//------------------------------// // Now Make Nice // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// “Never, never, never!” The red-spotted lizard shouted and shook his head, jumping up and down in the circle of Rainbow Dash and her friends. And Godfrey. “Please, you have to stop this! Can’t you see that you’re not going to get what you want?” Senax said, stomping her own hoof for emphasis. “Look around you! Your friends and fellow citizens are all lying unconscious, hurt and defeated, how many more do you want to see like that? You just saw what we can do—all the other lizards coming up the pyramid now are going to go through the same thing. Be a real leader here and tell them to stop so no one else has to fight anymore.” The leader hissed at her. “And what then? What will Child of Ponyseidon do?” He grabbed his head. “Helpless… helpless… captured… hostage… slave!” Senax bit her lip. “Yes… you’re our captive right now, and we can’t let you run away. But you are not a slave. And you never will be.” “Not… slave? We… free?” The leader blinked. “So long as you lay down your weapons today, stop fighting us, and stop fighting your fellow lizards on the mountain, I promise I will not force you to do anything else. I won’t make you stay on this island, or move back with the others, or make you do anything else. But you must embrace peace and friendship,” Senax said. From behind them all, the ravenous hissing and shouting of the lizards climbing the pyramid grew louder. Any second now they would crest that final step and reach the level the rest of them were on. Godfrey for his part decided to lie down on his side and rest his head on an open palm, thoroughly disinterested in everything going on. The others were feeling much more stressed by what was going on. Gilbert, Breakwater, and Rainbow Dash started to move over to the edge of the pyramid’s level in case any fast ones came up before things could be resolved here. Daylight stayed by Senax for her own protection. Though the leader had slightly calmed down they still didn’t trust him to not do something rash or swing moods again. He still seemed to be torn, and the sounds of his approaching army may have been reinforcing his decision not to yield to Senax. “No… can’t… no.” Senax clenched her jaw, there wasn’t time for this! As much as she didn’t want to, she was going to have to be a bit more forceful. Taking Rainbow’s words to heart might be all she could do right now. “What I can’t promise you though is that nothing will happen to you if you don’t listen to me. If we need to use you to calm them down, or get out of here safely, we will. Do you understand what I’m saying? If you really want to be safe you had best just obey me right now. That army can’t help you.” The leader looked at her before his eyes traveled over to Godfrey and Rainbow Dash. He gulped. “I think you get what I mean,” Senax said. “I’ll let you talk to them and tell them that there will be no more fighting. But you have to tell me first that this will stop. Will you listen to what I’ve said? Will there be peace on this island finally?” “If...” the leader struggled to speak, his history at war with his instincts and common sense. “If we free… then… peace.” Senax’s face relaxed and a smile came to her. “Do you really mean that?” He hesitated for a second, but in the end the leader nodded. “Fighting… will stop. If promise kept… peace.” There was a brief moment where Senax didn’t say anything. Her body merely shook as tears gathered at her eyes again—but happy tears. She sniffled and brought a hoof up to her face to wipe them away. “Thank you… thank you so much.” “Whew...” Daylight sighed in relief. “Glad that worked out.” “Lizards… city… will live on… lizards will be free,” the leader shook his head. “Others are liars… you… trust. Child of Ponyseidon.” “It’s not perfect but I’m still glad,” Senax smiled. “And now please—can you tell me what your name is?” The leader frowned, his red spots stretching on his face. He still seemed a bit abrasive and reluctant to share that with Senax. He stared down at the ground, grumbling, before finally raising his head to look Senax in the eye again. “Firescale.” Senax raised a hoof and offered it to him. “Pleased to meet you, Firescale.” Firescale shakily grasped it and the two had a brief, awkward, but no less important, hand/hoofshake. “Will you please go to the stairs now to tell your lizards to stop?” Senax asked. “Yes… peace… no fighting,” Firescale said and started walking to the stairs. Godfrey watched him go and yawned. “What a boring outcome.” “You should go back to shutting up,” Senax glared at him. Firescale walked past Rainbow Dash and the others, who watched him just in case he tried to suddenly make a break for it, and stood at the top of the stairs. Below him a ravenous horde was approaching, they were just a few levels down. Firescale could see the rage in their eyes—the loyalty to protect their leader and destroy the invaders. So many of them carried weapons, and they were all ready to fight. He could rile them up some more. He could go back on what he just promised. But as he stood here, able to look out at the decaying city all around him, he knew he couldn’t. A loud screeching hiss came from Firescale and the advancing army stopped, many of them crashing into each other and falling over. Rainbow Dash stood right behind the leader lizard and quietly watched. Though she couldn’t understand his words when he was speaking his own hissing language, she believed she could at the very least feel their meaning. The others joined her as well as Firescale spoke to his subjects with only Godfrey staying back out of the way. Good. There was much confused hissing, many angry shouts, much yelling from Firescale and others down on the stairs. He was pleading to them for all their sakes, perhaps trying to prove to himself, Senax, and the entire city that they weren’t merely savages. It must have hurt, and he must still have had reservations about it all, but he was still telling them to lay down their weapons. Maybe as he truly saw what he was about to bring about to his people—and the state of their civilization—he knew it had to stop. Senax, perhaps out of some subconscious urge or gut