equestira."

"So that's why you had to wipe 'em out." acknowledged Applejack who had a melancholy look on her face. "Whatabout Crimson Forge's home Mount a-place-on-ya or somethin?"

"I spared them." Celestia explained. "Out of the other civilizations, Mount Apexia was the most peaceful. What was different about them is that they were the most logical and they gave their very best not to give in to fear. Their practices are what pleased me the most."

"What did they practice?" asked Twilight?

"Mindfulness."

"Mindfulness?" all the ponies but Crimson said out loud, Trixie looking the most confused. "What is it?" she asked.

"Allow me to explain Princess." asked Crimson Forge. Celestia nodded her head as the ponies turned towards him. "Twilight, what does the word mindful mean?" Twilight thought. "Uh, it means to be aware right?"

"Right on target." Crimson implied. "Therefore mindfulness means… well it can have many meanings in one, but it's mostly to be aware of your surroundings. Mindfulness takes awareness to a whole another level." The ponies listened up. "Mindfulness is one of the greatest attributes that you can have. To have mindfulness, you must concentrate on your inner being, in this case your element of harmony, thus acknowledging yourself and everything that you are in that moment. But's not just that simple. You must content with your surroundings, even in the most chaotic and flabbergasting of event. Not many ponies and dragons are able to achieve mindfulness."

"Dragons?" asked Applejack.

"Oh, that's right. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." said Crimson as he put his hoof/claw upon his face. "I hope you don't mind if I stray from the mindfulness subject for too long. You see, at Mount Apexia, ponies and dragons have coexisted with one another in peace for as long as our history can record. I myself was orphaned and raised by two dragons. My father dragon Emerald Tooth taught me how to forge, and with that he gave me these specially designed battle claws as a gift." He put his right hoof up to show the gauntlet that covered it. From what they made of it, the claws were made entirely out of a strange metal.

"Uh… I don't mean to interrupt." Fluttershy said, "But how do I politely ask these…things to go away?"

"You mean the butterfly-like apparitions?" asked Crimson.

"Yes. I mean it's not that I don't like them, not at all. They seem perfectly harmless. It's just seem to be… respectful."

"I understand. That's where mindfulness comes in." said Crimson raised his head to the rest of the ponies. Fluttershy listened. "The first step towards achieveing mindfulness is acceptance."

"What is acceptance?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"It is concept that can be extremely hard at first." Crimson explained. "Acceptance is when you are fully content with what's going on around you. Take today for example. Twilight's room was a mess, as I am pretty sure your homes looked pretty messy themselves. You couldn't just let it be unresolved. So she at first blamed Trixie. But underneath that, what is the primary reason why you reacted that way. Why did you feel that Twilight Sparkle?"

"Well, because I didn't want it to happen in the first place." Twilight answered.

"In other words, she felt entitled." The other ponies started to listen up. "Entitlement is when you feel like you need to do something, like it has to be accomplished. Sometimes entitlement can be a good thing, like when it comes to keeping your room organized. However, entitlement can become self-destructive if one let it get the best of his or her logic. It naturally comes along with a feeling of being overwhelmed in unfamiliar situations. Acceptance though changes that. I means that no matter how much your environment changes, you are able to maintain your emotions at a stable level and are content at what is going on around you. Achieve this, and you are on the first step towards mindfulness."

"So… how does that help me get rid of the… apparitions?" asked Fluttershy.

"Here I'll help you." Crimson said as he sat down. "Here, sit down. Have you ever heard of the term meditation?" Fluttershy shook her head as she sat.

"It is really simple to do, and it can help with a lot of stress. It when you concentrate on your inner self." Crimson explained. "Follow my lead. First close your eyes." Fluttershy did as she was told.

"Then breathe deep. In and then out." They did. After a couple of times Crimson Forge spoke again, "Now, what do you see?" Fluttershy in the middle of her breathing said, "Um, I can't see anything with my eyes closed."

"That's because you are trying too hard to look without." implied Crimson. "Try slowly looking within." Trying to interpret what he meant Fluttershy focused on her inner self. In her mind, she only saw blackness. Then she spoke, "I don't see anything?"

"Are you sure about that?" asked Crimson.

"Y…yes, I'm sure…" Fluttershy sputtered. "Wait. Wait a minute." she finally managed to speak. The other ponies focused their attention onto Fluttershy. "Something is there. Something is here!"

"What do you see?" Crimson asked.

"I see… I see a light. A light inside me." Fluttershy did not know what to do at this point, whether to panic or just open her eyes.