feeling, stepped to stand right beside Firescale as he continued to speak to his lizards so they all could see her as well. Looking down she saw them all, in their ragged clothes, haggard, breathless, confused, scared. She didn’t want them to suffer more than they already had. These weren’t savages like Princess Fairscale and the other lizards thought, or what even Rainbow Dash and Godfrey had told her. These were just poor lizards who had lost their way after centuries of malaise and darkness. Things hadn’t gone perfectly but it still warmed her heart to know that the fighting would stop. And she wasn’t going to draw on her identity as a merpony—the power it and the name Ponyseidon brought—any longer. That was over with for good. With Senax by his side, Firescale spoke one last time to his people. He was quieter, more subdued, and when he finished the lizards on the steps stood up straight and slowly the anger and aggression from them started to evaporate. One by one the spears and all the other weapons brought up with them were dropped. It was a domino effect going through the entire army down to the very bottom of the pyramid. Senax and Firescale both smiled at the sight. Senax looked over her shoulder at the others. “I think we’re just about done here.” Rainbow Dash walked up to her with a grin and gave her a hoof bump. “You did good, Senax.” “Better than good!” Gilbert cheered and patted her just slightly too hard on the back. “You’re amazing, my dear Senax! And now we’ve brought peace to the Lost Isle, I call this a wonderful day!” “I’m not sure we should be going that far just yet. There’s a lot of other stuff still going on,” Rainbow said and glanced over to Godfrey. “True...” Gilbert’s cheerfulness dampened quite a bit. “It’s still one big step we’ve taken though,” Daylight said. “We should be happy about that.” “And now we can get the Necklace, can’t we?” Breakwater said. Daylight nodded. “From what the Princess told us this should be more than acceptable to her and the Keeper.” “Then we should get back there as quickly as possible. Time still isn’t on our side here,” Rainbow Dash said. “That goes for you too, Godfrey.” The big griffon shrugged and stood up. “I’ve gotten bored of this place anyways, I’m fine with getting a move on too.” Breakwater took a look down the stairs at all the lizards mulling around while Firescale continued to talk to them, though just about staying calm and letting the “invaders” pass through. “I sure hope this sticks.” “It will. I’m sure of it,” Senax said. “And hopefully soon some day this city can be rebuilt once the lizards are all friendly again,” Gilbert said. “It will be wonderful if they can work together to heal their wounds and their home.” Rainbow Dash then also peered down the stairs. “So uh, these guys will make way for us, right?” “They will,” Senax nodded. “Well then no offense to them-” Rainbow Dash said as she cracked her neck. “But I hope I never have to come back here. It’s time to go.” She took the first step down as the others followed behind her—once more thinking about how much faster they could get to where they needed to be if it wasn’t for Godfrey. That was just wishful thinking at this part. The good thing right now though was that Firescale and the other lizards did bow and move out of the way for them. As Senax passed, Firescale gave her a last quiet hiss of appreciation. Princess Fairscale stood in one of the high towers of their castle, facing out the window and looking towards the ancient city to the west. She hoped everything was going alright. The mission she had to give them—it wasn’t what she wanted to do. She wanted to just give the Child of Ponyseidon the Necklace, the Necklace she deserved to have, that she had the right to have. But things weren’t so simple. To give them something like that to do to prove themselves, the first and only Child of Ponyseidon to set hoof on this island in centuries, it tore her to pieces. She hoped Senax had both found her friend and was finding success with those savages in the city. Their entire purpose for being on this island, for locking themselves away with the unyielding fog and deadly whirlpools, was for this moment. A descendant of the great Ponyseidon had found them and wanted his vaunted treasure. They should be doing everything in their power to help Senax but instead… Princess Fairscale sighed and turned away from the window. She loved her people, and that love allowed her to understand why the Keeper had made the decision she did. Hopefully they’d all get what they wanted. Admiral Bin’Tavy stood on the aft deck of his Junk as he drank from a cup of tea that had been poured by one of his several servants. That servant was carrying the porcelain tea set on his back right now, it was an expensive—essentially priceless—heirloom gifted to him by one of the oldest and wealthiest families of Bosche. Bin’Tavy had quite often fantasized about throwing the tea set overboard just to see what the reactions of his officers and servants would be. It’s not like they could speak against him. Seeing them silently staring in shock as the porcelain teapot and all its cups sank beneath the water would be immeasurably pleasing to him. However, the quality of the set was simply divine, he didn’t want to settle for using an inferior tea set just to satisfy such a base and petty urge. So for now he’d keep it until the day he found or was gifted something better. He put the tea cup down on the tray on the servant’s back and smiled, looking north to the isle now even closer. The fog and weather around it had gotten even stronger but that was still no issue. He turned to his first officer, Admiral Tuon, and prepared to give some new orders. “Admiral? I want you to send a number of rowboats into the fog ahead of our fleet. We’ll need to find a safe route through the whirlpools for our junks. I don’t care how many it takes.” The implication was not lost on Admiral Tuon. “Of course, sir,” Tuon bowed and left the deck, preparing to relay the important orders to his own officers. There was no time for any considerations, dissenting opinions, or other possible plans. Admiral Bin’Tavy watched him go before his eyes returned to the great wall of fog ahead. “Soon.”