"Don't be afraid." replied Crimson. "Don't worry. Lux in tenebras lucet." Fluttershy felt comforted by these words. She didn't know what they meant but she in a way sort of felt the warmth that those words produced. "Remember what I told you about acceptance. Embrace what is there, don't resist. What do you see in your light?" asked Crimson. Fluttershy's eyes moved rapidly underneath her eyelids as she concentrated and prepared herself for what was about to happen next. Then the image became clear ask Fluttershy spoke, "It's…it's my element! The element of kindness!" she said. And aura suddenly formed around her as Crimson spoke to her, "Feel the apparitions presence around you." Fluttershy did. She could feel their bodies producing immense amounts of energy and she could sense their wavelengths spreading out in all directions. They were their own sources of light all coming from her own light. "Accept their presence before you ask them to go back inside you. Get to know them." Crimson directed. Fluttershy concentrated. As she did, the energy she felt form both herself and from the apparitions seemed to grow more and more and so did the bond between both of them. In that moment, Fluttershy seemed to fully understand why this stuff happened to her. Never in her life did she feel more content. She knew what was happening. She was one with her element. She was one with the apparitions. She was one with herself. She could feel the apparitions returning to the element of kindness. Fluttershy opened her eyes. The apparitions were gone from her sight, but she could still feel them inside her along with her element. The other ponies surrounding her were flabbergasted. Even with the knowledge given to them by Crimson, they couldn't comprehend how or even why it happened. Crimson though seemed pleased. "Great job." he said. "How do you feel?"

"I…feel… I feel relieved. But so much of it!" said Fluttershy.

"That's good!" said Crimson. "You have taken your first step into a larger world."

"What just happened?" asked Trixie.

"Fluttershy just learned the concept of acceptance." said Crimson.

"That quickly?" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

"Well, Fluttershy does have the element of kindness. When one becomes kind to itself as well as others, it usually creates a gateway towards acceptance. And since Fluttershy is a master of kindess, she is able to accept usually quicker than the rest of you." All the ponies except the two Princesses were stunned to learn of such a thing. "That's where your training comes in." Crimson continued.

"Training? For what?" asked Rainbow Dash, who at first gave a look of disgust and curiosity since she was already training as hard as she could to get into the wonderbolts and began to assume.

"To save the world of course." replied Crimson. Then the rest of the ponies gave a look of confusion. But then Twilight caught onto something. "You mean what's in your so-called prophecy right?"

"Yes." Crimson responded.

"It did tell something about a great evil setting the world on fire or something. But what sort of evil could do such a thing?"

"Celestia. If you please." announced Crimson as he turned his head toward the sun goddess.

"After I wiped out the warring civilizations, I hoped that what they left behind would ultimately vanish with them as well."

"What did they leave behind?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"The ruins of war." Celestia answered. "I figured that if any survivors or in this case Mount Apexia would find the ruins of war, they would eventually figure out what happened and would become too curious of what happened. War can manifest itself in many ways. It can leave behind a negative energy that can find its way into even the most peaceful living things and can turn them against one other. But I knew that the energies of war could not be destroyed, they could only be contained. So I sealed them all away."

"Where did you seal them away?"

"In a stone called Lapidem Ardentem Iram or the Stone of Flaming Wrath." Celestia responded. "I also put a magic barrier on it so that no one could touch it. It can only be access to mortals and immortals alike on the night of blood moon. Legend goes that on that night when I sealed away the manifests of war, the full moon reflected them back onto the land with a great energy capable of penetrating my magic barrier and revealing the stone. This blood moon happens only once in a life time and can only be released by an immortal. That stone can only be revealed from its covering."

"So basically we have nothing to worry about!" said Twilight. "The only immortals we know of are you two princesses and *ugh* Discord."

"I beg to differ." Interrupted Crimson Forge. "But there is a way a mortal can reverse the imprisonment spell on discord."

"Wait, there is?" asked Twilight.

"Yes." Crimson responded. "You see, back at Mount Apexia, there is a certain kind of spell that only a few with a high level can reach. It is called "Imitatio Impostor" or Imitation Imposter. It is a spell in which using your magic you can scan your target and actually copy it's magic so that the wielder can actually use the spell." Twilight's felt like a protective wall of safety that took years to build suddenly collapsed, as it was also felt for the rest of her friends. With Crimson new information, there seemed much more to worry about. "It takes a large amount of magic at a high level." Crimson continued. "And that is exactly what my brother Asmodeus has in mind."

"Say what!?" exclaimed Spike. "That creepy black magician is your brother?"

"I'm afraid so." said Crimson. "His tragedy is a sad one." All the ponies listened up. "He was at a bit of an older age than I was when we were fillies. We accepted each other as brothers and we developed a strong bond. As we grew up, we began training at the academy of alchemy self-defense. There we trained harder and harder every day to get stronger. We were training to become bounty hunters. But before we could become actual stallions, you must pass this final test. We were both sent on an annual solitary pilgrimage to neighboring towns, as it is a part of our tradition. Then came the day that changed my life. While I was in the town of Phaeros during my pilgrimage, when I met somepony who I was not supposed to meet. Ahura Mazda, the wise one, foreseer of light and darkness. He was exiled from Mount Apexia because the previous king disapproved of his prophecies. From him, I heard the prophecy I told you. After that, I decided to put aside my previous dream of becoming a bounty hunter so I could find the six who bore magical might. I returned to Mount Apexia never the same again having heard the truth. My brother also came back, and he was never quite the same. I was hoping it was for the greater good, but something changed inside him. I could sense it deep inside him. After the return ceremony at the Academy, I told my father about the fact that I didn't want to become a bounty hunter anymore, just an adventurer. But knowing that not many ponies have made it back on many prophecy trips or what the advisors called, "misguided" travels, I kept it a secret. But that all was about to change when Asmodeus put his plans into action. For a week under the cover of darkness, he snatched up innocent souls and took them to his hideout. There he performed a ritual called…" Crimson paused for a minute. "What I am about to tell you ponies could be a bit gruesome. Can you handle it?" The ponies just nodded their heads in silence. "Suit yourselves." he said in a tone of uncertainty. "In his hideout, he performed an extremely forbidden ritual called black magic." The eyes of everypony continue to widen, yet the two princess kept their poker faces since they already knew of this knowledge, but knew not to share it around an environment of peace, until now. "Black magic is when you torture other living beings with hideous machines in order to extract their souls. With their souls you gain an enormous unnatural amount in magic power. It also allows you to excel faster than normal. But it does so at the price of your sanity." Fluttershy almost passed out while Rarity almost barfed at the knowledge of this black magic. "Why would your brother do such a thing?" asked Rainbow Dash, whose loyalty at its extent could not comprehend with the concept of betrayal. "While my brother was performing these unholy rituals, some soldiers from a neighboring country called Serfa came to Mount Apexia with a warning. It turned out that, my brother Asmodues while he was visiting Sefra went too close to one of their closely guarded artifacts."

"What was that?"

"An ancient artifact called Clariuidens Speculo or the Mirror That Sees into the Future. When you look into it you receive glimpses of the future. But it has been feared by many, for some images are not meant to be seen, which is the reason why it is heavily guarded. I don't know how Asmodues got through, but whatever he saw in that mirror must've been horrors beyond imagination."

"So that's why your brother turned all evil and nasty?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Perhaps. The soldiers warned the mountain of what happened and the king quickly ordered for a search party. But by the time they found his hideout it was too late. Asmodeus had escaped with the bodies from which he extracted souls from. So without hesitation, I headed back to my parent's house and told my father that I would be heading out to search for Asmodeus. He told me that I was crazy, but then I told him about the prophecy that Ahura Mazda told me. After that he was speechless. But I told him the one thing that he always told me when I was a filly, "Have faith." So without further ado, he accepted that I had a life of my own, so I packed up my stuff and left Mount Apexia. I searched for what seemed like many months until I came to your town."

"Well, that certainly explains a lot of things." said Rarity. "Execpt for the part of the Fire Stone thingy that Celestia mentioned."

"Try putting this together." Crimson implied. "If Asmodeus were to use Imitatio Impostor on us and have a literal copy of your elements of harmony, what would he do with them." Rarity pondered for a minute, and then hit on something. "Darling, certainly to mustn't mean that…"

"Oh, but I do." Crimson said. "Asmodeus is planning to get to a high enough level of magic to use Imitatio Imposter and use his spell on his. If he does, he will obtain the power to use those elemental powers to free Discord from his stone imprisonment and ally with him so he and discord can release the power of the Lapidem Ardentem Iram."

"What happens if that power is released?" asked Twilight eager to get answers.

"The whole of existence is doomed." Crimson replied. The mouths of the ponies dropped one by one. Never before in their lives have they heard of something so insidious and so dire that was hidden from them for as long as they could remember.

"So if the prophecy is true…" said Cadence before she was interrupted by Crimson.

"Not if, when. Ahura Mazda told me many words of wisdom, including that all Prophecies come true. It's just a matter of time before they happen." Crimson turned his head toward the sun goddess. "Princess Celestia. I know that this may sound crazy at first, and I know that you may not believe all that I am saying. But with your almighty permission, I would like to lead your six faithful followers to Mount Apexia. There we can alert the guard, lure Amsodeus using the six ponies as bait and put a stop to Asmodeus so we can ensure that no harm comes to Equestria."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, young warrior." implied Celestia. "But yes, I have heard of Ahura Mazda and his prophecies and well as his many fathers and their prophecies. His clairvoyance is usually never off course. I will let you know of my decision tomorrow."

"Thank you Princess."

"Now Darling." said Rarity as she turned to Trixie. "Let's get you all tidied up now. You certainly are a fright."

"Sure. I'd appreciate it." said Trixie who gave the same humble smile to Rarity as she did to Twilight Sparkle.

"Oh, that's right I forgot." said Rarity as a frown appeared on her face. "My house is still a mess from this morning." At that moment Trixie said, "Why don't I help you clean it up?" Rarity had a surprise on her. Trixie seemed to get the hang of friendship quite fast.

"That would be delightful." Rarity replied. "Crimson?"

"Yes?"

"I hope you won't mind helping clean up somepony's house."

"Sure no problem, I'll help out you Fluttershy." he said turning towards the yellow pegasus.

"R…really?"

"Of course! Just show me the way and I'll be glad to help."

"Okay." she said as she led Crimson out of Canterlot towards one of the chariots, wondering what direction her life would take her next.

Things are seeming to get more and more interesting! Hope you liked it, until then see you in the next chapter!